Celia: After Dying in the Apocalypse, I Live Once Again!

Chapter 174: One Must Find The Source.

Ria: “Can… you please explain that in more detail, Celia? No cheek this time.” She pleaded with a sigh.

Celia: “Every Soul Crystal requires Pure Mana to properly form them, each one is unique. Whoever is making the fake ones… likely crushed up a bunch of them, putting the shards into a single container.” She answered without joking around at all.

Ria: “…So, the result is those fakes cause health problems? Is it… due to the real Soul Crystals getting randomly mixed together in the fakes, making a mess of Pure Mana?” She proposed with a thinking pose.

Celia: “That’s my current theory, yes.” She replied with an approving nod.

Basically, Celia correctly compared these fake Soul Crystals to black market drugs. Why? Because drugs on the Mortal black market… tend to be pressed, smaller doses of whatever drug, made from crushed up higher doses, to make more money.

It isn’t really possible for such a company to make decent, illegal income with just one type of drug. Due to this, their supply can be accidentally laced with a different, or all of the drugs they press, which can and does kill Mortals quite often. So it is pretty apt to compare black market drugs and those fake Soul Crystals together.

Celia: “Have we found out where the main supplies of the counterfeits are coming from?” She asked with a serious tone.

Ria: “Unfortunately, we have yet to find the source. There are already so many in circulation, and we only became aware of the fakes a week ago.” She denied with a groan, rubbing her aching head.

Celia: “Hm… that’s surprising. You and Zia run the distribution of the Soul Crystals so well; so I’m quite shocked that someone was able to sell counterfeits this long without us noticing.” She replied with an unbothered tone, gently massaging her wife’s temple for her.

Our friends and family are… an extremely high trust society; Soul Crystals, and other valuables mostly in the open. No one has ever stolen anything, though. Celia respects and trust us all, as well. Even still, Ria and Zia asked to handle this responsibility, taking it off of Celia’s shoulders.

Most of us don’t truly want to work, and for the ones that do… it takes a lot of convincing to get Celia to give up whatever duty is asked for. Would you be surprised if… I told you that I really had to practically beg Celia for this narration job? Imagine… Celia’s narration instead of mine, from her… special mind. Now you should understand why I deserve all your praise, dear readers, listeners, watching, etc… praise me!

Zia: “They spread through Mortals, only reaching weak Higher Beings no more than two months ago, Celia. With such an extreme discount, Higher Beings buy up as much stock as they can, or steal from defenseless Mortals.” She explained, entering the room in time to hear her wife ask that question.

Ria: “Though inferior, the fakes are still sought out. So… the Higher Beings had incentives to keep information on the counterfeits hush-hush, you see.” She added with a deep sigh, somehow even more sighful than her sister.

Celia: “…”