Eventually as time passed it was inevitable that they would reach their destination. A few hours after noon came around the city showed up on the horizon. The partizan separating the front and back opened up, leaving a small slit in the wall for words to come through. "Young miss, Sir Owari, we shall be arriving at our destination soon." The voice of the woman who picked them up came through. As for her term of address to Owari, normally she would not need to speak to him with any form of respect, after all he isn't someone with any reputation nor does he have a backer with any reputation. Her way of addressing him was her own choice. Not only had he saved Noel's life and helped avoid a catastrophe for the Leviathan city branch for the Silverblood family, but she was also impressed by his attitude and bearing. Despite having the chance to ask for any number of benefits, he refused any. She had also noticed that he didn't intend to use Noel's interest in him to take advantage of her. Overall he seemed mature and she could tell he had some skill, so his humble attitude gave her a good impression. Because of this she treated him almost as respectfully as she treated Noel, of course only because Noel herself gave implicit permission to treat him as an important guest of hers.

"Thank you for the notice." Noel answered back with a smile. However as soon as the partition was closed she sighed. "It seems we will be separating soon." Her tone was quite telling of her feelings on the matter.

Owari opened his eyes and looked over at her with his eyebrow raised curiously. "It was bound to happen, why be so sad about it? We can always meet up again later if you want anyway."

"I suppose that makes sense, but it's been a long time since I've had someone to talk to who would listen so intently even for so long. In fact only my father had the patience for it and even then he didn't have the time." She found it quite unfortunate that they didn't have more time, but she tried not to let it show too much.

"I guess that's fair. If you ever want you can just come drag me off to listen to you. I'll say it now but I'm sure you've noticed that I'm not the most outgoing person in the world. If you ever want to talk it's probably best if you just come to me, I have trouble approaching others since I'm always afraid I'll be getting in the way. My mother liked to say I was just too shy, and she's probably right. However it's not something I can really help." Owari admitted this with some embarrassment, even he had his faults and admitting to them would obviously embarrass him greatly. However he felt it was important to do so as this so he couldn't help it.

Noel was a bit taken off guard by this admission, and was even more surprised when he turned away to hide his embarrassment. "I'll keep that in mind, however you're always welcome to come visit." She laughed a bit as she felt his embarrassment was unlike him.

"Well I can't really promise I'll visit, I will certainly try my best. However with your position you'll probably be way more busy than me. If you ever feel like I'm avoiding you or anything it's definitely not that. That was what I wanted to get across at least." Owari did his best to explain, but his usual calmness was broken a bit so he was having more trouble than usual.

"Then I won't stand on ceremony. Should I ever need someone to talk to, I'll have to impose on you." Noel felt his current fluster wasn't too bad and had secretly remembered this weakness of his in her heart.

"That was what I was hoping for." Owari barely managed to calm down a bit and answered back with a smile.

"Right." This time Noel grew a bit embarrassed seeing as how he admitted to wanting to see her again.

The two continued with the strange atmosphere as they got closer and closer to the city edge. When they arrived the two had barely managed to get past the embarrassment and get back to their usual calmer selves. When they got to the city they had their identifications checked and confirmed, and Owari had to pass over his hunter license to confirm his right to openly carry his sword, before they were admitted. In the end Owari was brought all the way to Noel's new home under the excuse that she wanted him to know where it was. It was a large twelve story modern apartment complex. According to her she was on the third floor in room 303, and that if he wanted to meet with her to just tell the receptionist and that they would all be notified that she was to be told whenever he came. If she was available then she would call him up, and if not she could just tell him. Owari had also already prepared a place to stay ahead of time and thus gave her the address on the spot.

"I'll let them know to tell you my room if you stop by. Then you can just go straight there in the future. If I ever have plans to leave for an extended period I'll have them let you know." Owari stretched as he stood in front of the car door.

"Alright. However if you ever plan to leave for too long you can always just stop by and let me know. Even if I can't come see you off it would be better to leave a note with the receptionist so I know not to come over ahead of time." Noel decided to use this as a chance to motivate him to come to her more often in the future.

"How long is too long?" He decided to get a proper time frame instead of agreeing or disagreeing right away.

"More than a week would be enough to warrant a check in." Noel thought for a little before responding. Honestly she wanted to say three days, but that would be a bit much in her mind since three or four-day campouts were normal for independent hunters.

