‘Well, I guess I can no longer craft anymore huh? Also, did we leave the pool of melted iron there? Well, whatever, I feel like I am forgetting something though.’ As I finished muttering we were already standing on the central plaza. A few curious glances on Fenri, some people looked at his golden bracelets with eyes full of greed but they did not move. The plaza had a lot more people and was filled with street stalls now. Thinking about it, Ari has not said anything since she found out I have three classes, also she has a distant look.
“Ari.” She was silent for a few seconds but suddenly color returned to her eyes.
“...Yes?!”
“Is everything okay?” After hearing my question she just started fidgeting and looking at the ground. Not saying absolutely anything, she would glance to see my face and then hide her face again.
“Ah, well let’s buy food.” Aizen chimed in and said in a carefree tone, I nodded, however, Ari hearing this glanced at Aizen that was still the same as ever. She just looked at Aizen with wide-open eyes as if questioning if she was alright. However, Aizen just looked at her and shrugged, Ari from her weird behaviour just nodded. Aizen continued talking.
“Well, we need fruits, meat is not a bad idea too.”
“U-umm, won’t meat go bad if we are traveling?” Ari questioned Aizen however she was still somewhat nervous from our previous interaction.
“Don’t worry about it.” Aizen just instantly answered her, Ari not knowing what to do just nodded.
Well, we do need food if we are going to move from this town, however now thinking about it in all honesty. With this new world and stuff, I don't even know what is the best thing to do. Become a renowned adventurer and then retire in a safe place to not be bothered? Try to make money somehow and not be bothered? Explore? In the first place, this world is not even the same as the game world. It is fairly similar however I have never heard of this town we are in, never even seen those things that are somewhat like items but are not items…
“Y-...” I somewhat heard Aizen, pulling me back from my thoughts. She just looked at me and sighed.
“We are going to the food stalls.”
“Nn.” I nodded, looking around everyone is looking at us with a lot of different faces. Some are happy, some look worried about the lost little girls. Some have evil grins. Aizen began walking and Ari started to follow. Fenri was unmoving looking at me, I just followed Aizen so did Fenri.
We arrived in front of a food stall that sold fruits. Aizen approached the old man behind the food stall and started pointing towards the barrel full of apples.
“How much for the barrel?” The old man’s smile somewhat cracked and he answered.
“Girly, I do not think you can afford it, let alone transport it. But it’s 1 gold coin in total.”
Hearing this Aizen put her hand on her chin and thought for a second, then put one of her hands on her pocket and pulled out a gold coin. The problem with the coin was that it looked fairly tarnished. I assume it was a gold alloy rather than actual gold. The man looked at the coin with wide-open eyes.
“That is certainly an old coin. Except it has a crest I have never seen before. Sorry, but I cannot accept it.” The man apologized and slightly bowed. Aizen started scratching her cheek and came to me.
“K- Yami…” She just looked at me with sad puppy eyes. What’s with this dragon? Sigh, let’s see. The merchant did give me a bag full of coins. I reached my right hand inside my cloak and took it out of my inventory. I started looking inside and I saw: One blue coin, three gold coins, five silver coins, and ten bronze coins. All of the coins had a picture of a castle on one side and the other side had some sort of emblem. I gave a gold coin to Aizen and put away the coin pouch. As soon as she received it she went towards the old man again and gave it to him. The man froze for a second but started inspecting the coin and nodded. He talked in a somewhat regretful voice.
“Girly, you may take the barrel, but I cannot help you carry it.”
“Ah, that’s fine.” Aizen answered carefree as usual. The old man unmoving just looked at her while tilting his head wondering how she would take the barrel. Aizen placed her gaze on the barrel while putting her hand on her chin yet again thinking on how to move it. She ultimately decided to push it, extremely slowly as if she was struggling with it until it was right in front of me. She whispered to my ear.
“Do you have some type of cloth you can put on top of it that covers it entirely?”
“Nn.” Confused. I just nodded, I placed my hand inside my cloak again and took a black cape that shone in a somewhat purple tone when the sun struck it. It was an item but it can double down as a mantle. I gave it to her and she placed it on top of the barrel. Some people looked at the mantle with confusion. Fenri was sleeping on the ground waiting and Ari was looking at the cloak with somewhat excited eyes waiting for something to happen. Aizen faced the palm of one of her hands towards the barrel and started chanting?
