As Graham placed his ear against the cracked door, he couldn't hear anything despite waiting for several seconds.
"Imes? What happens if I leave here? Can people enter?"
[Like any other door, it will be unlocked and people can enter it unless you lock it with a key.]
"Tsk."
Graham went to grab his key and boldly stepped outside before applying the Disguise skill to blend in with the door, which surprisingly had no knives or dents in it.
After locking it, he quickly distanced himself from the door and deactivated his Disguise skill while looking around.
He was definitely in a slum in a strange world.
The sky had an overly large sun and what seemed to be a blue moon that was visible.
The street was completely covered with a sludgy filth that rose to past his ankles and seemed deeper in some parts.
In the center of the street, several human-animal bodies were face down in the sludge and were currently being raided by a bunch of young children with furry animal ears and tails poking out of their clothes.
The children were removing not only the clothes of the dead body, but also clipping the nails, and pulling out the teeth with crude metal tools.
Briefly putting them aside while keeping an eye on them, Graham turned to observe the rest of the area, noting the ramshackle buildings on the verge of collapse.
On the other hand, his store appeared precisely the same as it did on Earth: a small, two-level stand-alone building with only a single window and door, with spaces on both sides filled with rubbish and rotting materials.
"What are you doing here, filthy human? This is Mistress Selene's area! Trespassers must die," the tallest child, who looked to be about 10 years old, had yellow eyes and shaggy brown hair, growled at Graham, causing the other four children with him to stop their scavenging efforts and to begin growling at him as well.
To Graham's ears, the words sounded like growling mixed with a completely different language, but he understood them perfectly.
After examining the raglike clothing of the beast children, Graham noticed that they all had a subtle crescent moon with two stars on both sides.
The tallest brown haired boy had it on the ragged overall strap, the blond girl with more feline ears had hers on the edge of her patch dress, a tiny girl with green hair in pig tails had hers as a metal hairclip bent into the crescent moon shape, and the two smaller black haired boys had theirs on fingerless gloves.
With a thought, Graham imagined the t-shirt beneath the tracksuit to have the same symbol stitched on it.
As the young children began approaching while easily wading through the rancid, filthy water, Graham quickly spoke to see if they understood him.
"Look. I'm on your side."
"Lies! Dirty human!" the eldest boy yelled back while spitting off to the side.
"I've never lied a day in my life." Graham calmly lied as he quickly unzipped his tracksuit to expose the newly embroidered shirt with the moon and stars symbol.
The moment they saw the symbol on his shirt, the children stopped and looked at him with confusion before whispering among themselves.
"He's a whelp like us?"
"Remy, he has the sign, so he's one of us!"
"He has to be!"
"No, he's too big to be one of us! Plus, he's a filthy, dirty human! I can smell it!" the eldest boy glared at Graham, but he just smiled while mentally taking notes.
They hate humans on this side of town. Got it.
"We should take him to the Mistress!"
"But what if he has stuff to do!"
"We're not done with harvesting."
As they continued arguing in confusion, Graham began walking in the direction that the children kept looking at.
He had a feeling the 'Mistress' of the area was in this direction.
"If you don't believe me, let's go see the Mistress together. She can verify my story."
The beast-folk children continued arguing while Graham continued walking and staring around.
To be honest, he felt like he was in a medieval society with the disgusting streets, the rancid smell spreading everywhere, and the random scent of smoke that wafted through alleys and brushed over him.
Little scrappy stalls dotted the dirty streets, some selling sketchy ingredients cooked over an open flame, and others selling scraps of clothing or equipment.
Many of them had the Moon and numerous stars symbol somewhere on their persons, but a few didn't.
There were beast people all over, dressed in rags, who looked at him with a predatory look before looking away when they spotted the symbol on his shirt.
With a calm smile on his face, Graham walked past them all while mentally speaking with Imes to display his mana pool count.
He was acting shameless for now, but if things went wrong, he would have to book it while using the Disguise skill.
"Filthy Human! Answer me!" the voice of the tallest beast-folk children rang out, but Graham ignored him while following his nose.
Among the disgusting stench that filled the air, Graham could smell something completely enticing, like delicious beef kabobs.
He immediately changed directions, turning left into a wider alley that was a bit cleaner than the rest.
As expected, a little further down was a cart that had a young blond woman with feline ears. On the little grill in front of her, she had the now familiar moon and stars symbol and Graham began walking toward her as his stomach growled.
"Disgusting Human!"
"Filth Human!"
"Human with the red hair! I'm talking to you!" the little wolf boy yelled out angrily, and Graham tilted his head back and gave him a mischievous smile.
"Who said I was human?"
Then Graham activated his Disguise skill and walked ahead while counting down in his head.
"Wha-?"
"Where did he go?"
"A mage?"
"Find him!"
"Allia, you head to the mistress first!"
The children began scrambling as they tried to look around for him and the little green haired one ran past him in the alley.
As he passed the blond woman's cart, Graham snagged a kabob and took a bite, savoring the spicy, sweet taste while observing the path of the green-haired child.
Left alley, right, ooops lost track.
And as his 10 seconds ran out, Graham reappeared a little distance away and glanced back at the children.
"What's taking you so long, Remy. I told you I was going to see the mistress." He directly called the eldest child by name.
"How did you get over there?! How do you know my name?!"
As the tallest child among the best children blinked in shock at him, Graham's lips curved up lightly as his red eyes gleamed with amusement.
"I wonder? If I were you, I wouldn't have everyone walk behind me. You wouldn't know when I decide to get away or when you lose something important." Graham waved the meat kabob in his hand before taking another large bite.
Remy, the leader of the children glanced from Graham to the meat stall owner who still hadn't noticed he had grabbed a kabob and gulped audibly.
Seeing the eyes of the child shaking, Grahams smile widened and his red eyes narrowed into slits, "Shall we go together? To see the Mistress?"
After gulping one more time, Remy moved two of the children to the front while he and another child walked closely behind Graham.
Taking small bites of his Kabob, he casually followed the children in the lead, glad that he no longer had to pretend to know where he was going.
And in a matter of minutes, they arrived at a small dingy tavern called 'Moon Haven'.
When Graham walked in, he was greeted by a voluptuous woman wearing a tight black dress with a white apron tied around her waist.
With long silver hair and wolf ears, pale skin with blood-red lips, and icy blue eyes, she was a beautiful if slightly frightening-looking person.
As Graham walked in, he realized that none of the children had entered with him.
In fact, the interior of the small tavern was completely empty except for the woman.
"So you're the human wearing my symbol shamelessly." Selene snarled while looking Graham up and down.
"I've already said that I'm not human. And as for wearing your symbol? I've never done that a day in my life. I'm just an innocent merchant here for a drink and looking to do business."
Graham willed the moon and star symbol away from his clothes before taking the final bite of his kabob.
As Mistress Selene's eyes narrowed, he smacked his lips before looking longingly at the kegs lining the wall behind the bar counter.
"I'm partial to a cold, refreshing beer. Would you happen to have some Mistress Selene? I think we need to talk."