Alissa’s final shop she was set on visiting was an herbal and alchemical store. Going inside the pure white brick building, everyone was hit in the face by an overwhelming medicinal smell.
On the nearly arranged shelves and cases were all manner of potions, salves, pills, and pastes. While Adrest had no idea what each product did, he was sure they weren’t cheap. Alissa again did all the talking as she walked up to the counter headed by an old woman, her face and figure showing how beautiful she’d once been in her youth.
“I want 3 sets of everything an A rank party would buy when preparing for a dungeon, and add an extra set of medicines suited to healing per a person.”
The old woman raised her eyebrows, but didn’t have much of a reaction to the ridiculous order. “5,000 Platinum each, and I’ll throw in some extras as a gift.”
Happy to find a shop that didn’t waste time, Alissa shook the older woman’s hand, noting the surprising strength hidden in the old bones.
“Any problem exchanging for these instead of Trevil? I added a few for the trouble.”
The old woman just grabbed the bag and hefted it up and down a few times, gauging the contents. “Come back any time tomorrow and I’ll have it all packed, would you like me to label and write instructions for the materials?”
“That’d be great, thanks! We’ll be back tomorrow then!”
As they hit the cobbled street, filled with hundreds of people orderly rushing to their destination. Finding a quiet spot to stop, Adrest asked, “That’s it for shopping today, right Ali? I don’t think Rin can take much more.”
Rin was just following along, not really looking at anything. After the spacial artifact that was around ten times larger than the one she’d been given at the academy, Rin didn’t know how to repay her, and swore to do her absolute best on the remainder of the trip. After the blacksmith visit Rin wanted to tell Alissa she really had done enough, but there hadn’t been a chance in the busy streets, finding herself watching the same scene play out with medicines that cost as much as she’d make in an entire year.
“Alissa is this much really okay? Won’t you spend everything in your storage bag at this rate? At least, you don’t have to go so far for me.”
Alissa walked back to the hero, linking her arm in Rin’s, “Don’t worry about it, I’d be more comfortable knowing I sent you all off with the best I could find. Besides, all these cores have just been collecting dust and taking up space. You wouldn’t believe how much training I had to do as a child, I collected them out of habit, but have never had a reason to use them.”
Rin was wondering more and more just what kind of life Alissa had led before they met. Rin decided to stop thinking so much. Her face relaxed, and her usual goofy grin crept up as she hugged the woman by her side.
“Thank Big sis Ali!” Alissa stumbled at the sneak attack, then giggled as she picked the smaller hero up and spun her around in the air, getting the attention of the few people passing by the side small street.
Rin was bright red and swore she’d never say that in public again. Refusing to speak until they were inside a small café and Alissa was prodding her with a spoon for a large parfait she’d bought to share with the table.
Rin couldn’t resist, taking the peace offering and a bite of the treat. They relaxed before setting off again, this time walking for well over an hour, Alissa insisting she wasn’t lost, Adrest getting hit for insisting she was. Finally, they arrived in front of a beautifully simple storefront, the deep blue stone so seamless it looked like the entire building was carved from a single piece. Huge windows allowed them to see the many fabrics, the formal and intricate clothes looked far better than what they’d been able to find in the Outpost town.
Almost two hours later and the sun starting to set, they walked out, everyone looking exhausted except Alissa. “It was almost like being fitted and dressed for ceremonies back home!”
“You have ceremonies in human form?” Adrest raised an eyebrow, it didn’t seem like a very dragon thing to do.
“Mm-hm! Not all of us like staying in such a large form all the time, while others hate feeling so small and weak. But when entire clans gather, we're required to be in demi-human form. There's not enough space otherwise, and it makes the events much smoother."
“Neat. Then if I grew my horns a little and you covered for me, I could see a real dragon ceremony in person?” Adrest joked, the idea seeming impossible but the epitome of fantasy.
He was a little scared when Alissa’s eyes sparkled in that so dangerous way, “Do you really want to!? It’d be so much fun! Just give me some time to prepare and they’ll never even know you don’t belong.”
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Adrest mourned his new life ending so soon. This time, he really would die because of his mouth.
“N-N-No! I mean I wouldn’t want to cause problems if something happened. If I’m found, you’d be responsible too.”
“Don’t worry about it! I’ll just need to grab a few things on my trip to Zoya’s.”
Rin put a hand on Adrest’s shoulder, “It was nice knowing you Ady. I’ll always tell Belle stories about you.”
Adrest could only nod, unable to speak with Belle’s eyes also drilling into him clearly saying, “You did this to yourself Big bro.”
At the start of another early day, the party was excited to wander the first bazaar of the year. It took a bit to find, the city using some warehouses to house the thousands of vendors. Along the many rows of people with carts, stalls, mats, and even miniature store fronts. Everything someone could ever want was present, from rare herbs only the spirit races scattered to the east could find, to the latest fashion and entertainment from Radagon’s bursting capital.
