Kaga Michio
Current levels & equipment:
Explorer Lv.26
Hero Lv.23
Mage Lv.25
Monk Lv.25
Equipment:
Wand
Leather Armor
Leather Jacket
Leather Gloves
Leather Shoes
The next day, the two of us went on a shopping trip to the various clothing stores in Quratar. Our objective for today? To get ourselves some new sets of clothes of course, because even though I have my trusty jersey and Roxanne has her maid outfit that she took with her from the Slave Merchant's shop, but there is no way in hell that those clothes are going to be enough for us to wear all the time. What's more, because of all that gardening work we did yesterday, our clothes gotten more than a little dirty and needed to be washed, and for that we need the new one that we could wear as replacements when they will be getting dry in the sun. I should have though about it before we began working yesterday, but it is too late to be having regrets now that the deed has been done.
「Before we buy anything, let's have a look around first. We may be looking for spare clothes only, but that does not mean that we should do a hasty purchase. If you see anything that you like, be sure to let me know, okay?」
「Yes master. Thank you for your kindness, but I think you should focus on finding a suitable set of clothes for yourself first and foremost.」
「Sure thing. Now, when it comes to the amount of clothes, how much should we buy? Is two sets for me and two sets for you going to be enough?」
Apparently Roxanne is somewhat reserved when it comes to buying new clothes for herself, which makes me think that I will have to choose something for her in the end and be insistent and firm about my choice, because otherwise she might just not accept it. Such a humble attitude is much different from the typical one displayed by the girls from Japan, and even though it can be somewhat difficult to deal with her humbleness at times, it's a welcomed change of pace.
「If that is what you will deem as an appropriate amount, master, then I think it is going to be fine. But…」
「Hmm? Yes? What is it, Roxanne?」
「Oh, nothing really that important. It's just that… this store is selling brand-new clothing, right?」
「Well, yeah? Or at least they all look like that to me.」
「In that case, is it really okay for you to buy such expensive clothes for me?」
「And why would there be anything wrong with that?」
When I was browsing through the various clothes that the store had on display, Roxanne started saying some weird things. Could it be that…?
「Let me guess, is there a rule stating that slaves cannot wear nice clothes?」
「It's not as much a rule as common sense that masters wear the nice clothes while their slaves have to make due with the poor-quality ones or the ones from second-hand stores.」
So that's how it is when it comes to the clothes worn by slaves and their masters, huh? I am not from this world, so I can't really say that I understand why it has to be that way, but maybe that's really how it is supposed to be, because now that I think about it, many of the people whom I saw when we were living in Veil wore clothes that looked like they came from the second-hand shop. Now, as a person who lived in the modern-day Japan and was born in a middle-class family, I never really needed to wear second-hand goods myself and I do not like the idea all that much, but I can see how wearing good quality clothing might be a problem for the people living in the world that is as technologically advanced as the earth during the medieval times. If I were to hazard a wild guess, then the average life cycle of a set of clothing in this world must be something that goes more or less like that: rich people and aristocrats buy themselves new clothes, wear them for a few times, and sell them second-hand stores once the get bored of them. At that point they are sold to the common citizenry and the cycle continues to repeat itself as they wear the bought clothes down even further until they are sold yet again, and then, right at the very bottom of this messed up chain are the slaves, who are supposed to be wearing nothing but tattered rags to really drive the point of them being inferior to their masters across.
This is something that only an absolute scum would do out of nothing but the sheer pettiness, but unfortunately those are the rules that this world is playing by. Well too bd for you, world, because if those are your rules, then I am not going to be abiding them!
「It's going to be fine, Roxanne. Trust me. Now go and choose whatever you like.」
「Of course, master. Thank you.」
With that out of the way, we proceeded to properly explore the clothing store. That's right. Since I am not a proper resident of this world but someone who came here from modern-day Japan, I don't have to follow the rules established by this world if I do not find them to my liking. Therefore, I will be doing whatever I feel is right, especially if it means ignoring some unjust, douchebaggy rules made by a bunch of snobs!
We looked around the store, but from what I can see, even though there are a lot of shelves filled with clothes from top to bottom, the clothes themselves did not have that much variety to them. Most of the bottom shelves were occupied by the tunics, shirts and robes of various colors, and the bottom ones were lined up with pants and trousers. And by the way, because some of you might not know it: tunic is the type of upper body clothing that you put on over your head, and the shirts are as shirts normally do: worn by unbuttoning them from the front and sliding your hands through the sleeves until they emerge from the other side.
What caught my attention at one point was the disproportion in the types of clothing that women could wear on their lower bodies. This store had a lot of long hemmed skirts of the type that was so long that the hem reached all the way to the ground, covering the legs completely, but there was not that much female-styled pants. Maybe it was because the women who wore pants were mostly Adventurers and Explorers who were going into the Labyrinth, while skirts were generally worn by the women in the towns and villages? And even then, wouldn't it actually be more convenient for them to be wearing men's pants because of the relative freedom of movement those pants would provide?
Roxanne was looking through all the clothes with keen eyes, and not just the ones she intended to try on, but also at the ones she thought would look good on me. Occasionally, she would even take some of them, press them against my body and mumble things like「How about this?」 or 「Hmm, maybe this color would be good?」and 「Hmm, this stitch here is a little…」
「Uhm, Roxanne?」
「No, on the other hand, maybe something a bit lighter would be better….」
「H-Hello…?」
I tried to speak up to give her my own opinion about some of the clothes, but each and every time my attempts were swiftly being shot down by her not even paying attention to me, that's how deep in a shopping trance she currently was. To add insult to injury, she was speaking with technical, fashion-related jargon that I did not understand very well, so I had no choice but to just suck it up and let her do her thing, because she looked like she was genuinely having fun choosing all those clothes, and I in turn had fun watching her having fun, so it's a win-win situation where everyone is happy no matter the outcome.
When we finally finished buying all of the clothes and left the clothing store, half a day was already over. How do I know that? Because the house that we are renting is on the east side of the city, so when we were leaving it in the morning the sun was rising in front of it, but now that we were heading back, it was already behind it. We really spend so much time doing nothing but shopping for clothes, huh? I mean, I was mentally prepared that it would take a long time, but to think that it actually took one half of an entire day…