Marketplace of Ideas

"Oh. Having trouble with each other now?", Claire mused as she approached our location.

Shifting back to face the two individuals, the young female switched to her default expression as she appeared to be teasing us. Not wanting to give her any more ammunition, I decided to answer her immediately.

"Nothing more than a mild disagreement on ethics."

"So you say… Well, Horace and I were discussing our next course of action, and we have come to a conclusion. I shall take you three to our manor within the city and introduce you to my mother. I bet she is wondering which of her children revoked our house at the gate. If we are to become successful in our endeavor, then I believe that we should get your group acquainted."

A meeting with her mother would likely be an essential event if this were still a video game. Claire's offer strangely reminds me of one of those quest lines that you would find on any standard MMORPG. Her timing and tenacity were immaculate, almost as if we were forced to undertake this quest, but I couldn't shake this nagging feeling that something was off.

I would have to take the time to gather information from her properly. For now, I believe the first course of action is to play along with her. We stand to gain a lot from this partnership, and I fully expect to further expand my knowledge of this world. For now, though, I would just follow the path before us.

Horace had offered a beverage before we left, but I was the only one who did not initially accept his hospitality. After seeing Boner and Q partake in the beverages, I gave in as well. After the fight with the Lynx, the long journey to Astana, and our encounter with Arch-Captain Silvers' party, I found myself getting a bit thirsty.

However, I think due to my Kitsune heritage, my body didn't appear all that tired. We have been quite busy for the past few hours, and where I usually would need to rest, I wouldn't. Thank god for my new body because it will be helpful in the future. I am sure of it.

After we all had made preparations, Claire would begin her shapeshifting once more. Green ripples would radiate beautifully around her body, and in an instant, she would look much older. She had returned to her previous appearance, and I was quite impressed with it. That spell at her disposal, I want it. I will likely have to convince Claire to teach it to me as soon as possible.

Once the transformation was complete, Claire would lead us back into the alley and onto the street. Minutes passed before the number of citizens shot up drastically within our vision. The constant chatter of the various conversations pinged around the widened streets. It was then that something else caught my attention. I had not realized it for the longest time, but every time I inhaled with my nose, a rich aroma would flood my senses.

I recognized the scent instantly, and my body reacted accordingly. Without my consent, my stomach began growling, indicating that I was obviously becoming hungry. I suppose that it was something that I had suppressed subconsciously, but the sweet smell of cooking meat had unlocked my most primal instincts. Hearing the sound of my stomach, Claire would snicker from the front of the group. She, naturally, had been leading us to her family's manner, but in this instance, she had turned around to walk backward when she addressed me.

"Someone sounds hungry.~"

"Heh. We barely had anything to eat since we got here. I guess I did have dinner a bit earlier, but that was hours ago.", I responded.

I guess my words seemed a bit strange as Claire looked at me as if I had made a mistake. Her eyes would bounce between Q and Bonner, and she was looking for either of them to speak.

"He means breakfast. It was morning, Mark, right?", Q says, gesturing towards me.

Oh damn, I actually did make a mistake as I thought about it. Thinking back on it, the time difference between our current world and the previous world was a bit different. While I didn't possess an actual clock at this very moment, it was rather difficult to properly gauge the passage of time. Though based on pure speculation, I believe that it was sometime in the early evening.

Before our transfer to this current world, it was around midnight. Dinner time for the late worker. Throughout the events of our adventure, I suppose that my body must have metabolized that meal faster due to my newfound Kitsune-Mutant body. It had slipped up in mentioning that discrepancy to Claire, but luckily for me, Q had made a save.

"My apologies. Breakfast is correct. At times, I mix the two up. I am a silly little foxkin. We aren't the most intelligent creatures."

I would force my laughter, and almost on cue, Q actually played along with his own laughter. We both portrayed the situation as if I had told a convincing joke. Naturally, Claire didn't buy such a blatant lie, but she didn't bother to press the situation. She instead continued to lead us towards our destination. Following my last remark and the announcement of my new status as a famished foxkin, the group traveled deeper into town.

The deeper we traveled, the thicker the scent began spreading and branching into various cooking meats. As soon as my nose detected it, almost out of instinct, my tail began swaying like a dog happy to its master. Based on the expressions of my comrades when they inevitably spotted it, they appeared to enter into a state of amusement. I could not help it, though.

