Gray gave me quite a few instructions including that the first year, before obtaining the status of a free citizen, I should not stand out in any way. Strictly adhere to the curfew and spend more time in the library, which I actually intended to do.
Naturally it was a bad idea for me to admit that I myself made this weapon otherwise the lord of the city could well make me his full-time blacksmith and I can only dream of freedom.
After answering a couple of questions I sold them all the weapons in stock at a bargain price. This option suited me very well. Although I received a little less money than expected it was more than enough for an ordinary commoner.
Having received a bag with my 10 pieces of silver I heartily thanked my fellow travelers and said goodbye to them after which I went in search of housing.
Perhaps someone in the market saw the transfer of money or the buyers themselves wanted to return them but soon after I left the market I noticed that three people were following me.
As it soon turned out not one of them looked like buyers rather they looked like peasant bandits. The equipment also left much to be desired only one of them had a sword the rest looked like woodcutters.
I was able to find a relatively deserted lane and finally stopped. Soon the robbers began to surround me intimidating and demanding money along the way.
Without hesitation I pulled out my sword and attacked one of the woodcutters. He did not even have time to properly swing when I pierced his throat with my sword.
The swordsman immediately came to the rescue and swung at me from the side. Turning calmly, I made a sharp movement with my sword repelling his attack with the base of my blade after which I delivered a sweeping blow.
The sword sank into flesh at the intersection of shoulder and neck. I kicked his body to draw my blade out while looking at the last robber.
In the end he did not dare to attack but simply threw an ax in my direction. But when he saw that I easily dodged he tried to escape. He soon yelled in pain having received a blow to his leg and fell to the ground.
Putting the point of the sword to his eye I asked.
- Who sent you?
The bandit stopped whining in pain and froze afraid to move because of the sword in his eye.
- Do not kill me please. We are from the gang, the Seraphim gang.
- Ha? Your gang in broad daylight kills everyone on sight? Why exactly have you followed me? - I clarified.
- We are collecting tribute for the boss from the merchants of the local market. We were not going to kill you.
- Didn't you yell at me to give all the money? What kind of tribute is this? - I asked incomprehensibly.
- This is mistake! Just a mistake. We were only going to take a couple of coins...
- All right, shut up. - I interrupted him - How many people are in the gang. The name of your boss. What establishments do you run. Is there any other gangs?
I tried not to delay and if a man mumbled then I had to accelerate his thought process. When it became clear that there was little else I could find out I stabbed him in the heart.
Looking around, I didn't see any witnesses but I didn't risk wasting time trying ransack bandits. These guys didn't look particularly rich.
Such rogues could hide their property in not the most traditional places, like me in childhood.
I quickly wiped my blade on the clothes of the last man killed and left the scene of the crime.
It's been almost seven years since my last murder, but now it's much easier for me.
I picked a decent area not far from a small library and rented myself a room in one of the two-story houses.
Renting a room for a whole year cost me 2 silver and it was considered quite expensive. Ordinary handymen received around 2 coppers a day and paid about 60 coppers a year for housing.
Having arranged my housing I followed the instructions of the old man spending my time training or in the library.
I've been interested in Knights and Mages before but the more information I got about them in the library, the stronger was my determination to become one of them.
It is difficult to say whether I had the Knight's talent at all given that for 2 whole years the Knight's technique did not affect me in any way. But I was not going to give up. The same was true for magic.
Knights were divided into three levels. Knight's Apprentice, True Knight and Great Knight.
But above all I was interested in books about Mages. As it turned out there were not so few of them.
All mortals admired Mages. They were something akin to dragons only more real so many writers touched on this topic in one way or another.
Another thing is that it was extremely difficult to make out where the fiction is and where the truth is but continuing to read one book after another, I managed to cling to some alleged facts.
Magicians were divided into ranks ranging from acolyte of the first rank to the third, after which there was the rank of True Mage.
Apparently in this part of the continent magical energy was at an extremely low level, so any Magician or more or less intelligent magical being sought to leave it and rarely came here voluntarily.
Even 10 Great Knights would not necessarily be able to defeat a True Mage.
Although I did find a book dating back hundreds of years. It mentioned the rise of the Knights and their war against the Mages. In those days a Great Knight appeared who could defeat the True Magician alone.
Of course I did not find any special details and the uprising of the Knights soon bogged down.
Judging by the books, despite the low level of magical energy there were still Mages on this part of the continent. Albeit extremely few. There were even mentions that once upon a time True Magicians also appeared here. Although it was difficult to say whether this was true or not.
Seems like checking for magical talent cost Mages a lot of money so anyone who wanted to pass this test and get a chance to become a Mage had to provide payment in magic crystals or something else that would be useful for Mages.
Naturally only extremely wealthy people such as nobles of various ranks, but sometimes rich merchants, could afford this. However the likelihood that an ordinary commoner would have the talent of a Magician was negligible. On the other hand there were quite a few descendants of Mages and Knights among the nobles so the probability of descendants with talent was higher.
There were even records that usually children were sent to school at a fairly early age. Rarely children over 16 years old were sent. This means that I have no chance anyway. After all I need to find a tuition fee plus enlist the support of a guarantor. In addition such a set takes place only once every 5 years.
There was no mention of other methods such as traveling Mages checking for a Mage's talent at all.
I sighed realizing that I was not destined to get into the academy of Mages. There was no mention of other ways to become a Mage. The only way for me is to try to become a Knight and in the future look for other ways to become a Mage. But I already spent most of the day in training and had no idea when I would finally be able to become a Knight.
As a commoner I didn't have many options to get rich. The nobles most often accepted servants from an early age. As a security guard or blacksmith I will not earn much, at least not enough. Becoming an official without connections was unrealistic.
Of course I didn't want to give up without a fight. But the only two options for getting rich quick that I knew were to become a merchant or a bandit. Of course the gang option was faster...
I didn't even consider going further north myself. The journey could take years and as a mortal my chances of survival were zero.
Although I was in the city for not much more than a month, I still had to break the old man's commandments. I began to spend a little time searching for information about the local gang and at the same time looking for useful contacts.
Of course I continued to visit the local library. Even though it cost me money. The librarian Farez was an extremely educated man. Given that I spent so much time in the library we inevitably began to communicate and soon I seriously expanded my horizons in various fields.
One year later. I'm 18.
Things were not going well for the local gang. Apparently the number of their fighters was about 60 or so and there were not enough capable people.
Despite this they did not take everyone in a row. I even had to go through something like an interview with the Slender who was in charge of collecting funds from local merchants, shops and similar operations.
Slender looked quite ordinary. Even representative among the bandits. Neat hair and clothes. No scars or other obvious body signs.
- Where did you come from? - asked Slender
- City of Rent. Was one of the kids working for a local gang. Killed the caretaker Rotten and escaped. - I minted.
- Where are the martial skills from?
- An old man lives on the territory of Baron Manfred, he taught me everything.
They had been looking at me for some time and I was sure that they already knew what they needed. Apparently they are connected with a local aristocrat who ordered to check the history of people who join the gang.
Obviously for the same reason the recruitment was not so busy and there was rubbish like those three I once killed.
- Okay you will work in tandem with the Jackal and then we'll see how it goes. You can call me by my nickname like everyone else. We all have only one boss.
Then he told me to go.
Jackal turned out to be a fairly large guy and not the most pleasant but he did his job as expected and did not try to kill everyone in a row taking away everything acquired.
We didn't work too hard. We just sometimes made rounds or solved problems. In any case I had more than enough time to continue my studies in the library.