Depthless Hunger

Chapter 71: A High Society Hunters Guild

Rayakan was flatter than Monskon City, so Kai wasn't able to instinctually navigate his way to the upper class section. Instead of large defensive walls, the city seemed to be divided into neighborhoods differentiated by nothing but architecture. As he got out of the rough wooden housing around the docks he began to see more stone buildings. Not rough stone like he knew, but every house fancily dressed with elaborate curling stonework.

The most important people in the city still managed to lord it over others: if they didn't have a hill, they just built higher. Instead of clusters of clan buildings, there were enormous enclosed estates that loomed several stories over the city. On the west side of the river, the Hunters Guild was the tallest of all. It, at least, was built of sturdy stone remarkably similar to the Guild he knew, but it was in rather poor repair.

Before he got too close to the Guild, Razzagah caught up with him in an alleyway as agreed. "Okay, Kai, this is just a dinner. You don't need to worry about any exact manners because no one will expect them from you. Don't be an asshole and you'll be okay. But, uh, do change clothes."

"Fine." Kai took the tunic the other man offered and shucked off his shirt to change. "But I don't see how this is going to benefit me."

"If people know who you are, the Corinins can't send their mercenaries to assassinate you, at least not as easily. And even if you can't join the Guild, if you're a familiar face they won't send people after you. So just make a good first impression."

"And that's really it?" Kai was surprised how rough the tunic was - he'd been expecting the fine silks that he'd protected to this point. Perhaps not the appropriate garb for a dinner, or they were being saved for later events.

"This is also your chance to meet the Corinin clan's top members. If possible..." Razzagah glanced away from the Hunters Guild to the opposite side of the river. "They're holding a more significant celebration next week. If you can get an invitation, that could be very beneficial. Don't ask about it, just accept if it's offered. Make sense?"

Kai grunted affirmation. He left the alley and headed toward the Guild, on his own from that point. Though everyone knew there was some connection between him and Razzagah, he needed to establish himself as his own person instead of a Lantrian flunky. All he had to do was act like he belonged.

The instant he stepped into the Guild, someone handed Kai a potion and he realized that he had no idea what he was doing.

It had been called a dinner, but there were barely any tables. Everyone was standing in small clusters, only occasionally taking food from plates being carried by servants. He noted that everyone was better dressed than him, including some silk robes. But the oddest thing was the fact that almost everyone was carrying a potion just like his.

Just in case he was mistaken, Kai took a drink, acting as if he was casually surveying the room. Definitely enough mana for a potion... but it wasn't really. The base ingredients were mixed with fruit and sugar in a way that meant it had to be a drink.

He drank more to hide how astonished he was. Almost all the mana being drunk was going to waste, which made it an astonishing display of wealth. Except no one seemed surprised, so was this just the normal level of waste in Rayakan? Most of the people he saw were hunters, yet they made no effort whatsoever to make use of the mana they drank. By the end of the night, they would have literally pissed away a small fortune.

"So you're the northerner." A man's gruff voice took him off guard and Kai pivoted toward a middle-aged man. "I'm Dommag Corinin. You may not have meant any harm, but the way you stumbled in created a bit of a problem for the clan."

Dommag was a tall man who Kai would have called powerfully built if he showed any signs of hunter training. No, the cut of his tunic and the sheer number of layers pinned him as a merchant. He was slightly older, with patches of gray through his hair and beard. Still, this was Kai's first chance to talk to a local Corinin directly.

"I understand there's a rivalry going on, but I didn't know anything about that." Kai gave the man a friendly nod. "There wasn't anything illegal involved, was there? I wouldn't want to harm the defense of your city."

"Defense of the city?" Dommag's lip actually curled. "I will be blunt. What you consider defense is wasting the strength of Goralia against vermin. The monster threat is trivial compared to the real problems of the nation: trade with Irun or invasion from Krysal. You should be our nation's military, yet you play your games in the north. Go back and stop interfering."

Stunned, Kai wasn't able to say anything before Dommag walked away from him. He'd never imagined that anyone in Goralia could treat the Frontier like it was a trivial distraction. In the past, monster incursions had penetrated to the south... but maybe that seemed like ancient history when you were making a fortune in fine silks and drinking mana as a refreshment.

More importantly, he was now willing to abandon his ideas about the Corinin clan. It was still possible that Razzagah was pulling something over on him, but if so, the other clans didn't seem eager to reach out. Kai didn't want to have anything else to do with them and forced himself in anyway.

"Oh my, oh my!" An older woman with heavy makeup approached him, hands fluttering beside her. She wore the most elaborate costume he'd seen to that moment, an explosion of colored fabric. "My husband can be so unkind, the cruel man. You are our newest guest from the north, aren't you?"

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"Right, I'm Kai Clanless. I didn't realize guests were so rare."

"Guests pass through every day, but not such handsome young men. Please let me be the first to introduce myself: I'm Kalliay Corinin." She took his arm and brazenly stroked it as she pulled him inward. "So glad you've decided to join society. The Lantrians have a bit of a history here, but they've fallen on such hard times, you know."

"Uh, is-"

"Mmm, such a strong young man." Kalliay spoke right over him as she tugged him toward a circle of younger nobles. "I'd love to eat you up myself, but some of my dears were just dying to meet you. Now, why don't you have fun and we'll talk later?"

