"Is this Mephisto?" Miranda asked

"More or less, let's go" the boy replied as they began to walk towards the gate to enter the city.

A tall stone wall could be seen extending almost 20 meters into the air encircling Mephisto with an opening about 15 meters wide and 10 meters tall, it couldn't be described as a gate as well to simply put, there was no gate, it was just a big opening.

When the boy had lived in Mephisto, there was no wall encircling the city, there was just a magical barrier enclosing the city which extended to the far outskirts of the city.

He turned around and looked into the far distance back at the settlement where they had passed through and upon further inspection, it could be seen, steel posts with magical symbols dug deep into the earth protecting the city and the settlement from harm.

Upon entry into the city, guards could be seen posted by the walls, they stared at them but did not approach.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh memories

He hadn't noticed it but Miranda had stopped by the entrance to the city.

Turning around and watching her, he could see she was worried.

He walked back to her side.

"What's wrong?" he asked her with a look of curiosity.

"I finally reached the city my parents and I were supposed to reach, except they're all gone" she mumbled as she began to cry.

He just stared at her, hoping she would just stop, but she showed no signs of letting up.

How am I gonna deal with this one?................Ugh might as well

"There there Miranda, it's gonna be alright," he said as he began to hug her and gave her two pats on the back then letting go.

He gave her the most generic way of comforting someone, she was hurting from the loss of her family but so was he.

Every since she had said "they're all gone" he felt as if he was going to break down at any moment.

She had no idea of what he had been through and he had no intention of showing it, she was an emotional wreck and he knew she didn't have the need for another one.

She grabbed him tightly and began to cry in his arms.

*Sob Sob

"Don't let me go for a little" she told him as she cried hugging him tightly.

I'm not even the one holding you, I don't even think I can force her off me right now........she's pretty strong surprisingly..........little bear

The life in his body was running out, she was squeezing the air out of his lungs.

People in the streets began to look at them in a funny way.

"M-M-Miranda............I can't breathe properly" he said gasping for air.

"Sorry," she said letting go and wiping the tears from her face.

Her face could still be seen to be on the verge of tears.

Women..........geez................how should I cheer her up?

"You know Miranda, when you hugged me just now, I could've sworn you were a little bear, you kinda look like one now that I think about it.........." he said with a poker face.

Did he just try to cheer me up?

She just stared at him and began to giggle.

"Tell me that again and I will kill you," she said laughing.

"I can respect that.............you feeling a little better now?" he asked

"Yea, I feel a little better now" she responded.

He could be seen to be in deep thought.

"Don't, I now realized I have no money whatsoever.......... we can't do shit" he told her bluntly.

She went silent. Then he remembered how Elle had told him to go to the World Bank.

"Actually, maybe I was wrong, just follow me" he told her trying to lighten the atmosphere.

Turning around, tall structures could be seen being two storeys in height, rectangular in shape with shed like rooves at the top of each with galleries at the top giving what he would presume was a decent view of the city, made of marble, with stairs leading up to the second floor on the side of the structure.

It took him a little while to realize this but this was the structure of a house, all buildings within his line of sight followed this generic structure and multiple stone-paved roadways could be seen in between houses running through the city.

He took a look to the left and the right and it seemed as if the city had no end, the stone wall encircling the city went so far into the distance that it began to become vague.

The city had drastically changed in the 11 years he had been gone. He had no idea where to go.

The streets were crowded, so he had no choice but to ask for directions.

He approached a merchant with his caravan filled to the brim with fruits and vegetables and asked for directions to the World Bank.

"Just follow this road here and head straight down, and the second left into the far distance is the World Bank, brown roof you can't miss it" the man told him.

Now that he looked carefully, 7 roads could be seen and the man was pointing to the 4th one in the center.

Wowwwwwwwww...................

Turning back and looking at Miranda, her eyes could be seen lurking all over the place, she was curious, it was the first time she had been in a city and all these structures were extremely different from what she was used to.

She's gonna get lost, I can see it coming

"Miranda, stick close to me, there's a lot of people," he told her notifying her.

She ran up and stuck to his side and pulled a part of his shirt so she wouldn't get lost at any point in time.

They made their way through the crowded streets, they were like ants in a nest, people were always next to them.

It was hustling and bustling and extremely, strange men could be seen approaching women and men, trying to make a hustle by selling all sorts of products, merchants lined the streets with their carts selling various products such as food, pottery, art and handcraft jewelry of all kinds and people shouting all over trying to make a bargain and trying to advertise their products.

