Chapter 321 – Pocket money

Still in her old world, Sophia was very busy explaining all the curious sights to her girlfriend, who obviously had never seen any of them in her entire life. It also was a little overwhelming, though. Natural, as someone who isn’t used to all the noise, lights, and moving images, one starts to suffer from sensory overload pretty quickly. Even Sophia, who grew up with all that, was a little taken aback after having spent almost a year without it. While they were at it, the blonde also learned something peculiar about the other world's currency. Apparently, the gold coins were made from actual gold because the value wasn't nearly as high there. This information could come in rather handy soon.

“Okay, I think I’m starting to get used to everything. To a degree, at least…” Maya seemed a lot more at ease while looking around by now. Her head was still moving around a lot, though. She looked like the stereotypical countryside tourist visiting the big city for the first time.

"T-That's good to hear…" The blonde looked and sounded a little tired, and it was not just because the whole part of her being in her old world again was putting a massive mental strain on her.

“I also could eat something… Oh, is there any food that we don’t have there?!” Her eyes started sparkling while thinking about it.

“We didn’t have much Asian-themed cuisine yet. We're definitely missing out on that. I always liked that a lot for the most part."

“No idea what that Asian part means, but I like the sound of that!” As that had no relation to her actual world, even the translation addon she got from Canir couldn’t help her here.

“This world is grouped in regions. Mostly based on the continents. Asia is one of them."

“Ohh! So, it’s food that is local there?”

“Pretty much.” Sophia nodded. “But… no money, no food…”

“A-Ah…” She had already forgotten about that.

“Should we try to exchange the gold coins for money…? It could end up being super bothersome as I’m not exactly sure if that’s even legal…”

“Could someone actually do anything to you, though? Maya tilted her head. “You still have magic and are much stronger even without that…”

“I can’t just go using magic if something doesn't work out…”

“But we can simply walk away and disappear before something happens. No consequences for us~.”

“My, I’m a fan of the reckless Maya.”

“I’m having fun, after all~.” Her mood was great.

“For that alone, I just have to try it now.”

“Ehehe~.” She liked Sophia's reply. "Oh, if we do get money, we could visit your home, right?"

“Maya, stop it.” The blonde's expression got serious in an instant.

“Okay.” She quickly decided against pressing the issue.

“Thank you…” Sophia continued to stare at her for a bit longer, though. “Alright, let’s try and find that place…” She eventually broke the eye-contact with her.

“Yay!”

“It might take a while, though.”

“Is it far?”

“Not really, but if you think my sense of direction in the capital is bad, get ready for some fun…”

“You have no idea where it is, huh?”

“No, I absolutely do know where it is.”

"Well, that's good, then…?" Maya looked confused because it sounded somewhat contradicting.

“I have no idea how to get there.”

“Ah.” Unfortunately, the contradiction got resolved.

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After about what felt like an hour, the girls finally arrived in a slightly shady but promising-looking area of the city. In Sophia’s defense, it wasn’t entirely her fault that it took so long. Maya kept getting curious about all sorts of things and demanded an explanation while they were walking around.

“Alright, it’s starting to look familiar to the area I want to visit.”

“Really…?” The white-haired girl tilted her head. “It's less noisy here, and the sensory overload is milder, too, but I can't say I like the area… Feels kinda dirty and shady, not friendly at all… Almost like one shouldn’t be here…”

“That’s the whole point. Our plan also is pretty shady, after all.”

“Right…”

“Oh, that place looks good… or, well… bad? What is it in our case…?” Terminology never was the blonde’s strong suit. “It’s good that it’s bad~.”

“Sure.” She just accepted it.

“This place basically screams money laundering!” Happy about that discovery, Sophia and her girl entered the shady-looking cash-for-gold store. Or rather, the shadiest one, to be more correct.

“…” The person behind the counter, a man in his late thirties with brown hair and a lush beard, immediately locked eyes with her without giving as much as a greeting. Curiously enough, he was wearing a perfectly fitting black suit that seemed to be of exceptionally high quality. That only added to the shadiness, though. “This isn’t a place for two cute girls.”

“My, thank you.” The blonde matched his gaze. "It's always nice to be called cute.” She looked pretty confident.

“Oho, it’s rare for someone to look back at me without flinching whatsoever.” He seemed to be rather impressed. “Looks can be deceiving, huh?”

“I mean, it was a good effort, but I've met way more intimidating individuals before." Sophia was having fun with this exchange. "Actually, even she's scarier when she gets angry." She then glanced at Maya.

“I don’t want to hear that from you.”

“Fearless, are we?” He intensified his stare. "Maybe I should try to be intimidating for real?"

“If you think it’s necessary.” Sophia did the same, while her expression also turned serious. At the same time, it almost seemed like the whole inside of the store was getting darker. Her entire aura had changed in an instant.

“S-So, what do you want…?” The store owner actually managed to hold out longer than the humans from the other world, but he, too, had no chance to endure Sophia's pressure that might or might not have had a tiny bit of dark magic mixed into it. “I have to apologize for earlier. It seems like you found the right place.”

"Heh~." A slight smirk appeared on her lips. The two of us want to go on a totally overblown shopping spree.” She started smiling again after he gave up. “I have some gold I want to get rid of to finance that.”

