[Arthur Leywin POV]
After that amusing breakfast situation, we started talking more calmly about yesterday's events, but why? Simple, my mother was still quite scared by what happened, even though she was calmer than before.
"I really wanted to understand…why is it every time you leave the house…something bad like this happens?" She said in a low voice for only me to hear, but because the place had become silent, most people heard that question.
A slightly tense expression came over everyone until Virion tried to enter the situation in a snarky way. "At least he was trained by me to be here with us. Don't worry, Alice. That boy of yours is amazing... He's just... hm... how can I say this without sounding like an idiot... ?" He said thoughtfully, stroking his own beard.
"Unlucky?" I answered what I thought he meant, but it turned out to be an awkward situation, not only did I say it, my dad, my brothers, and Tess all spoke in unison with me.
That made my mother's face completely expressionless as Merial gave a slightly sheepish laugh. "Ha..ha... him? Unlucky? Imagine..."
"I think the world wants to balance things out with you meeting Tessia and proposing to her, man." Luz said while having a cup of strong coffee, he had one of his eyes hurt, because Tess had managed to throw a sneaker in his face while chasing him earlier.
Silence reigned in that room a little longer, until it was broken with a light laugh from Virion at the comment, and then came Merial... Alduin... my father... and finally my mother. Everyone started laughing at that as my face reddened and I saw that Tess's face was also red as a tomato.
It took a few hours for everything to calm down more peacefully, after a very simple lunch, but incredibly beautiful in appearance, due to the presence of Tess's family, my mother had an interesting idea. This idea was incredibly interesting even to Merial, but there was a big problem with her status.
And what was that idea? Simple, we try to forget a little bit of what happened, going shopping. Because Tessia's family is the famous royal family of one of the continents, walking with them for a tour in Xyrius would be incredibly complicated, considering the fact that my family was still seen as peasants.
No matter how much my mother talked to and formed friendships with other mothers in my sister's school community, no matter how important my father was as head of the guard at an extremely famous auction house, and no matter that Luz or I were comparable to special force police officers who only work within Xyrus Academy.
Yet we were a family of commoners...
Walking around with royalty around would only draw attention and possible trouble, considering what happened...
We shouldn't call anyone's attention like that-
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"Art! Did you hear me?!? I asked if you want to go buy some candy with me! Hunf!" Tessia exclaimed and pouted, bringing me completely out of my thoughts.
We were now walking through the most noble market area of Xyrus City. Different from what I imagined, in fact the whole Eralith family decided to take this tour so that they could at least get their minds off their problems. After all, there's no reason to try to solve something so quickly, if this thing just happened... The healthiest thing is to first let the situation better penetrate our senses, and then have an acceptable reaction.
Among our elf guests, Aya was the one who decided to not go with us, because she was afraid and wanted to continue seeing the state in which Alea was. So, the Eralith royal family was walking around Xyrus unguarded? Well... Yes, they were doing that.
I was quite nervous about the idea, mainly because of the existence of an opposition group to the union of Dicathen existing in some hidden place of the floating city. But Virion exclaimed, saying that he had nothing to fear, after all, among the people on this family tour there was my father, he, my brother and I, 4 mages with considerable battle skills, the minimum possible to at least get time to call for reinforcements if necessary. I hated that his lack of concern came from the fact that Luz and I were here, but I couldn't help it, every time I tried to refute him before we left the Helstea mansion, he complained saying that a disciple can't command his mentor...
I looked at Tess, finally answering her. "I see... we could do that when we get back to the mansion, don't you think it's better this way?"
"Hmmm.. Okay!" She replied with a smile on her face and held tight to me, we were holding hands.
I could feel the look of envy and curiosity from some people around, possibly because they didn't recognize Tessia, but that didn't matter, because that doesn't change the fact that she is beautiful as a doll. As for her family, Alduin wasn't with us, he said he was going to the elven embassy in Xyrus to talk to some representatives, while Merial was present, with an adorable smile, but with a very strange look, as if she was waiting to see this scene for many, many years. Virion had a big smirk to see how happy his grandaughter was by my side.
