BXBX NOVEL Chapter 243 - The Shopping Begins! (part 1)
Chapter 243 – The Shopping Begins! (part 1)
The master-attendant duo has entered the city without much trouble and was approaching the shopping district.
Their walk ended up fast, too fast if you\'d ask Miriette, but maybe it was for the better…
The distance really turned out too much for Miriette, but there\'s no way that she would actually admit that.
…so after the ten-minute mark, the dark-haired girl was doing her best to stealthily use her enchantments so that Zoemi wouldn\'t notice…
But he noticed, rather easy to tell the truth – after all the shadow of Miriette\'s enchantments appeared rather obviously so…
Still, Zoemi as an attendant acted properly enough and stayed silent about it.
"We weren\'t going that fast, but it seemed our clothes got disheveled… my lady, allow me to…"
Zoemi spoke and straightened his clothes and without delay, he did the same for his master.
"…"
Miriette stood still as she watched her attendant making sure that she looks impeccable while blushing slightly…
"You don\'t need to go that far…!"
But when Zoemi pulled out a comb and was about to start fixing her hair, the girl fidgetted and stopped him with an embarrassed expression.
"We were supposed to not get anyone\'s attention, remember…?"
She asked bashfully and glanced at the black-haired boy\'s gentle expression
"Oh? As you wish, my lady."
Zoemi tilted his head in confusion – after all his master was always self-conscious about her hairstyle, so her words did come as a surprise – but he put the comb back to his pocket and bowed.
To tell the truth, he really liked Miriette\'s disheveled hair, it was adding even more to her charm so it was a win in his book.
"Let\'s start the shopping."
Miriette proclaimed and looked expectantly at her attendant.
Without fail, Zoemi smiled and offered her his arm.
They started walking towards the shops…
And all the passer-bys stared at them baffled.
It wasn\'t hard to figure out why.
Although Zoemi\'s casual clothes mixed considerably well with the clothes of the locals, the same thing couldn\'t be said about the ridiculously fancy dress that no one would wear without a special occasion that Miriette picked up as her most tame and inconspicuous clothes…
"My lady…"
Zoemi, turned to his master with an apologetic look.
"I know, we have already talked about it – let\'s go search for some change of clothes for me first, and then we can start shopping for real…"
Miriette sighed, rolling her eyes, and pointed at one of the shops.
"That one looks like it deals with clothes for the locals."
She said and pulled Zoemi right in.
As this world had a setting extremely similar to that of a game, there were many differences between the development of the society and culture of Zoemi\'s original world and this one.
Certainly, one of those differences was shops.
The shop they entered looked more like a fashionable boutique than something one would expect to see in the small medieval time town.
As the dark-haired girl and the black-haired boy entered, a bell hung above the door rang and a smiling clerk emerged from the rows of various clothes.
"Welco…! W-welcome, dear customers…?"
She was a young green-eyed red-haired girl with lots of freckles on her face, and as was the case with the magicless commoners, the mismatched colors give her out immediately.
Without a doubt, she was a commoner who had not enough mana to even affect her looks – that didn\'t really affect Zoemi\'s cautiousness but it certainly was a refreshing change.
"Welcome dear customers, what can I help you with?"
The clerk had to greet them twice, and although her first attempt wasn\'t very professional she got it right on the second try.
On her first try as she saw black hairs and eyes she instantly thought they were darkness magicians and her face instantly cringed.
Even – or rather especially – the commoners were off-putted by the gossips of the perverted nature of the darkness magicians, even though many never even met a single one thorough their enitre lives…
But then she realized that she was looking at rather wealthy customers, so her attitude changed.
Well, perverts or not, as long as they buy a lot, who cares?
People are the bad ones – Money is innocent!
So the clerk\'s second attempt was a lot more polite, though it still didn\'t sound quite right.
"Good morning."
Zoemi lightly bowed his head and smiled.
"…!"
The clerk\'s eyes widened and she opened her mouth a few times like a fish taken out of the water before she turned completely red and lowered her head bashfully.
"Wh-wh-what can I help you with, your lordship…?"
As it was already a common thing for people seeing Zoemi for the first time after his face was healed, the female clerk got hit over the head with the devilish beauty of the black-haired attendant and her demeanor changed for the third time during a single minute.
"…?"
"…"
Zoemi\'s raised his brows slightly and tilted his head while Miriette stiffened, staring daggers at the other girl…
"Zoemi, come on, help me pick something – oh, and we\'re buying something for you too – let\'s go for a matching look!"
The dark-haired girl got over her initial need to smack the obvious clerk right into her place, but swallowed her anger and cheered out jumping towards the boy and instantly pulling him towards the men section while doing her best to completely ignore the awestruck clerk.
—-
"…seriously…?"
With each passing minute, MIriette\'s face was becoming more and more annoyed.
"What\'s with this lack of variety!? Why are all of those so bland!? Zoemi, would you actually wear something like that in public? It looks like something you would wear if you were going to work in the mud all day!"
She complained, pouting adorably while holding up a pair of brown overalls.
"…pffft…. ekhem…"
Zoemi could barely hold in laughter – and eventually, he did snort but he masked it with a quick cough.
"My lady, that\'s because those are meant to be work clothes, you are searching through a work clothes alley."
He explained doing his best to keep a composed expression…
"E-eh…?!"
Miriette gasped while hurriedly looking around – most of the clothes surrounding her could be only described as \'designed with the functionality and protection over looks\' – perfect for some dirty work…
"…"
Her face became red as a ripened tomato and she quickly put the overalls back where she took them from.
"I-I knew that!"
She said looking to the side and failing completely at keeping it cool.
"Here, my lady, those are the clothes meant for wearing for casual everyday activity."
Zoemi said while reaching for a comfortable leather jacket.
"…You\'re teasing me because I don\'t know my way around a shop I never was before…!"
Miriette mumbled under her breath while sneaking glances at her smiling attendant.
"My lady, there\'s no way that a lowly servant such as myself would do that!"
|And if I did it would be only because you look unbelievably adorable while flustered…|
"Hmph!"
Zoemi smile became wider – while he finished his answer in his mind – and Miriette turned away from him and crossed her arms in an attempt to hide her embarrassment.
"My lady, don\'t you want to help me choose?"
Zoemi decided that it\'s best not to go too far with the playfulness and asked enticingly while choosing a few pieces of clothing at random.
"…"
Miriette glared at him with suspicion, unsure if it was a serious request or him trying to poke fun at her.
"Please?"
Zoemi lowered his head and asked while pulling up two very stylistically different jackets.
"Well, since you\'ve asked so nicely…"
Miriette brushed aside the wild strand of hair from her face and bashfully walked towards Zoemi.
She started looking at the clothes picked by Zoemi with a serious expression. She even started stroking her chin while deep in thoughts.
"D-dear customers, if you need help… For a handsome man such as you, my lord it would suit you best to show off…"
The clerk girl approached them quizzically and hurriedly passed by Miriette before basically gluing herself to the surprised Zoemi…
"Yes, you can help us – or rather, you can help yourself – back behind the counter if you know what\'s good for your own health."
"I-I-I\'s sorry…!"
But it took roughly two seconds for the dark-haired girl to grab the bothersome clerk-s shoulder and tear her away from the black-haired boy before staring her down and activating her enchantments threateningly – which instantly cooled down the other girl\'s enthusiasm.