Alaric walked forward to get closer to the border of the Eastern Sector when he noticed something.
He looked at the purplish, weightless, perfect blade in his right hand.
"I cannot enter with this..." Alaric couldn't help but sigh.
After all this, the very source of its power was stopping him from entering the area where he could at least survive.
A man walking into the Eastern Sector carrying an exposed, glowing energy weapon would attract the immediate attention of every informant, thief, and city guard within a mile.
He stared at the hilt, his mind working through the mechanics of it.
He remembered watching Tylor and Volt summon and dismiss their own weapons, making them disintegrate into thin air with nothing more than a casual thought.
It looked effortless, like breathing. But as Alaric tried to replicate it, focusing his mind on the purple crystal edge, nothing happened.
The blade remained perfectly solid, humming with that same quiet, unyielding frequency.
He didn't know the trick, he didn't know how to command the conduit to let go.
If he couldn't make it vanish, what were his choices?
He could hide it.
He looked around at the jagged rocks and frozen brush marking the sector's border. He could bury it under the shale or wedge it into a crevice, but the businessman in him immediately rejected the risk.
Leaving his only lifeline completely exposed in a ditch felt like a terrible investment.
If someone found it, or if Volt's men ambushed him on his way back, he would be completely defenseless.
He was stuck between two equally dangerous options.enter the city as a target, or leave his weapon behind and walk in vulnerable.
Alaric let out another harsh, dry sigh, the weight of his new reality pressing down on him as he glared at the purplish steel.
Alaric couldn't wait any longer, he had not eaten or drunk anything.
He could not survive any longer if he waited here thinking about this.
Alaric unwrapped his arm from the perfect weightless blade.
The blade very slowly dropped toward the land, defying the very law of gravity. The moment the blade touched the land, it immediately scattered into tiny purplish energy molecules.
Before Alaric could react to everything happening, those beautiful purplish energy molecules pierced through his body where he had stabbed himself.
The piercing didn't cause any damage, but Alaric felt something he had never felt before.
It was an indescribable feeling.
Alaric didn't give this much thought, he was definitely vulnerable again, but right now food was more important than this.
Alaric slowly marched toward the Eastern Sector border, where not a single official was present for duty.
Alaric scoffed majorly for two reasons first, because not a single official was present, and second, because the Eastern Sector was closest to the Vath Hills.
Only for the sake that, if any natural calamity happens in the Vath Hills, nobles will have enough time to escape.
Alaric entered the sector without any problem, and he was welcomed with the disgusting smell of human waste.
He walked a little faster than his usual speed and started looking for a food shop if available.
"Things have changed... Significantly." Alaric murmured under his breath.
It was different for Alaric, as he was experiencing deja vu and something completely new at the very same time.
More than two hundred people may have already passed Alaric, but no one even cared to ask anything.
After an unknown period of time, Alaric finally found a shop where a loaf of bread and pigeon meat were available.
Alaric almost ran toward the shop and asked immediately, " Water...Do u have water ?"
The shopkeeper glanced at Alaric and narrowed his eyes slightly.
" 1 Silver Coin and 3 Copper coin for whole meal which includes Bread , meat and Water.... Nothing is separately available and most importantly Nothing is free !"
Alaric expected this kind of answer.
He checked his torso pocket and found 3 double silver-circled gold coins and 5 silver coins. Alaric glared at the double silver circled gold coins, one of which was enough to buy this shop thrice and still have some change left
Alaric pulled out two silver coins and tossed them toward the shopkeeper.
The shopkeeper silently took the coins, put them in his handkerchief, and started to prepare the meal.
Alaric nonchalantly whistled. " Change mister ?"
The shopkeeper made a disgusted face, as if someone had asked him for his limbs, but he eventually gave Alaric his change.
After more than two hours, Alaric was functional again.
He had eaten and slept for half an hour, but it was more than enough.
It only took one hour for eating and sleeping, and the other hour was taken to find at least a sleepable place where he could not easily get robbed.
Now, as per Alaric's plan, it was time to go back to the Western Sector.
More specifically, to his very house to see if there were any news or rumors about him missing.
The path from the miserable edges of the Eastern Sector toward the high stone walls of the West was a slow descent into a different kind of chaos.
Alaric kept his head low, his boots rhythmically striking the muddy cobblestones as the scenery shifted.
Shops passed him in a blurring line of poverty and desperation.
Open-air markets where haggard vendors shouted the prices of rotting winter vegetables.
The people here moved like ghosts, their faces hollowed out by the bitter December cold and the crushing weight of the aristocracy's taxes.
Nobody looked up. Nobody made eye contact.
At one point, a heavy commotion broke out near an alleyway as a completely drunk, naked man dashed out into the freezing street, screaming incoherently at the sky before stumbling over a pile of trash.
The surrounding crowd didn't even blink, they simply stepped around his twitching form as if he were nothing more than a fallen branch.
Alaric walked a little faster.
He had lived among these people once, before he became a titan of the ledgers. He knew the rules of the gutter.
If you look at the misery too long, it drags you down with it.
His only goal was his estate, to see if Volt had already seized his assets, or if the Western Sector still believed Alaric Xyle was merely missing.
