SSS Transmigration: I Can Extract And Evolve Overpowered Shadows-Chapter 21: Reaching Falmouth City (2)

The road widened as they crested the final hill, and Falmouth came into full view.

The city wall was old limestone, the kind that had been repaired so many times across so many eras that it had become a patchwork history of itself.

Behind the wall, rooftops crowded against one another, and above it all, rising from somewhere deeper within the city, a cathedral spire stood like a finger pointed at the heavens.

It was the most civilization Hinata had seen since coming to this world—not like he had seen any other to compare it with.

The road leading to the gate was packed. Merchants with groaning carts, travelers in road-dusted cloaks, a man walking three goats that seemed deeply opposed to the concept of forward motion.

Hinata stretched his neck to see why the crowd was moving slowly. Only then did he notice the guards in half-plate standing at the gatehouse.

Chris rolled his neck and sighed pleasantly. "Home sweet home."

Geret was already fishing through his vest pocket, producing a small laminated card. He held it up between two fingers, a grin on his face. "Don’t forget your ID card, old man! You know they’ve been stricter ever since the lady visited."

Hinata watched others in the line pull identical-looking cards from their pockets, bags, and coin purses, which made him tilt his head.

As far as he could tell, this world was clearly medieval. Then why did they have the same system Earth had?

"Hinata," Chris said, glancing over. "You do have your card, right?"

Hinata shook his head once, not the faintest hint of awkwardness in his movement.

"...Right." Chris exchanged a look with Geret. "You haven’t registered with any city, have you?"

"I’ve never been in one."

Both Geret and Chris paused. Then, with a flicker of hesitation, the old man asked, "Never? Like, never ever?"

Hinata stared at the man for a long moment. It wasn’t like he could tell them he came from another world, just like the heroes. To tell the truth, he wished things were that easy.

However, now that he had zero knowledge or backing in this world, he couldn’t take such a risk.

With a breath, Hinata spoke in the most serious voice he could muster—though that hardly mattered, since his voice and expression rarely changed.

"I grew up in a faraway mountain with my grandfather. He passed away two years ago, so I decided to come down and explore the outside world."

Chris exhaled through his nose, something between sympathy and mild exhaustion. "I pity you, kid, but even with all that, you’ll still need a Traveler’s Pass before they’ll let you through. Normally, you’d register at a central hall, get your biometrics logged and all that stuff—" He paused, looked at the line ahead of them, then back again. "But I guess we can’t exactly do that without entering a city."

"Can’t we vouch for him?" Geret asked. "Since we are locals of Falmouth, the guards would at least let him stay temporarily before he gets an ID."

Chris stroked his white beard. "I guess that should be possible."

They both glanced at Hinata and flashed their brownish-gold teeth that matched Geret’s hair color. Hinata simply smiled back, which made the two men unexpectedly happy.

As the line continued to move, Geret began rehearsing the explanation under his breath, giving Hinata a thumbs-up each time their eyes met.

After several minutes, they finally stood in front of the massive gate. The first thing Hinata noticed upon reaching the front was that, unlike the aged walls, the gates were still new, as if they had been installed recently.

Normally, this wouldn’t have been something he would dwell on, except for the fact that the gate was roughly the same size as the one leading out of the Shadow God’s chamber.

Hinata shook his head at the thought. ’Why am I getting paranoid?’

It wasn’t like the people of the city would just laugh as cultists ripped off their gates and carried them through the mountains into the forest.

Hinata paused, finding the idea strangely believable. Then again, he couldn’t exactly use himself as a baseline since he wasn’t entirely okay in the head.

He squeezed his eyes shut as a sharp pain pounded at the back of his skull.

After calming his thoughts, he opened them and studied the guard currently speaking to Chris.

The guard was a broad-shouldered man with a thin scar running through his left brow and a city seal pinned to his collar.

"Cards."

Geret produced his, and so did Chris. The guard glanced at both, stamped a ledger, handed them back, then looked at Hinata.

"Card."

