Chapter 289: Normal Guy On A Normal Day
So ti later, I found myself back on Earth.
For the first ti in a long while, in a place other than the Tower.
Although my earlier words implied the Librarian would be physically joining , it didn’t need to be stated why that wasn’t going to happen.
In the first place, I didn’t even have a clue whether she could leave the Library or not.
Anyway, because of the problem with my eye colour, I had to deal with that first.
‘Hmm… It looks more realistic than I thought. Don’t you think?’
[Yeah! You look suuuper ordinary, Enki!]
――Fortunately, it turned out to be a problem more easily solved than expected.
See, I don’t know when it happened, but in the ti I’ve been “missing”, a bunch of new stores popped up in my hotown, with not just one of them being catered to Awakeners.
Among them was, as if answering my prayers directly, an Awakener-specific costic store.
Because many Awakeners experienced various alterations to their body upon Awakening or using their powers, it seed there was naturally a very high demand for such services that could return their appearances to normal, even if only temporarily.
For that reason, it seed that people with AIPA, or ‘Awakening Induced Physical Alterations’, could effectively disguise the fact of their Awakening, although not everyone’s alterations could be treated.
If this type of thing was available just two years ago, I might never have known about Ella’s Awakening at all. I’m sure the sa would go for a lot of other people, too.
Fortunately, in my case, I was able to purchase so green-coloured contact lenses that matched my original eye colour. Of course, since they functioned through magic, they weren’t exactly cheap, and since I didn’t have a lot of money I almost freaked out, but thankfully, it turned out these kinds of places accepted thods of paynt other than raw cash.
Thus, handing over a couple of the many mana crystals I had in Storage for the cashier to appraise with a special machine, I was able to pay like that.
In the end, I also had to hand over one extra crystal to cover the appraisal fee, but that much was nothing to fret over.
‘Man, I feel rich as hell. If I can get all of this appraised, won’t I be a millionaire for sure?’
Incidentally, although the few extraordinarily high quality mana crystals I possessed were mostly obtained from Illusory Worlds, I did manage to stock up on quite a lot of lower-quality ones during my Tower climb.
However, even if it was just the latter, I was sure that I could reach that level of dream-like wealth.
‘Although. I don’t really need it.’
After all, aside from my recent ti in the Tower, I spend the vast majority of my ti in other worlds. Outside of that, and even whilst I was climbing the Tower, I pretty much just lived inside the Library.
At this point, what use did I even have for money?
“…Actually, I should probably get so more clothes.”
To be honest, the only casual clothes I had in Storage is what I was currently wearing. Everything else was at ho.
‘Well, at least they look nice.’
The last ti I was back ho like this was actually when mine and Ella’s family went out for dinner. Because of that, the clothes I wore right now were smarter than I was used to, but it was better than nothing.
Actually, they were the nicest clothes I owned, so I was partially relieved.
“Er, well, the only thing I’ve worn recently was the Draconic Shadow, so…”
In fact, I couldn’t rember the last ti I took it off aside from showering. I never cleaned it, after all, and there was no reason to ever wear sothing with less practicality.
“…”
‘Oh well.’
I haven’t experienced any problems with it, so it’s probably fine.
“…Now that I think about it, I’ve never heard of Challengers being stinky. Does magic energy also remove that sort of thing…? …Uh.”
Eventually, I realised I was staring into reflection of myself in a shop window, incessantly muttering useless things.
With that sudden attainnt of self-awareness, I hurriedly turned and walked away, bringing my phone up to glance at the ti.
‘Just about noon… I guess I could get so lunch while I’m at it–‘
“Oh my god, Enki, is that you?!”
“Huh?”
Out of nowhere, I heard soone call my na rather excitedly.
It was a faintly familiar voice, but not one I could imdiately recognise.
Instinctively raising my head, I put my smartphone into my pocket at the sa ti, my eyes landing on a young woman not far ahead, beaming at with a hand hovering over her mouth.
Seeing her face, sothing clicked, and I slowly opened my mouth.
“Are you… Iva?”
“It is you~! How’ve you been~? I haven’t seen you in ages~!”
Unexpectedly, she hurried over to , causing to flinch.
“A-ahh, you know how it is… How about you, you seem… lively.”
