She was forced to sigh; there was nothing else to say. If the customer asked her to take him somewhere, she could only accept and walk there.
Soon, they were walking along long roads and narrow alleys, passing through a large part of the central industrial area, until they reached a small, abandoned factory.
'Not bad. They hide well,' thought Louis when he saw that the base was in an industrial area, with workers and everything, but that it never actually did anything. Despite that, it wasn't investigated because it always had merchandise to deliver.
It was a good hiding place.
Upon entering and passing the first area, they came to a mansion-like house, but it was slightly creepy with a lot of soot on the walls.
It was an old house, but it had large doors and was big enough to hold many people working inside.
The shouts of insults, commands, and other noises echoed in her ears. The girl stopped before approaching, although the local guards had already spotted her.
"Sir, what are you doing here? I can take you to the designated place. If you're just here to look around, I recommend you don't get yourself dirty."
Louis smiled and nodded. "I'm here to get an ID card."
She looked at him, confused. 'Here?' But then she understood.
'Despite how he looks, he's an illegal immigrant...' She nodded.
"Follow me, then."
Without wasting any more time, they both approached. When they arrived, the guards looked at her with disdain after recognizing her. Some people greeted her sarcastically, so Louis could tell that she was a member of their organization.
But she ignored all of this and simply entered the mansion.
Inside, there were numerous rooms on both sides, and in the front, a courtyard was located. It was a circular mansion with a courtyard in the middle.
She quickly walked to one of the offices where it said: "Registry Office" and stopped.
"Sir, this is the place. Ignore what the people around you are saying. You don't want to get into trouble with them."
Louis nodded and knocked on the door.
A man came to open it, and after the girl explained why she was there, they let him in. She stayed outside.
On the other side, several people were working on different exotic and ancient machines. Some were transcribing, while others were extracting information from scrolls, and there was even a designated area where they would burn those scrolls afterwards.
There was no one in front of him at the moment, so Louis was taken to one of the places where they took certain information from the scrolls.
The person attending him raised his head and looked at him carefully before starting to ask him questions.
"Name?"
"Louis."
"Do you have or want to use a last name? Or would you prefer to be assigned a random one?"
"A random one is fine."
"Good. You will be assigned a random last name, as well as a random area of residence and a length of stay here of..." The man looked up.
"How old are you?" he asked.
"Sixteen."
Those who heard the voice were surprised. Although he looked younger, he seemed remarkably well-developed, considering he was over 1.80 meters tall.
Furthermore, even if he was of legal age, what was someone so young doing in an illegal place? Shouldn't he be locked up at home with his parents?
Even so, none of those present said anything. They had fleeting thoughts, but as long as he paid the price for a fake ID, it was fine with them.
"So you'll be sixteen years old living here. You can choose to say your real age when necessary or give a false age that is older than this. If you need a false birth story, we can provide that as well." After finishing writing on the scrolls, the man passed the scroll to one of his coworkers.
Then he began to transcribe it, and another began to cut and prepare the material where it would all go.
"The base price is 30 Jens. If you want a much more realistic one, we have them for 90 Jens and 300 Jens. The latter even comes with authentic seals and is the most recommended for those who can afford it."
The prices were "high" for them, but they always quote prices that are way out of line because everyone tries to negotiate them; it's a custom, and in the end, they end up paying prices close to the real ones.
But Louis wasn't going to negotiate for so little. He took out the 300, but before handing it over, he had something to ask.
"I heard that it's possible to work with you and that you can provide certain features, such as missions or a place to obtain them. Is that possible at this time?" he asked, placing the money in the hands of the person who was attending him.
At his question, everyone finally looked up to see him.
The man who received the money didn't even have time to be surprised by suddenly receiving 300 Jens; he was more surprised by Louis' words.
It wasn't that it was out of the ordinary, but a person so young and well-dressed needed a job with them?
'Is he some kind of spy?' was his first thought.
So he shook his head.
"We're not currently hiring."
Louis nodded and, without saying another word, waited to the side.
But then, the person who had brought him inside turned his attention to him.
"Hey, who was that girl earlier, for you? Did you buy her?" he asked.
Louis looked at him a little confused by his question, but he didn't want to strike up a conversation with these people, so he replied simply, "She's my guide."
"Guide? Did you hire her?"
Louis nodded.
"If that's the case, how about we work together on something? I can ask my bosses to let you work for them, and that way, you can get what you want. In return... take that girl to my place tonight, and I'll take care of the rest." He approached Louis and pressed a small wad of cash against his body.
"It's 150 Jens. You'll get half of what you spent back, you'll get a job, and you'll only have to make a small deal. How about it?"
Louis felt the wad of cash in his chest and thought it was really stupid. Did the God of Money need 150 Jens?
Now, something made him curious, so he looked the guy in the eyes.
"Does she work like that? And if she does, why don't you hire her? That's a month's salary. If that's her job, I don't think she'd turn it down."