Thankfully for Jon, Milo stayed high above the crowd, so Jon was able to keep up easily. It was more fighting through the direction of the crowd that made it tough. He even had to utter a few “Excuse me’s” while he squeezed through people. No one seemed to be offended, and so Jon stayed on his goal.

Because he was looking up, he managed to catch a glimpse of the woman in the headwrap. She was watching from a building, like the day before.

She seemed to catch sight of Milo as he turned down through a familiar alleyway. She then dropped down from her spot.

Oh no.

Jon pushed harder, this time someone even giving an offended look. Jon felt bad, but he had to run into the alley.

When he finally got there, Milo had floated down to the floor, standing outside the familiar purple carpet.

“Milo!” Jon said, somewhat out of breath.

“Huh?” Milo turned, mildly surprised to see Jon. “That was fast. You paid for the meal already?”

“I don’t have any money,” Jon said.

“Well, shit, hold on. What type of mercenary doesn’t carry any…” Milo patted around his body, looking for something to stick his hand in.”

“Damn it!” Milo flapped at his cape in disgust. “I wasn’t planning to leave today! Well, you look dumb enough. The waitress probably let you go.”

Milo tiled his head. “Hey, where’s your gun?”

“Collateral,” Jon told him.

“Collateral? For the food? Really?”

Jon grimaced.

Milo observed him for a long time without comment.

“You look weird without your gun,” he finally said.

Jon’s mouth tightened so much it could have folded over itself

“Well, whatever.” Milo turned back into the curtain. He reached out.

“Stop!”

Jon and Milo turned to see Marsha, standing in the exit of the alleyway as she had done before. Jon gulped.

“Did you just try to command me?” Milo asked, clearly not afraid. “Do you know who I am?”

Marsha began her response. “The arena is not-”

“Of course, you know who I am…” Milo muttered to himself as he pushed aside the curtain and walked inside.

Jon quickly ran in after Milo.

“Milo!” Jon said again.

He felt wind brush the side of his face. Marsha was now standing in front of them again.

Jon felt like this was a shade of Tallow’s department, but this woman clearly wasn’t Tallow. Tallow would have used wind mana, probably. This woman had just run in front of them.

She held her hand out. “Did you hear me? The arena isn’t open today?”

“Is it?” Milo put his hands on his hips and surveyed the sky above them. “It looks pretty open to me?”

Marsha’s eyes shifted towards Jon, who held in his nervous cough.

“Can you please advise your friend to leave?” she asked him. “This is my last warning.”

“Milo…” Jon squeaked out uncomfortably,

“Go on, try it!” Milo slowly levitated in place. “I doubt you could-”

Marsha dashed up towards Milo, grabbing his arm and leaping behind him.

She swung onto his back and he fell hard onto the floor. She was sitting on top of him, holding his arm behind his back.

“Leave or I’ll break your arm!” she demanded.

“You think I need my arm to hurt you?” Milo yelled, trying to look at her with all the scorn he could muster.

She pulled hard on his arm.

“Ah!!!!” Milo creamed in pain.

Jon’s heart skipped. It didn’t seem like she had broken his arm. She had only pulled a little to hurt him.

He was considering trying to push her off when they were interrupted by a voice.

“Marsha, let him go.” The voice was cool and collected. It scared Jon like it had done earlier. Jocasta was walking towards them, probably coming from somewhere in the arena. Jon had been too caught up in the situation to notice.

“He’s in here when he’s not supposed to be,” Marsha said quickly. Milo was bearing his teeth as much as he could, trying to get up, and so she pushed his head into the ground. He groaned.

“You can’t break the arm of one of the present ruling dignitaries,” Jocasta advised casually. Jon hated how casual it was.

“I recognize no ruling power of government! Under that purview” Marsha replied fiercely.

“I mean, you literally can’t.” Jocasta pointed up above Masha.

Both Jon and Marsha looked up.

