Merchant Of Yliaster

Maxwell entered the inn Gendor and Bob wouldn't apparently stay in anymore. Gendor said his identity would take a few days to be ready, and he needed to find somewhere for Mary to stay in the meantime. He walked through the main area, not being able to see Toren.

It's been some time since the man fainted, so he probably woke up, but he was not here. He reached his room quickly and entered the room.

The first scene he saw was unexpected. The floor groaned as a giant head of an outgrown teddy bear stared at Maxwell from a centimeter away from his face. Due to this unexpected encounter, he almost blasted the bear away.

He sighed as he let the mana disperse from his arm. That was certainly a close one, but he could understand the toy's thought process. He probably should have made a noise or something to indicate it was him before entering the room.

The bear, too, seemed to understand the situation, as he started to get smaller rapidly, turning into a normal-sized teddy bear once again. Maxwell watched in amusement as he jumped back into the bed with his small size and hugged the girl before going limp like a normal toy. Not even for a second did the bear attempt to communicate with Maxwell. For some reason, the idea of an introverted teddy bear amused Maxwell greatly.

He approached the girl, trying not to startle her. She woke up with the noise, looking at him dazedly, clearly not understanding where she was.

"Are we home?" she asked. Last thing she remembered was the moment they entered her home. In hindsight, Maxwell could see that involving the girl in his plan was not the best idea. He still thought that the end result was good though.

"Not, yet," he replied, watching the girl get up from the bed, looking at it like she couldn't believe she was sleeping inside it. She looked at him like he had mistakenly placed her in it. Maxwell saw from her aunt's memories that the girl used to sleep on the floor before. Apparently, the one who didn't bring money in didn't deserve money in the vicious woman's world.

They left the inn, Mary following behind Maxwell as she looked around curiously. She didn't ask what happened to her uncle and aunt, as if she knew deep inside that she wouldn't see them again.

Maxwell long realized that while the girl's negative emotions were muffled due to negative energy flowing out into the teddy bear, but Mary still formed those negative emotions. This meant that the girl was aware of more than one might guess, even though she behaved as if nothing was wrong.

They were soon at the entrance of The Nest, Mary looking at the gems on the sign with a dazzled expression. The Organizer appeared once again, this time managing to appear even more respectful than before.

"Welcome back, sir. Mistress wanted me to give this to you," he said and handed something out to him before he bowed and got back to his place near the door. Maxwell was surprised to see that it was a key to the elevator behind. It made sense for the woman to give this to him, as with this, he would be able to enter the exclusive floor anytime he wanted.

There was a significance to the item one didn't think at the first time though. Maxwell was not a noble of this kingdom, but this was clearly a technological item. The woman was certainly breaking some rules giving him this.

"Thanks," he said before moving toward the elevator. Mary stayed frozen for a second, not understanding that she could go inside too, but Maxwell motioned her to come with him, making her run hurriedly after him. She was hugging Pax like her life depended on it as she ran. In a way, Maxwell supposed it did.

They entered the elevator and started moving. Maxwell laughed, as Mary was dumbfounded when the doors opened to a different place compared to before. Even the laymen didn't understand technology, so a girl like Mary was completely foreign to it.

The room still had the timeless quality from before, and Maxwell could once again see a couple of people sitting around the counter. Someone even chose to sit at the table at the side this time, giving off a depressed energy.

Maxwell was pretty sure that some of these were bodyguards, as this place wouldn't make any sense otherwise. On other floors, he could see many personnel moving as faint mana masses, but on this floor, there was no one other than the customers and Nesha.

He moved to the place he had sat before, and he was not surprised to see Devon. The man had the same timeless quality as this place. He even drank the same drink as before.

Devon Rodrick - Brawler - Level 22

He gained a level… Maxwell was not sure if he just stumbled upon a time the man leveled up, but he was pretty sure this was a usual occurrence. The man certainly had the necessary mentality. He apparently noticed them entering the room and was looking at them, particularly at Mary, with an interesting look.

"Hello friend, I see you brought a visitor with you," he said, waving at Mary. The girl hid behind Maxwell, not used to receiving attention. Devon laughed and turned to Maxwell, looking a bit more serious.

"I heard what you did for Nesha. Usually, I would be suspicious, but I believe I'm a good judge of character, and I don't think you are a bad person," he said, sounding like he was still contemplating whether he was right. Maxwell smiled, seeing the stereotypical protective brother.

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"I was just testing an idea, no big deal," he replied, as he thought about what he should order. Nesha was once again in the center. This time, she seemed to be concentrating on something, though. Maxwell guessed that the woman was working on telepathy.

