Chapter Sixty Two
“Seriously!? Again!” Joe’s anger broke from his control, the repetitive arrogance and belittling of the people of the inner city having worn his control quite thin.
Joe’s loud cry quickly caught the attention of the guards in front of the library as well as the rude shop owner who’d obviously called for the guards. Joe had no patience left to deal with this and stalked up towards the guards.
His thundering anger and stalking charge towards the guards brought them all to a halt as those that had immediately started towards him found themselves nonplussed by his direct march towards them. The shopkeepers angry shrieks directed towards him petered out when he saw Joe’s anger almost physically manifesting, his scowl turned to surprise laced with fear.
Joe completely ignored the man, and turned to look at the guards coming towards him. While Joe attempted to maintain a polite tone, his comment still came out sternly.
“Where is your captain?!”
The guards had come to a full stop at this point, confusion freezing them in place before they all looked to the same woman. The woman, however, stepped forward without hesitation and faced him, grim determination flavored with annoyance obvious in her demeanor.
“I’m the captain,” she replied bluntly, “And you are to come with us.”
“Ma’am. I have no intention of coming with you. If you wish to arrest someone for disturbing the peace, please arrest the shop keeper who is offended that I walked into his store. Is it against the law to walk into a person’s store?”
The captain stopped at that and looked back at the shop keeper, anger flashing across her face before she looked back. While she had been looking at the shop keeper, Joe pulled out the medallion and held it out towards the captain.
“If you have any other issues, take this or consult the matriarch. I have little patience anymore with petty, small minded, arrogant assholes who treat others like shit.”
When the captain turned back around and saw the medallion in his hand, her eyes narrowed before she stepped forward and took the medallion from him. She stared at him for several moments before stepping back from him until she was surrounded by her guards once more. Her eyes didn’t leave him, but Joe felt her emit mana into the medallion and his eyes flickered down at the medallion when she did so.
When he did look down, her eyebrows flickered upward in shock that he noticed her emitting mana before genuine shock froze her and dropped her jaw, her look quickly turning from Joe to the medallion. She stared at it for several seconds before glaring at the shopkeeper with thundering anger. Her angry glance didn’t stop her from rapidly bowing and apologizing to Joe. All the other guards, seeing their captain bow, rapidly joined her in deep bows.
“Apologies, dignified guest of the clan. Please feel free to enjoy our fair city.”
Joe nodded with a sigh, “I have no anger towards you and your guards, but you may consider teaching your people how to be considerate. I have met nothing but rude disrespect since I have arrived from any and all people, including guards. Clothing means little to who a person is. It may be wise for your people to learn this. I do not place this burden on you, as you had no place in this, but speak it only since many are watching and listening. Maybe they will learn. Blind bigotry, however, seems to require violence to bring about change, many times. I can only hope your city will not need it.”
Like the captain at the bank, this captain also bowed deeply and held the medallion out to him with a fully outstretched two handed gesture. Joe accepted the medallion from the captain and stepped back.
“Thank you for resolving this quickly. Please stand. You have no need to bow. You did nothing but your duty. Stand up.”
“Ah… thank you for your kindness, dignified guest. We will deal with the shop keeper, arresting him as you asked to…” The captain spoke as she stood back up, although she was much more reserved and respectful at this point.
“No. Please don’t. He was incredibly rude and downright belittling. But what he did was not unlawful. I will simply stay away from him and have nothing to do with him or his goods. That is enough punishment for a merchant.”
The captain actually chuckled at that, nodding, “True. A merchant’s heart is in his purse.”
Joe’s eyebrows shot up at that as his own chuckle joined the captains, “Huh… never heard that saying before. But… it probably is true. Thank you. I will continue on my way.”
Joe nodded to the captain, who returned the nod with a slightly deeper bow of the head, “Have a good day, dignified guest of the clan.”
The captain then called the guards to her side and they settled in around her in two long lines of six, following after her. Joe watched them go before sighing and turning to the library. The shopkeeper who’d started all this was long gone with the shop even closed and the windows shuttered curtains drawn, and no lights or signs of life showing from it. Joe snorted when he noticed the quick retreat of the shopkeeper and ignored him, walking into the library.
Joe stopped and turned in the doorway, watching the guards leave before continuing into the library. When he entered, the librarian looked up and smiled brightly before cocking his head a bit in confusion.
“You … the guards did not stop you?”
“The guards were not told the truth of who I am.”
“Ah. Then welcome back. Were you able to retrieve your funds?”
“Yes. I have the money. But before I purchase the job crystal, I have a question.”
