"So, where is everyone going after this?" Andy asks.
"No clue, lots of free time now that I'm not cooking tonight," Jack grins.
"Hey, I thought that started tomorrow!" Andy growls. Jack just keeps grinning, so he sighs, defeated. "Ugh, fine, whatever," and waves him off.
With his smug grin still plastered across his face, Jack walks away while waving back at us.
"I'll get that guy one of these days..." Andy mutters and clenches his fist. Then with a wave, he draws everyone into a small circle, and I move quickly to catch up. "Anyway, looks like I'm on dinner duty tonight. I've got some stuff to pick up, then I'm heading back home." He gives an annoyed huff.
"I have some sewing to do, so I'll go home first," Jess says.
"I need to pick up some stuff too, I'm sharpening my knife tonight." Robin explains.
"I'm heading to the shop, some more work to do before tomorrow." Tony shrugs.
"We're going shopping for some clothes for Aria," Emily volunteers.
"I think there are some other things I want to buy too, if I have enough money left over," I add.
"So, we'll probably be out for a while," Emily nods to them, "so we'll see you guys later." With that, we all wave and go our own ways. "Come on, let's get going," Emily begins pulling me toward the road heading out of the market.
"Huh? Where are we going?" I ask.
"The clothing store?" From her tone, there's some misunderstanding here.
"It's not in the market?"
"Oh, no." She shakes her head. "They have an actual store. It's way up in the northwest corner of town though."
"Ahh..." I respond nervously. I'm really wary of the entire northwest district, but she just pulls on my hand so I'll walk faster.
"Don't worry, it'll be fine," she laughs. "It's a store, but they mainly sell to the lower classes, so we won't get kicked out like that place the other day." I think she misunderstood what I was worried about, so she's talking about something else here...
Then I realize that I don't actually understand what she is talking about. "Wait, what about it being a store?" I ask. I don't really understand because the only store I've ever been to was the refinery... and that one store I wandered into that one time...
"Hmm?" Oh, I don't think my question was clear enough.
"Uhh, I mean, I'm not familiar with stores. What's different about them compared to the market?"
"Oh, that's what it is." Now that she knows I don't know about stores, she explains. "They buy and sell things, kind of like at the market. But they have their own whole building. Most stores are a lot more expensive than the market, which also means they usually don't let peasants in. Some of the cheapest ones in the northern corners of the city are like this one though, and they deal with stuff we can afford. This place buys and sells cheap clothes, so peasants like us are their main customers."
I listen intently to her explanation while we walk. It's really clear, so it's easy to understand. After she finishes, we walk a bit further, before I remember I needed to work on getting rid of the earth mana, and take Emily's hand. I pull out a good amount, and start automatically converting it without thinking about it much. She raises an eyebrow slightly, but doesn't question it. I wonder if she can feel any differences when I do that?
We go down the road quickly, toward the West Gate. When we are nearly at the gate, we turn northward. I know this place. I turn to the left, spotting the stable Marrianne works at, just north of the West Gate.
"Hmm? What is it?" Emily asks when she sees me looking over there.
"Oh, just Mina's stable," I answer while we walk.
"Who's Mina?" Emily tilts her head at the new name.
"This lady who runs that stable I think. Marrianne took me to work with her once. That's... when a horse almost trampled me..." I laugh awkwardly, realizing too late where that story was headed.
"Huh..." Emily doesn't say much. I guess there isn't much to say about it, it's just a place I went one time. Even if it reminds me of Marrianne whenever I look at it... We keep going for a little while. It looks like the road here is similar to the one on the other side of town. It runs straight north to south along the wall with buildings that look like shops on both sides. They're a lot more spread out than most other buildings in town, though it looks like the paths between them lead into the terrifying maze-like northwest district.
We just keep going though. As we go, even the shops, larger than the tiny houses all cramped together, begin to degrade in quality. The nice looking painted storefronts are slowly replaced with cheaper looking plain wooden ones, and eventually there is little real difference in appearance from the northern districts' cheap housing than the size of the buildings. I can see the northern wall beginning to get close when we finally reach the shop.
