31 Chapter 30 (1/2)

Wilfred's mind raced. The royal family? What did they want with him. His family was equally stunned, looking at each other and then to Wilfred, frozen in place. The knocking persisted and Wilfred shot a glance outside once more through the window. When he caught a glimpse of the person in the carriage, he visibly relaxed.

(Dang, I had forgotten with everything that was going on.)

Wanting to calm down his nervous looking family he tried to play it cool.

”It's alright. I know who that is. ”

Grabbing his bag with everything he had prepared that morning, he went and opened the door, facing a very vexed emissary. He looked Wilfred up and down, clearly judging him and finding him wanting.

”The royal princess, Liucija, wishes to see you. The carriage outside will escort you to the castle. ”

That struck Wilfred as quite odd, did Lucy have a sister?

He stepped outside under the watchful gaze of the knights and tried to appear as less threatening as he could. The carriage door opened and he stepped inside.

Seated across from him was Lucy, however she appeared very different than usual and wore a very long elegant robe and not the usual academy clothes that Wilfred was used to see her in.

As he sat down on the comfortable cus.h.i.+oned seat, Wilfred made a small comment.

”Well, you sure know how to grab someone's attention.”

Instantly her hands went up and she shook them dismissively while blus.h.i.+ng.

”No no, you misunderstand. Ugh. It's my father, he insists on this stuff. Ever since I graduated, thanks to Lucius and your help, he's been overjoyed and I've been less of an outcast. Even grandfather is happy about this. Still, he wouldn't let me go out to talk to you without an escort. ”

Wilfred had a hard time empathizing with her, there wasn't much of his life experience that was anything like hers. He knew she did not have it easy and that matters were more complicated than he could know in regards to the politics of the royal family but it was a sort of 'first world problem' to him.

”Ah I see. Well, thanks for coming by. Been doing much since getting out of the academy for this break?”

In answer to his question, she fetched a small notebook that was sitting besides her and handed it to him.

”This is all I could find regarding the Society of the Video Game. They haven't been very active lately, most of what I found out was at least some years ago. I didn't get an exact location but it seems they're settled in the Moburi Kingdom.”

Wilfred was pleasantly surprised. Lucy had mentioned she would try to use her connections to find out about them but he had dismissed it in his mind, thinking she wouldn't have been able. Now he felt a tinge of regret for not trusting her.

'Thanks. This will be useful. Say, who's Liucija though?”

With a heavy sigh, Lucy explained.

”Well, my mother named me Lucy but that didn't do for my grandfather. It wasn't a royal name so they gave me another one but hardly anyone even uses it.”

”Ah, that's why it's still Lucy when I a.n.a.lyzed you. Where are we going? I'm afraid I can't really stay, I need to leave town for a bit.”

Lucy's facial expression dropped and she looked concerned.

”What, why?”

After Wilfred explained the last few days to her, she tried to talk him out of his plan.

”But you can't just leave like that, what about the academy, your parents and us?”

It was precisely for them that he was doing this. If a ruthless organization would find out about his friends and family, they might torture them or use them as hostages. Part of Wilfred's plan included creating a false trail to lead them off.

”I need to do it. I'll be back some day, when I'm more ready. Can you drop me off at the adventurers guild please?”

Lucy was not thrilled with his plan and it showed.

”But you'll be all alone what if… ”

Wilfred cut her off and whispered really low.

”Remember, I'm not exactly from this world. I know what I'm doing. ”

It was hard to remember that this ten year old boy was not one and Lucy relented with her objections, dropping him off at the guild.

Time was rather short now with all this commotion. Likely word would get around about a boy getting out of a royal carriage. Already people on the street were staring at him, stopping what they were doing to look his way.

Swiftly, Wilfred made his way inside and looked for Halam and his friends.

It seemed they had been here for some time already and had been waiting for them. Indeed, when he approached them they turned around and greeted him.

”Ah there you are. ”

Wilfred apologized for being late.

The group then walked up to the clerk.

”Ah, h.e.l.lo Halam. Finished your request? ”

Halam nodded and presented the dimensional bag to Lyona but also added a comment.

”There's two magic items to auction in the bag and the rest is stolen goods that we recovered. ”

(Hah. Seems that Alcot kept that chest armor then.)

In exchange, she took out a large orb from under the counter. It's design looked alien and more like something from Wilfred's world. Metallic and spherical with different types of runes inscribed all over it.

Halam and his party placed their hands on it and it started to glow shades of orange and purple. Then, a voice spoke out from the sphere, it was very mechanical in sound.

”Request completed. Reward adjusted based on difficulty. Pay out 415 Gold. ”

Wilfred was impressed by the object. It almost looked like some kind of AI. However, when the reward was announced he was rather disappointed.

(d.a.m.n, I got shafted. The real reward was all the loot from Blackjack.)

The clerk fetched money from a large chest behind her and put it all in a large coin pouch before putting it on the counter.

But to Wilfred's surprise, Halam handed him the whole bag.

”We talked about it and none of us would feel right about not giving you the sum of it. We'll be getting a good amount from the auction anyways. Except Alcot, his part of it is going for his chest armor. ”

Alcot spoke up.

”Aye. And if it weren't for you, I wouldn't have got that armor.”

Then Fig added to the conversation.

”It's a good idea in this line of business to keep good relations too. We might want to work with you again in the future and even though we owe you a favor, we still feel this way. ”

”Aww, thanks guys.”

(This isn't so bad then. I've got 217 Gold pieces and change plus this 415 and the golden Galangal, nine of them at 40 gold per… I have about 972 ish in a.s.sets. Not to mention the scroll that gave me a new spell.)

Not wanting to stay too long, Wilfred shook their hand and told them he'd come back some time. It was a lie but better than try to tell them the truth.

That business taken care of, he headed to the market for some survival supplies to last him a few years. Transporting them might be annoying which is why he'd aim for the bare minimum.

He walked with haste, quickly reaching his first stop, Galerion's shop. After talking a bit with Fig, he realized he was missing a few tools for his alchemy and went to shop there due to his relation with the old man. Not to forget his discount either.

He cut the small talk short and headed straight to the point.