Part 14

Soon after the inspection ended, Icarus and I returned to the tunnel outside. We were met with the Forsyths, who were waiting for us inside the tunnel. Their carriage was already gone, parked a few yards away from the tunnel's exit.

"Hey, Arthur!" I heard Mr. Forsyth yell as he saw me. I walked up to him, then stopped a few feet away from him, "Because you're my employee, you can stay at our house. Is that alright with you?"

"Thanks!" I said with glee. The Forsyths turned and began walking out of the tunnel as they happily conversed between themselves. I tagged along behind them and put Icarus back on the ground.

"By the way, Arthur," Mr. Forsyth called as he turned around, "you're also alright with partying with the twins, aren't you?"

"That's alright with me," I told him, "I was originally going to register as an adventurer when I got inside anyways."

Mr. Forsyth nodded, then said, "Now that we're on the conversation, why don't you appraise the twins? We honestly have no idea how strong they are."

"Sure," I said as I looked at the twins. The two of them were staring at me, both with concerned faces.

﹃

Evelyn Forsyth

Race: Human

Level: 8

HP: 38

MP: 43

AC: 12

Rank: B

Skills: Snipe, Stealth, Archery, Twin Telepathy

﹄

﹃

Jonathan Forsyth

Race: Human

Level: 7

HP: 39

MP: 34

AC: 12

Rank: B

Skills: Berserker, Iron Wall, Sword Skills, Twin Telepathy

﹄

"Twin Telepathy?" I shouted as I inspected their skills. This was the first time I had seen a skill that wasn't a physical skill coming from a human, 'Maybe I can learn something like it and contact Aros from all the way out here?'

"Oh, it's that interesting?" Mr. Forsyth grinned. I nodded, then proceeded to repeat the twins' statuses to the family. I had expected them to be disappointed when they heard about their levels, but they were somehow really happy. Then, once they heard their ranks, the two twins shouted in excitement.

Not long after I inspected the Forsyth twins, Mr. Forsyth led me and the others to the carriage. It had been conveniently parked not far from the tunnel, and even had a guard there to attend to the carriage itself. Once the guard noticed Mr. Forsyth, he nodded and quickly ran to sort to his other duties.

"Wait, was there not a driver?" I asked, noticing the absence of a man on top of the carriage.

"Does the Aureys family still use drivers?" Mr. Forsyth laughed, "These horses are trained to follow our destination perfectly, even without the help of a driver. Nowadays, nobody uses drivers anymore."

"They don't ever go off course?" I asked, my mouth agape in awe. I looked to the horses, but couldn't see any difference between them and regular horses.

"Only when attacked by bandits," Mr. Forsyth told him as he opened the carriage door. He left it open to allow everybody inside, then turned back to me as he continued speaking, "But that rarely happens. Come, we still have to get to where we're staying."

"Wait, isn't this your first time here?" I asked as I hopping into the carriage. Icarus followed behind me, then jumped onto the seat next to me and began to relax against the edge of my lap.

"No. We used to live here, about a decade ago. The twins were just children back then, so they don't remember it to well," Mr. Forsyth told me as he got inside. He closed the door behind him, then sat opposite of me. The seating formation was similar to before, just swapped. Because of that, Mr. Forsyth still sat opposite of me. Not long after the door closed, the carriage began to move, "We used to live in a city called Pyre, but we decided to move here a few months ago."

"A few months?" I muttered, "Why did you only decide to come here now?"

"The kids still had a few more months of school left, so we didn't leave until they graduated. I came early and got involved in the guard," Mr. Forsyth told me, "That's how I met Derek Stone. Honestly, how he thinks he can get away with accusing a kid he's never met is beyond me."

"He's never met Jonathan?" I asked, surprised but also disgusted. I turned to Jonathan, who sighed in disappointment in response.

"He's been messing with Evelyn too," Jonathan said. His voice was surprisingly light, despite his tanky stats, "Although he's been more harsh on me. Still, I prefer it that way."

"Why? Doesn't that make things harder for you?" I asked Jonathan. He nodded, then shrugged as he rested his cheek against his hand as he supported his arm against the window.

