Agnisotra: Origin Tails

We found a merchant caravan 4 days after we left the forest. Ted was so happy because he got tired of Raishin’s complaining and carrying him. In those 4 days, I only spotted one group of assassins that seem to be also looking for us. How many groups are even looking for us? It makes me concerned but this also might be an indication that not everything is going to plan on the side of those who attacked Hourai.

With that in mind, I decided to make it harder for them. I don't know how this will interact with the illusion I put on ourselves to become hard to find but I dropped powerful illusions on these assassins and started spreading misinformation. I sent some clones out to do the same. I made this group think that we got taken in by the witch city, Witchaven. I wonder how they will respond to that. They will certainly get into trouble trying to invade that city. My clones will spread conflicting information to make sure that there will be maximum chaos under our pursuers. Right now, we are sitting in a caravan full of harvested corn. The merchants were quite kind and for some silver, we could hitch a ride.

Meh, will we get to this city before my birthday? I want to meet some chicks! This whole trip is a sausage fest! Well, the merchants said we will arrive in 3 days so if everything goes well you have 3 days to do whatever you want. Not sure that is a good idea to let him loose but we might have to plan something for him on the 23rd to keep all the women in Ainahs safe.

Yeah, we don't want him to get locked up on his birthday for sexual harassment. Hey, guys come on!

Well, people act differently than what we’re used to in Boshi town, moreover, we’re in a different country, and we don't know the laws and rules here so it is better if you behave. You can't stop me! But those shitty shoes can! I do have to say this, especially to you Raishin. The illusion that hides us from those assassins will be less effective in cities, especially if you cause a ruckus. We can just casually walk around here but inside the cities, we might have to be more careful, now we can still walk around and stuff but if you cause problems or move to the shadier parts of the city you might get found easier. We might have to use some mild disguises.

Do you have any ideas or are you going to use illusions? I think using illusions is a bad idea because anyone looking for us is probably expecting us to use those to hide, but they probably also don't exactly know what we look like so we just observe what the average city person looks like and get outfits that match that. Yeah, it didn't seem like those kidnappers we found were sure if we were the ones they were looking for, they might only know that there are 4 of us so maybe we should try to avoid walking around in a group of 4 or we just travel together but 2 of us will walk at a distance from the other 2.

That makes sense. Also, try to remember the important places and don't look around too much, you will look like a tourist or someone who isn't familiar with the city. This is aimed at you two! I’ll do my best.

I know, at least you take these things seriously, I'm more worried about this guy… Hey guys this corn tastes weird! I see what you mean…

Right beside that we have another problem, I have one but you 3 don't, it is like an identity card. Ted showed us some card made out of magic with his image and basic details.

Looks like junk. Wait this looks similar to something I found before. I took out a card that I got from Terry, it wasn't the same but the magic on it looked similar.

Where did you get that from? It looks and feels important. The guy I sold my rubies to. It looks more important than your card Ted. Well, he is probably an important businessman so that's unsurprising…

Can I see your card? Maybe I can copy it. Ted handed his identity card to me.

Good luck, the whole point of these things is that it's impossible to recreate. I looked at it with my Elgards eyes.

Hey, Greg, this thing’s runic structure looks easier than that barrier Azu gave us a crash course on. I linked Gregory up with my vision.

Hmm, it is complicated, yes but it isn't as complicated as that barrier, I can see how this will be impossible to recreate without Elgards eyes though. Wait, so are you saying you 2 could recreate this?

It will take time but we might be able to make one like this card that belongs to… it reads Jeremiah Odell, how did you come up with the name of Terry? Anyways we should be able to replicate this before we hit the city. Why can't you guys do anything normal…

Stop complaining! This is beneficial! Gregory and I spent 2 days trying to replicate the business and identity cards of Ted and Terry. It was challenging but after the drill, Azu put us through this wasn't that bad. We even managed to spot some flaws in the system and improve on it. We only needed images of our faces to put on those cards.

Can your eyes take care of this? I don't think they can.

How bout I just make a realistic drawing? Ah right for some reason you can draw uselessly well.

It is not like you don't have anything you're uselessly good at, like your [Boss music]. I was surprised when you managed to be able to emulate a piano and also percussion and wind instruments… Yeah, I will need to use some frost magic for those and it was challenging but I should be able to mimic most of the instruments out there.