"Well... We've already been through some pretty simple stores, but how about we go find some really nice clothes for an 'unexpected upcoming event'?" Merial said with that same face, but with the excited voice, we knew very well what 'event' it was.
"Hm... I agree, but I feel like we would need to ask the kids what they want first. Do you understand?" My mom commented, it seemed like she was slowly becoming more friendly with Merial, at least to the point where she could talk without stuttering.
"Well, I want to go wherever Art chooses!" Tess said still smiling adorably.
"Hm... Clothes!" Ellie commented energetically.
"Hm... whatever... I feel like- wait...." Luz was answering Merial and our mother, until he seemed to look in one direction.
Looking in the same direction, I ended up seeing that the area around the corner seemed to be full of equipment stores and such for adventurers. This reminded me of a small detail, I still had ways to get stronger, and due to recent events, it was much better to acquire such a strength boost as quickly as possible, whether using elixirs or equipment. In fact, equipment would be the main thing, because so far, I only have Dawn's Ballad as a faithful item, all the other items I had were either not good enough or temporary and borrowed.
"Hm..." Slightly influenced by my thoughts, I ended up making my choice. "I think I'll go get some magic items... Possibly some Elixirs and Equipment. You don't have to follow me if you don't want to."
"That being the case, we'll take a quick look at nearby stores and after you've picked up what you want, we can meet somewhere." Merial was smiling as she said this.
"We could meet in front of the good old 'Bakery GreenyBook'. I heard that people there are doing some discounts because of the event that will happen next week." My dad commented and we all agreed on that.
Luz and Tess came with me towards that part of the market region, Sylv also followed, but not before struggling and escaping the tight hug that my sister always gave her. There were a number of interesting stores with what I was hoping to see, but one seemed to catch my eye the most.
This store was a little back from the street we were on, if it weren't for the width of the sidewalk in front of the store, I would think that it was an alley between two buildings. What caught my attention about that? Simple... It was a rather worn-out kind of hut, clearly made of wood. I could see some walls in the outside area a little dirty with moss and fungus that shone even during the day.
There was a large sign reading WINDSOM'S POTIONS AND MEDICINES, which was slightly tilted and apparently was being held by a single nail, it was almost a miracle to see that. And that's why my attention was caught so easily, among so many amazing and beautiful stores... there was... this thing.
"Woah... This looks like one of those really old-fashioned stores. How about we go there?" Luz asked making me and Tess look at him.
"Are you sure about this? I think there are better places..." Tess commented something that even I agreed with, until I heard what my brother said right after...
"Well... I don't think it's a bad idea for us to look for something good in there... Maybe we got lucky and found something that normal people would never find because they came from such a place..." He said that in a very thoughtful way and then looked at the jewel that was glued to one of his fingers on his left hand. "And we've both seen that happen enough, haven't we?"
It was when I thought more about his words that I realized something important. Dawn's Ballad and my brother's special ring, both are items that cannot be used or identified by ordinary mages, and this made people think that they were just old and useless things... That is... The place where the more we would have a chance to find things like those, it would be places like that store in front of us.
"Okay, but is there another reason why you think it's a good idea for us to start with this store?" I said, as I walked towards the place, they were following me, with Sylv being on Luz's shoulder, in a way that she also kept close to Tessia.
"I'm feeling that strange mana around here... Not the mana of the thing I faced, but the transparent mana." When he said that, I was quite taken aback.
Until now that transparent mana was a complete mystery, the only times I heard about it were all related to my brother and his ring. But as far as I remember well, he had told me before that, for a slight moment, this strange mana had glowed a purple color during one of his fights, so why was he still referring to it as "transparent mana", instead of "purple mana"?
Coming close to the wooden door, I could see that it looked so fragile that it would destroy just touching it gently, but the copper doorknob seemed to be coated with an absurd amount of mana. This made me stop and think about the situation for a while and I concentrated a large amount of mana into my right hand.
"Is there a problem?" Tess asked, noticing my delay in opening the door.
"I don't know why... but this door is jammed with mana..." I answered her sincerely, still trying to touch the doorknob, it was a dense layer of mana that prevented me from actually opening it.
