"Halt." The guards in front of the town's entrance stopped us, "All animals have been banned from entering Bosorog by the mayor due to the recent attacks."

"The mayor?" Issei chuckled before pointing to Adam, "Bros, do you even know who this guy is?"

"Someone with an animal, which is, as we stated previously, not allowed." One of the guards stomped the blunt end of his spear on the ground threateningly, "Either leave the animal if you want to enter or go somewhere else. We do not tolerate a single beast roaming our peaceful city."

Making it to Bosorog was actually proving to be way more difficult, it seems. Hell, we can't even enter it, so how the hell are we supposed to learn any information regarding the whys and hows of the animal attacks. It seems this city took way more drastic measures than Sabljevo did, which is interesting. I wonder, did the remaining animals from the Sabljevo attack join forces with these ones once they got here? If so, then we can safely assume that the animal attacks are equivalent to a snowball effect that will only continue to grow with each consecutive attack. Let's hope I'm wrong on this, though...

"In that case, let me speak to Glenn." Adam asked, no - ordered the guards, "Tell him to come to the gates, and that king Adam wants to have a word."

"King Adam?!" They both jolted before one of them sent the other to rush to their mayor's office, "We didn't know His Highness would be paying us a visit, so we apologize for not being sufficiently prepared!"

"It is alright, the fault partially lies in me for not telling anyone as well." Adam chuckled, "But I am interested to hear more about the recent attacks. Me and my party are currently investigating all of the towns in order, so I didn't want to make reservations just in case we got held up in Sabljevo or something."

"Pff, nice cover up." Aru smirked as I shushed her.

"If I may ask, sir, were you patrolling the gates when the animals attacked Bosorog?" I thought to move the conversation along, "Getting info from someone who was actually there to witness it firsthand would be a great help for our search."

"Aye, that I was." The guard shook his head, "We lost a lot of men in the attack. It was scary, the birds knocked down our snipers and garrison, and the ones that were lucky enough to survive the long fall down were just as easily mauled by the bears and wolves down below. Just recalling their shrieks sends chills down my spine..."

"I'm sorry to have to bring this topic up with you." Adam explained, "But I'm sure you yourself realize just how much your Eye witness report means to those fallen soldiers. If you feel uneasy, we will ask someone else."

"No, I'll tell you as much as I know." The guard insisted, "If the king is asking for it, who am I to oppose him? In short, they arrived before we even got news of Sabljevo getting attacked. Since their ranks were somewhat nocturnal by nature, it appears they wasted no time in moving onto their next target."

"Geez, just imagine being a wandering traveler or something like that and seeing an army of wild animals running through the night." Issei shuddered, "That's just downright terrifying."

"Indeed. And what's worse is that they appear to be capable of learning from their mistakes as well." The guard continued, "Only in the morning after the attack did the messenger from Sabljevo make it to here, with the letter from the mayor stating they were at most a minor threat and moved, and I quote, "Like flies without their heads". Either they were lying for whatever reason, or the animals have since evolved after their loss, and frankly, no one knows nor do they care about which one's worse."

"Yeah, I'll bet." I commented, "But we can tell you for certain that the people of Sabljevo didn't deceive you. The town is spotless, and in fact not a single animal could even apparently get close to the gates."

"Right, the only thing they did was spread lies and misinformation to oncoming travelers to make them think it was worse than it actually was." Aru shrugged, "The entire place is a tourist's wet dream, but the old locals there are a hateful bunch. Guess they just want a reason to hate on something instead of themselves."

"Wet dream? Little girl, where did you learn such naughty phrases?" The guard glanced over between her and me for some reason, "Did you perhaps learn that from your father?"

"Hey now, you got it all wrong." I went to correct him, but Aru had other plans.

"Yeah, papa taught me all sorts of fun things to do with him!" She smiled, hugging my leg as I tried desperately to shove her off.

"Dammit, Aru! Why do your pranks always gotta go in that direction!?" I finally succeeded in shoving her off as I turned to Adam for protection, "Dude, tell the guard I'm not like that!"

"Haha, it's as Edward says." Adam chuckled lightly as he gestured for the guard to put away his handcuffs, "This girl is not his daughter, nor are they in such a relationship, so you needn't worry about it. As for her true identity, I am afraid that is too difficult to explain right now, but she is basically our travel companion for now."

"I see..." The guard still kind of doubted his words as he glared back at me, "So she's like... important to the case or something? Because I fail to see why His Highness would bring someone as young and immature as her on such an important objective."

"Hey, I'm not immature!" She piped up just as the other guard and mayor came back.

"King Adam, what are you doing here?" The mayor asked in between breaths, "The next summit was scheduled for June, no? So why now of all times-?!"

"We just want to enter with Bamb here." Adam finally showcased the wary doe to them, "It is vital to the mission, please understand."

"Wuh..." The mayor was at a loss for words, "What?"

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"That's why you called me out here?" The mayor asked, "Just for that? To grant special access for your pet or whatever?"

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"She's not a pet, she's a vital part of our investigation." I defended Bamb, who was oddly quiet this entire time.

"Shut up, you nobody, important people are talking right now, so can you just butt out for a sec?" The mayor brushed me off.

