Chapter 21 – Greetings, adventurer. Our system has detected that you have taken an alternative path

Tucking Aerie safely into his hood, Daniel surrendered himself to the manhandling inquisitors, who grabbed him by the arms like a prisoner and brought him out of the chamber of commerce, to an isolated booth nearby. He was placed in a binding rope that locked his hands together while giving him just enough mobility to write, as two of the inquisitors watched over him while the third went to fetch a draft of the loan.

A few moments later, the lead inquisitor returned to the booth which was really just a tent occupied by only a small lantern and a desk. He sat across from Daniel and procured the parchment, laying it out on the table so that Daniel could see.

“Since this is your first offense, the interest on the loan will be waived. Read the terms carefully.”

The signee agrees to accept a loan agreement for the one thousand gold pieces fine levied upon them by the Raskal City Guard for violation of Section II.VII and Section III.XIV of city bylaws. The signee will pay this amount in full by the end of thirty days from the signature date, midnight.

If the signee does not fulfill these terms at the deadline, he or she is subject to ten days of indenturement in prison, and will work to cover the lost fine. Attempt to flee will result in blacklisting from the city of Raskal, and dissolution of the signee’s merchant rank.

Daniel read through it quickly. To make it simple, he had thirty days to pay it back or he’d get put to slave labor in prison. Seeing as how he’d get put to slave labor anyway if he refused to sign, he decided to agree to the terms of the contract. He had no intention of trying to dodge the punishment after reading that he’d get blacklisted from his hearth city.

“I’ll sign it,” Daniel muttered, the aspiring merchant grabbing a pen from the inkwell quickly scribbling his signature after reading the contract over one last time. The moment his pen left the paper, a slight glow emanated from the contract, indicating that its magical binding effect was now active.

“Good, good.” The lead inquisitor smiled and nodded, clearly happy that he bagged another sucker into a large fine. After all, for every fine that he imposed, he could skim a bit of excess off of the top. “Next time, make sure you don’t break the rules. Don’t be found in possession of contraband species, and never activate your mana within the chamber of commerce.” He waved a sensor wand in the air, then pointed it in Daniel’s direction, as it lit up with faint activity due to detecting mana. “Using mana outside is fine, but it is illegal within governmental buildings. And you might want to keep your little pixie somewhere else, out of sight.”

Daniel checked his mana bar again, out of curiosity. It never moved this entire time, so why did that sensor wand continuously insist that he was using mana? Observing the sensor’s movements, Daniel noticed that the sensor in the inquisitor's hand began to glow a bit more strongly when the inquisitor pointed it towards his hood. Ah. Maybe the source of the mana wasn’t him at all.

The sensor was picking up a faint mana signature from Aerie, possibly due to her branding as the [Knight]’s squire or because her race naturally emitted mana. In either case, this made things a lot more complicated, Daniel thought, since he’d need to find a safe place to leave Aerie whenever he entered buildings.

“You’re free to go now,” the lead inquisitor said, getting up and handing Daniel a copy of the contract. “Just remember, thirty days.”

Daniel nodded. “Yeah, I’ll be back before then.”

After leaving the tent, Daniel let out a long sigh that he had pent up in him. How the hell was he supposed to make a thousand gold pieces in thirty days? This didn’t feel fair to him at all. He was just a novice adventurer.

Before he could take another step, a notification appeared on his screen.

[System Warning]

Greetings, adventurer. Our system has detected that you have taken an alternative path in the game, resulting in your possession of creatures and spells that are currently inaccessible under the normal route.

While we do encourage our players to find creative ways to proceed in the game, please be warned that taking an alternative path than the norm may result in unintended consequences, and you may not benefit from the standard learning curve we have designed to ease new players into the game.

You may face dangers far beyond your level, should you continue to choose to deviate from the standard path and our tried and tested learning curve. This inquisitor trigger event is your final and only warning.

Note: The standard path is normally denoted by public announcements. Alternative paths normally rely upon contingent events occurring, and may take the form of hidden quests and hidden areas. Please note that this is just a guideline, and exceptions are possible.