Jay's Arrival

Bloomridge town, around sunrise...

"Hah? What do you mean we cannot leave?" An old man who was part of a group of farmers complained since the moment they arrived at the eastern gates of the town, they were immediately told that the city was on lockdown, which means no one can leave unless the queen revokes her commands.

Meanwhile, in front of the town hall...

"What do you mean you cannot find him?!" Queen Amanda shouted furiously while she faced her soldiers.

None of the soldiers even had the guts to speak up and tell the queen that Jay just vanished for some reason. They knew how cruel their queen was when she gets pissed off.

"Ugh... f**king useless. Return to your posts and open the gates." Queen Amanda said while she thought "Damn it. If only I drained that kid of his 'essence' the moment Alfred brought him in. What a waste."

...

Bawk Bawk! ("Hey there brother! Never seen you before, what's your name?")

Bawk Bawk Bawk! ("Mom, I'm starving...")

Jay was currently blending in with some chickens that belonged to some farmers. The reason Jay decided to do so was because he overheard a conversation of the farmers that they were heading back to their village, and Jay also heard something about them giving some reports to Heda. Obviously, these farmers were the ones who worked for the guild.

And since he did not have anything to do at the meantime, Jay tried his best to pretend to be an ordinary chicken and conversed with the other chickens.

Bawk Bawk!!! ("Nice to meet you. My name is Muscles.") Jay said and even made up an alias for himself.

Bawk! ("Muscles? What a strange name.") One of the chickens said as it tilted its head sideways.

...

While Jay was doing that, the group of farmers were finally allowed to leave and they all started moving. There were 7of them. Two of the farmers pulled wagons were farming materials were stockpiled. One of them was driving a small carriage that contained the chickens, including Jay. As for the remaining 2 farmers, they were carrying large backpacks that contained some crops. There was even a kid with them who rode the carriage and looked after the chickens.

"Dad, why is there an extra chicken here? I thought you only bought 10 of them." The kid asked his father, who was driving the carriage.

"Oh? Are you sure Ash? If that's the case, then we can have chicken for dinner."

...

BAWK BAWK! ("No. I still want to have kids. Why?") One of the chickens complained when they heard what the farmer driving the carriage said.

Bawk!!! ("Don't worry. Leave this up to me.") Jay said while feeling sympathy for the chickens. It was not right to just let the chickens he made friends with get cooked and eaten by a random person. And besides, he was the guild leader of the Golden Phoenix, he can do whatever he wants.

BAWK? ("Muscles, what do you mean by that? Are you going to fight those scary humans?") One of the chickens pecked Jay gently and asked.

Bawk Bawk!!! ("Nope. But you'll see the moment we reach the village.")

...

8 hours later, the group of farmers arrived at the farming village and unloaded all of their stuff. As for the kid named Ash, he herded the chickens to a wooden barn.

When all of the chickens included Jay were finally inside the barn, Jay was really surprised with the number of chickens he saw.

Bawk Bawk!!! ("Holy s**t! Why are there hundreds of chickens in here?")

The reason why Jay was surprised was because it was pretty rare for farming villages to own this much livestock. Then Jay remembered Heda being a tycoon and everything, so he just thought that it was Heda who gave the funds to the farmers to buy all of these chickens.

"I wonder if miss Heda will come visit us again?" The kid Ash said softly as before he left the barn and closed the doors.

...

The moment the kid left, Jay returned to his human form and suddenly caused the hundreds of chickens to go uneasy.

BAWK BAWK BAWK BAWK BAWK!!! ("Human alert! Human alert!")

BAWK BAWK!!! ("Muscles?")

Of course, through Bestial Language, Jay managed to understand the chickens even though he was already in his human form. And while Jay was thinking of how he should calm the chickens down, the kid returned to the barn since he wanted to check what was wrong with the chickens for them to suddenly cause a racket.

...

"Huh? Who are you?" Ash immediately asked Jay the moment he stepped in the barn. He was wondering how the hell did this kid get in here suddenly.

"Yo! Name's Jay Castle. Guild Master of the Golden Phoenix. Nice to meet you!" Jay said with a big smile on his face as he placed on of his arms on Ash's shoulder.

