Chapter 459: Serendipitous meeting
{…and that kids, is how I ended up looking like this while being stuck here. Satisfied?,} Anton asked the gawking children.
A little after accidentally barging into Anton’s place in the library, the two children had begun to pepper the skeleton man with all manner of questions, namely about who he was and where he came from. Granted, they had to be first reassured by Logos and Pathos that the skeleton man was friendly and was not going to try and feed them funny smelling candy.
Anton was initially going to tell the children to fob off, but for reasons beyond him, he decided to regale them with his life’s exploits.
Once he saw the look on their faces, he realized it was worth the effort.
Jasper and Janice looked absolutely shocked after being told about, arguably, the greatest autobiography they have ever heard.
Revenge, drama, romance, tragedy, action, it had it all.
That being said, the two of them found it a bit hard to comprehend that this drunken skeleton was at the center of all of that.
On top of all of that however, there was one more thing that was bothering them.
“Teacher Anton… what’s an otherlander?,” Jasper asked.
“Teacher Anton?,” the drunken skeleton repeated, seeing how he felt about it. So far…it was a good feeling.
“Otherlanders? Ah, that’s a term for the ones who came from other worlds, other planes of reality.”
“Are the kaijin otherlanders?”
“Not exactly,” Anton answered, “otherlanders are kinda like your benefactor, Zhen Liu. They’re simply people who wounded up here after something happened to back home…that or their homeland ends up becoming a wandering ruin entrance…either way, otherlanders are essentially like everyone else here but they sometimes come with a little…extra.”
“Like they can cultivate better?”
“Sometimes, but most of the time they usually just…come with knowledge not yet known to us and this world. Besides, even if you met an otherlander, you’d probably wouldn’t know.”
“Why not?”
“Because there’s no clear commonality between them, but there is an old surefire way of knowing whether or not someone is an otherlander.”
“Which is…”
“Being one or knowing one.”
“Huh?”
“Otherlanders can identify other…otherlanders. It doesn’t involve aether, anima or even [Chaos], it’s just… something they know.”
“Huh…”
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Zhen Liu stared at the dilapidated building, feelings of relief and apprehension intermingling and forming a cocktail of dread in his belly.
One the one hand, finally, after spending a solid fifteen of just running around in order to find the one place in this entire harbor that has a doorknob, low and behold, it’s now standing right in front of him.
On the other hand…why did it look super familiar to him?
Not the him that was “Zhen Liu”, but the him that was “Thomas Lee”.
In fact, it also looked surprisingly familiar to the kaijin, but mostly out of something that they read out of books.
About a certain blue planet.
[Maestro, am I going crazy, or does that place look like it came out of a European fairytale?,] Hurricroak asked.
[You’re not,] Razorstella answered, [that building looks like a mashup up between German, Italian and Dutch architecture all at the same time….which is weird because those places definitely shouldn’t exist here…on the other hand, do y’all think they have European candy inside? I read that Bavarian chocolate is arguably the best…]
[Not…the…time…,] Frosttusk rumbled, [mystery…present…]
[Fine…anybody else noticing how people around it seem to not notice its existence?]
[What do you want to do milord?,] Nepherage asked Zhen Liu, wanting to get back to the topic at hand.
‘Hmmm.’
Zhen Liu was a bit torn about to what to do in the moment, because he only had a few hours at most in Pearl Scale Harbor and he didn’t want to get embroiled in anything crazy…on the other hand, he promised to make a door happen.
‘Okay…worst case scenario, we run.’
Having made his decision, Zhen Liu decidedly walked up to the strangely European-lookin, dilapidated candy store…and then disappear as soon as he reached the door.
At least… that’s how it looked from the outside…
“Huh?! Where’d that guy go?”
From the outside, the stalkers of Zhen Liu saw the man stand in front of an empty alleyway that was located between a jewlery store and a scroll store, moments before walking into it.
They proceeded to chase after him in an attempt to finally jump the guy…only to be bewildered that he just disappeared into thin air.
