“Calling for experienced orators with a great deal of endurance! Must be able to stay awake and maintain logical thought processes for five days on end. High renumeration. Contact Tekkadan at any of its pagodas today to find out more! Special consideration for all who sign up at Tekkadan Central Pagoda — terms and conditions apply.”

Gaius tore his eyes away from the baffling advertisement, where a small group of people had started to congregate around. There were a few Knights in that gathering — the boy could recognise the Knights of Mi-Zu, given that he’d spent quite a few nights in the sky to spend some gold or gems there — and their eyes were fixed on the word ‘renumeration’, whose letters were either in green, yellow or red.

Green was for Knights. Yellow, for Lords. And red for Paragons. Anyone who knew about the conventions of the nightly gathering of elites would understand that this advertisement was promising lucrative returns for these three cultivation ranks, although getting anyone whom the red colour applied to was nothing short of a pipe dream.

More importantly, he wanted to find out why such an advertisement was put up. Slipping through the shadows, the boy neared the group of men and women, who were as usual swapping rumours expectantly.

“…to encourage soldiers, maybe?”

“…donate to the war funds?”

“Maybe the negotiations with the Lifespring takes weeks on end. I heard that some of the diplomats were in critical condition when the first round of negotiations was over.”

“Or the frontlines need someone to dance and sing. You know, for morale.”

Gaius listened to the crowd chatter, and then shook his head. Their theories were on the wild side, but the boy knew that people would still try their luck anyway. He knew that the elite side of things had leaked out towards the general public, so there were bound to be desperados who would take on such a job when they saw such a colour-code…with fatal results.

He shook his head. The war had sent millions of refugees from Eo-Seu and now Feng-Lang into Mi-Zu, which had changed the culture of the quiet capital city into something far noisier. It couldn’t be helped — the Eastern Territories were something like three nations under the same ruling authority, which in this case was a body called the Plenum. Differences in culture were to be expected.

The silence wasn’t that stifling now, and as another plus point, the artefacts that had been installed a little distance below ground were apparently now malfunctioning. According to Nexus, these artefacts were not attuned to handle high volumes of normal conversations, and had started to break down after the influx of refugees.

Turning away from the odd advertisement, the boy turned to examine the next most eye-catching job that had been pasted up. It was a bounty placed on the Phantom Blade, the official alias for the girl that had attempted to kill and rob him on the day he returned to Mi-Zu.

The corners of his lips curled upwards as he saw the list of crimes that had been pinned on her. Needless to say, the Phantom Blade was wanted for murder, but the other crimes were…interesting, to say the least. Grand larceny, grave robbery, banditry, kidnapping, blatant disrespect to the Plenum, blatant disrespect bordering on contempt towards the Southern assembly and trampling on grass.

She was wanted, dead or alive, but apparently enough people had been pissed off by her existence to want her alive, from the exorbitant bounty placed on a live Phantom Blade. Gaius didn’t want to think about her fate if she was captured, but from the people she’d killed thus far, that possibility was rather unlikely.

The boy shrugged inwardly, and then walked over to a table full of newspapers. The battle at Feng-Lang was intensifying, even as negotiations between the Eastern Territories and the Lifespring were on-going. Whoever gained the advantage in the war would gain more advantages, more bargaining chips. Peace wasn’t going to come anytime soon — the boy’s gut instincts were telling him that the calm now was but a fragile state of affairs.

For Gaius himself, he just needed to increase his battle strength, but a cursory search of the artefact shops in Mi-Zu had revealed that Engines were no longer available. Prospective Knights had snapped these items up, paying a premium in the process, as the war continued to simmer.

A man ran in, his attire that of a Seireiden official’s. His sudden entry drew everyone’s eyes, and before anyone could ask him what was going on, the man shouted, “The Phantom Blade has been sighted north-west of Seireiden! Anyone who is interested can join the subjugation party at the city gates — we leave in ten minutes!”

Chatter broke out at once. No one had expected that the Phantom Blade’s location would be revealed on the first day that the wanted poster was sent out, especially in a location relatively close to Seireiden. Men and women got up from their seats and filed out of the building together, their excited voices drawing looks from outside.

Smiling to himself, Gaius followed the crowd. The dangerous air around the large mob of weapon-wielding people drove any curious watchers to steer clear of their passage, and before long, the mob joined a large assembly of adventurers that were already standing at the northern city gate. Floating above them were three people that Gaius recognised as Lords. Paragon Sasori was talking to them, his eyes focused.

Gaius narrowed his eyes slightly, before slipping on the Auspices of Concealment. No one noticed the boy as his facial appearances changed into a scarred boy, one whose scars would tell a story about a tough slum life. He wasn’t interested in the bounty — Gaius wanted to know how the Phantom Blade had managed to track him down when he first arrived at Mi-Zu.

Nakama’s school hours were growing longer and longer — a natural outcome of upcoming exams, so Gaius had around six hours to find and interrogate his target. Isabelle had escorted Nakama back from school while he was away at Eo-Seu and Feng-Lang, but he hadn’t given her any instructions to do the same once he returned to Mi-Zu. And without Nexus’ aid, the boy wasn’t sure if he could find her within six hours, but it was worth a try anyway.

He took out his Display — which had been upgraded to a more useful, multifunctional mode right before he left Feng-Lang — and set an alarm for five hours and forty-five minutes. After slipping it back into his tunic, Gaius waited for the expedition to set off.