They didn’t spend much time in the city called Tupara. There wasn’t any reason to. It might be a good place to buy a couple of things and even earn some money, but Veles wanted nothing more than to leave this Bistaiya Kingdom for good. By the books he’d read, this whole kingdom was ruled by the Royal family that prides itself on their very dense draconic lineage. This detail could be troublesome, dragon greed was no joke, and taking into consideration events back in Koria and some of the details he read about, Veles figured out that this place was a totalitarian nation. Basically, every single citizen was nothing more than a disposable pawn. The same applied to noble titles, they were given to those who gained enough merit, and still, they weren’t worth much. The ultimate power to rule was in the hands of the Royal family, everyone else was… replaceable.
Veles highly doubted he could gain something if he decided to stay in this place. Even worse, the chances of him ending up killed or persecuted were very high. His skills most likely reached whomever this Royal Highness was that the masked figure talked about—the one in the Koria’s mayor’s place. Usually, those with a rare class, such as being a Sorcerer, were pressured into submission or straight-up killed. And he wasn’t going to risk that.
So, here they were. After saying goodbye to Daglo, he, Davis, and Tora stood in a boarding line to an airship. This airship was a transporting vehicle with strange looks—a mixture of an airplane and a zeppelin.
Observing the outside engineering, Veles could tell it worked by utilizing the hot air in a strange way. He could see thousands of runes drawn on the cylindrical engines that were attacked to its wings. He had no idea of their general purpose, but taking his previous experience, he was sure they were responsible for creating some kind of barriers around the whole vehicle and then heating the air inside them. How passengers were protected or the other mechanics, he had no idea.
All in all, this Tupara city could be considered a smaller one in the still undeveloped province. But this airship and magical gadgets around the city were genuinely praiseworthy.
For example, of the numerous worlds Veles visited during his life, rare were the ones who used magic to improve the overall quality of life. The magic was usually researched and used to improve one’s strength. It was a selfish pursuit to reach the higher places and trample those below. So, seeing all those magical water fountains that provided free drinking water with a touch of mana or containers capable of immediately incarnating all the trash with zero contamination spread or smell, Veles felt honestly impressed.
“Look at you observing everything like a curious child,” commented Tora with a grin. “Never took you for a country bumpkin. First time in a bigger city?”
“Not really,” replied Veles. “Just trying to decipher the engineering of all those contraptions.”
Tora raised both of her eyebrows and looked at him like he was insane—that, coming from her, was worrying. “You know those things are built upon complex runic systems. You can’t understand anything by ‘just looking’. You need the proper tools and knowledge to grasp anything. Of course, if you manage to pass through the layers of security placed alongside every single rune.”
“You seem to be very knowledgeable about this,” said Veles as he switched his attention and started carefully reading the ticket for their flight.
“One of my brothers likes to twirl with this stuff and I was unfortunate enough to be there and listen to his nonsense,” Tora replied with a smile.
“That’s nice, no knowledge is nonsense, keep that in mind,” said Veles. Then, he pointed at the specific part of the ticket. “Mind telling me why are we going to the Atus Kingdom instead of going for Acelia City right away?”
“Paperwork,” Tora simply said.
“Paperwork?”
She nodded. “For Bistaiya Kingdom, it’s easy to enter but hard to leave. The checkups you need to go through are insane. However, to enter the Atus Kingdom, you don’t need anything but to pay a small fee. They had a strict policy when the Acelia Alliance was formed, saying that only they are allowed to do the checkups for the people willing to enter their place. So, all the people you’ve seen here while buying the tickets were workers from Atus.”
“Weird. I guess other nations aren’t very fond of this?” Asked Veles. It wasn’t just weird, it was ridiculous in many ways. So, basically, this Atus kingdom allowed anyone to enter their territory, or rather, they encouraged everyone to do so.
