Outside on the street, Tavras led her elsewhere in the town. "New Gate is small enough that it is comfortable to walk anywhere. It is only this busy around the year's end like right now, when the new demigods and demigoddesses gather here."

Used to the bustle of Brillion City, Val found New Gate at its busy time of year incredibly tame.

Walking served as their mode of transportation. They left the commercial district which amounted to only that main street and the area immediately surrounding it. They came to an alcove of buildings that appeared to form a nice apartment complex.

"There's some short-term leases around here. The time duration of whatever the challenge turns out to be will depend on Arius. Given that he is on leave from Gon for who knows how long, he will do one of two things. Arius could set up as brief of a challenge as possible so that he has more free time to himself, or he might set up as lengthy of a challenge as possible to try and buy himself more time here." Tavras offered this analysis in an angry mutter.

"Either way, we are going to need a place to live, right?" Val looked down to Foofy.

He looked back at her with steady eyes. Though Foofy did not shake and shiver like he used to in the late fall and early winter like he had as a mortal dog, he would undoubtedly appreciate having a warm roof over his head.

"Right," Tavras agreed. He pointed to some signage outside of the apartment complex. "There is a number. Put your cell phone to good use and make a call. All I need is somebody in front of me to throw money at and some papers to sign. I know this area. This is where we are going to live."

"Okay, sure. Just relax." Val said that while dialing the number.

From there, she did the talking but did not know quite what to say. Val hemmed and hawed on the phone and managed to set up a meeting with the landlord. "There," she said, looking to Tavras and telling him the details.

At the indicated time, the landlord arrived to get everything sorted out. Without even seeing the place, Tavras wanted to throw the cashier's check at him and sign the lease immediately.

"Don't you want to have a look around first," the landlord tried to say. "As you can see, a lot of things have changed since you were last here, Tavras."

"Yeah, that is probably a good idea," Val started.

"I trust that the place is up to my standards. It only looks like improvements have been made. I would reasonably expect renovations over the century that I have been away," Tavras said with a laugh. "If there is some issue that I should know about, you should speak now or I will flood this property when I should discover it myself."

The landlord gulped hard. "Look, Tavras sir, I don't want any problems. Leave the destruction at Gon please."

Sweeping his arm out to the buildings behind him, he relayed an advertisement to them. "As you can see, I have had my old buildings completely torn down and rebuilt. It is up to standard with all of the modern building codes. No more asbestos anywhere, as if that ever bothered a god like yourself. It still has Suvier's support wall, but between you and me, there's a few units at the end that do not touch his wall."

"That sounds like it meets my standard, all right." Tavras pushed the money at the landlord. "All I care about is having a place where I do not have to listen to Suvier's walls, and he cannot listen to me."

A quick, tight swallow slid down Val's throat. She had noticed how that twisted, hateful feeling had seeped into every building in New Gate. By the looks of the place, it was standard for Suvier to have his walls everywhere, able to spy anywhere at once.

Honest as the landlord turned out to be, he started to stumble over his words as he stared down at the check in his hands. "Sorry, this is too much. It is over double the amount of the security deposit and first month's rent. This will cover three months, actually."

"Put it towards the other months' rent then," Tavras said with a wave of his hand, as if they would even be here for all that many months in the first place.

After a gulp, the landlord nodded. "Okay." Next, he fumbled around with the papers and clipboard that he brought with him. "If you are so eager and absolutely positive about this, you can sign here."

Without a second look at the pages, Tavras set to putting his signature on the page.

"Wait." Val snatched the papers up before Tavras could finish. "Did you even look at any of these?" On his behalf, she started leafing through the pages. While she had never signed a lease before, all of the paperwork looked to be in order. If any of the legal jargon actually had a different meaning, she would not catch it in this quick glance. "You should actually sit down and read papers before you sign. As a god, you need to be more responsible, not that you put yourself into a legally binding contract that you did not want."

The landlord forced out an anxious laugh and said, "It looks like someone is new to the Summit, or unfamiliar with powerful gods at the very least."

"Yeah, Val." A roll of his eyes was the response that Tavras gave her. "I am a god, the Sea Itself. If anyone tried to trick me into a contract that I did not want to accept, trust me, I could void that agreement myself."

"You cannot enter a contract with somebody who is dead," the landlord said, oddly cheerful. "The paperwork might look a bit thicker than mortal contracts because there are more clauses included about substantial property damage and all of that. The contract is just the lease, though. You can trust me on that. I do not want to anger any powerful gods and end up dead. No thank you."

"But that would be murder," Val said slowly, "no?"

Tavras shrugged and said nothing.

Really, might did seem to make right here on the Summit. A bad taste filled the back of Val's throat, remembering how Tavras had just committed over 200,000 murders a few days ago. Here he was, going about casual daily business. They had made a withdrawal at a bank, stopped at a café for coffee and pastries, and were signing a lease right now.

"Anyways," Tavras drawled out. Pen scratched against paper and he finished signing the lease. "There. Done."

The landlord exchanged the rustling papers for some jingling keys instead. "Let me show you to the apartment, at least."

In absence of a tour, the landlord walked them up to their flat. It was located on the top story of the rightmost building. As they walked closer, Val could see that each building had a dead-end alley in between. A tan, veiny wall like the ones on the outside of the town hummed and pulsed here too. That one wall cut through all of the buildings, apparently being used in all of their architecture.

"Enjoy your time in New Gate. Good luck to the young demigod in passing his trials."

"Thank you," Val said.

The landlord left them at the door that would be their apartment.

In a low whisper, she asked, "Is the landlord a demigod or a mortal?" Becoming a landlord on the Summit seemed like a lame thing to do with one's divine blood. The same thing could be said about the bank teller and barista at the café that they had seen earlier today.

"Well, he has to be a demigod since I rented from him the last time that I was in New Gate a hundred years ago. He still looks about twenty-five, now wouldn't you say? It is true that there are some mortals who exist on the Summit, but you know, they tend to die out rather quickly." Tavras unlocked the door and held it open. "After you."

"Okay," Val said, stepping inside. "No offense to our landlord or anything because he was plenty nice, but it seems like kind of a boring existence, especially for a demigod."

"Yeah," Tavras said. "Weak demigods and demigoddesses lead lives that are starkly similar to life in the mortal world." He shrugged. "Admittedly, they are more equipped to handle the immortal patrons on the Summit and they are better received here than in the mortal world, so it works out."

It made Val wonder why she needed to pass any test to prove herself worthy of staying on the Summit. If not some epic role as a monster slayer or any of the more prominent roles that demigods held, she was confident that she could work any old job on the Summit like she would have if she had stayed in the mortal world. Val supposed that if every demigod and demigoddess were allowed on the Summit, overpopulation might become an issue. Nobody with divine blood could die from natural causes to curb the population, exactly.

Val pulled herself from her thoughts and took to scanning the apartment that she had just walked into. This would be her new home for her time spent at New Gate.

The place was neither small and cramped, nor large and luxurious. It seemed like an average apartment in which to live, and Val liked that. Since she had the charger and cell phone still in hand, she gravitated towards the nearest wall outlet and plugged it in.

When she looked at the screen, she saw it light up and vibrate in her hands. Precisely at a good time, her mother had decided to call in response to her texts.