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Chapter 32

Shopping



It was now the second day in Marsfield .

Maria told the girls that she would be absent most of the day due to negotiations with Marsfield’s Merchant Guild . Since Nicole and the five muscle brothers would be joining her, this would be free time for Ellis’s group to spend together . Maria invited them to join her for dinner, so they just had to return to the inn before then .

As they had talked about before leaving Warren, the girls would travel around Marsfield shopping .

“Let’s enjoy breakfast in the city as a change of pace . ”
Following Ellis’s proposal, the group left their inn in the early morning to enjoy the tastes that Marsfield had to offer .

Ellis ordered a cold drink called ‘starch ball milk . ’¹
This is a dish that is fun to eat with its chilled bubble-like beads that can be chewed and release an explosion of flavor at different times .
I will order this and drink it immediately .

“Hah, it’s fun . ”
At the moment when she carried up a transparent color bead on her spoon with her milk, Reeve looked greatly surprised .
“Is it something like that?”
Frau was seriously trying to guess the ingredients of the mixture .
“The milk is also really sweet and tasty . ”
Claire liked the milk which melted lightly in the mouth .
“Nyau Nyau . ”
Katie also seemed to be enjoying it, but she was content to not give out a detailed impression . ²

Reeve ordered a salad consisting of cold, leafy vegetables and thinly sliced meat .
The vegetables were fresh and chilled to perfection while the meat was fragrant with a slightly pink center and added to the meal perfectly . The softness of the meat was probably the most surprising thing about the dish .
“Meat can be delicious even when it is cold . ”
The four others nodded to Reeve’s words while finishing off the rest of the salad .

Frau was a little more adventurous and ordered a cold pasta with fish pickled in oil .
“Oh, it’s surprisingly refreshing and tasty . ”
The body of the fish that was soaked in oil was not sticky, and while it tangled well with the pasta, it fell apart in your mouth .
“The oil itself tastes delicious . ”
Katie was an especially big fan of the oil pickled fish .

Claire ordered an orthodox cream pancake .
However, surprisingly, it was not butter but actual frozen cream that was attached to the pancake . In other words, it was a combination of a warm pancake and cold ice cream . It was very popular not only with Claire but everyone else as well, and everyone ordered seconds .
Claire alone decided to try it with frozen jam instead of the ice cream . This was also very tasty as the frozen jam slowly thawed and soaked into the pancake as time passed .

Katie ordered a straight boiled chicken .
This was a dish that minced the chicken, mixed it with some vegetables, and had its own special sauce . The chicken itself was crisp, but the sweet and sour sauce poured over top added its own flavor and complimented the vegetables well .
By the way, this dish was also cold .

“They are all cold dishes . ”

As usual, Frau provided the explanation for Ellis’s inquiry .
“There are many ice monsters in the dungeons around Marsfield, so this city gets plenty of Cooling stones from those slain monsters . Using them, the Marsfield Merchant Guild made ‘cold dishes’ the specialty of Marsfield . ”

“I want Warren to have a specialty too . ”
This was Claire’s impression .
Everyone at the table tried to remember something that could be counted as Warren’s specialty, but they could not come up with anything in particular .
“We must learn from Marsfield,” Ellis sighed . Everyone else agreed, but in reality Ellis and the others were completely oblivious to the real situation .



Already they themselves and their facility had become the specialty of Warren .

After filling their stomachs, the group went around to the armor and weapon stores around the city .

“Hoh . ”
The first thing Reeve picked up was a slender saber that had a light blue sheath .
This was another one of the so-called rare color .
Reeve tried pulling the saber from its sheath to take a look at the blade . The handle was a calm gold color, and the blade had a slightly bluish tint inside the silver that shined dully .
“Yes, this is fine . ”
While taking a few practice swings with her right hand, Reeve nodded after finding that the balance suited her .

“If you wave around such a beautiful sword, the members of your fan club will be pleased . ”
Reeve felt a little embarrassed to Ellis’s light jab .
“I do not care about the fan club … … Miss, can I ask you to copy later?”
Ellis nodded with a bemused smile as Reeve asked her with pleading eyes .
The price of the saber was 2 million ril . A fair price for a sword that has no magic power in it .

Next is the armor store .
Frau has put on a half-plate armor for women that shines with a slight pale color, and she takes out her minotaur maul in worry that the two slightly different shades of red might clash .
The half-plate armor’s peach color is not painted; it is a rare color that was imparted to the metal during the molding . So when you adjust the angle of the armor or move around in it, a variety of textures and color could be seen . The color itself was slightly brighter than the maul, and if you were to wear the armor while raising the maul up, it would definitely shine .

“Hey Ellis, what do you think about this?”
In a way, it is a ceremonial question when going clothes, er, armor shopping .
No matter how much of a hikineet Eiji was in the past, Ellis had enough common sense to know that any negative words were absolutely no good .
“You should buy it . It suits you!”
Ellis gently pushed Frau’s back towards the store clerk .
The price was 3 million ril . Another fair price .

Because there was nothing that especially stood out for Ellis, Claire, or Katie, shopping at weapons/armor shops finished with this . Next were the stalls lining the city streets . Even at these stalls they may find some magic tools, although only a few .

