Chương 142: Cordyceps Seven

The carriages from the Mistbank district (where Digglestein lived) to the Academy cost three half-pennies to ride. A bit steep, in my opinion, but still better than walking. The Academy was far to the east and north of the city, which meant that technically my home was closer to it than this part of town was. That was, if I just looked at a map and ignored any bridges along the way.

In reality, the fastest way to get to the north eastern part of the city was to travel west, up into Pearl Alley (which was a strange district, with lots of really nice shops and well-appointed homes. I supposed it was where the upper echelon of the working class lived) then across another wall into the Ironcliff district. Once I was at the Academy, things would settle down a bit. Or so I hoped. Markham hadn't prepared me as well for this as I might have hoped.

The lessons were nice, practical and useful, beyond this assignment alone, but that's about where my preparations ended. Who was I targeting? No clue. All I knew is that once I was settled into the Academy, I was to meet with someone from the union who would give me written instructions in a simple code. They were supposed to be written as if they were a letter from my father, of all things. A bit tasteless, but whatever. I tugged at the uniform collar. Was it wise to be dressed in my uniform already?

I didn't know. I figured it was the safest option, even if the uniform was rather hideous. The uniform included a dark, navy-blue blazer with the school's logo on the breast pocket over a white button-up shirt that had a massive collar that was supposed to be worn so that it was over the blazer. The sweater vest was optional, but I chose to wear it regardless. I wanted to establish that I wore it now. It would help hide any figure I might develop one day.

Not that I expected that to happen so soon, or for that matter, that I'd be at the Academy for that long. The bottom half of the uniform featured a pale blue pair of shorts that stopped at the knees and these awful socks. Oh, and I couldn't forget the school cap. This little leather thing that felt too small, but that was apparently just the way it was supposed to be. I wasn't going to complain about the fashion choices of the academy. I supposed that having a standardised uniform wasn't the end of the world.

It did lend a certain... class to the whole thing. I was really just upset that I had to cut my hair. I had grown fond of having it long, and now I was stuck with this god awful bowl cut. Could I use [Angel's Touch] to 'cure' my hair back to being long? That felt almost sacrilegious, but I'd do it anyway once I was done here. In any case, longer hair would help differentiate between the me who went to this school and the me outside of it.

"Hey, kid," someone said, and I looked up to find a man standing up on the carriage, he had a tray before him, held in place by a few straps. The carriage was nearly as long as a bus, with two rows of seats facing each other and a corridor down the middle someone could walk down. The driver sat at the front, of course, behind a train of four stout horses that pulled it along. It could hold twenty or so people comfortably.

Right now we were a bit past that, and I imagined that I'd only managed to get onboard because I had the coin on hand and because I was so small that I hardly counted. The guy before me had the same uniform as the driver on, so I imagined he was supposed to be here.

"Want some candy?" he asked as he gestured at the stuff he had for sale. I'd recently gotten the [Bargain Maker] subskill, for my [Social Manipulation] skill. [Bargain Maker] This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. You instinctively know when to push and pull when negotiating with someone. It wasn't the only subskill I'd gotten from [Social Manipulation]. The other was far more valuable, even if it didn't earn me any money directly.

[Misinformer] Your lies don't trigger weaker lie detection skills as often as long as they hold a kernel of truth.

"No thank you," I said to the man.

"Candy's bad for your teeth, and I'm basically praying that I never have to visit a dentist already." The man frowned, but he moved on, probably thinking I didn't have much money to spend in any case. Then again, I really didn't have too much. I'd left most of my savings at home, only bringing enough to get by for a while. The school had a cafeteria I could eat at freely, from what I understood, and I was going to use the hell out of that.

My backpack--purpose bought not to look too shoddy--was filled with a few necessary books, a second uniform with a few extra shirts and socks and underthings, a few small cases filled with spores and crammed-in mushrooms, and one angry panbadger. There was no real way to leave Sir Nibbles at home, so I decided to bring him along with me. Hopefully I'd be able to lie to anyone who noticed him, and also hopefully, he wouldn't eat any of the other kids. That was probably not going to happen... I hoped.

I was a little cold-blooded, I'd admit that even to myself, but I didn't want to harm any kids. Just their parents. I decided not to dwell on that too much and just enjoy the ride across the city. The Pearl Alley district (why was it called an Alley when it was one of the most spacious parts of the city?) was far, far cleaner than the district I was from. They had shoeshine boys on the street corners and men with poles were cleaning the windows of several shops before the morning crowd arrived.

It seemed as if even this nicer part of the city wasn't immune to soot settling down overnight. I sat back and crossed my arms. I was... admittedly a little nervous about everything. I was jumping into the lion's den here, and I wasn't entirely sure what I was going to find there. Digglestein's stories helped, but I wished that I'd taken some time to scout the place out myself before today. Too late now. The carriage rumbled through the gate between Pearl Alley and Iron Cliff.

A bully hopped on and asked people for their papers, and I prepared a dozen lies for him. He glanced at me once, then moved on to the next person. Huh. Either the uniform was saving me, or my age made him dismiss me. Or one of my skills let me blend in better. In any case, I wasn't going to check the mouth of this gift horse. We continued once the inspection was complete. I had to wonder if this was a newer thing, or if the bullies were always this concerned with safety.

This was my first time in the Iron Cliff district. The area was a maze of crooked roads built on different elevations. The place was well named. There were several steep walls rising out of the ground, bare stone with reddish hues painted across them to mark bands of rusty iron buried in the stone.

The homes here were all massive, but for all their size and grandeur, they were still squeezed in tight against their neighbours, and they had to share awkward lot sizes determined by however much flat space they could find to build on. For a place that seemed so rich and opulent, there was a distinct lack of greenery. Grass couldn't find root on the gravelly ground and the road was all soot-stained cobbles without a weed in sight.

The carriage stopped at one intersection, and the driver called out the name of the stop. I gathered my bag and hopped out. This was as close as they'd come. I'd have to walk the last block or so on my own. I noticed a few students on the road already. Boys in similar uniforms to me. The only exceptions tended to be the colour of their shorts. The school had a few ways of marking out years, I guessed as I followed along.

Half the kids seemed disappointed to be up already, even if it was an hour past the crack of dawn. The more energetic ones were roughhousing and laughing as they walked up the steeply inclined sidewalks. And then I was at the top of the Iron Cliffs, a large expanse of flat space, surrounded by tall fences. A wrought iron gate stood open, welcoming the students with the words Eden-Powell Academy of Arts and Sciences written across it. I'd made it.

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