The Journey to Hitutsa: Chapters 10-12

Someone other than the receptionist led me to the apartments here in Arconia which were reserved for Rank Three Liberomancers. Instead of actual small houses available for rent like back in Arconia, due to the limited space on the hill, these were more like traditional apartments back home. They were rows of blocks neatly piled atop one another, up till five stories tall.

Back on Earth, the higher or greater your reputation was, the higher the floor you worked or lived on usually would be as well. The CEO’s office was often located on top of the building, and hotels had their VIP suites at the very top. This was only possible because of the invention of modern elevators - in earlier times, it was the opposite. The floors on the bottom were more expensive, because it was far more cumbersome to take anything to the upper floors.

Thankfully, there were still some buildings whose ground floors were empty even with them being more coveted than their higher counterparts. You’d probably be hard-pressed to find empty housing in this city, but this was all reserved for Rank Three Liberomancers; who usually preferred to live in fancier places than this as they had the means to do so. But it was perfect for someone like me, who was traveling as it was far cheaper than a similar hotel room would be like.

The inside was minimally furnished with just the bare essentials when it came to furniture, but that was fine with me. It was rather spacious though - I estimated it was between two to three times the size of an ordinary apartment would’ve been, and it had a good number of windows.

That might seem like an odd thing to compliment, but I knew from talking to a few people in Arconia that a large number of apartments only had a single small window with very poor ventilation. I remembered someone telling me that at minimum you would want two, ideally opposite to each other, so that air could easily move in through one end and out the other, ensuring a good amount of circulation throughout the day. However, many people could not even afford that kind of luxury.

“How do you find the accommodations?” my guide asked. He was a short man wearing glasses, and had worn an unchanging poker face throughout our entire interaction.

“Wonderful, I can’t complain.”

“Right, regarding this-” my guide continued. “-I do wish to inform you of one thing. We received a complaint, to put it mildly, from the Liberomancer’s Guild back in Arconia. I’m afraid you will be limited to at maximum two servants while staying here, Master Liberomancer, and that we might occasionally send someone to check up on such at some times. We request you comply and cooperate with us in this regard, otherwise we might have to strip you of your privileges of renting out a place like this in the future.”

I realized what he had been getting at - did news of that stunt I had done with some of Granny Qi’s villagers really spread this far? Well, I guess it was only natural that the two Guild branches would talk to each other. I was expecting that. I just hadn’t expected for them to take such offense to what I had done. At the time, I was only trying to help out some people who would otherwise be homeless - but I think what really had burned them was the fact that they had invited even more people in on top of it.

They had even charged me a higher cleaning fee than usual when I had moved out and back in with Granny Qi once the siege had ended, but I had thought that meant that it was all just water under the bridge and the matter had been settled. After all, I was not only a Master Liberomancer, but a war hero to boot. Surely they wouldn’t hold a grudge over something that small - such had been my line of thinking.

Clearly things were more complicated than that. Or, maybe there was another way of looking at things - it was because I was respected so much that they were even giving me this second chance and not just revoking my privileges immediately after that incident.

“Don’t worry,” I said, reassuring the man. “I had only been trying to help out some of the relatives of someone who I knew by offering them some kind of employment during the siege - I hadn’t been aware they were going to try to bring in more people behind my back. I don’t know anyone like that here, and the siege is over - regardless, there’s nothing for you or the Guild to be concerned about. I can promise you that.” I relied on the guild for a lot, and I didn’t want to risk offending them in a way that would lead to an irreconcilable difference between us.

“I see,” he said. “Would you like for a woman to be arranged for you then?”

“Eh - what? Excuse me?” I sputtered out incredulously.

“If you don’t know anyone in the city, we can find someone to help clean and cook for you,” he said. “The guild doesn’t keep such people on its payroll, but we could find you someone reliable on your behalf, and quickly at that. Of course, you’d still be expected to pay their salary.”

“Oh, like a housekeeper or maid?” I realized, fighting to keep my face from flushing. When he had ‘offered a woman’ I had thought he had been referring to something else. But of course, the Guild might’ve done quite a lot for me if I asked, but they obviously weren’t going to indulge in arranging that kind of service. “No thank you, I can handle things on my own.”

While I had gotten used to many of the privileges of being a Master Liberomancer, I still couldn’t really get with the whole servant thing. Coming from modern time, it just felt weird. And I honestly didn’t want anyone else where I was living, touching my things. I did remember something else though that might’ve been helpful. “Back in Arconia, I was given some ink and paper every month to help me with making grimoires and the like. Would the same service be extended to me here?”

