“Did you know that some Orthodoxies have banned tickling in their territories?” Alnea said in a grave and solemn tone, one that he did not have even when they normally talked about Heterodox Wanderers, as he walked into his room. Unfortunately, Cecilia and Yuri refused to fall for his tricks.
“Is that so?” Yuri said, as she sat down next to the only cushion in the room. “What do you want to say then?”
“…If we were not in the Lost City, but in the territories of those Orthodoxies, then you might have had some Justice Scholars coming after you.”
“Really?” Cecilia said, picking the other side of the cushion to sit, just as the dumb cat declared the cushion as its territory. From the look of satisfaction on its face, it looked it was enjoying the soft touch of the cushion. Unbeknownst to it though, it was just falling deeper, and deeper into the quagmire of luxuries… Stupid cat.
“Do you two think I am joking?”
“No,” Yuri said. “But I do think that you have missed one point.”
“…What point?”
“Tickling may be banned by some Orthodoxies, but stealing is prohibited by all of them. Even within the Lost City, I am sure that there are provisions on how to deal with thieves… What do you say, shall we go to the guards, and have you arrested?”
“…I was not stealing. I was just helping you two carry your burdens back to our rooms.”
“By rushing in the opposite direction?” Cecilia said, giggling at his embarrassment.
“…I got lost.”
“And why did you get lost?”
“…Because of the stupid buildings.”
“Huh?”
“…Because I was not looking where I was going.”
“And will you do it again?”
“…Why are trying to sound like Yuri?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“…You know, trying to sound all responsible.”
“…Are you saying that I am not responsible?”
“…Help me, Yuri!”
“You dug your own grave this time.”
“No!”
Ignoring his cries ringing out in the room, Cecilia pinned him to the ground. With Forne’s help, of course. After all, they were almost similar in strength. Without Forne’s help, she would not have had any hope of keeping him pinned down for long. Stupid cat… Sooner, or later, he would have his revenge. For the moment though, he had to deal with Cecilia.
“Not responsible, am I?”
“Responsible, very responsible!”
“I cannot do anything, right?”
“I never said that.”
“You even took Forne from me.”
“I… was… wrong.”
“Since you like laughing so much, I will make you laugh even more!”
“I… I… I don’t…”
“Who is being responsible now?”
“You!” Alnea said, gasping in between his laughs, as Cecilia refused to stop tickling him. “You are the most responsible person in the world!”
“Are you sure?”
“Y…Yes!”
“Do you want to think once again?”
“No…”
“Fine,” Cecilia said after a while. But only after she had had her revenge. And her face had turned as red as his. She was not even the one who had to hold her breath… Pulling Forne away from him, she went back to where she was sitting just a while ago, and added, “I will forgive you this time.”
Should it not be the other way around, Alnea thought, as he gasped for beaths, but chose to keep his thoughts to himself. Only for Cecilia though. For Yuri…
“Traitor!”
“How am I traitor?”
“You didn’t save me.”
“But it was your fault, was it not?”
“…I don’t care.”
“If you had not made us chase you for so long—
“And let you and Lia walk around in a sour mood?”
“…I was not in a sour mood.”
“Did you see your face before?”
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“…Was it so bad?”
“Not as bad as Cecilia’s, but you still looked a little lost, as if someone had stolen your toy.”
“…Do you want to know why I was sour?”
“Isn’t it because of some stupid secret?”
“…Then do you wish to know the secret?”
“I am Alnea Oathkeeper, not Alnea Secretseeker.”
“…Back when—
“Stop changing the topic. The truth is that you didn’t help me, and no secret can change that fact, traitor.”
“Alright, alright. It is my fault. Happy?”
“…Arguing with you is like punching air.”
“Useless?”
“I never know whether I am winning or losing.”
Yuri giggled at his words, but only telepathically. On the surface, she took out a greyish black spar, twice the size of her palms, and said, “There are many things we need to discuss. But first, let us use the language spar.”
Nodding at Yuri, Alnea and Cecilia took out their language spars too. After giving it a brief glance, Cecilia said, “Should we do it together, or one by one?”
“Let me do it first.”
“No,” Alnea said, staring at Yuri with a frown. “If there is something wrong with the spar, would we not be endangering you?”
“That is exactly why I must be the first one to use the spar. After all, my Spirit is stronger than both of yours, and I also have protection from big sis Nyssa. If anything happens—
“My robe also has a lot of Glyph Arrays to keep me safe,” Alnea said. “As for the difference in the strength of our Spirit… There are quite a lot of Intermediate Stage False Wanderers in the city. If there was anything wrong with the spars, it would have spread throughout the city.”
