“Want to see some street magic?”
David Blaine.
Sephiroth
The nearest city where I could turn in my loot and find something even remotely resembling a teacher was Onibas.
It wasn’t exactly a large city, but it was already more than just a village.
Its only notable attraction was a theater and…
that’s it!
It took me about three days to reach it.
I could have made it faster, but after everything that had happened to them, the prisoners couldn’t move any faster.
Besides, I had to drag them along on ropes because their brains were already too exhausted to manage the simple task of moving their legs.
At the town hall, people looked at me suspiciously, at least at first.
Heh, I couldn’t blame the local officials.
Some gloomy guy shows up with a blade at his waist, dragging three bodies behind him, all with the unmistakable look of people who have absolutely no intelligence left in their faces.
Fortunately, although whether it was fortunate for them or me remained to be seen, the wanted posters with photographs of the trio were found quickly.
After I told them about the three men’s activities in the village, which wasn’t particularly far from the city, I received the promised 150,000 jewels, plus a small bonus of another 50,000 for helping the city.
More importantly, I gained a little bit of credibility.
The first thing I spent my money on was a proper meal at a small restaurant.
Salted meat and crackers had become thoroughly unbearable during the journey, so I ate until I was stuffed.
I was also unpleasantly surprised by the local prices.
I had assumed magical items were expensive because producing them required considerable effort and skill.
But after paying two thousand jewels for lunch, admittedly a very filling lunch, I realized that ordinary goods weren’t exactly cheap either.
Depressing.
Until I found a decent source of income, I was going to have to fight a war on two fronts: against the Hamster and against the Toad.
And I had absolutely no doubts about the Toad’s strangling abilities.
There was only one thing this brave little team had no objections to: a newspaper-magazine called the Magic Herald.
I paid three thousand for that monstrosity, but to hell with the money.
If I had considered this world strange before, after reading that magazine I stopped thinking that way.
The world wasn’t strange.
No, it was completely insane!
Let’s start with the publication itself.
Can you imagine a hybrid of a newspaper with a news broadcast, a popular science magazine, and Playboy?
No?
Well, I’m holding one in my hands.
The news was as ordinary as you could expect in a magical world.
Some guild had sent a certain number of monsters to the afterlife, cleaned out some den belonging to criminals, and so on.
Occasionally, there were reports about yet another round of destruction caused by mages from you-know-which-guild.
Alongside that were articles about new scientific discoveries or the achievements of various mages.
Nothing particularly impressive, for the most part.
It was simple advertising, not even very well disguised.
The slogan at the end nearly killed me: “Buy nine potions for the price of ten and get the tenth free.”
I’m serious.
That’s exactly what it said!
Oh, and I almost forgot.
Several pages in the middle of the magazine were dedicated to photographs of popular female mages.
This week’s star was Maria Melchor.
The short caption only said that she was an independent mage who wasn’t currently affiliated with any guild.
Hmm…
The little witch really was cute, and that swimsuit suited her nicely.
There weren’t any truly explicit photographs in the magazine, but nobody was stopping the reader from filling in the blanks themselves.
Heh.
All of that was wonderful and fascinating, of course, but what was I supposed to do next?
The town was so small that it didn’t have its own guild, nor did it have representatives or branches of guilds from other cities.
As for magic shops, I wouldn’t even bother mentioning them.
There wasn’t a single one.
Yeah…
Looks like my hopes of finding a teacher had just died.
I could leave a request for one at the magistrate’s office, but by the time they added it to the list of jobs available to the guilds, and then someone actually responded…
And it would probably cost a fortune.
That meant I needed to earn at least a respectable amount of money.
The problem was that all the decent jobs went through guilds, while lowering myself to the level of the local “Dark Ones” wasn’t particularly appealing either.
Traveling all over the kingdom and hunting down wanted criminals wasn’t an option, either.
Although…
Maybe I should follow in the footsteps of the unforgettable Lina Inverse?
If I remembered correctly, the legendary Dajedra made a pretty good living by relieving bandits of their ill-gotten possessions.
And you could make some decent money from the bandits themselves.
I figured that after dragging those three into the magistrate’s office, they wouldn’t be too surprised if I asked whether there were any other bands operating near the city.
All right, time to get to work!
At the magistrate’s office, they were delighted to see me as if I were an old friend.
Didn’t expect that.
“Did you need something, young man?” asked the mayor’s assistant, who had suddenly found some free time that he was willing to devote to me.
Oh, I already didn’t like where this was going.
“Yeah.
I suddenly have some free time, so I thought I’d take a little walk around the outskirts.
Maybe I’ll run into something interesting?”
A kind, slightly dreamy smile crept across my face.
Combined with gently stroking the hilt of my blade, the effect was rather interesting.
I don’t remember where I learned that, but I know it works.
One of those little contradictions in life.
“Could you tell me where an honest citizen of Fiore should avoid going for a stroll?”
The clerk nodded knowingly.
“Of course, of course.”
A map of the area surrounding the city appeared on the desk almost as if by magic.
“Wild animals live around here.
Their hides and fangs are actually quite valuable to merchants.
And these roads have been a little troublesome lately.
Looks like some Dark Ones have moved in.”
“I see…
Tell me, if those Dark Ones suddenly ended up in your prison…
or hospital, would a responsible citizen who brought them there receive anything?”
The assistant pretended to think about it.
Why do I say pretended?
Because my empathy was slowly beginning to recover.
I wasn’t going to try influencing anyone yet, but I was gradually becoming capable of “smelling” emotions, especially those of ordinary people.
“Normally, a request to eliminate a dark guild is issued only to members of a light guild.
But ordinary people are allowed to defend themselves, and naturally, their assistance in fighting crime won’t go unrewarded.
I think the bonus could be fifty…
no, eighty thousand jewels!”
“I see…
Well, thank you for the information.”
“You’re always welcome.
We’re happy to help.”
I left the magistrate’s office.
Well, everything was becoming clear now.
The city head had obviously decided to save some money.
If someone was capable of defeating three mages, even low-ranking ones, who had almost certainly been supported by ordinary “meat,” then he should be able to deal with the bandits hiding along the trade routes.
And if he couldn’t, well, that was fine too.
There hadn’t officially been a job request, after all.
And that “reward”…
I could feel it in my bones that normally this kind of work would cost at least twice as much, maybe even three times as much.
Here, however, they had a chance to get rid of a problem while saving a considerable amount of money.
And if something happened, the guild members couldn’t exactly come after me either.
The local laws didn’t recognize anything resembling “excessive self-defense.” So if someone attacked me, theoretically, I had the right to wipe out the entire gang…
assuming I had the strength to do it.
Of course, people here didn’t exactly approve of killing humans.
Monsters?
Go ahead.
Kill as many as you like.
Bandits who had placed themselves outside the law?
More or less the same.
But with monsters, people would thank you for it.
With bandits, they would criticize you for being a little too enthusiastic.
Strange people.
Still, public opinion wasn’t something I cared much about.
The important thing was to remain relatively clean in the eyes of the law.
Otherwise, I could have problems joining the Fairies.
Yes, I was going to join them no matter what.
For two reasons.
Actually, three.
First, if I didn’t, the anime fans back home would never understand me.
Second, it really was one of the strongest guilds, and I liked its chaotic, family-like atmosphere.
And third, most importantly, where else could I find such a concentration of beautiful, intelligent, and single women?
Exactly.
I couldn’t think of anywhere.
Hmm.
Maybe taking over a teenage body hadn’t been the best idea after all.
My thoughts kept drifting in the same direction.
Spring had arrived, and the hormones had followed right behind it.
Well, whatever.
I could live with it for now.