"That would be fine. If I plan to be out longer than a week then I'll probably be doing something quite important." Owari decided to agree since he wouldn't be losing anything by doing so.

"Perfect. I’ll do the same then." Noel also didn't forget to promise the same back.

"Alright. By the way, I'll say it now, but if the people at my place try to brush you off or ignore you by saying I never told them anything then just throw your name out to scare them a bit. I'd also like you to let me know so I can consider a place with better customer service in the future. The last thing I need is to be staying at a place that might turn away people that I want to talk with." Owari wanted to make sure she didn't think he had ghosted her after all this. Not to mention how annoyed he'd be if the place he stayed at did that to a friend or acquaintance, they could very well cost him money by interrupting a contract or being rude to a potential client.

"I shall keep that in mind. After all it would be a shame to stay at such an unprofessional place." Noel gave a small smile as she heard his words. She was well aware of the hidden meaning in it about the costs to his livelihood. She decided to stop by and confirm his room number quickly to test out the service of his new home. After all it wouldn't be too odd for her to want to confirm his room number. It wasn't at all because she wanted to see him or help him out, or at least she could make it seem that way to onlookers.

"Perfect. Then this should be goodbye for now. See you later, and good luck." Owari prepared to leave by grabbing his things.

"Good luck to you as well, I look forward to seeing you again." Noel smiled happily as she gave her farewells, although she was sad to see him go she was also quite satisfied having spent so much time with him these few days.

"I guess it's finally time to drop the baggage then." Erikson scoffed to the side, clearly dissatisfied that Owari was being given such special attention. Having to drive the car knowing he was escorting what was essentially some random country boy with no pedigree as if he was some esteemed guest while he chatted with Noel had grated on his nerves. In the end he couldn't hold back from showing his annoyance and blurted this out, not that he looked like he cared if his real feelings had shown.

"To think you would treat Sir Owari with such disrespect considering he is a guest of the young miss. I wonder who did your training." It was actually the woman who spoke up to reprimand him and not Noel, who seemed to have no interest in scolding the man. "Since you came with the young miss you should be the one who has been transferred over. Since you seem to be lacking in manners it would be a massive hit to the family's reputation should we allow you to continue as you are. Luckily it was Sir Owari who is quite patient who had received such treatment otherwise I'd have no choice but to have you fired. However we will still have to redo your entire basic training. If you haven't improved by the next time the young Sir comes to visit we will have no choice but to let you go to preserve our reputation." She immediately railed into him with the tone of a disappointed mother who had caught her child doing something wrong.

Seeing her act like this caused Erikson some confusion. Not just because she was treating Owari so well, which he already had grown used to as much as it had annoyed him, but also because she seemed to be talking as if she had authority over him. He wanted to refute her or ask who she was to talk like that, but when he glanced over at Noel who seemed to have expected such an outcome and who wasn't refuting the woman he couldn't help but worry.

"I feel as though I have forgotten something." Noel pretended to think about something as she watched Owari ignore everything going on and grab his stuff. She reached out and tapped his shoulder before he walked off. "By the way, I should introduce you. This woman here is the head of our security force and servants located here in Leviathan city. If you ever see her around feel free to say hello as she is the person who will be closest to me in the city." Noel couldn't help but giggle as she saw Erikson's face go ugly. She had obviously set him up to make a mockery of himself. She couldn't stand that ego of his and felt more than a little disgusted by his attitude. Most importantly if he was allowed to remain as such he really would cause some issues for the family, and more specifically her father who had hired him on in the first place.

"I already figured, she is quite strong after all." Owari gave a look devoid of any surprise causing Noel to feel a little disappointed. She had hoped to catch him off guard, unfortunately Owari's newfound mana sensing skills and his ghost eye moth's ability to read mana and aura had allowed him to finally confirm she was very strong.

"It seems the young Sir is quite perceptive. This one's name is Morgana, if you ever need anything you can ask it of me as a friend of the young miss." She respectfully bowed as she spoke. Owari wasn't sure why she was being so respectful, but since he didn't really care about stuff like that he just ignored it.

"I should get going now, you all probably have a lot to do." Owari turned and left with a wave, doing his best to leave before more things happened. Mainly he just wanted to get away from Erikson who was radiating hostility and a desire to kill which was getting on his nerves.

