"Why do you call me... Grandfather?" Annan asked, bewildered.
"Grandmother told us to call her that, and you're her good friend, so of course we..."
By "Grandmother," Old Fi meant Madam Puppet, Yushi Fischer.
"Just call me by my name..."
"I couldn't possibly!" Old Fi protested.
"Then add 'sir.'"
"But..."
Annan didn't want to keep arguing. Being called Grandfather by a man in his fifties or sixties was far too strange. "Do you still want the Jade Essence back?"
"You recovered it!? Anc—Dragons above, how can I thank you..." Overcome with excitement, Old Fi tried to kiss Annan's boots.
"You've already paid me."
The Gold Prospectors hadn't found the treasure the Fischer family had hidden behind the second-floor bookshelf. It contained art pieces that Humanoid estimated were worth over a thousand gold coins—no small sum.
Hiring a team of Master Level mercenaries for a day would cost a tenth of that at most, though danger would cost extra.
It only seemed like little to Annan because he had handled so much money, and because Free City had spent so much. The Empire Times in Tatuun had been right to call Free City "the most expensive city-state of the new millennium."
"But I left the Jade Essence in the Flower Capital. Can I give it to you after I get back?"
Annan had temporarily given the Magic Ring to Klein so she could restock it.
"Of course!"
Old Fi found that a little odd, but he didn't doubt Annan... Others, however, thought Annan was a fraud.
"You're the one the Clan Chief hired?"
A clear, skeptical voice came from the side. Two young female knights who looked like twin sisters approached.
They scrutinized Annan, somehow ignoring his looks. "I don't know how you fooled the old Clan Chief, but we won't