They found a robust looking middle-aged man walking towards them, coming from the direction of wooden stairs leading to a private second floor..
He came out from the door leading to that alley, and seemingly he was one of the staff working in the bar. "I believe you want to come in, waiting for a friend perhaps?"
"Looking for the man without blue hat," Hye said the secret phrase that Silverlining told him about.
"Oh, then you are looking for me, hahahaha!" the man laughed, but Hye and the lady nymph didn't fall for it. As their faces kept stern and their eyes were like daggers towards this man, he finally stopped his mocking attitude and spoke in a serious tone, "the man you are looking for can't be met just by anyone…"
"He is expecting us," Hye shrugged, "tell him I'm here. If he doesn't allow us access to the bar, I'll just turn around and leave."
"And… Who are you?"
"Someone you won't need to know," Hye didn't say a single thing about his identity, leaving the man with nothing but the empty words he said.
The man sized Hye up and down, before shrugging and going away. It felt like he was telling him it was Hye's option, and the latter didn't mind that.
"If you want, you can come inside and wait for his answer," the man invited Hye and the nymph lady inside. Hye didn't object, followed the man without saying any word.
He knew the smuggler would agree to meet him. But as he'd wait for the answer, it was better to get to know more smugglers and outlaws. Who knew he might need their help later on, when the sky would fall over the entire world.
The moment they passed through the door, a new world emerged in front of their eyes. Out there, all the alleys were badly lit, but inside their eyes were met with bright flashes of golden colour.
There were many lamps on the ceiling, lighting up the entire place like it was part of the day or something. The place was very vast, very crowded, at least having hundreds if not thousands of people.
They all looked robust, with many shirtless dudes and ladies out there. There were many tables, filled with lots of outlaws laughing, chatting, and sexy girls from different races dancing.
Hye saw many races out there, Giants, Dragons, and even Toranks and Hescos! He saw races he couldn't recognise. The two arrivals didn't attract much attention, as if they weren't even there. But Hye could already feel many eyes spying on him, like they were hungry wolves waiting for a prey to kill.
"Come out!" just with a snap of his fingers, Lucas appeared out of nowhere. The moment he came out, the entire place was filled with hot blazing fire, one that was more golden in colour than the lights in the place.
"Hey hey! What are you doing?!!!" one of the staff ran fast, while Lucas retracted his fire per Hye's silent gaze. The two were together for a long time, and they developed such tacit understanding without the need to say a single word.
Hye took Lucas out to make a statement of power, to warn anyone thinking about taking advantage of either him or the lady nymph. The way he did it meant he got strong warriors like Lucas, and the latter wasn't just a normal race warrior.
He was a Souler! One of the deadliest and scariest races in the entire universe!
"Friend from far, you don't need to do all this to sit here," one race, a giant one with two curved horns on the side of the temples of his head, said as she slowly stood up, "come, let's get the pleasure of knowing you."
"Thanks," Hye didn't reject the invitation, turned to the lady nymph before stretching out his arm to surround her butt, "let's go, baby."
"..."
The lady nymph's face turned all green out of embarrassment. She gave Hye a weird look, while her heart thumped like never before.
Hye went with her towards the table of that horned giant, sat cross legged in a slow fashion, before pushing the all stupefied lady nymph to sit on his lap.
Then he started to touch her delicacies in a normal and casual way, as if he was used to doing this all the time with her.
"I come here frequently, but never saw your face before, who are you?" the horned man didn't beat around the bush, directly asked Hye even before the horned giant would sit beside him.
"I'm here on a business trip," Hye casually said, without giving any more intel or care to the horned man, "and I like this place. It reminds me of old times."
"You look young, at least younger than myself, hahaha!" a normal sized man said, while his long golden beard shook with his big belly. He looked old, but Hye knew he was dangerous.
Lucas stood silently behind his master, didn't bat an eye while meeting others' curious eyes with a stern and serious look, one that was filled with challenge.
"You are a human, right?" another vicious looking giant said, with face filled with scars and one eye covered with weird circular glass cover that showed something shimmering down below, "since that human made a ruckus against the mighty Hescos, and your race members started to show off!"
This man wouldn't believe he was talking to the same human he was speaking about. But hearing this made Hye quiet pleased. He knew humans were pressured and looked down upon by many, if not everyone in the universe.
If his actions twenty years ago yielded changes, then he was both happy and proud about it.
"I'm just here for business," Hye paused, before looking at the staff member of the bar, the one who shouted at him when he summoned Lucas, "bring me something to drink."
"Bring him the Scarlet Harry," one said as a joke, but Hye nodded to the staff to bring the same drink this man mentioned.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l