They all call me an Outer God.

"Our Lord advocates free trade. All exchanges, whether of equal or unequal value, are under His authority. As long as we offer money to Him, we can exchange everything with Him."

Ria described the Golden Church to the other party in this way. Although the church sounded very grand, it actually did not have a fixed building or a fixed division of clergy.

Even the name was thought of on the spot.

He was indeed very bad at naming things; he named the mythical creature "Swarth" and the church "Gold," each name reflecting his own preferences.

Black market merchants simply cannot resist the temptation of money, especially those with high meme counts. So, almost immediately, the church name that Ria could think of was "Gold".

"It sounds like a very sacred church."

White looked at the food in front of him; the food was exquisite, but he found it hard to swallow.

Lia asked him, "Don't you have an appetite?"

"Do not."

White shook his head: "Actually, I've always wanted to ask... how do you guys eat all this stuff?"

Ria: "..."

White: "I always thought everyone lived like they were in a palace, with people serving them three meals a day, including afternoon tea and evening dessert. They would use knives and forks to cut the meat into pieces and put them into my mouth. Sometimes when I didn't have an appetite, they would make thousands of dishes for me to choose from."

Those dishes weren't particularly delicious; they were just ordinary fare. But I didn't expect the food outside to be of even worse quality.

How could you eat this stuff? Doesn't it make you feel disgusted?

Lia's hands, which were cutting the steak, suddenly stopped, and he closed the eyes on his skin.

Ria had initially felt some pity for those imprisoned in the palace, but after White said those words, he suddenly stopped feeling sorry for them.

Now, Lia is pondering what language could more tactfully express the phrase "you wicked nobles."

While the poor would sell their dignity and soul for a loaf of black bread or a swain, they lived such extravagant lives in the palace.

It's no wonder that some people resent the rich.

Ria took a deep breath, calmed herself for a moment, and then smiled and said, "You may not know, but these things are already considered rare high-end delicacies."

Outside of Cranbea, many people eat nothing but stones and sand. When famine strikes, they will not spare a single blade of grass that sprouts from the ground, and they will even eat people.

"If you want to become king, this kind of insight isn't enough, Your Highness. Of course, I understand you; after all, there's hardly any freedom there."

White looked at the food in front of him, hesitated for a long time, and then ate it. Seeing this, Ria showed no expression, but thought that this person was probably not suitable to be the crown prince.

"I'll consider joining the Golden Church you mentioned. So, what are your plans next?"

“I have a plan, Your Highness.”

"what?"

“We will go and find your scattered brothers and sisters. Judging from your appearance, I think they would not be able to adapt to the outside environment. It would be better to find them immediately and send them out of Cranbea. Returning to the palace would undoubtedly lead to disaster.”

To put it bluntly, you wouldn't want to be thrown onto a throne, fed and cared for, and spent your days with your sisters and relatives... like a stud pig, only to be discarded once you're no longer of use, would you?

"you!"

Ria's words made White's expression change; he clenched his fists, but quickly relaxed them.

Anger was useless; he had no other choice. He couldn't leave on his own, and all he could do now was trust the person in front of him.

He had the ability to kill himself, but he didn't. This man may be the last hope now.

"Can you really help us?"

"Of course, Your Highness, I never deceive others."

Ria smiled and asked, "Do you have any leads about your own family?"

"No, I have no idea where they've gone or how they're doing... If anything happens to them, I—"

White covered his face, and Ria indicated that he shouldn't worry. He would settle White in a hotel and then go find the others.

"Please trust in my abilities, Your Highness. Soon, you will be reunited."

"thanks, thanks."

White was deeply moved; his nose turned red. He now wholeheartedly believed that Ria was a good person, and that there was no one kinder than Ria in the world.

"You're welcome, Your Highness. It's all thanks to the Lord of Trade."

"Praise trade."

"Gulp." Little Swarth had almost finished eating, so it stretched out its tentacle, grabbed a napkin, and solemnly wiped its mouth. When Ria reached out, it slowly gripped Ria's arm and stood steadily above her.

