Awakening “Schrödinger’s Cat”

Misha and I took our luggage and moved to another inn.

After waiting for the sleepless Misha to wake up, we had a late lunch while discussing what we would do from now on.

“Hey, Ios.”

Perhaps she had been extremely hungry, because Misha spoke to me while eating with incredible momentum.

“I said I’d go with you on impulse, but you do intend to keep being an adventurer, right?”

“Of course.”

I answered immediately. It was the dream I had continued admiring since childhood. The dream of becoming an adventurer, running around the world, and making a name for myself.

Surely many adults learned reality, piled up failures, and gave up on that dream.

But—

Reality had not yet caught up to the ideals of my young self.

The failures of my young self were still too few to give up on my dream.

My young self surely had the right to keep dreaming.

I had been expelled, but—

I wanted to believe that.

“Of course I’ll keep being an adventurer.”

“Nice! That’s the spirit!”

Misha grinned.

“Then, where should we set up our base?”

“Ahh……”

Certainly, with Grail and the others here, setting up our base here was out of the question.

But I had not thought that far.

“What should we do?”

“Hey, if you don’t have anywhere in particular in mind, how about Piptat?”

Piptat—it was the largest city around this area.

Commonly known as the Ruin City.

There was a large ancient ruin that had turned into a dungeon right in the middle of the city. Because of that, the number of adventurers was also extremely high. Even A-ranks were surely all over the place.

It was a glamorous place.

If we were going to make a new start, there was no better choice.

I felt something hot in my chest.

“That sounds good.”

“Right!?”

After that, Misha continued as if embarrassed.

“……Actually, back when I was a student, I went to school there. I know the area, so look forward to it.”

Student days?

I gulped down my saliva. Because Piptat had ancient ruins, scholarship was extremely active there.

And Misha was a mage.

In that case, the school she had attended was—

“Wait, the one you went to was Piptat Magic Academy?”

“……It might have been a name like that……?”

“Ooooooh……!”

I looked at Misha with an extremely respectful gaze. Piptat Magic Academy was famous—an elite school that competed for first or second place even in the kingdom.

“That’s amazing……”

“Don’t worry about it too much, okay? Academic background has nothing to do with adventurers.”

Misha touched her wavy hair, looking embarrassed.

The next day, we decided to leave this town.

We looked at the fare table to buy shared carriage tickets.

A-rank carriage—one adult: 20,000 gold

B-rank carriage—one adult: 10,000 gold

C-rank carriage—one adult: 5,000 gold

The rank referred to comfort. In a C-rank carriage, the passengers were packed in tightly. In a B-rank, there was relatively more personal space, and in an A-rank, each person got a personal partition.

We were beginner adventurers. We did not have money to allocate to privacy.

“C-rank, then.”

However, Misha’s reaction was weak. She groaned, “Hmm……” and stared at the fare table.

“Is something bothering you?”

“As a test…… why don’t we try riding an A-rank carriage?”

“Huh?”

“I think that would be more interesting.”

“……Shouldn’t we save money?”

“Actually, I feel like we might make a profit.”

Misha laughed, “Hehehe.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s a secret.”

And then Misha continued like this.

“Believe in me and make it an A-rank carriage, please. It’s a one-time expense. Think of it like getting us off to a good start. Please approve the special budget~!”

When she said it like that, there was no helping it.

I also owed Misha for following someone like me.

……And I was curious about that talk of possibly making a profit……

“Sounds fine.”

“Yay!”

And so, despite it being beyond our station, we ended up riding an A-rank carriage.

Each person’s space was very wide. Compared to a C-rank carriage, the difference in comfort was on another level.

As expected of an A-rank carriage.

Furthermore, the customers were dressed differently too. From what I saw when we boarded together, everyone looked like someone who had achieved a certain amount of success.

The feeling of being out of place was no joke……

When we got down from the carriage for a break, I threw those feelings at Misha.

“It’s so comfortable that it’s uncomfortable.”

“You really think like a poor person, don’t you!”

Ahahahaha! Misha laughed.

“Then, shall we recoup our investment?”

As soon as she said that, Misha walked over to a fellow passenger who was sitting near the carriage.

Misha spoke to a well-dressed middle-aged man.

“Hello, mister.”

“……Hm? Hello.”

After making a bit of small talk, Misha began saying something like this.

“That young man over there is good at magic tricks. He can make a cat appear and disappear.”

!?

Hey, hey, Misha, what were you suddenly saying……?

Ignoring my surprise completely, Misha held out the hat she had taken off.

“If you enjoy it, would you mind giving us a little something?”

