Steampunk Era: Mad Abield

After the check was complete, when the person in charge left and granted him the freedom to move around in the back hall of the Holy Hall, Malin began to worry about Maya—the little leopard girl might be mischievous, but she had a kind heart, and without her, he would have certainly fallen ill over this past month.

That's right, at home, Gaiate was almost like a mute, either sitting on the sofa reading the newspaper or preparing his weapons.

Malin hardly had any opportunity to communicate with him, and in the apartment they lived in, there were only them as tenants. The landlady lived on the first floor, and there was initially another occupant on the third floor, but a few days before Malin's arrival, that unlucky gentleman got into an argument over something with someone in a bar in the west of the city. The argument escalated into a fight with knives, so in the end, he still owed the old lady three months' rent.

As for why he owed it… of course, it was because he ended up with seven scars on his chest, except the gentleman didn't have the luck of Kenjiro to survive such wounds.

It was also thanks to Maya, this little chatterbox.

Although the old lady was a chatterbox herself, if Malin had to choose between an old chatterbox and a young chatterbox, was there even a need to choose?

Therefore, when Maya finished her check and came out of the inspection room to see Malin and immediately pounced over with a pout, Malin could only smile and catch the little leopard girl's leap.

She had some weight, but it was still within Malin's control. Although catching her was easy, for a split second, Malin felt his spine groaning.

This leopard girl with fur so fine it could drive programmers worldwide to suicide had probably gained some weight again recently.

"It's so weird, they even checked Maya's tail, but the treats inside were really delicious, I ate quite a few, and sister even told me not to bite my tail, it would go bald…" Maya hugged Malin and spouted words frantically, while Malin nodded to the Church's miss: "Thank you."

"Don't mention it, but your accent is a bit strange," the miss first nodded, then paused: "It sounds like it's from someone from the East."

"Young lady, have you seen someone from the East?" The old nanny walking out of the inspection room with her curiously asked.

"I have, last year at The Capital, an emissary from the East came to deliver a letter and I heard him speaking when the guards took him inside," the miss replied with a smile.

This answer made Malin pause—a Eastern emissary, delivering a letter at The Capital, taken inside by the guards, who are you, and what's your relationship with His Majesty?

But quickly, Malin disguised his inner confusion with a smile as he began to groom Maya's silver hair.

Who she was had nothing to do with him, just as it was with Natuko Hayakawa or Ryoko Yakushiji—two completely different women, yet both were beings to be respectfully feared and avoided.

"Maya," Malin patted the little leopard girl on the head.

"Huh?" She looked up.

"Let's go home," Malin proposed. The Spell Formation check was on the next day, and there seemed no need to stay the night since it was still early.

But someone else thought differently. The miss came over: "You should rest here for the night." Seemingly sensing Malin's discontent, she reached out her hand and patted Malin's head: "The spirit you encountered today could be exchanged for quite a bit of money."

Exchanging for money.

Is that what you think I am, so greedy?!

Can the warmth of home, the grilled meat made by the leopard girl, and the happiness of living with new family members be measured by money?

Receiving a large stack of Paper Money with what seemed like the head of some founding father and a denomination of 10 on them, Malin finally turned to look at Maya, who looked listless. She clung to Malin's hem with her left hand, her right hand holding her tail, hesitating to bring it to her mouth because she was afraid of making it bald, in a cute predicament.

...The amount was too large to refuse.

"Look, you got your reward, and our Church even has banking services where you can deposit the money. Then you can rest in the room we've prepared specially for you. If you want to go out for a stroll, sister here can keep you company," the miss persuaded... well, if one ignored the blatant 'want to go out and play' written all over her eyes, Malin might have believed her.

But believing or not, he always had to consider his foster father's mood, so Malin turned to glance at Gaiate, who had finally recovered from his dilemma between craving a smoke and the prohibition against smoking in public places, alternating between holding a cigarette and a firestone lighter in his hands. He looked at the miss and nodded: "I have work to do tonight, and it's not a good idea to let you kids go home alone. We don't know how many escaped from that Black Ship this time, so, better stay here."

Black Ship, a new term.

Malin remembered it and nodded: "Father, take care as well."

"I'm not as easy to handle as you kids," Gaiate chuckled and then headed for the door: "I'll go out for a smoke; do as you please."

Once Gaiate had left, Maya, as if devoid of any natural predators, immediately dragged Malin to leave: "Let's go out and play!"

"Let's deposit the money first," Malin had other ideas.

The banks of another world, when it comes down to it, function pretty much the same as the banks Malin knew, except there was no bulletproof glass. Behind the tellers was the first door to the massive vault. Looking inside through the open door, one could see piles of gold and a large amount of paper money.

