Claud and Lily sat down and twiddled their thumbs as the officer went through the basic questions. Most of them were about verifying stuff — when they moved in, what did they do over the past few days, what were they doing here — the kind of data that the other soldiers at the back didn’t quite care about.

“Alright. Now, next question. Why did you two open up shop here recently?” the officer asked.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Claud replied. “This place is about to be the home of the three largest bigshots in the world. I have useful skillstrips that can save lives, so selling them will make me a nice profit.”

He patted the catalogue that Lily had helped him pen. “Do you want to see what we have for sale?”

The other soldiers skittered over a moment later, and the officer frowned. However, it was clear that he couldn’t quite bring himself to stop the others from doing whatever they wanted, and Claud could also see a hint of interest in the catalogue that Lily had provided.

After all, they offered quite a few skillstrips.

“An auction system for your Elysia skillstrips?” the officer asked.

“Well, they’re rare ones. Don’t look at me like that. Besides, scarcity marketing is the way to go,” Claud replied. “This is an establishment where you need to show your proof of purchase to even have a chance to buy one.”

Claud fully intended on selling skillstrips via an auction, since it was the best way to maximise income while minimising the number of skillstrips that went out to other people. The system was simple enough anyway — the catalogue would record the skillstrips on auction every day, and people would bid on them. The minimum price on each of these skillstrips would differ based on their cost and the paper that was used.

Of course, skillstrips using normal paper could be bought freely, since the two of them also had the incentive to just get rid of them as quickly as possible. However, Claud could tell that conflict was brewing in this unfortunate county, so much so that Elysia skillstrips were probably going to be snapped up by the richer soldiers first.

“Lily, you go handle the sales first. We still need to finish this interview,” Claud muttered. His body was still as heavy as ever, and he couldn’t help but feel a little peeved that this fellow hadn’t actually taken out a device to peer at his number of mana circuits and his current condition.

“Okay.”

Lily picked up the little toddler and plopped him on the table, before turning to the soldiers. Most of them were more interested in buying the normal skillstrips, and before long, a good number of the original stock had vanished. The silver wasn’t much, compared to how much Claud was intending to charge for skillstrips made from Elysia wood or skillsticks, but it was still quite a pile.

He glanced at the officer, whose lips were also twitching, and then decided not to talk about this matter.

“Ahem.” Claud looked around for a good conversation topic, and then settled on the soldiers. “Are you guys here to look for Tot?”

“Ah, yes. Tot. He’s quite famous, but there’s a lot of things that we can’t make sense of. As a result, we’re doing funny things like interviewing people to make sure that they aren’t the Thief of Time, which is quite absurd by any measure. It’s quite pointless, really.” The officer shook his head. “And what are we going to do if we find the Godslayer? Arrest him?”

“Godslayer? Wait, it’s…true?” Claud asked, making sure that his question was appropriately cautious. “As in, the Thief of Time slew the Red God?”

“I’m afraid so.” The officer pulled a long face. “I don’t really want to arrest him or have him know that we’re looking for him.”

Claud nodded. It was a tiny bit too late, though, since the legend in question was sitting right in front of this officer right now.

“Do you think he’ll kill you guys if you happened to interview him?” Claud asked, curious. “Like, you guys just happened to enter the place he was coincidentally hiding in, and then interrogated him.”

“There’s a reason why we’re being polite,” the officer muttered. “We’re hoping that he’ll actually spare our lives or something. If he really wants to see blood, I can do without my left arm, for instance. It’s not that useful.”

Claud didn’t know what to say to that, so he simply rubbed his nose. “I’m sure Tot won’t do that. Didn’t you hear the rumours? He’s the kind of guy that would rob the rich and give to the poor. I’m sure he’ll spare your arm.”

“Is that a real thing?” the officer asked.

“It is. Long before the Thief of Time was known as this…whatever monster, he was known for robbing treasuries or something,” Claud replied. “I’m quite sure he’s the heroic type, you know.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Lily shot him a swift glance that carried all sorts of mirth and amusement, forcing Claud to resist the notion of grinning back at her. Breathing in deeply at a very measured pace, he looked up at the ceiling and said, “Are there any more questions for this interrogation?”

The officer glanced at his list. “I’ve somewhat given up on following the thing. Besides, we don’t even have the necessary artefact to distinguish between truth or lies; the idiots up there are asking us to guess. I don’t even want to think about it.”

“Well, cheer up. Why not take a look at our products? We have some very powerful skills on sale, you know. It will help you do a bunch of stuff. Might I recommend this super awesome skill, which is very rare — Flight.”

“You have that?”

Claud gestured at the floating soldier behind him. “See? Also, tell him that if he breaks something, I’ll have his hide.”

“Albert, you’re really flying… can you not fly around in someone’s shop?” The officer shook his head. “Anyway, thank you for your cooperation. I’ll herd those idiots out.”

“Do come back again,” Claud replied.

The little baby clapped his hands as they left, and Lily smiled. “Well, that wasn’t so bad. I can’t believe we made 280 silver from selling these normal skillstrips, though. Not bad, not bad. Still, would they really use these skillstrips within the next seven days?”

“Beats me. Anyway, I think we should just phase out normal skillstrips. It feels like a massive waste of my skills,” Claud muttered.

“Seven days does feel like a scam.” Lily bobbed her head in agreement. “I think we should auction skillsticks and sell Elysia skillstrips instead.”

“Hmm. Well, let’s see how this model works first. We’ll need to procure the wood, but I’m not sure if it’s possible to imprint the skills the way I did it just now, you know.” Claud patted the little toddler, who was now nibbling on a new cookie. “Alright, I’m heading back to check up on the three little kids.”

The baby tilted his head, and Claud thought for a moment. “Do you wanna watch this place for us?”

“Claud?”

“I’m just kidding. Just sit here and nibble on the biscuit for a while, okay?” Claud glanced at Lily. “We need to check on something.”

Lily produced a few more cookies and handed them to the baby, who grabbed them happily. Smiling, the two of them returned to the living quarters of the shop, before heading up to the bedroom. The three little fellows were still napping together happily, so Claud didn’t bother to wake them up.

Reaching out for two skillstrips, he tore one of them and handed the other to Lily, who followed suit a moment later.

“What do you think?” Claud asked.

“…You think they were testing us?” Lily asked, curious.

“Maybe. It’s hard to tell. I’m not sure myself, personally.” Claud folded his arms. “Let us not underestimate anyone. I’m a bit worried that my recent…antics have granted me an inflated sense of ego too, so we need to be careful here and there.”

Lily nodded. “Better be careful…well, you are Claud, after all. I’d be more worried if you weren’t all cautious and everything.”

Claud smiled at her, before shaking his heavy head.

“Are you feeling better?” Lily asked. “There’s actually something that Schwarz asked us to do.”

“Something?” Claud looked at her. “What does he need?”

“Risti is worried about her father, so…”

“Ah.” Claud bobbed his head. “They should be here, right? Or at least, near here. I think the Emperor ran off to that place or something. We can help ask about them.”

“Are you able to do that?”

Claud nodded. “That’s part of living, right? I don’t see why I can’t do it. Hmm. Maybe we should open on every alternate day instead. Now that would be nice. After all, we can’t go around doing things if we’re stuck at the shop every day.”

Lily sighed. “You’re really just making things up as we go, aren’t you?

“It’s not important to security, so it’s fine…”