“Rough night, eh?” Gaius said. Now that the boy had an unobstructed line of sight to the receptionist, he could somewhat understand why there was a group of men standing near her. Her unblemished face, framed by locks of curly black hair, was pleasing to look at, but fortunately for Gaius, his body was too young to have developed any desire…probably.

The receptionist cast a nervous look at the gaggle of men right beside the boy, who were now glowering at Gaius. “It’s n-not that bad. Interesting company, at least.”

Gaius wasn’t that impressed with that fib, but he didn’t say anything. “How much does a week’s stay cost?”

“Seventy silver.” Her eyes widened slightly as she saw the boy pause. “It’s more expensive here, since we’re in Upper Elinaris! Other inns would charge the same or even more!”

The gaggle of drunken and horny men added on a couple of sentences.

“Yeah, boy! Go back to yer mummy!”

“Do you want your daddy here to lend you some silver, mm? Call me daddy and I’ll think about it!”

Gaius shook his head and took out ten gold pieces. “No, I just didn’t expect this inn to be that cheap. Since that’s the case, give me your best room for a week. Also, if I want some breakfast brought up to me every day, would this cover it?”

The group of men fell silent as the boy placed the coins on the counter. One of them looked at Gaius, then at the rest, and then turned away from the group.

“We should actually do some proper work, right?” said the man who stood up. “What’s the point of trying to impress May if some random boy ambling up for a room can toss ten gold without thinking too much? That’s more impressive, actually.”

The others, who were suddenly sober, got up and followed the man out of the inn.

Gaius turned to regard the man interestedly. He’d thought that this group of clichéd thugs were just a bunch of boors, but Gaius was once again proven wrong. Instead of being a bunch ne’er do wells, this group now looked like a small squad of jaded people.

Nothing like a young boy tossing coins to make them motivated, eh? This is an interesting lot…

“Help me settle my room.” Gaius nodded at the receptionist, and followed after the men. Within a few seconds, he’d caught with them.

“What’s up, kid?” The man who had spoken earlier asked Gaius, who was now blocking their way. “You wanna fight or something?”

“I’m looking for a small squad of seasoned…” Gaius looked at their attire. Most of them were wearing armour, and all of them were armed. “…warriors. For a job.”

“A job?”

“Well, you can call it a job, but it’s more of a favour I’m going to do to someone,” replied Gaius. “Do you know Desin? It’s a small ruined town, destroyed by the East-West Alliance.”

“Desin…” The man looked at the others, who shook their heads. “We can find out more about it later. But what do you want us to do there?”

“Simple,” said Gaius. “Protect the survivors of Desin as they rebuild. I’ll pay you guys four hundred gold now, and then six hundred when I come over later.”

“A total of one thousand gold?!”

“So?” Gaius asked, ignoring the man’s outburst. The others following him chattered amongst themselves. “It’s a good deal, no?”

It was the equivalent of two moonstones, so to Gaius, it was also an equally good deal. The men in front of him, however, didn’t need to know that. Still…the boy was rather interested in seeing their faces if they ever found out that two stones had been used to hire them.

“It is…but give us some time to research and consider it.” He looked at the others, who nodded back.

“Reasonable enough,” replied Gaius. “I’ll be at the inn until ten a.m., after which I’ll be walking around town.”

The boy smiled, and headed back to the Merry Cats. He tapped his chest lightly as Nexus stirred, causing the sculpture to cease any questions it might have in mind for the time being. The receptionist greeted Gaius as he returned to the counter, and some amusement welled up within him when he saw that another group of men were now ogling the unfortunate receptionist.

He took the key that the receptionist had handed over, and climbed up the stairs. The second floor was quieter than it should have been, given the revelry of the floor below, and the air felt cleaner here, free from the smell of food and admittedly good quality alcohol. Gaius didn’t really want to think too hard about the artefacts that made this possible, and tossed these phenomena into a mental bin labelled ‘Because it’s Orb’.

He walked towards the end of the hallway, where a grand set of double doors were, and opened it with his key.

As the door closed silently, Nexus stirred. “What was that about?”

“Just making sure that my investments have some insurance, that’s all.” Gaius took off his clothes and placed the wooden sculpture on the bed, before walking to what probably passed as a bathroom. A tub of water took centre stage of the bathroom, and a long line of towels were hanging from the walls. The boy exhaled slowly as he slid into the tub of water, before reaching out to a towel to scrub off the grime on his body.

“Isn’t there soap in this world?”

“There is! Surely you didn’t expect the Champions to live without soap, did you?” Nexus said from outside the bathroom. “But it’s rather hard to produce. You probably need to create your own version.”

Gaius regarded the artificial intelligence’s words thoughtfully, and with one last flourish, stood up and took another towel to dry himself. After tossing his current batch of clothes into a basket, the boy changed into a new set of clothes, and threw himself onto the bed.

He yawned.

The bed was softer than it had any right to be, and in moments, he was asleep.