"Hey!" Sereza protested.

I ignored the betrayal on her face and winked at Isaac before closing my eyes. If I was caught, I might as well have fun with it.

Letting Erebus' point of view take over, I caught sight of the elf having a few tentacles of her own emerge from her sleeve.

Urry looked ready to explode, but I didn't miss the hesitation in her hand. Her movements stuttered, reluctant. I doubted Isaac missed it, either.

Isaac stood up and dragged the two thugs with him, forcing them to stand while the last two kept glancing toward the elf.

"You don't get to ask questions about him," Isaac stated, his voice imperious.

Urry gritted her teeth and crossed her arms. The tentacles spilling out smacked the table, causing it to nearly topple over.

"And who is he for you to protect him so much? You've never been this tight-lipped before," she demanded.

Isaac snorted. "Even beyond the threat of me and my team hunting you down, we wouldn't have to. You'd die after the first bite. You can't munch on this one pointy."

I felt the shadow mana wash over Erebus, and I could sense it from the booth my physical body occupied.

Isaac ignored her and continued.

"I'm serious. Try to get in this one's way, and you'll find yourself in deeper shit than if the royal guard came for your heads."

"Dragonshit! Stop talking out of your ass."

The tentacles around Isaac bristled, and the edges wrapped underneath the thug's chins sharpened as they elongated.

"And why, exactly, are you so interested in him?"

It was subtle, beyond subtle really. But her eye twitched, and the purple of her irises stuttered.

"You don't need to know. Are you going to answer or not?"

"No."

She snapped, and the tentacles withdrew, drawing back into her sleeve. Isaac's own retracted into his back while the two guards hastily moved away from him.

"Pleasantries are over," she stated. "Let's get back to business.

The sudden change threw me off, even more so when the thug guarding the door flicked the bell.

Erebus adjusted, but the door slid open, and our server from before stared directly at Urry. "Yes?"

"I'd like to order the molten crazzor with three shots of melpha."

The server bowed and reached for something around her neck. When she pulled out a small black gem surrounded by grey metal, she sent mana into the object, making it glow with a single unidentifiable rune.

"I'll have your order right away," the server said with a bow and slid the panel door shut.

As the thug flicked the lock in place on their side of the door, the server pressed the necklace against the lock and turned it counterclockwise.

On the inside of the booth, the table sank into the ground before rotating once. Like a spy door in some movie, the ground split to reveal a secret hatch that led into a dark abyss with a single metal ladder leading the way.

Without orders, the thugs entered first, leaving only her bodyguard thug and Isaac staring at each other.

The hostility lingered, yet the elven woman maintained a rigid expression. "Don't expect Rex to surrender so quickly. His obsession is well-known."

"If I have to kill him, then I will," Isaac responded with a shrug.

Her eyes took on an eerie light as black veins spread across her sclera. "You can only joke so long before you push the limit, Dawnborne."

That got a reaction out of Isaac, the remark having him materialize a dagger into his hand.

With a smirk, the woman descended into the floor while the final thug glared at him before disappearing down below.

Now alone, Isaac glanced upwards to Erebus on the ceiling, looking into his-my eyes. He jerked his thumb behind him, and I understood the meaning.

Opening my eyes, I exited the link and watched Isaac's clone partially sink into the floor. "Do not follow. I don't care how nosy you are; just don't."

I crossed my arms. "And yet the weirdos are beyond obsessed with me. I think I deserve to know why."

"Cyrus," his voice came out cold and nearly distorted. "I'm serious. The last thing we need is for you to die and him to do something drastic. This isn't a game. Mention nothing, leave this place."

His shadow continued to sink, and I felt the mana begin to flow back into his real body still standing in the booth.

"Why not just take Erebus with you?"

He shook his head. "They'd detect his mana signature. Even if I concealed him with mine, they'd probe deep enough, and I'd be in trouble. Despite the similarity of his aspected mana, he bears your mark. They'll trace that; they have the means."

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Only the clone's face remained above the floor, the rest of its body already submerged beneath the tile.

"I'll expect answers."

"Fine."

His clone faded away, and I ordered Erebus to return. Sereza stared at me expectedly, and I sighed.

"Wait till we're outside. We need to leave," I answered.

She nodded, and we exited the booth. Erebus crawled up my leg while we walked by, and I adjusted so he could move onto my head.

I waved goodbye to the shady server and exited the building, welcoming in the muted evening sky.

We continued until we were nearly a block away, sitting on a bench in the middle of the district. The peacocks continued their prancing even this late in the day, their clothes taking on a more reflective sheen to combat the fading light.

They truly never stop trying to impress people. Pathetic.

A sharp bony tip poked my side, and I jumped away. "Hey!"

"Spill. You went silent scout mode for so long and then his clone showed up. What happened?"

I spent the next dozen minutes describing the scene action by action until I ran out of words.

"Well damn," she said wearily. "I thought I knew all the access places to the Underground."

"Wait, you know what's down there? How?"

She shrugged. "You think I find all my poisons from an alchemist around here? Training my passive required a few trips into the Underground. My father took me there himself once."

"The Underground? Black market, I'm guessing?"

She nodded. "Yeah, you'll find a lot hidden below the bright and shiny layers of the city. From Thieves' guild to fences and other unsavory businesses."

"Makes sense. I'm guessing the place is technically illegal but not spoken about. Pretty sure a kingdom would cripple itself if it didn't regulate its underbelly."

