The Otherworld shop was in a place located slightly deeper in the shopping district.
The store’s front was adorned with a signboard. The common kanji-like characters of the Dragon Jewel Language, the language of the Arbello Country in its current incarnation, were written side by side on it. Unfortunately, I could not read or write this language, so I could only assume that “Otherworld shop” was written there. However, I did not believe that my lack of knowledge was just because I was a Mixed Breed. The literacy rate of this world was not high. When we walked through the shopping district, the signboards that were placed in front of the shops always had easy to understand pictures that were drawn on them. In fact, to underline this, some places only had a picture drawn.
“Ud, da, wu, ruld, shop. Yep. This is it. The one the troupe head told me about.”
“Clau, you can read the characters?”
I gave Clau, who was staring at the signboard beside us, a surprised look.
“Yup. I got Mom to teach me. Like, it would be good if I memorized the words.”
Certainly that was true, but was it not amazing to be taught this? Alfa was a sword master, after all, so just what kind of person was she? Well, there were people with their own circumstances for being in the troupe, after all, so perhaps she was like that. There were not that many guests in the Otherworld shop, so it was very quiet. After we entered through the door, the cat man sitting at the counter gave us a glance and frowned. Although, it seemed like he was currently discussing business with a customer, so he did not come here to kick us out. Therefore, we happily headed inside. The objects that were lined up on the shelves weren’t new goods as they were damaged and dirty in various places. There were a lot of strange things, such as weird artwork pieces shaped like jars or snakes. The only problem was that none of these stimulated my memory one bit. To put it simply, all of them were garbage that I could not understand. I had absolutely no idea what uses they had. There were three possible reasons for this that I could think of:
Though they were from “another world,” they did not come from the world I knew, but from yet another world. The things here were from a country that was not Japan, and my past self did not know it. The memories in my mind were just delusions.I wanted to exclude the third possibility, but if there wasn’t anything tied to my memories to be found, I could not be confident that it wasn’t the truth. If possible, I wanted to firmly grasp that item in my hand and carefully look over it while thinking, but in the case of the first possibility, I could not rule out that there was not some kind of curse on it. No matter what, this world was already a pseudo-RPG. Something like an item that would not come off no matter what after being equipped was seriously scary.
“Hmm… Nothing, huh?”
The shop itself was not that large. I had only walked a few steps, but I reached a dead end already. I wished they had sorted the same class and types of items together. To be frank, I had a feeling that I might have overlooked something just because of how the wares were laid around. I spun around to my right to turn back.
*Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-!!*
The moment I turned around, I was startled by a sudden reverberating sound. It sounded like an alarm. I searched for the source and found that it came from Clau, who had fallen on his butt.
“What the hell are you doing?”
Dumbfounded Clau’s collar was grabbed and he was raised up with ease by the cat man owner. He grasped something oval in his hand. The sound probably came from that. With a clink, something metallic fell to his feet.
“Let go!”
“How dare you break something in my shop! This ain’t a playground for children!”
“I didn’t break it. I just touched it!”
At this rate he would be brought to the public office and I could not let that happen. I had realized right away what Clau was holding, and I picked up the metal object that had fallen near his feet.
“Clau. Pass it to me.”
After I got the thing Clau was gripping, I thrust the hook of metal thing I picked up into the hole of the item he gave me. When I did so, the noisy reverberating bell suddenly stopped. I felt relieved that it went smoothly.
“…What did you do?”
“It’s not broken.”
The cat man looked suspicious, so I made the crime prevention buzzer ring again and thrust it before him.
“The crime prevention buzzer is working normally. Release Clau.”
Certainly, we were in the wrong for making it ring all of a sudden, but I did not think it was something that deserved being grabbed by the scruff of your neck for. Even a child or a Mixed Breed had rights. After receiving the buzzer, the cat man let Clau down for now.
“Welllll, aren’t you quite amazing, Little Miss?”
The man, who had just been discussing business with the cat man, approached us. He looked down at me with his red eyes, which showed that he was probably of the Demon Race.
“Incidentally, where did you learn something like this from?” [1]
“Eh…?”
