Magic Apprentice

Chapter 9: Sirens (1/5)

From when Kebrilio and Myron left the latters lab till now, Elric and his friends had yet to find the courage to return to their housing.

The three would rather face a furious dragon rather than go back and face Flanias wrath. Each one of them experienced her explosive anger before and didnt want a repeat. If anything, Kite and Jerry were both terrified. What would they do if they got the same treatment as Elric? None of them wanted to go through the same bridal training he did. A fate like that was simply far too tragic for them to even think about. Elric was already tainted by such a training, but that didnt mean the two of them wanted to share that same fate. For someone who espoused honor and kept careful attention to their fame like Kite, undergoing that kind of fate was far too terrifying for him.

At an impasse for what to do, the three friends roamed the streets of Waldsk. 

The city had good reason for being known as the world center. It was a thriving city that no other city in any other nation could compare. Not even the capital of Sovereign. 

The median of Waldsk was arranged so that seven palaces could fit around a single plaza. This kind of arrangement was one of many blocks of how Waldsk was built around. Every palace grouping had an empty plaza or clearing either in the front or back, allowing for a central place of gathering for anyone living in those buildings. Some of the wealthier residential areas had this plaza in the center of them instead of the front. Areas of business would have these plazas connected to one another through linear streets while even the slums or lower-end residential areas had a small plaza of some kind.

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Statues were a common sight in each of these plazas. The largest ones had the most amount of statues and were of the highest quality and beauty. Medium-sized plazas didnt have as many plazas as their larger counterparts, but they were still mightily impressive and numerous in their own right. Not even the smallest of plazas were forgotten by these statue makers. These plazas had statues of personified concepts such as the earth, though these statues were often of the lowest grade of material or quality.

They walked through the plazas, enjoying the statues as they went. Each one of them differed in art standards and enjoyed different types of statues. Kite, for example, fervently loved statues depicting the heroes. Of these statues, each one of them were constructed from bronze without fail. 

But those statues were dark and murky in color, time having dimmed the coloration of those statues. Jerry had no interest in such statues. He rather enjoyed the statues depicting those of angels, forest goddesses, shepherdesses and sheeps since these ones were sculpted from white marble. 

Elric didnt care for the heroes like Kite did nor the whimsical and carefree depictions of angels and nature like Jerry. What he cared for were sculptures more serious in nature, like the one labeled Ponderer or of the statue of an archer with his bow aimed upward.

That being said, they all agreed that the twelve triumphal arches were without a doubt a masterpiece.

Now that they had the time, Elric and his friends managed to make their way back to where the twelve arches were to better appreciate their beauty. Each arch could now be seen in their full glory along with the multiple supporting reliefs and statues. Each arch was sculpted beautifully, the circle-focused design attracted everyones eyes, and even the marbled ground was wonderfully without blemish. Not even Jerry, usually the most fussy of them all, could not find fault with the arches.

The next destination was south of the arches now, the wealthy residential district of Waldsk where the upper-crust of society lived. The streets, wider and cleaner than the other streets in Waldsk, had plenty of trees planted in equal increments on the sidewalk for a scenic view. Carriages wheeled across the spacious roads in numerous amounts even at this time, each one of them looking fancier than the last. Clearly, these carriages were designed with beauty in mind. 

Not being ones to care for whatever a carriage looked like, Kite and Elric walked onward. But Jerry stopped often to look upon these carriages and clicked his tongue in wonder and envy. 

The residential area here had beautiful plazas of their own, though it was a shame that as beautiful as they were, the arrangement of the statues in them were extremely disorganized. The statues were masterpieces in their creation, but they were grouped together without a central theme in mind and looked disharmonious as a result. A closer inspection of these statues revealed the names of their donors. A majority of them were aristocrats, no doubt. 

Only Jerry thought these statues looked beautiful. Kite and Elric couldnt care less about them.

Strolling through these streets, the three marveled at the variety of shops there were littered about. Occasionally, the three would find a quaint cafe where two or three servers would wait upon a customer at a time. Were it not for Elrics full stomach he wouldve been tempted to walk into one of these cafes and sample their wares.

Next up was the commercial district, yet another thing Waldsk was famous for. Both sides of the streets here were lined up with all sorts of stores, something Elric and Jerry were excited to see, but not Kite. He attempted earlier to try to pull the two away from this area, but both resisted.

You can go back first if you dont like it. Argued Jerry, effectively shutting the young knight up and forcing him to come with. There was no way Kite was going to return by himself to face Flanias wrath.

As the center of trade, Karth was in the unique position of having wares from all over the world. There were things that even Jerry didnt know, subsequently causing him to be fiercely interested in perusing the wares of each store. The wares from the eastern nation of Monteda piqued his interest most, especially the delicate-looking porcelain and the gorgeously soft silk. 

Jerry actually bought an item, but it wasnt either of the products earlier. Instead, it was a bottle of Karuta perfume. Kite and Elrics eyes bulged at the astronomical price attached to the perfume the moment they saw it, but Jerry kept swearing up and down that the item was actually cheaper than usual.

Unsatisfied with the products being sold here, Kite wandered down the street and chanced upon an antique store. It was in this store that he stumbled upon two rapiers from the Sramos Duchy. Located in the mountainous range in the northwestern part of the continent, the duchy was blessed with an abundance of natural resources. One of those resources was a very special type of mineral called cloudite. Known as metal in cloud form, the metal, when alloyed with steel, gave the resultant alloy malleable yet durable properties. 

Cloudite, unfortunately, was a very sparse resource. Finding enough of it to produce a weapon was quite difficult, which was why Kite was surprised to see it. He was definitely going to buy it! Fishing out the rest of his money and taking a loan from Jerry, Kite made the purchase and bought one of the two rapiers, much to Jerrys amazement. Was a weapon really worth such a hefty price?