| Author: Ryuusen Hirotsugu | Original Source: Syosetu | Word Count: 2987 characters |
| Translator: Nomad | English Source: Re:Library | Word Count: 1622 words |
| Editor(s): Fire | ||
When the man saw Mira, in full covert ops getup and crawling on the ground, his face quickly stiffened as he was filled with fear.
He had entered the room before Mira to test the goggles, and had been quite impressed with their performance.
But this was a room devoid of all light, only visible with the night vision goggles. There he had heard a weird rustling sound, and when he turned to look back he saw someone covered in the camouflage mantle, face covered with a gas mask, and a set of goggles on top of the mask, who was crawling creepily along the floor. Even if he was a man, being confronted by all of that at the same time was quite a scare all the same.
After standing frozen in place for a moment, the man moved on tip toes to not make any noise as he quickly turned around and escaped from the room.
Meanwhile Mira just continued her faux mission, completely oblivious to the man’s presence, and once she had her fill of fun she left the dark room.
But during the time Mira was inside the dark room, playing out her covert ops game, someone had arrived at the Dinowal Store and pushed his way through the doors as he entered.
「Oh, hello Furio. Did something happen?」
One of the store employees who was just about to leave noticed him storming in, and decided to greet him. In response, the person approached the employee and said, 「I was just told that the Spirit Queen is in this store.」
His name was Furio, a sales manager for the Grimoire Company1, famous for producing the trading card game Legend of Astelia, which was popular amongst children and adults alike.
He had various responsibilities in his position, but one of them was quite vital to the game. Negotiating with the people who would be depicted in the cards.
That was an important job, as it would both keep the game feeling fresh with new additions and variations, while also making sure that the players would be able to obtain cards of people they admired. There were always adventurers and other people whose names would suddenly rise in popularity, like new movie stars, and his duty was to track them down and obtain their permission so the company could use their likeness in the cards, something indispensable in that business.
「The Spirit Queen? The one they said actually didn’t look like a glamorous lady, but was actually just a cute young girl?」
The employee’s voice seemed slightly disappointed as he said that, though he meant no ill will. He was likely the type of man who preferred bigger breasts.
「Yes, that very one! I ran here as soon as I heard that she was trying to sell off stuff. Do you know where she’s at now though?!」
He was likely telling the truth, as Furio was covered in sweat from the effort of running there, and now he was one step away from pulling on the employee’s shirt to get the answers he wanted.
His source that the Spirit Queen Mira was there was none other than the Sero fangirl who had been in the waiting area earlier. Furio had overheard her talking to other kids about how the Spirit Queen had told her many things about her beloved Sero.
「Hmm, I’m sorry. I was inside filing the books earlier so I didn’t see anything. I have no idea where clients are.」
The employee reaffirmed his grip on the documents he was holding, then added, 「If the rumors are true then it shouldn’t be hard to spot her…」 as he looked around the store.
「That’s true, they said she wears magical girl style clothes, has long silvery hair, and blue eyes. Someone like that should stand out.」
Furio replied as he also glanced around the store.
Both of them were near the entrance, so they had a pretty clear view of most of the store, which was organized in a way that anyone entering could see most of it without effort.
Furio and the employee kept looking at the different clients.
Most of them were adventurers, so they wore light armor or robes. Then there were a handful of civilians in plain clothes who were looking for items that could help them in their daily lives, and then some women wearing magical girl style clothes which had become the recent fad.
Considering how popular those clothes had become, and the total number of clients in the whole store, simply searching with that criteria would be too vague.
But that was where Furio’s experience could kick in. He had been fulfilling that role for so long that he could easily spot anyone wearing the right clothes, and then use the other features of the Spirit Queen to quickly decide they were the wrong person.
There was a silver haired woman, but her chest was too big. Then there was another one whose hair only reached her shoulders, so that was not her either. Another had long silver hair…but it was actually a guy wearing feminine clothes, so that was definitely not her.
「I don’t see her.」
「Me neither.」
After a while both concluded that none of the clients visible from there was the Spirit Queen.
「If she wanted to sell something, why don’t you start asking around that area then?」
Eventually the employee suggested that. They could just follow the leads they had and see where those went.
「That’s a good idea actually. I’ll go there!」
Maybe whoever took care of her sale would know where the Spirit Queen went next, or someone else who was present nearby had seen her. So Furio thanked the employee before running over to the counters where adventurers sold their Magic Stones.
But before getting there he glanced over to the new arrivals area.
(If I can complete a deal with the Spirit Queen I’ll definitely get a bonus. And then I’ll get to buy a Cul’Cool!)
Wiping the sweat that had built up on his forehead, Furio looked over to the shelves in that area. Working in sales meant that he was often moving around outside, which was a grueling work amidst the heat of summer.
But if he could get his hands on a Magic In-Clothes Temperature Regulator Cul’Cool, he would never have to worry about that again. He had gotten to try it out around a month prior, and he had been looking for an opportunity to buy one since then, but considering its price tag of 200,000 Rils it was not something a common person could obtain so easily.
All of the items sold by the Dinowal Store were extremely useful in one way or another, but they were also tools designed for adventurers to use, who would often risk their life in their line of work, so paying a couple hundred thousand or even millions of Rils for more safety made perfect sense. As a result, that made common people see those items as luxury pieces though. Especially amongst housewives, who saw owning Dinowal branded cookware as a status symbol.
「I should’ve kept some savings for a time like this…」
Muttering that to himself, he shook those thoughts away and continued walking. But then he caught sight of something really odd, which made him freeze in his tracks.
Some bizarre figure had just waddled out from a room next to the new arrivals section, a figure covered in a camouflage mantle, face covered in a strange mask, and a set of night vision goggles on top.
It was almost like nothing about that figure looked normal. It was impossible to see what kind of face lay beneath the mask, and the large mantle hid all physical appearance too. But something around the mask caught Furio’s attention.
「Silver hair…」
After coming out, the figure remained stuck to the wall, fingers drawn into a weird position. Then after peeking back into the dark room a few times, the figure charged back in, then came out again, and continued repeating such strange actions.
「That’s…definitely not her, right?」
As far as he could tell, the only common factor was the silver hair. The mantle concealed all clothing so it was impossible to tell if there was even a set of magical girl clothes beneath it, but there was no face to see either, so Furio could not even discern whether it was a girl or not. But more importantly, the real Spirit Queen would definitely get mad at him if she learned that he confused her with such a freak.
There was a story he had heard from one of his business colleagues about a big deal that went south because of someone being misidentified before. So remembering that story, Furio decided it was best to be careful and go to the counter to ask for more details about the Spirit Queen.
(If I find the right person here and obtain her permission then I’ll definitely get a big bonus after all!)
That was a good goal to strive for, and one that seemed really close in reach for him, so in his mind he thanked the Spirit Queen for visiting that city as he started walking again. It was hard to say whether he would actually obtain that bonus though…