While I still attempted to appear calm, my childlike tail ultimately betrayed my persona. It was pointless to attempt to hide my true feelings from showcasing them to others. I would not allow the bastards to tease me once more, so I quickly spoke my mind to cast distraction.

"Th-This must be the local farmer's market...That we are coming up on?"

My words were directed towards Claire, and fortunately for me, she didn't attempt to deflect. Instead, the smaller female was gracious enough to ignore my physical embarrassment, which I was thankful for.

"How observant of you, Sir Shakey Tail.", She mused.

Sir Shakey Tail was the name that she decided to place upon me at that moment. It was kind of dry, and cringe, but based on her expression, Claire must have thought that was a banger. Not wanting to add fuel to the fire, I decided to allow that to go as a freebie. I offered a scoff in return, but her snide remark took a back seat in my mind as more pressing details appeared before me.

To label the gathering ahead of us as a mere Farmer's Market would be a disservice. The many stands on this street were quite large when we came upon them. A wide variety of different goods were expertly placed on the different stalls. Jewelry produced fine clothing, which looked like a classic Renaissance fair convention. At least hundreds of people were buzzing around this area, so this must be the local gathering area.

To be more accurate, this was like the Target or Walmart of Astana. Well, if either of those retail juggernauts took place within a fantasy setting.

No matter where I looked, though, there were the majority of pasty elves, but strangely enough, there were more diverse humans. I had forgotten at first since we saw so many elves of the same complexion, but the humans had more distinguishable skin tones.

Many of the human men here had darker skin tones, resembling your average African American, but there were mostly those who resembled Caucasians. Not to mention that there were at least a few different races as well.

"You see what I am seeing, Mark?", Q asks, gesturing towards an individual.

Towering over the others was this collective of furry individuals. I was amazed for a moment as the obvious dawned upon me. Their coats appeared to be thick and various shades of brown. They were hulking creatures, but I wouldn't dare say that to their faces.

With a snout pointing directly from their faces, It appeared that those individuals might be animalistic in nature. Profiling was terrible, but I was not totally surprised to hear the sounds of their chains scraping across the ground. Not only were they bear-like, but they were likely prisoners.

"You sound as if you have never seen Beastmen before. Those men were likely criminals. Astana is a transitional spot for those charged and sentenced," Claire says, speaking up once more.

That pesky habit of hers presenting itself again. Ignoring it for the moment, I grew more curious about the substance of her words. As such, I was the next to address the female on it,

"Yeah. We have never seen Beastmen..for the most part. Where we are from, we lived a relatively sheltered existence. They were things of fantasy, or so we thought. Let's not sweat the details. Those men look like Bears. If they are criminals, then they are likely to be violent ones.", I explain to her briefly.

"Not necessarily. They could have done anything minor, but you see... members of the many Beastmen clans are typically incredibly powerful. It takes four or five human adventures just to handle one Beastman in hand-to-hand combat. The Ursa are renowned for their strength, after all. Ask them, and perhaps they will tell you that they are the strongest of the Major Beastmen clans. That is why they are chained so heavily."

"The strongest of the Major Beastmen clans, huh?", Q repeats.

I shifted my eyes towards the male and noticed we were sizing up the collective of prisoners. We would undoubtedly have to revisit that topic. If the Ursa is so strong that it requires five individuals just to contain one of its members, then any antagonistic confrontations with them in the future will likely be an issue. For now, I will take note of that revelation.

"Yes. I didn't think to ask, but where are you three from?" Claire asks.

I could feel the eyes of my two comrades land on me as they expected me to tackle this question. Considering that many of these places were brand new to us in this world, it is very possible that none of the places from Infinity Unleashed could exist anymore. So tip-toeing around this question promoted specific difficulties, so I imagined answering vaguely until I looked at a map would be the best course of action.

"Our heritage hails from a peninsula from an eastern continent. Many years have passed since then, but we can trace our roots to a small village near the Grotto Plains. Looking for work, we joined the Conscripted Forces.", I say, tying in all of the previous lies we stated beforehand.

"The eastern continent? I suppose that could explain things. Around here, Foxels like yourself are actually quite rare."

