154 The lawless city.

Since there was no one with Ozul right now except for Clara, he could decide his path and his pace all by himself.

But even when he was almost alone, it was only almost. Clara still held him down to an extent. He had already planned to drop her off as early as possible. For now, he was just stuck with her.

As he leisurely walked his way through the forest, Clara meekly followed behind him. She did not say anything along the way since she was aware that Ozul did not like meaningless talk.

Not to mention, he always seemed to avoid her whenever she tried to talk with him previously.

Ozul was able to feel the awkwardness, but he did not care either way since it was all the better as long as Clara stayed away from him.

"It might take a few days to reach the nearest city. Do you have enough supplies for yourself?" Ozul asked after a little while as he remembered that the girl with him was a young lady of some prominent house. He was at least aware that those people would want her back in one piece.

"Oh, yes! Venessa always made sure that I had everything of need in my Spatial Ring," Clara replied after getting out of the trance when she heard his voice.

Ozul suddenly turned around and looked from the direction that they had come from with his eyes squinted. After staying like that for a while, he turned back and started walking as if nothing had happened, making Clara curious about it.

'Good. They will never catch up this way,' Ozul thought as he had sensed people rushing in the direction of Fer City. Rufus was with the rest of the people hurrying towards the City while thinking that they might be there.

Only after searching around the city would Rufus realize that Ozul and Clara were nowhere to be found. The most likely scenario at that point would be Rufus ordering everyone to stay in the city for a day or two to wait for them as Ozul would be far out of their reach till then.

The next time they meet, it would only be in Neutral Lands!

At this time, Ozul was walking towards the next city that he had noticed on the map that Clive had shown. 

It was supposed to be a lawless city not under any major jurisdiction named Homond City. There was a city lord, but the city lords of such cities limit themselves to eat and get fat while staying in their mansions all day.

Such cities were mostly used by the travelers to rest up a bit or for criminals to take refuge in. So all around the city, there were many new faces daily. At a certain point, the residents stopped minding it since the refugees rarely caused any ruckus because they did not want to expose themselves.

Certainly, when there were criminals taking refuge in such cities, there were people hidden among the masses who looked for such refugees as well. 

Ozul planned to stay a night in that city before moving again. However, it would take half a day to reach there.

Meanwhile, he was also satisfied with Clara's attitude since she rarely bothered him, unlike he thought that she would, considering her feelings.

After a while, Ozul got bored of simply walking since it was what he had been doing together with the group as well. He took out the book that he had strapped to his side and started to read it.

Although he did not care much about all these plants and animals, it was always interesting to read unique information that was mostly classified and not available to the general public.

That is also one reason he had recruited Irvin to establish the organization to gather information. If those people would not leak out any information regarding almost anything interesting, then he just needed to have his own information network.

Talking about Irvin, Ozul also remembered that he needed to check on him after this. He had probably set the ground for things and should be expanding the network as of now.

After dropping off Clara, he would make sure to visit Irvin since expanding the information network was the priority for now.

'As for Raven and Blaze in the meantime... I would think about it later.'

Although the duo was strong enough to accompany him now, they needed to learn things without him. So he was trying to think of something to do with them when he would be away.

Ozul walked all the way to Homond City while contemplating his options. Clara remained silent in her own thoughts along the way.

'What should I say!? Should I ask him about himself?! No! It would make me look like I am trying too hard... Should tell him about me then?! No! Urgh... What should I do!?'

Unknown to Ozul, Clara was fighting a battle with her thoughts inside her own mind. Moreover, she was on the losing side since she couldn't reach any conclusion even after thinking about it for hours.

The sun had yet to start setting when the trees visibly lessened, allowing Ozul to see a path with cart tracks on it. He concluded that the path probably led to the city since it was also in the same direction as far as he remembered.

"Are we finally near a city? Is it Fer City that Sir Clive talked about?" Clara hadn't seen the map when Clive had explained the general direction of the city. She had just heard the name and knew that it was somewhere close. 

"No. We left the Fer City behind," Ozul replied as Clara did not even think why he was so confident that this was not the Fer City when he had admitted to not knowing its direction before.

As they walked to the side of the path, it didn't take long before a group of horses to run past them with people who all wore a different kind of hood to hide their faces.

Clara was suspicious of the group, but Ozul immediately realized that this city might be like the ones he had seen before without law and order when he worked with Count Oliver.

It was either that, or the group of people who had run past them were just idiots and did not know any better than to dress in such a high profile way.

Though Ozul was sure that this was not the case since most of them were Mages of around Rank-4.

After a few hours of walking, they finally saw the buildings and people. And as expected, Ozul saw that most of the people on the streets either had their faces covered up or looked like some local thugs.

Before entering the city, Clara covered her face with a veil since she would stand out the most with her appearance. Ozul, on the other hand, blended right in since he also had the conical hat on his head.

Although her blue dress had gotten dirty because she hadn't changed for a couple of days, her figure still stood out. It seemed that a swan remained a swan no matter if she swam in a spiritual lake or muddy waters.

There were no city guards around. Only suspicious people everywhere and the fearless citizens who were mostly the ones that ran the shops. They had gotten so used to such an environment that they didn't care how scary the other party looked. 

Although it was a lawless city, people were all the more nervous about causing any trouble since no one knew who would turn out to be some big shot. It was only called lawless since there were practically no authorities to stop any crime.

"Don't go too far away... Better yet, stay near me. You might get lost," Ozul said as if a parent advised their children before walking in public places.

"Of course. I am not a kid!" Clara said embarrassedly.

On the streets, Clara stood out among the crowd due to her figure. However, no one dared to eye her for more than a few seconds. No normal person dared to enter such cities. Even when some people thought themselves to be the strongest around, they dared not make a commotion unless necessary.

If there were a commotion, there would be tens of people to watch, which would absolutely destroy the purpose they came here to achieve. And that was to hide or look for people discreetly.

Ozul looked around to see if he could find someplace to stay. But they had unknowingly entered the market area since he could only see shops all around him.

"Tell me a place to stay," Ozul said to a shopkeeper selling fruits as he tossed a Silver Coin to him.

When the shopkeeper saw the Silver Coin before him, he flashed a bright smile which showed his gross teeth as he said, "Give me one more, and I might tell you~"

He had just finished his sentence when a small needle floated in front of his throat, threatening to kill him if he dared to fool around any longer.

"Hehe... okay! Okay! We are all good people here. Just keep moving and turn left. You will reach the entertainment district. Though I gotta tell ya, the hotels there are expensive, alright." It seemed like his attitude turned 180 degrees when he noticed that Ozul was not afraid of causing trouble.

As Ozul turned around to walk towards the entertainment district, a few people looked at them for a few seconds before averting their eyes in fear of offending someone that they would regret later.