“Right?! Gosh, it’s been so busy lately… Lots of birthdays to keep track of this ti of year, you see. Anyway, I’ve been out every day for the past few weeks trying to find suitable presents for various people.”
“Haha…”
Judging by all the shopping bags in her hands, I was surprised she wasn’t finished.
‘Aren’t they heavy for her?’
In any case, this quite animated person, Iva Thorpe, was actually–
Grumble~
“Oop! Excuse , hahaha! …Say, Enki, it’s been a long ti. Would you like to catch up over lunch? Pardon for being intrusive, it’s just… The last ti we talked, you were still… You know. Anyway, I’m sorry, I understand it’s not sothing pleasant to think about.”
“…No, it’s alright. I was thinking of getting sothing to eat anyway, so I don’t mind. Where were you thinking of going?”
‘It should be fine. I’ve had a long ti to sit with it, so… Let’s at least give it a try.’
Hence, I ended up deciding to get lunch with an old friend.
❖─────☆☆☆☆☆─────❖
Ultimately, we ended up at a certain café I had never visited before.
[Wow~! This place is pretty!]
Was it a new establishnt? Everything was so clean and polished, and all the furniture seed brand new… Naturally, alarm bells rang within my head, and internally, sothing shuddered at the looming thought of the cost.
‘No, it’s fine. It’s not like I’m completely broke, and besides…’
If everything else failed sohow, they wouldn’t refuse mana crystals as paynt, right…? Surely.
“Enki, you go order and pick sowhere to sit, I’ll freshen up real quick and be right back, okay?”
“…”
Saying that without giving an opportunity to respond, I was swiftly abandoned by myself in this café filled with a suspicious ratio of won to n.
That is, a ratio of 100 : 0.
‘No, it’d be more like 98 : 2 now that I’m here.’
In any case, despite feeling severely out of place, there was nothing I could do to back out of it now. After ordering just a simple sandwich and a drink and waiting just a few minutes, I watched the cashier punch in so numbers, and on the screen facing , the total price popped up–
“―PFFFT!”
‘Huuuh?! How much…?!’
“Um. Is everything alright sir?”
“…Yeah.”
‘Scam… It’s a scam… Total scam…’
Fighting through heavy reluctance with gritted teeth, I brought my smartphone up to the terminal to wirelessly pay.
“Th– Thank- you…”
After that, I took the exorbitantly-priced lunch and walked around the shop to find a table sowhere.
‘Alright, let’s see…’
“…?”
This place was really busy, huh.
‘Co on…’
“…??”
Busier than I expected, in fact.
‘No…’
Really, really busy.
“…?!”
Sohow, I barely managed to find a couple just getting up to leave at a table by the window.
‘Oh, thank God…’
Even though the place itself was bigger on the inside than it appeared externally, every other table in sight looked pretty much full, and sohow, the gender ratio maintained almost full unbalanced consistency.
It would have been really uncomfortable if there was nowhere to sit and I just had to stand awkwardly and wait, with everyone staring…
[Huhh~? But, didn’t you go on that cara in front of lots and lots of people…?]
‘That’s different, Librarian.’
For one, I had the Villain’s Vizard equipped, so no one actually saw ‘’ or could know who I was, and secondly, it was a cara, making it far less awkward than if it was real people.
…Although, it wouldn’t surprise if, by this ti, the number of people who had seen that clip were into the billions.
After all, it had already been over a day since then, and after sleeping in the Library from the mont I returned, I had only woken up to see my upgrades and purchase Divine Blood.
Because of that, I hadn’t bothered to check the public reception of my appearance.
‘It’s probably really bad… I am curious, though.’
That inquisitiveness inevitably winning over, I brought my phone up and opened the web browser, taking a bite out of the scam sandwich at the sa ti.
‘Let’s see here. “John Pierce Killer”…’
The instant the results appeared, my eyes widened.
“Wh–hgk– Cough, cough! H-huh…?”
Sothing absurd popped up, causing to almost choke on my food―giving myself a mont to swallow properly, I slowly let my eyes roll across the title at the top of the page, pressing on it to open the full article.
[United States’ ‘Dragon Maiden’ Urges World Leaders to Go “All-out” on Capturing the ‘Demon King’! “ASAP” | Full Interview]
“You can’t be serious…”
Sohow, all of the worries I previously held about the price of the food on my plate had abruptly vanished.
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