Sleep—what a glorious pastime it was.

Although Edris decided on the Adalan Kingdom as his next travel destination, the heaps of trouble thrown his way convinced him that a rewarding rest was first needed above anything else.

And so, rest was exactly what he did.

The dose of vitality from the Sacrificial Hourglass slowed many of his biological processes. In his current state, many bodily desires no longer felt necessary; three hours of sleep was sufficient for replenishment, and one meal a day was enough to sustain his body’s nutritional needs.

However, these curbs had nothing to do with his mental satisfaction.

For six days straight, Edris spent his time slacking off. He isolated himself from all social interactions, including Ace and Celio, and spent half of his day sleeping and the other half in the capital, engaging in leisures such as fishing and sunbathing.

Since he was out most of the day, there were several times when Edris would return to Mosky Inn and be notified of visits from some familiar-sounding names.

The first person or two, he’d still send polite messages in response, but by the second day, all attempts to visit were turned down by the innkeeper, with the statement that the Fallen Prophet had entered a “state of solitary reflection to enhance his wellbeing.”

All the joy he experienced this week only strengthened Edris’s wish to live a carefree and comfortable life, though his acquaintances expressed mixed reactions to this reclusive behaviour.

For one, Crown Prince voiced his apprehension on multiple occasions, whether through letters or direct visits, with Edris reacting to neither. Then, there was the young beast tamer. Although Celio respected his decision and went on to train his skills, Edris had caught him sneaking around his front door several times in the week.

Surprisingly, Ace seemed to be the most understanding out of all of them. Other than times when the man would drop by spontaneously to replenish his mana, he practically lived in the Nolmes Grand Library day and night.

Unfortunately, Edris’s leisure days came to an end on the seventh day.

After he ate breakfast at an underrated local cafe, Edris headed back to Mosky Inn to drop off the complimentary sweets he received from the store owner.

Staring at the post note on his door, Edris fell silent:

I RUN A MERCENARY STORE. NOT A STORAGE ROOM. COME AT ONCE.

He blinked at the note and was struck by a thought. Before the Slums investigation, he’d stored his potions at Alan’s Mercenary Corner to lighten his load. At the time, he still didn’t have a Spatial Pouch. His current one was from the Crown Prince, who had gifted him the item at the inn after his identity was exposed.

“I guess I do need to pick them up.”

Ripping off the piece of paper and stuffing it in his pockets, Edris pushed the door open. He stepped into the room and found Ace lounged on his chair, arms crossed in front of his chest, his obsidian orbs staring straight at him.

“Good morning, Mister Ace. Finally remembered your contract partner after three days?” He strolled over and dropped the bag of sweets onto the counter. “You came just at the right time. I’m heading to Alan Grennor’s."

Edris tapped his left helix with a smile.

“Come with?”

***

“I thought we were going to see the machina.”

“We are,” Edris said.

Ace eyed the puff of pink in his hand. “So what’s this?”

“Never seen cotton candy before?” Edris whirled around and gave a graceful bow to the old lady at the storefront. “Thank you, my lady.”

Wendy, the owner of Wendy Bakery Stand, waved back at him. A crease formed on her forehead as she smiled.

“Sweets first thing in the morning?” Ace asked.

“To make up for your salty remarks.”

The past few times Edris visited Alan’s was during uncommon hours, so he got to avoid the presence of other customers. This time, he wasn’t so lucky.

Meters away, he could already make out a line extending out front of the storefront. Several nobles and mages lingered around the entrance, and the store’s insides swarmed with bodies.

“I keep forgetting how popular his store is.”

With a sigh, Edris pulled the cloak hood over his head as he dragged Ace along to the end of the line, two corners around the store. He poked his head out from the line, taking in the number of customers before him.

“Hey, brother.” Edris nudged the person in front of him, lowering his voice an octave. “Also here for Alan’s as well?”

“Sure I am, but I overslept. You gotta line up early for these releases. Or else the items’ll be gone fast.” The man huffed.

“How long have you been in line for?”

“Lemme think… Bout twenty minutes now? Young man, you came even later than I did. So I’d give it two hours at the least.” The man angled his head, studying the two cloaked men. “Foreigners?”

“Theatre performers. Hence the outfit.” Edris smiled, and the man gave a nod in understanding. “Thanks for the heads up. We’re a bit busy, so I think we’ll be back later.”

Tugging the hood lower to his face, he grabbed onto Ace and stepped out of the line. They circled around the store, stopping under the shade of a willow tree.

Edris yanked the cloak off his head. He decided to conceal himself due to his reputation in the capital, but he soon found his attempts to be inconspicuous undermined by the man beside him.

“Hey. Can’t you change your appearance or something?” Edris whispered, eyeing the white-haired man in front of him. “You stick out even more than I do.”

“Mana is precious,” Ace said simply, then peered toward the string of heads in the distance. “We’re not lining up?”

Edris shook his head. He licked the cotton candy in his hand, a glint in his eyes. “I’ve got a better idea.”