Where from? I suddenly realized that what I had said just now was not something that I should have known. To be honest, was it fine for me to talk about my past life? No, I should not. If I told them about this, at most I would just be treated as someone with a screw loose in their head. Not only that, but the phrase ‘bad people will come to catch you’ spoken to me after I sang the otherworld songs was stuck in my head. Not to mention, the Otherworld shop employee, who should have known this by all means, did not know how to use his own shop’s goods. Which meant otherworld knowledge was not well-known right now. If that was the case, just the knowledge of what it was should have a considerable amount of value attached to it. …This was too dangerous.
“…Mama told me.”
I cast my eyes down to prevent them from finding out that I lied. In my mind, I repented. Mama, I am sorry for blaming it on you. But please, protect me.
“The mother of a Mixed Breed? Just what on earth is—”
“Ocht is sad, so don’t say any more. Ocht’s mom is dead.”
Clau held out his arms and stood in front of me. Clau was so cool. I felt bad for making him misunderstand but the adults seemed to have conveniently misunderstood as well, so I stayed in that position. Yep. I did a good job.
“Sorry ‘bout that. I’m also sorry that you’re a Mixed Breed. By the way, is there anything else you’ve heard?”
I clung to Clau’s back to look as if he had frightened me. Then, I stealthily sneaked a glance at him. The cat-man’s face was densely covered in fur, so I could not read his expression well. The Demon Race man was smiling, but I could not say that he was a good person just based on that. I felt that we should return to the tents as soon as possible.
“If that object stops ringing later, we will suspect that the little miss and her friend broke it, won’t we? Is that something that will last forever?”
“…If the battery runs out, it won’t ring,” I whispered.
Nevertheless, this person had a very detestable way of hearing things. It was ringing right now, so it was neither Clau’s nor my responsibility if it stopped ringing later. However, the way he twisted words made it seem otherwise. So, I could not be sure that the cat man who heard those words just now would not try to falsely accuse us. Besides, the Demon Race man probably said this after judging that we were travelling entertainers, so we didn’t have much gold and also had low social status. Just by looking at our clothes, it became very clear that we were entertainers, and travelling entertainers did not make that much money. Not only that, we were at a disadvantage since we were children, and I was a Mixed Breed. If you were asked to believe either the cat man or us, the cat man would definitely win.
“So what is a battery, little miss?”
“…The source of power that allows it to move. When the key in the head portion is taken off, power flows inside.”
The cat man gazed fixedly at the crime prevention buzzer in his hand. It should be sufficient to say this much. I pulled on Clau’s clothes.
“Clau, let’s head back?”
My mind warned me that the faster we returned, the better. It was already troublesome enough from my birth alone. I did not need any more troublesome things.
“Why hurry, Little Miss? Since you are already here, why don’t you stay for a bit longer? Right, Shopkeeper?”
“Aahh. Please do so. I have sweets too.”
… Wasn’t that a criminal technique used for kidnapping children? I looked at the two people in amazement. Just who would be dumb enough to be lured by sweets…
“Sweets?”
Clau had a very interested face. Well, I guess it was natural. Unlike me, Clau was an authentic pure child after all. Not only that, but we rarely ever got to eat sweets too.
“Clau, no.”
“But—”
“No.”
You would not know who was older like this, but I shook my head clearly.
“There’s a hidden side to sweets.”
“The sweets have a hidden side?”
“Ah… Not the sweets themselves.”
“Here, I brought them.”
The cat man, who had brought the cake-like things on a round plate, had slitted eyes. This was probably his smiling face. I definitely saw ulterior motives hidden behind that smiling face.
“Ahhhn.”
Seeing Clau biting into the cake that the Demon Race man held out to him, my face twitched.
“… How much is it?”
“Can you pay if I told you?”
I probably couldn’t. Inside my mind, I shed an ocean of tears. Since it had become like this, let us strive to become rich. It was at this moment, that I decided that.
References
[1] I tried to make it clearer who is talking as there aren’t as many cues in English as in Japanese. In case it isn’t clear enough (which probably means I’ve failed), the Demon Race man should refer to Ocht as “little miss” (Jou-chan) and speak slightly more intellectually than the cat man.