She giggled and pushed him toward the circle, squeezing his ass in the process. Kai's head whipped around to stare at her, but she was already gone. Now he was surrounded by young hunters about his age, though few of them were rated above 20. Many of them were young women wearing Corinin or Orgoron sigils, while the men looked more surly at his arrival.

For a while Kai was swept away as they asked him questions and showed more interest than he'd ever received in his life. Kai knew he wasn't hideous, but he had never stood out among other men his age except via his hard work. Receiving so much female attention was downright dizzying and he struggled to keep in mind his original goal.

"I heard you were banished from a northern city after a fight," one of the young women said shyly. "Was it a blood feud? Did you kill him?"

All the pleasure of the encounter drained away as Kai realized the truth. He was a curiosity to them, a northern brute to be put on display. Their interest in him meant nothing, even if it was genuine.

Kai wasn't sure how he looked in that moment, but the young woman's eyes widened and she took a step back. Several of the others giggled while she retreated. Did she actually think he was going to hit her for the insult or something? Perhaps that was exactly what they expected of him. If he was supposed to get an invitation somehow, did he need to play into the stereotype?

Before things could devolve too far, a voice from behind saved him.

"How is your Class so weak when you've advanced that far with your Physique?"

When Kai turned he saw a woman wearing an expensive but more sensible tunic. The hand wrapped around her glass looked like it had some calluses on it and she was carrying a sword. Those facts jumped out at him and he only later noted that she was lean with a sharp face and carefully styled hair. Her impression was so much closer to a real hunter than the others that he automatically opened his spiritual sight.

Name: ???

Total Power: 65

Warrior Class: 33 (43)

Physique Level: G-9 (18)

Soul Level: 2 (4)

>

At 65 power she was in roughly his same tier, which wasn't bad considering she was probably only a few years older than him. His combat instincts had activated instantly, so there had barely been any pause since her question. He had expected more people to wonder about the discrepancies in his soul, so he had an answer ready.

"Good question," Kai said with a smile. "I've been more focused on practical techniques than on mana skills so far. It's still my first year since the Hunter Trials."

She frowned and peered at him as if skeptical. He doubted that she could pierce the deception, but his answer didn't seem to satisfy her, because she turned around and stalked away.

"Who was that?" Kai asked.

"Soeraina Corinin," a woman said as she draped herself over his shoulder. "She's essentially the leader of the Guild, but she's such a bore. Good thing you scared her off."

Pushing away the one person who might have given him an interesting conversation. Kai struggled with the impulse to brush off everyone and leave, or maybe jump up on a table and scream at them. Instead he decided that this was another battle: Zae Zin Nim had said that he needed merchant resources, so he needed to play their games. That meant making a good impression and getting an invitation.

So Kai gave them all his best barbarian smile and got started.

.

..

.

By the end of the night when Kai left the Hunters Guild, he was numb. The female hunters had pushed more drinks filled with mana on him and been getting steadily drunker themselves, but he'd felt fine. Kai might have given more thought to that if he wasn't so exhausted from meaningless social interactions. He'd much rather sit and cultivate with Zae Zin Nim in silence than be fawned over by so many women who viewed him as little more than an animal.

But he'd been invited to the Corinin estate. It had taken a lot of flirting, eventually even with Kalliay Corinin. He wasn't sure if the woman was completely sincere or just liked to act young, but she had been all over him by the end. That, more than all the drinking, left him feeling a little sick.

As soon as he was safely away from the wealthier districts, Kai sat down on a bench and dropped his head into his hands. He might have stayed there forever if Razzagah Lantrian hadn't caught up to him.

"Uh, Kai? You alright?"

"Hey, Razz." Kai straightened up and pulled two metal emblems from his tunic. "Are these the kinds of invitation you wanted me to get?"

"Perfect!" Razz inspected them with obvious approval. "They have a lot of guards and even a mana barrier on their estate, so it's practically impossible to get in normally. Is this one for you and one for a guest?"

"I assumed that would be you, unless it's not allowed."

"No, that's for your friend. I can get my own. I'll have to call in some favors, but I can make it happen. The Lantrian name still carries some weight here."

Kai finally looked up at the younger man. After so long at the dinner, he had no more patience for bullshit. "Tell me exactly what you're doing or we're not working together."

"Oh shit." Razz took a step back, but then sat down on the bench beside him and lowered his voice. "Alright, you saved my life so I might as well be honest with you. The Corinin clan has... had the guilds seize certain permits belonging to my parents. The matter would already be resolved, but the clan is holding the key evidence. Allegedly for inspection, but it's just a pretense to make sure the seizure never ends. Until we have the permits restored, a lot of our current trade is on shaky ground, legally."

"And you think you can convince them to give the evidence back? At this party?"

"Uh, not exactly." Razz looked toward him as if he expected Kai to bite his head off. "Don't get angry about this, but they have control over all the official channels. If I can physically take the financial records and give them to the guilds, the prolonged investigation will end, no matter how we get them. That does technically mean stealing, but it's not as bad as it sounds. It's not exactly legal for them to be holding the evidence either, so this isn't-"

"I'm in." Kai straightened and gripped both invitation emblems in his fist. "What's the plan?"

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