"This little guy will take you to the hotel, and will also avoid the sight of suspicious people along the way, and act as your guard. Just ask it if you need anything."

"what is this?"

"Don't be curious about its identity. Alright, you can set off now."

"Wait, what about you?"

"I will take care of finding your family. Please don't worry, just leave everything to me."

As soon as Ria finished speaking, Little Swarth flew to the ground and transformed into a little girl with black hair and golden eyes. She grabbed White's clothes and started walking outside.

The child's face was as delicate as a doll's, but now she looked gloomy, in a bad mood, and impatient.

White didn't know what he had done to offend her, but soon after they arrived at the hotel, the girl turned into a ball of tentacles and crawled into his shadow, then led him into the room.

He may have misunderstood Swarth. In Swarth's expression management, it never gave anyone a kind look except to Ria. It's just that its face is usually too dark for anyone to notice.

If the host isn't Ria, Schwarz will show them what a truly inhuman, indescribable mythical parasite looks like.

At that moment, after paying the bill, Ria was about to leave the restaurant.

The moment he stepped out of the restaurant, another voice suddenly echoed in his mind, and it sounded very familiar.

【Ria...】

After that one sound, there was no further movement.

“Mentor?” Ria was stunned for a moment. He couldn’t find Ivand anywhere around him. This was probably an illusion, or it could be that Ivand’s true form had regained some consciousness and wanted to send him some message, or it could just be a simple greeting.

After waiting for no further response, Ria murmured to herself, "Wait a little longer, Master, you will be free soon."

"The good days for that group are coming to an end."

As he spoke, he began to gather information in his mind from the rat or pigeon followers, and then sent Little Swarth's clone to bring the people he found to a meeting point.

This job was tedious, boring, and exhausting. During this time, Ria also found a large group of bounty hunters and told them that she was also a hunter, successfully infiltrating them to search for a runaway prince or princess. "Click." The hunter next to her loaded bullets into his gun. This man was named Joseph, and he had a big beard with small green eyes on it.

Besides, this person is bald and can only cover up his baldness with a hat. His biggest wish is to earn money as soon as possible to grow a full head of hair.

Secondly, this person always seemed to be chewing something, and when Ria asked him about it, he deliberately spat it out for her to see.

It was a very hard stone.

Ria was puzzled: "Why eat stones?"

"Stones are the most durable food. You only need to sprinkle some seasonings to make them flavorful, and then you can gnaw on them all day. If they get tasteless in the middle, you can sprinkle some more. That's how we eat them in my hometown."

Joseph took out his own spices, which were some crushed, grayish-brown substances, mainly made from ground plants.

Then there's the fact that Enderles doesn't produce these things locally; the spices are all imported from abroad, and the import methods are probably either trade or war plunder.

They might wage war first, then forcibly plunder under the guise of trade.

Many cheap slaves came from this source.

"Kelcha, don't you want a piece?"

"No, I'm allergic to stones."

"You just don't eat if you don't want to. Who says they're allergic to stones?"

As he spoke, Joseph put the seasoned stone back into his mouth and chewed it like a candy, enjoying it immensely.

Riazé gave him a flatbread, which he ate with relish.

"You're not eating this because you can't afford to eat, are you?"

“Who can’t afford to eat stones? I just love eating stones. If I can catch that monster, I can get a lot of bounty and then exchange it all for stones to eat.”

Ria felt he wasn't being honest at all, so she simply ignored him. By this time, he had changed his clothes, wearing a hunter's cloak, a hunting hat, and long boots, and headed into the depths of the forest.

The young man nowadays carries a revolver in his waist pocket, a short knife strapped to his leg, and a hunting rifle on his back.

These are just cover; in a real fight, Ria might not need them. Sometimes, the speed of those tentacles can even be faster than bullets.

"I said, why are you walking so fast? I didn't expect you to walk so fast at such a young age."

