Chapter 16: 16 - Registration
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The path to salvation, on your body it takes its toll.
All roads require a toll, even if it costs me my soul.
-K.
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Kairo asked a nearby idle guard where he would be able to register as a merchant and was promptly given directions to a certain building that was not too far off.
After saying his thanks, he headed straight towards the place.
As he walked through the large city, he was mesmerized by the colorful roofs and noticed the vibrant buntings that hung over him: small, triangular, decorative paper attached to ropes that connected the buildings over the roads.
After a while, his sightseeing had ended. He finally made it to the supposed large building for the merchant guild. There was a light traffic of carriages in the area. Adults with strange and fancy attire alike kept coming in and out of the building.
He steeled himself and went up the steps to enter the establishment, but before he could walk through the wide, arched entrance, the two guards that stood by walked in front of it and blocked his passage by crossing their spears with each other's.
"State your business, child," the guard on the right spoke with a dark voice which made Kairo step back.
"Err... I'm here to apply as a merchant," Kairo replied timidly.
"But you're a kid!" the guard on the left had a snively, weak voice. Kairo's eyes furrowed and his lips quivered as he tried to hold back his laughter.
"Man, Gregorio, I'll do the talking, remember?" the guard on the right's deep voice boomed with a casual and consoling tone.
"I know, I'm sorry, Paul," if a rat was a voice, it would belong to this Gregorio person. "It's just that, I'm surprised that a kid wants to be a merchant, 's all. Usually, it's old, smelly men—"
"Hush! The clients might hear us, and what do you think will happen? They'll complain to the brass, and who will be in dire trouble? Us! They'll cut our pay! Or worse, fire us!"
"Sorry, sorry, I'll just zip it now," Gregorio made a zipping gesture at his lips.
"Sorry little friend, if you promise not to tell on us, we'll let you through," the guard with the deep voice on the right who was called "Paul" said.
"Err... I actually have a recommendation from a client of mine," he pulled out the small card he received from Mr. Parme and showed it to Paul.
Paul took it and gave a close look over the card.
After a few moments of mumbling, he finally said, "Ah. I can't read."
Kairo's eyes narrowed in disbelief as Paul handed it to Gregorio.
Gregorio cleared his throat as he murmured the writings. "Summa summa... mhm, mhm... apothecary... alright, you're good. I know this guy, I rarely have to buy medicine from him because it works like a charm! Also, he's a sweet and interesting old man!" he smiled warmly.
"Hmm, I see. Well, little friend, you're free to pass!" they withdrew their spears to let Kairo pass and gave him back the recommendation letter.
"Thank you, and—" Kairo mimicked Gregorio and made a zipping gesture at his lips. "I promise," he said with a smile.
"Little friend...!" Paul uttered as Kairo walked past them.
Their hearts were moved, and so they waved him goodbye while saying, "We'll never forget you, little friend!"
As Kairo entered the area, he thought that it looked bigger inside than it did from the outside. There was a large space in the middle and the floor was decorated with tiles that made an intricate pattern. Rays of light shone on the floor, which made Kairo notice the circular skylight far above them.
In front of him, he saw counters across the entrance. There were adult men and women seated behind the counters, some had a queue in front of them, while others didn't.
He walked across the building to get a better look. As he did, he felt some eyes on him. It reminded him of the slums of the city earlier.
His procession in this establishment simply felt like crossing through a bigger alleyway full of equally dangerous hoodlums. But he felt a different kind of danger, something less about his mortality, but more about losing his possessions in other, more convoluted and sinister ways. He couldn't explain it clearly to himself, but he wanted to hurry up, and so he did.
He finally got near enough to see what the counters were all about, but he still didn't have a clue what most of the lines were for. Though, he did find the counter for registration, there was only one other person in the line, and so Kairo stood behind him.
After a short while, the man left and it was his turn.
Behind the counter was a woman with half-shut eyes, who kept her smile that's been practiced a thousand times. She leaned forward, turning to the left and then to the right as if looking for something. When she didn't find what she was looking for, she started, "Where are your parents? Are you lost, little one?" she asked Kairo.
Kairo felt a somewhat scornful tone underneath her polite words, but he shrugged it off and diligently replied, "I'm here to apply as a merchant."
Hearing this, her smile tightened. "I'm sorry, but young children mustn't kid around, adults are doing important work here, okay?" she closed her eyes while keeping her smile.
"No, really, I'm here to apply. I need a license to continue working officially," Kairo tried to plead as kindly as possible to the woman who seemed to be moody, making an effort to remove any possible deceptive attitude from his tone.
The woman opened her eyes as if hoping that this lousy kid in front of her would knock it off and leave her be. It was a menacing stare that had Kairo clenching his butt and straightening his back. He gulped.
