He breached the yellow tape, forcefully entering the restricted area, while his assistant managed the fallout from his actions. Frantically searching for his daughter, he scanned every direction, tearing through the metallic cage of the barrier.
"I hope you're alright, Lise," he uttered with teary eyes and a worry-stiffened face.
"Dad! What are you doing here?" she exclaimed, lashing out upon seeing her father.
Suddenly, a high-pitched angry voice reached their ears. He swiftly turned his head, and he hurried towards the source and embraced her tightly and checked on her if she had any serious injury or not.
"Are you alright? There are bruises on your fragile body," he expressed concern, summoning his guild's S-rank mage, Dan, to heal her.
"Dan, heal her!" he ordered sternly, his worry evident as his features softened upon confirming her well-being.
After Dan healed her and thoroughly checked for any other injuries, he guided her back to the car, departing with his caravan. His arrival and departure diverted the media's attention entirely onto the duo which had just left.
------
As the sun sank below the horizon, night descended. Continuing his journey, he neared Mulan and had entered the outer Mulen by midnight.
"Huff Puff- It sucks to be running for 4 hours straight without any external help," he admitted, noticeably slower now, with his feet giving up. He resisted asking Rie for help, considering it a way to push himself to mental limits and train while travelling.
"So, what's up, Rie?"
"What?" she responded, surprised by the sudden question.
He felt slapped with that response, quite reasonably, as he hadn't spoken for a second after being healed. To distract himself, he attempted to start a conversation.
"Can't you reply straight?" he expressed frustration at the familiar response.
"I can," he affirmed.
"Then why do that whenever I ask 'What's going on'?"
"Because you already know you are asking me, knowing yourself what's happening. In simple words, you don't know how to ask questions," She explained.
Her expression remained unchanged, except for minor annoyances.
"Whatever-"
"This little shit!" he exclaimed upon seeing them in the bushes.
Traversing the forest along the train track, encountering wild animals was expected. Most creatures instinctively fled from a predator stronger than themselves, creating a natural balance.
However, a wild tropical tiger, slightly larger than usual, leapt into his path about 10 feet away. Baring its fangs and ready to attack, it poised itself to launch.
"You must be pretty hungry to hunt a hunter, but you're in bad luck!"
Tired and irritated, Lloyd, already exhausted, had planned to push for the next hour until he reached the main city. Dealing with a wild animal was not part of his current agenda.
*Bang* *crack* *splatter*
Gritting his teeth and furrowing his brows, he sprinted towards the tiger, giving himself a push to increase momentum. Propelling himself into the air, he executed a forceful kick to its forehead, smashing its skull and causing blood to splatter in every direction, including on his face. The swift attack left the tiger with no time to react.
"It should have known the hierarchy of the food chain," he clicked his tongue in pity for the unfortunate wild animal.
Without looking back to check its condition, he continued onward. Regardless of whether it survived or not, he was confident that he had incapacitated it to the extent that it wouldn't be able to get back on its feet to hunt again.
"At this point, I might just identify as blood," he remarked, completely covered in blood. The crimson stains not only marked his clothes but seeped down to his skin, emanating the distinct scent of dried blood.
-----
"Whose jacket is it?" he asked, pointing at the unrecognizable black jacket she wore.
"Savior's," she replied, grinning from ear to ear as she typed a message on her phone.
The duo sat side by side in their luxurious SUV, creating an image of a doting father and his cute daughter.
"Savior? What do you mean, Lise?" he gently asked, raising his brows in confusion, eyes squinting a bit.
Her father, a gentle giant when it came to his daughter, was very doting. She was the only child his late wife had blessed him with; her mother passed away due to an unknown disease that played with her immune system.
Lise was his only and most cherished memory. Even if he lost everything else, having his daughter with him made his life content. He would go to any lengths to protect her, even resorting to harming those who posed the slightest threat to his cherished treasure.
"He saved me, Dad! He rescued everyone from inside all alone," she exclaimed, her sparkling, big, building-like baby eyes accompanied by a radiant smile.
"Do you know his name? Where is he right now? Or where is he from? Or any other information? I will find him and thank him for his help," he inquired, adopting a calm and composed expression, accompanied by a subdued tone.
"I did, of course, I did," she nodded, her head moving up and down excitedly.
"I already sent him a DM," she added, looking at her phone and eagerly awaiting a reply.
----
An hour swiftly passed, and he approached the restricted entrance of the city—the northwest door of Mulen. Being a walled-up city in the middle of the forest, Mulen often faced monster attacks despite numerous knight outposts. The frequency of monster raids was significantly higher than that of a typical city.
"Here we are at Mulen! The city of growth for me, not for anyone else," he declared, standing slightly behind the main entrance in the woods, given his blood-soaked state and the heavy guard presence at the entrance.
"Now, let me clean myself because I know they ain't letting me inside the city like this," he stated, recognizing the ominous state he was in. Covered entirely in blood like a butcher, most of it a mixture of human and monster blood, he understood that attempting to enter the city in his current condition would likely raise suspicion and get invested before being allowed to enter.
So, he needed to clean up if he wanted to enter the city.
*****
This 69th chapter! Say 'nice' everyone. Making up for yesterday's absent with this one lol.
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