“Where did my money go…!?”

  “It’s the same thing that happened with the Floating Continent. Maybe it was swallowed by waves from the electronic world and disappeared. The majority opinion is that since the money wasn’t considered an ‘item’, it couldn’t get inside the Item Box. It was something else, in other words. During the time when we were still playing a game, our money was handled by the game system, but now that we are in the ‘real world’, that system doesn’t work. Well, that’s the gist of it, we believe.”

  “How could this… my two hundred million...”

  While paying no heed to about half of her friend’s explanation, Mira collapsed on the sofa.

  “That’s quite the sum you had there… anyway, I had the same reaction when this happened to me...”

  As the subject of the Floating Continent reopened the wounds in their hearts, both boy and girl remained silent for a while, looking up at the sky.

  “And that’s why you can’t use money if you don’t carry the real thing with you. The pouch in your hands can be considered a reward of sorts for doing all that work yesterday. For the time being, I put 100,000 Rifu there, so you must manage it well—isn’t that your forte, anyway?”

  Inside the pouch Mira had received, there were several pieces of money: one gold coin, three mithril ones, another three coins made of silver, four cobalt coins and ten pieces crafted with copper. Respectively, each kind of coin corresponded to fifty thousand, ten thousand, five thousand, one thousand and, finally, a hundred Rifu.

  “One hundred… one hundred thousand…?”

  “Hey come on now, forget about that already. I know you will be able to earn even more in no time. Losing my money’s already water under the bridge for me. Yeah, water under the bridge...”

  According to the rules of the game system, it was impossible to have your money stolen and even one of the penalties for dying only involved the loss of items contained within the player’s Item Box, leaving their money intact; consequently, there had been no need to deposit one’s own money in a warehouse. But now that mindset had backfired on them.

  “Okay, I just remembered something after telling you about the money. Have you already used your Item Box since arriving in this world?”

  Being brought back to his senses, Solomon recalled some of the changes that had occurred in the game world when it became real, things he was already starting to forget after thirty long years.

  “Several times. Is there anything wrong with it?”

  “With this kind of reaction, looks like you aren’t aware of it yet...”

  As he concluded, the boy took a fountain pen from the top of his desk and, again, threw it to his friend. Drawing an arc in the air, the object was stopped by Mira’s hand and then brought at her eyesight level. Judging from its appearance, it was just a common fountain pen, with nothing special to it. Yet, considering it was something being used by a king, it wouldn’t be wrong to think of that pen as a luxury item, evidenced by how finely it had been crafted.

  “Soo…?”

  “Try putting it inside your Item Box.”

  Wondering why she had to do it, Mira still did as told. She opened her Item Box and tried to store the pen within it; that, however, did not succeed, and contrary to her expectations, the item fell to the ground.

  “Hey, what the hell was that?”

  While fixing her eyes on the Item Box, the girl observed what was happening directly below, with the pen rolling on the floor. She had enough space in her box and there wasn’t any problem in particular with it. Having no idea about what had just happened, she then directed her gaze to Solomon.

  “Remember how a while ago I said that the game system had been managing our money? In truth, looks like even the items themselves were managed by that system.”

  The boy stood up and picked the fountain pen, opening his own Item Box a moment later.

  “When this world was still game, fountain and quill pens were categorized as miscellaneous items, swords and armors were considered armament items, jewels and metals were raw material items and so on, right?”

  Explaining, he took out and displayed a certain sword to his friend, one that was even known to her.

  “A short while after the game became reality, some players gathered together and created a research center in order to clarify this world’s natural laws. There, they conducted a series of investigative experiments, from which they ascertained that during the game period, items were things that had been automatically assigned and classified as such by the game system. As a result, like its own name says, the Item Box can only contain things that are categorized as items.”

  As he continued talking, Solomon picked a book from his shelf and held it so Mira could see it.

  “Since the game system isn’t working now, the fountain pen isn’t a ‘miscellaneous item’ and this book isn’t a ‘book item’. In other words, they can’t be placed inside the Item Box. Oh, by the way, the items that are inside your box have already been categorized, so they should be fine.”

  Solomon then finished by returning to his Item Box the sword he had taken out beforehand.

  “This is pretty inconvenient. In the end, does that mean I will have to travel with my hands full of luggage?”

  The girl heavily lamented upon hearing all that news. Every single one of the individuals she was supposed to find were problematic people, so the amount of goods necessary for that harsh journey would obviously be huge.

  “But you know, half a year after the Item Box became unusable, a revolutionary technique was developed.”

  “Oho… tell me more about it.”

  Seemingly putting on airs as he said that, Solomon was urged by Mira’s gaze to continue.

  “Basically, you should manually perform what was once done automatically by the system. With that in mind, the end result of the research was the development of 【Abstractionism：Itemization】. After using this ability on an item, it can be assigned in all kinds of item categories and, thus, become able to be stored in the Item Box.”