“I will have to check up on that, but I will get back to you,” he said. When I didn’t add on anything for another minute, he added, “Will that be all?”

“Er, yes, thank you very much,” I said.

He left and I walked into the apartment. I had very little to unpack, and just tossed my stuff in a corner. I then washed myself before almost collapsing in the bed.

Back on Earth I read about people in old times traveling for weeks or months on end to get to where they wanted to go - though it never really hit me how exhausting it would’ve felt! I had taken a long flight with my parents for vacation once - it lasted fourteen hours, and even that had felt like it had drained a lot from me. And yet, that was nothing compared to the time I had spent coming here.

That was why I really wanted to find a way to fly - it would’ve made the journey so much shorter and far more convenient, and I wouldn’t have gotten into that odd situation with that Liberomancer who had tried to rob me.

The bed was comfortable - almost too comfortable after time spent sleeping either on the floor or on rough and doughy mattresses in villages. It was like I was sinking into a giant spoon of mashed potatoes.

And yet, sleep came anyway.

I woke up a few hours later, feeling a bit refreshed.

Now, it was onto business.

First off, I was too tired to cook so I got something off the street. A lot of houses in the capital, I’d heard, didn’t have working stoves. Some of them back in Arconia didn’t either - but it wasn’t because of a lack of cheap fuel - no, it was because in many buildings it would be a massive fire hazard.

I hadn’t exactly been forbidden from cooking in the apartment, though I had been warned to be careful. With [Create Water] I couldn’t see it becoming an issue, but I was already on shaky ground when it came to this whole apartment thing and the guild, so I was definitely going to be very cautious about that.

Much like back in Arconia, most of the street food was seafood. I bought a fish skewer from a local vendor, noting the fact that it had been overcooked slightly but not bothering to really care in the moment. I just wanted something to fill my stomach.

Next, it was time to seek an audience with the king. I hadn’t received any specific date or time, just an invitation to meet with him, as it had been unclear when I’d finally be able to leave Arconia, but it would take time to settle this out, so it was the next thing on my to-do list.

While Lance, the governor of Arconia, had lived in a palace, the king lived in a proper castle. It was designed, much like the rest of the city, entirely for defense. Many of the guards wore proper plate armor, which you didn’t see often back in Arconia - they mainly used wooden lacquer pieces combined with leather jerkins there. It did not look like a comfortable place to live in and even had something of an oppressive aura to it. With that being said, there was an air to the place that spoke of several centuries of history and culture behind each and every brick or stone used to build it, even if it didn’t look nearly as comfy as Lance’s palace.

As could be expected, there was a long line of people who were seeking an audience with the king - humans and lizardmen alike. The line led to a building right outside the castle walls. People were not allowed to enter the castle grounds proper unless deemed to have good reason for such.

I looked at the line apprehensively - this could very well take until sundown, I realized. But I wondered if I might be able to use my influence here to make things go a bit faster. I had gotten into a number of quagmires because of my reputation, why not try to see if it could get me out of one?

Actually, as I thought about it and reached for the invitation in my pocket; I realized that all might have been completely unnecessary. I had been invited here by the king, hadn’t I? And I remembered then that it also had his seal on it.

I went up to the guards and showed them my invitation, and they led me right to the front of the line.

Several people glared at me, likely wondering why it was that I was getting such special treatment, until they saw the purple sash I was wearing; and seemed to just shrug it off afterwards.

I felt bad about this, because some of them might have been waiting in line for a few hours…

...but on the other hand, this saved me the problem of having to wait in line for a few hours.

“I see, so this is it,” the lizardman overseeing the requests to see the king said as he examined my invitation. He nodded to one of the guards. “Without a doubt, it’s genuine. Ah, we will send word to the king, Master Liberomancer, and will get back to you in a few day’s time.”

“Do I need to come back here?”

“Not at all - we would not dream of wasting the precious time of an esteemed guest such as yourself,” he said, and it struck me that he was being rather uncharacteristically polite and cooperative for a bureaucrat. I doubted he was this way with the others in line. “Just leave your address here and we will send a messenger to your place.”

“Thank you.”

“The pleasure is all ours.”

I walked away, quite surprised that I had managed to get this thing off my list in just under ten minutes - if you removed the time it took to get to the castle in the first place. It had actually taken more time for me to get to the castle than it had taken to fix a potential meeting with the king.

I decided to explore the city a bit before returning home.

