“This is the first time I’ve been to your storehouse,” Dust noted.

“Don’t worry about it, this is my sixth or so time in the past century,” Count Lostfon replied. “It’s nothing much to look at, to be honest. Anyway, since we’re here, I suppose you might as well pick a souvenir and bring it back too. I have all sorts of fun stuff here, not just weapons and defences.”

As Count Lostfon pulled out a stick that had a bouncy end to play on, Claud looked around the storeroom, which was a huge, tall chamber that had hundreds of shelves.

“Do you know what I’m thinking?” Claud whispered to Lily.

“What?” Lily whispered back.

“Your family’s vault is nothing compared to this,” Claud answered. “Man, this place is huge for a treasure vault.”

“How about Istrel’s?” Lily asked, that last word extremely quiet.

“Comparable. Can’t remember much of that fellow’s, though.” Claud rubbed his head. “My memory of that day is a bit off.”

Lily looked at him, but before she could say anything else, Count Lostfon approached the two of them in high spirits.

“Come, come! Don’t just stand around here and exchange sweet nothings. This place has all sorts of great items, so do look around. I’ll permit you guys to take a total of three items each!” The count grinned. “And earlier, you said something about one-use artefacts, right? I have too many to count, so just take as many as you can!”

“Your wealth is so dazzling,” Claud commented. “I’m half blind.”

“We’re the city of wealth, I’ll have you know. Inventions and money go hand in hand; we earn impossible amounts of money from taxing inventors and estates who are getting rich off royalty payments,” Lostfon replied. “Our taxes for inventors are very low, only ten percent, which means that virtually anyone with an enterprising mind comes over here for taxes.”

“And the rest are okay with that?” Lily asked. “I thought that would trigger a race to the bottom or something.”

“Nope. The other cities are earning enough from their own inventor tax. To lower it would take a nice chunk out of their already guaranteed fortune. If they want to go lower, they would need to take a risk; like half of their current income and hope that the smaller inventions yield better pay outs.” The count grinned. “It’s not my fault if they’re already entrenched in guaranteed earnings.”

Lily rubbed her chin. “What about…”

Claud watched on as the duo debated about taxation policy, and found himself impressed at how Lily was talking as an equal to the count. Lily didn’t really do much in the way of administration, especially since Farah and Schwarz were in charge of virtually everything in the Moon Lords, but her familiarity with these issues…

“Implies that she actually did study administration,” Claud muttered, an image coming to the forefront of his mind. In that image, he could see her poring over books, wondering about whether she would get the chance to rehabilitate her family. She was probably far younger at that point in time, full of hopes that she could bring everyone around, and then got disillusioned from the sheer impossibility behind rehabilitating her family.

After a while, Lily returned from talking to Count Lostfon, who had an intriguing expression on his face.

“Welcome back,” Claud replied, before taking her hand and giving it a little squeeze.

Lily blinked, and then squeezed his hand back. “What’s that for?”

“I felt like it.” Claud led her to one of the shelves. “Anyway, let’s start looking. There’s lots of things here, though, so this will probably take some time…”

“Do you want to look together with me?” Lily asked. “It’ll be more interesting, right? I can’t imagine going through shelf after shelf alone.”

“…You don’t like shopping alone, huh.”

“You do?” Lily asked.

“Well, it’s usually the default.” Claud closed his eyes. “Whenever I brought things from Licencia’s shops. Artisan’s Adherence, my go-to shop, has lots of these shelves. I would just spend hours looking through them at times, especially when they had new stock.”

“Licencia, huh…” Lily picked up a bracelet and toyed with it. “I wonder what it looks like now. Maybe Schwarz went full-on crazy and decided to make a military fortress or something.”

“Maybe he made an underground city, complete with a farm and artificial sunlight,” Claud replied. “So, what’s that bracelet?”

“It’s called the Wrestler’s Ring,” Lily replied. “When tossed up, it will hover in the air and mark out a circle with light.”

