Chapter 34: Earning Money Starts Now!!!

The next morning, House Korrandis felt strangely empty.

Ennessa and Ender had left for the academy.

Eldrin noticed the difference almost immediately.

He had grown used to seeing Ender appear in the training yard every morning, usually carrying a wooden sword and enough confidence to be irritating before breakfast.

Now neither of them was around.

The quiet was pleasant.

It was also strange.

Eldrin caught himself looking toward the training yard one morning, half expecting to hear Ender’s voice.

He stood there for a few seconds before quietly exhaling.

"At least that girl is gone."

The words came with a sigh that betrayed how unconvincing he sounded even to himself.

He turned away.

For the first time in a long while, there was no one in the household demanding his attention.

No one asking where he’d been.

No one challenging him to a spar.

It felt like freedom.

Still, Eldrin had more important things to think about.

He had Shade now.

That changed everything.

Enough to give him an option he hadn’t possessed before.

Money.

He needed eighty silver coins.

And Kaiser had given him only one year now.

Eldrin didn’t know whether the man would actually return when the two-year promise ended.

He didn’t intend to find out by remaining weak.

So he trained.

For weeks, his evenings followed nearly the same pattern.

After his duties ended, he would find somewhere quiet and practice gathering mana.

Then came Shadow Step.

At first, five feet was enough to leave him breathless.

He learned to repeat it once.

Then twice.

The distance slowly increased.

Seven feet.

Ten.

Fifteen.

Sometimes he landed badly.

Once, he nearly fell over a stone bench after stepping out of a shadow at the wrong angle.

Another night, he misjudged the darkness beneath a staircase and clipped his shoulder against the wall.

There were failures he couldn’t count.

But each one taught him something.

Shadow Step worked better when he focused on the destination instead of the movement itself.

Darkness mattered.

Distance mattered.

His familiarity with the destination mattered even more.

By the end of several weeks, Eldrin could move far enough that the ability became useful rather than merely interesting.

And then there was Veil.

That one was worse.

He spent days trying to understand it.

Sometimes his presence seemed to fade for a heartbeat.

Sometimes nothing happened at all.

Once, a servant walked past him without noticing him standing against a wall, and Eldrin spent the next hour trying to recreate exactly what he’d done.

He failed.

Repeatedly.

It became clear that Shade wasn’t something he could master simply by reading a book and repeating instructions.

He had to understand what his body was doing.

That took time.

Eventually, Eldrin decided he had learned enough to make the next step.

He needed to earn money.

Not theoretically.

Not someday.

Now.

The city offered much more opportunities than Restaurants ever could.

Eldrin had noticed that much during his earlier attempts to find work.

There were merchants who paid for escorts.

Craftsmen who needed rare materials.

Nobles who wanted items recovered.

And hunters who took on requests involving creatures, ruins, dangerous roads, and places ordinary people didn’t dare enter.

Awakened individuals were particularly valuable for such work.

That was what interested Eldrin.

He needed something that paid for what he could actually do.

He didn’t advertise his Pathway.

He didn’t tell anyone what he could do.

There was no reason to.

If people knew he was newly awakened, they would either underestimate him or try to use him.

Neither was useful.

One afternoon, after finishing his library duties, Eldrin left House Korrandis and headed toward the western district of the city.

He had heard about a place there.

A licensed office where people could register themselves and accept paid requests without pledging themselves to a particular noble household.

A place where a person could simply walk in, look at the available work, complete it, and get paid.

Exactly what Eldrin needed.

He followed the street signs deeper into the district.

The buildings gradually became less elegant than those surrounding House Korrandis.

The roads were still maintained, but the polished stone and ornate facades gave way to workshops, warehouses, small inns and businesses that served people who worked for a living.

Eldrin passed a blacksmith.

A carriage repair shop.

A store selling magical ingredients.

Then, near the end of the street, he saw a dark wooden sign hanging above a broad stone entrance.

He slowed.

This was it.

For the first time since becoming a slave...

Eldrin was about to step into a place where his value would be determined by something other than his status.

..........

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