Chapter 19: Setting Out

In front of a wooden cottage a few meters away from the training ground stood a fit old man with brown hair beside a boy with eye-catching silver hair.

These are Fredrick and Ezra of course.

"Is everything ready?" Ezra asked.

"Yes, for the third time, it is" Fredrick said, exacerbated.

It had been a day since Ezra drank the elixir, the effects becoming more pronounced as time went on. Ezra knew that he might experience a growth spurt in the near future, but he would cross that bridge when he got there.

Ezra had sent a letter to his mother, informing her of his three-weeks stay at Sir Fredrick's place in order to get stronger. He assured her of his well-being, after which he told her about the visit into the city to experience what it was like outside the castle.

Right now, as Ezra expected, the spies of the three witches must have begun to sense that something was up. They might have wanted to stop him, but they couldn't do anything because they were the ones who assigned Sir Fredrick as his combat instructor, most likely because of the way he trains people.

Especially when one considered the reaction of the recruits and even some official knights.

Since they couldn't stop him, they wanted to monitor him by using the excuses of taking along some guards, which would be spies, but Ezra's mother vehemently refused, as did Ezra, stating that he had Sir Fredrick and that he didn't want to go around the city with such an eye-catching envoy.

Ezra then asked for a cloak and two disguise potions for himself and Sir Fredrick from the royal advisor, who promptly gave it to them.

He was given a pouch with one hundred gold coins, which he was already making plans for.

One has to know that in Orion the currency goes copper, silver, gold and platinum in increments of a hundred fold.

Simply put...

100 copper = 1 silver

100 silver = 1 gold

100 gold = 1 platinum

This was the normal exchange rate within each state, but the exchange rate from state to state varied greatly.

For example, the Houston copper goes for three Niton copper, and this was between two empires. The exchange of kingdom to empire was naturally more inflated.

"Then let's drink up" Ezra said as he and Sir Fredrick drank the transformation potion in one go.

The effects began to show as Ezra felt a light dizziness, while Sir Fredrick seemed immune to it.

Ezra's silver hair became black, a much more common hair color in Orion.

He was using a dress that was not too good but too bad either, just ordinary in all senses of the word. He asked Fredrick to buy it yesterday as he wanted to maintain secrecy, so naturally he couldn't wear noble clothes that were far too eye-catching now could he?

"Sir Fredrick" Ezra called out as he looked to see a man whose eyes had turned green and his hair black.

His clothes were also ordinary with a fine sword strapped to his waist, but concealed with a worn-out scabbard.

The hundred gold coins were also strapped to his waist.

"Hmm, all's good except for those muscles of yours, but what can we do?" Ezra said as he assessed the look of his guardian. Well, that was the story they were going with anyway.

"Good, now that we're set, let's get a move on shall we? There's a lot of things to be done" Ezra said as he raised his hand, which Sir Fredrick held unto, like anyone would hold a five year old boy.

And so began Ezra's training experience, a tour through the city. Well, that's what Sir Fredrick gave an excuse anyway.

The disguise potion was used for mainly two reasons. To blend in with the crowd, and to escape the spy network of the three witches.

He absolutely couldn't let them get a whiff of his plans.

Ezra and Fredrick roamed around for a while to cut off anyone tagging behind them, before they saw a long line of people.

Some crying, some gloomy, some wore unreadable expressions which caused Ezra to inquire about them to Sir Fredrick.

"It's the people who lost their family members due to the Emperor's laughter a few days ago"

They were being compensated thirty to fifty silver each. It was such a sum that no ordinary commoner would earn it throughout his life.

After walking around aimlessly for a good forty minutes, Ezra begins the first stage of his plan in earnest.

That would be...

'I'll have to find the hidden gem within this city before nightfall'

Ezra could only sigh at the endeavor coming his way.

From his past-life, he knew that this person was someone mediocre, but was either lucky or smart enough to survive and flee to safety at the start of the apocalypse.

One thing led to another and he became an official in an organization, who took the apocalypse as an opportunity to rise to prominence and gain astronomical wealth.

He was a high-ranking official of that group, earning the name "The Miser", because he couldn't be cheated in anything pertaining to money.

But there was a slight problem...

'I don't know his real name or where he stayed before the apocalypse arrived' Ezra thought as they moved through the city.

Speaking of the city, it was built in the form of a circle, but one of epic proportions.

A stone palisade enclosed the city all around. On it were archer towers made of stone along with two watchtowers at the north and the south ends of the city.

