"Well then, Brother Salwyn. This is where we part ways. Just take the train over there and you're good to go."

"Yes, Brother Garus." Reivan held out his hand and then nodded respectfully toward the other battlemages standing back. "Thank you for your help. And to the others too."

"No problem. Just part of the job." Garus smiled and took the offered handshake. His grip was firm and his demeanor seemed sincere. "Anyway, I'm sorry we can't actually escort you to the tower itself, but we have other matters to attend to, you see."

"There's no need for apologies. You've done enough."

"In any case, with how close we are to Vel Ayala now, the chances of being compromised along the way are slim to none. You have no need to worry."

"I'm glad to hear that."

Garus chuckled then pulled out what seemed to be an envelope. "Oh, and here you go. A gift from yours truly."

Reivan raised a brow, hesitant to take the gift. "What's this for...?"

"New clothes. Yours look a bit worse for wear... I assume it's from jumping off a cliff, getting dragged off to nowhere by a ravine, and then wading through a forest."

"Uhm... I think they were like this even before that..."

"Really?" Garus chuckled then shook his head. "Anyway, just take it. Vel Ayala's still two stops away, so along the way, buy a few shirts and pants to wear underneath the robes you'll be getting. You'll need it. Trust me."

"But... I actually just received some money from the Star of Fortune's people for the inconvenience."

"Oh, that? I know about that. But just take this anyway. More money never hurts, yeah?"

"Well..."

"You're a shy one, huh? C'mon. This is nothing for me! Just take it."

Reivan pretended to hesitate for a few moments before eventually taking the money and nodding. "I'll remember this."

Garus laughed as he turned around, waving goodbye without looking back.

'A sly one.'

Reivan vaguely understood what Garus was doing — it was similar to what Reivan did when he treated Maya to drinks and breakfast.

At the moment, "Clover Salwyn" was still poor. Likely, his terrible financial situation was noted down on his profile, which people tasked to guard him would have access to.

By demonstrating generosity now, they might earn the favor of a potentially skilled battlemage.

And the only thing they would lose was money — a plentiful resource that would degrade in value once "Clover Salwyn" eventually started accumulating it.

‘Hmm… Maybe I’m being too cynical? Am I mentally ruined, I wonder?’

Of course, there was always the possibility that Garus was just that much of a good person. At the very least, Garus had never lied even once during their time together.

But Reivan thought that the gesture being purely made out of kindness was unlikely.

It was one thing to give a penniless person some money to buy new clothes, and another thing entirely to give it to someone who had just received a hefty lump sum earlier that day.

‘Anyway. Free money. Yay.’

Reivan watched the “kind” battlemage and his squad members go before buying a ticket to his next stop. Some people were giving him looks since he was just interacting with half a squad of battlemages — who, in turn, stood out for wearing purple robes in a country where wearing monotone colors was the norm — but Reivan just ignored them all and minded his own business.

After buying the ticket for the next train that would take him closer to Vel Ayala, Reivan lined up and managed to board it without any trouble. It ended up being very full though, but the person sitting next to him didn’t seem keen on talking or feeling him up — which was nice.

By the time night fell and the trains stopped for the day, Reivan was one trip away from the famed city of sorcerers.

----------------------------------------

“Thank you for your purchase!”

Holding a brand-new briefcase, Reivan walked out of a clothing store wearing a new white shirt, an equally new pair of jet-black slacks, black leather shoes, and a fancy coat that looked to have been woven from a portion of the night sky — complete with stylish golden threads embroidered into the hems.

It wasn’t too gaudy though, which was just the way he liked it.

‘I feel so damned good.’

It wasn’t at the quality where someone would try to sell it to a prince, but the ensemble was still quite good. Reivan had always taken for granted just how lucky he was to wear the best of the best. But having experienced rags, going back to something somewhat decent was a breath of fresh air he never knew he needed.

The clothes one wore truly did affect one’s mental state.

‘It’s a bit out of character for Clover to go for the expensive stuff. But…’

If someone really asked, he’d just say that since Garus gave him money to buy clothes, he felt the need to spend it all on clothes. And if he only bought cheap stuff, he’d be stuck with a huge inventory before he spent every cent.

