Chapter 44: A Tour of Mercenary City
A silver-haired young man, wearing a mask, carried a cute silver-haired little girl on his head, with a group of people following him from behind.
"Papa... this," the small girl pointed to a lollipop shop, which had a variety of flavors.
"Do you want that?" Draco asked, and Lyraea nodded, her eyes glued to the lollipop shop.
This group consisted of Draco and Lyraea. As expected from the daughter of a beautiful creature like Draco, she took almost an entire day to wake up from her sleep, with Draco taking her out for fun.
As soon as she was brought out of the room, all eyes were on her, wondering who could have given birth to such a beauty. When they looked at Draco, who was carrying her, they got their answer.
Even though Draco wore a mask, his long silver hair and reddish eyes made it ninety percent certain that he was her father. Some young girls fantasized about how handsome he was.
Draco and Lyraea resembled the male and female leads in a novel. As for Adria and Adrian, their beauty and how they looked like a carbon copy of each other, with their pale skin, attracted the attention of the crowd, making them seem like supporting characters in a novel.
Brad and his mercenary members had it worse; they were in the "Others" category, not worthy of attention. Only Flora barely managed to squeeze into the "Supporting Character" category because of her beauty and race.
After buying this, they began touring the mercenary city.
"What's that?" Draco asked, pointing to a church-like building with a golden cross hanging on it.
"That's the Holy Church, a sacred place built by humans who have gained power from the Light God," Flora answered.
"Then what's that?" Draco asked, noticing another church with a black cross on it. Its building looked eerie, unlike the others.
"That's a church created by humans who gained power from the Dark God," Flora said. Draco could feel her disgust, which made him chuckle.
From their names, one could tell they were opposed to each other. The Light Church symbolized the good side, while the Dark Church represented the bad side. But Draco didn't believe in such protocols. It wasn't until he saw the essence of the hearts of the members of each church that he would determine who was good or bad.
The word "God" made Draco realize that the influence of gods might have reached here. "So, you believe in God?" he asked.
"Yes," they replied, looking at Draco in confusion. "Everyone knows this."
From a fragment of his memory, he recalled the person they called Xandros, the plunderer, and his enemies. He could see they were gods. Also, from the name "Xandros," he guessed this was his past life. But who was that fox-headed figure who made him declare war?
Draco fell into thought and nodded. "So, does everyone know this?" He realized that he didn't recall seeing such churches during his childhood.
"Not everyone," Brad explained. "Only those who have graduated from the academy or left Calonia would know this, because Calonia keeps their existence hidden." Draco now had a clearer understanding of how things were in Cerulean.
Not dwelling on this, they continued their tour, exploring the mercenary city. Even though Cerulean was advanced, they hadn't forgotten some basics.
Once you enter the city, you can't fly or use your strength to move quickly; you either walk or take a cab. There were still amusement parks and playgrounds for small children.
Draco didn't know much about Mercenary City; he was a stranger to it. It was Brad who was leading them to various places suitable for touring.
They went to the amusement park, where Draco attracted everyone's attention because of his mask.
He took Lyraea as they went to play in the amusement park, with Lyraea dragging him to buy things for her, which Draco did.
When the girls mentioned shopping, the mercenary boys shook their heads, telling them "No."
This made Adrian and Draco curious about why their expressions were as if they were about to eat fire.
Draco needed to buy clothes for Lyraea and also didn't forget the twins. "Let's go shopping then."
His words made the boys' expressions pale, as if the sky were falling.
Once they arrived, Draco told the twins to pick their clothes, and Brad and his mercenaries should do the same, as everything was on him.
Everyone began picking clothes, but Draco had to follow Lyraea because she didn't want her Papa to leave her sight. She was just too attached to Draco.
Adrian and the boys quickly picked their clothes without wasting too much time.
As for the ladies:
"Mr. Draco, which one is better between the two?" The ladies took clothes and compared them to one another. When they couldn't choose between the two, they asked Draco, making him speechless.
