Since the glowing artifact wasn't physically on her person, Shion had no choice but to lead Kisaragi Naoko to find Regulus. Whether Regulus would actually return the metallic sphere to its original owner was not a decision she could make, even if, strictly speaking, the object technically still fell under her commercial purview as a pawned item.
Of course, even if the sphere were still in her hands, Shion wouldn't dare to blindly hand it back to Naoko.
Twenty Holy Gold Coins was a massive sum that would easily recover her losses, but the sheer danger of that metallic object was too terrifying. If the reality-defying anomaly hadn't triggered in an isolated, abandoned swamp village but inside a densely populated city like the Capital, the catastrophic consequences would be unimaginable.
On their way back to the inn, Shion decided to probe for answers.
"Miss Kisaragi..."
"Miss Shion, there's no need to be so incredibly formal with me," Naoko interrupted with a warm, self-deprecating smile. "As the savior who kept me from starving to death five years ago, you can just call me by my given name, Naoko."
"Then... Naoko," Shion adjusted, her expression turning exceedingly serious. "What exactly was that metallic sphere you pawned to me? And where on earth did you find it?"
Shion was deeply, intensely concerned. That smooth, synthetic creation didn't utilize a single drop of mana. It didn't belong to any known magic system, yet it was profoundly dangerous. It gave her an eerie feeling that it simply shouldn't exist in this world. As an itinerant elven merchant, she had traveled the continent and seen countless bizarre magical artifacts, but that sphere completely shattered her understanding of physical objects.
Kisaragi Naoko looked at Shion's troubled face and pondered in silence for a short moment.
"About its origin..." Naoko sighed softly, looking up at the sky. "Would you actually believe me if I told you it's completely from another world?"
"Not from this world!?" Hearing the bizarre explanation, Shion's eyebrows furrowed in deep skepticism.
Facing the doubting elf, Naoko showed an 'as expected' expression.
When she had first arrived here, she had subtly investigated whether there were other transmigrators besides herself. The final result had been a resounding yes.
For example, regarding Kararagi, one of the Four Great Nations of this world—having personally visited its borders, she could say with absolute certainty that its founder, Hoshin, was a senior transmigrator who had arrived several hundred years before her. After all, Kararagi's architecture, its distinct dialect, and even its daily customs were practically a flawless copy of the Kansai region from her home world.
Although she had initially dreamed of attempting similar grand feats of cultural revolution when she first transmigrated, the harsh reality was that her personal abilities were truly limited. She didn't possess any extraordinary talent, her scientific knowledge reserves were shallow, and she didn't even receive any cheat-like overpowered abilities commonly found in light novels.
She was completely, utterly an ordinary person.
As an ordinary civilian, even if she racked her brains, all she could do was rely on her basic modern knowledge to barely carve out a decent, peaceful lifestyle for herself.
"You don't believe me, do you?" Naoko chuckled softly.
At first, she had been incredibly nervous about keeping her identity as an otherworldly visitor a complete secret. But later, she discovered that it didn't even matter if she openly spoke about it. The native people of this world simply had zero conceptual grasp of 'transmigration' or parallel universes.
Otherworldly concepts were only understood by people like her who had read light novels back home. To the residents of this fantasy world, speaking about a modern world would only make them look at you with pitying expressions, as if thinking: 'What nonsense is this girl spouting? Did she sleep herself silly? Is there something wrong with her head?'
Recalling those awkward interactions was simply unbearable.
"Actually, that sphere originally belonged to my tech-obsessed sister," Naoko explained, omitting the complex details. "I accidentally brought it with me out of curiosity."
"Your sister? Where is she now?" Shion asked gently.
"She's in a very, very distant place."
"Uh... I see. I'm truly sorry for asking," Shion murmured, assuming the worst.
"You don't need to apologize," Naoko smiled wryly.
Her sister was perfectly fine, just trapped back in their original modern world. But this interdimensional distance, as the literal words implied, was far too vast to ever reach again.
"That sphere is essentially the only memento of my past life and my family," Naoko continued. "That's the main reason I've spent five years working myself to the bone to redeem it."
