Partner in Crime

Chapter 15: Partner in Crime

[You have successfully signed an <Employment Contract> with Ningguang of Liyue.]

[For successfully inviting and recruiting an inhabitant of Teyvat, you have received a <World Pass> to Teyvat]

[World Pass(Teyvat)]: A one-time use ticket to Teyvat.

[A new quest has been generated.]

[Subordinates(I)] - Employ 10 individuals to work for you. (2/10)

Satria needs to make a detour because now there's an addition of Ningguang. Her current shabby little girl appearance would definitely cause a misunderstanding if he brought her to a department store.

And so, he contacted his childhood friend who also studied in this city but at a different university. They were always together, starting from kindergarten, and elementary to high school for some coincidence always ended in the same class. Only after they graduated from high school they get separated. He enrolled at Airlangga University, while she went to the Medical Polytechnic Ministry of Health. Though it was still in the same city their interaction become lesser than what they used to be.

"Assalamualaikum, hey Sal."

<Waalaikumsalam, what is it Satria? Is there any problem?> a raspy voice of a girl from the other side replied.

"No, well, yeah actually ... do you have a class this noon?"

<Yeah, I have a class at 1 o'clock, why?>

"I need your help with something ..."

<Okay, how much?> that question made his mind pause for a second.

"What? No ..., I don't want to borrow money, but thanks though." he glanced at Ningguang for a second and wondered how he would explain this to Salsa. "I can't explain it through the phone call, you're in your apartment right?"

<Wait ..., don't say that you'll come here, like right now?>

"I'll explain to you there directly ..."

<Hold on, I never agree to help you! Don't make me help you with some shady things.>

"Am I that unreliable? Stop joking please, would you help me now?"

<Now I'm curious ..., well, that depends on what kind of help you wanted to ask me to do. Just come here and tell me when you arrive.>

"I'll be there in ..., 5 minutes I guess? I'm already in Manyar."

<Okay...>

After closing the call, he put down his smartphone and said. "We'll visit my friend's place first, clean yourself and after that, we'll do some bit of restocking before we go to your workplace."

"Umm ..., I understand." Ningguang just follows his arrangement because she already worked for him. Being in this foreign place that she has little to no knowledge about, she was all curious about everything but also afraid of anything. Thus, just to be safe she followed his word.

"Okay ..., and by the way, put on your seatbelt!" he pointed at his own seatbelt to the little girl.

"Uhm?" Ningguang looked at him and then tried to find the constraining contraption. She pulled the belt but she was puzzled about where to put it. So she glanced at him again.

"Place it here, push until there's a click sound." he carefully explained.

Ningguang marveled at the mechanism after she finished with the seatbelt. She then asked, "Master, what is this carriage called, how can it move without something pulling it?"

"Ohhh ..., it's a car. And it moves because there's an engine inside it. Internal combustion engine to be exact, and it is fueled by gasoline. And by the way, what's with the 'Master' thing? Just call me Satria or Mr. Purnama like you did before."

"But you're my boss ..."

"Then just call me that."

"Okay, then. Mr. Boss, what is an internal combustion engine? Is that two-wheeled vehicle also moving because there is this engine inside? And how about that big thing with a big box behind it?" She started to ask a series of questions while pointing at the other vehicles on the road.

Slowly and also to pass time, he answered anything that the little girl asked. In no time, he arrived at Salsa's apartment. He parked inside and send a message chat to her to notify his arrival.

"Let's go ..."

The little one opened the car door after observing how he did it. Satria took a look at the hour and realized that it has been 45 minutes since he returned to earth. Times 7, it would be around 300 minutes ..., 5 hours have passed in Dahlia's world.

'I need to rush things out to maximize this time difference.'

He walked to the security guard and nodded at him. The guards looked at him suspiciously especially with the little girl who walked barefooted and wearing a dirty rag as clothes. He was not familiar with the face either, so he stopped him before reaching the entrance door.

"Excuse me, mas ..., state the purpose of your visit, and who is this little girl?"

"Ah, I want to visit a friend who lives here. She is, she is the sister of my Chinese friend."

