Grey cleared his throat, adjusting the sleeve of his bomber jacket as he looked around at the corpses littering the surroundings.

’Well, that went well.’

When Grey appeared, he was ready for anything. Unfortunately, "anything" was exactly what he should have been prepared for because he had hardly shown up when he was faced with a small troop of guards.

There were probably 20 of them, and all of them were at the Vector Class. Apparently they were tasked with guarding the little teleportation channel, path, stand, or whatever he had shown up on.

The moment they saw someone who wasn’t of the Valdi Dukedom, they started asking questions, and Grey wasn’t a very patient guy—even less so when he was on a time crunch—so this was the ultimate result in the end.

Honestly, he felt kind of bad. He didn’t want to make a habit of killing people who didn’t deserve it. But if he had to choose between himself and them, they had to go.

Plus, if things went well, they’d probably revive after this loop anyway.

Well, that was if he didn’t manage to clear everything in this loop alone. If that happened, they were kind of screwed.

Grey shrugged his shoulders, looked around for anything interesting or special, found nothing, and thus decided to turn and leave.

’Well, this is definitely going to be a problem.’

Grey walked up a flight of beautiful pale limestone steps right out into a forest. To one side, there was a large amount of farmland. To the other, there was a huge stretch of forest. Up ahead, there was the largest city he had ever seen.

Its walls must have been at least 50 meters tall, formed of a very similar limestone to the steps he stood on now. Its actual gate, though, was probably 30 or so meters tall—huge arched doors of thick silver.

Well, Grey doubted it was actually silver, but it certainly reflected like the polished version of the precious metal.

The road leading up to it was just as grand. It almost felt like the farmland was just there for show. It was hard to believe that such a large scale city didn’t have the space for farmland within its walls.

’No more wasted time.’

Grey could see a group of people entering the city right now. The gates were partially opened. While the huge 30-meter tall gate wasn’t open, a side door was, and there was a screening process to get in.

Grey was hoping that his Holy Knight status was enough.

...

It didn’t take long for Grey to close the distance on the city, but the line was a lot longer than he thought it would be. And it was taking longer to screen person by person than he thought as well.

"First time, kid?"

"Hm?" Grey looked down at a short old man in front of him. "Yeah, first time."

The old man chuckled, holding a large basket of what looked like potatoes on his back.

"Don’t be so anxious. It usually takes some time to get into the city, but we’re early anyway. We should be able to get in by sundown."

Grey’s lip twitched. "Sundown?"

There were probably 200 or so people ahead of them. It didn’t look like much from so far away when the city had been huge, but here it felt endless.

The old man burst into laughter. "Well, if we’re lucky. They really take their time to screen everyone. Unless you’re a noble, you can’t really make it through all that easily at all. Or I guess if you have special connections."

"Fuck."

"Sh sh," the old man hushed Grey. "Don’t give them any reason to target you," he said softly, "you need to show the utmost respect, and foul language before the Holy City won’t be taken well. When you’re on the inside, the rules are more lax. But they basically want us to bow and scrape like dogs to display our favorability out here."

Grey frowned. "Fuck that."

"Hey! Stop!" the old man hissed, trying to stop Grey while trying not to cause much commotion.

He failed.

Grey didn’t look back, cutting forward toward the front of the line.

A female guard sat beneath a canopy, meticulously taking notes as she questioned the family of three in front of her. It looked like a man who had just gotten out of working the mines, a woman, and a baby bundled up on her back.

Grey could imagine that they may very well have spent days out here just to get in, but they were being grilled like they might be criminals despite the fact they didn’t even have Proving Class aura on them.

Let alone causing trouble, they’d have trouble wrestling down a pig for lunch.

The lady guard was so focused that she didn’t notice Grey’s approach at all, it was one of the two guards casually chatting with one another behind her that noticed his approach first.

They blinked for a moment, but not in surprise, it was almost like they had been waiting for something like this.

However, just as they were going to move, the aura of a Holy Knight rolled out of Grey in waves.

The lady guard finally looked up, her gaze sharpening.

"This isn’t a place you can act high and mighty!" one of the men behind her barked.

The echo of an unsheathing sword filled the air.

He was stopped by a hand from the woman.

"Put your sword down. This is a High Tier Holy Knight."

The guard froze, his face immediately turning bright red. His eyes darted around as though he couldn’t tell whether he should be bowing in apology or doubling down.

What a joke. How could he double down?

But he wasn’t going to get his chance to apologize either as the lady guard stood to her feet.

Chainmail fell like a skirt to her mid-thighs, the curls of her bright red hair bobbing in the wind and with her movement.

"Efkins spoke out of turn, but he is correct. The Holy City is not a place even a High Tier can act impudently."

"Alright, that’s great and all lady, but I’m not a High Tier Holy Knight. Get your eyes checked."