Chapter 170 - Peculiar Guests (part 2)

Jobs that required more brute strength would clearly go to those with the best physique, which would hardly be a human of humble origins, wild beasts are born with gigantic strength even the poorest of wild beasts is as strong as a knight of the circle 3.1

Which was enough physical strength for the menial jobs of construction, car maintenance, building roads, forts, walls, and even as civil guards in some border towns.

The Beastmen were also excellent hunters and investigators, so often in capitals, they were part of the "police" investigation teams or worked for the intelligence guild.

Even the guild of assassins respected and appreciated the Beastmen.

Of course, uneducated people who saw wild beasts occupying places they thought belonged to them ended up resenting them by spreading gossip and gratuitous hatred to others.

There were other types of jobs, but which were less sought after by ordinary people like actresses and theatre actors, that fox-type Beastmen were well regarded and esteemed, even some successful merchants that Tanuki-type Beastmen were well received by the common population for bringing interesting and useful articles to most of them.

Anyway, there were many types of Beastmen, and George well knew that the types who were dogs were generally either very welcome or would be the opposite extreme of being mocked.

That's when they weren't confused with the wolf types that humans were quite hostile to, despite being favorites in the Assassin Guild.

"No, I think it's really cool," Naill said, staring at George's wagging tail, but he was pulled away by Emery to stop looking.

Wouldn't that be like looking at someone's ass? Ah, Emery felt embarrassed for George.

Of course, that would only apply if Emery and their group were canine types. Humans seeing the tail wag doesn't mean anything at all, but another canine could be hostile or show a more loving interest.

Well, Emery didn't know that, and his attitude seemed to be hostile towards George.

"I'll hide it," George said dejectedly, the tail lowered, and the ears looked droopy, so he took two leaflets, and with smoke that seemed to come out of nowhere, the tail and the ears disappeared.

"A fox leaf... Or was it from Tanuki?" Anael thought, remembering his old enemy, the nine-tailed fox, a master of seduction and disguise.

A shameless male fox who had to gain grace with the goddess Nix, which always got Anael in trouble when they got into a confrontation.

Divine items were an endless pain to escape.

The guests descended and there were ten in all, Emery who had already finished eating and was standing by the fireplace watching this peculiar group of people.

Two humans, Magda and Clark who had a typical Western appearance he saw in the modern world, even the language was similar. They came from the Western Continent of the State of Stern, and are traveling the world now.

George and Sarah who are brothers, Sarah came down shortly after everyone was eating. She looked the same as George with long dark brown hair, caramelized brown eyes that only dogs could adorably show, the same black German Dobermann ears, and the long, fuzzy tail of a species Emery didn't know about.

Apparently, George and Sarah came to the Autumn Festival which is very famous in Belcato City, yes, Emery managed to hear the lively conversation between George and old Dolores.

George worked for the Chantel Kingdom Information Guild, how did Emery discover this?

Well, Anael did some work.

Despite being much weaker than Azarphy, he was still quite useful.

Or maybe George was very simple-minded.

He worked with small information such as informing the location of inns, hotels, cities that are good for tourism with a low rate of violence, places with good food and drink.

Nothing that would be very confidential there, but that would make an excellent profit for George.

Sarah worked as a travel writer, publishing under a male pseudonym, and seemed to be very successful in Chantel's Kingdom, she was much quieter than George and seemed to be the type of woman who listens more than speaks, almost the opposite of her older brother.

The other three guests were Sarin, Uriel, and Ash, who Anael told a little about the theory that Sarin is a rare species of mermaid and that Uriel could be an almost extinct species of Ice Nymph.

Of course, Anael only told a few things, after all, a long story behind all kinds could not be told in so few minutes.

As for Ash... Well, to Emery's surprise, he found out himself that the man with the dark skin as ebony was a Warlock... Well, that or was someone overpowered by a demon.

The demon accompanying Ash looked like a cute black dolphin with lovely pearly blue eyes that only Emery could see, as no one commented on the matter or looked surprised.

