Published at 21st of February 2024 11:03 pm

Chapter 18 An Acquaintance

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He had tried walking the way to manage what little stash of money he’d had left, but after constantly wandering into alleyways and streets he had never seen before, he’d been left with no choice but to take a public carriage back to Merchant’s District.

…

The bell jingled as he pushed open the halfway closed door, and a giddy voice quickly resounded from behind the counter.

“Welcome,” Lev said with a smile that quickly changed into a pout before turning into a smile once again. “You. Why are you back here?” Lev’s eyes searched anxiously behind Elmer. “Patty?”

“I came alone,” Elmer told him as he brought himself before the counter. “I have a request,” he added while he gazed about the shop filled with breathtaking belongings, his eyes taking a moment to fall upon the pocket watch he had a deep longing for. If only he had the money to spare.

“Well?” Lev said, pulling Elmer back from his squizzing to see the cheek of his pretty face resting upon his palm while he leaned leisurely on the counter.

Elmer cleared his throat and slid a paper over to Lev. “You gave this to ost—” He interrupted himself. “—Patsy, right?”

Lev eyed him, then the paper. “My handwriting, yes.” He nodded and returned his gaze to Elmer. “I sure did. What does that have to do with your request?”

Elmer suddenly had a brief thought hit him. He wondered if he should ask about his landlord and if Lev was the person he was so scared of. But he immediately shook that thought away and breathed out indistinctly, before he slid another paper toward Lev. He did not have the time to be worrying about the fears of another.

“I want to buy these ingredients, can you help me?” said Elmer.

Lev picked up the paper, glanced through it, then placed it back on the counter before muttering while keeping his eyes on it, “I see. So it was you Patty got the address for. I wondered why she would suddenly request for such a thing.” He then took his eyes up from the counter to Elmer. “So, you want to become an Ascender, huh? Why should I help you though?” he asked with a mild smile, his question and care-free expression cranking up Elmer’s chest. “I only gave that address because Patty was the one who asked, and she lied.”

Lied…? Elmer’s brows narrowed in thought.

Lev tossed his face to his other palm and tapped on the paper of ingredients before him. “Given that you have a list of ingredients, that means you were able to get him to want to help you. I wonder how you did that, and to Patty as well. You must be very good at convincing people. Try me.” Lev raised an eyebrow, and Elmer instinctively shuffled a step backward.

What was happening here? Elmer’s toes curled uneasily within his boot. What did he mean by Patsy had lied, and had he given her the address knowing that the landlord would probably not help? Who was he to the landlord exactly?

“You,” Elmer creased his brows and said with a shaky voice, “are you the one the landlord is so afraid of—”

“Landlord?” Lev’s eyes which were smothered with traces of tiredness suddenly beamed as he cut Elmer off, his face removing itself from its leisurely position on his palm. “Don’t tell me that crazy dwarf’s your landlord as well?”

As well…?

“Ah, not ‘as well’ anymore. It’s been what, months, since I was last there?” Elmer blinked rapidly as his eyes narrowed at the strange scenery playing before him. With the snap of a finger, Lev had in some way swapped personalities. “I’m sorry. You must be confused.”

I sure am…

“You see, I was once that crazy dwarf’s tenant as well.” And those words somehow made Elmer’s uneasiness simmer down as Lev tapped on the list of ingredients before him again. “How did you get him to help you though? I’m sure he must have done his crazy cries and shut the door on you, so, how come?” The pretty man had a look of genuine curiosity.

Elmer let out a huge breath of relaxation before asking, “You were his tenant?” He returned the step he had taken backward, forward once again.

Lev chuckled. “How else could I have known the address of an Alchemist who doesn’t want to make elixirs?”

Elmer nodded in belief. There was no other way anyone could have known.

“And besides,” Lev continued, “Alchemists are not easy people to find, especially one with the emperor’s seal.” Elmer gasped as his eyes widened and his neck bent forward, and Lev pointed at him sharply with a smile from across the counter. “See. I too was surprised when I found out. How could that dwarf have the emperor’s seal.” Lev sighed and leaned over, once again, upon the counter to relax. “I tried to become an Ascender but he never helped. Shut the door on me and didn’t open it again, ever. Even when I wanted to drop off my room keys he told me to leave it at the door. Can you believe that?”

“So you never became an Ascender?” Elmer asked curiously since he was not sure how to find out if one was or not. Those priests on that night had seemed very human even during their ritual.

“No,” Lev shook his head, then outstretched his arms. “As you can see, still human,” he said and sighed after. “Found out it wasn’t worth the risk. I’m sure you know the risk I’m talking about.”

