Chapter 8: The wolf in new clothing

Edward nodded and walked towards the door the guard pointed to. After showing the piece of paper at the entrance he was swiftly led inside.

It was a simple room in which another guard was sitting behind a desk that had a single chair placed in front of it. On the desk laid a simple wooden tablet. The guard motioned for Edward to take a seat on chair before saying: “Give me that paper.”

The guard took the piece of paper and looked over it before pointing towards the wooden tablet.

“Put your hands on that tablet. It will read your mana to check your level and if you’re wanted in any other city.”

Edward didn’t hesitate and placed his hand on the tablet. Slowly, words started appearing on the tablet as well.

<Name: N/A>
<Race: Human,*****>
<Age: 18>
<Level 1>
<Class: N/A>
<Title: N/A>
<Guild: N/A>
<Affiliation: N/A>
<Achievements: N/A>
<Crimes: N/A>

The guard looked at the tablet with a deep frown for a long time before turning back towards Edward.

“Where are you from again?”

“Just a small village in the forest. It didn’t really have a name, sir. Is there any problem?”

“Not really, as you don’t have crime registered in any city, but it’s weird to not have even your name registered.” After thinking for a while, he sighed and said: “I’ll make a pass in your name here for now, but you must get to the Registration Hall after leaving here and get an official registration.”

“All right, sir.”

“Good. What’s your name?”

“Edward Black.”

The guard took another piece of paper before writing a few words on it and passing it to Edward.

“Take this paper and head with it to the Registration Hall.” He then proceeded giving a few directions on how to get there before continuing: “As soon as you get registered, come straight here so I can hand you a valid pass.”

Edward nodded, thanked the guard and walked out. Following the guard’s directions, he quickly traversed the crowded streets of the city and rushed towards the Registration Hall. He took around five minutes before arriving in front of a huge white building with the name <Registration Hall< written in bold letters on a plaque to the side. After stepping through it’s doors, he arrived inside a big hall with more than a dozen desks, each with a queue formed in front of it.

After looking at the plaques on top of each desk, he found one that said <Name Registration> and walked towards it. There were only a few women in queue and each one of them was carrying a baby in her arms, situation which made Edward feel not a small amount of awkwardness.

After waiting in queue for fifteen or so more minutes it was finally his turn. The clerk looked at Edward who just stepped to his desk with an awkward look on his face and asked in a monotone tone: “Did you forget to bring him or what?”

Edward looked confused and asked back: “Forget to bring what?”

“The child. How are you going to register a child’s name without bringing him here so we can read his mana?” asked the clerk with an impatient look in his eyes.

“That… I’m here to register my name, not my child’s.” Replied Edward with his head lowered slightly.

It took a moment for the clerk to understand what he was saying before he asked: “Are you saying that your parents didn’t register your name when you were born?”

“Yes.” Answered Edward with a nod before continuing “I came from a small village in the middle of the forest and my mother didn’t have the money to go and register me into the city when I was born.”

The clerk said something under his breath before pointing towards the wooden tablet on the desk.

“Place your hands there.”

Edward did as he was told and similar writing appeared on the tablet once more, only with a few less lines this time.

<Name: N/A>
<Race: Human,*****>
<Age: 18>

“Well, damn. You weren’t lying. You must be the countriest bumpkin that ever lived.”

A vein bulged on Edward’s forehead when he heard the clerks words but didn’t say anything and just kept silent.

The clerk then frowned and asked: “Are you a demi-human?”

“Demi-human? What is that?”

The clerk sighed and asked: “Are both of your parents humans?”

“Yes.”

The clerk thought for a few minutes before shrugging and muttering: “Whatever. If the tablet doesn’t know and he doesn’t either, how should I.” He then looked at Edward once more and said: “Okay, tell me your name so I could register you.”

“Edward Black.”

The clerk then tapped the name part on the tablet with his finger, making it light up like a bulb, and wrote something on some kind of wooden keyboard that was on his side of the desk. Once he was done, the text on the tablet changed.

<Name: N/A> ———><Name: Edward Black>

“It’s done. You are now registered with the city and are free to go.”

Edward stood up and started walking straight towards the exit.

‘That fucking... Country bumpkin? Me? I’ve been living inside a city twice the size of this one for my whole life. Hmph.’

After getting out, he kept swearing at the clerk under his breath as he made his way back towards the gate. At the gate, he registered and finally received his pass, which was just a piece of wood with no particular markings.

Once he got out of the room at the gate, he let out a sigh and looked at the sky above: “I can’t believe it took me an entire day just to finish with fucking immigration. I guess I’ll leave exploration of the city for tomorrow.”

