CHAPTER 70: I’M JUST SAYING, SHOPPING IS LIKE STARING INTO THE ROTTING SOUL OF HUMANITY

“Because she’s slender with a moderately tall height, almost anything would look good on her, ne.”

“I still think this sheath-style with the pannier would be best…”

“Eh… but that neckline … it looks way too stuffy with a bateau…”

… Are they even speaking Japanese?

Well, no they aren’t, but even if it was properly translated into Japanese, I would have no idea what was said.

“Ne, Jun-chan, what length do you want the skirt? Floor length? Knee length? Ah, how about tea length? No, street length would be better.”

Seriously, I understand the words, but what do they mean?

“Argh, forget it! We’re only here for Midori’s dress! I’m not wearing one!”

Nifta, the pale bunnykin lady of the night, pouts as I try to stop her from holding a dress up to me.

“But Jun-chan doesn’t have anything good enough to wear for a formal occassion~.”

Crap, cutely pouting Bunnykin is way too cute. But I’m not going to give in.

“I’m not going there to show myself off, I’m going there for work, you know? I can’t do anything in a dress!”

“No no, if you dress poorly, you’ll make Seimei-san and the Guild look bad~.”

“Un, un!”

Crap x2. Nifta is now getting back up from Erina-sama.

If I had known it would be like this, I should have bought fancier clothes! My Commoner’s Clothes may look like a Noble’s outfit, but according to the girls, it’s a Commoner’s leisure clothes.

“Rejected-!”

Is the unanimous sentence The Queen Mary’s girls gave.

“It will be fun to dress up for this together, so come on, bear with it! We’ll pay for it too, so relax, relaaaax!”

Midori-chan, you traitor-! Even though you hated the miniskirt, you’re ok with this?!

“Try this one!”

“How about this one?”

“Get her to try this one!”

One by one by one the girls keep trying to shove various outfits on me.

Every once in a while they would get side-tracked with Midori-chan, but just when I thought they had given up on me, they’d come back! Why?!

I just kept refusing and arguing, and before I knew it, 2 or 3 hours must have gone by.

I, I am starting to get dizzy …

No good. Nothing good can come out of this.

“Tch. I don’t want anything to do with this; even right now I have to be escorting Seimei-san. I’m leaving.”

“But Jun-chan~”

“Mou, if you’re going to be like that, we’re just going to pick something out for you…”

“If it’s not pants, I won’t wear it!”

And with that ultimatum, I made a strategic retreat.

◇◇◇

That was what happened a few moments ago.

I am currently outside, hiding among the guy gamers.

It’s safer here.

Th-that was awful. Before I knew it, I was tempted to just agree so they’d stop trying to make me try on different things, but stop Jun! You need to hold on to your beliefs! And your pants.

… I’m so tired.

“J-jun, are you ok?”

Masaki is giving me worried glances, while Tatsu-san and Seimei-san are looking off into the distance with unfocused eyes. They know exactly what I went through, huh?

Ah, Ragnall is laughing so hard he’s clutching his stomach.

Damn you.

“Aaah… I totally understand that feeling. It reminds me of the time when a co-worker had a fancy wedding, and my girlfriend dragged me to every wedding boutique to try on tuxedoes. Aren’t they basically suits with a vest? Can’t I just wear that?”

Seimei-san was muttering.

“Un, or the time my girlfriend was going to a middle school reunion and told me I didn’t have anything worth wearing to it in my closet, so we spent an entire weekend shopping for clothes … although she broke up with me a few weeks later.”

Heeh… Tatsu-san and Seimei-san reminisced about the hard times.

“Wait. Sei-chan, you had to wear a tuxedo? Were you in the wedding party?”

“No … it was just a really fancy wedding. The kind that people with a lot of money throw.”

“… Sei-chan, I thought you were in sales for some corporation? Do people really make that much money? It’s by commission I thought?”

Tatsu-san tilted his head in confusion.

“Hm… how should I put it. My next promotion, if I could ever get it, would have been head of the department?”

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“What?! Shit, you’re an elite aren’t you!? A guy like that playing VR games and being a ranker… isn’t that off?”

