"My name is Lucy Zul'ros." She said and slowly stretched her arm out into the silent room. Only the sound of her rhythmic respirations could be heard. She inhaled slowly through her mouth and out through her nose. Utter focus is what she required as the magic she was about to perform was one she hadn't used in a while.
In the darkness of her mind, small blue fires started popped up everywhere. These were the mana signatures of everyone within the mansion. Once she was certain she had accounted for everyone a golden magic circle appeared in front of her hand. The magic circle span as white lights flashed in the room.
Once the light subsided her hand was down and her eyes were open. As Leo's eyes adjusted to the white light, he saw her and she no longer had her devilish beauty. She was still in the form of an adult, however, her eyes were golden yellow giving her the appearance of a Goddess. Leo was tongue-tied as he gazed upon her ethereal visage. It was a sight capable of captivating a heart with a mere glance.
He lost his words for a moment then regained his composure, "What did you do?"
"It's a sleeping spell; everyone should be fast asleep... You can leave so long; I need to take care of a few things on this side."
"Okay," Leo agreed then walked out the shed. When he looked around, he saw the guards that were stationed by the gate lying on the ground fast asleep. The ones that were standing by the entrance of the front door were fast asleep too, 'The spell worked.' Leo was elated, he could finally escape. His life was finally looking up after seventeen rancorous years of not being able to cast magic.
Leo walked to the gate then he fiddled in the pockets of all the guards on the floor. He was looking for their gold pouches. He needed money so that he could stay at an in tonight. He also needed the money for food, equipment and shards. Although he could get the shards for free through killing, it wouldn't hurt to use money to buy them for now. So that when he does fight, he can fight stronger monsters which in turn will give him shards of higher quality.
After looting all the bodies of their precious belongings, he waited outside the gate for Lucy to do whatever, she planned to do. While waiting he tallied his gold. From the ten pouches that he found, he had accumulated a staggering amount of 153 gold coins, 267 silver coins and 423 bronze. This was enough money to feed him for years. However, it wasn't nearly enough to establish a territory, "Still got ways to go."
It was at that moment that Lucy walked out the gate, "I see you already looted the bodies."
"I did and I found a lot of gold. I placed it all into one pouch. As they all have a spatial rune on it."
"I looted some bodies there too and took most of their precious jewellery."
"Is that why you took so long?"
"No, I wiped everyone's memory of you. This way they can't seek revenge for stealing their stuff. Then I planted some incriminating material in their house. That way if they call for an investigation they will go to prison which means they won't. I would have killed them all but that alone would result in an investigation. I'm a skilled magician so I don't think it would lead to us. However, there's no need to poke a resting bear.
"Oh, great! So I don't have to worry about them anymore… Well then since we have successfully escaped, shall we find an inn?"
"That would be the best." She said and began walking forward.
Currently, they were in the district of nobles. Phalangard was a circular city. The innermost part was reserved for royalty then the nobles, wealthy citizen, average citizens and lastly the poor. They needed to find an inn, one they wouldn't find on this side of town. So they walked until they found one.
When they walked in they felt the warm air. This warmth went hand, in hand with the scene in front of them. It was a convivial place saturated with people, conversation and laughter.
As soon as they walked in the innkeeper greeted them, "You here to eat or stay."
"Have you eaten yet?" Leo said looking at Lucy.
"I did, the stone, it was delicious," She said smirking.
A nerve twitched on his forehead but he kept his emotions in check, "Then we can you please get two separate rooms." He said to the innkeeper.
"As you wish." The innkeeper walked to the reception and took two keys of their hooks, "Follow me."
They followed him and then they walked to their rooms. It was on the second floor. Then he handed them their keys, "Breakfast is at 8 in the morning."
They nodded their heads and then went into their respective rooms. Leo's room was right next to Lucy's. Once he was inside, he climbed into bed and closed his eyes. Today was the quintessence of mentally taxing. As soon as his eyes closed, he fell asleep.
The next morning, he woke up to a knock on the door. He yawned and then walked out of beg still groggy and his eyes were still adjusting to the light. He walked to the door and then opened it. When he did, Lucy was standing on the other side, "Come it's time for breakfast." She said showing slight annoyance.
"You up early…"
"I'm not it's already 9:30…"
"Seems I was a lot more tired than I thought." He said scratching his head and laughing sheepishly.
Lucy rolled her eyes and then they went downstairs to find an empty table. Once they got one, a waiter came to them, "Do you perhaps know what you want to eat?"
Leo furrowed his brows, "Not to be rude but we just sat down…"
The waiter laughed awkwardly, "Sorry, I'm new to this job. I'll give you time to decide."
"Thank you." Then he looked at Lucy sitting on the opposite side of him on a wooden chair, "You're not going to eat right? You are still full from the stone."
"No, I'm hungry. I want to eat."
"No, I think you have eaten enough to last you for TEN THOUSAND years."
"Okay… I see where this is going. Do you expect me to apologise?"
"That would be an appropriate start. You robbed my family of millennia of work."
"Well, I'm not going to apologise. I wanted to eat it so I did. It's not my fault you couldn't protect it."
Leo furrowed his eyebrows as he peered at her.
"Like, I'm not sorry. But if you feel so wrongly accused, I can give you something in return."
"I'm listening."
"Well like I said, I command hell. And because of that, I have come across many infamous mages. I can bring one of them back here so they can teach you magic. Since you want to learn beast magic. I can bring you the greatest beast tamer that ever lived. Alexander the Tyrant Beast Tamer."
Hearing this, Leo's eyes sparkled, "I suppose that will do…"
"I can't bring him over to this realm for long so how much you can learn depends on you."
Leo nodded his head.
"Good then I'm glad we are on one page, now let's order food and get going. If I'm going to use this magic it can't be in public. The best place would be a forest or somewhere deep in the mountains."
Leo nodded his head and then called the waiter as they were ready to order. Moments later, the food came and then they ate. Lastly, they paid for the night and for the food they just ate.
After paying the bill, Lucy looked at Leo, "So what now?"
"The first thing we need to do is to get the shards for me to eat. I can't learn powerful magic when I'm this weak. Then we need to get a stat checker so I can quantitatively see my magical prowess. Also, I need equipment. After that, we need to register ourselves as adventurers. It's what us humans do… I mean, it's what the humans do here. You can't go in a dungeon without an adventurer's badge. Lastly, we can go to the forest of Talem. It's nearby and has a variety of creatures. I'm getting excited just thinking about it!"
"Then it's settled!"