“…What if they are forced to be quiet?”
“That’s—
“…Do you think I am air?” Cecilia said with a snort. “Or do you think that only you two are capable of facing dangers?”
Alnea and Yuri paused, and looked at each other with a wry smile, before turning back to Cecilia.
“…Let us do it together then.”
Smiling at each other in confidence, all three of them placed the greyish black crystal on their foreheads and entered their Spirit State. Almost immediately, Alnea sensed the strange fluctuations of the crystal. He had no doubts that the crystal was a solid object. He was holding it in his hand after all. And yet, in the senses of his Spirit, the crystals felt more like an amalgamation of highly condensed gas that could dissipate with just a single blow of air.
Strangely enough, other than its strange state of existence, the crystal did not any reaction to the senses of his Spirit. It had no smell, or taste. It did not even have any particular texture. And that was despite the fact that he was holding the crystal in his hand. Not to mention how it seemed to be on the verge of disintegrating, and almost invisible. Such a strange crystal… Maybe, it was truly as miraculous as described, Alnea thought, before reaching out to the crystal with his Spirit.
Of course, he could not stretch his Spirit out of his body, but what he did was enough. Reacting to the pull of his Spirit, the spar truly dissolved into a cluster of gas that drilled directly into his head, into his Spirit. Almost immediately, a severe headache hit him, rendering him unable to do anything. Even thinking felt like a burden. In addition, the swelling sensation in his Spirit made him feel as if his Spirit was about to burst…
What surprised him the most though, was the fact that his robe failed to react against the forces trying to tear apart his Spirit. Maybe they should have listened to Yuri, Alnea thought. Fortunately, the swelling sensation did not last for long. And as the swelling sensation subsided, so did his headache. In time, everything returned to normal, except the language spar. Exiting his Spirit State, Alnea looked at his empty hand, before turning towards the girls. Their situation was the same as his. All their language spars were gone. But…
“Do you feel anything different?”
“No,” Cecilia said, shaking her head, while staring blankly at her empty hand in confusion. “What just happened?”
“…We will know once we check our Blood Cards, won’t we?”
“Right, Blood Cards,” Alnea mumbled, and took out his Blood Card. It was still the same as before, filled with inexplicable symbols different from any words that Alnea had ever learned. And yet, somehow, those strange symbols were all revealing their meaning to him.
“N zero six zero eight four nine nine,” Alnea mumbled, before glancing towards Cecilia and Yuri.
“N zero six zero eight four nine eight.”
“N zero six zero eight five zero zero,” Yuri said. “The same as the numbers that guard in the Blood Arena called us with.”
“…So, have we learned the language of the Lost City?”
“…It looks like it. Let’s check out the other details on our Blood Cards.”
Alnea nodded and returned his attention back to his Blood card.
N 06 08499
F I 5
000000
08399
000000
08399
000000
08399
0000075
137225
0000000
143763
00000000137
F I 5? False Rank, Intermediate Stage, Fifth Level… That made sense. Eight thousand three hundred ninety nine… Most probably that was his rank in the three halls that that the guard had mentioned. Around a hundred lower than he had expected. Where did the other five hundred people go? Dead, or forced out of the city?
Forget it, Alnea thought, and shifted his attention to the large string of zeros next to his rank in the three halls. They should represent the number of points he had in those three halls. Going according to the same logic, he would have around seventy five Arena points… Not bad, considering how he got all those points in just one battle. How many Arena points had the guard mentioned that he needed to earn?
“A hundred and thirty seven Blood coins,” Alnea said, returning his attention back to the girls. “What about you?”
“A hundred and twenty three,” Cecilia said, cursing the man who had challenged her for his poverty. “Trying to get my hundred Blood Coins with just twenty something Blood Coins… the Wanderers in the city sure are insidious.”
“Insidious indeed,” Yuri said, looking at her Blood Card with interest, before turning back to them. “I have a hundred and seven Blood Coins. It looks like I am the poorest of us at the moment.”
“…We are not much better off.”
“But doesn’t that make this even more interesting?” Alnea said. “Climbing up the ranks, completing the trials, earning more Blood Coins… All these things will be meaningful only when we start from the bottom. Or else, how will we prove ourselves worthy of entering the core city?”
“…If you mention it in such a way…”
“…I guess we cannot really complain,” Yuri said, with her dazzling smile almost blinding his eyes. “Before we get too excited though, let us first discuss how exactly we are going to tackle the challenges of the city.”