So “Clover Salwyn” begrudgingly bought some expensive stuff to honor the kind intentions of the battlemage who had helped him.

Reivan smiled as he strolled through the streets, leisurely observing the people passing by. He had asked the employee for inn recommendations and discovered that there was a reasonably priced one just a minute’s walk away from the clothing store.

And it really was only a minute away.

“Welcome!”

Reivan nodded and ducked inside, quickly negotiating for a room. He followed the innkeeper to a nice and cozy bedroom before leaving the briefcase inside. In it was the rest of what he bought at the clothing store inside, in addition to an extra pair of shoes. Obviously though, his wand and all his money stayed with him as he went back down to grab a meal.

As was the case with just about every inn he had visited, it had an attached tavern-slash-restaurant.

And it was here that Reivan unexpectedly ran into an acquaintance.

“Clover?”

“...Maya?”

He stopped on his way to an empty seat at the counter when he saw Maya, who seemed to be sitting with a handsome young man. And right next to them was a somewhat pudgy girl digging into her meal.

Reivan’s eyes then focused on the meal in question.

‘Oh, they have steak… That looks really good...’

Meat dishes were Reivan’s undisputed favorite so the fact that they were offering steak dishes was a significant discovery to him.

Sadly, Clover didn’t like them because they were usually expensive.

‘I don’t care though. I'm having steak. I deserve a break after all that shit.’

“Anyway, bye.” Reivan casually said farewell to his female acquaintance and sat at the counter, immediately hailing the barmaster. “What kinda steaks you got, old man?”

“It’ll cost you. Meat’s been hard to get these days.”

Reivan pulled out a folded bill and slid it across the counter. “This enough?”

“...Yeah.”

“Then answer my question.”

There was a moment of silence between them before the man chuckled and started listing off the meat menu. Reivan couldn’t decide because he actually didn’t know what thirty percent of them were, so he just asked for a recommendation.

“Wait here, boy. I’ll get you your meat with extra meat.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Reivan watched the man head to the kitchen with anticipation, wincing when someone suddenly slammed their hand on his shoulder.

“You’re being way too cold, Clover.” Maya’s grip strengthened as a faulty smile graced her damp lips. “And with all the crap that happened too!”

“You’re alive, aren’t you? I am too. I don’t see the problem. Let’s move on.”

“... I don’t know if I should be in awe or exasperated right now.”

“Whichever you choose, do it over there. With the guy you were sitting with.”

“Oh?” Maya ignored his grouchiness, sitting down on the empty seat next to him. “Are you jealous~? Don’t worry, that was nothing. He was just trying to talk me up and I was thinking of getting a free meal out of him.”

“You’re a horrible person... Mothers warn their sons about girls like you.”

“Hey. That’s harsh... It’s not like I force them to spend their money on me. You’re here now so I let him down easy.”

“Whatever.” Reivan rolled his eyes so far back that he might have actually glimpsed the top of his skull for a moment. “Don’t bother me. I wanna focus on my steak.”

“You’re oddly passionate about this…” Maya raised an eyebrow at him before returning to her usual self. She leaned back a little to get a better look at him and whistled, reaching forward to give his arm a squeeze. “Anyway, I almost didn’t recognize you. You dress up nicely, huh? Yum.”

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Thinking that he had some spare time to kill before his meal arrived, Reivan decided to humor the talkative woman for now. But not before heaving a deliberate sigh. “I got a bit lucky. The battlemage who helped me out gave me a handout because my original clothes looked like crap.”

“He was right. You looked like a beggar.”

Reivan actually agreed, but just when he was about to feign offense at her statement, he remembered what Garus said earlier.

Now was the perfect time to confirm some things with someone who stayed behind. “Anyway, did anything happen after I left?”

“Oh! That’s right.” Maya punched her palm in realization and nodded. “Get this, about five minutes after you jumped, there was some kind of commotion. Apparently, someone took a look at the crates? I was there but I didn’t see anything, so I still don’t get what happened.”

“How informative. Then what?”

“Yeah. Well, right after that, the rest of the Custodian Guards showed up to report something to Mr. Valand. Obviously, I couldn’t listen in on what they said.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Afterward…” Maya gulped and bit her lower lip, a furrow in the middle of her brows. “It went dark.”

