"I thank Senior Rex for waiting this long," Fred said respectfully.
'He knows my name…. so Kaira and others told them everything, but do they think of me as human or Demi-Human?' (Rex)
Rex nodded.
Aiden only looked at Rex and didn't say anything at first, he was thinking of something.
"Is Senior Rex not from Golden Bird Continent?" Aiden finally asked.
Fred looked at him in confusion.
"I am indeed not from here, why do you ask?" Rex replied.
"I see, it's because anyone who's in not Demi-Human wouldn't help other demi-humans here," Aiden said.
Rex was a little surprised at his words.
'He could tell I am not a Demi-Human,' (Rex)
"How are you so sure?" Rex raised his eyebrow.
"Strong sense of smell is a specialty of my sub-species," Aiden said with a smile.
[Some bears on Earth could smell their target from miles away, so it's not that surprising if he could do more than that.]
"So you could tell I am not human, just by my smell? Then do you know what is my race?" Rex asked.
"That... no, Senior Rex's smell is unfamiliar to me. At the start, it seemed like a human, but when I carefully analyzed it, it felt completely different from other humans," Aiden said honestly.
Rex just nodded.
When Rex didn't mention anything about his race, Aiden didn't ask either.
Coco who was hanging on Fred's neck occasionally peeked at Rex when he was talking, after confirming something she nodded to herself.
"Daddy, he is the bad human who broke my dagger," Coco whispered in Fred's ear in a low tone, but it was audible to everyone around.
Rex's lips twitched.
Weren't you the one who kept stabbing me until it got cracks… he thought.
"Shhh.. don't talk like that" Fred put his finger on her small lips and told her to keep quiet, while Aiden and Rex acted like they didn't hear anything.
[So that's how it is. The stronger you get, the thicker your skin becomes.]
"..." (Rex)
"Are you done taking care of all the villagers?" Rex asked.
"Most of them are taken care of, there are only a few who are injured, as for those who died... the others are preparing to bury them, I will go help them," Fred said with somewhat said expression and left.
In a battle like that, death was inevitable. Rex already knew Drain had prepared a tunnel and let the enemies in. The enemies attacked the village from inside while another team acted as a distraction at the entrance cave so the main fighters like Aiden went towards the entrance area to fight.
Taking this opportunity the enemies inside the village killed the guards first, knowing most of them would rather die than surrender. No matter how fast Rex reached the beast-man village, it was impossible to save everyone.
"Does this little girl inherited her mother's genes, she doesn't give a feeling similar to him," Rex said as he saw Fred going away with the Coco on his back.
When two Demi-Humans of different sub-species gave birth to a child, even though the offspring would possess the genes of both parents, only traits from one sub-species would awaken and show their effects, the rest would remain dormant. There is a very small chance what is awakened are dormant traits from one of their ancestors of a different sub-species.
Which means the reason Coco looks different could be because she awakened her mother's genes.
"Actually, Coco is not his biological daughter," Aiden said in a nostalgic tone.
"Huh? you mean..." Rex said.
"Yes, it's because he adopted her before we found this place. Both Fred and I were veteran mercenaries, after the war broke out, we decided to leave this place. We took the shortest route to the nearest continent, 'Myriad Beast Continent', but on our way we found many burned down beastmen villages and cities.
In most of them, we found a few survivors. We couldn't bear to watch the miserable states of those people, so we took them with us. Coco was also among them, she was too little when we found her hidden, unconscious, inside a well. Her parents probably put her there to save her. Although during our mercenary days we have seen a lot of blood, hardening our hearts to a child was not within our capabilities, so Fred took her as his daughter.
Everyone, inside the village, including the little lass, are probably aware of it, but it's like an unwritten rule, to talk about these things here and actually. She is not alone, most people in the village have lost their family or loved ones before joining us. That's why they mostly see others here as their family," Aiden said in a sad tone.
'This Fred seems like a good person' Rex thought.
"You said you were going to leave this continent, so why are you here?" Rex said.
"We were on our way to leave the continent, but when we reached Corentis we hit out limits. By that time, The Azure Emperor had taken over most of the Kingdoms and Sects around here. The ship routes were already secured by him, we didn't have a private boat to help us reach the other side. And to make it worse the Monster Hunting Sect attacked us.
Most of the refugees with us were civilians. Their fighting capabilities were limited. In the end, we decided to retreat to the Misty Maze Forest and found this place," Aiden said.
"Hmmm... By the way, what do you plan on doing next? Now that the Grand Elder of Monster Hunting Sect died here, their Sect Master might come here for revenge. Do you have any other place to go?" Rex asked with a serious expression.
Aiden remained silent,
Earlier he was busy taking care of others and didn't have time to think about it, but now that Rex mentioned it, he realized there was still a big problem ahead of them.
"How about you come to my city?" Rex grasped the right moment to ask.