Watching closely, he could see people getting pickpocketed, food being stolen and people arguing looking for a fight.

Some things never change, it reminded him of the days when he would run through the streets stealing food.

He was extremely uncomfortable in this environment, people were watching the way he and Miranda were dressed.

They weren't even trying to hide the fact that they were staring, they did it bluntly.

They both looked as if they had been through a tough fight and parts of Miranda's face was still blue-black from what the older man earlier had done to her and her short pointed ears seemed to be an attraction to some of the people with them beginning to talk about it, being slightly audible. Men could also be seen staring at Miranda, she was extremely beautiful even with her face blue-black.

However, some people watched her with eyes of disgust and she noticed it and began to feel bad on the inside.

He noticed it on her face.

"They don't know what you've been through, pay them no heed Miranda, you've been through alot, don't feel bad for it, you're a pretty strong girl, keep your composure," he told her trying to boost her confidence.

The road felt as if it extended almost 2 miles before they found the second street to the left and he hadn't even noticed it but Miranda was holding his arm the entire time like a koala hugging an arm.

As they began to walk down the second street, a large structure could be seen in the far distance with large spiral marble posts leading into the air meeting a pyramid hip roof made of brown stone which he presumed to be sandstone and a wide black door could be seen through the spiral columns meeting the rest of the building which was made from gleaming marble.

This was the only structure that stood out and he assumed that this was the world bank.

"Miranda, over there, let's go quickly," he told her pointing at the place.

The sun was hot and the place was extremely heated and he was sweating like a pig, she was too, she hadn't taken off the coat since he made her wear it as her dress was tattered and torn up.

Leading her by the arm he pushed his way through the people of the street, moving with haste to reach the destination.

After walking for awhile they finally reached the World Bank at the end of the street.

It was huge and towered over them, reaching around 15 meters into the air and extremely wide.

He looked at his clothes and wondered if it would be appropriate to enter a place like this the way he was currently. His shirt torn, hands covered in blood, hair messy and drenched in sweat but then he realized.................he didn't give a fuck.

Opening the wooden black door.

*Creak

The inside of the building, everything was lined with terrazzo, all the walls were made of marble and were pure white in color with small holes at the top allowing air to enter keeping the inside cool, the hallway seemed to have no end and wooden chairs with cotton furnishing dyed red could be seen lined against the wall near the door where people were seated.

8 long lines could be seen, with people going to tellers behind a fenced counter with 2 metal doors on the far ends of the fence leading to where they were, and a corridor could be seen in the center behind the tellers leading to an unknown place.

Everyone began staring at Miranda and him, all the people could be seen properly dressed and wearing formal attire, he and Miranda felt extremely out of place.

There were alot of guards posted throughout the hall, roughly around 20 of them.

A guard posted at the door walked and approached him, dressed mirroring a Corinthian soldier.

The man began to look at the way they were dressed.

"This isn't a place for beggars," the man said.

Beggar? Wait, it's me he's talking to.........

He's talking to us?

"Shut the fuck up before I knock your teeth out" the boy responded, the words just flew out his mouth.

Miranda walked up to him by his side.

Two guards suddenly approached him from the sides with their hands on the hilts of their swords.

"Woah, woah calm down there, I'm just here to speak to the manager of this place," the boy said calmly trying to avoid a fight.

One of the guards walked away down the hall approaching a teller on the far left and he began to speak to her.

She walked off into the corridor and around 10 minutes later she re-emerged with a man walking next to her.

A relatively tall man, around 5 foot 11 inches, his hair curly and black, black skin, his nose slightly plumped and a round face.

The man was dressed wearing a white shirt, a black blazer, black soft pants and a leather dress shoes. However it could be seen that he was slightly muscular, the clothes couldn't hide it. It was the first time the boy had seen someone dressed this way.

Damn....

The man stood face to face in front of him, and around 8 guards came close in case of a threat to protect the manager.

The man watched them both, looking down then up staring at them both.

"So what can I do for you today?" he asked.

I should have some manners

"Hello good day, Elle Mitan told me to tell you, Rex from the Thirío association, " he told the man.

"Ah yes Mister Gudrun Anderson, he transferred everything to a sole beneficiary, he left behind a blood sample for us to match it to the heir" the man responded.

Anderson? I thought it was Hilde............. and a blood sample?

"I think I was the person he left it to," the boy said depressingly.

Gudrun Anderson? Who is that?

"Oh is that so, well if you would please follow me to the back," the man said as he began to walk off.

The boy followed with Miranda tagging along, then the man stopped.

