Based on the position of the sun, and how hungry he felt, Victor couldn’t help but guess that it was around an hour past the midday bell. Thinking back to what happened earlier in the day, he wondered how the food would have tasted if he had been able to eat it. Rather than dwelling on it, he decided to go to one of the food stalls to get himself something to eat.

He ended up grabbing a meal on something almost like a stick that was basically a shish kabob. The only immediate difference was that the stick wasn’t a stick, but was some sort of extra dry hard bread that you could eat along with what was cooked on it. Another difference was that they didn’t cook the meat while it was on the bread skewer.

Instead, it was cooked with a hole in the middle while fruits and vegetables were cut and, depending on the plant, also had a hole put in them to make it easier to skewer. Something made easier to do thanks to the stall worker being a beastkin woman who would stab the food with an extended claw which made it easier to get it on the bread stick.

Along with the bread kabob, Victor bought a fruit that is almost like a juice sponge. This was apparently a popular add on for the meal since the juice would help make it easier to eat the hardened bread skewer due to how dry it was.

Once he had his food, Victor thought about his remaining plans for the day. While it was true he wasn’t an expert on the capital’s geography by any stretch of the imagination, he was getting more used to finding certain areas and some of the more important or impressive landmarks.

Even the way the castle’s shadow moved across the capital was becoming something he felt was just a part of staying there, even though he would occasionally look up upon its floating form with more than a little awe. A castle in the sky would be something to draw anyone's attention if it wasn’t part of their daily life after all.

Finding himself thinking about it, Victor couldn’t help but look up at the castle while he was eating. While looking at it there were certain things that kept going through his mind about it.

Looking at the chains that were placed in four places and stretched out he began to speculate if all of them were necessary or if some of them were just added as a failsafe system or as flair. How much lighter than air it was, he speculated, would have a large part in how much force would be needed to keep it from floating away, as would how much of what was up there that wasn’t made of quetihap ore.

Without something to compare it to, he ended up thinking about a balloon and how much weight was needed to keep it from floating away, but he dismissed the thought quickly.

“No sense trying to make logical sense of something like that,” Victor said to himself, “Especially if I don’t have any of that stone or tools to help me check it out….. Or knowledge of geology or magic.”

Taking a seat on the ground and leaning back against a building he went over the day so far and sort of made a checklist of the events he went through and the events he would be going through.

Step one wake up, done.

Get work for everyone, done.

From there sell one of the fangs, done.

I was going to just look around and see what this event is about, but got sidetracked by Elya and that singer and had a bit of a panic attack... Possibly humiliated myself, done.

Now the rest of the day should be pretty simple.

Finish lunch, kill some time, maybe look at some shops or something and then take the test, but the test doesn’t start till after the late day bell. I still got time until that rings.

Pass the test with a score better than everyone there, get hired for the job, and show up tomorrow and do so well they will give me a bonus.

Victor mentally chuckled to himself at the idea of that happening.

“I just hope I don’t have to use something like an abacus. Something to write with and a pencil, or charcoal, or whatever they use should be fine if it’s actually hard.”

Once he finished up his meal he stood up and took a quick note of where he was, stopping someone to ask for a basic direction to make sure he was thinking correctly. He wanted to be sure that he was going in the proper directed before he started to walk towards the testing site.

He hadn’t had a lot of experience getting a job until he came to this world so he wasn’t sure how it was back home beyond a simple fast-food job. He thought it best to show up at the bell at the latest as to not be late. Sure the guild had the job displayed for anyone to take, but he was here for a test at a set time and didn’t want to give them any reason to dislike him.

After finding the place, a building that was basically just an auditorium that had many side rooms that people could rent called the Stone Field, Victor wandered around the area and mentally imagined a renaissance fair and how it would compare.

This world would, obviously, have one up on people keeping in character, because it wasn’t just a character but who they were. As far as magic went, assuming the fair chose to have any, this world would win again. Sure some of the fairs would go out of their way for amazing things like using propane to simulate fire enchants or specialized tech to give off a glow, but he doubted it could compete with some of the things that he had seen.

He didn’t really care if it was magical tools or pure magic, because either way, it was impressive, but he did find himself watching street entertainers and even giving a couple of people some small copper coins. The one that drew his eyes was someone who was doing a handstand while juggling knives with his feet.

Even assuming that it had magical help, or maybe because of that fact, he couldn’t help but find it worth giving a tip to. If the tools were magical he had to keep them charged with mana cores, but if it was his natural magic or natural skill that made it even more worth a couple of coins.

After some time passed, Victor went to the stone field and waited for the late day bell to ring before going in while mentally preparing for the test.

