Glenn stood frozen, the gears of his mind stuck in place, his jaw on the ground. He blinked, and with a pulse of energy, jumped over the desk and ran desperately to try and catch up to Mint Lady. This action made the pile of books on the desk fall on the ground while the stack of blank paper flew in the air. The librarian sighed loudly when he saw Glenn rushing past him, shaking his head slowly while heading to pick the books and paper up, grumbling in his beard.
In the meanwhile, Glenn stepped out of the Library, looking left and right, only catching the woman's shadow as he turned a corner. Swearing in his mind, the young man pushed on his legs as he ran as fast as he could, almost drifting on the ground as he turned the corner, only to discover that Milena had completely disappeared.
"Shit!" Glenn's brain sped up as he turned around and rushed for the Dormitory, avoiding everyone on his path narrowly. Diamanes was screaming hysterically in his mind, having come up to the same conclusion as his host did.
'HOLY SHIT!!! MINT-LADY IS A FUCKING NOBLE!!!' Glenn clenched his teeth and entered the Dormitory, ignoring the other Fixers' weird gazes and climbing the stairs at a speed only comparable to the one a man would reach when a girl told him she was alone at home.
Nothing could stop him.
He arrived at the Gold-Rank floor, remembering from the forced meetings where she lived, just in time to watch her storm out of her room, carrying luggage under one arm, and weapons under the other. Both froze when they saw each other for a still second, their breath and time stopping, until the heavy bag under Milena's arm crashed on the ground. The loud noise was the signal to start this race of chaos. The lady clapped her hands together, her eyes flaring up with a visible flow of Mana, creating pressure on Glenn's body trying to bend him on himself.
The young man landed on his knee and spat a bit of blood, resisting the pressure with his own Mana, before slapping a Mana-charged left hand on the ground. A wave of otherworldly cold came out of it, freezing the ground and the girl's legs at the same time, disturbing her focus and freeing Glenn at the same time.
"I'll name this one Nitrogen Wave!" Diamanes yelled excitedly, while Glenn pounded at the woman, readying another spell. She opened her mouth to try and chant something, but Glenn flicked his hands together, activating the Silence curse and stopping her casting. The woman grabbed her throat in shock, before looking back at her opponent with an angry hand, clenching both her hands and twisting them.
"Haha, can't do anything about getting Silenced, huh—" The young man lost his voice when he suddenly lost his footing, finding himself walking on the ceiling, the distance between him and Milena stretching absurdly.
"Reality manipulation!" Diamanes spat out, making Glenn swear in response. He suddenly had a strike of genius, and held out his left hand, wishing for his guest to take whatever spell that was.
"Come on, my cheat!" The young man yelled hopefully, waiting for an awkward second before Diamanes coughed out.
"Yeah, huh, it's a strange one, no idea how to take it, bro..." The young man was momentarily dumbfounded.
"Fuck, you're damned useless!" Glenn then resorted to the second-best choice: destroying everything. He tried to grab his axe, only to see the distance between his hand and his belt distort as well, making it impossible for him to grab it. He looked up in anger, only to see Milena's smiling figure disappear under a twist of reality, a loud clap making his eardrums ring.
He stepped back, reality coming back to how it was supposed to be. The ground was still covered in ice, but the woman was gone from his sight. Glenn looked at the ceiling for a second, before sighing in frustration.
"Shit..." He leaned against the wall, watching the mystical ice, no, the Nitrogen Wave as Diamanes called it, slowly disappear into the ground.
'Well, too bad! Try again next time~' The entity mocked him, making him sigh even louder. He was so close to getting answers! His pass to the Bourgeoisie was literally in this damned witch's mouth!!
Wait, no, that came out weirdly... Whatever, she knew the answer!
Glenn waited for the last of the ice to disappear before shamelessly entering Milena's room. His mom had taught him not to enter a lady's room without her consent, but well, that woman was no lady!
"I swear if I find her..." He trailed off, noticing she didn't pick up the luggage she dropped earlier. He grabbed it and took it with him as he entered her room. A scent of mint was hanging in the air, a few patches of the plant growing in small square pots.
"Hmm...What a nice WC smell..." Glenn muttered, quickly looking through the room. There was a spot of black soot on the previously white tiles making up the ground, probably used to burn something. He kneeled, passing his finger on the ash, feeling that the spot was still a bit warm.
"She got rid of everything she couldn't take by burning it? How decisive..." He looked one last time through the room, but there was nothing out of the ordinary, besides the abnormal amount of soap and perfumes in the bathroom. There probably was enough variety and quantity there to wash a few villages.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
"...Absurd, but unsurprising," Glenn shrugged, before throwing the bag on the large bed and opening it up. It wasn't a dimensional bag, explaining why she abandoned it. The young man had come to know that such objects like the dimensional pouch he carried were extremely rare in the Fringe, something only worn by very rich folks who had access to the Bourgeoisie, or by the Royal Army. So when one managed to get their hands on it, it was either by killing such folks, since the bags were sealed to whoever wasn't their owners, or by buying them in black markets. Sadly, he wasn't active at all in the underground scene of the Fringe, so he only heard rumors about such hidden trading places.
