"Tia, shut up right now!" Jill was so angry. Her friend just did not know when to stop.
"Umm…" A soft voice came from behind Vance. Alice slowly walked out from behind him. Her eyes were narrowed as she looked at Tia. "I do not know who you are, but what right do you have to put someone down that you have never met? This just shows how bad your character truly is."
"You!" Tia looked at the black-haired girl in front of her and was at a loss for words. Why did this girl suddenly say she had a bad character!?
Alice raised her chin and looked Tia directly in the eye. Vance has done so much for her and has helped her so much she could not stand someone putting him down! "I am just saying it how it should be said. Vance had done nothing to you, but you are here putting him down over and over without much thought. Do you not have any decency to understand that this is a place of business? If you keep putting your customers down, who have come here to buy things, how will you survive? You need to keep your thoughts to yourself and not put others down. Because with how I see it, you are worse than the horse shit that I see piled up on the side of the road."
Alice turned and grabbed Vance's hand and pulled him along. "Let's go. We can go to another shop."
Tia stood there, frozen in place. No one had ever berated her like this! Not to mention a girl! This girl in front of her had a kind of air about her that made it hard for anyone to look away. She could only watch as the girl pulled the man along and left the store. The girl's back was perfectly straight as she walked out without even looking back once.
"You idiot!" Jill finally yelled out as she kicked Tia.
"Ouch! Why did you kick me!?" Tia showed an aggrieved expression as she rubbed her shin.
"That man was the same man you puked on! The clothes the girl was wearing were the clothes I personally sent over to them! You keep saying all men are bad but did you see how that girl stood out to protect him!? That goes to show that that man was someone special to her! He was not one of those people you keep picturing every man you meet as. I have never been so disappointed in you. As your friend, I will leave you with a bit of advice. Change your ways." Jill turned and walked out. She had never been so mad in her entire life. It was not that she liked Vance or anything, but she hated when an innocent person was being treated like trash when they had done nothing wrong, whether it was a man or a woman. Today Tia had finally crossed her bottom line!
Tia stood there feeling the stares of the others in the shop and couldn't help but feel embarrassed. Her cheeks began to burn, and as she turned around, she bumped into someone who was standing behind her. She looked up to see two eyes filled with killing intent. "Mo-Mother….."
"Oh, now you know I am your mother!? How dare you chase a paying customer away! I had sold things to that man not too long ago. He came here to buy things for his wife! Now you chase him away when he was a repeat customer!? Are you trying to make me go broke!? You better get out there and beg that man and his wife for forgiveness, or you can forget coming back here!" The shop owner was enraged. Normally she did not mind how her daughter acted, but this time she chased away a paying repeat customer! As a shop owner, she would never judge a book by its cover. That man may look poor, but he was able to take out so much silver easily without issue, which meant he definitely had money! Money that could have gone to paying the shop's bills!
"Mother! Why shoul….. Ouch!? Why are you hit…. Ouch! Okay, I will go! Stop hitting me!" Tia was chased out of the shop by her mother, who was wielding a broom with her hands covering her head. She felt so aggrieved. She did not see what she did wrong!
It should be said that while Tia was good at fighting, her intelligence and ability to see things clearly were next to zero. She never thought about anything when she spoke and never cared about what others thought about her too much. Her only main thing was that she hated men! She disliked them because they always looked at her with perverted eyes.
On Vance's side, he looked at the small delicate hand holding his and pulling him along through the streets with a blank expression. Of all people, he never expected Alice to stand in front of him and try to protect him. She did not seem like the type to jump out like that. He could not say he was not happy since it showed that she thought of him as a friend or good acquaintance at the very least.
"We can just go to the other shop. It's down the street." Vance called out to Alice, who had stopped. She turned and looked at him and nodded before pulling him along again. She did not seem to realize that she was still holding his hand.
As for Tia, she had long lost sight of Alice and Vance. She looked all over the place for a whole two minutes before deciding to give up. She walked to the nearest street stall and ordered some ale, and began drinking.
At the new store, Alice and Vance walked in. Alice finally let go of Vance's hand and began looking around. This tailor shop had more high-end goods, but since he couldn't go to the other one, he could only spend a little extra. "How can I help you, sir?"
A man with a curly mustache walked up wearing a suit and tie. He did not mind Vance's appearance one bit and greeted him with a smile.
"I am here to get a set of clothes for my friend here. And if you have it, undergarments as well." Vance replied, causing Alice to turn and look at him with a perfectly red face.
"Vance!" She shouted out, causing Vance to scratch his head. "What? I was just…."
"Go wait at the side!" Alice ordered, causing Vance to feel like he should listen when he saw her narrowed eyes that seemed to be trying to cut him with thousands of knives. He did as he said as he let Alice do her thing.
At this point, Vance was feeling everything was very troublesome. He just wanted to go back to leveling up. If not for this life quest, he might have already been level 20 by now, and he could have already moved his parents to the capital. The only thing he hoped for was that his current bad luck was over. Last night he was puked on, and today he was being yelled at left and right. He could only let out a long sigh as he watched Alice look at the different ready-made clothes.