"Invite", Karlyle spoke, thinking of Mimi when he first saw her.
Mimi saw the notification pop up in her sight.
[You are invited into the housing of Karlyle Montgomery]
[Say 'ACCEPT' to travel to the housing allocation or say 'DENY' otherwise]
"Accept."
Her vision faded away for a moment before coming back, revealing Karlyle who was standing in front of her and his room behind him.
Mimi inspected her surroundings, "As drab as always.."
"Yeah, I guess magic doesn't come with an interior designer."
"Sad that you don't get to customise it," she sat down on the chair parallel to the bed. In response, Karlyle sat down on the bed opposite her, "it sure is cozy though! By that I mean small."
"I mean there are quite a lot of participants this year."
"With the ever increasing population I don't doubt that," she paused with no response from Karlyle so she switched the subject, "ok how about you freshen up, hopefully change clothes, and we can go on an actual tour of Enchark."
"Alright, where should I meet you?"
"I'll be in the tower's training grounds. It is where you will automatically get teleported to the moment you exit this place so don't worry about finding it, housing exit," and just like that she vanished from the chair without a trace.
Karlyle got up from the bed and walked over to the cramped bathroom. There was just enough space to do a full turn and take one step either forward or backwards. He turned on the sink, the water was clearer than glass. Karlyle cupped the water in his hands and splashed it on his face. He rested his hands on the sink and leaned forward to inspect himself in the mirror.
His hair was still as messy as when he woke up in the morning even though it was more like the afternoon. On the right side of his head, there was a minor cow lick in his hair that he tried to pat down but it just wouldn't work. Karlyle splashed some water on it hoping it'd help, which it did but now his hair was wet so he'd had to dry it.
Using a small fire, Karlyle heated a towel. He rubbed the part of his hair that was wet with the towel diligently but it didn't fully dry his hair.
"Eh, the rest will dry by itself."
When he left the bathroom, he noticed there were two bags in the corner of the room. They were the bags he had packed this morning but he didn't remember bringing them here, or even taking them out of the carriage in the first place.
"Thanks Foster I guess."
Karlyle opened the pine coloured duffel bag first as it was the one most filled with clothes. The shirts and trousers practically burst out when he unzipped it open.
"What to wear..."
Rummaging through the collection, Karlyle pulled out a couple of t-shirts in differing designs alongside some black sweatpants and baggy jeans. The clothes he picked would definitely stick out in Enchark but he didn't pack anything that fit their clothing style and there were so many people from other cities wearing different items. In fairness, he wouldn't wear robes even if he owned them plus Mimi who lived here her entire life didn't follow the clothing style so why should he?
Out of the t-shirt selection, Karlyle picked out the white one with a cartoon flame in the center. Looking in the bathroom mirror made him feel like a 12 year old again but oh well, it matched his power after all. Now that he had his shirt on, Karlyle put on the baggy jeans as they worked better with the white t-shirt and was ready to head out.
"What did Mimi say...? Oh right, housing exit."
Nothing happened.
"What?"
Karlyle blinked and when his eyes opened again he was inside the training area, or what seemed to be a training area at least. There were rows of different exercising machinery including treadmills, weights, and other sorts of gym equipment. Alongside that, there was a section that had a sign above it saying "Living Target Practice." From what he could see, those inside were fighting grey humanoids that were resistant to kinetics so you had to engage in physical combat. There was also a section with red humanoids that somehow could wield kinetics even if they were only basic ones like Karlyle's.
"Karlyle! Over here!" Mimi's voice echoed through the training hall, alerting everyone inside.
Karlyle turned around to see her standing alongside another man who was taller than her and most likely taller than Karlyle as well from what he could see. The random figure was wearing similar clothes to Karlyle and Mimi didn't change out of her t-shirt and denim skirt, and the bun remained on her head. He walked over to them, apologising to the annoyed participants who were trying to train in silence but got interrupted by a random hyper girl.
"What a coincidence, we're all wearing denim trousers and a white t-shirt. Well, I'm wearing a skirt but the point stands," Mimi spoke excitedly.
"Who's this?" Karlyle asked. He ignored the similarity in clothing and Mimi's remark on it.
"Oh that's Foster," she answered, punching Foster's arm so he'd start talking.
"Hey!" Foster exclaimed and lightly waved his hand.
"Did you like get a growth spurt? I have to actually look up now to talk to you."
"It's one of the Elite corps anonymity spells."
"Ahh, I get it. So you're off-duty now?"
"Yep and Mimi invited me along on your tour."
"Oh cool, just don't put any more annoying enchantments on me."
"Don't worry, I won't."
The group walked out of the training hall and was faced with a magical barrier. Foster and Mimi walked through it without struggle but for Karlyle it required a little more force and once he got through he felt a bit light-headed.
"What the hell.." Karlyle loudly muttered.
"Oh that's the kinetic disabling ward. It's so tourney participants can only use their kinetics inside the training hall and the arena," Mimi stated, answering the question she knew Karlyle was about to ask.
"They sure hate tourney participants. Tiny rooms, these wards.." Karlyle rubbed his temples with his hands and sighed, "let's go."
"I guess it wouldn't be smart to leave the central rings, so let's go to central park!" Mimi suggested.
"Why is everything 'central'?" Karlyle asked. He heard that word more today than ever in his life.
"Well because it is in the central area... I don't know I didn't name these places."
The group walked through the bustling streets of Enchark. The decorations for the tourney were still being put up so everyone was in a hurry. What everybody failed to mention to Karlyle was that there was a parade to celebrate the start of the tourney. Councilman Kyanar and Councilman Afin would soon be travelling down these streets to mark the beginning and officially start the first rounds. On one side of the street, there were decorations in the theme of Councilman Kyanar, consisting of green and black ribbons, spell circles, and runes. While on the other side, there were decorations themed around Councilman Afin and his city, Sanctum. Karlyle could even see the prepared cannons of glitter and themed confetti.
"What's all this for?"
"The Grand Tourney Parade."
"That's a thing?"
"Of course. Now that everyone accepts the tourney, people choose to celebrate it and all the good it brought in the end."
Some merchants were giving out free items such as small figures of the council, badges with different elements on them, random pastries, and other paraphernalia relating to the event. Karlyle's attention was attracted by a fire badge on one of the tables. Mimi and Foster were discussing the nature of the tourney, mostly debating on how it is good or evil.
Karlyle walked up to the vendor, who sat behind the table, and asked, "How much for this?"
"Are you a tourney participant?"
"Yes."
The vendor inspected Karlyle and used the Arkana Network to verify his status. Merchants had a special citizen status, if they were certified, called 'Goods Seller' allowing them to check the identity of shoppers when they wished to.
"Then it is free! Here take it," the vendor picked up the badge and handed it to Karlyle.
Karlyle grabbed the badge that was now in the vendor's palm, "thank you so much!"
Karlyle noticed that the other two people accompanying him were a bit further down the street so he jogged up to them. He stuck the pin on the top left corner of his shirt. Now he had two cartoony fires on his chest.
"Hey, I'm back."
"When did you leav-" Mimi noticed the badge, "oh my god Lyle what is that," she hollered.
Foster chuckled at the fiery pin.
"What's wrong with it?"
"You look... like a... child!" She managed to say in between series of laughter.