After nearly an hour of continuous walking, the architecture began to change. The wooden shacks gave way to reinforced brick, and the air smelled less of human waste and more of coal fire.
He was approaching the heavily guarded border of the Western Sector.
Suddenly, a sharp, choked scream pierced through the low hum of the street.
Alaric stopped. He looked to his right, into a narrow, shadow-drenched alleyway between two brick warehouses.
The scene was brutally simple.
Two burly men in grease-stained leather coats had a third man pinned against the brick wall.
A glint of cheap steel flashed in the dim light as one of the attackers drove a heavy dagger deep into the victim's abdomen.
The man sank to his knees, his hands frantically clawing at his own wound as blood began to pool on the cold shale below.
As the dying man's head rolled back, his frantic, blurring vision caught Alaric standing at the mouth of the alley.
"Help..." the man gasped, a crimson bubble popping on his lips. "Please..."
The two murderers froze.
They turned their heads simultaneously, their eyes narrowing suspiciously as they caught sight of Alaric's dust-covered but clearly expensive tailored coat.
Their grips tightened on their weapons, their postures shifting as they evaluated whether they needed to silence a witness.
Alaric's eyes grew bigger, but he didn't flinch. His expression remained as blank as a clean ledger, but internally, thoughts swirled.
This is something i remember but i can't this....damn Amnesia. I can save him , i have powers , i have lumen Siphon but is severing my arm is worth to say one life ? Maybe no it's useless and most importantly it's not my problem.
He didn't care about the dying man, nor did he care about the criminals.
In the grand scheme of his survival, this was just an unexpected expense.
He calmly reached into his pocket, pulled out six heavy copper pounds, and split them evenly in his palm.
With a casual flick of his wrist, he tossed three copper pounds to the first man and three to the second.
The heavy coins clinked sharply against the bloody stones near their boots.
Alaric looked the lead killer directly in the eyes, his voice flat and entirely devoid of emotion.
"I didn't see anything."
The two men glanced down at the coins, then back at Alaric.
A tense, heavy silence stretched between them for three agonizing seconds. Then, the man holding the bloody dagger slowly lowered his weapon, his suspicious glare twisting into a dark, knowing smirk.
He kicked the dying man out of the way and bent down to scoop up the copper.
Alaric didn't wait for them to pocket the money.
He turned on his heel and walked away, his heart beating with that same steady, unnatural, subterranean rhythm as he approached the grand border gates of the Western Sector.
The moment he reached a certain distance, some police officials wearing a black uniform and black mask completely hiding their faces except their eyes marched toward him. Alaric knowingly stopped and waited for them to come.
The first officer came closer and inspected Alaric. "You..who are you ? and how dare you come near Western sector."
Alaric calmly replied, " I am Alaric Xyle You know that guy who owns.....major stocks in Red bamboo."
This shit Amnesia, how can I forget the name of my own damn company?
"Alaric Xyle?" The lead officer lowered his voice, the slit of his mask narrowing.
"Amusing. Because the magistrate's office issued a formal notice two days ago. Alaric Xyle went missing under highly suspicious circumstances. Word is, he was liquidated by outlaws on the trade route. Even Lord Volt claiming he was a close friend of Mr.Xyle and because of them he quite depressed."
A cold weight settled in Alaric's chest, beating in time with his subterranean pulse.
Missing? Outlaws? Volt moved faster than I calculated, and when did i become close friend to Volt?
"Reports can be fabricated, officer," Alaric said, his voice dropping into a dangerous, icy registration.
"A bad investment on a rough road delayed me. Nothing more."
"Is that so?" The officer stepped directly into his space, the scent of cheap tobacco drifting through his mask.
"The Western Sector doesn't just let ghosts walk through the gates because they claim a name. Proof. Give me a signature, or give me a seal."
Alaric knew his papers were ash back in the ravine. But he also knew the baseline arithmetic of the men standing in front of him.
He slipped his hand into his pocket, retrieved two double silver-circled gold coins, and flipped them forward.
They didn't land in the mud, he tossed them straight into the officer's gloved palm.
The officer's eyes widened through the mask.
An average border officer's monthly salary was one double silver-circled gold coin and eleven gold coins. Holding two of these rare, high-tier denominations at once was a staggering anomaly.
A slum imposter couldn't flash this kind of wealth without a noble house backing him.
An absolute silence stretched for three seconds.
The officer looked at the coins, then at the absolute, unflappable arrogance in Alaric's eyes.
The realization hit him hard: if this truly was the missing titan of the Western Sector, crossed and angry, standing in front of him, getting on his bad side was a death sentence for a low-ranking guard.
The officer's hand trembled slightly as he held the coins back out to Alaric, dipping his head into a deep, rushed bow.
"Forgive the scrutiny, sir. The city has been....you know we just works under orders.You may enter."
Alaric marched toward the gate when the officer asked, "Mr.Xyle Just want to ask something ?"
"Yes?" Alaric trying his best to remain calm.
"Lord Volt sent more than fifteen mens to search for you but they didn't find anything."
Alaric's eyes narrowed.
" How can I know about that ? Why don't you go and ask Lord Volt himself."