Misaki's eyes widened ever so slightly at Mie's initial response, the foxgirl having realized her blunder as soon as the shopkeeper mentioned what she was using to keep records. The scrolls that were in Enli's house had led her to expect otherwise, but the fact that Mie was using bamboo to keep tabs on her sales meant that technology on that front had likely regressed the the point of nonexistence—doubly so, given how Mie was surprised that she even knew of such a thing.

Before she could give a proper response, though, Mie left for the storehouse, and Misaki found no real reason to stay behind when she was offering to show them to her. As much as she desired to keep herself out of the spotlight, lacking something as fundamental as paper (or, well, fundamental from her point of view) was not something she could accept.

The bamboo slips that the shopkeeper revealed to her were about what she had expected while processing the matter mentally on the walk over. Compared to what she was used to, they were far from ideal; workable, yes, but given the high cost associated with them, Misaki was a bit disinclined to use them. As much as she wanted something to work with, these were still fundamentally a last resort for her.

With that said, this chain of conversations [i]had[/i] put a spark of an idea into her mind.

"Ah... Thank you for the offer, but I must decline," she said, returning what Mie had given her with a smile. "Recordkeeping is essential in this line of business, and something like this is a bit too valuable for me to accept at the moment. Even so, I must thank you for the opportunity; you've given me a bit of inspiration for the rest of my time here."

Assuming that Lady Mie did not press her any further, the white-haired foxgirl would promptly leave the premises, making her way off to the side before deciding to take a detour to the beach. She needed somewhere to organize her thoughts, and even at this time of day, she could use light to illuminate the sand as she charted out what she needed to handle.

It'd be a troublesome road to make paper, but if she succeeded, then the theoretical return would be insanely high; if her cover as a person from another world was gone anyways, then there was really no point in trying to play coy, right?

[@VitaVitaAR][@Rune_Alchemist]