Chapter 20 — Let’s Explore the Capital!

Editors: PROCRASTINATOR & GREETER

 

[Ei’s POV]

 

Luna was pretty tired after the rank-up test so we headed back to our room in the inn. I, however, was not particularly tired. I guess I’ll go explore the capital; I need some new clothes anyways.

 

“Hello! Welcome to our shop. Please bring anything you would like to the front counter.” (Shopkeeper)

 

I browsed around for a while. The clothes here seem to be of a higher quality… and more expensive. 

 

In the end I settled with some very similar clothes, a dark aqua shirt, a mithril weaved blue skirt, and some cyan leggings. I like the skirt in particular, it looks normal but has mithril weaved into it. Wait, why can’t I get that for all my clothes? I guess the shop is just out of stock. I paid and left.

 

I walk down the street and look at some more shops. None of these are particularly interesting. I wish I had brought Luna and Kurui along. Oh well, I’ll just bring them next time. We’ll probably be here for a while.

 

After some more walking I finally made it to an interesting spot! There’s a small square with a bunch of stalls and also a bulletin board. 

 

“Hey! Missy! Take a look at my stall!” (Vendor 1)

 

Some guy calls out to me… A ramen shop, huh? Wait, isn’t that Earth food? Well, might as well give it a shot.

 

“What do you sell here?” (Ei)

 

“Ramen, of various types. It’s a dish said to be from an ancient hero!” (Vendor)

 

So that’s how it got here… I guess I’m not the first person to be here. I wonder who that hero was. I should ask Kurui later. I’m sure they know. 

 

“I see. Hmmm… I’ll take a shoyu ramen.” (Ei) (A/N: My personal favorite :D)

 

I waited for a bit then got my ramen. It wasn’t as good as Earth, but still not bad. It reminded me of instant ramen. 

 

“Thanks for the food.” (Ei)

 

I paid and left. It was only three copper coins, so not too bad in price. I walked over to the bulletin board and decided to take a look.

 

It’s festival time! Celebrate King Fall kara Astraeus’ 87th birthday next Monoday through Dekaday! (A/N: A week is Monoday, Duoday, Trioday, Quadday, Pentaday, Hexaday, Septaday, Novaday, and Dekaday. If they don’t make sense, I don’t care :D)  

 

Hmmm… A festival? How interesting. I wonder if anything else interesting is happening.

 

Yamano Trade Company opens a new shop in Merchant District II! 

 

I feel like we influenced that a bit… There were several other posters about different shops opening. None of them really seemed interesting. Hmm… where to next?

 

I began to wander aimlessly around the streets of the capital. Most of the buildings were the same with a few small changes here and there. I think I made it to one of the worse-off parts of the city because the roads started to become more empty and trash was piling up. 

 

Someone’s going to try and jump me, I’m calling it now. Not that it will end well for them. Well, until that happens, I’ll just wander the empty streets. I think I see some people following me, but I’ll pretend to not notice. I’m bored right now, and they may just provide some entertainment.

 

If I want to have a good fight, I might as well find a nice, dark alleyway to fight them in. I turn down a random alley and turn around. Would you look at that, three scraggly looking men were standing there with daggers in their hands.

 

“Hey little girl… you know you shouldn’t be wandering around these parts?” (M1)

 

“You know, if people were to find you… it wouldn’t end well.” (M2)

 

“So… we’ll help you find your way back… after we have some fun.” (M3)

“Sometimes the lesson has to be learnt… the hard way.” (M2)

 

Hmmm… These guys are worse than expected. I guess I should kill them. But Luna said we should give people a chance for change. I’ll just give them nightmares then. And some advice.

 

“You three really are idiots.” (Ei)

 

I activate my vampire transformation and use a bit of magic to make my fangs flash. I also made my eyes red and glow slightly, for added effect.

 

“You know, I’m sure you’d make a great meal. I mean, you have five liters of blood each.” (Ei)

 

“W-what is a vampire doing here?!” (M1)

 

“Screw t-this! Let’s scram!” “(M2)

 

“What? You think I’d let my prey go?” (Ei)

 

Cthulhu is blowing menacingly now too, for extra effect. I force some blood out of my arms and form it into strings, hanging the ruffians in the air.

 

“Hmmmm… you don’t look so appetising after all. I guess I’ll just have to kill you.” (Ei)

 

I flash my fangs again. This had better give them nightmares. I can already see the cold sweat glistening on thier faces. Now to give them advice… How do I do that? Oh, I have an idea…

 

I create three balls of my blood and shove it down their throats. (G/N: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)) (A/N: *slap*) (P/N hehehehe)

 

“If you tell anyone about me, the blood I put into you will kill you. In fact, if you do anything like this again, the blood will kill you. So, why don’t you go become adventurers and kill me? Then you’ll be free. Not like you could stop me if you tried.” (Ei)

 

I let out the evilest laugh I could manage, before making the strings constrict upon the three men. They soon passed out from lack of air, and I dropped them to the floor. Was this better than just killing them? Hmmm… I guess I went a bit overkill on the evil part. Oh well…

 

Now I just have to hope they don’t see through my bluff… my blood can’t actually do that. I think at least? I might be able to manage it with magic. (P/N …)

 

 

“Hey Luna, Kurui! I’m back.” (Ei)

 

“Shhh! Luna’s still asleep. Try to be quieter.” (Kurui)

 

“Oh… sorry. Anyways, Kurui, I had something to ask you.” (Ei)

 

“Hm?” (Kurui)

 

“I heard something about there being a hero who was brought from another world to here.” (Ei)

 

“Hero? Which one… some of ‘em were a pain in the neck while some were actually real nice. Damn that god who meddles with other worlds!” (Kurui)

 

“Huh… So what are you then? I thought you were basically gods.” (Ei)

 

“I guess ya could call us single world gods. The only ones who can leave this place are ENTITY and NULL.” (Kurui)

 

“Huh.” (Ei) 

 

“Wanna do somethin? I think Luna’s gonna be out for a while.” (Kurui)

 

“Sure.” (Ei)

 

We left the inn together and began to wander the streets once more.