Fucker, if I was even just a bit angrier right now I'd use Analyze and leak all your nastiest secrets, but I'm still in a good mood from resting well on the wagon ride to here, so I'll let you off with just a glare. Adam disliked the mayor treating me and Bamb like that, though, so he had to say something.

"There's no reason for such behavior, Glenn. Mind the way you're addressing my friends." Adam warned him, "Remember, your town's heavily relied on our meat, and I can very easily cut off the supply chain if need be."

"My king, is that a threat?" The mayor actually stood his ground on this one, "If you only came here to spout nonsense instead of helping fund our revenge, then I have no business here."

"Huh? Revenge?" Issei tilted his head.

"But of course, if someone attacks, it is only fair that they get attacked back." The mayor smiled, "Sabljevo may have no reasons to return the favor because they got off lucky, but we here in Bosorog are no pushovers, that I can assure you. We plan on waging war if that's what it takes."

"A war against animals?" Aru cackled, "What are you, stupid? No matter the humans' technological advancements, the animals have both the advantage in overall numbers as well as their natural instincts being sharper than any human could ever hope to achieve with military training. Take my advice - bloodshed leads to bloodshed, and the only thing you will achieve is the complete destruction of the human race on this continent with that decision."

"Big words for such a small girl." The mayor talked down to her, even mocking her by petting her head, "Yeowch!"

Biting the hand that was mockingly petting her, Aru had stuck her tongue out at this annoyingly defiant leader. The guards standing by didn't exactly know what to do until the mayor explicitly told them to seize us. Raising their spears with uncertainty at their king, they then surprised us by switching to their mayor instead.

"What are you doing, you buffoons!" The mayor yelled, "Not me, them! Are you blind or stupid, huh!?"

"We can understand wanting to care for the city, mayor, but going to war unauthorized by the king?" One of the guards raised a point.

"Yeah, for even a little girl to see the flaws in your dumbass plan... For shame, mayor." The other guard added, "The king and his group are in the right. Instead of sending an army out to spill more blood, all the while hiding behind his desk all day, he chose to come here himself and investigate how to stop this as calmly as possible. That is a true leader, not whatever the hell you're doing."

"You...!" The mayor stomped furiously on the dirt road, "I'll have you fired by tomorrow, you ungrateful pigs! Are you saying you wish to take this beast into the city!?"

Seeing as she was now being pointed to, Bamb couldn't help but fearfully hide behind us, "Edward... I'm scared...!"

"Mayor, it's obvious that thing isn't capable of causing any harm." The guards vouched for her, "She's scared stiff, and the king has her put on a leash. We're willing to trust him and let her go if the king himself says she is needed in Bosorog."

"Ngooohh...!!!" The mayor then stormed off, realizing he was powerless in his own town as long as Adam was there, "Do what you need to quickly and get the fuck out!"

And just like that, he left the scene with a bunch of swear words and curses, most of which were directed at Adam and Bamb, but when he ran out of things to badmouth about them, I even overheard him shouting at me from the distance. What the hell, what'd I do? Screw this guy, I hope he doesn't win the next election. This town could do with some change of leadership.

"Sigh, well, there go our jobs..." The guards heaved a long and depressed sigh before smiling back at us, "But we did our part for our king! Good luck on your investigation."

"That won't do." Adam shook his head, outright refusing to just let them go without a proper reward, "If you do lose your jobs, or ahem, shall we say, you choose to quit on your own terms for whatever reason, just come to Centralis and ask to work for me. Royal guards get paid way more than ordinary ones, after all."

"My king...!" The first guard teared up, "Thank you! Thank you, my king!"

"Thank you for the offer, my king, but I am afraid I won't be able to take you up on it." The other guard sighed, "I have a house here, and my family too... I won't be able to just leave them."

"Then why not have your family come with you?" Aru proposed the idea to Adam, who was more than willing to allow it.

"No, Bosorog is my hometown, and despite this goddamned mayor recently causing trouble, I still love it more than any other place in the world." The conflicted guard looked down, "But please, do not worry about me and focus on your investigation. I am honored to even get praised by the king in the first place, and I can make do with another job here."

"Oh, I see..." Adam shrugged, "It is a shame, but I guess you leave me no choice."

"Adam?" I looked to him worriedly, "What are you planning to do?"

"Well, I have quite a few trustworthy capable generals in the army who are just wasting away right now, so sending one or two over to Bosorog to take care of the guards would help out a ton."

Immediately, the guard's Eyes lit up once he heard this. He realized Adam would essentially grant him and any of the other patriotic guards who valued justice above everything else immunity from the mayor's tiranny, so with a hearty salute, he happily moved to the side as he thanked Adam with all his might.

"My king, you have truly saved us!" He waved us off, "In the name of the Bosorog guardsmen, I thank you from the bottom of my heart!"

"Keep up the good work, friend." Adam waved back with a smile, before turning to us all tired, "Phew, that was exhausting. I knew we'd run into trouble with Glenn, he's infamous among all the leaders as the bad apple that only got in through corruption."

"Whoa, really?" I sarcastically replied, "I never would have guessed!"