Levi, River, and Oliver stood outside the Ministry of Resources. Oliver couldn’t stick around – if he was even welcome, but he’d walked Levi here rather than the Scholarium today.

  Levi looked up from the invite.

  “Why is it at a ministry?”

  Oliver shrugged. “I honestly couldn’t say,” he peered around, “but it looks like the entrance is probably over there.”

  Levi saw carriages lining up on the side of the large building. “I’ll be okay from here.”

  River shifted from foot to foot. Oliver glanced at her, “if you say so. We’ll be off then, I’ll tell you if we find anything out.”

  And so Levi was left there on the street, watching as carriages piled up in the line. Levi smiled as he walked past them, all of them were expensive looking and probably held expensive looking people – but they all had to wait and he didn’t.

  He rounded the corner and saw the ornate doors were being held open by people wearing orange berets. He approached them from the side as others descended their carriages. “Excuse me!”

  The beret wearing woman looked down. She wore robes which resembled a scholar’s, though they were simpler and had less volume to them, “to whom do I owe the pleasure?”

  “Levi Ow- Uh, Crest. I was invited.” He handed her the invite.

  She gave him a skeptical look, likely because he was a child. She poured over the invite though, and nodded. “Go on through, another Official will show you to the function room.”

  “Thankyou,” Levi attempted a half-bow in thanks before hurrying on through.

  An older gentleman wearing similar clothes to the lady outside waved him over. “Just this way young sir.”

  Levi guessed all the people dressed like this must have been Officials of Resources. Which was a bit confusing, since, wouldn’t they be mining or something instead of throwing parties?

  The Official led him down a corridor before showing him an open door to the event. He asked the old Official, who responded.

  “Hospitality, young sir. Hospitality. Enjoy yourself now.” The Official swept a half bow similar to the one Levi had attempted, except it was so perfect it made Levi shiver. He returned it as best he could.

  Then he turned to the room he’d been led to, which seemed to be two stories tall–

  An alarm went off behind him. The lighting in the hallway flashed as the old Official stopped the person behind Levi. “Adventurer, this is a social event. You’re carrying too many magical items.”

  Levi’s eyes widened as he watched the Adventurer grimace, she tousled her untidy short grey hair. “Yeah yeah, I’ll show them to you but I can’t hand them over.” She began untying one of her two… shin guards? It was the only metal armour on her body.

  At that moment, man of the hour– Roger Bourniquet jogged up to the door. “Hello, Levi.” He turned, “Official! Could you allow her to pass uninspected?”

  The Adventurer paused in untying her gear. The old Official nodded, “go on then.”

  Levi just stood there as the Adventurer passed him, shooting him an inquisitive look– but Levi just looked at all the interesting gear she had. She hung vials on her belt, each a bright shade of blue, and had some kind of large brush holstered at her side. Across her back, a kind of hammer-pickaxe with a long thin handle, the head of the weapon blunt on one side, and sharp on the other.

  He had seen adventurers around. Big rough looking people, or more often just mages who practiced in the Scholarium practice rooms– but usually they all carried the same variety of stuff. Sword, dagger, bow, wand, whatever.

  The adventurer had gone off into the room to join the event, so Levi just shook his head and entered. There were quite a few people here. Levi knew none of them. Mia was presumably here, but he couldn’t see– ah.

  Levi approached the large congregation of people surrounding Lady Mia and a guy dressed equally as fancy. Levi assumed this was one of her brothers, who she had mentioned. Which one? Levi had no idea, but he went up to say hi.

  Except, he couldn’t make it close enough to them. There were too many others fighting to speak to the two most important people at this event. The only reason the young nobility weren’t completely overrun was the small squad of Knights stood at attention.

  It was as close to a mob you could get in polite society, Levi assumed. If he wanted, he could shove people aside or yell to get attention, but that was… uncouth.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Uncouth was a good word.

  Levi tapped the side of someone on the edge of the group. “Excuse me.”

  The look he got was so flat Levi nearly tripped over himself. “If you want to speak to them, you can wai– Why are you a child?”

  Levi ignored that question. “I just wanna go say hi. She probably doesn’t even know I’ve arrived.”

  The young merchant opened his mouth in outrage, then slowly closed it as he remembered something. “Ah. Aaaaaaah, right. You’re one. Well, I’m not sure you’ll be able to get through these people, much the same as I.” The merchant started rubbing his hands together like he’d found some kind of opportunity. “Say, why don’t we have a bit of a chat?”

  —

  Levi didn’t want to talk about falafel economics anymore. But more to the point, he going to go and tell Mia about falafel economics either.

  Levi shivered as he walked away. Also, the guy had kept treating him like an idiot– he was nearly ten years old!

  Anyway, talking to Mia at this social function was going to be impossible, so he’d have to go find something else to do.

  Of the people here, half of them were surrounding the lordlings and the other were either too important or not important enough to care. The merchants with good heads on their shoulders were discussing things with ministry officials from a variety of ministries. A High Official of Finance, Law, and Defence respectively representing their interests to small gatherings of interested parties.

