Seeing his nk expression, which seemed like he hadn''t heard him, the man frowned in dissatisfaction.


    "Young man, did you not hear what I said?" he spoke again in a cold voice.


    Alexander, who was back in his thoughts, nced at the middle-aged man''s face, who seemed to be the vige chief of this ce.


    "Well, for my objective I''m actually a mercenary, you can say. I epted a mission about some strange happenings in this vige," Alexander replied, looking at the vige chief''s face.


    Hearing his statement, the vige chief just stared at him intently he then looked back.


    "We have no more homes for you to sleep in, also we have no more food and clothing to offer for you. So, it''s up to you if you still want to do the mission," he said as he walked away, leaving the three of them.


    Alexander didn''t leave his gaze towards the vige chief. He looked at him intently. Since he felt that the vige chief was so weird he does not know it but, he can feel it. Aeloria, who was in front of Alexander, was embarrassed by their chief''s behavior. Find adventures on empire


    She looked back and nced at Alexander in the face, "Sorry about that, Alexander. I think the chief is just so overwhelmed from the problems that this vige is going through, right now" she said softly.


    Alexander just shook his hands, telling her not to mind it, "If you don''t have a ce to stay, you can just stay at my house, but it''s not afortable ce. That is, if you want to," she said in a mosquito voice, since this was her first time inviting a man into her home.


    Hearing this, Alexander was happy. Of course, as long as he could stay in this vige andplete the mission, then there was no problem.


    "Sure, I can go and live in your ce for now. If it''s okay to you that is," he replied with a bright smile.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    "You''re very wee. Let''s go now, since they''ve been eyeing at us for a while now" Aeloria replied, with a slight smile, as they began to walk away.


    The stares of the vige people were not leaving his figure, but he didn''t care, "Oh, yeah, about your vige chief, there''s something I want to ask," he said while they were on the verge of traveling.


    "Sure, if there is something on your mind, you can ask," she replied, holding Anya''s palm afraid to lose it again.


    "About your vige chief, is there something strange about him?" he said with his brows upwards.


    Aeloria narrowed her eyes when she heard this, "There''s nothing strange about our vige chief, but..." her voice trailed off in the end.


    "But what?" Alexander said with a scrutinizing gaze.


    "Well, I don''t know what to say because, our vige chief is always a cheerful and a weing type of person. But this attitude changed about three weeks ago. And this is when those beasts started to attack and raid our vige nonstop. We don''t know what the specific reason for this sudden change, but I think it''s just because he was tired" she said lost in her thoughts.


    "But even though his attitude changed, our vige chief''s heart is still pure as ever. Sometimes he offered us food so we don''t starve, making him our savior in this time of crisis," Aeloria uttered, feeling grateful for their chief''s heroic deeds.


    But to Alexander, this didn''t sound right at all, "Helping? Giving away food to the starving? The story doesn''t add up at all," he muttered inwardly.


    From his observation, the vige chief was more than meets the eye. If they were in a time of crisis, why was everyone in the vige was starving and looked so malnourished? And why was he the only one who seemed so healthy and full of vitality? Also, where did his foode from? His clothes didn''t even have any grime or tatters. It seemed like he wasn''t under any poverty at all.


    Alexander racked his mind, wondering what that vige chief was hiding, but decided to put it aside for now since he still had a lot of time before the mission ended. Suddenly, he saw that Aeloria stopped in her tracks, making him stand still as well.


    "We have arrived," Aeloria spoke, as she looked back towards him.


    Seeing where they lived Alexander felt bad from the both of them, the house appears to be an old, abandoned wooden structure. Its roof is made of wooden shingles, many of which are missing or damaged, indicating significant wear and tear.


    The walls are constructed from horizontal logs, also weathered and deteriorating and some parts are even missing. Making any animals or insects to have ess to the ce. There''s a single window on the left side, and an open doorway in the center. Surrounding this house are big trees.


    When they got inside, Alexander could see that there was really not a lot of things inside. There was only a firece for cooking food, and a single mud pot for making soups or boiling water and some bowls and spoons. In the corner, there was a bed a crude one at that.


    It consisted of uneven splintered nks of wood randomly arranged and barely held together. There was no mattress, just a thinyer of straw that did little to soften the hardness of the wood beneath. The bed seemed more like a rough tform, providing a slight elevation off the ground but offering littlefort at the least.


    Seeing Alexander inspecting the ce, she was embarrassed, since this was the only thing she could offer.


    "I''m very sorry if this wasn''t what you were expecting. It''s just that life is so hard these days," she said, with her cheeks red.


