Chapter 460: Otherland Candyland
“What do you mean that she didn’t ask for payment?,” Zhen Jin asked, “making documents ain’t cheap, let along forging them. She must have asked for something.”
As the Zhen Clan’s resident torture master, Zhen Jin had familiarized himself with a lot of the…unsavory elements of society.
Not necessarily because he had a vested interest in such things or looked at it as a hobby, he did so because many of the people he had to extract information from tended to be of the criminal variety.
Many a scoundrel had attempted in the past to use forged documents and the like to try and extort the clan for money, rare aether beast components and other such things.
Sometimes it worked, sometimes they got caught and that is when Zhen Jin started to pick up the tricks of the trade…and just how expensive it was to do so.
Therefore, when Zhen Jin questioned the circumstances of a deal, the brothers listened.
“Well…I guess she did,” Zhen Shi added after a moment of thought, “but it was…very odd. Your mother wanted to pay her normally, we had prepared funds for our grand escape, but maker refused, saying how someone we knew would compensate her soon. Even though our action burned down a lot of bridges, so we were confused as to who would compensate us…”
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MAKER: “Well, where do you wanna go? I can pretty much arrange a trip to anywhere, but know that depending on the location, I may need more time to make the necessary preparations.”
PRINCESS and LOVER looked surprised at the question.
In their minds, a black market smuggling deal like this would normally involve little to no choice on their part due to them just wanting to run away. The fact that they had a choice in regards of location was both pleasant and concerning.
The two acted a bit more hesitant, their thoughts focusing on the idea that they could be sold out if they gave a specific destination.
PRINCESS: “If I may ask a question, before answering yours.”
MAKER: “Of course.”
PRINCESS: “By ‘anywhere’, do you truly mean… anywhere?”
MAKER (smiling with a confident nod): “Indeed I do, but again, some places need more time to prep than others. For example, if you wanted to go to the Nine Shadows Coalition of the Umbral Spider Continent, I would need about three days to get everything needed. Four days, if you wish to go to the Sanctuary Kingdom of Radiant Feather.”
PRINCESS and LOVER should look shocked here, again.
Reason: The continents of Luxari and Caligos aether are said to be borderline inaccessible to outsiders without an invitation to those from the inside.
LOVER should recover from the shock first, so that they could ask follow-up.
LOVER: “If that’s true…do you have anything that can be done tonight or tomorrow? And that’s as far as possible from here?”
MAKER: “Hmmm…I think I do.”
PRINCESS: “You do?”
From underneath the counter, MAKER pulls out two neat stacks of documents.
The documents at a glance should contain fake identities, passage papers, several receipts and immigration documents.
The perfect pile of paper needed to pretend to be a traveling merchant on the international level, who is now looking to take up permanent residence in another land.
MAKER: “These documents are everything you’ll need to move to the Stampeding Bison continent and settle in the frontier region of the Iron Heart Kingdom, a state under the Alloy Republic. Frontier are the perfect places for anyone to make a fresh start. Besides, you can’t get much farther than that at a minute this recent.”
PRINCESS and LOVER look over the document, see how legitimate they look and proceed to make moves to pay for it all.
However, MAKER stops them before they can even bring it out their coin purses.
MAKER: “Ah, ah, ah. No need to pay me now. Someone who will be very close to you will be the one to provide me my payment for the services rendered here tonight.”
PRINCESS (confused): “Really? Who?”
MAKER: “Hmmm. Let’s just say… they’ll have a remarkably different reaction upon finding my shop then how you two saw it.”
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“Oh, what the fuck…”
[Maestro, is…is this a…]
[Yup…this…is…a…candy…store…]
[From our lord’s world…]
[Fucking, how and why?]
The moment Zhen Liu crossed the door’s threshold, he and the kaijin were preparing themselves to deal with anything ranging from an empty, probably haunted, the entryway of a seedy black marketplace or a wandering ruin.
They didn’t expect to find themselves inside of a candy store that looked like something out of Willy Wonka.