Elmer remained still. “Yes.”

“And you still intend to go about it despite that?”

“Yes.” It was worth the risk to him.

“Well, it’s none of my concern.” Lev harrumphed. “Still I’d like to know how you convinced that little man though. Tell me.”

Elmer had done it by sacrificing his foot… and pleading. Suddenly, his toes hurt again.

He shook his head. “I can’t say.”

Lev clicked his tongue, “Secrets, I guess.” Then he languidly waved the back of his palm at Elmer. “Must be something very important for that little man to decide to help you.” He bobbed his head. “Although, why should I?”

Wait. What? After all they’d just talked about? Wasn’t it normal that once two people got to know themselves better they’d help each other? Elmer dropped his eyebrows in disbelief, while Lev downed his gaze at him.

“What? Surely You were not expecting me to change my mind and help you just because you are the tenant of my ex-landlord, were you?”

I was… Elmer’s head slumped forward with a sigh.

“I don’t know what to tell you,” Elmer said, completely disregarding the thought of even mentioning his sister. “How can I convince you to help me?” He then leaned over on the counter as well, bringing himself closer to the pretty pawnbroker, his eyes beneath the lenses of his glasses sharp with zealousness. “Tell me,” he added.

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“Well…” Lev trailed off and looked up at the ceiling, then constantly moved his head from left to right while Elmer watched silently, itching for a reply.

“What is it?” Elmer forced himself to say when he couldn’t take it anymore, and Lev put his head-pacing to a stop and turned back to him.

“Then,” Lev said, “tell me what your relationship with Patty is.”

Elmer immediately felt his stomach tighten as he stared fixedly at Lev’s airy face which was painted with a weak smile.

He almost scoffed. What was his relationship with Patsy? Of course they were… Surprisingly, the word could not form in Elmer’s mind, and his eyebrows fell down heavily as he peeled his gaze from Lev and put them upon the counter.

What was his relationship with her? He, as well, wondered. Were they friends, or were they not?

“Well?” Lev played with his fingers on the counter, and Elmer took his eyes back to the young man.

What should he tell him? What exactly would make this person help him?

Elmer heaved out a breath indistinctly and uttered without consideration, “An acquaintance.”

Lev’s finger plays ceased as he raised a brow. “An acquaintance?”

Elmer nodded. “Yes. We do not know much about each other.” His nose indistinctly twitched twice. “We are not friends. I only came here with her to receive the pay for the job she had offered me. She probably got me the address as some sort of bonus.” Elmer turned around and gestured about the shop. “As you can see, I came alone. We went our separate ways as soon as I received my payment.” He turned back to meet Lev’s amber eyes drilling him impassively, and it made Elmer shudder faintly.

Suddenly, Lev clapped his hands and brightened his face with a grin. “Of course. There’s no way she’d have something to do with a child.” He leaned in closer to Elmer and whispered, “She prefers men a little bit older. Like me.” He chuckled.

To be honest, he was probably a man of twenty-five years at most, and…

I’m not a child… Elmer spat within himself. He had shed the skin of a child five years ago.

He felt his chest squeeze.

What exactly was Patsy going through? Elmer thought. What exactly had driven her to such a point? Should he try to look for her or something?

He shook his head and brushed the thought off hesitantly. Right now, all he needed to do was get the ingredients and find a way to help his sister. She was the only one he needed to think about, only her and no one else.

But why was his chest still tightened?

“So,” Elmer said, subduing his thoughts, “will you help me now?” He probably should. He was not what Lev had thought him to be, there was no reason to deny him any help.

Lev smacked his lips. “Alright,” he said, then brought out a dip pen from beneath the counter and scribbled on the back of the ingredients paper Elmer had given him. “Here.” He pushed the paper to Elmer after he was done, prompting Elmer to pick it up. “Foreign District,” Lev said, gesturing with the pen in his hand at the paper. “Search for the pub with that name and mention ‘Black Market’ to the barman. Just that, nothing else. Oh, and make sure not to act like a child.”

Orb of fate… Weird name for a pub… Elmer fixed his eyes on the paper, choosing to ignore the part where Lev had indirectly called him a child once again. But…

He muttered his thoughts, “Why does this whole thing seem like I’m going somewhere—”

“Illegal?” Lev cut through Elmer’s words and filled it in for him with a chuckle. “Because it is.” Elmer looked up at the pawnbroker. “If you want to go through the legal process of getting the ingredients, then you’d have to tender a request of becoming an Ascender to the Church. They’ll secretly watch you for months, how you go about your life and all. If they’re satisfied, they approve your request and send you the ingredients—and keep on watching, mind you.” Lev put his eyes on his fingers while he fumbled with the pen in between them. “And if they’re not, they also keep watching you despite rejecting your request to ensure you do not proceed to become one through another way. So it’s your choice. Do you want to go your whole life being watched by proceeding legally, or will you take the other route?”

