Ever since his group had left the border gate and were waiting while sitting on a patch of nearby boulders, Lone had felt several eyes on him, Breena, Rachel, and especially Kyuubi.

'Some of them can tell our strength, but some can't.' He couldn't help but sigh deeply. He turned to Swind and asked him, "Your new senses, are they telling you anything?"

The Lemurian cocked his head to the side and held his chin with his only hand. Lone made a mental note to remember to build him the newly-fitted ones tonight or tomorrow afternoon. "No, Mr Immortus. Nothing in particular."

"I suppose that's good..." Lone said a bit absentmindedly.

"Why?" Swind asked, his face painted in curiosity.

Lone glanced around The Wanderers and plainly said, "'Cause I'm pretty sure we're gonna get ambushed... a fuckton. Maybe not right now, but eventually, for sure." He scratched Kyuubi's chin and listened to the girl purr like a kitten. "This cute little gem along with Breena and Rachel are too attractive to the demi poachers in this kingdom, it would seem."

"Not yourself?" Eolande teased with a coy smile.

"Please." Lone rolled his eyes. "It's a fact that there are more openly perverted men out there than there are openly perverted women. I don't doubt people will try to kidnap me too, but c'mon, get real. Nine out of ten attempts will be for the girls. Heck, maybe even some will come for you? The stupid ones or overconfident ones."

"I'm flattered," Eolande replied.

Soph squeezed Lone's hand and looked at her daughter with warm and worried eyes. "What should we do, Lone?"

"Half of me wants to ignore them. I'd rather hope that they don't try anything. I don't want to kill anyone without a reason, to be honest," he admitted.

Swind then asked, "And your other half, Mr Immortus?"

"My other half says that we should bait 'em, capture 'em and torture 'em. We find out if they're from an organisation, then we rip that organisation out from its roots if they are from one. Rinse and repeat until we're left alone, I suppose." Lone shrugged as he slowly got off of the boulder he was sat on.

Soph followed him down.

Lone waved happily to his sister's group that had squeezed their way out of the crowd surrounding the border gate. "Glad to see the captain made things fast," he commented.

Hazel nodded. "Your bribe saved us a bit of time. Thanks, Lone."

Scott's eyes opened wide. "Wait. He bribed him? Why would a demi-hater accept a bribe from a demi?"

Lone shrugged. "That guard captain was an A-ranker. He could feel how strong we were. Plus, no one hates gold."

Emma's eyes sparkled. "He was an A-ranker?!... Now That I think about it... he was kinda handsome... Hmm..."

George frowned as he watched Emma. She was obviously thinking up ways to seduce the middle-aged guard captain, not that she'd follow through on any ideas, or that any of her imaginary attempts at seduction would even work realistically. Regardless, it didn't sit well with the boy.

"Are we gonna head to Mystopolis now?" Alisa asked. To be entirely honest, she just wanted to return to her dorm room and slump down into her bed. She was sick of camping or slumming it in a run-down inn. The outsider mansion at the eastern world tree was nice, but it wasn't as homely as The Academy's dorm rooms were.

Lone smiled. "Sure. Let's go somewhere more discreet. There's a lot of people watching us. I can count forty people. Most of which are probably illegal slavers."

"Seventeen are from underground slaving businesses - four different competing businesses, to be specific. Six are just greedy for a demi baby. One person is into disabled people, not demis in particular. The rest are interested in your collective strength and powerful auras," Hazel noted.

Swind frowned deeply while Lone opened his eyes in surprise. "You can pinpoint thoughts in such a large crowd?"

His sister smiled bitterly. "Yes. It took a long time to learn how to filter certain thoughts as background noise, to be honest."

Lone subconsciously brought his hand out and petted the seventeen-year-old's head. "Amazing."

His praise was simple and to the point, but thanks to her unique skill, Hazel could tell that he was genuinely impressed with her. She lowered her eyes and blushed lightly. "Don't treat me like a child, please," she requested as she softly batted his hand away.

Lone laughed. "Sorry. Habit. You try living with a bunch of girls a foot or two feet shorter than you without developing a tick for head-patting them."

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

The group of twelve - Kyuubi included - wandered off into the forest away from prying eyes after that comment of Lone's. As they were walking, Scott strolled up alongside Lone and asked him, "Hey. I was wondering, how much did you bribe the guard captain?"

Lone raised an eyebrow. "Him personally? A gold coin. I gave him three gold coins in total though. Most of it was for the normal guards."

Scott's eyes widened. "Wow! Not gonna lie, Mate, that's a fuckton of money. Was it smart givin' him so much?"

A heavy sigh escaped Alisa's lips. She tugged at her witch's hat before she punched Scott's armour very lightly. "You're an idiot, Scott. Did you forget that Lone has that magic? Money isn't an issue for him."

"What magic?" Scott held his chin before a lightbulb seemed to go off in his head. "Ah! Cr-" And just like that, he was rolling around on the ground as he was attacked by a violent headache.

Lone chuckled at the amusing show. He stopped the teen's rolling rampage and healed his head. "He really is stupid, isn't he? It was less than a month ago that he signed my contract."

Alisa was more than embarrassed enough for both herself and her boyfriend. "He's really dumb, but he's honest to a fault."

