“Dear customer, as the situation in the Southern Continent has changed drastically, you must understand that our intelligence gathered thus far is now…inaccurate.” The information broker shook his head, an action made clear by the four-coloured light of the moon. “Since this is not due to our inaptitude and is more of an act of god…s, we are unable to provide a refund. However, we will provide discounts for future purchases.”

           Gaius glanced at the bespectacled man and rolled his eyes. “Fine. I still want whatever you managed to gather, however. And I have a new commission.”

           “As expected of Your Excellency. What information are you looking for?”

           The boy ruminated over a few things for a moment, and said, “I want information regarding the effects the shifting of Liamar’s Divine Kingdom had as it passed through Southern territory. And the current state of the territory Liamar had originally controlled in the South.”

           “We’ve covered the latter half of your query in our final analyses,” replied the broker. “It’ll be a waste if you were to pay us to do that again. And none of us want to go back there either.”

           “Honest, aren’t you?” Gaius blinked for a few moments.

           “No, just that we’re bound to a creed to serve our customers honestly.”

Creed? Gaius assessed the broker in front of him surreptitiously. It was possible that the ‘creed’ the man had referred to was something he had vowed when becoming a Knight. After all, it was not an impossibility.

           He did feel some interest, however. A Lord’s Fief and a Paragon’s Dominion grew stronger the more restrictions one placed on themselves. How strong would a Lord be, if he or she adhered to the Information Brokers’ creed? It was an experiment worth pursuing, and for a moment, Gaius felt an urge to ask the broker in front of him that very question.

           After exercising some common sense, Gaius cleared his throat. “Now, about the Cryst—”

           “Shut up and take my file.” The information broker glared at Gaius while making a shushing noise. “Don’t stay that out loud unless you find your life too boring.”

           “Not even here?”

           “Yes, not even here. And preferably not in your house too. If you have to talk to someone about this, whisper or write it down on paper, and then burn the record into fine ashes later.” The broker looked around worriedly, an action that Gaius found himself repeating instinctively. “You’re lucky that we’re rather deserted. Most of the Knights and Lords in Seireiden have left to the far east of the Territories.”

           “Oh? What’s going on?”

           The broker looked at Gaius, an odd look on his face. “Have you been living under a rock for the last few weeks? The Lifespring, Conrah, has been on a warpath. A good deal of Feng-Lang and Eo-Seu have been under attack for quite some time now, and the Territories have issued a general call for help to all reclusive experts.”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

           He paused. “I wonder if you’d count as one.”

           “Are you really thinking that a child like me should go to the warfront?”

           “Maybe.”

           Gaius rolled his eyes. After a surface scan of the documents he had, the boy nodded farewell to the broker, and left. A few minutes later, he was back home, where Nexus was waiting impatiently.

           “So?” asked the artificial intelligence.

           Gaius waved the files in his hand to reply, and opened them up. The two started reading through the collated data, with Nexus handling the portion on the South and Gaius reading through the portion about the Crystal of True Restoration. Isabelle joined Nexus halfway through its reading, and for an hour or so, only the sounds of pages flipping could be heard.

           After reading through around eighty pages worth of detail about the location of every single Crystal of True Restoration, the file finally came to an end. The boy’s vision was swirling slightly — it was past the bedtime for any normal twelve-year-old, after all — and he reached out to a glass of water that Isabelle had laid out.

           “What do you think?” Surprisingly, Nexus was the first one to speak. Evidently, it had finished reading through the files faster than Gaius, and was simply re-reading it again.

           “Most of the Crystals are stuck inside some bigwig’s vault. They’re treated as treasures that money can’t buy…” The boy recalled the contents of the auctions that had occurred so far in Seireiden — it had been an annex appended to show that only one instance of the Crystal being on auction had ever occurred. “But it’s not out of the question to obtain one.”

           The boy fished out a leaflet. The information broker had probably left it in to make a point — it talked about the need for skilled combatants to push back what seemed to be an endless tide of soldiers flooding out from Conrah’s Divine Kingdom. Rewards were offered…and these rewards included a few Crystals of True Restoration, which could be redeemed after killing a certain amount of enemies.

           “This is perhaps the safest way I have if I want to get a Crystal of True Restoration. And after I get it, I should be in tip-top shape to handle a Paragon…” Gaius murmured, seemingly to himself.

           “You should try getting two,” said the artificial intelligence. “Not that much of a difference to you, is there?”

           “If what the leaflet says is true, yes. It’s the sheer numbers that are a problem. Of course, my fellow competitors too.” Gaius heaved a little sigh. “What did you get on your side?”

           “Well, the South’s taken even more hits from Liamar’s invasion. The Assembly lost major chunks of territory, the Demigod Nox has not made a public appearance for a long time, and was on the verge of being subsumed by the Republic when the Worldshaper’s Divine Kingdom was forced to the extreme South.” Nexus looked at Isabelle, who immediately took out what looked like a map.

           Gaius took a look at it, and immediately felt some pity well up. Only the cities closest to the Republic — Lumari, Elinaris, and a few others — were still under the control of the Assembly. The rest had been blotted out by an ominous red.

           “It seems that the Assembly is trying to reclaim these areas, now that Liamar’s Divine Kingdom has been forced to the wastelands at the extreme south,” Nexus said quietly. “Where Ark City used to be. The defensive lines have been shifted — the Republic and the Assembly are trying to contain Liamar’s expansion.”

           “But no news of Ark City.” Gaius looked at the map worriedly.

           “None.”

           The boy sighed. “Alright. At any rate, it seems that I’ll make to leave this place for some time, until I kill enough for the Crystal. Time for me to begin packing.”

           Gaius got up, and left the house.