167. ERUDITE KINGDOM (PART2)

“Should we meet up with her?” Prune asked.

“Let’s look at the map first.”

And from the map, Nine was headed in our direction.

“I don’t think it’s necessary. She’s coming over,” I raise my head to meet Prune’s gaze. 

If anything, I’m worried about her condition. I think we need to take a break after this. Some time will be needed for us to adjust to this new world.

Which leads me to question what in the world Nine did… protagonist correction? Did she save a princess from a wagon or something?

I looked towards the direction of the dot– oh. There’s actually a compass marker? You know, the compass you sometimes see in games that guide you to a place you set a target on without having to view the map itself? In this case, it was pointing at Nine.

Instead of the usual Nine I know, it was a guy with a black coat. I’m pretty sure that’s the Nine the compass was pointing to.

“I’m back,” he’s no longer a she, it seems. I almost didn’t recognize him.

“Where did you get that black coat?” I asked.

“Well, Bleu gave it to me last time so.. think of it as a disguise, Wait, there’s chocolate here?” I just realized that Nine was.. taller? What’s up with that? 

“Yeah?”

“You found a place to stay?” Prune asked.

“I did but.. it’s more like the place found me. Protagonist correction, it’s no joke,” Nine frowned. “Also, thanks to Prune, I just remembered that I should use my male self to deal with adventuring stuff.”

“So? The place to stay is?”

“First, can I order a drink?”

“Sure.. fine. Do you need a menu?”

“Chocolate,” Nine looked at my half-empty cup.

“Got it,” It’s called Coco but whatever, same thing. 

I got up to the waitress nearby to order another cup of Coco for our table. When she turned around to confirm our table, she had a stunned expression for a moment. She then promptly passed the order to the barista inside the store. I returned to my seat.

“So they found out?” Prune asked.

“I think most people here already know about it. Just look around us for a second.” Nine whispered the latter half of his words.

Stares...

Those around us were looking at us curiously.. or more specifically, Nine.

“Isn’t that because you’re wearing conspicuous clothes? What happened to not standing out?” I asked.

“Oh yeah.. crap,”  Nine leaned back against the splat of his seat. “But I want to register as a male though.”

“I suppose it’s inevitable,” Liliath said, “Could you elaborate on what kind of deal you made with the girl?”

The intensity of the stares soon faded. Looks like Liliath was using concealment magic. Checking with the appraisal on my UI, her mana percentage was– not even dropping..

Nine gave us his explanation of how he got us a place to stay. I don’t know if it’s because the girl with the freckles is just super intelligent or do we just stand out so much? Then again.. with the circulation of old history, the awareness of heroes and the existence of something called the ‘education guild’ that I’ve never heard about in any novel before– could it be that commoners here have formal education? If so then the action of the girl with the freckles would be justifiable.

I guess the deal isn’t all that bad. I was thinking of renting an inn somewhere. But the worry was money. With this sudden out-of-nowhere solution from Nine, I guess we wouldn’t need to worry so much about that anymore. Just that… can the florist be trusted? This is not a flag right?

On top of that.. Nine’s theory on how we’re not the protagonist, irregular nor even side characters.. that blew my mind. What exactly are we anyways? In the context of the story, do we categorize ourselves as invaders? I created Bleu but Bleu has an authority higher than the gods of this world. And now as the creator, I’m walking around the mortal realm of this fantasy world..

“The exchange was this. I’ll have to form a party with Jennifer and you’ll have to help Miss Margrett with the flowers if she ever needs help. No rent charged.”

“So in the end, everyone ends up using the apartment,” Prune sighed in relief.

“That’s the best I could think of. We need a base of operation right? I think following whatever scenario we come across is the best option for now– thank you” Nine said. His Coco also came at just the right time.

I paid for the drink and we went down to discuss more on our future plans.

Things we discussed include additional safety measures– Nine buffed everyone’s stats, not that I felt any different. After which we went on a widget brainstorming spree.

Autoconcelament widget, Statusconcealment widget, revival widget, teleportation widget, camera widget, Shareview widget, ShareUniqueSkill widget…

As for the Statusconcealment widget, Nine just copied and pasted his [Stat Concealment (EX)] in our statuses so.. no problems with that anymore. 

And an upgrade to the map where I can sort through what kind of people I can ping in our vicinity. For example, if I ping slaves, all slaves would show up on the map. Or if I ping people with ill intent towards us, it’ll show up on the map. Without a doubt, this is also a function I want everyone to be able to use.

