Listening to Eimi Swirls' rage Trace feel extremely wronged. The house keys were at his master's place. Even if he had them, he would have simply followed the order of the Level 3 Sorcerer and called out instead. Trace hoped that the misunderstanding would clear out as soon as possible. However, right now Trace could not enter the house, which felt like a mini fort without keys.
The man beside Trace laughed and smacked Trace's shoulder. He was in a better mood now because he had dismissed Trace as a potential culprit. Despite getting a high income as a Level 3 Sorcerer, he did not have enough money for today's meal and Trace helped him.
"You are such a lady killer", the man joked.
"I-I... She is two years older than me! How could you say that?"
"Shall we take a carriage?"
"Will I have to pay for it?", Trace said grumpily.
Due to the constant teasing, Trace forgot that the person beside him was a Level 3 Sorcerer. He felt at ease when the man did not mind. So, Trace decided to pay for the carriage.
The most popular way to travel around Koyoko city was carriages. You could see carriages driving around at all times of the day. Horses were an important part of the life of people in the city, thus there were many rules protecting the horses. A 5-Cava silver coin even had a horse's head engraved on it.
But Trace always thought that there was something off about the carriage associations because they charged vast sums. Binpark Carriages, the leading brand, also sold carriages. The carriage itself would be kept at the owner's house and timely the horses would be delivered.
"Don't you own a carriage?" Trace asked.
"I did in the past", the man answered as if reminiscing something.
"You are so cheap for a Level 3 Sorcerer", Trace said in a low voice, looking away from the man.
The man simply chuckled and raised his hand to stop a carriage. However, it did not stop, meaning someone else was already paying for it. After a few minutes, an empty carriage finally stopped in front of them.
Trace never sat in a carriage before. His master always instructed him to make use of his body for chores. He climbed inside and sat on the opposite side of the man. The carriage seemed to be made to accommodate four people.
"Coiling Cradle Street".
The carriage master nodded and horse started moving, pulling the carriage. Trace looked out of the window and saw people and buildings move. The sun's rays entered from the window, giving him slight warmth. Next moment cool air hit his face, this warm and cold cycle repeated itself. Trace was still immersed in this feeling when the carriage halted.
Trace got out of the carriage and paid one 5-Cava coin. The coins in his possession today were quickly depleting. Trace sighed and looked towards the wall painted "Fortune Telling for life, gone is all the strife. Fortune Telling for life, got my final wife". This was also a two-storey building like Swirls shop, but the shop was on the second floor.
The first floor, rather than being a house front, was a plain wall painted with various slogans and pictures advertising Fortune telling. The paintings were all encompassed in a weird gate like structure and a man was sitting there depicted to be crossing the gates.
"Is this your house?" the man couldn't help but smile.
He had read the reports, but this place was more stupid than he expected. No person living in an ethnic society would be shameless enough to climb the stairs of this ridiculous building. He put this comical thoughts at the back of his head quickly.
"Is the main character of the Scarlet Parry Church incident here?", the man whispered.
Trace led the Level 3 Sorcerer up the stairs, inside the shop. The room was lightly lit and the first thing that would immediately catch the attention was a shining crystal ball. The light from the ball illuminated the words on the identity plate beside the ball. It read "Greatest Magician of The Century".
With no word, the man rushed towards the table and threw a punch at the figure sitting behind the table. His fist eerily shined in a white light and stopped half a meter away from the figure's face. The force of the punch produced a gust of wind that blew away the hair of the person, and the shine illuminated the face.
The figure behind the table did not even blink at the threat of the punch. He just stared at the man whose first was still in front of him and the gust of wind still pushed his hair towards the back. It revealed the unblinking face, only seen by the person who threw the punch.
"Master!"
Trace screamed at the sudden turn of events. He thought that the only purpose why they were here was to collect keys to enter Swirls house. He was planning on making an excuse of not finding them but now it seemed like this person had business with his master.
"I am from the Sovereign Jurisdiction Department. My alias is Destthine* and I am leading the case of Scarlet Parry Church".
"What do you wish to know?", Master asked, still not blinking.
"I do not have money to know the future", Destthine said.
"Can I borrow your apprentice for some time?", he added.
The master smiled and waved his hands around the crystal ball. His hair was still pushed towards the back because of the wind earlier. His eyes reflected the changing color of the crystal ball. After a while, he nodded in agreement.