As he left the three people left behind watched him with different feelings and different expressions. However they quickly moved on and went to work as Owari was right and they did actually have some stuff to get sorted out. As for him, he made his way to his new home for the foreseeable future. As he walked along the roads he observed the surrounding city with interest. The buildings were tall and clean, and the roads were newly paved, the city was also filled with light and people. It was much different to his home town where the buildings were two or three stories tall at the highest, the roads of his hometown were dirt or cracked pavement, and it was quite empty even during the peak periods. It was vastly different, but even with that Owari didn't let it phase him.

Unlike many people in his situation who would show shock and would look every which way, Owari was relatively calm. It wasn't because he was used to such sights or because he lacked an interest, he was just a generally muted person who didn't display his emotions on his face much. In the end his interest was internal and he didn't really let it control his actions so he easily made his way to his new home.

The building was far less impressive then Noel's which was a massive modern building painted white with crystal clear windows. Instead it was a small two-story hotel complex type building. There was a front building that acted as the reception area, and behind was the main building with about a dozen rooms on each of the two floors. Owari entered the front desk area and confirmed his identity to claim his room. He had made a reservation of sorts and paid the fee for a month. The person who received him was actually only a few years older then Owari was, he was a bit shocked to find out Owari was so young and had enough money for such a long stay. However he wasn't at all disrespectful and did his job well enough.

After confirming Owari's identity and getting everything sorted out he gave him his room key and told him the location of his room. He was on the first floor quite close to the entrance to the building. Apparently it had opened up around the time when he asked to reserve a room and the owner, who happened to be the boy's mother, had heard Owari would pay for a month with the possibility of extensions in the future she bit the bullet and kept the room on reserve. She probably figured it would be better to use the room to impress a possible long time customer. Although the city was pretty populated there were plenty of similar places as this for the many independent hunters who came and went searching for the fortunes, and a lot of them would become the only places for the failures who stayed to look for other work. At least this is what the guy at the reception desk said as he chatted to Owari while getting things sorted. He was likely a talker by nature which by this point Owari was used to after the last three days so he just nodded along with the occasional comment as he waited.

"By the way," Owari spoke up after everything was sorted and before he went to drop his stuff off in his new room. "There's a chance in the coming days that someone will stop by to confirm my room number. She's a pretty albino girl who is about a foot shorter than me. Her name is Noel, her appearance is a bit unique so it shouldn't be too hard to figure out who I mean. If she stops by and asks can you let her know which room I'm staying in?" Of course his question was rhetorical and he was simply making sure the guy was aware of his request.

"Can do, it's part of our services to handle stuff like that. I'll make sure everyone knows so she receives a proper response." He didn't dare to refuse and responded properly. Even if not for the sword on Owari's waist which intimidated him a bit, hearing Noel's description made him a bit nervous, even someone like him knew albinos had large reservoirs of mana and were typically grabbed by large factions. There was very little chance this girl was nobody of note.

"Good response." Owari chuckled and went off to his room.

Opening the door he was greeted by a small room about the size of a small classroom. There was a double bed in the center of the room with dark green blankets and pillows, and off to one side was a spruce desk with a matching chair. There was a dresser off to the other side of the bed which had five drawers which was enough for Owari. The wallpaper was a tacky floral pattern with a light green background and flowers of varying colors. Owari didn't mind the rather boring decorations. He walked over and entered the bathroom off to one side, in it was a basic porcelain toilet, a standalone sink, and a small shower. Owari didn't mind the lack of a bath as he preferred showers for the most part since they were fast and he tended to doze off when bathing.

After confirming his basic amenities he quickly unpacked his stuff and put it all away in the dresser, which took little time with how much he had packed. After getting everything put away he didn't dawdle and did some stretches before leaving to go shopping. His training equipment was damaged beyond repair so he'd have to make some more, he also needed to find a smith to resharpen his blade, and he needed to get some food. He also wanted to get a better feeling for the city's landscape and get more comfortable in this new location so he wouldn't be as obvious about how he was new. In order to do that he needed to get a feel for how everyone else moved around and learn to blend in. It was going to be a bit of work to set up, but your foundation is the most important part of everything as it's what holds up everything going forwards.

Owari decided to deal with his sword first as he made his way in a specific direction. When Noel had been going over advice on places that she had heard were good for different things, he had mentioned how his sword had dulled and how he'd need to get it resharpened and she had recommended someone to him. A lot of her information was actually obtained from local servants and their investigations so it was mostly reputable. Because of this she actually had a decent amount of information on the current places to go and places to avoid in town which she seemed more than happy to share with him. He didn't take long to compare the directions he had with the map in his head and make his way over.

