CH.321 Capital Dates

CH.321 Capital Dates

“I shall speak with His Highness about getting you a chance to speak with His Majesty.” Cressida said, as she was leaving for work.

“Thank you. If you need something, just ask. I do owe you for this.”

“Don’t worry about it. This is also a part of my job.” Cressida told me.

We watched as she entered a carriage, which would be heading to the Royal castle.

“... so, what now?” Alice asked.

“We have a free day, so anything we want.” I told her.

“I think I should head to the dhampir village close by. At least get in contact with the blood deliverer.” Lua said.

“That can wait a day or two. How about you relax for the day? I want to take you both on a date.” I told Alice and Lua. “We really haven’t done anything like that in a while. I guess there was our shopping trip, but that was just for Alice and I.”

“And that was basically work.” Alice commented.

“So how about a casual walk through town?” I asked.

After a quick swap of clothes, we headed to the city on foot. We decided to go with something casual, but still good looking. Lua and Alice were both in somewhat casual dresses, while I got out some straight pants and a button-up shirt. Sure not my usual style, but it will work. Lua also hid her wings away using Vampiric Body Modification, just so she wouldn’t have to wear a cloak or something else to cover them. She did have time to practice with that skill while she was doing her teaching job, so she was now quite good at hiding her wings. Not quite to the point where she could do it in her sleep, but getting there.

“So. Any places you want to visit?” I asked.

“A magic book store.” Alice said. “I also want to visit a weapons store.”

“... The church. I just feel like... we should.” Lua added.

“Sure. We can visit both. And yeah. I guess being us and not visiting the church is ... strange. But when you can meet the grand lady in your dreams, there really is no need for it.”

“Not for that. We might be able to see someone using Holy Magic there. We can probably even request someone show us some.”

“... I should have some unpurified monster materials. Maybe. I think Laura asked Tahlia to keep some of it unpurified.” A reminder. This refers to monster materials coming from high miasma areas like dungeons. They are miasma poisoned and have to be purified before you can use them, especially if you plan to eat them. But Storage, aka. Tahlia, can do that for me, so I never had a need to get the church to use Holy Magic to purify stuff. And while I did purify a lot of what I have, I feel like we kept some miasma poisoned because Laura said it could be useful. Something about making cursed equipment and stuff.

Maybe I should visit TinaWood again? Collect some skeletons from there, which could then be used for purifying practice. I could also let people who want to try the challenge rooms do just that. I think Mariina would at least want to come. Paulina would probably want another go. Einar and Eline can probably take on some of the easier ones, as long as they have their B-rank tigers with them. Wilma... Well, I have been leveling her up, so she should be able to fight. Karl, Cina, Molly and Maya aren’t ready yet though. Maybe I should start leveling up Einar and Eline now, and then soon the four newcomers as well.

As we walked through the noble district, we got some looks from the people walking about. It was mostly people wearing some reasonably fine clothing, but they still mostly looked like servants or store owners/workers. Maybe new people walking around is somewhat uncommon.

I guess this is about as good of time as any to get into how the Royal capital is laid out. It was basically separated into three areas, each separated by a full on defensive wall.

The innermost was of course the castle. I don’t know much about its layout, as I never did fly over the city, so I’ll go over it when I get a better idea of how that area is laid out.

Then is the noble’s district, or the ‘old city’. This was a high class living area, which caused the living prices here to be quite high. It wasn’t actually exclusive to nobles, but most people wouldn’t want to live here because of said high prices, other than nobles. But it wasn’t like there were just large mansions in this area. There were also some shops, apartment buildings, and other such things. Though there did seem to be a lack of public services. Here, if you want something, you pay for it. But I guess with that cost, you get the best of the best services.

Outside the noble’s district, was of course the rest of the city. It was also separated into other sub-districts, but I wasn’t that knowledgeable about those, so maybe I’ll go over them later. I think there was something like a workshop or maybe more accurately called ‘loud places’ district. But other than that, you could generally build most things in most districts. Thank god they don’t have the US urban planning, where you are only allowed to build single family homes. That stuff is awful. Why would I want a house in a place where the nearest store is 10 km away? That just sucks. You likely wouldn’t even have any services close by, as people can’t build a business close by.

Well, that might not be a problem in this city. But my opinion on urban planning aside, the last part of the city was the areas outside the city walls. Some might call them slums, but they were actually quite well organized and the buildings were actually of some quality. Maybe there just isn’t enough money to put up another wall. Well, there were some ... not so high quality houses that I spotted when we flew here, but those were far enough away where it is basically a separate town.

But back to our date. Our first stop was a weapons store in the noble’s district. Alice spotted it and wanted to go in. We were quickly welcomed by a store clerk and I let Alice do the talking. She wanted to find out if they had any swordstaves, but this place didn’t carry any. Actually, a lot of the stuff they had was more showpieces that you would set on a wall than actual weapons you would use in combat. You could use them in combat, but things like the grips and guards were more showy than something you’d actually want to have in a fight.Follow the latest novels at novelhall.com

Without buying anything, we left the store and walked where we felt like walking.

