Alnea opened his eyes and let out a heavy breath, exhaling all the useless thoughts out of his Heart. Just to make sure that he would not fall to the temptations of sleep, he even got up from the cushion and stretched out his limbs in an attempt to wake them up. He did not know exactly how much time had passed, but after Wandering the Origin Sea, and Forging his Spirit, he reckoned that even if the time that they had agreed to meet upon had not come, it should be quite close.
He could have asked Yuri, but just in case she was in the midst of tempering her Heart, he decided to not disturb her. Instead, after his legs regained some warmth, and did not feel as numb anymore, Alnea picked up his sword and strapped it back to his waist, before stepping out into the empty corridor. As he had expected, he was a little early. Since he had nothing else to do, he just simply began checking out the corridor.
The crystals embedded into the ceiling every few steps or so were illuminating the corridor in a dim blood red light. Thankfully, the large window in the middle of the corridor, standing opposite to the staircase, and opening up to the view of the street below, was not dark as the windows in his room, allowing for Enn’s light to mix in with the red light, making corridor much less dingy.
Even though he had already seen the corridor before, the blood red light still unnerved him a little. Who in their right mind would design a city to look so bloodthirsty? Shaking his head, Alnea tried to divert his mind away from the lights, focusing his attention on the only other thing in the corridor—except for the blood red carpet, but there was nothing to notice about the carpet— the blood red doors.
More specifically, he looked at the black boxes attached to the doors. Locking, and unlocking a room, recognising Blood Cards, deducting Blood Coins, blinking in a red light, and probably even regulating the temperature inside the rooms, the box had seemingly endless functions. And yet, he could not see even one Glyph on the box. Maybe the Glyph Arrays were within the box. But then, what about the Blood Cards?
Alnea took out his Blood Card and looked at it with interest. It was just a thin piece of metal. If one had to engrave Glyphs on the card, they could do it only on its surface. Yet, except for the various symbols demarking his identity in the city, and his other personal information, he could not see anything else on the card. Exactly how were the Blood Cards and the black boxes working?
A legacy from the Age of Gods…
A screeching sound rang out in his ears, startling Alnea out of his ruminations. Turning towards the sound, he found Cecilia, with the stupid cat trailing behind her, walking out of her room, looking at him with a smile.
“Did you wait for long?”
“No,” Alnea said, shaking his head, just as he pocketed his Blood Card back into his robe. “I just finished my training too.”
“Good,” Cecilia said, and turned towards Yuri’s room. “How long do you think Yuri is going to take?”
Cecilia’s question was answered by another screeching sound, bringing their attention to Yuri, who had just stepped out of her room with her usual charming smile spread across her face. Allowing the door to close on its own, she walked towards them, and said, “Were you two talking about me?”
“…You must be imagining things,” Alnea said, trying not to get caught up in Yuri’s flow. Or else, in the end, he would be the one to be teased. “Let us discuss what we are going to do next.”
Yuri giggled at his poor attempt of changing topics. Fortunately for him, she did not attempt to press him. Instead, she took out her Blood Card.
“The first thing that we need to do is learn how to recognise these symbols. Or else, we would not even know how and what sort of troubles we might end up walking into.”
“…I thought we were going to eat first.”
“Did you see any eatery in the city?”
“No.”
“So, even if we want to fill our stomach first, we will have to go back to the Blood Hall. Only there can we find some reliable information.”
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“…Let’s go to the Blood Hall then.”
Once they reached an agreement, they did not waste any time, and began making their way down the stairs, illuminated in a mix of blood red light and Enn’s grace. They met a couple of people from the fifth floor on their way, but those Wanderers decided to keep their distance, waiting for Alnea and the girls to leave the building first. Like the other Wanderers in the city…
Perfect, Alnea thought. His master may have brought them to the Lost City for them to learn how to deal with other Wanderers, but the basis of any action was information. Without knowing anything about how things worked in the city, the lesser the contact they had with other Wanderers, the better it was for them. After all, he did not have any particularly good experience of dealing with—
The moment that Alnea walked out of the building, he saw a man, probably around eighteen to twenty years old, dressed in a tattered red robe, loitering on the street, jump into action. It was as if the man had been waiting for him and the girls to show up. And the moment he spotted them, the man abruptly rushed towards them without even a shred of hesitation.