Was that what would have happened if he had enrolled into the Church’s school? Elmer suddenly became glad he had eavesdropped on Nick and Newt. He would have wasted all his time and as well lost his privacy.

Weirdly, doing something illegal did not seem all that bad to him any longer now that it was the only way to get what he wanted.

“Thank you,” Elmer said with a bow. “I’ll be going down this route.” He waved the paper in his hand at Lev before turning around and exiting the shop. But even though he had received what he had come for, his chest still did not loosen up.

Maybe he should have asked about Patsy.

…

Elmer had spent a whopping sum of twenty pence to get to the Foreign District, but if he was just a little bit lax about money he would have said it was worth it. No other place came close to this district in beauty. Not the train station, not the Merchant’s District, and obviously not the Backwaters.

The people moving about here were colorful, each one dressed distinctly from the other. It was as though there was some sort of festival going on.

The myriad of buildings were painted majestically, the sun was much more warmer as if it were a different one that had risen here, and the blue sky seemed cleaner and clearer.

What was it? It was the same city, was it not? So why was this place just so different? Was it the ambience of the people? Elmer stood agape. He could stay here forever.

He suddenly rattled himself free from his longing.

Forever? No. He had things to do.

Elmer picked himself up, shut his wide mouth, and crossed the road as soon as it freed a bit.

Orb of fate… He looked up at the wooden signage of the two-storey brick building before him and confirmed where he was.

“Alright,” Elmer mumbled to himself with the swallow of a saliva, then he tugged his suspenders and pushed the door open, the jingle of the entry bell filling his ears with a gentler sound before the rowdy one encompassing the pub’s interior stormed them.

He would have said the pub had a cozy atmosphere if only there were less people. For a place not as big as the train station, it had been crowded absurdly—at least to Elmer.

Wooden tables and chairs spread out over the room, some polished to a certain degree of beauty, while some worn out noticeably.

A beautiful song echoed from the voice of the flowery dressed lady upon a theatrical dais, and it did not matter if the people cramming the room were garbed in suits and embroidered dresses, or plain vests and petticoats—although, the gentlemen and ladies still had their refinement—they all drank a bit too noisily as they listened.

Gambles went on in one corner or the other. Some were dicing and some were playing with cards, while some partook in other games Elmer had no idea existed.

The room was fairly lit, and the gas lamps hanging from every corner of the artily designed walls helped with that.

It was afternoon when Elmer had stepped in through the door, but now he had found himself feeling as though night had fallen. How come they were drinking so much during the day? Was there really some sort of festival going on?

Elmer let out a breath, reminding himself why he was here. He took a moment to look around the pub, and as soon as he caught sight of the bar area, he muttered to himself through pounding heartbeats as he approached it, “Do not act like a child.”

“May I help you… young sir?” the youthful barman Elmer appeared before asked with a bit of skepticism in his voice for what to refer to him as.

Elmer glanced about the gentlemen and ladies surrounding the table, and when he noticed none had their eyes on him, he puffed out his chest considerably. “Black Market,” he said, straining his voice.

The barman sized him up for a good while that Elmer almost felt his insides quivering, then the barman gestured with his head to his side. “Through that door.”

Elmer exhaled as his chest deflated, and after nodding at the barman he walked to the door where the burly figure of a man stood watch over it.

Elmer met the hard gaze of the doorkeeper and his chest tightened again, then he remembered Lev’s words and he jerked his head at the barman, causing the doorkeeper to take a quick glance there and back before letting Elmer through the door.

Another victory. Elmer voiced to himself as he shut his eyes and let go of all his pent up anxiety.

When he opened them again, he found himself in an alleyway, one barricaded by tall brick walls. And looking further down to his right he saw two doorkeepers standing guard before a pair of side-by-side doors.

He tugged his suspenders and approached them expecting to be met with hard gazes again, but as he arrived they wasted no time shuffling out of his way and pulling the double doors open for him, allowing his eyes to peer down into the depthless stairwell and its passage lit with gas lamps.

Elmer huffed, nodded at the doorkeepers, then stepped into the stairwell, the echo of the door shutting him in soon after, making its way into his ears.

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