Orario

A tower that pierced the sky was surrounded by a circular city, full of many smaller houses, and in these small houses, there were even smaller people as if ants in an anthill. 

It was just the early day but the city was already bustling with activity. Adventurers were gathered at the tower of Babel to enter the dungeon meanwhile the stall owners on all sides were competing on who could scream the loudest about how good their products were. People were going about their day and life in Orario was ongoing.

At the east entrance of Orario.

A huge line had formed in front of the magnificent gates, filled with all types of people such as aspiring adventurers, merchants, and normal people looking to make a living in the "Center of the World". 

"Mooooooom, when can we go in? My legs hurt~." a little girl who looked about 10 was whining to the older woman beside her. From the reaction of the mother it seemed these whinings were a normal occurrence for her.

"I know, I know Fina, and I'm saying to you for the thousandth time that we can't do anything. Just wait, it will get much better when we get with your Uncle. I'm going to get a higher-paying job and you will get all the sweets you want just as long as you stop whining. Is that a deal?"

"Deal." Fina murmured dejectedly. 

The mother looked away in helplessness. She knew that Fina would soon start whining again but what could she do? While wondering, she once again felt a tug on her dress. "What is it, Fina? Didn't we have a deal?"

"It's not that mom. Don't you feel it? It shakes." Fina said looking at the ground.

"W-what?" the mom concentrated on the ground and indeed, it was faintly shaking, as if a beast was running nearby and it was getting louder. Soon, other people started feeling the increasingly stronger shaking too. 

"What's happening?"

"Is this an earthquake?"

"No, it's too rhythmical. It's more like a beast running."

The people were getting nervous but because of the peculiarity of the place they were headed to, they were not too worried. One of the people informed the guards who were part of the Ganesha family. 

"Earth-shaking?" the guards felt carefully. Indeed it was the case.

While the security was trying to figure out the situation the mother felt a tug on her dress again. "Keep near Fina. It might be dangerous" she said on high alert. She's just a normal human so she's not as calm as those powerful people gathered here.

"Mom, look there, something is running towards us" Fina said while pointing opposite the gate where they originally came from. A shadow seemed to be running at astonishing speeds and was getting bigger by the moment in their view. 

"Hey, guards! It's that thing. It's running towards us!"

"W-what? What is it doing so near the city?"

"Let me in. I-i have valuable supplies for the Hephaestus family. You can't risk it getting damaged here!" a merchant was trying to force his carriage forward while constantly looking at the nearing shadow. Panic was slowly spreading among the crowd(except those individually powerful of course).

"SILENCE!" a higher rank guard screamed. They didn't have time to understand what was happening but now the priority is to protect the crowd and to not let anyone sneak through. "You, close the gates, you, you, and you, gather the crowd away and the rest follow me." the guards' captain with the elephant mask coldly gave out orders. He was a level 4 adventurer after all who's been on the brink of death many times. 

The crowd was led off to the side by some of the guards and protected on the side meanwhile the majority gathered up in a formation further up on the road. "Sir, ETA is 5 minutes and the reinforcements won't be on time. The ranged force is on standby." a soldier reported to the captain. 

"Understood. Remember everyone, our goal is to entangle the monster, not to defeat it. It's estimated that it's a level 5 so we still have a chance to stall for time until reinforcements" he briefed the group of 20 guards with a calm face as if going through a routine. What he didn't mention though is that it's only "estimated" that the monster is level 5.

Soon, the formation was done and the guards could only wait. Sweat dripped from their chins as they nervously looked at the furious shadow. 

ETA: 5 min, 2.5 min, 1 min

The shadow was still over 5 km away from them but with its speed, it would reach here in no time. They slowly started making out its outlines and were soon surprised to see that it seemed to be a horse and someone riding it.

"Do NOT relax! Even though they might be human they don't seem to have good intentions, ready for battle!" the captain reminded. He felt problematic in his heart because of the unpredictability of fighting humans. He would rather fight a brainless monster. 

The horse and the rider didn't change pace or direction even when nearing the guards' group and already when the guards readied themselves for the impact the horse started braking so hard that its hooves dug into the STONE road built near Orario.

"Stop Azrel, stop!!" The rider screamed as he pulled the reins upwards. The braking horse stopped just in time before reaching the guards' spears. The towering horse stood up on its hind legs and roared(yes you heard it right)at the people before it. "Stop I said Azrel," he said again while clapping the horse on its neck and backed away a little from the spears.

