Chapter 01 : Yet Another Lost Soul

It was a day like any other.

Lloyd woke up and looked at the wooden watch on his bedside table.

"Urgh... it's already 8am..."

Still half asleep, he mustered up all his strength to get out of bed. Today was a busy day ; he had to open the store earlier than usual.

Lloyd opened up the window and looked at the sky. The faint sound of water sliding down the glass could be heard.

The sky was covered with greyish clouds. Because of the heavy downpour, it was very humid and the air was stifling.

"Even after so long, I can't get used to the seasons of this world..."

Lloyd sighed, before closing the window.

As he went downstairs, he heard a rustling noise coming from the storage room.

"Did you sleep well ?" Lloyd said with a smile while opening the door.

A weird-looking chubby dog, half the size of Lloyd, was waiting behind the door.

"Woof! Woof!" The two long and dark heads of the dog greeted him at the same time.

"Good boy, good boy..."

Lloyd patted both heads, before removing the heavy chains attached to the silver collar around their necks.

Their jaws were wide open and viscous saliva was flowing from their mouths.

"I know you guys are hungry, but you will have to wait for a bit, alright ?"

"Woof! Woof!" As if the dog understood Lloyd, it loudly barked and quietly followed him into the store lobby.

Lloyd opened the store as per usual, but he couldn't help but curse when he saw the puddles of murky water that went inside the store through the little crack under the door.

"This damned rain, when is it gonna stop !"

"Woof Woof !!" Imitating his master, the dog also cursed in its own way.

Lloyd stepped outside the shop and flipped the hanging board to 'Open'.

'I know an important customer will come today, but wouldn't it be better to just postpone it with such a bed weather ?'

Lloyd pondered as he closed the door and came back inside, but then he remembered that today's appointment was with someone he wouldn't dare to offend.

'Nevermind, I don't want to lose my head.'

Lloyd bitterly smiled as he thought about the difference in status between him and his customer.

He grabbed two small cans from a shelve and opened them up, before putting them on the floor next to each other.

"Blackie, here's your food."

A strong odor of roasted meat and dried blood emanated from the cans' opening.

"Woof! Woof!"

As soon as Lloyd put the food on the floor, the dog plunged his two heads inside the cans.

*munch munch munch*

The dog was gobbing the food as if it was the last meal of its life.

"Oi, don't dirty the floor you stupid dog !"

Lloyd shouted the same thing from behind the counter every morning, but he always had a faint smile when he watched his lovely two-headed pet eating the food so passionately.

After all, it meant that the products he was selling were of good quality, even for this world's standards.

As the first rays of sunlight crept through the pouring rain and the cool morning wind blew outside the pet store, Lloyd quietly sipped his cup of coffee behind the counter.

___

A young lady in her late teens was lost in thought, strolling the streets of Valora with her head down, until she came to a halt and looked around.

"I'm lost again..." She sighed when she realized that she had no idea where she was.

She snuck out of her home and went for a walk before her morning class to change her mind, but she ended up in an unknown back alley without even noticing.

While it was a dirty and rundown street, it seemed to be a commercial area for commoners as there were several shop signs around her.

"Let's ask someone for direction." She intended to ask a passerby, but it was early in the morning and heavy rain was pouring down, so she didn't see anyone on the street.

At this time of the day and with such bad weather, people were either sleeping or staying warm inside their houses.

She was probably the only one stupid enough to take a stroll under the rain on a Saturday morning.

As she was about to give up and go back on her steps, she noticed a faint light ahead of her, concealed amidst a curtain of rain.

Curious to know what kind of store would open up so early during the weekend, she unconsciously walked toward the light.

As she got closer, she could see the large sign above the shop's entrance.

To her surprise, she couldn't read a single word of what was written.

It was not unusual to see shop signs written in another language than Valorian as this city was the capital of the immense kingdom of Valor and many foreigners lived there, but it was the first time she saw a language she didn't recognize at first glance.

As a serious student in one of the most prominent academies of the kingdom, she was confident in her knowledge of the different cultures in the Central Continent.

Yet, even she never saw such a weird language.

If it wasn't written on a shop sign but on a rusty and old stone tablet instead, she would have believed this to be an ancient language.

There were no letters, only weird sigils that looked like runic inscriptions.

"What is this ?..." Lost in her thoughts and giving free rein to her curiosity, her legs carried her to the entrance of the shop.

She unconsciously opened the old wooden door with the 'open' sign in front and stepped inside the warm store.

"Welcome."

Lloyd put down his cup of coffee and looked up at the unexpected customer who entered his store.

"What better way to start the day than to have such a lovely woman walk into my modest shop. How may I help you, my lady ?"

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Lloyd already learned lip service from the old man when he was working part-time in his shop on Earth, but since that time, he took this competence of him to another level.

