Chapter 22. Finding the Way

“Hahahahah!” Bo’guth loudly laughed.

I frowned, since I didn’t quite understand what he was laughing about so loudly. We were standing in front of one of those desks, where we were supposed to get the coins that I earned from defeating Dark Beasts and bringing their magic cores, but when the woman asked me for something called a ‘bank account’, I simply told her that I didn’t know what she was talking about.

“How is it that you don’t have a bank account after five years in this world? Were you living under a rock?” Bo’guth mocked while covering his face.

I refused to answer, since I would rather he thinks I ‘lived under a rock’ the last five years than saying that I just came to this world a few days ago after killing his God. Regardless, I needed the coin to pay for this city’s debt and my own survival, so I couldn’t just leave without getting them.

“Do I need a bank account to get paid?”

“Oh, no, of course not. We can write up a check,” the man working on the desk replied with an awkward smile as his eyes tried to avoid looking at the loud Bo’guth.

I decided to ignore the still chuckling Bo’guth while also avoiding asking what a ‘check’ was since I had a feeling that would also prompt the demon to burst out in laughter. The man behind the desk brought out a tiny piece of paper with a lot of markings and information on it, wrote something on it, and then passed it over to me.

I looked down at this strange piece of paper, turning it from one side to the other, trying to figure out if this was supposed to be coins, or if they transformed into coins, but there was no magic in it, just information with my name, this place’s name, and a lot of other information that I didn’t understand.

“One thousand dollars…” I whispered as I read the number.

That would be more than enough to pay for the City Lord’s debt. Perhaps if I went over to one of those guards—police as they call them here—I could just pay the debt with this piece of paper. So I carefully folded the piece of paper and put it into the armor I was still wearing.

I turned to look at the mocking smile on the demon’s face for a moment, and I couldn’t help but frown when I looked at him. He had already changed out of the black armor and back into the elegant black clothes that the people working here would wear. When I was going to take off this armor, he said that I could keep it and the sword strapped on my back for a while. I was hesitant to keep demonic gear with me, but apparently, this was crafted by smiths of this world and not demons.

“Try not to lose that check,” Bo’guth said while pointing at my chest, where I had kept the piece of paper.

“You don’t have to concern yourself with it,” I replied and made my way out of the building, to the same entrance I used to get here.

Bo’guth followed after me until we were outside the building. It was night time outside, but the light orbs hanging from the tall poles, the buildings, and the cars rushing on the streets illuminated almost everything I saw. I still couldn’t get used to how noisy and how illuminated this world was at all times.

“Time to go home,” Bo’guth said, going over to the place where his wife was standing, stopping only after a few steps to look back at me. “We can give you a ride home if you want.”

“Absolutely not,” the demoness replied before I even reacted. “We will not have her anywhere close to us.”

“Eh… heheh,” Bo’guth awkwardly laughed while scratching one horn. “Never mind then…”

“I will find my way home.”

“Very well,” Bo’guth said as he kept going to the demoness only to stop abruptly again half-way. “Oh!” he exclaimed and made his way to me while pulling out his phone. “We should exchange phone numbers, just in case.”

I frowned, since again, just like with Nicole, I was being asked about a ‘phone number’ that I didn’t have. However, there was no need to keep this quiet. “I don’t have a phone number.”

I could see the look of surprise in the demon's face as his eyes widened. “Are you serious?” I nodded and Bo’guth’s face remained incredulous for a moment before he laughed, putting away his phone and shaking his head. “You don’t have a bank account, don’t know what a check is—yes I noticed—and you don’t have a phone number either! It really is like you’ve been living under a rock or something.”

I turned to look away and remained silent, refraining from entertaining this demon any more, and in that same fashion I started making my way to the road. “I am leaving now.”

Bo’guth shrugged. “Suit yourself,” he said in a dismissive tone, taking a few steps behind me, “Do come find me if you need anything and when you get a phone. I’ll be more than happy to help you, Hero of the Holy Gods…”

I humphed. “I don’t know if I will, demon.”

He chuckled and finally left to go with his demoness wife. “See ya, Althea.”

I dismissively waved my hand, not bothering to turn to look at him or the demoness. However, I had to stop when I felt her glare on my back, forcing me to turn and look at her. I glared back at her, but she just scoffed and looked at Bo’guth.

“Why are you getting so friendly with that?” she asked to Bo’guth, acting as if I couldn’t hear her but clearly saying it loud enough for me to hear.

“I’m just following the words of our Dark Lord is all, trying to give her a chance,” Bo’guth replied before going over to the side of a large black car and opening the side, signaling her to go inside.

She stood still for a moment, just looking at a smiling Bo’guth before giving me a sidelong glare and going into the large car. Bo’guth closed the side of that car, gave me an awkward smile and went over to the other side of the car before getting in. The car roared like every other car did, and joined the stream of other cars and buses that were moving in the wide road.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I watched the car moving for a moment, but it just randomly stopped somewhere in the road when a red light orb shone on a pole. I tilted my head to the side, wondering why the cars wouldn’t just move when there was nothing ahead of them, or why—as demons—they would be using those things when they could move faster than them. However, I didn’t want to pay them any more attention, as I still had to think about how to use this ‘check’, and find some shelter, so I turned from the large black car, and walked on the roads of this large city.

* * *

There was no memory in my mind about the location of the building where I first appeared in, so going directly to it was not possible for me. However, staying another night on the streets wasn’t a good idea either, since I didn’t want to get another fine by the police for something I wouldn’t even know was wrong. Because of that, I’ve decided to walk around the city in the direction that I felt I could find that building.