Belle was stunned at just how many people were gathered, probably close to ten thousand in this warehouse alone. It was an overwhelming din of conversation as everyone walked the merchants. Belle’s ears were curled in on themselves in displeasure of the noise, but she’d quickly adjust, especially as she dragged Adrest to a stall selling exotic clothing. It looked similar to old Indian and middle-eastern garb. Many layers of transparently thin silk in every color Adrest could imagine wrapped the mannequin displays. There were many different designs, from ones that covered nearly the entire body, leaving only the eyes exposed, to ones that left little to the imagination; sleeveless and leaving the midriff completely open and framed in bright colors that drew the eye.
One of the women working the stall walked over slowly, letting the silk she was wearing dance in the wind.
Her outfit was on the more exposed side, the warehouse warm with so many people. The bright blue-green highlighted her bronze skin. All across her body were small but intricate ornaments and shimmering gold jewelry.
As the exotic beauty got close, Adrest could see thick black makeup highlighting her beautiful golden eyes. Her small mouth parted as she smiled while greeting them, “Hello. Interested in our wares? You won’t find better quality on the continent, but we are quite expensive with such a long journey.”
The young woman had an accent Adrest couldn’t quite place, something like a cross between Persian and Indian. Adrest looked at Belle who was looking at the unfamiliar clothing excitedly and asked, “What do you have in her size?”
Belle eagerly followed the woman further into the display, where the children’s sizes were. After Belle was led off, Alissa and Rin finally made their way over, Rin’s eyes wide as she took in the various styles she’d not seen before.
“I wasn’t expecting to see any Children of The Sun so far east, they hate leaving their peninsula. But they really do have great fashion sense.” Alissa nonchalantly commented as she was feeling the quality of a dress in front of her.
“Thank you for the compliment my friend. I must admit we tend to stay to ourselves though, we aren’t good with the cold.”
The same woman that’s been guiding Belle returned, Belle now carrying two dresses, one many shades of green, The other a crimson red with white accents.
Adrest took out some gold Trevil to pay Belle’s bill but halfway he looked to the other two women. “Do either of you want a few, my treat.”
Rin was about to refuse, insisting she could at least pay for this herself, but was dragged off by Alissa to the depths of the rows upon rows of silk.
Adrest and Belle found a nice spot to wait, Belle excitedly showing Adrest her new dresses, thanking him again. It didn’t take long for Alissa and Rin to return to the counter with an arm full of dresses each. Adrest paid with a few platinum coins and gave a quick farewell to the woman that’d been helping the girls out so much.
As they meandered through row after row, most vendors had nothing Adrest was interested in, but he would occasionally find new kitchen tools and cookware to pick up. Belle was happy with her new dresses but would sometimes pick something out if Alissa pushed her. Rin followed along, nothing much catching her eyes, whereas Alissa grabbed anything that she thought was interesting or looked fun.
Eventually, as they were through three quarters of the first warehouse, Alissa stopped. She dragged the three to a small stall with a few irritated men watching over the many goods. They seemed to specialize in formations and rune-carving, all kinds of densely carved items sitting on the shelves.
As Alissa tried picking one item up, a hand quickly snatched the item back. Following the pasty appendage, Adrest saw it was one of the shopkeepers, a middle-aged man with black hair kept so short Adrest could mistake him as bald. His face looked carved from stone, set in a permanent scowl nearly hiding his violet eyes.
“No touching unless you plan to buy.”
Alissa scowled at the man, his deep violet eyes meeting her shimmering purple. Neither was willing to back down until finally Alissa snorted and threw a storage bag at the man, “I’ll take it then.”
The man inspected the contents of the storage bag, happy he tossed the spherical artifact to her, then turned away completely ignoring the group. Alissa sneered as she led the group off, deciding to head back to the hotel since it was already late into the night. Under the mage light and the three brilliant moons, they walked back to their hotel.
“What was special about that artifact you bought Ali. I thought you were going beat that guy right there.”
Alissa gave a devilish smile, “I’m just being safe, did you happen to notice what color their eyes were my slow little student.”
Ignoring the bait, he answered confidently, “A very dark purple. So what?”
Alissa signed, making a note to redouble their classroom time when everything slowed down. “The Warring States are known for their violet eyes and adept mana control. Now think about what they were selling.”
Being led this far Adrest could easily put together the pieces. “Then why buy something from them?”
Alissa felt her genius was wasted on Adrest, “I hid a mark on the bag and him. I can even hear what is happening near him.”
Adrest’s eyes widened, “Really? How?”
“It’s really easy, you just need a strong soul and wind magic. Or you could do something similar with your spatial magic eventually.”
Rin looked dead as she took in the monster ahead of her. Rin might not be as good as some freaks in the Academy, but she was still first rate in wind magic. She couldn’t figure out how Alissa was hiding the mana, let alone transferring the sound discreetly.