“... Dark?”

“Yeah. Like, there was black smoke everywhere. Like the stuff that filled the forest, remember?”

“Oh…”

“Then there were some really loud noises. By the time the smoke was gone, just about everyone was dead.”

Reivan’s eyes widened. “Dead? Everyone?”

“Yes. There were… three of those black rabbits inside the cave too. Not alive, of course."

"I assumed so."

"Yeah, and... and they were dead. Everyone… Mr. Valand, the employees, and the guards… even…”

“...I see.” Reivan thought back to the Custodian Guard that helped him and Maya out during the chaos. “That’s unfortunate.”

They both spent a moment in solemn silence, broken only when Reivan’s steak arrived. He ordered some wine too, so he could drink in the dead man’s honor.

Drink in hand, Reivan let about a quarter of it drip down the floor so even the dead could have a drink in the afterlife. Strangely, this was a tradition that both Aizen and Arkhan had.

In both countries, any bar owner would be mad if you accidentally spilled alcohol on the floor but nobody would bat an eye if you did it intentionally.

"To Deni." Reivan raised his cup and downed it all in one go. He immediately felt regret strike him at the same time as the dizziness did, but he endured. "May he rest in peace."

“You lost someone, boy?” the bar owner noticed Reivan’s actions, asking with a gruff tone.

Reivan looked up and nodded. “Yes, sir. Only met them today. But they saved my life.”

“That so?”

The bar owner threw a glance at the equally solemn Maya and nodded. He ducked back into the kitchen for a moment, coming back out with an unopened bottle of wine and an empty mug. After filling the tankard, he proceeded to let the wooden floorboards drink all of its contents before filling it again, this time, downing the alcohol himself.

Noticing him, everyone else in the bar who had a drink in hand let some of it drip down to the floor, raised their mug, and then downed what ale was left inside.

“Everybody. Your drinks are on the house.”

After slamming the opened bottle atop the counter and taking out a new mug for Maya, the barmaster silently went to the kitchen despite nobody ordering anything. And even with the fortunate development of getting free alcohol, nobody cheered or celebrated.

It was clear that everyone was mourning a stranger’s death in their own ways. Or perhaps they were remembering someone they lost too.

“That was nice of him.” Maya smiled and took the bottle, examining it carefully and even taking a whiff of its aroma. “Hey, hey... This is good stuff. Clover, let’s get drunk, yeah? Okay? You'll get drunk with me, right?”

“Sure…” Reivan nodded and looked down to cut up his steak. “But not too much. And I want to eat first.”

“I’m pretty hungry myself.”

“Good thing you’re pretty loaded right now. You won't freeload off me, will you?”

Maya sighed and called out toward the kitchen, ordering a meal of her own.

“Anyway, how’d you live through that” Reivan asked when the bar started to regain its previous drunken atmosphere. “If even the Custodian Guards died, shouldn’t you be dead too? I mean, even the employees died, right?”

Maya shrugged, sipping on her drink. “Beats me. All I know is that I was the only one in there. Even the crates were emptied.”

‘Huh. So that’s what happened.’

It seemed the black rabbits really weren’t all that bad. They prioritized retrieving their kin and only killed the people who were actually guilty. How in the world they knew who was guilty was a giant question mark though.

‘They’re not monsters after all, then.’

There was absolutely no reason to leave Maya alive when everyone else in the cave was dead. Maya would have been unable to resist too, since she had run out of mana and couldn’t even see anything.

That meant the black rabbits purposely spared Maya's life.

Monsters didn’t have morals though, so if that was what the black rabbits based their decision on, then that meant they weren’t monsters at all.

'If that's really the case... then their value does warrant all this commotion.'

It made perfect sense to Reivan why the Star of Fortune wanted the species for themselves. Once domesticated and trained, they could be a good fighting force — similar to Aizen’s huskies. In fact, it might even be a good idea to make a move himself.

And by "making a move himself", Reivan actually meant sending the people at the embassy a message so they could do it instead of him.

“After that…” Maya continued, resting her elbow on the counter. “I was stuck in that cave for a while.”