"It's harder to navigate the law when a woman is being harassed. If Stone was smart, he'd just excuse it as 'courting'. Although, because he isn't, he'd probably just pay off the legal system. It's not like they care about a woman's freedom, anyways," Jonathan explained. I sighed, then looked out the window to my right. Now that the carriage was moving, I was able to clearly see the city around me.

I couldn't see any of it's features from the outside, but everything was visible now that I was passed the walls. The streets were wide and clean, as expected, but I was truly surprised by the amount of races that walked the streets.

Thus far, I had only see humans, but the city's population was more diverse than the guard. I immediately noticed three different races that seemed to poke out like an oasis in a desert. First, the elves. Even though I didn't have any memories older than a month, I instinctively knew what an Elf was.

However, now that I was seeing the different races, the image became even more clear and easy to understand. The elves I found were extremely tall, on average a head taller than the humans that surrounded them. They all had pale blonde hair, almost white in color, and bright blue eyes that seemed to shine like a night sky. The elves' ears were all about 4 inches long and pointed directly away from their head, like cones.

The dwarves were about the height of my chest, but were as bulky and heavy as an ox. Every single dwarf had large round ears that seemed to have a little bit of a mound near the top. The dwarves had large beards, but they weren't as long as I was expecting. Most of the dwarves didn't bother to grow their beard's longer than a few inches, while a few didn't even bother to grow beards in the first place.

Then there were the beastkin, otherwise known as Demihumans. Supposedly, they were born from an ancient form of magic that increased their natural strength by bonding them with a specific type of animal. Because of this, they were naturally stronger than humans in practically every regard, but they weren't nearly as smart.

Then the last race, which barely had any members in the city's crowds, were the golems. Each golem was about the size of a dwarf, and even had the bulkiness to match. However, every single one of them was made out of stone, though they all had different designs to them that looked similar to armor. A few of them even had masks that covered the bottom of their faces, like it was some sort of culturally significant wear. Every single golem shared one similarity, a large gem implanted in the center of their chest. Some gems were green, while a few others were red or yellow. I didn't know what they meant, but I had a feeling they increased certain stats like HP or MP.

Finally, after looking at all of the races, I turned to the buildings. Unlike what I was expecting, all of the buildings nearby were small and carefully decorated. Every single building seemed to have it's own share of culture, almost like the walls and windows were canvases for an artist's work, though they all shared one similarity. All of them had stone foundations and were built with dark wood. Some of the windows were even silver with gold designs, while a few of the doors looked like ancient totems from the amount of carvings on them. I was surprised by the difference between the houses and the thick walls that surrounded the city.

"This is Hewe?" I muttered. Icarus noticed me whisper in awe, then quickly climbed onto my lap and gazed outside the window as I did. When Jonathan saw this, he couldn't help but let out a muffled giggle.

Both Icarus and I turned our heads to him at the same time, confused.

"If I didn't know better, I could've sworn you were related. What are you, his dad?" Jonathan laughed. I looked down at Icarus, who looked up at me.

"Technically speaking, I suppose so," I told him. Everybody in the carriage turned to me, surprised, "Do you not know how imprinting works?"

"Dragons use imprinting? Are you really his dad? You didn't mingle with a dragon, did you?" Jonathan asked, almost standing as he sat on the edge of his seat. His face was full of disgust, but his body proved he was actually excited. I scoffed, then quickly shook his head.

"No. I was the first person Icarus saw," I explained, "Therefore, he considers me a parent. To him, I'm his dad, but it's not biological in the slightest."

'I think,' I inwardly added, unsure if the system made him a biological copy of my dragon form. After all, we did look a lot alike, so I wasn't entirely sure.

"Wow! How did you figure that out?" Jonathan asked as he fell back to his seat, "Didn't you say you found him?"

"That's just what I've figured out so far," I laughed with a nervous tone. I quickly turned away from Jonathan and looked back to the city while Icarus turned his head with me. Both of us continued to stare at the bizarre and wonderful infrastructure as we waited for the carriage to bring us to our destination. Meanwhile the members of the Forsyth family conversed with themselves about various things.