Shades of the New World

Chapter 119: More bindings

In the cafeteria, Evin sat down after ordering the day's free food. Glancing around, he saw a mixture of adoring and fearful gazes. Most of the frightful looks came from the older children while most of the adoration came from the younger children.

'Well, soon it will all turn to fear,' Evin guessed self-depreciatingly.

The mental age of 6-year-old mage children were almost 9 or 10 years due to their high intelligence. Naturally, they would gossip incessantly like teenagers.

There were many children who saw Evin's group leave the Beast's den, and somehow, rumors of what happened spread everywhere. Evin wouldn't care much, but he guessed that he should at least look like he was mournful.

It wasn't hard since he sat alone and ate bland stuff with a serious expression. But in reality, he was just entertaining Runa inside his body, as per his promise. The skinshifter also stopped calling him mother and was getting used to calling him big brother.

'Life is good' Evin absentmindedly though as he ate his food. As he was daydreaming, Nasst's voice called out to him from somewhere. Evin looked up and saw the man leading a bunch of children like a duck mama with her chicks. 

"What are you doing here, Nasst?" Evin asked with interest. Suddenly, everyone around Evin looked at him with shock and scorn for speaking to an instructor so casually.

"What? I can't eat here? The kids got a bit hungry and I decided to accompany them here," Nasst laughed.

A waitress hurriedly walked towards him from the kitchen and asked for what he wanted. Usually, the kids here would queue up to receive their food. If someone wanted something other than the day's special, they had to pay a bit extra. Nasst ordered some stew with bread and sat down next to Evin. the other kids sat nearby as well. A kid that looked about 5 timidly sat next to Evin, before realized he had to queue up for food and hurriedly standing up and walking away.

"Also, I forgot to show you this," Nasst said and brought out a wrinkled piece of paper.

Evin read through the abysmal handwriting with some difficulty, but got the gist of it.

[The head of the **** department of the Northern Tribe Union, Nasst, will teach Eviendra of Smallwall town up to 2nd class Magic knowledge, thanks to his Rights of Instructing. 

After Eviendra is deemed to be ready by Nasst's opinions, he will work for the **** department of the Northern Tribe Union for one year]

Reading through the piece of paper, Evin found some interesting information.

'One needs to receive the Rights to Instruct and also there are tiers to Magic knowledges...'

"What's with this blank space?" Evin asked.

"That's the full name of my department, but I can't quite write it down easily. But you can be assured that it exists, and if you're still dubious, you can ask Zorrik about it," Nasst explained.

"Oh, I'll do that later in the day, then," Evin acknowledged.

Nasst didn't really think the boy would acknowledge that he will do a background check on him in front of his face. He smiled amusedly and waited.

Evin asked for a pen and started writing: "Here"

Nasst glanced at the paper and read out under his breath.

" [Nasst will not plot against Evin or his family's safety for 20 years after this Contract is made] "

"Please word that a bit better and add it. I wanted to put in both sides, but you're kinda too strong and influential, so I didn't bother. If you want to add that in, be my guest," Evin said as he chewed on some meat.

"Hah, you're like those old men who won't leave anything to chance. I like it! Come to me at dinner time, I should be done with the Contract by then," Nasst laughed.

'Well, I don't wanna get killed for learning something I shouldn't learn during one of your assassination and spying missions...' Evin grumbled in his head. The man's department was obviously something too high-end for the current Evin to play with. If he wasn't careful, he wouldn't even know how he died.

The two talked a bit during lunch and finally, Evin was out of the cafeteria and Karan's voice came into his head.

[Hey, uhh, Evin?] the usually rude skinshifter was acting awfully polite and reserved.

[Yeah?] Evin asked, munching on some minced meat. The skinshifter seemed to hesitate slightly, before resolutely speaking. 

[I think I should stay by Arza's side for the time being,] Karan said.

Hearing the man, Evin paused slightly and felt a bit disgruntled. He didn't want to lose this metal skinshifter but thinking about the subject a bit, he realized that it was quite reasonable. Evin didn't want to objectify Karan, but he didn't really have a use for him, since he had Runa now. It was better to share him with Arza, since the boy was suddenly left alone in a completely new environment. 

Thinking about the pitiful manner that Arza acted when he was left alone yesterday, Evin felt bad about the whole matter. 

[Sure how much sorbothium do you want to take with you?] Evin asked.

[No that's fine Me and Arza will think of a way to find money. Honestly, you're too much of a wastrel. And you spoil the kid too much, it would be good if he were to earn something for himself,] Karan refused stubbornly.

Evin was secretly glad that the skinshifter refused, since refined sorbothium was difficult to find. But thinking about it, he was very close to the person who owned a literal sorbothium mining town, so he probably didn't need to worry about it too much.

After finishing their meal, Evin walked towards Arza's room. Evin knocked on the door and waited briefly. Footsteps came from the other side, but it didn't sound like Arza's. It was the sounds of high heels. 

Evin briefly wondered who it was, and looked at the door expectantly. The door opened and an extremely beautiful Northerner woman with glasses opened the door. The woman wore a white coat and was holding some book in her hands. On her head, a leveled Pink Horn grew grandly.

'It seems the Arza really wasn't lonely here,' Evin snickered in his mind, before looking behind the woman.

Arza was sitting on a chair with something akin to an IV infusion hanging from above. The liquid inside the pack seemed to be the distilled version of the Core Shard.

'Oh,' Evin thought and greeted the woman.

"Hello," he said with a smile.

"And who might you be?" the woman asked.

"I'm Arza's friend, just wanted to see how he was doing," Evin said and greeted Arza.

The red-haired boy was becoming increasingly silent during these days, but Evin wasn't worried. Everyone went through a silent phase. And besides, Arza would have Karan at his side for the time being.

"Umm, when is the infusion going to end?" Evin asked.

"It will take another hour or so," the woman answered.

"Could you leave for a few minutes, I have something secret I need to discuss with him"

The woman glanced at Evin indifferently and refused.

"I have to stay near him, so that nothing bad will happen during the Core Shard's infusion. It's Tribe procedures, so I can't defy it even if I wanted to," the woman replied curtly.

Evin thought about it and gave up. 

"I'll just wait here, then. Please don't mind me," Evin said.

The woman glanced at Arza and saw that he didn't mind and could only give up. She sat down on one of the seats and resumed reading her book.

"Did you finish absorbing your Core Shard?" Arza asked.

"Nope, I'll probably need to spend three months directing the thing towards my heart. How about you?"

"I'm not sure. This was only one tenth of the total amount and I need to wait for instructor Otora to make sure I'm ready to receive the next batch of infusions," Arza replied. 

Evin thought about Otora's name in his head and realized that it was the instructor that gave out Alchemy missions. 

"How's life without me?" Evin asked with a grin.

"It's a bit boring, but I've been reading through the book that instructor Losha gave us. There really wasn't anything different I also checked the Mission Pillar again, but there weren't any interesting missions, so I decided to try out the Core Shard and the handbook told me to contact instructor Otora," Arza described the previous day in a childish manner and asked Evin: "How was your day at the mansion with instructor Nasst?"

Hearing the boy's words, Otora's indifferent faze crumbled down and she looked at Evin with some fear and curiousity. She hurriedly erased her initial judgement of Evin being an arrogant child who was trying too hard to talk like an adult.

'This one really was an adult And he killed Zakhlo,' Otora thought in her head with dread.

Evin noticed the instructor's eyes, and smugly began narrating his day.