10 Chapter 9

'Wait, hold on.' Rowan thought and slapped himself on the cheek, waking his mind up.

They somehow found out that he is Youchiha Bob!

'They managed to find me out, with just that bounty poster? How?' Rowan felt as he was hearing a loud warning bell to his plan of identity washing. 'No, I cannot blow up my cover!'

"Huh? Youchiha Bob? You mean that dude in the bounty, huh? Come on, guys! Do you really think that someone as average looking as me can be an extraordinary guy like that??" Rowan spoke with a passionate tone, trying to give his best in acting. "I mean, look at his bounty! 10 million! Like what, he must be able to blast all of us off with just a flick of a finger or something!!"

"Mariohoho, too late to act your way through! The moment your fist touched me, I could feel your strength!" Jimmas spoke with an evil grin while rubbing his hands together. "That 10 million Beli is mine!"

'S***, it's not working.' Rowan thought grimly.

The duo crouched, ready to launch themselves to Rowan. However, right before they were about to begin their assault,

"Hold up!!" Rowan spoke up in a loud fashion, causing the duo to halt. "Didn't you pay for this inn also? Why fight here and destroy our precious money?? Why don't we fight somewhere else, tomorrow??"

The duo gained a thoughtful look on their faces, seemingly considering Rowan's suggestion.

"Ugh, because we are two people, we had to pay 6000 Beli, with no discount whatsoever! He's right brotha, we can't waste this money you know!!" Teachus seemed to be tilting to Rowan's idea.

"Hmmm... fine. Then tomorrow, at 10am, we will be having an honorable duel outside of the inn!" After some contemplation, Jimmas agreed.

'How the hell is any part of this honorable?' Rowan thought inwardly as he faked a smile on his face, "Alright, alright! I'll be entering my room then! See you tomorrow!" Rowan entered and closed the door to his room instantly.

'Good thing that they are idiots. Wait for tomorrow? Why would I?' Not caring for the promise that he made with Jimmas and Teachus, Rowan immediately opened the window of the room and fled right away, as silently as possible.

'Looks like I am not even getting time to explore Argentaria! Onto the next town, Brinza!' Rowan thought as he rushed through the dark.

__________

After the night has passed, the duo woke up with satisfied expressions.

"Good good! We haven't had a good night's sleep for so long!"

"Yes, definitely! Finally, a clean bed with no sign of bed bug! Now, it's time for our payment!"

Gleefully, Jimmas and Teachus approached the door of the room adjacent to theirs.

"Youchiha Bob, it's time to uphold our promise! Come out for the fateful duel!"

However, there was no response. After knocking a couple of times, something felt off, as they still didn't hear any response.

"Hmm, Teachus, what time is it?" Jimmas asked.

"Let me check. According to my watch, it says... 1pm?!!"

"Fffff....." They gaped their jaws at each other, before rushing outside. "Noooo, we failed to keep the promise!!"

"Forgive us, Youchiha Bob!!" The dwarves knelt on the street as they began to pour out floods of tears, causing the nearby people to scram away in disgust.

_________

Rowan just woke up in the forest, feeling chilly. Without much thought, he ate a portion of his packed food, before taking out his map once again.

'So according to this map, this should be the Rouge forest, which is located between Argentaria and Brinza. I should be careful not to lose my direction here... ugh, now that I think about it, I should have bought compass!' Rowan scratched his head in frustration, out of his lack of preparedness.

'I don't have much choice. I will just continue to go in a straight direction until I see the exit! That way, I will at least be able to avoid ending up back at Argentaria!' Finishing his thought, Rowan continued his run.

After a couple of hours, he finally found an exit to the forest. However, instead of a town, he only found a small village, located on the borderline between the forest and desert.

'So it turns out that I was going in the wrong direction... where am I?' Rowan thought as he walked towards the village.

"Oh hello, welcome to the Por village! How may I help you?"A middle-aged man, who was tending his cactus garden, greeted as he saw Rowan approaching.

Scratching his head, Rowan asked, "Hello! I'm sorry, but where exactly am I?" He held out his map.

