Life Hunter

Ultimately, Night kept being urged and dragged by Lanya around the city for shopping and sightseeing. Each time she entered a store, Night had to stay outside and looked like watchdog protecting the shop, which scared most of the customers. Thanks to that, Lanya couldn't stay for a long time in the same store because of the staff's complaints. That fortunate situation made Night sigh in relief.

While the two of them were walking on the streets, Lanya was pouting even though she bought a lot of things already. She was still angry because her master had been slandered as a nuisance.

"Calm down, their reaction is normal."

Lanya sneered, "They still were impolite to you."

"I'm flattered but I don't care. Forget about that," Night said and looked ahead. He spotted a group of people approaching him and Lanya. The man leading the group flashed a smile in Lanya's direction.

"Hey, the beautiful lady over there," He waved his hand at Lanya and talked in a really detestable manner.

Lanya frowned, "What do you want?" She coldly responded. She wasn't naive enough to be fooled by that kind of scum.

The man was quite handsome and at first sight, he appeared friendly and civilized. He grinned and took out a guild card which he presented to Lanya, "I'm Puret Dalion, I'm an S rank adventurer."

When Lanya heard that, her mouth twitched. If that guy really was an S rank then he should be around her own level. Along with the people he brought with him, she wouldn't be able to win. Even before that, the main issue was that if they were to fight here, there will be many innocent casualties.

"Why don't you join my team? We can do some missions for the guild together," Puret suggested politely, but he was speaking in a tone insinuating that there were no chances that Lanya would turn him down.

She gritted her teeth and restrained herself from drawing her weapon. She perfectly knew that with Night's help, she could easily beat those mercs. Heck, if Arima were to come, they would probably lose in a minute if not in a few seconds. But she didn't want to bother them, "I refuse." She tried to walk away but the merc grabbed her wrist to stop her.

"This is my first and last warning. Let her go and scram," When Puret was about to say something else, Night raised his voice.

"Ah?" Puret observed the wolf who had talked to him, "You can talk? Are you a soul beast?" He was slightly surprised. He turned toward Lanya again, "Is this wolf yours?"

"No… it's the soul beast of a friend of mine," She replied after a slight hesitation.

Puret laughed, "A friend of yours, huh?" He inspected Night a little more, "A soul beast with only sixth-level strength. That friend of yours must be weak. What a waste."

Lanya almost snapped. He had not only insulted her master but Arima as well. When she was about to lose control, she felt a surge of suffocating killing intent next to her.

"What did you just say, you damn insect?" The source of the killing intent was shockingly Night. Although his own killing intent was far from being as strong as Arima's, it was still at the level where you could be mentally injured and faint on the spot if it was directed at you. Some of the followers of Puret were scared and backed away, Puret himself finally changed his expression.

"You can say what you want about me," Night's appearance began to twist. The red pattern on his body glowed. His neck stretched and he stood up with his hind legs. His body grew bigger and his pupils spun before narrowing to a slit, "But, don't you dare slander my partner!"

The shout transformed into a roar when a twenty meter tall dragon was left standing in front of them. The ground cracked and the buildings around shook. The glass instantly broke and everyone around directly ran away.

"A noble dragon! A ninth level at that!" Puret was dumbfounded and terrified. Then he realized something, "(He is a soul beast! How strong is the guy who summoned him?)"

He suddenly lost any kind of preposterous thoughts. He immediately used his magic to escape the city. If the soul companion alone could beat him, he didn't want to meet the man who summoned such a beast. Not to mention the fact that a human managed to summon a higher species which only proved how dreadful the man could be.

Night glared at Puret running away like a coward with a look that could kill. He snorted and closed his eyes. He quickly and silently reverted to his wolf form. When he finished his change, he sighed and talked with his usual voice, "Sorry, I got carried away."

"No, it's fine," Lanya waved her hands hurriedly, "But, I didn't expect master to get so angry. You seem to respect Arima a lot."

"It's not just because I'm his soul beast. With my own volition and ego, I respect that man. You may not notice because of our normal attitude, but I consider him to be the most respectable person I will ever meet." His eyes sharpened, "I have no doubt about it."

Lanya was extremely quiet and listened attentively as Night began to speak.

"Since I'm connected to him, I know that Arima shoulders more secrets and hidden emotions than I could ever imagine. That's why I respect him. He doesn't flee. Never. He keeps them with him all the time and places them under control. He never tries to destroy or forget. Calling someone like him 'weak' is an unforgivable affront."

"When we were on the other continent, we crossed path with an elf who could see emotions as a colored aura. Around Arima, that elf saw a mix of all kinds of different emotions. At that moment, everyone believed that he had produced those emotions on the spot. An unbelievable feat of self-control. But they were wrong. Arima just has too much them. He has so many emotions to carry that he forgot how to let them naturally sprout."

Lanya had a complex expression as she listened to Night. She never attempted to look that deeply into Arima's personality and she never expected it to be that complicated.

Night smiled at her, "You remember the time when Arima bought you from that vampire? As you guessed, I asked him to do that. But have you ever thought of the reason why Arima nearly ignored you?"

Now that she thought about it, after spending some time with Arima, she knew he was a kind person. Lanya couldn't really find an answer to that question.

