Volume 3, Chapter 45 – The Knight Girl’s Expectations

This was Fisiel’s first time coming to this place called Eden.

Strictly speaking.

This was also Fisiel’s first time entering a city built by the supposedly “weakOutsiders” in her impression.

Although when it came to Outsiders, she did not feel much goodwill toward them in her subconscious, the so-called Outsiders were, Fisiel had to admit, a very mysterious group of existences.

Because they did not seem to belong to this world, many everyday common senses of this world simply did not apply to Outsiders.

For instance, when a native died, they really died.

But Outsiders were different. Even though Outsiders were very weak, they possessed a bizarre ability. Even if they were killed, they could resurrect infinitely.

That was something natives like her could not do at all.

Precisely because those Outsiders possessed such an eerie power that openly defied common sense, every major faction that came into contact with them would hire those Outsiders, whose deaths were infinitely reversible, to carry out extremely dangerous “quests” in exchange for extremely “tiny” rewards.

Materials and resources found by Outsiders in the wild could be bought up by native merchant guilds at prices a hundred or a thousand times lower than the market price.

Then the cheap equipment forged from those recycled materials could have the price raised a hundred or a thousand times and be sold back to those same Outsiders.

Honestly, in the eyes of native merchants, those Outsiders were basically tools for making money.

Of course, Fisiel actually knew all this.

However, as a Paladin, while she could not really stand that kind of behavior, she still would not go out of her way to speak up for those Outsiders.

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After all, Fisiel did not know what sort of existences Outsiders truly were.

Keeping her guard up was the best state for her.

Also, Fisiel knew that the cities founded by Outsiders who had joined the kingdom camp came with their own problems.

On the written treaties, while granting Outsiders a high degree of autonomy when they joined the camp, the kingdom also gave Outsiders the right to spend money to hire native armies.

But in reality… was the kingdom really that kind?

Outsiders joined the kingdom, their lands were added to the kingdom’s territory. Outsiders spent money to hire the kingdom’s army, but in truth, the kingdom’s army would only ever obey the kingdom. At critical moments, they could turn on their employers without hesitation.

This was essentially Outsiders spending money to raise the kingdom’s troops.

Of course, people capable of seeing this clearly existed in every camp, and there were many of them. Yet whether they were good or bad people, they all maintained an astonishing unity of attitude about this matter.

So toward Outsiders… as a native of the Main World, Fisiel did not feel much goodwill.

This time, her proactively heading out to make contact with an Outsider was also for the sake of letting the Outsider who founded Eden feel her sincerity.

Certainly, what she was doing carried rather high risk, but if it could be exchanged for resource support from an Outsider, then what was this supposedly “small” risk worth in comparison?

With that thought in mind, Fisiel, led by Eden’s soldiers, stepped into Eden.

The instant she entered the city, what appeared in Fisiel’s field of view were neat, orderly, and impossibly clean streets.

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Of course, if a city of Outsiders had no residents, then it would be understandable for it to be this “clean”.

But in reality, the street before her was filled with bustling crowds of people.

Among the crowd, not a single person had that numb, dead-eyed expression Fisiel saw in other towns.

Quite the opposite. Every face was full of vitality and brimming with hope for the future, and she could even see a happy smile at the corners of some people’s lips.

This… was this really a city ruled by an “Outsider” that had only been “founded” not long ago?

The knight girl was stunned.

It was hard to imagine.

She knew that more than half of the people on the streets were Half-beasts. Of course, there were also some humans.

However, if one thought there were only two races present, that would be very wrong. Fisiel even spotted elven faces among the crowd.

They were rare, but elves really were here.

‘By the Holy Light, what was going on with this city?’

Fisiel felt her worldview turn upside down.

At the same time, she also felt a very strong interest in the Outsider who ruled a city like this.

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So it turned out Outsiders could also govern a city this beautifully.

Or was it that the Outsider lord who governed this newborn city was someone whose character was as noble as that of a Paladin?

If that was the case, she had even more reason to meet them.

Fisiel thought so.

She could not help feeling a faint trace of anticipation in her heart for this meeting with Eden’s “lord”.

In the time that followed, Fisiel experienced Eden’s charm in an even more direct way.

Unlike the commoners in every city of the kingdom.

Every single commoner here loved this city deeply. As a Paladin, Fisiel could clearly feel the love for this city in every citizen’s eyes, along with a genuine sense of identification that could not be faked.

If an army were ever to invade, Fisiel could say with certainty that all the commoners here would take up arms without hesitation to defend this city.

That feeling only grew stronger the longer Fisiel walked through Eden.

And this city was astonishingly similar to the ideal world that generations of Paladins had pursued.

“No wonder Yeluo said the chances of them agreeing are very high. After all, a lord who can govern a city like this should also be able to see that supporting us is for the sake of better resisting the beastmen…”

While shocked, Fisiel also could not help recalling what Yeluo had told her when she asked earlier.

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Just as the knight girl Fisiel was thinking this, without realizing it, she had already been led by the guiding soldier to the door of a dessert shop.

“Respected knight madam… my lord is inside this dessert shop… Since someone has already delivered the message, you can go straight in, knight madam.”

“Mm? Wait, you are saying your lord is waiting for me in a dessert shop right now?”

However, upon learning that Eden’s lord had chosen to meet her in a dessert shop, Fisiel was extremely shocked.

No matter how she looked at it, meeting an envoy should be done in the council hall of the city lord’s mansion or some place with relative privacy.

But what was with meeting in a dessert shop?

This was way too casual.

In an instant, her originally very positive impression of Eden’s lord crashed straight down to rock bottom.

“Uh… yes, my lord really is inside. Knight madam can just go straight in.”

But why did the soldier before her look so awkward?

Was it her imagination?

Fisiel was a little confused, but in the end she still pressed down the many doubts in her heart and pushed the door open to walk inside.