"What do you mean by that?", Bonner asks, finally breaking his silence. "You make it sound as if Mark is something special. You'll give him a big head like that. He is prone to become arrogant and reckless."

For the longest time, the elven male appeared, standing around and wiggling his pointing ears. I can only speculate, but I guess he was testing out his sense of hearing. It can be difficult to comprehend the male's behavior and actions at times. I guess he didn't see the irony of the statement that he just uttered.

"That's like the pot calling the kettle black," I respond to the male's words.

My phrase seemed to once more draw Claire's confused yet intrigued expression. It was a saying from our world that I recall Q didn't know existed, and here it brought out the interest of our otherworldly patron.

"A fool like yourself has no right to speak, Bonner. We both know that you are more coward than man. An old decrypt hermit with little ambition. Hence, you could barely achieve much by yourself."

"Nah, Mark. I am a hardcore gamer, bud. A real-life pro gamer with more experience than you have hairs on your ears. I guarantee that I will be more useful than you. I am a mage, after all. Mages are far more versatile than vanguard fighters like yourself."

"So you say.", I responded, shrugging off the bold claims of the male.

After all, he was a mage that couldn't use magic right now. He was as useless as a handful of dirt, but that's not being fair to the dirt. At least you could blind someone with dirt. I laughed loudly at that statement, but to them, I probably just laughed for no reason whatsoever.

"Well then. This is Astana's Golden Market. Please do remember this location. This whole district is where the affluent members of our city and neighboring ones deal with their business. From Struburg to as far away as Histanople and Freeling Port within the Angea Domain.

Occasionally, we even get low-ranking members, such as knights, adventurers, or merchants of the Great Kingdom of Tenumi. However, since we are in the far west, away from the capital of our mother nation, we don't usually get many important people around here, even for a city like Astana, which is the largest in the family's dominion.

The Great Kingdom of Tenumi? So we are on the Tenumi Isles. Since the hidden Grotto was where we spawned, I had the underlying suspicions that we were on it. However, upon seeing the signs at the crossroads and subsequently Astana, I grew quite hesitant to say that to the others. Claire's sudden exposition drop sure enlightened me that things are different—more different than I actually anticipated.

You see, This Great Kingdom of Tenumi did not exist within Infinity Unleashed, and the Angea or any of those cities did not exist either. Strangely enough, the Isles name and the Grotto remained.

"Bonner.", I called the male.

"Yeah?"

"Time."

"What? Get a watch. How the hell would I know?"

I scoffed at the male's response as I attempted to speak in code to him. As the second person here who has experienced a lot of Infinity Unleashed, I assumed that he had drawn the same conclusion as myself. Apparently, I was incorrect. I suppose I will have to elaborate to him and Q later when we are away from Claire.

"So, as you may know, I am famished. As I am a broke man, naturally, the responsibility to feed me falls on you, Claire. Something around here smells delectable."

I returned our conversion on the original and intended course as my stomach once more alerted me to its status. Much like a car dinging when it is low on fuel, my stomach growled like a fox's bark.

The loud and obnoxious sound brought a snicker to the female's face, and she nodded.

"Well-Well Mark. The manor of my family is nearby. I will ask the cooks there to prepare us something to eat, but I would assume that my mother would request my presence. She is the reason that you three were allowed into the city, so she would likely know the reason behind it. There at the manor I will further explain the full extent of our operations. So hang in there. It will only take a few minutes longer."

A few minutes longer is something that I could handle. I was going to drop dead from starvation after all, but still, we followed the elven woman for several minutes. The area that we entered was residential, and the yellow road began to go up a slight incline.

Elaborate stagecoaches and wagons now sparsely populated roads alongside the occasional guard patrol. This area was far more guarded than the rest of the city, but based on the incredible and elaborate details of the housing here, it was clear to me that these were the big bankers that live here.

Though even with all of these large mansions in the area, there was one that stood out even amongst those. It was surrounded by a large metal fence atop of a thick stone one for extra protection. Several outposts seemed to be strategically placed throughout the property from where I stood, and the guard presence was stifling.

There wasn't much of a line outside it, but Claire quickly turned to face us before arrived at the gate and placed her hands on her waist.

"Alright gentlemen, Try not to draw attention to yourselves. This place is the Golden Manor of Angea, or simply Angea Manor. City Hall of sorts."