I Reincarnated Into A Single-Celled Organism! - I Reincarnated into a Single-celled Organism! - Chapter 100

After being not-too-kindly sent on my way by the Capala butler, I quickly found a busy area where I could loiter while I considered my options. I was in a new city that I knew nothing about, not that I had gotten a strong grasp on anywhere else in this world yet. I had a lot I needed to figure out, but without worrying about protecting Mara, some of that would be a bit easier.

Mara was with relatives where she should be safe. I wasn’t going to leave her safety up to them. I had continued to work and improve upon my spying devices, or “wardens” as I called them, and I had naturally left one of the new ones on Mara. The new one wouldn’t leave any obvious traces. It was more like a diffuse patch of cells that I could mark someone with. Although it still didn’t have any visuals, it could listen in as well as track them.

Shortly after I left, Lady Capala offered Mara a chance to bathe and clean herself after her long trip, which Mara graciously accepted. I could hear the rustling of clothing as she undressed as well as the splash of water. I didn’t want to listen too carefully, since I didn’t want Mara to think I was a pervert listening to her bath, not that I had told her I would be present in that capacity.

However, it wasn’t long after I started to grow complacent that I quickly realized a problem with my new version of the warden. My cells weren’t waterproof. All of the cells left on her body were quickly destroyed in the bath. The remaining were those adhered to her clothing, and by the sound of it, the maid had decided to dispose of her old clothing. I seemed to hear someone call it “peasant garb” which was better off burned. Like that, my contact with Mara was severed.

I didn’t particularly panic. I had already confirmed that the young lady of the household didn’t have any nefarious purposes for her. Now that Mara was outed as a gifted mortal, they would make the effort to protect her. I would discover some new way to track her later. It wasn’t stalking. I was just being prudent.

I shifted my focus to money instead. I discovered quickly that gold did still transfer over to watts, but it was about ten gold per watt, and within the city, the prices were high enough that gold was essentially unused. It was considered the currency of mortals, and more specifically, country mortals. What might last someone a month outside the city wouldn’t last a day inside, it was just one additional layer that seemed to divide the paragons from the rest of the population, or so I thought.

The first thing I needed was information, but the second thing I needed was a way of quickly earning kilowatts.

I let out a soft sigh. “I need money.”

“Oh, yeah? Maybe, we can do something about that?”

I raised an eyebrow as three street toughs surrounded me. I had been sitting at an empty outdoor table along the side of the street in front of one of the more derelict-looking restaurants hoping the owners wouldn’t mind my presence. However, I seemed to have instead attracted the presence of the unsightly type. One of the guys took the chair across from the table I was sitting at, while two more stood on the other side of me so I couldn’t just walk away without pushing past them.

Of course, you didn’t need to have my years of experience to know that they were up to no good. They were looking to take me for every coin I had. I was just about to deal with them when a thought struck me. Suddenly, my expression brightened with a flicker of hope.

“Really? You can help? I owe a lot of money.”

The three guys exchanged smug, knowing looks, and then the leader grinned at me. “Of course, there is always work in this town. For a young, strong lad like yourself, you could make tons of money.”

“Oh, where is that?” I asked, looking bright-eyed and ignorant. “I could use the help.”

“You must be new around here, you come from the country, right?” The leader asked.

I nodded enthusiastically, looking totally oblivious to their dirty looks. “Yes, I just got into town today. Everything is so much more expensive than I expected. All I have is this.”

Without a shred of caution, I spilled my purse out onto the table, revealing the gold and the kilowatt stone that the steward had given me earlier. The three men’s eyes looked like they would pop for a second.

“A k-kilowatt!” One of the men gasped as his leader shot him a warning glance.

“It’s my life savings, but I’m afraid, in this city, it won’t last me more than a month!”

The leader blinked and then let out a soft chuckle. “Sorry to disappoint you, kid, but that probably won’t even last you a week in the city.”

I gasped. “It’s so expensive, how do you guys afford everything? You must be rich!”