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[Scene 2: The Candy Store]
Interior: Candy Store, classic European
PRINCESS and LOVER proceeded to enter the illusionary doorway, expecting to end up in an underground market or a rundown hideout.
Instead, they were taken aback as they saw that they had entered…a candy store.
Granted, it wasn’t like any candy store they had ever seen before.
In fact, it was full of candy they had never seen before.
Solid bars wrapoed in metallic paper, barrels full of brightly colored candies wrapped in paper or the more commonly seen sugared nuts and tray upon trays containing small brown pieces of candy that smelled rich and sweet.
The walls appeared to be structured in the same way as a medicine store, drawers upon drawers with all manners of items inside them, but unlike the wooden drawers with labels, these ones were made of a clear material that seemed warmer and less fragile than glass.
Sitting upon the shelves were various glass jars containing even more candies, albeit, these ones looked to be softer than the ones made from melted sugar.
On the counter space, where they would normally see the owner of the shop standing behind of, was a strange metal box that they couldn’t make heads or tails of.
As the couple looked about in confused wonder, their GUIDE was standing respectfully off to the side, adjusting his hair.
PRINCESS(bewildered): What on Valresta is this place?
LOVER: I’m not sure…but it smells good in here.
MAKER: That’s because I’ve just finished my latest batch of caramels. You can try some if you like.
PRINCESS (surprised): Who’s there?
LOVER: Where did she come from?
Appearing as if out of nowhere(in reality, a hatch from the floor behind the counter space), a middle-aged woman with a strange air about her presented the young couple a tray, upon which were cooling brown cubes of what looked like liquefied sugar and milk, the so-called “caramels” as it were, sprinkled with what appeared to be flaky pieces of salt.
PRINCESS and LOVER we’re hesitant at the sight.
MAKER: You can call me MAKER, please have a taste. I find that the salt gathered at this port is much tastier than the salt from back home.
The couple was hesitant for a moment before LOVER, surprisingly, reached out and ate a piece.
A look of pure bliss could be seen on his face.
LOVER: I have never had caramel before this moment…this is the best candy I have ever tasted.
PRINCESS: Really?
A touch skeptical, PRINCESS reached out to eat a piece…also getting awestruck as soon as the candy touched her tongue.
MAKER: Well? What do you think?
PRINCESS: This is actually the best tasting candy I ever had.
MAKER (smiling): I knew you two would like it. I’m not sure why, but couples that are on the run always seem to enjoy my caramels or chocolates the best.
LOVER and PRINCESS were in bliss as they ate the candy, but snapped back to reality when they heard her statement. As they had this realization, MAKER proceeded to place the tray of caramels next to the other trays of candy.
LOVER: Wait, how did you know that we were…
MAKER: Intuition. That and you came with GUIDE over there. You look impeccable by the way.
GUIDE: Thank you ma’am.
MAKER: Feel free to take a lollipop as a gift.
GUIDE: Yay.
MAKER: Now then…
With her attention now on the young couple completely, the MAKER smile had taken on an even more enigmatic flair.
MAKER: If I’m sensing it right…you two want to get off of Roaring Tide as soon as possible due to your familial connections not approving your relationship.
LOVER: Y-yes, exactly.
MAKER: In that case, I just have one question…where do you want to go?
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“Hold on,” Zhen Long interjected, “you mean to tell us that you and mother managed to get out of Roaring Tide, evade capture and hunters for several decades thanks to a…mysterious candy maker?”
Zhen Shi could only give his son a defeated smile as he nodded to the assessment.
“Believe you me, even I’d find my story unbelievable if I hadn’t lived through it myself.”
“Wait… father-in-law…,” Zhen-Mao Mei followed up, “forged documents, let alone ones that would let you sail away and hide easily couldn’t have come cheap. What was the price?”
Zhen Shi’s expression became complicated as soon as this question was asked.
“That’s the weird part…”
“Weirder than an illusionary candy store?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Well…she didn’t ask for payment…at all.”