He took one last look at the crowded, bustling with activity streets of the city before heading outside the gate. The guard at the gate gave him a weird look, but didn’t bother stopping him.

Edward returned to Minx and started complaining: “Minx you don’t know how lucky you were not having to deal with those guards or bastard clerks. None of them were even remotely polite. I even had to beg to get money for a pass. It was…”

He kept complaining for a long time and once he felt he had enough, he laid down, hid his pass and silver coins at the base of a tree, placed his head on Minx’s soft fur and closed his eyes to sleep.

Waking up inside his mind, he immediately started pestering Fenrir to play with him once more. Eventually, Fenrir relented and they spend the night playing games inside his mind.

In the morning of the next day, he woke up on the mountain once more. His body was now completely covered in blood and feathers.

“What the fuck did this guy eat that had so many fathers… Minx, lick.”

After getting licked clean, he traveled back to retrieve his wares before asking Minx to wait for him once again and heading towards the gate.

After waiting in queue for half an hour, he showed his pass to the guard and was allowed entry without any issue.

“Finally, I can explore this place, but where should I start?” he asked himself when he happened to spot a big map painted on the inside of the wall not that far from the gate.

On top of it, in big letters it said <City of Ashes> and under it was a short history of the city, history which of course Edward skipped and to look directly at the map below.

Right after passing through the southern gate, the gate he was at right now, there seemed to be a large residential area. Inside the residential area there were only a few noticeable buildings, the Registration Hall, which Edward visited yesterday, the stables, a series of inns and a big house right in the center of the area on which it was written <City Lord Manor>.

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“I guess I’ll go and look for an inn, but first let’s check what else is there.”

He then looked at the eastern side which was full of guild building: merchant guild, apothecaries guild, armor smithing guild, weapon smithing guild, brewing guild and so on.

“So this must be the artisan guild area and it appears the marketplace is also there, I’ll eventually have to go there as well, but that’s not what I’m looking for.”

On the western side of the city, there appear to only be guilds as well: adventurer guild, merchant guild, beast taming guild, hunter guild and so on. There were even a few army buildings in that area.

“A bit more interesting, but still not right.”

Next he reached the northern side and a smile appeared on his lips. The entire northern area didn’t have any specific buildings marked on it and it simply said <Pleasure district>

“Hehe.. That’s exactly what I was looking for. I know that they had to have one of these.”

He then focused on the center of the city, which seemed split into three equal parts. In the south was the <Church> in the northeast <Library> and in the northwest <Magician Guild>.

“Well, besides the pleasure district I must also visit the library and the magician guild.” Mumbled Edward as he kept rubbing his inexistent beard while thinking about which one he wanted to visit first.

He wanted to go to the pleasure district, but he needed some money, clothes and a bath first, so that was out of the question. The library and the magic guild could wait a day of two as well.

“I guess I should go and check out the market place for some decent clothes as I still have a few money left. I can’t go around looking like this.” He said as he looked down as his now red pair of trousers and exposed upper body.

With this though in mind, he took one more good look at the map before sprinting towards the marketplace through the crowded streets.

Swears and cursed kept sounding in his wake as he kept bumping into people while he was running towards the marketplace, but Edward paid them no mind. He didn’t have that much time because he had to leave at night so didn’t feel like wasting time on walking slowly.

Edward entered the marketplace area and was a bit overwhelmed by the noise there. There were stalls set up by people everyone and each and every one of them was competing who could yell what they were selling the loudest.

“Damn, how I wish I had a pair of ear plugs.” Mumbled Edward as he covered his ears using the palm oh his hands and started walking though the crowd looking for a clothes store.

It took Edward twenty minutes until he managed to find a store that sold clothes. Stepping inside the store, everyone turned towards him with a disgusted look on their faces. Edward planned to pay them no heed and browse for some clothes, when one petite girl that seemed to work there came up to him with an awkward expression.

“Sir, I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave our store. We don’t serve…” She stopped here and took a long look at Edward without continuing.

Edward understood what she was trying to say and replied with indignation: “How am I supposed to change clothes if I am not even allowed inside a clothing store? Don’t you thing that’s a bit unfair?”

“I’m sorry sir, but your look and smell is disgusting the other customers. Please understand I don’t mean no disrespect. It’s just the store regulation.”

Edward wanted to refute the girl’s words, but he realized that she was probably right and said: “You are cute enough so I won’t make things difficult for you. Can you at least tell me where I could buy some clothes and take a bath? I’m new to the city and had long and hard journey until I finally got here.”