Emily points it out, a small sign hanging on a wooden stick above the door. It's worn out from the weather, and it looks like the rope holding it up could give out at any time, but the sign is decorated with a simple picture. It's just a few dark colored lines, faded with age, but the image clearly looks like a shirt. We walk over to the run down looking store.
----------------------------------------
Emily opens the door and we walk inside. "Welcome," a woman says from behind a counter. "Looking for some clothes?" she asks while glancing between us.
"Yeah," I answer and nod.
She looks directly at me this time. "We have your size right over there." She points to one area, and I thank her, but it looks like she has already returned to dealing with another customer. I walk slowly through the shop while looking around. There's a strong, kind of musty smell coming from the clothes everywhere. It's somewhat unpleasant. Walking through the shop, it's not very large, but there are tables covering every bit of the room, clothing stacked up on every surface. There's enough space for us to walk through but I wonder how larger people like adults would manage in here. There are a handful of other customers, all peasant children like us. It comes together to make the shop feel really small and crowded.
We go to the table she pointed at and Emily begins looking at the clothing. Looks like this table has a lot of shirts, with the skirts on the next table over. I'm not sure what to do since I've never been shopping for clothes before. "What should I pick?" I ask. I touch one of them gently.
"Well, you want something that will fit, and that isn't too old and beat up. See this?" She holds up a shirt. It's my size, made of the same cheap brown cloth as Emily's clothes are. She points to the elbow, where it has been worn through. "This spot needs to be patched. We need to buy patches and thread after this so we can fix up what we buy. So while we're here, we're looking for the clothing that needs the least extra work. Get it?"
I nod. "Yeah, that makes sense. The more patching it needs, the more we need to spend on it after buying it."
"Exactly. Also, look at the short sleeve ones since it's summer," Emily advises. I just nod a little. So for now, we start looking through the clothes. They're not exactly folded neatly on the table, but they aren't just all heaped up either. It seems like they've just been folded over a little, so they sit sort of square on the table and more will fit. I try to quickly fold them over and put them back the same way I found them, since I don't want to mess up the table.
Looking at these shirts, they're all threadbare in multiple places. They mostly all look the same too, all the same cheap cloth, all the same basic shape. None of the extra decoration or anything like those clothes I saw in the upper class areas. These will finally allow me to fit in here.
They are somewhat different colors though. While all brown, there are a surprising number of shades. Some a little lighter, some darker. Some more gray, or a little tinged green, or kind of reddish. Of course, there are also stains and patches changing up the colors as well. I never really noticed that before looking closely like this.
While most of the patches are similar brown colors, there are at least a few noticeably different patch colors. Green, red, some blue, a little yellow here and there. Maybe it's because they were patched with whatever little bits of leftover cloth were lying around, so some dyed pieces ended up being used too?
The biggest differences I notice from one to the next are in the necks and sleeves. Some have big wide open necks, and some are tighter. For the sleeves, there are a mixture of different lengths. Some short, some long, and some that sit kind of in between. Those will probably end near my elbows, which I find a little odd. Those... don't really count as short sleeve for summer, do they?
For now, I focus on the short sleeve shirts like Emily said. I pick up a few, turning them around, trying to look at them very closely. I try to think of it the same way as when I was studying metals. It may just be a shirt, but there's a lot I don't really know about it. For instance, it just looks like cloth to me, but how does it all hold together in this shape? I look closely, finding a place where two parts have been sewn together, and ask Emily about it.
"That's a seam, it's how they sewed the shirt together." As usual, she answers the question that probably seems obvious to her. I scan over the seam. It goes all the way up the side of the shirt, to the underside of the sleeve. It sticks into the inside of the shirt, just looking like a line where the two pieces of fabric meet when you look from the outside. So this is how it stays together... I also look at the short sleeve. It seems like it's made of one piece of cloth made into a tube with one seam on the bottom. Then... I look at where it's attached to the shirt. One seam runs all the way around the edge of the sleeve, connecting it to the main part of the shirt.
I nod a few times as I look it over. The way there's no seam in the shoulder, but it has seams down both sides, with the sleeve attached where it is... I imagine the way they took the cloth, one piece, folded it over at the top, then sewed it together on each side. That should make up the main part. Then they sewed the sleeves on. For the neck...