If complementing customers was part of providing good service as a store manager in Korea, living in this world for more than a year had taught him that it was far more important to please the customer here than it was in Seoul.

This place wasn't the civilized and modern world Lloyd used to live in ; the people here had absolute rights depending on their social class.

For example, if a commoner like Lloyd disrespected a noble, even unintentionally, he could be beheaded in the middle of the street and nobody would bat an eye.

While such a bloody display of authority isn't a common occurrence in Valora compared to some other places in the Central Continent, it still happens every once in a while.

"E-Eh..." The young lady was at a loss for words and stuttered when she realized that she entered the shop without even noticing, as if she was hypnotized by an unknown spell.

"From the looks of things, you seem lost. Am I right ?" Lloyd asked with a kind smile.

It wasn't hard to guess for Lloyd that the person standing before him was completely lost.

Surprisingly, it happened quite frequently, and they all had the same dazed expression when entering the pet store for the first time.

Occasionally, someone would enter the shop, completely disoriented, and ask for directions.

'Is the Capital so big that so many people get lost, or is it just the streets around here that are poorly designed ?' Lloyd pondered.

He had never explored the city since arriving in this world. He had only left his store to buy food and necessities from the surrounding shops, so he had no clue how huge was Valora.

"A-Ah, yes... I was looking for Royal Park Avenue, when I saw a light in your shop..." The young lady responded with a quiet voice, ashamed that this unknown store owner could figure out she was lost.

"I see." Lloyd stood up and reached behind the counter.

"Start by wiping yourself dry. You do not want to catch a cold, do you ?" He smiled as he approached the girl and handed her a cotton towel.

"T-Thank you..."

The girl started to wipe her long blonde hair, when she felt a sudden breath of scorching hot air through the thin black tights she was wearing.

*sniff... sniff...*

She looked down, and saw two black heads sniffing her slender legs.

'What the-'

It took her a few seconds to process the situation, then her beautiful blue eyes opened wide.

"AHHH !!" She screamed and fell on her bottom when she recognized what was at her feet.

"Blackie, stop it ! Come here !" The store owner shouted from behind his counter.

"Grrrr..." The two-headed black dog growled at the girl and threw her a piercing glance, before sitting at his owner's feet behind the counter.

"Please, excuse him. He is not a bad dog, he just doesn't like strangers." Lloyd said with an apologetic smile while scratching the back of his head.

"A-Ah, no... I-It's alright..."

The girl said, but...

'It's alright my ass !! What the hell is a two-headed Cerberus doing here, inside a random shop in the middle of the freaking Capital ?!'

...was what she really thought.

As a third-year Beastmancer student in one of the best Academy of the Central Continent, she knew better than anyone how strict was the law regulating contracted beasts in Valor.

The two-headed Cerberus is an extremely rare mutation of Ashen Wolf that, like his counterpart, is ranked as a Keter-class beast during its infancy.

The main distinction, apart from the extra heads, is that an adult Cerberus that has been well-nurtured can reach the peak of Apollyon-class in less than a decade, while an adult Ashen Wolf will be capped to the middle of the Thaumiel-class for its entire life.

No need to say how huge is the difference between both breeds.

A wild Thaumiel-class beast is already a threat capable of razing a medium-sized city to the ground. It is said that a Thaumiel-class beast contracted to a skillful beastmancer is equivalent to an experimented 4-stars knight.

Therefore, in comparison to the lower Keter-class beasts, the possession of Thaumiel-class beasts is much more strictly regulated by House Valor, the Royal Family.

Contracting a Thaumiel-class beast without an official license is illegal, and their presence inside any large city, let alone the Capital, is strictly forbidden.

Only professors of the Royal Academy, adventurers with a Diamond rank or higher, and senior officers in the army may have the privilege to possess a Thaumiel-class beast legally.

And yet, one such beast was casually munching on a bone behind the counter of a random shop, right in the middle of a residential area within the capital city's walls.

"Is there something wrong, young lady ?" The store owner asked with genuine concern, but to the girl's distorted vision, he looked like he was subtly teasing her.

"Y-yes, I was just surprised to see such a beast here..." The girl muttered, a drop of sweat running down her temple.

"Ahah, I understand. You're not the only one who was taken aback when meeting Blackie for the first time. Do not worry, he doesn't bite." The store owner laughed, while patting one of the dog's heads.

'Even on Earth, ladies her age were frequently scared of dogs, and they only had one head.' Lloyd thought.

Thinking that the young girl was ashamed to be afraid of Blackie, he tried to comfort her.

"Don't feel embarrassed ; even grown men are scared of Blackie. One of my regular customers puked and passed out the first time he saw him. I had to clean up after him, sigh..."

The store owner smiled while fixing her with his deep black eyes.

