“An advertisement for a school.” Gaius blinked. “Really?”

“It’s a rather good one,” said one of the Knights hovering around the billboard. “It’s a training school that caters towards the needs of Knights, which is why its coded green.”

The Knight rubbed her nose and looked at Gaius again. “Well, given your age, you should be in such a school instead.”

Gaius raised a small fist, and the Knight giggled. “Well, you look like a newcomer, so let me explain some things. Most Knights in the capital are contracted to the big zaibatsus, which means that they have little family time for their children when they’re out.”

“That’s a market there…” Gaius murmured.

“Exactly!” The Knight nodded vigorously. “There are bodyguards stationed there to prevent a Knight’s child from being held hostage too, which is miles better than keeping them at home or at an ordinary school and hoping they won’t be kidnapped.”

“You have a kid there?” Gaius asked, intrigued.

“A baby cousin. His father — my elder brother — is one of the Knights that signed up with Tekkadan…yes, the owner of that pagoda there,” replied the Knight. Her black hair danced in the strong wind as a smile appeared on her face. She was evidently reminiscing, and as inappropriate the timing was for her to do that, it was even more so for the boy to interrupt.

Gaius looked at the billboard again and found another plus point — it was located in Seireiden itself. With Isabelle at her side, Nakama wouldn’t take too long to go to school and back. Whether he was staying long term, however, was another issue.

“Your family’s full of Knights, apparently…”

The woman jerked slightly; Gaius’ words had brought her back to reality. “Our family is a priesthood family, so that is to be expected. Anyone who communes with the gods or their servants generally grow faster than the others.”

A smile adorned her face, a sight that was somewhat blinding. “Speaking of which, I just remembered another reason why you should send your, err, younger siblings to Kishi Gakuen, rather than the other schools.”

“Oh?”

She lowered her voice. “Lord Hereward warned our family’s head to take shelter in the capital. The other great gods are on the verge of descending, and they will attempt to secure their surroundings by controlling the area around their Divine Kingdom.”

“The attack against the Southern Continent…” Gaius remembered reading about that earlier, after he registered as an adventurer. “Why on earth are they descending, if they feel that uncomfortable?”

“We can only guess…alright, that’s enough secrets from me,” said the Knight. “Anyway, if you enrol at Kishi, do you mind dropping giving this card to the clerk as a reference? My family isn’t that rich, unfortunately.”

“Sure.” Gaius took the name card that she passed over, and kept it into his pocket. It wasn’t any skin off his belt, anyway, and from the looks of it, it might not be the first time she’d asked someone to bring up her name when they enrolled their kids into the school.

After a few more minutes of meaningless chatter, Gaius moved on to the other billboards. Most of them were talking about monster killing, like the jobs at the Adventurers’ Guild, but some of them carried information about upcoming events, like a gathering for Knights to exchange their insights, or an auction where odd stuff would be placed on sale.

I wonder if the auctions here are classier than the one I helped create…Gaius looked at the billboard, where the words “Entry restricted to rank B adventurers and beyond” were written, and shook his head. It wasn’t an event he could legally enter, given that the rank written on his own card was rank C, so the boy tossed the idea aside. He was looking for places where he could buy information from, like those information brokers he’d met in the Southern Continent, but it seemed that these services weren’t made public.

After looking around surreptitiously, Gaius approached the female Knight he’d talked to earlier. She was still standing in front of the billboard, and as he approached, she said, “You’re back. Is something wrong?”

“Somewhat,” replied Gaius. “If I wanted to buy information about this city, where would I go?”

“You’ve come to the right person!” She beamed. “The Information Brokers operate in the sky for Seireiden, so you just need to find the right billboard to make that exchange. See that tri-coloured billboard, the one with three people standing around it?”

Gaius followed her finger, and nodded.

“Just go to them and tell them that you want to buy some information. They’ll do the rest.”

“I see. Thank you for your help!”

“No problem. However…” She took out another name card, and passed it to Gaius. “Do me a favour and pass this to them when they asked who referred you.”

The boy took the second card from her, and glanced at it. A name, Tonbogiri Himeko, was written on it. A small right logo was on the top right corner of the small card, depicting three linked circles and an eye in the middle. What looked like a scar ran through the eye, a black gash through the colourless eyelids.

Himeko flashed a victory sign. “An enforcer of the Tonbogiri zaibutsu, at your service!”

“Enforcer…” Gaius repeated the word. “If you’re someone with such a status, why are you still strapped for money?”

“I don’t have any disposable income,” replied the Knight. “If I could save some money from my daily expenses, or earn some referrals, I’ll be able to buy stuff I want.”

Gaius looked at the moneygrubbing Knight — two words that shouldn’t have been stuck together in this world — and broke into merry peals of laughter. It was the first time he’d heard of a poor Knight, and it was also the first time he’d seen one such person resort to penny-pinching.

“Go kill some monsters,” Gaius said, after he was done laughing. “That’ll save you so much more time!”

“No can do, little boy.” She played with her hair, and said, “Contracted Knights have to give up half their spoils from outside assignments, and I’m not interested in eating a loss. This is a better alternative for me.”

“Beggars can’t be choosers,” replied Gaius. He glanced at the tri-coloured billboard that Himeko had pointed out, and after waving goodbye to the penny-pincher, he flew towards the eye-catching billboard.

“I get the feeling I’ve done this before…” muttered Gaius, his eyes on the three people standing there.