After three hours, all their normal skillstrips had been sold, so the only thing that was left were the skillstrips on auction. Of course, since they were just Elysia skillstrips, no one actually decided to participate in the auction, especially given the exorbitant price.

Claud, who had fully foreseen that, had managed to plan out a new set of arrangements. A limited number of Elysia skillstrips would be sold every day, and at night, there would be twelve skillsticks on sale. Anyone who wanted them could participate in these auctions, and since they were skillsticks…

“Maybe we should make these auctions once a week,” Lily suggested.

“Meep!” Crown hopped once in agreement, and the two other shapes jiggled along merrily. From the looks of it, Sceptre and Throne had accepted the fact that the box was their leader; it was apparently more imposing than a sphere and a star.

Somehow.

“Meep.” Claud patted the velvety box, and then frowned. “Come to think of it, what are you guys anyway? Did my…previous selves ever learn what you guys are?”

“Is there really a point in asking this out loud?” Lily tugged his ears gently. “I mean, you sure didn’t ask the Hollow God this, that’s for sure.”

Claud let out a heavy sigh. “True. I was a bit too anxious to think about anything else.”

“Don’t beat yourself up over this.” Lily patted his thigh. “Right, since we’re closing shop early, do you wanna head out and look for Risti’s father right now?”

“Sure.” Claud made a face. “Still, should we be happy that we closed early on the first day of business?”

“I don’t think we were intending to make much of a profit anyway, so who cares?” Lily waved her hands airily. “But it is a bit…uh, unlucky or something. Inauspicious, even. We’re closed early for our grand opening. What are we supposed to tell the others?”

“We don’t,” Claud replied. “Come on, meeplings.”

“…Meeplings?”

“Their official name is too grand for what they do,” Claud replied. “Meh. I’ll see whether I like it or not. Besides, it rolls off the tongue. Meeplings.”

“Meep?”

“See?” Claud chuckled and scooped up Crown and Sceptre, before placing them in his pocket. “Throne, go and cuddle with Lily.”

The little round ball hopped onto Lily’s hair immediately, before vanishing within its depths. Lily smiled gently, and then got up from her chair.

Supporting Claud as he got up, she led him back to the storefront. The little shadowy baby had finished all the cookies and was currently entertaining himself with a small spinning top, but the moment the two of them showed up, the little fellow scuttled over to Claud.

“What’s up, little guy?” Claud rubbed his head. “Thanks for looking after the shop.”

He pulled out a handful of silver and gave it to the baby. “For you to buy food with.”

The baby looked at the silver for a while, and created a small whirlpool of shadow. The silver coins entered the whirlpool, before vanishing entirely.

“What was that?” Lily asked. “Was that a storage ability?”

Claud looked at the ring on Lily’s finger, and then bobbed his head. “Yeah, seems like it. That’s…pretty freaking awesome, isn’t it? Wow.”

The baby tilted his tiny head, and Claud chuckled. “Anyway, we’re going to head out right now. Looking for a middle-aged man who is actually far older than he seems, see?”

The baby thought for a while, and then slipped off the chair.

“…You wanna tag along?”

Lily giggled as the little guy nodded his head, and she pulled out another cookie. “Have another one.”

The three of them locked the door of the shophouse, and then stepped out into the streets of Vacuos. The county capital was as sprawling as ever — there were nine main streets that led to the Vacuos Palace, which was actually located in the middle for some reason, and each street was lined with all sorts of shops and other businesses.

Every morning, mercenaries would gather at the street their current shophouse was located in, Ninth Street, and wait for jobs to be posted or announced at the Mercenary Guild. The Folders’ Association also had a branch in Vacuos, which was located right next to the Mercenary Guild.

Claud wasn’t sure why the Folders’ Association had a branch in this county when so many other counties didn’t have such a thing, but he had a hunch that it had something to do with the various libraries of Vacuos. Vacuos was famed as the City of Learning, and there was a substantial number of adherents that followed the Goddess of Water and Learning’s way of life in the city.

That didn’t mean they were believers, though.

The three of them looked around for a while, and then the baby ambled over to a street stall that was selling cold lemonade. Since Claud and Lily weren’t in any rush, they followed after the little guy.

The little kids were very welcome, no matter where they went to, since they were just too adorable. Claud also knew that they had a sense of propriety; they wouldn’t exploit their cuteness too much for free food.

“…Still, why would this guy just pay ten silver for so much lemonade?” Claud asked, his eyes on the huge canteen of lemonade that was currently floating behind the little toddler.

He turned to look at the vendor, who was already packing up. The kid had bought out his entire stock of lemonade, so like the two of them, the old man was closing shop early.

The vendor patted the baby’s head once more, offered a bunch of assorted pastries to the little guy, and then scooted off merrily.

“Nice.” Claud patted the toddler’s head. “I’m glad you know how to use money now. Come on, let’s continue on. If you see anything you want, just go ahead and buy it. I think I handed you around a hundred silver or something, right?”

“Almost half of our earnings from the first day,” Lily pointed out. “Are we actually running a non-serious business? If so, I’m going to put my explosives on sale too. There has to be some lower-end products, right?”

“Hmm.” Claud thought for a while. “Maybe I should sell some of the little useful gadgets used in my old trade.”

“At this rate, we’re going to become a weird shop. Anyway, how are we going to start looking for Risti’s father?” Lily asked.

“We should start by looking for Emperor Grandis’ current place of residence,” Claud replied. “Emperor Grandis and his entourage aren’t here, but they still need to have a base, right? Tot is here, after all. If we can find their place of residence, it becomes a lot easier.”

“It’s probably the Vacuos Palace,” Lily replied.

“…Why does this remind me of what happened in Lostfon?” Claud muttered, thinking about how Lesser Half had decided to reside in Lostfon’s throne room.

“Maybe Emperor Grandis heard about it and decided to learn from Lesser Half,” Lily suggested. “Anyway, let’s head over to the Vacuos Palace. Now, the main issue is actually trying to get inside to talk to Neo Cadenza. I don’t think the guards will let us in willy-nilly. We’ll need to send a calling card.”

Claud frowned. “But we aren’t stealing anything, right? Why would we need a calling card?”

“…Thieves send calling cards too?”

“According to folklore, master thieves would send a calling card ahead of time to inform the owner that they would be swinging by for a nice theft,” Claud replied.

“And have you done that before?”

Claud rolled his eyes. “Do I look like an idiot?

“Yeah, so those master thieves were definitely idiots. Are there still surviving master thieves? Or are they all buried in the soil?”

“I think they retired,” Claud replied. “A good number of them, anyway. So…uh, calling cards are used by nobles?”

“To be sent before visiting another noble,” Lily replied. “In this case, however, we’ll just send in a calling card as mid-ranked folders…there’s no point in lying, right? Neo Cadenza can tell how many mana circuits we’ve completed.”

Claud bobbed his head. “And being a hexa-folder definitely doesn’t hurt our chances at getting an interview either. Alright!”

The little kid looked at them, before blinking twice.

Lily smiled. “We’ll be sitting down to write a letter. If you have something else to do, or if you wanna run off for other things, do go ahead. We’ll welcome you back anytime.”

Claud smiled, and then waved goodbye as the kid ran off. “Do you think he’ll be back tomorrow?”

“Probably. Maybe with a few friends too,” Lily muttered. “Come on, let’s find a general store. I’m not going to send a calling card made from Elysia paper. That’s too expensive. I could make a small bomb with the amount of money used to buy a piece of Elysia paper.”

“Really?” Claud asked.

“Trust me.” Lily grinned. “I can save a lot of money, you know!”