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Translator: Barnnn
The shock of Izumi’s first day in this world had been nothing short of overwhelming.
The sudden transportation here, the baffling skills they now possessed, their transformed belongings — they all pressed down on her, threatening to break her mind apart.
She feared she might crumble under the strain. And yet, amidst her own panic, she couldn’t help but worry about Takada. He was supposed to be the adult between them, but his reactions to everything had been unnerving — what if he had already lost his grip on reality way ahead of her?
If Takada knew she harbored such doubts about him, she was certain he would start tearing up.
Needing a moment to collect herself, Izumi activated her Stealth skill and stepped outside in search of a restroom.
To her immense relief, they had found out that they were in the royal castle of a kingdom’s capital. They plumbing here was well-maintained, and the toilets were clean — far better than the horrific medieval setups of the fantasy novels she had read.
Later, after the initial shock of discovering the “unchanging” property of their otherworldly items had worn off, Izumi and Takada sat on the floor, just as they had done the day before, and started planning out their next move.
“For now,” Takada began, “it looks like we won’t have to worry about food, clothing, and money.”
Izumi eyed him skeptically. “Money? Have you been using your Converter’s flea market thing?”
“Yeah. I picked up a random plate from the next room and sold it. The COnverter showed ’25s’ — whatever that’s worth — and when I pressed the equal button, the plate disappeared and a coin dropped out. Bada bing.”
Takada opened his palm, revealing the coin.
“J-just like that…?”
Izumi hesitated, then gingerly poked it. It felt solid, but doubt still clouded her mind — was it genuine? Could they actually use it?
“As I said, I don’t even know what this is worth yet. There are probably different types of currency, and I guess I’ll need to keep using my Eyes of Appraisal until I can figure out the value of each. But even once we understand this kingdom’s money, who knows if it’ll be any good somewhere else?”
“Right… if we travel to another country, we might be back at square one with the currency issue.”
“Exactly. Oh, and there’s something else you should see.”
Takada extended his left arm toward Izumi.
Her curiosity piqued, she leaned in and saw that he now had a thick silver bangle wrapped around his wrist.
“Wait a second… Did you…?”
“Yup, I shape-shifted my stuff.”
“What was it originally?”
“The suitcase.”
“WHAT.”
Izumi promptly looked over Takada’s shoulder, and sure enough, the suitcase that had been there yesterday was gone.
Even when she peered into every corner of the small room, it was nowhere to be seen.
“And get this — the Magic Bag’s function is still intact,” Takada announced, and right on cue, the proof came in the form of a package of sweet pastries that popped out of thin air. “See?”
Without missing a beat, he tore open the package and took a big bite, his face lighting up with satisfaction as he chewed.
To Izumi, his carefree demeanor only reinforced her suspicion: Takada’s mental maturity had regressed along with his physical age.
“Uh… so, do you think I could do that with my backpack, too?”
“Pwhibby,” Takada mumbled through a mouthful of pastry.
“…Cool.”
Leaving Takada to his impromptu meal, Izumi walked over to the corner of the room where she had left her backpack.
For a moment, she hesitated — then, closing her eyes, she visualized the exact shape she wanted it to take, just like she had done with her crutch the day before.
Slowly, she felt the backpack shrink and disappear in her hands, replaced by the cool, smooth weight of metal pressing against her palm.
“Huh, it actually worked.”
She returned to Takada and held out her right hand.
“A ring, huh?”
Izumi shrugged. “At this point, I figured — why not?”
“Isn’t it a bit big?”
“I’m wearing it on my middle finger.”
“Pretty mature for your age.”
“What can I say? The nerd inside me is winning today. I’ve seen characters in manga wear rings like this — thought it looked pretty cool.”
The pair shared a laugh, and Izumi proceeded to slip the ring onto her right middle finger.
Its design was somewhat rugged — a mismatch with her petite frame, but she seemed satisfied as she glanced down at it.
Then, when Izumi turned her palm up, a bottle of tea materialized in her hand.
“Still fully functional.”
“Awesome.”
They proceeded to have a light breakfast, after which they began to discuss what to do next.