Unknown. Good luck developing these.

We discussed until it was close to 12:20. Time to go to the guild... but before that.

“The washroom..” I muttered.

“Hm?”

“Anyone need to use the washroom before we go?” I asked again.

“Oh yeah.. that’s a probl.. time to see how this world’s bathroom is like,”Nine said, dubiously.

“Yeah, yeah..”

“I would be lying if I said I could hold for another hour,” Liliath smiled wryly.

“Same here,” Prune had the same concern expression as Liliath.

“Then Nine and Prune will go first? Then we’ll take turns.”

“How about you go first? Go ask the waitress for directions.. or should we just go to an alley out of view to secretly..”

“Not a chance..”

“.. use Prune’s unique skill and use the washroom there?”

Not cute Nine. Not cute. You’re a guy, it totally doesn’t suit your temperament to try to fool us like this.

“Okay, okay. Prune, let’s go.”

Liliath and Prune didn’t seem to mind so let’s just go with this setup.

I asked the waitress for directions and was told the male and female washroom was in the interior of the cafe.

Let’s just say.. the entire experience was rather normal. It’s like your normal toilet except that the flushing system is done by hand, having to manually scoop water from the bucket at the side and then pouring it down the abyss. 

It was smelly, without a doubt. But all in all, it was at least alright. I’m surprised that they created a basic sewage system at least. Bleu wasn’t lying when she said it was ‘passable’.

Prune cheated and went into the apartment and used the washroom there. No fair.. which prompted me to query where the wastewater goes after being flushed in the apartment? Maybe it’s better not to ask.

After each of our turns, we headed for the guild building. I’m not going to elaborate much on the outer exterior but if I were to sum up the guild in a sentence, it would be: fancy.

The entrance to it was rather large, donning a gate that was opened outwards. It was much quieter, two knights could be seen guarding the entrance.

We walked in. The first thing to note was how it had three floors. Yes– it somehow looked like those weird olden-day, industrial high classy hotels with the wooden handrails and red rugs– but the red rug here didn’t cover the whole floor. Some parts are reflected with something like granite or marble floor.

A bunch of tables and chairs arranged to create aisles. An entrance counter obstructing the straight path forward to the other inner counters. Winter decorations here and there, paper snowflake and blue lighting sparkles and whatnot here and there.

“Greetings,” the male guild staff with the glasses in the front counter, raised his head and greeted us.

“Um, excuse me sir, can I ask for the procedure if we want to register as an adventurer.”

“Registration? The four of you?”

“Yes,” Nine said.

“Okay,” shuffling some papers, he took out four applications, “Please fill up your names, special abilities, if applicable, past experiences and additional info. Just leave it blank if you don’t have anything to write.”

“Thank you.”

There were only two fountain pens we could use so we had to take turns. Worse was.. we had no idea how it worked since it was the kind that we needed to dip into the ink every now and then. I made a mess– 

Well. We had Liliath to teach us the proper way of using the fountain pen so the process of writing was made slightly less nightmarish. She was pretty skilled at it.

While we were at that, another person came in to register as an adventurer. Moreover, this was a kid around the age of 12. Huh, children in this world aren’t illiterate it seems. He didn’t need help filling the form.

“Thank you very much, we hope to work with the four of you from here on,” The staff said and stamped our forms one by one. The documents didn’t really contain any private information besides skills. “Now if you don’t mind, could you head on over to the front to apply for a guild card? Counter 14.”

“Will do, thank you.”

“Much appreciated.

So it seems the front counter is for the sake of enrolling new adventurers. The moment we left the counter, another pair of teens came to register themselves.

The seats in the hall weren’t filled with brawny people of sorts, though there were suspicious people wearing hoods drinking some alcohol. Levels ranging from 30 to 50. There were 20 counters here, but not all were currently active.

Besides the one male staff in the front, the rest of the staff here were female ones, demi-humans also part of the working force. The office clothing they wore kind of felt like something from steampunk– with the laced corset minus the gears and pipes.

“Excuse me, we came to apply for a guild card.”

“Yes, esteemed customer. So you came to register yourself as an adventurer, congratulations,” the staff replied with a stiff smile. It’s kinda awkward because you can kind of tell she didn’t really mean what she said. Adventuring isn’t really a noble job.

