I looked at the words. Then I looked at Elena, who was still in my arms. The fuck was that? But of course, I did not have time to think. The walls of this little village under the lake appeared before me. And no sooner did I spot them, that they spotted me.

A giant fish, somewhat similar to a shark, turned to look at us. Two men in golden armor sat on it. I did not even have to ask who they were. The armor was identification enough.

The royal knights.

“Fuck.” I yelled as Oak and his men made a run for it. I followed them, quickly catching up. Now that I did have access to mana, I was significantly faster than them. Not faster than the royal knights and their giant fish.

That did not mean we didn’t manage to escape. Oak reached into his pockets and withdrew a pouch. The rather distinct sound of coins clinking against each other told me what was in there. The pouch was thrown in the royal knight’s general direction, and the fish stopped following us.

Oak did not stop running, and I did not stop following them.

“Why are we still running?” I asked. Oak huffed in response, his movements stiff and labored. The man was out of breath and moving slowly. With movement already slowed under the lake, he was almost moving in slow motion. The man’s cloths clung to his waist, clearly making it difficult for him to move.

I did not have any such difficulties. The clothes I had on were wet, but they were not so…clingy. In fact, they were barely restricting me. I did not feel a difference between now and when I had been on the surface. That was not normal.

Not even close. The clothes were enchanted somehow. How strange. I had not expected Aphra to have enchanted clothes, or I would have stolen his wardrobe. Perhaps this explained why it was so small. But it begged the question of why.

Why use such things on a boy that was to be disposed of? Did the Eldanveir family have an excess of clothes or something?

Well, whatever the case, it was to my advantage. I would be able to run faster than most people here. Not even the Heads of the various Guilds or the City Lord should have enchanted clothing. The thing was simply too rare and expensive.

The walls grew closer as we ran, the gleaming white stone clear against the dark seabed. I could see my surroundings turn brighter as I walked, and I remembered the notification I had seen.

I called on it once more, ready to make sense of it. I did have time.

Light protests Darkness’ use of the Power of Healing.

Light enters your magic.

Light affinity has increased.

So Light, which I presumed was Light mana, had taken offense to Darkness mana’s actions. That was normal. The two elements were enemies to begin with, and healing was usually Light’s thing. In fact, it was what it was known for.

Light being offended by that made sense.

What did not make sense was it ‘entering my magic’? What did that even mean? And why would that increase my affinity—no, wait. That part did make sense.

Affinity was just how much attention a type of mana paid to me, and it was paying more attention to me than before. Light mana had entered my mana cloak now, even if its reasons weren’t very...normal.

That still didn’t tell me what it was trying to do. The notifications hadn’t been helpful lately. First [the Face] which I still didn’t understand, and then this. I dismissed the notification and turned my attention back to my surroundings. What greeted me was the sight of a spear landing beside me.

The spear had not been close. I doubted I would have even noticed it if the notification was still blocked my vision. How many others had I missed? Why was someone throwing spears at me?

I looked around, trying to see where the spears were coming from. The walls. The men on the walls to be exact. I did not recognize what they were wearing, but it was not the armor of a royal knight.

A royal knight’s aim would have been better anyway.

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That also meant that I could attack them. I called on my mana and conjured bolts of darkness, my determination to kill making it easy. The feeling had come easier to me than I had expected. The men were attacking me, I had to attack back.

A dozen bolts appeared in the air, moving towards the men on the walls. The bolts met the spears in the air, destroying them as they went on their destination.

“Do not -” Oak shouted, stopping for a moment to catch his breath.

“Don’t kill them.” he said, stopping to catch his breath. I stopped too, starting at him in confusion. But I did stop the bolts in the air.

“Why?”

“The guard -” Oak stopped to catch his breath again. “The city lord will kill us if we kill his guard.”

I groaned. Of course. This was the city guard. Oak was right, I couldn’t kill them. I dismissed the bolts of mana and then conjured a shield instead.

The shield was weak. The thing needed more mana than it should stop each spear, far more than the bolts took.

I knew why.

I used fear to conjure my shields, but I did not fear the spears. There was some fear about what they would do if they pierced my body, but nothing close to what I had felt facing the rabbit. Even Oak’s men had scared me more. The spears were weak, and I had just seen my bolts destroy them with ease.

That made my fear of them weak. I knew I could easily destroy them. And that in turn weakened my mana shaping. That was why I required spells. A spell did not depend on my mood or even need me to use an emotion as base.

