The Next Day
Luca woke up more refreshed than ever despite the apparent lack of sleep he'd had. Unsure of whether he had hallucinated it, he peered into his mind and found the foundational glyph still rotating around the ball of dark energy. This put him at ease for now.
However, Crowley's words put him on alert. The spell to hide his energy bubbled up into his consciousness, and he got to work on it immediately.
He grabbed his coat and located a spot deep inside the flaps and the back, far from any eyes.
A small bout of nervous energy spread through his arms. He grabbed a small pocketknife that he always kept with him and cut a small pinprick into his finger. Using that same knife, he began to carve a small circle using the blood that coated its tip.
After the circle was drawn, he moved inside it and recalled the two glyphs recorded in the book. This was the most important moment.
He drew the glyph for Concealment first, which appeared like two squiggly lines intersecting with each other in such a way that they nearly looked like one line. The second glyph was less abstruse and resembled a shield, which represented Fortification.
When both glyphs were drawn, Luca took in a deep breath and called upon his inner reserves of stellar energy, directing all his intent and energy into the symbols carved on the inner area of his coat and…
Whooosh~
A small breeze passed through the room, but aside from that, there was no noticeable change.
Luca gazed around skeptically but still put on the coat and observed himself.
"Well, I don't feel any different…" he murmured.
It made sense that there was no fanfare for a spell centered around concealment. It had no name or description in the book either, so he could only hope that his first attempt at spell casting had gone well.
"Oh well, let's see how to go about the next bits, shall we?"
Luca put the knife away, picked up his coins, and bid Old Humphrey goodbye. With the amount of savings he had, he wouldn't be picking up scraps for a long time.
Since he was in the area, the first thing Luca did was rent a house. Saving money wasn't as important as his future ambitions, not with the plans he had come up with.
Soon enough, he found a modest little cottage with two rooms, a kitchen, and a sitting area. The owner had taken an extended trip away from the city and decided to rent it out. Since they didn't really need the money, they only charged 1 sterling per month.
'Heh, it's such a steal!' Luca murmured to himself, though his heart ached at giving away five gold coins for five months of rent.
The short lady who owned it accepted the coins with a small look of shock.
'How did someone dressed like him pay that much at once?'
Five sterling wasn't a lot of money to her, but Luca looked like a bum who could hardly afford a meal, not someone who could rent a nice cottage for five months.
Luca, however, was unaware of the thoughts passing through her head. All he could think about was the money he had just spent.
"Necessary sacrifice… necessary sacrifice," he kept murmuring to himself as consolation.
Eventually, Luca let the short, dumbfounded lady out of his house and tried to settle in. There wasn't much to do, since he had very little to his name. In fact, most of what he owned were the clothes on his back and the knife in his pocket.
'This won't do,' he thought.
He needed to get a lot of things quickly. The most obvious were the catalysts he needed for spells and rituals, while others ranged from food to new clothes.
He had a lot more money than the average person now, but he had a feeling his additional needs would burn through all his funds. Before, he'd earned some money by doing minor jobs for people with far too much money, as well as stealing from them.
They were people who considered themselves morally correct by helping a "poor little orphan" like him.
Now, however, he needed something more stable. Little tasks or thefts wouldn't cut it anymore.
An idea popped into his head, but for it to work, he needed far better clothes. With that in mind, he promptly left the house.
Luca decided to go to Tailor Mina to get his clothes. It was better than trying those other tailor stores. Aside from being bloody expensive, they wouldn't even let him in while he looked like this.
"Hey Mina, praise the Sun Father," he said as he entered the inner area of the store, which was the place where the clothes were made.
Multiple rays of sunlight filtered in through the windows and past the curtains, illuminating the room. Several large looms and machines sat inside, each manned by one of Mina's apprentices. At the center was Mina herself, carefully weaving.
The brown-haired tailor looked up from her work and beamed a large smile at him. She was a woman in her mid-thirties who looked rather beautiful for her age.
"Luca! I didn't know you were coming. Got any good stuff for me?"
"Unfortunately, no. I might be retired now," he said jokingly.
"Oh? How so?"
"I'm afraid I came to buy clothes, not deliver them this time."
A surprised expression flickered in Mina's brown eyes, but she didn't inquire.
"What kind of clothes? You get a discount, little one."
Luca grinned at that. He told her exactly what he wanted and chatted briefly with her and the other apprentices, before turning to leave.
A blonde-haired lady wearing a regal black dress stepped through the door just as he was about to exit. Her hair was tied up in a bun, with two strands falling just below her verdant green eyes. Behind her stood two large guards in armour and uniform, each holding up a banner.
The banners bore a familiar crest that anyone in Carinthia would recognize: a large golden wolf-like beast on a sea of red. A crown adorned the beast's head, while a sword and shield lay beneath it.
Luca knew this as the crest of the Venton noble house, and the young lady as none other than Erina Venton—the young miss of House Venton of the Kingdom of Astor.
She was the target of the plan he had in mind, though he hadn't expected her to show up here. Furthermore, he sensed something strange.
The dark energy in his mind rotated rapidly but without giving off any energy. His eyes burned with a soft warmth, revealing a hazy green aura around Erina's body.
Instantly, Luca understood.
The young miss was secretly a mage… and that made his plan ten times better.