[Welcome to Soga Town and thank you for using our Raijin Express Train service. May our passengers always have the most pleasant journey]
Henova finally arrived in Soga Mountain. He was nervous during the whole journey. From Herza City he had to stop at Midas City station before he had to change trains and went to Soga Town.
It took him almost 10 hours of train ride to arrive. Looking around he could see the bustling crowds of people walking all around him. Soga Town was well known for its winery but the biggest industry in the area was fishing.
The area was a port area, the busiest port in Hargan was Soga Port and Madrica Port which was under the Tadraz family territory.
The fishing industry also included hunting sea monsters. Mercenaries in the area mostly had tasks of escorting ships to travel the sea safely from monsters' attacks.
There were a lot of people in the street and since it was almost winter, the temperature was colder, even colder than Herza City since the northern area tends to be colder than the south.
Henova decided to go to the inn Mara's son had already booked for him to take a rest. His body was aching all over due to the long train ride. It was already dinner time the moment Henova arrived in his room thus he decided to just order room service.
He just wanted to rest and decided to start sightseeing early tomorrow morning. Due to exhaustion, Henova immediately fall asleep after he finished his dinner.
The next morning Henova decided to wander around the main street. He passed by an area where there were huge floating balloons with a huge basket tied to each of them. A few people were riding on it.
"It's the hot air balloon, have you tried it?"
"No, not yet because I'm nervous but maybe I will try after I have enough courage"
Henova could hear the passer by talking about it and he thought that must be the new tourist attraction Mara told him about before.
"Sir do you want to try the hot air balloon for only 100U and 300U for families of four special package," one of the promoters suddenly approached Henova.
"Won't it fall if a big person like me rides it?" Henova asked curiously.
"Don't worry, a young master from the Triton family had ridden it and he's fine, nothing happened," the promoter reassure Henova.
Triton family was a half-giant and half-human family that move to Hargan a few decades ago before mainly serving in Hargan's military. Most of them worked as Navy soldiers.
After listening to the promoter's explanation, Henova just realized that no one looked at him weirdly since he arrived in the town. Usually, when he went to a new place, people tend to look at him because of his size.
He was bigger than most humans but smaller than giants thus people tend to get curious and some even insult him saying he was a dwarf giant. However, that didn't happen since he arrived in Soga Town.
In Soga Town, the people vary. Dark elves, half-giants and dark mages all live there peacefully without any prejudice thanks to the territory rules that forbid discrimination based on race and appearance.
Henova continue walking until he saw a huge mountain not far from the city centre. What caught his attention was the white mansion on top of the mountain that could be seen from far away.
"Oh, that's the Zanuki mansion. The matriarch lives there with her husband and grandchildren," the shopkeeper pleasantly told Henova since he could see it was Henova's first time being here.
"Grandchildren?"
"Yes, she has five grandchildren all together, two grandsons and three granddaughters. If you're lucky, you might stumble into one of them in the town, especially in weapons shops. People tend to see them there"
After getting tips from the shopkeeper, Henova decided to take a look at weapon shops in the town. After walking for quite some time, he randomly entered a shop and he was greeted by a female dark elf behind the shop counter.
"Welcome to Crimson Smithy. Is there anything that you're looking for, Sir?" the elf greeted him politely.
"I just want to look around," Henova answered flat.
From a glance, he knew the blacksmith of the shop was quite decent and he might improve his skills in a few years if he continues practising.
While he was scrutinizing one of the blades displayed on the shop's wall, the door was pushed roughly from outside.
"Welcome to Crimson Smithy. May I help you, my ladies and young master," the lady elf remained calm.
Three individuals entered the store before one of them slammed the counter in front of the elf lady.
"I want the latest design of war mace, that won't melt or break even if I pour lava onto it," the red hair lady with pink jewel eyes and messy red hair that looked like a lion mane requested desperately.
Another red-haired lady behind her that had a more composed temperament rubbed her glabella as if she had a slight headache and spoke, "Just give her the sturdiest war mace you have in the shop."
