"Hold," Albert said, raising a cautionary hand. Meanwhile, he examined the approaching stranger with scrutinizing eyes. "By the looks of your garb, it doesn't seem like you're one of the villagers over there, but whatever your business here, stranger, you best not linger. There's a beast here that means to kill, and I'd rather not have it catch your scent."

Her scent. Monster hunters, being a unique caste and culture on their own, had developed magical and alchemical methods to alter the human body that it could function beyond the limits of the norm. The cat school may have placed emphasis on eyesight and hearing, but by no means were the other senses ignored. His nose was keen indeed, and sharp enough to differentiate the myriad smells that wafted in the air with varying vividness. The stranger's scent, it picked out shortly, and Albert found that she smelled distantly of autumn trees and the watery blooms alongside a lake. The flavor was mysterious and cryptic to his olfactory receptors, but then again, everything else about her screamed 'foreign,' from her loose-fitting garments to the polearm strapped across her back. Could it be that the girl came from Fuso?