597 Chapter 203

"I get a feeling we are overdoing things. Like, by a lot."

Alan said with a mixed expression, carefully examining his hair that turned from sheep-like puffiness into the wild lion's mane. As for the clothes, the stylized uniform that was forced upon him by his mother was changed to the simple martial artist uniform although the feminine uniform did find some more use to make the clothes stand out more the floaty shawl was rolled up and turned into an extravagant belt.

His hairstyle and wardrobe wasn't the only thing bothering him though.

In his hand, he held two leashes both connected to the collars adorned by both Zoemi and Aaron.

Collars as in dog collars.

"I thought we were supposed to keep a low profile – and the opposite will happen if anyone sees us like this... people might get ideas about us..."

Alan let out an uneasy voice and shook the leashes before glancing at Zoemi and hurriedly looking away blushing.

The black-haired man himself changed his own hairstyle too – his hair was naturally wavy but now he curled it as much as the length allowed and settled on some tasteful highlights here and there to make it look lighter than it really was. He pondered about it a lot but in the end, he left the short stubble even though normally he would clean shave his face.

As for his clothes – well, although Zoemi himself could recall it clearly, there was almost no one who remembered him looking that disheveled – and all who did were in a completely different part of the world. Aaron went on ahead and intentionally messed with the same basic martial artist uniform that Alan got. All in all, it got him really savage vibes, but that was exactly the point.

As for the youngest member of the trio and the plan's creator, after getting his hair dyed brown by Zoemi he clearly wanted to go for the same kind of look that the black-haired man had but in his case the strategically torn-up uniform merely made him look like a child that forgot themselves and played outside WAY too much.

"In our case, maybe more is less. I mean, who with a rational bone in their body would ever think that we would be parading outside literally trying to be seen instead of holing up in our dark sect's lair?"

"Yeah, exactly! That is what I thought too!"

The black-haired man tilted his head and pointed out – to which Aaron joined in immediately nodding his head vigorously...

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To which Zoemi and Alan exchanged bothered glances.

There was no doubt about it, Aaron was planning something, and that one wasn't even Zoemi overthinking it but a simple plain truth. The question was, what exactly he was planning?

Beforehand the young man had already assured the black-haired man that he knew about the location of the Heavenly Archer sect and most of their cities and villages, so if the overly eager boy would try to lead them there, he would drop all pretense.

For the time being though, both the village they bought their change supplies and the town that was their destination were safe from the surplus of the Heavenly Archer sect's members.

Quite opposite really, both were within the Raging Bull sect's territory, and apparently the two sects did not like each other very much as not only they represented two types of combat – ranged and mele – but some people were pushing the idea that the augmentation that the law of Sagittarius gives the body of its user is better and more useful than the increase in strength granted by the law of Taurus.

"With our disguises complete, it's time for us to go! The town where suspicious individuals were reported talking about recruiting people into the dark sect is just a few hours away, we should get there before dusk, maybe even faster if Zoemi will carry us like before!"

Aaron bounced up all hyped up, making himself look like an overexcited small dog.

"Sure, it would make sense that someone having two martial artists on a leash would use at least one of them as a transportation method. Now, if you'll excuse me..."

Zoemi nodded, seamlessly lowering himself and placing both Alan and Aaron on his shoulders before dashing toward the beforementioned direction.

"Law of Aries!"

"L-law of Aries...!"

Both of his passengers, although baffled at first, managed to activate the defensive star power before adjusting their position to face the wind.

"Hold on...! Zoemi, you didn't activate any laws yourself! How are you doing this?!"

After taking a moment to adjust, Alan gasped in realization and leaned down to ask the black-haired man.

"It's just like with spells, you focus enough on your training, you don't need any incantation. The only difference is that instead of forcing mana to move to my will I simply ignite my soul."

Zoemi shrugged his shoulders together with the people atop them, not taking his eyes off the path he took.

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"What is that supposed to mean?! How can you ignite your soul without calling out on the star power's name?"

"It sounds like you are hiding something, Zoemi."

Although the black-haired man told the truth, his passengers didn't quite believe him...

"You got me. The truth is I never deactivate the star powers. I'm doing extreme endurance training because I want to return to my homeland where mana is literally everywhere so I would have to have the law of Aries constantly active."

Zoemi wasn't in the mood to repeat himself so he just came up with a random excuse that seemed to be more in line with how the world worked for Alan and Aaron.

"That's also impossible though! Just like with meditation and cultivation, if you keep the star power active for too long, your body will overheat. The ignition of a soul can be literal, you know?"

Alan rolled his eyes and had to hold onto Zoemi's head to keep his balance, but even so, he managed to point out why the new explanation could not be completely true.

"Oh, that part I know. I pissed off the water dragon by unintentionally starting a few fires in the forest at the beginning of my stay in this land."

"You... wait, what? Water dragon? What are you talking about?!"

The young man gasped as his eyes widened at the unexpected information.

"A boss monster for the part of the forest by the sea. Don't worry, I didn't kill him. Although I didn't know about boss monsters back then, he was such an interesting creature that I only slapped him around a bit until he calmed down and then let him go."

"You... What?! Wait, no. You are making it all up, aren't you? I know that you were lost in the sea of trees before, but there's no way that you actually fought with the lord monster!"

Alan shook his head, having a hard time comprehending everything that the black-haired man was saying.

"The forest in question is the sea of trees? Then of course he is lying – none of the numerous expeditions sent to explore the sea of trees have ever reached its end, and there is no information about the ocean. That's what I've been taught by the Heavenly Archer sect."

Aaron leaned closer too and joined the conversation while making an important expression.

"Cool. The thing is, I did not want to explore anything. I was literally sent to the edge of the forest by your god, Guide, with not a single word of advice or even a direction. Any of which would be helpful and welcomed as they would allow shortening the year and a half of me being completely lost."

Zoemi shrugged his shoulders once more, responding to the boy's words, before glancing over at the grumpy Alan.

"Also, no, the water dragon is not the ruler of the forest. None of the dragons are, though I bet they are flattered about how much you are cheering them on. Unfortunately, they have no chance against the real ruler of the forest."

"...?"

Zoemi's next words confused the grumpiness straight out of the reddish-brown-haired man, making him stare blankly at the black-haired man's head as he jumped over and terrified a stray monster.

"So... just in case, are you using the law of Libra right now to enhance your law of Capricorn?"

Aaron raised his brows and changed the subject, clearly not believing a word that left Zoemi's mouth.

"Not really..."

The black-haired man replied with two words.

This time it wasn't that he was bored with the conversation, instead, his attention was taken by a village that they were approaching and would soon pass.

It was not their destination by a long shot, but there was something different about that particular settlement.

Mainly, there was a makeshift wall protecting it made out of what looked like everything that the villagers had to spare – tables, chairs, benches, old carts, and so on.

Despite having monsters live nearby, walls and such were a rare sight – normally the overseeing marital artist would patrol the area and take care of the danger, and if they slacked off, the duty would be passed on to hunters if there were any.

The thing was – the village surrounded by the makeshift barrier did have a marital artist – a beaten up, severely wounded person with both hands seemingly broken was standing atop the roof of a barn and looking in the direction that the trio was already going towards.

Not only that, there were some villagers by the wall too, everyone looking tense.