"Not a bad personality. It's a shame he wasn't in my class before we came here. He seems like a good kid," Lone mumbled before he shoved his hands into his pockets and wandered back on over to Soph who was cuddling Kyuubi.

Alisa watched his back as he casually walked up to his fiancée and wrapped an arm around her. He confidently lowered his head and gave her a kiss before he stroked Kyuubi's head and grinned. 'He's a totally different person from Mr McCullen... I wonder... I wonder if I can change like that?'

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

"So that's Mystopolis?" Lone asked.

Maybe a mile in front of his group of ten - minus Rachel who was back in The Glade and Kyuubi who was with Garadia in The Summoning Room - stood the towering city of Mystopolis.

It stretched for miles and was glowing vibrantly despite the fact that it was almost midnight. It was surrounded by a grand wall like most of the cities of Altros. Mystopolis' wall wasn't made of stone, however. From what he could see, Lone would guess that it was made of pure amber.

"Good guess. It's magically-infused amber of the highest grade. It'd take ten triple-X-rankers to break that wall. It's even been enchanted by Sir Malcolm and reinforced with space magic by Headmaster Erion himself. That's one of the reasons The Academy pays no taxes to the country. Its jewel is safely protected by The Academy and The Adventurer's Guild's headquarters," Hazel explained.

"Hmm..." Lone stroked his chin. "Does the royal family live here?"

Hazel shook her head. "Only the crown prince. He's a student at The Academy. The second princess is an adventurer, but she rarely stays in Mystopolis. Most of the royals are in the kingdom's holy city, Zablorn."

"Okay. Well, do we need to go through a screening at the gates, or can we just walk in?" Lone asked.

"There's an identity and purpose-for-visit check, but it's not a big deal. Especially at this kind of hour. We should be allowed entry in about five minutes," Hazel said.

"Okie-dokie." Lone cracked his shoulders and strolled on forwards.

As his sister had said, they were granted entry after only five minutes. Lone did notice that a few of the stationed guards were shocked to see their group and they all rushed off as soon as they crossed paths. He figured they were paid off by some of the slaver groups and had scurried away to their contacts to inform them of the juicy new demis. Either that or he and Soph were recognised as Erion's future disciples. Lone preferred the first option though. It was more exciting.

Hazel stopped Lone at a fork in the street that they were walking down. "Me, Alisa and Emma are gonna return to The Academy. We'll meet you guys at The Adventurer's Guild tomorrow morning? Around ten?"

"Sure," Lone agreed. He then took out a small green sphere from his Dimensional Storage and tossed it to his sister. "That's a modified communication orb. Don't worry about using it, I designed it myself. Any old schmuck can work one of those so long as they've got mana. Just inject some into it and it'll link you to my glasses, sending me a signal."

"Thanks..." Hazel was lost for words. Not once had Lone thought about this during their trip here, so she was caught off guard slightly.

Alisa was looking at the small magical device with wonder in her eyes.

Lone just grinned. "Don't lose it. It's tuned to you. If it doesn't sense you within a radius of five-feet, it'll tell me and I'll rush to its location." He then took two more out and tossed them to Emma and Alisa respectively.

"Ehehe, a gift from a handsome fox~" Emma joked.

Alisa held hers up to her eye and mumbled, "How is this possible?! This breaks so many known laws of magic and enchanting..."

Lone laughed. "I can only create things that can exist on Altros, so it's not breaking a single law, actually."

"This is amazing..." Alisa was completely enthralled by and utterly jealous of Lone's Creation Magic.

"Well, if anyone tries to start shit with you girls, let me know. I'll be over in a heartbeat. Also, don't inject mana into them carelessly. If I come to save you only to find you were fucking with me, I'll get mad. Expect to live with a nose on your forehead for a week or something," Lone warned with nothing but seriousness in his tone.

"We'll keep that in mind. Thank you again, Lone. We'll look after them," Hazel replied while she tried to hide the tremble in her voice. Lone's thoughts were telling her that he was one-hundred-percent serious.

Emma was bouncing around like a lunatic. "I'll make sure to cherish it~"

"Mmm. Do you mind if I study it a bit?" Alisa asked.

Lone nodded. "Go for it. Just don't put any mana in it and don't break it."

"I won't," came the girl's response.

With that, the three girls left the group. Lone turned to Scott and George and asked, "Where's the nearest real estate agency?"

The two teens looked at each other with confusion on their faces. Goerge looked back at Lone and scratched his cheek before saying, "Only people who have shown their worth to Mystopolis can buy property here."

Lone looked disappointed. "That's a shame. In that case, the best hotel or inn in the city. Take us there. I'll rent a room for the both of you as well."

Scott looked excited. Now that he had remembered Lone's ability to make money, he was really looking forward to staying at the fanciest and most expensive hotel Mystopolis had to offer.

George just sighed. "This is gonna draw so many eyes onto us... Oh well. Follow me, I guess."

Everyone did so and trailed after the spindly young man. Breena was now happily tucked away in Lone's shadow while Swind had entered Eolande's Glade as soon as they had entered the city, leaving only Lone, Soph and Eolande out of The Wanderers.

Soph was just silently holding Lone's hand, however, Eolande was sweating from fear. 'We're going to have that talk tonight, aren't we? I can feel it...' At that moment, Lone turned around and smirked at her. 'Yup! It's definitely tonight! Damn it!'