The upper district was a stark departure from the bustling streets of the lower-middle-class wards. While his previous neighborhood near the Blue Scale had been decent enough, this place was built for a different class of people. The pale stone used for the manors seemed to repel the common city grime, and the air lacked the faint smell of woodsmoke and industry that hung over the lower wards.
The pavement was smooth slate rather than jagged cobble, and even the streetlamps were different. Instead of oil and wick, they were powered by glowing crystals that hummed with a constant, low-frequency mana.
As he walked, Kirias felt the weight of several strange looks. Being a hooded "elf" made him stand out, but the stares were distinct from what he had experienced before. Down in the lower wards, people had looked at him with a certain wary reverence. Here, the gaze of the passing nobility was one of pure curiosity.
He adjusted his hood, keeping his expression neutral.
He spent the next hour walking around the area, looking for locations of importance. He noted the location of the guard stations, where men in polished plate armor stood at every major intersection. They weren't just thugs in leather, they were professionals, and several carried rods that flickered with detection magic.
The most significant difference was the presence of an additional figure at each post, a mage. In the lower districts, mages were a rare sight, usually reserved for high-value escorts or government buildings. Here, they were part of the standard street rotation.
As he observed them from a distance, Kirias noticed something else. The guards themselves had a strange aura. It was different from the traditional mana signatures of the mages he had encountered so far. It felt more integrated, as if they were using mana to reinforce their physical bodies rather than to cast external spells. It was a different approach to mana manipulation than he was used to, and it made the common soldiers far more dangerous than they appeared.
He continued his walk, keeping his pace steady and his eyes moving. Mapping security and studying the social rhythm of the district. He watched how the residents carried themselves. A lot of them had a subtle arrogance in their posture, they navigated the streets without ever truly acknowledging those around them.
He observed the distance they kept from one another and the specific ways they greeted their peers, noting the hierarchy of nods and gestures. To blend in here, he didn't just need the right clothes and status, he needed to study how they acted.
The final stops on his trip were the religious sites. He eventually found himself standing before the central cathedral, a structure of such immense scale and architectural complexity that it clearly served as the city's spiritual anchor. After a brief exchange with a relatively friendly local, he learned that the building was designated as a Basilica, a title reserved for sites of supreme historical and religious significance.
The label signaled that this location would likely house the most powerful wards in the district, and it almost certainly confirmed where the Saintess would be accommodated upon her arrival. He stood across the square for a moment, his eyes tracing the buttresses and the faint shimmer of ancient enchantments woven into the stone. It both a place of worship and a fortress of faith. Now, it was the place he had to avoid at all costs.
He arrived back at his manor. It was still a strange sensation to have an entire estate to himself. Even in his old life, a residence like this was something he had never truly considered.
His plan was to spend the evening preparing for a more thorough scout of the lower districts. Despite having lived there for a few days, his time had been spent trying to adapt and survive, leaving him little opportunity to explore the area.
However, as he entered the foyer, he found a letter waiting for him on a silver tray. The seal was intricate; it was the mark of a Viscount. An invitation to lunch at the noble's estate, though Kirias didn't for a moment believe it was a simple gesture of hospitality. Between his "elven" heritage and the shockwaves his new glass-making method was sending through the guild, he was now a person of interest. If he were to decline, he suspected his reputation and his business would be targeted before the week was out.
He checked the clock on the wall: 10:31 AM. He had less than two hours before he was expected at the estate.
He began his preparations by crafting a gift. With a precise manipulation of mana, he conjured a glass chalice—the design was intricate, featuring thin, swirling patterns that were leagues above local craftsmanship.
As he worked, he ran through the social protocols of the upper class. Based on the cultural data he had gathered, his disguise as an "elf" placed him in a unique position. He wasn't quite a lesser, but he wasn't quite a peer to a Viscount either; he occupied a gray area of high-status respect.
To navigate this, he settled on a persona: the mysterious scholar. By adopting a mask of quiet wisdom and speaking only when necessary, he could avoid accidental social blunders while forcing the Viscount to fill the silences with information.
He considered the security of the estate. A Viscount would almost certainly have magical detection arrays similar to his own, designed to detect unauthorized mana signatures. While Kirias knew he could bypass such primitive systems with ease, doing so required a constant, conscious effort.
He didn't want to split his attention. The upcoming conversation would be tiring enough on its own, and he needed every bit of his mental processing power to navigate it. Reminding himself to refrain from using even the simplest spells, he stepped out of his home and headed toward the noble's manor.