After the carriage started moving toward the city gates.
"I think it's time to discuss why we're here." Aphelia said.
Without waiting for my response she continued.
"Ashem is a border city located near the Steel Kingdom, it's been standing here for over eighty years, but for the past seven months, once a month an aether beast appears out of nowhere in its territory."
"Teleportation? I thought cities had defenses against that sort of thing and if not, at least a way to trace it back to the source?"
Nothing is perfect, and like everything aether leaves a trace behind.
Add that the teleportation of yourself is one thing, teleportation of someone else is different, and the teleportation of an aetheric beast is completely another.
And after a few disasters in the past, it's been taken much more seriously.
She nods. "Yes, and since it's close to the border they've been seriously reinforced, they can even rival the ones inside the capital." After a short pause she added. "But it's the same methods to identify and prevent people like you from entering."
I know these methods, they basically consist of detecting people with a certain level of power, but until the worst days come and they learn to detect someone's affinity I'll be fine, well I was fine.
I repeat nothing is perfect.
And besides after my last advancement I almost stopped leaving any traces of passing through shadows at a certain distance from each other, back then it was extremely fortunate.
But I've got a rough idea where it's going.
"And when will the next attack be?"
"In three days."
"And what do they already have?"
"Nothing." She said it with the most serious face.
Actually, the border is just around the corner. Not the place I wanted to be, but with the number of people willing to see me dead, it's one of the best.
Like it was nothing, she continued. "After the next attack we'll have two more months before it gets to the towers, I'll explain more when we get to first place."
Fine, it's better to have two months to sort out what's going on when every single powerhouse which is located in the city couldn't do it for seven.
Yeah, it seems far more possible.
With that first thought aside, it also could be possible due to someone's illusion that hides the beast until the very last moment or other multiple possibilities from existing abilities.
And it goes into infinity when it comes to the mysterious capabilities of relics from the ruins.
I'm not a miracle maker and moreover I'm more of a specialist in infiltrating, and how best to say it, preventing threats from appearing in a more lethal way.
Hm, no matter how you say it, it still doesn't sound good, but either way I'm not a detective or even close to one.
Also all my knowledge comes mostly from my strictly personal experience, I have little idea of how others achieve similar things.
Anyway, I can use these two months to wait and let things settle down with my death, and to get updates on the more global situations, but first I sincerely hope she has a formal way to get into the city.
As we approach the gates and checkpoint, number of armed guards at it becomes visible.
It doesn't look like they're welcoming visitors at a time like this.
As the carriage stopped and two guards approached it, Aphelia continued to sit idle.
Come to think of it, this is also the first time I've ever entered any city through the main gate.
It's a strange feeling.
A knock on the window was heard along with the voice of one of the guards. "The city is closed, name what business you have here."
Instead of answering, Aphelia simply held something up to the window.
In the next second, the guard backed away and commanded the passage to open.
What an entertaining thing it must be, if it is able to open the path without any further questions.
As we continued our way into the city.
She returned her attention back to me and said. "It's getting late, we'll stay at one of the hotels and start our search tomorrow."
After that, she turned to the window again.
I had no problem following her example. I have my interest towards the city where I am going to stay for the next two months.
And what I saw was rather suspicious.
With it being the beginning of the night in a city with a several hundred thousand peoples, someone should still be out on the streets, but the only people I saw were the city guard patrols.
And not in small quantities.
The deeper into the city we moved along the cobbled road, the more of them we saw, some of them looked at us warily, but no one stopped us.
The distance between the buildings was getting smaller and their size was increasing. Street lights began to turn on in anticipation of the night, arranged without any obvious system as well as streets we were moving on.
It was when we stopped in front of a 6-story building with the name Laprisso emblazoned in gold letters on the front.
We got out of the carriage and headed inside.
The hotel lobby was completely empty except for a lone worker at the reception desk.
It seems the constant threat of assault is not at all conducive to the hotel business.
The receptionist herself, a woman in her late twenties, put on a polite smile the moment she noticed us, but the tension in her posture was quite easy to spot. Although it's hard to blame her for that, given the surrounding situation and time.
"Welcome to the Laprisso Hotel, what can I do for you?"
Aphelia simply took out a few gold coins and placed them on the table.
"We need two rooms on the fifth floor."
The receptionist took and inspected the coins before answering. " Alright under what name would you like to be registered?"
"Oriana Moon."
"And you sir."
And this is where I fell into a daze, the problem is rather that when you have a few dozen aliases it is extremely difficult to come up with a new one that does not overlap with any of them, because all of them have been burnt out over the years.
Taking advantage of my delay Aphelia answered for me.
"He'll go with Dante Shade."
Well, that's it.
I'm done, I need to... Although it's not that bad.
I doubt I'm the only one with such a name, and as far as I know there are still only six people who associate it with me, with the current tendencies I don't think it will stay that way for long, but for now I still have time.
"Here are your keys, we can take care of your carriage if you want."
"There's no need for that."
Aphelia took both and handed me one.
Room 502.
Taking the stairs to the fifth floor. Yes, despite the ability to build buildings of dozens of floors, elevators still haven't gone into common use.
My room was just to the right down the hall, across from Aphelia's room.
She opened it immediately, with a final glance at me she said. "We'll meet tomorrow morning in the lounge."
After that, she closed the door.
I think it's time to check out my room.
Opening the door and stepping inside, I have to say it's much different than what I'm used to, there's a living room, bedroom and bathroom.
Well, almost anything would be a luxury compared to all those places where wasn't even a bed.
It's hard for me to judge but maybe they went a little overboard with the number of chairs and couches, though let it be, there's even a desk with a lamp on it.
The bedroom has a king size bed and a working shower in the bath.
How little it turns out I need.
Anyway, as much as I'd like to stay here longer.
Here's the luxury trap but that doesn't mean I'm going to sleep on the floor.
It's important to know your surroundings, that's the time to go and explore the city.