Shades of the New World

Chapter 205: Race through the forest

"Maybe if you go through the process yourself, you'll see that the difference between these levels of society aren't really that important. I've seen countless 2nd grade citizens and 1st grade citizens that are much worse than you. Sure they could read and solve numerical problems, but I would choose you over them at any moment of the day. I'd even argue that the glorified nobles aren't much better than us common people... Though don't say that in front of a guard or an official, alright?" Evin winked.

Elina looked at Evin with some confusion, seemingly wondering how such a thing was possible.

"And also, if you go to the North, you'll see that it's a country that doesn't really have those social levels. Sure there are poor and rich people there, but at the end of it, they're just poor, powerless people and rich, authoritative people.. So for example, if I give you 1000 gold coins today, shouldn't you automatically become one of those rich people?"

"Master Evin, please don't joke about such things," Elina replied with a flustered smile.

"Alright. Anyway, if you want to become a 3rd grade citizen, just tell me and I'll make it happen," Evin said.

"But is that okay? To constantly bother the Citizenship Bureau like that?" Elina asked.

"It's alright. They seemed to be happy enough to do my biddings," Evin said and fell silent... "I now realize that even though I speak to you about people being fundamentally equal. I guess that I'm really not the right person to talk about these things, huh? A half-core mage, who is also a Child of the Empress, that's also a bit more special compared to the rest of the Children" Evin murmured.

"But Master Evin deserves it, I think," Elina tried to reassure Evin awkwardly.

'Do I? I guess After all, I need some kind of consolation reward for living as a spirit' Evin thought unconfidently.

"Ah, whatever. Let's just say that Mages and Nobles are built differently. But since you're a non-mage, remember that you can be whoever you want, just not someone who can use magic," Evin concluded and continued: "I'll go to the Bureau later to have your grade changed."

"Please, don't go to such lengths for me. I'll do it myself," Elina answered immediately.

'Something tells me you won't be taken seriously there' Evin thought about working in the place and seeing some girl walking in to get demoted. He vehemently denied Elina's request, even forbidding her to go and change her identity behind Evin's back.

The two talked back and forth until eventually, Elina conceded and decided to embrace her identity as a 1st grade, to slowly become worthy of it.

'Nice Reverse psychology,' Evin thought and acted like everything occurred according to his plans. 

Saying his goodnights to Elina, he went back to his room to prepare for tomorrow's outing. After all, he knew that the forest took him about a week to traverse the last time.

'No, we'll teleport or fly there if necessary. I don't want to spend my holidays in a forest. After all, I have to send the letter to Earl Borna, and somehow give Sasha the Velvet Contract as well.'

Arza, Evin and Ssatsko were swiftly traversing through the forest, jumping and dashing about, while Rith was floating above them, acting as a guide of some sorts. The forest was gigantic, needing about three days to traverse if they were to walk, so the group decided to go through the forest as fast as possible.

To make things interesting, Evin and Arza were having a race, to see which of them would reach their destination the fastest. Ssatsko had just joined in to work his body a bit. But aside from speed, under the insistence of Rith, they also had to reach the destination without touching the ground, hence the swinging and the jumping through the tree branches.

Arza didn't know what exactly they were doing here, but he didn't mind it too much. He was just happy to freely work his body like this way. 

Although he knew that Evin wasn't very happy about accompanying him through this race, he was still thankful that the Child of the Empress was willing to go through the trouble of entertaining an actual child like himself.

'Though, I never knew that Evin was someone who could move so deftly through these forests,' Arza thought, as he found Evin jumping from tree to tree, doing random backflips and other flashy movements.

[Damn Evin, why does he look more like a damn monkey than an actual monkey?!] Karan also agreed with Arza's thoughts. At first the skinshifter was nonchalant about this whole race, but after seeing Evin's back for the whole duration of it, he became a bit heated.

The two never thought Evin for someone who like to move around trees so naturally, so of course, they could only compare the boy to a monkey. But it was a rare sight to see, as Arza was sure that Evin would just float above the trees, if there was no rule saying that they had to be tacky about it all.

[Careful, there's a bird behind that tree!] Karan said from his side, directing Arza's attention towards a particular tree that he was jumping towards. 

Expecting something to jump up from behind it, Arza was preparing to dodge if necessary. Just like he expected, a startled bird flew straight in front of Arza's path, but since Arza was prepared he ducked down a bit to let the poor animal fly over his head.

[Nice dodge!] Karan shouted in Arza's head.

After Arza and Karan started to practice together, they found out that they could do a lot of things together if they practiced enough. Karan could highlight a detail inside Arza's mind, so Arza could also focus on whatever thing that Karan found threatening. After all, if Karan just told Arza to be careful of a tree inside a forest, it would be more misleading rather than helpful.

Their general synergy when they were trying to do something when they were fighting was also becoming much better. After Arza learned of the Authority Style for the World of Life users, they started work even better together.

Arza was itching to fight with Evin to see how much stronger he became, but Evin really wasn't a good point of reference, since his fighting style was just so varied and bizarre. Arza was sure that he would lose before he even understood what had happened. 

'So I'll fight him when I'm sure I'll beat him,' he thought resolutely.