  Levi looked over all of them, not really interested in talking about business. He could ask the Defence Official about people from Earth… But that was a scary prospect. Oliver had told him not to rush into danger.

  One corner of the room was strangely barren, though. Three people stood there, each looked interesting and important enough to gather a crowd of their own– but everybody seemed to be giving them space.

  The orchestrator of the gathering, Roger Bourniquet.

  The strange adventurer with a hammer-pick and a brush.

  A man with curly brown hair, round glasses, and gold-trimmed orange scholar’s robes in the same hue as the ministry he was standing in. Some kind of important person, Levi could tell at a glance.

  He found himself breaking through the perimeter of less brave souls, approaching the trio with imitated grace. They were in some kind of discussion that Levi caught the tail end of–

  The important looking orange scholar hesitated. “We do need all the help we can get, to be frank. But the method…”

  Roger spread his hands, “Minister, arguably Reine is the best adventurer for the job. Effective in action as well as a deterrent. She’s as effective as the best adventurers of Willowhaven put together and not nearly at the same cost.”

  The adventurer, Reine, crossed her arms. “I’ll take fair compensation when that’s decided upon.”

  This was when Levi decided to break in, “I hope it’s been a good day to you all.” He swept a proper bow, these people were all higher status than him.

  Levi raised his head to meet the eyes of the three. He started from the left. “Adventurer Reine, we passed one another earlier.” He continued, “Mr. Bourniquet, thankyou for the invite.”

  He didn’t have the name of the orange robed man, but he expected it was enough to say– “Minister, well met.”

  Levi was quite proud as he introduced himself. “My name is Levi Crest, a learner of magic and friend of Lady Mia Willowen.” He treated this like it was any other gathering of near-equals, which was the way he had practiced.

  The Minister of Resources turned an amused expression to Roger, who seemed politely surprised. The adventurer, though…

  Reine grinned, she ruffled Levi’s blonde hair with a gloved hand. “Nice to meet you, Levi. Aren’t you quite young to be at a party like this?”

  Levi let his hair be ruffled, but he narrowed his eyes. “I’m ‘quite young’ to be studying magic too, apparently. I don’t think it’s that strange.”

  Reine smiled even wider, she turned her head to the Minister, “he’s not scared of me at all, this is wonderful!”

  The Minister prompted Roger, “care to explain?”

  Roger nodded, “Levi’s something of a recent peculiarity. A hot topic in some circles for his magical penchant and friendship with the young Lady who shares similar abilities. I thought he might make for an interesting guest.”

  The Minister adjusted his glasses, “he’s certainly that.” He turned to Levi, “well met, Levi Crest. I am the Minister of Resources, Alexander Wilson.”

  Minister Alexander looked between Reine and Roger, “I’d imagine our current topic of conversation isn’t very appropriate for polite company, if that’s alright.”

  Levi felt like that was a hint he wasn’t welcome, but he was too interested. “That’s alright. What’s adventurer Reine being hired to do?”

  The adventurer in question’s expression fell. Roger strained, “well, we’re not yet sure she is being hired.”

  Minister Alexander waved a hand, something of an inquisitive expression on his face. “If you’re keen to know, Levi, she’s being considered to apprehend a group who’s been causing trouble for our merchants and defence forces.”

  Levi’s visual curiosity wavered with recognition, then strengthened with determination. “One adventurer for a group that killed so many guards?”

  Roger’s expression went from strained to concerned. “That information is not supposed to be entirely public, is it common knowledge already?”

  Levi scanned all three of them before responding. “My older brother was one of the only two survivors.”

  “Little man.” Reine squatted down to Levi’s eye level, they had a moment of eye contact that conveyed the seriousness of the exchange. “I can’t imagine there’s any single person in this city, ‘sides maybe the Lord, that could stand in my way.”

  The Minister of Resources broke in, “if you were to ignore the law, adventurer.”

  Reine returned to standing. “I’ll negotiate the contract later, I think I want to meet your brother, little man. Where can I find him?”

  “I think he’s at the Scholarium right about now.”

  The adventurer turned to Roger, “your city’s Scholarium is that big building in the middle, right?”

  Roger raised a hand, “hold on just a moment, Reine. It was hard to pull this together– you’re going to need some support regardless of whether you get the contract.”

  Reine spread her arms, acknowledging the large empty space they were standing in despite the amount of attendees. “Roger, clearly it isn’t going to work this way. My reputation unfortunately precedes me, even out here on the edge of the empire. I’d have more luck at the guild than in this congregation of local elites.”

  The Minister of Resources sighed, “your reputation does precede you… I’ll have a discussion with the Minister of Finance. We’ll organise a more private meeting. I’m not keen on your usual methods, but perhaps we could work out a way to manage the difficulties.”

  Levi began to think Reine might be a big deal.

  She picked him up. “I’m gonna need you to point your brother out for me. Let’s go.”

  Levi squawked. “Eh? What? Now?”

  “Why wait?”

  Reine took off with Levi. At speed.

  Sunday

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