The bag was filled to the brim with clothes and underwear of many genres. Glenn frowned, before taking black leather gloves out of his dimensional pouch and emptying the bag. He hesitated for a second but then picked up an unassuming white shirt and stuffed it in his dimensional pouch. If he was able to find someone who used tracking magic, that could help him find her. Or he could still create a spell himself, even if that was a bit of a bother. He had a lot of questions to ask the woman after all.
After all the clothes were out of the way, he noticed that the bottom had been sewn awkwardly, creating a barely hidden compartment. He gathered Mana in a very small blade, opening the compartment.
A paper slipped off, the only thing kept in the bag. Glenn picked it up with his gloves still on, before reading it.
- Passing the Fields (checked/easy)
- Winning access to the Bourgeoisie by myself (should be pretty simple, I just need to earn money for a while)
- Destroying a hundred Rifts (I never knew there were so many of those)
- Defeat a Lost One and bring back its Core (done)
- Gather a following (...I won't be doing this one anytime soon, there is no one worth anything in the Fringe...)
"That seems like a list of tasks... Wait, passing the Fields?" Glenn remembered what Carys, his dead old farmer friend told him when he welcomed him into the Northern Town, about an ancient tradition of passing Tests to go up King's Rise. That could only mean one thing: Milena was the child of a noble of the Court, the highest-ranked noble in the whole kingdom!
"Damn... It somehow doesn't surprise me, but shit, I never expected that bitch to be born with the diamond spoon..." Glenn shook his head, before reading the rest of the tasks. If he understood well, that's something Milena had to do anyway for some reason. No idea why they had to pass this test, but she probably didn't have a choice. If he tracked the tasks, he could probably find her.
- Become a Beginner Magi or a Grand Chevalier (I'm already a Third Circle, I just need to break the wall to the Fourth. You can do it, Milena!)
Seeing the lady trying to encourage herself was, admittedly, a little cute. The following tasks seemed to be linked with reaching a higher rank of power since Milena had left no comments on them.
- Performs five meritorious deeds on one of the Three Fronts
- Earn the Baron title without the support of my Family
- Earn Fame enough to embellish my blazon
The list ended there, with one last line that seemed separated from the rest. Somehow, it felt incomplete, as if there were missing requirements. Perhaps Milena would receive new tasks once she completed all the previous ones? No way to know for now... Glenn read the last line, frowning in confusion.
- Investigate any clues around the First King (optional)
"Optional? Is this deemed like some kind of side quest? Or perhaps it's so impossible it's not an actual requirement?" Glenn rubbed his chin, slipping the list into his dimensional pouch. Why would the Court investigate the First King of Munirp? Didn't they already have all the information about the founder of the kingdom? There seemed to be some hidden secrets under this...
"None of my problem, though!" Glenn exclaimed, slapping his hands together loudly. Diamanes whistled, impressed.
"That's a ton of information we just got there. But why does it feel like the veil around King's Rise deepened instead of clearing out a little?" The entity pondered with an inquisitive tone. Glenn shrugged, giving one last look at the room, before exiting it. The more he uncovered things about this damned city, the more he felt confused. Lost in thoughts, he headed for Sahro's room, which wasn't that far away, since the Black Heir was still lodging at the Gold-rank floor. The young man suddenly smiled as he realized he could flaunt his newly acquired Black-Gold rank to the cocky bastard.
He knocked door, a lazy, muffled voice answering with a "Coming!". After a few seconds, a sleepy Sahro opened the door, rubbing the tiredness of his eyes. He was wearing comically cute pajamas with bears sewn into them, and his hair was tousled as if he'd just rolled out of bed. He grunted as he recognized his visitor and turned, leaving the door open. Glenn entered the room, frowning at the darkness. It was the middle of the day, why the hell was this guy still asleep?
"Nice pajamas, by the way," Glenn commented mockingly, Sahro only answering with a raised middle finger.
"...Couldn't you let me sleep a bit more before needing my help, Glenn?" The Black Heir yawned, picking up clothes piled up on a chair, before quickly changing. His trusted curved sword was leaning against the wall, the steel pommel gleaming in the few rays of light passing through the shutters.
The young man shrugged in response, picking up a chair and leaning backward, waiting for his friend to clothe up. He glanced at the shutters with annoyance and threw a small wave of Mana to push them open. Sahro mumbled in disapproval, squinting his eyes difficultly. With another yawn, he sat in front of Glenn, crossing his arms together.
"So, what's up?"
Glenn smiled without saying anything and simply summoned his Black-Gold dagger, throwing it toward Sahro. The Black Heir caught it instinctively, before glancing at it. His eyes froze, and he slipped from his chair, crashing on the ground ridiculously.
"Shit, you're kidding me. You're a Black-Gold already?!?" Sahro exclaimed in awe, his eyes stuck to the beautiful black, golden-streaked dagger. Glenn nodded slowly, savoring the moment. Diamanes chuckled aloud mockingly, much to the Black Heir's dismay.
"Did you just come to flaunt, asshole...?" The dejected young man said, pushing himself and sitting on the chair, all the while admiring the craftsmanship of the Black-Gold dagger. Glenn let out one last short laugh, before taking out the list from his dimensional pouch and handing it to the Black Heir.
Sahro quickly read it over, glancing at Glenn in confusion.
"What's that?" He couldn't help but ask with a puzzled tone. Glenn smiled, crossing his fingers together.
"Our free pass to the Bourgeoisie."