It was approaching late noon when Lukas and Anne arrived at the city, the sun, or at least the star equivalent to the sun in their original world, continued to harshly beat down on the city, so not many people were on the street, making it relatively quiet. The only ones walking around apart from newcomers like Lukas and Anne, were street urchins and pickpockets. Lukas, looking around at the people, curiously asked Anne:
"Anne, why does no one else have the tattoo like we have?"
"Hrmm, Like Isabelle said, we are the successors of the previous grand arbiter and arch magus, and these tattoos are the tools, the organizations the past grand arbiter and arch magus had formed, developed in order to raise the current generation to get stronger"
"So, only we know the the stats of cards, and have skills like card identification? How about bloodline skills?"
"Only a rare few have inborn skills like your HoriZon, and my Witch's delight. But yes, generally, apart from the cards possession ability and sometimes the skills that come with it, people of this world don't have skills and a clear view of their own stats like mana, though they don't really need it."
"Witch's delight? Oh! I haven't seen your stats yet, do you mind showing me?"
"Sure, but after we find an inn to stay the night,"
Saying this, they continued down the large empty road, occasionally, buying treats from street vendors and looking at the strange yet familiar style of architecture from the past eras in their world; the houses were a mish and mash from the 16th and 17th century...
As they were traveling aimlessly, both sightseeing and looking for a suitable place to stay the night, a tanned boy, about 10 years of age walked up to them, and with a cheeky smile plastered on his face, he asked them with a curious face:
"Hey elder sister, older brother! You look like you need some help with directions! For a few coins, I can guide you anywhere in this city. I've been everywhere, I can even tell you where all the good whorehouses are at!"
All though he said this while looking at Anne, he quite clearly directed his second sentence at Lukas; Looking at the young boy who knew such vulgar language, Anne frowned slightly, but Lukas, who apart from cards in general, had the knowledge of a princess trapped in a tower, was curious as to what a "hoarhouse" was, keenly looked at the boy to keep talking. Smiling, the boy started talking.
"Ok, so there's this one place with a very pretty looking bitc-"
"There's no need to say anymore, you can just tell us where the best inn to stay is at... boy,"
Anne shot a frosty glare at the boy, who, after seeing the look on her face immediately shut up, and started to obediently guiding them to a building east of the city square. As they were walking, a few men clad in heavy iron armor walked past them, their voices soft, but since the street was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, it wasn't really hard for the trio walking to hear about it.
"Hey, have you heard? The city mayor is hosting an essence competition, heard the rewards were quite a pretty penny,"
One of them spoke, looking at one of his partners. The man naturally replied and even made hand gestures:
"Yeah, I heard it was a mortal card or somthin', I even heard the reason's cause, he needs the essence for his son!"
"You mean Maverick? That pussy couldn't even hold a sword properly, and spends most of the time a playboy, I heard he brought a few prostitutes back to the mansion to play with! They were even high class whores, the lucky high-born bastard,"
"-whistles- Lucky bastard, probably kept them around to fuck when he's bored, huh?"
As the trio heard their conversation, Their expression differed wildly from each other: Anne's face was ugly, Lukas was still as clueless as ever and looked at her curiously, while the boy had a lewd expression on his face. Nonetheless, they were curious about the competition the 2 had mentioned and asked the boy, but he didn't know anything either, and just told them to ask the innkeeper
----a few minutes later----
By the time they had finally arrived, it was early evening. so after giving a few copper coins to the boy, the duo walked through the doors of the inn. The inside of the large inn looked quite homely though nothing special, it's walls were painted a pale yellow and a few tables were placed neatly around the first floor. Hanging chandeliers with candles attached were
A sleepy girl was sitting on the counter opposite to the door, heard the doors open and woke up with a start, and seeing the sibling pair, welcomed them while smiling:
"Welcome, nyah! This here is the Bluetorch Inn, my name is Lisbeth Bluetorch, I'm owner, nyah!"
