Five Transcendent Great Worlds!

(PS: Only two updates today. I might as well take Saturdays and Sundays off for two-update days from now on. My child is on vacation, and I want to spend weekends with them. Please understand. Regular updates will resume after September 1st.)

"...You're not human?"

Wu Pifu asked curiously as he walked ahead.

The gnome Jin Shan Shan followed the three of them happily. As he calculated how much money he could swindle from them, he instinctively started to answer—then suddenly shuddered as a surge of dread gripped his heart.

"Look at what you're saying, sir. Of course I'm human. I'm a merchant—an honest, trustworthy merchant. Even if my race is the Gnome Race, being a merchant is my true identity."

Wu Pifu actually accepted that answer. He nodded and continued onward.

Although Xu Shilan and Yamadai found the exchange somewhat baffling, neither sensed the danger lurking within it. Jin Shan Shan, on the other hand, let out a huge sigh of relief, though he did not understand why himself.

Afterward, Wu Pifu and the other two took Jin Shan Shan to stay at what appeared to be a fairly upscale lodging house in the busy district... though to the three of them, it was really just a slightly cleaner brick-and-tile house.

A short while later, servants brought flatbread, roasted meat, grilled fish, vegetables, fruit, pastries, hot soup...

Once all the food had been set on the table, the gnome Jin Shan Shan kept swallowing his saliva. Wu Pifu nodded at him. "Then eat with us. We can talk while we eat."

Jin Shan Shan seemed to have been waiting for those words. Still, he had some manners and did not immediately start grabbing food with his hands. He sat at the table, picked up a knife and fork, took