"No! I want the same war mace Ares gave this bastard," Karin immediately grabbed Adrian's collar while Adrian looked like he wanted to run but couldn't so he just resigned to his current predicament.
"Maybe my lady can ask young master Ares where he bought it," the elf lady still treated them politely as if it wasn't her first time encountering such shenanigans or unruly behaviours.
"Erm, he bought it in Herza City but I can't go there at the moment so isn't there any weapon like that here? This is the fifth shop we went into," Karin asked pleading with the dark elf lady.
"Karin, hasn't Ares give a greatsword to you. That's enough right?" Adrian tried to straighten Karin out.
"But the war mace design is better than the great sword," Karin continue whining as if she wouldn't leave the shop until she was satisfied.
Not long after that a male dark elf came from a room behind the shop and greeted the group of red-haired youths.
"My Lady Karin, it's nice seeing you again. Is there anything you need?" The male dark elf greeted her politely.
"Rudolph, I want a war mace"
"Ok follow me into the smithy so we can discuss the design properly until my lady feels satisfied," Rudolph beckoned them to follow him but Karin only dragged Adrian along and left her sister behind.
"I'm so sorry Marzia. My sister acted unsightly again," she said to the dark elf lady.
"Oh, it's ok Lady Kara. By the way you're as pretty as ever," Marzia praised the young lady in front of her.
"Nah, my cousin is prettier but thanks"
"Yes, lady Zerisa always looked like a princess but why is she isn't with you guys today? What about young master Ares?" Marzia asked.
"She's busy with the new tourism business project and Ares was punished to hunt monster inside the Dark Forest so he might be hunting right now"
"Oh my. I hope young master Ares is fine. My son really liked the sweets young master Ares gave him"
"He will be just fine. I can send your regards to Ares if you want to"
"Thank you, Lady Kara. I really hope I can meet young master Ares when I go to the church but since it isn't school break yet, he must have no time to do volunteer work at the church right?"
"Yeah, I hope winter break will come soon because I am barely able to sleep for a few hours every night"
"Oh my, did Lady Kara has sleep problems like insomnia? Why not my lady try the essential oil from Madonna Store at the end of the street," Marzia suggested.
"I might look around in the meantime. Do you want me to drop by a bakery and buy you some desserts, Marzia" Kara offered.
"No it's ok," Marzia replied sincerely.
"I will buy at least something sweet for you son. Tell Karin to wait for me after she finished," Kara exited the shop and Henova remained rooted in the same place from the beginning until the end.
Sensing that he might not meet with the person he was trying to find, Henova decided to exit the shop.
"Thank you for coming," Marzia's voice echoed inside the now empty shop.
While walking aimlessly, Henova passed by a bakery and he saw the same previous red-haired lady name Kara inside the shop, choosing a few desserts.
While he was still staring, suddenly someone tapped his back and he instantly jolted.
Turning around he saw a familiar black-haired young man that he had seen in Herza City.
"You..."
"Sir Henova, we meet again," he said with a smile.
"I never told you my name," Henova started to feel wary of the young man in front of him.
"Oh, I'm sorry for my rudeness. My name is Max Moran and I'm one of the Zanuki family butlers," Max introduced himself while showing a badge attached under his name tag.
".....So are you stalking me?" Henova asked, feeling that Ares had been monitoring him this whole time and just let him roam around like a stupid person.
"No. It's a coincidence that I can meet you here. Do you want to meet young master Ares? I can bring you there," Max said while pointing towards the white mansion at the top of Soga Mountain.
"Isn't Ares currently hunting in Dark Forest? How can he be here?"
"Oh, you know about that? We can just call young master Ares to come over. You don't have to worry."
Despite the confusion, hesitation and curiosity that he felt all at once, Henova decided to follow Max. If anything bad happened, he just has to blame himself for being stupid.
However, before they could walk into a black car that didn't look too inconspicuous, a female voice suddenly greeted them or to be precise greeted Max.
"Hey Max, what are you doing here? Where is that old man?" Kara asked.
