The origin of the voice, a young girl, approached me - she looked around seventeen or sixteen years old or so. She had long blonde locks of hair and was clearly someone who had come to Arconia via the merchant caravan.

  I couldn’t place where she was from, but that was more of because I wasn’t fully versed with the different cultures of this world rather than her not wearing anything that would identify her or certain facial features that would clue in someone to where she came from.

  I noticed several things that set her apart from other people including her cardigan which was made of something I couldn’t identify, but despite having the puzzle pieces I couldn’t put them together.

  She looked distinct from Stella, so it was less likely that she was from Hansini, but that was as far as my limited detective skills could go.

  Since she was speaking a totally different language, that meant that what I heard lacked any discernible accent that might’ve been otherwise helpful in pinning down where she came from.

  “I wanted to congratulate you on your latest victory,” she said. She had very striking blue irises, something that I had not seen among the natives of Arconia.

  “Oh, uh, thank you,” I said.

  “I also wanted to know - could I perhaps buy a grimoire of yours? If you haven’t sold the ones you just made?”

  “Eh? Oh right,” I said absentmindedly. I was going to sell them, but I was too anxious to focus on that and hadn’t found a buyer as of yet. I handed her both of the pieces I had made - one of them granted the [Poissonnier] ability, and the other gave an ability called [Internal Clock] that basically let you know what time it was in your head. Additionally, [Internal Clock] also let you set up a stopwatch in your head as well as an alarm clock.

  I already knew [Poissonnier] and [Internal Clock] was not useful enough to overwrite any of my current slots for.

  She went over the two pieces that I had written, scanning them closely. “I just wanted to confirm, these are grimoires you wrote yourself, correct?”

  “Uh, yes,” I said.

  “Alright - may I have them please? I can give you two hundred Denarii,” she said, drawing out a pouch of coins.

  It was a reasonable enough price - a bit on the higher side, but why should I complain about that? As it was, during the Book Fair, the prices of most grimoires went up anyway.

  “Uh, sure,” I said.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “I just wanted to inquire - you don’t seem to originally be from Arconia… which country are you originally from?” she asked this innocently enough.

  “Oh, somewhere far away from here.”

  “Right,” she said, a small smirk on her lips.

  “Do you need help translating it?” I asked her.

  “No, but thank you,” she said as she walked away.

  I had taken twenty paces when several things hit me.

  For one - why did she call me ‘Mister Dawson’ when very few people knew my last name?

  Secondly, she had had a small smirk on her lips as she read what I had made.

  As if she recognized it… and the way she smiled when I responded as to where I was from was like she had also been expecting that answer.

  Could it be…?

  I froze and turned around, seeing if I could find her. I didn’t see her - but it shouldn’t have been hard to find her given how distinct she looked.

  Unfortunately, I had little luck with that as even after ten minutes I could find no trace of her.

  “Hmm? What’s going on?” Granny Qi asked me when she saw me searching around frantically.

  “It’s about this girl I saw - I was looking for her,” I told her.

  “Dear heavens, child, the final round is going to start soon, you should be focusing on that. This isn’t the time for you to be chasing after skirts.”

  “No, Granny Qi, it’s not like that,” I said.

  I could’ve been wrong, but I thought that she recognized the English I had written as well, English.

  Which was a first since I’d come to this world. Could she have also been from Earth? If so, why hadn’t she said something instead of just buying the grimoires I had made? “I think that she might’ve been from my country but - eh, she had long blonde hair and blue eyes. Did you see anyone like that? Or any group of people like that?” Most people who came along the merchant caravan came in groups, and those groups usually consisted of people from the same place.

  It wasn’t too much of a stretch to imagine that there might be other people who looked like her.

  Granny Qi shook her head.

  The final round was starting soon, and with an exasperated sigh I decided that I would look for her later.

  I greeted Master Jiah Pei. “Honored to meet you, Master Jiah Pei,” I said to him.

  “Ah? I wasn’t aware my fame had gone so far from this city…” he replied. He had a very calm air to him, and was dressed elegantly but simply. Only his purple sash really stood out, but there was an air of a strange ‘energy’ to him, as if he was far younger than he appeared. His eyes gave an aura of wisdom no doubt developed over countless decades.

  “Ah, no,” I corrected him. He had likely marked me down as a foreigner, which wasn’t technically wrong, but also not correct in the way that he was assuming. “I work here, in Arconia.”

  “Hmm…?” is all he said, while stroking his chin. That seemed to surprise him ever so slightly.

  The crowd this time was enormous.

  “Master Jiah Pei’s got this in the bag - that hatchling doesn’t stand a chance!”

  “Wouldn’t count on that - I’ve seen him do pretty well.”

  “Master Jiah Pei doesn’t just ‘do well’ - he won the last fifteen tournaments, you know?”

  “Ah, Master Liberomancers really are in a whole other league all together.”

  “Still, you usually don’t see foreigners in the final rounds like this.”

  “Oh, that boy isn’t a foreigner - I’ve seen him around the city.”

  “Is that so?”

  “Yeah, I’ve heard about him - he’s a human who’s working in a lizardmen bookstore.”

  “Now I know the two of you are lying - that’s ridiculous! Why would a human be working under a lizardman?”

  “Alright, maybe I’m wrong about that - but he’s still pretty good. Master Jiah Pei won’t be able to steamroll him like he did the others.”

  “You’re right about that - with these two clashing, it’s going to be a fight between a lion and a tiger!”