Chapter 12: Citizen of the Town

The woman was surprised that Shiba didn't even know that since he knew how to write, but she knew that Shiba wasn't acting like a fool on purpose, just looking at his face.

"To reside in this town, there are two possible requirements. The first is for travelers. A traveler just needs to pay for a room in an inn and will be allowed to stay here, but at night, you can't go outside your room. The other is pay to register as a citizen. Citizens can be outside at any hour, and it doesn't matter if the citizen lives in an inn or in any other place."

Shiba felt that being a citizen was just a waste of money. He would need to pay an inn anyway since he didn't have a place to rest. He didn't know the cost of staying at an inn, but being a citizen felt like paying two times.

As for buying or renting a house, he didn't believe that he had enough money for that.

"Is there any other benefit of being a citizen? Two hundred and fifty bronze coins seem a lot since I will still need to pay for an inn."

Shiba spoke honestly. Maybe there was some hidden benefit in being a citizen that might make it worthy of the money.

"If I were you, I would pay to become a citizen. I know it is expensive, but being a citizen means that you belong to the town, so the people with bad intentions won't be so eager to act against you. You seem too inexperienced. Without this protection, I bet you will get robbed before you find an inn. The inn also has some discount for citizens."

Although there were always criminals that wouldn't care for the identity, only the most professional ones would dare to attack a citizen that is also a beast hunter. Most of the scammers didn't have those guts.

However, those criminals wouldn't target a poor guy like Shiba. They would take risks, but only if there was enough benefit from it. The only ones that would target a poor guy were those that didn't have the guts to target someone better.

"Is that so? There are so many bad people in this town?"

Shiba didn't expect that the level of evilness was such that he couldn't even reach an inn without being robbed since no one disturbed him earlier.

"It would be strange if there weren't bad people. I know you are still young, but you need to be careful around others. There are a lot of people that like tricking others. My son and my husband died from trusting someone else too much."

The woman seemed pained when remembering that. She knew that her husband and son were quite naive, but since they always returned alive, she felt that at least had a good eye for people, but they had been tricked from the start.

She could see that Shiba was like them, so she decided to give him a bit of advice.

"Before, you were carrying a corpse of a beast, so no one dared to disturb you, as per the rules of our Lord of the town, but you don't have anything with you now."

Stealing the prey of a beast hunter was a serious matter, given how much the Lord of the town valued them.

"I see."

Only at that moment, Shiba noticed that everyone hadn't been looking at him but at the corpse of the beast.

"Then, please, tell me how I should register to become a citizen."

Shiba felt that it was expensive, but it would be useless if he were robbed for not becoming a citizen.

At worst, he decided that he could sleep on a street.

The weather in that town was far better since it was in the border area, so sleeping outside wasn't a problem for him, given his level. He would only endure some days in other places, but since it was the border, even if he stayed months sleeping on the street, he wouldn't die.

"Since you are a beast hunter, I can register you right away with just having the money. I have yet to give you your six hundred bronze coins, so I can just discount the two hundred fifty of registering as a citizen from it."

Since the Beast Hunter Guild was also directly under the orders of the Lord of the town, they had permission to register beast hunters as citizens directly.

"Alright."

Shiba feared that registering was a complicated process or that he would be robbed on his way, but he was relieved that it was easy.

"Please put your energy here to bind it, and you will become a citizen."

The woman gave a small badge to Shiba, and he put his energy on it immediately. Fortunately, there was no way for a normal person to differentiate the energy put to bind the badge, so Shiba's Fake Origin Qi wasn't discovered.

"Congratulations. From now on, you are officially a citizen of our Border Town. Take your money. There is three hundred fifty left."

Although it was a pity that he used almost half of the money, Shiba felt that it was necessary for his safety.

After all, he was still at level 3, he wasn't the strongest of Border Town, nor was he near to being it.

"Thank you."

Shiba picked the money first, and then he put the badge on his clothes. There wasn't any rule forcing him to show the proof of being a citizen, but since it could act as a deterrent, he decided to wear it.

"You can bring deceased beasts whenever you have them. There is always someone here, even at night. However, at night, the town is more dangerous, so it is better if you come in the daytime."

There were beast hunters that didn't want to show what they caught, so they went secretly at night. Usually, when what they caught was valuable enough to arouse jealousy from others. Given Shiba's strength, the woman knew that he couldn't defeat anything of that type.

"If you want to join a team to hunt beasts or ask for members to go with you to hunt something, you can use that board. In a group, the safety is better, but you will need to split the income."

What she said was basic information for beast hunters, but she decided to add a bit more.

"However, a bad teammate is worse than the strongest beast you can imagine, be careful."

It was by trusting a teammate they shouldn't have trusted that her husband and son died, so she didn't like hunting groups too much. However, even if she didn't mention the existence of groups, Shiba would have discovered it anyway.

"Don't worry. I plan to go alone. I will leave now. Thank you for your help."

Although Shiba didn't have too many social skills, he noticed that the woman gave him additional help.

"I expect to see your next prey soon. Goodbye."

The woman smiled while bidding farewell to Shiba.

That woman didn't have a smile that would attract attention since she was a bit old, and she didn't seem to have been beautiful even when being younger, but for Shiba, an honest smile was the best.

In fact, everyone Shiba met after leaving Master Liye's reincarnation place had been people with quite plain looks.

Compared to those in the family that he had been forced to serve when he was a slave, everyone was far uglier. Master Liye was a God in Shiba's eyes, so he didn't even try to compare ordinary people with him.

Of course, it wasn't really that they were that ugly, they were just ordinary. The family Shiba had served was extremely wealthy and could allow themselves to have a style of life that others couldn't.

Once Shiba left the Beast Hunter Guild, he attracted the attention of a lot of people in the surroundings, but they all looked away after seeing the badge serving as proof of being a citizen.

They hoped to get some money from Shiba since he seemed an easy prey for scamming, but they knew the prices of beasts, and a level 2 one would be priced at six hundred bronze coins at best. Given the price to become a citizen, they knew that remaining wasn't worthy of the danger of being caught scamming an official citizen. Even six hundred bronze coins wouldn't be enough to make them act as an official citizen. However, in front of a traveler, they wouldn't hesitate.

Shiba noticed the gazes of the others and gave thanks for having bought that badge proving that he was a citizen.

He walked a bit looking for an inn. He forgot to ask where there was one, but he didn't mind sleeping outside. However, he was a bit bothered by the advice of the night being dangerous.

Since he reached the town before dusk, all the shops on the street were still open even after Shiba left the Beast Hunter Guild.

He had been looking at them, but since he didn't have too much money, he wasn't planning to buy anything unless he really needed it.

However, it wasn't long before he found a man that had weapons for sale, including swords.

"Sir, how much for a sword?"

He didn't want to sue money for things he didn't need, but a sword was something he needed.

With it, he dared to go outside and hunt another beast to make money. He heard that in the area on the other side of the town, beasts were far more numerous than in the arid area.

Given how much the town seemed to value beast hunters, what he heard seemed to be true, so a good weapon was his first priority.