It was difficult to even know where the part I slept at last time was or that store owned by that royal chef, since everywhere I looked in this city at night would be unrecognizable to me from when it was daytime. All the things and the strange things around me blended with the memory that I had of the roads, and some buildings would look similar to others I saw before.

There was something strange happening the more I walked in the city. People would stop to look at me. That in itself wouldn’t be an issue, but generally it would only be men, and their glances clearly indicated their intentions. In this case, everyone was stopping to look at me. Some would have looks of concern, while others would carry looks of surprise or confusion.

I realized after a while the reason for their looks when the police stopped me. I frowned as I looked back at them, as this could only mean that I’ve done something wrong yet again, despite the fact that I’m just walking around on the roads.

“ID please,” one of them said, their tone exactly the same as the one from a few days ago.

I hesitated to give this person my ID, since last time they placed a debt on me. “Have I done something wrong?”

“We don’t know yet. Carrying a weapon out in the open like that while wearing armor is not normal, so let us check your information,” the man replied, and I could feel a bit more hostility in his tone.

The people around us were looking our way with concern and I didn’t want to have to fight them, especially more so because they might just be doing their jobs. I relented after a moment and reached for the ID card I had shoved inside the bag with the other comfortable clothes.

Same as everyone in this world did, he took the ID and pressed his fingers on the glowing painting that appeared on his phone. After a few moments of silence, he raised his eyebrows before narrowing his eyes and looking closer at the phone. He then looked between my ID card and the phone several times before his expression turned awkward.

“Sorry for the inconvenience. Please have a good night,” the man quickly said, returning my ID card to me, and leaving me confused—just as the other police man that was standing next to him.

“What the—”

“Come on, we’ve got other places to be,” the man interrupted when the other one was about to ask something, likely the same thing I was thinking.

They both quickly left the scene by getting on top of a couple of strange artifacts that looked like horse saddles mounted on a frame with two wheels attached at the front and the back.

I was curious about the man’s change of expression and about what he saw in his painting, but I wasn’t going to go after them and get another fine, so I also quickly left the scene.

* * *

“I’m so sorry ma’am, here you go,” another police woman said to me, giving me back my ID, yet again.

I was already getting tired of being stopped by the police. It had been the fourth time that they did, and everytime it would be the same: they would call me over, frowning while doing so, ask for my ID card, look at it with their phone on the other hand, and then their expressions would quickly change before asking to be forgiven and leaving the scene quickly.

I didn’t know what they saw everytime they did this, but it was clear by now that they were somewhat afraid of me—for some reason. And it wasn’t something I was doing or something that I had on me, since they were usually somewhat hostile at the beginning. This time, it was a couple of women police, so I decided to make it the last time that someone called me over.

“Wait,” I called them and they suddenly stopped their movements, looking at me with a wry smile.

“What is it?”

“I am currently lost and don’t really know the place where I could spend the night,” I confessed about the fact that I still didn’t know where the building was.

“Oh uh…” one of them trailed off, while having an awkward expression. “Are you a foreigner? Do you remember the name of the place that you’re staying? You could check your phone and see where it was.”

I shook my head. I could be considered a foreigner in this world, but as it stood, there was nowhere else to go. And I also didn’t have a phone, something that I apparently desperately needed. Perhaps… I didn’t really have a place to stay.

“I don’t have a phone, and I don’t remember the place where I woke up in, but I think that I do have a place to stay.”

“You think, huh?” the woman answered while raising an eyebrow. “Well it’s hard to tell where you’re staying with that kind of information…”

“Can’t you check in your phone with my ID card to see that?”

“Well… I guess I could see in the system what your registered address is…”

She stretched her hand and I passed the ID card yet again to them. She took it and did the same thing she did before only that this time, her expression didn’t change. After a minute or so, she nodded.

“Okay, here’s the direction of your current residency,” she said, showing me the glowing painting on the phone with some strange words that I didn’t fully understand.

I frowned. “How do I get there?”

The two police women looked at each other with an awkward expression before looking at me again. The one that took my ID card before scratched her head for a moment. “Well… you can take a cab there…”

“What is that?”

The women looked incredulous when I asked that, and I feared that perhaps that was another thing like a phone or the ID card that was necessary to have in this world. They didn’t immediately answer and the other one, who at first didn’t understand why her partner would react like that, looked at the road and waved her hand at a yellow car.

It stopped next to us on the road and the man on the road seemed concerned when looking at the police woman. “What can I do for you, officer?”

“We need you to take this woman to her place, which is…” she trailed off while looking at the other police officer with the phone.

She walked over and showed the weird set of letters and numbers that she claimed represented the place where I live. The man nodded while looking at me. “Okay, no problem. That’s close by.”

The ‘officer’ opened the side of this yellow car and gestured for me to get in. I frowned, since I didn’t want to get into one of those cars, so I stood still for a moment. It was then that I remembered the debt that the other police gave me, making me worried that perhaps there could be a debt from doing this as well. “Do I have to pay a debt for doing this?” I reached for the check in my armor. “Because this is the only coin that I have.”

“Uh…” the police woman who checked my ID card looked at the check with a forced smile for a moment before sighing and reaching for a small wallet. “We’ll take care of it…”

I nodded and got inside the car, hopeful to see if this time I’ll be able to make it back to the building.