“Hahaha! I see, I see. Well, if I’m satisfied.”

“You absolutely will be!”

After saying that, Misha approached me and whispered in my ear.

“Thanks in advance!”

An unreasonable request!?

With my eyes, I appealed to her that taking a cat in and out was really plain!

“It’ll be fine. When I say, ‘now!’ do it.”

……Would that really be fine……?

Misha suddenly began speaking at a fast pace.

“Come on, mister, take out the bag, the bag. Hey, mister, please touch the bag. It’s flat, right? Ah, you can keep touching it. Now! Whoa! It got all fluffy!?”

“Ho, now this is something.”

The middle-aged man was touching the swollen bag with an impressed expression.

“I wonder what this is? Now! Look, it’s flat again!?”

Just as she said, the bag shrank with a whoosh.

Misha suddenly started shouting.

“Now! Now! Now! Now!”

Eeeeeh!? W-wait, that’s a little fast!?

In a panic, I activated Schrödinger’s Cat four times. Each time, the bag changed size with a shoon, shoon, shoon, shoon.

Was Nyankoromochi okay……? This was my first time doing something like this.

“Amazing. It switches so much. Then, finally, now! Mister, you can feel it, right? That fluffy warmth. Mister, open the string on the bag. Yes, yes.”

When the middle-aged man untied the string, Nyankoromochi came out from inside.

“Myaa.”

“Oh, how cute……”

The middle-aged man narrowed his eyes as he looked at Nyankoromochi.

“Ta-da! It’s a kitty! The fluff feels nice, right? Fluffing is not a free service, okay! If you’re satisfied, please add a little extra!”

“Hahahaha, I understand, I understand.”

The middle-aged man happily stroked Nyankoromochi’s fur.

“……It looks like you’re doing something fun. What is it?”

Perhaps our voices had caught his attention. A fat man cut into the conversation.

Misha responded with a smiling smile.

“Right now, that young man over there is showing off a cat magic trick…… If you like it, please give us a little something.”

And then she thrust out her upside-down triangular hat.

……It was an improvised magic show, but for some reason it was a huge hit, and we received quite a bit of money.

“To think we got 4,000 gold from one time……”

This was probably why Misha had insisted on an A-rank carriage. The only people who could casually pay that much money were people with enough financial power to ride A-rank.

“Ufufufu. Lucky, right? It’s useful, isn’t it, Schrödinger’s Cat?”

“……It only makes a cat appear and disappear, you know?”

“That’s fine. In carriages like this, everyone has free time. They’re starved for entertainment. They want something to kill time with. Also—”

Misha grinned and said,

“Kitties are cuuute, you know. Hehehe!”

And while saying that, she stroked the Nyankoromochi she was holding.

“Now those old men are addicted to Nyankoro too. They’ll come watch the magic trick so they can fluff it from now on!”

“Will they really……?”

They really did.

Every time the carriage stopped, we showed Schrödinger’s Cat to the passengers and received a decent amount of money.

I wondered if they did not get tired of it, but because the passengers switched out every now and then, the stream of customers did not stop. Misha mainly spoke to new customers and showed them the magic trick, and customers who had seen it before would drift over to join in to kill time…… That was how it went.

Schrödinger’s Cat could be used to make money.

That was fresh to me, so I followed Misha’s instructions and used Schrödinger’s Cat over and over.

“Okaaay! Everyone! Thank you very much!”

The amount of money we earned on this trip was 50,000 gold. I thought it had to be some kind of mistake. Even after paying our travel expenses, we would have change left over. We were also treated to meals along the way, so our actual profit was even higher.

“……You’re amazing, Misha.”

“I have more life skills than you’d expect, don’t I?”

Misha said that with a triumphant face.

After all that, the carriage finally arrived at the Ruin City of Piptat.

This was the final stop. All of the passengers got off.

“Young folks, do your best!”

“If you’re hungry, come to my shop!”

The customers we had become friendly with called out to us.

“Thank you very much!”

Misha responded with a smile. Then she poked my side with her elbow.

I silently held the bag in front of my chest—

And took Nyankoromochi out of the bag.

The passengers gave us voices of praise, saying things like, “Nice, nice!” That was when it happened.

—!?

I heard such a voice inside my head. What was this?

After the passengers disappeared, Misha spoke to me while I stood there unable to move.

“Don’t tell me you’re going to quit being an adventurer and become a street performer, okay?”

I could not immediately react to Misha’s teasing.

Because my consciousness was turned toward a completely different place.

I opened my status inside my mind. When I opened the description for Schrödinger’s Cat, this was written there.