Night had crept upon us and we headed over to the mansion. According to the map, there was an entire district that held all of the mansions for the richest nobility. The mansion that would be the place of this competition came from the man in charge of the competition. If the map was to be believed, the mansions got larger, and allegedly the rank of the nobles increased with it. At the end of the mansion block was the family mansion of the king, who had taken on the name Aberis.
I didn't know whether Aberis was named after the kingdom, taking on the name when he became king, or whether the kingdom was named after Aberis when his line took the throne. As far as this Tibult, he was about a few doors down from the King, so he was probably pretty powerful in this city. Each place had large privacy fences that were taller than what seemed necessary, so even getting a look at the mansion while on the street was impossible. It looked like everyone wanted some peace and quiet.
Actually, given the nature of my Portal ability, having a massive fence like this might be a strategy. If I couldn't see the ground, I could create a portal to it. As far as seeing from an extreme distance, like on a hill outside the city, that didn't work either. If I could have climbed a mountain and found myself able to teleport to everywhere I could see, fleshing out my map wouldn't have been so difficult. I could simply look at the tip of a mountain, portal there, look around briefly over the entire country, and then portal back.
The trick was that I needed to be within a certain magical range and also be able to physically see it to have the area unlocked on my map. Only then did Portal work for me. In that case, I couldn't Portal inside the ground of any of these mansions. On that note, I could do it for any place in the city. A simple glance through the window and locks would be meaningless. Well, it wasn't like I was planning to become a thief or an assassin anyway. I was just noting that there appeared to be a Portal deterrent, suggesting once again that my dungeon point skills weren't completely broken.
"Ahhhh!" There was a scream that caught my attention and caused me to slow down.
One of the smaller mansions on the block suddenly erupted in noise. I could hear dogs barking, and all the lights were on. It certainly left me worried.
"Master… should we enter?"
"You four stay out here. I'll enter alone."
It wasn't that I wanted to risk my life. However, the other girls were slaves and not human. I didn't want them to be seen trespassing on someone else's property. If I got caught, I could probably get out of it without too much trouble. On the other hand, I couldn't protect them that way. I jumped up to the wall and was shocked that I made it in a single jump. Celeste had cast a wind spell to help boost me, but it was still a twenty-foot jump in a single boost.
"Cushion!"
I similarly jumped down on the other side, allowing the cushion to break my fall. I ran up to the front entrance. The place was about half the size of the mansion in Chalm, so it was truly one of the smallest on this block. It had maybe fifteen rooms. What really made it interesting was that there appeared to be a creek that ran right through it. The mansion was built into two wings, with a rise that didn't block the creak at all, but allowed it to flow through the mansion. It was a very pretty place.
I had barely made it ten steps when a man kicked open the door. He was a small child, only about ten years of age. He had pale skin and pointy ears. He looked very angry as he stormed out.