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When Mira got out of the shower and looked out the window, she saw the Dark Knights were already taking down skeletons that approached the mansion. Watching that she grinned and started counting in her head, five hundred, a thousand, fifteen hundred, two thousand, and so on. At that rate she would wake up to more than two hundred thousand Rils.
「The skeletons look really excited too. That’s good, bring me more money.」
She was getting rich without having to move a muscle. Considering the change of seasons, Mira started to think about buying a magic air conditioner. But then she realized something, this was a spirit mansion, so maybe a spirit’s power could cool it down too.
She decided to put it to the test. The fire spirit she already had linked to the mansion allowed her to raise the room temperature as she wished. Then she added an ice spirit to the chain, and she successfully lowered the temperature. It also allowed her to create ice, which could keep her food fresh.
「Ahh! This is the life!」
While it was a bit too late to call it a post-shower drink, she drank some chilled fruit cider and let out a joyous voice.
A comfortable home, the perfect room temperature, and what felt like the best drink in the entire world. Mira was sitting in her underwear again, inebriated with so much satisfaction that she was on the verge of forgetting what her mission was.
「I used to take it for granted back then, but now it feels like such a luxury…」
Mira muttered out of nowhere. Only now she had realized how much it took for her to feel at home in this new world, all her needs met like that.
Maybe it was the fact that she finally had obtained an environment that closely resembled the world she had been born in, but memories from back then came flooding her mind as she prepared dinner.
『Oh, so you came from another world?』
「Yes. Back then this world was like a game, so I was shocked when it became reality.」
After dinner, she started talking with the Spirit King again. She had drunk quite a bit, which loosened her tongue and made her impulsively reveal that she was a former player, and that this world had once been inside a game she knew as Ark Earth Online.
「You’re less shocked than I expected.」
A game became true, what was once virtual had materialized. Such a revelation would surely shock the Spirit King, but his voice sounded rather composed, leaving Mira slightly confused.
『I believe Forsythia said the same, that she came from another world.』
「Wh…at..?」
The legendary hero who had saved the world, Forsythia. Mira was speechless hearing that she had also come from a different world. She tried to ask for more details, but the Spirit King was rather vague with his replies.
Only two things were certain. People had been coming to this world from others since ancient times, making it a rather common occurrence. The other revelation was about Forsythia herself. Those very close to her referred to her as Yuina.
(What’s going on..? Were there former players even so long ago? Or just like how I was flung thirty years in the future, some players went to the past..? Wait no, there’s no proof she was a player. Maybe she came from a completely different world than mine.)
That Forsythia came from a different world did not make her a former player, there was a chance she had come from a different world to Mira’s as well. Considering a fantastical world with magic and spirits already existed here, there could be any number of other worlds out there. Or rather, that was even more likely.
Maybe this world was set up that way, receiving people from others. In that case, no matter how much Mira thought about it she would never get clear answers. Regardless, just like how this world went from being a game to reality, bringing in a large number of former players from another world, such an event could have happened in the past, bringing Forsythia from her own world.
「Did she mention anything at all about the world she once lived in?」
Having learned that truth about that great hero, Mira continued asking questions about her. She was not quite trying to unmask Forsythia’s identity, but was mostly driven by curiosity. It was human nature to be curious about famous people, whether they came from the same world or a different one.
『Hmm, she wouldn’t really touch the subject often, and I didn’t pry either. I’m sorry.』
「It’s alright, I’m the one who should apologize for asking so much.」
That was as much as the Spirit King knew about her. Forsythia had only gained the Spirit King’s Divine Protection quite late into her career, so their relationship was not the longest. Essentially that only happened in the last portion of her work, when Forsythia had already made a name for herself as a great hero. He did not know her life before that. Mira would learn more from studying books and legends about her rather than asking the Spirit King.
『But I see, so you came from another world as well. Fate’s whims can truly be a fickle thing.』
The Spirit King’s voice was solemn, recalling memories from such a long time ago. 「I know,」 added Mira, smiling as she hoped their connection would last longer.
A keen interest in Forsythia had taken root in Mira’s mind, so she decided she would look up any information relating to her in the castle’s archives once she was back. When she finished eating, she headed to bed.
Mira woke up in the Ancient Underground City’s fifth floor the next morning. She had breakfast and dressed herself up, then headed outside full of expectation.
「This has to be a dream!」
Mira could not stop grinning at what she saw. There were Magic Stones strewn all around the mansion, clearly way more numerous than she saw the last morning.
Undead monsters were more active at night, but adventurers went to sleep at those hours. They would spawn at higher rates with no one to hunt them, and they would all be attracted by Mira’s life force, gathering around the mansion. The Dark Knights keeping guard would crush all of them, leading to this result.
The monsters also became stronger each floor, which meant the Magic Stones obtained were also bigger. Selling all of them would net Mira a sum absolutely no one would believe was obtained just by sleeping.
Regular adventurers would always use magic devices that produced repelling barriers when they camped out in those places, which were sold in Dinowal Stores and similar. That concealed their presence and stopped monsters from getting close. They were not perfect so adventurers also had a night watch, but usually it was rather safe, making such magic devices quite useful. Even Mira had bought them, though at this point she would likely never use hers.
Mira looked around satisfied, then hurried to summon Cait Sith to commence gathering the Magic Stones.
She knew there would be a lot, so she had ordered her Dark Knights to defeat the skeletons in open spaces to make collecting easier. The Holy Knight also used its tower shield like a bulldozer’s blade to gather Magic Stones. That way picking everything up took less than ten minutes.
Then it was time for the count, which she could not wait for. Cait Sith quickly gave the number, three hundred forty two Magic Stones.
「That’s a nice sum for no effort. But one can never have enough money after all!」
Mira stuffed her Item Box with Magic Stones in a good mood. If she really put everything she had into it, she could easily earn millions or even more in a single day, making her current income seem like small change by comparison. But Mira preferred the easy path, enamored by the sum she obtained doing nothing. Her nature having grown up as a low-income commoner would never go away.
「Tonight we feast meow!」
Cait Sith jumped and danced around, happy seeing the spoils of war. Mira gave him a fish filet and sent him away. As Cait Sith turned to particles of light, his voice rang clear 「This is Cobalt King Tuna! A banquet fit for a king!」
A single filet was called a banquet. It seemed like Cait Sith also shared Mira’s commoner mentality.
