Both Shouya and Alisa began walking along through the crowd of demi-humans around them. Some people walk on foot while others ride on wooden carriages with different shapes and sizes being pulled by either large lizards or a pack of dogs. He sees them being used for transporting civilians or valuable goods from one location to the next.
Seeing different races passing by and how unique this world is made Shouya's eyes widened in spectacular as he is filled with wonder and excitement.
"Wow. This is a pretty nice city. I never imagined that I would get to see a city as amazing as this, Alisa-san"
"It sure is. This city is well known for its beautiful scenery. When I wake up in the morning, I look out the window and say 'Good morning world! Another brand new day for work, isn't it? Sounds to me like this is your first time here."
"Well I haven't been outside of my country before, so this is all new to me."
Other than traveling to different regions of Japan, Shouya had never visited any foreign countries of the world before. It was not because he didn't want to go to another country, it was due to the fact that his family was too busy with their jobs that they didn't have time to do other stuff. His family works very hard and they don't get paid much, so Shouya gets paid very little from his allowance and often saves his money for stuff he wanted.
"I can see why just by saying that word."
"What word?"
"That word, 'san'. What does it mean?"
"Ah—"
Not realizing it until now, Shouya has been using honorifics ever since he came into this world. This puts him in an awkward situation.
In the Japanese language, similar to "mister" or "missus" back in his world, someone would often call them "san", "chan", "sama", "kun", "dono", or "sensei", depending on who you are talking to. It is a suffix that represents that person's rank and status, and it is also a sign of respect and the relationship to that person.
However, this is not Japan, this is a whole new world that Shouya is unfamiliar with, so using Japanese honorifics in this world would be out of place.
"I-It's something that we say back in my country. But if it's that annoying, I can stop saying it if you like."
"Oh no, I don't mind it. I've never heard of it before, but it's kinda a cute nickname, actually."
Alisa shakes her hand at Shouya as she thinks calling her "san" is cute. What's so cute about an honorific? is what Shouya would've asked her, but he kept that question to himself.
"Hey, how about I give you one as well?"
"You don't really have to."
"Come on, it'll be a cool one. Pretty please?"
Shouya looks at the poor fox-girl's expression as she is pleading to him that she wants to give him a nickname for him. She is like a child who really wants a new toy so bad that they begged their parents to buy one for them.
Shouya couldn't help it but to give in.
"If that is what you want, I suppose I'll let you nickname me."
Alisa gave a cheerful "yay" to express her joy that she get to nickname Shouya. He had never seen her this happy before, probably he had managed to make someone happy for the first time in his life. Shouya can do nothing but hold back a smile.
Alisa places her hand on the cheek and taps the temple with her finger, trying to think of a good nickname for Shouya. Then she snapped her fingers as she had found a nickname to give to Shouya.
"Oh, I know! How about I'll call you 'Sho', if it's okay with you?"
"I don't mind it, actually."
"Alright then, Sho it is! Let's go Sho!"
After Alisa had given Shouya a nickname, they continued to walk down the streets of Vincilos. Then, they have arrived at the city's main source of income; the shopping district. The place is filled with people that are selling goods from the stands, like; food, jewelry, furniture, and even Magi-gems are being sold to customers.
Shouya recalled that Alisa said that Magi-gems are very common in this city. She wasn't lying, there are some stands selling Magi-gems at an affordable price. However, Shouya could not read the words that were written on the sign. Probably because there is a huge language barrier between his previous world and this world. That's why he couldn't understand it. Living in a world without any knowledge about this world's language just makes it more difficult than he thought.
"Looks like we're here."
Upon arriving at their destination, Alisa announces the location and Shouya looks up to see the sign above him. Although he couldn't read the words what it said, he could see the familiar picture right next to it.
"Is this a…"
Tailor? That is if Akiba wanted to say. Next to him, he sees a pair of mannequins wearing bright colored clothes behind the glass window. If this is a tailor store, then there have to be clothes inside there. But Shouya ponders as he is not sure how much it would cost for a piece of clothing.
He had been to the tailor store several times to buy materials for his cosplay for the convention. But now that Shouya is stuck in this world, his dream to go to the convention becomes wasted, and his opportunity to meet the boy and tell him the truth can never come true.
As Shouya thought about it for a while, Alisa called out to him.
"Hey, why are you standing around for, Sho? First time ever been to a tailor before?"
"No. I've been to these kinds of stores a couple of times."
Well...not anymore now that I'm stuck here.
Both Shouya and Alisa enter the store and see a line of colorful clothes and material hanging on the side of the walls. He was blown back to see how many clothes he had never seen before. To Alisa, it was no surprise, but to Shouya, however, this is brand new to him.
"—Ah, welcome!"
The voice comes from a rack of clothes that was in front of them. There is a man in his late-twenties and his appearance is similar to Gunther. However, unlike Gunther, whose appearance closely resembles a dog with only dog ears and a tail, the man has cat ears on top of his head and tail that resembles a cat.