Aiwen had been following Victor for so long that he was starting to wonder if there was any point in it anymore beyond obeying his owners.

At first, there were things worth reporting, but that had died down to basically a report of nothing to report. Come the late day bell he would at least be able to return home and, he hoped, give a final report.

That was his thought when he woke up at least, but he had actually seen two odd things before the midday bell rang that caused him to think otherwise. Even one of them would probably be enough to make Xelebre have him keep following, but both together, he felt, was a certainty.

First, it looked like someone, besides him, was following Victor. Someone who didn’t look to be too used to it as she was trying to hide as opposed to blend in.

He had learned long ago that, so long as they aren’t doing anything too outlandish or dressed too well, people would ignore slaves like him. Even if he was seen acting a little bit odd by walking in circles around a group of buildings he knew most people would chalk it up to the masters' orders or the need to wait for something or someone and not want to be reported as just standing around for being a lazy slave.

Even if it wasn’t true, a slave just waiting around by themselves led people to think about things and, on occasion, report some of what they assumed as well.

It wasn’t unheard of for a slave waiting around with money for a merchant or shop to open their doors to have a guard called on them, especially if the money was visible or at least noticeable. It was seen as a way to verify that the slave hadn’t robbed their owner and wasn’t trying to escape their situation.

Aiwen had never heard of anyone successfully buying their freedom so he didn’t dwell on it too much. Although if he had heard about people being able to free slaves he would do anything to become one of the freed slaves.

Having been a slave as far back as he could remember, Aiwen wasn’t sure what he would do with his freedom. The main reason that he wanted it was so that he could say no anytime he wanted and refuse things.

The second thing that Aiwen noticed was something that anyone in the area was likely to notice, even if they weren’t paying attention to Victor.

Victors’ odd actions before one of the ladies with him knocked him out and took him away to a guard station.

Aiwen knew that with how big it was, unlike the fact someone else was following Victor, if he didn’t mention it in his report that it would eventually get to Xelebre and she would have a reason to distrust him or punish him or any other thing that she could think of.

Sure she hadn’t been really terrible to him, but her brother would hit him on occasion if he messed up or was too slow. It was also true that a slave could never be sure when their owner would have some sort of a change of heart when it comes to how they were treated. While sometimes this could lead to things being better it could also lead to them being worse.

Not knowing how long Victor would be in the guard station, Aiwen had an internal debate about whether he should go and report on what happened or not. A quick thought about the assumed best and worst-case went through his mind with the best case being that he was done doing this and could just stay around the house doing basic work like he had been used to. The worst case was that he would return after Victor had left and not realize it. From there he might be punished or worse for abandoning his post and losing track of him before the expected time for observation to end.

Making a decision, Aiwen just took to walking in a pattern that would allow him enough time to notice if Victor was leaving the area. He would have to turn in an awkward pattern to minimize the time that would be unable to see the door or gate that Victor entered with, but it wasn’t enough to cause worry. Anyone leaving would have to take the path to the gate and open it before attempting to go down any paths.

Because of that Aiwen assumed that unless Victor was hiding some sort of especially powerful magic or physical talent to move at a high speed that he would have no trouble following him, even if he didn’t notice him right away.

After enough time had passed, and he ate his provided meal, Aiwen eventually saw Victor moving again and no longer saw the girls who had been with him anymore.

During his time doing the patrol, Aiwen started to wonder who the girl that had been following him was and whys she was following him. Perhaps it was someone who had a crush on Victor and not someone spying on him? That was a possibility. He had heard that love can come in many fashions and that sometimes people have even bought a slave to be their husband or wife when they couldn’t find one that they thought they could work with as a couple.

As he followed Victor the thought of someone noble noticing him while he was working and buying him to be the spouse for one of their retiring maids appeared in his mind.

Even within his fantasies, he couldn’t see himself being desirable enough for someone that he considered to be above him to want to be with him in that way. Being bought as a gift to be given someone below them and still above him was something that he would occasionally imagine as he thought about what life would be like and what it would entail if he was properly married instead of enslaved.

Once they left the guard station, Aiwen again found Victors' random wanderings to be quite the annoyance as he had to stay somewhat close to him. There were already two interesting things that had happened to him after all. It was unlikely that a third, fourth, or fifth interesting thing would happen. He wasn’t even hearing people talking about him anymore and the only new people he had spoken with were the shop or stall keepers and those two ladies who took him to the guard station.

Sure it was possible that it was some sort of a group date, but as far as he was able to tell Victor wasn’t anything like a ladies' man. He also seemed slightly frugal so he wasn’t likely to spend money to make up for what he lacked. Despite the fact that he was staying at such a good inn.