While the place was cluttered and congested, there was quite a bit of history that you wouldn’t find back in Arconia. As an example, a shopkeeper I was talking to pointed to a nearby bridge and said, “Oh, you’re new to the city, are you Master Liberomancer? That over there is the bridge where a single soldier made a brave last stand and fought nearly three dozen others before being killed - unfortunately, his name is lost to history, but there used to be a statue honoring his sacrifice before it was destroyed when the Ruler of the Astral Winds took the city. So, anyway, would you prefer the red or the green robes - ah, actually, this new kind of design has been in fashion lately if you’d like to see it before making a decision…”

Between the two places though, I definitely felt that Arconia was a better place to live. History and culture were all fine, but it couldn’t beat the freshness of open spaces and clean air.

Once I got home, I started reading the grimoire I had gotten that gave [Ansoon’s Blessing]. Thankfully, I remembered a good portion of it, and I was able to shift through the first few pages far faster than I otherwise would have.

It was rather late in the night when my mana ran out and I fell asleep, leaving the rest for another day.

The next day, the Liberomancer’s Guild had followed up on a few of my requests.

For one, there was more than enough paper and ink to last a month delivered to my doorstep. They had also furnished me with a few bags of rice.

As for grimoires, they had found a Rank One mana-raising grimoire and two Rank Two grimoires that did the same as I’d asked for.

It had been hard to find grimoires like that which I didn’t already have, and it was a bit disappointing that I had only gotten three, but I supposed that was to be expected.

I had consumed nearly all the ones back in Arconia which I could find after the siege was over, and these were just the ones made in the capital that hadn’t found their way down to Arconia in significant numbers yet.

They were a bit pricey, but that was to be expected given the expected demand. And it wasn’t like they were not worth the price. Three grimoires meant my mana bar went up by three points, which meant there was an extra [Grand Fireball] or [Shark Tornado] I could cast whenever I was fully charged. And it meant it was slightly faster and easier to both read and write grimoires.

I had to get rid of some of the old grimoires I knew to make way for these three, but it was an easy enough decision regarding what to get rid of. Things like [Self Insight] were rather redundant if I could just make my mana bar as large as possible.

I was in the middle of reading more about Lady Ansoon when a messenger arrived telling me the king would be ready to meet me in one week, and had invited me to dinner hosted in the castle for the same. They left a scroll with the proper invitation as well as the time for me to show the guards on that day, and I thanked them.

One week… well, I was planning to stay in the capital for a while before heading out. I wanted to see if I could find some more grimoires, as well as read the ones I had in the safety of a building. I did not want to land up in another situation where I lost a grimoire because something happened in the wilderness like it had back in Arconia during the siege.

I was very close to finishing the grimoire which gave [Ansoon's Blessing]. I had to say, it was one of the few grimoires that I had genuinely enjoyed reading - not just for the sake of getting a new power-up. The ending, whether it was fictional or not, was quite heart-breaking. It was a story that had likely been heavily romanticized by the lizardmen after all; but I thought that it was more likely that Lady Ansoon had just been the first person to discover that waterfall that flowed in reverse than her chancing upon a river spirit. Arconia was not as well-developed during her time, and so it was not unreasonable to think that the waterfall had been lying there unknown for quite a while.

As for why it flowed in reverse, it was more likely to be a form of ‘natural magic’ like Granny Qi said rather than a spirit’s charm.

At least, after listening to both the human and lizardmen versions of stories regarding that waterfall, that was the conclusion I thought was most probably true. Much like how, personally, I doubted it was the actual Spirit of Darkness that led to the Ruler of the Astral Winds getting killed. The whole Spirit of Darkness convincing the Blood-Emperor to wipe out a village seemed far more metaphorical than anything.

As a matter of fact, I was beginning to heavily doubt whether or not spirits were an actual thing in this world. A lot of people, even those like Master Jiah Pei, thought they did - but no one could claim to have actually met or seen a spirit. Everyone seemed to know somebody who knew somebody who swore their neighbor’s stepson living across the city had seen one.

Was it weird to doubt the existence of spirits in a world where magic was real? I mean, even if magic was real - the magic of the Liberomancers followed certain strict rules unlike what the spirits were supposedly capable of. And just because magic existed, it didn’t mean that this was a world where ‘everything goes.’ Even if I didn’t fully understand why the rules worked like they did, there still clearly were a specific set of rules like being unable to write a grimoire of a higher rank than you.

As such, the thought of there being something which could completely bypass these rules, creatures most definitely existed as per everyone, but no one had concrete evidence of struck me as being something more than an exaggerated fairy tale rather than fact.

