The boy, invisible and disguised, stared down at the city underneath him. It was one of the cities that were close to Elinaris, and it used to be called Lorenze, but its name had recently changed to Lumari. Armed sentries stood atop the high walls, a vigilant guard against the burgeoning threat of the ongoing rebellion…although as far as the boy knew, it was a war between two nations now. The northern half of the Southern Continent, and the Southern half.

Reminds me of the U.S civil war…geographically, anyway. Gaius shook his head. Lumari, at least, was governed better than Elinaris, which was evidenced by the obvious lack of slums and good public order. The question, however, was whether it was like this since the new rulers took over, or was it a legacy of House Lorenze.

           The boy flew over the high walls, and landed underneath a tree, where a few dozen people were milling about and eating food. It was lunchtime, by the looks of it, which meant that the starving workers weren’t going to pay that much attention to their surroundings. Gaius focused on the Auspices of Concealment, and changed the scarred face into something cuter. After making sure that his face looked like that of a random child, he turned visible once again. Stretching his neck, Gaius walked out into the open, looking very much like a cute House scion wandering the streets for food.

           He glanced at the screen that was apparently only visible to him. It was a map of his local area, which scaled according to his desires. Gaius couldn’t help but connect the incident earlier on with this newfound ability of Nexus’, but the way it replied him indicated that the artificial intelligence probably had no idea that something had happened.

           The boy sniffed at the air, where the tantalising smell of roasted meat danced merrily, and followed his nose to a store.

           “Heya, kiddo. You want some smoked sausages? It’s my lunch speciality.”

           “How much is it?” Gaius asked, his voice slightly higher than usual.

           “One silver coin each. Tis a bit pricely, but you know what they say about expensive food.”

           Gaius felt in his pockets, and then realised that the only thing he had there were gold coins and hundred gold notes. His eyes darted to the sausages. “Do you have change?”

           “Of course.”

           The boy pulled out a gold coin. “Do you really have change?”

           The vendor choked “I don’t suppose giving you one hundred sausages would work, would it?”

           “In what world would a child get that many sausages?” Gaius retorted. “What else do you have? Pricier stuff.”

           “Erm.” He rubbed his nose. “We have smoked chicken, but these are generally high-end rations for the officer cadres of the city defence forces, as well as top adventurers. They cost more than one gold…”

           “How much?”

           “Five gold per packet. Each packet can last three days before it goes bad, but it’ll last longer if you freeze and heat it up only when eating,” said the vendor.

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           “Excellent,” said Gaius. “I was beginning to get sick of the usual anyway.”

           The boy shuddered. The month he’d spent in robbing Harvesters had yielded him a great deal of rations, which were usually dried chicken or pork that was salted liberally, and bread slightly softer than the tables in the Map Room. The latter had to be boiled down in water to create something palatable, which naturally placed them in the “donate to starving pile”. Nexus had insisted that Gaius eat the former, since reserving the Library’s stockpile was of paramount importance.

           “How many do you want, boy?”

           “Erm, three packets for now,” replied Gaius. “Throw in a few sausages, while you’re at it.”

           “Sure thing, kid. Don’t eat too much though, you might get fat.” The vendor bundled up three rather big packets of meat, which Gaius placed in his backpack immediately. Each of them was wrapped in something resembling plastic, which meant that his backpack getting oily wasn’t really going to happen.

           Sausages in hand, the boy began to track down Isabelle. After meandering through gaggles of chatting workers, he soon saw her talking to a girl of her age.

           The boy drew closer to eavesdrop.

           “—renounced ruling rights, so why are they still being held?” Isabelle asked. “After all I did…”

           “The Assembly wanted to make an example of bad governance,” replied a teenage girl, a dress of marigold girl making her blinding to the eyes. “I’ll see what I can do.”

           “Thank you, Nagi.”

           The two girls exchanged a few more words, and then Nagi left. Gaius, making use of this chance, drew closer to Isabelle.

           “Hey.” Gaius called out to the somewhat desperate girl, and handed her a sausage.

           “This for me, little guy?” Isabelle looked at Gaius. “Who are you, anyway?”

           Gaius’ eyes twitched. “It’s me. Gaius. I came to check up on you, seeing as you might need my help.”

           Isabelle jumped on the spot. “What’s with that cute appearance?”

           “I’m always cute, miss Knight,” Gaius replied. “I had the hunch that your family might not be dead after all, so I dropped by to see if you needed help getting them out. You might want to brief me on your situation.”

           “You’re willing to help me?” Isabelle asked.

           “If I didn’t,” said Gaius, “I wouldn’t have gathered all that intelligence and let you out, did I? And besides, I don’t think you’ve betrayed me either. I don’t mind helping a loyal subordinate. More importantly, you haven’t really made that much progress either, right?”

           The surprise on her face faded away. “Yes. My family’s scheduled to be executed three days from now, even though we’ve already met the demands of the new administration.”

           “New administration?” Gaius asked. “What demands did they make?”

           “For the House of Lorenze to give up on its status and its claim on any city,” Isabelle replied. “I managed to convince my family to do that, but they still aren’t letting them go.”

           “Which is why you’re pulling connections, eh?” Gaius shook his head. “But why is the new administration fixated on your family to give up its position? With them in custody, executing them and claiming by force would work, no?”

           It was Isabelle’s turn to shake her head. “You don’t understand. It’s a propriety thing. There are…ceremonies to be done.”

Ceremonies? Gaius frowned and lowered his voice. “Well then, we can try breaking them out, if your efforts aren’t successful.”

           The boy glanced down at his chest, where the Astral Wind had been long assimilated into his body. “But before that, you can tell me everything you know about this new administration. I need to know more before we can make the best plans.”

           “A…breakout?”

           “Yes.” Gaius rolled his eyes. “Alright. Let’s go find some place where you can spill the beans.”