“What?”

“I mean, the rope somehow got cut… So I had no way up. And there were dead bodies everywhere!”

Reivan nodded. “Must have been hard on you.”

“No kidding. I thought maybe the others had something on them I could use to get back up—”

“Uh-huh. So you looted their corpses?”

“...Yes.” Maya frowned. “But I don’t like how you said that. This was a matter of survival for me!”

“There must’ve been so much money on Mr. Valand’s body. And yet, you were trying to get some random guy to buy you a meal…?”

“Hey, I’m not some evil bitch, Clover. I didn’t take anything I didn’t need.”

“Really…?”

“Of course. I saw the money. But I didn't take any.”

Reivan raised a brow at her, finding no fault in her words. “Okay. I believe you.”

“Oh, thank you for your faith in me, Your Majesty. Anyway, I didn’t find any useful artifacts. Mr. Valand had a lot of spell balls on him, but they weren’t very useful.”

“So how’d you get out?”

“A battlemage squad showed up. They were nice enough to fly me up on their hoverboards.”

'What the fuck, they were so late.'

Had the black rabbit species been a malevolent one, and had Reivan not made the moves that he did, "Clover Salwyn" would have been a corpse by the time the battlemages arrived.

'Sloppy as fuck. How pathetic.'

The worst part about it is that it probably wasn't the battlemages' fault. It was that the information had to be relayed through multiple people, delaying their response. The battlemages couldn't deploy without orders too, so their hands were truly tied by a faulty system that deprived their operatives of independent action.

“That’s what I thought…” Reivan hummed in thought, forming a plausible map of events in his head. “Then they split up and some of them went to search for me?”

“Yep. I told them you jumped off. And a bunch of them praised you. They knew everything we did because they were scrying — their eyes were all lit up and everything!”

‘I’m so glad I didn’t do anything flashy…’

There would have been a bit of a problem if they discovered just how accurate he was with his rifle when it was supposed to be dark. But the way scrying worked, they wouldn’t be able to see much.

Scrying Spells could only show the past from a bird’s eye view, or from the point of view of someone present. Since Reivan wasn’t there to participate in the scrying, the battlemages could only rely on viewing things from above.

There was an exception to the rules though: which was that dead people’s memories could be viewed from their point of view without a problem. And there just happened to be a forest full of dead mercenaries — some of whom were beneficiaries of Reivan’s aid.

Fortunately for Reivan, scrying the past through someone was significantly more demanding than just viewing things from a bird’s eye view. This was even more so when the target was a dead person.

Hence, the likelihood of the battlemages examining every single dead mercenary’s perspective was slim to none. This also meant that Reivan’s accuracy would likely remain undiscovered. At most, the battlemages may have scryed a few of his “lucky” shots. And even if they somehow did examine every single perspective, the dark smog impaired the vision of their subjects so much, the battlemages would barely learn anything damning for him.

The battlemages were also on a time limit since they could only scry up to an hour into the past of a certain area.

‘I should be okay.’

In fact, the fact that the battlemages didn’t say anything about it meant Reivan was already in the clear.

“So that’s what happened…” Reivan sipped on his drink and nodded. “Thanks for telling me.”

“Yeah, sure thing. Now it’s your turn.”

“Eh… I’m kinda tired, actually. I’ll tell you about it tomorrow… Or next week.”

Maya was obviously not letting that answer fly and Reivan didn’t expect her to. So after he finished his lovely steak, he told her a heavily modified — but generally truthful — story of how his travels went.

----------------------------------------

The next morning, Reivan had clearly drunk too much because the hangover he had was worse than the one he had yesterday. It made him miss his original body so much he wanted to cry.

Luckily, he still didn’t experience any bouts of forgetfulness. But seeing as he woke up right next to a naked Maya, it wouldn’t have taken a genius to deduce what happened after a few drinks were downed.

‘If our genders were reversed, this would look so bad.’

Reivan was almost always drunk when they did it after all.

‘Eh, well… Since I technically consent to it… I guess it’s fine?’

In any case, Reivan’s head felt like it had a crack in it from how much it hurt. He clambered out of bed and found his glasses on the floor, hidden under Maya’s discarded blouse.

