The old man was correct.
With a few bites of roasted boar and a few gulps of water the nausea Valthar felt started to calm down.
"I appreciate the help, Sir Marcos." Valthar thanked in between bites.
"Hehe there is no sir here young man." The old man chuckled. "You must be Valthar."
"You know me?"
"Not really, but when a client gets dragged out by the Church it's hard to forget their face." The old man chuckled. "I was sure you were dead by now, though I guess you aren't far from it."
"What do you mean by I'm not far from death?" Valthar shot an alarmed look at Marcos, before looking around in tension.
As if at any moment priests or beast would appear out of thin air and take his life from him.
It was obviously an overblown reaction, but in the last weeks he had been way too close to death to take such words at face value.
"I meant that your mana veins are destroyed and Lionel mentioned you are a banished mage so…" The old man shot a meaningful look.
"Life without mana is very hard in the Outlands and since you're banished you can't go back to the Inner lands of the Empire either." Marcos then shook his head and smiled apologetically.
"Don't take my comment to heart young man, there is no element that can see the future so for all we know my old mug might be closer to the grave than you." Marcos leaned back on his chair and took a piece of the roasted boar.
Hearing those words Valthar let out a relieved chuckle.
Though his body was weak and his mana veins were gone, the green life force ring still pulsed in his chest.
So if the danger came from him being a crippled mage he actually had nothing to worry.
In fact he realized a peculiar silver lining.
If rumors spread about a dark mage and a banished noble just crashed into the town, many will point fingers.
But what people see when they look at him isn't a banished noble, but a weak and pitiful cripple.
And since his life manipulation already seemed undetectable by normal means, if he also hid his identity when he used his magic nobody would ever suspect him to be the dark mage!
'I'm not an actual dark mage anyway.' He thought to himself.
"Yeah, life as a cripple will be tough, but at least Lionel left my reward with you right?" Valthar prodded with little to no subtlety.
"Yea." The old man took a bag of coins from his hip and placed it on the table. "4 golds and 100 silver, feel free to count."
Valthar paused.
It didn't sound like a lot compared to how much he used to receive in allowance, but then again he used to be a main line descendant from THE Manaborn family.
"Is this amount a lot or a little here in the Outlands?" Valthar asked as he tallied up the coins in his mind.
"I'd say it's a lot, our greatest daily rate here at Warmheart Inn is 5 silver, for a month we do 50 silver if you book it at once and both of those have three meals a day included." Then Marcos points at the coin purse. "Each gold goes for 100 silver, so with this bag you could secure food and shelter for almost a year."
Valthar stared at the bag in silence.
'I should be able to move out of this city with this amount, but first what are my immediate goals?'
For one he needed to solidify his life energy ring to a functional state.
Only then could he use his magical knowledge to build a proper life for himself.
On that note he also needed to experiment if any elemental spells and magical theories applied to life energy.
By that point he would be able to hustle some coins in most cities… If the guards didn't lock him up for dark magic of course.
'I'll think about it when I get there.'
With thoughtful eyes Valthar turned his attention to the old man.
At the moment Valthar needed a place to stabilize his situation and Marcos seemed like someone worthy of trust.
After all, even though Valthar had little to no strength at the moment the old man still handed him a bag full of coins.
"I'd like to book two months for now." Valthar slid a gold coin across the table.
"Great, if you need anything ask Little Jack, he will hand you a room keys in a bit." The old man flashed a wide smile and got up from his chair.
"Wait! Is this meal included or how much does it cost?" Valthar asked.
"This one is on the house, young man." Marcos laughed and scurried away before Valthar could say another word.
In silence Valthar went back to earring, though ravenous, each bite was slow and measured.
From young he had been trained on how a proper noble should eat and old habits die hard..
A few minutes flew by in this quiet afternoon till Jack walked up to the table.
"The premium rooms are on the top floor, are you okay with having to climb all the way there Mister Balzar?" Jack said with half a dozen room keys in his hand.
*cough chough chough
Valthar choked after hearing his name be butchered.
"My name is Valthar." He said after gathering himself. "What was your question again kid?"
"And my name is Jack, but most call me Little Jack!" the boy said with a little smirk before getting serious. "Premium rooms are really good, but up 5 flights of stairs, can you climb all the way up there?"
Valthar scoffed at the question, he had walked from the Church to here alone, what were a few more flights of stairs?
In fact after a month inside a wagon and a week inside a prison the idea of a comfortable premium room sounded extremely appealing.
Still, he had just spent a fifth of his money and had no income at the moment so depending on the price of the premium rooms it might just be too pricey for his pocket.
"How much more will it cost me to get one of the premium rooms?"
Jack tilted his head with a confused little frown.
"You already paid for them, Mister Valthar, 50 silver a month is the price of our premium rooms."
Valthar's mind, the old man's smile flashed for a second.
'Damn, I got upsold!'
'Well… since money was spent, I must collect the benefits.'
"In that case I want the best room available, can you do that for me little Jack?" He slid a couple silver towards the boy.
Little Jack pulled a key from his backpocket and placed it on the table, the number 606 was carved in it.
"Here you go Mister Valthar, sixth floor room six." And with that the boy took the silver and rushed away, just as fast as his grandpa had done earlier.