Anyways, do you still have some of my art supplies stored up? Yeh, I only have normal paper though…

It should be fine; these images of Ted and Jeremiah don't seem to be of that high quality so it should work out. At least this will ensure that Raishin has a normal expression on his card.

Right, can you make a mirror for me? I will draw you first, then myself, I will just have to draw Raishin by memory because making him sit still is impossible. We looked at Raishin and he was leaning out of the cart and annoying a merchant in another cart.

Yeh, that would be difficult. Gregory spent an hour drawing portraits of us and we used them to finish our cards.

Not going to lie but making these cards predominantly out of magic seems to make it quite easy to replicate… You know that's actually not the case, people who have magic control and knowledge about these aren't likely to attempt to recreate them because they would either be wealthy, magic researchers, or in a position where they don't need to bother forging fake identities… We didn't make fake identities! Look they are very real!

Yes, you 3 being of the human race is very real… Nobody will be able to tell the difference unless we go loose. It is not like anyone would believe 3 mythical beings casually enter a city…

And why are your identity cards of way higher quality than mine?! Now it will look like you are nobles or businessmen and I’m just a farmer or servant! Hehe, such a peasant. Ted smacked me.

Well to us doing a shitty job is unacceptable! Agreed! Ugh… well at least they won't suspect these being forged because they are so well made…

Yes, praise us more! Absolutely not! Ted and I talked to some merchants to try and figure out some things that are going on in the world. It seems the Hourai rubies are making waves in the business world. They did various things with it but the part that seemed to be making waves is that it got used as a premium currency. The Yttroz industries seemed to have used 6 of the 15 crystals I sold and turned them into nuggets of 1 carat each. Because of this, there seemed to be 23724 in circulation with some sort of special magic carved into them. 1 Hourai ruby represents 1010 gold. They seem to be popular in large transactions but because there is a limited amount of them, they seem to also be a target for collectors. They were initially 1000 gold each but since less and less are in circulation because of the collectors their value starts to slowly increase. This is crazy. I checked my catalog and checked how many of those rubies I still had left.

I had about 10 times the amount of rubies I sold to Terry and also still had a mountain of sapphires. Hmm, maybe I should leave this be for a while, I’m filthy rich anyways, and I don't know anything about economics but dumping these into the world might be a very bad idea. It also seems that the appearance of Hourai rubies as a new currency has annoyed some strong swordswoman and this caused her to attack the headquarters. According to the merchant, she got mad because her custom order didn't get sped up and the Hourai rubies were the currency used to speed up these custom orders. It sounds like a stupid amount of gold to get stuff faster but I have no idea how this all works. Anyways that swordswoman got picked up and disciplined by her mentor. Another piece of news we heard is that the capital seems to be in chaos because the princess escaped and she is nowhere to be found. Ted and I discussed this matter and decided to stay away from the capital till this blows over and if this takes too long we might have to make different plans. We don't want to be in a city that's in chaos.

Ainahs seems to be relatively quiet even though it is not that far from the capital so I guess we should be fine here. Besides that, it seems that lately a lot of shady characters have been seen all around, they have been around for several years but since about 7 months ago they seemed to have increased as if they are looking for something. I can’t help to think that these are the people looking for us. I really didn't expect this, it is a good thing that we have this illusion on us. There were more news tidbits about some wild beasts going on a rampage in some village I don't know about, about the appearance of some new idol group, and a breakthrough in electronium technology. There were many more but most of them were as uninteresting as the ones I just named. Weirdly enough there was nothing about a certain bubblegum witch. Maybe she isn't as wild as I thought she was.

Ainahs was getting quite close, at this rate, we would enter it somewhere tomorrow in the afternoon. We decided that Ted would hold Raishin’s identity card because he would probably lose it. Gregory and I checked the IDs we made to make sure we wouldn't get caught for forgery. A day passed and we approached the city. It obviously was way larger than Boshi town, it had more and taller buildings. It reminded me of Jubra city but bigger. We spotted many devices and systems that ran on electronium that we’d never seen before. Then again technically we’re from the boonies so we’re not used to how cities are run. The merchant caravan got stopped and inspected. About 10 minutes after we got stopped 2 well-dressed men got to our cart and looked inside.

