Arika, Suddenly Rich in the City?!

“...Marconne…”

I couldn’t help but read the grand looking sign that decorated the ‘central’ of the city. Elves come and go by the magical teleporting device near the sign, only to go underground by a few tunnels around the sign, as nightfall had caused the signs to be lightened up with magic orbs. The feeling of not being alone by the three of us made me relieved as well as overwhelmed.

“Ah, Lady Arika, you’re awake~ Please don’t move too much from there so I could do my illusions better~” said Rana, pointing her wand to me who was riding Rui’s back at that moment. “For now, you only looked like baggage to people~”

“O– Okay! I won’t move!” I said, nervously as I gulped.

“Huh, I see…. ‘Marconne’ is what it’s called by Blessed Ones, huh. That sounds way better than its actual name’s spelling...” Rama commented rather casually. It made me curious what kind of name it has in reality, but I feel no need to ask for now. “Anyway, I think we should find some general shops first to get some stuff….”

“General shops?”

“We could get some food and mana potions there to help you get back on your feet. Also, we could get some items we needed to turn your robe into a magical item with Rana’s magic so that you won't obviously look like Mage Hero Angelica.”

“Ah, right… Wait, you guys do have money with you, right?”

“As long as we have our magic wand or staff, we can have access to our monetary savings. Don’t worry much about that, Lady Arika~”

This isekai of ETO’s does have quite advanced magic technology compared to some fantasy worlds I knew from some novels, so I can’t help but sigh in relief. Wait— I do have a magic staff too, and Grandma was an advanced player, could it be that I still have money in my bank from Grandma’s account? Maybe I should try that later…

“Anyway, Rana. It’s already this late, the library may not be open and we can’t contact anyone back in Magifa. We should find an inn first and get the stuff we need and contact Magifa later…”

“Ugh, that’s right, there’s that…. Inns that allow Cheshires in big cities usually are expensive. I don’t know if I can afford them even if I dig through my savings….”

“We can try, but I’m not sure I do either… Worst comes to worst, we’d need to camp outside the city as it would be dangerous if any of us got separated….”

The twins sighed in a united harmony, and it made me giggle. When they’re not fighting or insulting each other, they look like they would get along just fine. It made me slightly jealous as I didn’t have any siblings back in my previous world. But that aside, this is a good time to check out whether this ‘Angelica’ has whatever my Grandma’s character had as an inheritance as an experienced player back then.

“Um. I don’t know how advanced the magic technology here is, and it may become a problem if it could be tracked back to me, but… how do one check your money savings with your magic wand again? I need to make sure of something…”

Elves are long-living people of magic, and there’s more chance of them not changing their currencies from back when the game was still ‘active’ with its server running and Blessed Ones still came down from the sky often. If the currency and economic situation hasn’t changed much since then, there’s a chance I could help them afford an inn with what’s technically my grandmother’s inheritance, at the very least.

Rama and Rana stared at each other in unison, at first confused on what I implied. However, Rama caught on faster than his sister.

“Right. This woman may lose her memory as her somehow, but Mage Hero Angelica would at least still have enough money from her past exploits.”

Rama pointed at me with his thumb, suggesting what's going on in my mind. I nodded to confirm my thoughts.

“Huh?! Is that even possible?!” Rana gasped in disbelief. “But we might have no other choices… Big cities are scary from what I heard for us to be separated…”

“I don’t know either, but we should at least try.” I gulped. “So, how do I do it?”

~*~*~*~

It was as simple as just waving my wand as I thought of having money. It doesn’t even require any mana I lack at the moment. It seems to be a very common kind of storage magic in this world that everyone could use even when they lack mana. Following MMORPG logic, it would be an annoyance and a hindrance to players if they require mana every time they need to check how much money they have. Yet, that simplicity becomes the reality in this world even to the non-players, thankfully.

What surprised all three of us was the amount, however.

As we decided to hide behind one big tree— no, skyscraper– to avoid people’s gaze and attempt to check out however much we needed for accommodation in the city, a bag of money dropped even heavier than I thought. I surely thought having a little more wouldn’t hurt as we still needed to buy a few things, but….

“This much could just afford for a week on a five star accommodation, what the hell?!”

“Lady Arika, you’re really something… I– It’s not your entire savings, isn’t it?”

“It doesn’t seem to be everything. I could feel Grandma— I mean Mage Hero Angelica still had more savings once I learned how to get them out….”

….Turns out I do have the ‘cheat’ power of money in this isekai! Thank you and your dedication on saving money even in online games, Grandma! I couldn’t help but thank her repeatedly in my head, before I’m back to reality.

I coughed as if to not get carried away with my sudden state of riches, and also to catch attention from the twins.

“Oh, right. We should be able to find somewhere to stay in the city with this, but…” Rama suddenly stopped his words as he took a glance at me and sighed loudly.

“...but?” I tilted my head curiously.

“It’s better if we all stay in the same room until we can get our stuff going, specifically the items we need to hide that woman. I don’t really mind staying with Rana since we’re siblings and we’re used to it when we’re younger, but you’re….” Rana scratched his cheeks, blushing as he did. Somehow, it sparked a thought in Rana’s mind, one that caused her to grin.

