Chapter 163: Zhongsuyuan"s Celebrity
Exiting the palace, Sila arrived in the residential zone. Now that he had nothing left to do in Lost Grea City, his next destination would be the gathering party in Zhongsuyuan City. After that, he would head toward the Desert of Death like he had originally intended.
Sila went to the branch building of the Blue Pigeon Guild, followed closely by Julia. Somehow feeling awkward, Sila expanded Yin Yang Energy to detect Julia"s presence. It turned out that he could feel her physical body, but not her power. It was as if Julia was a mere pebble on the side of the street.
Sila stopped his feet and turned around.
"Am I walking too fast, Julia? Why are you walking behind me?"
"That"s not it, Master. As a maid, it"s proper for me to walk behind my master."
"You don"t have to be so serious about it, Julia. Somehow, I don"t like someone walking behind me. It"s not that I"m suspicious of you, I just feel... awkward. Sorry about my strange habit."
"Roger, Master. I will remember that fighters don"t like people walking behind them. Please excuse me to walk beside you, Master."
"Sure, you can," replied Sila, though he wondered whether it was normal for a maid to ask for her master"s permission even for this kind of a trivial matter.
Julia came forward to walk by Sila"s side, though she was still slightly behind him. Sila sighed. In fact, he didn"t have that kind of habit, but he just wanted Julia to relax more. Well, he shouldn"t be too forceful. His teacher once taught him that intimacy and trust had to be earned, and it took time to receive them.
Entering the Blue Pigeon building where Bluebird was stationed, Sila didn"t intend to visit Bluebird or anything. He just wanted to use the guild"s teleportation service. If memory served him right, the Blue Pigeon"s teleportation business could be used to travel between three cities; Lost Grea City, Grea City, and Zhongsuyuan City.
Actually, the Victorious Wolves Sect had joined forces with the Mountain Thieves League to provide transportation services from various important cities to Zhongsuyuan City by special horse carriages. However, there was no such horse carriage drop-off station in Lost Grea City. Even if there was, Sila wouldn"t use it, as the distance between Grea City and Zhongsuyuan City took at least two and a half days to traverse by carriage. Furthermore, as the time for the gathering was tomorrow, the last group of carriages had already departed.
Walking through the door, Sila"s profound sense detected all lives within the building, including a faint presence near the bar. Sila went and sat beside an empty chair.
"h.e.l.lo, Miss Yardpirun. Is Bluebird not here?"
On the empty chair, a woman with white hair appeared out of thin air. "Did you know for certain that I was right here?"
"Kind of. I could feel your faint presence."
As he was able to detect Yardpirun"s presence, even though it was faint, Sila regained his confidence. It was way better compared to before when he couldn"t feel her existence at all unless she allowed it.
Sadly, it was Yardpirun"s turn to lose her confidence. She was using her Mind Concealment to erase her presence. Even though she didn"t do her best as she wasn"t in a fight, she was quite certain about her ability. Sila couldn"t detect her at all a week ago, so it was questionable how he could manage to do it in such a short amount of time.
"In just a single week, how could his ability grow so fast?" She thought, but didn"t let it show on her face. She replied to Sila"s question normally.
"Bluebird is currently in Zhongsuyuan City. Do you have business with him?"
"Ah, no, I don"t. Actually, I want to use your transportation service to go to other cities. Can I go to Zhongsuyuan City?"
"You can. I guess you"re going to partic.i.p.ate in the gathering party."
"Yes, I am, so I would like to bother you."
"No problem. Please wait for a moment."
Yardpirun opened her system window and sent a message.
"I will have someone accompany you there."
Sila nodded. And, ten seconds later, a woman approached them. She wore white female wuxia clothing and had a long pigtail.
"h.e.l.lo, Boss." The woman greeted Yardpirun while taking a side glance at Sila, wondering why her boss revealed her presence for this man.
"White Swan, you don"t need to go to Zhongsuyuan City this evening. Let"s change it to right now, and please bring Mister Sila with you."
"Roger, Boss."
"Mister Sila, she is White Swan, our guild"s representative in the gathering tomorrow."
"Eh? It"s not Bluebird?"
"No, for an important event like this, I wouldn"t dare to send Bluebird as the guild"s representative. He has a different duty, reporting on the overall situation within the city."