This part of town was filled with workshops of all kinds, with the louder workplaces in the center surrounded on all sides getting progressively quieter as you got closer to the other districts. This meant less noise pollution for the other parts of the city, but also meant Owari had to walk a ways to get to the shop he was looking for. In one of the deeper parts of the crafts district in a side street was a smithy with smoke coming from a chimney. The building was made of stone blocks which was unusual for the city where most buildings were concrete or brick. It was also quite sizable, being about the size of a convenience store, and after stepping inside the walls along with a few shelves and barrels were all stuffed with weapons, tools, and armor pieces of varying material and quality.

As he walked in Owari noticed a man behind the counter. He was rather sizable, built more like a bear than a man. Owari wondered if all smiths were so large or if it was just a coincidence the only two smiths he knew were so large. As he looked over the smith, the man also glanced over at him. When he did he gave Owari a look over before ignoring him. He had probably judged by Owari's attire that he wasn't someone of status, and because his Haori was folded and being carried his clothes were relatively clean and bland giving him a more clean-cut appearance which didn't really radiate skill. As for his appearance it need not be mentioned that he didn't suddenly change into looking like some warrior of the north with thick muscles and ruddy skin. The smith had discounted Owari on his appearance alone and this gave Owari a poor impression from the very start. However since it was a recommendation from the Silverblood family he decided to give the place some leeway.

"Excuse me, but I need to have my weapon sharpened. I was wondering what the fee would be." Owari held out his sword and placed it on the counter in front of the man.

He lifted it without a word to Owari and started to inspect the blade. After looking it over for a good five minutes he finally responded. "Did you go around chopping trees with this thing? The blade is as dull as a newly molded ingot. The material is decent so it can be resharpened, but it'll cost 200 credits." He resheathed the blade and set it down without much thought. He didn't really seem to care if Owari paid or not.

When Owari heard the price he was more disappointed than anything. This smith was definitely skilled both in his appraisal of the sword as well as from what he heard. He could definitely improve the edge of Owari's sword beyond what it had been before. However it wasn't worth that price tag, even Owari could give it a decent enough edge with some tools. For this man's level of skill and how easy it would be to sharpen he could get away with charging 80 credits at most. Even then Owari might just ask to pay less to access the tools to do it himself. But to charge 200 was a bit much. In comparison his month-long stay in his room was only around 300 credits. Owari didn't even dignify the man's fee with a response and grabbed his sword before turning to leave.

When he talked to Noel again he would recommend avoiding this shop. Whether this was the man's normal pricing or if he was just overcharging Owari for any number of reasons she would be better off going elsewhere. If it was his usual pricing then Owari would recommend avoiding it to save on such unnecessary wastes of money since she wasn't all that used to handling money, and if the man was doing this to rip Owari off then she would likely be furious. She was a shining example of the Silverblood family and their love of fairness and justice, she would not at all make any dealings with someone so underhanded.

The man showed very little reaction seeing Owari leave, apparently he had already ruled Owari out as being worth paying attention to. Unfortunately for him he was unaware of the sheer repercussions this event would have on him. Noel was of course someone who would have a lot of sway in this city in the future as a representative of a major family, so even a few light words from her could sway opinions among some of the people here. Not to mention Lance and Rebecca who she would almost certainly share her opinions on the place with the next time they met, who are both very highly valued by two quite large agencies who also have just as much sway here as the Silverblood family, let alone the sapphire agency who had focused a lot of their attention on this city in particular as they had a lot of need for coastal regions for access to water type magical beasts.

Not just this man, even Owari wasn't actually too aware of how much sway he could have if he wanted to. Though even if he knew he wouldn't really care or make use of it. He didn't really care for all of this social posturing and manipulating. He was just living his life and giving his friend a recommendation on places to avoid, but this small act would probably destroy this man's entire business one day. However he absolutely had it coming to him, if he had just treated Owari fairly, even if he actually went slightly overboard it would have been fine. But because he judged him and tried to take advantage of him, he would suffer greatly. It would be a harsh lesson to people in the crafts district in the future, you should never judge people based on appearance alone otherwise nobody can save you. At the center of this soon to be upheaval would be Owari, who was currently looking over some shops to judge who might be the best smith to entrust his blade with, all without a single care for the changes that he would soon cause.

