“What’s the problem?” I asked while walking towards their direction as Mana looked around with a troubled expression before Flora turned around and reached her hands out towards Mana as I handed her over.

 

“Well.. you see… nothing,” she said before hugging Flora, who buried her head once more onto Mana’s shoulders, dozing off as a normal child would do.

 

“I heard something about the price doubling, how much will it cost in total?” I questioned before the brown-haired lady looked at me with a wry smile before she took out a paper receipt and handed it to me as the sight of the original price being sliced off and changed to 1.5 times more came clear.

 

In total, it was now at 84 silver coins which in my world would be 840 USD and for twelve items of “normal” quality in my world, it does seem a lot or should I say overpriced but then again, we have to take into consideration that this is another world.

 

“Have you already paid the initial price?” I asked Mana before she nodded as I placed the receipt in my pocket before taking out a few dozens of silver coins and handing them to the brown-haired lady who seemed surprised.

 

“That should be enough, right?” I questioned as she started counting the silver coins one by one until a few moments passed by as she accepted while handing another paper bag that contained the remaining dresses to Mana.

 

Well, now that I think about it, I originally had 97 gold coins from the start which was being slowly deducted for clothing and other stuff. If we count all our total spending this week, it would be around seven gold coins which means I have 90 gold coins left or 900,000 USD… okay, I am rich.

 

“Well, how about we head back now?” I looked at Mana and suggested before she looked at me, nodding as I grabbed her hand and left the store. Though, I wonder why the price increased unless this is some scheme of the store or a triangle scheme from businesses during festive times.

 

“Have you ate yet?” I inquired before she shook her head as we reached the outside of the store where I turned my attention back towards her before asking, “Do you know any good restaurants or some sort here, ones that offer good meals?”

 

“Err… for restaurants, I don’t really know… since I don’t eat out that much…” she said embarrassed. I guess that was normal considering she was technically shunned away from her family heritage which means she has little leeway to go eat out or do stuff.

 

Hmm… though, I wonder if the mini-map can suggest to me something, after all, back on Solis VR. The mini-map is basically an all-seeing eye that tells you where stores, items, and all other stuff are being sold but the first question is how can I maximize this minimap?

 

“Maximize minimap?” I mumbled in a super silent voice before the minimap at the left corner grew from a tiny circle to a large square window in front of me. As I thought, chanting is required in a way to do stuff from the system… I wonder if I can also activate skills by chanting on the terminal like when I was being chased by that boar.

 

“How about we head to the restaurant over there?” I suggested after looking around at the mini-map, searching for the highest rated store with no regard to the price. The mini-map was incredibly detailed, to be honest, it was like Noogle Maps where images of food were being shown and their rating.

 

“You mean that…?! Isn’t it expensive?!” she looked at me shocked as I minimized the minimap and smiled at her before dragging her to the restaurant as she tried pulling away, “Wait… do we even have money…?”

 

“No worries,” I smiled before entering the restaurant that was like a modern café. Immediately, we were greeted by a maid that had the ears of a cat, a tail that grew from behind, and blue eyes. A demi-human café! That was the restaurant or cafe I selected!

 

“Welcome to Café de Neko-nyaaa!” the maid said with a cute voice as her tail twirled around like those in animes. It was a real-life demi-cat! A demi-cat, I say! All those mofu-mofu you could imagine, Aaah! Ehem… cough cough…

 

“Are there seats for three available?” I asked before the maid looked at the three of us and nodded.

 

“There are-nyaa! How large of a table do nyaa want-nyaa?” she asked before I looked at Mana who seems to be embarrassed or should I say curious. Her eyes lingered around the café as if it was her first time here.

 

“How much is the normal or average size?” I questioned before she handed me a menu that showed the table sizing and their price. The largest table costs around a gold coin for reservation, the average is half of that, and the smallest is half of the average.

 

“Isn’t it expensive…?” Mana whispered before I smiled, handing the menu back to the maid before replying to the maid.

 

“I’ll take the average size; do you mind leading us the way?”

 

Immediately, the maid bowed down as she soon started leading us to a fairly average-sized rounded rectangle table with four seats beside the window. After leading us to our table, she soon took out two menus as I took a seat on one of the seats before gesturing the hesitant Mana to sit down.

 

Holding the menu up and opening it, a colorful page soon greeted us as different shakes, coffees, teas, and all kinds of drinks came to sight paired with parfaits, sweets, pancakes, and cakes with some meals like chicken and meat came to sight.

 

“Is there anything you would recommend?” I asked the maid, placing the menu down as she pointed at the strawberry parfait and blueberry or strawberry cake which seems to be the usual. I didn’t mind though since they looked so delicious despite being drawn on the paper.

 

“Well, I’ll take a medium and small strawberry parfait, a full-sized blueberry and strawberry cake, and some breadsticks if possible,” I ordered before the maid wrote them down on a notepad as I looked at Mana and smiled.

 

“A medium-sized and small-sized strawberry parfait-nyaa, two full-sized cakes-bluenyaaery and nyaaberry with brenyaasticks?” the maid questioned as I nodded in response before she looked at Mana patiently.

 

“I’ll take a strawberry parfait… and pudding with mocha mud pie…” Mana ordered as her eyes constantly looked at the price with shock. It seems like she was picking the cheapest among them which kind of makes me weirded out by how society works.

