The fat man was about to say something, but at the moment when he decided to open his mouth, there were just five meters between him and Ray.

"Dash" - with a mental order, the guy's body flashed with a dim green light and he disappeared from the guard's field of vision for a moment. At that very moment, the man felt a strange chill deep in the center of his chest. Lowering his head, he saw a hand in gray armor. She was holding the same gray dagger, the blade of which almost completely entered his body. The stunned eyes turned slightly to the side to meet the same calm look of the guy as before.

The second guard was about to scream when a huge black shadow appeared in front of him. He did not even have time to turn his head when his body, like a leaf under a squall of wind, flew towards the wall. The sound of the collision turned out to be surprisingly soft and somehow wet. Cess just growled softly and lowered his huge paw, watching the man who instantly lost his life.

The massive carcass of the guard was slowly sliding down the stone surface with an unpleasant sound. Visually, the body seemed intact, only the head burst upon impact like a ripe watermelon, painting a huge piece of the wall in scarlet.

Even stranger was the fact that the girl who had been supported by Tessa until now didn't even scream at the sight of such a scene. Rei had no idea what she had to see in everyday life, but the restraint with which she took what happened spoke eloquently of how "well" the ordinary people of Rondal lived.

Turning into a forest, the guy carefully listened to the environment. Apart from the quickening heartbeats of the two girls, the low sound of the river, and the bodyguard Tsess playing with the body, nothing stood out in the silence.

“Only these two are guarding the entrance to the city?”

Ray was surprised, because he was already quite ready for a good battle, but he had to be disappointed - no one reacted to what happened. Looking at the body of the second guard, whose soul was already flying towards him, the guy relaxed and returned to human form.

Finally pulling the blade out of the man's body, he let it fall to the ground. Carefully examining the corpse, Rey realized that the guard had absolutely no weapons.

“Though, if the entire population is in the same condition as this girl, then it will not be difficult for these hogs to cope with them with their bare hands.”

Taking a small pouch from the guard's belt, he approached the body of the second, intending to rob him too. Noticing the approach of the owner, Cess growled with displeasure, but nevertheless removed his paw from his “toy”.

The shirt on this man's body was streaked with claw marks. Ray immediately guessed what kind of fun Cess had come up with, he was checking if he could tear the fabric without hitting the skin. And, obviously, the cat controlled its claws with absolute precision, because the guy could not see a single superfluous scratch on the body of the guard. Is that a piece of meat that replaced his head a little spoiled the picture.

Opening two bags, he poured the contents into his palm. Inside were small, fingernail-sized coins. Three silver and several dozen copper rounds fit easily in his palm.

- It's a lot? - Approaching Tessa, he asked a question of interest to him.

Earlier, the guy learned something about the money of this world. They did not have a name, they were simply divided into copper, silver and gold. The denomination grew through one hundred, so the calculation was quite simple. But the very value of this money was rather vaguely clear to him, and the fact that the girl was paid 4 copper coins for “one time” said too little.

Looking at the outstretched hand, Tessa shook her head.

- Not good. There will be enough for the two of us for about five days in a relatively good inn.

This fact surprised Ray more than he expected. There were about 330-340 coppers here and that would be enough for less than a week for two people. The girl sold her body for only four of these coins ...

“And they disdain to let non-humans into the city?”

Clenching the coins in his hand, Rei poured them into one of the pouches.

"I'm sure the developers wanted to create a different world."

Following the greedy look of the girl, who did not take her eyes off his hands while he held the money in them, the guy threw the bag to her. Whether because of surprise, although, rather because of a banal lack of strength, she could not catch him. Literally falling to the ground with him, the poor thing grabbed a small purse with both hands, pressing it to her. She kept thanking the guy who was already on his way to Cess.

With a last glance at the girl, he called Tessa back to help her up.

“Or I overestimated people too much…” - the guy involuntarily thought.

Climbing onto the back of the panther, Ray waited for the mercenary and casually glanced at his hands, which no longer had their usual claws. For a moment, he felt a strange disgust while in this form, but after a second it disappeared without a trace.

After entering the city, the boy and girl saw only two small wooden huts on either side, which seemed to serve as guardhouses. There was nothing else on this bank of the river, which flowed twenty meters ahead. Four more guards were on the other side of the stone bridge, which was in about the same condition as the wall.

They sat on small wooden benches, two on each. Between them, several empty skins lay on the ground, and two more were now actively used. And only one look of the reddened faces of men was enough to guess the contents of the containers.

“Does this world also have alcohol? Tessa didn't say, though, come to think of it, I didn't ask."

Ray tried to remember if he'd seen anything like that with the mercenaries, but eventually realized that they didn't have strong drinks with them, which was rather strange.

“Maybe people here just have a different mentality.”

The guy completely surrendered to his thoughts. He didn't care at all that two people had died because of him a minute ago.

But the same could not be said about Tessa. Even if she understood that those two had almost no human dignity left, but she also understood that they were still people. People who died just because she said a few words.

The guy sitting behind her was a little belated, but still noticed it.

- You're a mercenary. Does the death of two people really bother you that much?

Hearing his words, Tessa answered rather quickly:

“In combat, life and death go hand in hand. If you do not kill, then you yourself meet death, and this ...

- You worry too much. Besides, you didn't kill them, I did.

The girl turned to him and looked straight into his eyes.

- Don't you feel anything at all?

- At all. - Ray answered instantly and in his eyes Tessa really could not distinguish anything, only confidence and calmness.

***

All the way through the city made Ray only more and more convinced that Tessa's story did not convey even a tenth of how much the people living in Rondal suffered.

Looking at a group of children who were dressed in some scraps of burlap, and not close to being clothes, the guy tried to distract himself with reflections on the past. He recalled the stories of his old world, which described fairytale kingdoms, shining like a gem on the outside, but rotten on the inside. Rondal was different. He was rotten through and through, literally completely. And so strong that a small push would be enough for the state to be left as a ruin, under which millions of innocent lives will be buried.

Glancing again at the children, who might have wanted to run up to beg but were too afraid of Cess, Rei noticed an ironic detail. The strange situation caused such mixed feelings in him that the guy did not even know how to react. The thing was that even though the children were dressed in anyhow, barefoot and all covered with abrasions, they themselves were absolutely clean. Everything that could pollute the bodies of the inhabitants of this world, as well as the bodies of the players, gradually disappeared from them.

"Madness."

Clutching the reins tighter, Rey ordered Cess to speed up. He did not want to stay in this city for one extra second.