Standing before the mercenary store with OPEN on its door, Edris couldn't help but be impressed at the extravagant storefront.

"Looks like this is it."

After hearing about the famous Alan's Mercenary Corner, Edris decided to pay it a visit. Since he was planning to find a permanent place to live, it wouldn't hurt to make some connections.

However, the moment he stepped into the store, Ace's deep voice echoed in his head.

— Something's off.

A subtle frown appeared on his face. Edris's eyes skimmed through the shelved items and the weapons pinned on the walls. Eventually, they landed on the only other person in the store.

Usually, owners would approach their customers instantly and attempt to sell them various items. However, the man with lilac-coloured hair was observing him with a gaze that seemed to say there was no need for him to do so.

Edris found himself intrigued by his composure.

— That man. He's the source of the strange flow of mana in the air.

With Ace's deep voice ringing in his head, Edris wandered around the room while observing the store owner sitting by the counter.

While most of Zacriya's citizens had hair coloured in the warmer, brighter end of the spectrum, the store owner's hair was in a light purple shade, complementing the gold hint in his brown pupils.

Most importantly, his relaxed demeanour was rarely one seen in merchants, who had to work day and night relentlessly to sustain their place in the dynamic market.

"Hello." The store owner finally stood up. Tucking his lilac-coloured hair behind his ear, he gave Edris a polite smile. "May I help you?"

— His body composition is different from yours. It's different from everyone we've encountered so far.

What?

Edris paused as his foot landed on the wooden floor with small creaks. Gears spinning in his head, a smile made its way to his face as he pieced the different information together.

"You..." He turned to the lilac-haired man with a smile. "You're a machina, right?"

At that moment, the store owner's expression visibly stiffened, and Edris received the answer to his question.

Machinas.

They were a rare extension of the human race that tended to act more based on rationality than emotions. Like elementalists, machinas were humans who were born an Awakened. With minds composed and emotions collected, they were comparable to machines.

To think he would meet one just a few days into the capital... The Zacriya Kingdom was really something.

Edris let out a breathy chuckle, unaware of how the machina before him had flinched at his action.

Contrary to Edris's presumption of machinas being overly rational creatures, Alan was currently overwhelmed by his emotions. The machina's mind was discombobulated after hearing the traveller casually mention the secret he was planning to take to his grave.

The traveller ignored his reaction as he continued talking.

"Are you hiding your identity?" His leisure tone was coated with a hint of amusement. "Machinas mostly work for the factions, don't they? I'm surprised they let you open up a mercenary line here."

He was right.

People born machinas, although not too different from regular humans, were equipped with exceptional production abilities.

They were inherently better at controlling and manipulating mana to search for rare materials to craft items. As their abilities were especially suitable for inventive production, most machinas became artisans in different fields of work or participated in positions related to experimentation and research.

Alan chose to hide his machina identity. People with this attribute were gathered by the kingdom leaders, often by force, to work under them. Although the pay was good, there was no personal freedom.

Staring at the mysterious traveller, Alan couldn't hide his flabbergasted face.

How was he able to figure out his identity?

The only possibility Alan could think of was that Nolmes' Mage Faction must have somehow traced his mana usage and classified him as a member of the machina subspecies. In that case, it wouldn't be surprising for them to send someone over to expose his identity.

His spiralling thoughts were interrupted as the young man spoke to him with a calm voice.

"I won't ask you why you're hiding your identity, nor am I interested in knowing. I won't expose your secret, either." Ignoring the store owner's look of shock, Edris continued. "Instead, let's make a deal."

"A deal?"

"I see you have some fascinating things around here."

The moment Edris entered the room, he had asked Ace to find the best item in the store.

— It's not on display. It seems that the store owner was not planning to sell it.

The reply was to be expected.

Originally, Edris was not planning to buy anything pricy. He was only here to make connections. However, with the store owner's secret in his hands, things were now different.

"It's quite impressive. Your collection of items, I mean." Smiling gently, Edris looked towards the merchant.

Although he had no plans of finding out the reasons behind the store owner's actions, that did not mean Edris wasn't going to use this situation to his advantage.

"Your name is Alan, correct?"

"How, how did you..." the lilac-haired man, Alan, subconsciously stepped back with wide eyes.

Edris lifted an eyebrow. He jabbed a thumb behind him, gesturing to the storefront.

"Alan's Mercenary Corner."

Ignoring Alan's flustered expression, he leaned towards the counter with a smile.

"My name is Edris. As I mentioned, I will keep your identity a secret. In return, you'll give me priority information over interesting items or new releases. Equivalent exchange, how does that sound?"

Although high-class items were appealing to magic users, Edris had no use for them. In that case, wouldn't it be better to establish long-term benefits instead?

Alan blinked twice at the proposal.

That's it?

For keeping his secret, that's all the traveller asked for in return?

He knew Edris was aware of the items he had intentionally left out of the display, yet the man had purposely avoided mentioning them. There were other things he could have asked for as well. Edris could threaten him for money, demand free items, or even make him give up the shop.

But instead, he just wanted priority notices over new items?

Alan found the traveller's actions to be unfathomable.

He thought that maybe Edris was pitying him, that he felt bad for those with the machina attribute who had to live in hiding just to be free.

"It might as well be meant to be," Alan finally agreed, sighing in resignation. "It's a deal. However, I have another condition to add."

Edris tilted his head in puzzlement, prompting the lilac-haired man to continue.

