Chapter 598 - Zaun

"Fu…" Taking a deep breath, Zaun wiped the blood away from his face and looked down at the tearful fox woman that sat on the floor with quivering legs.

"Are you ok?" He asked as he reached out to help her up.

"Thank you! Thank you!" The older Shiro bowed while quickly wiping the fake tears from her eyes.

"If you hadn't saved me, me and my child would have been done for. Please, can I know the name of my saviour?" She asked while looking up at Zaun.

Seeing her up close, Zaun couldn't help but blush slightly and looked away.

"It's Zaun. What happened? Why were the monsters in a frenzy?" He asked while poking at the corpses

"I don't know. I was just making my way to Indri since I was told that it was a friendly place for people like me when the monsters started to attack us." The older Shiro replied as Zaun furrowed his brows.

"Hmm… I'll need to report about this since having monster's frenzying around the place isn't good. Anyways, follow me and I'll escort you the rest of the way to Indri. If you don't mind me asking, can I know your name?" Zaun asked as the older Shiro nodded her head.

"My name is Ori and this is my daughter Tia. Once again, I want to thank you for saving us." 'Ori' bowed once more as Zaun waved his hand.

"Since you have a daughter, can I presume that you have a husband? Where is he? I don't think letting you two roam around without protection is a smart idea." Zaun asked with a frown.

"My husband has… unfortunately passed away a while ago so it's only been me and my daughter." 'Ori' looked down softly as her ears seemed to droop down.

"Ah… I'm sorry I shouldn't have asked." Zaun scratched his head awkwardly.

"So you said that you wanted to come to Indri since your friend said that it was nice to us demi humans right? Do you know what you have to do to get citizenship?" He asked as he started to walk back to the city.

"I don't know. I was only told that I had to come here and that was it." Ori shook her head.

"Hmmm… are you under any queens?" Zaun asked.

"I don't think I am? My friends have been helping me and I only looked after my daughter. Do I have to be under one to be in this city?" Ori tilted her head cluelessly.

"Wait you're not under any queen?" Zaun widened his eyes since not being under the protection of one would just paint a giant target on your back.

"I don't know. Maybe I am? My friend didn't really tell me this since she knows I'm not good with this kind of thing." Ori glanced to the side with an embarrassed expression.

'How the hell has she survived this long???' Zaun thought to himself in disbelief. However, it wasn't as if you had to be under the lightning queen to stay in Indri. The only drawback was that it was highly restrictive due to the fact that the anchor is nearby.

However, seeing as though the woman didn't even know if she's under any Queen, Zaun could presume that she didn't know that the anchor was here. Plus, he could sense that she was being 'truthful' from all his years of being a guard and interacting with people that have come to this city.

*Sigh…

"It seems like your friend didn't tell you enough. That's fine though, you can still stay in the city as long as you go through a few doc.u.ments is that ok?" He asked.

"Yes, that's fine. I just need somewhere safe so that I can raise my child properly." Ori nodded her head eagerly.

Smiling softly, Zaun couldn't help but feel a bit of pity for this woman.

"The city isn't too far from here, my shift is almost over so I can help you get a partial citizenship for now if you want."

"That would be greatly appreciated! Thank you very much!" Ori smiled happily.

Seeing this, Zaun couldn't help but feel a small flutter in his chest but quickly shook that feeling off. He was on duty right now so he must focus.

While this was all happening, Shiro looked at her older self with a slightly nauseous expression.

Seeing herself act like his made her want to throw up as she could feel goosebumps appearing all over her body.

Sensing Shiro's gaze on her, the older Shiro only stuck her tongue out with a knowing glance.

After arriving at the gates, Shiro could see a giant defensive fortress wall built between two mountains. Tall statues of the Kirin could be seen carved into the side of the mountain, warning all who enter on the beast that resides near this place.

Up on the walls, Shiro could see mounted weapons enchanted with magic while groups of guards patrol around the area.

Acting nervous, the older Shiro made her steps small and 'hid' behind Zaun and made sure that her presence was as small as possible to sell her act.

"Why did you rush off like that! You know what the captain is like if you just abandon your post." An masculine voice called out from on top of the walls with an annoyed tone.

"Sorry! This woman was in danger so I went to save her." Zaun shouted out as Shiro could see another wolf man poke his head over the wall.

"Holy crap she's a beauty!" The man widened her eyes.

Hearing this, the older Shiro pretended to be startled as she tried to get out of the man's sight.

"OI! Don't act like a piece of sh*t at every woman you see! Now help me open the gates, she wants to get a residential permit." Zaun shouted back with a glare as the man waved his hand.

"Fine fine, give me a second."

After opening the gates ever so slightly, the three of them made their way into the office located on top of the wall.

"So what happened?" The man asked as his expression was a bit more serious.

"Frenzied monsters, quite a few of them in fact. We might need to increase the patrols around the area since they weren't like this before. Something might have startled them." Zaun explained with a frown.

"Hmm… that is quite bad. Last time I checked, they were quite docile so it should have been safe. Do you think a predator appeared which caused them to be like this?" The man asked.

"I'm not sure but they were very intent on killing Ori over here. When I was fighting them, they would not look away from the mother and daughter." Zaun explained.

'No sh*t. My older self poked them after all.' Shiro thought to herself as she started to ignore the duo. After all, she was more concerned with their surroundings. Despite not being able to use mana in Tia's body, she was still able to sense it and from what she could tell, the people guarding this place averaged around level 300 to 400 if the system was still around.

Despite this being one of the weakest places that is under the lightning queen, the defences were quite sturdy which caused Shiro to wonder what kind of guards are in the other anchors.

'Though I suppose this level of defence is quite weak compared to the Tier 6 guardian that was protecting the demon god's anchor.' Shiro mused to herself. With the Kirin around, the Lightning Queen probably figured that she didn't need to worry about assigning defences to this place.

During her musing, they arrived before the office.

Knocking on the door, they could hear an annoyed grunt before a booming voice rang out.

"Come in."

Surprised at the sheer volume of the voice, the older Shiro's surprise was real this time as she couldn't imagine dealing with someone this loud over a long period of time.

Opening the door, they could see a giant man with golden fur around his face. He had spiky blond hair and a very muscular physique which seemed to want to rip his shirt apart at any moment.

Adjusting the tiny glasses on his face, the man scribbled something down on a piece of paper and looked up at the group of people that had just entered his office.

"Speak, what's going on?" He asked with narrowed eyes.

"I have two things to report. First is a pack of frenzied monsters that wanted to kill this woman and the second is that she wants to be granted citizenship for this city." Zaun straightened his back.

"Mn. You can write a report on the monsters later. We'll deal with the woman first. Is she under any queen and what's her proof of identification?" The man asked as he looked towards the older Shiro.

Explaining the situation to the captain, they waited for his response.

"Mn, that's a bit annoying to deal with. Ok, follow me, we need to make sure that you're actually safe to be in this city." The man sighed.

Standing up, his hulking body looked over them as he gestured to them to follow him elsewhere.

Seeing this, the older Shiro eyes flickered with a knowing look as this was part 1 complete. The next part was a bit annoying but it shouldn't be too hard to bluff her way through.