For a moment, he stood still, letting the city's pulse wash over him.
Everywhere he looked, different races mingled.
A towering Boaz with tusks protruding from his lower jaw lumbered through the crowd.
Across the avenue, an elven merchant recoiled in disgust when a dwarven smith slapped his shoulder, both their voices rising into a trade dispute.
It was all so, 'real', not like an animated film. 'I really am in another world, huh?' He sighed inwardly.
LeoNova's muscles twitched.
His body moved faster than thought, just in time to sidestep as a pair of Amazonesses barreled past him.
Their bronze skin gleamed under the sun, eyes locked onto some unseen prize deeper in the city. The taller one took a lingering glance backwards, before vanishing into the crowd.
He froze mid-step, not at the fleeting encounter, but at the sudden weight of stares prickling his senses.
LeoNova had never stood out much, not in his past life, certainly, but here?, with his golden hair catching the afternoon sun and eyes that shone with an unnatural golden hue, he might as well have been a walking torch.
His tattered clothes, still crusted with dried goblin blood, did nothing to help matters.
A group of humans paused mid-conversation, brows furrowing as their gazes lingered on him. One of them, a burly man with a scarred cheek, nudged his companion and muttered something under his breath.
LeoNova's small stature, barely five feet tall, combined with the unnatural gleam of his eyes made him stick out like a misplaced jewel in the grime of the marketplace.
His golden hair, brilliant even under the haze of the city, caught stray beams of sunlight in a way that made it seem almost liquid.
A group of Chienthrope merchants paused mid-haggle, their canine noses twitching as they caught his scent.
The tallest among them, a wiry male, tilted his head, eyes narrowing at the faint metallic tang of old blood clinging to LeoNova's clothes.
"Oi, runt," called out a sneering voice. LeoNova turned to see a burly human with a scar on his face, leaning against a street stall on the roadside. "Lost your mama, Goldie-locks?"
Several heads swiveled toward him, drawn by the taunt.
The burly man pushed off the stall, cracking his knuckles. "Maybe you ought to pay a toll for blocking the road, huh?"
His companions chuckled, forming a loose semicircle behind him.
LeoNova exhaled through his nose, calculating, three humans, likely unaffiliated with any familia, given their ragged tunics and crude weapons.
The stench of cheap ale clung to their clothes. Amateurs.
"Toll?" His voice came out deliberately soft, almost bored.
The burly man's grin widened. He moved closer, looming over LeoNova's smaller frame. "Yeah, hand over whatever you've got tucked in those rags."
LeoNova didn't flinch. He kept his golden eyes locked on the man's face, tracking the minute twitches, the flicker of hesitation when his gaze met LeoNova's eerily glowing eyes.
The burly man hesitated, then barked a laugh. "What's this? Some kind of freak."
LeoNova sensed it before he saw it, the shift in the man's shoulder, the tightening of his fist. He ducked without thinking.
A punch whistled over his head, ruffling his golden hair. The man staggered forward from the momentum, eyes widening.
"Little bastard!"
"Whoosh... Bang!" LeoNova's foot snapped upward in a vicious arc, his boot connecting with the man's chin.
The burly thug's head snapped back, saliva and blood spraying in an arc as he crashed into his companions. They fumbled like drunken fools, hitting a crate of cabbages, sending vegetables rolling across the cobblestones.
The marketplace erupted, gasps, curses, the scrape of stools as spectators scrambled back. A pottery vendor yelped as his wares rattled on their shelves.
LeoNova exhaled slowly as he lowered his foot, his body moving with that same eerie precision as it did when he faced the goblins.
The remaining thugs hesitated, eyes darting between their groaning leader and the small, golden-eyed figure who kicks like a damned Minotaur. One reached for a dagger at his belt.
Before the blade cleared leather, LeoNova was already in motion.
His knee drove upward into the man's gut with enough force to lift him off his feet. The air left the thug's lungs in a wheezing cough as he folded like a sack of grain.
Horrified at the sudden turn of events, the third man turned to run.
Too late.
LeoNova's fingers closed around the fleeing man's wrist and twisted. A scream tore from the thug's throat as his arm bent at an unnatural angle. "Ahh!... ugh!"
The sound was cut short when LeoNova yanked him backwards, sending him sprawling onto the cobblestones face-first.
The man whimpered, scrambling like a flipped beetle.
Silence pooled in the wake of the violence. The marketplace had gone unnaturally still, even the clatter of pans from nearby food stalls had paused. LeoNova straightened, rolling his shoulders.
His golden eyes flickered to the crowd, noting the way faces paled or lips pressed thin. A Chienthrope pup hidden behind his mother's legs stared at him with wide, unblinking eyes.
The burly leader groaned, spitting blood onto the cobblestones, clutching his broken jaw. "Ywou!... ywou rlittle swhit!"