I turn the shirt around again, looking at the neck. It looks like they cut out some fabric to make the neck hole. I feel around the edges, I can see the threads where they were cut off. I poke it a little, and it kind of seems like the threads are going to come loose.
"Hey Emily, what's with this?" I ask, pointing at it. She looks over, already holding a small stack of clothing in her arms.
"What about it?" she looks at the neck where I'm pointing, but doesn't know what I mean.
"Here at the neck, it looks like the threads are coming loose," I explain it more so she'll understand.
"Oh, that? The edges wear out over time, so those areas are where you end up needing patches the most when they fray. She pulls at the neck of her shirt, showing me how it has five small patches along the edge already.
"Huh..." I mutter. It seems kind of odd but I can't place why. So I just turn back to looking at the clothing. I think I have an idea about how they're made now, so I try to apply that, checking for worn out spots of each one I look at. After a few, I notice that some of them have issues with the seams as well. I can see where the seams were sewn, and where on some clothing, the thread snapped or has started to pull out. Once that happens, won't the seam split apart? I suppose you could use more thread to sew it back together again, but like Emily said, that takes more money and work once we're finished shopping.
So I make sure to check the seams, look for holes and threadbare places, and ensure the edges aren't fraying too badly, or have at least been patched when they did start to wear out. "A few of these are a bit different..." I mutter when I look around the ends of the sleeves or the necks. Some of them have patches that go over the edges. I rub my finger along and it seems like it's holding that spot together pretty well, but everything around it is just falling apart even more. "Hmm..." It's kind of like, by running it over the edge, it looks like that patch is pulling on the threads around it more, so they're coming apart faster.
I rub my chin, thinking about that. It seems like there are benefits and downsides to different ways of sewing and patching clothing. I'll probably figure out more about that once I do some sewing myself. I find one shirt that I think looks pretty good, there are only a few threadbare places, and one spot with the seam on the side that needs some work. I sniff it without really thinking.
It doesn't smell that bad. Not as musty as the rest of the shop for some reason. I figure I should take that as a good sign, and lie the shirt over my arm like I see Emily doing with a bunch of others.
"Looks like you found one," she smirks a little. She has a pile in her arms already. I chuckle a bit, of course she would be able to pick them out way faster, she's already done this before. I basically spent all my time figuring out what I'm even looking for... "Try these on," she says. I nod, then start fiddling with the ties around my shoulders. I won't be able to take her shirt off without undoing them first. It's pretty cramped in here, but I guess it's not quite as bad as our room...
"Hold on!" she exclaims quietly when she sees I'm starting to get undressed. I stop while she just sighs at me. The shopkeeper is just shaking her head at the other end of the store.
"Umm, what is it?" I ask. Did I do something wrong? A nearby customer puts her hand over her mouth as she giggles.
"You can't change here, you need to use a changing room," Emily explains.
"Changing room?" Sounds like a room for changing clothing. Why would you need a room for that?
"Just come on," she says, pulling me toward the back of the shop. Practically hidden between the tables, near the back-left corner of the store, we slip into an area I didn't notice before. I can still feel the shopkeeper's eyes on us as she stands behind the counter, waiting for another customer to approach.
Checking the new area, it seems that there are a few small rooms, with thin sheets of cloth hanging from metal rods overhead. Oddly, the rods are only halfway up the door frames. Maybe because the cloth is too short to reach the floor otherwise? I'm not sure though, and we move forward. So this is a changing room? Emily pulls the cloth aside while she explains.
"These curtains give some privacy so you can change clothes and make sure the new ones fit."
"I see..." I don't really understand it, but I nod for now. None of the girls ever mentioned issues with privacy changing before, and there are six of us...
It's kind of crowded with both of us in the small changing room, but I don't mind. Emily helps me undo the ties so I can get her shirt off. Then I put on a shirt from her pile. I slip it on, and she has me turn around while looking at me. I don't really know what I'm supposed to be checking. It fits me at least, unlike anything else I've worn. The neck isn't falling off of my shoulders. The bottom doesn't go to my knees. That's definitely an improvement.
