Chapter 4

[…Loading Saved File. Scanning… Load Complete.]

[Initiating Start Up Configuration… Body Status - Excellent]

[Review Log: An Unknown Application Has Been Activated From File {SOUL}]

Waking up on a bed, Gear looked around. He was in a wooden hut, in a bare room with a window open to allow the light in. He attempted to scan his surroundings, but was surprised to find out that he could only scan a bit around him.

He then remembered a bit of what happened before he (was shut down) fainted. Because of the strange application, most of Gear’s thought speed dropped. It may be to accommodate all of the knew sensations he was feeling.

The air that brushes against my skin. The smell of old wood that tingles my nose. The bright light making me squint unconsciously.

Getting out of the bed, he opened the door. Walking down the hallway, he met a woman.

“&%, ^*#! @^@*! #@ &##@ ##)@&* #*@[email protected] [email protected]@*# #@)&#. (Ah, you’re awake! I didn’t know that you would sleep for three days.)"

[Now Translating Language: Progress At 1.2%]

Tilting his head, Gear gave a blank look. The woman spoke a few more sentences, but realized that he couldn’t understand her. With simple gestures to follow her, they left the hut. It was a good thing that the gestures were similar, as coincidental as that was.

Following the woman, she led Gear to a group of three. When they saw him, they chattered in their strange language for a while until they heard from the woman.

While they were talking, Gear was analyzing their bodies. Other than the woman who led them here, most of the people he saw so far were a bit more than human. It was as if God put a human and some random lifeforms together.

[The specimen will now be broadly categorized as {Beast-kin}]

Meanwhile, while Gear was continuing his study on the Beast-kin, the three people that found him were conversing amongst themselves.

“So… who do you think he is? Maybe some rash rich kid?”

“I dunno? Probably some farmer’s boy who was too poor to pay for the ceremony. There’s no way a noble’s child would be a human.”

“But no human could enter that deep into the forest without some help. Unless he himself is strong, he must’ve had some sort of bodyguard. I don’t think the kid would have enough money for that kind of protection.”

“He could be like me, a Jirokara. If he has no proper bloodline to inherit, then he wouldn’t have gone through the ceremony.”

“It’s rare for a Jirokara to have enough money to employ bodyguards though.”

“Anyways, what is he doing? He’s just staring at us.”

“It seems that he can’t understand our language.”

“Seriously! Could he be a foreigner? He could be the son of some wealthy merchant.”

“Actually I have a theory.”

The one who spoke last, Trey, raised his hand. When everyone looked at him, he spoke.

“It’s not uncommon for nobles to take the ceremony late. There’s a rumor that the more you train before the ceremony, the stronger your bloodline purity would be. If they find out that he was a Jirokara, then they could’ve abandoned him into the forest."

“That’s true. This kid looks too clean to be any normal kid. He practically had no scent when I first found him. And also, his nails and hair are well taken care off.”

“So what do we do with him?”

“Since it’s most likely that he’s some rich kid, we’ll take care of him. Because there’s the possibility that he’s now an orphan, we should send him to the orphanage. At least for a few days or so.”

“Isn’t he a bit old to stay at the orphanage, Wolfe?”

Looking at the boy, Wolfe spoke. “Then where else can he go. He’s all alone in this world.”