Trace saw Destthine signal at him again. This time, he knew what to do and went to the other room downstairs to bring the keys. However, confused why his master did not blink the entire time. After getting the keys, he told his master where he was going and headed out with Destthine.
"Mister Destthine, do we take the carriage again?"
"Don't call me that. It sounds awful. Call me Klavior".
On the way, Klavior thought of his daughter that did not blink either. He did not speak anything on the way. What wrong with this master apprentice duo, he complained in his heart. And cleaned his mind to focus on the case at hand.
...
The number of people in the streets was increasing gradually. Orange hue covered the clouds in the sky. The Swirls shop was almost 5 miles away from Trace's home, the Master's place. In the evening's hours the shops and the streets were painted completely differently. Usually Trace used to set out an hour ago to reach the Swirls shop on time and had not the streets at such.
But today he was going in a carriage. It was a totally different experience. He did not know what Sovereign Jurisdiction Department (SJD) was, but it was definitely an organization directly under the Federation. And Trace thought Swirls family needed the Federation's help.
A carriage stopped at the back of Swirls shop. The shop attached with the house made the entire building L shaped, with a garden in the empty area. The garden was surrounded by thick walls that isolated it with the road beyond. A sealed gate was installed towards the opposite side of the shop that lead to the garden.
Trace entered the key and turned it to push the gate open. But it did not budge. This meant that the gate was closed from the inside and could not be opened by him. He laughed wryly, thinking about the incident that happened earlier today. He rang the bell, but there was no response.
...
Eimi Swirls was sitting beside her sleeping mother when a talisman in her pocket buzzed. She swiftly left the room and headed towards the room that was just beside the garden. The room only had a table with a stone slab on top of it. She placed her hand on the stone slab and inserted mana into it.
A picture of Trace appeared on the screen. She slammed the table with one hand as she remembered what happened earlier today. After Trace left during the day, many people tried calling her name. One of them even asked if she was already taken. She left the room with a flaming face and headed towards the kitchen. No chance she was ever letting this brat inside her house again.
The talisman inside her pocket buzzed again, this time she took it out and slammed it on the wall. Never in her life was she embarrassed as such. She left school at 12 and worked in the shop. But most of her time was spent on learning to make talisman so she did not have any experience in dealing with people.
She poured herself a glass of water and tried to calm her mind. Just at the moment, she heard Trace calling out to her. She spilled the water and immediately rushed back to the room with the slab. She inserted mana into the slab and a picture of Trace appeared on it again. This time there was also a strange man beside Trace who seemed to encourage him to call out for her.
"Trace! Shut up!", she sent her voice through the slab.
Trace looked towards the gate and smiled apologetically. This gate was a magical treasure. It could send images and voice to the person in control of the gate, and even deliver the voice of the owner. Furthermore, it was highly protective and cannot be lock picked or destroyed easily. Trace remembered seeming an advertisement poster of it.
"I did not mean to call out like that.... This person asked me to. He is a Federation officer who wants to meet you", Trace said introducing Yamazaki.
"I am not seeing anyone", Eimi replied plainly.
"My little friend Trace will be happy to hear that, but I have more important matters", Klavior teased.
Eimi almost coughed blood after hearing it. This man and the people from before were twisting her words. For the past few weeks, she had been extremely vexed, and every little thing incited her anger. She was about to cut off her mana transfer into the slab when she heard a serious voice.
"I have news about your father".
Klavior pulled out an emerald, shining, triangular slab and raised it in front of the gate. The Law enforcement officers were given badges by the Federation. These badges were a magical treasure that could not be cloned. A badge would only shine if its original owner was sending his mana into the badge.
When Eimi remembered what the crime was a three-star badge holder dealt with, she lost her breath. All her worst fears were staging. She did not want to believe it. Her family was a craftsman family. Father was a normal person, so shouldn't someone with a 7-edged badge be coming to investigate or at worse, someone with a 5-edged badge.
The shape and color of the badges also carried a deeper meaning. Just like the Sequences, the badges were divided into three colors depicting the power level of the holder. However, as a general rule. The lesser the number of sides on the badge, the severe the crime that was dealt with.
Emerald color signified that the holder was Level 3 Sorcerer. Whereas the three-side signified that the department the person worked with dealt with terrorism.