“There are guild rules we should follow when taking up quests correct? Is there a manual?” Nine asked.

“Yes, but if you prefer that I give you a short lecture on the important points, I could also do so.”

“Then the manual please.”

The staff looked at Nine a little silly. It’s a flag alright. Looks to me like a scene of a protagonist talking to a guild staff. 

“If you insist. Same for the three of you, correct?” Her smile grew even stiffer. In a light novel sense, it looks like her pride as a guild staff was crushed.

168.

We were presented with a thin booklet, it’s something we have to return later so we can’t just take it away.

We were asked to take a seat while waiting for the confirmation of the application. Not sure what that was about. During that period of time, Nine used the Bookreader widget to scan and save the contents of the entire booklet. What.. I didn't know you could do that..

Putting that aside, the rules were common sense stuff. Of course, there were other details that would vary depending on the kind of isekai world such as how rewards are divided, what you should do when you encounter a party in need of help, and adventurer’s etique like not stealing monster kills from other parties unless it was by accident.

There were also other rules like bar fights and annulment of guild cards if you act like a criminal..

I got through the entire thing half-way when we were beckoned by the female staff again.

On this note, I think it’s better that I look up her status to check on her name– Avice. Okay. Average stats around 40 to 70, I don’t know if that’s a high value or not.

“Oh shit.. I forgot. I’ll need to change everyone’s stats, buy some time,” Nine whispered.

“Please place your hands here,” gesturing, Avice said.

It was a weird orb. You know what that means.

The three of us, Prune, Liliath and I looked at each other– then at Nine who stood behind us and started fingering the air as if nobody's business. I don’t know if the status concealment skill hides our actual stats, but just in case.. Nine has us covered I guess.

“I’ve properly cleaned it so you don’t have to worry about it being contaminated,” she said with another stiff smile. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

“Done. Then I’ll go first,” Nine looked like he was sweating bullets, “Please something good..”

“You don’t need to be so nervous. This isn’t something that would affect your guild card.”

Nine placed her hands on the orb and the light that appeared from it was soft.

“What does this mean?” Nine asked Avice.

“That is..” she shook her head, “The results are normal. You have a healthy amount of mana in your body. Next please.”

Nine let out a sigh of relief at Avice’s disappointed statement. Hm?

The glow emitted when I placed my hands on the orb was brighter than Nine’s but it wasn’t blinding. Prune’s was similar to Nine while Liliath’s was the brightest.

“Thank you very much, please take a seat again at the table,” Avice lowered her head and left for the inner room.

“I set everyone’s stats to around 50, gosh. That could've been bad,” Nine said.

“Yeah.”

“I don’t understand how this magic and stats works,” Prune said.

“I’ll return everyone’s stats to normal now.”

Only Nine can adjust our stats, so it’s a funny feeling seeing the numbers in your own status window change. Heeh.. he added the MP stat into our columns even though we didn’t have them. 

I kinda wonder, do sudden changes in stats not affect us directly? Like if someone suddenly gained 1000 STG, wouldn’t that person accidentally break a table of something? It’s a mystery to me.

Avice then returned with our guild cards. You know, typical prick your finger and drip some blood activation sequence. Prune was a little hesitant but did it anyway. After that we got a brief rundown on your typical G-rank to S-rank lecture, and that the guild card colour depends on rank. G-rank, our current rank was a rusty bronze colour. The quest board is over there at the wall, or we can ask the staff for recommendations.

Nothing too special. Except that we got reprimanded for not having any weapons on us. Crap, that makes us look suspicious doesn't it? We should arm ourselves soon.

As for the quests, we were given two basic quests to rank up from G to F. One is picking up this medicinal herb called frost thorn, a dozen stalks of it. The second quest was to bring back a Hoppin’s horn. What’s a Hoppin you ask? It’s apparently that cliche horned rabbit you find in novels. Avice did tell us that goblin ears are alright too but since it was the winter and the fact that goblins were over-hunted, she said that hoppin’s horns were a better choice.

Each person needed one set of the requirement to rank up so.. 4 horns and 4 dozen stalks of frost thorn. 

There’s no time limit to the quest because it acts more like an examination so..

“Let’s go get lunch,” I said.