“First, let’s list out the things we need to know,” Takada started, “We’ll assign priorities to each item and figure out the best places to obtain that information. I’ve already written down a few, but feel free to add your thoughts along the way.”
“All right.”
Izumi couldn’t help but feel a spark of admiration for Takada’s calm and methodical approach — a quality that reminded her that he was an actual corporate manager. Despite everything, he wasn’t the type to stumble around blindly.
Takada pulled out his tablet, booted up a certain application, and slid it toward her.
It seemed to be a mind-mapping program of sorts, assisting with organizing information by creating notes and linking them with one another into diagrams.
After hearing a brief explanation, Izumi started scanning over the notes Takada had already put together.
As he had mentioned, they were a mix of things they’d need to address urgently and other details that could be tackled in the long term.
After some back-and-forth over the details and their concerns, they settled on the following priorities:
High-Priority Goals:
– Determine if there is a way to return to Earth
– Understand the political situation of this kingdom (including the reason for their summoning)
– Understand the political landscape of surrounding countries (to identify potential destinations)
Important Goals:
– Investigate the cause of Takada’s de-aging
– Plan for a future in this world, in case returning to Earth isn’t an option
– Discover additional methods of earning money beyond the flea market function
“I guess we should also consider things like how to prove our identity in this world… But for now, this should cover the major points. If we spread ourselves too thin, we won’t be able to make any real progress.”
“Do you think we’ll… actually be able to return to Earth?”
“We barely know anything, so there’s no use assuming either way… Probably better not get our hopes up, though.”
Until Izumi saw the question “Can we return to Earth?” in Takada’s notes, the possibility had never even crossed her mind. All this time, she had been too preoccupied with yesterday’s chaos.
If someone were to appear before her this very moment and offer a way back, would she accept it? Now that the question was staring back at her, a realization crept in — her answer would be ‘no.’
Guilt began to twist inside her at this admission, but before the feeling could take root, Takada spoke up with an unexpected cheerfulness,
“For me, though, if I find out what caused my de-aging and it turns out there’s no way to reverse it, I think I’d just stay here. I mean, there’s no way I can go back to work looking like this — they’d think I was my nephew or something.”
“That’s… true.”
“And if it comes to that, I hope you’ll stick around for a while too, Ichikawa-kun.”
“Sure, I’ll– wait, what?”
“It’d be pretty lonely, wouldn’t it? Being all by myself in this foreign world? Sure, technically there are those four high schoolers we got summoned with, but we probably won’t be seeing them for a while, if at all. And they already seem like a close-knit group — jumping in would just be awkward. Oh, also… that fried chicken you shared with me yesterday was GREAT! Your instant noodles and snacks are must-haves, too.”
“You just want the contents of my Magic Bag, don’t you?”
“Well, yeah. But I swear, that’s only ONE OF the reasons!”
“Okay… I’ll just say I appreciate your honesty, then.”
Izumi felt her mood lifting, thanks to Takada’s easygoing attitude.
“By the way, I never wrote this, but… I’d also like to eventually find a place to settle down.”
“You’re already thinking about that?”
“Yeah. I mean, as much as I’d love to travel around this world and see everything it has to offer, I know I’d want a home base. Somewhere to come back to. See, working as a supply manager means I travel a lot — and it’s great fun, don’t get me wrong, but nothing beats coming back to my little apartment and sinking into my couch, surrounded by my collection of books and stuff. Now THAT is what it feels to be at peace.”
A nostalgic smile spread across Takada’s face, a mature expression that seemed at odds with his current 14-year-old appearance.
Now Izumi could tell that, contrary to her prior assumptions, he was an adult who understood what made him happy in life.
“I’m in. We’ll definitely find a good place someday.”
“Thanks. I really hope that by the time I’m back to thirty-two, we’ll have found it.”
Now that they had their goals, the next step was to figure out how to achieve them.
And for Takada, getting started with that was simple enough.
“So, from what we’ve gathered so far, we’re in the heart of this kingdom. That’s perfect — all the information we need should be here. Let’s dig up as much as we can.”
And so, with that proposal, their covert life within the royal castle began.
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