Illic looked at Al as he was being observed “You have called, master?” he finally asked, after what was longer than a minute. Being a man of few words, he’d rather not do so, but he had to, since his master, which once again smelled of beverages, looked at him intently.
“Illic, you have kept record of all my visits, is that right?” to which a nod was replied.
“In how much debt am I?” this question needed further consideration. But Illic didn’t need to take out his notebook – not that he was keeping one, that would be a security risk. He only needed a thought to browse everything in his head and replied shortly.
“Master, you have recently paid most of your debts… there are only two establishments that require payment, they have not asked for it yet. The total sum is ten gold and 67 silver pieces, with a few bronze coins.”
Al knew he had gained 500 gold from his inheritance, the residence itself was worth around 300, as it was a residence a noble would life in, it was very spacious and at the border between the inner and outer city, barely counting as part of the inner city, but it was pricy because of it’s size and the fact that it was in close proximity to one of the markets of the capital – the silk market.
“How much is remaining of the inheritance?” besides the 500 gold, he still had ten platinum coins, but that currency had no direct relation because it was a magical material that would enable him to delve into that market, gold being a rarity there – it’s worth was dependent on people’s wills and had not too much of practical use, while platinum was used in every magic craftsmanship and more.
“In the past years, the expenditure has been high, leaving only a third remaining.” ‘So, a few coins more than 150 if I pay the debt? How can this be… the inheritance was only in the hands of past me for, what, four years? That much gold would be enough to live off five lifetimes in the residence… fine, at least there are still a few coins.’
Al didn’t really know where that gold was, he knew of the platinum, as he was hiding it himself, at least the past him knew not to play with big things, but the gold would always be kept with Illic, so he told him “Take the gold and pay the establishment. If they refuse, ask them to write a statement that the debts are fully freed and of no further consequence.”
Illic was stoic as always, so even if he had thoughts about it, he just took it as is and left. Al stretched his body on the bed slowly till he was able to stand up, doing some more basic stretching. He wasn’t one to like those, but in the hospital, it was basically his sole job.
He had already done some body trauma healing, so he quickly got the hang of his new body, the memory being of great help. He went out into the hallways after a quick inspection of the room. Looking out the window was a front yard that was kept clean to the bare minimum – probably something Illic forced himself to do.
The other window showed the back garden, which was also somehow cleaned, although of lesser quality than the other yard, clearly, no one would visit there. The front yard had a less interesting view and was just grass, while the wild back yard was quite beautiful with flowers and weed growing all around, in the centre was a pond with a pavilion next to it.
The residence was pretty large, had a good spot and was generally of higher quality. Thinking about it, it was probably more expensive than 300 gold, the initial estimate based on the memories were wrong; Al couldn’t do anything about that, after all, the past him just didn’t look at the residence at all, only skipping to the bedroom and all that.
The whole residence should range from 700-1000 gold, it seems that even if the earl was disappointed in his bastard son, for his mother he had given away such a large sum, just so his son could life a leisure life; it wasn’t like that wasn’t fulfilled. Unfortunately, the past Al had been apathetic to everything after he successfully learned mind magic. He used its defensive properties to shield himself from all his emotions.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
‘Mind magic, one of the magics that just… seem way too strong. Manipulating someone to make them do as you please, even if my current Mind magic is focused mainly on defence, that doesn’t make it any worse. He had so much potential in it, being the even stronger than his telekinetic magic. Both magics are usually used for control, a funny twist.’
Al was still recovering but as he was striding around the residence, he occasionally picked up something with telekinesis, his body and brain memory being fully integrated, there were no issues. Although previous Al was pathetic in his lifestyle, he never neglected his magic training and achieved the third circle in magic just before he was sent out.
Afterwards… he had not learned and with only three circles at the age of 20, he wasn’t considered genius anymore, surely still not ‘average’, but deemed as a lower talent, expected to reach at most the fifth circle, if even that.
Considering that a third circle, or their official title in the empire ‘intermediate mage’ had the power to do damage comparable to a small village, relatively speaking, as many magics are not offensive, it’s already enough power to live off a good life.
But Alaric wasn’t and wouldn’t be happy with that after he just found out that he was in a magical world and had a stable foundation, if he had to guess, then past Al probably only didn’t create the fourth circle around his heart because he didn’t deem it smart if he wanted to stay in his routine boring apathetic life.
Slowly Al adjusted to all his powers, in all honesty, it wasn’t hard. He had made a tour around the residency, only letting off the servant building; he didn’t want to be more embarrassed than he already was. It was a three-story building, the first story consisted of one spacious hall and several smaller side-rooms. The second story included guest rooms, a very large but empty library with only a few novels and a large atelier. The third story had all his private rooms, at least those had some furniture, three empty rooms, maybe past offices or hobby rooms, a bedroom and an adjacent bathroom.
Everything was very spacious and if he was honest, Alaric was already planning out the whole building, he was artistic in the end. In his past life, he only followed that path as a hobby, but he had been a professional of some sort, selling some of his pieces online.
This was also the path he would be following: a man of culture that reinvents the cultural and artistic side of the war-addicted Gregory Empire. Now he would not only do some classical drawing and painting, no, that would not be enough. He had a plan in his mind and was just waiting for Illic to come back.
…
A few hours later, Alaric was in his bedroom lying on the bed with eyes closed, while several objects were moving around in the room. On his table, a white sheet of paper was being drawn upon with a simple brush dipped in black ink. This was the only thing he could find after gathering a few things around the building.
While his eyes were closed, he was using telekinesis to move the brush while he projected his will towards the tip of the brush, using mind and telekinetic magic at the same time to produce a strong effect of magic in the calligraphy he was doing.
Even though many things are easy for him with the memory, he was still struggling with writing beautifully; past Al stopped training that at some point as well since he wasn’t attending the home teacher later on.
Illic knocked at the door, Alaric willing it to open, to which Illic just entered, even if no one knew of his magic, Illic was soul-bound to him and would never reveal anything about him, so it didn’t matter. Illic didn’t bow, as past Al wasn’t adamant about it privately, not that he could be when he was drunk or asleep most of the time.
“Master, I have paid back the debt. Both had asked several times whether you would consider it and said that it was a friendly debt and needed no rush, but they had refused to write a written statement about that. I had taken the freedom to calling the silver guard, which then made the owners accept unwillingly, they had also asked for a meeting with you.”
‘The silver guards… hmmm, oh! Those police-like people that would be bothered with every problem of the nobles after it was obvious that the iron guards couldn’t take care of real issues of the commoners and petty warnings from nobles?’ Al considered for a second before waving his hand nonchalantly “It doesn’t matter. If they come here, kick them out and tell them that any issue they plan to cause would be reported to the Earl.”