Assimilate All Talents

Chapter 341 Long Lost Twin

a few days later, sol and amber rode in a carriage pulled by the shadow horse, nearing their destination. in the distance, a town surrounded by wooden walls came into view. as they approached, a sign became visible. it read: initium.

sol glanced back at amber and offered a gentle smile. "thanks again for letting us make a short stop here. i know it's a bit out of the way, but i don't want to miss the chance to see annabel and guildmaster william before we leave the kingdom."

amber gave a simple nod, not minding the small inconvenience. she was curious to meet annabel herself. given how often sol contacted her through the communication crystal, amber wanted to meet her in person.

before they got too close to the town, sol commanded the shadow horse to halt.

"let's walk the rest of the way. i don't want to scare them with the shadow horse."

normally, he wouldn't mind having the shadow horse pull the carriage into town, he could easily explain it away by flashing his adventurer's card. but initium was different, it was his home and he didn't wish to cause big waves.

after unsummoning the shadow horse, they disassembled the carriage's roof and stored the pieces in two spatial rings, eliminating the need to leave it behind. from there, they began walking. it didn't take long to reach the gate, guarded by two women. sol recognized them.

'mirian and patine...' sol silently prayed, 'hopefully, they don't recognize me.'

it wouldn't be a major problem if they did, but he preferred to avoid reconnecting with past acquaintances. truthfully, besides annabel and her father, there was no one he fully trusted. some treated him kindly out of pity, while others spoke to him with indifference, but in the end it wasn't genuine. fortunately, his appearance had changed significantly since leaving initium. he was confident that unless they looked closely, they wouldn't notice.

'i could also use the deceiver's earring.' he considered. 'but they only last twelve hours. better to save them for when i really need them.'

it would be more useful for escaping or briefly disguising himself. besides, he didn't want to meet annabel and william with a fake face.

"is something wrong?" sol asked, though he already knew why they reacted that way. still, he feigned ignorance, hoping they wouldn't connect the dots.

mirian hesitated, choosing her words carefully. "no, nothing's wrong... it's just that your name is a bit special around here." stay connected via empire

while mirian kept it vague, patine eagerly leaned in. "what she's trying to say is that someone here shares your name. but unlike you, he's completely talentless. after his reaching level five in his leveling ceremony, he never got his talent. still, on his own, he kept leaving town to hunt wild animals and level up. been at it for years. now that i think about it, i haven't seen him lately. maybe he finally died somewhe—"

"patine!" mirian snapped, cutting her off. she turned back to sol with an apologetic smile. "sorry about her. while it's true we haven't seen him lately, he's probably just using another gate or maybe gave up. if something had happened to him, we would've heard."

"unless a dire wolf ate his body," patine couldn't help but mutter another dark possibility.

"patine!" mirian glared, her eyes warning her to stay quiet. she sighed and turned back to sol. "if you happen to see him, please don't bully him. he already has it rough being talentless."

'how could i bully myself...' sol struggled to keep a straight face but managed to nod sincerely. "of course. one shouldn't punch down on those less fortunate."

"thank you." mirian smiled warmly and pulled patine aside to let them through.

as sol and amber entered the town, patine, assuming it was safe to speak again, mused, "you know, besides sharing a name, don't you think they look a bit similar? could they be long lost twins?"

mirian rolled her eyes. "how would that make sense? then why would they have the same name?"

with sol and amber out of earshot, the two guards began gossiping, coming up with increasingly outlandish theories. with sol and amber no longer there, miriam didn't mind. it was harmless fun, so long as these theories weren't being spread around to others.