Owari had them directly deposit his money to his bank account. He didn't like carrying money since it was just pointless, physical money was just paper that could be easily destroyed. A number in an account was more tangible to Owari as it represented what was owed to him and not some arbitrary item he was told had value. He didn't understand some people's obsession with money. In the end though he didn't care enough to think about it. He only saw money as a means to an end and that was all that mattered to him. If other people wanted to become slaves to some piece of paper it wasn't any of his business. Instead he continued going about his day as he dealt with his business.
He visited the smith and commissioned five more swords much to the woman's amusement. She wondered why he would need so many, and when she heard his answer she was unsure whether to laugh or slap him. He was basically asking for them to slave away to make him something with the foreknowledge that he would definitely break it. While she wanted to smack him over the head, she also couldn't help but be impressed by his efforts to improve. In the end she settled on just accepting to fulfill the request.
After that Owari went for a walk around town as he thought of what else to do before going to see Lance. He couldn't visit Rebecca since the time she said to visit her was around eight or so at night. Noel didn't seem very pleased with that considering Rebecca had set the place to meet at her house. Owari didn't really think much about it, he knew the implication of both Rebecca's offer and Noel's annoyance about it but he played willfully ignorant of the whole thing. Although he was dense, he would pass into stupid if he was too unaware of the feelings of those around him. In the end he just chose to ignore the whole mess and hope it worked itself out one day. While he wasn't that dense, he was still a bit socially inept. Anyone with a shred of social skills would realize things like this don't just work themselves out. But there wasn't anyone around to tell him that so he just kept going as is.
Since he had no idea what else to do for the day he found a nice park somewhere in the middle of the city and laid in the grass with his hands behind his head as he rested. He was actually meditating and not sleeping since he was afraid he'd get mugged in his sleep, but it was still quite relaxing to lay in the grass and hear the sounds of people going about their day. Of course some people gave him funny looks and said some pretty nasty stuff about him being a homeless bum and all that, but he ignored them. He didn't care what others thought of him after all.
"Is that a sword?" Suddenly a voice cut through Owari's relaxing thoughts.
"It is." He didn't open his eyes and instead relied on the moth peaking through his haori to observe the guilty party. It was three kids, all about eight or nine. The one who spoke was a young boy with blonde hair and blue eyes. To his side was a girl who had the same hair and eyes and who looked slightly worried. On the other side of the boy was another boy who had brown hair and green eyes and who was a size larger than the first.
"How did you know I was talking to you?" The boy seemed surprised since Owari hadn't opened his eyes.
"Because I can see you. Like how I can see those two beside you." Owari answered as if it was obvious.
"Right..." The boy wasn't sure what else to say, but he shook it off and continued with his previous excitement. "So it's a real sword? Are you a hunter?"
"I am. Why?" Owari wondered what these kids wanted, after all most kids in the city weren't interested in becoming hunters.
"Can I see it?" His eyes sparkled as they were locked onto the sword.
"No." Owari immediately denied his request.
"Why not?" He whined as if Owari had denied him a meal.
"I don't feel like it." Owari calmly answered back.
"See? Didn't we get told not to talk to strangers? Let's go play." The girl tried to drag the boy off, they were probably siblings.
"I want to see though." The boy planted his feet firmly and refused to move.
"He already said no." The girl seemed to be afraid of Owari as she tried to get her brother to leave. This was how kids should be, instead of approaching random strangers.
"He was obviously lying about it, his swords are definitely fake. Who needs two swords?" The bigger boy said with a hint of mockery in his voice.
Owari however didn't show any signs of reacting to his words and instead just started to ignore the trio. He wasn't really interested in entertaining these kids, and he was even less inclined to pay them any mind seeing how rude the bigger boy was being. He wasn't petty enough to argue with a child but he certainly wasn't interested in interacting with anyone so confrontational. There were better ways to go about convincing people to do what you want then by claiming they are lying and trying to stir up their ego. As Owari began to wonder how long it would be until these kids got bored and left him alone he heard someone call out nearby.
"Hey, you three! What are you doing?" As these words came out Owari felt the voice was familiar, but as he thought about it he heard some steps before the person seemed to notice him and call out. "Owari? What are you doing here?"