“Well yeah, in a way. This was used by numerous criminals to escape punishments and pursuit from their home countries. But the funny thing is that Atus actually profits a lot from this. All the stolen goods or other stuff earned in a dishonest way could be found on Atus’s markets. Also, despite all the lowlifes running there, never have the Mage families of Atus allowed any of them to cause major trouble. And yeah, you could say that the neighboring nations aren’t pleased with this, but there is nothing they could do about it.”
“Interesting. I guess this makes an endless chain of stealing back and forth. Sell stuff in Atus, find a way to go back to one of the bordering nations, steal again, and go back to Atus. Then rinse and repeat,” concluded Veles.
“Exactly. You are a smart one, aren’t you?” Tora asked with a slight shock.
“It’s kind of obvious,” replied Veles with a shrug. “I mean, one would probably need serious connections to pull that off anyway.”
To this, Tora had nothing to say because he was right. They spent another fifteen minutes waiting for their airship to be prepared for the flight before they were comfortably seated inside one of the private cabins. The cabin was small, with bunk beds on both sides. They were cleverly made, capable of sliding in and out of the walls. There was even a hard curtain to be placed in the middle of the cabin for privacy’s sake.
Obviously, when they were booking this cabin, he and Tora decided to split the cost of the whole thing, not allowing anyone else to join.
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The moment they were in. Veles claimed the top bed on the left, leaving Davis with the bottom one.
“You look pretty comfortable staying with two unknown men in the same room,” commented Veles. Interrupting Tora as she carefully placed her stuff inside the small lockers.
She smirked his way. “Would like to see you try something funny.”
Before Veles could add something, the airship slightly shook. Clear traces of mana coursed throughout the whole vehicle, followed by the announcement that their flight had set off.
After it took the skies, Veles smiled and yet again focused on Tora. “All those artifacts you wear, even the silly things inside that low-quality storage rings of yours, are giving you a false sense of security. You should be careful who to lower your guard around.”
Tora looked at him, stunned. Even Davis, who was standing nearby and checking his bag, was sending him clear ‘what the hell’ signals.
“What?” Veles shrugged. “It doesn’t matter anymore. We are going to fly for three days inside this thing. Might as well stop pretending.”
He then removed the mask he wore, revealing his face and pair of strange silver eyes.
“Twenty-five plats!” exclaimed Tora.
“Come again?” Asked Veles in confusion. Wondering what she was talking about, that wasn’t a reaction he was expecting.
“You have a bounty on your head worth the whole twenty-five platinum,” Tora said. “But… look at you handsome. They surely didn’t do you any justice with that lousy description.”
Veles rolled his eyes. This girl was too much. “Come on, don’t beat around the bush. Tell me about this bounty?”
Tora pursed her lips, crossed her arms, and sat on her bed. “Nothing special. Yours is amongst many issues in the province of Torudia. Apparently, you stole something from the small town of Koria. And someone wants it back, thus bounty…”
“Am I in trouble? Is it a global bounty or?” Asked Veles with pure curiosity, not really bothered by whatever the answer was.
“It’s provincial and temporary. In fact, there are three for me too.” She replied smugly like she’d won some kind of contest. “There is nothing to worry about. They will be nulled in about a month or two. They serve just to remind mercenaries to keep an eye on certain individuals. More importantly, during these chaotic times, bounty hunters aren’t very active in their field, so chances of somebody actively going after us are very small.”
“You aren’t worried at all?” Asked Veles in amusement after he mused over her words. He wasn’t pointing to the fact that she had bounties, too, but to his and Davis’s presence.
“Nope, why should I?” She firmly said, seemingly understanding what he was getting at. Then she scanned Veles up and down. “And looking at you, handsome. I wouldn’t mind if you even try to do something inappropriate.”
Hearing the last part, Veles snorted. “Don’t play tough with me girl. All those childish things inside your storage ring contradict every single word you say.”
Tora wasn’t fazed by this. “They are all gifts, and you should know that.”
Veles smirked. “Sure are… I mean even if they weren’t, I’m not the one to judge.”
Gritting her teeth, Tora muttered, “So you saw what’s inside my storage ring? They did say you were a Spatial Master…”
“I guess I’m,” said Veles after musing about something. “By the way. I’ve decided to accept that offer.”
