Three weeks later.
"We have arrived!"
Bang
Alan instantly jumped out of the carriage with a childish grin, frantically scanning his surroundings.
"Yay!"
"Thank you for your troubles." Lucian thanked the carriage driver and handed him a gold coin.
"It was no issues." The driver bowed. "I wish you safe blessings."
Then the carriage was gone.
"Oi, Lucian." Alan's brows were slightly knitted. "Are you sure we are at the capital?"
The view in front of him certainly looked magnificent.
A giant stone wall blocked off the city, with a giant iron gate acting as the entrance.
High above the skyline, the faint silhouette of the imperial castle was visible, the very same place the emperor and the imperial family resided.
But at the same time the iron gate before him was gloomy and gray, the place itself seemed dark.
"Yes." Lucian replied. "This is the capital city, but it's the entrance to district five."
"Oh." Alan narrowed his eyes and nodded in understanding.
The capital of the Northern continent, Elera, was separated into five districts.
In the centre was the royal castle, surrounding it was district one.
District one was most frequented by high nobles and filled with luxurious clothing stores, restaurants and such.
As the district lowers, so does the status.
District three was frequented by higher class commoners, while district four would be by lower-class commoners.
District five, however, was the lowest of the low, in other words it was the slums of the capital.
"Why did we come here?" Alan asked.
"I don't know…?"
"Did you not tell the driver where to take us?"
"I thought you did."
"Bloody hell." Shaking his head, Alan walked towards the iron gate.
A lone wooden table sat before the wooden table, sitting behind it were two hunched over the table, pushing cards back and forth.
"Excuse me…" Alan spoke, immediately the two guards pushed the cards off the tables and sat upright.
"State your purpose…" The first guard's words trailed off when he noticed Alan's eyes.
"A Zevril…?" He tilted his head in clear confusion. "Why on earth are you here."
He even dropped his professional facade.
"Is it really so boring here that you two are just playing card games."
"Hah…" The second guard sighed. "No one comes to the entrance of the fifth district, the last one who came was like seven months ago."
Then he looked up at Alan. "So what is a Zevril doing here?"
"Honestly, I don't know." Alan shrugged, then pointed at Lucian. "This idiot doesn't know how to give proper instructions, apparently."
Lucian remained perfectly still with his stoic face.
"Identification?" The first guard asked.
"Identification?" Alan repeated.
"…You don't have one?"
Alan looked to Lucian, who just shrugged in response.
"Ahem, how might one get this so-called identification?"
"…When you are born… your family registers your birth in a church and grants you an identification card…?" The guard spoke in confusion as if the information were basic knowledge.
'Fuck.' Alan cursed internally, in fact, the knowledge probably was basic knowledge, but his deadbeat father never did this for him.
Alan snapped his head towards Lucian.
"Why the hell don't you have one?"
"I have amnesia."
"What kind of fuck ass reason is that."
Alan knew the story.
Lucian was someone Gavin found in the ruins of a fallen noble house.
The boy had no memories, no past and nothing but his name, and so Gavin brought him back to the Zevril estate.
Then just a year later at age 9, Lucian awakened with an affinity and soul weapon.
"So uh… how do we get in?" Alan asked.
"Well… you would normally give an identification, and we let you inside after reviewing your history."
"I see, I see." Alan nodded slowly, then.
[Gaze]
The first guard begun trembling, his eyes widened in dread as his body started failing him.
In a blink of an eye, Alan appeared right in front of him and swiped his hand.
Thump
The guard collapsed unconscious.
Alan whipped his head towards the second guard, the moment he was about to use his skill the second guard raised his hands and sighed.
"I don't get paid enough for this shit." He muttered, then gestured towards the fallen guard. "You do know you didn't need to do that, we could have just let you pass, and you just went and got yourself an identification card."
"Oh." Alan scratched his cheek. "My bad."
"Yeah, yeah, just go." The guard pointed behind him.
A small, unremarkable side door clicked open.
"Why is there even a giant gate if you won't use It."
Aesthetics." The guard shrugged, picking up his friend.
Alan sighed, signalled for Lucian to follow, and stepped through the door into the Fifth District.
…
The streets were filthy, cracked stones and unwashed filth covered thepath,h leaving the place to rot.
Lying on the side of the streets, beneath the crumbling buildings were the residents of the gutter, their eyes were hollow and lifeless as it traced Alan and Lucian.
Some stared at Alan and Lucian with curiosity, others with wariness, and some with open hostility.
The houses were barely standing, the windows held cracks, wooden boarding to seal the holes along the walls.
"This isn't a place to live." Alan muttered his thoughts.
"It's the slums for a reason." Lucian replied. "This place belongs to the lowest of the low."
Alan scoffed and didn't respond, currently the two of them were traversing the fifth district of the capital to reach the fourth district.
Alan's face was scrunched as he walked, he didn't feel sympathy for the people, rather he felt disgusted by the place itself.
A place of convenience for people to be tossed away like rubbish.
Sniff Sniff
As they walked by an alleyway, Alan picked up a distinct smell, something sweet and sticky, something that made him feel slightly off.
"Aphrodisiac?" Lucian immediately questioned.
They stopped in front of an alleyway, as the two turned to look down the alley, they saw something.
Ahead was a man dragging along a limping girl.
Alan's eyes narrowed, his face shifted.
