With La Luna wearing a thoroughly “shocked-my-cat” expression, they entered the apartment building and took the elevator up to the sixth floor.
That’s right. An elevator.
“Meow…”
(This isn’t magical at all!!)
La Luna felt distinctly out of place. The village where she was born was a medieval settlement, almost entirely self-sufficient. The one unusual thing about it was that every autumn, a huge shoal of sea fish would appear on the beach. No one could catch these fish at any other time of year; they normally lived far out at sea. But come autumn, for reasons no one knew, they’d charge toward shore in a frenzy. There were so many of them, and their meat was so delicious, that even during the harvest season the villagers would gather them up—yet every year, plenty were still left over.
That was when some merchants smelled an opportunity. They opened a trading company in town and bought the villagers’ surplus fish at low prices every year, then sold them at a high markup in Sville or the Imperial Capital via the Divine Road. These were the only edible deep-sea fish in the entire empire, and the nobles loved them, so they naturally fetched a hefty price. The locals had no idea how valuable the fish were and kept selling them off cheap. So every autumn, La Luna could smell several times more fish in the air than usual.
So, in La Luna’s mind, this world was firmly stuck in a backward, feudal age. Then the magic that appeared later, along with the monsters she encountered in the forest, convinced her that it had to be a fantasy world.
But ever since she left that little town, La Luna had begun to realize that this world’s level of technology might be far beyond anything she’d imagined.
Highways (?), walls taller than the Empire State Building, skyscrapers behind them, and even that smart system she’d just seen (?)—and now an elevator!!
No matter how she looked at it, something felt off! This world’s tech tree was way too weird. They had elevators, so why were carriages still the main way to get around?! Well… La Luna had to admit that, apparently, the animals in this world really were faster than cars…
When they reached the sixth floor, Itefeil carried La Luna out of the elevator. What stood before them wasn’t a communal hallway like the ones La Luna remembered from her previous life. Instead, there was a long wall and a set of doors that had clearly been intricately carved by a skilled artisan.
“Meow?”
Itefeil stepped up to the door and gave a graceful wave of her fingers. The two panels slid slowly apart, revealing a vast space inside.
“?”
( ˙-˙ )
La Luna was so stunned by the room in front of her that she couldn’t even meow.
She’d assumed the world here worked like her own, with several rooms on each floor. Only now did La Luna realize that this entire floor was one room!!!
This room was almost as big as a small convention hall…
I’m shocked, meow.
But what shocked the cat even more was how chaotic the layout of this enormous space was.
The room was designed in a distinctly European style. The crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling and the ornate carvings around it gave the place an otherworldly feel. Smooth marble slabs covered the floor, and their patterns were exceptionally beautiful.
Several sofas and coffee tables stood in the middle of the room, clearly forming a sitting area for guests. But not far from it was a bath—and right beside the bath was a huge floor-to-ceiling window…
“Meow-meow-meow-meow…?”
Are people in this otherworld really this open?
Sure, the sitting area and the bath were some distance apart, but there was absolutely nothing between them. At least the floor-to-ceiling window had pretty lace curtains to cover it. But designing the bathroom to be this open left the cat completely baffled. Did you need to watch the living-room TV while taking a bath? Except there wasn’t even a TV in the living room.
There seemed to be a few rooms off to the side. La Luna guessed they were probably the kitchen and bedroom, but what bothered her more than the layout was…
Why did such a huge room look so messy…?
Yes, this room was big enough to host a small convention, but even all that space couldn’t hide the mess.
None of the cushions that should’ve been on the sofas were where they belonged. Instead, they were scattered across the living-room floor, while the sofas themselves were piled with women’s clothes, most of them crumpled and disheveled. The fine tea set, which had been neatly arranged on the coffee table, was now all askew, and there was even a faint trace of tea stains in a few of the cups.
There were plenty of pastry crumbs left on the coffee table, too…
A fireplace stood opposite the coffee table. Two long swords hung above it, and for some reason, a black stocking had been draped over one of them…
It wasn’t just the decorations on the walls. A corner of the crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling had a scrap of white fabric—of indeterminate origin—dangling from it, too…
“Meow…”
(What is this woman’s lifestyle? This place is a disaster!!)
If the cat had to describe just how messy the room was, the first thing that came to mind was the palette she used after finishing a painting.
No, even her palette might be tidier than this woman’s room.
Itefeil carried the cat into the kitchen, rummaged through the cupboards, and found two sausages. She put them on a plate and held it out to La Luna.
La Luna wasn’t really hungry, but she took a token bite of the two sausages anyway.
(Mmm… These sausages are actually all meat… Damn it, why was the sausage that captain of the guards gave me in town made of starch?!)
