Jared and Jacob stayed behind for a little bit to see if they could also pet Sinclair, thus leaving Cain to wander the store with Dresil’s main body. “Welcome, dear customer. Are you looking for anything in particular?” The receptionist greeted Cain as he walked in. “Nah, just browsing for now.” Cain replied while looking through the clothes.
Cain looked over the sets of suits displayed along the walls of the medium sized store. In the far left corner, there was an elevated platform that was walled off from the rest of the store. Save one which was used as the entrance; the open wall faced the wall on Cain’s right. Along the back wall of the store, there were several dressing rooms, the entrance to a backroom, and the entrance to an office. The elevated insert had multiple mirrors and some benches that faced the back wall.
Hah… More and more I think someone came here from a modern world causing their cultures to clash and some technological advancements to be made… but then why is it being so suppressed right now? Cain thought while looking at the modern suit designs and the puffy medieval vests, pants and white shirts.
One particular suit set caught Cain’s eye. It was the normal black modern tuxedo set with a bowtie, but the outer coat had a long tail that split into two v-shaped parts. Cain pointed towards this set and asked the receptionist, “Can I get this custom fit?” The receptionist nodded and called for a worker to measure Cain’s body. Cain handed Athena, who was still on his back, over to Dresil so she won’t get caught up in the measuring tape.
An aged man with a bushy, gray mustache walked out from the back room with a roll of measuring tape. He greeted the party members as they walked into the store roughly the same time. Jared and Jacob split off into separate directions and began browsing the merchandise. The old man led Cain to the elevated insert with the mirrors to take his measurements while Dresil sat on the bench inside the inserted room. Although it was elevated, it was only by two small steps. He was almost done measuring Cain when the girls came up to him.
“You’re getting this one?” Victoria asked him. Cain’s nod was interrupted by the old man’s stern stare since he was trying to measure Cain’s shoulders. “I’ll be back in a few minutes with the custom fit.” The old man said then took a set of the suit that Cain wanted to the backroom. Dang… they must be skilled. Cain thought while sitting on a nearby bench, next to Dresil. The insert had enough room to comfortably have 3 people on the bench and someone standing in the center with another person walking around them.
“How long do you think it’ll take them to make a suit for Jacob?” Cain asked out of curiosity. Victoria hummed as she began to do some rough calculations. “They’ll probably have to create a new set from scratch for him, but that’ll take a few days.” She replied after a minute or so. “Hmmm… Let Jacob know he can pick whatever set he wants and Dresil will recreate it for him.” Cain replied.
—Dms: Cain and Dresil— (6ms)
Dresil: Masterrrrr, don’t make more work for me…
Cain: Pffft, please… how much anime have you binged since yesterday?
Dresil: …7 seasons.
Cain: That’s what I thought… :facepalm:
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A minute or so later the old man came out with Cain’s suit set and directed him to a changing room. Veronica, who was in the middle of teasing Jared with how small he looks compared to most of the sizes, saw Cain enter the dressing room and drifted to Victoria. The girls waited for Cain to change into his new outfit.
—Dms: Cain and Rex— (7ms)
Cain: Can you not burn the left sleeve off completely?
Rex: …I’ll try. It just feels so stuffy when something is over the tattoo.
Cain: Can you hold out for a few hours?
Rex: …I should be able to.
Cain: Sweet, thanks.
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Cain walked out, looking like the snappiest boi on the block. He entered the insert and examined himself in the mirror then flipped one of the coattails up. “Are you sure you want to go with this set?” Victoria cautiously asked Cain. Veronica was stunned by his handsome transformation to think properly for the next minute-ish.
“Yep. Mostly because I can do this though.” Cain spun around in a tight, fast circle. The coattails floated outwards as he muttered “Wheeee.” “Does he know what that suit is usually for?” Victoria asked Dresil. “He does, he just doesn't care about it.” She replied while keeping an eye on Jacob and mentally preparing to make his suit. Cain spun around in the opposite direction, once again muttering “Wheeee.”
“...Is your master ok, Dresil?” Victoria asked while eyeing Cain oddly. “He’s probably just stressed. It’s been a long day and the nobles aren’t making it any shorter.” Dresil replied while sighing slightly. She made a small stool for Cain to sit on then ran a vine throughout Cain’s hair. He understood the signal and sat on the stool to let Dresil fix his hair up. Dresil walked up behind Cain and began using her fingers and some small vines to style Cain’s hair.
