“Have a nice day~!”
Hearing the door close after she finished the transaction on the daggers, Serein heads to other places for her necessities, which include snacks and quick meals, various potions, and some raw herbs.
After all, she can’t trust all of the items she acquired from the Sage. In fact, she needs to exchange those ‘old currencies’ with the current era’s money before she can use them. It’s not like she can buy loaves of bread with a ruby necklace or something.
Serein also won’t know whether the riches she inherited will be worth more or less now compared to the past. Many things have changed from ancient times already.
‘The ideal scenario is if I am able to sell these jewelry to those who know the historical value of it; I’ll be hitting the jackpot.’
It’ll definitely make more profits that way, though the consequences of that are she might get jailed for fraud or may end up being suspected of stealing from someone else. She may even be accused of tomb robbery if she wasn’t careful enough. So, for now, she only sold some gold to the jewelers.
‘Should I try selling them at the Amaranth Kingdom?’
While she was wondering what she would do with the rest of the items she has, another hand caught her. Though, this time, the person grabbed her wrist instead of simply tapping her shoulder.
“What the–?”
Almost being yanked, Serein pulled her hands back with much force and barely held herself back from reaching for her new weapons to teach this person a lesson the hard way.
‘Just what’s with people and touching me today—!?’
“There you are, little punk.”
“Huh?”
Serein’s annoyed face slowly turned into recognition, and she was glad that she did not do what she had initially thought of doing.
Normally, she would have body-slammed whoever it was as she could feel the ill intentions coming from her ambusher. However, she had never expected to see that half-blood standing before her instead.
“Ah, you startled me, Cevahir-min.”
He truly did.
Serein never expected the half-dragon to find her this fast– not that she intended to conceal her presence other than her eye-catching appearance.
“Where is he?” Cevahir demanded, not bothering to respond to her words.
He had a sour face as if he had just drunk the dragon lord’s elixir again. He didn’t even ask whether Serein knew what he meant and just assumed that she’d understand.
Which she does; he wasn’t wrong, and she has no means to cover that fact, so she decided to not make it difficult for herself.
“Resting.” She said calmly. “I did not kidnap him, by the way. It seems like he loves to be carried by me to the point that he stayed for the ride even as I left.”
She smiles innocently as if taunting him with eyes conveying the unguilty message of ‘I did nothing’.
That was when she noticed the pair of eyes peeking from behind Cevahir’s luxurious hair that was worthy of shampoo commercials.
“Yes, I am here too.”
Sam’s small voice can be heard not long after she seemingly found his hiding spot. Although, he seemed to have presented himself, considering how Cevahir discreetly scolded him when he made himself visible to her.
“But brother, Pam is out there somewhere with so many humans.” He voiced his concern, unhesitating. “I trust this one weird human though, so maybe follow her for now?”
“What? No. We’ll find Pam and head back.”
And thus, the banter between the two started back and forth. To which, Serein did not pay attention to it as she simply says,
“You know, you two found me at the right time since I just finished stocking up.” She said, and added with a slight hand gesture, “I’m actually on my way to head back to our inn now. Do you want to go with me?”
Inviting the two to the inn would also bring Cevahir in her favor instead of keeping her picture as the stubborn punk who kidnapped his little brother anyway.
And it seems like even the half-blood dragon himself was not expecting Serein to be this cooperative, judging from the stupefied expression he’s having on his face before he shifted it back to a neutral one.
“Yes. Lead the way.”
Suspicion is not fully cleared away from his eyes. If anything, it grew heavier and thicker. However, since Serein is not being a prick, Cevahir also switched his speech to be… Well, not exactly polite, but more casual than the accusation tone which is dripping with venom as he had been using at the start.
Walking right behind the adventurer, pretty much tailing her, Cevahir actually attracted more attention than Serein and her odd hair did. All credit to his striking appearance and the contrasting robe of a homeless man that he wore.
If anything, he almost looked like a prince from a fallen kingdom that is about to be sold as a slave to some rich woman or something, which only made the eyes on them weirder with each second.
‘And yet he’s still boring a hole to my back’
Serein felt rather sheepish with how the half-blood dragon paid more attention to her than to the extra eyes towards himself.
People began to talk.
While usually she won’t pay attention to these unnecessary things, Serein couldn’t even think of what people will do to Sam and Cevahir if they were caught as non-human.
The Kiraan Kingdom was so strict about their human-supremacy policy after all…
Though these two are part of draconic members, there’s no telling how these people will react to an ‘injured’ hybrid and a hatchling.
‘One thing for sure, they won’t be worshipped or admired.’
Definitely not when the flag of this kingdom is literally a dragon head on a stake—
And, much to her dismay, the inn was pretty much on the other side of the territory, making them attract the most attention possible as they walked further.
‘Will Cevahir-min be offended if I offered him a new set of clothes that will make him look like a noble instead, or–?’
– shaaaaaa…
A breeze passed by, and soon a chirp was heard.
“‘Very likely’ the spirit says. ‘I can help you if you want though.’”
It was Sam who interpreted what Aiston said— while Cevahir, who was not ready for that sudden chime, tried to cover the bluish-green wyrm’s voice with a soft cough.
