▪︎Outside the restaurant
"Young master, why do you entertain that man? He's a just a D- rank at this point, I understand that it doesn't necessarily mean someone is weak...but why?
"Being honest with you, I wasn't much interested even after he insulted my brother. But that did make me look into him...and guess what I found?"
"..."
"Nothing....I found nothing, I sent my men to follow him but they reported that his presence sometimes just vanishes and in the end, they loose him...how many people do you think- can avoid leaking anything about them?
I know that my personal crew isn't exactly the best in both quality and numbers, but I still felt it enough to interest me"
"You see, the knife I just stabbed him with- has a poison conversion enchantment which paralyzes it's victims, but he started eating as if nothing happened.... he must have purposefully shown me that.
What does all this mean?
We've got a guy that is sneaky enough that my people miss him sometimes, isn't afraid of offending anyone from upper class- which could sometimes result in death although it's possible that knew that Shaw family members aren't like that but still..., and is immune to poison of such high level
That leads me to 3 possible conclusions-
He is someone protected by some strong guardians and/or has various artifacts.
He has special magic abilities that allow him these.
He is someone from Janmini Hall of Assassins.
All these points made me reconsider any 'brutal' actions and try to keep things simple. Though I might have fluked the chance of peace, he started the problem."
Beyan answered while mounting an Ocean Oiled Bird as he looked towards Nier who was drawing on a Napkin with sauce and then chewing the said napkin when he got it smudged.
"Are you sure young master? if he is indeed from Janmini Hall, then he is obviously a fledgling who let people consider his relationship with the hall.
If he has some guardians, it's not necessary that they are strong and if he has some special abilities....you might've lost the chance to rope him" Butler San asked as he mounted a smaller bird behind.
"Welp..what's done is done, no point in regretting it now. If he's a fledgling now, he might become a veteran in the future.
If his guardians aren't strong, that means nothing because not every successful person is always strong.
And relationships change, an enemy today can be a friend tomorrow..I speak from experience, and there's one more option- but I don't want to even think about it, he hasn't left any clue regarding that...and I hope he can't"
________________________________
Nier left the restaurant and arrived back at the Beast house from where he was given the Stone-leg horse which was brought from their "Beast Garden" from the Northern Monland Forest.
The horse was black with several grey spots on it's body, 1.70 meter in height and had legs covered in rocks as suggested by their name.
One of their specialty was the ability to detect any beast near them through the vibration of the ground at a level that was very high, probably because they originated from deserts where some monsters hid under the sand and hunted their pray by sneaking from below.
It was an evaluationary thing. Nier climbed the Stone-leg who he named - 'The Dark knight'.
Dark Kinght started galloping towards the northwest horizon as Nier took in the exciting winds that slapped his face with a smile.
Being someone who grew up in the mountain regions of Maya, which were full of beautiful places, Nier had- from a young age, learned to ride horses so that one day he could show off his riding skills to the kids from the orphan but alas....things never go as they seem.
__________________________
Gubduk Gubduk Gubduk
In the northwest of the Monland Forests, the sound of galloping echoed as Dark Knight ran overtaking the large green deciduous trees of the forest.
Soon however, Dark Knight suddenly slowed down which Nier took as a sign of a passerby and looked around searching for threats.
:Since it slowed down instead of running faster, the 'threat' is probably in the front" Nier thought out loud while focusing towards the front and soon-
Huff Huff Huff
A large 15-horned stag came in his view, it was lying down- taking what seemed to be it's dying breathe as it took the sunlight that passed through the gaps in the canopy.
'No, it's created the light gaps using it's ability to take jn sunlight, is it trying to recover?' Nier thought as he eyed the giant stag on his way,
It was currently facing the opposite way, and it's giant back was covered in leaves, leaves that were red as a large gash was present on it's back, It's antlers were more like a tree than antlers and both had 7 'branches' each, it's last horn on the forehead was not visible because it was facing the opposite way.
Nier immediately stopped Dark Knight as he examined the situation in front of him
Activiting his eyes, he saw that the stag didn't have much mana left and was passing some of it down the ground towards the trees to create light gaps.
However.
The injury on it's back was emitting some leftover mana and-
'What!? I've not even been half way through the forest and I find a 15-Horned Stag, that's a royal grade right there! There's no way the city lords don't know about it or anyone that can injure a royal grade to near death. Is there something that's being hidden from everyone? These stags usually live on the mountain tops and the adults can destroy villages or small cities in less then 15 minutes, this must mean that there is some equally or stronger guy in the mountain that's just nearby...'
The grade in which beasts were divided into were - common, rare, noble, royal, ancient, mythical, primordial and unique.
The grades didn't necessarily decide 'power' or who's stronger than who, for example. Royal blood butterflies were royal graded, but that was because of their lineage possibly being connected to Blood Phoenixes and because their wings provided an alchemic material of the 4rth bloom grade.
There were countless debates held on the topic or grading and if grading should be based on power or lineage or something else. So, it was decided that most beasts will ranked mainly based on 3 prospects - lineage, power and most importantly- intelligence.
That was why the blood phoenix' descendant topic was considered ridiculous- because people thought 'how can a descendant of blood phoenix themselves be so low ranked', some thought 'how can such weak beings be royal grade' and some thought 'they are so intelligent, these butterflies should be special and ancient'.
All that aside, for the most part- someone from the latter grading is much more powerful than someone from the grades before them.
15-horned deers had all three prospects in them, they were powerful, were connected to Spectrum Crystal Deers, and were intelligent enough to distinguish between threats and intentions.
Nier knew, in normal cases- he would stand no chance against royal grades as he was now, he knew that in the future- he might, but not now, as such- an injured royal beast waiting to be slaughtered.. however-
He knew that the fight would tough in case it had a trump card, and the one that injured it was possibly nearby.
Deciding it was better to be cautious and not to step into matters unrelated to him. Nier signalled Dark Knight to move who took a little round about and soon an hour passed as Nier reached his destination.
Soltown.