Aiwen noticed that Victor seemed to get distracted a bit, either that or his mind wandered on occasion. It wasn’t common for people to just do nothing for too long, but he did just that and had found time to just stare up at the castle.

What reason would one have to stare at the castle?

Aiwen couldn’t think of anything especially interesting about it unless you were planning to visit it and see what was on the part that was only for the royals and those under its employ or direct orders to visit. There were times where diplomats, combatants, or merchants with unique wares would be allowed on the pedestal that rose into the castle, but it wasn’t even close to a daily occurrence in that case.

The only ones that you could expect to see going to or returning from were the usual workers, many of whom lived in the castle instead of on the ground in case they were needed during the night.

With how time-consuming it was to enter and leave the floating castle, Aiwen couldn’t help but wonder if on some level, it would feel like being locked up and trapped or if it would feel like freedom and strength to live in such a place.

Regardless when the late day bell rang, Victor had already gone into a building that was meant for a variety of things, but as it was the late-day bell and there was nothing especially interesting happening Aiwen headed back home to report his findings.

He couldn’t imagine anything interesting happening during or after taking a test. After all, Victor was someone who was playing it safe to earn money instead of personally risking anything by going beyond the walls of the capital, much less doing any actual fighting.

Shortly after late-day bell rang, Victor had found himself seated in the room that the man at the front of the building told him to go to. If he hadn’t spoken with the man he wouldn’t have been quite sure it was a man, mostly due to his elven nature making him a lot more slender than the other males of various races.

It seemed that there would be two different testing rooms based on if the people could or couldn’t read. This was because if you couldn’t read you would need to have someone next to you during the test the whole time in case they needed a reminder of the question. The other testing room would only require the test takers to have a small board and some chalk. Once everyone had an answer written down someone would look at all the boards after each question. Victor insisted that, while he couldn’t read, he wanted a board and chalk for himself just in case.

A short back and forth lead to him getting his request before going in. The man gave one small warning about how if he could read he should take the right test since, apparently, those without the reading skills were graded much more harshly than those who were literate.

In the end, based on the number of people he heard going past his room and into the other testing site, apparently, the staff had been there already,, a total of between ten to fifteen people were there for the written test while the test that he was in had only a total of three people, including himself. In addition to him, there were four workers who came in once the test was ready to start.

One of the workers would stay at the front of the room and write out the question on a board in the front so the other three workers could read it to the test takers and take their answer which they would verify with the woman up front. She was also apparently keeping track of how many questions each person got right and wrong on a section of the chalkboard on the far left.

The test was pretty simple by Victors’ standards. While getting his answers the worker next to him seemed to take an interest in what he was doing on the board. Something about how the writing style is unique and how he must be a foreigner.

Victor had gotten used to that, but for the most part, he wasn’t actually writing anything except the numbers he needed to make note of for both verification and quick calculations.

In the end, it seemed that if you got two wrong answers you were out of the running for the job and that there were a total of fifty questions in total that they had to go through.

The first person to get two of them wrong had only been able to get nine of the questions right, not even a ten percent success rate. The other person failed out somewhere around question thirty.

Each question was different to an extent, but at their core not dramatically different. It was only addition, subtraction, and basic multiplication and division. Luckily rounding was encouraged for the division questions which saved quite a bit of time when he was trying to figure out how much a certain person would have to pay in taxes with a seven percent tax rate. He only had to ask if he should round up or down.

While the test moved at a fair pace, the sheer number of questions meant that it was taking a while and the sun was just setting when the test finished for Victor who was allowed to skip the final question.

The test giver said that it didn’t make sense to continue when, at that point, impossible for Victor to fail.

When he finished, Victor was given a small rolled parchment that was sealed shut with wax that he was told he should bring to the guild. From there they would let him know where he needed to go for the job as well as when.

With a quick thank you for the chance at the job, he took the parchment and left on his way towards the guild. The other test takers seemed to have already completed their test since the other testing room looked empty.

“Well,” Victor said to himself as he started towards the guild, “I said I was smart enough to do it and I did it. Of course, there wasn’t much to it. I guess that they don’t have the best educational system here. Probably no reason to worry about sin and cosine or an imaginary number.”

As he went on his way, Victor wondered how long this job would take and how well his slaves did with their jobs. Drelt and Alena probably did things until about the time he left the guard station or a little after, he assumed, but Dorun was likely working until there wasn’t anything else he could do anymore.

He did recall that Dorun said he would be there waiting for when he finished the test, but since the slave wasn’t there he assumed he was still working.

“Hard worker that. He can probably manage really well with that work ethic once he is freed.”