I try moving in it a little, raising my arms, and I feel the whole shirt sort of move with me. So this is how clothes move when they fit? I raise my arms over my head, and the whole shirt pulls up with them, revealing my stomach. Is that normal? Emily doesn't comment on it, so I guess it's fine.
The neck hole is kind of large I think. It's pretty wide and goes down to my collarbone. "I don't see any problems," Emily says, "how does it feel?"
"Uhh, fine I guess?" I'm still not sure what to look for, so I shrug.
"Ok, try the next one." I pull the shirt off and hand it to her, then try the next. This one is bigger. A little longer, but a good deal wider around. Like it was made for someone bigger around than me. Emily immediately shakes her head, so I take it off and try the next. She places the first shirt to one side, and the second shirt to the other.
I try shirts one after another. They're all similar sizes, some a little bigger, or smaller, or longer, or with slightly different shaped sleeves. I go through them pretty quickly. Most of the time if a shirt is no good, Emily will tell me immediately so we can move on. There are only a few she has to consider a bit before coming up with a response.
As I move through all the shirts, I start to get an idea about their differences. Some shirts pull up more when I raise my arms. Some are kind of tight in the shoulders, or keep me from spreading my arms out wide. I eventually say no to a handful of shirts, even after Emily gives them an ok. Each time, she just nods, and we move on.
After going through all the shirts she picked, I try the one I picked. It feels just like the rest, and doesn't pull up or feel tight in the shoulders. Emily gives it an ok as well. I smile, glad that I managed to pick a good shirt.
Now finished, we have a pile of twelve shirts. "You should be able to afford two or three outfits, depending on how much you want to spend," Emily says. "It should be about two coppers for each. How much do you have?"
"Nine coppers," I answer.
She thinks for a bit. "With nine coppers... You would probably need an extra two coppers for the sewing supplies you need, so you might want to only buy two sets of clothes if you want to have any money left over.
"Ok, so how should we narrow this down to two shirts?" I ask.
"A few different ways. You could just choose a couple randomly and go with that, but I'd recommend trying to pick the best ones.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"Can I take the one I chose?" I ask immediately. It is the very first piece of clothing I've chosen for myself.
"Haha, of course," she laughs and answers. "Now you should choose one more."
I nod and look at the pile. Which ones were the best among them? I think I prefer the ones that fit a little more loose on me. They let me move a little better, and if I grow like Emily says I should, I think I'll be able to wear them longer before I grow out of them. So I sift through the pile, pulling out a few that were more tight, or had a strange neck, or I don't like the sleeves as much. Once I've narrowed it down to four options, I try each one on again. They all feel so similar it's hard to choose. So I go over the seams, edges, and threadbare spots on them, and rule out two that have some issues with the seams.
With just two options left, I simply look at them. The quality is similar, the feel is similar, and they should take about the same amount of work to repair once we get home. So I just look at the color and pick the one I feel looks better. It feels like a really random decision, but at this point it shouldn't matter that much. Between kind of dark colored brown and a lighter one, I choose the lighter. The way it has some green patches along the bottom looks nice to me.
"Now that you have a couple shirts, let's look at the skirts." I slip back into Emily's oversized shirt and we leave the dressing room, putting all the rejected shirts back on the table they came from, then move to the next table over where the skirts in my size are piled up. We pick up a number of them.
Unlike the shirts, they are much more simple. Really, they're just a loop of cloth, sewn together into a tube. They all have a multitude of patches along the top and bottom edges, where there is a lot of area to fray over time. I stare at the skirts. It's kind of hard to pick since they're so similar. I end up choosing two that don't seem to be quite as patched up. By then, Emily has selected ten of them, so we go back to the changing room.
I put on the first skirt, and immediately know something is wrong. I shift, try to lean down, and can't really. The skirt simply feels too tight and won't let me move easily. I shake my head. "Too tight."
"Huh, it looks fine to me..." Emily mutters, but we move on anyway. The next is exactly the same. We go through four skirts, all too tight to move in, before we stop.
"They're all too tight, shouldn't these be my size?" I ask.
"Yeah, they are your size," Emily says. "See here? They're just the right size for your waist, and the right length." She leans down, holding her hand level with my knees, where the skirt ends.
