Chapter 4160: Secret Magus (Part 1)

"I’m sick and tired of road bumps, and I’m not going to waste another minute stuck in traffic." Lith said.

"This is amazing!" Elfiam was as amazed by the dimensional door as much as the coachman was horrified. "This is a spell. A real spell!"

"Yes." Lith allowed the youth to go through the Steps multiple times and even take a few pictures from both sides with his Tablet. "We can go anywhere we’ve already been, so we won’t need another stagecoach to reach the Park or the Waterway later."

"Wow." Elfiam’s brain tried and failed to come up with better words to describe how he felt. "Just wow."

"Yeah, now you have the whole afternoon to work for another client or do whatever you like to do in your free time. Do you need a ride anywhere?" Lith asked.

"I..." Elfiam couldn’t focus until the Warp Steps disappeared. "I have no plans for the afternoon, but there’s always a tourist group in need of a guide near the Great Theater. Don’t worry about me, it’s-"

"No worry at all." Lith opened a second Warp Steps leading outside the Theatre. "You’d better be quick. If you make a good entrance, you should find your next client easily and have quite the story to tell them."

"Thank you very much." Elfiam’s eyes lit up in understanding. "Call me if you need anything."

He waved his Tablet and disappeared through the dimensional door, where a crowd was already gathering around him.

"That was nice of you." Solus said. "Allowing him to use your Steps and name should make Elfiam quite a bit of money."

"It’s the least I can do." Lith’s eyes were lost in the past, back when he and Carl had been emancipated. "Let’s get inside, or we’ll be swarmed."

The exclusive clientele of the Unicorn’s Pot couldn’t show much of their curiosity to uphold their decorum, but that would end the moment they recognized the Supreme Magus of the Kingdom.

At that point, not introducing themselves would have been impolite.

Lith cut through the bystanders to enter the hotel and swiftly reached the silver pedestal that opened the dimensional passage to the third floor.

A power nap and two hours later, the group split up, reaching their destinations with a single Steps.

"The kids are going to love this place." Kamila sighed, admiring the tall trees and the wide cobblestone paths leading to the various scenic spots of the park. "Too bad that I won’t. I can’t walk too much, and you’ll have to leave me behind at some point."

"Not at all." Lith shook his head. "Where there’s room for two, there’s room for three."

He extended the stroller with a hard-light construct, making one extra seat for Kamila.

"You want me to sit in a stroller?" She chuckled at the idea.

"You carry the baby and I you." Lith shrugged.

"That’s an excellent reasoning, but it can use a few improvements." A few waves of Kamila’s hand and the construct shapeshifted into something in between a rickshaw and a palanquin.

"Fine by me, but you know I don’t need to push it, right?" Lith dispelled Kamila’s creation with a finger snap. "Also, I thought we wanted to avoid crowds, not gather one."

"You’re such a spoilsport, but you’re also right. Let’s ask our baby overlords. Do you have any suggestions?" She covered her hand in Dragon Scales and extended it to the kids.

Unfortunately for her, Elysia and Valeron considered the stroller as a perfect means of transportation and loved the idea of sharing it with their mother.

"They grow up so fast." Lith said with a deadpan face to the flabbergasted people who stared at Kamila sitting in a huge stroller with the babies on either side.

"You’re going to pay for this, Daddy." She said every time with a laugh.

They stopped by a pond with lots of ducks and swans. The babies managed to pet them thanks to the Guardians’ aura freezing the animals and nipping any aggressive impulse in the bud.

Lith then walked to a pine grove where each tree had a birdhouse to offer the local wildlife shelter and the tourists an opportunity to admire their colorful feathers.

Yet he hit the motherlode in a side trail that showed few signs of passage.

"Guys, look! A giant rock!" He pointed at a boulder the size of a house covered in moss, vines, and dirt.

"So what? We can conjure a much bigger one anytime we want with earth magic." Kamila turned around, discovering that the babies didn’t share her lack of interest.

They stared at the huge rock in amazement, their little faces lit up with joy.

"What do you say if we climb it?" Lith asked, obtaining enthusiastic cheers in reply.

"Climb it?" Kamila echoed. "Lith, they are babies! What if the fall? What if they get hurt?"

"Excellent questions." Lith snapped his fingers and freed Elysia and Valeron from the stroller’s straps. "How do you answer, my cuties?"

The babies replied by shapeshifting their hands and feet into Dragon claws and unfurling their wings.

"See? They have everything they need. Also, if anything happens, they have us."

"I yield." Kamila raised her hands, knowing when she was defeated.

Lith let the babies climb first, following them from behind and keeping their pace, which was very quick. They reached the top in a handful of seconds and then started scuttling around the boulder to explore its every nook and cranny.

"It must be the lizard blood." Kamila pondered. "Humans aren’t supposed to move that fast on all fours."

"I’ll take that as a compliment." Leegaain said, appearing out of nowhere and making her yelp in surprise.

***

Meanwhile, at the Central Waterway, Solus needed only to show her Great Mage ID to be granted access to the facility.

"This is what you wanted to show me?" She asked as she conjured an air shield around herself and Menadion. "The sewers? Of all the wonders of Amrok, you thought I would enjoy sightseeing the sewers?"

"You asked me about my job here, and there it is." Menadion waved at the underground canals and passageways. "This place might be unpleasant and stinky to you, but it’s what keeps all the great cities of the Kingdom clean and healthy."

"What do you mean?" Solus asked.

"Do you remember how Lith lived before he went to the academy?" Menadion replied.

"If you mean the outhouse outside, it’s hard to forget." Solus shuddered at the thought.

"That’s how everyone in Lutia still lives and will live until someone makes a place like this." Menadion replied. "Providing everyone with tap water and disposing of the wastewaters with magic is too expensive.

"Yet without the former, people can’t wash themselves easily, and without the latter, you just move the dirt from one place to another, breeding all sorts of diseases. The Trokan Empire solved all those issues long before Lochra shared her legacy with its waterways.

"Once Valeron conquered Amrok, I spent quite a bit of time down here to understand how the central waterway works and learn how to replicate an entire underground city with just Warden magic."

"Is that really possible?" Solus was flabbergasted.

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