A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

As soon as Erik reached the outskirts of London and started encountering some people, he slowed down. Before anyone noticed him, he folded his armour back into its armguard form, turned back to human form, and had Elora conjure some casual clothing on his body.

Then, he took off walking towards the Ashcroft estate.

He didn't try to hide his face, because he doubted there was a need. Perhaps the Council peacekeepers might recognize him from descriptions or some kind of recreated image from someone's memory using sigils, but these regular people wouldn't know him from Adam.

As he walked through the city, he looked around to see what the place looked like after another year of Council control, and he had to admit that it was improving.

Since he ran through a far more desolate London one year ago, the people now seemed happier, and the city cleaner.

He noticed various shops had been set up, where people plied trades like smithing, wood working, and clothes repair.

There were also shops for food, which proved that people were catching on to the fact it was better to eat, than let aetherium nourish you. Fishers and hunters were in particular demand, as the flesh of living creatures was always filled with aetherium.

Enjoy new adventures from empire

He even noticed some sigil stores, proving that the Council had made sigils more widely available.

'I wonder what they're using as currency,' he wondered inwardly. 'When I left here, I saw them directly trading energy, but that doesn't seem to be happening anymore.'

Finally, he decided to observe a trade a little more closely, and quickly noticed that they were exchanging some kind of paper currency, which made him curious.

'Paper currency only works if its value is guaranteed by something,' he pondered to himself. 'I doubt its gold, and I doubt the Council's reach is wide enough already to make these trust in them as the guarantor…'

Despite his curiosity, however, he wasn't ready to start asking questions that might bring suspicion down on him. Thus, he simply continued walking, while listening to the conversations around him.

Eventually, he managed to figure out the truth. As it turned out, the Council had set up large training centre filled with sigils and trainers for both supernaturals and humans. Then, they'd created this paper currency, which essentially represented time you could spend in that training centre.

"It's smart," Elora muttered through their link, actually sounding a little impressed. "In a world where there isn't any aetherium crystal to trade with yet, this is a great alternative. On the one hand, the Council promotes an economy, while on the other, it helps their people grow stronger."

Aetherium crystal was the main currency back on Söl, and the rest of the universe. As the same suggested, they were essentially crystals filled with aetherium. But they wouldn't start growing on a world until it finished awakening.

"We should remember this method then; it might be useful one day." Erik nodded along with her. "It's certainly easier than creating sigil stones for everyone."

Creating sigil stones to store tradable aetherium was another possible method, but it would require an immense amount of sigil stones to be created. Even just there in London, Erik estimated there lived at least one or two million people, and everyone would need their own sigil stone.

After getting a feel for the current situation of the Council and their territories, Erik sped up towards his destination.

* * *

A short time later, Erik found himself in front of the Ashcroft estate, the place of his return to Earth. Very little appeared to have changed, except that nature had reclaimed a little more of the formerly grand estate.

Next to him were two unconscious, first rank guards, who couldn't even register his arrival, before they were face down on street.

'No reason to kill them, I guess,' Erik shrugged inwardly. 'Although I wonder why they even put them here. They must have known a pair of first rankers wouldn't stop me, or my two lovely wives.'

With that thought, he waved his hand to make the two wives in question appear next to him, pulling them from his dimension. At the same time, Elora materialized on his shoulder.

Emma, and even the vicious Emily, both looked at their childhood home with melancholy.

"Are you sure it's safe, and that we have time for this, Master?" Emma asked hesitantly. She wanted to be here, of course, but she also knew they could always come back here on a later date, while their other business in England had a deadline.

Erik smiled at her, "It's fine, little Glimmer. Katya's brother is being held by a third-ranked Councillor, which means we can only strike when they're away, and it's still two days away before the monthly council meeting. We got plenty of time."

On his other side, Emily grinned mischievously, "Couldn't you just defeat this Councillor, Master? Aren't you basically a third-ranker already?"

Erik shook his head in exasperation, "You know it doesn't work that way, little Shadow. Sigurd and Frostfang are both at the very bottom of third rankers for their own reasons. Liv is only slightly above them, and I'm not even a 100% sure I could beat her at full strength."

Then she shrugged, "Besides, why risk it? We've got the perfect time to strike, let's not complicate things."n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Emily pouted playfully, and sighed, "I know, Master." She continued with a chuckle, "I just enjoy watching you show your superiority, hehehe. It's fun watching you beat those high and mighty third rankers, but last time we had to watch through sigil screens, and I'd like the live show!"

Erik rolled his eyes, while Emma blushed a little, as she couldn't help thinking the same thing.

"I'm sure you'll get the chance sometime," Erik then smile confidently, before turning to Elora. "Is the coast clear, little Ember?"

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the fairy shook her head with a sly grin, "The entire place is stuffed full of detection, warning, and trap sigils. It's no wonder they had some guards stationed here; they were just supposed to prevent the trash from killing themselves or setting off unnecessary alarms."

Erik smirked a little, "But I assume they totally underestimated you, right?"

"Oh, absolutely," Elora chuckled confidently.