"Excuse me miss, this is a private matter, if you would be so kind and take a seat in the waiting area," he said turning and looking at Miranda.

"A-Ah yes, alright," she said sadly

I hope he'll be alright

"I'll be right back Miranda," the boy told her as he began to walk again with the man.

She turned around and headed to the area and took a seat.

They approached the door and a female teller immediately came and opened it letting the boy and the man through and shutting it immediately after that.

They began to walk through the corridor, it was relatively narrow only being able to hold around 3 people in a line and extended extremely far around 30 meters with a solid metal gate being visible at the end of the corridor and a door on the right side.

The man walked to the door on the right and they both entered the room.

The room was pretty medium size, the insides painted brown and it just possessed a large wooden desk and 2 chairs, one facing the desk and one behind it.

"Wait right here good sir," the man said pointing the boy at the chair and then walked to the opposite end of the room by the wall.

He pulled out a pin stuck to the cuffs of the blazer and pricked his hand.

What the............

Using the blood he drew a cross with a half of a circle on the bottom of the cross on the wall.

"The blood of the chosen shall open the door where the records are held, my name is Zerbia Holdsten, I command thee to open for thy master" the man chanted with his eyes closed speaking to the symbol.

A black rift opened within the wall, with nothing but the abyss being visible to the boy and the man calmly walked into it as if it was nothing.

A weird feeling ran through his body as he stared into the abyss. He was getting the urge to get up from the chair and walk towards it.

As his feet raised to the balls of his feet to get up from the chair, the man exited the rift and with a snap of his fingers, it closed immediately.

In his right hand was a small black bowl made of stone fitting in the palm of his hand and in the other was a small brown bag made of cloth.

The man took a seat behind the desk, then opened the brown bag, in the brown bag was a small vial made of glass holding blood and a long piece of paper rolled up tied by a thin piece of white cloth.

Taking the lid of the vial the man put one drop of the blood into the black bowl and began to chant once again.

"Blood binds us all, for blood is the truth, the blood is absolute, let this blood show me the truth, match thee to your rightful owner" the man chanted and the blood in the bowl began to glow blue in color.

"Please stick your finger out, so I can get a drop of blood" the man told the boy.

"Okay" the boy said sticking his left index finger forward.

The man took out a new needle from the drawer of the desk and pricked the boy's finger and squeezed a drop of blood into the bowl.

As the boy's blood made contact with the blood in the bowl, it turned blue in color and merged with the other blood giving off a slightly visible blue steam and then returned to its original red color.

"Ah the blood matches what Mister Gudrun left in the blood records, you are his successor," the man said.

"What happened just now if you don't mind me asking," the boy asked the man.

"Ah, well if you didn't know already, blood is the only true form of identification in this world, you can lie about your name and origins to attempt to steal, but blood does not lie, Mister Gudrun left this blood sample and stated that the owner of this blood was to be his successor and inherit all of his assets, if the blood had not turned blue and remained red in color, that would mean you were not the one he meant to be his successor" the man explained.

Even after you're gone, you're still looking out for me..................

The man opened the rolled up piece of paper. On the document, the words were written in a foreign language which he could not understand, however at the bottom there was a fingerprint made of blood.

"If you would please be so kind as to put your fingerprint next to the one at the bottom, that is Mister Gudrun's fingerprint and this is the original document which issues the transfer of the assets to you." the man instructed the boy.

The boy used the finger which the man had pricked and put the fingerprint at the bottom.

"Currently, we're still gathering the documents for the remaining assets he left to you, however, the money he saved is currently available," the man told him.

"Remaining assets?" the boy asked.

"Ah yes, money was not the only thing he left for you. We believe he left some property too but currently we're searching the records for it, so please be patient, when we find them all we'll notify you" the man replied.

"Ah ok, I understand" the boy responded.

The man rolled up the document with the fingerprint and tied it then he emptied the blood in the bowl back into the vial and placed both into the bag.

"We'll store the original documents near the blood records, that way it'll be safe however if you wish to have it, it isn't a problem" the man informed the boy.

"No, I think it'll be better if you keep it" the boy said without hesitation.

"So Mr........sorry, I didn't catch your name" the man said.

"Don't worry about my name" the boy told the man.

"Ah ok then, I'll address you by Sir then, so would you like to make a withdrawal since you're here right now?" the man asked.

"How much did Gudrun leave for me?" the boy asked, he felt ashamed at even using this money, but he had no choice.

"Roughly 4,000,000 drachma, that was how much the document had stated on it" the man responded.