"..., hmmm?" the security guard looked at him suspiciously and then turned to the little girl who for once was a little bit odd. Her eyes ..., the iris was a deep shade of red. A bizarre color that he has never seen before.

"She's cosplaying right now ..., yeah." he nodded because that was the only explanation that he could think of.

"Ohh really ..., cosplaying what character?" the security guard still skeptical, no matter what, his appearance is kinda suspicious. And he as security guard could smell trouble brewing from him.

"Uhmm ..." he ran out of excuses in his mind, what kind of character is it with white hair, red eyes, and rag clothes. "The blind beggar loli ... in Black Bullet, did Mister also watch anime?"

"Satria!" calling out his name at the right time was Salsa from the other side of the steel railing gate.

The short-haired girl was wearing only a tank top and short jeans that revealed her well-shaped abs and belly button. Even back in his childhood days, she was never really that girly. Truth be told, even though she is a tomboy, there was a time when he liked her. Though, when he knows that she already knows about it but stays silent, he backed down and buried the feeling deep inside his heart.

"Oh, there she is ..." he sighed in relief and then turned back to the security guard who was still scrutinizing his eyes at him.

"So it's young miss Salsa ..., is this guy your friend?"

"Yes, thanks for your hard work, Mr. Gunawan." Salsa arrived and answered the security guard's question.

"This young man, let me see your ID card first."

Satria took out his ID and hand it over. After checking it for a while the security hand it over. Still with scrutinizing and judging eyes. He didn't say anything, just silently observing him. As if saying, 'I'm keeping an eye on you.'

Salsa noticing the odd atmosphere then pulled Satria with the little girl following them and walked into the apartment complex.

"Now, before I call the police ..., care to explain to me what is this all about?"

"Why would you call the police?"

"Oh well, if your friend suddenly comes to your place bringing a homeless little girl ..., why wouldn't I call the police?" she sarcastically retorted back. "So who is this, and where did you pick her up?"

"I'll explain it all inside, I'm uncomfortable speaking about this in the hallway."

"... you didn't kidnap her right?" that question was left unanswered. Salsa gave him stink eyes before turning to the little girl, she crouched down a little and asked in a small voice. He didn't kidnap you right?"

But Ningguang only gave her a blank look before tilting her head sideways. She turned to Satria and then asked. "Mr. Boss, is your friend asking something? I don't understand what she's saying."

"!"

Satria widened his eyes in shock. He realized that he had an auto-translation with his system, but not with Ningguang.

'I never thought about the language barrier, would she be able to do her job properly? Can I get something like that in the system?'

[Would you like to purchase a <Language Proficiency Crystal> for 2.000 G?]

'Too expensive! What's with that outrageous price, and what's with you occasionally appearing out of nowhere and disappearing in the next moment?' he only has around 1300 or something system gold.

And if converting that much system gold into his currency, it would be around Rp 2.000.000.000!($128.263,20) That's a whopping 2 billion rupiah! He can buy sparse land and build a mansion with that amount of money in his hometown. So much money just for language proficiency.

"Satria? Oyy!" he returned to reality when Salsa called out to him. "You're spacing out just now, is everything fine?"

"Huh? Yeah ..., it's alright."

"So what did she ask just now?"

"Uhh ..., she just wants to ask me about your question, Bahasa Indonesia is new to her."

"Oh really, then ...~Halo, gadis kecil. Pria ini tidak menculikmu, kan?~" Salsa reasked her question but now with English.

(A/N: Because this novel is written in English, I am confused about how to portray when the characters speak in different languages, so that's it. It's basically the Bahasa Indonesia translation of the question from a couple of paragraphs in above. And yeah, actually, Satria and Salsa were speaking in Bahasa the whole time.)

"She can't understand English either, it seems ..." Satria commented seeing that Ningguang still has that puzzled face. "It's alright, she just asked whether I kidnapped you or not."

"Well, if the circumstance isn't what it is, then I can say that you have kidnapped me, Mr. Boss." her answer made his face turn paler than paper.

"What did she say? And since when do you know Chinese?"

'So it's Chinese in her ear ...' but he decided to not convey what Ningguang said to Salsa, "Let's get inside, and I'll answer your question."