Chris was already opening his mouth. "So, about our companion here, he’s a—"

"I wasn’t asking you," the guard snapped, his eyes never leaving Hinata. "Card."

Hinata met his gaze. "I don’t have one."

The guard’s expression didn’t change immediately. Then something behind his eyes shifted. "You don’t have one?"

"No."

"Why?"

"I grew up in the mountains. I’ve never registered with a city."

The guard looked at him—really looked at him. The plain clothes, the absence of sigils or rank marks, the complete lack of anxiety on his face. Something about that last part seemed to irritate the man more than anything else.

He drew himself up.

"Do you understand..." he barked, his voice rising with restrained authority, "where you are standing right now?"

He gestured broadly at the gate, the crest on his collar, the wall itself. "This is Falmouth, a city under Sterling County. Do you know what that means?"

He didn’t allow Hinata to answer. "That means we are under the direct stewardship of an Archbishop. We have standards to keep. And it is people like you—people who can’t be bothered to register, who wander in from whatever hole they crawled out of—who make this city look like it will take anyone."

A few people in nearby lines turned to look.

Seeing this, the guard stepped closer and placed a hand on Hinata’s shoulder.

With a silent grunt, he pushed down—but Hinata did not move. In truth, his mind wasn’t even fully present.

’Sterling?’

Hinata could have sworn he had heard that name before.

He tried to recall where. Then suddenly, the memory jolted open in his mind, and anger surged through him—though he forced it down.

’That psycho!’

He remembered it clearly now: when she had introduced herself as Albedo Von Sterling. At the time, he had assumed it was an alias, but perhaps that wasn’t the case.

Still, he couldn’t help but wonder if she knew this guard—and if the guard knew her.

Hinata finally snapped out of his trance. Only then did he notice the guard’s scrunched face, as if he had eaten something foul.

"Are you okay?" he asked with genuine concern.

The man didn’t reply, so Hinata followed his gaze. It landed on his shoulder—on the hand resting there.

Hinata tilted his head, trying to make sense of what was happening, but failing completely.

He glanced to his side. The nearby line had gone very quiet, every face turned toward him.

He looked back at the guard. The man’s expression cycled through three emotions in rapid succession. He ground his teeth, inhaled sharply through his nose, and his free hand curled into a fist before slowly relaxing.

Seeing no point in the silence, Hinata reached into his coat and brought out an ID card.

The guard, who looked like he was about to lose control, froze. His expression gradually relaxed.

Geret stared, wide-eyed.

Chris’ jaw went slack.

"—" Geret started. "Why didn’t you bring it out earlier?"

Hinata scratched the back of his neck. "I didn’t know what it was until I saw everyone else’s."

The guard took the card with fingers that weren’t entirely steady. He examined it carefully, his eyes scanning its surface as if searching for something to justify his earlier anger.

Finding nothing, he sighed—a long, slow, somewhat defeated sound.

"You should have presented this immediately," he said. "What if I had actually decided to hurt you?"

He held it out. "Don’t try this in another city, got it? Not every guard would be as nice as I am."

As he continued talking, the crowd growing more shocked with each word, he raised his head and noticed Hinata staring intently—not at his face, but at his hands. Specifically, the card.

"...What are you looking at?"

"Making sure you don’t do anything to it."

The guard stared at him. The vein at his temple, which had only just settled, throbbed back into prominence.

He placed the card firmly into Hinata’s palm and said, very quietly, "Enter."

The moment Hinata crossed the gate, Goku appeared out of thin air and coiled around his shoulder.

"Hina, why didn’t you just beat him up?" he asked. "From what I can sense, there doesn’t seem to be a particularly strong Awakened in this city."

"Well, I’m not the type to bully the weak. Plus, there are other ways of doing things besides beating people up," Hinata whispered.

The card in his hand vanished into nothingness, as if it had never existed.

Hinata smirked at this as he moved toward the two figures waiting for him beyond the gatehouse arch.

Geret, grinning, spread his arms slightly. "Welcome, Hinata, to our great city of Falmouth."