“Let’s go–”

Leaving the stiff smiling Avice behind, we headed for the guild tavern or whatever it’s called. It’s a separate section from the rest of the hall room with all the counters and instead of the sounds of paper shuffling, you smell alcohol and warm food. The clattering conversations of weapon wielding adventurers around the place also gave this surreal immersion.

We really are in a fantasy world. 

But before that..

“What’s that?” 

There was an odd machine there at the corner of the tavern-cum-hall. Somehow, it looked like a slot machine without a screen. With a knight guarding the machine, you could see a queue of people going there. Most of them were wearing mage-like clothes.

“I see.. this explains why the capital could afford to have these wide-scale lighting models,” Liliath said, ”It’s a mana donation station.”

“What? Something like this exist?”

“It’s like blood donation isn’t it?” Prune said in a slack voice.

“It transfers our magical energy to a mana battery storage, which is then used in powering these lights and perhaps the other tools used in maintaining the temperature in the guild.”

Oh yeah. I totally forgot that this was fantasy.. I was wondering why there were electric lights but to think that these are powered by mana? 

“You can earn money from that?” Nine said, seeing how the guard on duty distributed coins to the mage that had just completed mana donation.

“It seems so.”

I guess it’s a good way to both generate energy and not waste excess mana produced by the body. Actually, how fast does one’s mana recover? 

Moving on, we found a long table and took a seat. Following that, a waiter came over and asked for our orders. Funny as it sounds, there were only two options for the guild meal, either a small portion and big portion. The menu changes each day, so what you get is random. The small portion costs 5 copper each while the large portion costs 7 copper.

Honestly, I have no idea how much that is at all..

I really should stop being ignorant and read up the guide Unknown placed in my mail.

As for the drinks, water was complimentary while ale costs 4 large copper per mug. 

Okay, to make sense of it all, 20 copper equals 1 silver, one large copper is equivalent to 2 copper coins.. but it sometimes has the value of 3 copper coins depending on the situation of copper stock price.. what the fuck.. I didn’t know currency value is volatile here. Oi.

1 gold is equivalent to 100 silver, so it’s like a big currency that commoners don’t really use. It’s hard to exchange, to put it in a sense. There’s also large silver, and just like the large copper, it’s value fluctuates between the value of 2 to 4 silver coins.

Many factors affect the stock prices of these coins but.. it’s usually to do with the mining industry in Imagi or criminal syndicates that resmelt the coins into ingots to be sold– based on the guide. 

Maybe I should invest some time learning about the economy of this world. Though protagonist correction may very well help us earn money as adventurers.. I feel like that’s too orthodox. Why not experiment with other aspects of a fantasy world that most protagonists in novels never really try to experience?

“Nine, Noel, Liliath, this is real right? I still find it incredibly hard to believe..” Prune said.

“It’s real alright,” Nine said.

“There should be no problems surviving if we depend on each other,” Liliath said, consoling Prune by stroking her back. Nine and I sat on the same side, Liliath and Prune sat on the other. You know, Nine is a male now.

Nine kept glancing at the mana donation machine. He's interested in getting some free money..

“Nine, maybe you can go try it out? Maybe earn some freebies along the way?”

“Yeah sure, since the MP stats of those mages are around 100 to 200, I think I should be fine with 150 right?”

Nine said with a swag and went to the queue.

“Excuse me..”

Our meals arrived just in time. Looks like metal trays are a thing in this world.

It’s hard brown bread and some meat stew with some yam-like cubes seen floating around.

Nine was still in line, he looked at us like some sort of clown. It seems that his curiosity got the better of him so he didn’t leave the queue.

“Thank you,” I paid for it all. 3 small portions, one large. So it’s 23 small pieces of copper in total. I gave 1 silver and 3 copper.

The difference between the larger portion and smaller portion is that the larger portion has 2 loaves of bread and a bigger bowl of stew. Asides that, there’s not too much difference.

“I’ll keep it warm as for now, I’m curious to see the amount paid out for a meager amount of mana.”

Meager.. in Liliath’s words. I was thinking maybe Liliath’s base pool is way higher than an average person since she’s both a demon lord and prodigy when it comes to magic. It’s just a speculation on my end but maybe a stat of 50 for Liliath’s MP may beat Nine’ 100 MP stat in terms of mana volume.

The three of us waited as Nine made his way to the machine, he placed his hands on the orb and..

===

“Hey, it’s better than the mercenary food we tasted last time.”

“It matches well with the bread.”

“I believe Prune’s cooking is much more appetising.”

