A Tense and Thrilling Transaction

In the town of Dris, people lived simple, unchanging lives. Though it lacked the prosperity of a major city, life was leisurely and carefree for most. Being such a small place, it had never produced any famous mages. A person who had become a Grand Mage here several decades ago was already worthy of being recorded in history—provided one did not know Mayuna existed.

Today, however, Dris welcomed two unusual visitors. The girl's long, pure-white hair made everyone stop and stare. Though there was no fluctuation of magic power around her, people seemed to have been struck by petrification magic. Once they saw her face, they could not look away. Pedestrians turned their heads as she passed, eventually bumping into one another and causing a commotion. In a rural corner of the Holy Empire like this, they had never seen such a beautiful girl.

As for the man beside her, he could be ignored. From their appearances, they were obviously siblings, either brother and sister or sister and brother, because there was not the slightest hint of romance between them.

"How does it feel?"

Ruben walked alongside Mayuna. Seeing the strange reactions of the people on the street, he realized he had underestimated Mayuna's destructive power. He did not want to become the center of attention at all. Had he known, he would have been better off asking her to cast that magic that drove away idle onlookers.

"Hmm... I really am beautiful, aren't I?"

Mayuna thought for a moment, then pointed at her cheeks with her index fingers and put on a cute expression. The passersby went even crazier, shouting things like, "Mom, I want to marry her!" Ruben had never praised her appearance when they lived together, making her doubt her image as a beauty. Only now, seeing the besotted expressions of the crowd, did she regain her confidence.

"Who was talking about that?"

Ruben shook his head helplessly. Still, seeing her joke around like this, she probably was not feeling too uncomfortable.

"It's much better than I imagined. But there are still a few people looking at me with ill intentions. Should I clean them up?"

Mayuna stopped joking as well. Honestly, she had already prepared herself for gossip and hostility, but she had not expected people to accept her so easily. Although heads turned wherever she went, most merely wanted to look at her face a little longer. Of course, there was also some malice mixed in, which was only natural. After all, that legend had long since taken root in people's hearts.

"Stop thinking about stirring up trouble all day. We'll go home after buying what we need."

As someone from another world, Ruben had spent far longer in this town than Mayuna, who had been born here. He led the way with practiced ease to a general store on the street corner and pushed open the door.

"Pick whatever you want."

The somewhat portly middle-aged owner sat in his spot reading a book. Hearing customers enter, he showed none of the enthusiasm expected of a shopkeeper and spoke without even raising his head.

"It's me."

"Huh, it's Ruben. Your hair and eyes..."

Only upon hearing the familiar voice did the fat owner look up. Seeing Ruben's white hair and red eyes, he paused for a moment. Mayuna told herself that if this man tried to hurt Ruben, she would definitely make him suffer.

"Hahaha, did you dye your hair again? You look a lot more handsome like this."

The owner's praise nearly made Mayuna trip on flat ground. She knew merchants were all like this, but she did not think Ruben looked handsome in the slightest.

"Is this your female companion?"

The fat owner shifted his gaze to Mayuna as he spoke, but he showed no unusual reaction. By then, Mayuna had already cast her magic to drive away idle onlookers. To outsiders, her face was indistinct, yet it did not seem unnatural. As she put it, she was not some decoration, so why should people keep staring at her for no reason?

"No. She's my creditor."

"Well, there's nothing to be done about that."

The owner gave him a sympathetic look. Paying back one's debts was only right, and debts owed to women were especially hard to repay.

"By the way, that stuff you make called hair dye sells really well. Customers keep complaining that the color fades after only a few days, but it's best for me if they keep coming back to buy more. Because of that legend, hardly anyone buys white, but young people these days are pretty accepting. A few have already dyed their hair white. Honestly, it looks quite good."

The owner seemed to have opened the floodgates and rambled on about a great deal of nonsense. Aside from that legend, white hair had always been the color of the elderly, representing experience and maturity. Perhaps rebellious teenagers thought dyeing their hair white made them stand out. In any case, the one-use dye would disappear after a few days, so it was not bad to experience what it felt like to be old in advance.

Some particularly troublesome brats even used it to pretend to be that legend and scare their parents, only to get a vicious beating once their parents caught on. Thanks to the unintentional publicity from those people, Mayuna had not encountered much trouble.

"You're as long-winded as ever. I want to sell some pearls."

Ruben was already used to the owner's rambling. Once the man had finally finished, he took more than ten pearls from his pocket and placed them on the counter.

"Precious goods again? If you took them to a larger city, you could easily get double the price. But I can only offer a low price here."

"That's fine. Your price is fair."

"Still, I have to say, it's impressive that you can get pearls in a place like this."

The owner spoke with some amazement. The Holy Empire was undoubtedly inland, and pearls were generally produced in coastal regions.

"Oh, I keep a mermaid. Whenever she cries, I collect her tears."

Ruben nodded and generously told the owner the truth. Mayuna desperately wanted to flick Ruben on the forehead. Why was he casually telling people that a mermaid existed?!

"There you go again. That sense of humor is what I like about you, Ruben. Last time, you said you helped a poisonous dragon take a bath. My wife and I laughed for ages after I told her. Besides, mermaid tears turning into pearls is just a legend. I know you like hunting Monster Grass, so these were probably stolen by thieves."

It turned out that nobody believed the truth. Ruben seemed to know what Mayuna was thinking and gave her a calm glance. The female God Mage, naturally displeased, lightly kicked him.

"Here, this is what you wanted. I really don't understand why you keep collecting these ores that dwarves like."

The owner took several large rocks from beneath the counter and placed them before Ruben. Ruben had asked him to gather them, so whenever someone happened to acquire ore, they would bring it in to sell in accordance with the notice posted outside.

Humanity in this world had clearly abandoned science. The dwarves, on the other hand, had embraced it, developing their own forging techniques by combining science and magic. No matter the world, dwarves liked smithing. Most of the Empire's ironware came from the dwarven kingdom. Because of this, humans roughly understood the value of certain ores and had chosen gold and silver as currency based on their rarity.

"Thanks for the trouble."

"I'm making money anyway. This is what's left after deducting the cost of the ore—fifty gold coins."

The owner showed Ruben the accounts, then set a bag of gold coins in front of him. After chatting about this and that for a while, he finally let Ruben leave.

"I didn't expect that was how you traded with people. You're quite practiced. How many times have you done this?"

Mayuna only spoke after she and Ruben had left the general store. Watching Ruben make a deal in person had been quite an interesting experience. As she spoke, Dragon, perched on Ruben's head, opened his eyes and glanced at Mayuna, but after considering the gap in their strength, he did not make a move.

"You ask too many questions."

"Next, we're buying ingredients, right? What should we have for lunch?"

"Let's eat here. Give me a day off once in a while."

"Huh? Can the food here really be good?"

Mayuna could proudly say that Ruben had spoiled her palate. By comparison, even the Holy Empire's court cuisine was nothing special, and she did not hesitate to doubt the town where she had been born.

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PS: Just like an abrupt chapter break, the school romance drama always comes out of nowhere. (laugh)

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