“My Lord, what information do you need?” Lupus asked, his voice nervous as Gaius fiddled with the moonstone in his hand. The broker had placed it back down on the table, and had wanted to store it in a box line with some special material, but Gaius had put a foot down on that.
“On the guards of this city. Soldiers, sentries, any standing army…how much they spend, their average strength,” Gaius replied, rattling off every bit of information he wanted on the defences of Elinaris.” Next, I’ll also need information on the criminal side of this city. Who, where, what…I’m quite sure you know what I mean? Finally, anything you can tell me about the information brokers, and the guild you all belong to.”
The broker opened his mouth, but Gaius interrupted him with one last sentence. “I’ll pay for all this with this moonstone. No change needed.”
He gulped, and then a conflicted expression emerged on his face. ‘Even with all this information, I estimate that you’ll have around two hundred and thirty gold coins left in change. It’s…a bit too unethical for me to accept that much.”
“Oh?” Gaius rubbed his nose. “Well then, give me as much information as you want on Elinaris and the areas next to it, until you feel that it’s enough to cover the cost of a moonstone or whatnot.”
“Yes, Your Excellency.” Lupus inclined his head. “Are you in need of any information in the near future?”
“Information on Elinaris’ criminal underworld, then. Local gangs,” replied Gaius.
The information broker got up and left the room. On the way, the man looked back at the child, seemingly worried that Gaius might get up and start causing chaos like any other kid.
Gaius felt a bit insulted when this possibility passed through his mind, and he closed his eyes at the second glance, to reassure the man that he was taking a rest. The boy wasn’t too sure why Lupus would treat him as a regular child, when he’d tossed a moonstone on the table and revealed his knowledge about the deeper secrets of Orb, but people were weird in many ways.
He wasn’t too happy about making such a small, weird compromise, but it wasn’t any skin off his back. The cushion on his chair was soft, and as the boy closed his eyes, he felt somewhat tired.
Gaius yawned. He hadn’t had much in the way of sleep recently, between the snowpyres, the humans and his commitment to cultivate. Although his body could shrug off any hint of sleepiness, the fact that his mind had been clouded with worries about Nakama had not helped his nightly cultivation sessions at all.
The door opened with a rattle, and the information broker walked back in. Shaking off his sleepiness, Gaius looked at the man, who was holding on to a file. “These are the documents that detail the gangs in Elinaris, Your Excellency.”
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“Very good.” Gaius got up from the chair with some reluctance. “I’ll visit this place tomorrow at around this time to pick up the others, if that’s no issue for you.”
“None indeed.” Lupus escorted Gaius out of the room, and the smells and sounds of the bar returned to assail the boy’s senses. The boy flashed a small grin, before moving to the board in the middle. A small party of three people — two women and one man — was staring at it, and as Gaius approached, they slid to the side automatically.
The man did a doubletake when he noticed that it was a small boy looking at the board, but there was no reaction from him beyond that. After glancing at the small group, Gaius turned to examine the board closely.
It was a place where the latest news…well, whatever passed for latest anyway, was placed for people to see. Most of them were about events that happened locally, but there were a couple of headlines that took up a great deal of space.
‘End of an era: Central Circle authorities have surrendered to the Northern Continent. Annexation of ancient power on the cards.’
‘War is over! Peace treaty concluded between the East-West Alliance and the South.”
‘Ark City vanishes from the map, leaving nothing but wasteland there.’
Gaius didn’t know which one had been placed first, but from the looks of it, a lot of people had been paying attention to Ark City and the beastfolk remnants in the Five Lands. And judging from the furore that was surrounding the idea of exploring the land where Ark City used to be in the tavern, this news was probably one of the most recent ones.
There were even groups organising expeditions. The boy looked at the others, mockery on his face, and then scanned the local headlines. There wasn’t anything much, but a small announcement about a change in the current ruling houses made Gaius smirk slightly.
Calling a coup a mere ‘change’ was an interesting choice of words, but from this, Gaius could confirm that the Demigod Nox had no interest in changing the power structure of the Southern Continent. Inciting the anger of the masses through class divides would still be effective.
There was no need to change up his plans.
Satisfied with his findings, Gaius turned around and left the tavern behind. A gust of cool, fresh air slapped his cheeks as he emerged from the building, which managed to dispel some of his mental fatigue.
Unfortunately, he had no money on him right now. Gaius couldn’t even go to an inn to sleep, even if he wanted to, and selling Lupus another moonstone for gold wouldn’t exactly go well with the image he’d created in the information broker’s mind.
He’d wanted to pay some of the gangs here a visit for his own purposes, but he now had a new purpose.
Money.
Gaius could recall some of the comedy books he’d read on Earth, and one of them went along the lines of bandits and thieves being walking treasure chests for the strong. As he flipped through the file that Lupus had given him, the boy began to slip a little jig into his steps.
It was a good night, after all.
A good night to brew up trouble for the Demigod Nox.