“Oh, I didn't expect there to be people inside here, could you step outside for a moment and show us your ID?” Sure, Raishin behave yourself. Yessir! We stepped outside. Ted showed his ID first, the two men inspected it, nodded, and returned it. They walked over to us and we handed over our ID’s.

“Where is this guy’s ID?” Oh, right I was holding on to it because he is quite reckless with these things. They inspected our ID and the expression on their faces changed.

“Oh, we apologize, we didn’t expect you three to be nobles!” Wha… I gestured to Gregory to stay quiet. Uhm, yes, we are sons of nobles but we are out here on a specific mission. Our fathers sent us, that guy there is uhm our servant, yes! Hey!

“Hmm, although your disguises look very convincing, your ID gives away that you three are from nobility or high status, you might… ugh I can’t believe that I’m saying this, want to get a more low-profile ID.”

“Yeah, your fathers must be rich, I have never seen Is with this quality before!” Gregory and I looked at each other. So, how do we get these low-quality, uhm, I mean lower profile IDs, we, unfortunately, are quite pampered and we don’t know much about how the commoners, excuse me, regular people do things. Gregory put up quite a posh accent. He was killing it and the two men seemed to be a bit impressed by his attitude. We did learn some etiquette in Hourai but Gregory is probably the only one who can pull it off and actually remembers it.

“Uhm there is an important building if you follow this road all the way to the center. It will have the Igrini royal crest and you could get it there. I suppose we have to get a recommendation since this is a special opportunity.” One of the two men seemed to write something down and sign it with a magic signature. “Normally we’d ask for how long you guys would stay but I assume that even if we get an answer, it might not be true. Which is fine, just a word of caution, a lot of shady figures have been roaming in and around Ainahs, if you have valuable possessions keep an eye on them.” The other man wanted to hand the document to Gregory.

Give it to my servant, please. Really? I tried to hold in my laugh.

Hey, servant carry me! Oh, you gotta be kidd… The two men looked at Ted.

Yes sir… Ted accepted the letter and carried Raishin. We entered the city on foot next to most of the caravan. Some carts behind us still needed to go through the same process. You can let him down now Ted, we will attract attention if you keep carrying that idiot. Ted dropped Raishin.

Hey! Is this how you treat the birthday boy? It’s not your birthday yet, don't be an asshole. It’s your fault that I had to carry him!

It was just an act, relax. Ugh, you guys… We said goodbye to the merchants and thanked them and headed over to get our scrub IDs. It seems that we overdid it and they now think we’re nobles. We arrived after a 3-hour walk and Raishin was yet again complaining about his feet. Some bulky man in cool-looking clothes was halting our progress. I spotted a magic weapon on him. He had a magic spear on his back. Ted showed him the letter and the man’s expression changed. How high up the social ladder do these guys think we are? We got shown to a counter where Ted, showed the letter again and the woman behind the counter also had her facial expression change. She went to the back and later came back with an elderly but sophisticated-looking man.

“Come with me, gentlemen.” We followed the man into a room that had various odd appliances. Probably ran on electronium. I spotted a room in the back that seemed to hold some minor lightning spirits. I got a bitter feeling but tried to repress it because causing issues here would just cause unnecessary problems. The elderly man told us to sand at a spot and we got barraged by some light flashes. They then showed us our images and to choose the ones we liked, what background we wanted, and the frames. Gregory and I decided that the most basic look would be the best. What is the point of getting a lower-quality ID with a fancy portrait? I assume the fancier the more it will stand out in an ID check. I want this, this, and this! Oh, can you also add some lightning bolts there? Don’t listen to him, he always dreamt of becoming the first jester born out of nobility. Just a basic frame will do for him.

“I see. Give us a moment, Clarice can you make these gentlemen comfortable while we finish their IDs?”

“Sure! Follow me!” With pleasure! I smacked Raishin. We got brought to some fancy room with comfortable sofas to wait in. We hardly sat down or a man came in and handed us our normal IDs. That was fast, what tip do we have to leave behind to show us our gratitude?

“Oh, no! Don’t worry about it! This is free of charge! People of your status already contribute more than enough to society! Just take it!” I guess that works. I took the IDs and handed Raishin’s ID to Ted. We thanked the staff and left the building.

Wow, that was a bit too high class for me, how did I do Greg? You did fine, we have to consider leaving Raishin behind if something like this ever happens again…

I agree… Whoa, look at all the people here! And finally, some chicks!