“About helping me with that spell of yours. Wait…” She then paused for a moment as if figuring something out. “It did say you are a Sorcerer. I guess that wasn’t really a spell. You have a curse or a hex affinity?”
With a wave of his hand, a blackish fog danced in front of him, constantly changing forms and shapes. After displaying it, Veles snapped his fingers, making it vanish. “Calling it affinity isn’t wrong per se. But it isn’t as simple as that.”
“Honestly, I never saw a Sorcerer in action,” Tora said in awe. “Even though some of my siblings received Sorcerer class, they won’t show me their abilities. But it’s so cool! Come on, let’s start with the tests right away!”
“Not happening,” Veles instantly denied. “You first need to answer my questions about Acelia City and some stuff in general. Then, after I form a plan as to how to proceed, we can continue with your tests or whatever…”
“Ask away,” Tora nodded in agreement.
“Tell me about the general rule. Like what behavior is frowned upon or what’s considered rude and irks people. Also, tell us about what we should be careful about.”
Tora hummed thoughtfully for a second and proceeded to explain, “First of all, breaching people’s privacy is a big no-no. Like what you did with my ring,” She then coughed. “It can get you easily persecuted or even arrested. If you do it, you must be extremely stealthy or subtle. Otherwise, good luck.”
Well, that was given. Not that Veles would do something like that, the reason why he checked Tora’s storage ring was because he wanted to test how hard it would be to crack. Unfortunately for Tora, he did it with ease, her ring was either cheap or the quality of storage rings was overall bad. Nonetheless, he wouldn't attempt the same with some random strangers.
Tora continued, “Secondly, Acelia City is enormous. It has around six million people living there, with a great diversity of races. The security is almost top-notch, but obviously, most of the officials are corrupted to the bone. So, avoid getting into conflict due to discrimination or something like that, because trust me, everyone has that one cousin working as a guard…”
“Noted,” nodded Veles. He then pointed at Vera. His little owl was chilling next to the window. The bird looked down upon the world like it was her playground. “Before you continue, tell me about rules for familiars.”
“When did that thing?” Tora mumbled in shock. She clearly hadn’t noticed Vera entering this room with them. However, she quickly overcame the shock and added, “As long as they have identification amulet, you are fine.”
“Good to know,” said Veles. “But I haven’t registered her anywhere. Or have any papers myself.”
“That won’t be a problem. My sister can help you with that. Even the accommodation can be easily organized. My family owns a lot of property in Acelia City, so you are good on that part.”
“Oh, a rich girl who is returning home from a long journey,” commented Veles. “I guess your family will be overjoyed to hear the stories of your triumph.”
“Kinda, all children of our family are required to see and experience the world. This won’t be anything special for them.”
“How you said it sounded like you have plenty of siblings?” Asked Veles.
“Seventeen. Seven brothers and ten sisters,” she replied proudly.
“Ugh must be tough, aren’t you at each other throats?” Veles again asked. He didn’t even want to know why that number was so high.
“No… well, it's complicated, we aren’t really that powerful or rich, so there isn’t a big competition between us siblings. And the father isn’t very keen on having one heir. His goal was to split everything equally to us.”
“That’s nice and rare to hear,” said Veles.
“Mhm,” Tora mumbled something under her breath before pointing at Davis. “Shouldn’t we take care of him? He doesn’t look good…”
When Veles looked at Davis, he’d noticed that the poor guy’s face was almost green in color. Quickly glancing at the small window, Veles instantly figured out why… Of course, the person with a very strong earth affinity would be scared of heights and flying in general. He should’ve noticed it even before they boarded this airship. Davis was constantly fidgeting and showing signs of panic.
“Being an alchemist, you should have something to help him…” Said Veles. He jumped from his bed and grabbed the paper bag from one of the lockers. Surprisingly, this place was prepared for this kind of problem.
He looked at Davis, who was giving his all to hold back to not spill his stomach contents.
Veles let out a sigh. It seemed this flight would be a long one…