It was a glorious morning. Ryuji awoke refreshed from his great night of sleep. He was all too happy with the way things had turned out yesterday. He was looking forward to the day. Just then thunder resounded through the inn and he jumped reflexively. Looking out the window he could tell that it was going to start pouring rain any moment.

He got changed and busied himself with getting things together. He had considered spending a bit of time the previous night filling his satchel with copper coins. He didn’t want to seem too suspicious though so he decided to wait a couple days before going back to the money changer’s.

After leaving the inn he headed straight for the Tax collection office. Aleen answered the door almost immediately and Ryuji rushed in. It was just starting to sprinkle lightly and he wanted to get his documents back to the inn before it started raining in earnest. As if she could read his thoughts Aleen already had his documents rolled up in a waxed parchment and was holding it out to him when he entered. “Welcome back milord Ryuji. I have everything here and I double-checked everything for any mistakes. The map is current as is the info on the buildings for sale. I took the liberty of listing every building I had for sale, including the houses and the ones in the nobles' district. I hope to see you soon.”

Ryuji took the roll of documents and bowed to her, offering his thanks before quickly departing. He had to run a bit near the inn to keep from getting wet. Once there Ryuji took the protective parchment covering off and gave a cursory scan of the documents. The deed was just an unintelligible block of writing that he would have to spend time and concentration deciphering. The list of buildings was recognizable as such but he couldn’t freely read it yet either. The only thing he could immediately parse out was the map. It was a beautiful tanned heavy parchment sheet with a very detailed layout of the entire city rendered in black ink with dyes of various colors to distinguish the various districts. It was well worth the money to him to have such a quality map of the city. He guessed that this map was better than an average one and probably benefited from the skill of the elven artisan who rendered it.

As soon as his documentation was safely stashed back in his room Ryuji dashed off toward the old cat merchant, Gato. He wanted to have a quick word before going to the magic shop. He got there quickly and deftly despite the slippery footing and mud. He was a little impressed that his new body was so capable. There weren’t as many people as usual due to the rain but he was surprised at how many there still were.

He headed straight to the back of the plaza to speak with Gato about the places that were available. He hadn’t brought most of the document with him because of the weather but he figured he would at least tell the old cat that he had a list of places that were available. Rather than having the family just groping around for information on places, he could have them look at the ones that were available and pick from there.

As he approached the old man came out to greet him. “Why hello. Glad to see you this morning. I got that satchel you ordered. We followed the picture you gave us and I think it turned out really well. I think it will sell well with hunters and Mercenaries too. I can’t wait till we have a real shop to make stuff in. Our stuff will get even better then, you just watch!”

“I’m glad to hear it and I’m looking forward to it as well. I also brought something for you to look at. *Ryuji ducked under the canopy and pulled out the list of properties available for sale* I think this will help in the search for the new place.”

“Well, it probably would if I could read but I never had the chance to learn much of my letters. Lived in the poor part of town since I moved here. My girls were as young as my grandkids back then. My wife had just died and I couldn’t work the farm myself and take care of the kids. We moved to the city so I could get help from my aunt who lived here. We’ve been living in my aunt’s house since then.”

“Oh. Well, don’t feel too bad. I’m only just learning how to read myself. Scowl if you want but it’s true, I assure you. I know how to read and write in my own language but I’m having to learn to read and write here.”

“That so? So you can’t read that either?”

“Well, I can read it but it’s just really slowly right now. I’m practicing my reading and writing every day to get better. I’ll teach you too if you want.”

“No, no. I’m too old to start learnin’ new things. But I would be really glad if you could teach my kids and grandkids their letters but that’d probably take too much of your time. Forget I said anything.”

“I don’t mind, really! I’ll teach them all a little at a time after I finish learning them myself.”

“I don’t know what to say. Imagine my family, reading and such. I don’t know how we could ever repay you or actually there’s no way we could. We’ll serve you and your line from here on my lord. If we survive this killer that is.” Gato chuckled a bit but Ryuji was a little panicked for several reasons.

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“Uhm, what killer? What are you talking about?”

“Oh, you haven’t heard? There’s a killer on the loose in the city. But you needn’t worry, he only goes after beastfolk and only women. I’m just worried about my daughters but they’re tuff and fast so they should be fine even if they do run into him.”

“Are you serious? Is the guard looking for him?”

“You can bet that the guard is keeping an eye out for him but he always seems to strike when there’s nobody around to see him. At first, the guard wasn’t taking it very seriously but now there’ve been six or seven murders so they have to. Still, it creeps me out thinking that somebody may be looking at my daughters and waiting for the right chance.”

