Faced with Ellin's offer to spar, Nolan readily accepted, competing only in swordsmanship without any physical clashes.

In this case, he as a beginner in swordsmanship was certainly no match for Ellin.

After all, she had practiced swordsmanship for much longer than Nolan.

After being decisively defeated by Ellin's exquisite swordsmanship, Nolan felt his own skills had grown a little, becoming much smoother to use.

Opening his character panel and looking at it, sure enough, as expected [Favonius Swordsmanship - Fundamental] and [Favonius Swordsmanship - Royal] had gained some progress.

Better than nothing.

"Hehe, your swordsmanship still needs more practice!" Ellin was extremely happy to have defeated someone other than a wooden post with her swordsmanship for the first time.

"Don't get too cocky, this kind of thing will only happen once." Nolan smiled indifferently.

"Hmph hmph, we'll see about that."

There was nothing else to do, and since Ellin didn't want her parents to worry, she couldn't stay out too late. Seeing the excitement and elation on her face, could she be planning to go home and brag about defeating an opponent with her swordsmanship?

Nolan silently shook his head, too lazy to care.

Strolling leisurely on the road home, he descended the stairs leading back to the city district. The sky seemed to have darkened somewhat, not the dimness that comes as night approaches, but more like it was going to rain.

After some steps, the road ahead had scarce pedestrians. Glancing to the right was one of Mondstadt's several gigantic windmills.

The windmills were indeed majestic and spectacular. Using the immense force generated by the rotating blades driven by the wind, they could accomplish many things, like milling grains, oil pressing, and more.

"Finally found you!"

A voice came from the side. Looking along the neatly trimmed roadside bushes, it was Vile, still dressed in a modest trumpet-sleeved blouse that exposed her legs in dark shorts.

The pristine bandages around her knees were off, and the scraped skin underneath had disappeared without a trace.

"Vile, what are you doing here?"

Nolan asked puzzledly. And from her words, it seemed she had come looking for him. Could it be the monster materials he had her sell were already sold out?

Vile, her hair in a single ponytail, walked over and handed Nolan a small pouch, speaking slightly smugly:

"Here, this is your cut - sixty thousand Mora!"

"I sold the Slime Condensate and Secretions to some people from the Fishing Association, they urgently needed them to produce worm-like bait. The price they offered wasn't bad so I took the deal."

"It's much higher than the Adventurer's Guild and other shops specializing in monster materials."

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"I also sold off the Chaos Devices to a Sumeru Scholar researching machine constructs. The price was about fifteen percent above market too. Pretty good right?"

Holding the small pouch, he weighed the feel of the Mora inside. This sum of Mora happened to make up for his injured wallet.

"As expected of Mondstadt's Information Broker, very impressive!" Nolan nodded in praise.

After all, being able to swiftly find out what the Fishing Association and visiting Sumeru scholars urgently needed could barely qualify for her self-proclaimed title of "Mondstadt Know-It-All".

[Vile Has Developed Good Feelings Towards You, Obtained 45 Affection Points, Current Affection Level Lv.3 (47/300)]

"Erm... cough, I still have to go find Noelle next, so I won't chat with you now."

Veil put away her smug demeanor, she still had to go give Noelle her cut, and didn't want to idle chat with Nolan for now.

Affection increased, as expected human nature desires recognition and praise from others.

"Alright then."

Watching Vile's retreating back as she waved goodbye, Nolan suddenly thought of something - couldn't he ask her about Old Man Sanborn's friend Lucas? This was her line of work after all.

"Hey, Vile! I have a business proposition!" Nolan called out to her from behind.

"Business?"

Vile stopped in her tracks bewilderedly and looked back. It took her a second to realize Nolan wanted to buy information.

"Go ahead, what do you want to know?" Vile placed her hands on her hip bones, continuing to speak with a giggling smile, "Since you're a friend who's helped me out before, I'll give you a twenty percent discount and prioritize investigating the intel you need, how's that?"

"...Then you might as well not give any discount."

Nolan was rendered speechless. Of course, he wouldn't care about this stuff anyway. He briefly explained:

"I want to know the recent whereabouts of Than Fishing Tackle Factory's sales manager - Lucas."

"Than Fishing Tackle Factory? Hmm, no problem, I can have all the recent intel on him for you by tomorrow." Vile nodded, indicating it was no issue. Just a regular person, so not difficult at all, an overnight job.

"Tomorrow?"

To be honest, the efficiency was okay, but Nolan wanted to finish this commission tonight instead of dragging it out.

Also, Vile would definitely need a good amount of Mora to especially investigate this. He was a little worried the reward Old Man gave him wouldn't even cover the cost.

Might as well just directly have Vile do the commission instead. So Nolan thought for a bit and said:

"No need to investigate, just any information you happen to know now will do."

Upon hearing Nolan's words, Vile raised a finger to her cheek, pondering for a bit before saying:

"To be honest, Mondstadt is so big, and Lucas isn't some famous figure either. Without investigating, there's not much I can find out. Though I do know Than Fishing Tackle Factory recently took out a huge loan from the Northland Bank, presumably for researching new fishing gear."

"I obtained this intel after a competitor asked me to investigate them."

The Northland Bank, could this matter be related to the Fatui as well? After all, Northland Bank was a banking institution the Tsaritsa established in foreign regions, controlled by the Fatui.

Looking at it this way, there seemed to be complex dealings going on behind the scenes. Nolan did not want to get involved with those dangerous Fatui fellows.

"So how about it, is this information useful?"

Seeing Nolan deep in thought, Vile felt it was probably somewhat helpful.

Nolan nodded. Information related to the Fatui was certainly valuable:

"It's quite useful indeed. How much would you charge?"

"Hmm... never mind, I've already sold this information once, I don't intend to take advantage of you. Consider it a gift then, but don't tell others, or it'd damage my reputation as 'Mondstadt Know-It-All'!"

Vile pondered for a bit before deciding to give Nolan the intel for free and warning him to be discreet about it.

"Haha, don't worry, no problem, thanks for the information!"

A smile appeared on Nolan's face as he patted his chest and said with assurance.

After obtaining Nolan's assurance, Vile left with peace of mind. Nolan glanced at the sky, luckily no rain yet. He first returned to the rental house on Val Berry Street at Lawrence's place.

Without time to heat water, he simply washed with cold water and then went out to fill his stomach. Returning with his Adventurer's Hunting Bow and dull blade on his back, he headed to Lucas's house under the night's cover.

If not for obtaining intel on the Fatui, he wouldn't have been so cautious. Even if the two matters end up unrelated in the end, and he was just overthinking, it was still better to play it safe.

(End of Chapter)

To be continued...