After a few minutes of rest, Jace got up from Catherine's warm embrace
.
"It's getting late, I should leave," he said as he got up from the bed
.
He found his boxers and wore them. He looked around and collected his other clothes from the ground.
While wearing his pants, he heard Catherine's voice.
"Visit me next week," she stated, but there was something soft in her voice.
Jace looked back. "I'm afraid I can't," he said as he put on his shirt.
Catherine looked away guiltily, but she couldn't let him go. "Look... I won't be so rough next time," she said softly.
Jace chuckled. "I'm moving to the East Boroughs. I want to find better opportunities to act and digest, so it might take a while." His voice faded at the end of the sentence.
Catherine felt a slight embarrassment at her assumption, but she didn't show it and asked, "Why East Boroughs? Isn't it better here?"
She was right; the east part of Backlund was for the poor working class and filled with crime, while its neighbor Cherwood Borough was a respected middle-class place, offering safety and stability.
The East was also the place where most Beyonder crime happened.
"I foresee opportunities for me there," he said with a lofty attitude, which Catherine rolled her eyes at.
He stopped and looked at her. "You have a messenger, right?" he asked while adjusting his clothes properly.
Catherine smiled. "I do." Then she gave the incantation to call her messenger.
Jace listened while putting on his brown coat.
Just as he was about to pick up his hat, he stopped and looked back at Catherine.
She, unlike before, had covered her body with a sheet and sat leaning on the bed's headboard.
The morning light was now spilling through the balcony, catching her sharp and graceful features with a hint of age lines.
Her long black hair flowed on her shoulders, and her blue eyes looked at him with an easy smile.
He looked at her for a moment or two until she raised her eyebrow in slight confusion.
"Do you want to be a demigod?" he asked with a solemn expression.
---
An hour later, he was at his apartment door.
He opened it, and after walking inside, he saw a figure sitting in his living room.
It was Jane; she was sitting on the couch reading a book.
Jace, of course, was not surprised.
On his way, he had flipped a coin to divine if someone was in his apartment—the result was positive.
He again divined whether the person in his apartment was Jane; the result was positive.
Just because he was now a Clown did not mean he wasn't a Seer.
Jane was wearing a simple white gown, her hair tied back slightly messy; she likely slept here.
Jane got up and walked up to him. "Where were you last night?" she asked, her voice a little firm.
Jace looked at her. She was pretty, and he liked her very much.
But she would only see him as a little brother.
It was illogical to like someone when you know they won't like you back, at least not in the way you want them to.
Any relationship—be it familial, friendship, or love—is only a relationship if there is reciprocation of the same feelings. If there is no reciprocation, then it is no relationship at all.
So, there was no point in pursuing her.
Jace smiled at Jane. "I will be leaving Cherwood Borough for a few weeks."
---
Three days later, Jace was in an apartment in Black Palm Street, in the East Boroughs.
The apartment was one bedroom with basic rundown furniture. The rent he paid for it was quite fair, like 4 soli a week.
The place was not good at all, but Jace was alright with it.
It was the place which Klein Moretti kept a backup apartment for himself—or well, is going to in the future.
Jace had no worries about money; he had more than 600 pounds on him.
He had 100 more, but he bought some important stuff.
Currently, he was lying on the creaky single bed.
It was now morning, and the room was lit with a soft, dusty light coming from the grime-covered windows.
Outside the balcony, the sky was a dull grey, choked by the heavy smog of the factories.
He looked at his right side without getting up. He saw two clown costumes hanging on the wall, with a green curly-haired wig and a unicycle lying on the ground, along with a few other props.
He got up, freshened up a little, and wore his colorful clown jumpsuit.
Then he wore a hairnet to keep his hair pressed down.
Sitting at the table at a mirror, he started the makeup. He painted his face white, drew red circles on his cheeks, and used yellow and green colors. Using those colors, his makeup was done.
He finally took the green wig and put it on. He grabbed his unicycle and a bag of props and ventured out into the wild.
In the book, Klein never really acted as a clown other than painting his face, so now that Jace was acting like a literal clown, he wondered what the result would be in potion digestion.
Backlund never had clean air, but in the East, it was especially polluted with a thick, sooty fog that tasted like metal.
Jace could only hope he won't get lung problems here.
He got to a street that was fairly populated with people and got to work.
He got on the unicycle, juggling red balls and laughing in a high-pitched voice with a large smile on his face.
Few people gathered around.
Though he had placed an empty hat for money, he wasn't expecting it to fill, as that was not his goal here.
He looked around while acting. This place really is poor, he thought.
Most people were dressed in old clothes that were patched up. The people's skin was darker from the soot, and most of them were malnourished. He sighed inwardly.
In the afternoon, he ate his fill at a cheap diner with the money he earned by clowning around, of course.
In mid-afternoon, he felt it was enough, so he went back to his sad apartment and slumped on the bed.
Since being a clown was physically exhausting, he didn't have trouble falling asleep.
When he woke up, the night had fallen and the streets outside were dark, lit only by the faint, flickering glow of distant gas lamps.
He ate the bread he had bought and redid his makeup while he was still wearing the clown jumpsuit.
Then he walked into the night.