Chapter 186 Light

Two thieves. They tailed me. They hid well, though, so I couldn't simply walk up to them to say hello. Soon after I first set foot into the lawless area, I put [Mana Perception] to good use and had a quick overview of all my surroundings. That included the trouble-makers I wanted to attack then follow. But that also included a ton of other information I had to painfully sort through, with an aching head and a frown.

That was pretty much when I suspected some people were following me. I had tried to bait them into doing more than just passively following me, but I didn't manage anything.

The two masters of the shadows hid well. They had a similar presence to that one thief I met a few days back. And, I seriously wanted to join them. If not for seriously building friendships with similar-minded folks, or learning a fighting style that actually interested me, I would carry it on just for the thrill of it.

By waiting, I was sure the hiding ones would come. Come to me, the one they tailed. Hours passed, but nothing happened. At some point, I stumbled upon a certain whore's dwelling, and then, I sensed that the two thieves moved differently. For a brief moment, it felt like they weren't keeping their eyes on me. They got closer, and I sensed the slightest hint of agitation in the ambient mana. Maybe they, too, had their own plan.

Just like the young lady and me. I left the intoxicated girl downstairs with her boy. At last, I was up to working the job I initially came here to do. Gathering information. Given my circumstances, the learned whore might have had something to do with the assassin guild, in the end.

Each step I took in the stairs creaked with more intensity than the last. And the last step moaned a different creak, probably welcoming me to the first floor. It was getting late and late. Fewer lights shone in the streets. I might have been plunged into total darkness if not for my cat-like eye, which had the passive "Night Vision." In daylight, my irises shrank, and in the night, they stretched. I could see just fine.

Walking around, my fingers ran across each of the dusty surfaces of desks and shelves, be it in the hallways, or the four rooms I found upstairs. Then, my fingers set for some old files of papers in the owner's bedroom. In the owner's bedroom, there wasn't so much dust, so I started there first. Here, the most important papers should be found.

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Against all odds, an hour passed and I found nothing. The first thing was, going through random papers in hope of finding valuable information was a tough mental battle that did require more love of useless old newspapers than it required intelligence. The second thing was, even if I did love sorting through all of the old news or old mana-y articles, it still wouldn't be as easy as that. A few hours at best were necessary. Or a few days at most. That was that. There was still something I could do upstairs.

When I jumped off my desk, it half-crumbled to the floor. I looked at it, scoffed, and finished the job by kicking it to the ground. "Now, that's more like something I can do." Cut things down. Or to cut a whore down, after I was done interrogating her. Upstairs, two rooms had windows. The owner's bedroom, and some other empty chamber. A window's lock here was drastically less secure than a lock in the aristocratic zones.

The thing wasn't much complicated. I unlocked the window but left it closed. My finger turned rosy-red, and it emitted a ton of heat. <Forge> proved useful. With a finger, I just pushed the locking mechanism in and rendered the whole thing unusable. That way, I could always show up here later.

Then, I received some visit. The young lady who had had too much to drink might have woken up after I kicked the owner's desk to the ground. As she came upstairs, I slipped into the tiny sort of rotten-through library, and I acted as though I still went about my job as a detective, or something.

Hmmm… I thought, so what should I do now? Tilting my head, I placed a hand on my chin and squinted my eyes. The maiden's footsteps were heard climbing up the stairs, with a squeaky old oil lamp in hand.

Ah… I thought, will I have to look dumb because I didn't take a light with me upstairs? Tilting my head to the other side, I picked up an inked sheet from up a shelf and thought again. Whatever, whatever. What should I do now anyway? In the tiny library, my thoughts first went home. There was still a whore to interrogate, but I could always do that later. If I had time, I might as well drop by my place, wake up the sleeping old man, and take my second lesson on mana control.

In a few weeks, the old man assured me I would be done with practicing. Then, I could go about even crazier stuff, in my own time. [Dwelling], eh? If it wasn't already clear to me, no, the ability for someone to regulate and properly control their mana didn't come along with a very handy passive skill that allowed me to learn it effortlessly. Still, my talent for the magic arts, since I was made of pure mana, was quite high, according to the old advisor. A few weeks were very short for what I learned.

Thinking of home, then, my thoughts went to Cetha. I didn't spend as much time with her as I first did when we got a house in the capital. Back in the forest of Benelloan, when I saved her from the elven people, I had told her that nothing was ever free, and that the price she had to pay was that she had to be my family, since she alone was willing to fully embrace me with her kindly weak, frail arms. Maybe I could do something with her, sometime soon.

Then, thinking of Cetha, my thoughts went to her homeplace. The Benelloan Forest. Demon Lords, eh? Wars? Ah, and there was Ladafar, too, as well as the quest object "Seal: Orcish Dagger x1" I obtained from an orc friend. From there, my thoughts went to the Side Mission from the System earlier, and then…

"Huh," I scoffed, "system." The Skill Menu was drawn into existence. With my eyes, I surveyed the long, floating blue tab, and I set my eyes on it. "Main Quest: "???" — Become the King. 0/1"

My eyes squinted at it.

How to become a king… no, the King…?

That was when she came to me. "Sir… One has to wonder how you would take care of your job with the lights off."

The King. Maybe I simply needed some light.