Jace blinked and found himself lying on the ground in a grassy place. Standing, he found himself on a hill overlooking a small city. Looking himself over he found he was wearing what must be local clothing, his backpack had also been replaced with a framepack of similar size to the backpack he had had in Japan, though likely made from local materials. Inside he found a few changes of clothes as well as some sort of mess kit. Inside of it was a supply of salt, some familiar seasonings and spices, and a fire starting kit. The only other thing in the pack was a note from Alice thanking him for how he had treated Loli; the note was written in the local language and assured him that he could speak it just as easily as he was reading it. The note was written on a wood pulp paper so he tore it into strips and put it into his fire kit.
After Jace took inventory of his belongings he stood up and began walking to the city. The city was built in tiers, with what looked like a solid stone retaining wall that rose above the ground behind the previous layer. The apparent quality of the construction improved as it approached the city center. The gate was at the top of a sloping ramp with channels cut into it. He would later learn that these were for pouring down burning oil.
When he reached the city he was directed by a guard into a queue. The line was quiet as it approached the gate; there was an underlying tension, a fear of monsters attacking that kept the people alert and vigilant. “Show me your Identification.”
Jace looked at the guard and said, “I don't have any, I’m a survivor from an explorer expedition from far off. I can’t return on my own so I would like to settle here.”
The guard gave Jace an appraising look. “Alright, wait over there, and when I can spare a man I will have you escorted to the Residency Magistrate. They will handle any fees you owe, including your entrance toll.”
About fifteen minutes later a guard was given a note and walked over to Jace. “Hullo, I’m Burt. I’m’a escort you to your magistrate. He’s’a interview you and then he’s’a handle you from there.”
“If I stay here I will need some money, do you know of any way I can get a job easily?”
“I fig’ya’kin find a place willen to buy some things you can find out’a the walls. If yo’r desperate enough for it.”
“And what about places to sleep at night, something cheap?”
“I be’cha’kin sleep safe enough in one of the parks for a little while, till you ‘kin figure how to earn enough in a day for a cheap inn. It in’it legal but if you stick to the first tier you should be fine. Til ya‘kin rent a proper home though yor’a need to pay yor residence tax in person once a month. Once you have an address on record you ‘kin pay annually.”
“Thanks, I will keep that in mind. By the way have you heard of a bank?”
“A what?”
“It’s business that... keeps a treasury and accounts of people who have put money into it’s treasure. It makes money by charging fees for its services and by using the money entrusted to it in various ways.”
“Sounds shady. I wouldn’t trust anyone like that with my money.”
“Banks have always had that trouble. I take it there aren't any around here?”
“Na’sir nothing crooked like that.”
The rest of the walk was relatively uneventful, Burt pointed out various things about the city and things to watch out for. Jace listened and tried to start building a map of the city in his head.
The magistrate’s office was an excessive affair. It was just inside of the Noble’s Tier of the city which was built using gorgeous and expensive looking materials. There were some back offices but the current magistrate had set up the reception area with an open office plan, opting to use the rear offices for noble’s and for storage. The common folk met with officials in a set up that reminded Jace of a driver's license branch. A map of the city divided into districts with dates for various collection cycles reinforced the notion.
Burt directed Jace to a line and waited as it slowly moved forward. “Present your ID, and get your payment ready.”
“I hope I didn’t get into the wrong line, I’m applying for residency.”
Burt handed the official the note from the guard captain gave a salute and left. “I see, follow me.” Jace was lead into a meeting space behind the counters and sat in a wooden chair. The official handed the note and whispered something to the man who was waiting in the space before returning to his counter.
The official read the note before reaching into his desk and pulling something out of his desk, placing it on the table. “This says you came from outside the city-state, is this true?”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Yes.”
“That you are a survivor from an exploration expedition. Is this true?”
Jace looked at the object on the table. “The sky is purple?” The object began to glow. “No. As I understand it you wouldn't believe the truth so I gave what I thought to be a plausible and harmless lie. I have no ill intentions for this city or its rulers. I cannot guarantee this will remain true as I currently know nothing about the city except that which the guard that brought me here has told me and what I have seen and heard with my own eyes and ears.”
The object stopped glowing the moment Jace had begun speaking, and did not light up after that. “Do you have a source of income?”
“Not at the moment. I would appreciate help in that matter.”
“Do you have any useful skills?”
“I do not know.”
“What do you have in savings?”