As he used a dampened piece of cloth to wipe himself off, Reivan hummed a certain tune. It was a lighthearted one, a tune that one might hum unconsciously as they went about their day.

'Nothing, huh?'

When Valter didn’t show up even after twenty seconds into his little whistling show, Reivan acted as normal. With how close they were to Vel Ayala, Valter likely chose to wait at the predetermined meet-up point.

At this point in time, however, Reivan didn’t know when they would next meet.

‘Valter should be fine on his own.’

There was no point worrying about the thousand-year-old knight. Even when there were all sorts of weird stuff happening regarding the black rabbits and the Star of Fortune, Valter had the adaptability to take care of himself.

In fact, Valter would do better without Reivan’s orders weighing him down.

Even though their initial estimations of the situation were mistaken, Reivan was confident Valter would somehow eke out an outcome that wasn’t the worst one. Perhaps it could even be beneficial for Aizen.

‘I should be more worried about myself, to be honest.’

After Maya woke up, Reivan was coaxed into some morning exercise before they both grabbed a quick breakfast. Afterward, they leisurely strolled to the station, finally boarding the train that would take them to their destination — Vel Ayala, the city where sorcery originated.

From what history recorded, the Sage King asked the past republic for help constructing the tower. Not for free, of course. Arkhan received the Sage King’s wisdom about sorcery and all manner of beneficial items as well.

Naturally, normal people couldn't learn multiple books' worth of information in a short time. Hence, it became hard to learn from the Sage King without a roof over their heads, so people started building a camp around the base of the tower — which was still under construction at the time. Merchants with a good nose for profit saw the opportunity, bearing carts full of whatever the campers needed in their day-to-day lives, be it food, alcohol, ink, paper, spare clothes, or women.

One thing led to another. And soon, a city was born.

A city built for sorcerers, those who wanted to join their ranks, and those who wished to profit from supporting them.

“I’m kind of excited,” Maya muttered quietly, unable to mask her rising exhilaration. “What about you, Clover?”

Reivan looked out the window from the seat at the very back of the train for a moment before answering. “I am too.”

“You certainly don’t look excited though. Something on your mind?”

“Plenty.”

“That so? Hit me with a few then. It’s a two-hour ride there, right?”

“No thank you.” Reivan yawned and reclined, his back sinking into the seat’s soft leather cushion.

Soon after, Reivan found out that Maya was very annoying when she was bored.

Not only did she seek entertainment by being quite touchy, she also intentionally did other things to get a reaction out of Reivan when he ignored her. He had mistakenly thought that if he didn’t react to her at all, she would give up and stay quiet, but who would’ve thought she would see that as a challenge and be even more brazen?

Needless to say, they were getting all sorts of looks from those around them.

‘I mean, it feels good but... Someone please help me…’

Everyone probably thought they were just some stupid couple though, so he likely wouldn’t receive any aid — just gazes of envy from the men.

All things must come to an end though, and Reivan finally had the opportunity to break away from his annoying travel buddy when they reached their last stop.

'It's even bigger than I was told.'

Vel Ayala was an absolutely enormous city that was slightly comparable to Aizen’s capital. That was why it made perfect sense why it had six train stations placed a few kilometers outside its edges.

This arrangement was due to how Aizen's knights had to be stationed at each station. Arkhan couldn't agree to build them within the city itself for this very reason. They were obviously very reluctant to have such a foreign nation's forces in the heart of their country's power — and rightfully so.

'Joke's on you, I'm about to get in though. Hahahaha...! Eat shit!'

The short distance between the stations and the city's walls wasn’t much of an inconvenience though, because large stagecoaches were waiting to ferry anyone and everyone for free. Reivan confirmed this fact when he stepped out of the station and saw dozens of horse-drawn carriages waiting for their next passengers.

“Whoah…” Maya, who had one of her arms hooked around Reivan’s, gawked. “Look, Clover. It's the tower... Y'know, it kinda looks like a giant peni—”

Reivan cut her voice off from his head and followed her gaze. Whether he agreed with her or not was up for debate though.

‘The Spirit Tower… finally.’

His goal in sight, Reivan couldn’t help but lick his lips in anticipation of what was to come.