Thankfully, the fear shield was still strong enough to hold. The city guard wasn’t even using mana in their spears. I even shielded Oak and his men, I didn’t really need to, but perhaps they would be useful.

The spears stopped once we were right beneath the walls, the angle too steep to allow the city guard to aim at us. Oak ran to a hole in the wall, a tiny one barely enough for one person to pass through. That was not the official gate.

Was that why the city guard was attacking us? No, that meant they had knowledge of it, but did not do anything to patch up a hole in the wall. Well, this was the Lake of the Forgotten. That kind of thing was possible.

I followed Oak to the hole, trying to figure out a way to carry Elena through with me. Not being able to bend properly was a problem. The hole wasn’t wide enough for me to step through either.

Oak helped. I wasn’t really willing to give Elena to him, but I also knew I didn’t have much of a choice. Even if the city guard was leaving us alone, staying here was not a good idea. Thankfully Oak didn’t try anything funny. The bolt of darkness I conjured and pointed at him might have helped. I did not know how much mana I actually had left after that expenditure, but I probably should use it less.

That fear shield had taken a lot. More than those spears deserved. I shook my head, dissuading myself from thinking such things. The spears might have been weak and lacking in mana, but they were still spears.

The things would have still injured me if they managed to land. At least I thought they would. I wasn’t really sure how strong Rank 3 really made me.

“So, why were the city guard shooting at us?” I asked once we had all crossed the wall.

Oak did not meet my eyes, shifting his feet nervously as he tried to muster the courage to reply.

“I—well -” he stammered.

I rolled my eyes. “Don’t worry, I won’t kill you. Just tell me.”

“The, ugh, we didn’t pay the city guard.” he said, still avoiding my gaze. I didn’t know what he was so nervous about. I would have appreciated a heads-up about the attack, but it wasn’t as if I had hired him to lead me here.

“How nice.” I commented. “Now do you happen to know somewhere I could get some healing for my friend? Perhaps in return for services rendered?”

Oak looked shocked at my question, his eyes flicking between my clothes and my face as if he couldn’t understand my words.

“There are no healers in the city.” he said after a while. “But Miss Emily provides can provide herbs for those that are…less fortunate.”

So basically she was the doctor for the poor. I knew the Alchemist Guild handled the wealthier clients. But I had no money to pay them. Miss Emily it was.

“Lead the way.” I told them, before I realized I did not really have anything to offer them. I did not have any intention of going to the Alchemist Guild to heal that old man. That meant that they would not be receiving any reward.

But they had tried to kidnap me. I deserved this much help in return right? What was the going rate of service for attempted kidnappings?

Wait, should I be more affected by this? Now that I thought about it, I was taking their actions far too lightly. I should be angrier at them. Perhaps even try to kill them or something. I mean they had tried to kidnap me. But they hadn’t really done any harm.

Harming them for this just felt wrong. I should have Oak lead me to Miss Emily and part ways with them there.

That seemed like a good idea.

If Oak had any protests about my treatment of them, he did not show it. I paid attention to my surroundings as they led me through the streets. The houses were small, crammed together without any attempt at organization. I knew that look. I had seen it many times back home on earth.

A slum.

I also knew how it had come about. This place had grown from a small secret settlement to a much bigger mining operation without much planning. The royal knights had initially just wanted to take some bribes. Then they had realized that there were a lot of people that were willing to bribe them to get in there. And that these people could be used to do their work.

The royal family was really to blame for this. The resource found in this lake was valuable, but the royal knights were Rank 5. That was the Rank where one became nobility. Even the lowest ranked of them was at least an unlanded baron. Mining the seabed for mana crystals was not something the royal knights wanted to do.

So this town was born. The conditions were poor, and the people desperate. The law was but a suggestion. And Story magic had decided to bring me here for something ‘interesting’. I feared to even think of what that was.

Oak stopped before a slightly larger building, one that even had something of a garden around it. This was the only building I had seen that did not have a common wall with another.

“Please wait here, my lord.” Oak said, stepping into the building. I narrowed my eyes at him, calling on my mana in case I needed to defend myself. This could still be a trap. Perhaps I was being too trusting.

A woman stepped out of the building less than a minute after Oak entered it. A dark-colored dress, splattered with blood covered her body. The smell of herbs surrounded her. This was presumably ‘Miss Emily’.

Miss Emily looked at me, her eyes gazing up and down my body as if to analyze me. Then, in a voice that sounded far too old and far too deep to be coming from her, she said, “So what noble house are you from boy? And what trouble do you bring with you?”