As he heard the person call his name he had the moth in his haori peek out and confirm their identity. Seeing who it was he opened his eyes and looked over at her. "I didn't expect to see you looking after kids, Rebecca. So I take it these three are either relatives or connected to the Sapphire agency huh?"
"They are future hopefuls, each of them has an inborn affinity and above-average mana." Rebecca answered as she looked at them with a sigh. "I'm watching them today as a favor. I was also like them when I was younger and was taken in early. Their families are members of the agency and so they are raised from a young age to be hunters or staff for the agency."
"I guess that explains why they don't seem to be like other city kids." Owari closed his eyes and went back to relaxing as he spoke.
"That's one way to put it. I hope they didn't bother you too much." Rebecca seemed a bit unsure if Owari was still paying attention but she spoke up anyway. She had heard a bit about his personality from Noel, but she had been purposefully vague and mostly spent the time being passive-aggressive when the topic was on him.
"It's fine, I was about to ignore them anyway." Owari answered back honestly, causing both the group of kids and Rebecca to be speechless.
"Ignore us? Who's the kid now?" The blonde boy mocked Owari, it seemed he was a bit emboldened by Rebecca's presence. After he said that everyone looked over to see Owari had no intention of reacting, even after a few moments passed and the atmosphere grew awkward.
"You shouldn't be rude to Owari." Rebecca finally decided to scold the boy for his attitude.
"He was the one who said he was ignoring us!" The boy seemed offended that Rebecca didn't take his side.
"That's because you interrupted his rest and started bothering him. He doesn't have to give you his attention, but insulting someone and trying to mock them is just bad manners." Rebecca shook her head as she saw the boy's attitude.
"Who is he, Miss Rebecca?" The girl asked timidly.
"This is Owari, he's someone you should treat nicely." Rebecca answered the girl kindly.
"Why? He doesn't look that impressive, he's so small and sickly looking." The bigger boy didn't seem to like Owari much.
"He might look like that, but he's quite strong." Rebecca shook her head, it was clear that the two boys were quite proud. It was the typical response of kids in their situation. They are basically told they are special ever since they are born after all.
"Is he as strong as you?" The girl asked, she seemed to trust Rebecca a lot since as soon as she was told to be nice she stopped being afraid of Owari just like that.
"He's stronger." Rebecca said this without hesitation.
"She's lying, she could kill me in one attack." Owari finally spoke up again just to say this.
"Who's lying? If you had access to a mystic art I'd be inferior on every level." Rebecca argued back.
"But I don't so I'm not." Owari answered back in a lazy tone.
"Well, even without a mystic art you're still stronger than most hunters." Rebecca didn't feel like arguing in front of the children. Owari shrugged and continued to lounge about without a care in the world. "By the way have you been to see Lance? He's going on an expedition soon and he wanted to meet with you before then." She suddenly changed subjects, based on this Owari guessed she wanted to have a chat and didn't plan to just leave.
Owari opened his eyes and looked at her with an eyebrow raised. "I was going to see him today since I just got back from an excursion last night. Why do you ask?"
"You went out for a hunt? Oh yeah you're an independent hunter." Rebecca forgot for a moment that independent hunters didn't have a guaranteed livelihood like she did, so she was slightly surprised that Owari would go out to hunt so soon. "I was just wondering since he was interested in getting to know you a bit. He seemed to be depressed that you hadn't come to visit, I guess I know why now." She giggled a bit as she recalled Lance complaining about it to her.
"Have you been spending a lot of time with Lance lately or something?" Owari asked with a hint of curiosity.
Seeing his expression, Rebecca smiled a bit sweetly. "Why, are you perhaps interested in me?"
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"Not really. I'm just wondering since the two of you are from different agencies so it seemed a bit odd." Owari shook his head before smiling and explaining himself.
"How boring." Rebecca chuckled as she heard his answer. She didn't at all seem surprised or bothered by his lack of interest. "Normally it would be odd, but we are in the same generation and we did go through a lot together. We made a pretty good team so we decided to keep in contact. In fact we also talk with Noel often as well, it's only you really that none of us get the chance to see." Rebecca said this with a hint of dissatisfaction, unfortunately she was too subtle and Owari either missed it or ignored it.
"What about everyone else who was there like that woman who treated my wounds or that swordsman guy? I'm not much more special then them." Owari felt the attention he was receiving was unjustified and it was slightly uncomfortable.
