His discussions with Nefrati made his journey bearable as he flew threw the forest. One of the advantages of not flying during the Blood Moon was that the Magical Beasts weren’t as aggressive as then.
So no one actually attacked him. However, he stayed cautious as he moved through the forest. Eventually, he got to the strip where he had last seen the monstrous 5th Circle Magical Beast.
Thankfully, he didn’t notice anyone of that level around, so his journey had no hiccups. He lost any stress once he got past it and kept flying for another hour. After that, it was just a smooth flying experience.
4 hours after he started from the location of his fight with the Viscount, he noticed that the forest was clearing out. His mind was relieved and he quickened his pace. While doing that, he quickly disguised himself.
This time, he chose to go for a more unnoticeable disguise since his previous one was very recognizable and in a lot of trouble. The guise he decided was the face of one of the Mercenary Group members of the Crown Band. He didn’t care about the havoc he would create with that face.
As soon as he exited the forest, he saw a city in the distance. It was Phoenix Greens, the same city he had left when he went to the Blood God’s temple.
He approached the city and slowly descended to the ground when no one was around. Then he walked toward the city. Compared to how he left it, it seemed a lot more on alert. There were a lot more guards at the checkpoint for him to enter.
When he got near, he noticed the nervous expressions on the guards. They were frantically searching for a person among the people who entered. There was a line of people entering the city and each one of them was being checked stringently.
Leo looked around to see how many eyes were on him. Seeing that there were a lot of people there, it was easy for them to miss him. Once he confirmed that none of the guards were looking at him, he sunk down into the shadows.
A girl who was with her father and mother was looking around and saw Leo sink into the shadows. She couldn’t believe her eyes and asked her parents about it.
“Mom, Dad. That person went into the ground,” she pointed at where Leo was standing.
“Stop talking and stand quietly. We don’t want to get into any trouble,” the father said.
Meanwhile, the shadow shot through the gate with great speed such that the guards and people there didn’t even see a blur. Within seconds, Leo was far into the city, away from the gate.
He got into an alley that was very dimly lit and not populated. The shadow wavered a little bit as he stepped out. He stretched a little and looked at himself. When he did, he quickly realized that there was something he missed.
His clothes were very battered and it was clear he had gone through a fight. He would need to change to not look very out of place. Thankfully, he had the perfect excuse of coming out of the forest, but he didn’t want to attract too much attention.
He stepped out of the alley, landing on the main street immediately. His perception was spread out as wide as possible to make sure that he knew if anything out of place was happening.
The city seemed very weird so he wanted to know if he needed to leave. He walked around looking for the same inn he had stayed in several days ago. While they wouldn’t recognize him, at least he would know that they were going to treat him very well.
After ten minutes of looking, he found the inn he was searching for – The Prancing Pony. He entered the inn and saw a similar vibrant scene in the bar. The people there weren’t concerned at all about the troubles the guards were going through.
He walked up to the counter to get a room for himself. While doing so, he talked to the boy who was there to get some information. It was the same boy he tipped when he stayed there.
“Hello, how can I help you sir?”
“I am just looking for a single room for myself. How much is it?” He asked the boy.
“Well, the best room we have is a suite for 3000 Starcoins a day. The normal room is 300 Starcoins a day. The elite room is 1000 Starcoins a night,” the boy said exactly what he said last time.
“I’ll take an Elite room for… what’s the date?” He asked the boy. After going through the Blood God’s temple, his sense of time was completely skewed. He had no idea how long he spent in there.
“19th January.”
Leo thought about what he could do. He wanted to make it back to the academy before they left, which was on the 1st of March. However, he wanted as much time for himself to practice without any disturbance as well.
He had a lot on his agenda before going back to the academy. To finish it, he expected that he would need at least a month. Fortunately for him, he had that long.
“I’ll take the room for the next 40 days,” he said.
His response made the boy shocked.
“Did you say 40 days, sir?”
“Yes. Do I need to pay upfront?”
“We need half of the payment as an advance,” the boy said.
“Sure,” Leo said while taking out some money from his dimensional ring. As he did, he asked the questions he wanted answers for.
“Oh, that is because of the lockdown, I think. We don’t know why there was a lockdown of the entire city since it happened during the Blood Moon, but the biggest rumor is that it was because of the Fairmount family.
The lockdown was only for less than a day, but it made the whole city change and become more cautious. We don’t know why,” he said.
When he heard about the Fairmount family, his eyes narrowed. That meant that the lockdown was for him. He was contemplating leaving the city entirely and going back to Eldridge, but the boy’s outstretched hand made him reconsider.
There wasn’t any overly strong energy inside the city when he entered, and the Viscount was only a 4th Circle Mage. There weren’t any real threats to him at all, except for the off chance that someone from the Fairmount family decided to come to the city.
Leo placed the money in the boy’s hand. He quickly started counting it to make sure that the money was enough. As he got through the stack, he noticed that there was an extra 1000 Starcoins.
“Sir, you gave 1000 Starcoins more,” he said.
Leo smiled at his naivety. He acted similarly last time as well.
“That’s your tip for the information,” he said. He left the boy thinking about the last time he got a tip like that for a few words.