Volume 6, Chapter 53 – Lured by Magic

“…Same here.”

Unable to resist a shiver, Evelyn also muttered.

It seemed she wasn’t the only one who was disgusted.

“Well, I don’t think I’d kick you away, Yisi.”

“So you can drag me down with you at a critical moment?”

“Why do you always think the worst of me!”

“Shouldn’t you be asking yourself that question, Evelyn?”

“What’s with that look like you’re looking at an idiot…” As if to draw a clear line between them, Evelyn took a small step back, coughed twice, and awkwardly switched back to a serious mode. “Ahem, just as you said, the reason I came out is because the problem is not as easy to solve as I imagined. This is the city map I got from the library using my papal authority. It includes the sewers and underground secret passages, and it depicts all the buildings in Mitters Bayer and their uses.”

“Mm.”

Yisi nodded, signaling for Evelyn to continue.

Evelyn pointed to several buildings marked with triangles and alchemical vessels.

“These are the places in Mitters Bayer where magic scrolls are centrally stored, and these are the residences of the alchemists.”

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At Evelyn’s gesture, Yisi discovered the problem.

“But some of the circled buildings where the monsters appeared are not marked with triangles and alchemical symbols by the church?”

“Yes, that’s right. The buildings that are worthy of being marked by the church are all places with a large number of key items. Those individuals who have a small number of magic cores and magic scrolls are not included. One, it’s troublesome to count. If we were to count them one by one, by the time a new map is made, it would already be outdated. Two, some people will hide them and not report them, or the definition is very vague. If the standard becomes that as long as one has a magic scroll, they should be marked, then it would be impossible to draw the map at all. The mobility of individuals is too strong.”

“So if we were to send people to guard each of the places drawn on the map, it would be too passive, and most of the time we’d be doing useless work?”

“Although I don’t know what you mean by ‘useless work’, I think you understand what I’m trying to say.” Evelyn tapped the map spread out on the wall helplessly. “And not to mention the alchemists and the warehouses that store magic scrolls, just the adventurers who carry magic cores with them would give us a headache for a while. Not only do they live scattered, but most of them don’t even have a fixed residence. When they have money, they stay in inns. When they don’t, they sleep on the streets or in the wilderness. It’s impossible for us to have the patrols of Mitters Bayer protect them one-on-one. Even if we sent out all the patrols, the number would not be enough.”

“So…?”

Yisi tilted her head. Evelyn had her own script. Based on what she had just said, she had no idea what Evelyn was going to say next.

Very pleased with Yisi’s confusion, Evelyn clapped her hands theatrically, making a soft clap sound, drawing Yisi’s attention to her.

“The number of adventurers who have one or two magic cores or magic scrolls is far greater than the number of magic locations marked by the church. But if you observe carefully, you will find that the monsters appear more often in the places that the church has already marked. Take the attacks that have occurred in the past three days, for example. The vast majority of them have occurred at the magic concentration points, that is, the places where a large number of magic scrolls and magic cores are stored, which have been marked on the map by the church. The few other cases were also people who had bought about ten magic scrolls and magic cores. So—”

“So those monsters can sense the magnitude of magic power, and then specifically look for places with abundant magic power?”

As if she had completed an insurmountable challenge, Evelyn snapped her fingers happily.

“Exactly.”

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Yisi couldn’t help but nod to herself.

Originally, she had planned to deliberately arrange an incident to make Evelyn understand this point. She didn’t expect Evelyn to have noticed it herself ahead of time.

After saying all this, Evelyn put down the map, patted the dust off it, rolled it up to the size of a finger, and stuffed it back into the cleavage of her chest.

So this world had things like underwear.

Yisi, who had accidentally caught a glimpse, silently averted her gaze.

“So today, we’ll buy as many magic cores and magic scrolls as possible, and then pile them up in a place that is both conspicuous and can give people enough sense of security, and slowly wait for those monsters to walk into the trap.”

In other words, they came out today to buy things.

It sounded like going shopping, and with a girl at that.

Wait, going shopping with a girl… is this hell?

Recalling her experiences of going shopping with girls, Yisi started to get a headache. Hopefully, Evelyn wouldn’t be picky because of the mission at hand.

Before Yisi could express her misery, Evelyn clamped onto her arm with a decisiveness as if she were about to abduct her.

“Alright, let’s go and plunder the streets for magic cores now!”

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Evelyn’s motivated appearance made Yisi’s expression even more bitter. She was sure that Evelyn would not finish her shopping trip after just buying the magic cores, as she had imagined.

An hour later.

As if she had gone through a protracted war of the century, Yisi was as limp as a wrung-out towel. If this were a manga, her eyes might have already rolled back, and something like a ghost might be coming out of her mouth. In contrast, Evelyn was tirelessly searching for shops, one after another—mainly for clothes and food.

Women from all worlds are just as troublesome when they go shopping.

“That shop looks pretty good. Do you want to go and see, Yisi? Maybe there’s a dress that suits you.”

Following Evelyn’s finger, Yisi glanced listlessly at the side of the street. Then, as if a bucket of ice water had been poured over her head, her fuzzy mind instantly cleared up.

Hey, hey, that’s a lingerie store!

Pink, black, light yellow, and pure white, from panties to bras, and even more provocative, almost erotic lingerie styles were all there. Although she did like the sight of beautiful girls in shameless underwear, that was limited to paper. If a real person were to stand in front of her, she would definitely be in a predicament of not knowing where to look, not to mention the fatal words Evelyn had just said, “Maybe there’s a dress that suits you.” It was worth noting that she never wore underwear.

Not wearing underwear seemed a matter of course to her, but in the eyes of a normal person like Evelyn, she would probably be seen as a pervert.

“Gulp…”

She couldn’t help but swallow.

“What’s wrong? You look very stiff.”

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“…Shouldn’t we go to the next shop? As the next Pope, you’ll never have the chance to wear this kind of clothing anyway, Evelyn.”

“Huh? Just because I can’t wear it doesn’t mean I can’t let others wear it? It’s like how you can’t ride a horse yourself, but you get excited watching others race.”

No, no, those are two completely different things.

“Besides, I didn’t say I wanted you to wear that kind of shameless, prostitute-like clothing that’s specifically for seducing men. I was talking about those proper clothes. Why did you immediately notice the dirty things, Yisi?”

In Evelyn’s eyes, erotic lingerie was dirty? This one was old-fashioned in unexpected ways, or perhaps just naive.

Yisi continued to struggle.

“It’s almost noon. If we continue to dawdle, we won’t have time to buy the magic cores. Are you really in a hurry, Evelyn?”

“The magic cores are just an interlude. With my status as the Pope’s successor, I can get my hands on them in no time. It’s rare to have someone who can accompany me. Of course, I have to make good use of it.”

“Why can you say ‘make use of’ so righteously… I think Andrea would be very happy to accompany you in the future, so don’t torture—”

“Let’s go to this shop and then go for lunch!”

Without waiting for Yisi to refuse, Evelyn excitedly dragged her into the clothing store.