After the initial burst of horror Alex slowly began to calm down. Even when he energetically jumped up, the most reaction he got were few curious glances. Many of the beasts didn’t even lift their heads and continued to nap.

The whole situation was very similar to what he encountered in Serenity city when the failed chosen were fed to the oversized wolves. During that event he also was the sole survivor and the monstrous beasts around him behaved like cute puppies. Of course, this time there was no pope around to save him in case something unexpected happened, but from what it looked like, he didn’t need much saving.

Alex took few deep breaths and observed the surroundings more carefully. What caught his eye was the fact that the corpses were not that fresh – the attack appeared to have happened at least three, four days ago. In addition, lions seemed to be uninjured that hinted at a one sided massacre. Only now Alex realized why everyone was so relieved when they thought they reached the capital. Of course, in this case they celebrated too soon.

“You guys are in reaaaaal trouble.” Alex said with a sad smile to the largest lion who was most likely pride male.

The beast curiously looked back at him, but Alex didn’t expect to be understood. He shook his head and went over to the remains of the carriage belonging to the caravan supervisor Ramil. The man was obviously the richest one of the bunch and there was no need to let a good loot to go to waste.

After searching for a few minutes, Alex found a strongbox that most likely contained Ramil’s riches and, after kicking it few times, managed to open it. Indeed, there were several bulging coin purses inside as well as some letters and valuables, but Alex was interested only in the money. He picked up a couple of purses, weighted in his hand calculating with how much load he would be able to comfortably travel, then took another two, but in the end left with only initial ones – one full of silver coins and another – with gold.

Not far away he found a larger waterskin that was still intact and full with water. Of course, the water inside was warm and probably tasted bad, but he’ll refill it at the first opportunity and had to bare with it for now. Then he grabbed a simple linen satchel and threw the waterskin and coin purses inside.

The last thing Alex needed was a suitable weapon. He was not sure if lions would care about him ‘becoming dangerous’, but after verifying they continued to nonchalantly lie around even after he picked up a sword in each hand, he spent almost half an hour looking for something that would resemble rapier. The only occasion he had seen such sword in this world was in Haldenburg – it belonged to the saintess Dalia. Of course, that particular one was encrusted with gold and gemstones and was not very practical.

Luck was not on Alex’s side and the best he could find was a thin longsword, but it had to do for now. Since he was relatively rich, he would order a new one in Tabulan, that is – if he got that far.

After making sure he didn’t forget anything, Alex went back to the three male lions and said to the biggest one, “Thanks for guarding me, but I suggest you make scarce as soon as possible. The people that will come for you won’t be as harmless as these guys. I think you should go further north and lay low for a while.”

Alex pointed in the northern direction, but seeing no reaction from the beasts, Alex smiled and said, “Alright, take care! See you around!”

‘What the hell is wrong with me?’ Alex inwardly laughed at himself while leaving, ‘Why did I expect them to understand me?’

After walking around fifty steps, Alex suddenly froze. Further down the road, some two hundred meters away, there was another battlefield-like spot. Apparently after lions attacked their caravan, they cleaned up at least another one.

He turned back to the pride male and shouted, “You have maximum one day time. Don’t put your ladies in danger.”

This time the lion was either annoyed or just wanted to say something and roared back at Alex so loud the ground trembled.

Seeing the reaction Alex shrugged, then waved and jogged away. What he didn’t see was how several minutes later pride silently left towards the direction he pointed at earlier.

For the next two days Alex didn’t meet any people. At first he jogged in order to get to the capital sooner, but then slowed down and began to enjoy his travel. At first he was baffled by the behavior of the ferocious beasts, but since he couldn’t think of their reasoning, decided to forget the event for now and focus on the cultivation.

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In addition to the picturesque views and the pleasant weather the trip turned in to a particularly enjoyable endeavor. Apparently the previous tragic encounter was completely out of norm, because from then on he never met any danger at all, not even a sole aged hyena. With the exception of that one pride the imperial forces had cleaned the surrounding regions of the capital properly and Alex got the feeling as if he was on a harmless safari.

Another pleasant surprise was that Alex didn’t ‘loose’ none of the three soul particles. It did take some time to get used to them constantly floating in his vision, but after he did, they acted like a beacon for his cultivation. He was itching to see what benefits they would provide during an actual combat situation, but he knew there was no reason to rush things since the most he could do was only use the soul particles to create triangles of different sizes.

The first person Alex met was a hunter, in fact, it was a group of three young men. Armed with bows and spears they roamed savanna hunting antelopes.