Veronica recovered from her stupor only to see Cain’s handsome face in the mirror with a matching hairstyle. Before, Cain’s hair was just lazily combed back. Despite Dresil’s best efforts in the morning, Cain’s bedhead always managed to fluff up his hair in a multitude of directions. This caused some strands to be floating away from the collective, creating a somewhat messy hairstyle.
Now, Dresil was taking her time and using some water to completely tame Cain’s fluffy hair. She combed the top back and then fluffed up the back some. She bullied Rex into becoming a temporary hair dryer for Cain. When she was done with her styling, Cain looked like Geralt, but with shorter hair. Dresil tied up the strands of hair, whose roots were on the sides of Cain’s head or in the forefront of his hairline, with a small vine then lightly stuffed it under the rest.
—Dms: Cain and Dresil— (33ms)
Dresil: How is it, Master?
Cain: Looks amazing, thanks.
Cain: The fabric is a little rough though, can you soften it?
Dresil: Of course. Should I soften the blazer too?
Cain: Hmmm… Can you try to soften the pants without changing the outside texture?
Dresil: Not in this short amount of time, I’m afraid not.
Cain: Then just soften the dress shirt since the pants are a tad softer than my jeans.
Cain: I’m afraid some nobles have extremely sharp eyes, so keep that in mind while making Jacob’s clothes.
Dresil: Understood, Master.
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Cain: Do we have to wash the suits before we wear them?
Dresil: Nope. The ones stored underneath the displays are all freshly made. If you try anything on, you must pay for it as well.
Cain: …then what’s the point of trying it on?
Dresil: To see if it needs to be custom fitted I guess.
Dresil: This system seems like another medieval one that got merged with a modern one.
Dresil: I assume since not all households have access to a proper bath, let alone items to wash these high end clothes, customers have to pay for what they try on.
Cain: I see…
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“Damn…” Veronica muttered when Dresil stepped away for the bystanders to see Cain’s new look. Victoria nudged Veronica some with a playful smirk on her face. Veronica immediately blushed and looked downwards while awkwardly leaving the store. During this moment, Jared had an all black tuxedo with a purple tie custom fitted while Jacob called Dresil over to see the set he wanted. The set had a velvet brown blazer with a white dress shirt and khakis. Jacob decided to exclude the tie that was included due to the stuffiness of a normal suit.
Cain and Victoria left the store while Jared was getting fitted. Cain re-enabled the program to keep Athena on his back, instantly teleporting her from the chair to a few centimeters away from his blazer. Dresil created Jacobs' suit during this time then had him change in the dressing room. Jared left the store in his new tuxedo while Jacob was checking the suit in the mirrors. He left soon after and Dresil paid for everything using Cain’s adventure card on her way out. Dresil also included the price of the largest size of Jacobs suit + 20% into the final.
“What time is the banquet at?” Victoria asked when she noticed how low the sun was hanging. Cain quickly scanned the king’s memories for anything related to the time. “In about 2 hours or so. How long do you guys need to get ready?” Cain asked the girls as the party and Sinclair departed from the store's entrance, Dresil’s clone that was outside with Sinclair merged into Cain’s dress shirt. “About an hour or so. Let’s go to a few more stores in the meantime.” Victoria answered, causing the boys to sneakily sigh as they walked down the road.
Jacob walked on the far left of the sidewalk with Victoria on his right. Victoria was on Veronica’s left while Cain was on her right. Jared was on the right edge of their group with Sinclair and Dresil’s main body walking behind everyone. Normally this would have been a problem since the sidewalks weren’t wide enough to support their group’s formation. However, since they were on one of the main roads, the sidewalk was 3 meters wide on either side of the main road.
There was no curb separating the sidewalk and the main road though, just some different colored stones that formed a line. This caused the street to be somewhat crowded when no carriage could be seen in sight. Cain observed all of this as the group walked for a few minutes. He deduced that this was due to the lack of traffic or because the sidewalk was recently implemented.
—Group Chat: Cain, Dresil, Bob, and Rex— (8ms)
Rex: Was all of that deduction and thinking needed though?
Cain: meh, not really. Got to do something while we’re walking though.
