"Alright, the first item is..."

"Skip it."

"Eh?"

In the small room, Alex and Dick were having a bet with the fortune teller Baba; if she won, she got a mass amount of money, but if Alex won, he got lots of discounts.

When Alex about to bring the first item into the game, Baba suddenly stopped him.

"I know you will win the first round, so let's just move on to the second, shall we?" Baba said.

Alex gave a light smile, this Baba was not just beautiful but also decisive and smart, no wonder she could run the largest network of information in Fantasia.

She was right, Alex was about to show his phone to her which a small chance even closed to none there was anyone would recognize, let alone having it, his game had set to make him won the first round.

"Alright, if that's what Ms. Baba wants... then the next item is..."

Alex took a red shard out from the system, he pinched it between his thumb and forefinger, the system had said it was safe to directly touch it.

Just like the rune, this piece part of Philosopher Stone required a tool or mechanism in order to be functioned, just like the pedestal back at the Goblin Nest.

"I found this in ruin, and an expert told me there are 44 pieces just like this one all over the world..."

This was one of the primary reason Alex needed to visit Baba, to locate the other red shards of Philosopher Stone, he thought if he could discover and identify the people behind the creation of this item, it brought him much closer to know the truth of his task.

Of course, he could just save a lot of money by asking it after the betting, but if he did it in this situation, Baba and her people would have put more effort into finding out the red shard identity.

Perhaps there were also people who saw this item, or someone who openly possessed it, Alex needed to know.

Baba knitted her eyebrows, her eyes became focused, she clapped her hands and a person with big posture came out from the curtain behind her.

"Bring me that item."

The person strode toward Alex and extended his hand, Alex placed the red shard on the center of the man's palm, he retreated to Baba and gave it to her.

Baba's slender fingers pinched the item and brought it closer to her face, she turned it upside down to inspect the simple shard, then she frowned a bit.

"Here, give this back to him, then go to the work floor, do whatever it takes to find out this item's identity."

The man approached Alex and gave the item back to him.

"Oh, can I have a brush and a piece of paper? I will write down the answer in case your answer is wrong, I save you the trouble of suspecting me of cheating."

The man looked toward Baba, the woman stared at Alex for a moment before nodding, soon a piece of paper, an ink, and a brush delivered for Alex.

Alex tried to write with the brush, his movement was careful and bit awkward.

This world also had a pencil, but it's not popular to use as writing tools, mostly utilized to teach writing to kids, and used by a painter, Elliot also several times used a pencil.

Selling a pen and crayon in this world would have earned him many profits.

"Which place you're coming from?"

After a moment of silence, Baba finally asked Alex in her own accord, there were few mages in the town, even among the visitors, so clearly each of them easily distinguishable.

"Homestead town."

Alex responded after brief thinking, it's not a random and imaginary place, Homestead town did exist, it's a small area under the influence of Lionheart kingdom, he knew this from Elliot.

Homestead town was famous for its brewing beer, having the largest grains field among the entire Lionheart kingdom, one of the reasons why the kingdom did not fail despite their merchants only paid small taxes.

This also the reason for the excuse he would prepare explaining the state of his wealth, a successful, beer owner enterprise.

"That's a long way from home, are you here just for my service?"

Baba smirked, the corner of her lips curled in a mischievous manner, the gaze of her eyes resembled a sharp dagger easily shred apart animal skin.

"I am sorry, Ms. Baba, but don't flatter yourself, Eldorado Town is just a momentary sanctuary, and you just happen in the town."

Alex shrugged, his nonchalant attitude irked a twitch as her annoyance itched, a stalwart man she found most boring.

Baba shifted her eyes toward the young man on the side, causing a stir within Dick's deep emotion, her mannerism and appearance as if a beckon toward a fearful beast within a man, Dick retreated slightly, cold sweat emanated from his temple.

"What about you, young man, where do you come from?"

She already knew the relationship between these two men, but she didn't feel great power from the young man, in fact, she perceived him nothing more than an ordinary person, why would this rich mage hire someone with no power as a bodyguard?

"I..."

Dick slightly trembled, it's a question he never thought she would be asked, well, not to him, he didn't expect the sexy lady would have any interest in him.

He couldn't help but seek assistance to Alex, should he told her about his village back in his world?

"He is my son, of course, he came from the same place as me."

Dick startled upon Alex's claim, Baba glanced at Alex while letting out a chuckle.

"Your son? I am sorry but I was under the impression he's your guard, did I make a mistake?"

"A man's mouth it's a deep ocean, you can't see inside only by the surface."

"Which means I shouldn't trust your words? All of you said before was just a lie?"

"Yes, but... how do you know?"

