"You don't have to worry," Ning told the girl. "Most of what I used were things I already owned. Even then, they don't add up to 1000 Fire coins. It's not really that big a shop after all."
The girl named Juna looked around the shop. "The renovations do look costly though," she said, looking around the room. She pointed at the glasses and furniture, letting Ning know how costly they would have to be.
"I suggest filing a formal request for someone from the government to come and measure the changes," she said. "It's better that way so that someone doesn't find this as an excuse to close this shop."
"What happens if I did use more than 1000 Fire coins?" Ning asked. "Will they make me tear down everything?"
"The rule for it is just to stop people from making changes that would reflect badly on the city," the girl said. "There are many people that assume that because they own the land, they can make anything in there. Even if the land is theirs, there are rules."
"If you did use more than 1000 Fire coins, or are found to have done so, the city will send someone to see if the changes made are according to regulations," the girl said. "If you report the cost and changes, so long as the changes are in regulation, they will do nothing," she said. "But if they found you to have not reported the changes, they will test it, and even if the changes are in regulation, they will still make you fine with."
"Considering just what type of shop this is, I highly recommend not giving your competitors a chance to screw up with you. They are already rich and have hands that reach into the government as well. You will need to make sure to not give those people a reason to try a way to find you."
Ning thought for a bit before nodding. He sighed realizing how tedious it all was and couldn't help but get bored. Still, he looked at the girl with favorable eyes.
"Thank you for your instructions," he said. "I will do it tomorrow."
"If you can get up by 8, I can take you there early and help you deal with the legal matters," she said.
"You will do that?" Ning asked in surprise. "But we only just met."
"Don't be mistaken," the girl said. "I'm doing it for Aunt Laila. I have only just met you and have no reason to care for your personal circumstances."
Ning smiled and nodded. He looked at her core and then reached for a sword at the wall before pulling it out. "Here's a gift for your incredible help," he said, handing over a Sand sword, matching the girl's Earth Essence.
The girl looked surprised. "I don't need it," she said. "I was only helping because I wanted to," she said.
"I'm giving this because I want to as well," Ning said.
"But I don't have the money for it," she said.
"It's a gift. You don't charge for gifts."
"But then how will you pay back Aunt Laila her share of the cost?" "This is my artifact. I don't have to give her a share for anything that wasn't made by her husband," Ning said. "You wrote those clauses too right?"
The girl nodded, before taking the weapon with a slow hand. She looked at the weapon for a while, surprised at how good it was. A weapon by itself was quite useless to her as a government official, but getting one felt quite good.
"Thank you," she said. "Truly."
The sword disappeared into the necklace she wore. Ning couldn't help but stare at that necklace.
"May I ask where you bought that?" Ning asked, pointing to the necklace.
"This? At one of the other artifact shops," she said. "Knight's gear, if I remember correctly."
"And they sell a lot of it?" he asked.
"Plenty, why?" the girl asked.
Ning couldn't help but frown. "Do you have any idea where they could be getting this from?" he asked.
The girl only shook her head. "What's wrong with this?" she asked curiously.
"Nothing is precisely… wrong," Ning said. "It's just that making something like that would be impossible for almost everyone in this world. I just can't believe that there is someone out there who is capable of making such an artifact."
As far as Ning understood, Space Essence wasn't easy to come by at all. Especially Space Essence core amongst all was more or less impossible to come by. Because of that, Space artifacts could only be made by very strong Converters with many years of knowledge. Even then, what they did make used to have barely any space due to the lack of quality.
However, these space artifacts that Ning had been seeing lately had a great bit of quality to them. And more surprisingly, they were so readily available that it made no sense at all.
Something weird must have been going on.
Ning wanted to find out what it was that was doing it, but there was no fun in that. He would find out about it on his own if he was meant to.
He was brought out of his thoughts by the door of the shop opening. Emma walked in, pushing the door further in. "We should have the door prop open during the time when the shop is open," she said. "There isn't much point if the door is closed and hard to—"
She stopped when she saw the girl. "Oh, we already have a customer?" she couldn't help but ask.
"Ah, no," Ning said. "This is Juna. She lives next door with her parents."
"The general store?" Emma asked before looking at the girl. She introduced herself quickly and had Hadden introduce himself as well.
Juna was quite surprised to see kids here as she hadn't been told about them. Only now did she realize that she might have been talking to someone much older than her.
"I must leave now," she quickly said. "I will see you all tomorrow morning. Goodbye."