Let’s find a place to stay first. Good idea, where do we start though…

I’m on it! I activated my Elgards eyes and looked for a hotel or inn or however, you call it. It had to be decent but not too extravagant.

Right, I found one but Raishin isn't going to like it, it's about 40 minutes’ walk from here. Maaan, who decided that having a hotel so far from here was a good idea! Can't, we use those floating platform thingies? They seem to have the purpose of transporting people.

It looks fun! Let's use that! Do you know how it works Ted? Uhh, nope, do you? I know how these things work technically and magically but not how it works socially do we just hop on or is there a procedure? We’re overthinking it let's just hop on! I dragged my buddies and hopped on a platform. Some weird magic error started flashing on our platform.

Shut up! I pressed my ‘Noble ID’ on it and it stopped. I have no idea what I just did but I think I nailed it!

So reckless… We rode the floating platform and got to see a good part of the city.

Quite a nice city. Hmmm. What is it?

This platform isn't bringing us to where we need to go… Can we steer it? It seems quite automatic; I don’t think we can. There seem to be various colored floating platforms and they seem to follow different routes.

Hmm, maybe we hopped on the wrong color. We need that one! The orange one passes close to where we need to get off! Wait!

What? Do you see other people hopping off platforms when they are more than 50 meters above the ground? Let's do things normally and hop off when it's on ground level.

Ok… We waited till the platforms floated at ground level and hopped off. We got to where the orange platforms would reach the ground and hopped on them. Another magical error and I silenced it in the same way I did before. There were people behind us who looked at us strangely.

I have the feeling we are doing something that isn’t that normal or socially acceptable. Well, we haven't been arrested by the social police so it will be fine. I don't think there is anything like social police just police… Are we there yet? Wait how are we going to pay for the hotel? We’re broke! Ted and Gregory looked at me.

Uhh, I will take care of that, can one of you two keep Raishin entertained? Ted and Gregory looked at each other and did rock paper scissors. After 3 draws Gregory lost.

Ugh, let's go find some good place with food close to the hotel, maybe something that has local specialties. Yes, food! But wait how are we going to pay for that?! We’re still broke!

I’m sure Agnis will figure something out. We got close to our destination. The people still looked at us strangely. We hopped off and this didn't help. Raishin dragged Gregory to a side street because he seemed to have smelled some good food. I tried to discover what the deal was with those stares. 50 meters from where we hopped off the platforms seemed to stop at some station and the people got off there and did something with a magic card that didn't seem to be an ID but it allowed them to change to other colored platforms or leave the station. Woops. But not our fault that they weren't clearer in that system! Ted and I entered the hotel. I started to wonder if it was normal for a 12-year-old and a 15-year-old to just walk in and fix hotel rooms. I also had no idea how this all works, I guess it can't be harder than just asking for a room, or 2. Hello, I would like to have 2 rooms, please.

“Aren’t you too young to get a hotel room? Are you, his guardian?” The receptionist looked at Ted and sized him up. “You both look young…” Does it matter if I have money?

“Hmm, I will have to see your ID first,” I looked at Ted and wondered if I should use my ‘Noble ID’ it seemed quite useful in those transport platforms before. I showed my fancy ID. “Oh, what do we have here!” He inspected the ID and sized us up again. “I assume the situation is complicated, do I need to get you some VIP rooms?” No VIP rooms. We are trying things out but we want the best non-VIP rooms, I’m here with my servant Ted but there are 2 more scouting out the uhm culinary facilities nearby, they are about the same age as me one has black hair with a single braid and the other has blonde spiky hair and walks a bit weird if you ask them for their ‘Special ID’ they will show you theirs which is similar to mine. Wait I have Raishin’s ID. Ted showed Raishin’s ‘special ID’ to the receptionist.

“Ok that is fine, here are the magic keys to rooms 512 and 514, I will get someone to show you where they are.” No need, we want to attempt to get there ourselves, and we will make sure to find help if we can't find it. We walked into the lobby and toward a corridor, the receptionist pointed us to.

Is it a good idea to flash your overpowered ID everywhere? It seems to make all our problems disappear though.

Well, yes, but we are not nobles… You mean YOU are not! I’m filthy rich remember! I could probably buy this whole hotel! Muwawawa!