Well, it could be a guardian spirit...

"It's a sea demon, even Satan got his hands on some creatures of the Ocean God... You can't even imagine how that annoying guy got mad at the time, but they were part of the Ocean God too, so he couldn't destroy them." Anael remarked dismissively as if the Ocean God were an annoying cousin who saw him at Christmas.

"Can't the gods kill the species that are part of their powers?" Emery asked curiously. He remembered Azarphy and Zariel, archangels who had been banished but not destroyed.

"They can, but if they do, the species can lose faith in them, and their power diminishes, possibly even causing riots. Some gods fell precisely because of these things, the previous god Animalia fell because he thought snakes were too cruel and without discrimination, he ended up killing many snakes... The animals were afraid that their species would be the next ones to displease the opinion of the  Animalia god and gathered to overthrow such a god. The new god Animalia is much better and wiser, but the snakes ended up creating the serpentine god, who became a lesser god who was under the protection of the god of nature..."

Anael then told a long story of war, blood, and godly fights, which left Emery entertained, which he listened to with bright eyes, knowing that this information could not hurt him.

Yes, information that would never turn against him in the future.

Oh, yeah, back to the guests.

There were a couple of dwarfs too, Josephina and Karl, who sounded more like made-up names, but as they were just guests at a small inn in a remote bar... No one cared about that.

Karl was a skilled blacksmith in the making of long, thin swords, while Josephina owned a jewelry store in the Aurore Empire.

"Old Dolores is calling you Young Master Darcy, so you're from the Family of Archduke Darcy of the Aurore Empire? I remember that people in the empire say that the main family of the archduchy has red hair"

Josephina asked suddenly, causing the group happily eating at the bar tables to fall silent.

The Darcy Family was legendary outside the Aurore Empire, a family of Mages and Wizards who had so much commercial and military influence inside and outside the empire.

"Yes, yes, he is a great hero of the Aurore Empire," Naill said with great pride, forgetting that they were now in an unknown place.

Fortunately, he didn't mention that Emery was a bishop, which would have made everyone a lot more nervous and Emery himself even more helpless.

"Oh, I knew it! I had seen the parade of the great Mages who came from the Lunar Battle, I remember seeing Master Mage Ethan on a white steed..." Josephina commented emotionally.

"Do you expect the same Ethan Darcy that some merchants said is staying at Horizon Inn for the Autumn Festival?" Nadia also commented getting excited, after all, that was a hero of the empire that was in their small town.

"These are just rumours... He must have come in hiding, otherwise, the nobles of the region would have come to welcome a hero as grand as young master Darcy" Karl said seriously, a war hero who sings with a magic sword, how could a dwarf dealing with magic and iron not treat the matter with the seriousness it deserved?

Ethan Darcy, younger brother of Emery's paternal grandfather, mysteriously disappeared on a journey, at least that is what appears in Bishop Darcy's original memory.

Everyone looked at Emery with a speculative look, Emery's voice sounded like it was gone, and they can only stare at everyone seriously, despite putting inside he's screaming that he wasn't that person.

On the other hand, the last of the guests came down the stairs which made everyone look up, and the atmosphere became eerily silent.

Emery looked at the man, whose face was mostly burned except for his eyes and mouth, which made everything even uglier.

The incredible midnight blue eyes fixed on Emery.

He found those eyes very familiar, but where had he seen those eyes?

"This human has eyes similar to your," Anael comments, looking curiously at the last guest.

Oh, so it was in the mirror that he saw those eyes!

"James, I thought you wouldn't come down for breakfast," old Dolores commented with a smile, but Emery could feel the tension in the bar-room.

James, who didn't have any hair on his face or hair, just sad burn scars all over his face, just nodded in greeting to a table in the corner of the bar.

It seemed his intense gaze on Emery's body was a lie, but the heavy gaze couldn't be forgotten anytime soon.

Everyone who seemed excited about the possibility of Emery being Ethan became silent, only Josephina's excited look was a little odd, taking little peeks every few minutes.