The Otherworld shop was in a place located slightly deeper in the shopping district.
The store’s front was adorned with a signboard. The common kanji-like characters of the Dragon Jewel Language, the language of the Arbello Country in its current incarnation, were written side by side on it. Unfortunately, I could not read or write this language, so I could only assume that “Otherworld shop” was written there. However, I did not believe that my lack of knowledge was just because I was a Mixed Breed. The literacy rate of this world was not high. When we walked through the shopping district, the signboards that were placed in front of the shops always had easy to understand pictures that were drawn on them. In fact, to underline this, some places only had a picture drawn.
“Ud, da, wu, ruld, shop. Yep. This is it. The one the troupe head told me about.”
“Clau, you can read the characters?”
I gave Clau, who was staring at the signboard beside us, a surprised look.
“Yup. I got Mom to teach me. Like, it would be good if I memorized the words.”
Certainly that was true, but was it not amazing to be taught this? Alfa was a sword master, after all, so just what kind of person was she? Well, there were people with their own circumstances for being in the troupe, after all, so perhaps she was like that. There were not that many guests in the Otherworld shop, so it was very quiet. After we entered through the door, the cat man sitting at the counter gave us a glance and frowned. Although, it seemed like he was currently discussing business with a customer, so he did not come here to kick us out. Therefore, we happily headed inside. The objects that were lined up on the shelves weren’t new goods as they were damaged and dirty in various places. There were a lot of strange things, such as weird artwork pieces shaped like jars or snakes. The only problem was that none of these stimulated my memory one bit. To put it simply, all of them were garbage that I could not understand. I had absolutely no idea what uses they had. There were three possible reasons for this that I could think of:
Though they were from “another world,” they did not come from the world I knew, but from yet another world. The things here were from a country that was not Japan, and my past self did not know it. The memories in my mind were just delusions.I wanted to exclude the third possibility, but if there wasn’t anything tied to my memories to be found, I could not be confident that it wasn’t the truth. If possible, I wanted to firmly grasp that item in my hand and carefully look over it while thinking, but in the case of the first possibility, I could not rule out that there was not some kind of curse on it. No matter what, this world was already a pseudo-RPG. Something like an item that would not come off no matter what after being equipped was seriously scary.
“Hmm… Nothing, huh?”
The shop itself was not that large. I had only walked a few steps, but I reached a dead end already. I wished they had sorted the same class and types of items together. To be frank, I had a feeling that I might have overlooked something just because of how the wares were laid around. I spun around to my right to turn back.
*Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-!!*
The moment I turned around, I was startled by a sudden reverberating sound. It sounded like an alarm. I searched for the source and found that it came from Clau, who had fallen on his butt.
“What the hell are you doing?”
Dumbfounded Clau’s collar was grabbed and he was raised up with ease by the cat man owner. He grasped something oval in his hand. The sound probably came from that. With a clink, something metallic fell to his feet.
“Let go!”
“How dare you break something in my shop! This ain’t a playground for children!”
“I didn’t break it. I just touched it!”
At this rate he would be brought to the public office and I could not let that happen. I had realized right away what Clau was holding, and I picked up the metal object that had fallen near his feet.
“Clau. Pass it to me.”
After I got the thing Clau was gripping, I thrust the hook of metal thing I picked up into the hole of the item he gave me. When I did so, the noisy reverberating bell suddenly stopped. I felt relieved that it went smoothly.
“…What did you do?”
“It’s not broken.”
The cat man looked suspicious, so I made the crime prevention buzzer ring again and thrust it before him.
“The crime prevention buzzer is working normally. Release Clau.”
Certainly, we were in the wrong for making it ring all of a sudden, but I did not think it was something that deserved being grabbed by the scruff of your neck for. Even a child or a Mixed Breed had rights. After receiving the buzzer, the cat man let Clau down for now.
“Welllll, aren’t you quite amazing, Little Miss?”
The man, who had just been discussing business with the cat man, approached us. He looked down at me with his red eyes, which showed that he was probably of the Demon Race.
“Incidentally, where did you learn something like this from?” [1]
“Eh…?”
