“You know, there was a time when I thought I hated you,” Billy said.

A breeze was blowing. The sun, setting. We stood on a small, really tiny bridge with basically nothing around.

“The feeling’s mutual. I thought for sure, this fat kid has ulterior motives.” I still remember the day Billy called me over to sit with him instead of my usual seat. I was the new kid at school and he’d been there for years.

We were fast friends. Actually, I usually almost always hit it off with people. Particularly because I was the typical ‘class genius’ everyone praised and tried to be friends with because their parents wanted them to. It was a little different with Billy though. He never asked me how I studied or how I always remembered everything and all that.

“Who you calling fat, you literal stick,” he sneered.

I snorted. Well, he had a point. Lately my health had taken a turn for the worse and I’d been losing weight quite readily. Not that I was trying to gain weight but that still kind of stung.

We laughed together just like usual. We spoke about dull things, exciting things, horny things and so on. We had a lot in common. But towards the very end… Yeah, I’m dreaming again.

Dreaming of the past. Dreaming about what could have been. But… Billy betrayed me. He threw me in front of the damn train.

He murdered me.

“Why did you do it Billy? Why you, of all people? I thought you were my best friend,” I said. Surprisingly the words came out.

More surprisingly, Billy just stared, he stared at me with wide eyes, “Ah, so this wasn’t just a dream. Sorry, dude.”

I woke up.

I was in my room. A big fat cat was sleeping next to me. No, it was a cat lady with cat ears, seven tails, and big boobs!

Wait, wait, was she Miss Chamille, cosplaying!

Can-can I tou-

And then I woke up for real.

***

It wasn’t just my hand, my clothes were pretty singed too. So we had an infirmary at this place? Kind of stung to move around.

To my utter disappointment, there wasn’t a cat lady in this room. Just a sleeping Shia. She was sleeping right next to me for some reason.

Yawning, I stared outside. Pretty late. Midnight probably.

“You sure you won’t catch a cold?” I said.

“Mmm….”

She was kind of cute… the drool and snot on her face wasn’t though. Is she sick or something?

Come to think of it, I hadn’t really seen her for the last two days.

“You okay?” I asked.

“I’m fine,” she rubbed her eyes, waking up. “How about you?”

“As you can see.”

“Didn’t know you could use magic. Thought you couldn’t?”

“Yeah, I shouldn’t have been able to. But I think I might have found a way to.”

“That’s good,” she yawned again and closed her eyes.

“No seriously, you alright? You look sick.”

“Eating some of that black stuff wasn’t a good idea…” She mumbled.

Oh, so she sto- ate some of the other fish. “How much did you eat?”

“One bite. I threw it up though. Vile.”

“It wasn’t that bad.”

“It was that bad.”

We snickered. “Well, I’ll be heading off to my room. How about you?” I said.

“This bed is comfy, so I’ll stay here…” she passed out.

I sighed. I kind of wanted to get away from here but at the same time, I didn’t want to just leave her here alone. What if her fever worsened. Actually, I checked her fever and it wasn’t that high. She didn’t even have a fever. Just a runny nose that was leaking all over her face… Kind of disgusting but I was like that literally three days ago.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

I surveyed the room. There were other beds here. But no one else. Just us. Not even a nurse. I mean, what kind of a school infirmary doesn’t have a hot nurse?

Sigh. I tried searching the cupboards and found some blankets. This room was pretty warm. But if she felt cold, she could always use them I suppose. So, I left them by her side, took one for myself and lied down on a separate bed. My burns were slathered with some green stuff, very reminiscent of the stuff Mom had used on me. The minor burns would probably heal within a week or two. Can’t I just heal this instantly with my elixir though?

Typical colds couldn’t be fixed with elixirs, I’d already tried. But maybe I could cure this! No, it’s just a minor burn. I don’t want to waste that stuff.

Suffice to say, I was the ‘don’t waste anything even in the last boss battle’ type of gamer.

***

It took me three days to fully heal. During this time, I didn’t dare touch the fish bones. I did experiment with trying to light a mini fire on my finger but only managed to spark a smoke…. Shia also recovered and together we took some days off.

Apparently, I was banned from both the church and the library for exactly a week. I guess they were more concerned about my health than I was.

I spent the first day lazing around, the second day visiting Anya and the third… going shopping.

What kind of shopping?

“I know a good place,” Shia said.

We received a pouch full of coins from Barack senior; 3 gold coins, 8 silvers and 4 copper. In all honesty, that was a lot of money. And we were going to spend all of them on clothes?

Like seriously?

We walked in the not so shabby part of town. The place where you’d see prominent noble kids renting or even owning places. The academy itself wasn’t too far from here.

