Ch.403[Episode 403] Unexpected

While Sir Dominic and Kageyasha were fighting, in downtown Gacha Land…

“Wow, amazing. Things were so cheap during this era…”

A woman with white hair adorned with tricolored feathers muttered while eating cotton candy she had just bought from a candy store.

She had purchased not only cotton candy but also loads of small snacks, which were somehow filled with sweet and stimulating treats that children would typically enjoy.

The white-haired woman quickly devoured the cotton candy, ate a few more snacks, and then swept the remaining treats into the bag slung at her side.

Inside the bag was a rather peculiarly shaped platypus doll, which was so worn out from being carried around for so long that there wasn’t a single part of it that remained intact.

The white-haired woman stared intently at the platypus buried among the snacks for a moment, then closed her bag again.

“I suppose it would be better to eat the rest later… Hmm?”

The white-haired woman smiled contentedly at the thought of her still-plentiful snacks.

However, her smile didn’t last long, as she sensed someone following her.

“…Time police?”

The white-haired woman secretly glanced in the direction of the presence she had just felt.

There stood a woman wearing a sheriff’s hat, leaning against a wall with a cigarette in her mouth.

Probably trying to act natural to avoid being detected while following her.

The white-haired woman pretended not to notice and continued walking.

The woman in the sheriff’s hat followed along.

‘Not time police? Well, I haven’t committed any crimes anyway…’

The white-haired woman became convinced that the woman following her wasn’t time police.

She was too clumsy to be time police.

More precisely, she was making it too obvious.

The woman in the sheriff’s hat was trudging along after the white-haired woman with both hands in the pockets of her loose leather pants.

Accompanied by a somewhat melancholic whistling.

To test her follower one last time, the white-haired woman entered a deserted alley.

The woman in the sheriff’s hat followed her into the alley.

When the woman in the sheriff’s hat turned into the alley, there was already no one there.

However, the alley was straight with nowhere to exit midway, and there were only a few places to hide behind piles of garbage cans and trash bags.

The woman in the sheriff’s hat thought the white-haired woman must be hiding somewhere here, and leisurely walked into the alley.

At that moment, an arm suddenly shot out from a nearby garbage can and grabbed the sheriff-hatted woman by the throat.

It was the white-haired woman.

“Who are you?”

The woman in the sheriff’s hat struggled desperately to break free from the white-haired woman’s grip, but no matter what she did, she couldn’t escape the incredible strength of the white-haired woman’s grip.

Finally, subdued with her collar grabbed, the woman in the sheriff’s hat raised both hands in surrender.

“I surrender. So could you let go of this?”

“Tell me who you are first.”

The white-haired woman growled at the woman in the sheriff’s hat.

The woman in the sheriff’s hat sighed and removed her hat.

“It’s me. Minerva Park.”

“Minerva?”

“Yes, Dominica. Your friend Minerva.”

“My goodness, is it really you, Minerva?”

The woman who identified herself as Minerva was a beautiful woman with black hair and fierce eyes.

She called the white-haired woman Dominica, and it seemed that the white-haired woman was Sir Dominica from a bit further in the future.

“How long has it been?”

Future Sir Dominica released her grip on Minerva’s neck.

She expressed her joy by giving Minerva a tight hug.

“Since I said I was going to police academy, I think?”

Minerva said as she put her sheriff’s hat back on.

“Seeing the hat, you finally became a police officer?”

“Yes. I’ll be commissioned next March… that is, March of ■■■■… Oh dear. The numbers are coming out strangely because this is the past.”

“It’s okay. I understood everything.”

Sir Dominica and Minerva acted like long-lost best friends.

In fact, they were extremely close.

“By the way, if you’re being commissioned next March, why are you here now?”

“Oh, I came for one last trip before my commission. There was a cheap past backpacking package available, so I signed up right away.”

“Ah, so you applied for that too?”

Sir Dominica nodded in understanding at Minerva’s words.

Hadn’t she also come to the past cheaply through that?

“By the way, how are your grandfather and maternal grandfather doing? I heard they went to a nursing home last time.”

“Well, just so-so.”

Minerva replied glumly.