"Then why can't I move right in them?" I ask.
"I don't know," she shakes her head, "how are you moving?"
"Well, I just go like this..." I stretch my legs like I'm taking an extra long stride, but the skirt immediately stops me, too tight around my legs to do that.
"Huh? Why are you trying to do that?" Emily asks.
"Because I should be able to?"
"For what?" She puts both her hands up and quirks an eyebrow to show it doesn't make sense to her.
"Well, any big motions, like climbing trees... Even just running. I won't be able to sprint properly like this." I could probably run normally, but longer sprinting strides would be too much.
"I don't think most people consider that when buying clothing..." Emily sighs, "clothes aren't made for that..."
"Well, I can move right in your clothing, even though they're too big, why is that...?" I pull on her skirt again. It's so large it will fall off, but when I tie it at the waist, I can stretch my legs properly. When I look down, I realize why. Because it's too large, it has plenty of extra space around my legs. But tied up like this, the top part is all scrunched up. It's basically making it so the top is smaller than the bottom, instead of them being the same size, since the skirts are essentially just made from a rectangle of cloth, sewn together.
I can picture it in my head, the top would need to be more narrow than the bottom to both fit at the waist and leave space to move properly. None of these are made like that though, so I'll need to come up with something else. The most obvious solution would be buying larger skirts, like Emily's and tying them to make them fit at the waist.
I nod to myself a little. "For now, I'll buy larger skirts and tie them so they fit, does that sound good?"
"Well, it's your money..." Emily just shrugs. We go back, dropping the skirts back on the table, and ask the shopkeeper where the larger skirts are. She looks at me strangely, but points us over to another table. The ones there look closer to Emily's size, so we pick a few more that look alright, and head back to the changing room one more time.
When I try the first skirt, quickly tying it in place, I find that I can move properly, but it's still too long. I'll need to roll it up the same way I did with Emily's before. Because apparently kids our age are expected to wear our skirts at knee height? I don't really understand why, but if that's what we're supposed to do, I won't argue.
After adjusting it, the skirt feels fine. Just kind of bulky around my waist from all the extra folded up cloth. Emily is looking at me with a weird expression too, so I ask, "What, is it that strange?"
"Sort of. I was just thinking, by tying it up like that, it's all bunched up and doesn't look right."
I compare my skirt to hers. She's right. Emily's skirt goes down, nice and straight. Even if it's patched and dirty, it clearly fits right and looks good on her. Mine is all bunched randomly here and there, with big lines going all over the place where it has been gathered up at the top. It doesn't look straight or neat at all.
"Hmm..." I mutter, thinking it over. She's right, the skirt looks all messed up and untidy when I tie it up. Do I get a larger one which I can move in, but looks bad, or one I can't move in, but looks good? I consider what to do briefly. But it's actually not that hard of a decision to make.
If anything bad happens again, like the monster attack yesterday, I absolutely need to be able to move correctly. If I'd been wearing a skirt that didn't let me sprint, Emily would have died. Of course I'll choose mobility over looks. I'm supposed to be a dirty peasant anyway, what does it matter if my skirt doesn't look good? My clothes have never fit before.
"I'll go with the larger one," I tell her confidently, so she just nods. I go through the large skirts one at a time, tying them up and comparing them. They're so similar it's hard, and I end up randomly choosing, mostly just based on if I like the look of the patching, since they're all so heavily patched there's little difference in the wear and tear. When they're mostly narrowed down, Emily has me try them on with the shirts I chose.
"This one and this one," she points to two of the skirts. "They are the best matches with your shirts." As she says, they do match the colors pretty closely. The one I chose is kind of reddish tinged, so the skirt with it, while more brown, has a faded red patch on one side. It kind of makes it match the shirt, I think. The other is a much lighter, almost tan colored skirt. At least it was originally, the patches ringing the top and bottom are all manner of colors, but the light brown looks good with the darker, but still light colored brown of the shirt.
"Here, put these on. I'm going to sell this old outfit while we're here," Emily says.
"Ok," I nod and pull off her clothes. Then I put on the shirt I chose along with the matching skirt. Of course, I need to roll the skirt up and tie it off. I'll think about fixing that somehow if I have the time. I'll need to learn more about sewing first.