'Their current battle strength is not up to my standards, but if most of them can unlock a Full-Beast Transformation like him, they'll be a formidable force. Furthermore, most of them have a good personality and are logical, so in the future, if I brought the people from the Lower Realm, then it wouldn't hard for them to get along' (Rex)
"Your city? Does Senior have a city under his command?" Aiden's eyes shined. If there was a city to inhabit, then the people could get more facilities and resourced to grow.
"Well, don't get too excited. Although it's a developing city, it isn't limited to a single race, do you understand what that means," Rex said in a meaningful tone.
"There are also human residents in it..." Aiden asked solemnly.
"There are, but they are not from this continent, so you don't have to worry about being discriminated," Rex said.
Aiden started thinking.
"Take your time, we are not in a hurry. If I am right, you might want to consult it with other people in the village," Rex said with a smile.
Aiden nodded after some hesitation and went to talk with them.
[Forcing the situation like that, doesn't match your personality.]
'I made the decision after thinking of all possibilities. You must be thinking, why didn't I just go destroy the Monster Hunting Sect right now, but do you really believe they would be safe with the Monster Hunting Sect destroyed? It would still be the same, even if the sect is destroyed. It would only raise the vigilance of other beast-hunting sects.
They will think, how could some small beastmen village destroy a sect, they can only do it by using a treasure or by the hand of a powerhouse. In either case, they would come here to attack the village, if it were a treasure then their greed would act as fuel and if it were a powerhouse, they would try to eliminate him or her as soon as possible, to remove any future threats. So the best option is to take them with us as quickly as possible.
And although the Monster Hunting Sect doesn't seem that strong, it's not good to be careless. What if they had a strong ancestor or a sect treasure?' (Rex)
[Are we going to leave the Monster Hunter Sect unharmed, it can become a future threat?]
'Who said we will let them go? It has years of treasu..cough... I mean it has many years of wrongdoings on record. An evil sect like that needs to be eradicated as soon as possible,' (Rex)
[I see, for the future.]
'For the future' (Rex)
After Aiden left, Rex saw Ria and the girl from before coming towards him.
"I thank Senior for saving me..no for saving the whole village," Ria said with a bashful smile, she got a little embarrassed when her tongue slipped.
"What Senior, I prefer it if you still call me Rex," Rex said with a smile.
Ria nodded while still looking down.
"And you?" Rex looked at the girl beside Ria.
"She is my sister, her name is Mia" Ria explained.
"It's nice to meet you… Rex, about earlier it's good that you healed her," Mia said with a serious expression.
"Huh?" Rex looked at Mia, her tone and words matched that of a dealer who completed her deal rather than thanking.
"Please don't mind her words, my sis is not good with words what she actually meant is.. thank you for healing her," Ria hurriedly said.
"I see, by the saw I apologize for that talisman earlier" Rex in an awkwardly.
"No, it's all right and you still came to save us that's all that matters," Ria quickly denied his apology.
"Sis got hurt after using it though," Mia said without any change in her expression.
Rex somewhat felt guilt when he heard that.
"She means, it would be better if you have told us about it's correct us. Don't mind her words she is just worried about me, we are actually very thankful that you came all the way here and helped us when you are not obligated to," Ria said with a serious face but when her eyes met Rex she again started looking at the ground.
'Does she really lacks confidence or is she always like that?' (Rex)
"I also wanted to explain it's real meaning but if I had told you that I can come and save the village then would you had believed me? and used it?" Rex asked.
Ria thought for a while then nodded when she met Rex for the first time she didn't think he was so strong that's why if Rex would have told her that it was an SOS talisman then she won't have used it.
"What do you want in return," Mia said.
"What she means is…. what can we give you to return the favor," Ria explained.
"Just give me your sister, if you would please," Rex said to Mia with a smile.
Mia stared back at Rex while Ria blushed and looked down to hide her face.
"I was just kidding why are you getting so serious," Rex said laughingly to Mia.
"Let's go, sis," Mia grabbed her hand and walked away.
'Rose do you feel that my little green marshmellow became shyer,' Rex thought.
[She looked completely different from before to me, although she got embarrassed before too but acting that shy wasn't her thing.]
'You are just overthinking it…probably. Oh, they are back let's see what decision they made,' Rex thought as he looked at Aiden, Fred, Van, Dreg, and an unfamiliar youth coming towards him.
Rex was already familiar with most of them because they gave a short introduction when he was distributing potions.
Seeing that Rex was looking at the youth, Aiden explained.
"He is Scott, his frontal combat capability is not high but he specializes in one shot killing…. like an Assassin his speed is only second to Fred, he was the first one to sold out by Drain. Scott was responsible for scouting the area around so Drain used sleeping powder in his food and imprisoned him before the attack," Aiden explained.
Drain didn't take the risk of killing Scott because Aiden's sense of smell was too strong, strong enough to cover most of the area inside the village, if he had killed Scott then the smell of blood won't escape from Aiden that's why he only used sleep powder to make him sleep.