The Legendary Pseudo-villain

"Okay," Hecathe muttered as he straightened his back and looked into the boy's eyes.

With just an eye contact, he had managed to intimidate the boy who seemed to be shaking slightly as he waited to hear what Hecathe would say next.

"Do you think anyone there recognizes me?" Hecathe asked seriously.

This was perhaps the most important question he wanted to ask today. Sure, he was going to wear a disguise to hide himself. Both a mask and a cloak to hide his entire person but that was still not enough for Hecathe. He wanted to make sure that the original Alphius had no serious impression on the local people there.

Considering the fact that Alphius had been a villain who screwed over a lot of bad people and destroyed a lot of cities, it wasn't too out of the blue for Hecathe to worry if the man had done anything seriously wrong to the city of Ocasia.

The boy looked to be a little shocked as he heard this question, "Captain, I hope you're not offended but I don't even think the people there know you. They care about nothing outside their city. Even if you go roaming the streets there, I don't think you'll be recognized by anyone except for the dogs who might bark at you for being a stranger."

Instead of being offended in the slightest, Hecathe looked to have suddenly gotten happier as he heard this.

"Great!" He announced, "It's perfect!"

"Eh?" The boy muttered in confusion and his father who was sitting beside him suddenly spoke up.

"Captain, why do you wanna know so much about the city?"

"..." There was no way Hecathe could carelessly give out the answer to that question so he simply remained silent and smiled in turn, "Old man, mind your own business. Why do you want to know what I want to do with the city? It has nothing to do with you, does it?"

The man immediately shut his mouth up and looked to have been a little shocked and scared while also appearing to be a little offended at the same time.

"Captain, is there nothing more that you want to know?" The boy summoned up the courage to ask.

Hecathe squinted at the man who sat beside the boy, "I have more questions but your father here is kinda annoying me. Mister, why don't you go and wait for your son in the elevator? Don't worry, I won't kill him."

"Captain, may I ask? Why do you wanna talk to me alone?" The boy asked once his father had left.

Hecathe shrugged his shoulder as he answered, "He feels like a smart man. I don't want him to figure things out."

"..."

"Now tell me what type of living conditions the place has," Hecathe didn't bother dwelling further on the topic of why he sent the other man out.

"By living conditions... What do you mean?"

"I mean the houses and necessities. Is everything expensive there? Does it have a good climate. Is it dangerous or is it safe to live there?" Hecathe patiently explained his question and the boy seemed to be a bit surprised to hear him explain it in such detail in such a polite manner.

"The houses there are mostly owned by the local people living there and you'll hardly find any inns for travelers... It's quite hard and not really possible for someone new to suddenly live in such an unwelcoming place. The local people earn a lot and spend really little per month, but the prices for foreigners are relatively just as high."

"So it's a bit more on the expensive side..." Hecathe mumbled under his breath to himself.

"The currency there is no different than our currency, however, there is this system of mutant beads."

"Mutant beads?" Hecathe suddenly found himself to be interested as he repeated.

The boy nodded his head as he explained further, "When you kill a mutant beast, you'll get a mutant bead from inside its corpse, and with this mutant bead, you can buy anything in the city. However, it would be better if you exchanged the mutant bead for money and buy something because Mutant beads are relatively more valuable than normal currency and much more expensive as well."

"So if you're running short on money, just go searching for some mutant beasts and you'll be good to go?" Hecathe asked just to be sure that he was understanding it right.

The boy shook his head as he responded, "Not exactly. You can't just go searching for a mutant beast. Mutants are pretty hard to find and hunting one without proper authorization is considered to be illegal and can get you jailed."

"Then how do you do it?" Hecathe asked curiously as he leaned in.

"Guilds. Most of the time, the missions to hunt down mutant beads are handled by the guilds alone, however, when there are big missions and the guild is running low on manpower, they put out notices of recruitment. If you sign up for it, you'll be put in a team and sent out to a place that has a lot of mutant beasts. There, you can kill as many as you want and collect a lot of mutant beads."

"So hypothetically speaking, if I go there and want to earn some money through Mutant beads, I'll first need to go and check out the guilds?"

The boy nodded his head as he confirmed, "That's right. If the guilds don't give you permission to go out for the hunt, you'll have to look for another way to earn money."

"Hmm..." Hecathe muttered, suddenly lost in thoughts as he did.

Hunting mutants at this point should be the easiest thing for him to do but he wasn't really keen on joining any guilds.

Even though the guilds weren't exactly connected to the three willows of spring, the three willows of spring still had a bit of authority over the guilds.

"Are there any more questions?" The boy asked and by now, he looked to have gotten rid of the fear he first felt when he sat in front of Hecathe.

"I have one more question," Hecathe responded, "Is the food there tasty?"

"Eh...?"

Hecathe shrugged his shoulder as he added, "It's a valid question that I should be worried about. How am I supposed to live knowing that there is such a city out there that has horrible tasting food? I'm afraid, I'll be worried for the people living there."

"Captain, could it be that you plan on..." The boy gulped as he didn't dare to complete his question and it scared Hecathe who thought that the boy had seen through him.

"Planning on what?" Hecathe asked as he tilted his head and acted as if he wasn't too affected by the question.

"Captain, do you plan on overtaking the city?!" The boy jolted up from his seat as his eyes widened in shock.

"..."

Boy, your intelligence is.... A bit lacking.

"Captain, you must not do it! Ocasia might not sound that good but it's still a powerful city that you should never mess with!"

Hecathe suddenly felt a headache coming as he heard the boy, "Just answer this question and leave. I never asked for your opinion. Just information."

The boy gulped and it looked as if he had a lot more to say, however, he was still afraid of Hecathe so, in the end, he could do nothing more than nod and do exactly as Hecathe asked him to.

"Captain, the food there is both expensive and delicious. It can be said that the food is the only thing that makes the city look a bit more interesting."

Hecathe smiled as he nodded, "Then that's good. You may leave now."

Hecathe gestured towards the elevator door that was closed.

The boy was a bit hesitant but he still bowed and made his way to the elevator before turning back one last time to say, "Captain, you really must not try to overtake it!"

"..." Hecathe almost felt the urge to throw a vase at the head of this boy who had already entered the elevator and left the place before he could face Hecathe's wrath.

"Damn it, everyone here seems to lack brains. What is God even doing?" Hecathe muttered to himself with a frown on his face.