With just a little more walking, Victor suddenly felt a hand grab onto his arm and another cover his mouth. Before he could react both of them pull him into a side alley where he is promptly thrown to the ground.

In the darkness of the alley, Victor had a hard time making out the figure at first. The only light sources that were close came from the road lights outside of the alley on either side. The lights from the other side of the alley were far enough away that it was barely worth mentioning. Since the light that was worth noting was mostly from behind the figure all he could tell was that the figure was most likely a man who was holding what appeared to be a long knife.

“Alright bitch. I saw you leave that place. I know you test givers make good money so just give me everything you got and I won’t cut your throat.”

Approaching Victor, the man made it more obvious that he was holding the weapon by moving it around in a slightly flashy manner.

Victor froze in place as he looked at the figure, “W w wait a second. I am not….. I took the test I didn’t give the test. I don’t really have any money yet.”

The figure took a couple of steps.

“Oh but all the test takers left either early or in a group at the end.”

The man, who now that he was closer appeared to have beastkin ears of some sort, spun his long knife in between his fingers for a bit before continuing as Victor tried to inch away.

“You are the only one who left on his own. You obviously aren’t a test taker so you must be the test giver. Giving a test like this must pay well so just hand it all over or else.”

Getting up from the ground, Victor felt his back to a wall, literally and figuratively, as he couldn’t think of how to get out of this.

He hadn’t found time to recreate his fake money pouch and being trapped in the alley already he wasn’t sure if he could distract the man by throwing his real one. He even left his weapons at the Inn since he didn’t think he would be in a situation to need them, although he was starting to think it wouldn’t be a bad idea to always have one going forward.

Feeling his legs shake he tried to think of what he could do, but his mind had gone blank.

This wasn’t like when someone tried to mug him last time. He was already on the ground when realizing what was happening.

It wasn’t like when he had saved the farm woman either. He wasn’t mentally prepared for a fight and couldn’t do anything to surprise him either.

“I don’t have much money on me, but you can have what I do if you let me go.”

The beastkin man almost barked with his forced laugh, “Not much money? You expect me to believe that? In that case, I’m just going to gut you and take what you’re hiding off the corpse.”

Victor wanted to argue the point, show the man that he wasn’t lying and that what was on him was all that he had on him, but it was too late as the man charged at him.

Even though his legs felt paralyzed seconds ago, the sudden sight of the man with his knife moving in his direction activated Victors’ fight or flight response enough to get him moving. He started to run towards the other side of the alley in hopes that being out in a more public area would help stop the situation.

He barely managed to avoid slipping on something that he hoped was just trash when he heard two distinct sounds.

The first was the sound of someone's fist hitting someone else in the face.

The second was a slightly wet sound that he couldn’t quite place and both were followed up with two distinctly different cries of pain.

One of them recognized.

Breath heavy with panic, Victor didn’t want to look back. He wanted to run, but the voice that he heard groaning in pain made him stop, and slowly he turned around.

Victor both was and wasn’t surprised to see that Dorun was standing over the beastkin who had been threatening him. The beastkin was holding his face while on the ground and groaning as well as cursing a bit.

It would have looked like a one-sided success if it wasn’t for one thing.

The knife that the man had been holding had sunk itself into Dorun torso.

Somehow in the brief exchange that had gone unseen Dorun had managed to stop the assailant, but got stabbed at the same time. The knife bit his flesh and delved as deep as it could go. Blood had already begun to stain the clothing around the wound as a little bit dripped onto the ground from the knife.

“Master I will... buy you time,” Dorun muttered with a highly audible groan, “I’m supposed to protect... you. Run and report ... to the guards.”

Doruns' voice was shaking barely enough to be noticed by Victor, “I’ll hold him here until….. until you return or I die. I’ll try to kill him though if I think I’ll die.”

Victor couldn’t believe the whole situation. He knew that Dorun was loyal to him, but this was too much.

Why would someone sacrifice themselves like that? It just didn’t make sense.

Looking at what was before him, Victor had just enough time to think and get mad as he felt a rage start to grow in him.

He had gotten the slaves to protect them from a certain death and here, despite his wants and possibly even because of his actions, one of them was dying.

Sure Victor wasn’t a medic so technically he could be wrong, but with the knife being in so deep and the blood flowing like it was he couldn’t imagine anything else happening so he approached the fallen beastkin and stuck his hand in his pouch to feel the edge of his cards.

He knew exactly what he was going to do.

He didn’t know how well it would work.

He simply knew that it was the best he could think of at this moment and, other than hoping to find someone to save Dorun, it was the only thing he really wanted to do.