Chapter 1565: First Contact
Anyway, after many days of planning, Sean’s group had finally decided on a plan to approach the toolmakers.
On the other hand, Sean had to be a person behind the scenes, and he could never act as if he knew them at all. He was already associated with Veronica, so they couldn’t be seen doing this.
Rin arrived a few days after they did, though they mostly just camped right outside in a cave Obi taught them (and sent a map of). This was so the mission team had backup who would be ready to mobilize as needed, all without being associated with Veronica, Hubble Town, and most especially Alterra.
Although Alterra wasn’t afraid of territories in its rank (which Bleulle had no lack of), who’d want trouble when it could be avoided?
...
At this time, Kalfene had no idea what was coming to him. He was focused on his work. He was busy ignoring his current guest, let alone pondering what other people were planning to do to him.
The guest looked to be in his 40s, meaning he was probably in his 50s or older. He was a big man with curly hair and with curly beard awkwardly tied at the bottom, which made it look particularly puffy.
"I heard someone from my area tried to recruit you, and they got beaten up," he said, looking at Kalfene from head to toe before giving a teasing smirk. "Aren’t you feeling smug? People from cities are fighting for you."
Kalfene, who was concentrating on his project, rolled his eyes. "Kahonn... I’m a little Class C Toolmaker," he said. "As soon as the others learn what I know, they’ll get rid of me."
"You say that as if most people don’t get stuck at Class D in their lifetimes..." the other man said, looking at himself and shaking his head. "Anyway, what are you going to do, then?"
Kalfene shrugged. For now, he... really didn’t have much of a plan. He was never the scheming type. He just wanted to do what he loved, and at the same time, he didn’t like feeling uncomfortable with his conscience.
So here he was, at that awkward place where he wanted to work, but was purposely made uncomfortable to do so at the same time.
He sighed and just looked at the curly-haired guest. "How are you in Hassen?" he asked.
Kahonn naturally saw the change of topic, but he didn’t push it anymore.
The two of them were cousins from the same Town, and two of them awakened there, too.
It was just that the Lord there decided to imprison them and make them work long hours. They escaped and were separated, eventually getting recruited in Cities. In Kalfene’s case, it was the young Otto who helped him out. Kahonn’s? Well, he just happened to come across a caravan heading to Hassen after days of running from beasts.
Kahonn sighed. "I went away for a vacation for a while."
"Approved?"
"Of course not," he said. He didn’t even say goodbye. "Fortunately, they’re busy partying to care for me," he said. "Besides, I made enough Token Guards to last them and their subsidiaries through several wars."
Kalfene couldn’t help but look worriedly at Kahonn. The guy was from Hassen City, which was even more powerful than Bleulle, and even had darker methods. If he irked the Lord there—
It was around this time that they heard of a wisp approaching—while they were indoors—and their eyes widened. It was a projectile that seemed to have passed the narrow opening from the window!
Their high level gave them enough reaction time to stand up and go as far from where it’d land as possible.
Poof!
Thick, billowing smoke emerged from it, and they had no choice but to head out the door.
"HEY!"
"A thief?"
"HELP!"
Kahonn even feared that Hassen had found him already! Cringe!
Anyway, the guards arrived around the same time as the clearing of the smoke. Kalfene’s movements were closely watched by the Lord and there was always a guard nearby the toolmakers (to detect and/or block potential poachers) so the response time was fairly fast.
Anyway, they (with Kahonn just pretending to be a random friend) told them it seemed like a theft, but only a few aether letters had been stolen.
The guards nodded and said they’d look into it before leaving them alone.
"Wow... It’s already starting, huh?"
He had heard that Kalfene’s life was being purposely made harder.
Kalfene shrugged. "I’ll just close the windows next time."
It wasn’t the first time thieves tried to take some things from him. After all, a set of Aether Letters really did sell for a lot.
There were rules in the City of course, but they were often vague as—according to what they knew—making things too specific cost a lot of money.
The cost of implementing rules also increased as rank and population increased. A City with a million people naturally wouldn’t be cheap to maintain, and its rules and laws wouldn’t be inexpensive to implement, so there were a number of loopholes some people took advantage of.
He could only sigh, taking things as it were. Kahonn helped him do an inventory so they could determine how many aether letters they lost. Kalfene would then make a report to the guards, but that’d be more of a formality, especially with his current status.
"Wow... this is nice quality..." Kahonn mumbled at some point, catching Kalfene’s attention. Unexpectedly, Kalfene did not recognize the roll that his cousin was holding.
That was definitely not there before.
Looking closer, Kalfene realized that it was even made of paper, which was a popular stationery sold by the Golds back then.
He took it from Kahonn and held it up, confused.
"Huh? What is this?"