“...” while the rest of us chatted, Nine remained silent.

You could tell the stew had been cooked over a long period of time from the meat fibres found inside it. The bread, though crude, had this strong wheat-like taste. Combine that with the slightly creamy stew, and thanks to the yam-like ingredient, it created this nice combination.

By the way, the bread was about the size of an adult hand, or about half the size of the rabbit plushie, Qui.

…

Reality hit me again huh? To think that we’d be separated from everyone we knew for who knows how long. The only thing to hang on is the fact that our return to the modern world is determined.

I decided to put aside the thought and just enjoy the meal.

The glass windows in the food hall were fogged up, beads of condense water formed on the interior side of the glass. If you look up, you could see multiple magic light sources dangling like some Christmas decorations. There were upper floors which I believe is the guild’s inn because there were many rooms with number plates.

Looking around, you could see a group of seriously equipped adult adventurers discussing something over a large table-top map, mages taking turns using the mana donation machine to earn a few extra cents, youthful adventurers having a nice chat, waitresses sashaying as they approached each adventurer that came in, chefs yelling in the kitchen..

It’s unreal..

“Liliath, teach me magic.. you have to teach me magic.” Nine said after a long silence, a scary sound came from his clenched fist.

If you’re curious about how much Nine got from the machine, it was none. He didn’t know how to properly channel mana into the machine. Go figure. Though, it’s odd how he managed to channel mana into the knife he used to intercept the sentry before this. Maybe it’s beginner’s luck?

169.

Current Shared Points: 4345.

Quests:

*Everyone enters Prune’s apartment. 30P.

*Noel having tea with Liliath. 20P.

Prune making a dish with 100% Imagi ingredients. 40P.

*Noel and Liliath kiss. 50P.

Pet a slime. 30P.

Go stay a night at an inn with everyone. 40P.

Eat food prepared by royalty. 30P.

Kill a goblin with nothing but a stick. 30P

Everyone learns how to use their first magic. 30P

…

===

“Prune, have you decided what you want to do? Like, do you have anything you want to try in this world?”

It’s actually pretty late to ask this. We’ve been so busy trying to figure out how the world works, we totally forgot to try to tally our goals.

At lunch at the guild, we decided that we would go try to complete the G-rank quests tomorrow. We spent the rest of the afternoon getting used to the kingdom layout.

There were 2 main gates, we only managed to find one. It’s just at the end of the street out when you come out of the guild. There’s like a toll there managed by a few dozen knights. From our observations, adventurers get to enter and exit through a different path. So they don’t need to queue with the merchants or peddlars.. and I must say, the stagecoach queue is crazy long.

Erudite, as Liliath said, was a kingdom built close to the sea, which meant that there was a harbour. But.. we couldn’t find it.

“Excuse me, we’re back,” entering the florist shop, Nine called out.

“Huh? Customer-sama,” the girl with the freckles, Jennifer greeted. When she saw the rest of us a perplexed expression surfaced on her face.

“Greetings, ah, could you be acquainted with Nine-sama?” a woman watching behind the counter called out, which I learnt that her name to be Miss Margrett later on.

“Sorry to trouble you, but this is all of us,” Nine said.

“Um, could I ask where Nine-sama is?” 

Prune, Liliath and I turned to Nine at the same time.

“Oh right.. “

With a snap, Nine turned back into a girl. Posing while saying “here I am!”

A random customer in the florist shop who saw that dropped his dentures at the sight.

As for what happened next.. I'll leave it to your imagination to decide. The random customer was made to believe what Nine did was quick change magic, luckily he accepted that lie readily. Quick change magic is actually a skill, I didn’t know that.

Just that it was difficult to get him to believe that she– I mean his clothing swap was so fast, you couldn’t even see if you didn’t blink.

===

We had to ask for directions from Jennifer-san– or chan– 

She said it was quite  a distance away, at least a 30 minute walk from here. So we decided to leave that to another day and explore places that were closer to the florist store.

The day ended pretty quickly with us spending the majority of our time just walking and exploring. We got to enter this bazaar market setting with all sorts of preserved foods, fish, fruits, vegetables and miscellaneous objects. Among them, Nine found a cursed ring equipment with his appraisal. We didn’t buy it of course, it just happened.

We still haven’t explored ateliers, bookstore or a weapon store yet. It’s a mystery how the first store we ended up at was a florist though.