"Is there something I can help you with today?"
"I was hoping that you have some clothes for my friend here."
"Alright, let me take a look at him, shall we?
The cat-eared man begins to reach down to his own pocket and takes out a small, hand-size measuring tape and begins to measure Shouya's body.
Why am I getting the sense of deja vu?
Shouya recalled not too long ago, the boy from his school checked his body to figure out what was going on with him. The cat-eared human is doing the same thing, except he is checking out Shouya's body to figure out his size and length of his body.
The man measures around Shouya's waist, his neck, he measures Shouya's body from head-to-toe. While at the same time, he takes out a flipbook and a pencil and takes notes on Shouya's size and height.
Alisa, on the other hand, looks around the store to see the various, colorful clothes that are hanging in the shop.
The cat-human retracts measuring tape and rolls it up, declaring that he has finished measuring Shouya's body.
"Alright, I'm all done! I think I have some clothes that might fit you. You can wait for me in the fitting room if you like. I'll bring them to you right away."
After he instructs Shouya to wait for his clothes to be brought, he begins to search what Shouya is going to wear. Shouya walks over to the fitting room as he was suggested.
Alisa approaches Shouya while he waits for the cat-eared man to bring the clothes to him.
"I hope it looks pretty."
"Yeah... Say, are you going to wear that?"
Shouya looks down and sees Alisa holding a short, amber-colored dress on her hands. The dress that she picked looked like she is ready to go out to a ball.
"Well I was going to try it out and see if it fits me, and I was wondering if I can get your opinion on it."
"It does look good on you."
"You really think so? I mean, my only complaint is that I don't really like the color, but I can't help it but love the design."
Hearing Shouya's opinion gives Alisa a joyful smile on her face as she chatters to herself about the dress.
After ten minutes of waiting, the cat-eared human returned to Shouya and Alisa with a couple of clothes in his hands.
"Alright, I've found a couple of clothes that you may like. It's not much, but it's all I have. Care to try some on?"
"S-Sure."
He hands Shouya four different kinds of clothing that he is going to wear. Shouya heads towards one of the rooms, and he locks the door from the inside. He placed the clothes separately on a bench in front of him, dividing them into four sets.
Shouya thinks to himself as he is trying to think about what clothes he is going to wear.
Hmm, they all looked pretty good, and very colorful, too. But, I don't know what I am going to wear.
This is a difficult decision for Shouya; the clothes that the cat-human picked out four sets of clothing for him are not familiar to his knowledge. He would've asked the man to singly give him different clothing one by one, but it's already too late for it.
He looked at the first set. The first set has a green t-shirt with brown pants and brown boots.
This is like something that a military would wear. Almost everything green, kinda like camouflage. Huh, weird…
Similar to military clothing back in his old world, they are usually used at boot camps to train people to become soldiers. After boot camp, they were given uniforms to match the environments. Of course, Shouya has seen this when he was watching anime, even movies that involve military stuff. He wanted to be strong just like them. However, he has no intention to work for the military anytime soon—or possibly, never.
Shouya turns his eyes and moves on to the second set of clothes. The second set has a short, orange t-shirt and brown shorts, along with toeless shoes and a red scarf as an accessory.
It's a decent set, great for hot weather. I'm not a fan of shorts, but the shirt is okay, and the shoes? Ah, now that I think about it, most people I see in this world walk around almost barefooted. The reason being is that the claws on their toes would just rip the fabric. So it makes sense why they go around barefooted. But is the scarf really necessary? Actually, I don't want to answer that.
Ignoring the small detail, he shakes his head and he moves on with the third set. The third set has a long-sleeved, dark-blue shirt with white highlights, grey pants and a pair of black shoes.
The design of it looks really good. It's normal, it's casual, and it almost looks similar to my school uniform. Well, 'similar' isn't the right word I would phrase it. It almost feels like I'm back home. But still, I kind of like it.
Unlike the last two sets, Shouya somewhat actually likes the third set. Based on his expression, it is most likely this set may be his best choice.
He then moves on to the fourth and last set. And from there, he sees a set that has a long, red jacket, long khaki pants, and pairs of iron-plated boots. However, Shouya gave an odd sour face as if to say What the heck is this?
I'm not going to wear that. Not only does it look heavy, but it looks so flashy—no, too flashy. Not to mention that it's so expensive. There is no way I'm going to wear that.
Without even trying on the outfit, Shouya chooses not to use the fourth set and moves it to the side, ignoring its existence. He is now left with only three sets of clothing. Shouya is now in deep thought about what he will wear in public.
Alright, I guess three of them are enough. All of them are nice, and I can easily fit in with everyone. But it's kinda hard to choose which one. Ugh, think Shouya, think.
"Are you alright in there?"
Shouya was too focused on what to wear that he had forgotten that he was still in the room for a while, and by the sound of the voice on what he heard, the cat-eared man was concerned about what might have happened to Shouya.