Bob: Do you though?
Cain: :shrug:
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Apart from the some odd looks from the bystanders, nothing major happened on their journey to the next store. The party stopped in front of a cosmetics store; the girls went in while the boys stayed outside. Sinclair laid down near the wall, next to the entrance. Cain plopped down, leaning his back against Sinclair’s side. Moments before Cain could sit down on the dirty concrete, Dresil controlled her clone to lay down a mat to prevent Cain from dirtying his new suit. Athena was also teleported to his lap.
—Dms: Cain and Dresil— (15ms)
Dresil: Masterrrr… You’ll ruin your suit at this rate.
Cain: I’ve played ping pong in a suit before without getting dirty though, this is nothing.
Dresil: But these are the sidewalks of the medieval era…
Cain: Oh… point taken.
Cain: You got any food?
Dresil: Yep, I’ll get Bob to deposit some for you.
Cain: Thanks.
Dresil: Of course, Master.
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A portal opened to Cain’s right, depositing a few snacks on the mat Dresil laid down. While the portal was open, the mat Cain was sitting on spread out to create room for the snacks. Jared and Jacob looked down at the food with slight envy. “You guys want some? Jared you should stick to the fruits or other non greasy stuff so you don’t mess up your tuxedo.” Cain offered Jacob and Jared some food, while warning Jared since he was the only one out of the two to be wearing his suit.
At that moment, Jared immediately regretted changing into his tuxedo. The boys both nodded their heads, their eyes not leaving the food for a moment. Cain created two magic circles on both of their lefts to serve as tables since there were no benches around here. Bob deposited some meat skewers and fruit plates on each “table.” Jared’s skewers were lightly seasoned with sauce to prevent his suit from getting dirty while eating.
[You want some too?] Cain transmitted to Sinclair, whose head was close by to the mat of food. He nodded his head while also eyeing the food. Seconds later, he remembered that Cain would sometimes eat demon wolf meat. [It’s not meat from my race, is it?] He asked cautiously. [Nah, just some meat from the nearby snack shops. So probably some cow, pig, and chicken.] Cain replied while grabbing a skewer and holding it up to Sinclair’s nose for him to confirm.
[Bite down, but don’t move your head.] Cain instructed the pup. Sinclair bit down on some pieces of meat as instructed. Cain then slid the skewer out from Sinclair’s mouth, leaving the pieces of meat inside. Sinclair happily chewed on the meat while moving his head to his left to avoid spilling any on Cain.
Cain leaned his head back, the tips of his hair barely reaching the top of Sinclair’s spine. He closed his eyes then absentmindedly ate his snacks while occasionally giving some to Sinclair. Jared and Jacob ate their snacks on the side while waiting for the girls to come out. Not a word was spoken, nor were any needed. For the boys were just chilling, eating, and enjoying the evening breeze.
The girls walked out roughly the same time the boys finished their snacks. Their arms were loaded with bags of varying cosmetics and accessories. Cain stood up and walked off to the side to give Sinclair enough room to get up. The mat that was on the floor receded in Cain’s dress shirt during his movements; all of its contents were dumped into a portal leading to the Mana Trash opened by SRI. Sinclair stood up and patiently waited for the bags to be loaded up. “Where did you put Jacob’s suit?” Victoria asked Cain, noticing that there were no bags on Sinclair’s exposed side.
“It’s on the other side. Don’t worry though, it wasn’t crushed. He made sure there was enough room between the wall and himself.” Cain’s explanation caused Jacob to lean back some to see Sinclair’s left side. Jacob’s eyebrows raised while he nodded in approval. Jared kept jumping behind Jacob and pacing around him to see what he saw.
“Alright, next store!” Victoria declared then set off. The boys sighed but refrained from complaining; glad that they at least didn’t have to carry the absurd amount of boxes and bags throughout the next hour.
Thus, the party visited stores, window shopped, and occasionally bought some things. Jared bought a dagger that caught his eye and Jacob got some new cooking utensils. Veronica tried out a few bows, but could not find anything better than what she already had. Victoria persuaded Dresil and Veronica to buy some accessories for themselves.
Although Cain had to pay for everything, he had no qualms about it. Even he didn’t know how he was going to spend the immense fortune he got from the invasion. And so, the party continued like this for roughly 45 minutes before an incident occurred.