“O, I order you in the name of uh…” She stopped... Thinking about what to do with the whole invented chant. She did the same thing again.
“O, I order you to hide and disappear in darkness until I call upon you again, in the name of the legendary dragon. [Hide].”
After she finished chanting the cloak or mantle that was on top of the barrel slowly hit the ground as if no object had been placed below it. Sigh, that is not even a magic that exists, you are just going to put it in your spatial box while pretending it's a trick? Ari tilted her head in confusion due to the weird chant. Some people looked with wide-open eyes as if they had witnessed the impossible, others just tilted their heads in confusion to the newfound magic. Aizen crouched and grabbed the cloak from the ground and gave it to me. I just gave her a piercing look while I received it while I put it away in my inventory in the most inconspicuous way I could. She had a wry smile from my reproachful stare.
“Umm.”
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As I was looking at Aizen I heard a voice behind me. It was Ari, we both looked at her, she was fidgeting and started speaking again in a somewhat quiet voice.
“Shouldn’t we find an inn?"
An inn... Yeah, we do need that. Ari is right, we need a place to sleep it is not like we are going to sleep on the street. We nodded while simultaneously leaving the scene somewhat hurriedly since everyone was looking at the weird silver-haired mage that no one has ever seen before. We walked at a quick pace until we were towards the borders of the plaza will all the businesses. I saw a young man passing by that was wearing leather armor, probably an adventurer.
“Umm, excuse me.” I called out to him, he stopped to see where the source of the voice was coming from eventually fixing his gaze on me. He just kept staring somewhat awkwardly unmoving from his position. I took a step back from his weird behaviour, suddenly his eyes glowed and rushed towards me. He was uncomfortably close to me, he began talking in a somewhat excited voice.
“An, inn? I can lead you to one, just follow me.” He puffed his chest in pride, we awkwardly nodded and began following him. As we were walking a lot of people fixed their gaze on us. Wait where is Fenri? As I was looking around I saw him, he was still sleeping in front of the apple food stall. Some children were poking him he would somewhat open his eyes from it and the children would run away screaming in joy… . ‘Well, just come back when you can.’ I muttered. Fenri leisurely lifted his head and placed his gaze on me and nodded. Quite impressive, as expected from my tamed beast.
We arrived in front of a three-floor inn, it looked like a big house and the second floor was bigger than the first floor, the third floor bigger than all of the other floors. It looked like some type of inverted pyramid but I did not question it. The man stood in front of the door and fixed his eyes on me.
“Please marry me!”
“””eh.””” All three of us just let out stupid sounds from the sudden energetic exclamation. The man continued talking.
“Ever since I placed my eyes on you. I know you were the one, with those beautiful odd-colored eyes that seem to hold all the knowledge of the world. That charmful smile and your beautiful white hair that shimmers in a myriad of colors.” He just kept blabbering about how I looked, I was completely stiff from this. Aizen was rolling on the floor laughing at this weird occurrence. Damned dragon. Ari just froze and looked at me then at the ground over and over again. Eventually, the man stopped and looked at me with sparkling eyes waiting for my reply.
“I refuse.” The man froze, Ari just shrugged and Aizen was gasping for air as she was lifting herself from the ground.
“But you a-”
“I refuse. Go away creep.” I interrupted the man as he was about to speak and looked at him with disgust. The man flinched and looked at the ground with a dark face. He turned towards the street and started walking like a zombie. I could see a trail of what seemed like drops of water behind him.
[Title unlocked: Heartbreaker.]
Cold as ice. Perhaps you might find love in a glacier?
I flinched reading the image that flashed in my mind. ‘I am not into guys! Ahhh!’ I started holding in frustration from such thoughts. Aizen had finally lifted herself from the ground and straightened herself. She had a smirk, she started to speak in a playful tone.
“Wife… Pff!” She held her mouth to avoid laughing. I looked at her with bloodshot eyes. Who are you even laughing at? Do you even have the right to laugh?!
“Shut up you pitiful dragon!”
“Oh-hooh. What did you say? Y-”
“Umm.”
