Auriel started walking in the woods while looking at the map. The map was apparently enchanted because he could see where he was on the map at all times. A red ink dot would move around, following his every movement. ‘Well at least I don’t ever have to worry about getting lost.’ Auriel thought to himself before putting the map away. The direction he felt pulled towards was west of his current location and from what he could sense it would be a ways away from where he is currently.

This divine sense that Diran had talked about earlier when placing a divine shard in his forehead didn’t make sense to Auriel at first until he was finally out of that divine bubble. It left a golden star mark on his forehead, one of the original marks from his divine body, and allowed him to pinpoint the nearest shard to him. So far in his path there wasn’t much except for a medium sized village that he’d stop at in a few hours and a smaller one that's a bit deeper in.

Auriel felt excitement bubbling up within him as he traveled his way closer to the divine shard. He loved the feeling of this mortal experience, it was full of an unbelievable amount of new sensations for him. If he weren’t a god he probably would have been extremely overstimulated by it all but instead he’s skipping through a field of flowers without a care in the world.

Auriel reached the edge of the clearing, ending up at the top of a small cliff, he peered over it and found himself looking over the medium sized village he saw on the map. Auriel's eyes shone with glee at the village. The village was fairly simple but neat, all of its structures were built with care despite its limited resources. It seemed to be in a transitional expansion phase because there were many new buildings and walls being built.

‘A mortal village! It seems that mortals in each God’s realm really share similar tastes to their masters.’ Auriel noted as he made his way down the cliff side. He was down from the cliff in no time, his path bringing him closer to the village than he expected. He found the road that led up to the newly formed gate and nearly sprinted up to the gate full of childlike wonder. When he approached the gate there were a few guards there that occasionally stopped some people. Auriel was about to pass through the gate himself before he was stopped by two of the guards. They were both average looking people but the guard with brown hair with eyes spoke first, “You there, please come with us.”

Auriel jolted back in surprise, his daydream getting interrupted by the two guards, “Eh? Ok?”

Auriel was confused as to why he was being stopped by the guards but went with them anyway. The brown haired guard took the front while the black haired guard took the rear position causing Auriel to be sandwiched in between the both of them. They led Auriel to the center of the town, there was a pretty well built structure in front of them that seemed to house someone or something of importance. The guards must have spotted the thing they were looking for because they turned away from the entrance of the building and instead walked up to a group of people.

In the group there were four men. Their attire was completely different from everyone in the village and they all seemed to hold some form of status however the blonde man seemed to be the most important person in the circle, based on looks at least. The guard in the front held up his hand as a gesture for Auriel to stop following him and approached the man he had suspected was the leader of this village.

The guard greeted the blonde man who turned to the guard, giving him his full attention. Whatever the guard said made the blondes eyebrows raise in surprise and the guard gestured over towards Auriel. The blondes green eyes met Auriels gold and not long afterwards the blonde man excused himself from his group.

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“Hello there, I am Ryan Kondor, Baron of Pavel. This village has been placed under my jurisdiction by Earl Pyke of Sheffield to oversee as its Mayor.” The blonde greeted Auriel politely.

“Ah, I see… I’m Auriel, a… Traveler.” Auriel said carefully and simply blinked at Ryan’s greeting, looking around not really sure how to take all that information but also not caring much either. It all meant nothing to him in the end since he was a god after all.

Ryan responded with a crooked smile, “Oh I see, Auriel is it?” Ryan gave Auriel a once over before he looked at the guard beside him who shared the same disbelieving look. Ryan thought, ‘Does this kid really think he’s fooling anyone here? He obviously ranks really high or is at least associated with a wealthy merchant…’ Ryan then returned his attention to Auriel who had been staring at a particular stall selling a variety of cooked foods.

Auriel's eyes glazed over with desire, he didn’t know that he was hungry until he smelt the alluring scent that filled his nose. Ryan sighed in amusement at how transparent Auriel was, he found it refreshing. Ryan shook his head at Auriel before stepping beside him, “I’m sorry, you must be famished from all your travels. Let me treat you to lunch, you can pick whatever you see.”

Auriel turned back to Ryan, eyes shining at the proposition and immediately agreed with an excited nod of his head, “Yes I want to try it!”

Ryan led Auriel through the village, Auriel stopping at every food stall to grab whatever he thought looked good to eat. He ate without restraint causing his company to grow worried that this may have been a disastrous mistake to their coin pouches. Eventually Auriel slowed down and patted his stomach with a satisfied sigh. Ryan sweat dropped at Auriel but was glad that he had finally slowed down.

Ryan regained his composure and spoke professionally, “Well, in any case Auriel, I was wondering if you’d be willing to aid me in the development of Pavel.”

Auriel quirked a brow at Ryan as he chews a small piece of jerky, “How could I help?” It was a genuine question but Ryan took it as an offer of assistance from Auriel.

Ryan smiled kindly and placed a hand on the small of Auriels back to guide him, “Well we can discuss the details back at my estate.”

When they arrived back at the large building that they originally met in front of, Ryan told Auriel about everything they needed for this village to finally become a small city. It bored the hell out of Auriel and he honestly just wanted to take a nap. Ryan could tell that Auriel wasn’t very invested in their conversation but still attempted to gain some interest.

“So that is our current situation, it would be a great help if you could offer any form of support, we’ll greatly appreciate anything you give us. Even something as simple as just putting in a good word for us with someone you know would help us greatly.” Ryan looked at Auriel with hopeful eyes. Auriel didn’t really know exactly what he could do and he wasn’t even sure why Ryan seemed to think he had some influence in this world.

‘Well he did give me a lot of food that I definitely couldn’t afford so I guess I should think of something…’ As he was contemplating what he could do, his eyes caught sight of something flashy. At that moment he was reminded of the importance of precious jewels and gold. Auriel, without a second thought, took off a gold pendant that had a blood red jewel in the center. He then tossed it over to Ryan who was surprised by the sudden action and clumsily caught the pendant.

“Uh… Is this—?”

Auriel met Ryan’s uncertain eyes with a sharp look which made the Baron silence himself immediately, clearly even questioning Auriels generosity was seen as disrespect, “N-No this is actually quite enough! Thank you!” Ryan sweated as he attempted to recover the situation and called someone over to put the pendant in a small box for now.

Auriel just was so confused with the whole situation but he didn’t question anything after it seemed to have been settled now. Auriel yawned again catching Ryan’s attention, “Ah, I see you’re tired. I’ll have my butler show you to a guest room that you may use for the time being.”

‘Ahhh, finally.’ Auriel was tired from all the traveling he did on foot and immediately followed his butler guide. When he finally got to the room he immediately threw down his items and flopped on the big bed in the middle of the room. Within seconds Auriel fell into a peaceful sleep…