"Well there's them too. But really it was the four of us who were the main reason the whole situation turned out so well. It's only natural people of similar level of ability gravitate to one another don't you think? Even if you can't fight with any of us, the fact that you can fight beside us means something. Besides among all those people you're the most interesting. I know why Noel wants to keep contact with you, and Lance says he feels you are similar to him so he wants to at least try and befriend you. As for me I just find you unique. Not many people can keep their beliefs in the face of a chance at success. If you had agreed to join my agency you would have been gifted a magical beast and mystic art of your choosing and would have been given a status way above mine. Yet you prefer freedom over all of that status and power. I admire it honestly." Rebecca decided to explain it openly since she doubted Noel or Lance would do it. Owari not only underestimated his own potential, but he also underestimated how refreshing his personality was to people like them who were used to people backstabbing and compromising for the sake of a small increase in standing.
"Since you said so much it's probably true." Owari preferred simple things, so seeing her explain it so seriously he just decided not to think about it. If they wanted to be his friends he shouldn't make it into some complicated game of politics. It was just a group of like-minded people getting along, nothing more.
"Well that was easy." She chuckled as she watched Owari accept it so simply as if it was a matter of course.
"I just like simple stuff, complicated things are annoying." Owari was as honest as always.
"I'd expect that from a spearman more than a swordsman but I guess it'll do." She joked with a smile.
"I'm a simple swordsman with a simple dream. That was something my father once said." Owari had probably taken that a little too literally, but it was one of the few things he remembered about the man. He didn't become this way because of that, it just happened to fit him.
"I see, so you're a lot like your father?" Rebecca asked curiously, she felt that it would probably be hard to learn much about Owari unless she took advantage of such openings to ask proactively.
"Not sure. My mom says so, but he died when I was young so I don't remember." Unfortunately this subject was one that had very little to explore. After he said this even the kids who were about to kick up a fuss from being bored quieted down.
"I see, I'm sorry for your loss." Rebecca wasn't sure what else to say.
"It's not like it happened yesterday. I lived more then half my life without him, so no need to act all apologetic." Owari knew that this subject tended to bother others, however he himself didn't mind it much.
"Well the kids seem to be ready to leave and we have a few things to do. We should talk again later." Rebecca decided to cut things off here. Since the kids were being quiet she hoped they might be more cooperative in saying farewell.
"Sure." Owari didn't feel the need to drag things out so he accepted the farewells and soon enough she had dragged off the kids.
After that he continued his relaxation in the grass and ignored all the pests around him saying and doing as they liked and simply enjoyed the buzz of the city in the background as he thought about a bunch of stuff. By the time he sorted out his thoughts and had rested enough for now it was about time to head out. He suddenly sat up causing a bird that had been perched on his chest to jump in fright. He held out his finger and the little guy suddenly grabbed onto it and sat comfortably. It was completely unafraid of Owari as he reached out and pet its head. It even showed some enjoyment out of the attention. As for Owari he found that the longer he meditated and improved his ability to feel the mana around him the more connected to nature he felt. The bird seemed to sense this and had less of a fear of him than it normally would. A few moments later however it seemed to notice something and flew off as Owari started to become more distinct and separated from the surroundings. It was a rather interesting feeling but he didn't lament over it and quickly got up and made his way to his destination.
The office building for the Amber agency in this city was small relative to a place like the Sapphire agency which was based here, but it was still a four-story building. It was painted orange and was very plain otherwise, they didn't seem interested in decorating their building. Owari entered the building and looked around. There was a single reception desk with a number of seats for waiting in the lobby. There were even a few people in the area sitting on some of the chairs and couches. Owari ignored them as he usually did when it came to random strangers and made his way to the front desk. Sitting there was a girl with a youthful appearance that made her look quite pretty. Owari started to feel the people in this city had an obsession with making pretty girls receive guests. Of course there were reasons for this, though none of those reasons interested Owari at all.
He was as unfazed as usual as he approached the counter. The girl at the counter seemed far less well trained than the previous few receptionists Owari had dealt with before. She was currently in the middle of cleaning her nails, and even when she noticed Owari approach she didn't immediately stop to greet him and made him wait as she continued what she was doing. Owari being who he was just stood there waiting patiently for her to do her job. He showed no sign of interrupting her or leaving and he simply stood there looking at her with a blank expression as if he couldn't care less what was going on around him.