Entering her flat, he sat down on a couch and then asked. "Salsa, could you please take her for a bath."

"Before that, who is this kid? She doesn't look like Chinese in my eyes, but she speaks like one."

"Uhm, I kinda pick her up." Satria scratches the back of his head.

"You saw this girl and just took her with you?"

"Yeah, I guess?"

"..." Salsa stared at him with unamused eyes. She sighed and took her phone silently.

"What are you doing?"

"Calling the police, there's a kidnapping pedo right here."

"Oh come on, Sal ..., listen, just listen. Could you please do me a favor just this time and take her to a bath?"

"I'm not gonna help you, not before you explain why you come to my place bringing in a homeless little girl out of nowhere. Imma call the police!"

"Okay stop with the calling the police joke ..., this is serious."

Satria stopped her from calling the police by taking the phone from her hand. The call is already connected to the emergency dial of the Indonesian police. Looking at that, he let out a cold sweat with this girl's seriousness about reporting him of abduction crime. He closed the call and turned to look at her straight into her hazel eyes.

"Listen Salsa ..., I can't trust this to anyone else aside from you. We've been through a lot together since a toddler, can you keep this secret from anyone else?"

But Salsa just stared at him full of disgust, she spatted, "I'm not gonna help a criminal with his crime, especially something so dirty and spiteful like this you pedophile bastard scum of society!"

"It's not that kind of secret, oh my Lord why can you just believe me." he pinched the bridge of his nose. Thinking about how to convince her to believe him. "What do you know about magic?."

"Why are you suddenly ..., sigh, magic like some kind of supernatural stuff, shaman, curse, and the likes? Or the fictional one, like Harry Potter, Dr. Strange, or something like that?"

"Yeah, the latter. I'm talking about this kind of magic ..." he willed his body to activate the Amethyst Barrier. A translucent barrier purplish in color covered his body.

"!"

Salsa widened her eyes soon after she saw the 'cocoon' which covered his body. She stretched her hand and touched its surface. But it's hard and seems pretty much solid. She retracted her hands but immediately throw a punch aiming straight at his torso.

"No, don't do that!" Satria noticed what she was going to do and warned her. But the punch connected and she feel the effect.

"Aaawww ..."

She pulled her arm feeling immense pain. Her palm feels like punching a concrete wall, and the reflective damage from the skill makes it feels like someone directly hit her in the stomach.

"What was that, what the hell just happened? Ugh ..." she rubbed her hand.

"Why would you suddenly punch me?"

"Don't know, impulse. But what is this hard thing? It's like a rock."

"It's a magic barrier ..., as you can see, now I can do something like this, and also this." he pulled out a Blank Contract Paper from his inventory. "And a few other abilities, one of those is inviting other people from other dimensions."

"You're saying that ..., she is from another world?"

"Correct, she's not from this world."

"I'm super confused, let me think for a bit."

She sat down on the couch and take a look at Ningguang. The little girl was there standing in front of the television for who knows when. She called out to her to not watch from that distance but then remembered that the little girl couldn't understand her. Satria translated her words and pulled the little girl to sit down on the sofa. Salsa then looked at her childhood friend who still has those translucent-looking things surrounding his body.

Even if she wanted to not believe this, the proof is there and she already saw how he did unimaginable things. Her common sense was at risk. She wondered, is this world a reality or just one unexplained vivid dream? How come her childhood friend suddenly gained a superpower like those in movies? She could still feel the lingering pain after punching Satria's magic shield, this doesn't seem to be a mere dream.

"So who's this girl?" she asked after calming down.

"Right, I haven't introduced you both. Salsa, this is Ningguang." Satria turned to Ningguang and then said with auto-translation from the system. "Ningguang, come meet my friend from hometown Salsabila Azzahra."

"Pleased to meet you, Ms. Salsabila." she bowed her head after the introduction.

"Hmmm ..., is she that Ningguang?" she asked after carefully observing Ningguang's facial features and all. While she's not a full-fledged weeaboo, she knows the stuff, especially the popular ones like Genshin Impact.

"Umu, you're right. She's that Ningguang."

"Damn ..."