Chapter 5: Encounter with a beautiful girl

While Lucifer made the decision of entering an academy, Chronos was sightseeing. 

Arcmania was really a wonderful place. There were all sorts of amazing things Chronos had never seen.

The street was filled with people of all kinds. They wore colorful dresses, their skin was also colorful. It wasn't just humans that filled the street. There were many races. Some were humanoid, some were not. Some looked like beasts, some looked like blobs of flesh, some looked like trees! Some looked hideously scary, some looked adorablely cute. 

Chronos had unknowingly walked into the hub of all races. This part of the city was mostly populated with creatures other than the human race. 

There were shops filled with all sorts of exotic items. One shop had live and moving edible rock-like things being served. There were humans and other race's people eating this live rock things with delighted expression. Any normal human would be disgusted at first seeing live rocks being eaten but Chronos being brought up in the ocean had seen and eaten much more strange things. He was just amazed to find that rocks were alive and edible. 

There was a shop that was filled with flowers which released a strange smell. People who went into the shop would be filled with smiles and ecstasy when they come out. 

There were cute looking fishes that hunted down a big cow in a matter of seconds. There was grass like plants giving out a variety of drinks like milk, alcohol and many other bizarre drinks. 

He kept walking through the busy area filled with wonders. Slowly the crowd died down. It was a peaceful walk. There were only buildings and the asphalt road. 

"Have you noticed something strange? There's no plants in the city. At least we haven't seen one.", this voice came from the shirt's pocket. It was the small flying fairy. 

"That is true. But what's strange about it?" Chronos asked in confusion. After all, does having trees in a city really matter? There was perhaps no need for trees, that's why they did not plant trees. 

"What do you mean!? Humans need to breathe oxygen to survive. If there's no plants how can they survive?" the fairy asked in agitation, seeing Chronos lack of worries. 

"What does plants have to do with that?"

"You Illiterate person! Plants produce oxygen which humans breathe to survive." 

"Heh, you have quite the nerve to insult me Chloe. Runefield." and saying that he grabbed the little fairy entirely in his palm. And started to squeeze her. 

"Hey, Argh.. Stopp" Chloe struggled. Of course Chronos wasn't going to strangle her to death. Neither did he have the ability to kill her. 

He squeezed her for some moments until she started to beg for mercy. He deemed it was enough to teach her a lesson. So he let her go. 

She started coughing after getting freed. She looked at Chronos with a hateful gaze and decided to take revenge at an opportune moment.

"Seems like you were wrong. There are plants. We just never encountered them." saying so Chronos pointed at a place. Chloe looked at the pointed place and sure enough there were lots of plants and trees in front. 

There was a clear boundary around that place with metal fences as high as two person combined one above another. From their point of view they could see lush green plants at the bottom and huge sky enveloping trees. 

Both of their eyes flashed with vigor. Certainly as a sea creature from Fellia Tribe, Chloe did not need to breathe and Chronos being a special human also did not need to breathe either. The Starfield Apocalypse Sea had no trees or plants. So trees are something they had seen for the first time in their life. 

They were amazed. The trees had something magical. They exuded huge amounts of life force and vitality. It was as if they were pulsating with vigorous life energy making anyone who was near them or saw them filled with a positive energy. 

Feeling a great sense of novelty, both of them rushed towards the source. The trees were surrounded by metal fences. When they got close to the fences they stopped. 

They felt exhilarated and energized. According to Chloe's knowledge, only creatures who relied on trees should be feeling such effects when getting close to trees such as humans. But it was odd if she felt it too. There must be something wrong or something wonderful about these green 'objects'. Chloe tactfully thought of them as objects since according to general knowledge trees shouldn't be like this. 

Suddenly she realized Chronos bent his knee making a jumping motion as if he wanted to jump over the fences. She hurriedly grabbed him by his sleeve, making him stop. 

"Hey, idiot, what are you doing? You can't just jump over the fence and head into some unknown places. We don't even know if there's a barrier over the boundary and if the insides are restricted from common citizens." 

"There's such a thing?" Chronos looked a little dazed. He didn't think of such things. 

It couldn't be helped. After all Chronos had grown up in the Apocalypse Sea. There was no such thing as a restricted area for him there. He had free reign over all places and he could go anywhere he wanted, whenever he wanted. And he had never come into contact with human civilization and its common etiquette. 

Thinking such, Chloe let out a helpless sigh. She was unfortunate to come with this 'country bumpkin' who knew nothing of 'modern civilization'. Suddenly she felt her vision clouding and her whole body being covered by some thing. And then it squuezed her. 

"Ahhh.. Stop.. Chronos! Let go!" Chloe was once again trapped in Chronos' hand and was undergoing a fierce full body massage. 

"Don't ever dare to call me idiot." Chronos' voice had a threatening tone. There are some things that he did not like. One of them would be people calling him 'good' names. He easily gets triggered if someone insults him. But there's a catch. He only gets angry when you call him specific adjectives. For example if one says idiot, ignorant he would get triggered. But if one says he has the brain of a donkey, he would take it as a praise instead and his narcissism would do the rest of the work. 

As someone who had been with Chronos since he was born, Chloe naturally knew of this. But that didn't stop her from insulting him. She had her own stubbornness and kinks. It seems there are reasons why no one in her Tribe wants to be with her. 

Chloe struggled some time under Chronos' torture and was finally freed. 'I will take revenge for sure' is what Chloe secretly swore. 

Chronos turned and started walking along the fences. Maybe he would find an opening, a gate or something. 

This area was quite quiet. There wasn't any bustling noise of the people living their daily life. It was quiet and serene. Unknowingly Chronos and Chloe fell silent and felt a sense of tranquility in their hearts. 

Suddenly They stopped. To their amazement a sky high tree that stood some distance away from the fences actually bended. Literally the tree bent in the direction of the fences such that its canopy had actually gone over the fence. The dense tree branches and the leaves stopped right in front of them, blocking their way. 

They were astonished. Chronos was amazed by the trees ability to bend. Chronos had only heard that trees are supposed to be life forms which are stationary. Except for rare life forms most tree never move from their birthplace. Technically this tree did not actually move all of its body from its place. But the fact that it could actually stretch itself to such a distance was an amazing trick on its own. This was a tree with unique mechanics. He was intrigued. 

Compared to Chronos, Chloe wasn't amazed at the fact that the tree could bend. Even though she hadn't seen a tree before. She had lots of knowledge on such aspects. What she was astonished by was the fact that it stopped right in front of them, as if it wanted to block their way. Did they break some law? Was it prohibited from walking along? Or did their behavior offend the tree? 

At one particular point among the huge mass of leaves, some leaves rustled. Chloe held her breath, 'Is something coming from there?' and something did come, or more accurately someone. 

It was a girl. A teenage girl of about 16 or 17. She had a graceful appearance and lively appearance. Her green eyes radiated with life, her fair skin glowed softly and her long blonde hair that went till her waist shined among the green contrast. She was rather tall, almost as tall as Chronos. 

Even at such an age, she was absolutely a stunner. And she had currently used her attribute of stunner to stun Chronos. Yes, he was currently dumbstruck, staring at her with a dumb and idiotic face. 

She noticed a boy and a flying pixie or maybe a fairy beside him. But she did not care for them. She turned herself toward the tree and just kept looking at it or so it seemed.