Chapter Sixteen: Not Worth Mentioning

On the way back, Melina went to the Gatherers’ Guild to order a calf and took care of the registration at the same time.

The person taking on her commissioned task was the gatherer named Charles Lirstad Benom.

When he found out it was her request, the burly man patted his chest confidently and promised to get her a tender calf to satisfy her craving—while Maria teased with a playful glance, “Wow, you’re really charming.” Melina kept a straight face and used a half-hearted excuse about “going home to take a bath” to dodge Charles’s question about where she lived. After Charles left, she quickly changed the delivery address to the inn.

Next, they went to the inn to place a meal order.

For some unknown reason, Hamlet Town’s best restaurant turned out to be that inn which combined a public restroom and bathhouse.

Heavens.

After placing an order for roasted calf, under the deadpan gaze of the innkeeper—a man with a rather quirky and humorless appearance—Melina lightly scratched Maria’s palm, signaling her to pay.

“I guess Soso told you?” Maria opened her wallet and complained, “That brat never gives you any cash upfront? If you’re using my money, it must be Soso’s conspiracy!”

Seeing her so righteously indignant, Melina felt too embarrassed to admit she had already accepted 50 gold lire as transportation fare.

Some things are better left unknown between sisters.

“Seventeen silver lire, thank you for your patronage,” the innkeeper said slowly with a heavy local accent.

“No need to give change,” Maria put two gold lire on the table.

The innkeeper counted out three silver lire and slapped them on the table, his dull eyes fixed on Maria.

They exchanged a silent look for two or three seconds before Maria picked up the three silver lire.

The tension in the air instantly dissipated.

“Not a penny short, huh?” Maria closed her wallet.

“...” The innkeeper stared blankly at the table and muttered, “Not a penny short.”

“We’re staying at Hamlet Manor. When the calf arrives, just cook it and have someone deliver it over. We’ll cover the delivery fee.”

“...” The innkeeper didn’t respond, as if he had fallen asleep.

After a second, he said, “If the gatherer has already set out, it’ll take an hour to complete. On my end, an hour as well. Approximately.”

“Thanks for the trouble, sir,” Maria waved her hand and left.

…

Curious, Melina asked, “Did senior sister get up after just two hours?”

“Approximately.”

“What does ‘approximately’ mean?”

“Well, it’s like when Soso was in college and asked her roommate to mark her attendance for her big classes, then stayed out all night like a green tea girl.”

“You mean she sleeps until at least the afternoon?”

“About that,” Maria pondered. “But now that you’re here, she’s been eagerly looking forward to your arrival, hoping things will get better. Maybe she’ll even overcome the most primal human instinct: staying in bed.”

“...” Melina could only hope her senior sister would show a bit of backbone.

Anyone who talks about saving the world but gets up at six in the evening every day, preferring to take a bath, soak in a tub, and have a little bourgeois tea party before deciding to postpone everything until tomorrow would surely be looked down upon.

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Hope…

At least a little perseverance.

…

Passing through East Hamlet’s barely passable street, they returned to the manor.

As soon as she entered, Melina saw senior sister Sonia, eyes closed but instinctively doing sit-ups.

The noise of the door woke her; she opened her eyes, yawned, and upon seeing Melina and Maria, gave a somewhat fragile smile. She stood up from the sweat-soaked exercise mat and wiped her body and face with a towel. She wore a yoga tank top and high-waisted yoga pants; the contours of muscle showed on her forearms and abdomen.

She panted slightly, then smiled brightly:

“Did you order the gear?”

“Ordered. It’s rare to see you up so early. Are you doing this for Amy?” Maria smiled brightly but spoke with a hint of sarcasm.

“Exactly!” Sonia admitted proudly. “Old Maria, I don’t have your system cheat. It’s not enough to just do daily routines to maintain my state or to feel like I’m making progress every day.”

She raised her index finger. “There are many reasons to give up exercising and studying, but the most important is the lack of feedback!”

“So, just watching me gives you a sense of feedback, senior sister?” Melina exhaled slowly.

She didn’t know what to say. This was, well, a kind of two days fishing and three days drying nets?

Sonia’s eyes widened, her smile dazzling. “Yes!”

She was resolute and without any hesitation:

“You two, one with a historic-level talent and the other with a system cheat, lack a certain understanding of this world’s nature. This world itself is composed of magic factors—souls, ‘tamashii’ in Japanese, ‘sode’ in English. Therefore, it’s a world where metaphysics and willpower can change most of the existing reality.”

She pointed at Melina:

“If a portion of Melina’s magic factors recognize me as a diligent and hardworking person, then the gains I get will surpass what I could achieve by training alone for two weeks. Since she’s living here, her magic factors are also here. That’s why my training now is ten times as effective!”

