"Maybe. I do think it's worth a try day after tomorrow."

"I can't really pull the same excuse to distribute your created food again. It's already getting on to evening now, I'm gonna give you another twenty for that room- They have bathing and toilets, I can show you. Tomorrow, trying to help with my back and what else?"

"I thought you wanted two days of food but I can do Aura Sight tomorrow instead. Tomorrow I will try to help with your back and start studying English - how long do I have access to the miniature inn room -"

"Nah, it's a lot of decently quality stuff, everyone got a small nice treat and things run on favors, I'm good. You have twenty-four hours since you paid the first twenty, which would have been about... Two after midnight. It's twenty dollars for a twenty four hour period."

"If it's rude to have a conversation there is it also rude to have the phone read me a book there?"

He makes a so-so gesture. "Less so if you hold it close and play it quietly. I didn't think to grab a pair of headphones, which plug into it down here and let you listen quietly. There's probably a street vendor around with a cheap pair if you want to look?"

"Well, I don't want to bother my inn neighbors, so if they're not too expensive, yes."

Walking around a bit more they can find a street vendor with an old pair of corded earbuds, wires frayed to near uselessness. Only one side works, but they're dead cheap- $5.

Maybe Mending will patch them up. He buys them.

"You need anything else right now? I do have errands of my own to take care of."

"I think I'm fine to get started."

"Great. Remember to pay for another day, and uh... I guess I'll meet you out here at around nine tomorrow? That should be a couple hours after sunrise."

Nod. "With a Lesser Restoration."

"I'll see you then. Good luck with everything, head..."

"...is that a customary thing to call people in your language? Is it quite polite?"

"-It's pretty common to say, yeah. And it depends a lot on context. I'm not sure how to explain it briefly... It's definitely a casual register thing, though."

"So if I were going for something more like 'sir'..."

"Then you'd use 'sir'. It's a little weird and stuffy but not, like, intolerable or anything."

"I might be weird and stuffy," says Blai.

"You'll successfully give that impression with 'sir' for men and 'ma'am' for women. Except it's 'sir' again even for women if they're specifically police or military."

"Sir or ma'am. Thank you."

Samuel Brown waves goodbye again and starts heading off. The city bustles, though not very much here and now.

Blai starts reading books while having them simultaneously read to him.

At one point he can hear someone having sex in one of the neighboring units. It doesn't last long, though. There's also the low noise of people walking and talking quietly, now and then, or moving around in their own miniature-rooms.

Night falls.

He pays for another 24 hours. He sleeps.