“Well… that’s why my girlfriend of 4 years broke up with me in the end.”

The adult conversation is overwhelming. It’s hard to know whether to pity Seimei-san or remain in awe.

“By the way, Jun, what’s with that sword you’ve been holding onto this entire time? It’s kind of giving off a really amazing light.”

Recovering from his laughter, probably because he didn’t really understand what Tatsu-san and Seimei-san were talking about, Ragnall finally asked about the sword I was clutching in my hand.

But when he said “amazing light,” Ragnall said it with a clear look of apprehension. Is it really that bad of an aura?

Come to think of it, I had forgotten that I was holding it this entire time.

“Oh, that’s right. I completely forgot. Masaki, here.”

I carefully tossed it over the short distance to Masaki, and he quickly extended both arms on reflex.

“What the what the wha-!”

He was a little flustered, but he still caught it properly.

That’s good. I was going to have to beat him up if he let it drop to the ground.

“Eh? What’s this?”

He carefully unsheathed the blade.

A breath of cold air wafted through the streets, though it was so faint that you were left wondering if you had imagined it.

The ice-blue saber with the black galvorn alloy hilt; for a split second, it took all of our breaths away.

Even though I had forged it myself, it almost feels completely alien to me.

Well, I guess I couldn’t really see it well while I was forging it.

“By the way, I wouldn’t charge it with magic or use your game skills if you’re sparring with some one. It eats through metals without mana like cutting tofu.”

Masaki froze just as he was about to casually swing the sword around and re-adjust his grip for a full test swing.

“Just to be sure; Jun-kun, what is that?”

Seimei-san peered over his glasses at the sword.

I want to believe that the worried look on his face is just my imagination.

“It’s just the tail fin of the ice drake though?”

I said as innocently as I could. Seimei-san, the uses of Analyze are limited on those glasses, so I would appreciate it if you didn’t use them on the sword. Of course that’s the only reason I’m hoping you won’t use it.

“Well, it would be a lot better if you don’t lose it, or let someone steal it.”

I tell Masaki.

Sorry, although I was forging it without limits, I didn’t expect it to get to this kind of degree.

And by that, I mean it’s a sword with strength that can be considered along the same line as weapons given to heroes by gods in a myth.

For the record, it’s not like THAT reached such a grand level through my own abilities.

An ice-drake is only 1 step away from a legendary monster, and galvorn isn’t inferior to mithril and orichalcum.

It feels like a case of “the materials create the masterpiece”, so I don’t really feel satisfied with it.

To reach this degree with just plain iron is the goal!

… No, I understand, I shouldn’t be unreasonable. Still, I think if I had better talents, I could have brought the quality from “mythical” to “godly”.

Although it might sound unreasonable, technically this sword is a disappointment… This is something I will keep hidden away in my heart, because I know that I’ll get chewed out by any and all artisans who hear such luxurious complaints.

Masaki is still frozen in place.

“It’s not that dangerous, Masaki, just don’t swing it at allies if you’re worried.”

“… N-no, that doesn’t make me feel better at all…”

“Well, just test it out in the Labyrinth on monsters before you fight people. I haven’t tried it yet to see how it handles either.”

Masaki carefully resheathed the sword.

“By the way, the sheathe is lined with wyvern leather, and has a enchant on it.”

“… Jun, where the hell did you get this!?”

Masaki was holding it like it was something that was fragile.

It’s a sturdy enough sword for combat, even if it looks like it’s made from ice or glass or something.

“Oooh, so that’s what all the Adventurer-smiths were making a fuss about. They were saying something about a meltdown in the forge, but you had to temper an ice-drake’s tail fin.”

Ragnall, that’s so not helping.

U-um, Seimei-san, I can’t really see what you’re thinking, but it makes me really nervous…

“I think I should just give up. It’s impossible for you to keep a low profile, isn’t it?”

“It’s fine, isn’t it? You’ll go crazy if you keep trying to control too much, Sei-chan! Even if we keep a low profile, it’s not like people won’t figure us out in the end.”

