“Milord?”

It took three seconds before Gaius realised that her explanation was complete. Granted, it was roughly around a fifteen-minute-long speech, but the receptionist was not a skilled orator by the boy’s reckoning.

“Thank you for your explanation,” said Gaius. “It was illuminating.”

He scooped up the last bit of egg on his plate, but before he could do anything else, a group of men walked up to his table. The receptionist’s eyes widened slightly as the small group who were harassing her yesterday stood in single file in front of the small boy.

Gaius resumed his act of reaching out for his cup, before sipping from it. After making sure his throat was moistened enough, he placed his cup back onto the table slowly.

“What’s your decision?” asked Gaius, his eyes still on his cup.

“We accept your job, milord.” The man who had led his group out of the inn yesterday replied.

“Good.” Gaius turned to regard him. “What’s your name?”

“Li Feng, milord.”

Gaius took stock of the man’s features, and then retrieved four notes from his pocket. “Notes of a hundred gold each. You can change them at the appropriate places. I hope you all know the consequences if you abscond with this money, no?”

“Naturally, milord.”

The boy inwardly reflected that his seeming status as a noble was quite the effective one, and then said, “Believe me when I say that you guys do not want to know my reach. Serve me well, and I’ll give you your due.”

Gaius really wanted to cringe at these words, but it was an act that he had to carry through. Everyone was now staring at him with eyes filled with some measure of excitement, as though as they’d found a nice thigh to latch on to. Granted, he was indeed a nice thigh in terms of wealth, but the feeling wasn’t all that comfortable.

“Yes, milord!” This time, the entire group replied in chorus, and the other two groups who were in the inn sent glances his way. Gaius was on the verge of rolling on the floor now, and it was only with his nerves of steel, tampered by years and years of killing, that he managed to withstand his internal embarrassment.

Trying to look as nonchalant as possible, the boy began to explain the specifics of their assignment to Li Feng and company. Thankfully, the moment the boy was done, they had dismissed themselves with such politeness and expediency that Gaius only expected from highly-disciplined soldiers.

After drinking another cup of that fruity juice — it was something that the boy found to his liking — Gaius soon found himself on the street again. The first place he wanted to check out, or rather the first three places, were all shops that supposedly sold artefacts that were usually rare. After all, Nexus’ words hadn’t been wrong thus far, and it hadn’t tried to make itself look better whenever the artificial intelligence didn’t know or couldn’t say the answers to its questions.

All of which culminated in a scenario where the little boy was now looking for a second Engine that he could use, despite the fact that Lecturer Shirou’s words about how using more than one Engine could have unforeseen consequences. Gaius couldn’t remember the lecturer’s words all that well, but he had definitely replied in the negative when the small boy brought the topic up.

But when all was said and done, Nexus was some that had lived for a period of time that Gaius couldn’t even begin to fathom. It was one of the most knowledgeable beings in Orb right now, and even without his status as the Master of the Library, it’d proven to be a trustworthy ally.

The boy dodged an impatient man running down the street, and then turned at a sign that depicted an emblem made up of two swords that crossed each other. It was the sign of the Adventurers’ Guild, and it so happened that the three stores that Gaius was about to pay a visit to were within spitting distance of the guild.

It made sense, if nothing else. No one would trust a seedy shop located in Lower Elinaris to stock good quality equipment, while shops close to any branch of the Adventurers’ Guild had to be of a certain standard. A small crowd was buzzing around the Guild building, and from the looks of it, the interior of the building itself was full to the brim. The boy shook his head, and walked towards the first store that the receptionist had recommended.

A bell tinkled as Gaius pushed the door open. Prospective customers looked at him for a moment, and while others continued to gaze at the interesting sight of a little boy in such a shop, the rest returned to their own shopping.

The boy sauntered to a random shelf, where five different types of Straight Shots were lined up. To its left was a small document that detailed the effects of the material used, and even a graph for easy viewing of the results.

It was the first time that he’d seen a graph in Orb. He’d never noticed it before, but now that he did, the boy felt a sense of oddness. The concept of graphs — the plotting of one statistic against another — was something that seemed rather simple to him, which was why its rarity in Orb now felt rather jarring.

Of course, Gaius could be wrong — he had no idea when the line chart was invented on Earth, after all.

Slapping himself mentally, the boy glanced at the conclusion of the experiments, which placed the use of silver in the making of the Straight Shot as the most cost-effective material when optimising range, and then moved on to the showcase shelves.

The items within the showcases were by and large, slightly larger than Gaius’ own hand. Most of them had effects which, if actually true, could explain their price tag away easily. Like a sword, that when drawn from its scabbard, could fire off “three hundred waves of concentrated light capable of matching a Lord’s full-powered attack every day, without any restrictions on the user’s cultivation level”.

There was no price tag appended on it.

Fortunately, some of the other items in the showcases had prices that Gaius could only afford. The boy still had around eighty-nine thousand gold in notes, after exchanging gems for money with Flynn. The latter had drawn upon all his connections to scourge up that much money, but again, Gaius had sponsored him for around fifty thousand with no strings attached.

The man had to respond favourably to his request, even if he wasn’t willing.

After taking note of the Engines on the showcase, along with their effects and their prices, Gaius left the shop and headed to the next two. After all, he only had so much gold, and the boy didn’t want to saturate the market with gemstones either.