    Alexander just smiled at this and didn''t feel like it was bad at all. When he was thrown away, he always slept in the streets. At that time he even almost died from the cold weather.


    Every night, he could only think of a solution, and this was what drove him to work in order to live in afortable ce.


    Even though it was hard at first after getting the hold of it, like picking up trash and selling it. he made a small house in the garbage camp, making him at least fell at ease. But it did not end their after a few weeks some homeless person took his home driving him away.


    He couldn''t fight the man since there were two of them, and he was so young at that time. With his weak strength, what could he do? So, he could only leave unwillingly even though he''d made that small house from garbage stuff. It took him weeks to make it sofortable.


    So, this time he doubled his work, and after umting much money, he finally lived in a small rental house that he could pay for 500 pesos each month. Even though the space was small, there was no electricity, and the rental room was filled with cobwebs, spiders, and cockroaches, he was happy to have a roof over his head.


    He still felt happy since he now had a sense of home. So after a few years, he finally had a stable job as a construction worker. Even though he was still young, the foreman didn''t really want to ept him, but after begging him for hours, he gave him work that paid him about 100 pesos every day.


    Since his work wasn''t a heavy load type of job, the only thing he needed to do was assist the workers.


    Reminiscing these memories, he couldn''t help but sigh at how hard life had been for him, "Don''t worry about it. I''ve tried living in the streets when I was young, if you want to know," he said, while pursing his lips.


    Aeloria just made a low giggle as she looked at Alexander without any shirt to cover his upper body, "Don''t you feel cold? Wait, I have a boy''s shirt in here. I wonder if you can wear this," she said as she exited the house and went just beside the her home.


    There was a small thin rope, probably for hanging clothes. That is tied from two trees facing each other.


    She took a brown T-shirt that was made of low-quality fabric. It wasn''t dirty, since she''d washed it and left it hanging there. Aeloria then went back inside and passed the clothes towards Alexander.


    He didn''t waste any time and wore the T-shirt that was given to him. Even though the clothes were of low quality and felt a little rough against his skin, he didn''t feel any difort at all.


    "Um, Alexander, could you please take care of Anya for a while? I haven''t showered for two days because I''ve been looking for Anya, making me so dirty and stinky. Could you take care of her for a while, while I clean myself? It won''t be long," she said, looking down.


    Her face was red, mentioning this kind of stuff, while she caressing her shoulders.


    "Sure, you can leave Anya with me while you go. Don''t worry, she''s a well-behaved child," he replied with a smile, as he took Anya''s hands from her palm.


    Aeloria thanked him, then went out of the house. Since it was afternoon, the bright sun was still hanging high above the sky. Anya then let go of his hands and went into the bed, closing her eyes. Feeling her calm breaths, he smiled slightly.


    "This little girl must be tired after all that walking," he muttered inwardly, afraid of disturbing the little girl''s slumber.


    Alexander then went out and observed the ce. The house was located on the far side of the vige, nestled close to a tall rocky mountain. This location was dangerous, since if an earthquake urred, it would destroy the ce, or possibly some lives might be taken away in the process.


    The ce was surrounded by trees, and if possible, some beasts might attack this area, since this location was already in the wild. Alexander then circled the house, and after that, he jumped to a tree, wanting to see the surroundings clearly.


    So he tried to hop from tree to tree, and now he got a good idea of his surroundings. Then he saw that there was a flowing river located close to him.


    Hopping for just a few more trees and standing in a branch, the flowing river was clean and spotless. And what caught his sight was that there was a woman there, cleaning the grime and dirt from her wless body. He could clearly see her unclothed appearance from up here.


    Alexander couldn''t help but swallow a mouthful of saliva on his throat, seeing this scene. The way her hand moved gracefully from her chest and abdomen all the way down to her knees and toes. Her plump breasts swayed gently. He even saw her pink nipples from up here, making him dazed.


    When Aeloria changed position and was now longer facing his direction, and he could almost see her garden, with that he hurriedly left, afraid that what he was doing right now was clearly wrong.


    Aeloria, who nced at her surroundings warily, as if someone was looking at her, suddenly felt a chill run down her spine.


    "Is it just my imagination?" she frowned, as she continued cleaning herself in the river.


    While Alexander went his way back to the house, after arriving, he went inside and sat just a few steps away from Anya, who was asleep. He sat in a lotus position and decided to cultivate. As he gathered the energy using the Vital Gathering Technique, there were no changes since he felt that the energy here was so thin. Even his world was much better than this world.


    But there was something different, other than the energy he was absorbing. An energy that was different and seemed to be a bluish color that''s in the shape of a string, was surrounding the area. He didn''t know what it was since the energy he was familiar with was totally different from this.