Zhen Liu was taken aback at just how familiar everything was to him.
“Chocolate bars…gummy bears…fucking giant swirly lollipops…is that a soda fountain? Hold the fuck up, that’s a cash register! A really old model though. Still got the little number pop ups and everything.”
[Milord, I hate to ruin your mood, but you’re transmitting your hunger for this stuff through our connection really fucking hard right now,] Nepherage noted.
[Want…honeyed…chocolate…]
[I’m with her,] Hurricroak added, [either reign that feeling in or I swear to the divines I am doing entire musical ass cover of “I want candy” while eating everything in this anachronistic shop.]
[I’m more of a “Candyman” fan myself,] Razorstella added.
∆Oh, I agree with your razor sharp friend there. “Candyman” is an absolute classic of a song.∆
“AY CHIBABA!”
[BLACK MAGIC WOMAN!]
[Where’d she come from?!]
[How did none of us sense her?]
[Hold…up…she ain’t…speaking…any…language…that’s…native…here…]
Appearing from out of nowhere, behind the counter with the cash register, was a middle-aged woman with brown curly hair and an enigmatic air about her. By Zhen Liu’s guess, this woman was the owner of the shop and probably the candy maker as well, given the try of freshly made truffles in her hand.
The enigmatic woman gave the boy a slight, mysterious smile as she placed the tray down next to the others in her display case.
It was the kind of smile that Zhen Liu recognized as being the “I have been expecting for a really long fucking time” smile.
∆Well, I have been expecting you for a long time. Especially after your grandpa and grandma visited me all those years ago for a chance at a new life. And feel to let your kaijin roam around the store, there’s plenty of candy to go around after all.∆
[Oh, what the fuck?]
[Mind blown?]
[Wait, she can hear us?]
[Wait…I…know…that…language…]
“Yeah…so do I.”
Doing as he was invited to do, Zhen Liu summoned Hurricroak, Frosttusk, Nepherage, Spring Brawler and Razorstella so that they could peruse the store at their leisure. As he did, he walked up closer to the counter to look at the enigmatic chocolateer face to face.
∆Do be careful though, my friends, use the tongs and the plastic baggies to make sure everything is clean. I’d rather not risk giving my customers an unknown infection.∆
“So…no tongue?,” Hurricroak asked just as she was about to use her tongue on some chocolates shaped like beetles.
∆No tongue.∆
“D’awww.”
Zhen Liu for his part didn’t seem to notice or care about how easily this woman placated his kaijin, he was to busy focusing on what she said.
Or rather, it would be more accurate to how she was saying it.
∆Is something the matter, my young friend?∆
Zhen Liu didn’t know how to approach this tactfully, so he just threw decorum out the window and bluntly said what was on his mind.
“You’re not speaking Tide Tongue, Hoof speech or any other language that is native here,” Zhen Liu said, point blank, “You’re speaking a language that the old me knew.”
∆Am I?,∆ the mysterious woman asked with a smile, ∆If so what language am I speaking?∆
Again, unsure of how to acting this moment, Zhen Liu just answered pointblank.
“You… you’re speaking German. Like…Earth German.”
∆I am?,∆ the lady said in mock surprise before clearing her throat slightly and speaking again.
“Would you prefer it if I spoke English, my transmigrated, otherlander friend?”
As soon as the switch was made, Zhen Liu’s mind went from surprised, to shocked, to absolutely freaking blown the fuck up.
He had been told that he wasn’t the only one who came from another world before, hell, he had his suspicions that Madam Venus( the human smuggling opera singer that his kaijin fought) was someone like him.
But right now, in a candy shop of all places, was true blue proof that there were others like him.
Granted, from the looks of it, this lady wasn’t exactly like him…probably.
“My name is Elsa Reinhart,” the enigmatic woman introduced herself, “and, just like you, I am an otherlander who has a connection to this world. I have been waiting to meet you for a long, long time.”