Above Marsha’s head, a dark cloud had been forming. And yet, it didn’t seem to cast a shadow. And neither Jon or Marsha had noticed it.

“That seems like a pretty high level spell,” Jocasta said, “and I don’t think you’re quite ready to take that one head on.”

Marsha growled. Milo had been trying to raise his head back up, so Marsha shoved his head into the ground one more time before getting off of him and walking back to Jocasta.

Milo pushed himself up and spit out whatever was in his mouth at the ground.

“You wish you could lower me to your standards!” Milo called out.

“Careful,” Jocasta pointed her finger at him. “Just ‘cause she couldn't break your arm doesn’t mean she couldn’t punch you in the face very hard.”

Marsha had taken her place at Jocasta’s side again. Jon was intrigued how she seemed to follow whatever Jocasta wanted. Just as long as she wasn’t fighting Milo anymore.

“You’re lucky I respect your strength!” Milo picked up his staff before standing back up fully. “It’s a shame to know that you can’t use mana, though. Almost thought you meant something.”

“I’ll show you-” Marsha tried to step up, but Jocasta held her back.

“Don’t let him rile you up,” Jocasta said. “His bark is a little bit bigger than his bite. A little bigger than the whole package.”

“Stop talking about my height!” Milo yelled.

“I wasn’t talking about your height,” Marsha replied.

Milo went red.

“Stop… doing whatever it is you’re doing!” he yelled.

Jon didn’t know what she was doing, but it was working well.

“I must implore you, my liege,” Jocasta put her hand over her half-exposed chest and knelt down, with Marsha looking down at her concerningly. “Why have you graced us with your almighty presence?”

“Stop that!” Milo’s face was even more flushed. “I came here to figure out what dastardly schemes you’re trying to pull here!”

“Schemes?” Jocasta looked up with feigned surprise. “What schemes?”

“You’re planning a revolution here!” Milo said. “Trying to rustle up all of the anger of the plebeians here, training them so that you can try and overthrow us!”

“What? No…” Jocasta looked left and right in an exaggerated fashion. “This isn’t a front for a revolution.”

“Then what is it!” Milo demanded. For the first time since being around him, Jon shivered in his shoes. This was the most like a dignitary Jon had felt from him in a while.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

“It’s a gym.” Jocasta shrugged.

“What?” Milo went flushed again, but this time from anger. “This isn’t a gym! What do you think you’re going on! I wasn’t born yesterday!”

“Are you sure?” Marsha asked, eliciting a surprised reaction from Jocasta.

Milo pointed his staff. “You know what? I-”

“Okay, okay!” For once, Jocasta looked worried, holding her hand up. She held back Jocasta once more. “But you don’t have to pretend like you disapprove.”

Milo tensed up energy disappeared. “What?”

“You should know what we are. You watch us all the time.” Jocasta pointed up to a building nearby. There was a small window in a tower.

“I… hey!” Milo seemed to have completely lost control of the situation again. Jon wondered if Jocasta was actually planning this the entire time.

“You could always come down here, if you want.” Jocasta nodded carefully. “You seem intrigued enough to-”

“Don't patronize me!” Despite his sharp retort, Milo’s presence had lost the spark it had before.

“This area. This… arena…” Jocasta held out her arms. “This is a place where we get to let out all of our frustrations.”

“What frustrations?” Milo asked. Despite keeping his sharp tone, he crossed his arms in thought, showing that he was listening. “All people do is come here and slap each other around. You don’t even use mana.”

“Exactly!” Jocasta raised her hands up. “Because we are powerless. Because we lack the natural talents of those like yourself, who are naturally acclimated to things we don’t have.”

“It’s not natural talent,” Milo said. He gestured outward with one arm. “Anyone can do it. With just enough work-”

“We know the value of hard work!” Jocasta put her arm in front of Marsha once more, but Marsha reached out and grabbed Jocasta’s arm softly. She still pointed hard at Milo with a single finger from the other hand. “It’s the people like you who sit high above us who disregard the hard work we put in.”