Hearing her reason, Sila understood her feelings in no time. At the same time, he pitied Bluebird for having no one to trust him as a newshawk.
"Can we go now?"
"Sure, please follow me." White Swan said goodbye to her boss and left the building, followed closely by Sila.
Exiting the building, Sila saw Julia waiting for him outside.
"Eh? Julia? Why are you here? Why didn"t you go inside with me?"
"I wasn"t granted permission by Master."
It turned out that Julia didn"t follow him inside. Sila was used to being alone, and Julia was a quiet person, so he easily forgot about her.
Sila scratched his head. He didn"t understand Julia"s thought process, though he thought it would be too much for her to have to ask for his permission to do everything.
"Let"s do it this way, then. I give your permission to do everything. You can just ask me when you"re unsure about something specifically. If there is something I don"t want you to do, I will personally tell you that it"s banned. Is that fine?"
"Roger, Master."
White Swan gave a weird look to the woman in front of her. Even though costumes were sold in every city, it was her first time seeing someone in a maid outfit walking in broad daylight.
"Oh, Julia, this is Miss White Swan. Miss White Swan, she is Julia."
As Sila and White Swan weren"t close to each other, after Julia and White Swan greeted one another, the three of them didn"t talk while walking to the next building.
Inside the building, which the Blue Pigeon Guild also rented from the system, there were ten gla.s.s capsules with their doors open.
"What are they?" asked Sila.
"This building is the teleportation building that our guild is renting from the system. We will go inside the capsule and choose the destination."
Julia, who was an expert regarding items and system-related matters, also added:
"This kind of building can be rented from the system, Master. By inserting the Invitation Card of the destination kingdom, players can travel to designated kingdom instantly. The good point about it is that many players can teleport at once, unlike using the Invitation Card directly. If Master interested, I can contact Mister Chris to install this building in your mansion, though there will be installation and monthly fees."
"That sounds convenient. Is it expensive?"
"The installation fee is 25,000 gold and the monthly fee is 100 gold, Master."
"Mn, in that case, let"s leave it alone for now. It"s not that necessary for us anyway."
While Sila was talking to Julia, White Swan listened quietly without interrupting. She wasn"t Sila"s acquaintance, so she used this chance to learn about him.
"Is this person Player Sila who has been involved in many big scoops? He doesn"t stand out as I thought he would. His level of power also seems negligible. Either he is as good as Boss at power concealment or he is just ordinary. Well, he just started this game recently, so there is no way his ability can be compared to Boss". Still, he won in Colossia City"s battle tournament, so he can"t be weak. In the end, does that mean he became stronger in such a short period of time? And what about the mansion? Is he rich?"
For the record, Yardpirun didn"t tell White Swan that their guild got the Invitation Card to Lost Grea City from Sila; she only told her that she got it from Bluebird. At the moment, no one except for Sila himself, Bluebird, Burapha, and Yardpirun was aware of the influence Sila had over Lost Grea City. It was Yardpirun"s move to gain trust from Sila, while also indirectly telling Sila to keep her secret as well.
White Swan waited for Sila to enter one of the capsules before entering another one herself.
The door of the capsule closed as soon as Sila went inside. After that, a message appeared on the LCD screen in front of him.
[Please select your destination. 1) Zhongsuyuan City. 2) Grea City.]
Sila pressed the number one, and his body was immediately teleported from Lost Grea City.
Emerging in front of a similar building, Sila looked at it and realized that it was a teleportation building like the one in Lost Grea. However, this one was located in Zhongsuyuan City.
It was Sila"s first time witnessing the scenery of Zhongsuyuan City, the city known as the Qi Kingdom. The size of this city was not inferior to Grea City"s, though the environment was livelier. Instead of the somber atmosphere in Grea City which was full of machines and had the vibe of an industrial city, Zhongsuyuan City was full of pine trees. The air was quite dry as the city was not far from the desert, and a lot of leaves from the trees could be seen scattered around on the streets, forming several brown carpets.
There were many people walking in the street, though Sila wasn"t sure if it had to do with the gathering party. Anyway, even though the number of people was a lot, the city didn"t look so crowded since the main street of the city was very wide, at least wider than fifteen meters.
