Due to Will's suggestion, Altair hadn't left Sheffield Manor for nearly a week, staying home the entire time.
During this period, Mr. A had sent out trade invitations as scheduled, but Altair took into account the reason 'The Giant Snake, Ouroboros' had come to Backlund.
Therefore, using the excuse of being inconvenienced by personal matters, he let Simon lead the rest of the team to the trade.
Altair was truly afraid of facing this Angel; after all, he was an ancient Angel who had lived for an unknown number of years and was somewhat mentally unstable.
The point wasn't the mental instability, but the fact that he had survived for so many Epochs!
If he truly wanted to do something to Altair, no one could guarantee his safety. Even Will only dared to play 'hide and seek' with him; what did Altair have to face him with?
It was only when Simon returned from the trade and described what had happened that Altair could confirm that Ouroboros's arrival in Backlund might indeed be related to him.
According to Simon's description, the person trading with him this time wasn't Mr. A, but a tall, thin man with long silver hair, a beautiful face, a somewhat indifferent expression, and wearing a simple linen robe.
After Simon completed the trade, he saw the man give a portion of the items to Mr. A before walking straight out of the trading location. Mr. A held those items and said that if they wanted to buy more Beyonder characteristics, they could come back to trade again.
With such a special person participating in the trade, the quality of the purchased Beyonder characteristics was quite high. Among them:
Three sequence 7 'Witch' Beyonder characteristics were obtained for 3,600 pounds.
Two sequence six 'Demoness of Pleasure' Beyonder characteristics for 12,000 pounds.
One sequence six 'Potions Professor' Beyonder characteristic for 6,800 pounds.
Two sequence six 'Dawn Paladin' Beyonder characteristics for 10,000 pounds.
One sequence six 'Hypnotist' Beyonder characteristic for 6,000 pounds.
Of course, these Beyonder characteristics were only a small portion of what he had brought out.
More Beyonder characteristics were not purchased because Altair hadn't instructed Simon, and Simon wasn't clear on the requirements.
This made Altair very frustrated. Why hadn't he gone to the trade himself? If he had gone, he might have been able to buy even more useful things.
But regret was useless now; it was indeed inconvenient for him to meet Ouroboros at the moment.
Although Will had said that his uniqueness wouldn't be discovered, he had also reminded him to 'try not to go out during this time'.
He was already a successor of the 'Way of Cowardice' by nature, so he instinctively wanted to avoid a meeting even more. If something was discovered, it would be disastrous.
The Beyonder characteristics purchased for 38,200 pounds were already enough for him to advance safely to sequence six; there was no need to take risks.
The only pity was that no sequence five Beyonder characteristics were purchased.
It seemed that sequence five Beyonder characteristics were scarce resources no matter where one went.
However, the price was also a bit higher than Altair had expected.
But it was normal when he thought about it. After all, items in the Tarot Club could be bought at a 'friendship price,' but he had no friendship with the Aurora Order, and they had no reason to give him a low price.
When Altair looked up, he noticed Simon was still staring at the Beyonder characteristics on the table. Following his gaze, he saw it was the Dawn Paladin characteristic.
Altair smiled, placed his hand directly on the box containing the Dawn Paladin characteristic, and asked, "You're already ready to advance to sequence six Dawn Paladin?"
Simon withdrew his gaze when he saw the hand on the box. Hearing Altair's question, he looked troubled and replied, "Yes, Count Altair. I have completely finished Acting out the Weapon Master potion. Could you save one Dawn Paladin characteristic for me? I Will raise the money to buy it as soon as possible."
Altair could sense from his behavior that he desperately needed this characteristic. After becoming a Beyonder, most people's greatest desire was to advance again, much like cultivators longing to break through realms to become immortals or ancestors.
But unlike cultivation, advancing Sequences in the Mystery world only required one to digest the potion, find the correct potion formula and materials, and then brew and consume the potion.
Altair thought for a moment and asked Simon, "Do you have the potion formula for Dawn Paladin?"
"This..." The question plunged Simon into silence. As if making a decision, he looked up and said, "I once obtained a fragmented formula on the battlefield. It listed some main and auxiliary materials. I want to take a risk and try. With this complete Beyonder characteristic and most of the auxiliary materials, I think I should be able to withstand the mental impact."
After hearing Simon's words, Altair thought it over and gave him the box containing the Dawn Paladin characteristic, saying, "Don't advance yet. I Will help you find the correct formula during this time, and you can advance then."
...Altair's actions moved the old soldier to tears, and he declared his eternal loyalty to the Sheffield Family.
After sending him away, Altair felt the world had finally gone quiet. The loud talking from such a close distance had made his ears ring.
To Simon and his group, this could be considered an immense grace.
Although they originally belonged to Altair's father's guard, it was a fact that the old Baron's death was caused by their failure to protect him on the battlefield a while ago.
This was already a major taboo. Even if Altair had abandoned them, it would have been considered normal behavior.
The fact that he held no grudges had already moved Simon deeply, let alone now providing the formula and materials to help him advance.
Furthermore, a formula for the Warrior Pathway's sequence six Dawn Paladin would require at least a 2,000-pound premium to purchase in Backlund.
There were many reasons for the premium, the main one being that the Warrior Pathway was generally controlled by the militaries of various countries and was rarely available for purchase outside.
As for letting Simon and the others buy it through their old connections, that was impossible. After all, they had already left the army and had no way to buy through their previous channels. In Backlund, they could only buy at a premium.
Of course, the most important reason was lack of money. Now that they were out of the army, they relied on their salaries as guards for the Sheffield Family.
Although the Sheffield Family didn't mistreat them or underpay them—providing room and board, a weekly salary of 10 pounds, and bonuses on holidays—a person would only earn 650 pounds in a year.
The price of the formula plus the Beyonder characteristic totaled 7,000 pounds, which would require at least 10 years of hard work.
With one sentence, Altair had given him ten years' worth of salary for free. Naturally, he had to show his loyalty.
Of course, for Altair, he didn't really need to spend 7,000 pounds on him; he only needed a Beyonder characteristic worth 5,000 pounds.
As for the formula, he had one on hand. After all, the Sheffield Family represented the military, and it was normal for their family treasury to have such a collection. He just had to instruct Hahn to transcribe a copy for him.
On the day he received the formula, Simon prepared the potion and advanced, meeting Altair again to show his loyalty.
The matter was resolved that simply. Altair didn't have to pay much of a price to gain the loyalty of a sequence six.