Even though it didn't seem very secure, upon entering, Malin did notice guards in the corner of the main hall wearing long robes.

They were not the semi-professional types with batons but very standard guards, clad in heavy breastplates and helmets, holding rifles in their hands.

Moreover, these were not the civilian steam-powered rifles, which were said to be antiques from the last century, now relegated to successful gentlemen with money to spare for arm strengthening and the occasional hunting trip.

The rifles they held were the genuine article, breech-loading rifles.

It was not clear if they had magazines.

And because he looked a few times too many, a patrolling guard came over specially. After listening to Jane's explanations, particularly emphasizing that these two were Gaiate's adopted son and daughter, the patrol guard finally relaxed his furrowed brow, "Boy, do you like guns?"

"Yeah, the guns you guys have are a lot nicer than the ones those old men use for hunting that I've seen," Malin knew his curiosity had invited trouble, but it was all right. After all, he was still young, and nobody took him seriously, especially after he made his comment, the guard laughed heartily and patted him on the head, "If you could become an incredible Demon Hunter like Lord Gaiate, I think you too might have the chance to own such a fine piece of equipment."

"Then I'll work hard," Malin appropriately lifted his chin a bit.

"I'll be waiting to see, boy," the patrol guard ruffled Malin's head, then smiled at Jane, "Speaking of which, Your Highness, are you playing the King of Children today?"

"When am I not the King of Children?" Jane laughed and nodded in response and then led Malin and Maya to the counter, "I've brought some guests."

"Thank the Goddess, finally someone other than a guard is in front of me, dear Margaret, what can I help these little guests with?" the young girl slapped the notebook in front of her.

"We're here to deposit money." Malin smiled and placed the money he was holding onto the counter.

"Great, you're the fourth Mowish I've seen today," she took the paper money, patting the paper string on it, "Fresh from our place, right?"

"You might say it's a sort of return to the original owner in another form," Malin added with a smile.

At the same time, he thought to himself that this Miss Margaret was a member of the Mowish family, and Mowish was on the 10 Paper Money bill, so, were there also one Paper Money note and another kind of paper money that Malin hadn't seen yet with Mowish's portrait on them?

"What a charming young gentleman you are, Margaret, won't you introduce me?" As she untied the paper string and began counting, she looked up at Jane behind Malin, clearly eager.

"Malin, Malin Jelent." Jane answered with a smile.

"What's his relationship with that chain-smoker?" The young girl asked and then slapped her forehead, "I'm sorry, young sir, I didn't mean to speak so of your father."

"He's my foster father, and you're not wrong in your characterization; I think smoking is bad for your health," Malin smiled and shook his head, signaling the young lady not to worry.

"Indeed, a true young gentleman. How do you plan to deposit it? If you're not familiar with it, come, take a look at these." She took out a paper from a box at the side of the desk and handed it to Malin. He glanced at it to see the familiar fixed and current deposits, none of the so-called financial businesses he was familiar with, no funds, nor any stock recommendations.

From what Malin knew, this world had already entered the steam age, and it would make sense for some egghead to think of finance, a vital show piece in the capital market.

Eating or being eaten had always been an enduring presence in Capital Square, and honestly, Malin was very curious as to why that wasn't the case here.

With such curiosity, Malin pointed to a line under the fixed deposits, "Fixed deposit for one year, auto-renewal, and withdrawal of interest if taken out early."

Though curious, Malin knew that curiosity is the greatest enemy of life. Sometimes, curiosity and tempting fate were practically synonymous, and at other times, it could even go beyond, as a Sage once said that sometimes the more you know, the more painful it becomes.

"No problem," the young lady took the money and put it into a small box, handing it to the guard inside the counter who walked into the vault. She then turned around, took three whole 10 Gold notes from a drawer under the counter, and handed them to Malin along with a metal card equivalent to a bank book, "Prick your index finger and smear your blood on the left top corner square of the card."

Malin was stunned for a moment.

One second it's steampunk, the next you're into blood-sorcery fantasy—quite a leap in genre.

Despite his internal complaint, Malin still did as instructed, thinking it was better to be safe than sorry, holding onto 500 Gold certainly wasn't wise, especially since wandering the streets with money was almost equivalent to courting death. Having money but no life to spend it on wasn't anything new in this world.

"Alright, next time you come to withdraw money, you'll need to bring the card yourself, or a third party you trust with the card to be able to withdraw the money. Do you have any third party you trust? You can use her blood to smear the left bottom corner square," the lady asked.

Malin took a new needle and jabbed it into the swishing tail of Leopard Girl.

Success in drawing blood.