[ Language unknown. ]

  Huh?

  I stared at the blue screen before me.

  << Hey, System, are you certain? You really don't recognize what she is saying? Or is this one of those errors again? >>

  [ No. This isn't an error. I do not recognize the nguage Lady Sedna is conversing in. ]

  [ To reiterate, the only nguages I can recognize are those that the Pyers I followed knew. In this case, it's a nguage that none of the previous Pyers had studied or understood, so I do not understand it either. ]

  Tch.

  << How many nguages do you know, anyhow? >>

  I picked up my teacup and took a sip.

  I knew the System wasn't entirely all-knowing; if it were, I wouldn't have wasted time flipping through books and instead would have simply asked it for everything I needed to know.

  [ 7,321 nguages ]

  I coughed, reading the shockingly rge number on the blue screen.

  Behind it, I noticed Sedna's golden eyes narrowed ever so slightly at my coughing fit.

  "I'm alright—" I stammered out. "Just drank my tea too fast."

  Lady Sedna simply nodded and returned to speaking into her looking gss.

  << I didn't know there were so many nguages—I'm pretty certain there aren't that many nguages on my whole pnet. >>

  [ Obviously not. Most of the nguages I learned were from the Pyers that came to py Adovoria's Fall. And the majority of them had a good grasp of at least two nguages. Oftentimes, many, many more. ]

  I frowned, thinking over this insight. I only knew one, and even then, I had trouble reading it.

  << And yet you didn't recognize the nguage that Lady Sedna is speaking? That's rather strange. >>

  I looked back toward her. She spoke in an unusually harsh matter into the looking gss.

  Just who would she be talking this way with?

  [ Just because I know 7,321 nguages doesn't mean I know them all. ]

  [ If you really want to understand what Lady Sedna is saying, try to learn it or have me listen to it long enough that I can decipher its meaning based on pattern recognition. ]

  I rolled my eyes. I was curious but hardly so curious to put in that much effort.

  I leaned back, realizing something.

  << System, does that mean the first Pyer that came to this realm had the biggest disadvantage, as you had less historical knowledge? >>

  [ That is correct, but only to an extent. Generally, a Game is completed much quicker, so whoever is first to beat the Game takes all the winnings. There's no such thing as a second pce, so coming in ter is usually less of an advantage than you might think. ]

  << But given how difficult Adovoria's Fall is, doesn't mean I'm quite lucky, as you are the most advanced System any Pyer has had? >>

  [ Indeed. You are quite… lucky. In one manner of speaking. ]

  I frowned. Something felt weird. The System didn't have a face or the ability to show emotions. Still, having interacted with it as much as I had, I understood that it didn't entirely agree with my being lucky.

  Well, given the impossible difficulty of this so-called Game, it's understandable that calling my position 'lucky' isn't entirely accurate.

  Click.

  Lady Sedna closed the looking gss and pced it back inside her inner pocket.

  "Are you heading out now?" I asked.

  "Yes," she replied with a perfectly polite smile. "Thank you for your hospitality and understanding."

  "Who was that, anyhow?" I asked.

  While I didn't understand a word of her conversation, her tone with whomever she was speaking was significantly harsher than the polite fashion she had been talking with me. I had already gathered that she was likely putting on some airs with me, it being our first official meeting, after all. Still, her conversation into her looking gss sounded downright rude.

  "My mom," she replied.

  "Ah."

  This made perfect sense and yet confused me further.

  The tone I recognized from seeing how teenage noble girls interacted with their mothers. They could be the pinnacle of charm but put them in a room with their mother, and something always shifted.

  But her mother? Does that mean Duchess Ozeryn also knows this peculiar nguage that even the System doesn't know?

  ***

  I waved goodbye to Lady Sedna as her golden carriage drove off, the horses' hooves cttering on the cobblestones.

  "Peep!"

  That girl seemed on edge the whole time she was here.

  << You think so? >>

  I turned on my heel and headed back inside the Frey Manor. The sun had set, and the inside was lit with the warm glow of light stones attached to the chandeliers.

  Yes. Her hands were shaking as she drank her tea.

  << Ah. That's probably because of her illness. >> I expined to Leona. << You saw her crutches. If Duncan were here, he'd also tell you this, but she has only about six years remaining. >>

  I walked up the stairs, nodding toward a few servants passing me.

  "Peep!"

  That poor thing!

  I agreed. Lady Sedna must have suffered considerably in the original timeline, especially as an Awakened and having to relive her st two difficult years several times. I didn't broach how many rounds she lived through before, wanting to be sensitive to her condition. Still, it was evident that she had lived through several loops before I had Awakened.

  And yet, despite her struggles, she remained sane and with a heart of gold. The world could really benefit from more people like her.

  At a midway nding, I paused to gaze out the rge window beside me. The sun had dipped below the horizon, and a deep, velvety blue canvas stretched overhead, adorned with a dim spread of stars.

  I smiled.

  Today had been a good day. Productive.

  I discovered where Grandov was, I learned the origins of the House of Arkangul, made a hefty profit in the Game Store, and gained a rather powerful financial alliance with Lady Sedna.