 

“I’ve got a place to show ya, assuming it’s still around! Follow me!” (Kurui)

 

Kurui then runs off. Following them, I pass by several shops. A few looked pretty interesting, like how there was an “otherworldly artifacts” shop. 

 

“Kurui! Wait up! There’s a shop I want to check out!” (Ei)

 

“Alrighty slowpoke! Which one?” (Kurui)

 

I point towards the otherworld artifacts shop. I want to see if there’s anything from Earth there.

 

“Hello ladies. Welcome to-” (Shopkeeper)

 

“Not a lady.” (Kurui)

 

“My bad. Welcome to the shop.” (Shopkeeper)

 

I see some things from Earth already. I think I can see a uPhone 10 over there. There’s also some books… maybe I can read those? (P/N Sigh… yes, there is a uPhone)

 

The first one is titled “Bear Four Times.” Isn’t that just a webnovel but with its name change? The other looks to be another copy of it. I hold up the book.

 

“Excuse me! How much is this?” (Ei)

 

“That? Since it isn’t the original, only five small gold coins!” (Shopkeeper) (A/N: $2,500)

 

This book is not worth that much… I guess I’ll miss out on reading it again then. 

 

Looking around some more I found several other types of phones, such as the Big Number Pixel 8 and a few Star Cluster phones. I doubt these work without the internet though. Is there nothing here besides useless technology? Also, how the hell did these things survive so long?

 

I walked to another corner of the store and found another section. There’s an AK-47 here. How utterly useless without ammo. Although, doesn’t Kurui have a gun? I think they showed me a while back… though it was a really old gun.

 

“Ooo a gun! I could make ya one of those if ya want!” (Kurui)

 

“As fun as guns are, I don’t think that’s what this world needs right now.” (Ei)

 

“Ah well, I’ll just remember the design for later, it looks like a fun thing to try out!” (Kurui)

 

“I don’t know about that one…” (Ei)   

 

We continued running after that. We didn’t pass anything interesting before Kurui stopped.

 

“This rusted fountain is what you wanted to show me?” (Ei)

 

The entire area is decrepit in fact, the houses are all boarded up and the benches look moldy. 

 

“It’s seen better days, but yep! A while back OCEAN created this fountain. They’re still around so I dunno why it rusted.” (Kurui)

 

“Huh.” (Ei)

 

“Stand back a sec, I’ma try to summon them!” (Kurui)

 

“Is it really fine to just do that?” (Ei)

 

“Sure thing! They made me like pirates after all, I bet they’ll like the form I took!” (Kurui)

 

They move up to the fountain and slam both their hands down. 

 

“Here goes nothin!” (Kurui)

 

『OCEAN GET OVER HERE!!!』 (Kurui)

 

A few moments later, some water forms on the ground. It sprouts up into a vaguely humanoid shape before coalescing into white haired person with some blue highlights. They seemed to be a bit more on the feminine side. 

 

『You called, INSANITY? And I thought you were sealed.』 (OCEAN)

 

“I suppose I did. Some idiotic cultists tried summoning me but it didn’t turn out as planned for them.” (Kurui)

 

『Those cultists are still acting up? I would have thought they had died out.』 (OCEAN)

 

“You spend too much time in the Challenger Deep. You should come out more often.” (Kurui)

 

『The mortal world is too pesky. You should know that. Also, why do you have a vampire standing behind you?』 (OCEAN)

 

“She’s my friend. Took out those cultists before I could.” (Kurui)

 

I wave.

 

“Hi.” (Ei)

 

『Quite the interesting companion you have there. She feels like ENTITY』 (OCEAN)

 

“I noticed that too. Well anyways, I called ya here because you let the damn fountain rust.” (Kurui)

 

『It seems I did. My apologies.』 (OCEAN)

 

OCEAN waves their hands around and the fountain turns back into a brilliant silver with bronze patterns all over it. Water comes forth, and it feels… a bit different than normal water.

 

『Make sure your vampire friend there does not get too close to the water. It is holy water after all. Now then, ta-ta~!』 (OCEAN)

 

They jump into the fountain and disappear.

 

“Well, that wasn’t what I wanted to show ya, but here we are. This is the Fountain of Radiance. This little square was one of my favorite retreats.” (Kurui)

 

“Interesting place.” (Ei)

 

Around us the plants that were previously dying begin to come back to life.

 

“The fountain seems to be healin things right now. Give it a second and ya will find out why I like it.” (Kurui)

 

The water from the fountain begins to dance in the air, taking the form of several animals dancing around the fountain. It seems to be telling a story, but my brain is too small to figure it out.

 

“It’s really pretty.” (Ei)

 

“Indeed. It shows a story of a bird jumping into the ocean. Supposedly that’s how some birds learned to swim! I doubt that one, but OCEAN insists it happens.” (Kurui)

 

Water droplets begin to form around the fountain, refracting the light into countless patterns across the area. It stings a bit though…

 

“As much as I like being here… it is starting to hurt. Maybe we should move away a bit.” (Ei)

 

“Ah… Guess that makes sense. Well, let’s go say hi to Luna. I bet she’s up. I’ll race ya back, threetwonego!” (Kurui)

 

And then they teleport. That’s cheating!!

 

Azure_Fog Maybe we’ll meet one of the heroes some time… It’s not planned for now at least.

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