Alex first went back to his room and changed into casual clothes, putting the robes of a saint away.
These were the clothes that Ethan had prepared for him on his order; they resembled the local casual wear that all people donned in the city of Ilma.
After getting ready, Alex led Ethan outside the church.
While walking, Alex asked in a calm voice,
"By the way, how good is the security of this city? I mean, do crimes often happen here, or is there a lot of security?"
Hearing Alex's question, Ethan replied with a tone filled with pride,
"No, crimes and such things barely ever happen in this city… as you saw yesterday, there are many young soldiers training in the training fields of the city…"
"They not only train but are also given the task of patrolling the city in groups! Not only does this improve the security of the city, but it also helps them all improve their coordination capabilities…"
Alex was surprised that the security in the city was quite good; medieval cities in his previous world didn't have such tight security.
'Well, the people of this world live in constant fear of monsters and bizarre creatures attacking them…'
'Thus, their military is likely very competent… if it wasn't, this nation would have seized to exist by now…'
When there are external threats, people unite very fast, and the monsters in this world are serving as the external threats who unite people greatly.
Unlike armies of his previous world, the soldiers and knights in this world do not have the luxury to desert the army and run away in fear.
When attacked by monsters and powerful, bizarre eldritch horrors, it's near impossible to run, and it's a better choice to stick with others and slay the monsters instead of running.
'In my previous world, nations fought each other over territory and resources, but at least the civilians were not the main target…'
'But here, if the army fails, the monsters will destroy the civilians first and torture them to death with worst possible methods…'
Alex had seen that bizarre creature ripping mercenaries apart in two pieces and bathing in their blood and internal organs.
Some even watched the creature open their stomach and gouge out their organs as they screamed in pain and horror.
Monsters like that exist in this world in a very large number, and they won't distinguish between friend and foe; for them, humans will just be food and a toy at most.
'Well… the tight security in this city can be troublesome for me though…'
'If the troops are patrolling the city all the time in various shifts, then that would mean it would be more difficult for me to create a rebellion or anything like that…'
'I guess I would need to go with a more disguised plan if I want the control of this city…'
High troop movement efficiency meant that Alex could not easily create a rebellion force while avoiding the eyes of constantly patrolling troops to overthrow the ruling count.
'Even if I managed to gather some rebellion forces in secret, they will not stand a chance against the trained troops who fight beasts and monsters all year long…'
Unlike his previous world, the soldiers and knights of this world were superhuman beings!
Even Jake, who's the son of Ethan and is not a 'Pathwalker' yet, can already split boulders in two with a single attack!
Ethan himself told Alex on the way to the city that Jake was strong enough to do this.
'If even normal people can split boulders… that means that the people of this world are naturally stronger and tougher than from my previous world…'
'Well, it may be that Jake is a bit too talented, perhaps, but splitting boulders as a normal person is still quite something… I can't do something like that even in my dreams…'
Alex knew his limits; his untrained and weak body was incapable of even lifting a water bucket for too long, let alone shattering boulders.
He was not in the same league as barbarians like Ethan and Jake, but that didn't mean Alex was completely helpless.
"Aha! We are here!"
After walking for a while, Alex and Ethan reached a jewelry shop.
Looking at the jewellery shop, Alex smiled and thought to himself,
'Thanks to the tour Ethan gave me when we arrived at the city of Ilma, I got to know quite a lot of nice places… Luckily, I managed to remember this jewellery shop…'
Without wasting any time, Alex entered the big and luxurious-looking shop with Ethan in tow and went straight to the shopkeeper.
"Yo! Old man, this benevolent young master here wants to sell this to you; give me a decent amount or my knight here will cut off your head and I will feed your corpse to my lovely dogs…"
Alex didn't even bother with pleasantries, and he went straight to threats and warnings as he placed a diamond on the desk of the jeweler.
It was a bright red diamond and looked very nice; even a person who knew nothing about diamonds could tell that it was something quite precious.
'Good thing, I managed to keep those old clothes safe…'
When Alex escaped through the Valley of Sorrows with Ethan and reached the town of Leonbrave, he changed his clothes to the normal villager boy ones.
But the original clothes he was wearing when he left the royal palace were not ordinary at all.
They were not only engraved with gold and silver; there were diamonds attached to them!
This bright red diamond was one of the diamonds that was embedded in those luxurious clothes but got ripped out when he was escaping in a hurry.
Alex already knew that he couldn't possibly lose such a valuable asset, and even in that dangerous situation, he grabbed it and stuffed it in his pocket.
'There are four supreme methods to reach great heights in the world; they are Power, Intelligence, Connections, and Money.'…'
'If you have any one of them in abundance, you can reach the pinnacle of the world easily…'
A devilish grin appeared on Alex's face, causing the jeweler to feel a chill run down his spine as he hurriedly started examining the diamond.
The shopkeeper was frightened by Ethan's sword and imposing aura, and he mistook that Alex was some noble's kid, as he was talking so arrogantly and referring to himself as the young master.
He immediately got to work without daring to ask any questions.
'The cultivation novels I read finally came in handy today… at least I got to learn how to act as an arrogant young master from them…'
With how cautious and nervous everyone was in the church while facing Alex, he easily figured out that the noble's children of this world weren't usually good people either.
They were likely infamous for being arrogant and immature, and that's why everyone was so nervous around them too.
So, Alex just had to act like an arrogant noble, and he could fool any ordinary person easily with Ethan as a knight tagging along with him.
'I wonder how much money I can loot from this guy though… I don't have much influence in the city or I would have looted his entire shop right now actually…'
'Sigh… being a villain is also quite an exhausting task…'