“Hmm…” The guy paused for a moment. “There might be better places for that, girl. My customers usually value other things over the best price in my store.”

“Is privacy one of them? That’s the sole reason we’re talking right now?”

“Is it stolen?” His expression changed once again.

“Does it matter?”

“…” He didn’t answer.

“Well, it doesn’t matter, then. Feel free to melt it down immediately after receiving it." She had a hunch of why he asked. All those movies she watched in the past were coming in really handy right now. “No, I can guarantee you that I acquired it in a legit way. I just can’t prove it. The actual issue is the two of us.” She glanced at Maya again. “We shouldn’t be here. Like, at all. Neither of us wants or can ID ourselves for reasons."

“You shouldn’t mention that so openly, girl.”

“What does it matter? If you try something, it won’t end well for one side here, and it won't be ours. Also, if that's not your thing, we'll simply walk out of the store and never see each other again.”

“You sure are hardcore. Big fan.” He started to like Sophia. “Let’s just say that such an arrangement is not unheard of. It has a bit of an effect on the exchange rate, though.”

“I was expecting that already.” She then pulled out one of the gold coins and handed it to him. "What do you think?"

“Hmm…” The store owner moved it around in his hand a couple of times. “The color and the weight match for now, but what kind of coin is this…? It looks like an old doubloon, but it seems too good shape for that. Also, I have never seen a language like that before… Is that even a language?”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t answer that.”

“Hmm…” He seemed pretty curious about its origin. "Well, I guess it doesn't matter." He gave up relatively soon, though. "The insides are what count, after all." Afterward, the owner pulled out some testing equipment and thoroughly examined the coin.

“And?” Naturally, Sophia was quite curious about the result.

“Not bad.” He nodded a couple of times. “There are some impurities, probably happened during manufacturing or if the mining technique wasn’t the best, which is normal for older coins, but it’s about 95% pure gold. It’s a good coin. Quite heavy, too.”

“Sounds good~. How much is the market value?”

"A lot.”

“How much less will it be after your cut?”

"A good bit.”

“How will this change things?” Saying so, Sophia presented him four more coins.

“Are you serious?!”

“I did mention that we want to do some serious shopping, right?”

“Girl, those coins are about two fine ounces each. Even after my cut, you’ll have to put some serious effort to blow all that in a shopping trip."

"I like challenges!"

"Okay, that's a great answer. I can respect that."

“Ehehe~.”

“Alright, I like you, girl, so I'll be honest. Try to get a proxy to sell it in a legit place and give them a cut instead. With my cut on this much, you’re not that well of…”

“I don’t care about that right now.” Sophia shook her head. “Also, we’re quite pressed for time.”

“Is that so?”

“Okay, how about that?” The blonde grabbed into her pocket once again to pull out a sixth coin. “You give me the market price for the five coins, and I’ll forget this one on the counter.”

“Just how many do you have?!”

"That's not important." She chose not to answer. “So?”

"…" He stared at the coins for a solid minute in absolute silence. "Give me a moment to test them first."

“Sure~.”

“Alright, deal.” Once he checked the other coins, he eventually held out his hands toward the blonde.

“Perfect!” She did the same and shook his to seal the deal.

Afterward, the owner handed over a nice bundle of money, and the two shook hands once more.

“It’s been a pleasure to do business with you, girly.”

"Likewise." Sophia smiled at him. "I can expect nothing to happen after I leave because you think I have more of those coins on me, right?" Her expression changed again for a moment.

“We all might be quite shady, but I honor good business practices. "A robbed customer won't come back, after all. We also live by word of mouth, after all. Following you to get the other coins might be a good short-time acquisition, but it’s bad for business in the long run. I’d rather for you to come back a lot.”

"It wouldn't be a good short-time acquisition, either. I don’t know the people you know, but I know the people I know.”

“Yikes, you’re scary.” Her intimidation worked. “Don’t worry. I was serious about hoping for you to return. This wasn’t my best deal, but it definitely was a lucrative one.”

“Glad to hear.” Sophia’s gaze relaxed again. “I want to say that it’s highly unlikely that I’ll be back, but it was supposed to be impossible for us to be here in the first place, so… Or, if we run out of money, and we’ll be back in the afternoon…”

“What kind of shopping are you planning?"

“Serious shopping, I just told you.”

“Haa… Well, you know where to find me.”

“I do.”

“Alright then, have fun shopping, I guess.”

“Hehe.”

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After all this was taken care of, the couple finally left the store after having had a rather exciting meeting.

"You are something else…" The moment they exited the store, Maya immediately started staring down the blonde.

“W-Why…?”

“You had way too much fun in there!”

“Eh?”

“Well, confident Sophia is great, so I guess it’s fine. Anyway, what is this weird paper he gave you in return for the coins.”

“It’s the money of this country. We also have coins, but the higher-value money is made of paper… or something paper-like… It seems weird, but it's much more convenient because it’s easier to carry around.”

“Oh, I can see that being the case, yeah. Clever. So, how much is it?”

“We have a long day of shopping ahead of us.”

“I like the sound of that!”

This had put both in an excellent mood, and the duo returned to the actual shopping district because they now had a lot of money they needed to get rid of again.