“Ah, I see now. Rama’s having dirty thoughts about Lady Arika. Boys be boys, eh?”

“I’m not?! I’m just stating the facts! S— since for now we can’t take her off of Rui or people will see her clearly as day, and Rui hardly listens to anyone but me sometimes and her— Get that stupid grin off your face, you ____ piece of ____ sister!”

“I don’t mind, you know… It’s a dire situation, after all… But I’m glad you thought of me, Rama…”

“D–Don’t pat my head with your staff! You’re also just treating me as a kid, don’t you!”

At least with the direness of the situation, the twins won’t be fighting for who’s the older sibling by destroying things around them now. I sighed in relief as we at last decided to approach the city.

~*~*~*~

Finally, we arrived at a Cheshire-friendly inn’s room with two single beds. It looked quite extravagant that we actually got a few foods we could eat as our dinner as complimentary gifts, but then it should be expected with the price we paid to stay here for at least a night. I made sure to stay on top of Rui so that Rana could hide me secretly with her magic, but even with her larger mana pool as an elf it tired her so much that once we got to our room at the inn she fell asleep on the bed.

It did worry me at first, but Rama said not to think much of it as she’d recover after a good night's sleep. Elves do recover their mana faster even by just sleeping it for a night, according to him, who is now locking the door for safety reasons.

“It should be safe now. You could get off Rui and get some rest.”

“Okaaay.” I nodded as I slipped myself out of the sleepy, yawning Rui’s back, and headed for the bed. But Rama’s gestures worried me more than I was tired— he clearly tried to get out of the room by himself, even when it’s already quite late by the time we found an inn.

“Right. I need to get what we need from a general shop before they’re closed for today. Just lock the door from inside after I leave—”

I caught his hand before he even tried unlocking the door.

“You’re not tired too, Rama?” I asked worriedly. “There’s a lot going on in one day, and it’s better if you take a rest too. We could just get the stuff we need by tomorrow morning. The stores might've already closed by the time you find them.”

From what I knew so far, Rama doesn’t know about the city as much as Rana did. I’d feel more at ease letting Rana go than Rama on his own. What if he got lost first before getting to any shops? Or that he couldn’t find his way back to this inn? We’d lose our way of protecting ourselves from an unexpected attack, but most importantly, we’d lose Rama and I’d feel bad about it.

“...You’re right. But then….” Rama clicked his tongue. “....I can’t sleep either. It’s better if at least one of us stays awake to keep watch, at the very least.”

“Did you know that just lying down and resting would help ease your fatigue even when you’re not actually sleeping?” I said as if I was a narrator on TV that’s narrating a fun fact for a small segment on a show— not like Rama would understand that either, I know. “Also, we can just… talk to each other, you know? There’s still too much I don’t know about this world that we’d have lots to talk about.”

“Okay, okay. I won’t leave, at least. What are you going to ask about our world?” Despite his usual behavior and foul mouth, Rama is obedient enough to just follow my words as he took a seat on the floor near the curled up Cheshire we knew well as Rui. I ended up wondering if he’s actually much more like this when Rana’s not teasing him. After all, Rana said he prefers to stay in Magifa with the Elder, so maybe he does have that side of his….

“Rana said you prefer to stay on Magifa with Elder and not to go to a city…. Is there any particular reason for that?“

Ah. I spontaneously spouted what’s in my mind again. But I do feel like it could be a good icebreaker. Rama sighed as he crossed his arms.

“It’s nothing. I just don’t feel like I’m suited to the big city, either.” said Rama, looking away from me, as he muttered to himself thinking that I won’t hear it; “After all, I can only destroy with my magic.”

“Are you not satisfied with your destruction magic?”

“Urgh, you heard that?!”

Unfortunately, my ears are quite sensitive especially with how silent the night could be in this expensive inn— and with how Rui besides us already curled up and purred in the safety of the room and I like hearing cats purr. Obviously I would be hearing such a loud murmur from Rama, so I end up just asking what’s in my mind.

“I think it’s pretty cool, though. And thanks to that we’re safe from that Comanet cult, too.”

“Yeah, but it’s not exactly something that’ll give me a cool job in this time of peace. The best I could do is just be a town guard– which I already did somehow— and I don’t really like that much.” Rama pouts, rather childishly for the possible hundreds or thousands of his age. It was rather adorable to some extent. “If I was born some centuries earlier, I could’ve been fighting the Demon Lord, but…. Well. It’s as you’ve seen.”

“I see. So you have complex feelings about your ability…. Haha. Not like I couldn’t relate.” I chuckled, as I found a common ground with Rama at last. I ended up sitting closer to him on the floor.

“What are you talking about? You’re THAT Mage Hero Angelica. You could do anything with your magic and you saved the world…”

“Well, that’s just someone I knew. After what we went through today, I’m pretty sure this ‘Arika’ is just living here on the shell of Angelica.” I sighed softly as I leaned back to the fluffiness of sleeping, purring Rui.

“...was the real Mage Hero Angelica someone you knew?”

“Someone who was really close to me that I wanted to meet when I ended up in this world.”

I smiled gently as I reminisced about my Grandma once again. Though I probably shouldn’t really be talking about the whole ordeal, I figured out I could at least talk a little about it as a form of pep talk to Rama. Maybe it’ll help him.