Chapter 289: Twilight City

“Finally! It’s working!” Percy exclaimed, flickering the enchantment between states.

Technically, it wasn’t the first time he’d managed to heat the slab up, nor even the first time he’d gotten it to switch on and off at will. But it

was

his first time getting everything to work as intended, allowing him to cycle between all four states without fail. The slab was a bit hot to the touch at the highest setting, though he’d prepared for that, coating his hand in a thin layer of pure mana before playing around with the runes.

“Congratulations, Percy! Does that mean you’re ready to craft yourself a new cauldron?” Elaine asked.

Naturally, he’d already briefed his companions about his latest project, seeing no reason to hide it from them. He trusted both of them with his life.

“I’d love to, but I’m not quite there yet…” he scratched his head before elaborating. “I’ll need to stick more than two control runes on each enchantment, or it’s going to be worse than my current one. It would also be nice if I could get a little better at drawing them first, otherwise I’ll have to carve each rune a hundred times to get them all right…”

Regardless, a wide grin was plastered all over his face. Despite all the stress he was under, this was the first positive development in weeks. He’d at least grasped the underlying principles behind the cascading controls. Now, it was only a matter of pouring some more time and effort into it.

Part of him wanted to get started on that right away, but his eyes couldn’t help but veer off to the distance, as a colossal city faintly appeared on the horizon. The others followed his gaze, letting out startled gasps in the process. The city was still a few hours away, but it was clear it stretched for tens of miles across, its bright lights scattered like tiny dots, almost blending into the starry sky above it.

“Is this the place?” Elaine threw him a questioning look, some excitement bleeding into her voice.

“It has to be.” he nodded, prompting her to exhale in relief.

And she wasn’t alone in feeling that way. Honestly, they could all use some rest.

This city was where they were planning to live over the next few months. Right behind it, hidden by the vast stretch of tall buildings, was the place they

actually

wanted to get to: the Thirsty Valley. Though they weren’t ready to sneak in just yet. First, they had to complete their preparations.

“It’s even larger than I thought it would be! The House that owns it must be filthy rich!” Elaine concluded.

“Well, it

is

the most densely populated area on Remior. But you’re wrong about the last part. It doesn’t belong to any one family. It’s somewhat neutral.” Percy explained, causing her to raise an eyebrow.

“Neutral? Does the Divine Order even allow that? Who makes all the decisions here?”

This time, it was Nesha who answered, however.

“Well, obviously, if the Order wants something, everyone has to oblige. Not that different from everything else on Remior, really. But for the most part, they don’t bother. They can’t be asked to manage a city this large by themselves. It’s too big even for the Divine Root. It’s governed by its own organization: the

Black and White Syndicate

. As long as they don’t do anything too egregious, the Order lets them do as they please.”

“Black and White Syndicate? Sounds ominous.” Elaine frowned.

“They

did

start off as a bunch of criminals.” Percy shrugged. “This is actually the one place on Remior where bandits and lowlifes are free to sell their loot with relative impunity.”

“And the Order doesn’t arrest them?! Right next to the Thirsty Valley?!”

“They kinda benefit from it too.” he said, before elaborating.

At first, there hadn’t been anything next to the Valley. This all changed when some daring people set up a few shops and inns. The Green-borns didn’t mind that. In fact, they welcomed it, as they finally had a place to rest and restock their supplies before commencing their training. Even when a couple thieves tried to launder their ill-begotten money in the settlement, nobody cared. After all, the more this place grew, the more useful it was for the Order.

Eventually, more people joined. Commoners realized this was one of the few places on Remior they could call their own, without being driven away or ruled by the nobles. Small-time criminals realized the Order would turn a blind eye to their checkered past, giving them a chance to build a new life for themselves and their families.

Thus, the small collection of inns and restaurants turned into a tiny village, and then into a town no smaller than the ones they’d seen along the way. But the town kept growing, until it far surpassed any other on Remior. Everyone: from the most prestigious merchants to the most prolific crime lords: funnelled huge amounts of resources from all over the world, accelerating the city’s growth.

“…and so, the Twilight City was born: a place where law and crime freely mix.”

Of course, that didn’t mean people were allowed to rob or murder in broad daylight. The city wouldn’t have survived for more than a week had that been the case. But as long as everyone behaved within the city’s walls, nobody asked them any inconvenient questions.