It sent a shiver down the lady's spine, but after thinking it through, she tried to calm down.

'R-Relax, Laura. There is no way this guy has a Thaumiel-class beast running free in his shop without a license...r-right ? Y-Yes, that's it ! He must be some sort of bigshot hiding inside that shabby store, or a n-newly promoted army officer in a covert mission, or...'

Seeing the girl's face turning pale, Lloyd tried to change the subject.

"If you wish so, you can wait here until the rain calms down. I wish I could help you find your way, but unfortunately, I do not know where this Royal Park Avenue you're searching for is... I seldom leave my store, after all."

"Y-Yes, t-thank you very much !..."

The lady instantly agreed and sat down on a wooden seat near the entrance, staring nervously at the four bloody-red eyes fixing her between the store owner's legs.

'Sigh... It's unfortunate that this girl isn't a customer looking to buy something, but yet another person that has lost her way...'

Because the pet store opens up early in the morning and closes late in the night, Lloyd is used to seeing lost people entering his shop to ask for directions.

They often leave his shop in a hurry, without buying anything.

It is understandable though. It was a pet store after all, which was a very niche business in this world.

He couldn't force these people to buy a pet just so he could sell them food and accessories.

At the very least, some of the people he previously helped returned a few days later and purchased some of his products to express their gratitude.

'Thinking about this, Sir Albert will arrive soon. I should clean up a little.'

Lloyd stood up and took the broom next to his counter.

While he was sweeping the wet floor, he asked the girl.

"May I know your name, young lady ?"

"M-My name is Laura Cecil Greenhall, Sir."

"What a sublime name. Pleased to meet you, Lady Laura." Lloyd slightly bowed his head.

Only the nobles above the Baron title and their relatives had the right to have two first names, so Lloyd expressed his respect sincerely.

The girl before him, although younger and quite clumsy, was of much higher status than him.

'I hope she will not hold me responsible for falling on her bottom when she saw Blackie...'

"H-Hum, may I also k-know your name ?..." The lady asked with a small voice.

"Yeo Kyub-"

Realizing that he was about to give his Korean name, Lloyd quickly corrected himself.

"Cough... I mean, Lloyd Aurelion."

He had still not gotten used to presenting his first name before his last name, even after a year.

The young lady, whose senses were still on high alert because of Blackie, didn't miss this slip of the tongue.

'As I thought, this store owner is suspicious... Lloyd Aurelion is probably the fake identity he's using... I should play along for now.'

"Mister Aurelion, I see a lot of unfamiliar items on the shelves... What are those ?" The girl pointed at some objects in black leather.

A sudden light shined in Lloyd' dark eyes.

"Oh ?... Are you perhaps interested in pet accessories, My Lady ?"

After recognizing a potential wealthy customer in the young aristocratic lady, he straightened up his back and instantly switched from a lazy staff member reluctantly sweeping the floor to a professional salesperson.

"A-Ah, not really... I just wondered what was the use of those straps of leather..."

In this world, beastmancers tame wild creatures by forcibly binding their souls to their own through strong magical contracts.

They are the same contracts that are used to bond slaves to their owners, and they cannot be broken by usual means.

While some species are more proud by nature than others and thus resistant to man-made contracts, once the contract is successful, they get enslaved like any other life form.

Some creatures are known to remain rebellious and hostile even after being contracted, especially if their master is weaker than them, yet even they will eventually be subdued by experienced beastmasters.

If the native of this world never had a use for muzzles, it was because of those incredibly powerful one-sided contracts and the fact that the possession of uncontracted beasts is rigorously prohibited by all the nations in the Central Continent.

While this practice of enslaving wild animals was far from being moral for Yeo Kyubok, who lived in modern Korea, he had little choice but to accept it as a cultural difference now that he was living as Lloyd Aurelion.

"Those are called muzzles. They can prevent a feral animal to bite its owner."

Seeing the young lady looking at him with round eyes as if he was spouting nonsense, Lloyd decided to just show her rather than explain.

"Blackie, com' here !"

The young lady's body twitched when she heard the store owner call the Cerberus.

At the sound of his master calling him, Blackie cheerfully let go of his bone and ran to Lloyd' legs.

"Woof! Woof!" He barked and looked up at him, his two tails wagging intensely.

Both heads were salivating and panting heavily, with their long crimson-red tongue hanging out of their mouth.

"Good boy, good boy... Now, sit !"

As soon as Lloyd gave his order, the dog sat down and stopped moving.

If not for the additional head, Blackie looked and acted like a real dog next to his owner, which frightened the young lady even more.

'Let alone a two-headed Cerberus, I've never seen even an Ashen Wolf puppy being so obedient to a human...' Laura thought, as she slowly moved a few inches away from the beast.