The mild spiciness danced on Gaius’ tongue as he placed a neatly cut morsel of chicken, dripping with black sauce, into his mouth. The boy couldn’t help but tremble at the familiar taste — he was dead certain that he’d eaten this fairly regularly back on Earth. This is something that Nakama would en—

           Gaius’ heart trembled. His sister was still lying unconscious in Heritage, apparently dreaming in a world of her own, one so realistic that she couldn’t even wake up from it. The boy could only hope that her dreamworld was filled with delicacies and joy.

           What was delicious food now felt like mockery in his heart. The boy took a deep breath, and stabilised his emotions. He was doing everything in his power to wake her up. The Demigod Nox was responsible for her condition, and it was him that Gaius should resent.

           His knife flashed deftly as Gaius imagined himself cutting the damned man over and over again, and only the sounds of a fascinated receptionist roused him from his reverie. The boy glanced at the plate in surprise, as the boy belatedly realised that the slab of chicken breast meat had been diced in neat cubes an inch long each.

           “You look worried, milord,” May said. “Is there something wrong?”

           “There’s always something wrong,” replied Gaius.

           Something poked his cheeks, and the boy raised his head to see the receptionist extending her finger to prod at his face. “So cute! The skin is so soft, so fair!”

           “No, it isn’t.” Gaius ignored the incessant poking, and placed another cube of chicken meat into his mouth. “I’m quite sure your skin is better than mine.”

           “What are you saying, milord? You went through ablution — it’s natural that your skin will be so much better than mine!” Emboldened by Gaius’ lack of response, she reached out to pinch his cheeks, which was where the boy drew the line. The Stellar Core’s Barrier activated, creating a thin lining that blocked any further actions from May.

           The boy coughed twice, and reason returned to May’s eyes. Fear immediately followed, but before she could go on a spree of apologies, Gaius cleared his throat and went back to eating. After another three mouthfuls, he said, “Do people undergo ablution often in the Merry Cats? You seem quite well-read in it.”

           “They do!” The receptionist exhaled in relief. “Most scions who intend to undergo ablution don’t want to dirty their homes, so they usually go to inns. And as the Merry Cats enjoy the patronage of House Varita, we get people from there. Especially when it comes to those who were intending to go through marrow cleansing, like you.”

           Unwilling to give out any hint that Gaius wasn’t as knowledgeable as May though he was, he said, “Is there a metric you and the cleaners use to measure the level of cleansing?”

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           “Metric?” She tilted her head. “It seems like the Houses are even more detailed about cleansing than we thought. If we are able to provide a reference frame…”

           Her words devolved into incomprehensible muttering for a minute or two, and when she looked back up, her face was an odd mix of embarassment, admiration and a bunch of other emotions Gaius couldn’t quite pick out.

It seems that I have a gift of sorts when it comes to inspiring others to come up with new and improved business strategies. Gaius smiled, somewhat bitterly, as he recalled a similar incident with Nalus, who then came up with an auction. Under May’s somewhat uncomfortable gaze, the boy couldn’t help but increase his speed of eating.

           “Well, I’m done.” Gaius hopped off the chair, nodded at May, and rolled out of the inn as quickly as possible without seeming rude. The boy was beginning to see why idols and superstars avoided meeting superfans in close proximity. It was a good idea to stay low profile, in the end, but it was unfortunate that his plans wouldn’t go well if he wasn’t famous enough.

           He had to keep up appearances, maintain his cool when getting poked by people, shiver under intense gazes…Gaius could only mutter a few words of sympathy with the celebrities on Earth.

           As the boy made his way towards the shop where he’d purchased the Astral Wind from, the Odd Tinkerer, he couldn’t help but notice a small crowd assembled in front of the Adventurers’ Guild. It was odd, given that most jobs had been distributed by lunchtime, and the boy approached the crowd to see what the commotion was about.

           Someone was standing on an elevated platform and giving a speech. The boy cupped a ear to listen in, and a gleam of surprise appeared in his eyes as the contents entered his ear. Flynn’s influence was beginning to appear in Upper Elinaris — the crime lord had clearly taken his words to heart.

           The speaker wasn’t appealing to the intellectuals. No, he was talking about the abuses of power, how the scions of House Varitas and those from visiting Houses were allowed to get away with doing so.

           His speech was effective. The adventurers listening in were beginning to mutter within themselves, and Gaius could hear words of whispered dissent. The listening crowd scattered as a small squad of armoured men walked briskly towards the speaker, but before they could presumably apprehend him, the speaker had melted into the dispersing crowd.

           From how systematic the response was, and how practiced the speaker was in escaping this squad, Gaius could guess that an effort to rile up the lower and middle classes of Elinaris was well underway.

           The leader of the small squad spoke a few choice words to the guards standing sentry at the doors of the Adventurers’ Guild, and his face twisted as the guards returned fire with their own words. The boy wasn’t too sure if this was the result of Flynn’s skilful use of the information he’d obtained from Gaius, or if they too were beginning to realise the unfairness of the South’s systems and structures.

            But either way, Gaius had the feeling that things were about to change radically in the next month or two. Flynn had set in motion events that could potentially shatter the already unstable political situation in the Sothern Continent, and the boy was looking forward to the results.

   Make as many proclamations as you like to justify your purges, Nox. I’ll be waiting to pull the rug out from underneath you. Gaius looked at the quarrelling groups with a smouldering flame in the pit of his stomach, and then walked into the Odd Tinkerer, a grim smile on his face.