[ 07: 36 ]

Merrywick walked out of the hospital under searing daylight and immediately cast his sight at the sky. It had been a very long time since he had seen a robust star up close. He missed the sight dearly.

Perhaps it was the universe's way of compensating him...Because he found his vision graced by not one, but two masses of golden light. One was a full sphere, while the other a mere first-quarter for now. Startled, Merrywick recalled the information about those stars in his memories. 

Indeed, there were three stars at the center of the solar system. Together, they were termed as the Trisolaris Magnus. Throughout the 25-hour cycle of day and night, at least two stars always remained visible in the sky during daytime, save for a few exceptional days every year where only one, or all three might be witnessed by those with finer vision.

As for the moons, there was an even more interesting system. The planet, Triton, was the fourth planet of the solar system, and it shared six moons with the third planet of the system. These six moons had extremely complex orbits, traveling between both planets like flies in a loop. The night sky generally wore the reflected lights from one or two moons. 

"Beautiful!" Merrywick sighed. Last night, his mind had been too occupied to take a proper, deep look at the moons. From today, he would make sure to get an eyeful every night.

It had been quite a hassle to shake off the appointment of a mage "entourage" from the Church and the local government. He was certain that until a dozen more devotees of the thirteenth deity were discovered, he could not entirely shake off their pursuit in the shadows. 

This was a sacrifice he was willing to bear. Had he planned to keep his actions hidden from prying eyes, he wouldn't have stayed a second inside the morgue after breaking out of the body freezer. Right now, he had no issues with the trackers known and unknown to him on his body. 

Shshshshsh...

The soft hum of an electric engine brought his attention back to the street he was standing by. The taxi he had called for had arrived.

Entering the small two-seater, he made himself comfortable, sitting sideways so that he could observe the streets they passed by. The driver was an experienced fellow. He remained quiet throughout the ride, letting Merrywick enjoy the sight of the city in daylight.

The streets in sector-2 were almost always clean, the credit for which went to the municipal drones. The streets were spacious, and maintained well enough to deter many traffic issues. However, once they reached the border of sector-3, the conditions changed for the worse. 

The dozen-floor tall buildings became uglier and more congested. The streets grew narrower, littered, with piles of unregulated trash dumps stinking the alleyways. Quality of the shops grew worse. Vendors illegally occupied much of the sidewalks, and the density of the population roaming the streets increased threefold.

Soon, the conditions became even worse as the car entered sector-4. The few buildings used for residential purposes were barely standing. People lived in houses made of wood, foam panels, shipping containers, and thermoplastic materials. A good portion of the population was homeless anyway. 

Merrywick noticed the alert gaze of his driver each time they traveled through the less populated regions. Judging by the curious expressions of those they passed by, it wasn't hard to figure out that commercial transportation services weren't keen on sending their drivers to these areas. The few vehicles they found on their way throughout sector-4 were either armored, heavily customized metal beasts, or cheap, reconditioned, old models with little life left in them.

The first exception to this observation appeared as soon as the car reached its destination. Multiple lightweight racing vehicles were parked outside an enormous spherical building. The number of people entering and leaving its premises could be counted in hundreds. At the topmost point of the steel-clad structure, an old neon signboard read: The Stadia.

Having paid the fare in advance, Merrywick was about to slip out of the vehicle in silence, but the driver patted him on the shoulder as he set foot on the dirty pavement.

"Whatever you do, don't gamble, kid," The middle-aged man said gravely. "I lost 200k Sable right there, in the fourth gallery. That was five years ago. I'm still not out of debt."

Merrywick cocked his head, his gaze boring into the man's face. 

"You got what you deserved, mister. God has forbidden gambling, and you dare to violate his rule?"

"...."

Leaving the speechless fellow behind, Merrywick disappeared within the crowd. Lady Eyreen's informant had promised to wait for him at the gate to the first gallery.

 It took some time to track the guy down. Contrary to his expectations, the informant turned out to be a remarkably old man with his skin loose, hair gone, and teeth misshapen. 

The man's eyes, however, were exceptionally bright, forming an unnatural contrast to the rest of his features. The pale blue pupils scanned Merrywick from head to toe multiple times as he introduced himself. 

