–+–
Hot steam rushed up at them, thick with the scent of bone broth.
Master Chop’s ramen came in huge portions, and the black bowl red pepper chicken noodle soup was no joke.
By the time Columbina finished eating, a fine sheen of sweat had formed on the tip of her nose, and her mood had improved for all to see.
With the commission done and the weight off their shoulders, the group finished dinner in good spirits.
After paying the bill, the four of them returned to the video store.
The clock had just passed eight.
Belle pushed open the glass door and felt along the wall in the dark until she found the switch.
With a click, the lights came on.
Warm light spilled across rows of neat videotape cases.
“Nicole still isn’t here?” Belle yawned, dropped herself onto the sofa, and tapped at her phone a few times.
“I’ll rush her.”
Wise went to the back to make tea.
Sandrone and Columbina sat side by side on the sofa.
Sandrone sat straight, while Columbina leaned against her shoulder with her eyes half shut, like a sleepy dove.
“Let’s wait a bit longer. She should be here soon.” Wise came out with a kettle, set a cup of water in front of each of them, and placed one more cup by the empty seat.
The words had barely left his mouth when the sharp sound of brakes came from outside.
A second later, the door flew open in a rush.
“I’m here, I’m here!”
The pink-haired girl burst in with her signature suitcase in hand.
A thin layer of sweat covered her forehead, and she was still a little out of breath.
“Sorry, sorry! Traffic got kind of bad on the way—was that Bangboo sleepwalking in the middle of the road or what? Seriously!” Nicole grabbed the cup Wise had poured in advance and drained more than half of it in one go.
“Phew. I’m alive again.” She leaned against the back of the sofa and fanned herself.
After taking a moment to catch her breath, she swept her gaze around the room.
It finally landed on Sandrone, and a bright smile spread across her face at once.
“Yo, Sandrone, Columbina. Long time no see!”
Nicole pulled over a chair with the ease of someone who owned the place and crossed one leg over the other.
“Looks like the commission went great! I knew I had a good eye for people!”
“All right, Nicole, let’s get to the point.” Belle put down her phone and cut off Nicole’s small talk.
“I texted you earlier about exchanging Moonfall Silver for dennies, and you said something ‘went wrong.’ What happened?”
The smile on Nicole’s face froze for a second.
“Don’t even get me started.” Her expression turned ugly at once, and she set the cup down on the table.
“That frie—ptui, that damn crook! She scammed me!”
Sandrone frowned a little.
“Moonfall Silver can’t be exchanged for dennies anymore?”
“No, that’s not it.” Nicole waved her hand.
“It can still be exchanged.”
“Did the exchange amount go down?”
“Mm, not that either…”
“Nicole!” Belle crossed her arms and leaned back against the sofa.
“Say it all at once!”
“I was going to, but I kept getting…” Nicole muttered under her breath, poking her fingers together.
“Ahem. Fine, fine. It’s not that serious! It’s just—before, she kept saying stuff like ‘this is a nuke for academia,’ and ‘we could publish hundreds of papers with this,’ and ‘this could make someone a tenured professor.’ I got… I got soft-hearted for a second. I felt bad for her, so I sold it to her at a low price.”
Nicole slapped her own thigh, her face full of outrage.
“And what did she do? She turned right around and sold it to her boss at a high price! She sold it for one million dennies!!!”
“Boss?” Belle paused, then looked at Wise.
“She probably means her teacher or adviser?” Wise wasn’t too sure either, but he could more or less guess that Nicole had sold the Moonfall Silver to someone like a researcher from the HIA.
Sandrone’s brow shifted.
“So one piece of Moonfall Silver is worth one million dennies?”
“Yes—uh!” Nicole froze on the spot.
Had she just let that slip by accident?
One million dennies.
Before, she had helped bring Sandrone and Columbina out of the Hollow, then driven them to Sixth Street.
All things considered, it had only taken one trip.
At this price, that one piece she had taken… Nicole lowered her head.
Her eyes darted around, then she stole a glance at Sandrone.
Sandrone’s face showed nothing.
Nicole glanced again.
Still no reaction.
So… she wasn’t going to make a fuss about it?
Nicole let out a quiet breath of relief.
Her dennies were probably safe.
On the other side, Wise leaned closer to Belle and lowered his voice.
“Belle, I think we really struck it rich this time!”
Belle’s expression turned a little complicated as she whispered back, “Bro, aren’t we being a bit too ruthless… Isn’t this kind of wrong?”
“Well…” Wise hesitated too, then turned to look at Nicole.
After all, in the end, they still needed Nicole to exchange the Moonfall Silver for dennies.
How would she react?
For a moment, the mood in the room sank into a strange silence.
Columbina leaned against Sandrone’s shoulder and looked from side to side, not quite understanding why everyone had gone quiet all of a sudden.
“You all…”
The moment Sandrone opened her mouth, Belle and Nicole both jolted.
“Just say the word!” Nicole sat up straight at once, her tone as sincere as it could be.
“As long as the Cunning Hares can do it, we’ll go through fire and water for you!”
“…”
Sandrone looked at them, a little speechless.
“What are you all so nervous about? I didn’t say I was going to do anything.”
She untied the heavy little cloth bag and poured five gems onto the table, each one glowing with a cold silver light.
The five pieces of Moonfall Silver rested there in silence, as if moonlight had been frozen into solid form.
Under the warm yellow light of the room, they gave off a strange chill.
Nicole’s eyes went straight.
She had seen them before, but this thing’s beauty—or rather, the beauty of the “dennies” it represented—could still stir the heart no matter how many times she looked at it.
“Two pieces are the final payment for Phaethon.” Sandrone pressed her long fingers against two of them and pushed them toward Belle.
Then she placed her fingers on the other three and slid them toward Nicole.
“For these three, please exchange them for dennies for me.”
After spending the past few days learning about this world, Sandrone had gained some grasp of its prices.
She had also become interested in certain technologies unique to this world and planned to study them.
For research, this amount of money was still only a drop in the bucket, but for more surface-level fields, it should be enough to last a while.
“No problem! Leave it to me!”
Nicole whipped out a storage case so fast it was almost a blur.
Her movements were smooth and practiced, as if she feared Sandrone might change her mind.
She placed the three pieces of Moonfall Silver inside with great care, then snapped the lid shut.
Nicole patted the storage case.
Then, as if remembering something, she rubbed her hands together, and her tone became warm enough to melt butter.
“So, uh… Sandrone.”
Sandrone lifted her eyes.
“That croo—cough, I mean, my friend,” Nicole said, choosing her words with care, “they’re doing research, you know? They need a lot of material. She told me she’d take as much Moonfall Silver as she could get. So I was wondering…”
She didn’t outright say, “Sell me everything you’ve got,” but the longing in her eyes was about to spill over.
Sandrone lowered her gaze and rubbed her fingers together.
Columbina did still have more, but Sandrone didn’t plan to bring it all out.
Moonfall Silver wasn’t from this world, after all.
If they sold too much, it might draw trouble they didn’t need.
She hated trouble.
Especially trouble outside of research.
“There’s no more.” Sandrone looked up, her voice calm.
“This is all I have on hand.”
A flicker of disappointment passed through Nicole’s eyes, but it was soon covered by the joy of knowing she had still made a profit.
“Fine, fine. Small streams make a long river!” She patted the storage case.
“Don’t worry. Once it passes through the hands of Nicole, boss of the Cunning Hares, I guarantee every denny you get will be ‘clean.'”
Sandrone glanced at her.
“Clean?”