“Hello there. I’m a Wanderer—Ebia.”

An old man leaning on a cane walked toward us with slow, measured steps.

His pace looked sluggish, but his speed was honestly unbelievable.

We were about a hundred meters from the gate, yet from the moment Nia opened it to when he reached us, only a few seconds had passed.

“Yeah—just happened to be passing by and noticed there’s a pretty nice house here, so I figured I’d drop in and take a look.”

Ebia’s voice felt warm and gentle, like one of those easygoing professors in college.

“…Could you be the Collector—Lord Ebia?”

Mo Mo spoke up, even using honorifics. Looked like she knew who he was.

But based on what she’d said before, a Wanderer’s authority was higher than hers, so it wasn’t strange she knew him.

“Oh? A Wisdom Spirit, huh. Haven’t seen one of you in a long time.”

Ebia smiled a little when he saw Mo Mo. “How’s your queen doing?”

“…I don’t know.”

Mo Mo shook her head, which I hadn’t expected. “It’s been almost ten years since I left. I haven’t gone back once.”

“I see… I’ll find some time to visit her one of these days.”

Ebia rubbed the ring on the middle finger of his right hand. A trace of sadness surfaced on his face.

It was obvious he had some sort of story with that Wisdom Spirit queen of theirs.

“Her Majesty will definitely be very happy if she knows you’re going,” Mo Mo replied sensibly, not pushing the topic any further.

I had zero interest in this kind of conversation, so I quietly edged off to the side.

Aefina and Mira saw me slip away and followed.

As for Justice, no idea where she’d wandered off to.

Ebia didn’t even glance in our direction. He focused straight on Nia instead.

“You’re the owner here, right? What’s your name?”

“My name’s Nia!”

Her voice carried this oddly serious tone, and she sounded a bit excited too.

As for me, I had absolutely no idea what kind of existence Wanderers were to a transmigrator.

If transmigrators were players entering a game, then Wanderers were the random reward NPCs that spawned out of nowhere.

Running into one was always a good thing.

Wanderers usually didn’t have fixed quests.

They roamed all over the world—actually, roaming the world was basically their quest.

That’s where the title “Wanderer” came from.

As a position directly under the Main God, the power a Wanderer held was absolutely beyond the reach of mortals.

Toward transmigrators from other worlds, they were pretty friendly.

If you could get some pointers from them, it helped a lot with growing stronger.

And when Wanderers traveled around, they collected whatever caught their interest.

Artifacts and divine items made up only a small portion, but with the sheer scale of their collections, the number was still terrifying.

Not to mention those Wanderers who liked hopping to other worlds—the richness of their hoards was beyond imagination.

To fellow servants of the Main God, transmigrators, Wanderers were very generous.

If you met one and managed to satisfy them, they really didn’t mind giving you something extremely useful.

For them, it was just a tiny favor.

Among Wanderers, Ebia—known as “the Collector”—was clearly at the very top when it came to collections.

Meeting him even once was like winning the lottery.

No wonder Nia was so excited.

“Since we’ve met, that’s fate. You should know the rules, right?”

Ebia drew a few lines in the air with his right hand, then looked toward Aefina as he spoke.

“I know, I know. Thank you, Lord Ebia.” Nia answered quickly.

Mo Mo, perched on her head, nodded along.

“Mm. If there’s something you want, pick it yourself.”

Ebia kept sketching in the air, then suddenly paused.

He thought for a few seconds, then traced two more strokes and lightly tapped in Nia’s direction.

Nia and Mo Mo immediately started staring at something in front of them, like there was something floating there.

As they looked, they discussed quietly.

In reality, there was a shop-like interface between Ebia and Nia, like a store menu in a game.

I just couldn’t see it.

You could use reward points with Wanderers as well, to exchange for items or skills.

And the prices were way cheaper than directly using the system.

For most transmigrators, that was the main reason to seek out a Wanderer.

Of course, Wanderers were battle-hardened and had seen everything.

Winning their favor wasn’t easy.

“Mira, take me to the warehouse.”

While she was negotiating with Nia, Mo Mo suddenly called out to Mira on our side.

Mira bowed to us, then walked over to Mo Mo.

She took Mo Mo with her, and the two of them vanished in a teleport, leaving Nia and Ebia trading, and me and Aefina… just staring at each other.

Shouldn’t someone say something at a moment like this?

Just silently staring like this felt way too awkward.

But what was I supposed to say…? Need to break the awkward mood…

There was some anime with a scene like this, right? What was it again…

Oh, right, I remember!

“The wind sure is noisy today.”

Damn it! That’s not what I wanted to say!

Cut that line out, don’t broadcast it!

“…”

Aefina tilted her head, then gave a small smile. “Luo Sa, you’re the same as always.”

…Really? I was this out of sync before too?

We’ve only known each other for less than a month—is it even right to say “as always”?

Still… this should be fine, right?

Looking at Aefina’s smile, I felt like my goal had been achieved.

Just as I was thinking that—

“Chips are half-off at the supermarket next door!”

Nia suddenly shouted from the side, dragging both my and Aefina’s attention over.

Even Ebia’s lips twitched with a faint smile.

Uh… Aefina, how about we have Slime pudding tonight?

Just when Nia was about to completely derail the atmosphere, Mira and Mo Mo rushed back in time and pulled everyone’s attention over.

Mira, little angel! M.M.T.!

“Lord Ebia, please accept this.”

Mo Mo, on Mira’s shoulder, spoke up.

As she did, Mira held out a small box to Ebia.

“This is…”

Ebia opened the box, glanced inside, and smiled.

“As expected of a Wisdom Spirit. You even managed to get something like this. I’ll take it. Anything you need my help with?”

