Chương 9: Chapter 8 - Where Is Here?

Looking at the available rewards, she noticed a few things. First of all, her soul space upgrade option now claimed that it would serve as a time stasis area, so anything she put in there wouldn't experience the flow of time. That meant that she could store food in there, and it would never go bad. She wondered if that upgrade to the reward option came about from her wanting less reliance on food in the future.

She also had a new option, [Limit Breaker], which would allow her to level up her stats past their current max. This was enticing, mainly because she wanted to continue upgrading her Mind stat, but for now she refrained from spending the point. She also wanted to upgrade other stats and she could do that without buying this reward, so she would wait until it became apparent that this was something she needed.

The [Upgrade Stats] reward was still there, but it looked like it would now cost her a point if she wanted to do that again. She wasn't sure what ' tier-based' meant in that title, but the points she would get looked identical to the amount she had just received from choosing that option. She heard a knock on her door, and dismissed the text from her field of view. As she opened it, Dustin smiled at her.

"I never got your name?" Was the first thing he said. She failed to say anything for a moment, as the World Engine's restrictions prevented her from giving her habitual response. Hi Dustin, I'm Kiara Dunsun! She wanted nothing more than to claim her true identity, but could only manage it in thought. After a second or two of silence, Dustin raised his eyebrows.

"I mean… you don't have to tell me if you don't want to, I guess. What should I call you?" She shook her head and smiled apologetically.

"No no, it's fine. My name is Shian. Shian Yountal." Dustin pursed his lips and nodded slowly, studying her.

"Shian, huh? Got it. I'll call you that until you tell me your real name." Kiara scratched her head awkwardly and looked at the ground. She wasn't sure what to think of that. I mean, she did want him to know her real name, but it didn't look like that would be happening anytime soon. She didn't mind the name Shian, it just didn't feel like it was her name to use. Oh well, for now it was what she was stuck with. She looked back up and gave him a large, genuine smile.

"That is my real name. Now, take me to the maps!" Dustin chuckled softly then nodded once.

"Alright, let's go." They left the inn and walked towards the center of the city. The closer they got, the bigger the buildings got, and the busier the streets got. Soon, it felt like they were in an endless sea of moving bodies, complete with currents heading in different directions. If you wanted to end up at the right place, you had to pick the correct current, and you'd be swept along with the crowd. Dustin seemed perfectly proficient at this, and Kiara followed close behind him, staying in his wake.

Before long, they ended up in front of a large conglomerate of buildings.

"City hall," Dustin announced proudly, once they'd stepped out of the moving throng and onto the building's steps. It really was a magnificent group of buildings. Kiara admired it, craning her neck back to look up at the tall spires. There were four large buildings, all connected in some way to a central, larger building, whose spires rose up a good 100 feet in the air. Each building housed different parts of the city's administrative offices.

The central building, which was more of a palace than anything, was where the Count lived that ruled this city and the surrounding lands. Kiara took it all in for a minute or so, then turned to Dustin.

"Ok, now what?" Dustin looked away from her, towards the buildings, and motioned to them with his hand.

"It's in there somewhere. I don't know this city very well, I've only been here for a couple of weeks. But the city offices will for sure have a cartographer's office, and will have maps of all kinds." The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. He nodded, clearly pleased with himself. Kiara grabbed his arm and pulled him towards one of the buildings.

"Come on, you promised to help me find it." She glanced at him out of the side of her eyes. He grumbled slightly at being dragged along, but she could see a hint of a smile on his lips. He was obviously happy to be included. As they entered the first building, Kiara's eyes went wide. Large hallways were lined with lavish decorations and art. Government officials and dignitaries hurried through the halls, focused on their tasks.

She tried stopping one or two to ask about the cartographer's office, but they barely glanced at her as they hurried by. So instead, they simply walked the halls, reading the signs above the doorways, looking for the right place.

"Why are you helping me?" She asked him suddenly, turning her head towards him as they walked. Dustin looked at her momentarily, then looked at the ground and shrugged.

"You helped me, back at Sally's pub. I guess I feel like I owe you one." She nodded as she considered his response.

"So after we find the maps I need, then we're even? You'll stop following me?" He just shrugged again, but looked a bit hurt by her comment.

"Yeah, I guess we'll be even." Kiara felt bad. She hadn't meant it to come out like that, but she really was curious why exactly he had decided to follow her and help her out. Plus, depending on how far from home she was, she would be leaving this city soon, and potentially traveling far away. It wouldn't be good to grow too attached to anyone around here. He suddenly adopted a joking attitude and smirked, trying to lighten the mood.

"You want to get rid of me that badly?" Kiara smirked back and glanced back at him.

"Unless you want to leave town and see the world, travel across the kingdom with me."

"Okay!" he replied. She glanced at him sharply. She had been joking, but he'd agreed to it? Then she noticed a sparkle in his eye. Ah, he's pulling my leg. She smiled and lightly smacked his arm.

"I thought you were being serious." Out of her peripheral, she saw Dustin glance back at her momentarily with a more somber expression, then look away again.

"Where are you headed after this?" he asked her.

"I need to get back home. My family is in trouble, they need my help."

"Oh?" He perked up.

"What kind of trouble?" She blushed and looked away, embarrassed.

"I may have… offended the noble that rules our little village, and now he's making my family serve twenty years of indentured servitude as punishment. Or at least that's what he claimed he would do." Dustin gave her a sharp look.

"Twenty years? What did you do, burn his house down?" She laughed.

"No, nothing quite like that." She proceeded to explain how she had tried to warn Lord Grivalt's carriage driver about the loose wheel as they drove by, and how it had come off as she ran up to the carriage, causing the carriage to crash. She left out the part about Lord Grivalt killing her. Dustin listened politely, then asked, "So, where is home?" Kiara's eyes got a far off look in them.

"I grew up in a small village, it doesn't really have a name, but it's near Easton." Dustin shook his head slowly.

"Never heard of it." Kiara looked around at the spacious hall they were walking through then added, "well… Easton is actually a pretty small city, now that I think about it. It always seemed so big before, but now that I've seen this city, I realize just how small everything is back home. Maybe you've heard of Portish? That's the largest city in the region." Dustin stopped walking and looked at her. He seemed confused, and his eyebrows scrunched together.

"How long have you been away from home, Shian?"

"Ah, that's… complicated," she replied slowly. She couldn't very well tell him that it had been less than a day ago, and that she had died. He scrutinized her more carefully.

"And how did you end up here in Livalia?"

"Livalia?" She asked innocently. Dustin just nodded and waved his arms around, pointing in all directions.

"This city that we're in, Livalia. How is it that you don't remember how to get back home from here?" She paused for a moment, but couldn't think of anything that would sound believable.

"Also complicated." She turned and started walking down the hall again, hoping the motion would help distract Dustin from this line of questioning. I really need to find that map! Once she knew how to get home from here, she would look less like a crazy person. Dustin jogged to catch up, then fell into step beside her.

"No worries," he said smoothly, "I won't pry. You don't have to share if you don't want to. But tell me this, what province are you from?" Kiara smiled sheepishly.

"I actually am not even sure. I never really needed to know this kind of stuff before. I just know it's somewhere here in the Central Kingdom." Dustin looked at her for a solid minute this time as they walked. He didn't say anything, he just stared at the side of her face. She ignored it for as long as she could, trying to focus on the names of the offices they were passing. But she could feel the stare, it almost felt like he was burning an actual hole in her cheek.

Finally, she couldn't take it anymore, and whirled to look at him.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"The Central Kingdom? You mean Eshela?" Dustin asked slowly.

"We aren't in Eshela, Shian, we're in Ventalia."