Clothes were clothes—why were they bothering themselves with this?
"Just take both," Draco said, and the girls jumped with excitement as they tried on the clothes. Adrian was a bit shocked by this; he never knew his sister had this side to her.
Both Draco and Adrian now understood why the boys had such expressions, but they didn't know this was not all. The girls rushed around, not wanting to delay Draco.
They didn't forget to drag Draco, asking him to try on different clothes that suited him as well, before continuing their tour.
They had spent more than three hours on this tour.
Going to a restaurant to satisfy their hunger, Draco ordered food that Lyraea could eat, with lots of soft meat.
He then ordered something nice for himself and began to eat.
Taking a peek at the twins, he saw they were forcing themselves to eat the food; it was a bit bland in their mouths.
Seeing them like this made Draco taste the food, hoping it wasn't bland.
"Xylara, what's wrong with them?" Draco asked.
"They have awakened their bloodline as Vampires, so they don't eat normal food. Blood is their favorite food," she explained.
"Then why don't I feel that way?"
"Yours is different," she rolled her eyes. "You are like a container for your bloodlines. Currently, you are human, so you don't feel the effects of the other bloodlines."
"I guess I have to solve the problem of their food," Draco sighed.
After eating, they continued their tour. Draco now understood part of the world called Cerulean.
It turned out that there were multiple races, some of which Draco could see. There were Angels, Elves, Dwarves, etc.
He was confused as to why he hadn't seen any of these races in his little memories, which Brad explained.
It turned out that even though Calonia was the most popular and largest city in Cerulean, only humans could enter freely. Other races needed a pass to enter the city, and they had to lie low.
Seeing that it was getting late, they headed back to the inn to rest. Lyraea had fallen asleep in Draco's arms.
On their way back to the inn, they encountered some disturbance.
"If it isn't Brad and his mercenary members, the newly C-Rank Mercenary Group," a teasing voice came from behind, making them turn around.
They turned to see a venomous young man with black hair, thin, and looking like the embodiment of a viper.
Brad's face turned a little pale upon seeing this person. "What brings the vice-head of a B-Rank Mercenary group to see the humble head of a newly promoted C-Rank Mercenary?" he sarcastically said.
"Just here to meet my humble friend, Brad," the young man chuckled.
"Oh, which friend? The one who betrayed his mercenary teammates?" Sam scoffed.
"And here I am, greeting you, yet you guys are rejecting me," the young man said, feigning heartbreak.
"Only a fool would believe you," Flora rolled her eyes in anger.
"Who is this man? Is he your new mercenary member?" The young man removed his facade and looked at Draco. When his eyes passed over Lyraea, who was sleeping, he revealed a greedy light, but quickly hid it.
This did not go unnoticed by Draco, whose eyes flashed with cold light. This guy dared to have greedy intentions toward Lyraea? He was dead meat.
"I guess this is none of your business," Brad chuckled. "Mr. Draco, let's continue our journey and not mind this fool." He turned to Draco, who nodded, and they continued their walk.
The young man's eyes narrowed with a venomous look, his gaze fixed on Draco as he walked away.
"We will meet again!" he shouted.
"Sorry for that little episode, Draco," Brad said with a bitter smile.
"Who is he?" Draco asked. He could see they were worked up when the guy appeared.
"He's one of our former mercenary members," Brad said bitterly.
It turned out the guy's name was Vimba. When they established this mercenary group, there were six of them, and Vimba was the sixth member.
He was talented and had awakened an A-Rank Beast Talent Ability, Viper Power. He was always scheming and loved sneak attacks—an assassin at heart.
But one day, they were betrayed by him during a mission, as he tried to eliminate them over a treasure. They survived, but they were wounded.
By the time they returned to Mercenary City, Vimba had joined an B-Rank Mercenary group and had become the Vice-Head of the Viper Mercenary.