Shades of the New World

Chapter 203: Status

On the way, he thought about how he should go about spending his holidays.

'Actually, I don't really have a lot to do, huh? After I'm done with this citizenship thing, I just need to accompany Arza to the Serpent and then pay a visit to the Earl. After that, I should be relatively free' he realized and sighed with satisfaction.

'It's so peaceful to be left alone with one's thoughts.' 

Evin had spent so much time with a variety of people in his head or in his shadows, chatting and making noise. Evin supposed that he was just too used to living as a spirit, with no one ever bothering him. 

Thinking of the fact that after the World Sprites woke up, he would have a group of 80 or so children noisily chattering in his head, he couldn't help but shudder. 

'Perhaps I should explain to the World Sprites that I'll be blocking them off occasionally...' Evin thought as he entered the Citizenship bureau. 

The guard inside stopped Evin from entering, but after the man saw Evin's Seal, he apologetically let him through.

Evin told him about the purpose of his visit and the guard directed him to a room, all while looking at Evin with avid curiosity. Evin minded the gaze a bit, but didn't wish to tell off the poor man, thinking that it was just someone who wasn't used to seeing young mages.

What happened next wasn't that difficult to guess. Just the receptionist said, Evin's intentions were not obstructed and in half an hour, Elina had officially become a proper first grade citizen, with the proper paperwork and everything.

'Sure is nice to be a person of status,' Evin thought idly as he walked home.

He then saw Theor waiting for him outside, an almost delusional smile on his face. Seeing Evin come back, the man ran over and excitedly asked.

"How'd it go? And why'd you take so long?"

"The test took a bit of a time. As for how it went... pretty well, I'd say. Look," Evin replied with a smile and showed Theor the rolled-up scroll.

Theor almost ripped the thing off Evin's hands and opened it up.

" 'This Certificate is valid proof that the direct family of Light-Mage Eviendra, consisting of: Theor(father), Ivelyora Ssatsko(mother), and Sasha(sister) are officially considered 1st grade citizens. Issued by the Citizenship Bureau of the' " Theor read a bit before complaining about the word usage: "Why so many difficult words?"

"Well, who knows? I have a feeling government officials are all run by people who love overcomplicating stuff," Evin replied idly.

"Whatever, it's all fine since we're 1st grade citizens now. That means we're just below the knights, nobles and the mages, huh?" Theor said with a smile.

"Well, I don't think you'll see much change. After all, you're still planning to stay here and sell bread, right?" Evin asked and saw a rare serious expression appear on Theor's face.

"Hmm, we'll do this for a while and save up to open a shop in the high-end districts. Though we don't know what we'll do about this shop here," he replied.

"Why don't you train some of the people here and sell the place to them afterwards? After all, it's not a bad property for most of the people here," Evin answered.

"Eh, but it's still our first house, you know? I won't feel very good knowing that there's some stranger sleeping in our beds."

"Ha-ha, just take the beds with you. And also, if you're about to move, make sure to tell me about it, alright?"

"But aren't you going to be staying here for the most part? Why do I feel like you're talking about leaving your house so soon," Theor asked and Evin wondered.

"Oh yeah, I guess I'm still just a 6-year-old, huh? When do people leave their houses anyway?" Evin muttered.

"Usually when they turn 15. Sometimes even earlier than that," Theor said and after pondering for a bit, asked: "What will you be doing after you're finished with the Horn Ceremony?"

Evin realized that he didn't tell them about working for Nasst for a year.

"Afterwards, I'll be working for my Instructor for about half a year. Actually, I'm almost finished with the things I can study there, so I had almost four months of nothing, but my instructor decided to let me work earlier," Evin answered.

"What? Isn't that unlawful child labor or something? The, uhh, the thing you say after we try to make you do chores? That job though, sounds even worse than having you do chores," Theor asked with shock.

"Ha-ha, that's true. But since I've promised to work for him, I can't just bail out when he asks. Well, don't worry about it, it's just one year, after all," Evin laughed and the two entered their house.

"Hey, hey, hey! Lora! Look who's here!" Theor bellowed loudly all of a sudden, sheer joy and pride oozing from his voice.

"Yes, yes, who is it?" Lora's sigh came from the other end of the house.

"It's a 1st grade citizen, ha-ha-ha. And guess who his wife is? It's none other than a beautiful woman named Lora, with a beautiful daughter named Sasha, and a handsome boy name Evin."

Said handsome boy was standing next to the man, wanting to jump into his shadows.

'You were fine just a second ago, what happened?' Evin thought in his head, looking at the short man laughing with satisfaction in the house corridors.

Lora and Elina soon came out to congratulate Evin for being recognized as a mage. Evin could also see Sasha in the background, looking over with a blank face.

"Oh, Elina, I have a gift for you as well," Evin said and showed her the new identification documents.

"What does it say?" Elina asked, looking at the papers with some difficulty.

"Oh, Elina, you're a proper 1st grade citizen like us now. You've probably done the biggest social jump in the history of the kingdom, ha-ha. Congratuations," Lora said with a smile.

"Ooh, what's this? A 1st grade citizen already. Ha-ha, we need to celebrate now!" Theor said from the side.

'Just like I thought, they don't give two shits about this social levels bullshit,' Evin thought from the side. 

"Really?" Elina asked and disbelief appeared on her face. But Evin could notice that it was very quickly replaced by a fear of some sorts, as she muttered softly: "But I don't even know how to read" 

The others didn't seem to hear the girl's words, but Evin could definitely hear them.

"Well, you can worry about it later," Evin said as he floated over to put his hands over her shoulders, putting on his best smile in the process, wondering why the girl acted so unwilling to become a 1st grade.

Elina smiled back, but still seemed a bit confused, as her gaze faltered and faced the floor.

'Guess I'll need to talk with her as well, huh?' Evin thought, sighing in his head.