Chapter 32: Don't Lift This Person's Veil (Patreon)

"Looks like you're not shy around strangers," Pandora said with a smile, watching the fish circle around her legs. "Too bad I don't have anything tasty for you..."

Otherwise, she'd have loved to feed them properly.

Just as Pandora sat by the "riverbank," playing with the fish, the school suddenly scattered and fled.

"What—"

What was that about?

"Little girl, that's not allowed here," a voice suddenly said behind her.

"I'm actually older than all of you..." Pandora turned to look at the uniformed soldiers and sighed. "Calling me 'little girl' isn't quite right."

Not only had they scared off her fish — which she'd already claimed as playmates — they'd called her "little girl" on top of it...

She could put up with being called "miss" or the like, but "little girl" was just a bit...

"Little—" But the moment the soldier got a proper look at Pandora's face, he froze on the spot. Only after she turned away and stopped looking at them did they snap back to their senses. "...Our apologies."

Realizing her appearance carried little weight, Pandora sighed and got to her feet. "Why can't I sit here? I'm not bothering anyone, am I?"

"Well, it's just that... this area sees a lot of foot and cart traffic... it isn't safe for you, miss." By now, the soldiers' attitude had completely changed.

At this point, they'd started treating Pandora as someone whose composure matched their own.

After all, that kind of calm, gentle bearing wasn't something a child could pull off...

"Are you... all right?" Pandora asked, puzzled, looking at the soldiers with their heads bowed.

[Is everyone in the royal capital this strange?]

First the thief who tugged at her belongings and bolted, then the street performer who fell flat on his face for no reason, and now these soldiers doing a total about-face...

[Is this just how things work in this era?]

It wasn't her fault for thinking so — it really was all too bizarre...

"We're fine," replied the one who seemed to be leading the group — call him the captain, for short.

"..."

By now, the crowd that had merely been watching from a distance had gathered all around.

"All right, all right." With that, Pandora sighed and ended the conversation.

[I'd better hurry and find her... this royal capital really is too bizarre...]

All in all, it came down to one thing: traveling alone... ahem, exploring alone was simply too lonely and dull — there was no way to enjoy the pleasures of trav— of exploring, this way.

Just as her hand was about to touch the pouch—

A hand suddenly shot out from the crowd...

"Uh..."

The soldiers froze for a moment at the sight of the figure snatching up the pouch that obviously belonged to Pandora.

"After him!"

Only then did they take off running.

Pandora, meanwhile — unable to run fast in her "white cloth" robes, and not that she needed to anyway — simply stood watching as they struggled to give chase in their heavy gear.

Before long—

"Our apologies..." the soldiers said, returning empty-handed. "We failed in our duty."

They hadn't expected the thief to be so fast, and the city had so many twisting corners and alleys...

The onlookers shook their heads too.

"That's not quite true..." Pandora said with a smile, looking at the "audience" who'd done nothing at all yet still sighed over the soldiers' failure to catch the thief. "Look — didn't he just come running back on his own because he got lost?"

Though using her Authority didn't require speaking aloud, saying it out loud made for a better effect...

At her words, everyone looked in the direction she pointed.

"..." The hooded figure, feeling everyone's eyes on him, was utterly bewildered.

He'd pulled off the feat clean, without a scratch — so why was he back here?

Lost?

The soldiers, even as they lunged at the hooded figure, felt a flicker of confusion too.

After all, while chasing him, the thief had twisted and turned through the streets as if he knew every alley and lane better than they did...

"..." Before the hooded figure's mind, still frozen in shock, could catch up, the soldiers had already pinned him to the ground.

"Miss, your belongings." The captain retrieved the pouch from the hooded figure's hand and returned it to Pandora.

"Thank you," she said, taking it back.

"Right, now let's pull his hood off." With that, the captain gave the order.

"Wait, please."

"Hm... is there something else, miss?"

The soldiers looked puzzled at Pandora, who'd suddenly reached out to stop them.

"I know this is rather rude to ask, but could you wait to reveal his face until you've brought him in for questioning?"

After all, theft was a disgraceful thing to begin with, and getting caught with your face exposed in front of a crowd — for anyone, that was shameful enough to last a lifetime, and might even break a person for good...

"That... of course." After only a moment's thought, the captain understood what she meant.

They hadn't even considered that much...

"Mm." Honestly, it wasn't hard to guess — this hooded person must have been someone standing on that street earlier, when she'd taken out the Sacred Gold Coin.

Once the soldiers led the thief away, part of the crowd dispersed as well, but...

[I'd better hurry along...]

Pandora thought, watching the people standing not far off whose gazes kept flicking toward her.

"Sigh..."

Pandora sighed, looking at the tall buildings and shops around her.

It really was just like this — wasn't it basically the same as the ancient bustling marketplace scenes described in her history books... just with a different architectural style and different people...

Not that this was a bad thing — quite the opposite, her mood had been sunny the whole way.

The main problem was—

—"Sorry, miss, we... can't afford to make change for that..."

Every single food stall she tried gave her the same answer — it was truly troubling...

This left her a bit exasperated over how the Sacred Gold Coin worked in this era.

Could this be the era when the king had started debasing gold with impurities?

Holy gold coins were just that rare...

Of course, if she found an inn or something, she could spend the coin there... That's it! Find an inn!

[Author's Note: Thanks to reader "wshjk" for the 1000 VIP points reward!]