"I told you this place looked a lot more special than it looks... And the little sign over there says the place is open... So this isn't a lock made to keep out thiefs." Luz gave a low laugh.
"Hm..." I concentrated myself more and thought again about the situation that happened with Dawn's Ballade. I activated a bit of my first phase and finally the doorknob allowed me to touch and open that door, I was impressed to say the least and I deactivated my beast will. "How strange... This was identical to before..." I muttered to myself and we finally entered that place.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Upon opening, we were initially greeted by a horrible dry wind, not like the place was humid, it was more like extremely stale air that forced me, Tess and Sylv to cough, while Luz seemed unaffected by it and gave a light laugh again. A little further on, behind some dusty shelves full of items, I could see an elderly-looking man with simple but at the same time dirty clothes. It was as if the man was the equivalent of the store as far as what I would normally expect from a place like this.
"Oh, costumers! What can I do for you?" He said in a voice that matched his appearance but was quite inviting, as if he had always been training for this moment.
"Good afternoon, sir... I was looking for some things, I decided to come here because we never know what is hidden from the view of others." I spoke calmly and started walking towards him.
"Oh! Nice words, young man! And you two, is there anything I can do....?" he asked excitedly, but at the end of the question he looked confused, but why?
"I-I don't need anything, I'm just making company for them." Tess responded with a slight smile on her face and eyes closed, with a slight soft blush on her cheeks as usual.
"I'm after some things that might help a friend's recovery... I specialize in detection, and I noticed that there's very likely something I'm looking for here in this store, so I'd like to take a look at what you have in your stock." Luz answered calmly, while Sylvie rocked jumping from my brother's right shoulder to his left and he gave her a light pat, then continued talking. "Oh, and maybe something that would be useful for my stepsister here."
When he said that, I was hyper confused. At the time I wasn't looking at him, I was looking at some of the bookshelves over there, but when I watched him, I noticed that his eyes were strangely glowing a faint yellow, just like I'd seen them when we'd met in Widow's Crypt. Looking at the old man again, I noticed that he seemed to be sweating a little in the forehead area as he kept his eyes closed.
"Ahn..." Tessia tried to ask something but decided to ignore it, possibly thinking she heard wrong but I didn't, I could hear very well what my brother had said, maybe it was just a cute joke and I was confused why nothing... Seriously, he's a jokester, why do I take him so seriously in simple moments like this?
"Hm... I see..." the old man spoke in a rather slow manner and went behind the counter. "Hm... you can take a look at the stuff out front, kids. I feel like I know what this guy wants, and if it's what I'm thinking, it's in the back area, I'll get it now." And with that, the man walked out of that part of the store through a door.
"Well... I guess that's it..." Luz had a softer voice than usual and he went to the left side of the store to look at some the objects there, while Tess and I stayed on the right side, observing some shelves.
Everything looked old and dusty, with several bottles of different shapes with liquids of different colors, there were even some bottles with luminescent liquids inside. I was quite impressed, if it weren't for the state of the store, I'd say that place had mystical items just by the look of them. I took some bottles to read the packaging and names of the items, Tess was at my side doing the same to help me.
"So what are we looking for, to be more specific?" She spoke softly next to me.
"Some kind of elixir or accelerator for my mana cultivation... It would be one of the main things I want..." My voice came out more serious than I expected, and soon I felt her hugging me gently in my left arm.
"I know you're trying to become strong to protect me... Silly... But don't overdo it, okay?" Her calm and concerned voice brought me out of my training-related thoughts a bit, reminding me of Sylvia's voice asking me to try to have a good life. Unfortunately, in order to have a good life, I have to make a safe life first, so it's all about me becoming stronger, no matter what anyone says...
"Hey, Arthur, I found something here that might be of interest to you!" Luz pulled my attention and I looked at him, who was still on the far side of that part of the store.
He threw something towards me, and I caught it using a simple wind spell. Observing the object in my hand, it seemed to be a crystalline sphere with a multicolored liquid inside, it greatly resembled a mana beast's core. The weight of it was almost zero, yet when I threw it a few inches above my hand, it quickly fell back into my palm, as if it were incredibly heavy. It all made no sense.
