“So, you found a sucker to do the tedious work for you,” Lindyss said, raising an eyebrow at Tafel as the demon walked past her to access the wooden tablet. The cursed elf’s hands continued to move as her knitting needles clacked against each other.

Tafel narrowed her eyes at Lindyss. “Is that what you thought when I volunteered to make the itinerary after you said you weren’t doing it?”

“Remember to wear your mask when you go out,” Lindyss said, ignoring Tafel’s question. “You don’t want people swarming around you while you’re practicing at the smithery, right? Maybe you should take Vur with you; load him up in the spider.”

“He’s too big,” Tafel said, gesturing behind herself where the outline of Vur’s massive body could still be seen. “He prefers sleeping as a dragon when we’re outside.”

“Makes sense,” Lindyss said and nodded. “The ground probably feels softer that way. Instead of being poked by everything sticking out of it, he crushes them flat and doesn’t feel a thing.”

“Right,” Tafel said. “If there’s nothing else, I’ll be going now.”

“Here,” Lindyss said and reached into her pocket. She retrieved a bat skeleton and stood up before placing the dead creature on Tafel’s head. The skeleton wriggled and clung to Tafel’s horns, grasping with its tiny skeletal fingers. “A chaperone.”

Tafel glanced up and tilted her neck back, but she couldn’t see the bat skeleton because of how it was positioned. It was as light as air; if the demon hadn’t seen Lindyss putting it on her head, she wouldn’t have realized it was there. “This is my chaperone?” Tafel asked, making eye contact with Lindyss.

“Yes,” Lindyss said and sat back down. “If you get into trouble, it’ll contact me. You might be targeted since you were seen with Vur.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Tafel said and nodded. Jealous individuals, stalkers, opportunists, they were bound to appear. Rather than facing Vur directly, they’d choose side avenues to get in touch with him, and that included pestering his weaker companions. The demon’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t think I’ll get into any trouble though.”

“Sure, sure,” Lindyss said, her eyes focused on the half-finished sweater she was working on. “Just think of it as insurance. I know how light my bat skeletons are; you won’t even notice it’s there.”

“Other people will notice,” Tafel said and pursed her lips.

“Yeah, and?” Lindyss asked, repositioning her knitting needles before going at it again, her needles clicking as they tapped against each other. “People stare at you all the time because of your horns. It won’t be any different.”

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“Fine,” Tafel said and let out a sigh. “Is there anything else you want to stick on me before I go?”

Lindyss glanced at Tafel, scanning the demon from head to toe. “No. That’s all.”

“Excuse me,” Kim Hajun said and scratched his head. “This might be a bit sudden, but if you’re going to the smithery, can you introduce me to Pan?”

“You’ll have to introduce me to Pan first because I don’t know who that is,” Tafel said.

“You don’t know who Pan is?” Kim Hajun asked. A wrinkle appeared on his forehead, but he quickly relaxed his face, causing it to go away. “He’s a blacksmith that works at the smithery. He was there when you were refining orichalcum.”

Tafel crossed her arms over her chest. “All the blacksmiths were there when I was refining orichalcum,” she said. “I’m not familiar with any of them; I don’t even know their names, but if you still want me to introduce you to someone there, I don’t mind.”

“Please,” Kim Hajun said and angled his head downwards. It didn’t matter if Tafel didn’t personally know Pan. Similar to how people would try to get friendly with Tafel to become closer to Vur, it’d be great if Pan got friendly with him to get close to Tafel. “Thanks. I know it was sudden, but I appreciate it.”

“If you really appreciated it, you’d show some sincerity,” Lindyss said without looking up.

“No, that’s alright,” Tafel said. “You don’t have to.” With Melody around, it wasn’t like the group was short on money. It wasn’t like she needed his help either, not with the boatload of information they had received from the lords.

“No, she’s right,” Kim Hajun said and shook his head before reaching into his pocket. “It’s only fair.” He took out a card and offered it to the demon. “Here. You’ve seen this before. All you have to do is rip it to activate its power.”

“Oh,” Tafel said and took the card. It had a drawing of Vur’s paw on it. “Vur’s foot again?”

Kim Hajun nodded. “It’s very cost-effective.”

“Makes sense,” Tafel said and brought the card up closer to her face. “This drawing’s really nice. Have you considered becoming an artist?”

Kim Hajun chuckled. “Thanks,” he said. “But I don’t draw these cards myself; my innate ability does that for me, and it can only create cards.”

“Oh,” Tafel said. “Why don’t you work with Geimeo then? He makes cards of every explorer, right? Even if all the explorers are done, you can make cards of the regular people.”

“Geimeo,” Kim Hajun said and narrowed his eyes. “I’d avoid him if I were you. He’s not a good person.”

Tafel blinked. “What? Why?”

Kim Hajun shook his head.

Tafel squinted her eyes. “Just tell me,” she said, “you wouldn’t have mentioned it if you didn’t want me to know.”

Kim Hajun exhaled. “He’s an information dealer,” the well-dressed man said. “He even sells people’s information to other towers. It wasn’t just once or twice people have lost opportunities or died because of Geimeo’s greed.”

“And no one does anything about him?” Tafel asked, raising an eyebrow.

“They can’t,” Kim Hajun said and shrugged. “He’s an administrator of the tower, and he never leaves his region of management, the fifty-first floor.”

“Administrators sure have a lot of power, huh?” Tafel asked. She glanced down at the root bracelet wrapped around her left wrist. If she wanted to know more about administrators, she could check the information at any time. As such, since it was so readily available, she decided to put it off for later when she was bored. “Alright, Auntie, I’m going now.”

“Bye,” Lindyss said as she stared at her incomplete sweater, not lifting her head or moving her hands to wave at Tafel.