"Hey Lucian."
"Yes."
"A hundred and nineteen golds isn'tenough,h don't you think."
"Hardly."
"And I just so happen to find a great way to make some good money."
Without speakingfurther,r both Alan and Lucian walked into the alleyway.
That same sweet smell became thicker the further they walked.
At the end of the path stood a building that didn't belong, it was three stories tall, with windows tinted red.
The sick smell of aphrodisiac originated from this very building.
"A brothel?" Alan questioned.
A brothel in the middle of the slums made absolutely no sense.
Leaving his questions forlater,r Alan looked at Lucian.
Lucian nodded, then vanished.
Alan cracked hisneck,k then stepped towards the building.
…
Behind the counter was a woman, leaning over the table.
Her clothing was extremely revealing, yet she seemed unbothered, idly fidgeting with her nails.
The receptionist obviously knew the truth about the building and what they really did.
But she turned a blind eye to it all, after all the pay was good.
As she was fidgeting, assuming her day would pass as usual.
Bang
The entrance to the brothel burst open.
"Who the hel–"
Her words caught in her throat as she saw the man who walked in.
Tall, with flowing hair down to his shoulders, and clean, sharp appearance.
Then his eyes, bright, glowing violet.
She begun trembling, even the residents of the slums knew what violet eyes meant.
"W-w-what brings such an estee–"
"Are you the owner of this place." Alan cut her off, his voice was low.
"N-no…" Her voice lowered as she spoke. "Damian runs everything here."
"Take me to him."
"W-wha–"
"To that man." Alan clarified.
His words sharp, it instinctively told her it wasn't a request.
Obediently nodding, she turned around and opened the door behind her, inside was a staircase that led up.
"Please follow me…" Her head was lowered as she spoke.
Alan nodded and followed behind her, walking up the steps.
Soon they stepped up three floors, then she turned to the hallway.
Walking through the hallway made Alan nauseous.
The sound of flesh against flesh, the sensual noises and the thick disgusting smell that penetrated the air all churned his insides.
As he was holding back his irritation, Alan along with the receptionist arrived in front of a door.
Knock Knock
She knocked.
"Who is it." From within the door came a deep voice.
"I-it's me."
"Why the hell are you here?" The man snapped. "Didn't I tell you to not fucking disturb me?"
"I-it's an important guest…"
"Huh?"
"A very... important guest..."
"…Let them in."
The man gave permission, the reception lady backedaway,y allowing Alan to enter.
Click
The doorknob clicked as Alan entered the room.
"Phew…" The receptionist let out a breath, she didn't wait, she immediately fled down the stairs back to the lobby.
But soon froze when she got there.
Standing there was another man, his hair was white as snow and neatly parted, his eyes were a burning shade of teal.
'A nobleman?' She thought immediately, after encountering a Zevril, there was no way this could go well.
As she approached the counter, the man, Lucian spoke in a flat voice.
"Hello there."
…
Click
The door clicked shut as Alan walked in.
He covered his eyes with some of his hair to hide his violet glare, to avoid giving away his status.
The man indoor looked up at Alan, his skin was dark and well-built with muscles, based on appearances he looked intimidating.
"A noble?" Damian tilted his head. "What brings you to such a place."
"I heard you sell?" Alan asked.
Damian paused, he looked Alan up and down.
"So you are one of them." Damian scoffed. "Yes, you could say I do a little side business over here, where they govern is so little they don't even notice a couple of people going missing."
Alan was silent as he listened to him.
"One gold for the adults, three for the children's."
"I see." Alan nodded, then the hair covering his face swayed, unveiling his vivid violet eyes.
Before Damian even processed it.
[Gaze]
Fear gripped his very heart, his eyes trembled as he looked at Alan.
"Z-Zevril." He stuttered, having realised just who he was talking to.
Alan calmly walked over to where Damian was seated, then grabbed his forearm.
Crack
And broke it.
"AA–" His scream was quickly stopped by Alan, as he grabbed his jaw with his palm.
Then.
Crunch
Crushed his jaws.
His screams died in a wet, muffled choke, tears and blood leaked down his throat.
"You see, I need some money." Alan dropped Damian to the floor, he collapsed in a pathetic heap. "You wouldn't happen to have some, would you?"
Damian frantically nodded, then pointed towards a painting on the wall.
"Oh?" Alan took it off, behind it was a safe. "Oh wow, that's a classic."
The safe itself had a four number combination required to open it.
"Mind telling me the number combination?"
Damian's eyes naturally went to the paper and pen on the table, his broken jaw made communication impossible.
"Nah, you got plenty of ink right in front of you." Alan pointed below Damian.
Where a vast pool of his own blood was gathered.
"Use it."
Still trembling, he dipped his fingers in the blood, then wrote the number combination on the wooden floor.
"Let's see, 8…2…7…4."
Click
The safe opened.
Inside was a large amount of stacked gold, seeing it immediately brought a smile to his face.
Using his necklace, he drew all the gold into his artifact.
"Lucian will be happy about this." Then turned around. "Well, thank you for your cooperation."
As he was walking past the fallen Damian, he exclaimed.
"Whoops, I almost forgot."
Crack
He brutally stomped his knees into unnatural shapes.
"Hmm~" While humming, Alan left the room.
Leaving behind the broken and bloodied Damian.