Where from? I suddenly realized that what I had said just now was not something that I should have known. To be honest, was it fine for me to talk about my past life? No, I should not. If I told them about this, at most I would just be treated as someone with a screw loose in their head. Not only that, but the phrase ‘bad people will come to catch you’ spoken to me after I sang the otherworld songs was stuck in my head. Not to mention, the Otherworld shop employee, who should have known this by all means, did not know how to use his own shop’s goods. Which meant otherworld knowledge was not well-known right now. If that was the case, just the knowledge of what it was should have a considerable amount of value attached to it. …This was too dangerous.
“…Mama told me.”
I cast my eyes down to prevent them from finding out that I lied. In my mind, I repented. Mama, I am sorry for blaming it on you. But please, protect me.
“The mother of a Mixed Breed? Just what on earth is—”
“Ocht is sad, so don’t say any more. Ocht’s mom is dead.”
Clau held out his arms and stood in front of me. Clau was so cool. I felt bad for making him misunderstand but the adults seemed to have conveniently misunderstood as well, so I stayed in that position. Yep. I did a good job.
“Sorry ‘bout that. I’m also sorry that you’re a Mixed Breed. By the way, is there anything else you’ve heard?”
I clung to Clau’s back to look as if he had frightened me. Then, I stealthily sneaked a glance at him. The cat-man’s face was densely covered in fur, so I could not read his expression well. The Demon Race man was smiling, but I could not say that he was a good person just based on that. I felt that we should return to the tents as soon as possible.
“If that object stops ringing later, we will suspect that the little miss and her friend broke it, won’t we? Is that something that will last forever?”
“…If the battery runs out, it won’t ring,” I whispered.
Nevertheless, this person had a very detestable way of hearing things. It was ringing right now, so it was neither Clau’s nor my responsibility if it stopped ringing later. However, the way he twisted words made it seem otherwise. So, I could not be sure that the cat man who heard those words just now would not try to falsely accuse us. Besides, the Demon Race man probably said this after judging that we were travelling entertainers, so we didn’t have much gold and also had low social status. Just by looking at our clothes, it became very clear that we were entertainers, and travelling entertainers did not make that much money. Not only that, we were at a disadvantage since we were children, and I was a Mixed Breed. If you were asked to believe either the cat man or us, the cat man would definitely win.
“So what is a battery, little miss?”
“…The source of power that allows it to move. When the key in the head portion is taken off, power flows inside.”
The cat man gazed fixedly at the crime prevention buzzer in his hand. It should be sufficient to say this much. I pulled on Clau’s clothes.
“Clau, let’s head back?”
My mind warned me that the faster we returned, the better. It was already troublesome enough from my birth alone. I did not need any more troublesome things.
“Why hurry, Little Miss? Since you are already here, why don’t you stay for a bit longer? Right, Shopkeeper?”
“Aahh. Please do so. I have sweets too.”
… Wasn’t that a criminal technique used for kidnapping children? I looked at the two people in amazement. Just who would be dumb enough to be lured by sweets…
“Sweets?”
Clau had a very interested face. Well, I guess it was natural. Unlike me, Clau was an authentic pure child after all. Not only that, but we rarely ever got to eat sweets too.
“Clau, no.”
“But—”
“No.”
You would not know who was older like this, but I shook my head clearly.
“There’s a hidden side to sweets.”
“The sweets have a hidden side?”
“Ah… Not the sweets themselves.”
“Here, I brought them.”
The cat man, who had brought the cake-like things on a round plate, had slitted eyes. This was probably his smiling face. I definitely saw ulterior motives hidden behind that smiling face.
“Ahhhn.”
Seeing Clau biting into the cake that the Demon Race man held out to him, my face twitched.
“… How much is it?”
“Can you pay if I told you?”
I probably couldn’t. Inside my mind, I shed an ocean of tears. Since it had become like this, let us strive to become rich. It was at this moment, that I decided that.
References
[1] I tried to make it clearer who is talking as there aren’t as many cues in English as in Japanese. In case it isn’t clear enough (which probably means I’ve failed), the Demon Race man should refer to Ocht as “little miss” (Jou-chan) and speak slightly more intellectually than the cat man.
