Fire Mage

Chapter 9: Edhen World

Ethan stood silently on the Execution Platform for a while and then nodded,

"I will compensate for your loss, Charles Miller. After an hour, you can go to Riverdale's Amber Bank and get 1,000 gold coins. As for the other request, you can use this." Saying so, he took out a red badge, threw it towards John, and then added,

"This is the City Lord's Token. You will be able to get access to Riverdale's Wisdom Library using this token. There are over 200,000 books stored in the Wisdom Library and you can read all you want for the next six months."

Once he said those words, he turned around, went near the staircase, and soon stepped down from the execution platform.

After that, he shot a glare at Bishop Reynolds and walked away from City Square.

Meanwhile, Bishop Reynolds let out a bitter laugh and commented,

"He outsmarted me."

Without minding the citizens' suspicious gazes, he went towards the dark alley and disappeared.

In the meantime, John glanced at the massive crowd from the execution platform and let out a sigh of relief.

'I already offended the City Lord. But I don't have any other choice.' He was well aware of City Lord's strength.

Ethan Walker, a Rank 3 Expert Swordsman. If Ethan got serious, he could squash John to death in a few seconds. If Bishop didn't intervene earlier, John knew that he would've been beaten brutally in front of a large crowd.

'My name is already spoiled. It would be a little difficult for us to live in this city. Even though I proved that I'm an innocent bystander, most citizens would never believe my words. In these citizens' eyes, I'm nothing but a ruthless serial killer. It seems I have to keep a low profile for a while.' He sighed heavily. After that, he glanced around and then stepped down from the execution platform.

Riverdale citizens also dispersed after City Lord's speech and went on their way.

John didn't stay near the execution platform and went towards Ivy Street, where Life Church was located.

After a few minutes of walking, he arrived in front of the dome-shaped building and walked in through the narthex.

"It's good to see you again, Charles." A silver-haired guy held a spear in his right hand and greeted him with a smile.

"Hello, Mr. Hunt."

John nodded his head and then walked forward towards the Nave.

He stepped on the smooth aisle and soon arrived at the Goddess of Life, Nira's statue.

Gasps and whispers echoed from behind, but he didn't look at those citizens. Instead, he looked into Goddess Nira's beautiful blue eyes, closed his eyes, and prayed.

In truth, he acted like how the real Charles would react in this situation.

After a few seconds of silent prayer, he opened his eyes, bent his waist a bit, and bowed his head towards the beautiful statue.

After that, he recited a usual short incantation and moved towards the front pew.

It was Charles's regular habit.

Although John felt little discomfort when praying to an unknown Goddess, he didn't put much thought into it.

Casting those useless thoughts away, he sat on the front pew and once again closed his eyes.

Countless memories of John Browning and Charles's remnant memories appeared before his eyes, followed by questions.

'How did I transmigrate into this magical world? No! This world has a name. It's called Edhen. A world filled with magical and mysterious powers. Am I able to go back to Earth? Even if I did go back, who is there for me?' He heaved a heavy sigh and began to think deeply about his future.

'First, I need to accept Charles's identity. Then, I will think of a suitable job for me. Assassin? Nah, I don't want to be an assassin in this life. If I choose to walk on the dark path, I will be hunted down by the 13 Lawful Churches.' He frowned upon thinking about those churches.

He was a person who lived his life in the darkness and had grown sick of that life. Killing a person wasn't a problem for him, but he feared getting addicted to it.

'These 13 Churches are the main pillars of this world. No, there were only 12 Churches in this world a few centuries ago. But a new God ascended to the Divine throne during the past planar war. He is the mysterious Sun God whose real name is still shrouded in mystery. After his ascension, he killed three Chaotic Foreign Gods during the Invasion and forced five foreign Gods out of the planet. After that, he proposed a mutual alliance between Lawful Gods of Edhen and Maintained the Peace of this world.' After reading the information from Charles's memory, John was amazed by the mysterious Sun God.

'Well, he didn't seem to be a bad guy. Moreover, he is biased towards Fire mages. It must have something to do with his title, Sun God.' He nodded in his mind.

'After the last Planar Invasion, all the 13 Churches became wary of the Foreign Gods. Hmm, I don't want to be on their bad side. I also don't want to go and kill citizens randomly for getting Experience points. But if I want to increase my strength, I need some powerful backers. Indeed, there are no monsters like Goblins, Orcs, and Kobolds out there to get exp points. If I want to earn exp, I've to kill humans in large numbers. Although some strange monsters like mutated Beasts are there, they mostly reside in dense forests or some unexplored lands. Moreover, they seem to be very powerful and terrifying and some are even capable of destroying towns and cities. Alas, they are too few.' Even Charles learned that from the books only!

