Norbert walking towards his room, quickly changing over to magic vision. He sees the door unlocked, believing he knows who will be there. As Norbert opens the door, he looks towards the bed and sees Vivienne lying there, back in her waitress clothes. The leather garments she was wearing before are gone, and her elbows are exposed for him to see.
Looking across the bed, Norbert was thankful to see his candies sitting on the chest, next to his equipment already there. Going to the candy, he popped one into his mouth, feeling the sugar burst. Taking his boots off, Norbert put on his pants and jacket before putting his boots on again and sitting on the edge of the bed.
Vivienne was still sitting there, looking at him as she smiled at him. He closed his eyes as he wondered if it was even worth it to talk to the woman or if he should just leave immediately.
Opening his mouth, Norbert told her, "Thanks for bringing back the candies." He said to her.
She received a flick of the wrist in response, dismissing his thanks. "No worries, but more importantly, what did they want with you?" she asked him.
Shaking his head, he said, "The craziest thing you wouldn't believe." Norbert said to her.
"I'm sure you can tell me some of it?" She said to him, eyes flashing through the light from the window.
Norbert forced energy around his body, whipping it around as quickly as possible as he remembered the feeling of it back in the mountain hall. He needed to protect himself from the shadow man with the pink appendages.
Norbert shook his head as he tried to clear it. "I'm just searching for somebody," he said to her, his lips slipping the words out.
"Were you given a name?" Vivienne prodded him.
"Sadly, no. Like seriously, how am I meant to find anybody? I'm not a detective and don't know where to start." Norbert said before standing up, pacing and expressing his thoughts, "Oh yes, go and find a Grimm witch. You can do it because I said so. Mr Moustache, looking down your nose at me." Norbert said, plopping a candy in his mouth for a moment as he chewed it, getting a bit of a smile on his face until he swallowed it down to continue ranting.
"Seriously Sally, isn't being in the tournament enough for you? Also, you're doing your annoying fetch quests," Norbert said as he popped another candy in his mouth.
Ehrmm, Vivienne coughed out, clearing her throat. Norbert looked up; his thoughts stopped for a moment as he looked at her.
Looking out the window, seeing the light filling the sky, hearing people in the streets moving in a group. Running towards the window, I see everyone moving towards the stadium for the attraction of the day.
"Dang it. Thanks for letting me know, but I gotta run!" Norbert shouted, already heading to the ladder. Looking down, he saw the fox making its way up to him.
The two looked at each other as the fox moved away, letting Norbert jump to the bottom smoothly. He picked it up and deposited the white ball of fur on his right shoulder.
Striding towards the door, Norbert opened it quickly, stepped through, and closed it quickly. He slammed the door shut as he looked across the street, seeing the crowd slowly shamble their way around.
Looking around, seeing that he would never make it across the streets, Norbert leapt into the air, once more getting people to look and stare, and shouted for the guards trailing behind him.
Running on the rooftops, Norbert saw one set of guards on the rooftop next to him, following him. Waving to them and not receiving an arrow in return, Norbert continued towards the Colosseum, dismissing them from his mind.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
Landing on the street again in front of the appropriate gate for him, he already took the token out as the slime once more appeared before him. "One thousand five hundred and forty three, Norbert, Morenas," Norbert said as the slime stood for a moment before moving away again, heading to the left again.
Norbert followed behind it. Looking behind him, he saw the people starting to head up into the stadium, wondering how many of these people would be staring at him. He made his way through the underground tunnels seemingly faster than the last time he had travelled. The slime once more stopped and formed into the ground; Norbert looked into the chamber, seeing the beds again in the centre.
He walked towards his own, hopping onto it as he waited, looking at where he was previously told by Stumpy, the screen with the announcements, currently blank. He took his mask off his face, having worn it after putting all of his other equipment back in his room at the Pudgy Patron.
The fox and the bird jumped off, heading towards the pillow on the bed. Sitting on the edge, the fox took the small bag of candies out of his coat and popped one in his mouth, chewing it as he looked around, seeing that everyone seemed to be in the same positions as before.
Finekus once more sat in his bubble of darkness, doing Norbert had no idea. Those in a circle practise with each other, giving last-minute pointers before whatever happens. Norbert shook his head, sitting on the bed as he thought about what happened last night, the guards popping up out of nowhere only to whisk him somewhere above his current position.
Shaking his head, he pops another piece of candy in his mouth and turns around on the bed to look up at the area of the wall where the text should eventually start to appear.
Sadly, as he stared, trying to will it to appear before him, nothing was happening. Shaking his head, Norbert lay on the bed, closing his eyes as he tried to sleep the little that he needed with nothing better to do.
"Oh, finally!" Norbert heard someone shout out on another bed. Cracking open an eye as he heard movement all around him, he sat up again, popping candy into his mouth as the text finally appeared.
The doorway opened as the names scrolled through. On the board, Norbert saw the numbers, names, positions, and a random statistic slowly appearing.
Finekus's name appears with one hundred and one to the left; underclass Norbert reads mage and darkness. Sitting there, the last column makes sense, the attribute the person could use.
The names were segmented into groups. Finally, he saw his own appear in group seven, wondering what it had as an attribute. It was the only one where it was blank. He wondered if the people outside would also eventually see this list and the further stir he would create.
The names spun once more through it before the next piece of information was displayed to them.
"So I rushed for nothing," Norbert said as he looked at the timetable. Seeing his group fighting the next day, he saw people around him moving off and out of the room while about half returned to their beds or where they stood before.
Seeing Finekus returning to his orb, he realised he must go off today to fight some opponent. Walling to the doorway, Norbert made his way out and into the light of the sun once more, now able to hear the cheers and ohs of the crowd as a fight had started; Norbert just walked away, not caring about something that would come no matter what.
He wouldn't be able to change his plan significantly, with no way of getting magic or enchanted items. Norbert sent the energy around his body; the only thing he could fall back on here.
Walking back to the Grimm section, other matters took precedence in his head, like being the good little detective the moustache man needed him to be. Let alone what Vivienne needed him to find like it really would just fall into his lap.
Making his way through the city the normal way, Norbert kept his helmet on. Nobody properly recognised him, happy for his moment of obscurity, which he now had, sure it would be ripped away from him the next day.
I opened the door to the inn and looked around the half-empty inn. I was surprised at the amount of empty space there; all the other times that Norbert had been in the tavern, it had been mostly filled.
Turning to the barkeeper, who was about to open his mouth, Brezan interrupted as he nodded towards the Colosseum. "Nobody wants to miss out on the first few days; that's when everyone will be sized up," the bartender stated, placing the mug on the counter as he reached over to the bar, filled it up again, and slid it over to Norbert.
Looking at the glass, Norbert sees the bubbles of the beer inside sprinting to the top, the perspiration on the side making his fingertips and glove slick. Sipping it, he remembers the lack of people on the street—only several of them wrapped up.
"How big is the Grimm district?" Norbert asked the bartender.
Brezan picked up another glass to clean, replying in a half-thought, "Down this entire road to the colosseum and about seven houses wide on each side." The bartender said as he thought about it, nodding his head after he had pondered it.
Norbert imagined that the number of people or things on the streets currently or in the morning wouldn't be enough to move everyone, especially as only half were wrapped up.
"So, where is the tunnel system?" Norbert asked, a moment later hearing the glass shatter as his collar was pulled forward, Norbert nearly spilling his beverage.