–+–
Five hundred thousand Dennies?
The number echoed again and again in Nicole’s head.
How many zeroes was that?
It felt like… enough to pay off every tab she’d ever run up in one go.
There might even be some left over!
The person on the other end of the call heard Nicole go silent and thought she felt the offer was too low.
Panic hit her at once.
She thought of the paper she could write, one that might shake the whole field of materials science.
She thought of the very top of the academic world waving at her, and steeled herself.
“Seven hundred and fifty thousand Dennies! Nicole! That’s really my limit! I can write an IOU! I’ll use my future research funds as collateral! I really can’t go any higher!!”
There was even a trace of tears in her voice.
“…”
Nicole felt dizzy.
Even breathing became hard.
Seven hundred and fifty thousand Dennies?
All for a stone the size of her palm?
Heh… hehe… I must be dreaming.
This is some absurd, beautiful dream I’m having after my debts finally drove me mad… Yeah, that has to be it…
“Deal!!!”
Nicole used the last bit of strength in her body to shout that one word into her phone.
Then the phone slipped from her palm, and she fell backward, landing hard in the soft pile of blankets.
She stared at the cheap ceiling light above her and laughed without a sound.
The next second, a scream burst through the floorboards of the Cunning Hares’ office.
“Anby—! Billy—! Wake up!! We’re rich—!!!”
–+–
Back to the present.
Sixth Street, Random Play.
Bang!
The shop door was shoved open with raw force.
The old wind chime behind it rang in a wild clatter, sharp and loud in the quiet store.
“Ehn-nah!!!”
The Bangboo tidying the shelves, 18, jolted so hard that the tapes in its hands almost fell to the floor.
“Belle—! Wise—!”
Nicole burst into the shop like a whirlwind.
She swept her gaze around, saw there were no customers, and charged straight toward the back room.
“Belle—!”
With another bang, the back room door was also flung open.
It swung inward hard, the gust brushing past Belle’s nose before it slammed into the wall with a crash.
Belle shrank back in fright.
She patted her chest and took two steps back, still shaken.
“Nicole! You scared me to death!”
Wise rose from the sofa with half a glass of water still in his hand, his brow faintly furrowed.
“Nicole, what happened? Why are you in such a rush?”
Nicole had two huge dark circles under her eyes, like smoky makeup after three straight all-nighters.
“What’s with those dark circles?” Belle asked with some curiosity.
“Did you stay up all night?”
“Big business! Belle! Wise!”
Nicole slammed the door shut, her eyes bright enough to be scary.
“Big business!”
She grabbed Belle’s hands and stared at her with burning eyes.
“I brought you a super—super huge client!”
Wise walked to the side and filled his cup with water.
He let out a sigh, his tone full of the helplessness of someone who’d heard this all before.
“Nicole, are you sure it’s a ‘huge client’ and not ‘huge trouble’?”
“I swear on the good name Nicole Demara has built over years of surviving in New Eridu! This time is different!”
Nicole waved her arms in excitement, speaking so fast she sounded like a repeating crossbow.
“They’re two… no, not two people, two mountains! Walking mountains of Dennies! Real treasure troves! Once you take their commission, my tiny little tab won’t even matter. I’ll pay it all back with interest in minutes! You’ll even have to pay me a referral fee!”
“For you to get this excited, and even bring up ‘paying off your tab’ yourself? This client must be something special.”
Belle pulled Nicole back to sit on the sofa with her, a teasing smile in her voice.
“So who is it? Do we know them?”
“Of course you do! Sandrone and Columbina, the two you ran into yesterday in the Cretan Hollow!”
“Ah, them!” Belle looked as if it had clicked, then raised a brow.
“Did they leave something in the Hollow?”
Nicole blinked.
Her head was so full of Dennies that she didn’t catch on at first.
“…I think they did say something needed to be recovered… but that’s not the point!”
Nicole planted both hands on Belle’s shoulders.
“The point is their pay!”
“The pay?” Wise sat back down on the sofa with his glass.
“Are they offering a huge commission fee? Or is the job tricky enough that they need Phaethon?”
Nicole shook her head.
“Do you remember the ‘Moonfall Silver’ I showed you yesterday?”
“That pretty gem?” Wise nodded.
“I remember.”
“I had a friend in the HIA appraise it.”
Nicole put on a mysterious look.
“Guess how much it was worth.”
Belle looked at Nicole’s excited face and guessed a bit high.
“A hundred thousand Dennies?”
“Nope~ more.”
Wise paused.
“Two hundred thousand? Uh, three hundred thousand?”
“Nope~ more.” Nicole crossed her arms and leaned back a little, wearing a look that said, Go on, keep guessing.
Belle swallowed.
“Don’t tell me… five hundred thousand?”
“Still more~”
Belle and Wise looked at each other in shock. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
“Nicole~ just tell us already. How much was it?” Belle grabbed Nicole’s arm and shook it gently.
“Heh heh~” Nicole puffed out her chest.
“Seven hundred and fifty thousand! She bought that piece of Moonfall Silver for seven hundred and fifty thousand Dennies!”
“How much!?” Belle was stunned.
“That… that price is kind of absurd…” Wise raised a hand and wiped away sweat that wasn’t there.
Nicole’s face looked smug enough to light up the room.
Then she launched into a vivid account of what had happened last night.
Jingle, jingle~
The wind chime at the entrance rang again, crisp and pleasant, cutting off their discussion.
Nicole seemed to flip some inner switch.
She straightened at once, fixed her slightly messy collar, and changed the fevered look on her face into the polished smile of a professional odd-job agency boss.
“That has to be them!”
She lowered her voice as she said it to Wise and Belle.
Then she took a deep breath like an actor about to step onstage, turned, and pushed open the back room door.
The curve of her smile was flawless.
In the shop, Sandrone and Columbina had already walked in.
The morning sun lit only a small patch near the door.
The deeper into the store one looked, the dimmer the light became.
On the shelves, video tapes and discs from all kinds of eras were stacked in neat rows.
A faint smell of old cardboard and electronic parts hung in the air.
The store was so quiet that they could hear their own breathing.
Rather than a video store still open for business, it felt more like a forgotten little museum of moving images.
“Is anyone here?” Sandrone asked, her voice clear in the empty shop.
Her gaze landed on the round Bangboo behind the counter.
“Ehn-nah~”
The round Bangboo behind the counter stood on a stool and raised one little gray paw in greeting.
That Bangboo model… and that orange scarf around its neck…
Sandrone frowned a little.
Its look was far too similar to the Bangboo that had led the way in the Hollow yesterday.
And they just kept it at the shop counter as a clerk?
Was it the same one?
No, the number on the scarf was different…
As she thought, there was a sudden bang.
The door marked [Staff Only] was yanked open.
“Welcome to Random Play—!”
Nicole’s voice arrived before she did.
She strode out in one quick step, wearing a smile so bright it was almost too much.
Her voice was sweet enough to drip.
“Miss Sandrone, Miss Columbina, good morning! You got here fast!”
“Nicole? You’re here too?”
Sandrone looked in surprise at the pink-haired woman who had rushed out from inside.
“Oh, as your reliable referrer, of course I had to be here in person~”
Nicole beamed with warmth and, without waiting for anyone to object, gently pushed Belle and Wise, who had just stepped out behind her, in front of Sandrone and Columbina.
Her movements were so smooth that it looked like she was showing off some one-of-a-kind treasure.
“Allow me to introduce them properly! These two are New Eridu’s legendary Proxies—Phaethon!”