Sila felt like he became the center of attention. However, taking a better look, he realized people were looking behind him, at Julia. There didn"t seem to be many instances of a woman wearing a maid outfit without a special event taking place.
Among those people, a particular man wearing a white mask approached Sila.
"So you came, Big Brother."
"Burapha? Why are you wearing a mask?"
"There are many people here, Big Brother. If I remove the mask, it"s highly likely that I will be chased down, and that will be troublesome for me. There you go, I also bought one for you." Burapha handed another white mask to Sila, which he received.
Bluebird came over to the two as well.
"Wear it, Sila. Your enemies are all over the place at the moment; both the old and new ones."
Donning the mask, Sila asked, "Isn"t it more suspicious? Wearing a mask like this."
Bluebird waved his hand. "Although it"s quite suspicious, it"s still better than showing your face. Now, so many players are flocking to Zhongsuyuan City. Some are here to partic.i.p.ate in the gathering party, while some are here to look for their enemies. By wearing the mask, it just implies that you are avoiding your enemies. Some people besides you and Burapha are also wearing it. Of course, you might be inspected by some groups, but if you are not the one they are looking for, they will leave. You just have to use Disguise and fake your voice."
Sila thought to himself: what if they attack him without inspecting first? However, Bluebird seemed to be able to read his mind.
"And you don"t need to worry about them bringing you harm without inspecting you first. Presently, Zhongsuyuan City is full of experts, including hidden powerhouses with no affiliations. No one would want to earn more enemies. It"s certain that they will try to inspect you first before using violence."
Burapha walked to chat with White Swan, while Bluebird pulled Sila away from them. Once he secured some distance from them, Bluebird gave a sly smile.
"What"s wrong?"
"Hehe, no. I just spotted some juicy gossip. I will be having fun teasing Swan in the future~"
Sila wasn"t interested in Bluebird"s nonsense. He asked, "How could you two find me so fast?"
"Mn. About that, I used Psychic Bird Dance to scatter my birds all over Zhongsuyuan City. Moreover, when you arrived, Burapha and I just happened to be sitting in a nearby restaurant."
Observing the area, Sila really spotted several tailorbirds here and there. In his opinion, if something strange were to happen in Zhongsuyuan City, it was clear as day that Bluebird would be the first to notice it.
"What about Burapha? I heard that he planned to go to the north, didn"t he?"
"Yeah, he did. He already departed, but he returned when he got the invitation to the gathering party, which makes sense. For Belacia City, he can go there anytime he wants."
Burapha returned to them by himself and joined the conversation, which prompted Bluebird to ask a question.
"Hm? Where is White Swan?"
"She still has work to do. It"s usual for someone with a high position in a guild to be busy," replied Burapha while glancing at Bluebird.
"Oh? I"m constantly working too, you know? I"m very worried that something bad might happen during such an important gathering. That"s why I"m stressed and can"t do other work. I have to put my focus on resting so that I will be ready to cope with any changes that may happen," Bluebird explained with a tired expression, which Sila and Burapha were too fed up with to give a response.
"Greetings, Mister Bluebird and Mister Burapha." Julia greeted the two.
"Whoa?! Julia? You startled me." Bluebird shuddered. "Even with a physical body, you still act the same as usual."
With one of his eyes being closed, Burapha paid attention to his psychic sense rather than his eyes, so he had just noticed Julia standing in his blind spot.
"h.e.l.lo, Julia. Long time no see."
"Indeed, sir. However, Mister Bluebird visited the mansion quite often, so I met him frequently."
Before being verbally abused even more, Bluebird quickly changed the topic.
"Let"s stop with the useless chatter. Did you forget that we are here to bring Sila to Zhongsuyuan City"s celebrity?"
"Ah, right. Big Brother Sila, there is someone who I"m sure you won"t expect to be this city"s celebrity."
Sila frowned. "Do I know them?"
"Sure, you do. But I bet you will be surprised to know that this person is here. I was the same when I heard for the first time."
Bluebird nodded. "Me too. I didn"t believe it at first. That"s why I traveled here to see for myself."
The more he heard, the more skeptical Sila became. "So, who exactly is this person?"
Bluebird and Burapha replied almost simultaneously, "Sebastian!!"