Chapter Text
“Kiaora tracking compass?”
“Here.”
“Emergency food?”
“Here.”
“Clothes?”
“…ready to go, young master.” Javier couldn’t help but voice his hesitation. “Are you sure these are the appropriate attires?”
“They are.” Lloyd confirmed. “The fabrics are more well-made than what most people wear in Seoul but it’s not like we’ll run into any fashion snobs. This is temporary anyway—last thing we need is standing out like a sore thumb and get caught on security camera.”
“Security camera?”
“Uh…think of it like the crystal ball Lupellan used to monitor us, but always active. And they’re everywhere.”
“That’s…” Javier shook the goosebumps from his neck, but couldn’t stop himself from discreetly scanning the room.
“We don’t know how long this will take, but I’d like to wrap it up before the week is over.” Lloyd finished packing everything into his backpack. “Let’s go see the Dragon King and get that Kiaora.”
“…by the way, Master Lloyd.” Javier took the strange package the young master set aside for him, “Why are we bringing these along?”
“Oh, those.” Lloyd replied with a truly nasty smile, “You’ll see. You’ll see.”
“—and this gold balance scale is from a certain dark sorcerer to the east—”
“—these are the finest silk from a certain sultan kingdom—”
“—you have a good eye, sir! This is actually lace woven by a sixteenth century countess of a certain nation in—”
Javier was unable to utter a single word as he stood behind the young master drooling his saliva out at a pawn shop that he immediately dragged them both to the moment they landed in a strange alley.
Odd as it might be, Kim Suho’s decision to have these strange outfits tailored before they arrive at ‘Seoul’ turns out to be the right one. The clothes the people of Seoul wears are much more vibrant and alive in color, but less decorative and the dress code is on the thin side. Obviously Javier received stares wherever he goes even with a cloth mask on, but the fact that no one batted an eye at his young master speaks volumes about how well they were able to blend in.
“Sweet! Now we won’t have to worry about money for at least a month! I've never seen so much cash in one place before—this is awesome!”
“…”
“Hah? What’s with that look?”
“Nothing, sir. Your dedication to swindling truly knows no human bounds, much less dimensional ones.”
“Come on now,” Lloyd rolled his eyes. “We need money to survive in Seoul. Money is Lord. Money is King. Money can even buy politicians. You think the nobles would’ve let us grab the cash to build the apartment complex out of their goodwill for the refugee? You still have a long way to go, my dear Sir Asrahan.”
Javier made a face at the mocking call of his knightly title. “…what are our next steps in finding the Kiaora, young master?”
“Thought you’d never ask!”
Javier stared at the palm-sized brick in his hand. Then he looked at the thin appetizer plate-like object in the young master’s hands.
“—this iPhone 16 pro max has a titanium blah blah blah aluminum thermal structure blah blah super retina XDR blah blah blah blah Apple Intelligence blah blah blah—”
It was worse than the lullaby the young master recited for him every night. It was bafflingly boring, and Javier doesn’t understand the words spewed from the salesman’s lips even though they should be speaking the same language, but the excitement from his young master and the salesman made Javier felt a little left out.
“Really? For this price? You sure the previous owner didn’t spoof the phone to blah blah blah—”
“Absolutely not, my dear customer, ours might be a secondhand store but our clientele are all verified businesses that—”
“Woah, that’s so awesome! Last I heard IOS doesn’t have this and that—”
“Pardon me for saying this, my dear customer, but you seemed to be way behind the times. This and that has been available since three whole years ago!”
“I know, but I wasn’t able to upgrade my crappy Windows—”
The oohs and the aahs kept going for another half an hour as Javier stared at all the flashing displays. He still had trouble believing that all of this isn’t magic.
“So to ring you guys up—a second-hand iPhone 16 pro max 256 GB desert titanium comes up to a million won—” Javier’s eyes bugged out “—and the accessories bundle A consists of MagSafe military-grade drop protection phone case, screen protector, camera lens protector, MagSafe charger, and earbuds is another ninety-thousand won. Does that looks right to you?”
Javier whispered before the young master could nod, “Isn’t that too much—”
“Hush, now. It’s totally within our budget.”
A million for a ‘phone’ is within our budget? Javier was skeptical, but kept quiet.
“And for this masked gentleman here…are you sure he’d be fine with a flip phone? How do I say this…it’s quite outdated for such a stylish and handsome gentleman like your friend here…”
“Oh, thank you for worrying, but a dumbphone is just perfect for the job!” Lloyd Frontera exaggeratedly waved the salesman’s concerns away. “This one’s the king of all country bumpkins—give him a smartphone and he’ll get us doxxed before you know it.”
Javier sent the young master a baleful glare at the insinuation that he’s not intelligent enough to handle a ‘smart’phone.
“Well, if you say so, dear customer. A used blue Nokia 2780 comes out to eighty-thousand won. Will that be all?”
The knight stared at the ‘phone’ in his palm again. It wasn’t even worth the accessories master Lloyd piled on his phone.
“Also two prepaid sim cards, if you will. As for the value—let’s see…”
Javier mentally compared the two ‘phone’—his needs to be manually opened while master Lloyd’s phone lit up with just one touch, his screen was many times smaller than the other, and there are strange buttons on the bottom half.
While master Lloyd haggled the price, Javier skimmed over the instruction manual and came to the grudging conclusion that his young master made the correct decision yet again. He was able to follow the instructions for the flip phone quite closely, unlike the smartphone where half of the instructions needs its own dictionary.