"Oh, it should be around here." The man answered, pointing his finger at the east of the Rouge forest.

"Thank you." Quickly thanking, Rowan turned around and thought, 'It seems that in order to reach Aurum city, I have no choice but to bypass the towns of Brinza and Pazoc. I will just have to head off straight-ward from here to the Rico town located right at the north.'

Without any hesitation, Rowan once again rushed towards the indicated direction. Before long, he sighted a large town.

'So this much be the Rico town! It seems to be very close to Por village.'

Looking around, Rowan felt that this town gave off a luxurious vibe, as the buildings were well polished and cleaned, while the ground was smooth. Wondering around to locate an inn, Rowan was met with a large crowd gathering at one spot.

Curious, Rowan peeked through the crowd with his superior height of 190cm, and saw a blond man with monocle squeaking at a boy, who was wearing dirty and worn-out clothes.

"Oh, the disturbances in the air, breathed out by one filthy rodent, brought immense disgust to my horror, shall given be eternal rest, deserving of filthy rodent!!!" The monocle man pointed at the child haughtily while lifting his chin up high.

'What is this even??' Rowan could not even understand what this man was trying to say, but to his surprise, people around him started to clap in tears!

"Beautiful, just beautiful!"

"Another legend created!"

"Praise unto Sir Martinosse!"

"Hmph!" Sir Martinosse smirked, before waving his hand off. "Scram, bug! Never set your foot in this village ever again!!"

Quickly standing up, the child hurriedly ran away out of fear.

"What?? Hey!! Are you just going to leave that kid like this?! He stole my necklace!!" As the townspeople were watching the child leave, another boy, dressed in nice clothes and with combed blond hair, shouted out.

"I mean, what can you do? He literally ate it!!" One of the townspeople responded.

"Urghhh, I can't believe this! He ate it, so what?! I am going to wait until it's back out!!" The blond kid ran after the other kid, ignoring the other townspeople, who were making disgusted faces.

'What is wrong with the people on this island...' Rowan couldn't help but think as he witnessed the scene.

As the people dissembled, Rowan returned to his pursuit of an inn, which he eventually found. Although the room was nice, it took a whole chunk of 6 thousand Beli, which is even more than Dia town!

'Ugh, seems like I'm left with a mere amount of 35 thousand Beli now; this is concerning.' Rowan thought as he counted through the think stack of Beli he had in possession. 'Additionally, I am almost out of my rations, only amounting up to 2 meals worth. If I begin to spend money on food also, my expense will become even greater! Damn, I've got to become more careful at spending.'

Ever since arriving at Tempus island, everything seemed to be so money-oriented. It was as if he was in an entirely different world; he had already begun to miss the nice and calm atmosphere of Cocoyasi village.

'No point in regretting now. I did not have much choice back then; I could not stay in the village hidden, or travel islands far distance away from Cocoyasi.' Rowan sighed before finally having a good rest in the bed, which he didn't enjoy ever since Dia town.

On the following day, Rowan stepped out with energized face, with fresh new hope.

"Alright-" Before he could set up, a girl, wearing a cap that covers her visage, suddenly bumped into him.

"Huh? Did I just get pickpocketed??" Anxiously, Rowan quickly checked his pockets. To his relief, he did not lose anything, however, found a slip of paper instead.

It read: Aurum City, Hank's Bar, sit on 3rd stool from the left, at 8pm.

'Why should I?' Rowan snorted. 'Thank you, but no thank you. Not interested in dirty deals.'

Subsequently, Rowan walked up to an oblivious blond man standing in front of him, before "accidentally" slamming into him. At the same time, he placed the exact same paper inside that man's pocket.

"Quoi?!! How dare toi, to touch moi!!" An angered blond man turned around and revealed monocle. Sir Martinosse!

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I didn't see where I was walking towards!" Rowan faked an apologetic smile.

"Hmph. Scram, bug! Never set your foot in this town ever again!!"

'Must be this dude's catchphrase... whatever.' Rowan began his journey towards the final destination: Aurum city!