As Kael looks at the people who are going to fill his pockets. He smiles with a vicious grin that still earns him the villain role in his orphanage play.
“Ah shit!” a man says as beads of blood fall on the glass floor. He starts to move toward him. He is holding his finger. Others are still busy watching the video of seraphines fighting against the dragon. It had taken him a lot of ass wiping to get that tape from Dask’s brother. Who was the cleaner, and even then he had to take all of the responsibilities of Dask, even the dragon's one.
“Hey, there are rats in here," the man complains.
"Well, I apologize profusely, but this theatre," he gestures toward the glass cave in which they are hiding, "has been in my family for generations. You see, my grandfather was a connoisseur when it came to movies. Perhaps I can offer you A BOOT TO YOUR ASS," Kael shouts. “Who do you think I am? What do you think this is?”
Now the man looks offended, but Kael has no time. He has a lot of money to count.
“Apologize right now," the man says.
“Fuck off!” Kael says as he moves toward the others and then turns, “and pay up.”
The man mutters curses at him as he leaves, but Kael couldn't care less. It's not like he has pride or anything. He has left that pathetic thing on the streets with the rats. Now he will do anything to make money, except take on debt. After all, it was debt that made him an orphan in the first place.
“YEAH!” Saer shouts as the recording ends. He moves forward as the people get up, lowering his hat; one by one, they all start to put coins into it. He has to glare at a few when they try to cheap out. They surrender quickly thanks to his face. If his smile could get him the role of the villain, then his frown could get him much worse. And then it’s Sera’s time to pay up. She puts her giant hand on his shoulder, making him and the coins jingle. She is 7 feet tall and has cat-like features, but they stay cat-like as long as she is calm or drunk. But thankfully, she looks satisfied now. So Kael lowers his hat toward her.
“This was amazing," Sear says. "Seraphine sure is amazing."
"Yes, I am quite sure she is, but if you don’t mind," he waved his hat, and the coins jingled.
“What?” she asks, confused.
He shakes the hat again. More confusion, and then realization dawns on her. Keal is glad, but the gladness vanishes as she moves toward the coins in the hat instead of her purse. She blinks as he teleports a few steps away.
“Did you just?” she asked.
Kael vanishes toward his bags and is about to teleport out of the glass cave when Sear’s hands grab hold of his collar and then put him in a bear hug.
“When did you get a mark?" she asks, laughing. All Kael can think is thank God she is not angry, and then she gives him a squeeze and all he is thinking is ah, well I tried my best; I hope in the next life I am born into a rich man's family.
But then she opens her arms and he and his coins fall to the ground, crouching and jingling.
“You got marked at the age of….” She tilts her head at him, "40."
“23!” he replies.
“You look 40," she says.
He looks at his face then in the glass reflection on the floor, hollow cheeks and hollow eyes. He looks like a thug; perhaps that is the reason why he has never had a girlfriend. Not that anyone would be interested in him. After all, what does he have to offer to anyone?
“What does it matter?” he said.
“It matters; you could have gone to the university. Now you would be like your brother. Sitting with important people out there.”
“First of all, not a real brother, and I am sitting with important people," he looks at her. She smiles at the praise. “That important person just tried to kill me and is currently cheating me out of my hard-earned money.”
“Hey!” she says, offended.
“So you're going to pay me then?”
“Well…” she pats herself and scratches her head in an apologetic manner and says, "Well, I forgot my purse… huh."
"Ah, forget it.” He gets up and starts to collect his coins.
“What if I give you something else?” she says.
“Like an enchanted weapon?” His head snaps up. “That could change my life. I can then sit with really important people.”
“Hey!” she says, "enchanted weapons are not everything.”
“So it's not an enchanted weapon……and……..it's not money.” His mood sours then, “Don’t tell me," he whines.
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"Yes, I will give you advice, real advice.”
“Can’t you just give me money later like normal people?" he argues, “or like you can owe me a favor?”
Her face changes at that then.
"Okay, calm down, no favors," he says, his hands held up.
He goes back to collecting coins.
“So the advice is," she leans down and then picks up a coin. Kael reaches for the coin to take it away from her when she imbues it with her mana, but it is only an extremely small mark. “Mark an object like this," she twists the coin in her fingers to show him both sides. “I know you can’t see it, but the mark is there. People with great sense can only—”
"It's right there," Kael says, and she blinks at him. Then her face twists, and Kael is confused by this face because he has never seen her like this. His eyes widen when he realizes that she is thinking. That worries her more than her anger.
She hands him the coin and tells him to remove the mark. He just puts his finger on the mark and then passes some mana into it, and it’s gone.
“Why can't you do this?” she says irritably. “It took me months.”
Oh, so she was just jealous.
“With your mana?” he is surprised.
“Yes, Father would get so angry when I told him I had failed the test because of this stupid thing.” She looks close to tears.
“There, there," Kael pats her shoulder while he tries to guide her to the side to see if she is stepping on a coin or not. She is. He quickly picks up the coin, and then she starts to leave but stops.