Thanks, Tatsu-san. To be honest, trying to avoid people’s attention and that kind of thing is getting really stifling.

“I usually exercise restraint, but we’re already known as incomprehensible people. I don’t think we should limit ourselves to normal weapons in that case. Because they’ll expect us to have abnormal weapons. Besides, the amount of stuff I crafted for you is already beyond abnormal, Seimei-san.”

If they’re already suspicious, we’d better prepare ourselves in case they try to take action based on their suspicions! – but I only just thought of that now, while I’m trying to think up excuses for my OP crafting.

But that was why I made that sword. People are already singling out Masaki and challenging him, not to mention viewing him as a great military chess-piece. It’s not going to be much longer until the rest of the gamers are targeted too, right? It’s not unreasonable to prepare for bad things that could happen, right?

“Haaa… Well, just keep your wits about you, I guess. I wonder if we should switch our ways of thinking, if we can’t get back to Japan.”

Seimei-san muttered that last part really low so that only I, with Augment Body, could hear him, but I’m not sure I understand his reasoning.

I’m not sure why pretending to be weak or not is related to whether we can return to Japan or not.

Maybe because the lay-low and go-home as soon as possible strategy doesn’t work anymore?

Hm, but even I was trying to avoid attention at first. It might just be because I feel comfortable in Nyl City now, so I don’t think it’s a problem if I don’t act COMPLETELY with prudence.

Besides, there are cheat-like people like Ragnall around too.

Aaaaah-!

My thoughts spin around and around in my head and I can’t make head or tails of them.

I blame the dress-shopping.

“… Wait. You MADE that sword!?”

Tatsu-san finally caught up with conversation.

◇◇◇

I quickly learned what the other gamers used.

Of course, Midori-chan uses a bow, but she also uses a pair of daggers in close combat.

Tatsu-san uses katars. I wonder if they are exotic in this world… when I asked, it seems that some clans in the south-east of the northern continent use them.

Karin uses a claymore.

Hide uses a tanto, and also shuriken and kunai. A regular ninja, de gozaru. It wasn’t surprising to hear that he’s having problems finding shuriken and kunai. It seems, currently he’s using darts in place of kunai, and has all but given up being able to use any skills that need shuriken.

Emi uses a wooden staff, but ever since she’s come to this world, apparently she keeps saying that it feels unpleasant to use. I think she’s more sensitive to mana and magic power than Seimei-san, and she can feel the hiccups when channeling magic through the staff.

Okay, I think I roughly have an idea about what I should prepare for everyone.

Ah, Seimei-san used a staff in game, but I’m not planning on fashioning a weapon for him. That’s because Seimei-san doesn’t need a weapon; he IS a weapon. Although, I want to investigate more into a protective dagger … well, that’s something I will create at my leisure.

Hm? What am I charging them?

I’m not charging that much, since, although they may have more money than the average commoner, they actually don’t have that much.

They’re just in charge of getting the materials themselves. Which technically Seimei-san more than covered just from the hunt from before.

It was completely anti-climactic with Seimei-san’s 1-hit KO, but you know, there was no way fighting it would have been as easy as fighting the Crystal Python.

Even if the Crystal Python is an A rank monster, the difference between A rank and S rank is the difference of destroy most of a town versus completely obliterating everything that used to lie within the town.

I mean, the Crystal Python is still considered a snake. The ice drake is barely a step below a dragon.

If Ragnall and I fought it ourselves … well, I won’t say we wouldn’t be able to defeat it, but it would have considerably more battle scars. Compared to the amount of money it would cost to get your hands on such a (relatively) pristine corpse of a near legendary monster, I would probably end up owing Seimei-san in the end.

Well, I’m still charging them the price of a masterworked sword for labor.

Considering the result will be drake-weaponry of legendary status … un, if they don’t know about Seimei-san providing the material, I’m sure to be scolded by Ossan and Helward-san.

By no means am I just excited to be trying out things I’ve been forbidden from doing because they create over-powered weapons…

Haa… I’m so ready for today to be over already, so I can head back to the forge…