"One more thing..." Emily mutters as she watches me changing clothes. "I'm guessing you don't know about underwear?"
"No, what's that?"
"I figured..." she sighs. She hesitates for just a moment, then she lifts her skirt to show me the clothing she's wearing under it. "This is underwear," she says simply. I vaguely think I've noticed the other girls in my room wearing those when changing clothes, but it never really registered before. "It's been fine until now since you look like you're only five, but since you're really seven, you should start wearing underwear."
"Umm, ok? Why?"
"It's just basic decency. No one really cares about seeing little kids naked, but once you're six or seven, it's generally not considered ok to be naked in public anymore."
"Umm? But I've been washing my clothes... right." I feel like I realize her point too late. Since my robe was all I had, I was naked when I washed it. And no one cared because I look like a five year old, still a little kid.
"I had a feeling you didn't know about it," she sighs again, holding her head in her hand. "You should get underwear too while we're here."
"Ok," I nod. I hardly even realized it existed until now, but if it's important to wear it, I'll do that. She takes me over to a small table near the back holding underwear that looks similar to what she was just wearing. I pick one up. It seems sort of triangular in shape, but with slightly curved sides, with a big hole for the waist and two holes for the legs. The first thing that jumps out at me is they seem to be made of a different fabric than the other clothes we've been looking at. It seems kind of smoother. Maybe it's made of thinner threads? When I touch it, it gives a different feeling too. They're also all a very pale tan color, unlike the darker browns of other clothes. The next thing I notice is none of them are patched. They're all made of this different type of cloth, which doesn't look like it's really fraying around the edges.
I look a bit closer, to see that it looks like they were sewn on both sides, like shirts. But they also have a line of thread sewn all the way around each of the holes, which sort of looks like it might be what helps keep them from fraying. Why aren't other clothes sewn that way? Is it because they're different types of cloth?
In any case, Emily has already selected a sizable pile for me to try. We head back to the changing room, and we go through them one by one. She took a number of different sizes this time, so some are too large or small, and we reject them. Of the ones left, they are all nearly identical. "Underwear is kind of expensive since the cloth is better, even if they're really small..." Emily mutters. "They need to be washed more often than regular clothing though, it's pretty troublesome. You should at least buy two today, since you can only really wear them for two days before you need to wash them."
"Wow, that really is a lot," I respond. Marrianne had a whole lot of clothes she put on me while I was living there, so I guess I can understand going through a lot of clothing, but I've hardly ever had the time to wash my clothes since moving to the orphanage. Will I really be able to wash these every two days? I suppose if I had five, I could just wash them all once a week, but I don't think I could afford that many with the money I have right now.
"We should get you more as soon as we earn more money, it shouldn't be too bad the way we're earning it now. Washing your clothes every two days is basically impossible..." she chuckles. I just sigh when she confirms exactly what I was just thinking. For now, I can probably only afford two. Since they're all the same, I just take the first two and we put the rest back.
"Last thing would be your shoes," Emily says.
"Shoes?" I ask.
"Yeah, are yours alright? Do you need new ones?"
"Uhh..." I have no idea. I've never really thought about my shoes before. Like, pretty much at all. I take off my shoes and show them to her. She turns them around. Now that I'm actually checking them closely, I see how they're made of somewhat thick, durable material. A strip on either side, one across the back, and one on the bottom. No laces or anything, they just slip on, nice and snug so they don't fall off.
"Wow, these feel really solid," she mutters as she look them over. "The soles aren't worn out at all..." She bends them a few times, nodding like they're really impressive. "These still fit?"
I nod. I think they gave me new shoes... maybe a year ago? I don't know how long it will be until I outgrow these. We did get them more often than new robes at least...
"Anyway, they look fine. We should be all set here," Emily concludes. She hands back my shoes and I slip them on. But now my feet feel dirty from all the dirt on the floor here. No wonder the upper classes don't even let us into their shops...
"Ok, how do we buy everything?" I guess we would go to the shopkeeper, so I slowly start moving in that direction. That's how I bought the metal ingots anyway.
