The trio led me for about half an hour with a relaxed walking pace.

Helq was enthusiastic to make me feel involved in their conversations. Tessa and Miv were also interested in not making me feel alienated.

It was funny to see them look at me guiltily because they were afraid of my power but saw me as an innocent child and tried to make up for it. It’s nice to be young, isn’t it?

“Did you come to watch the Martial Conference this year Oalus?”

“Marital Confidence?”, I heard Miv and Tessa snicker in the background.

“Martial Confidence- Ptui, I mean Martial Conference. It’s a gathering organized by the seven great sects where warriors test their skills against each other”

“Sounds great~!”

“Yes, we came here to watch our senior brothers and sisters represent our sect”, Miv butted into my conversation with his eyes practically shining

“Our senior brother Helvert is going to be the winner in the Human realm competition for sure this time!”, Helq said confidently.

I guessed Human Realm was some sort of equivalent of cultivation realms.

“No way, he’s good but I heard Uressio from the Black Cauldron Gang is the likeliest winner this time”, Tessa interrupted

“That demonic trash? We, righteous cultivators are, most obviously superior!”, Miv’s short green hair made him look like an angry cat when he heard what Tessa said

Demonic trash? This snobby brat. He probably hasn’t seen anything remotely demonic in his whole life.

“But demons are cool~!”, I waved my arms in an exaggerated fashion to accent my position on the matter.

I couldn’t and wouldn’t get into an ideological argument with a bunch of silly kids, but I did have the intention to make them feel uncomfortable in slandering the Demonic Path. While I often make fun of this particular class of Dao’s, I still have followed it for centuries and I don’t want to have ignorant brats slandering it, despite not knowing even the first letter of the word “Demonic“.

“Oalus, no, demons aren’t cool, they are cruel and evil”, Tessa crouched down to my eye level and said it with seriousness unexpected from somebody her age. She was short and petite, I reckoned she could count as “cute” and was somewhat doll-like.

The momentary change in her atmosphere that made her seem like an actual mature human being made me doubt whether she was the “ignorant brat” I thought she was.

“Okay~!”, but who can live their life and not have a story to tell? I didn’t want to dig into this mess, so I simply ended the conversation.

Tessa smiled like a flower and patted my head. Miv and Helq didn’t seem to notice anything strange about this incident.

…

They rest of the way was pretty peaceful. The three children engaged in small chit-chat and I occasionally chimed in to keep my presence known.
“So, Oalus, why are you alone in such a big city?”, Helq nonchalantly came to this question eventually.

Well, it’s only natural to be curious. It’s strange they haven’t asked me this yet.

“My sect has a tradition that when we reach the Human realm we must go on a journey and travel the world and do good deeds!”, The Human realm is the only martial art realm I know and I decided to say that I had to do good deeds because these children are averse to the Demonic path.

“The Human realm? We’ve met with senior brothers and sisters at the Human realm and their pressure is nothing like yours. You must practice a strong martial art!”

“Yes!”, I turned my nose to the sky with pride.

“But Oalus, why don’t you hide your pressure?”, Miv talked somewhat timidly

“Hide my pressure?”, I have no idea what they are talking about

“Yes. The pressure you make is very strong”, Tessa also couldn’t help but say that

“How do I do that?”, I tilted my head. If they taught me, it would be best. I would be able to understand just what kind of pressure they are talking about and do something about it. Attracting attention seemed bothersome after all.

“Mm… Close your eyes, Oalus”, Helq began to teach while we were talking.

“Yeeesh”

“Move your hands. Do you feel how the air is getting heavier the closer it is to you?”, oh. Is he talking about…

“Yes”

“Try to calm that air down- Good! You did it, Oalus!”

“Hehe!”, of course I did. It’s embarrassing I haven’t noticed this small detail yet.

“You did it so fast!”

“I didn’t expect you to grasp it so quickly!”

“Hehehe!”

...

We then got to an area that was surrounded by a very high-quality (by the city’s standards) wall made of white marble. There was ivy growing on it and there were some engravings of animals and landscapes, it looked pretty nice.

There were few people wondering these parts, so it was more or less quiet too.

There was a gate and the trio went towards it, I followed naturally. There was a booth erected at the cabin and a tall bulky man with a bald head sat inside.

Helq walked towards that man and showed some kind of medallion made of jade and the man came out and opened the gate.

Miv and Tessa went in, I followed. Nobody stopped us.

Inside there was a wide space. I could see many buildings and many people. It looked like some kind of village that was built with the intent to house visitors.

There were many walkways laid with pretty-looking stones, flowers and bushes were planted by the sides of it. There were ponds with fishes in some areas and statues of animals and people were abound. It all looked peaceful and beautiful.

Three tall buildings made of white stone and dark wood stood out in our vicinity. They stood separately from the village and behind them was a wooden decorative wall that separated our area from the rest of the village.

The buildings all looked identical and were lined up in a row. They had different flags on them though.

The first buildings had many flags that had two crossed… sabers? I think those were sabers. So, the flag was composed of two crossed black sabers on a green background. There were many other smaller flags but I didn’t pay all that much attention to them.

The second building had many plain white flags hanging on them and there were no other flags or banners on it.

The third had a flag that had a dark-crimson background and a black insignia that looked like something like a rose on it and many smaller banners and flags

Tessa pointed at the one on the right, “This place is made for martial artists who came to watch the conference. They provide accommodations for a fee for all who come here. Fighting is prohibited in this place and every martial artist coming in must register in one of the buildings. The building I am pointing to is the one where we must go. It’s the building where those affiliated with the righteous sects go”

Helq chimed in, “The one in the middle is for loose cultivators who aren’t affiliated with any alliance and the one on the right is for those from demonic cults”

“Yes”, Tessa continued, “I was thinking, what do you guys think of having Oalus stay with us during the trip?”

“Hm… I am okay with that”, that was Miv

“If Oalus wants. What do you want, Oauls?”, Helq looked at me and smiled.

“Okay!”, I had no problem with staying with them. There was really nothing I could lose from it, except for, maybe, a bit of time.

‘’Then, Oalus, can we ask you to say that you are out junior brother who came with us? It would save a lot of time this way”

“Sure!”

“Then, let’s go, everybody”