"Cough, cough. Let me introduce myself. My name is Jiu Ming. My profession is Mysterious Merchant, and as for my race... I suppose I'm a ghost." Sitting on the ground, Jiu Ming coughed lightly and tapped his drowsy head as he spoke.
"My name is Aya Shameimaru." Wearing a less-than-pleasant expression, the black-haired girl flicked the maple-leaf fan in her hand, blowing the dust off the ground before finally sitting down. Quite the clean freak, wasn't she?
"Aya?"
"...We aren't that close, are we?" Aya Shameimaru shot Jiu Ming, who looked half-dead, a sidelong glance.
"It's fine. You helped me once, so that makes us acquainted. Hold on, let me find something..." Jiu Ming chuckled. Then, to Aya Shameimaru's puzzlement, he muttered something under his breath while one hand made vague flipping motions in the air, as though he were turning pages in a book. Was this guy mentally ill?
Or had he gotten so weak that he'd gone stupid?
"What are you doing?"
"Didn't I say it? I'm a Mysterious Merchant, so naturally I'm looking for some merchandise... Mm, take a look. Pick whichever you like; no need to stand on ceremony." As he spoke, Jiu Ming pulled a thick stack of Sealed Cards from his hand as if performing a magic trick. There had to be over a hundred of them.
"These are wooden boards...? No, they have words on them." When she saw the writing on the Sealed Cards, Aya Shameimaru's eyes widened. She was certain she didn't recognize a single character on them, yet she could understand them? That was far too strange. Just who was this ghost who looked like a young man?
"Cake? What's that?"
"Eh, a kind of sweet." Jiu Ming took the Sealed Card from Aya Shameimaru's hand and applied a little