'Why did she not realize it until now?' A new question popped out of her mind. Ashley quickly found the answer, that was because she wanted to be acknowledged by her father. She desired that because her father was the only family member she had. She thought that if she followed her father's will, he would acknowledge and be proud of her. Yet now, she thought that was not the case. Just like Selena said, she was just a pawn for his ambition.
The sudden realization hurt her, he was the only family she had. Why? She could never understand that unless her father told her his thoughts. She wanted to know that even though she knew that the truth might hurt.
The more she thought about it, another question popped out of her mind, "What makes me part of your family?" That question blurted out from Ashley's mouth. The question was directed toward Selena.
Selena let out a chuckle at the innocent question. While Commander Ashley was skilled on the battlefield, this was something new for her, "When you become a man's wife, doesn't that make you and your husband a family? I am his... sixth or seventh? I forgot who's first between me and Arina but you are tenth. Welcome to Tang Family," Selena smiled widely.
"I never agreed to be his wife, don't include me in that nonsense." Ashley refused right after she heard she was the tenth. It was not uncommon to have several wives in the kingdom, but it was not something she desired to do.
"But you have done it with him, the thing that could only be done with a wife and a husband. If you want, I can set up a marriage oath between you and him, do you want me to?" Selena got even closer to Ashley and whispered.
Ashley's cheeks flushed red when Selena brought that up. That was a mistake and would not be repeated again. She was about to talk back until they heard Tang Shaoyang's voice, "I am sorry to interrupt the girls' talk, but we have arrived."
Selena and Ashley looked forward and saw the twenty meters wall. The gate was tightly closed but there was a small door for people to get through. There was a small line formed at the door, four people were lining up to enter the town.
Compared to the other two towns that bordered the Gigante Forest, Biaska Town was the least popular amongst the three. Biaska Town would be the last choice as the other two cities fared better since a noble governed the town.
Tang Shaoyang brought the battle-ax as Selena also got her spear out. She tried to hide her identity as a healer. They had agreed to pretend to be a hunter, a newbie hunter that wanted to try their luck in the Gigante Forest.
Ashley chose to focus on everything ahead of her. It was to help this man for now and maybe ask her great-grandmother. She might know something that she did not know. As for the new family thing. She put that on the back of her head. It was not something she would not think about, at least, not now.
The group of three followed the dirt road and approached the gate. When they arrived at the gate, the three became the center's attention of the guards because of Tang Shaoyang's eye-catching battle-ax. There were two people left ahead of them when they arrived at the gate.
They did not wait too long and their turn arrived, "Newbie?" the guard asked in a monotonous tone. The question was directed toward Tang Shaoyang since he was in the front.
"Yup," Tang Shaoyang nodded.
"One Hundred Game Coins if you want to enter the town unless you have Hunter Identification or you are a permanent resident of Biaska Town." The guard told Tang Shaoyang in the same monotonous tone.
"Alright, I will pay for them as well. They are part of my group!" Tang Shaoyang then pointed at the two girls with his thumb.
The guard nodded and offered his hand. Tang Shaoyang was confused at first, but he reached the guard's hand. Only then he realized when they did a handshake.
[Do you want to transfer 300 Game Coins to the Guard of Biaska Town? Yes. No.]
A notification screen appeared in front of him. A handshake was needed for doing a transaction. Inconvenient because he could transfer his Game Coin without touching anyone, but then he realized who had been doing that for him, Origin. Origin was the reason why he could transfer the Game Coins without an issue.
He chose yes and the guard immediately released the handshake, "You can enter now!"
"Alright." Tang Shaoyang nodded. He just walked three steps and there was a burly figure stopped in front of him, "Wait, Who says you can enter the city? You have to be checked first!" The voice was so loud in his ears because they were too close.
'See, trouble is coming for us.' Tang Shaoyang thought to himself as he looked up.