Ebony's Fable

“What are you here for Koawe?” Ebony asked as they lined up to enter the Capital.

Each of their auras was suppressed so well that they appeared to be just another imperial citizen to the common folk.

“Staying connected. Our village is quiet but we don’t want to stay completely out of touch with society. It's easy nowadays with just the Empire in charge of the whole continent. I have to check what happened to Old Hag and I’m also running errands.” The curse mage pats his spatial bag.

He was here to trade goods and get materials for the stay home crafters.

“And you’re leaving straight away?”

“It’s hot here so I would like to go back home as soon as possible. Look, I’m like some rare animal walking here.” Koawe gestured to the gazes he was attracting.

People could recognise that he was an Elf but not everyone knew about Frost Elves. The blue skin must not be common around these parts.

“Are there any villagers in Tidal? Roya and Halvis used to have a shop here didn’t they?” Ning Xin raised her bracelet for the guard to scan her quester crystal.

“Not that I know of. Roya and Halvis were…runaway kids so to speak. Thanks to them, our connection with the capital is not as weak as it used to be.” Koawe restrained a cough and answered. He had some other form of identification in the form of a badge or medallion.

“And you.” He reminded the person who was a fellow student of the current King.

“Our relationship isn't as close as you’d imagine. Anyhow, where are you planning to go? If you have an address, I can take note of it before I leave. It’ll give the Thoyas a piece of mind.” They squeezed through the mass of people and got onto the main street.

“Hmm, I guess we’ll spend the day finding a place of residence.” Ebony didn’t have any plan whatsoever and he doubted Ning Xin had one.

“Call me, I will be in the city for a day or two. I’ll take my leave here.” Koawe hailed a carriage. There were hundreds of them just parked and waiting for a customer.

“Let’s go to the closest Quest Hall.” They bid farewell and he hailed a carriage as well.

They hadn’t been through this gate and he was unfamiliar with these streets. Without knowledge of the city layout, he might as well get the local’s help.

“What are the speed limits in Tidal again?” He questioned the carriage driver who had a thick moustache but was balding.

“Righty! The main roads range from 600 to 1000 combined Strength and Agility. Inclusive of movement skills. The inner lanes are the high speed roads and the outer lanes are low speed lanes. Smaller roads with fewer lanes have speed limits of 300 to 500 combined Strength and Agility.” The perky driver explained to the newcomers. “Swordsman? Are the two of you freelancers?”

“You can say that.”

“Haha here for the dungeons or the arena?”

“Academy.”

“OH!? Which one? My son’s attending Steelforged Academy. I know about almost all the academies here when I studied on which to enrol my son, I can give you recommendations!”

“Really? That will be helpful. What do you know about academies that teach ice or gravity magic. Magic academies in general are fine.”

“Ice and gravity? You two are mages!? Of two rare elements no less! Let me think…”

“Are there any?”

“I know of two small academies that teach ice magic but one of them mainly teaches water magic. The other one is the only specialised ice academy in Tidal but…it didn’t have any students and closed down a few years ago. The only other Academy that has a course in ice magic is Tidal Academy. That’s also the only place that has professors that use gravity magic.”

“You know a lot uncle. What about the best places for food in the district?” Ning Xin changed the subject slightly.

They’ve been smelling food the entire trip so it was of no surprise.

“Sherry’s Tavern! You have to try their stuffed fowl!”

With persuasive and detailed recommendations for dinner, they arrived at the local Quest Hall. It was a long ride that took three hours but they didn’t complain. The price of the ride was pretty high for an average speed ride but the man entertained them for hours non-stop.

The Quest Hall was the size of a massive shopping mall. He had to look at the directory to find the area that dealt with city planning and land. Away from the rowdy freelancers.

“Hmm? Aren’t you..” There were not many people other than clerks walking about the reception area for residential homes. Ebony couldn’t help but point out when he saw a face he recalled. Back at Plainston, before he went to Hoarfrost Glades and trained with the Apex Apes. He shopped at Z&Z’s weapon store.

The silver-haired female employee who had been a level 98 record keeper and level 33 metal mage was standing before them.

It had barely been two years and the lady from the countryside branch suddenly worked for the Quest Hall.

The silver-haired receptionist also recognised him and glared hard at him. Hence, he stopped himself from speaking any further.

