Chapter 3 The inner city

Lucius

Father woke me long before the hazy sun could peer down what little light it could down here. The service was yesterday and along with me seeing my final sights of Jordis the family as a whole saw the final sights of warm water for this month as the influx of people left the alchemical tanker for the month drained of blood. Unlike Fathers normal self, lazing around in opened up Hawaiian shirts and tight shorts, Today he was dressed in the same priestly attire he had worn yesterday for the funeral. A strange sight for certain. We parted the house long before anyone in our house or the neighborhood as a whole would normally be up. Me and Father left out the back today, and to my surprise even at this early hour the air was still thick and putrid from the factories and you could still hear the loud wailing of the dense hoard that was the graveyard district. Speaking of graveyards, the reason me and father had gone out the back was to say our hellos to Jordis. His grave was on the exterior of the church's perimeter. Everyone would have liked to move it closer to us, but that was the closest one available so we made do. I talked to Jordis telling him the same stuff I had told him yesterday, but today with a more stoic bravado that had left me yesterday. After we talked for a few minutes, father and I bid our farewells to Jordis for the time being and went off to wherever father was taking me. He walked me past the food market, places just a week ago at this point Jordis, Pallas, Paimon, and I had been running wild in. Now it was quiet; not because of our tragedy it was just early and only a few shops were open right now. Eventually we wound up where I suspected we were headed, the train car which took us into the inner city. Though this was a unique experience for me as we rode past Capones and the outskirts of the city, past the dense housing blocks, and nice steakhouses ending up in front of this. A glowing palm tree shaped building. Looking at me with the most serious expression he's ever shown me father says “This will be dangerous. They might try to kill your old man and stop me from completing my mission but we will pull this off.-- are you with me.” swallowing the spit in my mouth and preparing for the worst we walked in. my jaw fell on the floor as i realized where we were. it was a casino his “mission” wasn't some dangerous task it was to make millions, in reality it should've been to not to lose his ass.

I had noticed this the whole way here but especially in such a densely packed place it was staggering how many stares I got as people walked past often cringing at the sight of me. Over this past week worries about how I looked had been drowned out, but now here I was hit with the eyes of disgust and pity I'd been able to blot out. Talking to father I asked “is this why you brought me out here to watch you gamble.” pulling the cigarette from his lips “no I forgot on Saturdays the place doesn't open till noon, but by the time I remembered we were already on the train so you know what they say when life gives you lemons.” he says while folding with good cards to get bluffed and lose a big stack of chips. Undeterred he looked at me with a shit eating grin like he had just won the lottery. I let him be and went to go find a place to hangout for a couple hours while he completed his “mission”. The floors of the palm tree were dimly lit by the constant flashing and sounds of the slot machines with people like zombies mindlessly spinning away their paycheck. Every corner was smooth, guiding you along some predetermined path, but as they say the easy path leads you to Shaqar, so spotting what looked like a VIP room without hesitation I Strutted in. The room was extravagant with all the amenities one could want. The first thing I did was check out the freezer in the back of the quite large room which was filled to the brim with an assortment of dishes and drinks. Grabbing the least expensive looking thing in the fridge in case I was caught and had to pay, I grabbed a sandwich and a soda and went to look around. Taking a further look this room had obviously just been used and not cleaned yet with bottles strung all along the floor and several sets of bras and panties hiding like easter eggs on the behind the furniture and on a couple of tables. How someone leaves this much essential clothing was honestly beyond me, but my attention quickly shifted as I noticed They had a whole entertainment section in the right hand corner of the room probably so someone could take a break from losing there life saving on the slot machines adorning every other corner of the room. I turned on the TV from the base and listened to the white noise as I played on the arcade machine adjacent to it. Listening along trying to beat the freakishly high score on the machine I heard something from the TV that quickly drew my attention. “Today we are interviewing The first hornless player in sports. history it's good to have you !