That just makes Emily giggle. "Yeah, the shopkeeper," she says, and we walk over to the counter.
"Find everything?" the woman asks. I'm surprised by how polite she is after dealing with the shopkeeper at the refinery. I suppose this is how they act when you're the type of customers they're actually supposed to serve...
"Yeah, we found it all fine," I respond politely as well.
"What are you buying today?" she asks.
"Two shirts," I set one on the counter and indicate to the one I'm wearing.
"Two shirts, small... one copper five nuvrites each," she says with a small nod.
"Then two skirts," I repeat the process.
"Umm, those are a bit too large for you," she comments when she sees the skirt I'm wearing. "Is that alright?"
"Ah, yes," I nod quickly. "These are fine."
"Alright then, eight nuvrites each."
"Thank you. Last is two underwears."
"Pairs of underwear," Emily whispers from behind me.
"Pairs...?" I don't understand. But the woman just smirks a little as she looks at us and moves on without skipping a beat.
"Two pairs of underwear, seven nuvrites each. That's all today?"
"Yes," I give her a nod, pull out my money. Three hundred, one hundred sixty, and one hundred forty barr... I place six copper coins on the counter. The woman looks a bit confused. She turns to a little thing behind her. It looks like the one the men at the selling booths used. I lean up over the counter to get a look. It seems to be made of wood, with a bunch of little rods lined up, and small wooden bits that she slides back and forth.
"What is that?" I ask, my curiosity getting the better of me.
She eyes me from the side while working. "This is an abacus. It's for calculating prices."
"Ahh..." I say. So that's how other people do math? She just... keeps moving the little balls around for a while. It's kind of hard to see, but from all the different movements, I have no idea how something like that works.
Finally finishing, she turns back. "That will be six copper coins." I just nod. Her eyes go to the coins I already put on the counter. Still looking a bit confused, she picks them up and counts them. Her expression shifts to surprised, but she nods anyway and says, "this looks good. Thank you for your business." It's amazing how much trouble math gives people...
Not voicing my concerns, I just respond, "Thank you for your time," and bow. The lady smiles a little. Then Emily moves forward, showing her the clothes I was wearing earlier. "I would like to sell these," she says simply.
The woman looks at the clothes briefly, before answering. "Five nuvrites for the shirt, two for the skirt." My eyes go wide. I just bought similar clothes for triple, even quadruple that price! Why is there such a huge difference? Emily starts to nod, but I tug on her shirt.
"What is it now, Aria?" she asks, looking annoyed that I'm interrupting.
"Please don't sell the skirt, I'll explain later." I say it quickly, not wanting to take much time while she's still talking to the shopkeeper.
"Sure, if you say so..." she mutters. "I'll just sell the shirt then." The woman nods, and they exchange the shirt for some money.
"Thanks for your business," she says. I bow quickly to apologize for interrupting, then we turn to leave.
As we exit the shop, I hear her mutter to herself. "What an odd child..." I really am odd, aren't I...? I mentally sigh. As much as I try to fit in and be like them, I'm always going to be weird, aren't I? I guess I should expect as much, since I'm just a thing, not a person like they are. Just have to get used to it...
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Outside the shop, I think for a moment. We need to go to the market for sewing supplies to make some repairs on the clothes I bought. But we definitely spent more in there than Emily estimated earlier, largely due to getting that underwear. Will I have any money left over? I'd really like to get a belt, or a pouch, or something to help me carry my things. Actually, I should get my own basket so I don't need to keep borrowing one from the orphanage every day. I can even use it to carry my things if I'm walking around the city. That'll be my first purchase with any money left over. I can look for things like belts or whatever after that.
Nodding to myself a little, I turn toward the northwest district, but stop instantly when I look at the maze of buildings. There is no way I'm going in there! But maybe Emily would know how to get through...? I turn at the same time she stops, turning back to look at me. Was she walking south?
"Aren't we going to the market?" I ask, pointing in the general direction of the northwest district market.
