As the trio left the building, a bit downcast, they found themselves walking around the few stone paths in the territory.
Eventually, they passed by a relatively low-traffic alley. It wasn't an issue at first but they started hearing some thumps, and scratches, followed by aghast voices.
"S-Stop it!" A female voice yelled, sobbing.
"Yow… we can indeed stop… just serve us, eh?"
"Bastard!"
The three looked at each other with a frown, quickly following the noise to see half a dozen big men beating up two men, with a man holding on lewdly to the girl.
It happened to be the dudes from the Tiger Gang.
"Out already?" Ansel asked with a sneer, "And already making chaos."
Without further ado, the trio immediately darted into the alley, stopping the attack. They didn't even explain themselves and started beating the men up.
"What are you—"
"OI—!"
Bang!
Smack!
Crack!
Anyway, according to territory rules, as long as they didn't kill anyone, they'd be fine.
A few minutes later, the men were lying down half-dead, groaning in pain, and the twins went and picked up the woman's friends on the ground.
Ansel went to the blonde lady, and checked up on her. And then looked at her companions, who were also familiar.
He realized it was the snarky trio from before.
The girl blushed a bit at the handsome sight of her rescuer, "T-Thank you… but…" Her brown eyes passed by the gangsters on the ground.
Their rescuers had made sure the gangster couldn't get up and wake up for a while, but they would wake up eventually wouldn't they? What would happen then?
"T-Thank you…" The shorter one said as he was assisted to stand by Leo. "Can… can we trouble you.. to carry us home?" He mumbled, volume lowering in shame. "It's just in the next block…"
The trio looked at each other and shrugged. Since they began to help, might as well go all the way.
They arrived at the house a few minutes later, and they encountered a lot of neighbors who definitely saw the poor state of the teenagers.
However, many of those people scoffed at them rather than show some concern, while the others just ignored them altogether.
Ansel's pretty eyebrows rose. The trio's reputation definitely wasn't very good.
The shorter man smiled wryly, the pale man remained indifferent, while the girl bit her lips in bitterness.
They entered the house in silence and the three could only drag themselves to give the few bits of fruit they managed to collect.
"You really don't need to bother," Leo said for the 3rd time since they entered. "We simply had the ability to help, so we did."
"No, you've done so much." The pale and somber young man said, motioning to the girl and then to the other lad. "My name is Crow, this is Sunny, and that guy lying over there is Dog."
"We're sorry we got you involved. Those groups will definitely trouble you next." They all looked guilty but they couldn't give them anything in return except for their heartfelt thanks.
Leo, however, noticed their wording, "You were targeted?"
After a sigh, they nodded. "They said that they heard us badmouth the Lord." Dog sneered. "How dare us. You saw how those people looked at us."
Sunny scoffed bitterly, "Hmph. Do we look stupid to badmouth that guy in front of his fans?"
"We never did, at least not in public. But everyone I knew that didn't like the lord was targeted by those gangs, without exception."
Ansel raised an eyebrow. Lords probably had a way to see the, what, loyalties of the people? At least it could show their… affection level?
Hey, then his score must be very low.
Before he could dwell on this thought though, he was addressed by one of the three. "I know you. That Matthew really wanted to win you over. You must be strong." The pale man looked at the three of them, realizing who they were.
They were quite famous, beating up the gangsters and receiving the Lord's 'favor' and all…
Fanboy Luke sensed the sarcasm and was a bit puzzled. "You make it sound like a bad thing?"
"Relatively strong people not under the Lord… well they tend to be the vanguard during attacks."
"Some even mysteriously… disappear."
"You know that circulating story where this lord spent money and effort to implement a no-kill zone in the territory?"
"Well, my aunt was a victim, one of many, and he did more than just murder." Crow sneered.
"The lord didn't even punish him, he just kicked him out. Who knows if he's wreaking havoc somewhere else."
The trio looked at each other in silence. They could imagine what that guy had done based on Crow's tone. They felt heavy because in time more and more such situations were bound to happen if things remained as it was.
Case in point: Didn't they just rescue these three from a similar situation?
It was here that they heard the door open abruptly, a deep voice immediately bellowing. "Are you guys alright?!"
Dog scratched his poor ears. "Cousin. We're fine thanks to these guys."
"Thanks—" but he saw just how badly the young men and women were beaten and a fire of anger exploded. Dog managed to drag his pained body to stop him.
"Calm down if you don't want to run to your 4th territory."
The man closed his eyes and calmed down. It took him quite some time and he tilted his head upwards and faced the ceiling while huffing heavily. Ansel was reminded of chimneys blowing smoke.
After he sufficiently calmed down, the newcomer turned to face them with a smile. "Hello, my name is Bull, 25. I'm sort of the guardian of these kids."
He did a light bow to express his thanks. Ansel and the others were a little ashamed.
"It wasn't much."
"Not if you know how much trouble helping them could bring you." Bull sighed and looked at them, figuring out a way to express his gratitude.
As he stared at them, his very good head immediately placed them in a memory. He happened to be in the Village center not too long ago.
"You were looking for someone, aren't you? I've been to three territories since the Migration and I boast very good facial memory."
This was also why he did well as a guard in the Royal Territory.
Ansel and the twins looked at each other and nodded, trying out their luck. Ansel took the photo from his space and handed it over.
The twins didn't have photos of their mother, and could only eagerly wait for Ansel's good news.
Bull's thick eyebrows rose all the way to his forehead the moment he saw the photo. "It's that beautiful pregnant woman."
.
.
"What?"
Ansel flinched, basically teleporting in front of Bull, scaring the soul out of the poor guy.
"Where have you seen her?" He asked, grabbing the larger man's shoulders, and it took a few moments before the latter could utter a word.
Bull paused and tried to make a mental map. It wasn't difficult because the system kept maps of everything they passed through.
"I'll send you my map." He said, after all, they couldn't show their own 'screens' to others, so it wasn't conventionally straightforward to see each other's maps.
"Hmn?"
In his travels, Bull found a special function of the system maps. That was: they could transfer maps to others. For a price, of course.
Anyway, he gladly took over the cost and sent it to Ansel.
"It was there." He gave him a verbal description of the area where they met—the former location of Royal Territory. "I remember she went eastward and managed to avoid the beast tide."
He couldn't help but look at this handsome man, that woman's brother. Even if their intersection was short, she was very beautiful and had a special aura about her. He was understandably curious about this relative of hers.
He patted the man's shoulder with an interested expression. "You don't know. When she was kicked out, the woman wasn't lost—like she had a direction.
"That's all I know."
Ansel stared at the transferred map with bright eyes, and they could swear there were little tears lining up.
They stayed silent, waiting for Ansel to gather himself.
The man sniffed and sneaked a little wipe under the eye, before resuming his cool image.
"Thanks." He said, "I'll go there immediately." He said and looked at the twins. They nodded even without him asking.
"Of course, we'll come with you!"
"I also want to see the Goddess again!"
Bull looked at the three as they stood up with a complex expression. Before the trio could utter their farewells, Bull cut them off. "We'll go with you, as well."
Everyone turned to look at him. "What?"
"We can't stay here anymore." Bull said, rudely pointing at the three teenagers. "These kids would lose their lives, eventually."
The three looked aghast and offended, flushed in shame. But they couldn't say anything against it.
After all, there was a very real chance that it would happen.
And so… Ansel's team grew even more.