Visiting the weapon shop had proven far more beneficial than anticipated. And so, with Ancient Hero's Sword in hand, I was ready to go. The hero, on the other hand, wasn't. She was still staring at one of the longswords on the shop's wall, her eyes glued to it like a child to a toy display. I reminded her on several occasions that it was time to leave, but she never did. She would always ask for just five more minutes, or something along those lines. Isn't she supposed to be showing us around? What the hell?
In the end, I had to grab ahold of the sword brained idiot and and drag her outside before she finally agreed to lead us to our next destination: the book store.
That said, I was the only one of us that actually made it all the way inside. Lefi had started complaining about how she was starving and wouldn't shut up about it, so I saw the two off on the impossible quest to slay the God of Diabetes, armed with only a bag of coins, before heading for bookland all on my own. The plan was for us to meet up again once I was done with my business.
A thick scent reminiscent of an old book filled my nostrils the moment I opened the creaky door and stepped inside. I immediately began to look around the place. I'd always wondered what this world's bookstores would look like, so my eyes curiously darted all over. It was dim and quiet. There were only a handful of customers browsing the shop's wares, which were conveniently ordered by genre. Huh. This isn't so different from one of those ma and pa bookstores you'd see back in Japan.
"Welcome…" An unenthusiastic sounding woman that looked to be somewhere in her twenties greeted me as I entered the store. The way her chin was resting in her hands only seemed to emphasize her lack of passion. Nodding to her, I headed towards one of the sections that lay a bit deeper in the store.
The reason I was here in the first place was that I wanted to learn more about magic circuits. My Enchant skill allowed me to endow them to weapons, but it was too limited. It didn't come with enough circuits to satisfy my wants. As far as I was concerned, the perfect weapon needed to be able to inflict paralysis, burn my foes, freeze them, poison them, or put them to sleep. As a P*kemon Master, I had to be able to wield all five non-volatile status conditions. And if I want to make something that badass, I'mma have to learn me some magic.
I eventually found exactly what I was looking for after a few brief moments of glancing over the shelves. That is, I discovered a series of books called "Magical Concepts And You – The Magic Circuit." There were three distinct books, a book for beginners, an intermediate one, and an advanced one. I casually picked one off the shelves and started flipping through it—
"The fuck is this sh*t!?"
—Only to realize that I had no idea what was being said. At all. I felt like a student that had just been told to write a report on reference material so complex it was incomprehensible. Of course, the translation skill made it possible for me to literally read what was written, but I couldn't understand a thing. The information just didn't click. Ugh… And these look like the only three books on magic circuits. God damn, working through all this is going to be a slog…
I immediately understood that I had to interpret the three books before me as a trial, a trial to test the limits of my passion in my pursuit of badassery. Fuck. You know what? Fine. Let's do this. You think these measly books will get between me and my fervent dreams? Fuck no! Bring it on, bitch!
***
The first thing I did after purchasing the books, leaving the store, and chucking them into my inventory was open up my map and quickly scan it for friendlies. Much to my surprise, the two were only about fifty odd meters away. I immediately started moving towards them after double checking to make sure I was headed in the right direction, only to discover that they weren't alone.
"Come on girls, it'll be real fun. I'll even treat ya to as much food as you'd like," said a man.
"U-Uhm… it's okay," replied the hero, "we can pay for our own food."
"Aw, come on. Don't say that. Trust us, it'll be a great time. You too, silver," said a second man, turning to Lefi as he did.
"Yeah girls, don't be so uptight! Come on, you know you wanna chill with us," added a third.
"…" Lefi, however, didn't reply. She instead continued to wholeheartedly engross herself on chomping her way through the skewer she had in hand. That, in turn, meant that the hero was stuck dealing with them.
"U-Uhm… Sorry, we're waiting for someone," she said. You do know you don't have to be all that diligent in trying to turn them down nicely just 'cause they don't seem like bad people, right?
Honestly, I wasn't surprised that they were being hit on. Both girls were beautiful. They're also kind of both ridiculously powerful, but that's besides the point.
"Hey guys. Sorry, but they're with me. You mind finding someone else to flirt with?"
"There you are," said the hero as she breathed a sigh of relief. Hero pls. You're not supposed to feel relieved to see a Demon Lord.
"I see you have finally arrived, Yuki." Lefi spoke as she handed me a skewer. "Behold. This is your share of the meat."
"Oh thanks. That was thoughtful of you."
"I chose to provide you that piece because it was not to my taste."
"Why the hell…" I started to complain, but gave up and stopped myself halfway. "You know what, whatever. I was going to end up eating it anyway, so whatever. Let's go, Nell."
"Oh, uhm… ok."
"W-Wait, hold on!"
One of the men hurriedly reached towards the girl closest to him, The Hero, as the three of us got ready to leave. However, it never reached its destination. I grabbed him by the wrist and locked it in place.
"What, you still need something from us?" I smiled as I slowly walked towards the man, who matched my advance by backing off.
"Not at all… sir." He was a bit startled, so he momentarily spoke in a more polite tone before turning back towards his buddies and reverting to his usual manner of speech. "L-Let's bounce, guys."
The three men looked back several times as they left. You guys are probably thinking that it seems like you're missing out on a huge chance here seeing how pretty they are and sh*t, but that's only 'cause you don't know how much Lefi eats. You'd already offered to treat her, so if anything, I'm doing you a favour and saving your sorry asses from going flat broke.
"T-Thanks, Yuki," said the hero.
"No problem, but you do know you really don't have to try so hard to be polite when dealing with idiots like them, right? They'll just take advantage of your inability to turn them down by being even more pushy."
"O-okay, I'll keep that in mind," she said. "But… you really seem used to dealing with that kinda situation."
"Well, yeah, you know. Stuff happens." I shrugged as I recalled an event from my past life. But none of that's relevant anymore. 'Cause this is a whole 'nother world.
"Anyway," I said. "I'm starting to get a bit hungry. Why don't you go ahead and show us to a fancy restaurant or something?"
"I second the notion," said Lefi. "I would appreciate for you to show us the way."
"Uhmm…" The hero blinked a few times. "Didn't you just eat a whole bunch, Lefi?"
"Whatever are you saying? I have yet to eat much at all."
"But you ate twice as much as me…"
Hah. How naive you are, hero. I mean, just look at you. It's pretty obvious that you're not one to gorge yourself. Lefi, she eats twice the amount I do. Twice what you eat is probably just an appetizer as far as she's concerned.
…
Er, actually, that logic is fundamentally flawed, now that I think about it. If we went by appearances, then Lefi's appetite should be the smallest of us all, huh?