@#$.” Hearing that I dropped what I was doing and turned around to see him. He had a mean face with no horns, yet something about him drew me in. “I'm going to ask what everyone's been thinking at home; what's with the hair man.” not even noticing I looked up to see his hair, buzzed down dyed an unnatural obnoxious yellow. He then tilted his head down to show the unstraight messy smiley face left on the top from where his previous hair color had been. The dots for smileys eyes were where someone's horns would normally be placed. From there I sat infatuated with the interview obsessing over every detail of this man I had never seen someone cooler than him. He showed off the numerous tattoos he had with only a few actually having any real meaning to him. Before he told his life story which wasn't too different from mine. He grew up in the slums of Falconia on the western continent. But out of everything about this interview that stuck with me was when the interviewer asked “How do you deal with the scrutiny and hate that gets directed towards you for not having any horns.” he did a little smile before saying “well people will hate on everyone for there own reasons but at the end of the day you just got to say fuck everybody else I don't care what they think or say I'm gonna do me, be me and nobody can take that away from me.”Despite the obvious disapproval from the commentator at him swearing he kept going explain his philosophy on how he lived his life. It was like he was speaking to my soul. Everybody my whole life told me that it was okay and that it didn't matter, but this more than anything resonated with me. I felt what he was saying in his story and was trying to hear out everything this wise sage had to say. when(BANG BANG BANG) the door swung open by the cleaning crew who crept in making sure the room wasn't in use. Once they saw me they promptly yelled at me told me some nasty things about my lack of horns than tried to kicked me out. Yet despite how ruthless and degrading their words were it fell right off me, Instead I just fuck them Before I left I ran over to the fridge acting like I left something in there before running off with the most expensive looking steak they had in there. And on my way I might have accidentally kicked over the cleaning bucket. They tried to chase after me but The Palm was one of the many megastructures dotted across the 13th floor being the largest casino in all of the veil. In short time I lost them and set my sights on finding rented out business space every place like this had for some reason, while enjoying that delicious steak I found. Eventually I found it and flashing brightly like it was waiting for me to find it a barber shop. On the outside they displayed all the haircuts they could fit on the large pane of glass at the front of the store with neon signs overlapping. Something possessed me-told me that I needed to be just like that guy. I hadn't even caught his name, but he was my idol. To be like him I needed to get rid of this hair, I needed a buzz cut. Normally I would just go steal something from a store then flip it at a street vendor, but I now knew how severe a simple mistake could be. So instead I went into the bathroom and pickpocketed an extremely drunk guy and stole just 50 alchemical dollars before I gently putting his wallet back into his hunched over frame. Normally Ahlecks takes me to get my haircut, but I couldn't wait. It was a dingy place with no cue and the man who would be cutting my hair had one hand shaking violently as he cut the mans hair who looked like he was about to cry, but in the other he was smoking a cigarette holding it steady as can be. The red flags didn't matter what I wanted was complex . I hopped into the chair and let the man get to work. His prices for some reason were low so at the end I still had 35 dollars left and seeing that they advertised hair dying I was taken off the chair with my new fresh cut and brought over to this lady who put a yellow ink enchantment paper on my hair changing my natural hair color to a yellow so bright it was almost white. She said it would last 3 years than I would have to get it renewed. Not the longest time to last for a dye but this was a cheap place and I was just Ecstatic about my new hair. I tipped the lady the last 10 I had and went off to go show off my new hair to Father. I ran through the venue seeing everybody noticing my distinct yellow hair. I felt reassured that his sentiment had passed to me. Walking up to the cards table I saw father his nice suit stripped and him sitting at the table yelling at the employee trying to let him bet his shoes. He then saw me and all the anger shifted to cackle as he laughed pointing at my haircut motioning for everyone at the table to look before saying through bouts of laughing “I guess we both will look a little odd today huh.” as he grabbed his suitcase saying “it's about time I leave this place.” before staring daggers at the dealer walking out in only his tighty whities and his nice leather shoes. Walking out and into the street we got a wide range of stares follow us as father took far into the center of the city. It was still dense, yet it didn't smell like piss and factory fumes. Instead it was relatively clean and the shanty towers on the outer sections were replaced by towering buildings held up by engineering and good design instead of magic. After walking for a while we finally took a turn into a random alley back alley squeezing past several buildings through a labyrinth. Then We finally appeared in front of the place. it was twisting and turning, spiraling tower distinct from everything that surrounded it. It