Baba's face went cold, she snorted before she didn't speak a word again, for 10 minutes they were in silence.

"How long have you been running this line of work?"

"10 years."

"Really?"

"Yes..." Baba paused a brief then lazily smiled, "but can you tell?"

"Absolutely," Alex let out a chuckle.

"Yes? How?"

"I have the ability to tell whether people's telling the truth or not."

"Nonsense, there is no such ability."

Alex shrugged, showing a lack of care toward Baba's remark.

"If there is magic to see a man's heart, then the world shall not have any secret, and it makes a less interesting place to live in."

"Of that, I agree with you..."

20 minutes passed, Baba became agitated, it's because no one had reported back to her yet, this means they unable to find out the identity of the item Alex had shown before.

On the other hand, Alex was also rather troubled, did nobody has ever seen one of the shards of Philosopher Stone elsewhere?

Although 44 pieces of shards considered small, perhaps minuscule compared to the whole world, although the chance of discovering one perhaps less than one percent, at least one or two people should have caught a glimpse of it somewhere.

Another 20 minutes, there was still no one walked through the red curtain ahead, they almost spent an hour without doing nothing here.

Thankfully Alex had sent people to do other jobs, otherwise, he didn't know how many hours he had waste by just waiting for the answer.

Also, these people did a poor job at pleasing the customer, there was no chair to sit, no food or drink to offer, and the room was rather hot, perhaps because of the all bright lighting of the room.

Strangely, Baba didn't sweat at all, her skin was smooth and inviting as always.

"Why fortune-telling?"

Alex finally said after a long time of silence, Baba glanced at him solemnly.

"Why do you bother?"

"A simple curiosity..."

Baba stared at him for some time, she closed her eyes then gently opened them again.

"Because people craved to know their future, so they can do better, I simply took advantage of it."

"Is that the reason?"

"Do you disagree?"

"No, not really, business is an opportunity... there is nothing wrong milking it for profit..."

"But your eyes from before seemed to disagree."

She still remembered how this man had discontent look when the first time he entered the room, it's like... seeing a rotten egg.

"Well, I wasn't judging..."

"Your eyes said otherwise."

"Ok, fine, I am judging."

Alex sighed while scratching his cheek, he didn't have a prejudice against what a female wanted to wear outside or while working, as long as it didn't go against the law or the office's policy.

"I mean; if you want to utilize your brea- err.. sexual appeal as the charm of a job then why not just open... I don't know, flattery... or dancing establishment maybe..."

"You mean working as a courtesan?"

"Hey. your words, not mine."

Baba glared at Alex, so what if she wore a bare clothes to attract more customers? If a woman didn't use their parts as their advantage then why the hell they existed in the first place.

"If you simply thinking I am a whore, then sorry to disappoint."

"Well, that depends whether you applied your charm to pleasure men and gained money from it because that totally what a whore would do."

"I am not!"

"The people who came out said otherwise, especially the men."

"That's your opinion, and keep it to yourself."

"I am trying, but you provoke it."

Baba couldn't bear it anymore as tick mark began to manifest all over her face, her finger rapidly tapped the armrest of her chair.

Dick simply stood at the side of the line, watching these two grown-up bickerings with somewhat a helpless face.

Finally, a figure walked out from the curtain at the back and gave Baba a piece of paper, Alex's heart skipped a beat, a little bit complicated between nervous and excitement, hope Baba had the information he needed.

But then he doomed to be disappointed, it's because all the names Baba stated simply didn't mention any Philosopher Stone or unique item with a property that matched the attributes all of the shards, Alex gave her the paper to prove he didn't make any stuff up.

"Philosopher Stone? Rapid-Growth Shard?"

Baba's expression instantly changed, Alex wrinkled his eyebrows, wondered if she knew about it.

"It's not a secret that Philosopher Stone was the ultimate creation of alchemist, but nobody knew how to create this for centuries, let alone split the stone into many shards, are you sure not joking?"

Alex shook his head, it didn't matter for him if she believed him or not.

"Ms. Baba, I know the process of how to create the Stone, it required a massive amount of resource and arrangement, I will ask for information about that afterward, now since you cannot answer it right, you lost the second round, and I deserve a 60% cut."

"Fine!" Baba snorted, gritting her teeth as she cast aside the paper in hand.

"Let's enter the third round now."

Alex took a black orb from his system, said, "If you can identify the item on my hand, you get one-third of that mountain of golds."

(***)

Several minutes earlier, on the street of Eldorado Town.

Momo and the others strolled passing through many shops on their left and right, eventually, Momo stopped before a rather luxurious shop, in the front of it had a lot of items displayed behind a thin class, several of them were magical items.

"Alright, you two..."

