Helos stared at the small pile of glittering gold coins on the workbench, her silver lashes trembling slightly in the candlelight.
She extended her index finger, carefully nudging one of the gold coins, as if to confirm their authenticity. “……”
Suddenly, she looked up, her pale purple eyes fixed intently on Julius. “You didn’t go rob the merchant guild, did you?”
Julius leaned against the doorframe, his black uniform appearing especially deep and solemn in the twilight.
The boy raised an eyebrow: “Isn’t that a bit little for a robbery?”
Helos counted the coins seriously, then nodded: “Indeed.”
She tilted her head, silver strands falling over the pile of coins. “By the merchant guild’s standards, this amount isn’t even worth the change.”
A peculiar silence suddenly settled over the workshop.
The candlelight flickered gently, casting their shadows onto the aged walls.
Helos’s gaze shifted from the coins to Julius’s face, then back to the coins, before suddenly bursting out in a quiet laugh.
“Spill it honestly,”
she propped her hands on the workbench, leaning slightly forward, “where exactly did this money come from?”
The candlelight danced in Helos’s eyes like two small flames.
She suddenly narrowed her eyes, watching Julius suspiciously:
“Don’t tell me you sold yourself?”
Julius looked at her eyes sparkling in the candlelight, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips.
“Am I really only worth this much?”
The boy shrugged, the silver buttons on his black uniform glinting softly in the candlelight.
He walked to the table, his slender fingers lightly picking up a gold coin and flipping it between his fingertips:
“Actually, it’s Miss Eleanor’s sponsorship.”
“My sister?”
Helos straightened up abruptly, her silver hair tracing a shining arc with the movement.
She blinked, her pale purple eyes wide with astonishment, mouth slightly agape: “She’s really that rich?”
Julius gently tossed the coin back onto the pile, the metal clinking crisply.
He looked meaningfully at Helos: “That’s probably just a small portion of her pocket money.”
The boy’s gaze swept over the workshop walls and the simple tool rack, then back to Helos’s faded old dress.
“Tsk tsk, you two live worlds apart.”
“Yeah……”
Helos rested her chin on her hand, her fingertips unconsciously tracing the patterns on the coin, her voice as soft as a sigh:
“Both daughters of a duke, yet the difference is this huge?”
“Don’t overthink it.”
Julius looked at the slightly melancholy girl before him and gently tapped her on the head.
“What kind of Magic Crystal do you want to buy?”
“Huh?”
Helos instinctively brushed his hand away, a trace of confusion flashing in her pale purple eyes.
She rubbed the spot he’d tapped, silver hair slipping through her fingers:
“I’ve never tried before…… probably just the most ordinary non-elemental Magic Crystal will do?”
“If it’s that kind, it should be enough.”
Julius nodded, slipping the coins one by one into a pouch embroidered with gold thread.
The crisp clink of metal echoed clearly in the silent workshop.
“Let’s go to the city market to have a look tomorrow, okay?”
The boy tightened the drawstring on the pouch and looked up at Helos.
“BA09…….”
Helos murmured softly, turning to gaze out the window.
Silver moonlight streamed through the grimy glass, casting a cold halo in her pale purple eyes.
If she could, she would rush into the night right now and clutch the Magic Crystal she’d dreamed of tightly in her palm.
She imagined the pure Magic Crystal sparkling in the moonlight, imagined the radiance it would release when crafted into a Mana Core.
But the girl only took a deep breath, lightly digging her nails into her palm.
After all, she understood that haste makes waste.
She turned to Julius, a faint smile curving her lips:
“All right, then tomorrow it is—we’ll meet at the side door!”
“Mm, get some rest early.”
Julius shook the pouch in his hand with a mischievous grin. “If you don’t get up tomorrow… all this money will be mine~”
“You dare!”
***
At dawn the next day, just as the sky began to pale with the first light, Helos sprang up from the hammock with a flip.
Barefoot, she stepped onto the cold floor and rummaged at the bottom of a chest for a gray, faded old cloak—gear she had prepared long ago for sneaking out.
The fabric of the cloak was washed pale, with a few clumsy patches along the edges.
Helos roughly pinned up her silver hair, pulling the hood of the cloak tightly over her head.
She looked into the basin and couldn’t help but chuckle softly—right now, she looked exactly like a little beggar sneaking out.
Except maybe her clothes were a little too clean.
“Perfect!”
She whispered, tiptoeing to push open the workshop’s wooden door.
The morning mist had not yet lifted; dew drops hung on the roses in the garden.
Helos moved quickly like a nimble cat along the shadow by the wall, silver strands slipping from the hood’s edge, gleaming in the morning light.
When she reached the side door, Julius was already waiting there.
The boy was in casual clothes, black short hair fluttering slightly in the morning breeze.
Seeing Helos’s outfit, his eyebrows nearly shot up into his hairline:
“You’re… going to be a thief or what?”
Helos held a finger to her lips:
“Shh!”
She looked around cautiously. “If the Head Maid catches me sneaking out, she’ll skin me alive!”
Julius shook his head helplessly and pulled a paper package from his pocket:
“Eat this first.”
The warm scent of honey bread instantly spread through the morning mist. “So you don’t faint from hunger later.”
Helos’s eyes lit up immediately.
She devoured the bread ravenously, honey dripping at the corners of her mouth.
“Oh… right,”
Helos puffed her cheeks, mumbling with her mouth full like a squirrel caught stealing nuts.
She tiptoed close to Julius’s ear, warm breath carrying the sweet scent of honey bread:
“I can’t stay in one place too long… or nearby passersby might get in trouble.”
“Is that so?”
Julius blinked, as if suddenly remembering something.
He nodded in realization: “Your condition really is troublesome.”
Helos pouted, swallowing the bread in a few bites. The honey on her fingertips casually smeared on her cloak.
“So when we get to the shop later,”
she lowered her voice and gestured mysteriously, “you go haggle with the owner, and I’ll stay where there are fewer people.”
“But I don’t know how to bargain…”
“Ah, just improvise!”
Helos poked the boy’s waist.
“Anyway, as long as we get the Magic Crystal, I don’t mind if you steal it from me!”
“Steal? That’s even less fitting for a Saint Knight—”
“Okay, okay! You’re right! Let’s just get going!”