"What is that? It even looks like a mana core..." Tess made a comment, revealing that I wasn't the only one who noticed that.
"I agree, maybe it's an elixir inspired by one." I spoke calmly, still analyzing that item and then looking towards my brother, who seemed to be leaning against one of the shelves, looking towards me... or I could say... he was looking above me...?
Following his gaze, I noticed a black cat that was lying on one of the higher parts of the shelf I was next to. The cat was watching us, with the creature's eyes being beautiful, almost night-stary, and in the center of them were completely white and vertical pupils, which reminded me a lot of a crescent moon. When it realized that we had noticed it, its eyes became half-closed, focused, as if it would attack at any moment, even though the animal's body looked quite relaxed and lying there.
Out of sheer curiosity to see that animal completely new to me, I used a bit of first phase to get a better look at it. The moment I did that, the cat's determined and focused eyes became extremely wide. It seemed to run away from me, jumping from shelf to shelf, until it got close to Luz. With its back to me, I didn't know what look that cat was giving him, but from the way its body arched, it seemed to be inspecting my brother and Sylv.
I didn't understand what happened, but after a few seconds there, the black cat seemed to arch its back more and meow aggressively at Luz and Sylv. As expected of my daughter, she did the same as a way of protecting my brother, as he watched the animal with one eyebrow raised.
"This one! I found what I was looking for, boy!" The door behind the counter opened, revealing the old man who was the possible owner of the store. He approached my brother and stared a little at the cat that was nearby, making the same move away and now lying on the counter, returning to look me and Tess.
"Hm... Thank you sir. But... you have 3 items in hand." My brother replied as Tess and I walked towards them, past the cat who was apparently upset about something but luckily didn't attack us like I'd hoped he would.
"I know, but because you've sensed its presence, I wanted to also show you these two other things that might be of interest to you." the old man spoke soon realizing that we were all together next to him.
With him there were 3 items, one looked like a kind of small crystal gem with a liquid inside, another looked like a small solid marble sphere the same size as the crystal sphere that Luz gave me, and finally, a kind of potion inside a vial cube that barely fit in his hand, making him have to hold it by the mouth of the bottle. I watched Tess's curious look when she saw the items that old man wanted to show my brother.
"I can understand..." My brother's yellow eyes seemed to shine, as if he was analyzing those items. A sinister wide smile spread across his face, and then he glanced at the old man. "I'd like to take these three items... Ah... and we found one that looked like this orb you have there, so we'll want that too." He said taking 2 gold coins and putting them on the counter, next to the cat.
Two gold coins for those?! Considering the place we are, I would think that the owner here would be desperate to the point that he would lower the prices to at least earn some money, but apparently my brother doesn't think so, and he spent 2 gold coins, which is equivalent to 20,000 of the default currency, which is bronze.
"Oh! It was great doing business with you, boy!" The old man said with a somewhat exaggerated happiness, but maybe that's because of the extreme amount of money he got.
"It was nothing... and by the way, do you know any great places for us to buy equipment or items for adventurers?" My brother asked the old man, but he kept staring at the cat, as if he was teasing the animal.
"H-hm... I think there's a great seller for that three stores ahead, turning right..." The man replied.
"Great, let's go get my brother's equipment." He said going to the door of the store and we followed him, but before leaving he smiled and waved to the man, saying "Thank you, Windsom~"
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[Windsom POV]
I watched them leave the store, I was completely dumbfounded and surprised to see something like this...
"We were waiting for Lady Sylvia when we felt that mana assignature... But instead... we found them... What a strange situation... Don't you think, Elder Windsom?" One of the people sent to observe the situation said, as I descended from the balcony, leaving my feline form and returning to my humanoid form, in addition to using the artifact given to us, thus leaving this place invisible to anyone else.
Feeling comfortable now that we were 100% hidden from lessers, the person with me shed his disguise, revealing the shapely classic pantheon body. He walked over to me and handed me some sort of white paper with a blue line on the back, as per our color coding, these were direct orders from Lord Indrath.
"I used the time I was back there to contact Lord Kezess, he sent me this message and asked to have it delivered to you." When he said that, I took a good look at the door of the place where we were, before anything else.