  “So to sum it up: with that ability, it will be possible to continue using the box as if nothing has changed, am I right?”

  “Exactly. Since it’s pretty easy to do it, I’ll teach you the skill.”

  “Okay, thank you.”

  After taking a document from his bookshelf, the King brought it to the table in front of Mira and unfolded it. Written there—in a very detailed way—was the process required to obtain that new ability, so the young girl promptly began studying it.

  ◆◆◆

  Thirty minutes later, having learned the Itemization skill without any problems, Mira applied it to the fountain pen and nodded, satisfied, after confirming that it actually went inside her Item Box. Then, after successfully trying the basics of itemization, Mira returned to the sofa to take a breather.

  “Now, going back to the Underground Graveyard matter. Differently than before, all dungeons are now managed by the General Adventurer’s Union.”

  Solomon finally broke his silence and began talking about his friend’s requested mission.

  “General Adventurer’s Union? What is that?”

  While taking out from her Item Box the various things she had stored when playing with the new skill, Mira listened to what the boy said and asked for an explanation.

  “It’s an organization that was created after the game world became real. Its main purpose is to prevent the general populace and the powerless from recklessly entering a dungeon and losing their lives.”

  “Oho… so it was that… but I am not really buying that main purpose. What if they just wanted to keep a monopoly on the dungeons’ treasures or something?”

  “You see, there was a certain incident that happened long ago… and one child died.”

  “Humm, I see...”

  Noticing how Solomon slightly dropped the tone of his voice, for some reason the girl felt inclined to agree to his point.

  “Dungeon” was a term applied to all kinds of fields that, rather than occupying an area outdoors, existed within an enclosed space. Riches and hidden treasures laid in wait inside the dungeons, but because those places were rife with far stronger wildlife and monsters than the ones in outside fields, they were considered to be very dangerous locations. Nonetheless, the dungeons still had a certain and great fascinating nature, so it wasn’t uncommon for people with the most diverse intentions to enter such hazardous areas—only to never see the light of day again, falling into the darkness of death. Obviously, that had not been considered a problem by the players during the game era, but now that everything became real, they couldn’t ignore an incident that happened there.

  A child had set foot inside a dungeon. Their intention was to pick a flower, that served as an ingredient for a special medicine, and, thus, help their sick mother. As the night fell, however, the kid still hadn’t come back, so all the adults mobilized a large search party. In the end, just a little further inside the dungeon, the child’s corpse was found: its mangled, half-eaten and scattered state making it unrecognizable from a human’s body. Then, when the mother heard that one of their hands had been clutching a lone flower, she couldn’t endure it and passed away moments later, as if chasing after her child.

  The game world became real. For the NPCs that had already been “living” there since the game period, it meant that now they were genuine living beings and, as such, were able to feel emotions like any other person; as a result, the death of a kid was accompanied by many kinds of sentiments that emerged within them.

  When a certain player heard about the incident, they built an organization to manage the dungeons, so that such a tragedy would never happen again. And that was the General Adventurer’s Union.

  There were those who had the intention of entering a dungeon. Others wanted the raw materials that existed there and wondered how they could obtain those items. After listening to all sorts of requests coming from individuals like the ones exemplified, the Organization did not stop at just managing the dungeons, but also started acting as an intermediary between the people making those requests and the people strong enough to fulfill them.

  Little by little, the Organization grew larger, and many countries allowed the establishment of branches in their own territories, albeit with the following conditions: the Union wasn’t authorized to take part in any disputes between nations and it was also required to cooperate with operations, performed by a country, to exterminate monsters.

  “Well, that’s why you’re going, of course, to the Experts’ Union. Here is your letter of recommendation.”

  Walking up towards Mira with an envelope in hand, a smiling Solomon presented it to her.

  “Oh, so I just need this to enter?”

  While receiving the letter, the girl briefly gazed at its front and back, then promptly used Itemization to throw the envelope inside her Item Box. There, the letter of recommendation had been classified as a “document item”.

  “No no, that’s simply a recommendation letter. Only the adventurers affiliated with the Union can enter a dungeon. In addition, every dungeon has its own difficulty ranking, with the Underground Graveyard requiring a C rank or higher, I believe. Now, a ‘rank’ is something you earn at the Union and, as you fulfill the many requests issued there, you’ll be recognized by your ability, receiving a suitable increase in your personal rank. It will be easier to understand if you think of that as an Adventurer’s Guild of sorts. Obviously, that kind of staple system didn’t exist in the game world, but thinking about it now, I wonder why it hadn’t been implemented… strange, isn’t it?”

  “Indeed. So anyway, after raising my rank, I should be able to take higher difficulty quests, right? I enjoyed games with this gimmick too.”

  Even if it wasn’t something big, the moment Mira heard about that game-like element in the new world, her excitement began, slowly but surely, to rise up.