was by far the largest structure in the city. Being allotted so much land it had its own large courtyard with a grass that had a few specs of green in it completely contrasting to the withering gray they were supposed to be. Seeing this I finally asked “why are we here.” father throwing down and stomping out his cigarette replied “ All this weird stuffs been happening to you since Jordis right?” Being brought back I nervously shook my head. “Well as a former priest I know this is the best place to come. Don't be nervous on lemon head.” as he gives me a smack on the head as we go in. The receptionist was dressed in the traditional ropes you see of clergy. Father walked up without hesitation or embarrassment up to the man at the counter who had a toad looking face. Slinging his brief case on the counter and pulling a pen clipped to his underwear" I have an emergency issue I need to see the head bishop give me whatever papers I need to fill out.” not even looking up from the paperwork he was doing “everythings an emergency to you people and you should be embarrassed for even walking in here like that and talking to me, much less trying to speak to the head bishop.” undeterred father slamming his hand on the desk goes “alright give me some clothes and you can look at my boy over there it's urgent.” finally looking up the man hacked out a response “don't make me call security on you. I can smell the stench of the graveyard on you and looking at that primitive over there I think you have a much bigger issue than whatever petty problem you have.” speaking up as if he forgot “oh yeah and no you being too poor to afford food is not our issue go get a job.” one of the clergy walking past laughed a little which only poured fuel on the fire as father yelled out “Ill beat both of your ass’s and go see him anyways I'm a tier 9 you know.” Father was never the type of person to harm someone unless they did something substantial to him so this must be dire for him to act like this. After a brief pause the man responded “well that is impressive for people down here, but we have some people shipped down here on tenure who are nobles and the head priest is even a world noble so that's not gonna work here.” His voice was croaky and hard to listen to yet the other clergy man looked on, pausing what he was doing to watch the theatrics of this. A few moments after that father looked up, obviously debating something in his head before he yells out from a place of pure frustration “Damn it I swore I would never go back to.” after yelling that out all of his anger was gone, instead replaced with a look of extreme annoyance and disappointment. Doing a hand sign he summoned a large frog sparking the clergy man to quickly jump into fighting position. Yelling “stop I'll kick your ass.” through a nervous croak sweating profusely. Severely annoyed father turned around and yelled “shut up I'm not gonna fight you.”.as he began sticking his whole arm deep into the frogs mouth spending about 20 seconds rummaging around trying to find something. he then pulled out a card plated in gold and emanating such a absurd amount of mana that even I could see it. Father threw the card onto the counter “no need to get so worked up that's my Id card.” The man laxed though still very cautious about the slime covered card inquiring “what type of card is this.” Father with a little chuckle fully playing into the mystique goes “oh this little thing its just a royal card.” Both clergy keenly listening looked baffled as the toad man asked “excuse me what?”

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“Yeah my name is Nicholas Frankenstein.”

The room fell silent as both mens faces shifted from a smug annoyance to confusion to abstract horror as I watched in real time the men process what father had said. It was like he became a different man as he threw himself into a deep bow yelling “ I'm so sorry Sir Frankenstein I would never mean such disrespect to a man such as yourself. If I need to I shall fall on my own sword if you would please I only ask that you spare my family from your wise judgment.” The other man amusing at the situation earlier was slowly edging away hoping Father wouldn't notice him, but father called out to him “ you over there come here. Running he landed groveling, never daring to look past fathers leather shoes. Father then calmly asked “hey not to be a bother but could you get me some cloths and a pack of smokes.” “ Yes my lord, I will get right on that.” as he slowly got up, turned around and then sprinted to go get it. By this point I was confused on a multitude of levels. I knew father had some shady business dealings and was certainly a man to be feared, but in the 12 years I've been with him I've never seen this sort of guttural fear on anyone's faces. Father then turned his attention to the toad looking man who exclaimed with tears rolling down his face “please Lord Frankenstein I will do anything you ask of me.” At this point the other clergy man came back drenched in sweat from both fear and how fast hed ran as he handed Father what looked to be all top dollar designer dress shirts and pants along with handing him several boxes of smokes which put a giddy look on Fathers face as he said “ thank you so much I'll pay you back whenever.” which to that man was an idea that was