"Mysterious merchant… you mean the kind of merchant from games and comics who can sell anything?"
"Yes. That's roughly what it means."
"Hm."
Hiratsuka Shizuka nodded calmly. She stared at Lu Nian with an unusually gentle and serious gaze, her expression steady, unshaken. Deep down, she was thinking—So it's just chuunibyou.
Second-year syndrome, after all, wasn't exactly rare.
Compared to what she had seen before, Lu Nian calling himself a mysterious merchant was practically harmless. There was the student who always wore an eyepatch and claimed to possess the True Eye of the Evil King. There was also the boy close to him who insisted he was the Dark Flame Master. Not to mention the dead-fish-eyed student who once wrote a composition that read like a criminal manifesto and proudly referred to himself as the Great Bodhisattva Hachiman.
Oh, right—there was also her friend's younger sister, the girl who constantly talked about "changing the world."
Compared to those late-stage patients, Lu Nian's condition seemed downright mild. Hiratsuka Shizuka felt no emotional turbulence at all. In fact, she felt he could even push it a little further—she could take it.
"So," she said calmly, folding her arms, "this 'mysterious merchant'—would you like to explain why you didn't come home last night?"
Her fist clenched with a crisp click. Clearly, without a satisfactory explanation, Lu Nian was about to experience the warmth of a teacher's iron fist.
"Well," Lu Nian replied obediently, "a guest from another world visited last night. A super cute, kind child. We made a deal—some food, clothes, and daily necessities, in exchange for an item capable of destroying a world."
As he spoke, he placed a card neatly on the table in front of her. His expression was perfectly well-behaved: polite, sensible, gentle, and completely harmless.
"…That's impressively realistic."
Hiratsuka Shizuka couldn't help but be intrigued. The craftsmanship of the card alone was exquisite. Though she never openly admitted it, she was an otaku at heart.
She picked up the card.
And then froze.
The moment her fingers touched it, an overwhelming flow of information surged into her mind. Description, attributes, value—everything became instinctively clear, as if she had always known it.
This was real.
"See?" Lu Nian said as he calmly retrieved the card from her stiff fingers and replaced it with a cup of hot milk. He smiled faintly, the kind of smile that felt irritatingly smug yet undeniably genuine. "Teacher Jing, I didn't lie to you."
"…You're really not messing with me?"
"Of course not," he replied casually. "Unless Teacher Jing thinks your own brain is lying to you."
"..."
Silence fell.
After several seconds, Hiratsuka Shizuka shook her head slowly. Her worldview, values, and common sense—built over more than twenty years—were screaming in denial. Yet the memories etched into her mind left no room for doubt.
Everything he said was true.
"Oh, right," Lu Nian added, "I can show you something else, if you want more proof."
Before she could respond, his figure blurred.
Lu Nian's body shifted into a semi-transparent state, like a wandering soul. He casually passed his hand through the table, stepped through the floor, then floated up near the ceiling before returning to his seat as if nothing had happened.
"I suddenly feel," Hiratsuka Shizuka muttered, grabbing her hair with both hands, half-irritated and half-excited, "like I've become a complete stranger to this world."
Her irritation came from the utter collapse of her long-held beliefs. Her excitement, however, came from something far more dangerous—
The realization that her old fantasies might not have been fantasies at all.
"Wait," she said suddenly, eyes widening. "If you are real… then my students—could they be real too?"
In her mind flashed images of those terminally ill chuunibyou patients. What if the so-called battles, sealed eyes, and dark dragons were real? What if the truth simply existed beyond ordinary perception?
"Well…" Lu Nian replied carefully, holding back laughter, "is there a possibility that they're just… normal second-year patients?"
"You—don't laugh!"
She instantly realized how ridiculous her thoughts were. Even if extraordinary beings existed, they wouldn't be that common. Otherwise, the world would have collapsed long ago.
"Still," Hiratsuka Shizuka asked, curiosity clearly winning, "have you seen anyone else like you?"
"I have," Lu Nian admitted. "Just before meeting you, actually. But—"
He paused deliberately.
"That person is my guest. I'm obligated to keep their identity confidential. If they're willing in the future, I can introduce you."
"Tch. Then should I thank you for being mysterious and annoying?"
She complained, but her expression was far lighter now. Putting on her coat, she walked into the bathroom and quickly tidied herself up.
At the entrance, she suddenly turned back.
"Lu Nian… thank you for telling me this."
Her tone was sincere. Without him, she might never have known this side of reality. As a grown woman who still carried faint, childish fantasies in her heart, it felt like she had glimpsed an entirely different path of life.
But fantasy aside, she was still a teacher.
Bang.
"Have a safe trip."
As the door closed, Lu Nian waved goodbye. A woman who had just learned about the existence of the extraordinary, yet could still rush off to school to teach—truly, Hiratsuka Shizuka was as quietly lovely as ever.
"Then," Lu Nian murmured to himself, "I should also buy a shop."
Even with a store that connected countless worlds, he would be living in this world for a long time.
Which meant—
He needed another store.
And a proper home.
_____________________
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