Seeing that Ria had left him behind, Joseph continued munching on his pancake and followed: "Thanks for the pancake, Kelcha. How did you know I was hungry? I'll treat you to a drink when I earn the bounty."

"Okay."

"Then it's settled. But this bounty won't be easy to earn. We don't know where those monsters will suddenly appear from, so we must be careful and pay attention to safety."

Bounty hunters are typically ambitious and solitary individuals. They find it difficult to trust others and are eager to capture prey themselves without sharing it with anyone.

Therefore, everyone is now searching for their own targets. Once someone finds one, they must deal with it immediately, otherwise the consequences of attracting other bounty hunters would be unimaginable.

They might steal the prey, or they might kill everyone else so that the prey belongs to only one person.

But Joseph was clearly an exception; he seemed to have just come to watch the spectacle, and although he wanted prey, he wasn't willing to risk his life.

He followed Ria mainly to chat with him, but before he could say the next word, Ria suddenly raised his head and stared intently at a certain spot in the trees above.

Joseph looked up as well, but saw nothing.

"What's over there?"

"Maybe I just saw it wrong. You go look around nearby, I'll look over there. Don't go too far."

"Row."

Joseph continued chewing the stone in his mouth, gripped his gun, and walked to one side, while Ria also walked to the other side.

A dark figure on the tree pressed its body tightly against the trunk, its heart pounding rapidly.

Its tail dangled down the tree trunk, then quickly retracted, keeping an eye on its surroundings. Once it confirmed that the two people nearby had left, the dark figure breathed a slight sigh of relief.

But before it could fully relax, a person suddenly appeared beside it, and that person put their arm around its shoulder: "Good afternoon, Your Highness."

"..."

For a moment, it seemed as if time had completely frozen.

The shadowy figure's pupils instantly shrank to vertical slits. It turned its head as if in a frame, slowly rotating its head, its pupils trembling as it looked at the person beside it, and then it saw a huge wolf's head.

The gray wolf swallowed it whole, then transformed into its form and fell to the ground beneath the tree. Soon, a half-human, half-snake creature, wriggling with its long tail, appeared in the forest.

Its movements instantly attracted the attention of countless bounty hunters. In an instant, gunshots rang out in the forest. Soon, they surrounded the monster and all pointed their guns at it.

The monster rolled its eyes: "What do you want?"

"This guy can actually talk... Hahaha, what for? Of course, I'm going to capture you and exchange you for gold."

"But have you ever thought about this question?"

"what?"

"There are so many of you, but I'm just one. How are you going to divide it among yourselves?"

Upon hearing this, the hunters sneered, "You dare to come here and stir up trouble? How we divide the spoils is something to worry about after we kill you."

Immediately, someone objected: "They said they wanted it alive."

"Catch it yourself if you want; you're not very capable, but you've got quite the nerve."

It seems that there are disagreements among the group again; or rather, they have never been united.

Then the monster suddenly spoke up again: "Well then, I have a good idea."

"Don't let it talk anymore; thinking supernatural beings are a problem."

Monster: "Don't you have the patience to listen to me at all? Actually, I don't have much patience either."

“I don’t like people pointing weapons at me; it makes me feel very unsafe. And isn’t the reason you’re disagreeing just that the distribution isn’t fair? I can find a way to make it more evenly distributed…”

As the half-human, half-snake monster spoke, its pupils suddenly contracted, and its body was enveloped by countless pitch-black tentacles, undergoing a rapid transformation.

Upon seeing this, the hunters retreated. They discovered that the monster had somehow transformed into an enormous serpent, and its size was still growing, seemingly without end.

"Hahahaha, weren't you going to distribute it evenly? If you just kill me, this flesh and blood will be enough for you to make a fortune, so why are you all running away?"

The giant snake flicked its tongue, opened its gaping maw with fangs, and swallowed the fleeing bounty hunters whole. The only bounty hunter who escaped was probably Joseph.

(End of this chapter)