“Thank you for understanding, sir. For new clothing, you could try looking at the stalls set by novice craftsmen. They are quite cheap and if you are lucky you might even find some good looking clothes. They also need the money and are for sure to ignore your current appearance. As for a bath, that is only possible if you buy a room at an inn. I would suggest the Violet Flower inn. Even if they are a bit.. different, they are quite kind and will probably agree to rent you a room. The other inns will probably end up turning you down if you look like this and have no guild affiliation with them.”

Edward nodded and threw a silver coin from his pouch towards the girl before thanking her and turning around to leave.

“You’re welcome and thank you as well.” Replied the girl as she did a small cutesy with a smile on her face before turning around and leaving to help the other customers.

‘Damn she was cute.’ Thought Edward as he started browsing though the stalls in the market place. It took a while until he finally found one that was selling clothes. The clothes looked quite ugly for someone that was used to modern clothing, but they were indeed cheep. After browsing that area for a few more minutes, he finally stumbled upon something he liked. It was a simple gray tunic, with one side reaching the knees and the other a bit longer by twenty or so centimeters. It also had a black cordon tying it at the waist. It looked quite simple, but compared to everything else he saw, it wasn’t that bad.

Approaching the young man at the stall, Edward asked: “Excuse me, how much for this tunic? And do you have more of them?”

The young man looked excited to have a customer and said: “Six coppers for one and I only made three. If you buy all three of them I can sell them to you for 15 coppers.”

“You have a deal, but do you have any underwear?”

“Underwear?” asked the young man, looking quite confused.

‘Oh, it doesn’t exist here, does it?’ thought Edward as he answered with a sigh: “I mean stuff to wear underneath your clothes, you know, around your private areas.”

The young man took a piece of cloth that looked close enough to boxers, just that it wasn’t made from an elastic material, from under the stall and showed it to Edward.

“I only have these underpants. They don’t really sell so I only made a single piece. Two coppers.”

‘It doesn’t look bad, too bad he only has one pair…’

“I’ll take it. Can you make more? I’ll buy them from you.”

“Sure, sir. How many would you like?”

“Around ten.”

The young man thought for a while and said: “I can make them until tomorrow and you can come pick them up.”

“Hmm, then I wanted to ask you. It’s possible to make them out of an elastic material?”

“Elastic? I don’t understand you, sir.”

“It’s fine then. I’ll come buy them tomorrow.”

Edward paid the young man and took his clothes, buying also another pair of simple white trousers, before heading back towards the city gate. He needed to look at the map and see where that Violet Flower inn was. He found the inn quite quickly on the map, but was a bit sad that it was quite far away from the gate. He went in the direction of the inn anyway since he didn’t feel like getting thrown out of any other inn.

As he walked closer to the inn, Edward noticed that the people on the street started having all kind of different animalistic features. There were people with cat ears, dog ears, wolf ears, all kind of tails, hoofs and you name it. The strange thing was that all of those people were looking at him weirdly and not the other way around. He already knew that there were demi-humans in this world so he ignored their looks as he continued on his way.

Edward stepped through the Violet Flower inn’s doors and was surprised to find out that the main hall of the inn was also full of demi-humans. They were all sitting around at the tables, eating and drinking happily, but as soon as Edward stepped inside, they all stopped and looked at him weirdly.

Edward once again ignored their looks and walked towards the main counter. There, he finally understood why the inn was called Violet Flower. Behind the counter, there was a girl who, if he had to describe only using one word, it would be exotic. She was also a demi-human, quite ironically half wolf. She had long silver hair that cascaded down her shoulder with two violet ears poling through her head upwards and a bushy violet tail moving rhythmically behind her back.

Her blue innocent eyes got fixed on Edward as soon as he stepped inside and she wrinkled her small nose slightly. As Edward walked in front of the counter, the girl look scared and took a step back.

Some of the male customers stood up from their seats as soon as the girl stepped back and gave Edward unfriendly looks. Edward looked down at his trousers and finally understood what was with the weird looks and the girl’s actions.

Lifting his hand up he said: “Please don’t be scared. I didn’t take in consideration your sense of smell. I imagine it must stink, but I just need a place to take a bath. I’ve had a hard and long journey.”

The girl took another step back and wrinkled her nose adorably a couple more times before saying with fear: “The bath is in the back. You… you can go. There is no one using it right now.”

Edward sighed and said: “Please don’t be scared. I really mean you no harm. How much?”

The girl stuttered as she said: “Ffffreee. It’s free for you, sir.”

‘Maybe she won’t be so scared after I take a bath and get rid of the blood smell…’

Edward sighed before placing a silver coin on the counter and walking towards the direction the girl said the bath was in.

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