"So, Uhm, I think I got lost in thought so excuse me if my actions looked intimidating, haha." the rider said with an awkward laugh. Yeah, it was Raphael. Running to Orario took several hours even with Azrels' speed so he experimented with his "system" meanwhile to better determine how it works. Unfortunately, he got lost in the vast JUI and didn't notice that he had already reached his destination and almost skewered these poor guards on one of Azrels' horns.

The captain and others breathed out in relief seeing that there was no immediate danger. 'Maybe it was just a misunderstanding?' they hoped but they couldn't let their guard down just yet. "I-identify yourself" the captains' bravado was not infinite either. 

"I am Raphael, an inheritance magic-knight who aspires to settle in Orario." Raphael announced and took out the official documents that he conveniently found in the pouch he had equipped and didn't notice at first. There he also found 1 million valis. (he had the pouch equipped as an accessory so he saw it only after expanding his character sheet)

The captain reluctantly left the formation and went up to the side of Azrel as he took the papers from the hand reached down to him. "Hmm, seems everything is alright but we need a better check so we'll need you to follow us, I hope you understand sir." the captain said carefully while looking at the Azrels' teeth. 'Why does a horse have such vicious teeth?' he wondered.

"No problem but what should I do with Azrel, I mean the horse?" Raphael replied.

"Oh yeah, we need to inspect the "horse" too to see if it's dangerous or not." the captain felt strange calling Azrel a horse. It looked as if it had crawled out from hell.

"It's ok, Azrel doesn't bite, he just swallows whole." Raphael said with a straight face.

"W-waaht..." the guard who was on beast inspection duty today stuttered with shaking legs. The other guards stiffened up and didn't know if this should even be allowed but they definitely felt pity for that guard.

"Hahahaahah, don't worry man, it's just a joke. He won't hurt you as long as you don't harm him. Here, take a cookie to calm down" Raphael forced through his laughter and threw a cookie at him. 

"U-uhh, thank you, Mr." the guard calmed down a bit but still felt intimidated by Azrel but when he ate the cookie his eyes dilated and he looked down at the cookie in wonder. "Sir, you should open a bakery if this was made by you" he said while being miraculously healed of his fear.

"Sure will, friend, sure will" Raphael followed the captain to the post which had already returned to normal. Everyone looked at Azrel and Raphael in wonder, especially at Azrels teeth and Rapahels seemingly enchanted equipment. 

"Moom, what kind of horse is that? It looks like it came out of hell" Fina who noticed the abnormality first asked her mother. 

"Tshhshshsh Fina. Please just be quiet for now." the mom closed her daughter's mouth. She didn't even bother telling Fina why because she wouldn't understand how one shouldn't mess with some people. She nervously looked down and tried to lower her presence as much as possible to not gather attention in the hope that the man wouldn't notice who uttered such words. To her dismay, he seemed to have heard everything perfectly for she could see the giant hooves that had stopped beside her.

"I-i-i am sorry f-for what m-my..." she began but was stopped by the horse's heavy snort. She trembled a bit but then heard a little bang over her. 

"What do you think you are doing Azrel?" Raphael stared at Azrel after hitting it lightly. "Be more patient, she's afraid because of us so you don't get the right to complain if she stutters" he nagged his mount which snorted much more softly this time as if telling that it had understood the lesson. He's a very intelligent horse.

Raphael then looked at the little girl who was now hiding behind her mom and took off his helmet. "Yeah, little girl, isn't Azrel intimidating? Just look at those fangs he has and how big he is" He told with a smile and an exaggerated tone while the guards captain was calmly waiting at the side. 

"Uhum" Fina said shyly now that she was facing Raphael directly. 

"Ahhh, don't be afraid little one, here, have a cookie, you don't have any allergies do you?" Raphael bowed deeply to reach down to the girl. She instantly brightened up at the mention of the cookie but then shied away and looked up at her mother as if asking if she may. The mother nodded hesitantly and Fina carefully took the cookie from the outstretched hand. Eating it immediately, she had almost the same reaction as the other guard who ate Raphaels' cookie and gobbled it up with a look of joy. 

The next second, she seemed to muster up her courage and almost whispered "Can I get another one Mr?" but Raphael heard it regardless and reached whole a whole jar filled with cookies which she instinctively took. 

"Here you go little one but I need to go so see ya." Raphael felt embarrassed to keep the captain waiting so he quickly excused himself.

"Where did that jar come" the captain asked with a raised brow but Raphael just dismissed the question with an awkward "never mind".

The people around were whispering about him but soon the queue went along again. 'I hope I can see the kind Mr again soon' Fina thought while looking at Rapahels disappearing back.

"Next please"