***

Alan Grennor swerved from counter to counter, common space to storage area. Boxes piled on his two assistants as they hastened around the store to serve their clients.

Winter was approaching, and with the cooling weather, it’d be harder to obtain raw materials for many items, so his store had been bombarded with rush orders to prepare for the upcoming cold season.

In the storage space at the very back of the store, the machina emptied his drawers and packed several boxes of enhancers. His golden pupils glowed a brilliant gold, responding to his machina attributes in action as Alan calmly and precisely sorted out all the order forms.

He was about to head back out into the store when, from the back window, a dash of pink caught his eyes.

“Edris?” He blinked twice, eyes returning to their original amber tint.

The next second, the window slid open, and two cloaked figures jumped in from the back of the store.

“I came right after seeing your message. The front of your store was packed, and lining up might cause more trouble if people ended up recognising me. Figured I’ll take the load off your shoulders by taking a shortcut.” Edris took off his coat and tossed it onto a chair. “Hope we’re not intruding.”

“Should I thank you for your thoughtfulness?” Alan arched an eyebrow, noticing the third person in the room. “And who’s this?”

At his question, Edris waved the pink cotton candy in his hand, then positioned it right beside the white-haired man’s expressionless face.

“…Hold on.” One of his hands rested on his hip while Alan moved the other to his face. “The spirling you brought here last time?”

Seeing the dark-haired man bob his head with a smile, Alan sighed.

“And the Slums explosion?”

“Also me.”

The machina breathed out slowly. He tied his shoulder-length hair behind his ears so that it was in a low ponytail. “I’ll go get your potions.”

Since it wasn’t his first time hearing about Edris’s shenanigans and definitely wouldn’t be the last, Alan got over his bafflement quickly. One minute later, he returned to the storage room, his face arranged into a neutral smile of love and peace.

“Here you go.” He handed Edris the items, watching as he poured it all into a Spatial Pouch. “Anything else I may help you with?”

“I need another Mysterious Veil. The last one said goodbye,” Edris said casually, and Alan’s jaw dropped.

“It what now? How?”

“Black mana.”

“Black—” Alan turned around and held up a palm. “Nevermind. Don’t tell me anymore. I’m not interested.”

“I’m guessing you don’t know much about it either?” Edris asked.

“Of course, don’t you know how rare and dangerous black mana is? How do you always get caught in the most bizarre situations?”

“Shitty luck,” Ace said, earning a look from the man beside him.

“No kidding…” Alan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “You’re out of luck today as well. Unfortunately, the raw materials needed to make the Mysterious Veil are currently unavailable.”

One misfortune after another, Edris listened to the news with a smile dead inside. He brushed him off.

“It’s fine. Just reserve one for me then. I’ll either pick it up when I’m back in the capital, or you can ship it over to Adalan.”

“You’re going back to Adalan?” Alan appeared taken back by the news. “I thought you planned to stay here. At least for a while longer.”

“Plans are the least consistent of all,” Edris mused. “Don’t miss me too much.”

Alan rolled his eyes. He opened one of his drawers and brought out an infuser orb. Setting the item on the table, he gave it a light tap, and a lilac glow emerged from the sphere. At the same time, one of the orbs at the back of his shelf also lit up.

“If you need anything, or more importantly, if you learn of any business opportunities in Adalan…” He gestured to the orb. “Then this is the way to go. Best of luck on your travels.”

“Gladly accepted,” Edris said. “In that case… I suppose I’ll also wish you the best of luck with your business. Hope you don’t get caught by the factions in the future and end up as an overworked researcher.”

“…Just stop talking. I don’t want your misfortunes to spread to me.” Alan sighed, then lifted his head as if struck by a thought. “Speaking of luck, I heard quite an interesting item spawned in Nolmes Forest. People called it the Chance Amulet.”

“Oh?” Edris raised an eyebrow.

“The Chance Amulet from the Felic Tree?” Ace said, and the machina turned to him with an impressed look.

“I’m surprised you know about this.”

“Felic. It’s a special type of tree found deep in forests and jungles. There’s only one in Nolmes Forest. And it’s been there for hundreds of years,” Ace said monotonously. “This type of tree produces fruits that ripen once every decade, and once the fruits fall from the tree, peel them open, and you can find all sorts of enhancement items.

“Usually, the Resource Faction keeps a list of possible items and determines the decade-round harvests with the help from mages,” Alan added. “Once the time comes, an expedition team goes into the forest to collect it.”

“As expected from my database.” Edris patted the white-haired man on the back. “Living in the library for the past week finally paid off.”

Alan held a complicated expression upon seeing the interactions between the two, but decided to push all questions down his throat.

“He’s basically spot on. It’s not the first time a Chance Amulet spawned from the fruits, but I’d say it’s a rarer item compared to others.” He paused. “Of course, whether or not you could find it was also based on chance, but if you manage to obtain it, I’ve heard the item worked miraculously.”

