After resting for a few hours, Abium woke up slowly, took a warm bath, and quickly walked out of his single-storied house.
He soon left Black street and entered Merchants' Borough's main street.
A few minutes later, he arrived before the Orchid auction house's entrance and went inside to buy two types of first-tier spell scrolls. One was a simple body appearance-changing spell scroll, while the other was a voice-changing spell scroll.
As the name suggests, these two spell scrolls could change the scroll user's voice and body shape to their will.
'I think this should do the work.' Abium thought to himself.
Afterward, he went to the exchange counter and brought the first-tier spell scrolls for 600 white gold coins.
After purchasing the necessary things, Abium walked out of the auction house and moved towards the nearby Ornamental Shop to buy a gray-haired wig and a few other things.
He then returned to his house, changed his clothes into ragged ones, and even wore old leather shoes.
'It's time to go back to the slums.' Abium let out a sigh and walked out of his house.
Although he felt a few gazes from the neighboring houses, he didn't mind their presence and quietly walked away.
He soon entered the main road, walked for the next few minutes, and finally reached Slum Borough's entrance.
'I don't know when this gate will open again….' He frowned and soon noticed the Royal Guard Palmer standing at the entrance gate, leaning his back onto the rocky wall.
As Abium started moving closer toward him, Palmer also noticed his presence and waved his hand at him.
'Here comes the robber,' Abium muttered inwardly and soon arrived in front of Palmer. Although he could avoid this guy, Abium thought of a better way.
'I can use his help in various places.'
"Where did you go yesterday?" Palmer gave him a suspicious look and asked with a frown.
"I returned to my village to secretly check if my parents are alright, Sir Palmer." Abium lied without even flinching.
"Oh? I thought of you are a slum kid. So, what's your name? Where are you from?" Palmer glanced at him up and down and asked without hiding his curiosity.
"I'm Jeeves, sir. I'm from Elm village. I ran away from my village due to some fight with my parents and am planning to become a gang leader." Abium showed his facial expression like he was a kid who was obsessed with money and power.
"Heh, little thief wants to become a gang leader, huh? Not a bad dream. But if you really become a gang leader one day, don't forget to give me some share, kiddo." Palmer said with a wide grin and stretched his palm towards his front.
"Now, take out today's quota."
'Haa! I hate being robbed by this guy.' Abium gave a self-mocking laugh inside and took out four gold coins from his pocket.
"Four gold coins?! Damn, I should resign from my job and join you. You are earning more money than me, kiddo." Palmer patted his shoulder while taking two gold coins from his palm and walked away from him.
On the other hand, Abium breathed a sigh of relief and joined the queue. As he listened to the nearby people's conversation, Abium soon discovered that the gate would open around 1 P.M.
Without anything to do, he stood there in the queue and waited patiently.
The time flew by slowly, and soon the Slum Borough's entrance gate opened with a screeching noise around 1 P.M.
Meanwhile, Abium quietly moved along with other workers and entered the Slum Borough.
…
After walking for a while, Abium quickly entered the right side alley and soon entered Pine Street, where his other house was.
After some time, he arrived at the street's end and noticed a slightly obese guy standing in front of his house while carrying a leather bag in his right hand.
'Darby? Why does he look so pale? Did he get into some trouble?' Abium raised his eyebrows and soon arrived before him.
"What happened? Why are you looking so pale?" He asked with a frown and unlocked the wooden door using an iron key.
"N-Nothing, sir. Yesterday, an unknown knight entered our hideout and killed our boss, Twin blade Godwin. After that, he took control over the whole gang with brute force and caused a whole mess in this street." Darby said in a shivering tone.
Meanwhile, Abium paused for a second, quietly entered his house, and then sat on the bed.
After that, he locked his gaze on Darby and asked with a frown.
"What happened?"
"H-He asked us to collect information about suspicious people from all over the slums. But before my companions tell him about you, I voluntarily gave your fake identity, sir." Darby said with an anxious expression on his face.
'A knight?'
Abium knitted his eyebrows and ordered.
"Explain everything to me in detail."
After a few minutes of Darby's explanation, Abium fully understood the situation and drew a deep sigh. The incident happened around 6 A.M. yesterday. It was when Abium went out of the Slum Borough to buy a new house in Commoners' Borough's Black Street.
An unknown knight seemed to have barged into Twin Blade Godwin's house early in the morning and attacked him ruthlessly. Before Godwin's gang members could gather, he killed Godwin and even decapitated his head.
After that, he didn't leave. Instead, he ordered Twin Blade Godwin's men to submit to him and follow his orders.
When a few refused to obey his order, that knight got infuriated and killed them mercilessly.
Due to this, everyone in this street got scared and was even planning to move to the nearby streets.
"That knight ordered everyone to gather information about all the suspicious people in Slum Borough and give him the report in the next two days." As Darby ended his speech, Abium was shocked a bit.
He now understood Darby's anxiety.
"Don't worry. You did the right thing. So, do you know who that knight is?" Abium responded with a smile and asked him about the mysterious knight.
"No idea, sir. He always wore a silver helmet to cover his face and acted like he did not know much about this Slums Borough." Darby said solemnly.
"Hmm, follow his orders for now. He appears to be a hot-blooded warrior, so don't do anything stupid if you want to live another day." Abium just gave him a warning and then asked further.
"Did you manage to find anything about the suspicious guys in the slum?"
"Yes, sir, here it is. I used that knight's order and even managed to get a few of their portraits using a slum kid's sketch skill." Darby said calmly and took out a few scrolls from his leather bag.
Meanwhile, Abium picked up a random portrait and opened it with both hands. But a moment later, he turned serious as he noticed that the simple portrait looked precisely like the image drawn by an experienced artist!
"Who drew these portraits?" Abium asked in shock.
"A slum kid, sir. His name is Ash. He was a knight's son, but his father lost his knight title and was branded as a thief by a noble house. Two years ago, his father was executed in public, while his wife and his children escaped from their home town and came to this slum to hide from that noble." Darby said with a sigh.
'A knight's son? But why are they hiding from that noble? Anyway, this kid is really a skilled artist. I can use his ability in many ways.' Abium muttered to himself and started to check those portraits one by one.
After a few minutes, Abium finished memorizing all the images and asked another question.
"Did you manage to get the list of youngsters' names in this street?"
"Here, sir." With a nod, Darby took another few scrolls and gave them to Abium.
As Abium opened a scroll, he soon saw a list of names, ages, and backgrounds written neatly. Most of them were born in the slums, which made Abium's job easier. He quickly glanced at the scroll and randomly chose ten names.
"Tell these kids to go to 16 Black Street on March 15th Morning. Also, tell them if they got approved by the master of that house, each would get two gold coins per month as salary." Abium said with a grin on his face and then added,
"Also, tell the same thing to Ash."
"Yes, sir." Darby nodded and hurriedly walked out of the house after getting five white gold coins as a payment from Abium.
Meanwhile, Abium's face turned cold.
A while ago, he saw a few familiar faces in those portraits and became serious.
'They really are the necromancers! Although I don't remember their names, I have met a few of them before regression. As for others, I'm not sure. But it is possible that the other guys might also belong to this same group.' He couldn't help but tense up a little.
'I have to leave this city tomorrow and use those two body-changing spells on myself. After that, I will move to the Keeper's underground market on time and infiltrate the Order of the Dead Organization.' Abium nodded his head.
After that, he separated a total of nine portraits from the rest and started planning how to deal with these guys.