"It's because you're not the only one," Night answered it for her.

"Sorry?"

"Arima is aware that in this world, things such as slavery are common. His thought process must have been something like this when he saw you; 'I won't save the lucky one that I coincidentally happened to see.' Basically, he couldn't afford to save you by kindness, and bear the guilt of rescuing one while leaving millions of others to their suffering."

Lanya gasped and clenched her hands.

"Arima knows that he can't save everyone nor does he have the obligation to do it. In the end, the only way was for me to give him a reason so that he would help you. "

Lanya didn't know what to say and had a hard time finding words to describe what she was feeling. She had no idea that being saved could provoke such conflict in the mind of the savior himself. She now knew that she understood nothing about Arima.

Night glanced at her and chuckled, "But you know, once he saved you, I'm sure you thought that he was someone nice, right?"

Lanya trembled and became a bit flustered.

Night laughed, "It's simple. Now that he saved you, he will protect you and take care of you. That's his calling. If he had been here earlier when you were being harassed, he would have probably severed the arm of that mercenary the instant he touched you. And if that merc had gone too far, he would have died gruesomely," Night smirked and started to walk away as there were already law enforcers coming to inspect.

Lanya hurriedly followed behind him with a pensive expression. Her opinion about Arima had just been changed by a great deal.

********************************

Meanwhile, Arima had been wandering the city as well. Similarly, like his two friends, he caused a ruckus in every shop he visited. But with him, it was for a different matter altogether.

Arima entered in every candy shop he saw and bought all of the candies and chocolates inside. He literally kept buying out shops like that for two hours or so.

Then, as he was walking on the streets while stuffing himself, he abruptly stopped in his tracks and raised his head to looked at somewhere far.

"Night?" He muttered and raised an eyebrow. He, of course, felt Night's killing intent and his anger too. He was kind of curious of what could trigger his usually calm companion but the killing intent didn't last long and the anger vanished soon enough.

"What was that?" Arima was confused and wanted to teleport there to ask but he heard a commotion not far from him that made him change focus.

He saw a huge mob forming in the plaza. He shrugged and headed there. He had noted that Night totally calmed down so he thought that it was a small thing. When he reached the group of people, he took a look at what they were gathering around.

There was a small cat-girl on her knees. She was crying whilst hugging a gray cat. Around her, there were some beast-men checking on the cat. One after another, they all shook their heads.

Arima blinked and jumped over the crowd. He landed in front of the girl noiselessly. The people around were surprised at his demeanor.

"Is he a mercenary?" Many people guessed the same thing.

Arima crouched and put his fingers on the little cat's neck than on his belly. "(He's dead,)" He affirmed. Without a doubt, this little guy was deceased. The little girl was looking at him teary eyes.

Arima glanced at her and mused, "(Well, it could be useful as an experience.)" He thought and his eyes glowed. A small but complex magic circle was drawn on the cat's body.

"(He died from food poisoning, huh?)" A strange energy spread around the area. It wasn't aura, mana, or killing intent, but a really unconventional energy.

Arima stood up and his eyes turned back to normal. The small cat opened his eyes afterward and meowed happily. He started licking the girl's cheek. All the doctors present at the moment were utterly shocked. They perfectly knew that this cat wasn't breathing after auscultating him. They couldn't believe he was actually moving. They looked at Arima and shook their heads in self-loathing. Ultimately, they just believed that they had made a critical mistake and thanked Arima.

"Take good care of him. Be careful of what you give to him," Arima said to the girl and left. The crowd opened a passage for him.

"T-thank you… very much!" In the middle of the sobs and tears, the little girl bowed to Arima and thanked him. The cat in her arms meowed and tilted his head.

After that incident, Arima continued his stroll until he froze once again. This time, his expression clearly showed confusion and surprise.

"You're a lot nicer than what your reputation let us think. That was unexpected," A voice resounded in his ear. He turned around and stared in a certain direction. Among the passerby, he focused his gaze on a woman who appeared to be completely ignored by the people who walked past her. To the point it was unnatural.

The woman had long black hair and scarlet eyes. She also was rather tall and her figure was mesmerizing. She was even more pretty than Lanya. It was indeed weird that people would ignore her like that.

Suddenly the place became filled with mana. Every person walking on the streets disappeared along with literally everyone else on the planet. Only Arima and the woman were left standing there.

"Why are you here?" Arima asked coldly. That woman gave him the same impression as Azes.

She wryly smiled, "A parallel dimension, huh? That's why sometimes you disappeared out of nowhere." She nodded as if she had understood something.

"Still, to keep a dimension connected for so long and so easily… I don't think that even the ten superior gods can do it. As expected of a Life Hunter."

Arima frowned more than one time while listening to her, "I'll ask you one more time. Why are you here?"

The woman shrugged, "As expected, you won't get disturbed easily. Fine. I'm Zesta. A goddess. A friend of Azes, the one who sent you here. As for why I'm here, it's simply to meet you. Azes also solicited me to assist you."

Arima processed everything she said and squinted his eyes, "Then I don't need to tell you which answers I want, right?"

Zesta laughed, "Of course."