“Sam.”
That call was a stern warning from the older male, but Sam doesn’t seem to take that warning since Serein could feel a sudden additional weight on her shoulder instead.
“Hey, human, I don’t know what you’re planning, but don’t mess this u— …What is this good smell?”
It was as if someone switched a button inside Sam’s head as his speech took an abrupt change of topic. Serein could feel him moving around in excitement, with his tail swishing back and forth like Pam’s when they were up the Ervenyl Mountain.
“Hey, little human, this smell is different from the food you brought before, but it is still so nice.”
Oh?
Serein slowed down as she found this as a chance presented on a silver platter. Now, what’s left is for her to play her cards right and to pull the strings.
“Ah yes. That smell seems to come from that street-food stall over there. Would you like to have some? You’ve shared your meal before, it’s only right to return the gesture, right?”
Serein asked casually, but she purposely stopped in her tracks and turned to Cevahir as if she’s asking this person instead of the invisible being.
“Yes!”
Serein couldn’t help her smile when she witnessed Cevahir’s lips twitching in annoyance.
It was at that moment that she realized something crucial.
‘He couldn’t say no~’
And judging from how there was no wind before this, Serein could only assume that the smell was brought by the breeze caused by Aiston. She can easily tell that this is the help that the ancient spirit was referring to.
Well, in any case, she’s taking the two hatchlings, Sam and Pam, as ‘hostages’ while Cevahir must have known that he couldn’t act recklessly with his distinctive magic.
After all, why else would he not hide his appearance with magic, right? If he could do it, shouldn’t he be able to switch his clothes or his hair to match each other and help him to avoid this much attention?
Another breeze passes by. To which, even without Sam’s translating it as “Correct”, it was already a confirmation of her theory–
‘And I’m starting to get used to Ai-min’s confirmations.’ Serein thought while looking back at her reaction every time Aiston just casually invaded her mind and answered her.
Another breeze passes by, but this time neither of the two draconic members said what it was. Which means, it’s likely to be something equal to a silent nod. A gesture, not a word.
Content with this, Serein slipped a satisfied smile as she then made her way to the stall.
“Can I get everything that’s on the griller, sir?”
“Excuse me?”
The shock was clear in the seller’s eyes, followed by distrust. It seems like the man couldn’t believe Serein was able to afford what she just asked him and was worried he’ll be robbed.
However before he could say any further, Serein tossed two gold coins at him.
“This should be more than enough, isn’t it?” Staring as if she’s looking down on the man, Serein knew that she had all the eyes on the three, well, the two of them already, and so—
‘Why not make our presence even more known?’
Sometimes the best hiding place is right under someone’s nose after all.
“Come on, now. I don’t want to make my young master wait any longer.”
That’s right. Her plan now is to make Cevahir a stranded noble in a way. Basically, a runaway young master went wrong.
“Oi, what–”
Yet, before Cevahir could stop Serein from spreading this bullshit, the seller already bought the story, and the recognition sunk in all the eavesdroppers around.
“Oh. Oh, I see.” It seems like the cocky tone Serein used was enough to fool the people, and soon the attention dispersed almost as fast as it was built.
In fact, people were almost avoiding the two of them, and with how the seller trembled as he tries his best to wrap the food in the fanciest way he could, it was really not that hard for Serein to connect the dots.
There would have been big consequences if common folks were to disobey nobles.
It’s already a fucked up situation all around, but here, in the land where the highest monarch has the biggest power in the worst way possible, let’s just say, there’s a reason why there haven’t been protests done by the nobilities–
‘They’re in this whole political scheme.’
Serein had based this kingdom on the worst nation in her previous world, so, really, she’s not all that shocked to see this social injustice being the common practice.
Which, as twisted as it is, that’s actually why Serein had revealed Cevahir as a nobility.
Only nobles were allowed to learn magic here; magicians don’t even have a guild here. While the Kingdom’s magician brigades were recruited from other places, again, led by a noble of the King’s choice.
So, despite not knowing whether her claim is valid or not, no one would like to mess with this ‘disguised noble’. It’s simply not worth the risk.
‘Now, as long we don’t get caught by authorities—’
Though, given that this place is on the outskirts of the nation, she counted at least a day or two before authorities catch up and send someone to check whether they have an unregistered guest from a neighboring kingdom or was it a plain fraud who somehow has the guts to claim nobility.
She smiled innocently as she handed one batch of the snack to Cevahir while she held one for herself to sneakily feed Sam. She then followed up with,
“Let’s go, young master-min. Enough of your tantrum, we’re going home.”
Baffled at the nonsense that he just heard, Cevahir could only stare as her smile widened.
“Well, but first, we need to get you dressed more appropriately. We can’t have the Lord and the Madam see their only son return like this, right?”
Eyes gleaming in interest, Cevahir was sure that he’s facing someone else when Serein then said—
“Let’s shop~”
Had he known this is the outcome of confronting this human in the public, he would have kidnapped her more discreetly…
‘Well, shit.’
—
Author Note: Heyya folks! Anemic Bunnicula here~! Here goes another update for the week + Art that you can check on the discussion channel. Hope you all would enjoy it, and I’ll see you again in the next chapter, Chao~!