"Thank you, I would like a room for 2 please, Oh, and by the by, have you heard of the essence competition the mayor is holding?"
"Hrmm, sure! I've heard a bunch o' things, apparently, the mayor needs essence to power a new machine or somethin' and ichor doesn't work on it, nyah! You can sign up at the square if you're interested!, oh and the room will cost 10 coppers. 4 extra for dinner and breakfast,"
After Anne had payed for the room, she started heading up the stairs, gesturing for Lukas to follow, Lukas nodded, and asked her to go up first, then turned to the Inn keeper and asked:
"Em, why do you have cat ears?"
Yes, his innocence had kicked in once again, and he asked something everyone ought to know, but because of his young appearance, the woman took no notice of it and just answered while smiling.
"It's cause I come from a tribe of people, who, a long long time ago, loved a legendary race called the Caithah, they just happened to have cat ears, fur and a lovely tail! Hmm, my name is Mimi Shurl, what's yours hon?"
"I'm Lukas, my sister is Anne, the one who went up the stairs!"
"Heheh, I see. well have a good night,"
"Good night!"
-----in their room-----
"You wanted to see my stats right? here they are."
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Anne Von Falken
age: 21
mana: 100,000
HP: 1000 (approximate)
Bloodline skill: Witch's Delight (You cannot play any cards, instead, they will turn into spells and potions, in exchange, every spell you play and potion you drink will serve to boost the ones later with a duration of 1 hour)
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"Why is your mana pool so large!?"
"I actually started with 50,000. The only reason it got this big was because of the spell I receive from my guide,『Ichor Multiplier』. Which multiplies all ichor I consume by 10, plus I was here a year before you,"
Jealous at her giant pool of mana, Lukas looked at his own, which had only 9,999. Still one point short of summoning Osiris.
"Umu, well, it's getting late, you should sleep,"
Saying this, Anne left some space for him on the bed and quickly went to sleep, of course, due to him being very innocent in this form, he didn't think too much of it and fell asleep on the bed, hugging Anne.
What he didn't know was that long after he fell asleep, Anne's eyes opened, and after a few seconds of studying his face, she gently smiled and began to hug him even tighter, as if she was a mother protecting her baby...
-----the next day------
After paying for their breakfast, the siblings left for the city city square. On their way there though, they were stopped by a rough looking man, he had a large scar on his left eye and and a long sword on his waist. He had a crooked smile plastered on his face, as if preparing to commit a crime.
"Oi, I dunno if yer new here missy, but before you go doin anythin', Ya gotta swing those hip o' yours fer this daddy here, got it?"
Saying this, he gestures to his crotch, and looks at Anne, entirely ignoring Lukas who was standing besides her. Naturally Lukas was hopping mad and was about to whack him in the face, when Anne, who smiles, and says:
"Sure,"
"What?"
hearing her answer, both the man and Lukas were flabbergasted, until the man smiled vulgarly and said:
"Heh, never expected this little pretty lily to be such a slut-"
"I'm not finished speaking yet, you ill-faced buffoon, what I didn't say was... Adolebitque!(Burn!)"
Saying this, She raised her hands, and the man's groin started smoking, before burning into a blaze of reddish flame. The man panicked and tried to put out the flame, but just got the flames on his hands. Eventually, he managed to stop it from burning his dick off.
"Y-you,"
"Let's go to sign up, Lukas,"
Saying this, they headed for the square, leaving the suffering man in the dust.
-----a few moments later-------
2 figures could be seen where the man had been. They were of course, the female bandit and the girl with the iron scissors.
"Competition huh? You've just gave me the perfect place to... stage an disappearance, hehee..."
"Remember, if she gets too troublesome, kill her off,"
"I know that, you don't have to tell me, Plus, we're not going to lose... Us two together, we can kill anyone in this small town,"
Saying this, they disappeared from where they stood, almost certainly following after the siblings.