Chapter 401: One More Evidence (1/2)

Alex sat in the carriage at nighttime slowly carving away at the metal place on his hand. His inscription pen danced along the plate as he carved strokes on it.

The woman in red looked at him with a glaring eye from the side, but said nothing.

Last night, when the bandits were all killed, She had returned to call him a coward for not killing the bandits and the conversation that followed it annoyed her.

”You are a coward,” she said.

”Sure, you can call me that,” Alex said paying no heed to her words.

”Don't you know how bad the bandits are? They kill, pillage, r*pe the people on the road. They are the worst people living in the empire,” she exclaimed.

”I know,” Alex said.

”Then why did you let them live?” she asked confused. The conversation was not going the way she had expected to. He didn't deny a single accuse of her.

”When did I let them live?” Alex asked as he looked at her. His eyes didn't show the same cowardice from the first time that led him to getting depressed for the rest of the night.

”You let them live! I had to kill them!” she said.

”Yes, and I was the one that brought them to you. You have the most authority here, so I will let you make the decisions. That was how I was raised, and it's ingrained onto me. This world will have to try harder if it wants to change me. Even then, I doubt it could ever do so,” Alex said.

The woman was confused what he saw saying, so was Ying Wu who was to the side.

”Don't worry! I'm not daft enough to think letting bandits live is ever the way to go. If I'm ever alone and I encounter them, I will make sure to do what is right. I may not necessarily kill them, but I won't let them go away with their crimes either,” Alex said.

The woman was very confused. She almost believed that she was talking to a different person right now. However, when she saw the resoluteness in Alex's eyes, she realized that something had changed in him.

Alex closed his eyes and started contemplating the formation from the chip to see if he could find anything from them again.

The night ended and the sun showed its face again. The caravan, however, however didn't stop moving. It wouldn't stop moving until it reached its next destination, Rosewood City.

Alex wondered if the name of this city was a coincidence or not, given that it was similar to how the cities in his own world were named.

However, he soon saw the red walls of the city from faraway and was disillusioned. Similar to how his cities in the real world were named after plants, the cities in this world— or at least this Empire— were named after the color Red.

Scarlet, Cardinal, Rosewood; Every single one of these major cities were named after a shade of red.

They finally reached the Rosewood city around late afternoon and stopped. Since this was a bigger city, they were going to stay here until tomorrow morning.

Alex hadn't expected that, but he didn't mind. The distance from Rosewood city to Scarlet city wasn't that far. If the map was accurate, at their current speed, they would reach sometime around 8 pm if they left early morning tomorrow.

Alex got out of the caravan and looked at the lush green trees of the Southern Forest. They were once more right next to the forest. He then turned around to take a look at the massive walls of the Rosewood city.

'So, this place suffered an attack as well?' Alex thought as he saw the constructions taking place around the wall. He walked up to the gate and entered.

Rosewood city had the First Grade sect called the Honor Sect, so Alex could see people wearing golden robes of their all the time. The other people seemed to be acting the same way they would always do.

'So the beasts didn't affect as much huh? That's a relief. Hopefully the Scarlet City didn't suffer much either,' he hoped as he walked amongst the streets.

The city itself was beautiful and vibrant, and he took his time exploring it to its fullest. He learned that the Honor sect was located at the southern end of the city, while a lesser known sect called the Noble Truth sect sat to the north.

The placement of the sects were surprisingly like that of the Scarlet sect. 'Was that a coincidence?' Alex thought.

He walked through the city and bought a few formation materials that he thought he would need. He also bought as many alchemy ingredients as he could.

Finally, as it got late into the night, he returned back to the caravan and got in the carriage where Ying Wu was looking after her mother.

”Oh, you're back,” she said.

”Yes, I had to get a few things and lost myself to the beauty of the city,” Alex said with a smile.

”Oh wow! I have never been to the Rosewood city. I wanted to come here once with my father, but he didn't bring me. I was quite mad at him at the time. But then I also asked him to take me everywhere so maybe that was the reason,” Ying Wu said as she laughed.

”Your father?” Alex asked.

Ying Wu's face immediately changed. ”Let's not talk about him,” she said.

Alex didn't ask any more questions but secretly wondered if he was either dead or did something that made her agnostic towards him.

He quickly changed the topic and asked, ”Why don't you go inside now?”