Early afternoon, after getting bored discussing what happened a while ago and playing water skipping by the riverside, we decided to roam around town to kill time before dusk.
The shops and stands here makes it a lively street, and the vendors and shopkeepers here are very nice to others. Most of them sell fruits, vegetables, meat, and street food. A few stores sell fashionable garments and attires, weapons and armor, and magic items. There are even those that sell awesome woodcrafts of monsters, popular among us boys.
Right now, we stopped by a restaurant drinking iced tea in a table by the window. I have no money with me this time. Same goes for Haruko. So, the one treating us is none other than Alex who has a fat pocket.
"—Hey. I told you not to order too much, didn't I?"
"Oh. Did you? I'm so sorry, my friend. I may not have heard it earlier."
"Yes, I did. And don't speak like that! Ordering that much just because I'm paying the bill. Are you even planning to reimburse me for this? Hey! Are you listening?!"
Alex slammed his hand on the table as I was sucking on the straw of my iced tea casually, staring outside the window.
Getting riled up over a few orders like that. You're disturbing the other costumers you know.
Beside him was Haruko who was quieting him down.
"You'd better pay up after this."
"Yeah, yeah. No problem. Ah. Here it comes."
The waitress followed by another waiter, put our orders on the table. Two large plates of fried rice with meat toppings, and three large bowls of curry, vegetable salad and whole roasted chicken.
Nice! Our lunch was spoiled by that monster, but to think that this would make up for it. Thank goodness I didn't get eaten earlier.
"P-Please enjoy the meal, dear costumers."
—After that, we had Alex pay the bill amounting to 600 copper coins which equals to 12 silvers.
Alex who was angry at me,
You happily ate the same amount of food as I did so stop saying I ordered too much!
Is what I'd like to say to him, but since he paid for it, I decided to just stay quiet.
After resting for a bit to digest, we left the restaurant and continued our stroll around town. We didn't have money with us, and Alex cried out that he won't pay for us anymore, so right now we can only enter shops and check out their merchandise.
"Which place should we check out?"
I asked the two on my right and the one beside me, Alex, suggested,
"How about the armor shop."
"That's fine with me."
"Good idea. We might see something cool there."
I agreed with them and entered the shop.
Greeting us with a slight wave, the shopkeeper continued polishing the full-set armor on a stand.
"Ah, this is quite nice."
Haruko commented and I nodded.
Surveying the shop, I saw that there are helmets, gauntlets, armors, leggings and boots in separate shelves.
"I'll go look for leggings."
"We might find something useful in the future."
Haruko went to the fourth shelve from here and Alex wandered around the shop, looking at the armor stands.
"I thought your choice was to be a mage. Aren't you supposed to look for cloaks or something?"
I asked him as he continued what he's doing.
"True. But since I trained harder with the sword, I couldn't just ignore it and focus on magic. With that in mind, when we're able to join a guild in the future, I decided to use both and start off as a swordsman who can cast magic. There's no rule saying that you can't do both, right?"
"...I guess there isn't…"
...You've already thought that far?
—After saying goodbye to the owner, we left the shop and continued our stroll around town.
"Which place should we check out next?"
I asked the two on my right and the one beside me, Alex, suggested,
"How about the magic item shop?"
"That's fine with me."
"Good idea. We might see something useful there."
I agreed with them and entered the shop.
Greeting us with a warm 'Welcome', the shopkeeper continued reading her book.
"Ah. This is quite nice."
Haruko commented and I nodded. Surveying the shop, I noticed the magic orbs, staves, cloaks, herbs and other items.
"I'll go look for potions."
"We might find something useful in the future."
Haruko went to the second shelf from here and Alex looked for grimoires.
I randomly looked around and saw a spotted a necklace with the size of a finger. It has a cylindrical glass that stored red fluid and has metal dragon heads on each end.
Cool! I won't forget my pouch next time. I must buy this.
"Hmm? Hiroki, you'd better not buy that. I heard that this is top selling right now, but besides the design which makes it popular, that is a charm that attracts dragon-type monsters. The blood stored in it is still alive, or so I'm told. Though there are a few hunters wearing it when they go out hunting nowadays."
Noticing me eyeing it, Haruko explained its downsides.
"Seriously? What a waste… But I'd still buy it, next time when I have money."
"Ehehe... Well, I guess that's fine."
—After saying goodbye to the shopkeeper, we left the shop and continued our stroll around town.
"Which place should we check out next?"
I asked the two on my right and the one beside me, Alex, suggested,
"...That's the third time you asked that. Well, whatever. How about the weapon shop?"
"That's fine with me."
"And that's the third time you said that, Haruko."
"I don't want to go to that place, but alright."
I agreed with them and entered the shop.
Greeting us with a warm- No. A cold welcome, the shopkeeper sighed, not even trying to hide his betrayed expectations,
"Oh, it's just you three."
After knowing it was us who entered, the owner, who looks like a guy in his thirties, and has the same black hair as Hiroki, continued to read his book.
"It's because you don't greet your costumers that the shop isn't flourishing."
"Costumers, you say. I bet you're just here to kill time."
This old man…
"Your old man isn't so friendly, Hiroki. Just like you."
Agreed. This father of mine does whatever he wants. Wait. What did he say in the end?
"Hey, Alex, stop that. Let's carry on."
Haruko said and I nodded.
I surveyed the shop, even though I knew that there are different types of swords, daggers, axes, bows, and other weapons here that gives a coarse, rough sensation when you touch it.
"Man. Your dad has a lot of crappy weapons as usual, huh. By the way, aren't you going to tell him about that Guivre from earlier?"
Saying that so casually, if I had a different father then I would've been annoyed by now…
"He wouldn't care about it even if I told him."
"Really? ...I guess I can imagine that. How about your mom?"
"Same. They won't even lift a finger if I'm in need of help. My parents aren't very dependable when I'm in trouble, so I have to face my own problems on my own, you see… Just like lunch. Yes. I can't cook anything good, so I have to rely on the restaurant or Akemi to eat proper food. How sad. Ah! How about I go to your place during lunch, Alex."
"Absolutely no. Who knows what trouble you might cause? Seeing your actions earlier I'm not sure you could ever sit on a middle-class restaurant. Hm? What's wrong? Stop glaring at me like that."
"Keh. You're so useless."
"!!"
Ignoring the inflamed Alex who started raising his voice and saying, 'What did you say?!' or something, I started circling around this box full of rough-edged swords while cupping my ears.
That's when the door opened and two guys who seems to be adventurers entered the shop.