Chapter 3

Chapter 3. City.

Do you want to see street magic?

David Blaine .

Sephiroth .

The closest city where you could turn in your loot and find at least something similar to a teacher was Onibas - a town that would not be very large, but still not a village. Of the attractions there was a theater and ... that's it! I got there in three days, I could have done it faster, but the prisoners, after everything that happened to them, could not move faster (and even so they had to drag them on a rope, their brains were no longer enough even to move their legs). In the town hall they looked at me askance, at least at first. HehYou can understand the local employees - a certain gloomy guy with a blade on his belt is behind him, dragging three bodies on a rope without signs of intelligence on his face. But, fortunately (it is true, it is still unknown for whom), the necessary leaflets with photographs of this trinity were found quickly. And after my story about their adventures in the village, which was not so far from the city, in addition to the 150 thousand due to me, I received a small bonus for helping the city in the amount of another fifty, and most importantly, a certain credit of trust, albeit a small one.

The first thing I spent money on was a normal lunch in a small restaurant - corned beef and crackers got sick of me during the journey, so I ate from the belly. I was also very unpleasantly struck by the local prices. I thought magical things were expensive because they require a lot of effort and skill to make. But after giving two thousand for a dinner (albeit a very plentiful one), I realized that ordinary goods are not so cheap here either. It's sad. Now, until I find a normal source of income, I will have to fight on two fronts - with the Hamster and the Toad (and I have no doubt in her strangulation skills). And only one thing this brave team did not mind - the newspaper-magazine 'Magical Herald'. For this infection I gave three thousand, but to hell with them. If earlier I thought this world was strange, then after this collection I stopped thinking so, the world was not strange, no, it was completely shifted! Let's start with the very representative of the printed word. Can you imagine a hybrid of a newspaper with a news release, a popular science magazine and a playboy? Not? And here I am holding it in my hands.

The news was the most common in the wizarding world - such and such a guild sent so many monsters to the next world. I cleaned out such and such a den of a criminal element, and so on. Sometimes the next destruction was mentioned, of which the mages from you-you-know-some-guild were to blame. Along with this, there were articles about new scientific discoveries or the successes of magicians (nothing like that, for the most part - simple advertising, not even very disguised. I finished off the slogan: buy 9 potions for the price of 10 and get 10 as a gift. I'm serious, that's right there it was written!). Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Several pages in the middle of the magazine were given over to photographs of popular sorceresses. Maria Melkhor shone this week . In a brief annotation, it was only said that she was a free sorceress, currently not a member of any of the guilds. Hmm ... the witch is really cute, and this swimsuit suits her. Although there were no completely candid photos in the magazine, no one bothered to think of some points, hehe.

All this, of course, is wonderful and wonderful, but what to do next? The town turned out to be so small that it did not have not only its own guild, but also representative offices or branches of guilds of other cities. About magic shops, I generally keep quiet - there were none. Hmmm, it seems like a bummer with a teacher. Unless to leave an application for such a magistrate, but until they add it to the list of orders of guilds, until someone responds ... and it will most likely cost a lot. This means that you need to earn at least some decent amount. But all the normal orders go to the guild, I don't really want to sink to the level of local 'dark' ones either. Rushing around the kingdom and tracking down wanted criminals is again not an option ... although ... maybe you should follow the path of the unforgettable Lina Invers ? I remember that the legendary Dajedra earned good money, saving the bandits from the wrongfully acquired property ... and you can make good money on the bandits themselves. I think, after being dragged into the magistrate of that trinity, they will not be very surprised at my question about the habitation of some other gangs near the city. Well, let's get down to business!

At the magistrate they rejoiced at me as if they were my own. Not expected.

-Did you want something, young man? - assistant to the mayor, who suddenly found some free time, which he agreed to devote to me. Oh, I don't like it anymore.

-Yes, there is a little free time, so I decided to take a walk around the neighborhood, suddenly meet something interesting? - a kind and a little dreamy smile of a nice guy creeps onto the face, together with gentle stroking of the blade handle, the effect turns out to be very interesting. I do not remember how I know this, but I know that it is so. Here is such a pun, - can you tell me where it is better not to walk honest citizens of Fiore ?

The clerk nodded in understanding.

-Of course, of course, - on the table, almost by magic, a map of the city's surroundings appeared, - here we have wild animals (by the way, their skins and fangs are highly valued by traders), but on these roads something has been restless lately, no way the dark ones started up.

- I see ... tell me, if these dark ones suddenly end up in your prison ... or in the hospital, will a conscientious citizen get anything that will take them there?

The assistant pretended to think. Why fake? Well, little by little empathy began to come to life . I will not even try to inspire anything to someone, but here's to 'smell' emotions, the more ordinary people began to work out slowly.

-Usually, an order for the destruction of a dark guild (damn it, any bandit from the high road is already dark, and if there are at least three of them and one of them is a magician of D rank or higher - that's it, already a guild) is issued only to representatives of the light guild. But after all, ordinary people can defend themselves and themselves, and of course, their help in the fight against crime will not remain without a reward. I think the size of the prize could be 50, no, 80 thousand precious!

-That's how, well, thanks for the info.

- You are always welcome, we are happy to help you.