“Does that mean we’re also in the clear?” Elaine asked, her eyes sparkling with hope.

“If only it were that easy...” Percy smiled bitterly. “Directly defying the Divine Order:

as we have

: is the one thing that won’t be forgiven. We’ll still have to be careful.”

Elaine nodded, as Nesha spoke.

“It’s not all bad. There are actually a few things that work in our favour. The Twilight City’s scope goes beyond a mere supporting pillar for the Valley now. It’s one of the largest trading hubs on Remior. Arguably larger than the Guild. The only downside is that we can’t buy nectar here, as exporting it out of the Fungal Spire isn’t allowed. Still, we shouldn’t have much trouble finding everything else we need.”

“Wait, what’s the point of trading alchemical reagents here? Aren’t most of Remior’s alchemists staying in the Guild?” Elaine asked.

“For the most part, yes. And even the few who aren’t can’t do much without nectar. The market for potions is much smaller. But many reagents have other uses. As for the ingredients which are exclusive to alchemy, they are still often gathered here from all over Remior, to be transported to the Guild in larger batches. The Syndicate is one of the Guild’s most prominent suppliers.” Nesha explained.

Listening to her, Percy cracked a wry smile. She wasn’t wrong, but she’d omitted one tiny detail.

Finding

and

buying

the reagents they needed were two entirely separate matters. Even if they found a deattunement ingredient suitable for the Aurora Dew, procuring the sheer volume they needed without raising an eyebrow would be a challenge.

But that was a problem for later.

Meanwhile, his cousin couldn’t help but toss another glance at the colossal city before her.

“How long did it take for it to grow this big?”

“Beats me. Probably thousands of years.” he replied. “The Syndicate is the strongest organization on Remior under the Great Houses. The only one of its kind too, considering that they don’t let any nobles or Yellow-borns join.”

“Seriously? How can it be this powerful without Yellow-borns? Orange-borns can’t get to Violet or White.”

Percy nodded.

“Indeed. But the Syndicate has a lot

of Blues. And I mean

a lot

. They are called the 72 Veiled Ladies and 72 Radiant Lords. Most of them are over a thousand years old. And each governs one of the city’s 144 districts.”

Suffice to say, finding such a powerful force outside the noble families was highly atypical. Under normal circumstances, the nobles should have fought tooth and nail to recruit these people. Granted, most Houses primarily invited Yellow-borns, not Orange-borns, but that distinction only applied to the younger ones.

After all, unless an Orange-born peasant had mutated a powerful bloodline, they weren’t worth the investment. It would take them over 500 years to reach Blue: not to mention the ridiculous amount of elixir they’d consume to get there. And only a small fraction would even survive that long, the rest ending up a waste of resources.

But Orange-borns who had already reached Blue were a different story. They might be stuck there for the rest of their lives, but they could still live over 4000 years in total, which wasn’t a short time by anybody’s standards. And Blues were immensely valuable strategic resources for any House, as a group of them could even topple a Violet.

“I’ve heard that the Lords and Ladies in the Syndicate do receive lots of invitations and marriage proposals. No surprise there. But they tend to refuse.” Nesha said.

“Really?” Elaine was surprised. “Not to toot our own horn, but I thought commoners generally jumped at the opportunity to join a House.”

“Not if their life is already more comfortable here. Not to mention safer, since they don’t need to get involved in the wars. In fact, the exact opposite dynamic has been reported. Some Yellow-born Blues have tried to defect from their families and join the Syndicate, only to be rejected. These people actively despise us nobles. Many of them suffered through traumatic experiences in their past.”

“You think we’ll get in trouble?” Elaine asked.

Percy chuckled.

“Elaine… if anyone figures out who we are, we’ll have bigger issues than some noble-hating Blues… Though, I’m afraid we’ll need to take a risk at some point…”

“Yeah, we will.” Nesha agreed. “The easiest way to get the ingredients we need is to approach one of the Lords or Ladies and offer them a good deal.”

Elaine swallowed hard, probably realizing once more how dangerous her decision to follow Percy was. But she didn’t say anything, picking the pace up instead.

As did the rest of them, eager to reach their destination a minute sooner. Not only was Micky counting on them, but they could hardly wait to see the bustling city from up close.