Over the course of the last few days, people didn’t really ask me about how I could use magic; they just took it for granted. Their attitude towards me had changed though. In the past, I was seen as this harmless kid whose family would murder you if you hurt him. Now, one group of students considered me the next prodigy or whatever and the other, their doom, especially the kids who’d acted all haughty with me before. Some girls were being a bit too friendly at the library though. They were older than me, so it was probably just my imagination.

Not much changed. Our academy had about twenty-three students who could use magic, and I just happened to be one of them and was definitely not special in anyway, or so I told everyone who tried getting close to me just for the sake of it. Obviously that kind of backfired and that was part of why I was banned from the library. As for the church, well… let’s just say Mrs. Alayla wasn’t very happy about me being really sick after eating her cooking when she’d clearly warned me. Sigh, yeah, I brought it on to myself. Also, apparently, she wanted me to stay home to fully recover before anything else.

“That’s the place,” Shia said.

While my head was in the clouds, we somehow made it to the mid-section of the city; this place was full of stores for the middle-class nobles and in the back, you could see middle class house… for nobles.

Just from the outside I could tell, it was a tailor shop. They had ready-made stuff hanging in the display. The glass display was a little crude and full of imperfections but at least they were trying.

Ring!

“Ah, Lady Shia and… you must be-” A bald man came to greet us. Bald, thin, glasses.

“Soler A. Barack.” I offered a noble now.

He smiled and cordially greeted us. I didn’t see other customers but he did have two attendants who took our measurements before anything else.

Fancy place, but not even close to the places I was used to back home. Now granted, my family might have been on the high-income spectrum but… anyway- Doesn’t that make me a spoiled brat?

“So, what do I owe this pleasure? Let me guess, Duke Alzania’s tea party?”

“You’ve guessed it,” Shia said. “I’d like a dress while,” she gave me the side way.

“A suit and pants,” I said. Before coming here, Shia and her mother explicitly explained two things to me. One, I had to say A suit and pants, and two… I was to, under no circumstances, bargain.

“Splendid!”

He brought out the materials and although I didn’t think he could show me something that would blow my mind… something blew my mind.

One of the fabrics was practically glowing with mana. “Did you make this with Manadust?” Apparently crushed Manafish Bones were called Manadust. I only learned it recently. And no, you weren’t supposed to eat it… as long as you wanted to live that was.

So, it was kind of a miracle I was alive.

“Ah, I did not know my lord had such splendid eye for details. Indeed, it is imbued with the finest Manadust and a perfect companion for a man of your caliber,” he came closer. “Not many magicians awaken with such a magnificent outburst of flames, you know,” he whispered.

Seriously, this dude seemed more like an information broker than a tailor. “You seem sure I’d pick this.”

“I’d be disappointed if you don’t.”

Well, I’d be disappointed too. I actually liked this. Somewhat indigo but under some lighting, it could be almost blood red, while under others, black! I really liked it. “How much?” I said, bluntly.

“Three gold my lord, considering this is your first visit, I will take off two silvers.”

The what? Just for the freaking fabric?

I stared at Shia and she didn’t seem bothered at all. What about your dress, miss?

I started sweating. With a small sigh. “Very well,” I said, producing a pouch full of coins myself. “The least I can do is buy my own fabric.”

“You seem to be mistaken sir,” he said. “Tailing price is already included.” It was still pretty pricey though. Three grand for a literal suit? Even if it’s glowing that’s too much! Considering I had two very expensive suits like these though… No, seriously, I was spoiled as fuck.

“I see.” I shrugged. “Good price,” I said. I have no idea if it’s actually good or bad though.

His face lit up. “It would honor me greatly if my lord continues the family tradition of being our patrons.”

“As long as you don’t rip me off, I’ll visit yearly.”

His face soured a little. “Surely, I wouldn’t dare…”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

We shook as I handed him two gold coins and eight silvers. My hands stung a little. That was literally a whole month’s pay. Argh….. And wait, he didn’t even bother showing me designs and stuff!

Shia chose a dress herself. Violet, with flowery embroidery. Cost about a gold and 9 silvers. So, we had some money left. Or rather, she did. which she surprisingly just gave to me with a wink (Only after taking out two whole silvers). The hell was she doing anyway?

So technically I only made a net loss of 11 silvers.

With our dresses ordered, we strode out of there and headed back home. Apparently, the dresses would be ready by next week. The tea party was going to be held the week after, so there was still plenty of time.

“You know,” Shia said. “You’ve changed since coming here.”

It’s only been two months since I came here miss. I’ve just adapted. I haven’t changed one bit, I assure you.

“Maybe.”

She snickered.

We went back home. On the way, we picked up some meat skewers for 3 coppers each. They were good.