The Magician of Miracles

Now I'm in real trouble. Instead of finding my way back to that cheap inn, I'm actually lost in the middle of the city. Well, I should have expected there'd be a price for that wish, but I didn't think it would leave me wandering in the heart of the city. How did this even happen? Even I don't know.

Unlike the streets I'd been walking before, this one was packed. People streamed in every direction, vendors shouting, footsteps pounding, the stench of sweat mixing with food smells. On the sidewalks some vagrants were sitting. But that wasn't the only problem. There was something strange about these people. I couldn't describe it exactly, but it gave me a weird feeling. Luckily, many of them wore cloaks like mine, which helped me blend in easily.

At least I wasn't alone. That masked woman had popped up next to me again. I'm sure now she can either vanish or teleport. I wanted to ask her, but the crowd was too dense and she wouldn't talk anyway, so what's the point?

My stomach started growling when I saw meat skewers at one of the stalls. The sight made me swallow hard. It reminded me of that time with Iris…

I sighed and changed my mind about buying the skewers. Who knows where they got that meat from? I'm not in the mood to gamble tonight.

I went to another stall and ordered two plates of meatballs. In front of me the cook worked over the fire with ridiculous skill, as if he was literally controlling it. Thanks to my sharpened senses, I noticed him conjure a small violet flame from his hand to sear the meat before handing me the two plates. Did he have some minor fire Authority and use it for cooking? What a fascinating side job or maybe he was assimilating his power that way?

Honestly, the meat looked so good it made you stop thinking about the source. I took one plate and handed the other to the masked woman. Unfortunately, contrary to what I expected, she took it instantly without hesitation. I'd hoped she'd refuse, but no she took it. And the moment I glanced away from her for a second… she vanished in a flash.

I paid the bill, which was so high it drained the last of my money, leaving me broke again. I muttered sarcastically in my head as I put the coins into the vendor's hand.

"I hope… this plate had better be worth its price."

When I took the first bite of those meatballs, I forgot everything. Delicious… no, "delicious" isn't even the word for this. This was the best meatball dish I've ever had in my life, even though I'd never tried any others before. I saw the cook smile when he noticed my reaction.

I finished the whole plate, returned it to the cook, and walked back into the street. I was still trying to find my way back to the cheap inn, but along the way I noticed something else strange. There were a lot of assimilators here. And I'm not joking a lot. It's not like they were using destructive Authority powers, but small abilities, low level assimilation, so subtle I wouldn't have noticed without my heightened senses. And, lucky them, every sense I have is superhuman except my hearing.

What's weird is they weren't even trying to hide it. Aren't assimilators rare cards gangs usually fight over? Technically, at the level these people were showing, maybe they weren't worth the trouble of chasing at all.

I pulled out the notebook the original Jevan had left me from my coat and flipped through it quickly, trying to find anything that explained this phenomenon. Luckily, I found the answer. It seemed I'd entered one of the neighborhoods in the lower district where assimilators live. When a noble family exiles someone weak or talentless, they send them here; or when assimilators escape from the Imperial forces or the Public Investigation Office. This area is like a haven for them. For some reason, nobody cares much about it. Once you enter here, you're mostly safe.

I closed the notebook and slid it back into my coat after finishing the chapter about this area. According to it, these neighborhoods aren't controlled by gangs thanks to the unity of the assimilators here and their refusal to let outsiders interfere. They have something like a mini government, even the police here are different from the cops in the rest of the district who ignore everything. These are real police with small Authority powers who don't answer directly to the Medgar Empire but work under the supervision of the Public Investigation Office itself.

I raised my head and looked around. I noticed some of them standing at the street's edges, wearing their brown uniforms and matching hats. If you're not a major criminal with high level assimilation, you can live here relatively peacefully. But if you are a big time criminal it's better to work with the gangs, because then you slip out of the police's jurisdiction and into the Imperial forces' domain, and your chances of getting caught drop.

There was also a simple map in the notebook of places that sell low quality system pieces. I thought for a moment about buying some, but the original Jevan's warnings that these pieces might explode in your face made me change my mind quickly.

I kept walking, trying to find my way back to the cheap inn, but as expected the map the original Jevan left me didn't mention anything about that inn at all. I walked, watching the passersby.

While lost in thought I bumped into someone else wearing a cloak. I stepped back and straightened up quickly, trying to continue on my way, but that person grabbed my hand hard and yanked me into a side alley. Then, with a quick motion, she pulled out a dagger and pressed it to my neck. I didn't have my mask, so I couldn't react immediately. My eyes widened a little when I saw her face up close for the first time. She was a young woman with dark circles under her eyes, her face in a pitiful state, yet I still recognized her.

I said in shock:

"Merelda?"

It was Merelda herself, Iris's friend and one of the former big names in the Bloody Fang.