I was wondering about that. I had been thinking the butler had shafted me awful, but seeing the reactions on the three guy’s faces as if they had just hit payday told me a bit different. They were all mortals, with the highest only being a half-step into a paragon. How did they afford to be in the city with these kinds of prices?

“Ah… actually, most mortals live in Watershed,” one of the men admitted, resulting in him getting elbowed in the gut.

“What’s Watershed?” In this case, my ignorance was real.

“It’s a small town about an hour from here.” The leader leaned forward. “Look, kid, Stormberg is a city for paragons. Some mortals work here since the money is good, but few can afford to live here. The city is run by the magistrate under Lord Nikola, but the real leaders are the five houses of Stormberg.”

“Five houses?” I asked, leaning forward.

“The houses that reside here are House Blanche, the Branch of Capala, House Frankford, House Stride, and House Lou. Most of them have the backing of one of the Major houses. Just about everyone in the city either is part of one of those houses or works for them. If you don’t join a house, you’ll be crushed immediately.”

I quickly repeated the names of the houses in my head. I had heard of all of them except for House Lou, but I had no impression of the later three. I had no clue who they were and what they did let alone their backing.

“Which house are you a part of?” I asked.

The leader made a face for a moment before coughing. “I’ll have you know that we have the official backing of House Stride!”

He spoke the name proudly, but my immediate thought was that House Stride must be a house that supports street thugs and criminal activity. That said, I also noticed by the surprised expression of his two comrades that his connection to the house was tenuous at best, so maybe the house wasn’t as bad as I thought.

I still responded by fawning over him. “Oh, that sounds powerful.”

“Hehe… that’s right… you might know this, but I’m on the cusp of becoming a paragon. Once I become a paragon, Gerald said he will accept… ahem… I mean my position in House Stride will rise substantially.” He seemed to preen under my mock praise.

“Oh, I’m impressed, then you must be able to help me with my money problem.” I redirected them back to the issue at hand as I gathered up my money.

They watched me put it all back in my coin bag, a clear thirst in their eyes.

“Right.” His expression turned serious, and he exchanged dangerous looks with the two others. “Just follow us. We’ll show you a really important job that makes a lot.”

He got up, and the other two put their arms around my shoulders and helped me up. I smiled at them and continued to pretend I didn’t notice the various looks they were exchanging. These guys weren’t even subtle about it. Compared to the kinds of con jobs I used to pull with the guys, this all felt kind of amateur. People in the city were guarded, so you needed to look sincere when you tried to manipulate them. These guys didn’t look trustworthy at all!

Speaking of manipulation, I allowed them to lead the way as they led me straight into a back alley. As we walked, the leader droned on about how much money I was going to make. No sooner did we get out of sight of the main street than his mood immediately changed. He spun around a nasty expression on his face. The two men on either side of me tightened their grip.

“Wh-what is going on?” I asked like a frightened victim. “Where is the job?”

“Hehe.” The leader’s expression turned dark. “The only job you have is to hand over all your money!”

“I-I don’t understand, are you robbing me?” I asked, causing the two men on either side to chuckle harshly as they pulled knives from their belts and held them to my side.

“Everything in that coin purse.” The leader pointed to my pouch. “We’ll let you walk away. You can have that as your first lesson. Nothing in life comes for free.”

“O-okay…okay, you can have it! Please don’t hurt me!” I cried, fumbling as I tried to remove the purse.

The coins in the purse had already all been marked with my warden cells. My idea was pretty easy. I planned to follow the money. I was confident by their behavior that this was organized crime. How else would they be able to do it right under the city guard? Someone had to be at the head, and if I followed where the majority of my coins went, I’d likely find the moneybags, and then I’d take back what they stole with interest. That was how I planned to make some quick coin. Before I could hand over the purse though there was an unexpected shout.

“You ruffians. Unhand him!” The four of us turned to see a small girl standing in the alley with her hands on her hips like she was some kind of hero.

What was going on now?