“First of all,” Milo began, “we at the Library employ all the normal plebeians like you. We train them up, give them a nice meal and a place to stay, and they learn to do their jobs diligently.”

Jon thought about the gardener in the hallway and the cooks in the kitchen. There was definitely something non-extraordinary about them that also made them unique to encounter.

“Secondly,” Milo added, “you could probably learn how to master your mana, if you didn’t spend all of your time sitting around here all day, not doing anything.”

“I stand guard over Jocasta and the constituents of the arena!” Marsha replied. “And I don’t need your mana to become strong!”

“Everyone can do it!” Milo grabbed his hair in frustration. “Why don’t you go and study in the library? It’s free!”

“I think our young prince is getting the closest to a compliment he can muster,” Jocasta noted to Marsha. She then turned her attention to Milo.

“My liege,” she began. Milo hmphed but crossed his arms again.

“In all respect, it’s your responsibility to learn as much as you can about mana and train yourself in the ways of the mystic arts, and so you have much more experience and resources to be able to do so. It’s Marsha’s job, to watch over the arena and keep things from getting much more rowdy than it already does, to which she does an amazing job. So, we may just be a little slow to catch up.”

“Hmph!” Milo didn’t respond with a complaint, however. Jon was amazed she could talk without him saying anything back.

“But, in all honesty,” Jocasta turned back to Marsha. “You could probably do a few days in the library. Learn some stuff.”

Marsha growled, but there was also no response.

“Great. We’re all friends here.” Jocasta shrugged. “And besides, prince, I can tell that you’re looking to compensate for something. Look at that big stick you’re holding.”

“What!"

“I mean for your mana. It’s clear that you have incredible control and mastery over mana, but you still use that thing. Why?”

Milo grunted. “It’s my control stick. A staff! You’ve seen it before, I’m sure. It helps me control stuff. I don’t know.”

“But you don’t need it.” Jocasta nodded slowly. “You want to be stronger, don’t you? Push your limits. Even without the staff. You probably carry that thing around because you want to beat someone in the head with it, but you’re much shorter and not as confident in any of your physical abilities.”

“Hey!” Milo began floating in the air again.

“Same thing with the levitation.” Jocasta watched him rise up with no concern. “You like to make yourself bigger than you already are, right?”

Milo slowly levitated back to the ground.

“I think we’re finally starting to get somewhere.”

“And?” Milo raised his eyebrow.

“Nothing. That’s it. If you still feel like you don’t want us to be here,” Jocasta bowed, “then we’ll depart from this land. Just like that.”

Just like that. Jon didn’t know what to make of those words. He didn’t know what to make of any of her words, except that he couldn’t take them literally.

Instead, Jon watched Milo for his answer. Milo was theoretically the one in charge. He had all the power, but Jon was sure Jocasta already knew what he would say.”

“Even if I did believe you that you would just up and leave,” Milo began, “I suppose I could turn a blind eye on these events for now. If the population is as frustrated as you say, but-”

Milo pointed at her. “I warn you. If these “shows” spill out into the streets, then you’ll be in the jurisdiction of the Library and we'll take you down!”

“You don’t have any-” Jocasta’s hand cut Marsha off.

“Sure. Agreed.” Jocasta nodded.

“You can’t agree to that!” Marsha said to Jocasta, wide-eyed. “You can’t control people and what they do all the time-”

“She can control you just fine” Milo interjected. “I don’t suppose it should be that hard with other people.”

Another growl from Marsha.

“Just enjoy your fun until my father returns,” Milo began. “He may not stand for this tomfoolery! I’m in charge until then!”

Milo floated away once more. “I’ll be watching you, witch!”

Is he gonna leave me? Jon wondered, watching him.

“You forgot about the real reason you came here,” Jocasta called out to him.

“What?” Milo’s surprise became shocking. “Oh, shit! Where is she!”

Jon felt like a fool. He had been so taken in by everything he had also forgotten to look for Thalia. He felt so powerless without his gun.