His fingers pulled through the air like unzipping space itself, ripping it open.

He tossed the box and its contents into the crack.

Looked like a special space just for his collection.

I caught a glimpse of something red inside the rift.

At the same time, a line of information surfaced in my mind:

[Replica Holy Sword: In a certain plane, it’s the strongest weapon, able to slice open space and sever causality with ease. Don’t underestimate it just because it looks like a box cutter. But since this one’s only a replica… it really is just a box cutter.]

…What the hell is this supposed to be?

Are all a Collector’s treasures this weird?!

Mo Mo and Nia exchanged a look, then Nia spoke:

“Lord Ebia, could you tell us what’s going on with my friend?”

As she talked, Nia extended a tentacle and pointed at me.

Then she and Mo Mo started explaining my situation in detail.

Huh? Seriously?

Sure, we’d been getting along really well these past few days, but wasn’t this going a bit overboard?

To me, this “Glory Level Transmigrator” thing was basically a forced setting slapped onto me.

Whether it was real or not was a whole different question.

Spending such a hefty price to ask a Wanderer about this felt like a huge waste.

Anything Ebia was willing to accept and offer help for definitely wasn’t ordinary…

That mystery box cutter probably wasn’t normal either… probably.

Ebia listened quietly to their explanation, then looked at me once and finally spoke:

“I can’t answer that question. Luo Sa’s situation is something he has to uncover himself. If he can meet that person, he’ll be able to solve the mystery on his body.”

“You know me?”

He seemed to know a lot about me, but I was sure I’d never dealt with someone like him before.

“I don’t. But I know of you. Or rather, basically all Wanderers know of you.”

Ebia’s words were shocking.

From the way he said it, I sounded pretty famous.

That’s not good.

I don’t know anything about this, so don’t drag me into some bizarre incident!

“So I really am that so-called strongest transmigrator?”

My tone turned a bit sour.

Who’d be happy getting saddled with some massive title out of nowhere?

“You could say yes, and you could say no. If you want the truth, go to the Fallen Forest. As for which Fallen Forest, you’ll have to find that yourself.”

After that, Ebia looked back at Nia.

“Though I couldn’t answer your question directly, the value of that information should be enough, right?”

Nia nodded.

After all, even Mo Mo didn’t have the authority to access this kind of intel.

Getting that much out of him was already great.

Once that little interlude ended, Nia went right back to browsing for items.

Mo Mo, meanwhile, ran over to us with Mira.

Mo Mo waved her small hand in the air.

A pattern like a holographic projection from a sci-fi movie appeared before us—it looked like a map.

She tapped a few times on the map.

Six blue dots popped up where she touched.

“There are six places in this world called the Fallen Forest. These are the ones I marked.”

Then she tapped again, and this time a red dot appeared.

“We’re here right now. The nearest Fallen Forest is inside Oranda. If you want to go later, head there first.”

The nearest blue dot was north of Oranda.

We were currently a bit south of the central region, and going there would take us right past the royal capital—exactly along Aefina’s original route.

If I’d just transmigrated and heard this, I would’ve been hyped and rushed over immediately.

Back then I’d fantasized about being the main character, sent to another world with a mission to build a harem.

But now, this kind of sudden plot development just felt sketchy as hell.

I’m just an ordinary guy.

If there was something that big going on, why would it be my turn?

“Luo Sa, should we go straight here?”

Aefina pointed at the nearest blue dot and asked.

“Aefina, how have you felt living here these past few days?”

Instead of answering, I suddenly asked her that.

“Mm… how?”

She blinked her big eyes and tried really hard to think.

After a moment, she answered haltingly,

“Here… it’s really nice… very good. Everyone is… very kind. There’s this… very comfortable feeling. I… really like it here…”

“If you like it, why don’t we stay a bit longer?

You’ll probably be weaker than usual during your scale-shedding, right? It’s better if you can get ready for it here.”

Of course I was curious about my own weird situation, but it was just curiosity.

Compared to that, Aefina’s shedding was way more important.

Just like how a snake doesn’t want to be disturbed when it sheds, it should be similar for Aefina.

At least here, she wouldn’t have to split her attention worrying about my safety.

“Eh… If we don’t go, Luo Sa, is that really okay?”

At first, she wanted to stay just because I liked this place, but after living here a while, she’d grown attached to it herself.

Plus, her shedding period really was coming up soon, so she honestly didn’t want to leave.

“…In that case, we’ll decide when the time comes.”

Mo Mo smiled and put the map away.

“Ahh, I got so much stuff. I’m so satisfied.”

Nia bounced back over, clearly done shopping and in a great mood.

“Well then, I’ll be going too. I still have things to deal with,” Ebia said.

“Eh? You’re not going to stay the night?” Nia tried to keep him.

“No, I’ll pass. I’ve already had a look around.” Ebia waved his hand, turning me down. Then he smiled and looked over at me, and said:

“Today’s wind sure is noisy, isn’t it?”

Me: “…”

“Speaking of which, the Wind Season is about to end—” Ebia went on, still talking to me. “On the last day of the Wind Season, after sunset, going out for a walk is a pretty good choice. The wind feels great that day, especially if you head east.”

It really felt like Ebia was hinting at something with that.

“Well then, I’ll take my leave. Didn’t expect to run into something this interesting on a simple visit. Quite the pleasant surprise.” As soon as Ebia finished, he vanished into thin air.

“I’m really looking forward to meeting you two again.” Ebia’s voice sounded by my ear.

Aefina blinked, a little dazed, as if she’d heard something too. The beautiful silver‑haired girl just watched me in silence, and I had no idea what was going through her mind.