Return of the Fallen Volume 2 Chapter 52
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Author: Blue_Rat
ch52
Kazuki, Mei, and Tsura all locked arms and the three made their way to the gate. Mixing in with the crowd of people flooding in, Kazuki hobbled around really selling his new found look. Mei and Tsura couldn’t help but laugh at his behavior which in turn drew ire from the people around them.
“That poor old man, his daughter, and granddaughter laugh every time he takes a step.”
“Shh, they must not be close, let’s ignore them.”
Tsura felt a flush of embarrassment hit her cheeks and she quickly pinched Mei’s side to get her to stop goofing off. This though had the opposite effect of silencing her.
Mei jumped forward like something bit her and shouted.
“Ow, mama why did you pinch me? That hurt!”
More whispers filled their surroundings causing Tsura to want to bury her head in the dirt. Tsura grabbed Mei by the hand and dragged both her and Kazuki forward to try and escape all the stares.
*Clank Clank*
Two spears connected with one another forming an X in front of them. The guards looked over them before one shouted.
“Running about outside is fine but there will be none of that within the city. Do you understand, young miss?”
Tsura hurriedly nodded her head.
The guard smirked a bit.
“Good. Now then, 3 copper pieces to enter Edngaul. If you don’t have payment and you still wish to enter then turn over something double the value, so 6 copper pieces worth.”
Mei and Tsura looked at one another in confusion before their eyes locked onto Kazuki. The two living in the forest where everyone either shared everything or bartered with goods had no concept of money. Only Atoh and Abah had any real experience with coin but saw no reason to teach it to the other villagers seeing as none of them ever used it.
Kazuki reached into his chest pocket and his ring glowed within. Kazuki had no copper pieces amongst the thousands of Gold Zeni within his ring. In the end, his lowest denomination was a few silver coins. Pulling one out he held it up in front of the guard who was quickly losing patience.
As soon as his eyes caught sight of the silver coin a look of pleasant surprise appeared on his face. Grabbing the coin he looked it over with his eye and nodded. Handing over some change, he actually felt grateful to Kazuki. There had been hundreds of people entering today and each one had to hand over a copper piece. The guard had been feeling his pants weighing him down with money so replacing a good amount of it with a single coin brought a sense of relief. Stepping out of the way, the guard took on a much gentler tone.
“Welcome to Edngaul.”
Tsura and Mei were still perplexed on the whole money situation so Kazuki had to drag them in. As soon as they stepped in though, the perplexed expression warped into eyes as big as the moon. From outside the town, Mei and Tsura had seen many large buildings and lots of people but from where they were they had no sense of scale.
The first thing they saw entering this town was a large three-story building which read, [ “Guild Hall” ].
In Mei and Tsura’s village, there were no buildings over 10 feet tall. There was no use for such construction so they were never built.
Looking up at this large sky blue building, Mei and Tsura couldn’t believe their eyes. Only a moment later though something else caught Mei’s attention.
*Sniff sniff*
The smell of something sweet tickled the senses. Mei had never smelt something so sweet in her entire life and her eyes darted around until they landed on an actual old man standing behind a wooden cart. Before Mei knew what happened her feet dragged her forward at an incredible speed. Her figure almost left behind an after image she was so fast.
Appearing in front of the stand, her eyes glossed over as she witnessed the sight before her. A small boy slowly added a few pieces of wood, feeding a fire in a little metal box. The fire heated a large bowl of sugar, liquefying it. The old man then took over. Placing another bowl over the liquified sugar, because of the shape of the bowl, it rested just above the melted sugar without touching it. The old man began to wave his hands in the air and a necklace around his neck gave off a faint glow.
Tsura ran over in a panic not knowing what the old man was doing but Kazuki had seen this before as a child. Walking over casually, he stopped Tsura from pulling Mei away and told her to watch.
A small amount of power built up in the old man’s hands and with a simple push forward, the bowl resting above the sugar began to spin at an incredible rate. Mei hadn’t noticed before but as the bowl spun faster and faster, something magical happened to the liquified sugar.
