Disclaimer:

“Dialogue”

‘Thoughts’

-Author notes-

Chapter 23: Escaping the Town

Zephyr started to hear a large number of people approaching the forest.

‘They must have been attracted by all the noise we made during the fight.’

He looked down at himself.

‘Oh…I cannot let them see me in this state…’

His wounds had disappeared thanks to the Goddess's Gift, but his clothes were an absolute mess.

They were covered in holes and blood. His hood must have been ripped off at some point, so he was unable to cover his face now.

“Hey, is someone there?!”

“Look, that way!”

Zephyr hurried to hide behind some trees before they spotted him.

‘My bag!’

The straps of his bag were cut during the fight, making it fall to the ground.

He peeked a bit and saw a small group approaching the place he had just been. There were at least five humans.

“Someone is hurt! Hurry!”

They spotted the two Beastmen and ran to them.

The humans screamed in shock when they realized they were dead, but they became horrified when they finally discovered these were not humans but Celestials.

“Who could do something like this?!”

“Did they get into an argument with another Celestial?”

“That has never happened before here… What do we do?”

“We need to inform the Celestial Lord of this!”

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Trying to make as little noise as possible, Zephyr broke the upper part of his tunic and wrapped it around his face to cover his appearance. He then tied up the bits left at the bottom to create some basic pants. His chest was left uncovered, but at least they wouldn't see his face.

The Celestial Lord already knew what he looked like, but the fewer people who saw him now, the better. His looks were too eye-catching after all.

“There is a leather bag over here.” Someone pointed it out.

Zephyr jumped out of the tree and towards the person who just spoke.

He landed right in front of a young man who was holding his bag.

“That is mine, I'm taking it back.”

The entire group of humans turned to him.

“Who are you?!”

“Are you the one who killed these two Celestials?!”

Zephyr turned to look at them.

“Who I am and what happened here is none of your business!” He spoke with authority, making the humans take a step back.

They could not see his face or hair, but they were able to glimpse his silver eyes.

“A… A Celestial!” One of them spoke with terror.

In their minds, only a Celestial could kill another one. So when they saw his eyes, the idea of him being an awakened human never crossed their minds.

With his face completely covered, he could still pass for an elf. So without much time to consider, they assumed he was some rogue Celestial Elf who had an argument with these two Beastmen and killed them.

The humans dropped to their knees.

“Forgive us, oh great Celestial!” They begged.

All humans of the continent knew that getting involved in a feud between Celestials could only end badly for them.

“Get out of here and don't talk about this with anyone!” Zephyr ordered the humans.

He knew it was futile since the Golden Beastman would have no trouble following their scent to this place and finding the two bodies, but this may give him a few extra minutes to escape the town.

The humans did not question his order and quickly ran away from the forest.

“You, wait here!” Zephyr told the young boy who was still holding his bag.

The boy froze in place, his eyes filled with terror.

The other humans looked back for a moment at the young boy with pity but ultimately decided to leave him behind.

“My Lord Celestial, I am very sorry for touching your belongings!” He offered his bag back.

“Put the bag down,” Zephyr told him.

The boy did so and then waited for him to speak again.

“Take off your tunic and give it to me, then you can leave,” Zephyr ordered.

There was great relief on the boy's face. He thought he was going to get killed or at least lose a limb for his mistake. Losing only his robes was a great blessing.

“Thank you, oh great Celestial!” The half-naked boy said with joy before he took off running.

Zephyr didn't waste time and put on the tunic over his ripped clothes. It was made of a much better quality fabric than the one he had been using most of his life. Meaning that the boy must have been the apprentice of some scholar or someone of higher status.

‘This will do nicely.’ Zephyr thought after finishing dressing.

After securing the bag on his back, he was once more ready to leave this town.

He chose the least populated route and ran like the wind through the streets of Zloria Town.

‘I can move so fast now!’ The change was astounding to him.

He had used fifteen points to increase his dexterity. This didn't really make his legs stronger, but it allowed him to make much more efficient use of his limbs, and this had the effect of allowing him faster movement.

‘If I increase my strength to match my dexterity, I may be able to move like those Beastmen I fought.’ He considered it as he reached the town's entrance.

At the time of his arrival, there were no guards in sight, just one man with a lamp to receive any late arrivals.

The man barely had time to react as Zephyr passed running by his side.

And just like that, he was back outside.

‘I made it!’ He wanted to celebrate, but it was too early for that.

He needed to get as far away as possible from this town before they came looking for him.