A Magical World Revealed: A New Era

Day Twelve, Chapter Twenty Five, Return To Normalcy

Edwin Animal Menagerie, Woodrow, Northern Territory, Australia

Monday, 12/2/2024

09:24

The Edwin Animal Menagerie was a large pet store right in the centre of Woodrow's shopping district. Its name, prime location and long existence had made it a staple of the local community. It provided everything from pet food to toys to bedding to even the pets themselves. It had a wide variety of animals for sale; dogs, cats, rodents, lizards, snakes, fish, parrots, finches, chickens, ducks and even some insects, arachnids, crustaceans and molluscs. It was a large store for such a small town. As a matter of fact, it was the only pet shop in Woodrow. It currently took up three whole buildings which had been renovated to be connected together. The three distinct house-like sections along with the way the interior was arranged and decorated gave the store a cosy, homely feel. Managing the store was a huge task and it was chronically understaffed. Despite this, business was booming. As it was early February, they had entered into a bit of a slow period. The rush of purchases in December and following purchases of toys, bedding and other supplies that had been neglected had subsided in late January. Now, the store was slow and sleepy, with the bored employees either fiddling with their phones or playing with the unsold pets, their rounds of morning feeding and cleaning finished. A bell rang as someone walked through the front door.

龍 將 飛 翔

Nathan Pendragon stepped inside of Edwin Animal Menagerie. The first thing he saw was a long curved counter with a lone employee, a store clerk, standing behind it. The store clerk had been looking down at their phone which had been propped up against a tissue box. At the sound of Nathan's arrival, they looked up.

'Oh, hello there. Can I help you?'

The clerk was a young man, probably just one or two years older than Nathan. He looked, well, there was no other word for it, geeky. That was all the description needed to surmise his appearance. He narrowed his eyes as he looked at Nathan.

'Shouldn't you be at school?'

'I've dropped out of school due to various circumstances. If you don't mind-'

But the clerk was staring at him more intently. He adjusted his spectacles. He began to speak, slowly, cautiously.

'Are you... by any chance... the guy everyone calls the "Arbiter"? Something-or-other Pendragon, right?'

Nathan closed his eyes. Some idiot former Commission member had gotten ahold of and then uploaded drone footage of the three day long final battle. Clips of it were spreading around social media like wildfire. And thanks to that, Nathan had decided to partially change his appearance while out and about. His hair had been returned to his original brown colour, aside from a single strip of white which he had braided for fun. He had purposefully deactivated Overanalyse so his eyes no longer looked mechanical. And he wasn't wearing the Copycoat. It's not like he had seriously disguised himself or anything, but someone who had only seen images of him in battle shouldn't have been able to recognise him.

'Yes, I'm Nathan Pendragon. How did you recognise me?'

'The scar next to your eye, y'know, the one that looks kinda like a sickle.',

'So you noticed that, huh. I didn't think that particular scar was very visible on the videos.'

'Well I've watched a lot of them. I think all this Magicae stuff is so cool! Can you give me a demonstration?'

The clerk's eyes shone with eager excitement. Nathan sighed. Something simple wouldn't be too much of a hassle.

'What specifically?'