“Yes?” he replied politely.
“Do you truly wish to be a novelist?”
“Yes?” the librarian asked with some confusion.
“Then could I offer you a deal? I will purchase the novelist crystal for you but I only ask that I can see your stats before and after you use the job crystal.”
The librarian stared at him in stunned shock, unable to respond or speak as he simply stared. His mouth actually gaping open and shut for a few moments before he excitedly nodded his head and replied, “Yes! Truly! I will take you up on your offer! I would love…”
“But!” Joe interjected, “You can’t quit your job until you have a good source of income. Many people make foolish decisions believing they can easily do something or create something but fail to realize how much time and effort it takes to do it. Don’t quit on your dream, but don’t give up this job at the library until you are making money from your new job. Maybe practice and create your own stories while you work for a time. It seems that your job here would give you lots of time to practice and create your stories. You seemed surprised I was here. Not many come, right? So you would be paid to sit here and you can make your stories while being paid.”
The man listened carefully, at first distressed by Joe’s caveat before quickly recognizing the genius behind Joe’s suggestion and rapidly agreeing, “Yes! Yes! I promise!”
Joe smiled and nodded, “Great. Here’s seven steel bits. I’ll take one novelist crystal.”
The man smiled brightly before leaping from his seat and dashing into the back. He didn’t even enter the backroom as he simply opened the door and reached around into the room to grab a box without even looking before bringing it out and setting it reverently down on the table in front of him.
“Right. Let’s make sure that this is the correct crystal.”
The man blinked at that before nodding quickly and pointing out the pictogram on the top of the ornate lid. The picture was of a man standing with a wide stance before a crowd as he obviously spoke or sang out. At the top of the picture were two stars. He studied the picture for a bit before glancing up.
“So, one star is story teller and two stars is novelist?”
“Yes, that… how did you know?”
“It seems obvious, but how do you know if it is a story teller and novelist or a singer. It could be a singing job, or a speaking job maybe?”
“The singing jobs have &^&%*…” there was a pause before the bubble of magic formed around the librarian and exploded outward before words continued, the last couple of words actually sounding out after the librarian finished speaking. Wow… I feel like I’m watching a bad dub in real life! “… notes and singing pictographs on the picture so it’s easy to tell.”
Joe found himself too busy thinking about the odd effect and responded a bit late, “Ah… right, that makes sense.” But how do they have pictures of notes when they have no idea of written language… although… Joe looked down at the pictures and reconsidered. Rudimentary beginning of a language?
Joe dismissed his thoughts and focused on the moment, “Anyway, you said we have to go to the priest to change your job?”
“Yes. After I use the crystal, I’ll still have my old job.”
“Then could we meet tonight after you job is finished?”
“Um, yes we could, but… could we go now?”
“Don’t you have to work now?”
“I could call a friend.”
Joe considered it before deciding that having it done now would certainly be preferable and nodded his head.
The man smiled and quickly ran into the backroom. He was gone for about five minutes before he returned, “My replacement should be here in just over a bell.”
Joe nodded, unsure what a bell was, but both Kilniara and the librarian seemed unconcerned with the time so Joe decided to get some information on the librarian’s current stats.
“Could you show me your stats now, then?”
The librarian looked up at him then smiled, “Sure.”
The librarian smiled and glanced up at Joe before quickly flipping up his status page easily enough. Joe asked him to flip the page over to his current job page and the librarian happily obliged after a bit of confusion then excitement after he learned something new about his status.
Status
Blessings
Current Job
Available Jobs
Current Skills
All Skills
Log
Garneslin
Status
Physical Resistances
HP
24.00
Physical:
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
SP
24.00
Piercing
0.00
MP
24.00
Crushing
0.00
Attack
24.00
Slashing
0.00
Defense
24.00
Magic
24.00
Magic Defense
24.00
Strength
24.00
Dexterity
24.00
Merchant
24
Agility
24.00
Speed
24.00
Endurance
24.00
IQ
48.00
Wisdom
48.00
Learning
1.00
Luck
6.00
Joe looked over the status page and found nothing new or unusual, finding he was a merchant and that he’d lost all his learning stat, an obvious result of him taking his Coming of Age Blessing and his free level ups over the years. Joe nodded his thanks to the man for showing his current status and then engaged in small talk until a younger woman came in from the back and the librarian greeted her with enthusiasm.
“Thank you so much for coming! I need to go to the temple and I’ll be right back, OK?”
“OK?” she asked with some confusion.
“Thanks!”