Regardless, they were said to be extremely rare anyway, which meant the chances of me ever running into one were practically zero. So real or not, I didn’t see any need to dwell on the matter.

Sun Jiao was lying in a cold cell, fast asleep. After Stefan had turned him over to the guards, they had locked him up while deciding what to do with him.

“Human…” a voice called out, startling him awake.

“Wh-what’s going on?” he mumbled. His cell was suddenly completely dark, there was no light from a nearby torch or lantern like there was earlier, and even barring that, there should be something coming from the window like either starlight or moonlight.

Somehow though, his cell was completely pitch-dark; and the source of that voice unclear.

“Human,” the voice repeated. It seemed to come from everywhere around Sun Jiao, and it carried neither warmth nor a trace of kindness. It was a voice as cold and unforgiving as the north wind, and Sun Jiao withdrew a little in his cell when he heard it again, but where could he go? There was only darkness all around. And even if there had been better lighting, he was still trapped in the prison cell. “You may consider yourself fortunate, human, for having been graced with my presence. Your heart cries out for aid. The hearts of many humans cry out each night, and yet, so few of them are blessed enough to receive my answer. I can hear your soul scream out for power - power that I can give you, human. So long as you take care of a matter of mine you may have it. There is a man who is somewhere near this city who I need to be… removed…”

***

The last page of Lady Ansoon’s epic, where it described how she was given her ability as a blessing by the river spirit, read:

“If only my brother had this, he would not have perished so!” Lady Ansoon lamented as the spirit imbued her with this power.

“And yet, with this, you will ensure that many will be saved your brother’s fate,” the spirit answered. “And each person whom this ability saves is precious to someone - someone’s brother, uncle, father, sister, mother, or friend.”

There was a short paragraph describing how the waterfall then began to flow backwards, and a few lines about Lady Ansoon’s later life before the grimoire ended, and the paper turned to dust as each and every single word in it was inscribed into my memory. Unfortunately, as it had been written in the lizardmen language, though I could memorize it, I would be unable to create a replica in my own language.

That didn’t matter to me though, because this was an invaluable skill.

Being able to be completely invulnerable for an entire minute - though that didn’t sound like much, to someone like a Liberomancer who would otherwise be extremely weak when it came to physical attacks’ to whom most battles boiled down to ‘if I don’t kill my enemy in a single hit they’ll kill me,’ the extra minute greatly expanded one’s longevity in a fight.

Knowing that you could charge with reckless abandon for a full minute opened up so many possibilities not only for attacking, but also retreating.

Of course, it had its drawbacks. You couldn’t cancel it in the middle, say fifteen seconds in, and then spend the rest of the forty-five seconds later on in the day, because it was always used up at once - due to this reason you had to be very careful when you activated it to not use it too early. On top of that it did nothing if you were already somehow taken by surprise and hit already, which compounded the first issue as there was no point in using it too late either. It also couldn’t be cast on an ally, only on yourself, though you could potentially make yourself invulnerable and stand as a wall to shield them, but you would have to be next to them to do that and it wouldn’t shield them from area-of-effect attacks like [Grand Fireball].

I had managed to finish it the evening before my meeting with the king. There were other useful grimoires I had purchased but still needed time to read. I had managed to find grimoires that gave [Twin Summons] and [Shared Souls] easily enough, but one that would give [Recall Summon] was still elusive - that was somewhat to be expected though as it was a Rank Three skill unlike the other two which were Rank Two.

No signs of a grimoire that would let me fly were found either, but I was not disappointed as I had been expecting that.

There were also no lightning elementalists in the city - I had wanted to see if I could speak to one to possibly charge my smartphone; as unlikely as a possibility that was, the rewards if it were to succeed would be enormous. But, forget this city, on further inquiry it didn’t look like there was someone like that in the entire country. It was not a popular specialty to branch into in these regions.

So that, much like a grimoire that would help me fly, would be something that would have to wait till Hitutsa.

hr

The day had come for me to meet with the king, and wanting to make a good impression, I arrived a whole hour early.

I had left my fancy set of robes back in Arconia, but I had bought a new set for this specific occasion. I would have preferred to rent them instead because it would be a pain carrying something else around like this, but there was no such service that I could find.

Drake had tried to school me on proper etiquette back in Arconia, but he always gave up in the middle of our lessons because even he seemed to find the whole topic boring.

Now though, as I was standing before the castle gates, I couldn’t help but wonder why I hadn’t asked him to teach me a bit more - or even went to Zeke for help!

