"Granny Umba! Please don't be rude. He is not what you are thinking he is. In fact, he is the reason we are still standing in front of you alive. He saved our lives not only once but twice actually."
Granny Umba stared at Alex and blinked twice "He did?"
She looked at Alex from head to toe clearly not believing.
Alex stood there smiling. He was not minding the old lady's suspicion one bit.
"What do you mean by twice?" Granny Umba asked.
Ciera then explained everything from start to Granny Umba about the mercenaries and the Demon Beast Horde and what was the role of Alex in all of this.
"My God! I can't believe that he and his friends would leave you two behind to save their own skin. Gah! They truly deserved death... I'm really sorry young master. Please forgive this senile old lady for being rude." Granny Umba apologized immediately when she came to know that he was the savior of the girls who she considers as her own grandchildren.
Her being rude before was because she didn't like young masters of rich families, in general. She considered them as arrogant, mindless, stupid pigs, always horny and ready to rape any girl at the sight as if it was their birthright.
Granny Umba was an unfortunate victim herself of such a young master from a somewhat rich family, way long in the past. Seeing Alex and his expensive clothes, she thought he was one of them trying to fool Ciera and her sister to his bedroom and nothing else.
"Grandma!... He is not some young master but Lord Alex Mordrake himself." Ciera finally revealed the identity of Alex since she didn't want granny Umba to anyhow offend him unknowingly.
"Who!" For a moment Granny Umba thought she didn't hear it right.
"The Lord of the Seashell Island, Alex Mordrake. The one you weren't able to stop talking about for the past few days and telling every young man in the village to look upon him."
Surprise and shock were plastered onto her face the moment she heard that name.
Seeing that the old lady has gone in a trance, Alex greeted himself.
"Nice to finally meet you Granny Umba. Heard a lot about you from them."
Granny Umba:"..."
Alex:"..."
"Granny Umba!?" Sierra called out her name.
"Huh? Oh,... Lord Alex?"
"That is me. How do you do?"
"I... it really is you. It really is you... Lord, I had never meant to..."
"It's alright, Granny Umba. No harm is done."
It took time before Alex could assure her that he was not offended at all. Granny Umba invited Alex to her house to stay for the night and as it was getting late Alex readily agreed.
Anyway, he was going to go back into the Swamp Marsh Forest tomorrow. First, it was to fully check out the ruins and also to break through to the next major realm.
The man who had come to inform Granny Umba about the sister's return rushed back to spread out the word that their village has been graced by the Lord of the island.
It didn't take time for the crowd to form in front of Granny Umba's house for the villagers to get one glimpse of their Lord.
"Lord Alex, the villagers are dying to see you in person. Since the day your army took down the Frey Clan, the lives of the villagers had taken a turn for better. If you can just..." Granny said when she saw the whole village assembling in front of her gate.
"Of course, let's go see them," Alex said before coming out of the house and seeing the crowd of villagers filling up the streets. If not for the guards of the village blocking the entrance to the house, they might have been to stop themselves from entering the house.
"It's him. That's him."
"Are you sure? I thought he would be much more... buff and muscular."
"Lord Alex? He's so young and... handsome."
"Hey, your husband here is handsome too." A jealous man said.
"Handsome? You wish. Any man in this village could be considered more good looking than you, horse face."
"Do you think he is single?"
"Hold your thoughts girl. I heard that he is already married to six girls and they are all from powerful families. Why do you think such a young man was able to defeat the Frey's. He definitely got help from his wives' families." said a man whose face also screamed that his words cannot be trusted.
"Don't bother listening to him. Everyone here knows that not a single word out of your mouth is to be trusted. My brother is enlisted in the army and I had heard from him that Lord Alex is still unmarried. But there have been rumors that Lord Alex would soon marry the daughter of the Master Alchemist that he is disciple to."
"Damn, if only I met Lord Alex sooner..."
Alex overheard their hushed murmurings. He couldn't help but crack a smile listening to them.
Alex addressed the villagers and had some small talks with some of them. To the villagers, their new Lord seemed quite approachable. Most people would like such a Lord.
Form the crowd a man in better clothing came forward and said," Lord Alex, my name is George. I'm a small-time merchant. My manor is just a few streets away, It has a great scenic view of the village. If you could grace my house for the night, it would be a great honor to me and my family."
"Mr. George, thank you for inviting me but for tonight I'll stay in this house Granny Umba as she asked me first."
"But my Lord... this place..."
"What about the place, Mr.George?" Alex asked.
Shua~
A frightening aura hit George head-on causing him to shiver in terror for a second. But immediately after that George found himself standing in the middle of a dark forest.
"Wha... What..." George looked around in shock. He had no idea how he got here. But just then he heard sounds coming from the nearest thicket.
Grrrr~
A group of wolves showed themselves came barring their teeth at George.
George turned to run away but he found himself surrounded by wolves from every side, "Don't... Don't come near me. Someone... help"
The hungry wolves ignored the mans pleading and pounced on him together aiming for different parts of the body.
"Ahhh~....Huh..." George closed his eyes and crossed his arms in defense but the expected bite never came. Instead, when he opened his eyes, the scene in front of him changed altogether. Now he found himself stranded on a stand-alone rock pillar of about dozens of meters tall in the middle of a raging sea, stormy winds, and lightening.
Before George could understand his situation, he felt a tremor from underneath his feet.
And it was not for long when he felt the pillar on which he was standing breaking into pieces and falling into the sea while making George free fall towards the sea with it. And when he had lost all hope of surviving the fall into the seal, the scene changed back to where he was standing first.
Shua~
"What about the place, Mr.George?" Alex asked again.
"...Nothing, my Lord." George answered but clearly sweating all over.