Dark velvet was creeping up on the orange sky when Gaius left the house. He’d spent most of the time after lunch sitting around a table with Nakama and Isabelle as they made more clothes for the little sculpture, and Nexus had played along magnificently by posing in ways the boy associated with megalomaniac people. It was quite the good haul for the little sculpture — Isabelle, after an hour of coaching by Nakama, was able to sew little fashion statements like hats, bandannas and whips. Between the two of them, the artificial intelligence had gained more than eight different outfits, which was enough to dress up the other sculptures sitting around in the Library too.

After a hearty dinner, Gaius left the little girl to Isabelle’s care. The latter was intent on making his little sister do some light exercises, while laying the foundation for her to begin cultivating. Nakama, who literally had nothing better to do, had gone with her suggestions reluctantly — Gaius had employed little tactics to avoid his sister’s pleading gaze.

With a little leap, the boy landed onto the rooftop again. He didn’t want to collect his intelligence from the Information Brokers too early, as that would make him seem desperate. More importantly, he wanted to observe the point at which Seireiden's local Knights saw it appropriate to approach what essentially was a gathering point for the strong.

“Nice view, if nothing else.” The sculpture twiddled its thumbs as it looked at the sky.

“No light pollution, nothing. You can see the stars at their best anywhere on Orb. It’s just that we spent a lot of time doing something in our time on Orb.” Gaius paused. “Either that, or any free time we had was spent in the Intersection or Heritage. Rarely do we have time to just look at the stars like this.”

The two lapsed into silence. As the darkness deepened, Gaius could see the stars grow brighter and brighter. The moon apparently wasn’t coming up today, which left most of Seireiden in darkness —an optimal condition for stargazing.

“Multiple Knights have appeared,” Nexus said quietly, breaking the silence. “It would seem that 10 p.m. is the time for them to start crawling out of the woodwork.”

“We’ll wait for an hour or two, and then move.” Gaius tapped his feet, and laid down on the roof. The boy’s instincts were warning him that if he moved at such a time, the others would suspect that Gaius had been observing the movements of Knights and higher ranks the whole day. And the outcome of such a suspicion would likely not bode well for the little boy. He could imagine being ostracised at best, not to say the other, more odious outcomes.

Time flew by, with the artificial intelligence reporting each and every appearance of a new Knight. Twenty-odd Knights had arrived and left the hub of sorts, and four Lords had been floating together in what looked like a prolonged discussion for more than a few hours, according to Nexus.

The boy got up, his bones creaking somewhat, and ascended slowly. Gaius, after stuffing the artificial intelligence into his clothes, flew towards the small cluster of floating billboards. His target was the Information Brokers, first and foremost. It would be a good idea if he at least knew the inner workings of Mi-Zu.

Gaius approached the tri-coloured billboard. Business was booming as usual — every queue had at least three Knights, and bags of gold were passed to the men at the counter over and over.

“Here to collect your information, right?” There was another man floating nearby, a sign that read “Collection” in his hand.

“Yeah.” Gaius nodded.

“Alright. Just stand there for a moment while I get you checked out.” The man took out a small artefact, and started to tinker with it. Little noises came out from it, and after a moment, the man nodded to himself and took a file from his backpack.

“I believe you wanted basic information about Mi-Zu, and you’ve paid for it. As for the other item, come back a week later,” said the information broker. “If you’re looking to purchase new information, please line up at the other three counters.”

Gaius pocketed the file, and obediently headed over to join a queue full of male Knights. Unlike the Adventurers’ Guild, the people queuing up were chatting enthusiastically, only sparing a glance towards the newcomer before turning away to resume their words. The conversations, however, were slightly less useful than the rubbish that drunken men spouted in bars to each other, which was all around disappointing to the small boy.

He changed his queue, lining up behind a few female Knights. The three Knights looked at the newcomer, and then continued their conversation. Their actions, however, had somewhat enlightened the boy as to why the queues were split according to gender — men were not welcomed in girl’s talk, and vice-versa…

Gaius felt a bit upset at this, but he pricked his ears anyway. It was unlikely that the ladies queuing up would be as brazen as their male counterpart in objectifying the opposite gender. Disappointing enough, however, the conversation was somewhat all over the place, but Gaius had been expecting that much, at least. The notion of hearing important information from three near-strangers meeting up and talking was somewhat…optimistic, to put it mildly. The boy sighed and tuned out the rest of the conversation, waiting for the queue to shorten.

By the time it was his turn, a few more people had joined the queue behind him. Nexus had obligingly informed him that all of them were Knights. Now that he knew about the processes involved in the creation of a Knight, they didn’t seem all that impressive, however. Gaius wasn’t sure if he was willing to trade his freedom for power. Nexus had laid it out for him while they were stargazing — when the boy fully connected his heart to the network of passages that ran through his body, he would truly be at the threshold of a Knight then.

“What would you — oh, it’s you again.” The man pushed his glasses up. “What would you like?”

“Information on the Lords and Paragons of Seireiden,” replied Gaius.

“For what reason?”

Gaius narrowed his eyes slightly. “I want to avoid offending the people that shouldn’t be offended.”

“That’s a very good reason. What sorts of information do you need?”

“As much as you have,” Gaius replied. “If things go south, I at least know how to deal with them to mitigate the chances of conflict.”

“Very good. Anything else?”

“And…” Gaius lowered his volume, and the broker leaned in. “Information on the Crystal of True Restoration.”

“The price of that would be heavy. You do know that, right?”

“Yes.” Gaius folded his arms. “Can you do it?”

The man nodded, and began to discuss the price. After a few rounds of haggling, the boy passed five gemstones over.

“Come back in a month. All the information you’ve ordered will be ready by then. Although…feel free to patronise our services more often,” said the broker. “We Information Brokers like your method of payment very much.”

And of course, the amount I spend in a given sitting…Gaius rolled his eyes, and headed home.