"Oh, they'll have cloth and thread, but I don't know if they'll have all the tools you'll need like needles. We should go back to the central market for them," Emily explains. I agree immediately. Any reason to avoid the northwest district is good enough for me. I take a few fast steps to catch up, then we move at a quick pace so we can get all the shopping done and still have a good amount of time left for sewing. It'll probably be really slow since I've only ever done it one time before... I wince a little as we go, we've already done a good deal of walking, so my legs are starting to protest painfully.
We're not too far from the shop when Emily speaks up. "So, what's this about my skirt?" she asks.
"Well, I was shocked by the difference in what she was giving you for it compared to what she was selling skirts just like it for," I say.
"Umm, that's normal though. Buying things costs more than selling them. There's always markup when they're resold." Markup, that's a new word, though the meaning is obvious. But why?
"Really?" I think for a few moments. Why would that be normal? Why would a shop like this buy clothing for one price, then sell it for more? Are the clothes more valuable when they sell them? "Why? Do they clean them or repair them or something?" But then I shake my head when I realize my own question doesn't make sense. Well, they all looked pretty clean, so they probably do wash them, but they definitely don't repair them. If they did, we wouldn't need to.
Emily shakes her head. "No, they don't do anything like that, they're just a reseller. They make money by reselling clothes." Of course, she says this like it's just common sense. Since I don't have the common sense she does, all I can do is try to compare this with other things I'm familiar with, maybe that will help me understand. I close my eyes for a bit, to just think all of this through.
The first thing that comes to mind is the blacksmith. He made a knife out of an iron ingot and told me it would cost five thousand barr. When I went to the shop at the refinery, iron ingots cost five hundred barr. So he would have spent five hundred for the ingot, then resold it for ten times what it cost him.
However, I watched Gremory pound the iron into a knife himself. It took time, effort, and a lot of skill for him to do that. Of course he should be paid for his work. So the increase in price covers the effort he put into it.
What about the clothing reseller? They buy clothing that has already been completed. They don't put in any work on the products themselves. Then they resell the clothing for a higher price, so they can keep the difference as profit. But what do they add? What value do they introduce? No skill, but they do take time, and they do take effort I guess. They do need to put in the effort to buy the clothing, organize all of it, and then sell it again.
By collecting and organizing the clothing, they give us a place that we can actually go to buy clothing. After all, where else could we get completed clothing to wear? Like Emily said, the only other way would be to sew it ourselves, or have someone sew it for us. But those would be new clothes, way more expensive than anything we could ever afford.
So the value they provide is in giving us a place that we can actually buy clothes. Oh, and a place we can sell old clothes we don't need anymore, I realize. That's definitely an important part of it. Otherwise, what would we do with old clothes? If they're too small and we can't wear them, who could we sell them to? I figured earlier in the shop that since I need more skirts, I could buy Emily's instead of her selling it to the shop. It'll be better for both of us since I can pay her more than the shop, but still less than it would cost buying from the shop.
But what about the rest of the time? If you don't have someone to sell to directly, what else would you do with old clothes? And how would you buy new ones? So in a way, the shop helps people who need to sell clothes, sell them to people who need to buy clothes. They do it indirectly, buying from one and selling to the other, making their money off of the markup.
"Huh..." I mutter, opening my eyes. Emily is looking at me curiously. "I think I get it, so that's what they do..." But then I shake my head. "Anyway, I stopped you earlier because I realized that they would give you less for the skirt than it would cost me to buy one, so I may as well buy your skirt from you."
"Ok?" She still doesn't seem to understand, so I explain further.
"They were offering you two nuvrites, but it cost eight to buy them. If you sold them your skirt and I decided to buy it back from them later, you would get two nuvrites, and I would spend eight nuvrites." She nods. That's pretty straightforward. "So I figured, I could give you four nuvrites for the skirt." I quickly dig through my things and offer her the coins.
"Huh? But it's only worth two. Why would you buy it for four?" she asks.
"Remember, it would have cost me eight at the shop. If I give you four, now you've made more money and I've spent less. We both win."
"Oh, I see!" Emily grins. "That sounds great." We both smile, exchanging the coins for the skirt.
"Thank you for your business," I giggle and bow playfully while repeating what the shopkeeper said earlier. That just makes Emily laugh more while we keep walking down the street. Next up will be sewing supplies, so we're headed back to the central market.