Raiden couldnt make sense of two gold windows that had manifested themselves before him. Whether this was some sort of magic or some sort of hallucination, he didnt know.
He rubbed his eyes and shook his head, but the windows still floated before him. He tried to grab them, only to realize that the windows were not floating in the air, they were in his field of vision. Even squinting and rubbing his eyes didnt help. And then with a blink of an eye, both windows went away, only to be replaced with a new one.
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System installation [1%] completed.
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The window was located in the upper part of his field of vision and remained there wherever he moved his eyeballs, it was not obstructing his field of vision that much, but he could not understand the purpose of the window.
Maybe, I am still dreaming. Immediately he pinched himself, the pain ascertained that he was awake.
"Excuse me, sir" he looked to his right, to see a small buggy had come to a stop at the station. An old man with grey-white hair was beaming at him, "Are you Mr. Hampshire, the new Inspector?"
"Yeah," The old man then hopped off the buggy and came to him, "Name is Herbert sir. I am here from Hoggs Inn to pick you up."
"Oh." Raiden then put his hand forward, and the old man vigorously shook his hand, "It is nice to meet you, sir. Is this all of your luggage?" He nodded, and the old man pulled one of the trunks off the trolley, the trunk was so heavy, that the old man kept staggering as he took it to the buggy.
He felt guilty, so he picked up the rest of his trunks and made his way towards the Buggy. After loading up, they started heading towards Valgoor, which if he remembers correctly was just about 30 minutes ride away from the station.
While chatting with the man, they soon entered the jungle area, which is going to be his responsibility in the future.
Harmony guards are simply the soldiers that maintain the peace and harmony of the society. They take care of any dangerous aether beasts of the area, while at the same time also handling social misconduct. It was a very challenging job, but the pay was good.
"Mr. Hampshire," the old driver said. "Is it true that you were top of the class in Emerald Garden?"
For some reason, he felt embarrassed, and while rubbing the back of his head, he confessed, "Yeah, why?"
"Well it is just…." The sound of the gunshot made the driver flinch.
Curious looked around, they were surrounded by shrubbery and dense trees from all sides, and it was very hard to see anything. There were several more gunshots after that, but they kept moving and didnt stop. It was only after a few minutes of their journey did they encountered a group standing on one side of the road.
The group in question looked like hooligans. Not to mention there were some fishman in the group, they were all wearing tattered clothes and looked dirty on the whole.
"What the hell are these guys doing here?" the old man mumbled.
"Who are they?" Raiden asked, curious about why the old man seemed to be afraid of them.
"They are.. A bunch of trouble makers sire. Holligans all of them" The old man spat poison as he spoke, "We should not tangle ourselves with them,"
"No." He simply said, "Stop the cart,"
"Sir!" the old man looked reluctant, but his eyes were enough for the old man to change his mind.
This town and this forest are going to be my responsibility in the future. Let's see what exactly would I have to deal with in the future.
The hooligans saw them stopping, so they turned towards them, staring both Raiden and the old man in the eyes, trying to intimidate them.
"What is happening here?" Raiden came forward and asked them point blank.
The biggest Fishman, a hulking 6 and a half feet figure came forward, "Wat es et to uu," a Fishman said with contempt, "Moov alung pucker,"
Raiden chuckled, and then with confidence said, "Try again,"
The big guy took out a hatchet from his belt and showed it to Raiden, with a mocking smile. "Naw u wanna talk?"
With a sly smile, Raiden sent some of his aether in his fists, and without any warning, he punched the Fishman in his chest. The power behind the blow sent the big guy flying away, taking a few fishman with him. The ones who saw this were bewildered, and quickly took out flintlock and aimed at him.
Raiden remained unfazed, and stared back at them, "Do you really wanna do this?"
Before anyone could answer the question, a gunshot rang from the side. They all looked to the left, there stood a barechested thin man. The stranger was a lanky fellow, with brown hair and light brown eyes. From the way he was dressed, the stranger looked like he was part of the hooligan's group.
"What is happening here?" the stranger said, "I left you guys for a second and you started fighting with the first guy that you come across? What the fuck is wrong with you guys?"
The stranger made his way towards them. Raiden noticed that while walking the stranger switched the already fired flintlock with another one, probably a loaded gun. The stranger came to Raiden and said, "I am sorry if my men rubbed off on you in some… bad way. I am sure that we can come to an understanding,"
"Who are you?" Raiden asked.
"Name is Solaris. Solaris Nailliv." The stranger with a warm smile.
Unfazed Raiden stared at the gun that Solaris was holding, although he was not pointing directly at him, he knew what Solaris was trying to do. "Your men brandished their weapons to an inspector of Harmony Guards. You know I can put them in jail for the rest of their life, right?"
Still smiling Solaris said, "Oh, you are an officer of law… I am sorry inspector. My men are naive people, I will educate them properly. Could you please let this matter go?"
Raiden didnt like the guy before him, there was something about him that was prompting him to shoot the guy in the sight. But he didnt have a gun with him. Still, with no evidence at hand, he simply asked, "What were the gunshots that we heard a few moments ago,"
"Hunting boar." Solaris said, "I am a lousy shot you see, so was not able to catch anything,"
Raiden weighed his options. He knew that something wrong was going on here, there was no way that these fishman and this human were just here to hunt boar. But as he had to evidence and was outnumbered, he figured that it would be wise to just retreat for now.
And that was what he did.