— Downtown —
At the side of Wrath, after hanging up her phone. She's sitting on the highest floor of a highrise building downtown.
She's looking at the bald man sitting behind the table opposite her. On the tablet, there is a sword Daniel gave her that was suspended mid-air by the bald man's magic.
"Fascinating! This masterpiece is nearly on par with legendary artifacts such as Excalibur and Durandal. If what you told me is the truth then, this Artificer should be a once-in-a-thousand-year prodigy… maybe even more than that." The bald man said in astonishment then continued
"Also, there is a little signature technique I don't think I would've seen from the artifact made by a modern-day Artificer."
"What did you see, Mr. Montgomery?" Wrath who just hung up the phone asked in curiosity.
"It's the signature technique of the Atlantean Artificer, we call it Atlantean Mana fusing technique. It is able to maintain the artifact power and durability in its peak state at all times without relying on the magic power of the user once it has been activated." The bald man said with a smile while nodding repeatedly.
"Please clarify, Mr. Montgomery." Wrath inquired.
"It means that even when you are tired and couldn't convert natural mana or your magic vein was overused and in a state of recovering due to any reason. This Artifact power will not reduce and still maintain its peak efficiency once it has been activated." The bald man clarified.
"This… this is incredible." Wrath uttered in disbelief.
"Right? And this one even has the power to rewrite the causality and make any attack it performs able to hit its user enemy first once its attack was unleashed. I'm sure that if this is not soulbond if a word about it were leaked out. The curtained world would have experienced some small war because of it." Montgomery said with a strange glint in his eyes while looking at the katana in front of him. Even for him, if this sword weren't soul-bound he would be tempted to commit some crime too.
"That's not funny, Mr. Montgomery." Wrath said warily after noticing the looks in Montgomery's eyes.
"That's right because I'm not. You should protect that partner of yours before he gets kidnapped by some aristocratic clan. Or worse, by one of those higher up in the Hightower." Montgomery warned.
"The Hightower!? You think those stuck-up old men would even lower themselves to play a dirty game such as kidnapping?" She asks, startled by the fact he heard from the bald man in front of her.
Montgomery shrugged a little and shook his head.
"I'm not really sure, but the possibility is quite high. After all, the knowledge of the Atlantean Artificer technique could even start a war in the Curtained World. It's that valuable, don't trust those old men too much." Montgomery advice.
"Then, Will you vouch for him to join the Hephaestus Institute? If he were there, no one could touch him without suffering serious consequences." Wrath hurriedly implores.
"It's doable, but you know the rules, right? They need at least 3 mages of my stature to vouch for him if they didn't know that Artificer or that Artificer didn't have any notable achievement. Counting you and me we only get two. You need to find one more." Said, Montgomery.
"I know, I'll try to get one more person to vouch for him." Wrath replied and took back her sword from the table.
But before she exits the room and goes on her way to find a person to vouch for Daniel. Montgomery calls out to her.
"By the way, Wrath. I never saw you care for anyone like this before. Is he your crush? or…."
Montgomery was about to say more but Wrath immediately turned toward him, glaring into his eyes as the position under her hood where the eyes were supposed to be was glowing red.
"Mr. Montgomery… Please be careful where you step. You're on thin ice now." Wrath gives a warning.
Montgomery smiles teasingly and raises his hand indicating that he doesn't want any trouble.
Wrath's red glowing eyes slowly dim before they disappear, then she walks out of the room and goes on her way to find one more person to vouch for Daniel.
After Wrath went out of the room, Montgomery let out a smile and shook his head like an old grandpa who saw his granddaughter endearing.
"So feisty… I hope you don't return to your old self 5 years ago this time." Montgomery uttered while looking at the door where Wrath just left.
—
After Daniel checked the item in the box he got from the three delivery men. He found out that Wrath had paid a deposit to him in the form of a black-gold card from the Grand Tower Bank, which is the most prestigious bank on earth and even gave him a new U-phone model.
Then he opened the U-Phone and checked the balance in the banking app and saw 7 strings of zero after the number 3 on the first column. He questioned himself on whether he was just an underpaid worker or just that the mage is a very lucrative profession with crazy income…. or both.
"She sure splurges on me a lot, now I feel like I'm her kept man rather than a business partner," Daniel muttered to himself after seeing the balance on the banking app.
Daniel didn't come out of his living space for nearly 4 days. He decided to go out and stretched his legs a bit. He decided to go visit Murphy to repay his kindness.
—
After a short 15 minutes in a taxi, He arrived at the abandoned apartment where Murphy's shack is.
Daniel got off the taxi, paid the fee, and went into the fence of the abandoned apartment building. He turned left where a group of shacks usually were but what he found was a big pile of scrap and wreckage from the shack while the three hobos were trying to recover what they had under the pile of wreckage.
Daniel was shocked at the scene in front of him, he quickly ran to Murphy who was helping his two friends to recover what was inside the wreckage.
"What happened!?" He inquired.
Murphy turns toward him while two of his hobo friends are still trying to recover what was under the pile of rubble.
"Well… It seems like this place finally got an owner… They sent someone to force evacuate us while we're out working." Said, Murphy.
"Why! All they needed to do was just say a word! And we'll immediately evacuate the next day!" One of Murphy Hobo's friends cried out in indignation.
It seems the owner of this place forced evacuated these people, but this method should be illegal if they didn't have a Court decree. They need to give these people some time to move out.
Daniel then looked at an abandoned apartment building and saw a piece of white paper on the wall that contained some text on it. He walked toward it to see what it was written.
Daniel read the paper on the wall with the light from his phone.
The paper states that this abandoned apartment was the property of Ardito Veneziale and it also states that the hobo was infringing on his property for 6 years straight despite the warning. So they have no choice but to use their right to force eviction.
Finishing with the reading, Daniel tore the paper out of the wall and walked back to the hobo group, and gave it to Murphy.
Once Murphy and the hobos had read it, they were furious and tore the paper to pieces.
"Bullshit! I just saw this paper when you brought it to us. All the time we have lived here for more than 5 years we never saw a single soul to tell us to move or warn us about it and it appeared here today!" One of the hobo roars in anger.
Murphy nodded in agreement and added.
"That's true, I have a little bit of law knowledge and we also don't want any trouble. If they were to send someone with proof that they own this place. I would have moved out along with these guys."
Daniel agrees with what Murphy said because he also didn't notice any document or this paper being here when he stayed here on the first day he got resurrected.
"What!? It's not here! Where is my money!? That's the money I prepared to pay for my wife's surgery!" One of Murphy's hobo friends who are recovering his things from the wreckage.
Both Murphy and another hobo friend immediately look at their friend who is digging in a pile of broken plastic boxes that are only left with some small coin and nothing worth mentioning in that pile of plastic scrap.
"They broke his saving box and stole all of his money!" Murphy spoke through his gritted teeth in anger before turning toward the wreckage that used to be his home.