The boy who was feeding the flames earlier pulled out a small box and opened it. Pulling out a red powder he pinched a small portion of it and threw it into the bowl. As the old man continuously spun the bowl, a small thin red spider web-like substance began to form. The boy grabbed several wooden skewers. Taking one of them, he dipped it into the red thread looking thing and spun it around. A red fluffy cloud formed around the skewer and the boy pulled it out and stood the stick up on the other side of the cart.
Kazuki looked at the bowl and noticed a bunch of tiny holes in it that allowed the sugar to pass through.
(This is exactly like cotton candy on earth. Using his wind magic to turn the bowl, he spins it centrifugally, creating the fluffy light texture.)
A line of drool ran down from Mei’s mouth and she slowly reached her hand forward.
*Whack*
Kazuki chopped the top of her head with a bit of force.
Mei gripped the top of her head in pain and looked at Kazuki with tear filled eyes. She looked as though she had been betrayed.
The old man behind the stand laughed heartily.
“Hahahahaha. Senior, is this your granddaughter?”
Kazuki gave a slight bow. Adding some scruff to his voice he sounded a lot older.
“Sorry about that. It seems I haven’t taught her properly.”
“Hahaha, no worries no worries. No harm at all. I just wish I had a cute granddaughter like her, instead of this useless grandson of mine, Bwahahahaha.”
Kazuki grabbed Mei and forced her to bow her head.
“Dang granddaughter, apologize to the man. Don’t you know you gotta pay for the things you want?”
Mei finally realized what she had done and bowed to the old man.
The old man waved it away.
“It’s fine, like I said no harm done.”
Kazuki bowed once more with Mei before he dragged her and Tsura away. Taking them into an alley, he stared fiercely at Mei.
“Mei, have you already forgotten why we’ve come here? We are supposed to keep a low profile. How can that happen when you try to steal from the first vendor you see?”
“Eh, I…I wasn’t gonna steal, I was just gonna…gonna.”
“Gonna what? Listen up, this is not the forest, if you want something then you have to pay for it. You cannot simply reach your hand out and take something, otherwise, you’ll be arrested. Is that what you want?”
Tsura and Mei bowed deeply and Mei almost cried.
“I…I’m sorry, I won’t do it again, please forgive me.”
Tears were already streaming down Mei’s face and Kazuki couldn’t help but release a heavy sigh.
*Haaa*
“Get up, it’s fine just don’t do it again. This time can be chalked up to your excitement in a new environment. This can be counted as your first lesson in society. Do not take things from people without paying for it, got it?”
Mei nodded her head but she was still crying a river of tears.
*Haaa*
“Wait here for a moment and think about what you did.”
A minute later Kazuki returned with two pieces of cotton candy. Shoving one into Mei’s hands, he said.
“Stop crying. As long as you listen up and learn well, I wouldn’t mind buying more of this for you but you have to be diligent, understood?”
Mei wiped her tears and blinked a few times at this bright red cloud in front of her. Tsura nudged her, snapping her back into reality and she answered with a loud yes.
Kazuki nodded and handed the other cotton candy to Tsura. Tsura looked down at the cotton candy in her hands before looking back at Kazuki.
“Eh, for me?”
Kazuki raised an old white brow.
“Do you not want it? Are you looking down on this old man’s kindness?”
Tsura almost wanted to laugh hearing Kazuki talk like an old man. Even his mannerisms matched. Tsura smiled and simply said.
“Thank you.”
Mei and Tsura both took a bite simultaneously. As soon as the red fluffy cloud touched their tongue it melted on contact and spread a sweet cherry-like flavor through their mouth. The two shared a look of surprise before taking another bite and then another and another.
“Mama this is so sweet and it just melts away, It’s so yummy!”
“Right, this is the sweetest thing I’ve ever had, Ryuta, that old man is a masterful chef. To be capable of making clouds into food, amazing.”
Kazuki began to laugh like crazy though he kept his front and sounded out like an old jackal.
“Hahahaha.”
The two finished their sweet in less than a minute.
“Mama, I want more red clouds.”
“You heard Ryuta, if you want more sweets then you have to learn well, got it.”
Kazuki left the alley and the two followed behind.
“Mama, if we follow him then we can get more, right?”
Tsura noded.
“Then mama, I’m gonna follow him forever.”
Tsura said nothing, but a moment later she nodded once more.
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