After finishing their spar, their group left the arena. However, they were surprised by guards standing at the entry and asking questions to the clerk in charge of selling booking tickets. It was a group of five guards, equipped with good quality equipment. On their armor breastplate, a blazon was designed, a sword on a red background, as if a sword was cleaving a sea of blood. When they saw them emerging from the arena, all the guards turned to face them.

Their captain advanced toward them and asked with an imperative voice. “Which one of you is Edward?”

“That would be me?” Edward answered. Why are guards looking for me? I haven’t done anything peculiar since I arrived. It can’t be linked to the contract with the Lusus naturae, otherwise, they wouldn’t be searching specifically for me.

“You are summoned to the Vega household. Please follow us.” The captain announced in a way that made sure that it was an order and not a question.

“Why are you searching for me?” Edward asked, getting tensed.

“Just follow us without making trouble. Questions can wait until you are in front of master Quintus.”

“You can’t arrest an innocent person just like that. You are guards from the Vega family, you have no right to arrest any random person you want! Only the city guards are in charge of the city’s security!” Aquamarine protested revolted by the injustice.

“It remains to be seen whether this person is innocent or not. He will be questioned about Marc’s disappearance. Besides, it is not an arrest, it is only a kind invitation, that would be foolish to refuse.” The captain retorted while glaring at Aquamarine.

Just like she had said, the Vega family didn’t have the right to arrest citizens as they wanted. Although it was a powerful family, it wasn’t the only one. A delicate balance was formed between the three major families of Vega, Potentia, and Regalis. An independent council had been formed to govern the city to avoid direct frictions between the families. It was this city that was supposed to maintain order and apply the laws. However, in practice, this council wasn’t as powerful as any of the major families. As long as any family wanted something done that wasn’t encroaching on the other families’ interests, it wouldn’t face any obstructions.

How can they know I’m involved in any way with Marc’s disappearance? It is only possible if they went to Agripin to investigate and came back already, but this is too early. They wouldn’t have the time to do that in the few days since I arrived in Gobéliard. The only other possibility is if someone from Agripin went to Gobéliard and told the guards about me participating in Marc’s expedition. But who would do that? Edward froze in realization. Carlson! He is the only one with a grudge against me. He was too quiet after our victory against the Bloodmaws, he must have been preparing to leave the village since the villagers were now despising him.

That means he may also have told them about me being able to use runes. This is bad. Even if I prove to them that I didn’t kill Marc, there is no way they will let me go. Once I’m in their base they can tell whatever they want about me and get rid of me with false accusations. I don’t have any ally powerful enough to put any pressure on a noble family, they can just tell the public that I admitted my crime and that would be it. Nobody would dare to anger them, on a nobody like me who arrived in town just a few days ago. I can’t let them have me.

“I’m very sorry but I have to refuse your invitation. Otherwise, I will be late for my aquaponey lesson,” Edward told the guards.

They looked at him with bewildered faces before the captain ordered “Get him!”.

The men run toward him, while Edward fled in a sprint. As seasoned awakens, his pursuers were running at roughly the same speed as him, neither side gaining an advantage. That’s when one of the men after him accelerated brusquely, almost reaching him. Edward was startled and teleported away to regain the distance between them. That’s the acceleration power of the Lusus naturae. Seeing the distance widening with their target the other guards after him sent blades of wind and water. Edward ducked into a side alley to avoid the projectiles.

Of course, they will use their power on me. They are not even giving me any summons. “Come on guys, I could have got hurt. That’s not very nice of you.” Edward told them while running away.

“Just shut up and surrender!” The guard with the accelerating power shouted as Edward’s reply got on his nerves.

As if I would do that, keep dreaming. “This is a blatant overreach of your authority. I didn’t know you wanted my body that much.”

His pursuer stumbled from surprise and anger. The Vega family was powerful, and few dared to oppose them when they wanted something done. The guards had been used to be respected and feared by the general populace. Edward’s resistance and his nonsensical replies were unexpected. On top of that, they were actually unable to catch up to him, which was making them angrier by the moment.