"Pfft! Hahaha!!! Where the hell did you come out from anyways? That has to be the best joke I've heard! Hahaha!!!" Ash said as he laughed and laughed.

The reason why was because Jay did not know that everyone working for the guild thought that Roasted Boar was the one everyone knew as the guild master of the Golden Phoenix. Heda actually told him this before already, but Jay was too distracted with that weird proposal of the queen.

"Ash, what's wrong?" An old man wearing a leather armor and a straw hat suddenly went in the barn since he was curious why his grandson started laughing.

This old man was actually the elder that was disabled from before, but now, thanks to Annie's cleric skills, the old man's disabilities were cured and he even regrown the two limbs he lost.

...

Seeing that the kid kept on laughing and an old man scrutinized him, Jay sighed and decided to show his guild emblem to them.

"Believe me now?" Jay asked.

"Umm... about this..." The old man was not sure how to respond since the guild emblem Jay showed them was legit but he was still skeptical about the thing Jay said about being the guild master.

Just as no one knows how to continue this awkward conversation, a young woman ran towards the barn and shouted, "Grandpa Bear! Miss Heda is here."

"Come on Ash. Let's go. And umm... would you like to join us young master?" The old man said as he looked at Ash and Jay.

"Sure." Jay just shrugged as he agreed together with Ash.

...

Somewhere in the farming village...

Bawk Bawk!!! ("Heda! Are you sure that Jay is here?")

Nuggets said happily as she flapped her golden wings and jumped around Heda.

"Yup. I managed to sense him through our master and servant contract. But I don't know why he decided to check the farming villages first instead of meeting us..." Heda said while feeling a bit nervous. She was not sure how Jay would react with how she handled the guild for the past month even though she knew she did a pretty good job.

Just as Nuggets and Heda were having their own thoughts about Jay...

"Miss Heda, welcome back. Do you need anything from us?" The old man whom the villagers called Grandpa Bear said as he and most of the villagers went to meet Heda. Of course, Jay was also following them.

"Yo! Long time no see!" Jay suddenly passed through the crowd using Phase Rush and was suddenly 10 steps away from Heda and Nuggets.

"Master? Is that really you?" Heda suddenly started crying with tears of joy the moment she saw Jay and thought "So this is what humans feel when seeing a familiar face after a long time..."

Bawk Bawk!!! ("Jay!")

Nuggets did not even hold herself back as she jumped into Jay's arms.

"Hey there. I missed you too. So, how's the guild doing so far?"

While the three of them were having their happy reunion, the farmers just watched and was a bit weirded out since they did not know who Jay was.

...

After a few minutes of catching up, Heda introduced Jay officially to the farmers.

"Okay. Everyone listen up. This is Jay Castle, and he is the guild master of the Golden Phoenix. From this day on, I hope everyone remembers his face."

The farmers, especially Ash was shocked and suddenly felt nervous. Ash knew that he laughed at Jay before, and he did not know what his punishment was. Just thinking about it gave him chills.

"Well, I know I really look very young but that doesn't matter. For now, I have an order for all of you and also make sure to pass it on to the other farming villages." Jay said while he placed his hands behind his back and looked at everyone seriously.

"Chickens have feelings too. From this day on, no one is allowed to butcher chickens. You will still be allowed to raise chickens and use their eggs, but every month, I will collect 50% of the total chickens in your barns." In truth is, while Jay was saying this, he was just repeating the words the Chicken Lord was saying in his soul space.

"Chicken Lord, I can just use chicken storm for my chicken army, so is this really necessary?" Jay asked after he said that long statement.

"Simple. I will build a nice place for them in the future to live in and train them personally. And besides, we chickens should stick to each other." The Chicken Lord said as he flexed his winged arms and grinned at Jay.

...

"Umm... master..." One of the farmers wanted to ask why Jay ordered this, but he was afraid to get scolded at. Just as he and some of the farmers were feeling helpless, Jay suddenly spoke up again.

"Don't worry. In the future, when I turn this area into a bustling town, or even a city, you do not even have to worry about these things." Jay said before he told Heda and Nuggets that they should return to the guild hall now.