"Mmm~ so satisfied."
After devouring the entire cake, Clara slumped back in her chair, cradling her pleasantly full belly with a look of pure contentment.
Clara: Hehe~
"Things remain, but people change. Ah, how things remain while people change..."
Gazing at the battlefield of crumbs left on the table, a sigh escaped Clara as she reminisced about her former self.
Back in the day, she would savor a single cake, taking tiny, delicate bites, terrified of finishing it too quickly.
Now? No need for that at all! She could wolf down cake in big, bold mouthfuls!
Though Clara wasn't entirely sure if 'things remain, but people change' was the perfect fit here, the general idea worked well enough!
"Things remain, but people change? What does that mean?"
Hearing the oddly world-weary tone in Clara's voice, it was as if the person sitting across from Firefly wasn't Clara at all, but some ancient creature...
Hmm... an ancient creature Clara?
Well, that might work too. Even if she were an ancient creature, she'd still be my favorite person!
"It means the cake is still the same old cake, but I, Clara, am no longer the same old Clara!"
"Um... but the cake was just bought, right? So it can't be the 'same old cake.'"
"Ugh, I mean the price of cake is the same as before, but I, Clara, am completely different from the Clara of the past!"
"A puny little cake? I'm loaded now, I can buy them whenever I want!"
To be honest, Clara wasn't entirely clear on the exact meaning of 'things remain, but people change' either.
Luckily, Firefly didn't know either. So, no matter how Clara explained it, Firefly would believe her.
"Oh... okay, I don't get it."
Firefly blinked, utterly failing to grasp what Clara was trying to say.
"Just know that I'm super rich now, that's all." Clara thought for a moment and settled on a much easier-to-understand statement.
"Oh, okay." Firefly nodded, not questioning where all of Clara's money had come from.
In Firefly's eyes, with Clara's abilities, earning money was surely much easier for her than it was for Firefly herself.
So, Clara becoming wealthy wasn't a surprise to Firefly.
If only she could become rich too... Sob.
She'd been trying to earn money for a while, and if that kind boss hadn't given her ten thousand, she might actually be in debt by now...
And she still owed Clara thirty million...
Was there any way to make money quickly?
'I'll ask Silver Wolf about it when I have time later.'
Firefly thought silently to herself. Even though Clara hadn't set a repayment deadline, Firefly didn't want to keep owing her forever.
Her current behavior kind of seemed like... like...
Being a sugar baby? (T/N: Technically this is called a pay pig which I greatly dislike)
The term she'd seen scrolling through short videos popped into Firefly's head.
Hmm... no, no! Even if someone were to be a sugar baby, it should be Clara being my sugar baby!
Firefly shook her head vigorously, her desire to strike it rich growing even stronger.
"Firefly, I'm all rested. How about you?"
Just as Firefly was pondering money-making schemes, Clara stood up and stretched.
"Huh? I'm good too, let's go."
Seeing this, Firefly temporarily shelved her financial thoughts, cleared the cake boxes and crumbs from the table, and tossed everything into the trash.
"Mmm~"
...
"Melons for sale! Melons for sale!"
"Twenty thousand credits per catty, three hundred thousand credits per melon!"
"Don't miss out, come take a look!"
Walking hand-in-hand with Clara down the street, Firefly heard the melon vendor's cry. Clara couldn't help but mutter a critique.
"Twenty thousand a catty, three hundred thousand a melon. Tell me, is the rind made of gold, or are the seeds made of gold?"
Three hundred thousand for one melon! She'd just eaten over a dozen cakes for a little over five hundred thousand. A single watermelon costing three hundred thousand... you could only say this was the price level around the headquarters of the Interastral Peace Corporation, huh?
Miles ahead!
"Maybe this melon has... something special about it?"
Hearing the price, Firefly was also taken aback.
She'd eaten watermelon before, but a melon worth three hundred thousand...
"Whatever melon it is, I'll laugh at whoever buys it for the rest of my life."
Clara couldn't care less what the melon was made of or where it was shipped from. A single watermelon for three hundred thousand was just absurd.
What, was this melon personally planted by the Aeon of Abundance or something?
Okay, if it really were planted by the Aeon of Abundance, even if you added another zero to the price, a bunch of people would probably still buy it.
But speaking of which, that vendor's cry sounded so familiar...
Recalling the voice she'd just heard, Clara felt like she'd heard it somewhere before.
Thinking this, Clara looked in the direction the voice had come from.
She saw an ordinary-looking melon stall. Hard to imagine how they dared to price their melons at three hundred thousand.
At the stall stood a figure wrapped in a black robe, concealing their form. Near the head, a few stray strands of silver and red hair were faintly visible.
Beside them was another small figure, also cloaked in black, about the size of a Warp Trotter.
"..."
Huh? A Warp Trotter?
The thought made Clara look at the robed figure with a strange expression.
Recalling the voice she'd heard and the various details she'd observed, Clara realized the true identity hidden beneath the vendor's robes.
"Clara, what's wrong?"
Seeing Clara's gaze fixed on the melon seller, Firefly asked curiously.
Did Clara want some melon?
With that thought, Firefly, still holding Clara's hand, led her toward the stall selling three-hundred-thousand-credit watermelons.
If Clara wanted some, then a mere three hundred thousand...
...
"Melons for sale! Melons for sale!"
"Twenty thousand credits per catty, three hundred thousand credits per melon!"
"Don't miss out, come take a look!"
Firefly led Clara to the front of the stall. Looking at the watermelons, she couldn't see anything particularly special about them.
Even though she knew the price was twenty thousand per catty, Firefly was still about to open her mouth and ask.
Just as Firefly prepared to speak, Clara beat her to it:
"Boss, are these melons guaranteed to be ripe?"
Hearing a customer at her stall, the vendor eagerly turned her attention toward them.
"Listen to you, I run a melon stall, would I sell you..."
"...unripe melons?"
The initially pleased vendor trembled slightly upon seeing that the 'customer' was Clara.
"I'm asking you, are these melons guaranteed to be ripe?"
Noting the vendor's reaction, a slight smile played on Clara's lips.
"Gua... gua... guaranteed... guaranteed to be ripe..."
The vendor's speech became stammering, as if she were holding something back.
"And what if the melon isn't ripe?"
Clara's smile widened, growing increasingly bold.
"After all, your melons are twenty thousand credits a catty. It'd be pretty awful if I bought an unripe one."
…
T/N: The phrase "我问你这瓜保熟吗?" ("I ask you, are these melons guaranteed to be ripe?") is a famous meme/reference from the Chinese TV series "Conquest." It's often used humorously to challenge or question someone's integrity, especially in a deal.
…
I have completed the author to TL pipeline, 2 chapters per day. 150+ chapters in advance on patreon.
patreon.com/intraneer
Give power stones please I survive solely off of number go up.