I really need to keep an eye out on you… We managed to locate our rooms after looking for 15 minutes.

How are we going to divide the rooms? Ugh, I would prefer to not be paired with Raishin but you paired with Raishin is a recipe for disaster… I suppose Greg and I have to do another rock paper scissors…

Hey! I’m not a disaster! I can perfectly share a room with Raishin! Yes, that is the problem you guys would be perfectly fine with it and somehow end up vaporizing this hotel… Anyway, isn't it weird that they didn't ask for payment?

I don’t know maybe we have to pay afterward. We heard a knock. And Gregory and Raishin entered.

Ah here you guys are, we found a good place to eat. Ooh, nice rooms! Right, let's get food! We got to the place Gregory and Raishin found. They had a local specialty called ‘Fiery dragon breath stew’ and ‘Fiery dragon breath pizza’ Raishin took the stew and since I don't like soup or stew-related food I went for the pizza. Ted and Gregory went for something milder. Ted went for honey-roasted boar and Gregory went for a chicken salad. This dragonbreath pizza was interesting, it had various spices and peppers and some fire salamander meat toppings which gave it a fiery character. I have a high heat tolerance so eating this was quite comfy, I always liked spicy stuff so I’m not sure if this is also my heat resistance or just my spicy tolerance but this was quite comfy to eat, Raishin however… His face was red and he was literally spewing fire… The staff seemed to be having fun though as well did some customers.

Some staff members seemed to respect me for being able to handle this fiery dish. The food wasn't that expensive for everything it was just 4 silver. The staff urged us to return since they loved Raishin’s reaction to the spicy dish. It was definitely an interesting reaction. After we left the restaurant, we went to look for a place to get some normal shoes for Raishin which went without problems. It started to become dark. I was constantly keeping my Elgards eye active to make sure we wouldn't accidentally run into shady characters. So far, we didn't.

We went back to the hotel. It got decided that I would share a room with Raishin but the moment we would cause trouble, Ted would swap with me. Raishin and I held a pillow fight before we went to sleep. Raishin imbued his pillow with lightning which caused it to fray a bit but if I got hit by it, It would hurt. I didn't imbue my pillows but swung them fast and aimed to hit Raishin with the tip of the pillow corner. I swing the pillow fast enough to turn it into a cutting weapon. Raishin had various pillow cuts on him and I was dodging all his pillow smashes. He got tired of missing and started throwing pillows. I caught one and started dual-wielding pillows.

What is this bullshit! How are you turning pillows into cutting weapons? How are you turning pillows into weapons of mass destruction? The pillows Raishin threw did a lot of damage to whatever it hit.

Just give up you’re never going to hit me! Ha, eventually I will! I just need one good hit! I kept dodging Raishin's pillows and deflected some. He started to accumulate more pillow cuts. Raishin picked up a beat-up pillow, imbued it with a lot of lightning, and threw it at me. Die! Obviously, I dodged it. Suddenly the door opened.

Hey, why are you guys so noi… Ted took the pillow to the face and flew into the wall behind him.

Oops! I’m sure you yelled ‘Die!’ We should have known. Ouch, of course… a pillow fight… I should have known, Agnis you're switching with me!

Why is Raishin bleeding? It’s a pillow fight… These pillow cuts sting… The corners of Agnis’ pillows are red…

I wonder if there is anything you can’t turn in a weapon… come on clean up this mess and you're coming with me to the next room, I was wondering how long it would take before we had to separate you two but I surely didn't expect to do so on the first night. I undid an illusion layer and the room turned back to normal.

I see you at least have some sort of common sense. Hey, why didn't you undo these stinging pillow cuts? And erase the proof of my victory? Ha fat chance!

You didn't win! So, you’re saying you can win without ever hitting me? I demand a rematch!

So, you admit to losing then? Alright, that’s enough, Greg take Agnis away! Let’s go! Gregory grabbed me with [Shadow tendrils] and dragged me to the other room.

Gregory and I decided to go visit the library, if we could find it, the next day. He used his portable lab to make various potions against various types of fungi. I got some tips and tried to get better at forming shadow magic and using [Shadow tendril]. This library might be way safer than the last one we visited but one can never be too cautious especially when nothing ever goes well for us. We had a comfortable night's rest.