Man.. this place is huge alright. My map only shows areas I’ve seen, so the current kingdom exploration progress we’ve made was somewhere around 3 percent, give or take.

And back to the conversation–

“I don’t know. I need some time to think about it,” Prune said, dipping the mop into the bucket.

Currently, we were at the florist shop, more specifically, the room on the upper floor that Nine managed to arrange for us.

Prune took in a sharp breath and sneezed. The room is heck dusty.

“I’m sorry I dragged you into this,” I said, wiping the wooden bed frame with a wet cloth. It’s surprising how I’m not sneezing, maybe it’s because I’m a demon lord now.

“It’s okay. At least we know we’ll get to return in the future..ha.. ha.. achoo!!”

“Well.. bless you.”

I feel sorry for Prune.

After dropping the cloth into the wet bucket, I moved the boxes filled with unknown contents outside of the room. This place Nine got for us was just right. Too bad I’m not Japanese, else, I'd be using tatami mat calculation to describe the size of this place. In my words, it can fit about 10 queen sized beds if squeezed together. It's decent, I guess.

The lighting of the room was a single bulb and it was quite old, so Miss Margrett-san went to the local home depo to get a replacement– 

And if you’re wondering why I’m adding -san and -chan to names, it’s because Miss Margrett-san explained that our manner of speech was an extremely obvious indicator that we weren't from this world. Thanks for the warning.. but I don’t get how that would be an indicator when the ‘heroes’ from another Japan– clearly not from the Japan of my world– would use these honorifics naturally.
“Noel, help me with this, I’m going to wash my face.” Prune asked me to change the bucket. She kept rubbing her nose.

“Okay.”

While Prune entered her domain, I went downstairs. The upper rooms were connected to the kitchen area– which connected to the small compartmented flower-filled backyard. Compartmented because, you know, this is a florist shop lot, not a house. I went to the well to draw up some water, it was the kind with a pump mechanism. I remembered to pour the dust-filled water down the drain before I refilled it of course.

Speaking of water, that became an issue while we were exploring Erudite Kingdom. A quick fix would be to use go to the apartment and get some water– it’s a mystery why the water filter is included in the package, thank you Unknown– but in the case where we don’t have that option, we decided to take Liliath’s suggest and buy some water bottles. 

Liliath and Nine went to accompany Margrett-san and Jennifer-chan to get some food, in  a way, learning the ropes of where to get decent takeaways.

I came back upstairs with a new bucket of water.

Prune returned from her domain, leaving the conspicuous door there.

“Noel, what about we try meeting other races? If we’re talking about goals, exploring other kingdoms should be on our list right?”

“Exploring is a must have for isekai. That’s a good idea. But we’ll see how to go about visiting other countries once we know how the world works. Money is still an issue.”

“It is.”

“But we’ll get there.”

In reality, waiting to explore other kingdoms.. it’s not as easy as what’s been mentioned in isekai genre novels? I feel like we need to get over our fears if we want to do that. The main problem now is that we know too little. It’s kinda weird now to think that the normal route one would go if to sign up in a guild, hunt monsters and stay at an inn– and then repeat until you gain enough money due to some cliche development and take on a quest to go to another kingdom.

I doubt we’d be leaving the capital kingdom all that soon. Since fear of the unknown plays a really big part in our decision making process. Moreover, does adventuring really pay well? Most MC don’t get into ‘proper’ big, life threatening accidents when dealing with subjugation quests. Even if they did, they would come out a-o-kay. I don’t know what are the chances of that happening to us, and I don’t wish to know either. 

“Noel.. do you miss home?”

“Home?”

Surely.

“It’s been less than a day and I already feel homesick,” Prune said with a sigh.

“Same here, it might get worse in time.”

“Look at the bright side, at least I’m getting to experience something different… Noel, what kind of world do you think this is? It’s based on a novel you’ve read right?” The way she tried to console herself wasn’t really all that pleasant to hear.

“I have no idea actually. It’s more of a mixture of novels, pieces here and there.. Some of it I’ve never read in a novel even, like this right here,” I pointed at the door leading to Prune’s domain. 

I don’t mean the realm, but the fact that the design door was the same as the one of our original apartment with the 244A serial number on it.

“I just hope it’s not a scary world.”

“Even if it is, our future selves made it back safe and sound.”