“Are you sure you wouldn’t want added protections for your phones, sir?”
“Oh absolutely! We are careful people, you know. Now, the total if you will?”
“You never know what might happens, but if that’s what the customers wants then we won’t push. Would you like a couple of keychains to brighten your phone?”
“No, I think we—” Master Lloyd strangely paused. “Actually, I want that blue puppy one.”
“This one? You have a good eye, sir!” The salesman pulled a keychain out of the display. “That will be fourteen thousands won.”
“A little expensive, but I’ll take it.” Lloyd winked, “The total, if you will?”
Javier was glad to finally get out of that store. Even ancient texts wasn’t as intimidating as the salesman’s talks about RAM and GBs and its close relatives or whatever it was his young master rebuked with. It was too early for a lullaby.
“Please show me your ID.”
“Haha…well that’s the thing—our personal bags got stolen during the flight and the airline crews are absolutely useless! Though that’s true it’s our fault for not noticing sooner.”
“Then do you have a picture of your ID?”
“Unfortunately, no. Our phones were also in the bag, you see, that’s why we just came back from a used electronic store…”
“Sir, I apologize, but I cannot check you in without—”
“Oh, of course, of course! I do remember my resident registration number, if that’d help?”
The hotel clerk’s face lightened in clear relief, “That’d be perfect, sir. What’s your name?”
“Kim Suho. As for the registration number…”
Watching the young master spinning the staff right round was a marvel as always. The young master did pick a shadier hotel compared to the rest they’ve passed by, but Javier still had doubts about booking a legitimate place for the rest of their stay while neither had proper identifications.
“Thank you so much for the assistance, I swear I’ll get you a photo of our ID as soon as we get our bags back from those accursed security folks. Here is a token of appreciation from us—feel free to treat yourself to some coffee—”
“Oh, no, sir, how could I—”
“Please, I insists—”
Javier resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the back and forth display, but noticed that Master Lloyd talks more in Seoul and frowned. Within Frontera county, he lead his subjects as a matter of course, and while Javier is familiar with the way he’d lower himself in front of nobilities far above him in station to swindle something out of them, something about this shriveling man in front of him feels different.
“Phew. That takes care of boarding. We haven’t even started the search yet and my jaw is sore.”
“You didn’t have to talk so much, then.” Javier glanced at the modern clock; there was no long or short hands, only numbers. “We could’ve saved two hours if you were more succinct in your melodrama.”
“And raise up a bunch of red flags about two people without identifications with money to spare waltzing about in the capital of South Korea? No thanks.” Lloyd plopped on the armchair in exhaustion. “I know you have your whole cool guy streak and all but social skills are essential in this place. Most eccentricities would be swept under the rug as long as you can provide a valid reason—people are too busy worrying about their own life to nick-pick a weirdo or two they meet on the street.”
The knight thought back to all the victims of Kim Suho’s slippery tongue; maybe Seoul is where he’d gotten it from.
“We can go for dinner in about an hour or so…and get some clothes, too…hmmm…what else…” Master Lloyd mumbled to himself like a madman. “I’m finished with setting up my phone—gimme yours so I can put the sim card in.”
Javier fished the phone out of his pocket and gave it to the young master.
“I saw you skimming over the manual earlier. How much do you know?”
“This is a supposedly non-magical device that allows for long distance communication as long as there is a paid ‘sim card’ and ‘cellular connection’. It can ‘text’, ‘browse the internet’, ‘access social media’, and ‘various other functions’.”
“I could hear the quotation marks.” Master Lloyd fiddled with the back of the phone before bringing both the smartphone and the flip phone—Javier refuses to call it a dumbphone—over, “This here is a text, you type what you want to say on that keyboard until the right letter appears and click here to send. Try it.”
Javier nodded. He saw as much in the manual. [thisisjavierasrahan]
The smartphone, for a lack of a better word, pinged. Master Lloyd raised an eyebrow at the text, “…dude. You need to space the letters. Periods and commas, too.”
Javier tried again under proper guidance, [this is javier asrahan.]
“There we go.” Master Lloyd did something to make the 'keyboard' appear and typed at a ridiculous speed.
The flip phone made a noise. [Hiiiii this is your favourite young master 😎😎😎]
Resisting the urge to quip back on the existence of Master Julian, the knight stared at the three yellow things that appeared on his screen, “…what.”
“They’re called emoji. You know how letters often came across as dry, right? Adding emoji is like drawing a smiley face at the end of the letter—it let your recipient knows you’re not mad, which is perfect for you, actually! Wanna try it?”
Javier stared at the soulless rectangular black eyes of the faces, “…maybe later.”
“Your loss. Now, add my number to your contacts. Open 'Phone' and type in my number here.”
A box showed up asking for name, which was expected as seen in the manual. Javier was about to type in ‘master lloyd’ before he thought of a better idea.
“—‘mole cricket’, really?!”
“It’d be problematic if someone were to find out Kim Suho botched his facial surgery.”
“Facial—!? Wait. How did you know about cosmetic surgery??”
“I saw it in a poster on the way up our room.”
“Oh.” Lloyd put a thought to it. “Well…I guess it is a prominent problem here…don’t go following strange people into strange alley now, alright?”
Javier scoffed, “Of course not. Who do you think I am?”