Chapter 329 (2/2)

When they arrived at the stand, it seemed that everyone in the area was aware of them, and the stand owner was sweating as they spoke with him. The merchant, a teenage boy, really, who seemed to have an even worse time with his fears than Simon, quickly made excuses and closed down right in their faces.

Randidly sighed, eyeing the surrounding area. There were other places, but the raw materials here were definitely the best…

Then a short woman stepped forward, with a rather large belly for someone who lived in the System. “Y’all are pledged to the Rider, right? So that’s your mount…..?”

After a few seconds of silence, Randidly nodded slowly. The woman seemed very excited by this, and said, “Wonderful, wonderful!”

She ran up and began to knock on Neveah’s body, poking and prodding. Neveah giggled, excited at the attention, her tail lashing back and forth in excitement, sending people stumbling backwards, fearful of the huge gashes left in its wake. The ground was torn up like tissue paper.

Finally, the woman turned to the group again. “We’ve been wanting to run an impossible creatures event in the arena, where challengers try and complete tasks while a monster stops them, but none of the Riders we see have this much…. star power.”

Randidly would have face palmed if he thought this would help the situation.

“Star… power….?” Ten’Malla and Neveah said, almost at the same time.

The woman was nodding rapidly, “Yes, yes! Just look at the creature. It could-”

“She,” Randidly said reflexively.

“-She could rule the arena! All would fear her strength!” Now the woman was on a roll, her eyes were glowing. “I’d like to play around with different tasks, see how she-”

“Play?!” Neveah said excitedly, rocking slightly back and forth.

“Play!” Ten’Malla said, her grin impish. Randidly sighed. So this was just a glorified vacation for the Wild Rider…? Maybe she was just a kid….

Well, Randidly would do anything to end this sort of very public interaction, so he nodded. “If you want to go play with the woman, feel free. I’m just going to purchase some armor. But no killing, alright?”

Neveah nodded seriously, looking at Randidly. “No kill. Play.”

“Excellent.” The woman said, her smile wide, genuinely looking excited at the prospect of playing with this giant bone wurm which could crush her body to paste. The woman, Neveah, and Ten’Malla filed away, drawing the attention with them, which allowed Randidly to relax.

After a second, Thea followed them, saying. “...I can’t just let them go unsupervised…”

That left Randidly and Simon. Randidly glanced over at the boy, opening his mouth. If he didn’t say something now-

But Simon just walked forward, past Randidly, following the rest of the group. He didn’t even look up at him. Randidly’s mouth slowly closed.

If there was one thing that Randidly had learned from his father, it was that trying to force a problem out of people was counterproductive. Best to just wait, and let it come out on its own. Although it was a little strange, it really seemed like the fact he had lied about his name was a huge issue for Simon.

Whatever they had before, now, to Simon, it felt… invalidated. But that was a problem for another day. Randidly turned and began to walk through the crowd, heading for another stall.