This was a king for goodness sake, and I had heard that in ancient times, people could be executed just for saying the wrong thing to a monarch! Granted, those were stories and I didn’t know how accurate they were, but even if he didn’t kill or imprison me, ruining my reputation would be enough to make things extremely difficult for me going forward.

“Uh, the king isn’t going to guillotine me for speaking out of line, is he?” I had asked once Drake.

“Nah, you’d probably have to get up onto the table and urinate all over it in front of him to get that kind of reaction from him,” Drake had answered lazily. “Relax, you’re young and a foreigner to boot, not to mention you’re a human. Lizardmen expect less of you. And remember that His Majesty is the one who invited you in the first place, he wouldn’t want to do something that would make him seem like an ungrateful host. Also, you’re not a normal person anymore - you’re a Master Liberomancer and a hero to boot, so relax.”

I really hoped what he had said that time would hold up in reality.

“Ah, Master Liberomancer,” the guards said, upon seeing my invitation. “You are a bit early - but why don’t you come sit in the reception area while you wait? Someone will call upon you when His Majesty is ready.”

They searched me for weapons, which I could somewhat understand - but given that Liberomancers in this world had built-in weapons that could be more destructive than a sword or spear, I sort of thought it was pointless. One of the guards did detect my demonic spell, though they had known about this already and led me inside.

The inside of the castle, much like the outside, clearly had been built for business rather than pleasure. It wasn’t as flashy as Lance’s palace, though there was still the odd statue or painting here and there depicting a member of the royal family.

Overall though, it still gave off a claustrophobic and gloomy sort of feel much like the capital itself did. The number of windows was somewhat limited, likely because they would be a liability in the event of a siege, so the air also felt somewhat stale. No doubt about it, I would have preferred staying in Lance’s palace.

I was offered refreshments, but I felt too queasy to eat anything, not to mention we were going to be having dinner later on so I didn’t want to fill my stomach prematurely. It felt like only a few minutes, but the hour was up almost immediately and I was led into the banquet hall.

It was as spacious as the castle would allow for but once again there was a gloomy presence that seemed to hang over it. The lighting was not as good as it otherwise should have been - possibly because the heat from so many torches might cook the guests waiting for dinner like they were in an oven. As for windows; they had to be careful with those also as those were potential vulnerable points that could be exploited.

A long table that could’ve seated forty people was piled up with food. At one end there were two lizardmen sitting who were also wearing purple sashes like I was, and at the head of the table was the king himself.

Naturally my eyes went to him first.

What struck me the most was how thin he was - most lizardmen, particularly those like Zeke or Drake who were trained warriors, had large, prominent muscles. He, however, looked slightly shriveled up, though his golden scales still had a vibrant vitality to them. He was wearing a small golden band on top of his head - of course, an actual crown would be too cumbersome and heavy to wear all the time. His robes were a rich scarlet and had depictions of dragons prancing across them. He had a strange sort of wrinkle under his nose which almost made it seem like he had a thin mustache, but I knew the lizardmen didn’t have facial hair so that was just a trick of a light. Overall, he certainly did fit the moniker of ‘dragonman’ rather than ‘lizardman.’

Other than the three sitting at the end of the table, there were the guards in the room, who eyed me warily, but didn’t do anything as I slowly approached the head of the table.

“Your Majesty,” I said, bowing, folding my hand across my chest just like Drake had taught me.

“Please lift your head, Master Liberomancer,” came his voice. It was a lot like Jiah Pei’s, a bit old and weary, but still one that carried significant authority. “This is not an official state dinner, more of an informal one I threw around - ah, not to say that I didn’t quite look forward to meeting the Spider King of Arconia in person!”

I grit my teeth - why did they have to give me that stupid title again? That said, I guess maybe it sounded cooler in the human or lizardman language used in Chipker, because it sounded kind of lame in English.

“Ah, I didn’t know that Your Majesty had heard of that little nickname,” I said.

“He’s not the only one,” one of the other lizardmen said. “We were all wondering whether the daring feats they said you had done were true or not.”

“I see that one thing was true,” another one said. “You do in fact have a demonic spell.”

He must have had [Demonic Detection] as an ability- come to think of it, it occurred to me that I should probably get it. I was planning on heading towards areas which were less heavily populated in the future, and though the likelihood of running into a demonic Liberomancer was close to none - there could be another incident like with that Liberomancer who was also a thief where I needed to be sure of that.

I would ask the guild about that tomorrow.

“Now, now,” the king said. “I think introductions are in order, though we all know who Master Stefan Dawson is, I wonder if it is the same likewise.”