sacrilegious, that he quickly shut down as respectfully as possible before scurrying off once father told him he could go. Taking his attention back to the prostrating toad he said “alright you said you'd do anything for me.”no hesitation “yes lord Frankenstein.” he grew a grim face before saying “alright one don't call me Frankenstein I go by Nicholas frank and 2 let me get a meeting with the bishop.” “Certainly lord frank I will take you right away.” somehow father just by the mention of this weird name had managed to strike the fear of Shaqar in these people. He took us to the elevator that used a teleportation circle to shoot us up the whole tower to the 66th floor. With a fearful hurry he threw opened the door to greet us to the Bountiful atmosphere of this floor. The floor had green grass, something I thought was a weird lighting issue from Tv with well maintained pink trees, and in the middle of all this beauty and luxury lay a man wearing a rope distinctly more decorated than the other clergy. The toad man ran over and whispered into the ears of meditating man. This caused him to jolt up and sprint over to introduce himself shaking fathers hand saying “What's a royal like yourself doing all the way down here on the 13th floor lord frankenstein it's an honor to meet you my name is Hernan Castile.” before he turned to the toad looking man saying he could go which he eagerly did. Father retorted the Bishop's remarks saying “no it's an honor to meet you sorry we have to meet under such circumstances.” concerned Hernan says “I will do my best to solve your issue, my lord what is the problem.” “My son here seems to have activated his powers early and I need your help on what to do.” Hernan shifted his focus on me, deeply examining me, taking key note of my lack of horns before asking “has anything major happened to the boy recently.”. Father then leaned in and whispered to his ear just loud enough for me to make out Jordis’s name which gave the man a look of concern and pity. The big white bearded man with his intricately designed robe pulled on his coruss beard going “Even still with all that's happened its still unheard of—--- I uh can only think of one example. and it doesn't have a happy ending.” “What do you mean it doesn't have a happy ending?” Hernan looked as though he was about to speak before biting his tongue prodding in his mind for the right way to say this “well the only case i've ever heard of someone awakening their powers early is a rumor about a girl from The Darko family.” I'd never heard of them, but looking over at father his face could be read like a book. He had obviously known them and by how much emotion he had probably pretty well like he had just heard about an old friend. “What happened to the girl?” I asked, breaking into the conversation. Looking back and forth between me and father for a second he eventually went “don't get concerned her story is likely more legend than fact and this is a rare phenomenon with her story being vastly different than yours so no call for alarm.----- Well I only heard about this story through the grapevine but apparently a girl from the Darko clan awakened her abilities while her brother was dying accidentally killing a large chunk of her family that was by his bedside.” Father instantly jumped in going “What happened to the girl.” he looked down on the floor before going “she didn't make it I'll leave it there.” “Did she die from the early awakening?” Father demanded. Hernan tightened his lips saying “no uh outside factors were responsible.” Before father could respond he jumped up going “alright I think it's about time we see what I'm working with.” as he gestured for me to stand up “if that's okay with you sir Frankenstein.” Father bit his lip on the girl matter asking “what are you going to do.” taking off his oversized rope revealing a much thinner set of nice undershirts and pants “From what I believe awakening happens when mana gates are forced open from a large baseline of mana in the body and extreme emotions super charging it. Makes sense it would only happen to royals. No commoner would ever have enough mana to ever do it.”Father with a look of bafflement goes “really you think he's a royal he was left outside my orphanage so I have no clue who his or his brothers parents are.” This shocked the Bishop far greater as his face grew a look of such utter bewilderment as he examined me much more in depth. Finally saying “I don't believe he suffers from mana deficiency that is common in people with primitivism but it's still strange.”

Before either me or father could respond to that he braced me saying while putting his hand into a weird cone shape configuration “brace yourself this could be very painful.” before I could say anything he jammed his hand straight into my forehead.

Pure Agony those are the only words that could describe those 10 or so seconds though words could not describe moment as it felt like an eternity. His hand ripped into my brain sending so much pressure into my brain that I felt it could explode at any moment. Slowly he pulled his hand out of forehead , not covered in blood as I had expected. And Just as my body was coming back from processing that excruciating experience he once again no fore warning and in the blink of an eye shoved his hand into the center of my chest.