“True,” Prune stood back up, about to start moping again. When she sneezed, I said “bless you” once more.

170.

“If I may ask, may I know what unique skills the four of you possess?” Margrett-san asked.

The time now is around 5 pm, the sky outside was pitch black and snow had started to fall.

Liliath and Nine, together with Jennifer-chan and Miss Margrett-san returned with some sandwiches. I wasn’t sure what kind of meat was used in it, but the fact that it had cheese inside it was like.. nice.

If cheese was a thing, why was tofu considered legendary then? I somehow wanted to know the answer to this question.

Besides the sandwich, there was some boiled potatoes and hard candy as dessert. I wasn’t really a fan of candy after a meal but it seems to be a custom here because Jennifer-chan was really enjoying those.

Everyone was seated around the kitchen area, it was kinda cramped but there was still some wiggle room to spare. You know, washing your hands before a meal is a thing here fortunately, they even have bar soap. So that’s a weird plus. Civilization is more advanced than your typical medieval era.

“Our Unique Skills huh.. we’re going to be found out in the end isn’t it?”

“Isn’t that inevitable?” Nine retorted.

“Prevention should be exercised,” Liliath said to back me up.

“I swear hereby not to disclose information regarding your Unique Skills to others,” Miss Margrett-san, holding her hand up like she was pledging.

“Liliath, is there a divine retribution system if one breaks a pledge?”Nine asked.

“There is, however, it requires the person to swear upon the name of the God of Law, Thermis-sama.”

“I dare not,” Miss Margrett-san said.

“To be endowed a divine retribution isn’t some light burden, I can understand your concerns,” Liliath said.

“To share or not to share.. such is the question..”

“Miss Margrett-san, can I first ask about your spouse?”

“Oh, he’s currently busy attending his duties as a royal knight. He should be guarding the outer palace courtyard.”

“And papa’s very strong too,” Jennifer-chan said in between candies.

“That makes sense.. you know. I actually don’t even know how to fight, we really just got here to this world last night,” Nine confessed. 

“I believe you will be able to blossom into something more than you yourself can fathom, it’s inevitable for those wielding powers such as yourself,” Miss Magrett-chan said with a smile.

“Believe in yourself, that’s where the true essence of a hero lies,” Jennifer-chan continued. The mother and daughter pair then bumped fists. Wow, how intimate.

I don’t really know about that but.. I guess there is some merit to what Jennifer said. If they believe that it’s alright then.. so be it.

As for showcasing our Unique Skills.

“Noel, is it alright? To just show them our skills? We’re bound to reveal them in the end. One more thing is that.. I feel like the scale of this world is just too big for word about us to spread. It doesn’t feel like a novel at all. If it does spread then it’s the protagonist’s correction’s fault.”

“Alright then.. “ I brought up my UI.

“I will follow whichever choice you choose Noel,” Liliath said.

“Yup, that’s how it is then.”

“If that’s the case then.. should we just let them use the apartment? It’s a lot more comfortable there,” Prune asked.

“It’s up to you.. ”

“Okay.”

“Jennifer-chan and Miss Margrett-san, I want you two to think of a status window right now..”

To keep it short. I attached a BookReader widget to their UI, including Basic status window widget so they can view their stats. BookReader widget so that they can read books from my world.

Enjoy reading to your heart's content.

With my Unique skill explanation done, Nine altered their stats in front of their eyes, and also turned Jennifer’s [Magic enhancement (C)] and [Magic Cost Reduction (D)] skill into [Magic enhancement (S)] and [Magic Cost Reduction (S)]. For Miss Margrett, Nine changed upped her [Sharpshooter (B)] to [Sharpshooter (S)]. Miss Margrett was once an adventurer it seems, her stats are pretty high, averaging around 300 to 500 at level 97. Miss Margrett also has [Intuition (C)], but Nine made sure not to touch that. 

Jennifer-chan.. let’s just say she totally clung to male Nine. Heh, he’s more of a protagonist than I am, good job.

Liliath’s TALENT was really just demonstration. With Miss Margrett’s husbands name, Liliath managed to locate and pinpoint his exact location and..

“He’s in the dungeon with the heroes it seems,” Liliath said.

On the map, it was a location not too far away from the kingdom, probably. I have no idea where that is even, everything outside that was greyed out.

Miss Margrett-san was surprised to learn of this but she didn’t seem to mind it. If anything, she looked proud.. somehow I get this feeling somehow that she’s like that flag to our kingdom come. Protagonist correction eh? Crap.

