"What? what?.." The merchant was startled by Hargal's sudden lost of temper.
When he realized that he was causing a scene on the street, Hargal quickly calmed himself down and asked the merchant to continue.
"Ahh.. Sorry for my rudeness." Hargal apologized.
"Okay?... W- Well, that's as far as i know, i never met with the girl ever since and there's a high chance that she already left Direwell, i heard she got a huge reward from Direwell's mayor for capturing the criminal.." The merchant said as he slowly pack his things up and was about to ride his carriage again.
"I see.. Thank you." Hargal let out a faint smile before turning his body and walked away along with his colleague. "Let's go, our break time is almost over."
"Huh?! What was that? what did you get? Do you know that girl!?" His colleague asked, curious with Hargal's strange obession with the demihuman girl in that merchant's story.
As the two of them walked towards the construction site, Hargal then whispered sternly at the man beside him, his face was serious yet also had a hint of proudness in it.
"That girl was most likely my daughter.." He said.
"Huh? HUH!?" Hargal's colleague was obviously shocked to hear him say that, he almost couldn't believe it but he also remembered that he once told him that his daughter left the town to become a wanderer.
"Your daughter that left the town a week ago!?" He said.
"Yeah.." Hargal didn't say anything after that, and they met with their boss to continue their work for the day.
'Syla, i know its your choice, and i know you're already prepared for it.. But yet i can't help but be worried, please- Stay safe out there.' He thought as he began carrying more wooden logs.
'But at the same time, im also proud.. You've become so strong, that you're able to fight on your own, and become someone's hero– It's all because of your effort ever since you were a kid.'
.
.
A day later, in Beakwood—
Now that Syla was alone on her own yet again, she wasn't sure what she should do, being in a completely different town means that she had to interact with new people, those who haven't seen her, they might give strange look or perhaps even suspicion, but Syla didn't mind it as long as they still treated her with respect.
'Maybe i should go to the town's adventurer's guild.. Just to see what kind of people am i dealing with here.' Syla thought.
While she was walking on the crowded street, Syla realized that there were no subhuman species such as elves or other demihumans in town, at first she assumed that they might be on the other parts of the town, but Syla also doesn't want to ignore every possibility.
'It seems like this town favors humans more than the other species, do they treat them differently here?' Syla thought. 'I'll keep my awareness high in case what im thinking is true.'
If it wasn't for her cloak, Syla would've been found out by every passerby that she was a demihuman, since she purposefully lowered her ears, the same way it does when a demihuman felt disappointed or sad, her figure looked more like a human, the shape of her wolf ears that would usually be sticking out beneath the hood was nowhere to be seen.
.
.
10 Minutes later—
Syla finally stumbled across the building that seemed to be the Adventurer's Guild, it was exceptionally larger than the other buildings around it and from the sword and shield banner hanging ontop of its entrance, it was more obvious than ever.
'Is this the place?' Syla said to herself before walking closer, passing through a group of adventurers.
As Syla was about to enter the guild, she accidentally overheard a conversation that was right beside her.
"Have you noticed the sudden increase in orcs extermination quests here? It's strange, everyday there's always a new report of orc sightings near the small villages, it's as if they're multiplying quicker than normal." One of the adventurer said, he wore long robe like a wise wizard that's been on an everlasting adventure.
"Yeah, i noticed that too.. To be honest, at this point i won't be surprised if an orc dungeon had formed, the guild will issue a quest for the search soon." Another adventurer who looked like a mage responded with a deep sigh.
"Orcs are a D-Rank monster, so it's not a problem for most, but that's counting individually, if they're a group, it'd be a C-Rank threat."
Syla stopped to lean into the fences on the side as she heard the adventurer's talk, an orc dungeon opening near Beakwood was not something that she could've ever expected, but if what the adventurer's are saying was true, then it'd also be an opportunity for her to earn big money.
'Hmm.. They're not convinced yet, so there could be a chance that its false information, but this is also not bad– I never seen a dungeon before, so the thought of encountering one sounds interesting.' Syla thought.
The adventurer's infront of her soon changed the topic into something else, and Syla, realizing that she won't get any further information from them, finally stopped eavesdropping and stepped inside the guild for real.
Chatter!
Chatter!
Chatter!
As she had expected, the guild was packed, and loud. Just like what she saw in Direwell, the guild here was also filled with eccentric individuals, they wore all kinds of outfits, some looked tough, while others leaned more into the aesthethic and beauty.
Syla watched as the adventurers all shouted and screaming, as if they were having a party, not wanting to attract any attention, Syla walked slowly while avoiding direct eye contact from everyone, she kept her head down until she passed the obnoxiously loud adventurers and arrived at the receptionist table.
"Hello! Good evening." The receptionist said, she was a beautiful young lady with black hair. "Is there anything i can help?"
"I want to look at the map around here." Syla said, her voice startled the receptionist as she didn't expect the person wearing full cloak infront of her to be a girl.
"Ah, you can go over there, beside that quest board was the map of Beakwood and the villages around it." The receptionist responded calmly.
"I see, thank you." Syla thanked her and left the receptionist to see the map board.
'Huh, so they have a map board.. They dont have that in Direwell..' She thought.
The reason why she couldn't see the map board when she was walking towards the receptionst was not only because she was looking down, but it was also due to the amount of adventurers grouping together to block the map board from being seen by other people.
After Syla was close enough with the map board, she was met with the legs of multiple adveturers standing infront of her.
'Damnit..' She cursed.
Syla had no choice but to force her way inside the crowd, and because of her mysterious nature, the people around her felt intimidated and gave Syla a narrow way to enter.
Bump!
"Huh?!" A rough man voice was heard from above her.
Syla had accidentally bumped into the man beside her and he looked to be offended by it.
"Hey? What the hell's your problem? Can't you see that im standing here!?" The bulky man said.
"..." Syla stayed quiet, not wanting to reveal her voice to him as it could lead to more trouble
"Sorry." She quietly said.
'I'll give up for now.' She thought before walking backwards, moving away from the bulky man beside her.
While Syla was walking away from the map board, unbeknownst to her, she had caught the attention of an adventurer, a man in white and gold outfit noticed Syla and her quiet personality, his face was covered with a scar that looked like a clawmark, three vertical lines can be seen coming from his forehead to below his right eye.
"A demihuman?." He said as his vision was obstructed by the other adventurers, and soon, he lost sight of Syla.