I started to see the new orders we received, while my companion started to speak, his voice showing a lot of surprise, even if imperceptible to lesser beings. "I can't believe it... We came here thinking we'd finally found Lady Sylvia... we'd finally bring her home... And instead... A lesser with her will... her daughter as if she were just a pet... and..."
"A Vritra protecting Lady Sylvia's daughter…" I finished his sentence as images flowed through my mind, that Vritra knew who we were, and seemed to want to show it, but still didn't mention it, as if he didn't want the lessers who were with him knew that.
"I didn't even know that Lady Sylvia had a daughter... but beyond a doubt, the mana she had demonstrates that she is indeed an Indrath. The strange thing was... why couldn't we detect her and why was she using that form that drains so much mana? We just detected that lesser that somehow has Lady Sylvia's Will, we didn't even feel the Vritra's presence until he walked into the shop." He commented as he leaned against the door that led to the back area.
"By the orders I received... We'll have to keep an eye on them... What exactly did you say to Lord Indrath?" I asked curiously, after all I expected that my lord would order us to kill the Vritra that was close to his granddaughter.
"You know how he loves short and direct answers, I just wrote 'My Lord, we found the source of your daughter's energy, but it's not her. A lesser has it, and not only that, there's a Vritra boy possibly useful with him, besides your granddaughter'."
"Why did you categorize him as 'possibly useful'? That must have been what made him not give us orders to attack for the kill." I spoke with a clear tone of irritation, after all my companion's use of words seemed to have affected Lord Indrath's judgment.
"That Vritra boy noticed things here in this shop... and you, as a member of the Indrath clan, know very well that everything here is hidden using an artifact of pure Aether... He is a Vritra who feels it, and we're talking about particles that were hidden on purpose... It was like..."
"The Aether has decided to show itself, even if it goes against the function of the artifact..." I completed his sentence, finally realizing my mistake. The fact that he was a Vritra made me miss that detail, and not only that... If we take into account that he wasn't wanting the lesser with Lady Sylvia's Will to know about us, that could mean that he was also protecting him...
A Vritra... wanting to protect not only Lord Indrath's granddaughter, but Lady Sylvia's chosen one as well... that goes against any logic I would find coming from the Basilisk clan... Perhaps he is a traitor? .. No... I can't jump to such obvious conclusions... we really need to keep an eye on them.. as usual... my lord is right...
The situation seems to have changed... and if it goes our way... things will be too easy... so easy... that no matter how much it helps... seems more suspicious than true...
My thoughts were interrupted when I remembered the items that were taken and I faced my colleague. "What did they take? You were in charge of the items we had."
"Well... the crystal ball they took and the marble ball... both of those were items we would hand over to Lady Sylvia, as we thought she was too weak that she couldnt return to Epheotus by herself." When he said that, I remembered that it was one of the main guards who handed him those. "As for the other two items... The crystal will serve to restrict things a bit... while the potion vial is one of the emergency medicines we receive... I felt both truth and pain in the Vritra boy's words when he commented on needing that badly... Anyway, the most this will do on a lesser is heal super basic wounds and illnesses, no big deal."
"I understand... but for you to say that you felt the truth in his words..."
"Yes, I know... The Vritra clan was expelled precisely because they were literal vipers who caused trouble and broke our taboos... but... let's face it... that was just a brat. I felt his mana core... He doesn't even is in the Integration Phase... And you know damn well that shows how weak he is compared to Asuras... Even my cousin would beat him up without a problem." He said it like it was no big deal.
"Your cousin...? Oh really... Young Taci... I heard that he's already drawing Lord Indrath's attention because he's a great prodigy, since he was 5 years old..." I thought, remembering the day that little pantheon boy appeared in my clan's castle.
"I think you're right... We don't need to worry too much... but we'll have to watch them..." I pointed out that detail, after all, they were orders.
"Okay. I'll get started then... will we do each week... like when we trained?" He smirked.
"Let's take shifts every 10 hours... That way we won't get so tired if we really need to attack..." I said, already with some thoughts in mind of what we could do, but instead of telling my partner, I decided to go on towards the back area, where our communicator was.