Wisteria, also known as the academic city was a town with around 20km in scale. This place wasn't that big considering how important this place is.
Wisteria is a neutral city without any influences from both the royal family and the nobles. The entire city is ruled by the academy authority.
The city was divided into 5 districts. The central district was where the Laurasia Royal Academy was located. The north district was where the guard stations located. The south district was mainly a residental district. The west was shop district where most merchants reside. And lastly, the east district was a free zone.
Due to it's neutrality, people from the outside territory who wanted to create connections with the academy or those who wanted to secretly create their own power mostly reside in the east district.
The academy has strict laws and control over the city, however no matter how strict it was there's always a backdoor for it.
They close an eye to the east district because the academy thought the students needs to have more experience in dealing with outside power and keep them as a test. If the students could get help and make connections with outside power then it's their ability as long as they don't disturb the city stability.
Of course, the academy forbids any kind of influences from stepping into the academy.
Only those desperate students and those ambitionist will make connections with people from the east district where black and white were mixed.
People like Claudia and Arteria who came from prestigious family doesn't need to make connection with them because they have their own circle of power.
Due to people from various background living there, the east district was famous for their black markets. It all depends on your ability to buy a fake or real items.
It's especially famous with certain students because they also sell drugs and potions that could enhance brain power or their strength temporarily on exams.
Of course the academy forbids their usage due to it's harmful side effects, but some people still willing to get their hands on it.
The academy wanted to raise capable students, so they left it to their own judgement as a test. If they could resist consuming drugs and potions, meaning they're worth nurturing. Those who were addicted to drugs and potions will only ruin their lives, so the academy didn't care about them.
If they were found out, the academy will expel them without exceptions.
Anyway, today I'm visiting May's general store in the east district with Irina, Claudia and Rosetta.
"Thanks for waiting"
Irina said.
Claudia and Rosetta were already waiting in front of the academy gate.
We were supposed to meet up at noon, but Irina dragged me out from my dorm.
It was still around 8 in the morning. It seemed, they changed the meeting time behind my back.
"Why are we going there so soon? Weren't we supposed to meet at noon?"
I asked doubtfully.
"Rain, you're hopeless"
Irina shook her head in disappoinent.
Why am I hopeless?
Noticing my gaze, she quickly explained.
"Don't you know? for us girls, the more time we have for shopping the better. You really don't understand woman at all, Rain. At this rate, you will never find a partner"
Irina looked at me with pitiful gaze.
Huh? What the hell?
You judged me for this!? That's just your greed alright!
I was dumbfounded by her answer so I looked at Claudia and Rosetta.
Rosetta just kept silent while Claudia nodded.
"Irina is right, Rain. When you go shopping with a girl, especially 3 at the same time, the more time we spend on shopping the better"
Claudia looked at me in the eyes. I didn't feel any lies behind her gaze.
What the hell? How am I supposed to know that!? This is the first time I went shopping with multiple girls at once. Not to mention one of them is my sister!
Besides, didn't we agreed before we're going to meet at noon! Is this how things work in this world? Do noble ladies really like shopping that much?
"M-My apologize"
The only thing I could do was to apologize and accept my situation.
"Anyway, let's go. Rain, please lead the way"
Irina slapped me on the back.
Luckily, at least they listened to my request of wearing student uniform and not using a carriage.
The east district was a bit complicated, but they won't disturb people who wears student uniform. The students were protected by laws in this city. Those who did any harm to the students in broad daylight will be dealt accordingly. The worst is they and the people behind them will be put into blacklist and couldn't not step into Wisteria again and be hunted by the other forces in east district.
It was an unwritten rules between the academy and the outside forces in the east district to keep the stability of the city. They couldn't approach the students, but they could attract students to make connections or have them join their forces.
It was only around 20 minutes from the academy to the outskirt of the east district.
Different from the organized central district, the east district was a bit messy. Some building have flags hung on the walls.
"The atmosphere was a bit heavy"
Rosetta muttered.
"Yes. The east district were mainly filled people like adventurers and mercenaries. As the city where the royal academy was located, it was the best place to scout people to join them. There are also some noble private army who wanted to scout some commoner students or some free adventurers and mercenaries to recruit them as a guard"
"I see. No wonder there are lots of people wearing armor and weapons on their back. If that is the case, won't it be dangerous for us?"
Claudia asked with curious eyes.
"Have any of you never visited this district?"
"I've heard the rumor about the east district, but I never visit this place"
"No"
"It's my first time here"
The three of them answered accordingly. Is this for real? The three of them have stayed in the academy for a year, yet they never visited this district? I looked at them with doubtful look.
