NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 272: Antiques (1)
Leave a comment
⇐ PreviousNext ⇒
「What an odd thing.」
Mira was eating the contents of the small box in a corner of the Union, surprised by the taste. The box contained what looked like small slips of paper, around the size of a thumb, which gave off a sweet and slightly tart scent. Those sheets would instantly dissolve when they touched her tongue, making the flavor spread through her mouth.
In essence, she had been gifted a box of fancy candy, which she was rather impressed by and continued eating while looking at the envelope.
She wondered which fan had sent that, but she was not likely to reply if it turned out to be a love letter of some sort. Lamenting the hardships of being famous, she checked the sender name, which quickly brightened her spirits.
「Ohh, it’s Takuto!」
Not too long after arriving in this world, Mira had gone to search for Soul Howl in the Ancient Temple, and there, she had met the young boy Takuto. That was also the encounter that led to her meeting the Écarlate Carillon guild.
In the letter, Takuto wrote at length about everything going on in his life. He was working hard to become a spellcaster, while also training daily to gain physical strength. And all of that was done under the supervision of the members of Écarlate Carillon.
He was still a novice, so there was a lot to learn, including complicated topics and having to undergo harsher training, but he also enjoyed that life. His writing was not the best yet, but it was clear he had also tried hard to write the letter, and his energy was palpable.
More importantly, he also talked about his parents.「Yes, that sounds really nice.」
Takuto’s parents had gone missing, until Mira found them in the care of the Fifty Bells, which happened after the fight with Chimera Clauzen was over.
Mira had met them, Ashley and Lyne, when they were celebrating their victory with Arlon and some other members of the Fifty Bells. And now the letter mentioned full of excitement that they had finally reunited with their son.
While Mira read that, she faintly remembered having met them somewhere, or heard from them, and that they were Takuto’s parents. But as she was never good at remembering people and names, she could not really place her finger on who they were.
But Mira had forgotten that whole event, so all she was left with was Takuto’s joy coming through the letter. Now they were all training as a family, and sometimes Sero would come to spar with them. Ashley, Takuto’s father, also held a lot of respect for Sero, so those visits helped him get even more motivated.
Takuto’s mother, Lyne, was also a big fan of Sero. The letter also expressed Takuto’s mixed thoughts of seeing his father trying extra hard to impress Sero, and his mother fawning over anything Sero did.
「I see, so Takuto’s working hard too.」
Amongst Takuto’s recounting of his recent life, she could see that Écarlate Carillon was doing well too. While it was a busy life, it was still a fulfilling and happy one. Once she was done reading through the lengthy letter, Mira quickly grabbed a pen and some paper to write a reply.
After she left the reply letter at the front desk to be delivered, Mira went out to continue her stroll along the street.
「Ohh, maybe this place!」
Further along, she saw a large store standing out in the street. It had a refined appearance, reminiscent of an art gallery, and the items being sold there were not too different from what that would suggest.
Seeing it, a certain possibility crossed Mira’s mind, as it was something she required to expand her repertoire.
「I wonder if I’ll find anything here.」
Mira opened the doors with a deep black varnish and went inside, where an old-fashioned yet nostalgic scent hit her.
「Welcome,」 an employee greeted her politely, as she looked around in amazement.
The name of that place was Craftbell, Coffee and Antiques. The right side of the first floor was a cafe, while the rest was an antique shop. That combination made visitors feel like they had been transported to a different world when stepping in.
(They have some really nice things here.)
Mira did everything she could to resist the sweet scent coming from the cafe and headed to the side with antiques. She was not looking for food this time. The shop was really large and with an extremely varied assortment of items, from small pill organizers to wardrobes large enough to fit ten Miras inside.
(Everything’s so expensive…)
After checking the price tags of nearby items, she saw that even small trinkets cost upward of a hundred thousand Rils. Then she took another look around the shop and saw that all the other clients were well dressed and had a wealthy look to them. There were also three men in clean uniforms, employees of the store, who also had a refined look to them.
(Either way, it won’t matter unless I actually find one.)
She began to worry that she would not be able to afford what she wanted if she found it, but she tried to not think about that as she continued looking around the shop.
Mira walked out of the section with small accessories, turning to look at shelves stocked with old books, and continuing to the area with furniture of various sizes.
「Hmm… I don’t think there’s any 「
After looking around the area, she muttered in defeat.
The entire time, she had been trying to find furniture inhabited by a spirit. As objects used and beloved for a long time would sometimes start housing a spirit, Mira figured that her chances of finding such an object were higher in an antique shop, but as far as she had seen, there was nothing like that there.
What made things trickier was that she needed to actually see an item to verify whether there was a spirit present or not.
As the Spirit King explained, unlike Armor Spirits, Man-Made Spirits like those in furniture were usually on the reserved side and would not make their presence felt from a distance except for extreme situations. But if Mira’s link with the Spirit King became stronger, there was a possibility she would eventually become able to detect them more easily.
Either way, she was stuck having to manually find them for the time being, and she was determined to do anything necessary to improve her spirit mansion. Sadly, her search of Craftbell, Coffee and Antiques yielded no results.
「I guess it won’t be that easy, after all.」
After looking through the other sections, she gave up and headed for the door to leave the shop.
「What a breathtaking selection, I’m especially impressed by the lineup from the Katenov Era. It seems our tastes match quite nicely.」
「Thank you kindly. It almost feels like fate brought you to our shop today.」
An elegantly dressed gentleman and someone who looked like the shop’s owner descended a flight of stairs that was cordoned off with a No Entry sign. Then the gentleman said, 「Well, I’ll be coming back soon,」 and left the shop.
⇐ PreviousNext ⇒
- Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
- More
- Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Mastodon (Opens in new window)