We stopped in a handful of more stores, buying stuff from some, but also not from others. Alice got quite the collection of books from one of them and since we carry them in Storage, I could get quick Factory copies of the books as well. I’m sure Tahlia will like getting new books. Lua also picked up a book on the tales of the Hero’s party, while I picked up a general history book.

After a bit of time, a clergy woman came to us and asked if we were in need of something. I quickly told her that we had some monster materials from a dungeon that we would like to have purified and asked where we could have that done.

“We can have either a skilled priest or an apprentice priestess do that. Please do realize that the priest will expect a higher donation for his work. Which would you like?” She asked.

“... the apprentice should do fine, but I will still give a big donation. I don’t want to take the time of someone truly skilled for something an apprentice can do.” I told her. And an apprentice’s skills will be easier to copy, I think, as they will be doing everything ‘by the book’.

The clergy woman then brought us to an adjoining room, where there were a few more church personnel. Including a young girl, probably no more than 10 years old. She was dressed in perfectly white garments that seemed to be styled after the dress the first saint wore. At least it looked similar to her outfit. Still. For her to be so young, but also working for the church. I kind of feel bad for her. Well, it might also be a good thing. I don’t really know.

The clergy woman explained our needs for the girl as well as who I think is her caretaker at the church. The caretaker actually looked quite similar to the little girl, and was of appropriate age, so maybe she is the girl's mother.

“Umm. Sir.” The young priestess spoke up to get my attention. “... would you please... show me the monster materials you wish to have purified.”

“Sure. I’ll take it out now.” I said, as I quickly opened Storage and looked for something.

What I ended up bringing out was a C-rank bird monster. It was called the long beak bird, but had a more commonly known name. Suicide bird. That is because it is actually quite the weak monster and the only reason it is C-rank is its tendency to fly at an opponent, pierce them with its beak and then explode. These things show up on a few floors of HomeBase by the way, but this one should be from floor 3. My original plan was bringing out one of the B-rank monsters I have, but a lot of them can be quite scary and I didn’t want to terrify this little girl, so this long beak bird will have to do.

“This? Alright. ... I’ll purify it.” The little girl said, as she approached the table where I had set the half meter tall bird. She then began a chant that sounded more like a prayer.

“Oh our creator. Our Goddess.

Hear my prayer and grant me power.

We ask that you purify this creature.

So we may use it in the name of your glory.

Purify.”

I guess this is as good of a time as any to mention that while we were looking around the church, I had swapped my race from Dragon Hearted over to Spiritual Human. As a Spiritual Human, I could see the movement of mana and even pseudo spirits, so I wanted to be a Spiritual Human for this.

I made sure to keep a close eye on the girl’s mana, while making sure Laura and Tahlia were recording all of this for future reference. The problem was, unlike regular magic that creates some sort of pseudo spirits that then break apart after the spell, Holy Magic didn’t seem to make them. ... Well then again, neither does Space Magic nor Blood Magic, so maybe just attribute magics do. But that definitely added to the challenge of Holy Magic, as well as other non-attributed magics.

But still. I got some idea on how the girl’s mana moved as she chanted her spell, so maybe we got something out of this. I also saw the little black specks coming off of the long beak bird, before it turned white and then dispersed as pure mana.

I didn’t even know that was possible, but apparently Holy Magic can bend some of the rules I thought were there.

“... I believe... that it is done.” The small priestess said.

“Thank you. Here is your donation.” I said, as I took the bird back to Storage and took out two gold coins.

“S-sir. You... my prize... is just two small silvers... these are ... gold.” The priestess called out.

“Don’t worry. The rest is a donation. Please make sure it is used well.” I told her.

“I ... I ... Yes. I will.” She promised, as she took the two gold coins into her hands and bowed to us deeply. “I will purify your monsters... for free next time.” She then added.

“Thank you. I will make sure to visit again in that case.” I told her.

After another set of thanks from the girl’s mother, as well as the clergy woman who brought us before her, we left the church, as we were now done here.

The day crept on, so we decided to call our date and head back towards the Sawyer capital manor. After getting back there, I chatted a bit with Cressida. She said that I’d have a meeting with Prince Elias in three days' time, while the timing for my meeting with the King wasn’t set yet.

We didn’t end up spending the night at the manor, as I was needed on HomeBase. And HomeBase was now floating above the capital, at an altitude of just over 5km. Covered by its invisibility barrier, there was no way anyone would see it. I mean, even I can’t see it if I remove my permission to see it. Even Alice can’t see it, unless she uses some BS magic with her unique-racial skill. So as long as there isn’t someone with some super eye skill in the capital, who just happens to stare at the sky, HomeBase should remain unseen.

Calling down a teleportation beam from HomeBase, Alice, Lua, Ria and I headed home.