She continued to ignore him for about a minute before she started to get uncomfortable. She had thought he would try to get her attention or at least complain, but he just stood there eerily staring at her. After the third minute ticked around she had finished cleaning her nails and couldn't keep pretending so she took a deep breath and put on the fakest smile in the world as she looked at Owari with annoyance. "May I help you?"
"I have an unscheduled appointment with-" Owari was interrupted before he finished.
"If it's unscheduled then I can't help you. You'll have to make an actual appointment if you want to meet with someone." She seemed to think Owari was just some random no-name, likely emboldened by the travelers pack on his back which was normally only used by independent hunters. Many of the other people in the lobby had similar packs.
"I see." Owari nodded and turned around to leave. He had no interest in arguing, he would just come back tomorrow and see if there was a better receptionist.
However before he even had the chance to walk out the door a voice called from the side. "Hey Owari, you came after all." It was obviously Lance who's tone was quite friendly, as if he was talking to someone he had known for years.
Owari turned to look and smiled lightly. "You even came to my place, so how could I ignore it?"
"Well I hope that wasn't the only reason you decided to stop by. I noticed you when you approached the building, what took so long for you to come up? And why did you look like you were about to leave?" He asked with some confusion as he looked over to the receptionist who was starting to sweat.
"You have a terrible receptionist." Owari walked over and sold the girl out without even glancing her way. "She took three full minutes to even greet me and didn't even let me finish starting my business before interrupting me. She's probably caused your agency a lot of losses during her employment." He was quite ruthless as he spoke without a shred of hesitation. He wasn't really holding a grudge against her, he was just telling it how it was. He knew it would cost their agency a lot to keep such a person in their employ, and Lance seemed like a nice guy so he wouldn't hold back his criticism.
"Is that so?" Lance looked at the girl with scrunched eyebrows. She did her best to smile but it was very forced, however she didn't say a single word during this entire time. "Well I'll just have to find a replacement then. What do you think of Owari?"
"Doesn't matter to me, it's your agency. Deal with it how your company policy dictates. I was just letting you know." Owari shrugged it off causing Lance to laugh.
"You're lucky girl, if he wasn't so nice you could have very well had your future ruined forever in this city. This is a warning, you'll be going back to basic training and if I find this happens again you'll never work in this city again." Lance strictly punished her, and he did it loud enough for everyone to hear to add some embarrassment into the mix. "Now everyone line back up and she should handle you properly this time. If you know anyone who has suffered similarly I ask that you have them give us one more chance." Lance turned to the crowd and bowed slightly as he apologized. "Now let's go talk upstairs." Finally he turned to Owari with a smile and the two walked over to the stairs with a relaxed pace.
The two made their way up into one of the top floor rooms, it was a pretty cozy space that was neither showy nor bland. "Tasteful." Owari commented honestly as he entered. Having gone to the Orion Tradecenter earlier he had more appreciation for the decoration than normal.
"Thanks. I chose the decorations myself. The last person in charge here had some really questionable choices. The curtains were made of golden thread, do you know how expensive it is to turn gold into a workable thread?" Lance sighed as he thought of the budget which he had painstakingly had to fix after arriving.
"Should be pretty hard, for curtains of that size it would be a few thousand credits." Owari calculated the price in his head. He knew both the price for gold due to his smithing experience and the price to work such hard material due to his mother's tailoring business.
"Huh, I didn't take you for someone with that kind of interest." Lance seemed genuinely stunned at how quick Owari had answered.
"I just happened to have the right experience for that particular question. If you had asked about the price of a table based on its wood I'd have been clueless." Owari laughed as he sat down.
"Fair enough. By the way did you get anything from your hunt?" Lance seemed to be quite a natural at keeping a conversation going with someone like Owari. Either that or he had good social intuition.
"I improved my skills a bit and managed to make some money. But really it was just an initial investigation, I'm doing some preliminary excursions before I go on a full expedition. That's when I actually intend to gain some benefits." Owari explained his plans a bit as he relaxed in his seat. It was pretty average but it wasn't overly plushy making it perfectly comfortable for casual conversation.
"You're quite cautious huh? Actually my own expedition is the same, except the ones doing the preliminary work are other members of the agency. Quite cowardly of me huh?" Lance smiled a bit bitterly as he thought about it.