Can it be like that? Melina’s eyes widened.

Maria wasn’t much better.

She blinked her large silver eyes in surprise, wracking her brain before saying, “But you wasted more than ten days. We arrived ten days ago, and you’ve been slacking off. Ten times the effect can’t make up for that…”

“Foolish! Old Maria, why are you so stubborn?”

Sonia tilted her head back, one hand on her forehead, speaking in a theatrical tone:

“Training results are like trying to deplete an enemy’s health bar. This enemy has fixed damage reduction. Tell me! Is hitting 100 damage once better, or hitting 10 damage ten times better against an enemy with fixed damage reduction? It’s obvious! Ahahaha!”

Maria threw her shoes at her: “You’re gonna die laughing, show-off!”

Melina wondered why Maria rewarded senior sister Sonia.

Could it be that you’re also a seducer?

Hmm, not necessarily—I’m not detecting any signals on my seduction radar… Melina felt a bit relieved.

…

Breakfast consisted of bread and fried eggs stored at Hamlet Manor—prepared personally by old Maria, who claimed she was an egg master, able to hold four eggs in one hand and crack them one by one with precise motion, frying four sunny-side-up eggs perfectly.

“Old Maria, your eggs are pretty good.”

Sonia said sincerely, with a hint of sarcasm, placing a golden fried egg on her bread.

Melina looked under the table at senior sister Sonia’s long legs.

It wasn’t that the long legs were particularly attractive.

Nor was it the long legs clad in yoga pants.

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She was straight!

Because senior sister was pedaling hard on a stationary bike made of brass gears. While eating her whole grain nutritious breakfast, her feet spun the pedals so fast Melina worried she might waste away.

“Is it really necessary?” she asked.

“I’m weak,” senior sister replied. “Weakness means more practice. Oof! Did I put too much salt in these eggs?”

“Better to have food than none,” old Maria said with a dark expression, stepping out of the cleaned open kitchen, using magic factors to telekinetically throw the trash bag out.

“Three points, from Hamlet Town University’s Stephen ‘Old Maria’ Curry,” Sonia never lost her energy.

After Maria sat down, she said, “Hang in there. In two hours, we’ll have roasted calf to eat.”

“Perfect. After we eat, we can go exercise at noon.”

Sonia waved her hand and summoned an ancient, delicately hand-drawn map, gently placing it at the center of the dining table. “Disula!” Using a spell to control magic factors—this was one style of magic.

The spell made the map sink into the table, and the tabletop’s surface transformed into a magnified map.

“Around Hamlet Town,” Sonia panted, “the transient population here will decrease by about 75% in two months. Guess why?”

Maria frowned. “Because dragons attacked Hamlet Town?”

“Wrong!”

“Because of some earthquake or disaster?”

“Wrong! Think again—why do people come to this town?”

Melina looked at the map and noticed the only shipping route through this wild frontier—the sole channel connecting Innsmouth, Haven, and the island nation of Elaye, about 9,400 nautical miles away. In this world, maritime routes are crucial because mountains don’t just appear on roads but often rise from the sea, forming labyrinthine sea mazes.

The Crying Peninsula’s main function is unloading and resupplying.

Therefore, its flow of people mainly comes from these needs, even gatherers exist because of them…

“Is the Crying Peninsula’s shipping route blocked?” Melina guessed.

*Clap clap* Sonia applauded: “Xiao Mei, you’re right. The route—two months from now, a rare sea erosion dragon, a ghostly blue dragon, will appear and destroy the shipping lane, ravenously hunting nearby. It’s likely already near Hamlet Town on the Crying Peninsula.”

Sonia smiled and said:

“Find it. Kill it.”

Melina thought for a moment. “It’s very rare, a protected species.”

“Even if it’s the last sea erosion dragon in the world, we have to kill it,” Sonia showed utter disdain for nature. “Compared to the decline of Hamlet Town, nature’s losses are insignificant. Protect Hamlet Town to save the Crying Peninsula, save Innsmouth and Haven. Protect Haven, and this country won’t lose millions to some oceanic dragon.”

Sonia raised her left hand, fingers together:

“Though I don’t know those people, if I can do this without risking my life, I’ll feel truly noble.”

Maria pointed at her with a fork:

“Oh, the moral saint.”

“Not that great,” Sonia laughed as if Maria was genuinely complimenting her, her thick skin maxed out.

Melina twitched at the corner of her mouth but nodded in agreement:

“Just knowing we still have some conscience left makes me very happy.”

“I want a perfect ending and to tease you,” Sonia swore, “I am thunder and lightning, I am the savior. ‘To those beset by demons, my name is like a talisman.’”

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