Interspecies Trader

By the time we were done, cold sweat was running down her forefront. She looked so pale that I called for a break.

“You’re not looking good. Let’s end it here for today.”

“…Fine.”

She let out a long sigh and sat down on her chair once again. I let her rest for a moment before opening my mouth again.

“Is it all right to spend working time like this?”

“It’s fine, there’s not that much work to do in this department.”

She closed her eyes for a few seconds and looked at me more closely when she opened them again.

“What about you? Don’t you need to open your stall in the market?”

“No, I have business in dome 6 today. I’ll take the gate to go there.”

“Dome 6? What sort of business?”

“Some medical issue, as you can imagine.”

“What? Are you sick?”

She suddenly seemed a bit worried, which made me glad.

“Not for me, don’t worry. Not for Suuru either, in case you’re wondering. It’s related to some of my acquaintances.”

“I see. The gate fee isn’t cheap, though.”

She paused for an instant and continued.

“Do you want me to come with you to buy the ticket? I can get you a discount by being a civil servant.”

“I’m not a civil servant, though.”

“Don’t worry, I can make this work.”

I shook my head.

“No, I didn’t become your friend to get any sort of advantage. Thanks for proposing but I don’t want to get you into trouble.”

Her eyes widened a little in surprise. She soon gave me a slight smile, which was neither mocking nor dismissing. It might have been the first true smile I witnessed from her.

“I won’t force you.”

She then shooed me away with her hand.

“Thank you for your help with my problem. You can go now.”

“Oh? Feeling like you’re someone great, ordering people around very much?”

This made her grin again.

“Now that I’m not a student anymore, I’m indeed in a higher position than you.”

“Would you look at that? What about I give you a big hug to celebrate your rising in society?”

I approached her, my arms opened in a very explicit posture. She suddenly looked afraid and jumped out of her seat.

“Don’t come any closer, you mad girl!”

“Oh? The mighty Ulum act didn’t last very long.”

I was now getting close, and she began trembling again. Eventually, she had no choice but to surrender when my body was getting dangerously near hers.

“Stop! Stop it! I was wrong! I believe in true equality among citizens!”

I halted my steps and smirked.

“There we go. Should have said that from the start.”

“You evil girl!”

“Thank you. Okay, I’ll get going now. Good luck with work.”

I withdraw from her office without leaving her any time to react. When the door was closed, I heard her shout from inside.

“Don’t come back again!”

I knew she didn’t mean it and decided to visit her often. I went back down to the first floor and followed the signs indicating the person in charge of selling gate tickets. Contrary to the main desk that was full of people waiting in line, I was the only person on this side.

“Good morning. I’d like to buy a gate ticket for dome 6.”

“Good morning, young lady. That’ll be 10,000 lods.”

Even I had to hesitate considering the price. Using a gate in my world was cheaper than taking a plane. No wonder everyone here said it was expensive. People could live for a season with that money. Still, I had to buy it if I wanted to get there. Going to dome 6 from the outside world wasn’t impossible in theory. However, there were a few issues. I had no idea where it was situated, and the location of the domes wasn’t public information for the citizens of the inside world. I wasn’t certain whether it had been forgotten over time since it didn’t matter or if it was considered important tactical intelligence or something.

The other problem with going from the outside was that I would need to do a random teleportation, just like when I exited dome 82 for the first time. It always came with some level of risk since it was impossible to determine what exactly would be on the other side. The spell was designed to avoid living beings, if possible, but there was no such thing for everything else. There was no faster way to die than to teleport into some building. Gory very much indeed.

I paid the woman, who took a document out and started to fill it. It might have been exaggerated to call it a document since it only stated a few things, like the departure dome, the destination, and the date and time when the ticket was bought. When she was done, she stamped it to make it official and handed it over to me.

“Here you go.”

“May I ask a few questions?”

“Go ahead.”

“Is this ticket only one way?”

“I thought you’d know about it since you paid such a large sum without hesitation. That’s correct. You’ll need to buy the return ticket in dome 6. I can’t sell it from here.”

That meant the real price of a round trip was 20,000 lods. Not that I would need to buy the return ticket, of course.

“How long is the ticket valid for?”

“One week. When you arrive there, they’ll take the ticket from you and destroy it.”

“How can they be sure that the ticket is real and not something forged?”

She raised her eyebrows but answered anyway.

“See this?”

She pointed at the tool she used to stamp it.

“It’s a selnic item. It produces marks that aren’t easy to fake.”

“I see. Why don’t you check the identity of the people buying tickets?”

“You should have paid attention in school more. The domes all share a law of unrestricted travel for all citizens.”

I wasn’t sure how unrestricted it was considering the price but that was good for me anyway.

“I understand. Then, one last question. Where should I go now?”

“If you’re planning to travel right now, you’ll need to go to the basement. Take the stairs over there and follow the signs.”

I nodded.

“Thank you for your help. Have a nice day.”

“You too, young lady.”

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