  Not too shabby for a single day.

  I interlocked my fingers and stretched my arms over my head, smiling in satisfaction.

  I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

  ***

  "Have any letters arrived for me?" I asked Remlend.

  As Jasper was still recovering, and a repcement for Denise still had not been hired, Remlend oversaw all three roles of taking care of my needs throughout the day. He did his job perfectly and without compint.

  "I'm afraid not, young master Luca." Remlend set down a tray of tea beside my table and opened the curtains to my room.

  Sunlight spilled into my room, illuminating the space in a warm glow.

  "I suppose the day is still young." I lifted the morning cup of tea to my mouth, and a pleasant fragrance enveloped my nose.

  I smiled. It was certainly nice starting the day without gagging due my tea having been poisoned.

  Natalia Ashford had said she would send a bird today with information regarding Grandov's reason for going into the Celestial Forrest. Knowing what I had learned about the strange forest from Professor Whistle, I was awaiting her letter with great interest and deep concern.

  He was perfectly fine in the future, so I'm sure I'm worrying for no reason.

  "Ah, but a delivery from the Ashford Bakery has arrived in your name," Remlend said. "You had set up a daily delivery for their baked goods?"

  My eyes lit up at the news. I had forgotten all about it.

  "Yes!"

  "Peep!"

  Leona awoke and shared my enthusiasm for the news, albeit for entirely the wrong reason.

  Given the success of selling food containing baked goods from the Ashford Bakery, I suspected that focusing solely on the goods and ignoring everything else that was sold in those containers would yield the most profit.

  "Where have the baked goods been delivered?" I inquired and tossed off my pajamas, quickly changing into civilian clothing.

  There was money to be made. The sooner I could toss that bread into the Game Store, the sooner I could rake in a profit.

  "The delivery had only just been made, so the containers are still outside with the other deliveries that have arrived at the Frey Manor this morning," Remlend replied.

  I rubbed my hands together, excited for another day of selling within the Game Store.

  * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

  Canton_fancy2: Hey, I heard that Pyer0.4 put up food again??

  SanLyfe: Ah, you just missed it. It all sold out already.

  Canton_fancy2: #^E@#!!

  Ginger.catz: I feel your pain. At least I managed to buy from him st time around. It really hit the spot.

  SanLyfe: Don't pour salt on their wound.

  Wizzack: Ya know, a buddy who pyed Adovoria's Fall said something funny about the food sold.

  SanLyfe: Yeah, yeah, the quantity is unusually high. Another user mentioned it st time too.

  Wizzack: Nahhh. That's not what I mean—one sec. I'll ping them.

  DisguisedPigeon: What's up?

  Canton_fancy2: OH DAMN! You're one of the three famous masochists that did sixty-ish rounds of Adovoria's Fall.

  DisguisedPigeon: …yeah and?

  Wizzack: Tell them what you told me about that Ashford Bakery.

  DisguisedPigeon: Ah. That pce was talked about a ton in the Game. It was apparently this amazing bakery that all the soldiers reminisced about. All their talk about it always made you wonder just how good it was.

  SanLyfe: So this food that Pyer0.4 is selling is from that bakery?

  DisguisedPigeon: I don't know. I pyed Adovoria's Fall, so I could still read their nguage, and the containers that the bread was sold in were clearly beled as coming from the Ashford Bakery. But that doesn't make any sense.

  Ginger.catz: If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck. What do you mean you don't know if it's from that Ashford Bakery or not?

  DisguisedPigeon: The Game starts after the Ashford bakery is no more.

  Wizzack: That's why the soldiers are ~reminiscing~ about the bakery.

  Canton_fancy2: Weird. Couldn't it have come from a game before Adovoria's Fall, and the Pyer is only now offloading their goods?

  DisguisedPigeon: No. The st time there was a game in that realm was something between twenty and thirty in-game years before Adovoria's Fall. The Ashford Bakery didn't exist then.

  Ginger.catz: Hah! @Canton_fancy2 If you knew just how good the food was, you wouldn't ever suggest that theory.

  SanLyfe: Don't pour salt on their wound. Canton_fancy2 is stuck in a game where there are only bugs and rations to eat.

  ToadMilk: Ya know. Something else that's weird, Pyer0.4 bought out half my broken shields and rusted swords.

  Ginger.catz: Funny. Same here. I collected a bunch and put them on sale when I was still new and didn't know what I was doing. Funny to see them having sold now after all this time

  SanLyfe: That might expin why all this junk has suddenly upped in market value. Usually, you could only sell it for 1 Nexus coin. Now it's 2.

  Wizzack: But no one ever buys that junk. You can't even scam newbies into buying it nowadays. Does that mean Pyer0.4 bought so much of it that they actually managed to up the market price?

  SanLyfe: Exactly.

  DisguisedPigeon: There's something really peculiar about this Pyer0.4.

  Canton_fancy2: Are you going to go for round 63 of that hell of a game?? Sounds like Pyer0.4 is mining that realm for all its worth.

  DisguisedPigeon: Maybe.

  AlekAundra