The trail led Kotori through several alleys and parts of the city. Soon the rocks that lined the road became dirtier, indicating that they were moving towards a poorer part of the city.

They were eventually led into what appeared to be a sort of slums of the city.

Beggars lined the streets many of them with empty cups. Kotori had wondered where the beggars of the city went and it seemed like they were hidden from the general public. It must’ve been an intentional policy by the government of the city. A sweet smell wafted in this area which was not prevalent in the richer parts of the city.

The mana trailed snaked through several more alleys in this area until Kotori was not quite sure where they were anymore.

She decided to still follow the trail more if she became truly lost she would simply use Hikari to raise them above the building and reorient themselves.

The trail eventually thickened indicating they were getting closer to the sack of flour that Kotori had given away.

Soon Kotori found herself in front of a large ramshackle building. The slightly sweet scent in the air was off-putting, especially when mixed with the general smell of human feces in the area.

She wonders what could cause such as sweet smell and realized it was coming from the building itself.

[Perfume?] She thought

She watched the boy run into the building locking the door behind him.

Kotori wanted to enter the building but decided against it. She already felt like she was meddling too much by following the boy to this building already.

Still, Kotori was curious and wanted to investigate why the sweet smell existed in the first place. She also wanted to enter the building to retrieve her piece of Hikari. In truth, it was such a small piece that it didn’t really matter if she lost it, but now

“Kotori I thought we should stop” Amelie said as if reading her intentions and interrupting her thoughts.

“Yeah, Yeah, I know,” Kotori said.

“I think this is unwise as well,” Shu said. It was a rare display of restraint. Shu would follow Kotori through thick and thin so she was surprised to see even he hesitated to enter the building.

Amelie and Shu were right. She shouldn’t cause any issues while they were just here to sell magic flour after all.

Kotori sighed. She called back the portion of Hikari, a small ball of metal ricocheted outside the building shattering the window and connected itself back to her tiara.

Kotori heard several angry voices from the shattered window.

[Whoops] she thought

She probably should’ve asked Hikari to be more subtle with how she got that part of herself out of the building.

“BOY! what did you bring back!” an angry voice rang out from the now broken window

She couldn’t hear the rest of the conversation but there appeared to be an angry male voice yelling at a young boy’s voice.

[Sorry!] Kotori thought,

her karma dropped slightly. But it wasn’t enough to overcome the amount she just got.

Thankfully, that meant that the boy wouldn’t be punished too hard after what she just did.

Kotori with her piece of Hikari collected turned around and left the mysterious building.

** ** **

The next few days were peaceful with Kotori forgetting about the orphan incident.

That was until one day the same orphan came to her again.

He seemed quite apprehensive. His fingers were nervously pawing at each other.

“Yes?” Kotori asked him politely.

Anything that happened between was water under the bridge. She didn’t really hold a grudge against the orphan boy.

“Mr. Gerard invites you to a party” He said holding out a letter. It was high-quality paper, a creamy white that that was stamped with ink seal. The letter made a start contract with the dirty orphan who gave it to Kotori.

Kotori took the letter from the boy and he scampered off without a second look.

She opened the letter which offered her to visit a party hosted by a mysterious man named Gerard.

The invitation gave instructions on how to get to the venue and instructions for Kotori to procure a dress. Kotori herself wore fairly average commoner clothes built for traveling. They were drab and Gerard seemed to know this and made it very clear this was a formal function and that she needed to wear fancy clothing.

The invitation even specified that Kotori’s companions could come.

Kotori considered not going to the venue she didn’t have to reciprocate the invitation after all.

That was until she read the words at the bottom of the invitation.

“I know about the half elf, don’t worry she can come.”

[It seems like this is more of an order…] Kotori realized.

Although the invitation was polite that line was a thinly veiled threat. She showed the rest of the people the invitation.

“I don’t really think we have a choice,” Amelie said.

Umi and Layal gave difficult expression while Shu seemed to be annoyed

[Maybe he’ll be nice?] Kotori thought

She had never heard the name of Gerard before in the city but the way the invitation was sent to him made her suspicious of whether he could be as classy a man as the invitation suggested.

She didn’t have much of a choice but to attend the meeting and see for herself what this “Mr. Gerard” really wanted.

Kitsura

It's weird, I was writing all this time to get #1 trending on scribblehub and now that I reached it I dunno what else to reach for. I do kinda have a new idea for a book, but uhhh do people even like mecha anymore?