"Oh, I forgot," she says.
“You have your purse!” he says with a smile. She makes a disgusted face at his smile.
“No, and don’t smile like that. You look like a bloodthirsty Kabu.”
“You are such a good friend.” He says dryly.
“How do children live with you?"
“On the beds in a separate room.”
“As I was saying, after marking something, you activate a spell on that object…….in most cases.” She says. But the sadness leaks out. Probobly thinking of her father's lectures.
Then she gives a cry not because of her sadness but because the coin somehow got hot. The coin falls to the side.
“Like this," she continues.
“Anyone could have told me that!” he says, shaking his hand and putting it in his armpit.
"Yes, they can, but most of the time it doesn’t work as intended because of the properties of the material or stuff, and worse… the senses. It took me a lot of time to learn this with Dad's help. The trick is to think of the thing as part of your body or to have a connection with it.”
“Like your axe,"
She nodds.
“But you used your power on the coin too.”
“And it only got hot, Kael. With the mana that I put in, it should have melted.”
“I WAS HOLDING IT!”
“Make a connection with it and remind the object of something. Think of it as alive. Be sympathetic to the object, Kael.”
“So you failed because you were selfish.”
“I hope you suck at it.” She says
"Well, thank you… for… the advice?" Kael waves her off.
"Don't tell it to anyone else," she says, going out. “If you do, my family will kill you.”
“Then why the heck did you even tell me—”
Kael sighs at seeing her leave.
A rat passes near his boots and makes him jump. When he again looks in her direction, she is gone. He quickly grabs the coins and his bags when he hears the sound of a man. It sounds familiar.
“Here, come quickly.” He rushes toward his bags, picks them up, and then hides behind a reflective glass crystal pillar. Only to realize that he forgot to pick up the bag that had his money.
He moves forward to teleport, but the two people come strolling in and he stops. One is a woman with a clipboard. She is wearing the uniform of the disciplinary squad and the other is—“That bastard"—it is the guy who got bitten by the rat.
“This is where it was all going on.” He shouts as his voice echoes in the room. Then his eyes fall on a pouch. “Ah hah!” he moves toward the pouch and picks it up. Then he holds it to the women. Who sighs in her boredom.
“What did I tell you?" the man continued.
“I shall take note of this," she starts scribbling. While the man puts his hand into the pouch, the hand vanishes into the pouch. His eyes widen as he takes out a bunch of coins from his bag.
"That's my money, you bastard," Kael wants to shout, but he knows he can’t. The rat is back, but he has no time to think about the rat. When his fortune is being taken right in front of his eyes. The woman hears the sound of coin and looks at him. Kael knows that gaze. The woman reaches toward the pouch. The man pulls the pouch away and hides it at his back.
“That would be the property of the adventurers' guild now.”
“I told you about this and I found this bag. So as a good citizen and the founder of this bag, I will be keeping this. After all, who is going to pay for my finger? What if I get sick or something? Who knows what types of diseases are in these fracturerd realites.” The man says.
“That is not how the rules work.”
And they both start to argue.
What do I do? I hope they don’t get the idea to share it equally. But then he looks at their greedy faces and decides in that state he doesn’t have to worry, but then another thought comes to his mind. What if they killed each other for it? They wouldn't do that, would they? He looks at them the second time and realizes they might.
Then the idea hits him: why not use Sear’s technique? So he starts to concentrate on the bag with everything he has to make a mark with his mana. At that exact time, the rat comes beside him and jumps and bites at his hand. He yelps. He looks at the two, but they both are too busy to be conscious of anything else; he shakes his hand, and the white mouse falls to the side and runs into a pouch and disappears.
Blood pooling on his hand, he again starts to concentrate, but still nothing. Now both of them are practically fighting over it.
Why is the technique not working? She says to make a bond. There is no one in this world who has a better bond with the pouch of money. Then him.
And then another idea hits him. So he imbues his mana into his blood and forces the blood into a thread. Surprisingly, it works. Then he shifts it into a small mark that is no bigger than his nail. And he guides it toward the pouch, pressing it onto the pouch; he tries again. Then he activates the spell; the coin pouch falls into his hand.
The man turns as the pouch vanishes from his hand. Seeing the empty hands, the woman flies into rage.
“Where is it?” she asks. “Where is my money?”
“I don’t know!” the man says. “And it wasn’t your money!”
She grabs him by his collar and gives him a proper shake.
"Okay, it was your money.” The man admits.
“Where is it?” she asks again.
“I don’t know," he defends again, as another round of shaking comes at him.
“You were holding it," she shouts.
“How do I know you didn't do anything to it?” he argues back, but the man can barely stand.
“If I were that talented, then I would be in the discipline squad. Would I be in this situation, arguing with an idiot for some coins!”
To take the women looked very frustrated.
“Idiot!” she finally called out.
Then a sound of shuffling came from the side. They both looked at each other and then looked at the piece of reflective glass pillar. The woman threw the man to the side and marched toward the corner. And turned with a loud “found ya!” only to find her reflection in a stupid pose.