“Speak of the devil…” Jocasta pointed to another corner of the arena, “and she shall appear!”

Thalia was just barely visible on top of the wall of the building. She flipped over the side and grabbed onto the side of the wall, sidling down and leaving a cloud of dust behind her.

She rolled onto the floor when she reached the bottom, then scurried to the arena.

Whoa. Jon was finally seeing it for once. Thalia was more or less a mouse who could scurry whenever she needed to be.

“Jon!” Thalia ran up to him, then stopped when she saw Milo.”

“You,” she said, with a darkened look on her face.

“Me?” Milo cocked his head. “Say my name!”

Thalia ignored him and looked to Jocasta.

“Carpets are coming in right now!” Thalia exclaimed. “Do you have any other deliveries for me?”

“Delivery?” Marsha turned and saw some men trying to carry something large from the alleyway through the small carpet door.

“No, wait!” she scrambled and ran to them. “You can’t just enter on an off day like that!”

“You’re working for these cronies?” Milo was back to his usual sneering self.

Thalia paid him no mind, though.

“No more deliveries today,” Jocasta told Thalia. “I don’t think Marsha can handle any more breaches of security.”

Thalia frowned. “Aw, come on! I could have done all the deliveries in one go, if you let me!”

“I’m not letting you run around with that much money, I don’t care how fast you are!” Jocasta exclaimed.

Thalia rolled her eyes. “Smooth, not fast.”

“Not smooth enough.” Jocasta pointed to the two men. “These guys found you just fine.”

Thalia turned to Jon with a frown. “I’m sorry for running away.”

Jon didn’t know what to say. He was happy to see her around again. He didn’t like the fact that she was also willing to listen to Jocasta, however.

“It’s okay,” Jon said, knowing that everything really wasn’t, but he wouldn’t be able to purview what that really meant right now.

“I think I’m the one that needs an apology!” Milo called out.

“You can do one more delivery, if you’re willing to let him tag along,” Jocasta said.

“Milo? No!” Thalia shook her head. “He’s a jerk!”

“He’s a jerk who was willing to look for you in the city.” Jocasta tilted her head towards Jon. “Isn’t that right?”

Jon didn't expect her to acknowledge him after all this time. Now, he was put on the spot.

“Yes,” Jon said. It was Milo who left first to look for her, no matter how convenient it was.

“I didn’t look for her,” Milo explained. “I knew she would be here.”

“Where would you rather have me be?” Thalia asked.

“Anywhere but here! It’s not safe!” Milo told her.

“It it-”

“It seems like Milo here just wants you to be safe, overall,” Jocasta said. “Right?”

Thalia looked at Milo.

“I guess… yeah…” Milo looked away shyly.

Thalia sighed. “Fine.”

Jocasta put a bag of money in Thalia’s hand. “Do you remember-”

“Yes!” Thalia nodded. “I got it!”

“I still can’t believe you’re getting paid,” Milo said. “It’s deplorable.

“I’m not getting paid.”

“That’s worse.” Milo commented.

Thalia ran towards the wall.

Milo started to fly off after her. He turned back to Jocasta before got too far.

“Don’t think you can use her to manipulate me!” Milo said.

Jocasta shrugged. “I’m not using her to do anything but get deliveries for me. Is there any reason why I would be able to manipulate you?”

Milo groaned. He looked like he was going to say something back when Thalia called him.

“Come on, Milo!” she yelled. She waved from the top of the wall.

Milo cast one more disapproving glare at Jocasta before flying off after Thalia.

Thaila rolled backwards off the wall, and Milo followed.

Jon realized that they did seem to make a powerful combination when watching them like that.

“Great!” Jocasta clapped her hands. “Now you can help me set up the carpets!”

Jon realized the attention was on him again. He dreaded this.

“I’ll pay you!” Jocasta reached in her jacket and pulled out another bag of money.

Jon thought about his gun waiting for him back at the restaurant and groaned internally.