4,000,000...............the fuck

"Is that alot?" the boy asked

"Well the average worker in the city works for about 6-8 drachmas per day, it is quite alot, some people live their entire lives without even being able to make 1/16th of what you have, and this is only money and not the entirety of the assets" the man responded.

He began to think about how much money he would need for the stay here tonight.

"I need enough money to get some clothes for me and the girl and a place to stay the night, I don't know how much I need for that," the boy said.

The man could be seen thinking about something, he was doing an estimation in his head for the boy.

"I'd estimate around 200-400 drachma sir" the man said.

I should probably take out some extra for Miranda for her to get by when I leave her..........

"Thanks for the estimation, but I think I'd like to take out about 1600 drachma," the boy said.

"Ok if you would follow me outside sir" the man told him with a smile on his face.

If I have to give her any money, I'll have to open a separate account for her, I can't give her that much money in physical form, she'd get robbed in this city before she knew it..........

Before we go our separate ways I'll ask her for some blood and explain it to her.........that sounds like a plan

They exited the room and headed to the metal gate, the man took out keys from his pocket and pricked his finger again with a pin and he covered the tip of the key with blood and stuck it into a groove in the wall and turned.

The huge metal gate slowly opened and piles of money could be seen, drachma and other things. There were different currencies but the boy had no idea.

The man picked up a money bag from the side of the room and filled it with 1600 drachma and handed it to the boy.

"We'll be sure to update the records to account for this withdrawal sir" the man said as the boy accepted the bag

"I have one last question, is it possible for me to make transactions like buying products without having to always come to the bank to get money before I make a transaction?" the boy asked.

The man could be seen thinking about something.

"Yes, it is possible, but only for things which require a significant amount of money such as real estate which require large transactions, for the purchasing/ renting of real estate you can tell the realtor you wish to use a blood seal, by using a blood fingerprint on a contract they can come to the bank and use it to complete the transaction. It'll take around a day or two for the transaction to be processed though, we'll have to match the fingerprint to the document I made you sign before to ensure it is authentic and valid and check the blood to see if it matches too" the man said informing the boy.

"Ah, I understand, thank you very much" the boy said as he began to walk with the man to exit the corridor and emerge by the tellers.

As the door by the tellers opened the man stopped him from exiting.

"Wait, sir, I would like to tell you on behalf of the bank, thank you and if there is anything you need help with at all, please let me know, I always helped Mister Gudrun and as you are his successor now I feel the need to help you also, so feel free to come to me with anything, my name is Zerbia" the man said giving the boy a hug on the back then sending him through the gate.

"Thank you for everything Zerbia," the boy told him as he began to walk off .

The man stood there by the door and smiled at the boy waving him goodbye.

Walking back towards Miranda, he could see her staring at the ground looking droopy.

"Miranda, I'm back, let's leave" he told her.

"You're back, okay, lets go" she replied elated.

"I gotta talk to you about something, when we leave here I'll ask you," he said staring at the people in the bank.

He wants to talk to me about something?

They exited the building and the sun shined brightly into his eyes and he put his hands over his eyes to block it out.

"Ok, so Miranda, if money wasn't an issue, what would you like to do right now?" he asked her.

She began to think about it.

"I-I don't know" she responded

"So what are you gonna do from here on out? If you want, I can give you enough money for you to make it on your own and make sure you're alright you know" he said.

"W-W-Well I thought that I would've stayed with you where ever you were going" she responded averting her eyes away from his.

The truth is she felt extremely safe around him and although they were only together for a short while, she wouldn't have minded spending more with him.

Stay with me?..................She doesn't even know me

He began to watch her, his original plan was to split the money with her today, and make an account for her the next day so she could be well off and then go their separate ways.

But looking at her now, with her face bruised up and remembering how people were looking at her when they walked through the streets, it wouldn't have been safe for her. He felt a need to protect her for the time being.

"I don't know how long I'll be here in Mephisto Miranda, but if you want to stay with me until you feel better about everything that happened and then leave................I guess I wouldn't mind" he responded nonchalantly.

He doesn't mind me staying with him?

She put her hands behind her back and began to smile.

"Thank you so much, I hope I'm not a burden for you," she told him.

"You're not a problem Miranda, let's go get you some clothes and something to eat, I was thinking about it for awhile" he responded.

I'm a big problem........

"A-Ah yes" she said happily.

Was he thinking about me all this time?

"Wait, hide this in your coat........ its money, it'd most likely get stolen if I held it and walked through the street............" he told her giving her it to put in the coat.

She hid the money and they began to walk through the streets again.