"Yay! I broke through!"
Jasmine chirped excitedly after feeling the effects of her recent breakthrough. She felt her capacity for storing mana increase along with the quality of her upgraded core.
With an upgraded core she had access to more refined mana. With a more refined mana, she could perform more magical things which weren't possible before like flying.
Well, in her case she was able to fly before reaching Grandmaster level due to the courtesy of her super rare affinity.
But for her, there was a special charm to flying with wings. Jasmine closed her eyes and willed her mana to take the shape of wings on her back and tried to fly inside the room.
Slowly, ever slowly, she felt her body leaving the bed and hovering in the air.
"Congrats, Jasmine!"
"Aack!"
Her concentration was broken by her master's voice and she fell back on the bed.
"Hmph!"
She harrumphed in mock anger and shot an energy projectile towards Raymond intending to make him float.
That's right, now that she was a Martial Grandmaster, she could send her mana away from her body and control it within a certain distance.
"Really?"
Raymond raised his eyebrows at her antics and took the energy ball coming his way head-on.
Jasmine tried to make him float by manipulating her mana but no matter how much she tried, she couldn't make him float.
"Tch, pathetic. Go eat your breakfast before you can think of making me budge."
Raymond mocked and patted his chest where the energy ball had hit like he was dusting off his shirt.
He was not mocking her out of jealousy. Yeah…definitely not.
Jasmine felt a nerve twitch on her head seeing her master's indifference towards her attack.
"Master! Stop being a bully."
"First, you stop acting silly."
Raymond retorted and pulled her off of the bed. After taking a bath and dressing properly they exited their room to have breakfast.
*******
Halfway through their breakfast, Raymond noticed Becca descending the stairs.
"Ah! Sister Becca, here, here!"
Jasmine waved her hand excitedly and called for Becca to come to their table.
Lyla let out a slight groan and went to their table. This was a first for her. She had never eaten with anyone else before as long as she could remember.
Usually, her missions involved stalking her targets from the shadows and taking them out when a perfect opportunity presented itself.
She was for the first time flustered and had no idea how to manage this situation where she had to constantly interact with her targets.
After ordering some food for herself Becca took a seat beside Jasmine intending to make the most of her current predicament.
"Miss Becca, you said you were new to this city, right? Where are you from, if you don't mind me asking?"
Before she could pry for information she was beaten to it by Raymond.
"Cough, I was staying in the Earldom of Wiegard."
Lyla hurriedly replied after regaining her composure. She had an alternate identity prepared for her by her father, in case she ever came across a situation such as this.
"Oh! That's quite far, you must have a pretty good reason to come all the way to the Capital."
Raymond said casually. But Lyla could tell he was asking the reasons for her visit and was expecting an answer.
"No, not really. I grew up in an orphanage, and as soon as I sensed my mana core, I left to find my purpose in life." Lyla further added." To be frank, it's the winds that brought me here. I don't have a reason, I just wanted to see the glorious Capital for myself."
"Hmm…That's a good reason too I guess."
Raymond added feeling there was something strange about her story.
'How did she survive with her strength?'
Raymond didn't voice it out, because he didn't want to come off as rude. She had done him a favour by saving Jasmine, so he decided to give her the benefit of the doubt.
"Haha, now that you are here, we will make sure you get to enjoy your stay in the Capital."
"Ray! Let her eat in peace."
Jasmine chided from the side. Her master didn't like someone disturbing him during his meals, but he sure liked disturbing others when he was done eating his share.
But just as Raymond was about to retort his eyes fell on Lyla's neck, specifically a peculiar yet beautiful choker that was adorning her neck.
Yesterday, she was wearing a robe with a high collar that made it impossible to see her neck. But now that she was wearing something casual he was intrigued by her choice of jewellery.
It wasn't every day you would find someone wearing a choker.
"That's a nice ruffle you have there, Miss Becca."
Raymond complimented. It did accentuate her already elegant neck.
"Wow~ it's so beautiful."
Jasmine too spoke with adoration in her voice. She had never seen such a beautiful choker before.
"T-thanks."
Lyla managed to utter a word of thank you as she tried very hard to control the grimace forming on her face, which didn't go unnoticed by Raymond's sharp eyes.
