'weird...'

The near formless shadow formed into a fist and just as it was about to smack into the woman the fist stopped as Victoria suddenly remembered something Mars had said.

'Right... One may only hit a woman if she asks for it specifically... There's a man, he will do."

The shadow fist neared a man that also walked in a daze before it suddenly smacked him on the side of the face, the man's head flew to the side as he fell over from the force of the shadow fist. Victoria observed form her shadow as the man slowly got onto his feet again before he once again started walking along with the rest of the people.

'So hitting... them doesn't work...'

Victoria was at a loss for what to try next before she suddenly formed a shadow boot.

'Let's see... if kicking them... works...'

But alas before Victoria managed to carry out her experiment Mars arrived and asked.

"...What are you doing Victoria?"

In response to his hash question Mars got an innocent sound transmission.

"I'm just... trying to... wake them up?"

"Oh.... I see, well Victoria I don't think we want to wake them up right now.... How about we figure out where they are going first?"

"Okay..."

Along with Victoria's slightly disappointed sound transmission the shadow boot dissolved into nothingness. Mars gave a sigh and looked at the people that still was walking mindlessly past them without giving them as much as a glance, and noticed most of them were beastmen and some elvers and quickly came to a conclusion.

"So they are targeting natives of Alfan..."

Mars then walked over and activated his [Energy: sense] as he watched the necklaces they were wearing and gave a nod. A few minutes later before he turned to Victoria and the girls that had showed up before he said.

"Leave the city for now, I will follow after I find out what's going on with these people."

The girls gave nods, only Yel looked a little anxious but she eventually also gave a nod and spoke.

"Only the earthen tribe is knowledgeable enough to make those necklaces, be careful master."

"I will, oh hand me one of the necklaces I drained of energy."

Mars received a necklace and quickly put it on before he joined the rest of the people walking mindlessly towards the center of town. After walking slowly for about half an hour before they reached a central plaza where big off road cargo vehicles waited. Mars slipped out of the crowd and into a dark alley, before he transformed his eyes so he could take a closer look at the situation. The crowd of people that wore the necklaces stopped and lined up in a row before the cargo vehicles and waited. A few minutes later a group of humans showed up, they were carrying a large number of boxes with them. They stopped at the ones that were at the front of the rows before they opened the boxes and pulled out a.... Collar before they removed the necklace from the one first in the row and put on the collar, then the person stepped into the cargo vehicle and the prosses repeated itself until there was no more people with necklaces, then the humans closed the cargo holds on the vehicles and they drove off towards the edge of the city. Mars watched all this happen from the edge of an ally with a deep frown on his face before he pulled off the necklace and threw it on the ground. Flying up into the air he watched as the cargo vehicles left the city from the west gate and continued out into the night.

'west huh... that's the direction of the portal...'

Mars shook his head and flew out of the city, could he save all those people form their unknown fate? Sure he could, but then what? Should he send them to Salen? Towards a continent they had never knew of? Mars shook his head and thought.

'I am the master of my own fate, not the master of theirs... If it's convenient in the future I will save them, else they should curse their own fate.'

With such slightly cold thoughts Mars flew out of the city and landed next to the girls and continued walking west while he shared his findings with the group. None of the girls objected with not saving the people, at least not on the surface, Mars looked over at Yel and asked her.

"Yel what are your thoughts?"

Yel collected her thoughts for a moment before she began talking.

"Back in our old world the earthen tribe had the biggest united empire on Beta. They also had the most advanced cities with advanced infrastructure so they probably need labor forces to rebuild here in Alfan..."

Mars continued.

"And so they need a labor force that can work until they die of exhaustion without anyone complaining about it so they quickly can return to their convenient lives?"

"....Yes it's probably as you say master."

"I see..."

Mars added the earthen tribe to his mental list of 'to be destroyed eventually' but didn't do anything other than that. When the group had walked a sufficient distance from the city they made camp and went to bed again...

The next day the traveling continued, the only difference was that this time they had made it to the edge of what once was the biggest empire on Kafer and that meant roads, lots of roads! Walking on the roads their speed was significantly faster and they covered a lot more ground in a single day, and so the journey continued for another month until they reached the former capital of the empire and decided to take it easy for a week or so. At least that was the plan when they saw the walls in the distance, as they made it to the walls and lined up to enter the city Mars showed his mech tag to avoid having to pay to enter the city but as a result he was pulled aside and made to wait in a room alongside the rest of the girls. After they had waited for about half an hour Mary broke the silence. 

"...I wonder what they want with us?"

Mars thought for a moment before he answered Mary's question.

"Well they reacted to our mech tags so probably they want us to take on some kind of mech work?"

"Master there's also the possibility that they want us dead because most of us are natives."

Mars looked over at Yel and patted her on the head before he spoke.

"Relax Yel, if they wanted that they would not have brought us into a room and made us wait right?"

Yel slightly tightened her grip on her spear but did her best at obeying her masters orders to relax.

"Okay, if you say so master."

"Bedsides if they want to kill us we will just fight our way out."

Yel gave a nod, soon the door to the room opened and a n.o.bleman steeped in. He wore fine clothes and Mars was able to smell his perfume from across the room which caused him to give a slight frown but his non arrogant look gave Mars a positive feeling about this particular n.o.bleman, the n.o.bleman walked over and took a seat and watched Mars and the girls for a moment before he spoke up.

"my name is Alex, I am the mayor of this city."

Mars gave a slight smile and also spoke up.

"my name is Mars."

"I see... And I a.s.sume you will be speaking for your group?"

"Yes."

"Okay.... Mars I was informed that you are a gold rank mercenary is that correct?"

Mars pulled out his tag and showed it to Alex, that breathed a sigh of relief before he then asked.

"In that case would you be willing to do some work for me personally? Of course you will be handsomely rewarded."

Mars rubbed his chin for a few moments before he looked to the girls and then back at Alex.

"That depends on what kind of work it is."

Alex's face lit up, this was the first time he was not directly refused out of the 10 or so mercenaries he had met with.

"Well it's quite simple, there is a group of bandits I want you to kill."

"A group of bandits... tell me more about them."

"Well the truth is that they are what remains of this counties original army from when we invaded... They have since turned to banditry and are robbing caravans and pillaging villages."

"So standard bandit stuff... I see, what else?"

"Well truth is a week ago they kidnapped my daughter and they are now demanding ransom for her."

"What kind of ransom? I mean could you not just pay it?"

"...Well they are demanding this city as ransom."

"Oh... I see."