Encounter

"Hey, you there."

"Hm?"

Haruto turned his head behind him with a piece of sandwich still in his mouth.

Standing there was a gorgeous and elegant woman in early twenties. Long and wavy blonde hair with pale complexion. She wore a white armor with a blue skirt and leather boots, a long sword was placed on the side of her waist. Her metallic armor did not fully conceal her voluptuous chest and slender waist.

Behind her was two people with similar attire but a much lower quality compared to the woman in the middle that called him just now.

"You are..."

"My name's Selianna von Grehilde, High Knight of Filtrania Empire. The two behind me are my subordinates."

A Knight! Haruto was surprised to hear her identity.

Filtrania Empire or what's known as the human nation was the current country Haruto was in.

This world was divided into 4 countries comprised of the humans, elves, dwarves, and beastmen nations.

Each countries occupied 4 continents of the world. One of them, the Filtrania Empire governed the Southern Continent. The elves nation occupied the Western Continent. The dwarves nation occupied the Northern Continent. And beastmen nation occupied the Eastern Continent.

Each country held equal powers to each other so there's almost no all-out war happened since all of them stood in neutral positions.

Each country had their own unique military forces. And in the case of the Filtrania was the Knighthoods.

The Knighthoods was separated into seven ranks from lowest to highest,

- Knight

- High Knight

- Grand Knight

- Lord Knight

- Royal Knight

- Holy Knight

- Deva Knight

The other countries shared the same ranks except they had different forces. For elves they had Sages, for dwarves they had Gladiators, and for beastmen they had Hunters.

To became a knight was not simple, unlike ordinary guards that had low combat abilities despite their high numbers.

They needed to pass the test from the royalties. They were going to proof their achievement and powers in that test. If one succeed then they would become a Knight.

In order to climb higher in ranks they would need more achievements and strength. But strength was the more important one in this case.

The woman named Selianna in front of him was a High Knight a second rank from the bottom.

One might think that was a pathetic rank but a member of Knighthoods were regarded very highly among the people of Filtrania. There were only about 100 thousands Knights existed. With High Knights ranging about fifteen thousands out of the hundreds of millions of citizens in this country.

The higher ranked knights were numbered even fewer than the previous rank. It was rumoured that the Deva Knight only consist of seven members.

"Umm can I help you with something? I don't think a yellow rank adventurer like me would be able to help a High Knight with anything."

Haruto proceed to ask warily. He didn't think that a Knight would approached him suddenly like this. He didn't remember causing troubles after all.

"Insolent! It was the privilege of Selianna-sama to call you anytime she likes! You should just shut up and listen to her!" One of the knight behind her reproached Haruto.

"Silence. I'm the one that's talking right now. Do not open your mouth unless I order you so." Selianna glared coldly to the male knight behind her.

The male knight trembled and shut his mouth immediately after bowing his head.

"Sorry about that, I just want to ask you a few questions. You are not from this city right? I never saw you before." She turned her head back to Haruto.

"Yes I just arrived yesterday afternoon."

"I see then may I ask where did come from?"

"I came from Calad."

"Calad?" Selianna did not seem to recognize the name so she glanced at the other female knight behind her.

"It's a remote town to the south from here Selianna-sama."

"I see, south is it? Then just perfect. You passed through the forest south of Latia right?" Selianna nodded and asked him.

"Forest...? Ahh that one! Yes I did pass by."

He did remember passing by a damp forest before he arrived at the city.

"Did you notice anything strange inside them?"

"Huh? No, I don't think so..."

Haruto did not sense any peculiarities beside some monsters inside the forest.

"...I see. Then-"

"Ah Haruto-nii! Here you are!"

Selianna nodded with a disappointed face and about to leave but suddenly a voice of a young girl were heard.

"Fia? And Elsie too?"

"You took a long time so we're searching for you, what are you doing Kami-sama?"

Elsie explained and asked.

"Huh? Are those knights?" Fia noticed the people in front of Haruto.

"Yeah, I'm just being asked a little. Umm sorry Selianna-san? Are there no more questions....Huh?"

Haruto asked Selianna if she had anymore question for him but she somehow turned rigid and her body trembled, her condition seemed strange.

"Selianna-san? What's wrong?"

"C-"

"Hm?"

"CUTEEE~!!"

"Kyaa!?"

Selianna suddenly jumped to Fia and hugged her head to her chest strongly while stroking her cheeks to her head.

"Soo cute~ what's your name little girl~?"

"Mmphh mmmhh~" Fia was suffocated from her strong hug.

"...Selianna-sama." The female knight coughed and roused Selianna.

Selianna gasped and she came back to her senses. She looked around her surrounding and noticed the people around him watching her, agaped, including Haruto.

Her cheeks turned red quickly and she blushed furiously while her mouth was stuttering like a fish.

She released Fia and went back to her subordinates silently. She glared at Haruto with tears in her eyes before she left quickly.

The female knight smiled wryly and followed after her along with the male knight.

"Why did she glare at me..." Haruto scratched the back of his head.

He didn't understand why she's mad at him, it was her that suddenly lost control and behaved strangely.

"Uuu~ I thought I was gonna die..." Fia whimpered pitifully.

Haruto patted her head and consoled her. Then they went back to the inn and had their breakfast with the sandwiches Haruto bought.

In the mean time Haruto thought back about what Selianna just asked to him.

'A forest south from here... Is there something inside?'

Even now his sense did not detect anything strange there other than the presences of monsters but that's normal.

...Unless something was capable of supressing and concealing their presence perfectly, evading his detection.

Such a disturbing thought appeared in his mind but he quickly shook it off. It's too early to come into conclusions. He still lack of informations.

To be honest he honestly hope that it was not the case he just thought of. A being that's capable of completely supressing their energy was on a whole other level than everything he fought before.

The level of ki control of the people in this world was severely lacking just like the other planets beside earth in Goku's world.

That means if someone was capable of concealing their energy their power and skills must be extraordinary.

Though that didn't mean there's no alternative way since there were a lot of artifacts with various functions in this world. Or perhaps just someone with innate ability to hide their presence. Anyway he had to avoid the worst possible situation.

He decided to go to the guild and asked about it after breakfast. Perhaps they knew something about it.

Haruto ate the last piece of the sandwich and told the girls about his plan next.