‘Can’t say I’m not curious…oh, wow. Level 244 Final Documentarian and level 263 Great Metal Mage? And she works normally in an office for almost an entire day? Is she some kind of talent or carrying a tool that can hide from Appraise? If that’s so, she’s quite the master of disguise if she can change her height.’

“How may I help you?” Ebony watched the glaring woman soften her expression and acted as if they’d never met. Her memory was also pretty good for recognising a customer she only met once within seconds.

“We’re looking to purchase a residential home.”

“Any preferences in location? We have houses available in every sector from north to south and even plenty in central.”

“Somewhere close to Academies but quiet.”

“...academies are usually near population-dense areas. How would you define ‘close’? Kehm. I mean, it sounds like you’d prefer somewhere in the Central Capital. Take a look at these.” The silver-haired woman complained before fumbling through her documents.

‘Wow, high tech.’ Ebony was brought to a large board. It had short videos playing to showcase a certain street. When the receptionist tapped on one of the houses, it would zoom in and let them see the internals. It was common for houses to be filled with furniture but he didn’t like that.

That filtered out a lot of houses.

Tidal’s city walls were square in shape. Split into 4 quadrants with a second square in the centre. The prices of everything within the central square were a lot higher. That was because the second square was a second layer of defence. As if the first would ever fall.

“Buying the land would give you the property on it as well. That costs 6 purples and 8000 blues.” For a land the size of a football field, the price didn’t seem that high to him.

“Can we exchange purples here?” He might be rich in terms of Blues but he didn’t have a single purple.

“You can look for the real-time currency prices downstairs. For a Grandmaster, you have an annual quota of 1 purple. If I remember correctly, it was 331 filled blues for an empty purple.”

“That’s quite an inflated value. Annual quota?” Ebony had to reevaluate the value of an Epic quality mana ore.

“There aren’t many Purple mana ore mines. Purples are non-negotiable for purchasing land in the central sector so…if you don’t have it you can consider renting.” She didn’t explain much but it was obvious that the Empire either limited the amount of power or wealth that people could obtain or they were limited by the amount of purples they had.

He could imagine mad scientists like Mark just putting a Purple into a runic circle or an enchantment and just blowing a building down.

“I’ll go check some quests out.” Ning Xin tapped his shoulders and left. He was already aware of her preferences for a house so he didn’t need her to be present.

‘Purples are not easy to come by. I don’t even have one. So they only want people capable enough to get themselves purples to buy property in central. That’s quite smart. If they follow the quota, it means a Grandmaster would have to work or remain in Tidal for a few years before they could buy a house. Unless they take quests that give out purples as a reward.’

Ebony was looking at houses near the inner city wall and the prices rose significantly the closer they got to the palace. A certain radius from the Royal family and noble houses were not for sale. As expected, they were all bought out.

There were many noble houses that weren’t in the central parts of Tidal. Each sector had at least one ducal family in charge.

The more the silver-haired receptionist spoke, the more convinced Ebony was that she was some kind of spy. And oh was he interested in her story. She memorised the political scene in the Empire so well she could recite it backwards.

The area where Ebony was temporarily kidnapped? The noble family in charge there was known to be unreasonable. Since they had someone just as unreasonably strong in charge, there was little the common citizen could do.

As for what the King did, Ebony already knew that the formal punishments and actions he could take were limited.

“So, how long have you been following me?” The receptionist changed her tone and whispered.

‘She can direct her voice so that only I can hear her, and her lips aren’t moving the way they should. More and more suspicious. I feel like I’m in some drama. Cool.’

“Coincidence. I don’t even know you.”

“The world’s so big, I just moved over a week ago and now you’re here. You expect me to believe it’s a coincidence. Who sent you? I’m doing my job.”

“This is a misunderstanding. Oh, that house we’ve picked out. I’ll rent it for a month, I can purchase it right after the renting period ends, right.” Ebony did not put on his communication skills and tone to make it easy for people.

That caused a massive understanding as her knees almost buckled.

“Be careful.” He caught her documents. With how tightly she was holding onto them, she also regained her footing. “Why are you getting nervous.”

Her body trembled for no reason.

“I don’t mean any harm, it’s a coincidence. Random stranger.” Her grip over the documents loosened and she fell to the ground.

