“Let’s go.”
The area beyond the gate was probably Ansyrium… It was a city that didn’t have a good relationship with Solia, so Riley had never been to the place before.
“You didn’t leave anything behind, did you?”
“There isn’t anything.”
In secret, Nainiae had left him Astroa’s leather bracelet. Riley wore the bracelet, tightened the belt for attaching the spare sword and lastly, he placed Salvation, his Holy Sword, on his waist. Riley walked toward the dimensional gate first.
* * *
“… Hey.”
From the mansion, Riley arrived in Ansyrium through the dimensional gate. Having heard Andal talking to him from the side, Riley moved his eyes to look at him.
“What?”
“About that sword…”
Andal glanced at the sword that was hanging on Riley’s waist. He said that he had not seen the sword before and asked,
“Where did you get it?”
“What are you going to do by knowing about it?”
“It looks pretty nice, so I asked.”
Andal was quite focused on the Salvation. Riley could understand why. He wiggled his brows and said,
“I picked it up.”
“Picked it up?”
To be precise, he had received the Holy Sword, Salvation, from Inaril who had been keeping it safe all this time.
“Hm.”
Although it was not certain if Andal was simply intrigued about the sword or tempted to have it…Andal kept on fiddling with his chin as he walked the streets of Ansyrium. He carefully asked,
“Riley, if it is all right with you…”
“I won’t let you.”
Riley didn’t even listen to the end of the proposal. He pulled his chin and smiled. Andal looked like a child who didn’t get to buy the toy he wanted. Andal crumpled his face.
“What the…How could you make the decision even before hearing what I had to say first?”
“I can already tell from just looking at your eyes.”
“What’s so obvious?”
“You have the same look you had when you were like this with Nainiae. If you are going to whine, then go find someone else. You claim to be a superior being who is beyond this world, but what nonsense… Considering what you are doing, you are on par with an armed robber.”
“R… robber?”
Riley didn’t even look at Andal. He just waved his hand at Andal. Meanwhile, Riley was looking at Ansyrium’s scenery. For reasons unknown, the place appeared to be rather empty. Riley found something odd and stiffened his face.
“…”
“Lizard… Lizard… You had been calling me that, now…you are calling me an armed robber? Hey, fine, you rascal. Did I ever ask you to give it to me?”
“Hey, Andal…”
“It’s just, Kuhum! Right! I was just going to ask you to let me borrow it for a bit. I thought it was a pretty nice sword, so I was going to compare it to my other swords that are stuck in the depth of my cave, so…”
“Andal.”
“Um?”
Riley was looking around the area and called his name. Andal stopped complaining and looked at Riley, wondering what this was about.
“The mood here, is it always like this?”
“The mood…?”
“Presence of people… The place is lacking of people’s presence?”
“Ah ha.”
Having heard the question, Andal also looked around the area. He then explained the strangeness that Riley felt.
“No. Although this place is usually not as lively as Solia, it is not like the place should be devoid of people.”
While listening to Andal’s explanation, Riley quickly looked around the houses and streets he had passed through so far and the overall scenery around him. He thought it was strange that he had not run into a single person so far. Riley had a puzzled look on his face.
“I can see why you are finding this strange. The houses around here… Take a look. What color are they?”
Overall, the city had a dull atmosphere. Riley was observing the city carefully. Having heard Andal’s question, he realized that there were only gray and black colors. Riley muttered,
“By any chance…”
“That’s right.”
Andal nodded and said,
“It’s that bastard.”
Riley realized that Andal was talking about Epidemic, the purple human that they had run into the last time. Riley looked around the city again.