"The reason I called you over here is because if you're looking to buy long-term properties here, you need to make some connections beforehand." the old man, who went by the name Galloway, spoke in a clear voice as he led Merrywick inside the Stadia.

"You'll never get a moment of peace unless you get someone to vouch for your ownership, someone with authority around here. Think of it as a protection fee. What you end up paying for that isn't always money, though. For you mages, services concerning magic count too. In fact, I daresay a promise to cast some spells on their behalf would be much more valued than a fat stack of Sables."

"Not unexpected. Please, just point out who has the best influence in this sector, Mr. Galloway. I have the means to handle this," Merrywick said gratefully.

Galloway took him past the first gallery, which was just an ordinary low-end casino. As they entered the second gallery adjacent to it, two tall, thin men in ragged clothing began to tail them.

"Don't worry about them," Galloway said without looking behind. "Security."

Merrywick had no complaints. The second gallery was something akin to a strip club. The men here were rowdier, and the noise was chaotic enough to grate on his eardrums.

Galloway took him to the second floor of the second gallery, where a man not much older than Merrywick himself was sitting on the floor... amidst a heap of scrapped machines. He seemed absorbed entirely in his own world, eyes glued to the junk devices littering the floor.

Cough.

Galloway politely broke the man out of his reverie. 

"Master Lehmann, found you a mage who's interested in a partnership."

Merrywick's gaze flickered towards Galloway's face instantly.

So there was the reason why this old fellow had been trying to direct his strategy towards servitude instead of money. From the very beginning, Merrywick's own opinions hadn't been considered at all. 

Mr. Lehmann looked up at Merrywick and frowned. 

"Why is your system panel not visible? New around the Stadia, aren't you?"

Galloway wildly gestured at Merrywick to comply and make his system panel visible to them.

Merrywick ignored the old guy and took a couple of steps forward, closing in on Mr. Lehmann, his new friend. Lowering a knee to the floor, he brought their faces to the same height and said, "Mr. Lehmann, how good are you at finding people?"

Lehmann looked down at the multitude of destroyed tracking devices around them and snorted. 

"Didn't ask you to prove that you got working eyes, boy. This is your final notice. Display your panel, or get the fuck outta here."

A bright red panel blinked into existence above Merrywick's head. Lehmann took one look and began to laugh.

"Not even a Rank-1 mage yet! No wonder you swaggered in like that! Jessie, kick him out! And Galloway, what the fuck?! Why are you bringing kids to this deal? Don't show your face here if you can't bring a Rank-2 mage next time!"

One of the tall, raggedy securities quickly grabbed Merrywick by the shoulders and began to drag him away. Merrywick complied with the use of force against him, not causing any obstacle to the security in the performance of his duty. 

Behind them, he could hear Galloway sputter, "He's got a silver-rank system, boss! That's the only reason I brought him here! Isn't the big boss secretly recruiting-"

Galloway's voice was cut off. Merrywick had no idea what had happened, as he was already halfway down the staircase.

Just then, Jessie, the security, shoved him from the back a little too hard, making Merrywick stumble and fall face-first to the bottom of the dirty, greasy stairs. 

People nearby began to shout for a fight seeing the spectacle of humiliation. A crowd began to form around them, their focus no longer on the dancing ladies on the stage.

Merrywick recovered his bearings and stood back up very calmly, patting the dirt off his shirt. Jessie sent him a malicious smile, almost certainly a taunt to fight back.

Contrary to what Jessie perhaps expected,  Merrywick smiled as innocently as he had in front of Lehmann. 

"Jessie, I'm gonna be honest," he said with his teeth flashing. "I'm a bit lost. If Lehmann wants me to lose the trackers from the Church Of Sunbreaker and the law enforcers tailing me so that he can offer me a secret contract with his boss who is recruiting mages with at least silver rank systems, there were nicer ways to convey the message."

Jessie's smile froze.

"You're trying too hard to get me worked up and make a scene so that you have an excuse for some drastic security measures, which I'm assuming would legally allow you to detach me from those following me. Galloway has performed his part of a rat very well; a solid nine out of ten for sure. What was his plan if I walked out of here empty-handed? Hint at the secret recruitment scheme he 'let slip' carelessly inside so that I myself ensure that I'm not being followed when I re-enter this place? Safe plan, but a tad too long-winded, I'd say."