Buildings made of wood lined the street with a variety of uses, from bars to hotels, motels, guild houses, blacksmiths, tailors and merchant offices.

A river cut through the lower half of the city, and two stone bridges were constructed above it, short but wide enough for two carriage's to go through side by side.

One would hear many voices bargaining, some advertising, and others, mostly nobles, yelling at the top of their voices.

The shops and houses owned were also arranged using the quality of the goods sold as a benchmark.

The cheapest shops owned by commoners were located nearest to the walls. They sold grains, copper artifacts, defective products and clothes for peasants. Along with them were houses barely standing and the most populated area in the city, the slums, a place filled with unfortunate children, beggars and degenerates of society. This was called the outer ring.

After those were houses and shops of good quality, but nothing too out of the ordinary. In these shops you could find copper and bronze artifacts, as well as mana techniques. These were shops owned by merchants, barons and viscounts and some lucky commoners. This made up the inner ring.

And lastly were the shops meant for the rich nobles and high-level merchants. These shops had no copper artifacts, as they deemed it an insult, but had a variety of bronze, gray and even a few silver artifacts, as well as more advanced mana techniques.

The identities Ezra and Fredrick were using were neither a high-level merchant nor a noble, as that would make them too high-profile and hinder Ezra's objectives.

That meant they had to journey to the outer ring, which they did by boarding a carriage manned by two horses for thirty bronze coins.

Well, not before the carriage man looked at them with a condescending gaze, which became a smile at the sight of a silver coin.

Sir Fredrick had been following the instructions of Ezra through whispers, but he couldn't understand what the prince of an empire wanted in the worst part of the city.

Nevertheless, he made no comment. He still had his doubts about this "seeing the future" stuff Ezra had told him, but if that could cure him of his curse that has been growing more vicious by the day, then it was nothing much.

The carriage arrived in a place that contrasted with its quality.

The people couldn't help but raise an eye and question what someone who could afford such a carriage was doing in the slums.

Children in particular looked at the carriage with undisguised longing as they burned the memory in their hearts.

Their clothes were no different from rags in terms of filthiness. Their bodies had become so pale and dried up that their ribs were almost sticking out.

Ezra looked at this scene and felt pity, but wiped it away the next second.

He couldn't save these people, and he didn't come here to do so. He had to be able to protect himself first and build enough strength to even think about it.

Deluding himself into playing hero would be a fatal weakness, one that would surely cause his downfall, and because he knew this, his resolve firmed once again.

That said, he could definitely make some of their lives better if he thought they could be useful.

Make no mistake, them looking so sorrowful they warrant pity doesn't mean they'll actually be useful. Many of the adults here weren't born here, were they?

He only felt sorry for the children who didn't have the right to see their parents.

After a minute of complicated emotions, he cleared his mind and moved towards his goal.

How did he suddenly know where the hidden gem was?

Well, he didn't, but ever since he had the idea of making an information agency, a lesson had stuck to his mind.

'I don't have to do everything myself when I can have someone else do it for me' he thought as he and Fredrick went through different alleyways filled with garbage and filth, while observing the beggars there.

And after going through twelve alleys, Ezra stopped as he slowly observed a particular beggar among the five lined up along the alley.

The beggar in question didn't have any distinguishing feature. His body was terrible, his hair and eyes horrible, except...

'He's still young, and he's not drowning in despair'

Yes, these two things, well, the first one wasn't exactly it but the second one had to be there.

Ezra had never been to this city even in his past-life, so it was basically uncharted territory.

Yet now, he needed to find a hidden gem. You didn't expect him to use weeks or months, which he didn't have, to search for him did you?

Why do something so strenuous when there is a better, more efficient and cheaper way to go?

Ezra's answer?

'I only need to find someone familiar with the land'

But he couldn't just pick any riffraff on the sidewalk for the job, and that's why he came here.

These guys were the cheapest labor he could hire. They were also auspicious and ignored by most people.

Like a born spy, this was part of Sebastian Steel's idea and how he had infiltrated all three continents right under the noses of the emperors, kings and nobles.

And now, Ezra was going to use the same tactic.

The beggar in question had a smile on his face, and that was enough for Ezra as an indicator.

An indicator that unlike the four others who were either dead drunk or looked lifeless, this man hadn't fallen into despair.

He was someone still looking for sunlight to shine his way.

'Well, it seems your hopes have been answered' Ezra thought as he moved to the beggar in question.

The beggar looked up to meet Ezra's eyes, when Ezra then squatted and shifted his mouth to the beggar's ear before whispering a word, after which he retracted his head and moved along to the next alley.