As you huddled with Cattleya and Mel you took another glance at the Drag On Gang. You didn't fully trust them, despite hardly being a threat to you every time you encountered them. They seemed to have a similar though process, if in an opposite direction— their own furtive glances towards you and your wives quickly disappearing as soon as they noticed your own, badly veiled by sudden whistling.

You knew they had a healthy fear and respect towards the fact you're a Savant, fleeing and making themselves scarce when finding out. Which only gave more emphasis to the question: What was said to them about that magical wand, that it would inspire such confidence in their abilities? Did it really provide such a boost?

Your Appraisal— despite being a useful skill that helped explain most artifacts' use, even giving context with the knowledge of your old world— still had its limits. You hadn't seen the wand in action, so all you had was a general knowledge of what that would look like. Still, that general knowledge, along with any assumptions you had about this world and how it worked, was usually correct since it followed the formula most isekai had. Also you weren't gonna risk giving it back to them just in case it did do something that would bring harm.

"Yeah, we'll tell them they almost got scammed into becoming living time bombs." You decided.

"You sure about this?" Cattleya asked. "These nobheads aren't exactly on the up and up, guv."

"I'm positive." You reply.

"It's good to rely on Master." Mel said to Cattleya, then looked at you with confidence. "We'll always have your back, Master!" She must've taken that conversation she had with Ruby and Gerty to heart.

And with that the three of you break your huddle and approach the Drag On Gang.

A few seconds of bated silence stretch on as you stare at each other.

"You got somethin' to say?" Said Boss, breaking the silent staredown.

"I'm surprised you three decided to not just run away." You commented.

"Yeah well that crazy catgirl of yours just punched us with those gauntlets in less than a blink!" Boss said, incensed. "And that's without her fuckin' claws out. You think we'd be able to get away from that?"

"That's not even talkin' about the illusions of that chick over there." Biggy pointed a thumb towards Mel "Would'a just made us crash into a wall."

"Yeah, and don't think we don't know you have some sorta trick you got, Savant." Smalls added gruffly. "Betcha have some new magic spell or a robot or art-e-fact, or somethin'."

"Watch your bloody tone when talking to the guv." Cattleya hissed at the three of them.

"Hey, hey!" Boss said. "You just gotta give us the artifact back, and we're outta here. Easy, right?"

"Do you guys even know what it even does?" Mel asked.

"Course we know. It's a fuckin' wand." Boss waved his hands around for emphasis. "It's magic and shit! What else is there to know?"