‘Huh…why did she faint? I held my mana in.’

Ebony ruffled his hair in confusion when the other receptionists screamed.

“Is she alright. I hope it’s not some underlying health condition.” Just after he said that and her colleagues came over to her, the silver-haired metal mage shot up and gasped.

“I’ll not - I know my place. Yes, you can reserve the land for 200 Blues a month.” She straightened her uniform and reassured her colleagues that he didn’t do anything untoward to her. Her tone changed back to a service staff’s politeness.

“...This is a serious misunderstanding. I don’t know you and you don’t know me.” Ebony didn’t know what she misunderstood but he was sure she was reading off the wrong script.

“Yes, this is the first time we’re meeting.” She pushed her fringe behind her ears and prepared the documents for rent.

“No one sent me after you.” Ebony tried to put the point across.

“Of course, you’re here to buy property.” He paid the full price and signed multiple documents with a bit of his mana imbued in the ink.

‘Oh no, she’s convinced I was sent to follow her. Hmm…she won’t do anything silly right?’ Ebony recalled all the mystery and spy movies he watched. His imagination was suggesting that she would do something drastic like kill herself or cause some mass incident.

Unexpectedly and completely unknown to Ebony, his Will was influencing her to do something more drastic.

‘Why do I feel so intrigued by this? I’ll imbue some Will into a model to follow her and watch some live drama.’

“There’s no quest that pays purples here.” Ning Xin returned with news.

He could feel her quizzical look the moment she sensed a light chill on the floor.

“Let’s go, I rented it. We’ll buy it if we like it.” They promptly got out and hailed another carriage. This time, they walked to the closest aerial carriage parking spot and took a flight.

“Why’s there a ball of ice on the floor just now?” She couldn’t keep her curiosity in check and he told her everything.

It took about twenty seconds to imbue some specific instructions and the way he wanted his Model to act so it should be sufficient for its purposes. It would stay as an invisible ball of highly condensed ice mana and roll after her. If she moved fast, it would unfold into a model and chase her with stealth as its main function. It would also stop her if she pulled off any silly moves.

“Like that movie we watched?” He said ‘movie’ so many times that she just copied him. Assassins and spies were common in this world’s action movies. One of their most recent watches was an assassin who killed herself because her identity was found out when she sneaked into a noble house as a maid. It was probably why he had such thoughts now.

“Yes, just like that. Doesn’t she sound suspicious.”

“You have to tell me if something happens. It sounds fun to watch.”

“...I hope you’re not referring to the part where she kills herself.”

“Of course not!”

Taking a flight was the fastest mode of travel and they reached the house and land they rented in another 4 hours. It was much further from the edges of the city to the central sector compared to moving from the west gate to the closest Quest Hall.

Despite having a second wall, there were no security checks. People could enter and leave as they pleased as the gates were wide open. The guards here just stood there and ignored all entry and exits.

It was a small manor, closer to a cottage in size but a manor in style. Built out of stone, it had two floors. A master bedroom, two bedrooms and two guest rooms that were half the size.

Of course, a large kitchen with a stone oven was included. There was a stove that didn’t have any magical appliances, just a hole for firewood. His chef preferred this as many types of wood gave the food a better flavour.

There was also a reasonably sized study for him. There were built-in stone bookshelves that he kinda liked. The dining room was too large for two people but a necessary choice if he was planning to get a table large enough for their meals. It was one of the reasons he was looking at houses of this size range.

A bathroom, laundry room, living room, attic, balconies and even a basement were all in place.

The basement wouldn’t fly as a training ground but it would do as a storage space.

Their new house was located not too deeply in the central sector. Although the second set of walls was out of sight due to how big the capital was, they were still considered at the edges of the western part of the central region. He was just advised that residences near the walls would still face a lot of noise and traffic. Seeing how they entered so easily, he could see that they made a good choice picking out something more pricey.

‘I need to exchange some empty mana ores. Hmm, how much did I have in my storage chest again?’ Ebony did not keep count of the money he had. He’d been using the seemingly endless supply for years since the time he just met Kong Jing.

The house was just as advertised, it was even cleaned recently but both of them gave the whole house a wipe down. It didn’t have any furniture so wiping the house down was simple with both of them at work.