  “That letter of recommendation is something that will guarantee your identity and true strength. Originally, a newly registered individual will start with the G rank, but what I just gave you will instantly get you to the C rank. Speaking of which, the rules of the Union can’t really be bent that easily, so even as the king of a country this is the most I can do for you.”

  “I understand. But it should be sufficient enough.”

  Having finished putting her Item Box in order, the girl expressed her comprehension while also quietly leaving various objects at the edge of the table—things she had used during her experiments with Itemization.

  “Incidentally, you need to know that there are two entry points in the Organization: the Warriors’ Union and the Experts’ Union. As you can probably guess from their names, the details for the jobs offered in each of them are different.”

  “Hmm. So, does that ‘Union’ or whatever have a branch in this city? I must make my registration there without delay then.”

  “Yeah, there is. Or rather, they exist in almost every city. Well, since you’re already going by carriage to the Underground Graveyard, there’s also one branch in the town near that dungeon. But are you really fine with doing it here? It takes a whole day for them to issue an Adventurer License, you see.”

  Said Solomon, the smile on his face laden with some hidden meaning. Upon seeing that expression, Mira felt a slight sense of unease.

  “Oh, is that so? Then I will spend one more night...”

  That was the exact moment when her memories from the disaster in the morning resurfaced. If the girl were to grant the maids an entire day with her in the castle, she couldn’t even begin to imagine what kind of masterpiece work they would come up with. Now understanding what her friend meant, Mira started pondering her options.

  She could spend the night in one of the city’s inns. However, the chances of her being captured by the maids, when returning to the castle in order to ride the carriage, were high. Even having the vehicle wait for her outside of the town was also out of the question, considering a maid could be waiting for her there. Then, taking into account all of her worries, Mira determined that it would be, without a doubt, completely fatal to prolong her stay by one day; as a result, she strengthened her resolve to immediately depart towards the Underground Graveyard.

  “Please, prepare the carriage right now.”

  “Huhuhu. Everything’s already ready, you can leave whenever you feel like it.”

  As Mira stood up with intense vigor, she left the Office alongside Solomon. Then, accompanied by Lily, all three arrived at the castle’s stables. What Mira found there was a two-horse carriage waiting for her, its proportions about one size bigger than the vehicle that, just the other day, had brought her from the tower. Standing by the carriage’s side were two people: a maid, holding a large basket and a bag in her hands, and the one working as the coachman, Garrett.

  “How should I put it… we meet really often, Garrett...”

  Remembering the military man’s figure while he grasped the steering wheel of the Armored Jeep, the girl’s expression stiffened.

  “Good morning, Mira-sama. It might not be on the same level as the Armored Jeep, but this vehicle here is also another wonderful piece of work! I am deeply touched by having the opportunity of being its driver.”

  Garrett bowed and, with his arms spread, introduced that seemingly commonplace carriage, an inebriated-like smile on his face.

  “I just do not care anymore about the kind of carriage we are going to use. But please, at least drive responsibly.”

  She had requested that from the bottom of her heart, to which Garrett replied with, “But of course,” his previous smile changing to a greatly refreshing one.

  ◆◆◆

  “Well then, take care.”

  “Yeah.”

  After briefly exchanging farewells with Solomon and then being tightly hugged by Lily, Mira finally boarded the carriage. When she was already inside, the other maid brought the bag and the basket for the girl.

  “Please be careful and have a safe trip, Mira-sama. Inside the basket, there is a meal we have arranged so you can eat along the way. In addition, there is a change of clothes prepared for you within this bag.”

  “O-Okay… I see. Thank you...”

  With a bow, the maid stepped off from the vehicle. Staring at the bag whose contents she couldn’t begin to imagine—or rather, she didn’t even want to imagine them—Mira sighed; it was still in the morning and she had already lost count on how many times that kind of reflex had left her lips. Then, moments later, when the vehicle slowly broke into a run, Mira felt greatly relieved and took a sip from an Apple au Lait she had previously retrieved from her box.

  Outside of the window, the passing scenery gently gained speed. It was easy to notice that, when compared with the old days, the townscape that could be seen from there had undergone through a complete change. While vacantly gazing at such an unfamiliar sight, Mira concentrated on the sweetness that was spreading within her mouth.

  ◆◆◆

  Seeing his friend off, Solomon began moving in a hurry. From his own experiences, the unsettling behavior of the Lesser Demons, who hid themselves in the many groups of monsters that invaded the country, was something that, if left unattended, would bring too many worries for him. On top of that, there was their main destinations: the flower gardens decorated with a white pillar each. To the players, those places were known for possessing harvesting spots for a peculiar kind of medicinal herb, called “Angel’s Drop”—and it was just that, no more, no less.

  However, because of what had just happened, there was now the possibility of something else existing and being concealed in those locations. Organize an investigative team and collect data related to the Lesser Demon. As Solomon quickly gave out those orders, he faced the direction in which Mira’s carriage had gone and, looking up at the sky, smiled.