"For you, it might not be too big of a deal, but us mortals usually have problems creating such esoteric skills. Creating sword skills, martial arts, or knowledge skills is simple enough, but creating something that didn't exist before is exceedingly rare," the man said, sounding only half serious.

So I'm a complete weirdo? Maxwell had been creating such skills since he got his first class. The system barely even gave him any skills, like it expected him to create them himself.

Considering the existence of the Magic Theory skill, Maxwell didn't think that it would be too much of a big deal to create regular abilities before, but apparently, he was not right. In hindsight, even with magic theory, the only reason he could easily create skills was that he had numerous advantages over a regular mage.

"I have a little girl with me. Can you give her something she would like? Also, I would like to speak to you about her," he said to Nesha, making her open her eyes.

"She is an actress? " she asked, surprised. The weird thing about telepathy was that you could actually transmit emotions without actually transmitting your voice. Of course, you could transmit your voice if you wanted to, but it would be highly inefficient against the instant nature of the skill.

"I haven't spoken to her about it, but I saved her from an abusive family. She probably wanted to become an actress at one point," he said, as he watched something like a cake land in front of the girl. Mary, seeing the delicious-looking cake, lost some of her shyness and looked at the cake with excitement. Maxwell gently pushed the girl towards it, finally making her leave her hiding spot behind him.

Nesha seemed thoughtful after his reply, glancing at the small girl from time to time. Soon, his, Blueberry's, and Felix's meals arrived too, and they started eating in silence. The food was too good to speak when they were eating.

"Do you want me to find her a place to study? What happened to her family?" Nesha asked when he was close to finishing his food. She seemed to have considered her options before replying to Maxwell. He could also detect a healthy level of anger from the message.

"Would that be possible?" he asked, ignoring the question about the family.

"I would think you were kidding me with that question if you weren't from far away. Arranging a child to receive an education would be amazingly simple. If you want to do something more... illegal, that would be a bit harder, though," she said. She had gotten quite better with telepathy since he last saw her.

"I assume receiving an education inside the inner city would be one of those things?" he asked, receiving a questioning look from the woman. He was probably saying something that would send him to his death if this was before the initiation, now, though, he doubted that there was a single noble who could fight him inside the city. He lifted an eyebrow at the woman, quite amused by the situation. He saw her take a deep breath before continuing their exchange.

"Before initiation, I would need to kill you for asking that. Now, though, I can't quite see how this kingdom would manage to punish you. My guards have been on their toes since the moment you entered this place for the first time," the woman said, proving Maxwell's point. Nobility in this world was bound to change, as it would be destroyed by the public otherwise. He was a bit curious how the bodyguards detected his strength, though, as he didn't feel any observations.

"Don't tell anyone this, but soon, there will be a policy change around the nobility titles. The system apparently doesn't accept people with low levels as nobles, so anyone not meeting the standard will lose their titles, while anyone meeting the standard will be eligible for a noble title," she said, dropping a political bombshell.

Maxwell couldn't even begin to imagine the ways this could go wrong. He didn't think that the system would greatly intervene with worldly matters, so that meant that a great chaos would follow, as the nobles who couldn't meet the level standards wouldn't easily give up their powers.

"I assume there is something essential gained by the system-backed nobility?" he asked. Otherwise, it wouldn't make sense for the kingdom to suddenly switch to system-based nobility despite the chaos it would cause.

"The nobles can get a lot of information from the system interface according to the titles they hold. Also, there are some other functions that you will eventually find out. You probably can imagine the chaos this will cause, but it's still worth it. Nobles not accepted by the system would eventually become weak links for the kingdom, so the king decreed a complete change of the system as soon as possible." Nesha said.

"You guys look weird staring each other like that," Devon said from the side. Now that he knew they had telepathy, he could understand what they were doing. Maxwell would like to teach it to the guy, too, but he didn't know how he could do that just yet. He just smiled at the guy awkwardly, before finally finishing his meal.,

"So, back to the main point of this, I assume you want me to adopt her?" Maxwell asked. He was not a slow guy by any means when it came to understanding things. The only way this system could be used for the girl's education would be for him to get a noble title through this new policy, and then adopt the girl, turning her into a noble. Maxwell had complicated feelings about this. He never had a child back in his old world, and he definitely didn't want to have one now. Still, he couldn't deny that this method would work pretty well.

"Aren't you smart?" Nesha said, somehow managing to transmit sarcasm with telepathy.

Maxwell couldn't really decide if he would follow this method, but receiving a noble title wouldn't be bad anyway. He would decide what to do later.

"So, when will this new policy come?" he asked, tiredly sipping his drink. Just today, he was planning to support rebels if he gained the chance; now, he was planning to become a noble himself. No matter how different it became, life as a whole didn't lose its irony.