'Not everything beautiful is worth your adoration.'
Lyla scowled inwardly. She had forgotten to wear something that covered this blasted choker. She couldn't be blamed though, her thoughts were a mess because of how the recent events were playing out.
Yesterday night was probably the first time she had ever been in a long conversation with someone. And the fact that she didn't find her talk with Jasmine annoying, irked her more.
"Alright! Let's go sightseeing!"
Jasmine pumped her fist excitedly, seeing Lyla finishing her breakfast.
"Hold your horses! We are going to the guild first."
Raymond quickly poured cold water on her plans before she could get ahead of herself.
Since Raymond was not allowed to go outside his family compounds, he would ask Jasmine about the Capital from time to time.
He knew how much of a wandering freak she was. She would vividly recount her tales of roaming the Capital streets for hours whenever Raymond asked her about the outside world.
If he let her take the charge here, he knew they wouldn't be coming back to the inn before midnight. Therefore he decided to get his things sorted out before they started going around the streets.
"Tsk, fine."
Jasmine agreed reluctantly. She just hoped that Sasha wouldn't come tagging along or if she did she at least behaved herself.
"You don't need to make that face, we are going to collect our share of the bounty after all."
Raymond said excitedly rubbing his hands.
Jasmine's eyes lit up at his words. With this reward money, she could spend it without holding back.
If Raymond heard her thoughts he would cough up blood. Spending gold coins like it was nothing!
That's blasphemy!
Moreover, he needed to see if he could find any gravity-related spells for Jasmine. And spells cost a shit ton of money.
Raymond couldn't help but grimace as he thought about it.
'Sigh~ I need to loo—catch some more thugs.'
"Oh! I didn't know you were a bounty hunter." Lyla said, trying to get some information.
"Yeah, I forgot to say but Jasmine and I, we are mercenaries."
Raymond added to her information.
"You must have caught someone big for you to be so excited about the rewards."
"Just some thug, nothing special."
Raymond refrained from speaking further. Isn't she trying to pry for information just like he did at the start?
Thankfully, he realised before it was too late.
'What if she is one of Mobi's helpers? It was strange for her to be at that place at the right time.' Raymond thought inwardly.
'Heh! Even if you are, I am not giving that hundred thousand gold coins back.'
"Okay, we can talk on our way. Let's go now."
With that, Raymond stood up and beckoned them to follow him.
Jasmine quickly latched onto his arms with Lyla following behind.
Soon they reached the mercenary guild which was like usual, bustling with people.
Raymond strode towards the guild counter with purpose. He had his 50 gold coins waiting for him.
"Ahem, Miss Rumi, you look lovely today."
Raymond started with a compliment since he had a number of things to ask her.
"Oh my! What a gentleman! None of these brutes here give me enough compliments."
Rumi replied smiling. Although Raymond felt like she was being sarcastic, he chose to ignore it. If he was not going to use his thick skin here then where was he going to use it?
"Well, about that bounty, did Miss Sasha say something about it?"
"Oh! She did say something about that yesterday night when she handed over Mobi."
Rumi took out a pouch of gold coins and handed it to Raymond.
"Yeah! Where is she? I can't see her anywhere?"
Raymond asked as he looked for Sasha inside the guild.
"Hmm, I don't know, she didn't come here today, maybe she has something else to do."
Rumi replied and quickly tried to send them off, she had others waiting for her attention.
"Miss Rumi, I wanted to ask if you knew a way to get some spells."
Raymond enquired hopefully. If he could get it in the mercenary guild that was for the better. It would save some of his time.
"Depends, what elemental spell do you want?"
"Uhm, Gravity."
"Come again!"
Rumi widened her eyes in shock. Now that was an element she didn't expect to hear today.
"Yeah, I need Gravity related spells."
Raymond said with uncertainty, looking at her reaction he pretty much guessed it wasn't available here.
"Yeah! Good luck finding it in the empire."
Rumi rebuked hearing him say about Gravity. She doubted if someone had anything related to Gravity in the whole continent let alone the empire.
Maybe the elves of the WindGod tribe had it, after all, they were known for their knowledge.