I left the magistrate. Well , now everything becomes clear - the mayor has clearly decided to save money. If someone is able to defeat three magicians, albeit of a lower rank, who probably had the support of simple 'meat', then they can figure out the bandyugans who sat down on the trade roads, but no - that's okay too - there was no official order. Yes, and this is a 'reward', but I can smell that usually such a job costs twice as much, if not three times more. And then there is a chance to get rid of problems, and to save decent money. And what happen, the same gildiytsy make a claim can not - local laws such thing as an 'excess of self-defense' simply do not know, so that if you attack me, theoretically, I get right to cut the whole gang ... if you have enough forces. True, they don't look very much at killing people here - monsters, please - cut as many as you like, bandits who put themselves outside the law, in principle, too. But for the first they will only say thank you, and for the second - they will condemn, they say it turned out ugly ... strange people. However, the opinion of the crowd is of little concern to me. The main thing is to stay relatively clean before the law, otherwise there may be problems with joining Fakes . Yes, yes, I will enter there anyway. For two reasons, even three. First, if I don't do this, then in my homeland anime people simply won't understand me. Second - it's really one of the strongest guilds, and it razdolbaisto -Family spirit impressed me. Well, third and most important - where else can you find such a concentration of beautiful, smart and free girls? So I don't know. Hmmm, perhaps, occupying a teenage body was not the best idea - something constantly drives me in the same direction (spring came, the hormone went))) * approx. Author), but oh well, you can live for the time being.

Before going out to the 'fishing' I decided to walk through the shops and shops. Just take a look at what people are selling and buying, get to know the local prices better, and at the same time ask if anyone is interested in skins or other components of local animals. Some merchants would really not mind replenishing their windows with interesting furs or skins, and the fangs and bones of some animals would be accepted at the local pharmacy (after Comrade Zeref, the magic of Life became almost forbidden, so there were almost no healers among the magicians, the locals had to get out with all sorts of poultry potions). The problem was that I didn't know how to properly skin or harvest other organs. Hmm, I wonder what they will say if I sprinkle a whole carcass for them, and then let them figure it out themselves? Although, here it is not so far to Feeks , so I would not be surprised if they have already brought this to them. Well, I can't imagine the same Natsu for butchering a carcass.

On this my stay in Onibas can be considered over. The only thing worth mentioning is that they tried to rob me. This is what I did not expect, that I did not expect. And it was like this: magicians performed on the city square. Although, according to the local classification, magicians of E rank. But all their 'magic' is based on sleight of hand and distraction. The people liked the performance, and I myself, I must admit, was staring, trying to understand some of the tricks - you never know what might come in handy (okay, two more twin gymnasts were very good). Well, while the people were staring at the performances of the artists, several puny subjects made their way through the crowd closer to the stage, or vice versa - they moved away from the stage. The guys were masters of their craft, if my pockets did not consist of me, figs I would have noticed an incision made with filigree precision. But history does not tolerate subjunctive moods. Therefore, the boy's limb somehow turned out to be twisted by itself, and the failed thief was forced to follow me. Throwing a hundred precious coins into the artists' hat, I left the square with my trophy. The guy was prudently silent. I don't know if my smile, which became really 'kind', or the attitude of the locals towards the thieves, is to blame, or maybe he was hoping for two thugs that they somehow got behind us. Oh, here is a suitable dead end - quiet and deserted. I let the boy out - he looks 14 years old, no more.

- What an interesting catch. I'm curious, are you working with those magicians, or is it just taking advantage of the chance that comes up?

-Better let it go, otherwise the Crown of Thorns guild will kill you, wherever you hide.

Somehow the hand-face gesture took shape by itself. Have I already mentioned the pretentious names?

- You should have let the boy go, hovering, but you poured the emu money to compensate for moral damage, otherwise it turns out badly, - and here those two mordovorot tightened. I'm wondering if the local instinct for self-preservation does not exist in principle, or is it so lucky for me? What if I'm a magician? Ah, not my problem.

I didn't answer. I just accelerated and put one and the other on the back of my head. Well, for about 40 minutes they will definitely not bother anyone. I turn back to the boy.

- Hey kid, do you want to earn some money?

Four hours later.

Not a bad purchase. Very good. Perhaps the ability to quietly clean out someone's pockets will come in handy someday. The boy did not understand what happened to him, he considered me just a magician, with my cockroaches in my head - even by the standards of this not quite adequate world, magicians were ... strange, so there were no special problems. Along the way, we managed to slightly unearth this 'Crown of Thorns' - another gang of robbers, led by a level B magician. And this is already serious - such forces will be enough to sweep a couple of districts of the city. They are based on the outskirts, in a rather quiet and calm area, well, it's not surprising, who will shit right at home? The most delicious thing in this whole story is the price for the head of the leader - 500 thousand on the road are not lying around, but you can get very good shots.

No, I guess I'll leave it to last, you should first practice on lower quality gangs. I was not afraid that they would wait for me - the former pickpocket very quickly disappeared from the city (not without my 'admonition', though), but those two mordovorotov will not tell anyone anything else ... these are the things. Eh, it's already getting dark on the street, and I don't want to spend the night in the open air, not that I need sleep, but trudge at night looking into an unfamiliar forest - no, thank you. I had to pay another five thousand for the hotel, hmmm, I thought I wouldn't reach my room - the toad would finish it off earlier. That's all, to rest and develop a skill (the thief still knew how to pick locks a little. With the ability to 'mold' any kind of key, it seems that the skill is not particularly necessary, but you never know, I would not like to shine my capabilities for nothing, so let it be) , and tomorrow - to the forest, to the 'dark' ones so dear to my heart. I hope they have something worthwhile.