"It's smart not cowardly. Making use of what's available is natural. I chose not to join an agency because I valued freedom over safety, however there's nothing wrong with valuing your life and acting accordingly. The reason I'm cautious is to maximize my survival chances after all. It would be hypocritical of me to judge people who value their safety over their freedom. Independent hunters who judge contracted hunters for valuing their safety and futures are no better than contracted hunters who look down on independent hunters for being dumb or unskilled for not being able to work under an agency. It's better to work together and improve than to fight over petty ideals that boil down to preference." Owari voiced his thoughts on the matter quite openly and even took quite some time to explain it.
"Huh, I never really thought about it like that. Though I have to say I'm surprised. From what Noel said you were a rather quiet person so I didn't expect you to be so talkative." Lance seemed surprised on a few levels at Owari's little speech.
"I'm not the most social person that I'll admit. However even I would find it easier to talk to another guy rather than a girl. Especially one who has that kind of interest in me." Owari admitted this easily.
"So you did notice?" Lance chuckled, he had thought Owari would miss it and Noel didn't seem to think he had noticed. Though to be fair she also seemed to think Lance hadn't noticed either.
"I'm dense and socially inept, not stupid. I wasn't sure at first, but after I spent the day walking around with her I was sure. She spent the entire time antsy and giddy, though she thought she hid it." Owari didn't seem to feel one way or the other about it and simply said things as is.
"So what do you think of her?" Lance asked curiously, he wondered what kind of person Owari was, this might help him find out. You could learn a lot about someone based on their romantic preferences.
"I'm not really sure honestly. I haven't known her long after all, and the last girl I had feelings for I had spent my whole life with and still got rejected so there's that. I'm not particularly interested in or ready for a relationship so I was thinking of just letting it sort itself out." Owari thought for a moment before saying this.
"That's a terrible idea." Lance sighed as he placed his face in his hand.
"Considering I came up with it, that makes sense. What do you think I should do then?" Owari honestly decided to ask for some advice, he was way too inexperienced so he decided to leave the problem to someone else.
"When I heard about what you were like, the last thing I expected our first interaction would be was talking about girls." Lance laughed as if he wasn't at all disappointed by this. "If you want I can give some advice, but honestly I'm not all that experienced either." He admitted this even though he doubted Owari would care.
"At least you aren't socially incompetent. It's fine." Owari was a bit serious about this. He had been a bit worried about this whole situation and he was uncharacteristically hesitant in how to handle it.
"I guess the first thing to ask would be how you feel about her." Lance shrugged and decided to do his usual and go with the flow.
"Do I look like someone who is in touch with his feelings?" Owari joked before thinking a bit seriously. "Honestly I'm not sure how I feel about her. What I am sure of is that I'm not interested in a relationship at the moment. Like I said I'm still getting over my last failed relationship, not to mention I want to take the time to adjust to my new life and settle my thoughts before I worry about that stuff." He shrugged as he finally voiced his feelings on the matter. It was the first time he really said this out loud and it helped him clear up his thoughts.
"You should probably just be open and honest then. You aren't interested in a relationship now, but from the sounds of it you don't seem against it in the future." Lance gave this advice after a bit of consideration.
"That sounds more like my style. It's not like me to overthink things like this, I'll just do that then." Owari settled his thoughts on the matter just like that. To be honest after hearing what Lance said he suddenly realized he was making things more complicated than they needed to be. Normally he could just turn a girl down openly like with Rebecca earlier, but when it came to Noel he couldn't bring himself to just step forward. This alone proved he had some interest in her, however he didn't really want to rush into this unprepared, and when he thought about it her actions showed she probably felt the same. After all it wasn't like she was asking him out directly or confessing her feelings. She was just interacting with him and trying to get to know him. Neither of them were the type to let their feelings control them easily, so it would be best for both if they just talked about it like adults. "Thanks, you've probably saved me from a lot of regret and problems in the future."
"No problem, it was helpful for me too. I never really thought about my own future relationships much but it's not like I’ll be young forever. Maybe I should put some thought into the matter." Lance laughed refreshingly as he watched Owari resolve himself.
"I probably won't be nearly as much help if you need advice as you were for me." Owari cracked a joke as the atmosphere became more relaxed around the two as they broke the ice.