But John also knew that simply going around and killing the random citizens would get him into deep trouble.

When thinking about the unknown future, John got a headache. No, Charles got a headache.

'I will think about it later.' Charles shook his head and sat silently for five minutes.

After that, he stood up and went towards the left transept. A few nuns and one blue-robed priestess sat near the entrance and appeared to be chatting about the reappearance of the Shadows.

Charles looked around and soon noticed a deep-blue-haired woman with olive skin was laid on the wooden bench around the opposite corner.

He went near the bench and then checked her pulse rate.

'62.' After a minute, he nodded and sat on the wooden stool next to the wooden bench.

'Mother, huh. What a strange fate.' He looked at the slightly wrinkled woman's face for a second and sighed.

He then stayed near her for two hours and then walked out of the Life Church silently.

…

A few minutes later, Charles arrived in front of a small two-storied building at Gold Street and entered.

It was Riverdale City's Amber bank.

He then directly went to the reception counter and informed about his visit to the bank officer. The bank officer was a black-haired male employee with big eyes. He wore a white shirt, red tie, black pants, and formal black shoes.

"You are the Serial Killer?"

A second later, the bank officer's attitude turned colder.

A cold glint appeared in Charles's eyes as he heard the bank officer's question.

But he didn't dare to act arrogantly. Instead, he nodded his head and remained silent.

After checking a few documents, the bank officer told him to wait in the reception hall and went to the second floor through a spiral staircase.

On the other hand, Charles sat on the nearby chair and waited patiently in the reception hall.

Thirty minutes later, the same officer returned from the second floor and asked him to follow him.

Without any other choice, Charles stood up and then followed after the bank officer. Both went to the second floor through the same spiral staircase and soon arrived at a large wooden door. Next to the wooden door was a lean woman's portrait drawn on it. The woman in the portrait wore a golden tunic dress and appeared more like an empress.

But what caught Charles's attention was the crown on her head. Unlike the other crowns, this crown appeared to be made of a red gem, and it looked unique and gorgeous.

"It seems Riverdale City's Serial Killer didn't recognize Lady Myer's portrait." A cold female voice came from the other side, causing Charles's eyebrows to rise upward.

'Bank Manager? Did she have an ability to see through objects?'

"The door is open." She added from the other side.

Charles nodded his head as he pushed open the door and walked in.

It was a 12x18 ft room. A decorated work table was placed on the left side, two sofas placed in the center, and a small chandelier was hung on the ceiling, illuminating the room with yellow light.

A slim young woman in a red peplum dress was seated on one of the sofas and appeared to be in the middle of reading a golden-covered book. She had long silvery hair, a pear-shaped body, a pale face, oceanic eyes, and a hawk nose.

After two seconds, she closed the book and turned her attention to Charles.

She then stared at him for a few seconds while crossing her long smooth legs and smiled lightly.

"I'm Bella Collins, Riverdale's Amber Bank manager."

Charles got confused inside by her smile, but he showed no expression and responded calmly.

"I'm Charles Miller, a Riverdale Citizen, Ma'am."

Upon hearing his calm voice, Bella Collins narrowed her eyes and then said while pointing her finger towards the opposite sofa,

"Please have a seat."

Charles nodded and then sat comfortably on it.

Both didn't speak for a while and maintained a long silence.

While in silence, Charles first cast the [Inspect] skill on her.

[Inspect (40) skill has been used…]

[Wisdom Check…]

[Inspect Failed!]

'She is a Mystic.' He mumbled inwardly. Mystic was the term players and normal NPCs used to call the ranked NPCs.

"What do you want from me, Ma'am?" John stared into her pure silvery eyes and asked after a minute of silence.

Bella pressed her plump red lips together and gave him a bunch of documents.

"We are sorry for doing this. But we don't have the power to oppose the order from the higher-ups." She added. He felt a sense of pity in her tone. Yes, not sadness, but just a pity towards an unfortunate man.

Charles narrowed his deep-blue eyes and began to read the bundle of documents one by one.

'If I want to get the 1000 gold coins from Amber Bank, I need to sign all these documents. But the documents-' As Charles skimmed through the documents, his lips started to twitch uncontrollably.

'Once I put my sign in all these documents, it will be like cutting my ties with the Riverdale's Amber Bank. I will be on their blacklist forever.' If there were other banks like Amber Bank, Charles would have signed it willingly.