Like flipping a switch the room was filled with darkness. His arm was shattered in a million pieces as fluorescently pale arms swarmed his arm stemming from my throat and stomach until his arm tore out from his mid upper arm. Gnawed off not in a clean fashion blood spewed everywhere with shattered bone sticking out his arm, But Despite his newly missing appendage Hernan could only cackle as he grabbed his beard examining the room now flooded with mana and malformed abominations spawning from every crevice facing him with extremely malice intent. “Hahahha never in my life would i have thought a boy could maim me like this.” suddenly jumping from the towering 30 foot ceiling of the room a skeleton foot came crashing down right on Hernan. I thought he had died. Though in an instant the skeleton was consumed like the room which was flooded with a consuming and vast array of bright flowers springing from every corner even appearing all over my body essentially turning off my powers. With a big smile Hernan says “That certainly was impressive young man-” with a small chuckle “but you'd still probably need at least another 4 years till you could beat me if i don't die from stress before that happens.” Father who had been a little tense watching all this happen broke a huge smile as he asked “are you a member of the castile family?” “ Why yes I am one of the great families” he responded quickly as his shredded arm started sprouting flowers stopping the bleeding. “Really do you know a Pizarro Castille? I used to share a room with him when I went to Walpurgis Academy.” eagerly inquiring “yes Pizarro is the head of the family right now and he's my nephew. What was the little rascal like back in those days.” Fathers face grew grim “he used to boss me around and if i didn't comply hed feed me to his piranha plant.” trying not to laugh but failing Hernan says “that's just like him even before he had mana he was pushing everyone around, its like he was born to lead our clan. Hell, maybe even the whole demon world.” looking over at me “but with a strong upper comer like him if backed by you he could definitely become a world noble at least if not demon king.” he looked at me in a way no other person ever had, looking past my lack of horns just appreciating my new found strength I didn't know the words at the time but it felt euphoric although i didn't know what a world noble was or what the demon king if you got this kind of look from everyone than that was my natural life pat. Wanting to know more I asked “what's a world noble or demon king?” Shock filled Hernan's face and father grew a face of embarrassment although he tried to hide it. Looking up from me to Father Hernan asked “did he grow up under a rock how has he never heard of either.” Face palming father goes “well we live all the way down here so world nobles don't have any relevance to us, and the throne has been empty the past 7 years so there hasn't really been any discussion about them soo-” as he kinda trailed off. Squatting down to look at me, Hernan handed me a flower he picked from the pile that had spewn from the skeleton foot saying. “Here take this Talk to Father about all this, and if you want you can come back here and train with me. I might not look like much but this old man used to be a monster back in his hayday.” Agreeing almost instantly he patted me on head saying “come back to me once you get your grimoire. I'm curious what your future holds.” another thing in a long list of things I didnt understand today so blankly I asked “what.” Hernan looking back to father says “Damn you haven't taught him anything. "pulling a book from the same area he'd forcibly stuck his hand earlier. He brought out the most gorgeous white book covered in a intricate flower designs with each petal having a different elaborate pattern. “Here's mine, each book is given a title that will ultimately be a memento of what fate has in store for them.” as he grew a solemn expression badly hidden “Mine sadly is one of the easier ones to read with little wiggle room for interpretation.” He opened the book to the first page before flipping it around to show me (Death 13) it had written. “Most aren't as clear cut and easy to read. Maybe yours will be more ominous.” turning to Father he asked “what's yours Sir Frankenstein.” Father pulled his out in a similar manner before showing him.” Written (The love I lost) Everyone around me had grimoires. I mean you get one the night you turn 13 no matter what but I'd never even heard of this. Before I could ask Father goes “ it's bad luck to know about the grimoire curse down here before you get yours.” “why?” Hernan asked without thinking “Well most people's fates down here aren't too great so people prefer not to push the fear of fate on them before their awakening.” cringing a little that he spoiled this he goes "Sorry.” before turning to me saying “but I'm sure yours will be interesting at least.” checking his watch Hernan asks in the most polite and cautious voice he could "sorry to ask this but could I take my next meeting I had one set for 20 minutes ago.” to which father and I quickly thanked him for his time not wanting to barge in any further, but not before I guaranteed I'd be back once I got my grimoire.