“Excuse me, is the shopkeeper in?”
It appears that once again, I have a visitor. I suppose I
may have once equated such people as gods, but the recent storm of traffic that
my shop experienced last year had the curious consequence of introducing me to
a rather blunt wind goddess who took offense to the metaphor.
“Excuse me, is anyone in at the moment?”
Presumably, this was due to her philosophy of running her
shrine as a business. In that regard, it would be folly to consider customers
to be equivalent to the product that one wants to sell to them.
“Perhaps he is out. I suppose I shall have to come back
later”
Metaphorical gods supplying faith to a pseudo-god would
certainly be a sort of cannibalism, correct? Or perhaps it is the very model of
self-sufficiency? I wonder if this maid of the self-styled “Scarlet Devil”
might have an opinion. I turned to the open window beside me, where she was
peering in and knocking again.
“If a god were to rely on other gods as their source of
faith, would that be a form of cannibalism? Or might it be more reasonable to
assume that the gods were not gods at all?”
“Perhaps it would be a state of mutual exchange?” She
posited after a moment of thought. “Would not an exchange of divine favor for
faith be the same as a normal shop? In that case, the god supplying the favor
would be the shopkeeper while the gods bestowing faith would be customers,
would they not?”
A perfect circular argument it was then. If that were the
case, then perhaps it was simply a matter of customers being true gods, even to
that divine spirit. Regardless it could not be avoided, the fact that a
customer has the shop, and by extension the shopkeeper, at their beck and call.
“By the way, are you open?”
Ah, yes. It was obvious that she had come here in order to buy
something and had been waiting to see if I was open. Perhaps I have become too accustomed
to the entrances that my usual “customers” make. It throws off my expectations for rarer
customers, though thankfully the kappa that Marisa introduced to my shop have
the decency to remove their camouflage and announce their presence.
“Ah, yes. I had forgotten that there were individuals that
would show common courtesy and knock before entering. May I assume that you are
here again at the behest of your mistress?”
Saying this, I put aside my book in resignation and strode
to the door, where the maid was already stepping into the shop. It seemed at
odds to her first visit, but then again she did take the time to announce
herself properly. Still, perhaps she has been spending too much time with those
two.
“Indeed, that is the case”
“Well, what manner of object is it this time? Perhaps another
item of luck will suffice? I heard that your mistress’ previous endeavor was
successful, so it seems that the shell’s contribution to Fate was effective.”
Saying this, I began to walk towards where the lucky items
were kept. If the vampire required an object of great luck, there were several
pieces available that I may be able to sell. Even if that was not what the maid
was sent to obtain, it certainly couldn’t hurt to offer something to the
magician.
“I suppose that matter is up for debate still. Certainly the
shell helped us arrive at the moon, so that spell was a success, but the
mistress feels that such an object of great fate should have also ensured her
victory against the Lunarians.”
Well, that was obviously not the case. Barring the fact that
that an object of Fate would have been much less effective for something that
was not even a spell, the shell was not an object of great fate, not a true
kappa shell as the maid had believed. Still, an explanation was due, else I may
never manage to sell such a burden again.
“Ah, that’s a shame. Perhaps the Lunarians had an object of
greater Fate on their side. So, where is the shell now?”
“It was lost into an ocean when the vessel we performed the
spell on fell apart as we approached the moon.”
And the spell was considered a success? It appears that the
shell did nothing at all, and the Fate of the spell was still deficient.
“Ah, that would explain it then. Certainly, the shell may
have assisted in any spell due to its luck, but its Kappa origins will have
given it the greatest affinity to rivers and oceans, and thus it gave its Fate
to the Moon”
“Ah, that makes sense. Still, Mistress does not yet know of
the shell’s origin from Kappa, and their origins from Tortoises.”
It seems I was correct in assuming she found no need to
explain that detail to the vampire.
“In that case, the shell was simply ill-suited to combating the
Lunarians. The shell’s luck was derived from the colors it held. As I said, the
five colors of the shell act in concert to express everything in the natural
world. Unfortunately, if one of those aspects is absent, the entire synergy
fails. So, the cardinal directions were meaningless on the moon, earth was
absent from the elements, and I have heard that the Lunar Capital in
unchanging, so they do not observe the Setsubun. Without the five colors acting
in unison, the Fate bestowed by the shell was meaningless.”
Saying this, I picked up a recent item that has become
popular lately. Although all sales of it have been to the doll magician from
the Magic Forest.
“For example, had I had access to these at that time, I
would have recommended this “prism” instead.”
“Oh? And what are these? They look like gems.”
“These “Prisms” are Outside items that have been arriving
recently. They produce a rainbow of seven colors, and thus are perfect for all occasions.”
“Oh, and how do they do that?”
“There are rainbows contained within that never seem to
deplete as long as the prism is whole.”
I had discovered that each prism had a small rainbow within,
and it remained there as long as the prism was intact. Regrettably, the
majority of the prisms that arrive here are broken and their rainbows have long
since escaped. The doll magician says that she is able to draw out the rainbows
from the prism, but I have yet to be able to do so, so it appears that a strong
magic is needed to use them properly.
“The physical prism has five sides that serve the same
purpose as the five colors in representing all natural things. The rainbow has
the added benefit of representing the seven days, Nichiyobi, Getsuyobi, Kayobi,
Suiyobi, Mokuyobi, Kinyobi, and Doyobi, and the seven components present during
the casting of a spell, the Ability, Disposition, Substance, Space, Time, Fate,
and the intent of the caster. Added together, the entire piece mirrors the eight
trigrams, with the seven colors representing Fire, Mountains, Thunder, Wind,
Water, Lake, and Heaven, while the prism itself becomes Earth, the receptacle
upon which the formulation is based."
“Indeed, a powerful item. I shall have to inform Miss
Patchouli of its presence here when I return. However, we are in need of
something else today.”
Ah, so she was here for something else. Well, it wasn’t as
if I was having difficulty selling the prisms.
“Very well, what can I help you with?”
“We are looking for books detailing Outside techniques and
spells. Mistress has heard that some require little to no magic to perform
while being rather effective, and Marisa directed me here.”
So it seems that Marisa did actually read the books she “borrowed” a while back. While it was gratifying to hear that she was appreciating the value of such items, I really would like her to return some of them, as I had not gotten a chance to read them and some of those types of techniques were useful to me.
“Very well, those books are over here. Do you know if there
is a certain type of technique your mistress would like to learn?”
“She wishes to look into defensive techniques at the moment.
So any books detailing those would be of the most use.”
Fortunately, I had just finished cataloging a set of books
that were perfect for the task, the last of which I was currently reading. It
was rather unfortunate that I could not make use of those techniques, but the
Scarlet Devil Mansion was uniquely suited for the task.
“I believe these may prove to be of interest to your
mistress. With these techniques, one may easily survive all manner of Storm,
Earthquake, Flood, or assault…”
It was rather fortunate that I
decided to handle these “Safety Manuals” before working through this “Teacher’s
Manual”, else I may have lost the opportunity to sell these books so quickly.
-
That evening, Remilia opened the books presented to her
doubtfully.
“I expected something more… impressive looking. It’s obvious
that those of the Outside care little for their presentation and influence.”
“The shopkeeper assured me that the techniques within were
well worth the effort of learning, and believes that their appearance was an
attempt to subtly hide their importance.”
Snorting in derision, Remilia flipped to a random page and scrutinized
the diagrams on the page.
“Well, it appears rather detailed and complete. Perhaps some
of these may be worth my time after all. Still… “Duck and Cover”? Clearly the
Outside suffers from an equal deficiency in terms of their naming style.”