Although she stated it as a sentimental memento, her primary driving suspicion was that her sudden transmigration might have been directly triggered by that strange, glowing device. Unfortunately, after studying it secretly for weeks before crossing paths with Shion, she had absolutely no idea how to activate its functions.
In the very end, if she hadn't reached the absolute brink of starving to death on the streets, she would have never pawned the item. It should be known that when she first dropped into this world, she was only wearing a set of casual pajamas and holding that metallic ball; she truly had nothing else to her name.
"I understand," Shion said, bending down to collect her ledger. "Let's change the subject. Since you've successfully established a logistics business here, you should have a solid understanding of the local market conditions, right? Could you fill me in on the current trade rates?"
Shion smoothly altered the topic. She could intuitively sense that Naoko wasn't lying to her, but the human woman was definitely holding back some vital details. Of course, that was completely normal. She wasn't going to rudely interrogate her. As for how to pursue the deeper truth behind the artifact later... she would gladly leave all of that headache to Regulus, who had taken the sphere into his possession.
Along the remaining walk back to the inn, Shion gained a massive amount of commercial insights.
She hadn't expected this ordinary human woman to possess such sharp, analytical data regarding local trade routes and supply demands. It was just a pity that while Naoko's information gathering was flawless, her actual methods for utilizing and financially leveraging that market data were so incredibly crude and basic that the veteran elven merchant could barely bear to watch.
Arriving at the inn's second floor, Shion pointed down the hallway.
"Thank you for the data, Naoko. Regulus should be inside that main suite. I have some other urgent laundry and inventory matters to attend to, so I won't accompany you inside."
"Unfortunate, but I understand! Thank you, Shion. If you ever have free time, you absolutely must visit my shop downtown!"
"I definitely will," Shion smiled.
The moment Naoko turned toward the door, Shion immediately turned on her heel and departed down the stairs. The truth was, she simply didn't want to face Regulus's teasing eyes just yet after the embarrassing dream she had experienced that morning.
Naoko watched the elf leave, took a deep breath to steady her nerves, and gently pushed open the door to the suite.
The very first scene that caught her eyes was a handsome, white-haired man sitting at a desk, with a petite, pink-haired girl hovering closely over his shoulder. They can be seen... learning? More accurately, it looked like a very small child was strictly tutoring a grown man.
Naoko's visual assessment was completely correct. Regulus was indeed studying—specifically, learning how to fluently read and write the complex written characters of the Lugnican script.
Because his daily life since transmigrating was constantly consumed by managing, teasing, and traveling with his massive harem of over a hundred wives, he had never found the structural free time to sit down and properly study. This meant that even now, despite his god-like power, he still couldn't fully recognize every single written word of this world.
But learning the local language was a very necessary chore. It would be far too embarrassing for a man of his peerless status if he couldn't even read a basic tavern sign or an official document.
The distinct sound of footsteps caused Regulus to casually look up from his parchment, his eyes locking onto the woman who had entered the room.
'Natsuki Subaru's future mother,' Regulus analyzed internally, a smirk guessing right at the corner of his lips.
His previous meta-knowledge guess from Shion's description was flawless. No... actually, calling her "Subaru's mother" right now wasn't entirely chronologically correct, because she was currently an unmarried young woman. Otherwise, her surname wouldn't still be Kisaragi; it would be Natsuki, having taken her future husband Kenichi's surname.
"Hello, Lord Regulus," Naoko greeted respectfully, stepping forward. "Miss Shion informed me that my pawned item is currently in your possession. I have the required capital fully prepared, and I would like to formally redeem my property."
As she spoke, Naoko politely took out a heavy leather purse pre-filled with the twenty gleaming Holy Gold Coins and placed it on the edge of the desk.
Regulus merely cast a brief, completely disinterested glance at the fortune of gold coins, before returning his piercing gaze entirely to the dark-haired woman standing before him.
"You're from Japan, aren't you?" Regulus asked smoothly, his voice dropping into fluent, flawless Japanese.
The very moment the familiar words fell, Naoko's entire body froze, her jaw dropping as she stood instantly stunned in absolute silence.
.....
.....
.....
Give me powerstones.
Support me and read advance chapters on patreon.com/ImmortalDaoWriter