Editing Sorcery Hacker:Volume1 Phase2 (section)

===Part 10===

“…”

“Whew, the battle is finally over.”

That exchange was held in the microbus food stall shaped a lot like a crayfish that was riding the artificial air currents below the sunny and starry sky. The “battle” here was of course the lunchtime rush. Restaurant customers came in waves, so selecting a workplace based on the averaged-out amount of work listed on the help wanted ad would end badly.

These vehicle-based food stalls could start doing business fairly cheaply, but their mobility meant they could not install Media Summoners which had to connect to the mist mana arranged in a web-like pattern around the city. It was a wireless technology, but the requirement to place devices at the fixed starting and ending points of the mist mana lines left much to be desired. This place’s owner envied the restaurants that positioned themselves on the giant walkway rooftops. Without the television, radio, and data searching that the young people wanted, the baby-faced apprentice with a towel around his head only had the owner to focus on.

The youth placed a hand on his shoulder and spun that arm around while giving the older man a puzzled look.

“Is something wrong?”

“No.”

Once the lunchtime rush was over, it was time to check on their sales, but the unrefined owner was focused on a certain coin instead.

“Our selling point is how cheaply we can provide a satisfying meal, so it just seems unusual for someone to pay with a royal gold<ref>Approximately 10,000 yen per coin.</ref>”

“Yeah, that is pretty weird. But they probably just wanted change. No one likes being directly asked to break a royal gold after all.”

“…”

“Why do you keep flipping it over? Do you think it might be counterfeit? Ha ha. We’re too dumb to tell if it’s real or not. We don’t have an eye for the Light-Dark Duality. Oh, or is it true you can tell by biting it?”

“''If it’s a real counterfeit coin,'' I imagine there would be no way to tell the difference.”

That did not seem to be what the owner was interested in.

“That trio didn’t look all that rich to me, but this coin isn’t particularly scraped up yet it doesn’t look like it was some great treasure of theirs either. Something about it rubs me wrong. It’s like seeing an old man sleeping under a bridge with a gold watch hanging from his pocket.”

“Um, so should we contact the authorities?”

“I’m not sure. I don’t want to get caught up in any trouble.”

The scales in his mind kept tipping back and forth.

And at times like this, ''a certain person'' came to mind.

“Yeah, we should contact her.”

“Probably, but I’m always worried she’s overworking herself with how many people go to her for help.”

Yes.

The people were the greatest warning system. Just like a certain Striker had worked so hard to ensure.