Evening,
November 4
"You think he will come back?" Kai asked.
"Yes."
"How?" Kai wasn't so sure about it. He had known people like Mundungus Fletcher, wizard or not. He could scarcely believe that the wizard would return with no trouble, but Petyr seemed to be sure about it.
"Like I always have," Petyr said, playing with his bowler hat. "I have a knack for sniffing people who need immediate help."
"Like now?" Kai asked, raising an eyebrow.
Petyr nodded.
Sigh! Kai let out a breath. He didn't know how, but Petyr had somehow convinced the innkeeper to let them stay one more night by paying the rest of their allowance. Kai didn't mind it the loss of money. The thing that had been troubling him was the Kill Count.
After coming back to the room in the morning, Kai had commanded Petyr to sit and had forbidden him to get up before coming up with a solution. So there the Character was, his ass glued to the chair, his butt sweaty, and his forehead full of creases.
The afternoon had come and gone, yet neither Kai nor his counselor had found a solution.
"There are two things," Kai said, repeating the same words for the hundredth time. "First, the sheer number of Contestants. Second, how to find that many Order's Contestants?"
Arlen had told him he would need to kill 100 3rd floor Contestants to attempt the Floor-Ascending Mission. So, now Kai needed to kill that many before completing his Main Mission.
Kai noticed Petyr, then. The 15-year-old boy looked like the man of a thousand shadows, hidden behind the bright, powerful people, plotting the world's downfall.
Suddenly, Petyr put the hat back on, his hand reaching for another mug of butterbeer.
Kai had already lost the taste for that drink in his struggle to find a solution as soon as possible.
"Time." Petyr wondered aloud. "First, it was the matter of time which tried to imprison us like a mire of hideous, brown quicksand. Compressing the time was the solution that came to rescue us as the sturdiest rope. If… If only we could compress this problem somehow."
Tunk-tink-Crnkk!
Kai stood up so abruptly that his knee bumped into the mug, sending it flying across the floor. His eyes widened as he began pacing up and down the room, his gait deliberate and meaningful.
It took Petyr a few moments to skim through the words he had unknowingly said that brought about such a change in Kai. When he was done, Petyr Baelish too stood up, leaving the abysmal chair for good.
"My Lord, are you thinking the same…"
Kai raised his hand to shut Petyr up. Then he looked at the character, who was now smiling at him. Finally, Kai smiled. The smile followed a curt nod.
"We can't compress people," Kai said, almost whispering to himself. "But we can assume what we would get if we could."
"A bigger person," Petyr said, going along with the analogy. "A bigger person or a person of the same size with more power. So… if you permit me, may I do the honors?"
Kai nodded. He didn't need to ask the questions aloud. Kai could just instead will it in his mind, and it would have served the purpose. But words gave these little things a sense of depth, a reality to this world that seemed imagined and unrealistic to an outsider.
"Chaos," Petyr said, endearingly as if it was the sweetest word. "What is the equivalent number of 4th-floor Contestants one needs to kill to complete the Kill Count of the 3rd floor?"
The notification appeared in an instant.
…
[
Kill Count (3rd floor): 100
The equivalent number of 4th floor's Order's Contestants are: 10
]
…
No upper floor's Contestant ever battled in a lower floor. So, this thing was meaningless in the Primordial Tower.
But here, in the random world, this became the solution Kai had been looking for.
Kai felt joy welling up inside him. But Petyr's next words smothered that joy brutally, then. "Now that we are done with it," the Character said, "we just need to find them. Or you can leave it to your Luck, my lord."
Kai grimaced. He was looking forward to the next morning. But a long night lay between him and money now, he knew. He could do away with sleep, but if history told him anything, then he also knew this second problem was monstrously more difficult than the first one.
I still have some time, Kai thought. I hope it will be enough.
*
*
Morning,
November 5
"You came, my friend," Petyr said, merrily.
Mundungus Fletcher came striding towards them as Kai and Petyr came downstairs. He looked as drunk as the last time to Kai, which was a good thing. He kept looking over his shoulders with every next step, and his hands were fidgeting, a detail Kai was sure Petyr must have noticed too.
"Yeah, why wouldn't I?" the wizard said, trying to smile. "Come with me. We have little time."
Petyr and Kai exchanged a glance but followed the wizard.
If he is taking us to the place I am thinking about, then I have struck gold, he thought. I have too many things to do there.
Mundungus nodded at Tom, the innkeeper, and brought them to a small courtyard at the back of the Leaky Cauldron. The walls were lined with old bricks there, and except for a dustbin placed against the wall opposite the entrance, it was empty.
Kai knew where he was.
It was the most readily available information, and one wouldn't dare to come here without the exclusive permission from the innkeeper, or so was mentioned in the Thunder Faction's data. Still, Kai couldn't help himself. "Where are we going?" he asked, his heart already thumping with excitement.
Mundungus didn't answer right away and took out his wand. Kai shuddered at the sight of that wand. Compared to that thing, his own false wand felt like a cheap child's toy to him; a mere wooden stick.
Then Kai waited with bated breath.
He knew the process, had read about it, but that didn't lower the intensity of the excitement building up inside him. He saw Mundungus Fletcher tapping the bricks over the dustbin using his wand. Then, as Kai had expected, but even more magical, the bricks shuffled out of their way, forming a brilliant, arching doorless gate.
The sudden incomprehensible cacophony hit Kai in the face.
Uncountable wizards and witches, young and old, and exposed and disguised, were marching in and out of shops. The street in front of him seemed to be a temporary passageway, making the people look like a school of a million fish. This was a legendary place, highlighted by minor and major organizations alike.
Mundungus flicked his wand hastily once again. Three woolly black hooded cloaks materialized out of thin air.
"Put them on," the Wizard said, cloaking himself up, and giving the briefest glance at Kai. "We are going to Diagon Alley."