The old man got off the driver seat carrying the bag of teeth and skin of the monster, and joined Kyou and the others who had already gotten off the carriage. Their eyes remained fixated at the gate which read "Welcome to BlueHedge"
"Follow me." The old man smiled as he approached the huge iron gate. The gate opened with a long and slow creak as soon as he stood near it. The old man took them inside what seemed to be the marketplace.
"Their clothes..!" Kyou stared in surprise at the people scattered all around the marketplace. All women were dressed in heavy, long gowns with matching bonnets and silk gloves covering their hands while the old men were dressed in a similar way as the old man they'd met, and young men wore tailcoats of different colors.
"Pardon me, I need to sell these. I'll be back in a moment." The old man excused himself.
"Sure." Kyou replied with a smile. The old man returned the smile and made his way to one of the shops lined on either sides.
"They are all wearing 90's clothes..? So this is what the people of this world wear. Since I am wearing a top and a trouser, the guard was suspicious of my attire back then." Ae Rin slowly nodded as everything finally sank into her mind.
Iris turned to Ae Rin anxiously, "I recommend changing our outfits RIGHT NOW. We might get caught again if we seem out of the ordinary in this crowd."
Ae Rin nodded and turned to the old man who was walking back to them after selling the bag of teeth and skin. "Thank you for your assistance, sir. We won't be bothering you anymore. You've already done a lot."
"Well then, I'll be on my way. Take care, dear." The old man waved them goodbye and made his way out of the marketplace.
After saying him goodbye, they hastily rushed to one of the clothes stores, not only because they wanted dresses but also because people out there would notice them sooner or later. The bell above the door rang as soon as they entered the shop.
"Welco–? Oh my, what unique outfits.." The middle - aged woman who seemed to be the owner of the shop stared at their clothes with great interest as if they were made of gold. She immediately took a pair of glasses from the counter. The woman inched closer to them to take a better look at their outfits as she adjusted her glasses near her eyes. The woman was taken aback when she peered into Iris' dead grey eyes and unusually pale face.
"Is something written on my face?" Iris glowered at her.
The woman flinched and quickly averted her gaze, "S-Sorry, it's nothing."
"Can you show us a few dresses that would suit us?" Ae Rin asked her, ignoring her uncomfortable behavior.
"Sure, why not..." The woman shrugged indifferently and crouched down behind the counter to take out a few boxes.
"This is for the lad. This is for you and that one is for the young lady." She opened the boxes and handed them over.
"You can try them out over here. There are enough rooms for the 3 of you to try out your outfits at once." She led them to a suit of rooms where they could try out the clothes.
The woman kept glancing at their outfits even when they were going into the trial rooms. It was just too unusual to her.
....
"Okay, I m done!" Ae Rin smiled at her reflection on the mirror and twirled and played around a bit with the skirt of her cherry - pink gown before finally getting out.
"Iris, you look beautiful! That's my little cherry!" Ae Rin smiled proudly on seeing Iris in a raspberry coloured gown.
"I told you to stop calling me cherry!" Iris frowned, irritation written all over her face.
Ae Rin just smiled back sheepishly in response.
" What's that? 'Cherry'? Such a sweet name for a hideous ghost like her?" Kyou appeared out of a room wearing an elegant black tailcoat.
"If you say ONE more word, I swear I'll slit your throat in half!" Iris glared at him with her fists balled up in anger.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Let's get going." Kyou smirked arrogantly at Iris before motioning Ae Rin to go.
"But you didn't give me coins yet!" The woman's voice made them halt in their tracks and turn around.
"W-What coins..?" Ae Rin asked her even though she knew what she'd meant. But they didn't have any 'coins' with them.
"Don't act like a fool! You know what I'm saying! Give me the coins!" The woman yelled at her in anger.
She slowly took a few steps back signalling Kyou and Iris to run when she commands. When she saw the woman didn't notice their next move, she shouted, "NOW!"
They rushed out of the shop as fast as possible and could hear the woman screaming her lungs out, "Catch them, catch them!! Thief! Thief!"
"Sorry!" Ae Rin shouted back as an apology. But obviously that didn't help. On hearing the woman's cry, the nearby guards immediately rushed to her to investigate. Kyou glanced behind him, only to find out that a few guards armed with swords were already chasing them. "Oh boy...not the guards again!"
The whole marketplace was filled with the clanking of the armors and noisy footsteps.
"There! Let's go over there!" Kyou pointed at an unnoticeable narrow alleyway filled with dumpsters. They ran over to the narrow alleyway and squeezed themselves inside it's darkness.
"Blegh! This smells so bad! Couldn't you find a better place!? Humans are so pathetic." Iris covered her nose because of the nauseating stench coming from the dumpsters.
"At least I spotted this alley unlike you who act all smart but couldn't do anything at the end." Kyou replied.
"Shh! I see them coming." Ae Rin placed her hands on their mouths to silence them.
They sat and watched from the darkness as the guards halted in confusion right near the alleyway. "Where did they go?! They probably didn't run far from here. Let's go that way!" The guards rushed in another direction in search of the thieves.
"Now the guards are at it again. We have two charges on us right now— one for escaping and the other...for stealing. In short, we are screwed." Iris slapped her forehead and sighed hopelessly.
"I don't think many people have seen our faces while we were running. Why don't we go out and ask the shopkeepers abo-!" Ae Rin's words were interrupted by her growling stomach.
"I guess it's time we eat?" Kyou smiled suggestively.
"We don't have the money, you know." Iris reminded him.
" Then we will steal. Don't worry, I am good at doing things stealthily." Kyou grinned as he got out of the alley and merged into the
crowd.
"He'll surely get into trouble." Ae Rin shook her head and got up to follow him.
"I am back!" Kyou grinned proudly carrying a small pouch of coins.
Wow, that was fast." Ae Rin gave him a look of admiration.
They walked into one of the shops which seemed like a restaurant. It was a classic restaurant packed with people. It was so packed that they had to wait for a table to clear out so that they could order something.
"One cappuccino and vanilla cake, please." Ae Rin informed the waiter.
The waiter stared at her bewilderedly, " 'Capuccino and vanilla cake'? I don't understand what you're referring to."
"Don't tell me that- *sigh*...fine, can you tell me what all do you serve?"
"Oh, sure, miss. Largos de Capricano, Creamed Arcos..." The waited kept rambling about different dishes while Ae Rin just stared at him in disbelief.
"What in the world is he saying? Does that make any sense? Largos de what?" Ae Rin slapped her forehead as she realised that she knew none of the dishes that the waiter was saying.
"Please...j-just serve something that a person who has been starving for 3 days can eat." Ae Rin interrupted the waiter's words.
"O-Okay.. sure.." The waiter gave her a look before going back to bring the dish.
"What did you order?" Iris asked.
"They don't have earth food here. The waiter was talking gibberish when I asked him what's on the menu. So I told him to bring something... decent." Ae Rin replied.
"Here's your dish, miss." The waiter came back after a while with a plate covered with a lid in his hand and placed it on the table.
"This dish is one of our special recipes. Hope you like it." He bowed before leaving the table.
"I hope it's not some monster's roasted meat." Kyou opened the lid of the plate to see.... a cake. But it didn't look like any regular cake. The caramel — at least that's what they thought it was— dripping from all sides made it extremely tempting.