She had been slaving away behind the counter doing paperwork and talking to disgusting, flirtatious old men in order to feed her fiancé-less self, now she had to deal with a dumb kid pranking her? Her smile cracked as he saw the kid still keeping the honest façade. Her eyes narrowed at him as she slightly bowed her head in disappointment, her practiced smile slowly turning into a stern poker face.
"Nope! Nope-nope-nope-nope! Nnnnnope!" she exclaimed to herself in her mind as she sat up and went to the room behind the counters. Some of the other employees behind the counter turned their heads around to watch the situation for a moment before continuing on with their work as if nothing happened.
"... huh?" Kairo reacted inwardly. "Did... did she just break down? Did I do that? Was that me?" he looked around to see if something else was supposed to happen. He only saw some people avert their eyes from his direction.
Many people clearly saw what transpired.
"Oh, boy. I thought this was going to be easy like Grisia said. Grisiaaa, save meee."
After a short while, a flamboyant man in a pristine, white toga decorated with golden linings came from the door the woman went to. Following behind him was the woman, but Kairo kept getting distracted by the man who had an extravagant air around him.
The man had soft, flowing, blonde hair. It was tied into a braided ponytail that reached to the base of his spine. Under his left eye, on his cheek, was an adornment of bits of precious jewels, each with different shades of blue and purple which added to his showiness but fit quite well with his pretty, sky-blue eyes, which they themselves sparkled like jewels.
"So, you're the person in question, hmm?" he asked flashily, making gestures that made Kairo feel exhausted. "Well, aren't you a cutie little patootie?"
Kairo's face was lost between confusion and despair. "Eh?" he looked at the woman behind him who still looked tired and suspicious of Kairo, then back to the shining, posing man. "Huh?"
"Would you come with us in the room back there?" the man gestured towards the door they came from. He put his hands on his mouth and giggled kindly.
"Al...right?" Kairo hesitatingly agreed, his sense of stranger danger eclipsed by the curiosity that made him follow this strange and distracting man.
He was led to the room and was told to sit at the dark, wooden table. It was a nice, small room with snacks on another low table beside a fireplace. There were potted plants at the corners and a brown, medium-sized, fleece carpet in the middle of the room. It was warm and inviting, but fancier than it needed to be.
"Now then, little patootie, you and I shall talk," the man then turned to the grouchy woman. "You can leave for now, I'll handle this," he winked tackily.
The woman sighed, switching from her straight face back to her happy, eerie smile. The sudden transformation was unnerving to Kairo.
"Thank youuu!" the blonde man told the woman as she left and closed the door behind her.
"So, what brings you here, dear little cutie?" he asked with a friendly smile.
"I'm here to hopefully get a merchant license. Register for one," replied Kairo.
The man simply smiled at him, waiting for something in silence, until finally, he uttered, "Oh, you're serious?" to which Kairo nodded wearily.
"Hmm... fine. Then, show me proof of your seriousness that will leave me satisfied, my boy."
"Oh. Certainly, I have these..." Kairo started pulling things out of his bag.
On the table, he placed receipts of his past purchases in the city, medicinal herbs, his own readily-made medicine, his own pouch of money that wasn't his "savings", and finally, the recommendation card from Mr. Parme. He explained what each of them was in what he thought to be decent. Even he himself was surprised by how eloquent he spoke.
"Does that suffice?" Kairo finished.
"Oh? A letter from dear old, dear old! I truly adore his medicine. By far, his is the least worst tasting!" he giggled. Kairo's eyebrows flinched for a second. "That's a compliment by the way, my boy. Don't get too worked up. All medicine have an undesirable taste, but among them, his are my preference. And they're consistently effective! How reassuring," Kairo returned a sigh of relief. "In any case, under normal circumstances, I would personally be more than satisfied with all this and would already be having you sign papers to get your license made in a few business days or so, bla-bla-bla, all that menial drudgery, BUT!" he suddenly raised his voice at the last word, making Kairo flinch, "I have to give you a little test. To see if you're up for the task. You look underaged to be quite frank— are you underage or is this some sort of curse or illness...?"
"Underage. Ten, to be exact."
"Ah, yes. We can't just be handing out licenses to children all willy-nilly and nonchalantly, but... I'd hate for such a promising young MERCHANT!.." he shouted once again, making Kairo jolt for the second time. "...to leave home so sad and demotivated," he said with a dramatic frown at the end, acting out how he imagined Kairo would be.
"What test?"
"Obviously, since you're a merchant, arithmetic! And because you're still a child, I'll have to be stricter before I give you a license, so... a dash of reading and writing: literacy!"
Kairo smirked.
"Ho? You seem confident. Well, I understand if you'll have to just come back next week or next month if you'd like to study up for the test—"
"No."
"Hmm?" the man raised one of his eyebrows. "'No' what?"
Kairo looked at the dazzling eyes of the man with the sly smile and proclaimed,
"No. I can do it right here, right now, I'm ready."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
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