“They’re still shouting ‘Sir Dominic is my rival!’ at the nursing home.”

“Oh.”

“Both of them.”

“Oh dear.”

Sir Dominica expressed sincere regret at Minerva’s words.

“What about your grandfather? Sir Dominic, I mean.”

“Well, he’s the same as always. He did ■■■■, experienced ■■ and ■■, and caught ■ too… Ah.”

“I guess you can’t talk about future events because we’re in the past. Can’t be helped. Tell me when we get back to the future.”

“I’ll have to.”

“Anyway, I never expected to meet in the same time and place like this.”

“Really.”

Sir Dominica smiled wryly as if it truly was an unexpected encounter.

“Um, it’s a bit awkward talking here. Shall we walk and talk?”

“Sure.”

Minerva nodded at Sir Dominica’s suggestion.

…

“This place seems so retro and interesting.”

“I know. I thought our grandparents’ generation lived in elegant but boring places.”

Sir Dominica and Minerva looked around like country bumpkins who had just arrived in the city.

For them, this place was truly like an ancient setting they would only see in historical dramas.

Gacha Land’s rule that anything could exist as long as it had value also meant, conversely, that it was constantly developing in better directions.

“Wait a minute. This place seems familiar somehow.”

“Huh? Have you been here before?”

“No. But it feels familiar. I don’t know why…”

Sir Dominica suddenly realized that the surroundings looked familiar.

For some reason, Sir Dominica vaguely knew that there was an amazing café around here.

“…If we go this way, there’s a café. They have an incredibly delicious cookies and cream shake.”

“…Huh?”

Sir Dominica said this and strode purposefully toward where the café was located.

Minerva was surprised by Sir Dominica’s sudden action, but soon sighed and followed her.

Being very close friends, she knew that when Sir Dominica got like this, she wouldn’t listen to anything anyone said.

When Minerva followed Sir Dominica, there really was a café there.

A small café in a remote location, known only to local residents.

Sir Dominica entered the café in a daze and sat down.

“Welcome.”

A man who appeared to be the owner greeted Sir Dominica and Minerva warmly while grooming his mustache.

Sir Dominica went to sit in a corner seat as if in a trance.

She took out the platypus doll from her bag, placed it beside her, and naturally ordered two cookies and cream shakes.

As if used to such orders, the owner quickly brought two glasses of cookies and cream shake.

“How on earth did you know about this place? Did you look it up before coming?”

Surprised that there really was a café in such a remote location, Minerva looked at Sir Dominica with astonished eyes.

She took a sip of the cookies and cream shake and found it was amazing, just as Sir Dominica had said.

“I don’t know. Somehow I suddenly remembered…”

That’s when it happened.

Sir Dominica suddenly realized that this was a place she had visited with her grandfather.

“…I came here with my grandfather.”

“Grandfather? Which grandfather? Sir Dominic?”

“Yes.”

“When?”

Sir Dominica tilted her head at Minerva’s question.

“I was too young to remember exactly when. But what’s certain is that I begged my grandfather to buy me a doll, and he managed to get one after much effort. This is that doll.”

“A platypus doll. It feels very… old-fashioned.”

“I suppose it would.”

Sir Dominica chuckled at Minerva’s comment.

This platypus wasn’t from the present where Sir Dominica should be.

It was probably from around this timeline.

“…Wait.”

This timeline?

Sir Dominica tilted her head for a moment, then suddenly turned pale.

“Oh my goodness. Wait, what? What should I do?”

Sir Dominica stamped her feet anxiously, falling into confusion.

“What? What’s wrong?”

“What, what should I do about this, Minerva?”

Sir Dominica looked at Minerva with a face so pale she seemed about to faint.

“I think a time paradox is about to happen.”

“What?”

Minerva asked what she meant in response to the panicked Sir Dominica’s words.

Her statement had omitted both the beginning and end of her thought.

Seeming to realize this, Sir Dominica, despite being in a state of panic, began to explain in more detail.

“My 20-year-old self might be in this time period right now!”

“!”

At Sir Dominica’s words, Minerva finally realized the seriousness of the situation.