"…I took over his body?"
Aiden muttered as he took out the thing Biju was pointing at.
It was the mirror from earlier.
Looking at the mirror properly, there were some inscriptions written at the bottom of it.
'I can't read it.' Aiden thought, but he could guess what was written on it.
"It's written Aron Belur." Biju said as Aiden nodded his head.
Ding
[Would you like to learn the inscription named Ven?]
A window appeared in front of Aiden as he looked towards Biju and then again towards the window.
'She didn't react to it. Does she not see it?' Aiden thought as Biju tilted her head.
Ding
[Correct. No one except the host can see this window.]
'I see. What exactly are you?' Aiden asked.
Ding
[I'm your assistant. I help you in your growth and ensure that you become strong.]
'But why are you with-'
"Is something the matter?"
Interrupting Aiden's thought process, Biju asked as Aiden looked towards her.
"Nothing." Aiden replied, making Biju smile.
"I see. As I was saying, Aron Belur, who just recently died, is the son of the city's lord, and it looks like the city lord has sent four of his servants to fetch his dead body." Biju said as Aiden froze again.
"W-what do you mean?" Aiden asked as he frowned.
"I meant exactly what I said. Four servants have entered this forest, looking for Aron Belur's dead body." Biju said as Aiden fell into deep thought.
'What should I do? If they catch me, they will definitely kill me.' Aiden thought as he started thinking of ways to prevent this scenario.
Looking at the tensed-up Aiden, Biju's smile grew larger as she opened her mouth.
"Haha. You don't have to worry about it that much." She said this as Aiden looked at her.
"Fortunately for you, when you took over his body, they thought that Aron Belur had luckily survived and are searching for Aron Belur, in this case, you, more ferociously." She continued as Aiden felt a little comfortable.
"Then what should I do? Should I pretend to be Aron Belur and escape when the opportunity arrives?" Aiden said as that sounded like the most straightforward way to avoid any troubles.
"That won't work. The moment you enter the city, your identity as a beast will be revealed. In that scenario, you will have no way to escape and will most likely be killed, and when I say that, it's not an instant death; I'm talking about slow and torturing you to death." Biju said as a cold sweat ran down Aiden's back.
"Then…"
"Don't worry. You just have to make sure they don't figure you out." Biju said as she calmed Aiden down.
"You mean?" Aiden asked, as he hoped Biju would help him. His only hope was for Biju to help him.
"Do you remember when I said that me and my servants had entered the city to talk with the city lord in the past?" Biju asked as Aiden nodded his head.
"That time we had entered the city in our human form, and they still didn't notice us." Biju said as a glimmer of hope sparked in Aiden's eyes.
"… Can you tell me how you did that?" Aiden asked.
"Don' worry. I came here exactly for that." Biju said as she extended her hand.
Whoosh
Just as she did that, a five tailed white star appeared.
"W-what is that?"
Ding
[A skill star.
They contain a skill inside them that can be consumed by one. The quality of the skill inside the star is determined by the number of tails it has.
A five-tailed star is the highest recorded skill star, while a two-tailed star is the lowest.]
'Skill? Is this like that reflection skill I got?' Aiden asked.
Ding
[Yes.]
Looking at the window, Aiden then shifted his gaze towards Biju in confusion.
"Can I ask a question?" Aiden said as Biju smiled and nodded her head.
"Why are you trying to help me?" He asked, as he couldn't think of a reason for her to do what she was doing.
"Nice question. You see, as I said earlier, I am the ruler of this forest. You, a beast who was born here, are one of my family. You are my responsibility. I'm doing this to help one of my own." Biju said as Aiden kept quiet.
"…I see." Aiden nodded his head to show Biju that he understood what she said.
But, deep inside, Aiden didn't believe her. Aiden has gone through many bad things that have rendered him unable to believe anyone.
"Ok, then now, listen to everything I say carefully. Your road ahead is going to be very long and difficult; you will have to work very hard and grow strong if you wish to live a trouble-free life…"
Biju started to explain her plan as Aiden helplessly listened to her.
Although he didn't yet trust her, she was the only way out of this situation.
…
Roar
Far away from the cave where Aiden was, many beasts with huge antlers and red eyes ran towards the two humans they caught their eyes on.
The humans, who were already aware of the beasts, didn't stay still as the man with brown hair tied to a ponytail, Cedric, the guild master of the Blaze Guild, ran towards them and jumped into the air.
[Flaming sword; fire whirl]
Cedric took out the sword from the hilt that was attached to his waist and swung it horizontally.
Whoosh
A fire whirl emerged from the sword as it met head on with the beasts.
Boom
A small explosion occurred as it took out most of the monsters.
The monsters who survived quickly tried to run away, but Cedric didn't let them, as he landed near them and swiftly swung his sword, cutting their heads off.
Green blood gushed out of their injuries, painting the ground green.
"Ugh. Disgusting."
A woman wearing a pointed purple hat, Ann, guild master of the Hosling Guild, walked in as she pinched her nose to block the scent emitted from the blood.
"Did you locate him?" Cedric ignored Ann's remark as he asked if she had any clues about the city lord's son.
"I caught some signs of him." Ann said as she looked in a certain direction.
"There's a dangerous fire and some dead bodies." Ann said as she pointed towards it.
"Dead bodies?" Cedric said as he looked towards the path Ann pointed, but he couldn't see anything.
"Ben and Chlory are in that area." Cedric muttered as he tried to build a connection.
[Connective telepathy]
[You connected at the right time.]
The connection instantly connected, as Ben replied.
"Did you find him?" Cedric asked.
[No, not him, but the people he came to this forest with.]
"…Condition?" Cedric asked, but he could already guess from what Ann said earlier.
[Dead.]
"I see. See if all of them are there. We should return them to their families later." Cedric said as he cut off the connection without waiting for any reply.
"Lets go." Cedric said as he started dashing towards the place Ann pinted.
Ann quietly followed him as her crystal balls sent back some interesting information to her.
'A dangerous fire…' Ann thought as she hoped it was what she believed it to be.
…
"Hmph! Cutting off the connection right after giving an order. What does he think of himself?" Ben didn't feel right being ordered like a servant as he flipped Cedric in the sky.
"Argh. What the fuck are you doing? Praying?" Chlory questioned Ben's mental age as she rubbed her temple.
"The young master isn't here." Chlory said as Ben looked towards her and nodded his head.
"It looks like he was able to get away from whatever it was that attacked them." Ben said as he looked at the three humans laying on the ground breathless.
Among the three humans, there were two adult males and one adult female.
Looking at their condition, they had scars all over their body as blood dripped from them. But from Ben's observation, it wasn't the scars that killed them; it was something else.
"Obviously, the scars aren't that deep to cause serious problems. Still, what could it be that killed them?" Chlory added to Ben's observation as she opened the females eyes.
"Hmm?" As she did that, blood dripped from her eyes, as her eyes were not there. To add to that, her inside was partly hollow.
"Ben. Check if all of them are suffering the same problem." Chlory said as Ben looked at the two males bodies.
"Hmm." Looking at their bodies, Ben found it strange that they also had the same condition as that of the female.
"It's as if they were eaten from"
""The inside""
Both of them said it at the same time as they both frowned.
Chlory looked around to see if she could find any clues.
"Black fire?" She muttered as she saw a bush on fire.
'That's the same fire we saw earlier inside the red zone.' Chlory thought as she wondered what kind of beast could have such dangerous flame power.