Eventually he did spot a nice shop, in an alley off to one side by some random sweatshops filled with apprentices pumping out average quality goods en masse was a small smith shop. It belonged to the person in charge of watching over said apprentices to make sure they both kept up the work and to give them advice and help them improve. Although it wasn't exactly the most ethical or morally upstanding practice, it did help weed out the weak or untalented and only the best would make it to the end. Owari noticed that the smith shop was actually open to the public for business, however most people didn't really bother giving it a close look. After all, most people assumed that the guy who was in charge of so many apprentices would probably be some random average smith who was looking for extra pay.

However Owari was aware of how difficult it was to teach even one apprentice as someone who had received a few lessons in his time. So anyone who could teach this many students and maintain a shop had to have some skill. He entered the shop and felt his intuition and judgment were pretty spot on as he inspected one of the few pieces on display. It was a glaive, and looking at the edge it was quite good. However what impressed him most was the material which was merely ordinary steel. Despite this Owari could tell how hard it would be, he had gained an eye for this type of thing after having made a few things himself and observing his old bosses pieces.

"Hey there kid, just here to look or you need something else?" The voice of a woman came from behind Owari.

He turned to see a fit woman sitting behind a counter fiddling with some bits of metal which Owari didn't recognize. She was a bit overly muscular and her face was definitely far from pretty, however as a smith these things probably wouldn't matter much to her. As for Owari they mattered even less save for the need to remember her appearance. "I was hoping to get my sword sharpened." Owari did the same as before and placed his sword in front of her.

"Katana eh? I haven't worked with eastern weapons in a good bit." She put the metal down and started inspecting his weapon. "Looks like it's been through hell. Must've been a serious fight you went through." She scrunched her eyebrows as she carefully inspected it. "Did you crush this thing with a boulder or something? To get this type of metal dull you'd have to be hitting it with enough force to make an ogre flinch." She gave a hearty laugh as she inspected Owari again. "Seems you got some meat on your bones after all to swing this sword that hard. Whoever made this was decent so I can definitely resharpen it well enough. It'll cost about 90 credits though. I'd charge less if not for the fact that I'm busy."

Owari thought about it for a bit, and decided it would be okay to overpay a bit here. This person seemed to be a skilled enough smith and she probably was actually being honest when she mentioned being busy. "Alright, however you said you have worked with eastern weapons before right? Does that mean you can make them?"

The woman raised an eyebrow at his question. "I can, but you already have a sword, do you need something else?"

"I was more curious if any of the apprentices here have learned. I want to commission a sword that's as average and standard in quality as possible."

"Why would you want that?" She couldn't help but ask, most people prefer good weapons after all.

"My current sword is too good to practice with. I don't want to grow to rely on the quality of my weapons." Owari was fine with using good weapons, however he had realized with his moth wing strike that if he used that technique with an ordinary sword it would snap. Because of that, he needed a sword to practice with so he could truly perfect this technique.

"That's a good way of thinking. My personal apprentice is quite talented so he's picked up a lot of different smithing methods. He can definitely make you a practice sword. He just needs some experience so it'll be good for him. It'll be 50 credits and it'll be ready in three days. As for the sharpening of this sword, it'll be done by tomorrow at the latest." She seemed to be impressed by Owari's response as she answered him.

"Alright." Owari pulled out his cash card and handed it over to pay the fee. Since all his money was in a bank he didn't need to carry around the actual money.

The woman swiped the card into a small device and handed it back. After that Owari didn't bother to stick around and he went off to finish the rest of his errands before the day ended. He visited a small convenience shop to buy some needles and thread, and some supplies to get the blood out of his haori. He also grabbed some patches of cloth since it was inevitable he'd have to replace some of the more deeply stained parts. He chose a nice crimson-colored cloth because he thought it would be funny and quickly made his way to the next stop. His next destination was a grocery store where he bought a bunch of preserved foods, enough for about a week, and then made his way home.

As soon as he got back he started to work on his haori, sewing up the tears and washing out the stains. By the time he finished the sewing it was pretty late so he decided to try and meditate. Since he had done a lot of meditating that day he felt like giving sleep replacement a chance and he entered a very deep state of meditation. Time passed by and soon morning came around, Owari opened his eyes and although he wasn't as well-rested as if he had actually slept he felt it was a good start. He decided not to give up on his meditation and to double up his efforts so he can quickly improve it to a level he was happy with.