Jace placed his money pouch on the table. “Just this.”
The official took out a scale and began checking the coins. “The currency is unfamiliar but taken as metals this will cover your fees. Do you believe you can support yourself in this city?”
“I do.”
The man looked at the device on the table for a while. It didn’t react to Jace’s last comment. Then he took out a thin sheet of dried clay. He placed the sheet into a tray with holes through it, then taking a piece of chalk he started filling in information before looking up at Jace. “Name?”
“Jace” the device on the table lit up. “More correctly Jace Adam Lee is what I consider my ‘Legal Name”. Jace is the name given to me by my parents for common use. Lee is the name used to identify my family. Adam is a name used to help separate me from other people named Jace who are from Lee families. This is the standard way people in my country are named from the lowest commoner to the highest officials.”
“So the lie was that you were giving a name for a ‘Legal’ Purpose but gave only your common use name?”
“I believe so.”
“Would you say this offers your city-state an advantage keeping track of its people?”
“No. We have so many people that our government uses numbers to track people. We use our names to track each other and to prove that our number belongs to us.”
“Strange. When were you born?”
“I don’t know how to tell you. In the local calendar I was born on the second day of April in the year nineteen ninety two of the so called Common Era.” The light lit up. “I prefer to use the traditional and correct term for the way we number our years. It makes no difference on your documents.”
“You know to the day?”
“To the minute actually. The precise days are recorded on documents that are used to record our births, my father knows the time as clocks are common in my country.”
“Magic items shouldn’t be that common.” He was staring at the device again.
“Ours are not magical.”
“Hm, your age?”
“Ahh… by my reckoning twenty three years and two hundred fifty four days. Based on three hundred fifty five days in a year with an extra day every fourth year.”
“Your calendar is very strange… and wrong.”
“I don't know that our reasoning applies here and it is strange back home too. With that said it is accurate enough for our purposes that no one cares.”
They spent some time discussing calendars before he looked at Jace and pronounced six years younger.
The official collected the rest of the information he needed from Jace and then took the clay tablet to begin punching holes through it using the holes in the tray. Once the official was finished he took the tablet to a cabinet and opened a door on the side; behind the door was a set of levers which the official operated before a pair of slots opened in the side of the cabinet. The man placed the tablet into one of the slots and took a blank metal plate the size of a credit card and placed it on a tray in the second slot. After fiddling with the cabinet a little more he returned to Jace.
“We use a magic tool to enchant a metal card in order to display your information. Once the device is finished working you will take the card and it will imprint itself with your magical signature.”
“...And that makes it possible to verify it belongs to me and not someone else?”
“For the most part, there are ways to trick it but they generally are easy to detect. Especially if you have a truth detector. Well, you might as well relax, the ID will take some time to finish.”
Jace slumped into the chair he was sitting in and started mumbling. “Coro, ao, blue. Set, aka, red. Sen, ringo, apple.” Then he gave the confused official a tired look and spoke in English saying “You don’t even know how ridiculous this is. I’m in the tax office of a freaking fantasy world.”
“What?”
“Nothing, I was just complaining in my native language. How does this thing even work?” Jace pointed at the truth detector on the table with his middle finger letting his other fingers droop.
“It’s magic… how else would it work. I seem to remember hearing that the mage created it by copying an older one. Ultimately it was probably just made by accident or is a copy of a holy relic. That's basically how magic works… isn't that common knowledge?”
Jace gave the official a nod before responding. “Where I come from mages are more or less a long forgotten memory. Do you have any suggestions as to how I might go about earning money in the short term?”
The official opened a book on his desk and showed it to Jace. The book seemed to be an apothecary manual, it was filled with illustrations of wild plants and their medical properties. The information seemed a little unreliable, mostly home remedies, speculation and other information Jace felt was superstition. The official turned to a few pages pointing out valuable herbs that could be gathered around the city. “If you don’t mind risking your life outside the walls then you should look for these herbs. I suggest you look for this one first, you just need to gather the leaves. Save up some money and buy yourself the right tools to properly harvest the rest of the plants. The rest of it will be based on your luck and how good you are at living off of a small income.” Jace spent the rest of the time waiting on his ID by memorising the various plants in the book. When the Id was finished he thanked the man for helping him.
Picking up the ID card was… an experience. Jace felt a sensation pass though his body and out his hand, likely into the metal card, as it registered his mana signature.