After dinner, we brought them to the apartment, Prune’s domain. In a sense.. to give them a feel of what it’s like to live in an apartment in the modern world.

Things like a shower, proper toilet, sink, refrigerator, oven.. Prune did invite them to use the bathroom here if they like rather than having to wipe themselves with a cloth and hot water– which is a really medieval way of cleaning oneself.

They took up Prune’s invitation of course. I took the time to browse through some bath amenities like shampoo and body soap for future use. 

“What’s this?”Jennifer-chan asked.

“It’s an electric kettle.”

“How beautiful.”

“We do use it occasionally, but that itself happens once in a blue moon as magic is more convenient,” Liliath said and snapped 6 cups of warm water into existence. We had to use the ceramic cups from Miss Margrett’s kitchen because we didn’t have enough in the room to accommodate 6 people.

“I apologize for intruding like this,” Seeing how elated her daughter was, Margrett-san sounded a little apologetic.

“It’s fine. But it’s kinda stuffy isn’t.. hah..” Prune said– and then sneezed. She had tissue at hand, fortunately.

“I’ll just use this place then,” Nine said, sitting on the couch.

“Can I open this?” pointing at the refrigerator.

“Yes.”

“What’s this?” She then stared at the eggs with round eyes.

“Egg.”

“Really?! These are eggs from the other world?!”

“Are eggs rare here?” I asked.

“They aren’t particularly hard to come by.. and there are many variants to choose from. That is, however, different from eggs that come from your world, isn’t it?” Miss Margrett-san explained.

“Here, please accept some tea.”

“Very much appreciated.”

“Jenn-chan, you too.”

“Thank you very much Liliath-sama!”

And the rest of the evening was spent talking about our experiences in each of our worlds. 

To be honest, I didn't expect Liliath’s world to be so ‘hero-demon lord’ oriented. There are like at least 10 cycles of records regarding the battle between demon lords and the otherworlders. So in a way, the people here are well notified when it comes to things in the modern world. 

Their world is to ours, what ours is to theirs. To them, our world is fantasy. 

Though one thing about their knowledge didn’t add up.. which is that the heroes came from a world without TALENTS. I’ve read novels about that before but.. really? A world without TALENTS? How did the human race survive then? 

Part of Darwin’s theory of evolution believes that the appearance of TALENT is the main contributing factor to why us humans managed to come so far. No other creatures had TALENTS like us humans..

Or do the heroes have some sort of different evolution theory? A parallel universe perhaps?

Warm tea in a warm house holding a nice conversation together.. we got to learn quite a few things from Miss Margrett-san about this world too. We’ll put that to use in time.

Surprisingly, Jennifer-chan would have to go to school tomorrow, so she said we have some time to get used to the ropes of adventuring before accompanying Jennifer for monster hunting.

School? For commoners? In a fantasy world? I’m pretty sure that’s not normal. I’m not trying to discriminate here but seriously? People here educated?

Further explanation suggests that the concept of general education was spread around 2 cycles ago, about 200 years ago. It has become a norm for children from the age of 6 to 12 to go to school. In a sense, Jennifer-chan is in her last year. Once winter is over, she’s to find an occupation or something.. and she dreams to be an adventurer.

Huh.. even after 200 years of general education, the modernization of this world is still slow isn’t it.. no. The architecture of the guild, mana battery and engine-based carriages..  Maybe I just don’t know this world well enough yet.

Jennifer-chan, who couldn't keep up with time dozed off on the table. From Miss Margrett’s explanation, Jennifer-chan sleeps at around 7 pm, the time now is around 8:30, way past her bedtime.

Is it just me or is Margrett damn strong? She carried a 12 year old like nothing..

Now that they’ve left..

“We need to find a way to improve our fighting power, for self defence,” Nine said.

“Is it really necessary to fight?” Prune was reluctant, I was on the same page.

“We’re talking about a sword and magic world here, so it’s not something we can just overlook right, Liliath?”

“I will have to agree with Nine.”

“How are we going to practice then?”
Yeah, that is a question but..

“Any ideas on how we can come up with a workout schedule? Otherwise we’ll go through our days not doing anything at all,” Nine asked.

Liliath and I somehow met each other’s eyes. That sparkle of crimson in her pupils, we thought of the exact same thing.