I have to run toward the center of the city, with busier streets they won’t dare to use their powers, but I will still be able to teleport away. The group of guards behind him was split, the acceleration user not far behind Edward, but the long-range users were lagging behind, unable to catch up to Edward’s teleportation.

As the streets got filled with people, merchants selling their wares, clients, and diverse pedestrians. The guards were unable to continue sending elemental blades left and right. They ended up losing Edward, the only one still after him being the one able to accelerate. However, the latter was having difficulties too. The acceleration power enabled one to dramatically increased one’s speed but not one’s control. In a complex environment where he had to avoid people, he wasn’t able to catch up. He could only end the chase while Edward flew away, teleporting once more.

“Birds’ shit. We won’t be able to catch him up like that. Let’s go back to the Vega family. It sucks but we don’t have a choice. Anyway, he won’t be able to escape with the whole Vega family after him. Him fleeing away is already the proof he is guilty.” The captain told his guards.

Edward had stopped running several streets away and was instead walking quickly to avoid gathering attention. Shit. What am I supposed to do now? I have to hide, but it means I won’t be able to stay in the city nor take contracts at the adventurers’ guild. This sucks, I’m not going to let some powerful assholes wreck my adventurer dream. At the same time, Aquamarine mentioned they were overstepping their rights by arresting me. Maybe I can still go to the city council and plead my innocence? But on political chess, my innocence means nothing. If the Vega family dares to arrest people in the street, they are certainly able to pressurize the city council to hand me over even if I’m innocent. I need to prove that I’m worth protecting from the Vega family’s wrath.

Edward stopped in his tracks, before smiling mischievously. If you don’t care about my innocence and just want to obtain my runes knowledge. I will give it, just not to you. That’s my bargaining chip. The three families will be interested in me once they know I can use runes. As long as they think they can obtain more from me, they will protect me. However, with how they acted with the Artificium family, they will probably discard me as soon as I lost my value.

Then, I have to act in two steps. First, I will bargain with my runes. Then I will make a copy of this knowledge and disseminate it to the public with free access. If I don’t have any place on the chess board, I will simply flip it. This way, they will have many things to deal with instead of being focused only on me. They will probably still want to dice me in small chunks as revenge. He winced. I will need to grow stronger once again to be able to protect myself.

I need time and monster blood to grow stronger, I will have to require access to monsters’ hunts on top of their protection. While I’m on that, I should ask for special techniques too. I must leverage my knowledge as much as I can to gain the maximum out of them. It’s not every day that one can trade directly with the families controlling the city after all. However, I will have to be careful not to push it too far. They do have rune masters in their control. This will be a difficult balance between taking everything I can from them and not pissing them too much.

Edward stopped once more. But I guess that if they really do plan to get rid of me once I tell them everything I know, they will be more prone to give me things temporally, knowing they will get them back once they kill me. This works in my favor. Since the heads of those families are at the predator level, I’ll have to reach that level too in order to at least be able to defend myself. With all the Bloodmaws I killed, I must already be in the mid to late stage of the awaken level. But I don’t feel the unsatisfied craving to seek more monsters to kill so I still haven’t reached the breakthrough before the next level.

Edward asked a passerby the direction toward the city hall. He managed to find it quickly, which wasn’t difficult due to the size and position of the building. It was a large mansion made of granite and gneiss, with iron gates protecting an inner courtyard and large banners with the city symbol, a sea conch on a blue and yellow background. Good, I managed to find the place before the Vega family could find me. I bet they are expecting me to hide instead of walking straight to the heart of the city. Two guards were protecting the entry, when Edward walked closer, they stopped him to ask him his reason for coming.

“I have a deal proposal for the city master,” Edward answered.

The guards looked at him dubiously. “You accompany him to the secretary.” One of them told the other. The other guard rolled his eyes but still complied with the order.

Edward followed the guard through the inner courtyard, toward a side wing of the building. They entered a room and Edward found himself in front of a secretary currently scribbling on a piece of paper. Although the secretary noted their presence, she continued to finish what she was writing and only raised her head when she was finished.

“Yes?” she asked in a bored tone as if they were wasting her time.

The guard simply looked at Edward, making him understand that he was letting him announce the aim of his presence.

“I wish to speak with the city master. I have a deal to propose to him.”