“I’ll keep the news in mind.” Edris nodded.

“Come to think of it, what are you going to Adalan for?” Alan heaved the boxes on top of each other, sliding outside the storage room. One of his assistants scurried over, and the boxes soon disappeared from sight.

“Just this and that,” Edris replied half-heartedly.

From investigating Nest to helping Ace recover his memories, a list of things awaited him in the Adalan Kingdom, but Edris didn’t plan on revealing any further details here.

Speaking of Nest, Dolan Zacriya also decided to bring the investigation to the surface and implement forces from the factions. Initially, Edris didn’t plan on keeping contact with the Crown Prince, but numbers held an advantage when it came to wide-scope investigations.

According to one of Dolan’s letters, the royal family’s misfortunes were also likely due to the planning of Nest. His priest had told him that the dark magic intruding Prince Treo’s body had obstructed his mana channel. The blockage caused the sustenance of bodily functions to be much more difficult, which was what led Treo Zacriya to a coma.

The Crown Prince planned to investigate further this sketchy organisation along with the Mage and Risk Faction, and Edris needed information on its different members, especially the creep who seemed to recognise Ace. Although their goals differed, Edris naturally wouldn’t refuse any free information from the Crown Prince.

But most importantly…

Edris’s mind flashed back to the creepy Nest member, Robin, who threw him into all kinds of hassles back at the Slum.

Thanks to his acts, Edris experienced mental shock, physical pain, and a loss of consciousness—all in one night. As a result, Nest successfully entered his blocklist; seeing how they managed to kidnap Awakeneds all the way from Adalan, there was a great possibility that their activity also exists, if not more actively, back in his home kingdom.

It was not in Edris’s nature to take a bomb without throwing two in return.

“Hey.” Ace gave him a nudge, pulling Edris back to the present. “Mana.”

“What am I? Your breathing mana pouch?” Despite lamenting, he pressed his thumb to his left helix, then on Ace’s wrist.

A stream of white flowed between them, and Alan’s eyes, witnessing the entire process, seemed to almost bulge out of their sockets at its unfolding. He gaped at the interweaving strings of mana, then at Edris.

“And where did you learn this from?”

“Strictly speaking—all thanks to you.” Edris shrugged his shoulders.

On the topic of mana, he couldn’t shake off the feeling that something had been off since his conversation with the palace’s priest.

Edris knew from the mana test results that his mana aptitude was incredibly low, but his channel size was much larger in comparison. Otherwise, there was no way he’d be able to supply Ace with a constant amount of mana while remaining lively himself.

Leaning against the counter, Edris tapped his finger on his chin, thinking. Given that the results of the mana detectors were accurate, then another question arose:

If he had no aptitude for mana, how did he control the Tempest?

Aptitude referred to how easily someone could withdraw mana from their inner channel into the external environment. All this time, Edris was under the impression that even though he wasn’t taught mana manipulation, he could create the Tempest due to his mana aptitude.

However, his mana aptitude was shockingly low, which meant he was literally unable to withdraw his own mana—no matter how big of a channel he had.

Then what was he using to create the Tempest?

The wooden floor beneath him creaked as the dark-haired man plopped onto a chair, frowning.

There were too many unanswered questions, and he felt that his mind wouldn’t be at peace unless he found explanations to these uncertainties.

From the very beginning, he only had one goal: to live freely and comfortably. This goal hasn’t changed now, nor will it change in the foreseeable future.

Since it was a long-term goal, Edris expected it to yield long-term results.

He would do anything to reach his goal, even if it meant he would lead a busier, less comfortable life in the meantime. He’d done so for countless days, months and years—a little longer wouldn’t hurt.

After all, Edris wasn’t the type to dwell on instant gratification.

Having replenished Ace’s mana, he withdrew the glowing stream. A hand stuck in his vision, and Edris looked up.

“What’s with you? You’ve been spacing out for minutes now.” Alan frowned.

“Fifty-one seconds,” Ace said.

“Just thinking.” Edris waved him off. “Come to think of it, where did you get the Sacrificial Hourglass from? I didn’t expect you to be generous enough to gift a sacred artifact.”

The machina blinked. “What do you mean?”

Edris pulled out the pendant from under his cloak. Studying the hourglass-shaped pendant in his palm, Alan drew his head back with furrowed brows.

“I’ve never seen this before.”

“You literally mailed this to me.”

“No? The items I mailed were elixirs. They were the most expensive ones I had in store!”

The sacred artifact slipped from Edris’s palm and dangled by his neck. The hourglass gem in the middle was a dull purple, but the two tiny wing carvings beside it glimmered dimly under natural daylight, He’s been wearing the pendant for these past few months, but it’d never looked more foreign to him as it did right now.

Despite the chatters echoing from the outside, the storage room was dead silent. After a whole five seconds, Edris lifted his head.

“Then who the hell gave me this?”

He was getting chills from the ominous turn of events.