'But, there is only one bank in Riverdale. Moreover, this bank belongs to Amber Church. If I sign this contract, it will be more like offending Goddess of Wealth, Zephine.' A grim look appeared on Charles's face.

'Someone is planning to isolate me. Who is it? Life Church?' He paused in surprise for a few seconds and soon snorted inside.

He could tell that someone was pulling strings from behind the scenes.

'And the one who is pulling the string might not be Ethan Walker.' He frowned.

'Whoever is pulling strings, he must be the same level as Ethan Walker. And the only person who came to my mind in this Riverdale City is Bishop Reynolds. But why is he doing this? Is this way of him expressing his anger?' The frown on his forehead deepened.

He leaned back on the soft sofa and closed his eyes.

'Ethan Walker? Or Bishop Reynolds?... Or, is there another hidden enemy aiming for my head? Nightwind Family? Nah, I don't think so. If they had planned on scheming, they would have sent a Rank-2 assassin or above to kill us earlier. Martin is the one who is after my head, not the entire Nightwind family. The only one who remained is the mysterious informer. Tsk, I need to find out what is hidden in our house sooner.' He shook his head and shifted his attention towards the current problem.

'Does the enemy thinks that I won't dare to offend a Goddess?' He curled his lips upward and opened his cold deep-blue eyes.

He then took the quill pen and ink bottle from Bella Collins and started signing those documents one by one.

"A-Are you sure about your decision? Your current action will be considered as offending the whole Amber Church. No, it will be like you are offending Our Divine Lady!" Bella stared at John in confusion for a second, and then she warned.

Her earlier composed expression was nowhere to be seen. Her face was filled with anxiety and confusion. She didn't even consider that a random commoner boy would be willing to offend the Goddess of Wealth.

Charles didn't stop his hand movement as he heard her words and signed those documents one by one. After 30 seconds, he finished signing the last document and stopped the quill pen. He then gave the document bundles; quill pen, and ink bottle to Bella Collins and replied calmly,

"You gave the choices, and I chose the best one."

A deep sigh leaked out of Bella Collins's mouth as she stared at Charles in puzzlement.

She then shook her head and passed ten golden cards to Charles.

"Each card has 100 gold coins credited to it. You can directly withdraw the amount in any Lawful Church."

Charles took the cards from Bella's hand and stood up from his seat. He then moved to the wooden door and added,

"You will regret your foolish decision."

After that, he closed the wooden door and walked out of the Amber Bank.

Meanwhile, Bella Collins stared at the wooden door with a stunned expression on her face and then asked,

"Did you expect this outcome, Lucas?"

A heartbeat later, her own shadow moved and soon formed into a black-hooded figure.

He was Bella's bodyguard!

Lucas's face was covered entirely in a black mask with an eye symbol on it, and he appeared more like a skilled assassin.

"I didn't, Milady. But he is a foolish one. He didn't seem to know that offending the 'Divine One' means offending the 'Wealth' itself. Although I respect his courageous act, he is still the foolish one. Without wealth, he will die of starvation one day." Lucas said while shaking his hooded head.

"He is a foolish one, huh. From his perspective, we seem to have made a foolish decision." Bella said with a frown and then asked after a short pause.

"Did you find out any news about that intellectual artifact? A-035, is it?"

"No, Milady. But I got an interesting clue when searching about it. And it coincidentally related to this kid."

Upon hearing Lucas's words, Bella's silvery eyes widened.

"You mean this Charles Miller?" She asked.

"Yes, Milady." Lucas nodded.

"Explain everything in detail," Bella ordered while turning her face serious.

In the meantime, Lucas raised his hand, stared into Bella's eyes, and responded.

"A-035 has some relationship with the first owner of 45 El Street, Milady. And, the current owner of this house is Eve Miller."

Bella's expression froze for a moment, and soon she asked another question.

"Who is the first owner?"

"Eddie Nightwind. He is the founder of the Nightwind family and also a Legend-Rank powerhouse. On August 8th of the year 5280, he gave the A-035 to Lady Myers and went to look for the Myth Tree in the Endless Ocean. But to this day, we never heard any news about him." Lucas said in a solemn tone.

"He also went to Endless Ocean, huh." Bella frowned deeply and added,

"Keep an eye on Charles Miller. We need to re-check the information about A-035. If the information we got from the 'Mr. Black' is right, then the A-035 will appear in this Riverdale city. It might find a suitable host to escape from our grasp. Before that, we have to capture it. Those intelligent artifacts are always troublesome bunches."

Once she finished her words, Bella opened the golden book and started reading.

Meanwhile, Lucas nodded his head, turned into clouds of black smoke, and disappeared from there.

…