As Aizen was about to speak she was interrupted by Ari’s voice, she was fidgeting and looking at us. I glanced to see Aizen she also looked to me. We realized the commotion we were doing. Some people that came out of the inn looked at us while tilting their head, some of the people around were somewhat stiff while walking.
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry as well.”
We both apologize even though neither of us were sorry. Ari let out a sigh of relief. She was considerably less tense than when we exited the forge. Ari cheerfully said.
“Well, let’s go into the inn!”
“Nn.”
We both nodded. I walked towards the door and opened it a bell rang in a pleasant sound. However no one looked towards the door, the first floor was like a diner that was filled with couples? There was a receptionist at the big bar-counter and next to it there were stairs that led to the second floor. We walked towards the counter and when we were in front of it the charming old lady that was behind the counter noticed us.
“Oh, my. What do we have here?” Hearing those words we tilted our heads. The lady seeing our reaction began speaking again.
“Welcome to Mirl’s couple inn.” Couple inn?! WHAT?! All of us froze. I decided to explain as soon as I recovered.
“Wait, we were just looking for an inn, and a man led us here and then proposed to me but I declined him.” The lady nodded as if this happened often.
“I see how it is. Well, this works as an inn too, despite the lovey-dovey atmosphere.”
Well, I guess that is fine.
“Room for one please.” The lady tilted her head looking at our group of three.
“I mean the bed is pretty spacious but I do not think you can fit three people in there.”
“That is fine.” She just paused for a second hearing my careless reply.
“... That would be 5 silver coins.”
I decided to give her 1 gold coin instead of the silver coins, I assume it is of higher value so I should receive change. The lady went somewhat stiff when receiving the coin but handed me a room key and 5 silver coins. She began speaking again.
“Your room is on the second floor, once you go up the stairs you just walk straight until the end of the hallway. There’s a door at the end, that is your room.”
Despite her weird wording, I understood the location of the room, so I nodded however, I had one thing to ask.
“Umm, I have a tamed beast. It’s a white wolf however, it is not with me right now, is he admitted in the building?” The receptionist after pondering for a few seconds answered.
“Well, if it’s cute I think I can allow it.”
Ha? Well, I guess I will not object...
“Ah, okay. He may just enter the building at a random ti-” I heard the door ring as I was answering. I looked towards the door. It was Fenri, I could slightly see outside the door and there was a bunch of kids… Just what did you do? The receptionist also followed my gaze and placed it on Fenri she was silent for a second.
“... Well, he is pretty cute I will allow it.”
Well that works I guess. Fenri entered the inn wagging his tail, the kids had downcast eyes because they could not come in with him. Sigh. He arrived in front of us. I just looked at him, he stopped wagging his tail. Bad dog! Or wolf? Fenri was looking at the ground as if apologizing. I guess that is fine. I started petting him, he lifted his head again and started swaying his tail happily again and. We went up-stairs without asking about food or anything. Fenri followed, attracting some of the couple’s glances but they went back to chattering a second afterwards.
We walked through the hallway, the walls looked in good condition seeing they had no cracks, the wooden floor shined reflecting the light from some type of items on the ceiling and the doors looked to be made out of polished oak with golden knobs. We arrived at our room and opened the door with the key. It made a nice click sound, the room was way more spacious than what I expected. It was a 6 tatami sized rectangular room. There was a bed at the back of the room and a table with four chairs at the center. It was not a bad layout however it felt like it lacked a lot of things. I noticed a door on the right wall. I think it was a bath? I wonder if all inns are like this?
As soon as we closed the door. Aizen took the apple barrel out of her spatial box and left it next to the door then looked at me and nodded. She began leisurely walking until she was next to the bed and rubbed her eyes then curled herself up to sleep? I think it was due to her mana being low? She tries to keep appearances too much, however, she is doing it around Ari. Is she now familiar with her? I looked at Ari, she just looked at Aizen and tilted her head wondering what this was about. I put away the barrel in my inventory.
I took a sit on one of the chairs. Ari was unmoving from the entrance she was fidgeting when she saw me sit she looked at me then at the ground. Ari timidly spoke.
“Umm.”
“Yes?”
Ari was still looking at the ground and fidgeting, after a brief pause she nervously talked to me.
“W-Who are you?”
I froze when I heard her question.