6 The Town of Dawn 2

As Astur is walking through the streets of the town, she notices a lack of powerlines and other similar infrastructure that should be powering the town. She had the thought of looking around to find out where the energy to power the town comes from, but she was too lazy to actually act on it as she just continued on her way to where the post office is supposed to be. But boredom eventually struck and she went looking through the System Menu again and found something called the Beginner's Encyclopedia, a small information section of the System meant to give new players a small introduction to Eternal Universe Online. Many of the things mentioned don't actually apply to her, with not being a player and all, but she did find some of the answers she was looking for.

'So this planet I'm on right now, Planet Vopal, is a magic-based civilisation. Explains the crystal orb from the bank and lack of electrical grids. The intelligent species spread seems to be relatively even here, with it being 45% Humans and Beastfolk, with the remaining 10% being various other supernatural or fantasy races, at least by the standards of Earth, here they are called the Mystic Races. Beastfolk also doesn't mean a single race but is a collective term for people whose appearance is indistinguishable from humans with the exception of having various animal parts like ears or tails. As for the Mystic Races, they… oh, I've arrived. I guess I can look at this later whenever I'm bored,' Astur thought as she entered the post office.

Much like most places in Dawn, the post office is a small building, matching the size of the town. As with the bank, it's mostly empty, with only a few employees in view. There are a few doors leading to other areas, some of which have a small window on them, revealing rows of rentable post office boxes.

Walking over to the clerk at the front desk, Astur asks, "I'd like to rent a PO box, can I do that here?"

"Yes, we can help you with that here. What size would you like?" says the middle-aged rabbit-eared clerk.

"What's available and what's the rates?"

"Given the size of our location, we don't have any option of extra-large or higher, so you'd be better off going to a larger city if that's what you're looking for. What we do have is extra small to large ranging from 10 VD to 30 VD per month," the clerk says as he hands Astur a contract for her to fill in.

As Astur looks over the contract she doesn't find any dangerous clauses or loopholes, so she fills in the necessary information.

"I've got most of it filled out, but I have a few questions. I live in the Sea of Trees, so I don't have a proper address, is that fine? And can I pay in cash now and change the payment to be taken from my bank account once I've handled stuff with the bank?"

"That's… I don't actually know. Please excuse me, Miss, I'll be right back with the Branch Manager," the clerk says as leaves the room.

Just as he said, the Clerk returned within a couple of minutes along with an aged human man, sporting short greyed hair, a dark blue suit, small reading glasses and a brown cane.

"I've heard about the problem, Miss. The matter of your payment is fine and can be done, but just listing the Sea of Trees as your address isn't something we can allow. This is a proper national office, even if it is just a branch, but this doesn't mean we can just abandon the proper procedures. Do you not have any official residence outside of the forest?" the Branch Manager asks.

"I live in a fully functional house in the depths of the forest. If you walk up the river for long enough you'd eventually find my house."

"Wait, do you mean the one surrounded by a barrier? Are you telling me that's yours? That place has been there since before I was born and none of our country's mages has ever been able to breach the barrier. Hold on where did we put it again," the Branch manager says as he goes behind the counter to look for something, "ah, here it is," he says, handing Astur the crystal lie-detecting orb.

With the orb in Astur's hand, the Branch Manager has her repeat her previous statement to which the orb verifies as truth.

"Since this is really the case, then you do in fact have an official residence as far as the Kingdom of Virpal is concerned. It was supposedly created a little over 200 years ago when the house was first discovered, Although I don't know the name of the proper address off of the top of my head, give me a moment, was it that… no, maybe… oh I remember now, the official address for that house is Sea of Trees, Bounded Area 0."

"I see," Astur says as she fills in the remainder of the contract and hands it over to the Branch Manager.

"Now then, not that I think your lying, but I'll need to see your ID and have you verify it's authenticity with the orb," The Branch Manager says as he is looking over the contract.

"I understand, protocol right?" Astur says as she hands over her ID.