“What are they doing to track the killer down?”

“What do you mean? This is the city. Tracking game in the woods is one thing but tracking people in a city, especially one this size, is almost impossible.”

“No, I mean… Well, never mind. Oh, crap! I need to get going. I’ll see you later.”

Ryuji left the market tucking the new and far larger satchel under his arm and headed to Potions and Such. he entered the shop in deep thought about the state of criminal investigation in this world. After greeting Dorn he sat behind the counter and got out the thick tome and began laboriously translating the contents. He got to the point he was only having to reread every fourth or fifth word and only having to look for the meanings to one in twenty.

Dorn just shook his head. “Lad, I donna’ think we’ll be a sellin’ anythin on such a day. Why din ya be takin yer book with ye and git ye some rest today.” Ryuji agreed and stuck the book in his new satchel with a waxed parchment over it to be sure it was safe. He also stuck his other satchel inside but after a moment’s consideration, he took it back out and used it to cover the smaller almost dictionary-type book before stuffing the bundle back into the cavernous new satchel.

With the books safely secured Ryuji left the store for the day. He intended to read but he wanted to check over all the documents that he got from Aleen first. He got back to the inn and Karen gave him a big plate of warm sweet bread with a big smile. While he was eating the bread, he chatted with Karen about the new shop and the prospect of finding a new shop for the leatherworkers. The look in her eyes as he told her about the prospect of buying yet another property was one of joy and wonder.

As usual, Teresa watched the two with a smile on her face from a distance but this time there was something else in her expression. Karen had talked of nothing except her new boyfriend and his marvelous business sense. Teresa had to wonder again why such a wealthy man was staying in her hotel. It wasn’t that she minded the coin and she certainly enjoyed the added budget that not having to buy as much food afforded but she still had her suspicions. At first, she just figured that the handsome young elf lord was after her young waitress but recently she began suspecting there might be more he was after. As always, she would have to keep an eye on him.

Once he was safely back in his room, Ryuji took off the heavy sword belt and satchel and sat at his desk to begin studying his documents. With the map and list in front of him, he was able to parse out which buildings were listed for sale. The list was a bit longer than he had originally suspected and the city was a bit bigger than he thought also. After a quick appraisal, Ryuji realized that there were literally hundreds of buildings in the city but probably not quite a thousand.

After a few passes over the list, Ryuji marked the ones that looked to him to be in his price range and decent in size. He tried to figure out where the cats lived but all he could tell for sure was that it was somewhere in the district marked as the northern slums. The names of the districts could be slightly confusing since there was a northern slums but no other slums were listed however, he took it all in stride and began marking the map with easily removed charcoal.

After his business matters were settled, he settled into his studies. He was so focused on reading the book that he didn’t realize what time it was until he started having trouble focusing on the words and realized that it was getting dark outside. Once he came to that startling realization, he took a break and headed down to eat dinner.

The reason he was so absorbed in his study was that he had finally gotten the knack of reading in the local language. He had finally gotten enough vocabulary figured out that he was able to start figuring unknown words out by context clues alone. Armed with his newfound understanding he had finished nearly half the book in that one sitting. It left him with a bit of a headache and some eye strain, not to mention hungry, but mostly it just left him far more knowledgeable about magic.

After his meal, Ryuji went back to his room but this time he began diligently filling his new and much sturdier satchel with large copper. This was the very reason he had this satchel made and it took him well into the night to fill it up. At one point before it got too late in the night he went down and got some larger and smaller change from Teresa. He mixed in some of the small copper and even a few small silver into the satchel full of large copper coins. This mixture would look much more like a collection gotten from various merchants than only large copper.

His coins packed and ready for the next day he settled down at the desk and began reading for a bit longer. To a boy raised in Japan, the idea of learning magic was super exciting and he found that he had very little trouble learning. He told himself that he would only read one more page, then another, and so on until he fell asleep at his desk.

At some point in the middle of the night, Karen knocked on his door. When she got no reply, she unlocked his door and came into his room. Seeing the sleeping form of the handsome sun elf slumped over a book snoring quietly warmed her heart. She put him in his bed and tucked him in. As she did, her face came very close to his sleeping face and she paused. Unable to stop herself she leaned in further and placed a gentle kiss on his sleeping lips. Blushing a deep crimson at her own audacity, Karen closed the book, blew out the lamp, and rushed out of his room, being careful to relock the door as she left.