“Hmm. Interesting. And?”

“And?” Lily echoed. “What do you mean? That’s it. There’s nothing else. It just creates a circle of sunlight, that’s all.”

“…What’s the point of having a ring of sunlight, then?” Claud muttered.

Lily shrugged, and the two of them continued to pick up random items. Most of them weren’t what Claud would call useful; their effects seemed to be effectively random, and there wasn’t a system in place to organise them either. Rather than a storehouse, this place seemed like a well-decorated pit to dump useless artefacts into…

After an hour, Claud and Lily finished looking through three shelves, but by then, they were too tired to continue.

“There’s so many items and somehow, none of them are useful,” Claud muttered darkly, before sitting down on the ground. “Phew. Still, I hear artefacts are permanent skillsticks of sorts…but why would anyone learn a skill that would create a circle of sunlight to begin with? There are so many better ways to dazzle your opponent that it looks like a complete waste.”

“Hear, hear.” Lily flopped down next to him. “There’s so much junk…”

The two of them laid down for a few minutes, before Claud finally regained the strength to twitch his head. “I wonder what Count Lostfon is doing.”

“Showing off his collection, I think,” Lily replied. “I know! Why not get him to recommend some for us? Or we can get some things. I’ve always wanted a storage artefact. He should have one, right?”

“Oh, right! We can just ask him directly!” Claud got up and hauled Lily to her feet. “Why should we look around when we can ask him? Let him do the hard work.”

The count was busy introducing a sword to Dust when the two of them walked over, and he looked at them. “Need something?”

“Yeah, we figured asking you directly would be the best. For our three artefacts, we would like a storage artefact each, and then maybe one that can allow us to traverse space or make a quick escape.” Claud smiled. “Do you have anything like that?”

“Storage artefacts I do have, but traversing space…like teleporting? Things like that are really rare, you know,” said Count Lostfon, before frowning. “Well, I did promise you, though…and a Lostfon never breaks their word.”

“I like your style, count,” Claud replied.

“Keep praising me, Lord Primus.” The count pondered for a moment. “Ah! I do have a teleportation artefact I can give you. I apologise in advance, but it’s the only one I can afford to give away, so either you take it or leave it.”

“One is better than zero, Count Lostfon,” Lily replied. “We’ll be very happy to have it, right?”

Claud nodded. “What kind of artefact is it?”

“It’s an artefact that can transport up to three people to a safe location five kilometres away. It can be used three times a day,” Lostfon replied. “Alone, it’s already a very valuable artefact, so don’t complain that I’m shortchanging you. The only problem lies in how it takes a minute to activate, and once activated, it cannot be cancelled. It’s not good for combat, in other words.”

Claud nodded. “It’s definitely good stuff, though. As expected of you, Count Lostfon. Your storehouse is like your city, full of good stuff and very rich.”

“Hahaha! You sure are good at speaking, Lord Primus!” The count patted his shoulder. “Wait here. I’ll get the storage artefacts and the Traversal Glove for you.”

He ambled off at those words, leaving Cland and Lily alone with Dust, who was now looking at the two of them.

“Erm, hi.” Lily took the initiative. “It’s a rather nice store, isn’t it?”

Dust looked at Lily. “It’s alright for the three of us to remain silent if there isn’t a topic of conversation, Lady Primus. Of course, I must apologise for forgetting the three of you, especially after your aid in dealing with our local problems.”

“That’s fine, really.” Claud rubbed his nose. “We’re not really im—”

The door to the storeroom slammed open at that moment, and Count Lostfon’s butler rushed in. “Master, master! There’s a visit from someone claiming to be the Red God’s familiar spirit!”

Count Losfton walked out of the storeroom a moment later, his hands holding on to a few things. “What? The Red God’s familiar spirit?”

“Yes, master.”

The count looked at Dust, and then at the two of them. “Mind if you three follow me out? I feel safer that way.”

Everyone else nodded.