The three hunters have had a successful day and barely were able to carry their game, and gladly accepted Alex’s offer to help. Alex, of course, didn’t mind to lend a hand in hopes of getting some useful information from the locals. Unfortunately the three kept asking questions repeatedly one after another and when few hours later they arrived at the tribe village, Alex had not found out anything besides their and their tribe’s names.

Afterwards it didn’t get any better. The whole tribe, consisting of around forty members, invited him to a sumptuous feast. Sitting in the honored guest’s spot next to the tribe’s ‘grand elder’, basically the oldest dude of the bunch, Alex had to tell the ‘news from afar’.

Understanding he wouldn’t get anywhere with these hearty, but simple people, Alex told about the colorful latest events that happened in Marounad. It was a made-up story about two youths from rival noble families who fell in love, but were supposed to hate each other.

Half of the tribe were sobbing when he finished, while the other were shouting to go and fight the two hateful families to the death. Alex barely managed to calm everyone down, explaining that in the end the families were banished from Marounad and without the necessary skills of survival will definitely die out for sure and these news were received with loud cheers that quickly turned into dancing around a large bonfire.

Before Alex could sigh with relief, he was almost wed to the grand elder’s granddaughter and barely managed to escape explaining he was already engaged. He literally fled leaving the disappointed and blushed girl behind along with the crowd, promising to come to visit ‘one of these days’, but inwardly swearing to never befriend any tribe ever again.

While the people were nice and meant well, Alex had to spent the next night in meditation trying to erase the trauma from his memories and in the morning proceeded towards the capital.

After a couple of hours of walking, he finally understood why the members of the caravan were certain they had arrived and were safe. The scenery quickly changed and the savanna transformed into endless cultivated agricultural fields.

Alex couldn’t believe the level of advanced irrigation the society had even if their tools were mostly primitive. And soon he found out how the kilometers upon kilometers of irrigation trenches were excavated – a group of around twenty guards were watching over a hundred or so captives, most likely slaves or criminals in penal servitude who dug long waterways with hoes and shovels.

To avoid potential of joining them, Alex immediately came over to the closest guard and asked how far it was to the capital. It was a simple trick to approach the law enforcer in order to appear innocent or seem a law-abiding subject.

Apparently he overthought the risk, because everyone, including the captives, immediately laughed at him and in the end the guard explained that they were already in Tabulan. Turns out the whole region was considered a part of the capital, although to reach the center he had to walk for at least a day.

Alex didn’t mind the embarrassment and after getting the directions, happily jogged to the west. From then on he didn’t lack food or clean water until he saw the first rundown shacks indicating his arrival to the real suburbs.

The main road not only became busier, it got much wider as well. Even though it had no cover, the speeding horses and carriages made it resemble a medieval highway.

While the rich folk charged in both directions using the middle, the poor and ‘regular’ people patiently ate the dust while using the sides of the road. It was clear that one step in the wrong direction could cripple or kill a person and no one would care one bit, maybe even blame them for dirtying the carriage wheels.

The social segregation became more apparent the further Alex went, but he didn’t come here to fight for justice or create a revolution. In addition, with the money he had, he couldn’t really be considered ‘poor’. He could even buy a small house or even an inn at the roadside and live happily ever after if he wanted to.

Obviously Alex had other plans. The first thing he intended to do was to find the Isa family residence and see if Caden’s brother would actually help him to settle down. The sealed letter was still in his pocket and although Alex didn’t take a peek inside, he was certain that the fat cook had no reason to set him up.

The center of Tabulan was on an elevated altitude and with every step Alex went higher uphill. After several hours he finally got an explanation for the atypical landscape of the city and its surrounding territories. Further in the west, behind the endless see of buildings, there was a long mountain range that was not visible earlier and some of the mountain peaks were so tall they were covered in snow.

Obviously Tabulan was built at the base of that mountain range and later naturally expanded towards the east. It was also not hard to guess that the ‘old town’ and the center of the capital were not in the geometrical center, but were located somewhere closer to those mountains.

After making few inquiries Alex found out that the Isa family was relatively known in the capital and any city guard could point him to the direction of their residence.

In the late afternoon, he arrived at a wide gate, pleasantly surprised at the wealthiness of Caden’s family. From From what the cook looked like one could never guess the guy could be rich or even have any money at all.

‘Why the hell he’s serving in the navy?’ Alex pondered approaching the gate guard with Caden’s letter in hand.