Reason

"Fifty Nalang!" That was the fee for merely translating a single notebook.

After the other party announced this price, Gallo's breathing grew heavy. These fifty Nalang were enough to completely turn around his family's current situation.

He could move away from the filthy, impoverished living environment of Valen Street. In reality, that area was nothing more than a slum in Tin City, where his family lived in a drafty attic with a kitchen converted from a tiny open-air balcony, lacking even a private washroom.

Every morning after waking up, Gallo had to take the chamber pot out to the public wash area on Valen Street to dispose of it, then return to scoop a ladle of cold water from a bucket on their balcony to wash up.

If they could have a private washroom, life would be much more convenient for his mother and Lily.

It would be best to move into an apartment nearby, one with a living room and two bedrooms; his mother and Lily could share one room, and there would be a private washroom. Yes, and the living room would need a fireplace—Tin City was simply too cold in the winter.

When winter arrived, they relied solely on a small charcoal brazier to heat the attic, which in truth provided very little warmth.

Gallo took a deep breath and said earnestly to Sacia, "Fifty Nalang, just to translate a notebook you happened to buy in a Southern Continent market. Miss Taylor, are you certain you want to make this deal with me?"

"Of course! If I can make any discoveries from this notebook, the benefits to me will far exceed fifty Nalang. Furthermore, you need not worry about the payment." As if to put Gallo at ease regarding the translation, Sacia took a paper voucher from her small handbag.

She pushed the voucher across the table toward Gallo and said, "This is a small-denomination voucher from Fengman Bank. You can go to any Fengman Bank branch in Tin City and withdraw twenty Nalang directly with it.

These twenty Nalang are your deposit, Mr. Gallo. The remaining thirty Nalang will be paid as the balance once you have completed the translation of this notebook."

Gallo was stunned. Twenty Nalang was roughly what an adult laborer could earn after a year of hard work, yet in the other party's hands, it was merely a small-denomination voucher.

Even Stur, sitting nearby, stared with wide eyes. He had never seen a twenty-Nalang bank voucher before. Such vouchers required almost no processing fees, unlike checks, which involved various bank procedures; it was often considered fast if a bank completed a check withdrawal within three business days.

Gallo picked up the voucher. It felt stiff in his hand, had a distinct scent of ink, and bore the bright gold bank logo of Fengman Bank.

He tucked the notebook away first before placing the voucher into his pocket. This way, he might appear as someone who wasn't overly eager for gain, someone who didn't value money above all else—at the very least, he wanted to leave a good impression on the wealthy and beautiful Miss Sacia.

"I will try my best to finish within two days. However, translation is essentially rewriting the original content from one's own perspective, so if there are any discrepancies later, you can always come to me. I will try to read more books or materials regarding the history of the Southern Continent to optimize it." A fifty-Nalang deal was enough for Gallo to treat her as his most important client, and the follow-up service had to be up to par.

"Thank you, Mr. Gallo. I will visit again in two days."

After bidding Gallo farewell, the woman stood up and left immediately. Stur, sitting to the side, looked quite awkward; Sacia hadn't even spared him an extra glance when she left.

This left Stur sitting there, unsure if he should follow her.

"Ahem." Gallo coughed lightly. It seemed that of all the people involved in this encounter between Stur and Sacia, Gallo was the biggest beneficiary, having secured a fifty-Nalang deal. If Stur looked miserable in a moment, he would certainly offer a few words of comfort, even though Sacia hadn't even greeted Stur.

That attitude of turning and walking away, as if she didn't want any further connection with Stur, seemed quite rude, but the woman was wealthy and her style of doing things was efficient. Gallo was very satisfied. If Stur felt aggrieved enough to complain about Sacia, Gallo would definitely help defend her.

She hadn't been interested in him to begin with, so this straightforward, clean break was probably for the best for Stur. After all, a short pain is better than a long one.

However, to Gallo's surprise, Stur took out a one-Fenso coin and placed it on the table in front of him.

"This is your divination fee for this morning. It seems your divination really had no issues." Stur's tone was filled with frustration.

Gallo picked up the one-Fenso coin and questioned, "So, for such an accurate divination, you only give me one Fenso?"

Stur glanced at him sideways: "You wrote it on the sign yourself: 'Pay as you wish'!"

In the evening, hearing the tower bell strike five o'clock, Gallo packed everything up. A waitress helped him carry his sign inside the cafe.

This way, Gallo wouldn't have to carry the sign back and forth between his home and his workplace.

The twenty-Nalang Fengman Bank voucher was tucked into his inner jacket pocket, and the leather notebook was also hidden inside his shirt.

On the way back, Gallo specifically thought about where he could rent a decent apartment nearby. Currently, the rent for their place on Valen Street was one Nalang and fifty Copper Nil a month; if he rented around here, the rent would at least multiply several times over.

Actually, as long as there was a kitchen, a washroom, and a fireplace, even having only one bedroom would suffice. His mother and Lily could sleep in the bedroom, and he could easily sleep in the living room himself.

"Hm?"

As Gallo walked back, the feeling of being watched from the shadows intensified abruptly. It was completely different from the previous few days, as if a spotlight had been cast upon him; the tracking and surveillance had escalated significantly.

"Heh! Not for money, and not because of my ability. I still don't know the reason." Being spied on and followed made Gallo's steps feel particularly heavy as he walked down the road.

"The only thing different about today compared to the previous days... I accepted a twenty-Nalang bank voucher."

He shook his head secretly: "That shouldn't be the reason. Aside from that, there is only the notebook Miss Taylor gave me to translate."

Gallo's footsteps paused slightly. He suddenly felt that the notebook might allow him to connect some previously overlooked events. The notebook Miss Taylor had accidentally purchased in the Southern Continent market was filled with content written in the hieroglyphs of the Ancient Askia Dynasty.

Gallo had looked at one of the pages, and he could understand the content. This was all thanks to the research materials on Askia Dynasty hieroglyphs that Professor Vanason had brought him two days ago.

Gallo suddenly thought that simply wanting to be the first to discover the contents of this notebook without communicating with the authoritative professors in the history department made Miss Taylor's reason seem somewhat far-fetched.

He took the completely pitch-black Divination Coin from his pocket and tossed it as he walked.

"Is the person tracking me in the shadows related to this notebook Miss Taylor gave me?"

The coin rose to the height of his brow, landed on the back of his hand, and he immediately covered it with his other hand.

As he slowly moved his hand away, he saw the face of the coin with the number printed on it facing up!