"Hmm, I see. Let me explain something then. As we all know, Wisteria was surrounded by nature. In the north all the way to the west, there is the Black Mountain. And in the south to the east, there is the Grizzly Forest. Sometimes, the academy will hire adventurers and mercenaries to lead expeditions to these two place to cut down monsters so they won't overflow and prevent monsters tide. Because of this, they want to scout the students as potential members and invited them officially once they graduated"
"Now I understand"
Claudia nodded.
"I don't really understand"
Irina tilted her head with pondering look.
"So, the reason you asked us to wear student uniform was because the students have special meaning to this place?"
"As expected of Claudia-sama"
I nodded at Claudia's words.
"Yes. They won't touch the students because it was an unwritten rules. So we will be safe from any trouble in the east district as long as we wear our student uniform"
"I understand now. I thought it was your fetish to see us in our uniform. However, why must we walk? isn't it the same even when we use carriage as long as we wear our uniform?"
Irina nodded and asked.
What the hell are you saying!? Why was it my fetish!? Although, you girls indeed looked cute in uniform. But my reason is for safety, alright?
"If we use carriage, we will be marked by some people. Carriage has a special meaning to this district. In this place, those who rides a carriage mostly came to make connections. If we ride a carriage some people might approach us. It will be troublesome whether it was intentional or unintentional"
"Oh, I see! I thought it was because you want to secretly hold hand while walking"
Irina clapped her hand.
Sister! Why are you thinking about this kind of useless thing!?
"You sure know a lot of things, Rain"
Rosetta looked at me curiously.
"Well, the more you read the more you know. Not to mention I have visited this place"
Fortunately, I still remembers quite a lot of details from the game. Although it wasn't exactly a secret, it still wasn't a general knowledge for the students. Not to mention, students rarely came to this district because of the outside rumors about this place.
Unknowingly, we reached our destination in no time while we talked.
∆ ∆ ∆
A building with decayed painting on the walls. A small wooden plank was hung outside with "May's General Store" written on it.
"Is this the place?"
Claudia looked at the sign curiously.
"Are you really bringing girls shopping into this kind of place?"
Irina asked doubtfully.
"Yes. Don't judge something by it's appearance. Anyway, just follow me. You will understand it later"
"Hmm, okay"
Irina nodded.
Clink, clink.
The sound of bell was heard as I opened the door.
"Welcome"
A sweet and melodious sound was heard as soon I went inside.
The interior looks old but tidy. Some potions were lined up on the shelf. Some fruits were put inside the barrels on the left side. The middle part was filled with daily neccessities. Drinks like ale, juice and some dry meats were put on the other side.
There was a beautiful woman with long straight brown hair on her mid 20s sitting behind the counter. She wore a long grey-colored dress. People might mistaken her for a housewife if not for her pointy hat and the short cane she was holding.
"Ara! Look who has come!"
The ownerー May, greeted me enthusiastically.
"It's been a while, Lady May"
I bowed to her politely. People who don't know her might think she's just a weird beautiful shop owner because of her appearance. However, I'm one of the people who know her real identity.
Mayleen Floir. A level 70 Alchemist and also one of the 6 guardians of Laurasia Kingdom.
She helped the current king along with Reinhardt to suppress the civil war 20 years ago. After the war ended, she left the her position as the royal alchemist and opened a shop here. Although she looked young, she was actually a granny inside. She might kill me if I called her aunty or granny though.
She is also the main reason why the academy kept the east district as a free zone without any worries.
"My, my! I already said you don't have to be so polite"
She chuckled.
"You didn't bring that girl with you today?"
"No, I come with the others today"
"Are you cheating on her? not mention with 3 beautiful girls at the same time, ufufufu~"
"They are my friends. And one of them is my sister"
I let out a wry smile as I tried to explain to her.
"How boring~ So what are you looking for?"
"Do you have royal berry, rainbow fruit and starlight fruit?"
"I have some. Go get it yourself in the back"
"Can I bring them in?"
"Sure. It's not like this is the first time you came here. Besides, I gave you the ring didn't I? And since you're bringing new customers to me, they might find something they want"
She shrugged her shoulders and slumped against the counter table after putting a cushion on it.
"Just wake me up when you're done"
"Understood"
I nodded and took out a ring from my magic bag. It was a ring with ruby embedded on it.
"Please hold my hand"
I extended my hand and said to the three of them.
"Wow! So this is your real aim after all?"
Irina exclaimed.
"No, idiot! You will understand soon!
I grabbed Irina hand's forcibly.