"Master is currently resting," Max answered calmly and the smile on his face still didn't change but it looked a bit forced.
"By the way who is this?"
"This is young master Ares's guest"
"I see. Good luck Mister. Run if you don't see Ares the moment you arrived at the mansion especially if you see a red-haired old man," Kara said before walking away with a few boxes of desserts.
"Lady Kara sure knows how to make jokes. May we go know, Sir Henova?" Max said after he chuckled slightly but anyone keen enough would sense that it sounded fake.
However, Henova decided to go along, "Ok let's go"
Inside the black car, he glanced towards Max who sat beside him. The car seemed like it was specially modified to fit someone of a bigger size than normal people.
Sensing Henova's curiosity, Max delightedly explained, "This is one of the cars my master likes to use because of the modification. My master has a bigger stature than most humans at the height of 2.2 meters"
Henova was a bit shocked since he knew heights above 2 meters were more than average human height. Even Ares could already be considered tall among the humans.
Those red-haired youngsters he saw at the shop before were all taller than the dark elf lady. Elves and humans have the same physical stature except for a few different special characteristics.
"Oh young master Ares's height is around 1.8 meters and it was considered not so tall if compared to his other male family members. Usually, male Zanuki tend to grow a bit bigger," Max continues explaining for the sake of avoiding making Henova feel awkward along the journey.
Henova just nodded his head while Max continue telling random things every time they went down certain roads toward Soga Mountain.
Despite that, Henova's mind was on something else. From the moment he saw those three red-haired youngsters he already felt curious about them.
He knew from what Mara told him that one of the most obvious traits the Zanuki had is their dark red hair, the same colour as blood.
There were other humans with red hair but Zanuki's red hair was unique only to their descendants and all their descendants wore black earrings on their ears regardless of gender.
And from his observation, that fact was true. Maybe the earrings were kind of a custom of the clan.
Remembering their interaction with Marzia the dark elf, Henova felt like they gave him the same feeling when he met Ares.
'Normal youngsters that sometimes randomly make troubles.'
They didn't act like the typical haughty nobles he had interacted with in the past. Even though Ares acted calm and composed but he could sense from his experience that Ares also wasn't an obedient type.
"What about young master Ares? What kind of person he is?" Henova asked out of nowhere.
Max knew Henova wasn't really listening to him but he just answered like a reliable butler, "Young master Ares is the Zanuki matriarch's youngest grandson and he is quite mature for his age."
"You didn't look sincere when you said that"
"I'm just saying the truth and he is also the most troublesome troublemaker. This is only between us, so my master's grandchildren, all of them could be said troublemakers except Lady Zerisa. However, young master Ares's level of making trouble is top tier because his problem couldn't be solved by only just reconstructing a building or buying a new car. The scale is where we had to call the Guardian Association at one point and I'm the one who had to clean all the mess."
At this point, Max started to rant about the stress he had to face and his increased workload due to a certain someone.
Henova could only nod his head as if pitying the young butler in front of him.
Because of Max's nonstop ranting, Henova wasn't as nervous anymore. However, when they arrived in front of the mansion entrance, he became nervous once again.
"Sir Henova let me guide you to the visitor's waiting room," Max beckoned Henova to follow him entering the huge mansion.
Even all the nobles Henova had worked with before didn't have such a mansion.
*****************************
"Marzia, where's Karin and Adrian" Kara quickly asked the moment he came back to the shop.
"They are waiting for you inside the waiting room, my lady. Should I call them for you?"
"No, it's faster for me to just dragged them"
"Hey what's wrong Kara," Adrian asked when Kara hastily dragged them out of the shop.
"Do you know where Ares is?" She asked instead of answering.
"Most probably inside the Dark Forest or at Grand's mansion" Adrian answered uncertainly.
"Call him and tell him to come here to Soga Mansion"
"Why...oh wait there's a message from Ares. He asked us to help him greet his guest since he will be a bit late," Adrian showed his phone screen to Kara.
"Let's go. I have a bad feeling about this"