This time Ellis picked out some old sandals and a small brooch . It was much cheaper than items at the shops at 2000 ril and 1500 ril each .

Earth sandals — Damage reduction 2 . The opponent’s attack will not topple you over . Required MP: 0 . Autonomous type .

Magic Guard brooch — Magical damage reduction 5 . Required MP: 0 . Autonomous type .

“Awesome Ellis!”
Claire was surprised by the effect of Magic Guard . That was because if you combined the effect of Magic Guard with Resistance, then 15 magic damage will be reduced . This would nullify most intermediate magic .

On the other hand Frau was impressed with the second ability of Earth .
“The fact that an opponent’s attack can’t knock us over will be really useful . ”

Frau does a devastating amount of damage, but she is not as fast as Reeve or Katie, so she relies on delivering one, solid hit . With this ability, she can eliminate one of the things that could prevent her from performing that one hit and deal with more enemies .

On the other hand, for other members, the Earth ability isn’t really needed as taking an attack from an enemy is already a scary thing in and of itself . Nonetheless, because Earth can be copied to footwear, and there wasn’t any downside to having it, Ellis copied the ability to everyone’s footwear .

As for Magic Guard, it could only be copied to other jewelry, so Ellis took everyone straight to the luxury jewelry shop to have everyone pick out their own brooch . As a result, each got to buy a brooch with their favorite gem embedded in it .

Ellis picked out a golden tiger’s eye stone .


Reeve’s was a kyanite .
Frau chose a scarlet garnet .
Claire grabbed a dark obsidian .
Katie went straight for a white moonstone .

The total price was 2 . 5 million ril in all .

After picking out some jewelry, the girls got in the mood to go try out Marsfield’s dress shop . Apart from the evening dresses that everyone wore to the theater yesterday, everyone hoped to pick out a matching dress .

“This is nice . ”
Frau was eyeing a luxury pret-a-porter long dress with a band shaped cloth wrapping around the upper body . It was a design that had two silk strips spread the pleats of the dress from the chest to the shoulder and then crossed on the back and connected to the waist . The skirt was a basic design that draped down to the feet .

“The brooch I purchased earlier would go so well with it . ”

The brooch would definitely stand out in a good way if placed on the chest of the dress .
Then a woman who seemed to be the shopkeeper came over to give some advice .
“Since we have a variety of sizes and colors, would you like to pick out a dress with a specific color? For example, since you already have those lovely brooches, how about choosing a dress with a contemporary color to those jewels . ”
Ellis decided to take the owner’s advice and each of them chose out a dress with a color opposite of their normal color .

Ellis’s tiger’s eye went along with a purple-blue dress .
Reeve’s kyanite was paired with a light-orange .
Frau’s garnet went well with an emerald green dress .
Claire’s obsidian meant she would wear an ivory white dress .
Katie’s moonstone was put with a darker grey dress .

Each girl tried on their dresses along with their brooches, and each one was surprised at just how well the shopkeeper’s advice went . Each brooch matched the color of their hair, and the combination of the brooch and hair made the dresses stand out all the more .

Even though all the dresses had the same design, the gold and black girls ended up looking adorable . The blue girl was challenging and chic while the red girl was elegant and looked like she had finesse, and the white girl looked fierce with a beastly charm .

Affected by their beauty, the shopkeeper pleaded with them to buy the dresses . “Customers, we will sell them cheap, so please buy them . ”
Since the fixed price of 200 thousand ril was discounted down to 100 thousand ril, the total amount spent was 500 thousand ril .

While the other four were changing clothes in the fitting room, Ellis whispered into the shopkeeper’s ear .
“Did you learn their sizes when they changed into the dresses?”
The shopkeeper curiously nodded her head .
“Well then, please make an outfit with this design for each of us . ”
The store owner took a look at a design that Ellis had sketched previously and smiled .

“Is this your hobby?”
“They’re stage clothes . ”
And just like that, an extra 250 thousand ril was spent .

Since it would be fine to just have a late lunch at a stall, the girls next started touring the grocery stores with Frau . The first thing she ended up buying was a portion of starch balls that had been inside the drink that Ellis had ordered earlier . Claire was the next one to shout out .

“Hey! Ellis! This!”

When Ellis turned to what she was pointing at, she saw a sign that read, “Ice cream . ” It was a tool that could make ice cream, and since it had a Cooling stone inside, it was a reasonable 800 thousand ril .


Claire looked at Ellis and the ice cream machine alternately . After a few more seconds, Ellis thought that holes would be bored into both of them .

Again?

Ellis could only sigh before Claire’s pleading eyes .
“Claire . Is there something you want to say to me?”
“Ellis . Let’s buy this . ”

She really isn’t giving a second option .
“I think it’s necessary, so we should buy it . ”
The second that Ellis had given her approval, Claire immediately ran to the store clerk .

In the end, the five ladies had spent a total of 10 million ril shopping that day .
“Miss, is your wallet okay?”
A trait cultivated from her time as a fallen aristocrat, Reeve looked worried about the excessive spending, but Katie waved off her worries .