"Claudia-sama, Rosetta, please hold link her hand"
"Understood"
Claudia nodded and extended her right hand. However, she was holding my left hand instead of holding Irina's hand.
"Umm, Claudia-sama?"
I looked at her nervously.
"Earlier, you said to hold your hand"
She blinked her eyes as she looked at me.
Her left hand was linked to Rosetta.
"R-Right. Please close your eyes"
I took a deep breath and calmed down. I channeled my mana into the ring. Soon, magic circle appeared underneath and shone. The light covered our body and turned us into light particles.
The next moment, we arrived at other locations.
A room with 3 floors and around 90-100 meters space in total. There are magic crystals all over the walls and pillars to lit up the room.
In the game, this place was supposed to be opened at the middle stage. The owner, May, would told about the real shop to the protagonist party due to the war being escalated.
"Ugh!"
Irina fell onto her knees due to dizziness.
"Where are we?"
Claudia looked around in astonishment.
"The real store"
I used a small amount of mana to blow wind at Irina.
"Rain! You should remind me if you're going to use teleportation magic!"
Irina yelled.
"Sis, didn't you like surprise? How was it?"
"It's terrible"
She was pouting as she stood up.
"You can use teleportation magic?"
Rosetta suddenly said.
"No. It was because of this ring"
I showed the ring to her.
"This ring was embedded with teleportation runes and this place was set as the destination. The ring can only be activated inside the store with Lady May's permission. All I have to do is to inject mana into this ring"
"Amazing!"
Rosetta opened her eyes wide in surprise as she looked at the ring.
"Who is she? There is no way a mere shop owner could use teleportation runes and also owned this kind of secret treasury"
Irina asked.
"Can't you guess from her name?"
"May? I don't think there is a great magician with that name in the kingdom"
She closed her eyes and pondered.
"Mayleen Floir? The royal alchemist who disappeared 20 years ago?"
Claudia said doubtfully.
"Yes. She is that Mayleen Floir"
"I thought she died 20 years ago in the war"
Claudia was taken aback.
"No. She just retired since the war was over"
"How did you know her, Rain?"
"The more you read the more you know"
I shrugged my shoulders at Rosetta's question.
"Anyway, the first floor was filled with fruits, foods, potions, materials and some general items. The second floor was filled with accessories, clothes and some magic crystals. The third floor was filled with weapons, magic scrolls and some books. Just put the things you want to buy into the magic bag over there, the owner will calculate the price at the counter later. Well, happy shopping"
I walked towards the food counters after saying so.
"Wait a minute! Where are you going!?"
Irina grabbed my hand and stopped me.
"Buying food of course"
"Are you going to leave us alone?"
"Well, of course. Isn't it faster to shop individually?"
I looked at her doubtfully.
"Rain, you idiot! At a time like this, you should accompany us! We were supposed to go shopping together! What kind of man leaving the girls behind when we're shopping!?"
Irina raised her voice in irritation.
"Isn't that troublesome? Beside whenever we visited the town back at home, I always waited for you at the bookstore until you're finished"
"This time are different!"
Irina gritted her teeth.
What is the different? Why is my sister so unreasonable!?
"You always spend your time alone with Lucia, but you won't spend your time alone with us?"
"Not really?"
"So you're fine doting Lucia but not me? Rain, I don't remember raising you to be a pervert"
Irina said in a flat tone.
Huh? Why did she suddenly called me a pervert? Is she jealous somehow?
"What do you mean?"
"You're a pervert who only spend your time alone with a girl, but won't spend your time with your dearest lovely sister around. I bet if me and Claudia didn't came, you're going to escort Rosetta all the time while holding hands. And then, when the time comes you will do all kinds of thing with her"
She looked at me with disappointed look.
HUH!? WHAT THE HELL IS SHE SAYING!?
Well, sure I might escort her since we're just going to buy food and some ingredients and then went home. No hand holding of course. But with her around, she definitely will take time to buy some clothes. Not to mentions she will make me carry all of it. However, if I said so she would just scold me even more. Not to mention she might spread some baseless rumors about me.
I hate to admit it, but my sister is a tough opponent to deal with at this kind of situation.
"Fine! We will go together, so stop saying such nonsense about me!"
"Now that's my cute little brother!"
Irina suddenly pulled me into her arms and patted my head.
I gritted my teeth and accepted my pitiful fate. Ah, the misery life of a younger brother. Is this the fate of having a big sister?
Unconsciously Lucia face appeared inside my mind.
Having an obedient little sister is much more comforting after all. I sighed while lamenting my fate.
Also, big sis please stop patting my head in front of other people! it's embarassing! I'm 27 okay!?