Momo spun and pointed her finger toward Alexis and Jason, her tail swayed side to side.

"You must assume a fierce appearance!"

Alexis and Jason startled, exchanged glances then looked at Momo with a question mark above their heads.

"Look, you two will pretend as my and Elliot bodyguards, of course, you should look scary, intimidating!"

"And what does that make you and Elliot as?"

Momo put her hand on her chest, she said, "I'll be a daughter of a nobleman, a soon-to-be wife of the prince of Lionheart."

The three of them widened their eyes, Elliot shook a bit, drawing distance from Momo.

"M-ms. Momo... I-I never know you have that kind of interest to me... this... this is too sudden."

"This does mean I will have a sister-in-law?"

Looking at Elliot became pale, and Alexis wore a pleasant face, Momo twitched the corner of her lips, she stomped her feet on the ground, drawing her forehead together.

"This is a play, a play, don't you guys ever see a drama performance before?! Besides, I and Alex is..."

Momo immediately stopped, she and Alex never told their relationship to the pair of brother and sister, Alex didn't want others to think ill of him because the disparity of ages between her and him differed quite far, although Momo could just lie about her true age.

This was the world where an Elf as if a teenager despite their age was the same with Alex, it's not far fetched if she told them she's thirty old years or so, she's not a human in the first place.

But then again, their engagement wasn't really real... Momo sometimes thought she should end the charade already, she didn't have any grievance toward Alex anymore... in fact, she was...

"Anyway, we act as a pair of lovers, you... you as the prince of Lionheart, you must act arrogant, flaunt your nobility anywhere, swagger if you must, talk like you're above everyone else!"

"Oh, alright, alright..." Elliot nodded his head in a pecking manner.

"Alright, our objective here is to buy the items Alex need, but we shouldn't carelessly spend the coins, we must get the price as lowest as possible, therefore, we need to play the nobility card, people tend to be afraid to take advantage of rich and arrogant people, sometimes even lower the price for them just to get into their good side."

Elliot and Jason nodded, Alexis seemed lost in thought.

"Alexis, do you have a question?"

The she-knight nodded, stared in focus toward Momo.

"W-what?" the devilukian couldn't help feeling nervous.

"Nothing, I just... I just thought of what should I do if you are my sister-in-law..."

The rest of them immediately dropped a sweat.

(***)

The inside of the store filled with shelves and tables which offered many things such as a sword, necklace, armor... even spellbooks...

Momo and the others entered brazenly as if they owned the place, Elliot looked sluggish, and Momo resembled a spoiled woman, she was flirtatious, both hands held Elliot's left arm, but of course, she didn't paste it onto her body.

Alexis and Jason followed them with a stiff expression, their eyes swept the area as if searching for prey, the other customer couldn't help but felt giddy.

"Welcome, welcome~"

A thin and small middle-aged man quickly approached them with hands collected, he had flattering countenance with a small sweat on his temple.

Elliot was about to greet the man but he felt a sharp pinch on his waist, Momo glanced toward the shopkeeper before ignoring him and continued strolling toward the tables of the display, pointing out items there and somewhat ridiculed them.

"Look, darling, what sort of trash is this... "

"Err... right, right, someone like you deserve the best, baby."

"Haha, look at the price, we had tons of them back in Avalon, they practically almost free~"

Avalon?!

The shopkeeper and the other customers couldn't hide their shock and surprise, Avalon was the biggest city, the capital of Lionheart Kingdom, albeit Eldorado was not under their influence, the comparison between these two was simply immeasurable.

And people from Avalon was so rare to even visit this place, what were those people doing here?

"OOH, Dear Customer!!"

The shopkeeper immediately became excited, he had several nobles and riches visited his store, but never the people as big as Avalon's citizen.

"This humble servant apologize if our merchandise does not satisfy your need, may I ask what you simply looking for?"

Momo looked at Elliot, smiling but her eyes as if held dangerous meaning.

"As... As you see... the Lionheart Kingdom is on the war with Knightwalker... we... we require a massive amount of weapons... to help supply the war..."

"Sure, sure, we have irons, steels, silvers, also breastplates, knight armors..."

"We only need weapons, I want to buy a bulk of silversword, perhaps about 100 of them, how much is that?"

"Oh... 100 silvers?! Wait, wait, let me check whether we have that much!"

The shopkeeper called out his staff and immediately told him to get the list of the items, meanwhile Momo dragged Elliot again to stroll in the shop, but somehow unable to find the item that Alex wanted the most.

"Can... can I get you anything else? A beautiful talisman perhaps? Jewelry Necklace maybe?"

Momo faced him with an arrogant attitude, pointed her finger.

"Space ring, space ring, do you have a space ring?!"