Who is ___?

....

Walking inside of the cabin with Garfiel skin over my shoulder, I was met by one of the Ryuzu clones in the living room. She stood there and looked at Garfiel before looking at me with a frown.

"Leave him on the couch, I'll take care of him while you take care of the half-elf girl. The two maids tried to chase her but she managed to escape them."

Dropping him on the couch, I looked over towards Emilia's room and noticed the door to be completely unhinged and thrown to the ground. Walking through the entrance to her room, I could see what could only be described as mass destruction inside of her room.

Walls were scratched with nails, dressers where either totally broken or thrown aside, broken glass littered the floor from a broken window. She really did make a mess didn't she?

Coming out of the room, I looked towards Ryuzu who was taking care of the unconscious Garfiel.

"Your 'eyes' know where she's located?"

Pausing her examination, she turned towards me and gave a quick no by shaking her head before continuing. Sighing, I strengthened my sense of smell before going back inside of the room.

Going towards the bed, I took a sniff of one of the pillows familiarizing myself with it before walking out of the room once again. Looking towards the Ryuzu clone one more time, I let out a smirk before going outside of the door.

"Check his sides and jaw."

And with that I closed the door of the cabin and calmly began to follow Emilia's scent.

Walking through the darkness of the Sanctuary, I noticed the lack of people out and let out a small smile. I had actually planned on letting Otto do his thing when I ever fought Garfiel.

Fun thing about fighting in a forest is that a ton of animals will notice the irregularity. And as Otto can literally speak to animals, he is and was the perfect man for sneaking people out of this Sanctuary.

Now that I think about it, shouldn't he be done by now?

*flap*

Hearing the beating of wings, I turned and looked at a raven that had landed on my shoulder. Looking into its eyes, it gave a quick me a quick nod before flying off into the dense forestry.

Huh, guess he is finished. And I'll even give him style points for asking a raven to report his status. Anyways, this should mean that the villagers have successfully escaped and I don't have to worry anymore about them being eaten by rabbits.

After casually scrolling for about 10 minutes, I found Emilia's scent leading directly into the entrance of the Sanctuary's ruins. And directly outside of the ruins was Rem and Ram who I assume followed the Emila's scent also.

"Barasu, is Garfiel out of the situation?" Ram asked calmly when noticing my presence.

Smiling at her question, I touched the cut on the back of my head. "Yeah he'll be out for a while. He'll also be peeing blood for a while. I Got a couple good shots in on his liver."

Looking at me with complicated eyes, she let out a sigh before looking towards the ruins. "Well that's good, we don't have to deal with him now. But we do have another issue at hand...."

Rem noticing her sisters pause also let out a sigh before looking at me. "Emilia has gone into the ruins making us forced to wait on her."

"As Rem says, we can only hope she passes the trial or doesn't come out worse." Ram said with a frown.

Yawning, I noticed the sun starting to fully show itself on the horizon. Averting my gaze from the bright light in my eyes, I let a sigh and looked into the darkness present inside the ruins entrance.

And with my frown still present on my face, I walked up some steps before finding myself directly in front of it's entrance.

"Get away if you don't want your gate to get injured." Ram said while I assumed that she was currently looking at me like I was idiot.

"It's alright sister." Rem said cooly. "He knows what's he doing."

Frowning towards Ram, she stared at her a bit before letting out a long exhale and looked at me with a calm expression. "Don't get yourself killed now. We still have much to do Barasu. And we unfortunately can't complete it all without you."

Laughing a bit, I looked over at the twins and let out a confident smile before stepping through the entrance and into its darkness. "Trust me, I know what i'm doing."

...

Hearing my steps echo as I went forward, I looked at the walls of the ruins and noticed a slight chill beginning to appear in the air. And as I noticed it, I let out a frown and looked down to notice Emilia laying down and unconscious.

Seeing this, I let out a smirk and sat on one of the walls close to her but not directly at her location. I would like to avoid being pulled into my mind by another individual and then get manipulated.

And propping my back against there wall of the corridor, I decided to close my eyes and began to wait for Emilia to wake up. But as I closed my eyes, I felt someone's amused gaze falling onto me.

"You have the rights to take the first trial, congratulations."

And with those words falling upon my ears, my eyes shot open making me notice myself in what looks to be a bar. Inside of it was a ton of random people talking, flirting, and drinking.

"Hey bartender!"

Sitting there confused, I looked at the bar owner and tried to signal for me him to come over. But for some odd reason, I couldn't catch his attention with my words.

"Bartender I need a drink!"

Yelling once again with my loudest yell yes , nobody seemed to even notice, and the bartender just calmly served a drink to the guy next to me.

Turning over to see who was drinking, I noticed him wearing what looks like to be his working uniform. He had a fresh shaven face along with brown hair and brown eyes.

"Hey can I get a, uhhhhhh... never mind.... just surprise me." The man said to the bartender before looking up something on his phone.

And while the bartender was making a random cocktail of his choosing, he turned to look at the man before letting out a frown. "So what exactly brings you out here? Not a lot of people come here because of our notoriously high crime rates."

"People usually come here looking for a life in the gangs or protection using them."

Getting done with the cocktail, the bartender put it on the table before leaning forward to meet the mans eyes. "So stranger, what exactly did you come here for? What reasons dragged you to this hell hole."

Taking a sip of the cocktail, the man then let out a light exhale before looking up at the bartender with dull eyes. "I didn't come here for any good reason, I just saw that the lodging was cheap and moved in. And my name is stranger, it's John, nice to meet you mr?"

Examining John's facial features closely, he didn't make out a lie and just shrugged his shoulders and grunted. "My name doesn't matter.... it's a thing of the past by this point."

"Well then what do they call you?" The man said with an amused grin.

"They call me old man, uncle, or sir." The bartender said before noticing the last guy besides John leaving the bar and sighed. He then walked calmly over towards the entrance and flipped the open sign to closed and pulled out some keys before locking it.

He then pocketed the keys before going around the counter and picking up a big bottle of alcohol. Placing it in the counter, he then grabbed two shot glasses and also placed those down before taking a seat next to John.

"So John, as tonight feels like a good night. Why don't you tell me the full story?"

Laughing at the bartenders words, he grabbed the bottle and poured himself a shot before bringing it up and staring into the liquid. "Sure... why not.... but I might need a bit of this to make it through tonight so bare with me please."

Taking a shot, he visibly calmed down and stared directly into the eyes of bartender. "I'd say it started really early. Like it effected me from my childhood until even now."

"So please listen closely as I go over just some of the things that have made me who I am." John said while pouring another shot and downing It.

"Alright, will do." The bartender responded respectfully. "I'll stick with you until the end."

"That's good." John said with a smile.

"That's very good...."

.....