“Hmm…now that a second one has exploded, it’s hard to say it was all coincidence.” Mr. Chotos had been pondering next to me for some time.
Meanwhile, I embraced Gol to keep her from destroying the entire shelf in a murderous frenzy. Fortunately, my instincts as her owner had alerted me to her intentions. My hug prevented her attempt to cause further property damage. She had squirmed in my arms at first, but she was now docile. I was a little concerned by how limp she had gone, as if she were exhausted.
“Hmm. I believe the cause of this strange defect is that your mana conversion rate for the Earth attribute is abnormally high,” said Mr. Chotos.
“Eh? A high conversion rate causes explosions?”
“Ah, well, this is just a theory. Essentially, mana tools raise one’s conversion rate in the tool’s attribute. However, if I’m correct, the tool’s multiplier effect combined with your natural conversion rate surpassed the tool’s mana capacity and it exploded. It makes sense in theory, but…” Mr. Chotos crossed his arms and grumbled. Eventually, he looked at me like I was some pitiful animal and shook his head. “Nemaki, your abilities are really skewed.”
“Hey, Mister, I told you to stop looking at me so pityingly!”
“Ah, yes, yes, got it.”
Mr. Chotos left me to my tantrum and began to clean the remains of the mana tool scattered on the floor. I would have normally offered to help, but I couldn’t move since I was holding Gol. She cuddled up in my arms, rubbing her cheek against mine.
Given how docile she was like this, I wondered if I ought to start walking her around the town in this fashion. Back in my original world, I’d had to hold my dog whenever I took him to the vet so he wouldn’t cause any trouble. When I held him, he would relax just like how Gol was doing now. Golems really were dogs.
As I leaned my cheek on Gol’s head, I deliberated how to compensate Mr. Chotos for the succession of broken mana tools. He said I didn’t need to pay, but it left a bad taste in my mouth to be indebted to a broke man. In short, it was a matter of pride.
“Ah, right…”
If he wouldn’t let me compensate him per se, what if I bought some of his shoddy goods? I did kind of want the stick that shot water. I rummaged through my shoulder bag to grab my wallet. Then I noticed the bundle of bills inside the bag.
Right! I had forgotten to ask Mr. Chotos about the strange slips of paper with the words “Selvei Scrip” written on them.
“Hey, Mister, do you know anything about these?” I thought nothing of it as I slapped the bundle on the table. Next to this bundle, Teru was drawing a picture. A stack of money and a young girl—what a peaceful picture of everyday life.
However, when Mr. Chotos saw the stack, his expression abruptly changed. His next words were unusually sharp. “Nemaki, hurry and put those away. If you try to use that money here, you’ll be punished.”
Mr. Chotos frowned as he spoke, glancing behind himself to check if anyone else was inside the shop.
Relax. You’ve got no customers to speak of.
Still, being told I would be punished left me pretty near panicked, since I had the soul of a cultured man who always desired to operate within the bounds of the law.
“Is something wrong with this money?” I asked as I rushed to stow it away.
“Why do you even have those bills…? Well, whatever. Wait a sec.” Mr. Chotos put away his cleaning tool and closed the shop. He even closed the front shutter doors, which doubled as turning off the lights. Finally, he grabbed a mana tool that looked like a red stick from the shelves.
“Did you really have to close the shop because of me? I don’t get it, but I’m sorry.”
“No one was coming in anyway. More importantly, Nemaki, lend me one of those scrips.”
I drew a bill from the bundle and handed it to Mr. Chotos, who held that red stick over the bill. Red particles like little flames gathered at the stick’s tip before a small flame flickered to life.
“Oh! That’s convenient.”
I was impressed until Mr. Chotos, of all things, set the bill on fire.
Are you stupid, Mister?! Has all the stress of your debt driven you insane?! “H-hey! What the hell?”
“Don’t panic. Just look.”
“‘Don’t panic’?! What do you think you’re doing to my precious assets—huh?”
As I peered, I saw that the scrip wasn’t on fire. A pale green light surrounded the paper, and the fire was soon extinguished. Teru watched the green light with twinkling eyes. I understood her awe in my bones.
“So it really doesn’t burn… I see. This scrip is the real deal. The flame’s failure to catch confirms it.” Mr. Chotos returned the bill to me and placed the red mana tool back on the shelf. “That Selvei scrip is a special type of bill produced with an advanced spell. You can’t use it anywhere other than the Selvei territory in the Great Forest to the north.”
“Huh…?”
“Of course, this scrip can’t be traded at a currency exchange, either. So don’t be stupid and bring this over to one, got it? You’ll be asking for trouble. I know you’re like that, but I thought I’d at least warn you.”
Ah! You once again described me as “that.” You bastard. Are you seriously trying to pick a fight with me? Fine, I’ll take you up on it!
I was about to kick off an ultimate showdown with this man when I thought again.
Wait. Now that he mentions it, I did think about trying to exchange these bills for other currency, didn’t I? You’re pretty sharp, mister. Our battle will have to wait.
“Anyway, Nemaki. Where exactly did you get your hands on these Selvei scrips? You’re from the east, right?”
Even if you ask me, how would I know? I just randomly swiped them as a consolation prize from Zairein’s study. I rubbed my neck. “To tell you the truth, I never knew what they were. I just happened to come upon them on my journey.”
“Is that so…? Well, I won’t pry. Anyway, just because this scrip can’t be used anywhere outside of Selvei, don’t think of them as counterfeit or useless scraps of paper. If you do have the opportunity to go up north, or if you have connections there, you could very well find a use for them.”