“We can easily recover this by running ten laps through Wight Labyrinth . ”

While everyone, including Reeve, laughed at Katie’s joke, they finally arrived at Claire’s requested destination, the large clock tower .

When you come near, you can see a large timepiece embedded into the top of a tower . Claire immediately ran up to it, and stared up at the timepiece from the base of the tower .

Apparently there seems to be a concept of time in this world . It was Ellis’s first time ever running into a timepiece since Eiji’s death . The length of an hour in this world is the same, but there are no smaller increments . At best there would be people who would say in half an hour as a guide . In other words, at best people would live their lives half an hour at a time .

The large clock only has one hand on its face . The hand will make one full revolution every day . When the sun is at its peak, the hand will point to heaven, and at midnight, it will point down to the earth .

Ellis-Eiji unexpectedly enjoyed this slow passage of time . She vowed to continue to enjoy it from now on .

“Let’s go home with that . ”
While looking at the time listed on the clock, Ellis realized it was about time to meet with Maria .
“What about the beastkin district?”
“Sorry . We are out of time . ”
“Nya … … … …”

Seeing Katie’s downtrodden expression, Ellis made another vow to visit the beastkin district with her sometime in the future .

After everyone returned to the inn: they all took a shower, put on the matching dresses they had just bought, and waited for Maria’s pickup . It was only after a short while that a knock sounded on their door the same as the night before .

“Go ahead . ”
“Is everyone ready …… . . ”

Nicole’s words got clogged in his mouth as he walked in the door and saw the beauty before him . It really is the same as the night before .

When Nicole led everyone into the lobby, this time it was Ellis’s turn to have her breath stolen from surprise .

The muscle brothers were there waiting for them, but instead of their usual loincloths, they were all dressed in jet-black tuxedos . Their appearance was a combination of elegance and a certain ruggedness that could only be pulled off from the bulging muscles filling out a full tux .

Ichiro took a step forward as the representative of the group, and he laughed bemusedly at the shocked and awed faces that everyone else was giving to the unusual sight before them .
“Of course even we have common sense of dress code . ”

Goro also started to laugh graciously .
“We always emphasize functional beauty . Of course, there are always those shops that do not truly understand functional beauty, so it becomes impossible to enter with our usual attire . In such a situation, we will wear the appropriate clothing in order to eat . ”

The loincloth is functional beauty . What dishonor is this?

As Ellis and the others talk amongst each other, Maria alternately compares the members of Warren’s Jewelry Box and the Muscle Brothers .

“Ufufufufufufu”
And she seemed to have come up with a sort of plan . She called over Ellis and Ichiro, and she whispered into both of their ears .

“How about 5 million ril per person?”

Since they were both living on a temporary income, the leader of the super gays and the leader of the super lesbians both nodded in a business-like manner . ³

The party arrived at the same high-class restaurant that they had had dinner at the night before with Duke Marsfield .

When they entered, Nicole escorted Maria through door as a companion . It was a normal sight to see at a restaurant like this, but that was where the normalcy ended . All conversations occurring inside the restaurant became hushed as the next group entered .

Ichiro entered the dining hall shortly after Maria, lightly carrying Ellis in his arms .
Jiro stood side by side with Reeve, and they made a dashing duo .
Saburo continued the line while walking hand-in-hand with Claire .
Shiro was also holding Katie’s hand when they made their entrance .
Goro finished the line while walking arm-in-arm with Frau .

No one could look away from the beautiful sight of five burly and fearless men escorting in five beautiful maidens . While everyone admired their beautiful appearance, someone somewhere muttered,

“Warren’s Jewelry Box… . . ”

In this way, they quickly gained control of the restaurant . Naturally, none of the customers nor the clerks knew that this atmosphere was created despite every single one of the ten being gay .

Everyone’s attention was eventually drawn to Maria, who had led them in . Maria enjoyed the gazes for a moment before laughing to the group behind her .

“Ohohohohoho . Well everyone, let’s eat . ”
“Yes, Madame!”
Ten people answer in unison to Maria’s command . The other guests were stunned by such a sight, and throughout the night, everyone kept stealing glances toward Maria . Naturally, the question of, “who is that woman?” kept being raised in the surroundings .

“Warren’s Merchant Guild… . . ”
“She visited for some negotiations…… . ”
“Wasn’t she selling something called a toilet and shower for your house?”

While listening to the talk spread around her, Maria took a sip of her wine with a smile . She was grateful to Marsfield’s finest restaurant . Truly a gathering place for the wealthy and successful . With this, the objective of introducing the Claire-Flint brand to the rich in Marsfield had been completed perfectly .

Truly a merchant who understands how to use the resources you have on hand .

At the same time, an event was taking place in the alleys of the beastkin district .

“Even though it takes time to do such a thing, can’t we just take it with brute force?”
“I don’t want to draw any unneeded attention right now . It is better if we obtain it through the proper legal means . ”

Now, the bad guys have started to make their move .

 

1 . I had to look this up myself . starch balls are the pearls you get when you have bubble tea .

2 . This is why we like Katie . She makes things easy .

3 . God this sounds so weird in English . For the record, in Japanese it is gachihomo and gachilezu .



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