"The items that are not on display. I will send them to you for free, on the agreement that you will also let me know of any interesting opportunities in the future."

"Interesting opportunities?" He arched an eyebrow.

"Money-wise, of course."

As an experienced merchant, Alan had seen all types of travellers during his time here, which was why he was especially surprised by this enigmatic man who had appeared out of nowhere. Although they've just met today, he could tell from Edris's gaze that he was someone who kept his word.

Despite his initial chagrin, Alan was not one to let go of any business opportunities.

His machina instincts were telling him that Edris would not be walking a mundane path. In fact, he would definitely become a valuable individual in the future.

"I feel that you will be making quite the ripple in the kingdom," Alan said with a meaningful smile.

"..."

Edris barely suppressed a frown at the machina's words. He wasn't planning on creating ripples of any sort. His goal was to build some connections, establish a dwelling for himself in Nolmes, and make enough money to last the rest of his life.

Deciding to dismiss Alan's words as nonsense, Edris extended his hand with a gentle smile, sealing the deal with a handshake.

"I look forward to working with you."

***

After his visit to Alan's Mercenary Corner, Edris headed back to Mosky Inn. Lying in his room, he blankly stared into the beige ceiling before speaking into the air.

"Come to think of it, are you naturally like this, or did you originally have a physical body?"

He was speaking to Ace, the system-like entity in his head.

— I cannot materialise because of my dispersed mana.

After replying curtly, Ace inwardly examined his current state. When he regained consciousness in his current form, all of his mana had dissipated. Prioir to residing in Edris's mind, it had been difficult for him to accumulate mana as he did not have a stable form.

"Do you remember what you looked like before?"

— No.

"Hm." Edris sat up against the bed, grabbing the pouch by the bedside table. Ace watched as the man popped a sugar cube into his mouth before speaking again.

"In that case, it would be good to start by finding your physical body. That way, you can gather information through different interactions. It'll also be easier to meet someone who might recognize you."

Ace didn't respond to his suggestion. Eyeing the man who was spread lazily across the bed while munching on sugar cubes like they were apples, he internally shook his head. After they had formed a contract, he had been silently evaluating Edris and his actions.

Based on his accumulated impressions of the dark-haired man, he had concluded that Edris was clever.

Clever, yes. But reliable?

Questionable.

At this point, however, it wasn't like Ace had any other options. His thoughts wandered as he recalled the only phrase he could pull up when thinking about his past memories.

— The land will soon be welcomed with war.

Edris, who was slacking off while eating sugar cubes, flinched after hearing the voice repeat those scary words he had spoken on their first encounter.

Ace paid no attention to the man's reaction. His mind was in a state of complication. A strange feeling tugged his heart as he muttered those words out loud. He was unsure if the phrase was supposed to be important; it may have been just a fleeting sentence from millions of conversations in his previous life. For all he knew, it may not even be his own memories he was recalling.

— What are the chances of the Zacriya Kingdom going into war?

Edris furrowed his brows. "I have never heard of anyone other than you even bringing up that possibility."

— But if it's true?

"If that's actually the case," He crushed a sugar cube in his mouth. "I may have to buy a house in the Western Continent instead."

— …

A war will definitely put his travelling plans in danger. Just thinking about it put Edris in a bad mood.

"Why do you speak so scarily? Your thought process is like one belonging to old people." He shook his head disapprovingly. "What's your age?"

— I don't remember.

"Of course you don't." Letting out a sigh, Edris glanced up as if trying to make eye contact with the formless speaker.

Ace was silent as he watched the dark-haired man start tossing out random deductions.

"Although you speak like an old man, your voice sounds quite young. Do you know how I would describe your voice?" Without waiting for a response, Edris continued with a saintly smile. "It's deep, it's clearly intonated, like every word is worth a thousand gold, where every syllable was carefully thought out before being released into the world."

In other words, he was saying that Ace barely spoke. Even when he did, the majority of them were insults.

— What kind of bullshit description is that?

Despite the disapproving reaction from the voice, he just held back his laughter by shoving another sugar cube in his mouth.

"Hm... That reaction just dragged your age down by a couple of decades," he commented, still smiling. "I'd say you're probably in your mid twenties. Twenty seven… Twenty-six, maybe? Just a tad younger than me."

— Twenty-six, my ass.

Ace scoffed at the idea of being younger than the man who currently grinned like he was two.

***

The next day, a wooden box was waiting for Edris as he came down from the second floor.

The front desk receptionist had handed him the package while saying it was from someone who left 'A' as their name.

"The machina is better at keeping his words than I imagined." Edris received the package with a smile as he sat himself at a nearby desk, away from the main hall of the pub.

Rubbing his hands excitedly, he unlocked the box with a flip of the top cover.

Inside the wooden box was a smaller, black pendant box, which held a necklace with a fragile-looking hourglass gem hanging from the thin cord.

Lifting an eyebrow at the unexpected item, Edris then noticed the slip of paper that came with the necklace. He unfolded the note with one hand, only for his expression to instantly transform into a frown.

[The Sacrificial Hourglass—Use it to your heart's content.]

"What the?"

Edris couldn't hide his bafflement after seeing the message. He wondered if Alan had sent this with the intention to curse him.

— …Hm.

Ace's stoic reaction only deepened the frown on his face.

He came to Zacriya to seek peace, but what's with all the unfortunate encounters? First was the weird voice in his head; then, there was this sinister item with the word "sacrifice" in its name.

Edris couldn't help but wonder if the kingdom had something against him.