Hearing Manager Narkor’s respectful tone, the server girl Aniva’s gaze at Nick changed from disgust to sheer fear, as if she was faced with impending death itself. Narkor himself was a mage. If he said that her actions would result in death punishment, then that meant the person Aniva insulted as a beggar and spat on, was at least a Provec Level mage. In this city, the mages of level were capable of setting up schools or taking command as generals in the army itself.
This was the mage that she was rudely throwing out of the tavern. In her state of complete loss, she did not know what words or actions could save her. She wanted to beg for forgiveness, and in fact, for her life itself, kneel even if needed, but no words came out of her mouth. She was unable to move even a muscle.
Nick looked at the changing expressions of the petrified girl in front of him. Realizing once again how the world treated the powerful differently, he let out a sigh and started talking.
“Calm down, I am not going to do anything to you. But be careful that next time you don’t show your arrogance towards anyone you don’t know.”
Once Nick was done, Narkor continued engaging with him.
“My Lord, please follow me; I will take you to our best table.”
Nick did not give Aniva another glance and followed Manager Narkor.
Just like that, Aniva that knew she had escaped death. If this powerful mage wanted to kill her in this instant, no one could have stopped it or taken any action against it.
—
As Nick and Narkor went inside the inner halls of the tavern, Narkor decided to voice a doubt.
“My Lord, if it was another mage who encountered a situation such as this, he or she would have killed that girl…”
Nick smiled and looked around the tavern and the people as he answered.
“True power does not mean punishing someone at their first mistake. It is the knowledge that you can punish someone without being held accountable or answerable, and still choose not to do it.”
Narkor was taken aback. The strong mysterious mage’s beliefs defied his understanding and everything that he saw in this society of mages, in his several years.
Real strength was not punishing someone but having the heart to forgive that person. Even if the punisher knew that his actions would not be met by any resistance and that his will would prevail no matter what, he still chose to forgive the offender—that was true power.
By now, Narkor brought Nick to a well-lit corner of the tavern. There was a window next to him, the table was wide and the chair was softy cushioned. Nick knew that Narkor really offered him possibly the best seat in the house.
Nick made himself comfortable. Narkor then asked him.
“What would you like to have today, My Lord?”
Nick thought for a moment and answered.
“Bring me some meat and soup, and also something to drink like a beer or ale.”
Narkor took the order and headed to the kitchen to instruct the chef himself.
Once Nick was alone, he looked out of the window, taking in the sights and daily bustling of the city’s people. With his current level of power and renewed understanding of the world after his battle and dimensional experiences, many things appeared uninteresting and insignificant to him.
Nick did not know why he felt like this but it was like understanding that all events of the past bore no importance at all. At most, they are tiny ants crawling at the bottom for someone standing at the peak.
Watching ordinary folks live their lives, earning their livelihoods by doing their jobs may look simple but Nick knew that only these observations could change the way he looked at ‘living’ as a human.
After some thought, he started planning his exact next steps.
“First, I need to buy land. Then, I need to create a basic economical force that generates money from food and other sources. After getting the basic structures and systems in place, I need to travel again and improve my power on the way. And, I must build relationships with forces other than humans, such as the Werfurs and other races capable of magic and have intelligence rivalling that of human beings.”
Most of these were the obvious things that needed to be done immediately for Nick to achieve his objective of a strong future. As he created this mental roadmap, a good-looking maid placed the food Nick ordered on the table.
There are three dishes in all. One looked like succulently grilled meat of some animal. There was soup was made of meat broth giving out an appetizing aroma. And there was also some green salad served with tomatoes and other vegetables and fruits.
There was a large wooden mug filled with beer. The food was to Nick’s liking and he started eating and filling himself up, appreciating the taste.
—
Narkor did not sit still after he placed Nick’s order. He immediately notified the Head Manager of Binding Lights Tavern about Nick’s arrival. He was just the manager of this branch of Binding Lights but Binding Lights was no ordinary tavern.
There were more than 30 outlets of Binding Lights Tavern, making it a medium-sized enterprise. The Binding Lights Tavern Head Manager was responsible for all the taverns in the Blue Tear City. The mage Epsilon, who visited them and was eating at his tavern, was an important guest for even the founder of Binding Light Taverns, not to mention someone in the Head Manager position.
They needed to know when they had a VIP guest. The Provec Level or higher mages were exactly the types of guests that had to be brought to the Head Manager’s attention. If not, the branch manager, like Narkor, would receive punishment or even lose their jobs without even knowing why.
Narkor used a ‘Word Scroll’ to notify the Head Manager Andurev. The Word Scroll was a magical scroll created by mages for sending instant letters to the intended recipient. They were expensive and only used by strong families or mages. But Narkor did not care about the price at this moment; this event was important enough to use the Word Scroll.