Sereza stared at me in surprise and raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

She snorted and shook her head. "Just surprising, is all. Your knowledge base is the most skewed thing in the world. You have massive holes where you should know things, but then you don't."

"It's pretty rude to make fun of one's upbringing."

"Maybe, if I actually believed the lie you told me."

"Amnesia is a perfectly acceptable lie," I stated. This time, she raised an eyebrow, and I cleared my throat. "I mean a very valid truth."

"Riiight," she said while shaking her head. "It's concerning that they singled you out. I'm not sure what that's about, but I'm not versed in the guilds enough to know. The red stripes on black the thugs wore could easily be two-three different gangs. Let alone what kind of guild they are."

"How far are they allowed to go? What kind of shit can they get away with?"

"Again, no idea. I do know they have strict rules, very strict rules that could mean you get killed off if you disobey them."

I materialized the candy pouch and shook it enticingly. She chuckled, undid the strings, and reached inside.

Despite seeing her hand disappear into the pouch, the strange swirly lights that obscured her hand from view once it passed the drawstrings prevented me from seeing inside.

Her rewards were a box of gummy balls, a small plastic bag filled with caramel popcorn, and a small thin mint barely the size of my thumb.

"What are these things?" she asked, raising the bag of caramel popcorn up for me to see.

"Caramel corn, kettle corn, caramel popcorn. It's popcorn coated with sugar that's been reduced."

"Popcorn?"

Hmmm... I don't remember if they have something equivalent.

"It's uh... a type of vegetable that has a lot of kernels or small seeds. I think..." I swiped a piece and crunched down on the salty-sweet snack. "Don't quote me on that last bit. But anyway, they expand into these little white puff things when you introduce them to heat. It's a pretty common snack when you're watching something."

After sniffing it, she bit down on one and quickly tossed another into her mouth. "Pretty good. For an ether-storm item, it's a rather impressive enchantment. If you showed this to Ernor, he'd flip out."

"Maybe. I still don't understand it, but I haven't tested it enough to know if there is a limit."

"Some researchers have spent their lives trying to decipher the means to replicating the enchantments. A few have, but never well enough to learn as much as they want."

I smiled and stood up, offering a hand. Sereza took it and joined me while stretching.

"See you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, I'm curious to see what kind of device they create for Zharia. Will be interesting."

After saying goodbye, I made my way across the street and headed back up the mountain. The nightlife of the city never stopped, just like back on Earth.

How many times will you keep mentioning that?

I chided myself and moved on, letting the flow of traffic take me, and ignored the occasional jostling from the crowd.

It wasn't truly crowded, but they all seemed to move in hordes, keeping themselves close enough to converse and show off.

My view of the people of the city lessened the more I hung around here.

Maybe I'll get one of the others to show me the lower ring. I'm curious what the adventuring side of town looks like.

As I made it up to the viewpoint I habitually stopped at, I sat down on a nearby bench and opened the strings to the candy sack.

Unlike Sereza's haul, the pouch rewarded me with some chocolate-coated peanuts and two pathetic-looking mints.

I consumed the peanuts and stuffed the mints into my pocket while I continued the climb and made my way toward the area with mansions.

The gate welcomed me with its customary chimes, swinging open as I stepped inside.

The place was strangely silent.

I peeked into the other rooms and found nobody, not even the butler.

Eventually, I descended the stairs and peered into the training rooms. Inside, everyone was present, including Teddy's parents.

They sat in their chairs while Igas and Eodyne sparred, the big swordsman chasing after the storm wraith using ice pillars to shoot him across the arena.

My eyes drifted over to Isaac, who glared at me from afar. I saw a small black tentacle snake around his mouth and wag at me.

I put on my brightest smile and summoned my own chair next to Celanae. "So who's winning?"

"Two gold, it's Igas' win," Isaac shouted first.

"Eodyne for this one," Teddy remarked.

"Same, Eodyne." Celanae added.

"No love for the big man? If she's not careful, the frost will get her."

Celanae shook her head. "You haven't noticed it, but ever since that weird exchange ritual she had with Sturmrorex, she's been hellbent on beating us each in a spar."

As Igas deflected a lightning arrow, he barreled through and swung his greatsword.

It looked like it would connect, but at the last moment, Eodyne blurred, and a meaty crunch resounded around the room.

Eodyne's fist knocked Igas away, and they both fell to the floor. Eodyne landed on her feet like a cat as she righted herself midfall.

An illusion of scrolling text appeared, and I felt Teddy's parents flex their mana. It said 'Winner: Eodyne' in massive letters.

Eodyne helped the big man up, and I had already begun channeling mana into Verdant Healer.

Áine flew over and booped each of them on the nose. When she booped Igas, he winced, but he snapped it in place, and a look of relief spread across his face.

"Oh, that is the good stuff. Doesn't directly help with fatigue, but my muscles don't feel sore at all."

After Áine went around and quickly patched everyone up, we left the training rooms to go back upstairs, where the mysterious butler greeted us and led us to the dining room.

I stared at the man suspiciously, but he smiled cordially and motioned for me to take a seat.

Once the trays were out, he reached over and grasped the largest silver platter's dome. The thing looked bigger than a boar.

The butler lifted the cover, releasing a swirling fog of pink mist from beneath the metal. Once it cleared I heard the smack of a hand facepalming its owner.

Inside was a cake... in a way too realistic replica of everyone at the table. The smell of rich frosting hit my nose, and I swore I could taste the colour green.

Anastasia clapped her hands while her husband threw knives into the air that landed next to each of our hands.

"Dig in!" she exclaimed.