"Hmm, this is a bit outdated, my grandparents had an ID similar to this. Now let's see, your name is Astur Kojuuin, your species is Infinity Wolf, and your age is… 103?" the Branch Manager says as he looks at Astur with a look of confusion.

The Branch Manager sends out a small probing wave of energy out from him. Although the clerk by his side doesn't seem to realise what's happening, only feeling a strange sensation, Astur remains unaffected and knows the source is the Branch Manager and gives him a questioning look.

"Apologies, Miss Kojuuin, but I just wanted to verify something," turning towards the clerk on duty, the Branch Manager asks, "Sirchill, can you stay here and process our guest's contract and prepare a box for her use? I have something to discuss with her in my office."

Although he doesn't initially understand what his supervisor is asking, he soon puts two and two together from the previous conversation and figures he wants to discuss something alone with their customer, so he just nods and returns to his previous position behind the counter.

While not being sure of the Branch Manager's intentions, Astur uses her Scholar's Eye of Insight to check his stats, but she can only see question marks, indicating his level is too high.

Seemingly understanding her hesitation to follow, the Branch Manager asks for the lie-detecting orb and promises he has no ill intent and only wishes to talk, to which the orb shines blue too. Seeing that he doesn't seem to mean to do anything harmful, Astur follows along, thinking it would be more troublesome if she declined.

The office of the Branch Manager is a simple one. In the middle of the room is a small sofa and a small table in front of it. To the side is a shelf with a few different books. Towards the back of the room is a desk with various papers piled on top of it with a window overlooking the street behind it.

"Feel free to take a seat," the Branch Manager says as he seats behind his desk.

"So why did you want to speak to me privately?" Astur asks.

"I'll just get straight to the point, you are one of the Mystic Races, right? I had verified it earlier with the psychic wave I sent out a few moments ago. It's something that Beastfolk respond to, but Humans and the Mystic Races don't."

"Why did you even feel the need to check?"

"You yourself don't seem to be aware of it, but most people discriminate against the Mystic Races, both Humans and Beastfolk alike, from all seven nations. While I personally don't do so myself, I simply thought I do a good thing and warn you."

"Why?"

"Why as in the discrimination or why would I do this?"

"Yes."

"It wouldn't hurt to speak more than a few words to explain yourself, would it? *Sigh* While I don't personally discriminate, there is a reasoning behind the general discrimination. Many of the Mystic Races, such as Vampires or Succubuci, take the life force of others, which often comes from us Humans or Beastfolk. This perception of the Mystic Races being predatory towards everyone else has stuck for as long as anyone can remember. Another reason is the large difference in abilities between the Mystics and everyone else. For all intents and purposes, the Beastfolk are just Humans with animal features, beyond that, there isn't much of a difference and the two are treated as equals. But the Mystic Races all have their own special inborn abilities unique to their race, which creates a natural gap in strength between them and the others," the Branch Manager explains.

Noting that she really should take a look at the Beginner's Encyclopedia later to get a better understanding of the situation, Astur nods at the Branch Manager's explanation, indicating him to continue.

"As for my own reasoning to what I did and why I chose to explain this, I was just curious when I saw your age didn't match your appearance. And from the way you carry yourself, I quickly figured out that you're lacking in regards to social experience, despite your age. You keep sentences short, while the contents are simple and direct, nor do you make eye contact with me this entire time we've spoken. So I just thought I'd help out a girl who didn't know much of the world around her."

"I see. Then are we done?" Astur asks.

"*Sigh* I do think it would do you some good to get out and speak with more people."

"Perhaps if you were a cute or beautiful girl, then I'd be more inclined to speak with you more. But I don't want to engage in longer than necessary conversations with some old dude, especially if I'm not related to them in any way. I'm not particularly good at holding my words back, so I tried to keep things short and also because I didn't want to put forth the effort when speaking to some wrinkly old man. Now then, if you'll excuse me," Astur says, leaving the room.

As the Branch Manager is left alone in his office, he can't help but sigh again as he mutters, "everyone always says that the Mystic Races are dangerous, but every single one I've ever met could hardly be considered dangerous, but they are definitely some of the strangest people I've ever met…"