NOVEL WEB Chapter 71 - Lost Item
Lost Item
“Sho… what kinda research awe you doing now?”
I tried to change the subject by asking a harmless question. I even tilted my head slightly, to make it a bit more… cutesy. And it worked, he readily answered, but… his eyes were sparkling. Gil-san beside me had a “This is bad” look on his face. Eh? What?
“I’m glad you asked! I’ve been researching a certain phenomenon, at the request of a certain person. A phenomenon that everyone mocks, that they call absurd, but it’s incredible! Well, I mocked it too at first, but once I started investigating, I couldn’t just dismiss it anymore! It’s the most fascinating research I’ve ever done! I’m so engrossed that I almost don’t want to switch with Miko…!”
“Calm down, Lasch. You’re making Meg speechless.”
What happened to that unconfident, stammering tone from earlier? Lasch-san had suddenly become lively, talking at an incredible speed. Ahh, so he was one of those people who changed when it came to their passion. I stared blankly into the distance for a moment.
“S-Sorry… I g-got carried away…”
“B-But… I’m curious… what kind of research could get you sho excited.”
Lasch-san, stopped by Gil-san, deflated visibly, going back to his usual self. But it was true that I was curious about what kind of research could excite him this much. I’d prefer to hear about it while he was still in a normal mental state, though!
“It’s like this!!”
“Calm down.”
Gil-san, who stopped Lasch-san from getting excited again at the speed of light, as expected. I wonder if all creators and researchers have a switch somewhere? Could even the taciturn Carter-san become a different person once his switch is flipped? The thought made me chuckle.
“Ah, um, yeah. Well… it’s… research on… th-the existence of… another world… different from ours.”
His next words made my mind go blank. Eh, what did he just say?
“W-We live in this world, so… w-we naturally assume… that there’s only… one world… But… wh-what if… th-that’s not true…?”
“Whether they travel between worlds and end up here, or if they’re simply… creations of someone else… strange things are sometimes discovered all over the world. It’s infrequent, but… Mikolasch is gathering those things from all over and researching them.”
Traveling between worlds… Another world…? My mind was in chaos. My heart was pounding. I wondered if Gil-san and the others could hear it.
『Master? Are you okay…?』
Shou-chan, perhaps sensing my turmoil, appeared and flitted around me, its tone worried. Sorry, I’m okay. I was just a bit… surprised.
“A-Among those things… th-there are items… th-that are simply impossible… t-to create in this world… I-I call them… l-lost items from another world.”
Lost items from another world… So, was my soul… one of those lost items? …Alright, I calmed down. I’d ask a few questions.
“Those losht items… where do they come fwom? Do they always… fall in the shame place?”
I waited for his reply, my heart pounding. Gil-san, perhaps thinking I was just curious, smiled and patted my head. …It’s fine if they think that’s the reason. Gil-san loves head pats. And I love receiving them!
“N-No. W-We don’t know… wh-where they come from… or why. Th-They don’t fall… i-in any particular place. Th-They’re discovered… a-all over the world.”
“Wow… that’s sho stwange.”
Is that so… Yeah. I was expecting that. It’s okay, it’s okay. Next question. Don’t let your voice tremble.
“What kind of things… are those lost items? Are they just… things…? Or awe there… any cweatures…?”
I really wanted to ask if any people had gotten lost and ended up here, but it would sound strange, too direct. So, this was all I could manage. I waited for his answer, my heart pounding even faster than before.
“! That’s a good question! There’s a wide variety of items. From large boxes to… what looks like tiny pieces of garbage. This, this was revolutionary! We even started making them in the guild after studying it! A pen that can write without ink. And you can erase it too. Incredible, this other world!”
Lasch-san, whose switch seemed to have been flipped, said this excitedly. But now wasn’t the time for that. The thing he’d taken out… was definitely… a mechanical pencil from a certain famous brand.
I thought I heard my heart pounding, “Dokun!”
“Ah, that’s right, you asked about creatures. Surprisingly, there are creatures who’ve gotten lost and ended up here too!”
“Lasch, calm down.”
“How can I not be excited!? The client was… a lost person from another world. And perhaps… there are other animals who’ve gotten lost and ended up here as well. But it’s hard to prove. Because animals… unlike humans, can’t talk. What a shame.”
W-Wait, wait. Didn’t he just casually say something really important!? A lost person. So… a Japanese person? No, no, that’s too simplistic. There might be countless other worlds, and to think it’s limited to Japan, there’s no way it would be that convenient… But that mechanical pencil was definitely made in Japan. I used to use them all the time. Maybe Japan was the only one connected to this world. It was all speculation.
“And unfortunately, the frequency of these lost items is low. After much research, we discovered that space distorts when a lost item falls into this world. And we’ve confirmed it three times, so it’s almost certain. To be absolutely sure, we need more occurrences… but there’s nothing we can do about that. Right now, we’re investigating a spatial distortion that happened recently. Incredible, isn’t it? It happened just recently! I can’t wait to see what we’ll find!”
Lasch-san said this excitedly, then added, “Wait a moment,” and opened a drawer in his desk, taking out something that looked like a small, round crystal.
“I’ll show you something special. This is proof, you could say, that another world exists. It’s inside a protection crystal to prevent damage. No one in this world can read the writing on it.”
The moment I saw it, I forgot to even breathe. Because that card…
『Business Manager, Hasegawa Tomohiro』
“The client asked us to contact them if we found someone who could read it. Strange writing, isn’t it?”
“Hmm, it’s an interesting script.”
It was, without a doubt, my father’s business card.