Ch. 5: The Ironclad City and Kyuoooon
The Ironclad City, Organ.
It was famous for not allowing invasions from other nations as well as monsters and bandits and has been called the impenetrable city for dozens of years.
The largest factor was its outer wall. It was a square wall the surrounded the city, like many other cities, but they used a special material that gave it an unusual hardness and was durable even against magic attacks. To be more specific, it was strong against any attack that had some sort of magic inside it. Of course, it includes magic items as well.
Cannons, magic, attacks from monsters. It wouldn"t let them through if they were lukewarm efforts.
But that was not the only reason it was called Ironclad - in fact, this one is the greater reason why the city was impenetrable, and Shion knew what it was.
"Organ has been the birthplace and home of the Hero of Divine Eyes, generation after generation."
"Huh—, I think I"ve heard that somewhere a long time ago."
Shion and Haku were having such a conversation while looking at Organ, which stood in the distance.
"Did you know that there are a few conditions for becoming a hero?"
"Ah, I"ve heard about it before. You have to challenge the current hero and win…right?"
"That"s one of the ways. The other way is to have the current hero accept you as a successor and inherit the hero"s ring. I was the latter."
But even so, both had conditions. The person had to have affinity to the attribute or the special power of the hero.
If it was the Hero of Darkness, you would have to be able to use darkness attribute magic and abilities. For Hero of Divine Eyes, even if you defeated the current hero in battle, you couldn"t become a hero if you didn"t master eye type powers.
"Let"s get back on track. The reason why the city is called Ironclad. This is due to the Hero of Divine Eyes. His eyes can see through his enemy"s movements and oppositions."
"I see—! That"s why it"s Ironclad. You can easily set up measures if you know everything your enemy is trying to do."
"Exactly. And surprisingly, the Hero of Divine Eyes is always someone born and raised in this city."
"So, there are many with eye type abilities?"
"Apparently. Well, I haven"t met the Hero of Divine Eyes before, though."
"But it"s kind of scary. Do you think he can see what I"m thinking right now…?"
"Yeah, I can tell even though I can"t read minds. You want to eat really bad, right?"
"What!? How!?"
"Hahahaha, anyone can tell."
Shion laughed and pointed at Haku"s stomach, which was growling loudly.
Haku hid his head between his paws, embarra.s.sed.
To the two of them, having such conversations was a heartful time, but it didn"t appear so to the guards in the distance.
When Shion and Haku reached the south gate, there were fully armed soldiers with alarm on their faces, waiting for them. Usually there were two guards per gate, right now there was over ten times that number.
"Stop! Stop, I say!"
"Oh, looks pretty unsafe."
Haku said out loud like it wasn"t his problem. Haku was the cause, but Shion didn"t point that out but instead answered the soldier.
"I"m a traveler. This is my familiar, and it won"t cause any harm to humans."
"Prove it."
"Haku, sit."
"As you wish."
Haku smartly responded to Shion and sat down like a dog. He then even lied down and wagged his fluffy tail. He then patted Shion"s cheek.
"Hahaha, Haku, that tickles."
"This is a white fox style of communication, showing affection to his master and brushing the dust off of his face at the same time."
"H-he"s pretty smart…"
"Is that a worlf…no, a fox? Don"t tell me it"s a magic fox."
"It"s too big. Plus, in this region fire, ice, and lighting foxes have red, blue, yellow fur respectively. I"ve never seen a white one before."
"I"m a variant species."
The soldier"s eyes widened further. Mostly because they were whispering, but Haku had heard their conversation.
"As expected from an rank "Subjectable Monster", even if you"re a variant. Your ears are too good."
Among monsters, there are ones that humans can subdue, and ones that will never subject to humans. The former is called subjectable monsters and there are even ranks based on what kind of monster it is. But even though it is a subjectable monster, that doesn"t mean it was easy to make it a familiar.
When it came to ranks, the chances of success were very low, even for top cla.s.s beast tamers. Which meant that it was natural for the soldiers" attentions to focus on Shion, who had the magic fox as his familiar.
"What are you?"
"I"m just a traveler. I just luckily ran into Haku."
"Seems unlikely for a magic fox to follow an ordinary traveler, but it"s fine. Does he have any abilities that can prove he"s a magic fox? We need to give him a formal registration to let him in."
"I can use the common abilities of magic foxes."
"Then can you show us?"
"Yes, sir."
He didn"t want to deal with any problems, so Haku took a deep breath and let out a roar that was a common ability among magic foxes, making sure to hold back.
"———————Kiiiiooooooonnnnn!"
It sounded like a dog"s howl, but the force behind it was incredible. The sound and impact that broke forth seemed to shake the ground and the atmosphere.
"It"s an ability called "Beast Roar". You guys probably have seen it at least once. It"s used to make the enemy flinch or rob them of their courage~"
"Hey Haku…I"m the only one listening to your explanation, you know that…?"
"Why?"
"Because Everyone except me fainted!"
Haku started sweating nervously as he gazed at the soldiers sprawled on the ground.
Huh? They can"t even handle that? He murmured.
He didn"t hold back enough at all.
After wondering what to do for a moment longer, Haku stuck his tongue out in a cute gesture and feigned innocence.
Hey guys Kaoto here.
The chapters were short so I got two of them to upload this time.
This is the start of the first arc.