Volume 1 Chapter 23 The Clints?

Strolling through the dark tunnels of the Nightrow Market was a strange experience.

As the biggest literal and metaphorical underground market, it had a pretty good reputation amongst thieves and serial killers.

Known for its openness toward stolen goods and rare items being sold and bought by small business and big business alike, it was the most popular dark market on the continent.

You could meet a civilized monster just before meeting a noble wearing a mask.

You could buy artifacts, information, and rare ingredients in shops before participating in illegal gambling.

You could partake in a distinguished party looking out the window and see a brothel on the other side of the road.

The Nightrow Market was a strange place for the ambiance it had and for the visitor they held in their walls.

Today again, Kisin Michael Augustus was walking in the poorly lit tunnels of the underground market, from afar he saw some noblewoman surrounded by children wearing revolting clothing.

Turning his head, he saw a well known cannibal walking out in the open.

He finally found a member of the Mio, he walked toward the gray wearing humanoid figure.

People rarely know the gender of the Mio they were talking to because of their modified appearance and of their distorted voice.

People weren’t tooless in front of this problem but using an investigative spell on a member of the Mio was considered an offense to their organization if you could call it an organization.

Kisin started the conversation: “Don’t you think those kinds of people should be killed?”

The Mio slowly looked at the cannibal before shifting their gaze toward the noblewoman.

They responded: “We don’t care about what people do, we care about what they’ve done.”

“Hun, the same motto you bunch keep saying.” Kisin said.

“Well how about you sir? What do you think about what they do?” asked the Mio

He looked at the Mio and said: “I think I stopped caring a thousand years ago.”

Those things had been shocking a long time ago but after some time you stop caring about others’ actions if it doesn’t affect you.

Should you really care about what harm someone is causing to others if it doesn’t stop you from achieving your goals and ambitions?

Those who say themself to be Righteous would uphold the card of the morality of an action, those who are called Demonic will often say that it is bad but that they won’t act as white knights to defend the virgin and the orphan.

But does it even matter, should one care about the pain of the others when one already has so much to care for.

Dreams, goals, properties, power and knowledge.

Those things are important, they are what allow you to survive and thrive.

The one that only cares for some is a fool or someone’s gun.

If a Pathseeker only wants more power or more knowledge, they will be led by the nose, they will commit actions for others. They will be pawns in the plans of smarter Pathseekers.

If a Pathseeker only has dreams and goals then are they different from Ashes. When you are gifted powers yet you only try to achieve some lowly dream of yours, then you are wasting your powers, most Ashes would get further than you if they had been given the opportunity

But if one only cares about material wealth, they can be considered no more than a greedy waste. You were given powers yet you only use it to enrich yourself. Your powers are your rights to stand above the common folks, above the Ashes yet you chose to stay in their system? Only caring about getting more properties is pointless as it won’t matter if you are killed by someone stronger than you.

Kisin then asked the Mio: “I want all your information on the Clints.”

“Very well, do you have enough to pay for all we have on this particular family?” The Mio asked back.

Kisin gave the Mio a pouch full of Gold Imperial Stamped coins.

The Mio didn’t have to check how much there was in the pouch as they were trained to differentiate the weight of gold, silver, bronze and brass.

The Mio started: “The Clints are a family of noble heritage, they gained their wealth through the farming of barley and oat before shifting to…

“Yeah, I don’t care about that. Every bloke on the street could tell me that exact information. I paid you and you know very well for what.” Interrupted Kisin.

“Sorry sir, I’ll be sure to give you the information you are searching for. The Clints were a family of former Ashes four generations back, as such they don’t have many Pathseeker under their name. They have at most twelve.” The Mio took a break to breathe.

The informant continued: “As they shifted their business from agriculture to the mining of rare materials, they own vast amounts of wealth. They make up for their lack of Pathseeker with money.”

“They recently made the acquisition of a keep in the district of Blumy, as every Great House of the city their home is a small fortress.” The informant looked at Kisin with a gaze that said to go away.

The Augustus looked at the Mio and said: “I expected more professionalism from a Mio. I’m on the verge of killing you even if it puts me on your organization’s blacklist.”

“Sorry sir, I won’t make the same mistake again. The rumors say that they found an inheritance from the old ages in one of their mines. We can say with certainty that they found an unknown path inheritance from an Imperium-level Pathseeker.”

Kisin took a few seconds to process that information, he nodded and walked away.

Jack had been working with Livley for two days now, all they did was paperwork again and again.

It wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be, in fact spending time with Livley was pretty fun, did make fun of him sometimes but he never felt offended by her verbal attacks.

If Therio was the older brother he never had then Livley was the older sister he never had.

In the afternoon of the third day at Glor’s Sin Clearing Brigade, he finally received his white uniform.

While wearing it he looked like Livley, Vice-Captain Roberto and the others he had seen. The uniform gave the person wearing it a military-like authoritative aura but on the small Jack it looked more like a kid that had stolen their parents' work uniform.

The uniform also had a few defensive perks such as a small defense against fire and shocks so that it wouldn’t be ruined easily.