Shouya stopped thinking and responds to the cat-eared man with "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just thinking."
"Alright, just making sure. Did you find what you are going to wear?"
"Actually, I have."
Shouya has an idea that he has not thought of before, and with that, he now knows what clothes he is going to wear.
"Ok, I'm ready!"
Shouya announces from the room, declaring that he has chosen what he is going to wear. He opens the door and sees both Alisa and the cat-eared man from the other side with their eyes widened in awe. Not only Shouya wears one set, but all three sets combined.
He wears a dark blue shirt, and under the jacket is the green t-shirt from the first set. From the waist down, he wears grey pants that were also from the third set and the pair of toeless shoes that were from the second set.
It is a perfect balance between his casual clothes that he used to back from his old world and this world's medieval clothing, making it easier to blend in with the crowd.
Alisa highly admires Shouya's new appearance as she was astonished by how he looks.
"Wow, Shouya. You look really nice."
"You really think so?"
"Yeah, you almost look like an adventurer."
"'Almost'? What does that suppose to mean?!"
As Shouya tries to figure out what Alisa just said, she closes one eye and sticks out her tongue as if she is saying That's a secret.
Meanwhile, the cat-eared human broke up the conversation between the two and asks Shouya a question.
"How do you like them? Would you like to purchase them?"
"Yeah, I would like to."
With Shouya's decision to buy the clothes he wanted, he is ready to pay with the money that he was given in this world as the cat-human leads Shouya to the register. The cat-eared human begins to tap the buttons on the register to calculate the total on how much the clothes cost.
"Alright, the total for the clothes is forty-five ercos."
"'Ercos'? —Wait, forty-five?!"
Shouya was shocked and his eyes went wide when he heard the total price for the clothes. He looked at the register to make sure the man was not mistaken and the numbers were miscalculated. But he wasn't wrong. The number on top of the register shows the number "45" on it.
Oh, I guess he's right.
"Is there a problem?"
"Well, all I have with me was this much."
Shouya shows all of the money he has on the counter and the cat-eared man begins to count how many that Shouya has. He was given thirty-nine gold coins—or in this world, the currency is called "ercos"—when he first entered this world. If the clothes really do cost forty five ercos, then that means Shouya is six coins short. It isn't enough to pay for the clothes he needed.
"Isn't there a cheaper way?"
The cat-eared human thinks if there is another way to lower the price of the clothes. Shouya can try negotiating with him to lower the price, but he has no experience with that kind of skill. Then he let out a suggestion to the worry-felt Shouya.
"Why don't we trade? We'll work something out."
"—Ah!
Actually, that's not a bad idea! Trading could work in situations like this. I guess we could try.
Trading is usually uncommon in a fantasy game. Both the buyer and the seller would trade items with each other until both parties are satisfied.
"What do you want from me?"
"Well, you can always trade me that."
The cat-eared man pointed at something Shouya is holding. It was Shouya's school uniform from his old world.
"You mean this?"
"Mind if I take a look at it?"
"Oh, sure."
Following the cat-human's request, Shouya places his uniform on top of the counter next to the register. The man begins to investigate the layout of the clothes Shouya used to wear and feels the fabric of the clothes with his hands.
"It is rare to see clothes like this before. You mostly see these kinds of clothes in Miraziva."
"Miraziva'? Is that the name of the city in the far east?"
"Yes. It is also called the City of Knowledge. That's where these clothes came from."
"Is that so?"
Shouya recalled back in the inn with Alisa and Gunther, she mentioned that many students from the far east wear the same clothes that Shouya wore. He now understands where it originated.
The City of Knowledge? Maybe that's my key to get out of this place.
If the city is called what it truly is, then that place must know how to transport Shouya back to his own world and turn him back into a human.
"However, this design and colour are a bit outdated. I've read that students used to wear this kind of uniform dozens of years ago. Nowadays, many scholars wear multi-colored uniforms. I'm actually surprised that you still have this. This can be sold as an antique."
"Really?"
He surprisingly didn't know that his uniform was that rare until the cat-eared man pointed it out from its history. If he'd known his clothes were that rare, he could've sold it to someone at a higher price. But for now, trading is the only option.
"How about this? I'll trade you those clothes for seventy-five percent of the original price for this uniform, how does that sound?"
"S-Seventy five?!"
Shouya's mouth went agape as he could not believe what he had heard. A trade between his uniform for the clothes he wanted for seventy-five percent of the original price. That is an affordable deal.
"Alright, I'll take it."
As Shouya accepts the trade, the cat-eared man rings his register and the number changes from forty-five to eleven. Shouya gives him the uniform and pays him for the clothes, only leaving him with only twenty-eight ecros left in his wallet.
"Thank you for your patronage. Please come again."
The cat-eared man bows as Shouya, along with Alisa, who was waiting in front of the door, begins to exit the store with his brand new appearance.