The interior of the tower, full of toys and fun items, made Gaius’ eyes light up as he began to examine them in detail. There were all kinds of things, but all these toys had one thing in common — they were all complex toys with many moving parts.

A simple spinning top now had a small lightshow and voice recording function appended onto it. When spun, and a certain passphrase was said loud enough, a projection would appear with some effects, and the top would start moving madly, striking at anything within a ten-centimetre radius. It was impressive enough, but Flynn had released multiple, different versions of these tops, each of them with their own unique projection and ramming pattern.

Somehow, Gaius had the feeling that the man was plagiarising something from Earth, but by now, he was too tired to think too hard about it. In the first place, the only thing Flynn could have brought over was the concept — such toys never existed on Earth at all.

But in sum, Flynn had outdone himself. He’d recalled the normal toys and boardgames of Earth, and then augmented them with the specialties of Orb. The result?

Highly innovative games.

Gaius could see why he was the Southern Assembly’s top toymaker — he’d fused the labours of love from both Earth and Orb for the entertainment and amusement of children. Maybe, one day in the future, children would be saving Orb through card games and whatnot — Flynn just needed to keep innovating.

Hmm, two robot-esque toys that are designed to fight each other, with corresponding button inputs — I’ll take it. Something that looks like Risk, but with little moving armies and self-calculating strengths, nice. Chess with full animations? Sign me up…

Gaius continued to flit through the displays, making sure only to choose what he thought would interest either him, Nakama or Isabelle. He was sponging off Flynn’s generosity, so he didn’t want to take too much for free. It would reflect badly on him…and he could buy anything he didn’t take for free. Flynn would probably reject his suggestion of payment, but it was nothing a gem or two couldn’t solve.

After selecting one more item, Gaius told Flynn about his desire to buy any other items he’d chose. As expected, the city lord wasn’t hearing any of it, but the boy was insistent on paying. After a bit of wrangling, Flynn grudgingly accepted Gaius’ payment of one hundred gold for a few more board games and toys.

“I suppose money isn’t really the issue for both of us, is it?” Flynn asked, shaking his head.

“It’s a gesture of my respect.” A faint smile danced on Gaius’ lips. “It is my hope that you will come up with more interesting things for Orb. I’ll get to have some fun too, so what’s not to love? And besides, you’re a good person. Showing respect is the least I should do.”

Gaius tilted his head, motioning at the door. “I saw what you did outside. You gave people a way to stay alive, to work with dignity. It’s respectable.”

“Once I earn enough, the children outside won’t be working for me,” said Flynn. “I’ll sponsor their education, and see that this generation will be the last generation of slums in Elinaris. Quite the dream, isn’t it?”

The city lord’s words were brimming with conviction, and Gaius found himself subconsciously nodding. Back then, the man had been rather strident about overthrowing Elinaris, and it was that strength of will, plus a whole bunch of extenuating circumstances, that made Gaius support him financially. The boy was glad that this part of him hadn’t changed at all.

“Something admirable, to be sure. Still, with the Demon God’s impending invasion…what plans have you come up with for the moment?” Gaius asked.

“Plans?” Flynn set down his pen and rested his chin on his freed arm. “Mine, or the Southern Assembly’s?”

“Both,” said Gaius. “Looks like you figured out that I’m here for this reason, eh?”

“Not that hard, considering that you’re far more famous than me,” said Flynn. “It is painfully evident to me that you’re the Lost Star that the Human God talked about, no?”

“Yeap. Bugger has a grudge with me, for some reason.” Gaius shrugged. “I’m here to see if he intends to backstab the other wielders of Zeroth Armaments. And the Southern Assembly is the nation that would most likely heed his words.”

Gaius, before he knew that Flynn was Elinaris’ city lord, had intended to make use of his underworld connections to pick up information related to his goal. But since Flynn himself was the city lord…

“Unfortunately, there’s nothing so far,” said Flynn. “Sephira has been very quiet regarding this. The nearby cities are also silent, so we’re all just looking around and twiddling our thumbs. It’s like the Assembly doesn’t want to do anything at all, for some reason.”

“World’s End is in the Republic’s territory. There’s a case to be made about that, since the Human God pinpointed that place as the first invasion point by the demons,” said Gaius. “To them, the Republic’s fall is probably more important than defending the entire world from the demon invasion. I kinda expected this…”

“That’s insane.”

“It is.” Gaius got up from his seat. “But that’s just how people are, aren’t they? Profit first, over the unknown. Even if the Human God were to rally the population of Orb, I doubt few will even go to World’s End when the invasion begins.”

“Does that hold true for you too, Gaius?” Flynn asked.

“Maybe. Still on the ropes about it.” The boy shrugged. “After all, who’s to say that the Human God might not smite me on the spot upon seeing me? Now that’ll be a waste. I’ll wait for some official statement before I think about it.”

“R-right, I forgot.”

“Although, as a parting statement, you can tell the Southern Assembly this: Better the enemy you know.” The boy placed his hands on the case of games and toys that had been prepared for him. “And if the Republic falls, the Assembly’s not going to stand a chance.”

“I’ll be sure to relay that statement…if we ever live up to our name of being an assembly. We haven’t met up after the God of Fire razed a few cities to the ground.”

Gaius blinked twice, speechless, and then waved farewell to Flynn.