Almost immediately, Alnea found his hand reaching for his sword, before he remembered where he was. He still did not know much about the city and its rules, but he knew that killing on the streets should be prohibited. Rather, since there was a Blood Arena, even fighting on the streets should not be allowed. Then…
Understanding the purpose of the man charging at him, Alnea twisted his body, allowing the incoming man to rush past him, and stumble to the ground by himself. Grumbling with complaints, and curses, the man turned towards Alnea, staring at him with a vicious glare. It was also then that Alnea got the chance to observe the man’s face, and recognised him as one of the Wanderers he had seen near the city’s gate.
“You have been following us?” Alnea said, frowning at the man. “Are you trying to make me break the rules of the city?”
“What kind of nonsense are your spouting, kid?” the man said, as he pushed himself off the ground. “Don’t think that I will let you go if you act crazy!”
“…Did you hurt your head in the fall?”
“First you trip me, and now you insult me?” the man said in an indignant tone, as if he truly believed what he was saying. However, neither Alnea, nor the girls were naive enough to fall for his tricks.
“I have seen some shameless people, but never have I ever met someone as shameless as you,” Cecilia said, sneering at the man, causing the man’s face to turn red from shame, and anger. “If you want to fight, then fight. What are you saying so much nonsense for?”
The cat following next to Cecilia agreed with her, and let out a hiss, staring intently at the man. It probably just wanted to devour the man’s fortune, but the cat’s impression still went up a notch in Alnea’s mind. Yuri though, was not happy with how things were progressing.
“Forget it, Cecilia,” Yuri said, glancing at the crowd around them with a frown. “He is not worth it. We—
“Enough,” the man said. “You have been repeatedly provoking me… What do you kids take me for?”
“An idiot.”
“Mental patient.”
“Crazy lunatic.”
“Purr!”
“That’s it!” the man yelled, fishing out his Blood Card, and shoving it into Alnea’s face. “I, Brandall, am issuing a Blood Challenge against you!”
“See,” Cecilia said, turning towards Alnea. “I knew that he was here for a fight.”
“We could all see that,” Alnea said, glancing at the other Wanderers on the street enjoying the free show. Some of them had schadenfreude written on their faces, while others had pity and regret in their eyes. Not because they were worried for him and the girls. But because they had missed a chance.
After some thought, Alnea turned towards Yuri, and said, “Looks like we need to set an example.”
“…I thought that we should keep a low profile until we have understood all the rules of the city, but you are right. Unless we deter them with our strength, we are going to face endless harassment from these excuses of Wanderers.”
“Are you kids done?” the man said, laughing hysterically. “If you were trying to scare me with your words, then I am afraid you will be left disappointed. I know that you must be geniuses of your clans, but you should not have come to the Lost City as soon as you became Wanderers.”
“Who is going to do it then?” Alnea said, ignoring the man, only for the girls to look back at him with interest.
“He rushed into you, didn’t he?”
“In a sense, you were the one who provoked trouble.”
“And he is a man.”
“It is only right for you to deal with him.”
“…Forget it,” Alnea said, and turned towards the man in tattered robe. “So, where are we going to do this?”
“…I was thinking of going easy on your, but I have changed my mind. I will make you pay the price for looking down on me,” the man said, gnashing his teeth in rage.
“Don’t worry. I will still go easy on you,” Alnea said, chuckling at the man, enraging him even more than before.
However, the man had much better self control than he let on. Taking deep breaths to calm himself, he glared at Alnea and the girls, and said, “Follow me.”