 

“Nyaa- a stranyaaery parfait, pudding and nyaacha mud pie, is that nyaarrect?” the maid asked as Mana hesitated for a second before looking at me as I agreed before she looked at the maid and bowed a bit as the maid soon took back the menus before bowing down as she left.

 

After the maid had left, Mana soon looked at me and asked, “Are you sure you can afford this much… aren’t the prices a little bit too much?” before I took out my pouch and handed it to her as she opened it before her eyes went wide.

 

“I think you might have forgotten how much the headmaster gave me last time…” I said with a wry smile as she looked at the inside of the pouch and me back and forth before slowly turning dizzy as Flora woke up and looked at her confused.

 

“Mwama, sleepy?” Flora asked in an adorable voice as Mana shook her head, responding to Flora by patting her hair as she looked back at me and asked.

 

“Err… do you know how to manage money well?”

 

Immediately, I looked away and whistled as I said, “I am bad at mathematics and money-management… if you could, then it would be better if you manage the money instead otherwise it might vanish from me quickly…”

 

“Are you sure… it is a lot of money,” she asked shyly as Flora looked at the two of us with even more confusion on her eyes before she simply limped off on Mana’s shoulder, dozing off after not being able to comprehend. What a simple girl.

 

“Don’t worry… you are much better at those than me…” I said wryly, considering that Mana is after all someone of the top rankings of the school, compared to me who was both a dropout and a mob on my world, it would make more sense to let her handle the money.

 

She became a bit reluctant which was natural, after all, she was holding close to a million USD which is a lot of money that even I would scream holding. All the money I had made from Solis series was handled by another person and most of those were not useable for me.

 

After a while of hesitation, she soon accepted, keeping the money in her pocket as I smiled before the maid came back, holding a tray filled with all kinds of delicious sweets. Three parfaits, one small and two medium-sized; a full round blueberry cake and strawberry cake; mud pie and pudding with a few breadsticks were all laid on top of the tray.

 

“Nyaa! Here is your order-nyaa!” the maid said before placing them on the table, organizing them a bit as Flora once more woke up and sniffed around before drool fell from her mouth as she looked at the food that was before her.

 

“Mwama! Aywumi-ma! Food!” she said with excitement as Mana chuckled, combing Flora’s hair as a gentle, warm smile appeared on her face. It reminded me of when I first met her inside that forest, to think that little time had passed since then is unimaginable.

 

I never thought that same girl who would always slap me on the face would be someone who could smile this beautifully, someone who is naturally shy and someone who was humbler than anyone else. Life truly is filled with strange things.

 

After placing all of the sweets on the table, the maid soon bowed down before leaving abruptly as I took a spoon and a knife before slicing the strawberry cake into pieces before scooping it with the spoon and placing it before Mana as she looked confused.

 

“Don’t want to eat?” I asked before out of the blue, Flora’s face replaced Mana’s as her mouth vacuumed the entire cake before gulping it in one go as she burped.

 

“Mwhm!” she said with a bright smile as a loud chuckle left my mouth before out of the blue, loud explosions came from the outside as we looked out before the sight of dozens to hundreds of blue lanterns with white streaks floating up in the air came to sight.

 

It was a beautiful scene, almost like fireworks but instead of randomness, all of the lanterns flew in a pattern as their streaks all together formed a large tree. Almost instantly, instruments echoed throughout the city, violins, pianos, and all kinds could be heard surreal.

 

“No matter how many times I see this… it still is beautiful,” Mana said as I looked at her eyes that stared at the beautiful scene outside before I took out the paper bag I carried around and handed it to her as she looked confused.

 

“Feel free to open it…” I said before she took it, opening it before her eyes were filled with shock as she looked at me confused before taking out a note that I didn’t know was there.

 

“How did you know it’s my birthday…?” she looked at me shocked as I looked at her confused as well… it was her birthday today…?! Wait, what…?! No one told me at all!!! Wait… doesn’t that mean I coincidentally gave her a present on her birthday…?!

 

“Well… I was told by someone…” I spewed out a lie in an instant before a smile blossomed on her face before a teardrop fell from her eyes as the instruments outside became louder. Her eyes squinted as she hugged Flora tightly before looking at me.

 

“No one ever gave me a gift before… it’s my first time… thank you…” she said before a heart-aching pain filled my heart as I scratched my cheeks.

 

“Actually, no one told me it was your birthday… I only saw that you wanted those dresses when we were looking for a store awhile ago… sorry…” I said before she fisted my head gently as she smiled.

 

“Well, it’s bad to lie but at the same time, at least you know my birthday now, right pervert?” she said as a wry smile came to my face before more and more lanterns flew up at the skies as we looked outside, smiling.

 

The Festival of Eve, a day that also marked the first person I met on this world’s birthday. To think that the Sky Dragon’s passing also paved the way for the birth of Mana, is it all a coincidence or is there something between the two of them.

 

“Mwama, Aywumi-ma, look!” Flora suddenly said as she pointed outside before all of the streaks matched together before a full blue tree came to sight as a lone line flew around it almost like a Chinese Dragon before all of the instruments stopped as the dragon reached the top and looked down proud before it vanished as snow fell from the skies.

 

All of a sudden, a hand touched mine, surprising me as I looked at the hand that was touching mine before the sight of Mana’s face turning pink came to sight as her hand sat above mine with a smile on her face before a window popped out of nowhere.