LeoNova walked past him without breaking stride. He kept his gait measured, his shoulders loose, casual, as if he hadn't just dismantled three grown men in seconds.
The crowd parted before him, whispers trailing in his wake like smoke.
Then came the rhythmic clatter of armored boots against stone.
The crowd's murmurs died instantly, replaced by an almost palpable tension as a squad of figures in polished bronze cuirasses emerged from the throng.
Each bore the unmistakable emblem of an elephant's head emblazoned across their breastplates, Ganesha Familia enforcers, Orario's self-proclaimed peacekeepers.
Their leader, a dark-skinned woman, stepped forward, surveying the groaning thugs with raised eyebrows.
"Well, well," Ilta grinned, revealing a row of gleaming teeth. "Looks like someone's had some fun before we got here."
Her crimson hair caught the sunlight like velvet silk against her bronze skin.
LeoNova met her gaze, unflinching. His golden eyes burned brighter under her scrutiny.
A young Chienthrope scout scurried to Ilta's side, panting. "Report!"
The scout's ears flattened against his head as he recited the details, gathered through eye witness reports, in hushed tones.
Ilta's grin never wavered, but her brown eyes sharpened like whetstones dragging across steel.
"Self-defense?" Ilta chuckled, stretching the word out like taffy. She crouched beside the burly leader, examining his shattered jaw with clinical detachment. "Self-defense doesn't usually leave three grown men looking like dropped melons."
The Chienthrope scout shifted nervously. "Witnesses also said they demanded toll money, Miss Ilta. Then..." His eyes flickered toward LeoNova's unnaturally still form. "Well, you see the results."
One of the groaning thugs spat a broken tooth onto the cobblestones. "The little freak broke my arm!"
Ilta tilted her head, studying LeoNova's unnatural stillness, the way his golden pupils didn't dilate under her scrutiny, how his breathing remained perfectly even despite the scuffle. "You're either very stupid," she mused, "or very interesting."
"Neither." LeoNova said flatly.
Ilta threw her head back and laughed, a rich, throaty sound that made her golden hoop earrings sway. "Oh, I like this one."
She stood up, crossing her arms beneath her ample chest. "What's your name, kid?"
LeoNova's jaw tightened. "I'm not a kid." He tilted his chin up just enough to meet her gaze squarely.
"My name is LeoNova Reinhardt, and I'm a Pallum." He deliberately omitted the 'High' prefix of his race.
'That is better left unsaid,' he thought, watching their reactions through his peripheral vision.
Ilta's grin widened, but something shifted behind her brown pupils.
Beside her, the Chienthrope scout's ears twitched upright. "A Pallum? I haven't seen one hitting above their weight like that before".
LeoNova flexed his fingers. "And I haven't seen city guards who arrive after the fight's over."
Ilta's grin sharpened, "Smart mouth on a little body." She snapped her fingers at the scouts.
The squad moved with practiced efficiency, hauling the groaning thugs upright, none too gently.
One enforcer whistled low as he observed the angle of the broken arm. "Clean work," he muttered.
Ilta watched LeoNova like a panther sizing up its prey. Her nostrils flared. "You're a walking contradiction, LeoNova Reinhardt," she mused.
"A Pallum's frame, but you hit like a pissed-off Boaz." Her golden earrings swayed as she leaned in.
"We'll write this one off as self-defense, since this is your first offence..." She straightened with a shrug. "Consider this your only free pass."
LeoNova exhaled through his nose. "Generous."
Ilta's grin widened. "Oh, I can be very generous." She chuckled lightly.
Her gaze lingered over his smaller frame. "So, you're new in town, aren't you?"
LeoNova inclined his head slightly.
"I am," he admitted, scanning Ilta's face for traps. Her gaze remained playful, but there was steel beneath that velvet amusement.
"Fresh meat in Orario always ends up dead or joins a familia." She twirled one crimson lock around her finger.
"I'll take my chances," LeoNova said, stepping back as her squad moved past him.
Ilta barked another laugh, the sound loud enough to make a passing dwarven scout jump. "Stubborn little thing," she mused, rolling her shoulders.
"You ever considered joining a familia? We could use someone with your...enthusiasm." She gestured loosely to the crumpled thugs being hauled away.
LeoNova's golden eyes flickered. "The Ganesha Familia?" "I think I'll pass."
Ilta's grin didn't falter, but her knuckles popped audibly as she flexed her fingers. "Suit yourself, Goldie." She shrugged.
LeoNova watched her carefully, noting the way her muscles coiled beneath bronze skin, the predatory ease of her stance. This wasn't a woman accustomed to rejection.
"Before I decide on familia matters," he said "I need to visit the Adventurer's Guild. Directions would be... appreciated."