Three men were walking on one of the main streets. There was a Knight, who left his helmet behind since donning it or carrying it would draw too much unneeded attention; There was a Grand Commander, whose authoritative mustache caught much unneeded attention; And lastly, there was a scrawny boy carrying a backpack abnormally large, that made the trio catch even more unneeded attention.
Perhaps Fron should've brought his helmet after all.
"Looks like we've arrived at out first stop."
What stood in front of the trio was a tall glass shelf displaying various colorful frying pans, and behind the shelf were more shelves that had many more kitchen utensils for sale.
"I believe it's the first time I've seen you around here! It's nice to meet you all! I'm the owner of this humble little store, how may I be of assistance today?"
Without even standing still for even five seconds, a middle-aged lady appeared from the door of the store and addressed the three of them. She wore a genial smile as she gazed at Kapel, the one who was mostly the leader of the trio.
"Greetings. There are numerous items we are interested in. May we take a look inside?" Kapel greeted the store owner politely.
"Most definitely." She opened to door for them and showed them the way.
"Thank you." Kapel and Fron said simultaneously.
"I think I should stay out here." Jogrin glanced inside the store and told Kapel.
Kapel looked inside and pondered for a while.
"That will be fine, since your backpack will not be able to for inside the store. Just make sure you stay where you are currently."
"Sure."
The store was too narrow for Jogrin whose backpack was pretty much filled to the brim by his own tail, so he'd bound to be clumsy, especially if he were to move around in narrow spaces. Fortunately, the glass shelf outside the store was completely transparent, so Kapel could still keep an eye on Jogrin, though he'd rather stay as close to him as possible.
'He seems to be trusting me more and more, for some reason. If it was a few days ago, he'd definitely never allow this.' Jogrin thought to himself as he observed Kapel and Fron scrutinize some of the products in the store. Kapel would occasionally glance at Jogrin to see if he was staying still.
It's been over 10 minutes, but there was no sign of either of them coming out, as they were still looking around.
'Aren't they taking too long with this? It's just some utensils that have the same functions...' It wasn't that Jogrin was growing impatient, it was simply that he didn't understand what was the point of wasting so much time on scrutinizing the products.
From "emotional perception," Jogrin could tell she was getting a little overwhelmed with Kapel and Fron being there, but she still managed to keep the smile that she greeted the three of them with at the start. Perhaps this was the professionalism she'd nurtured over the years of experience.
Then, in the next moment, he perceived three presences approaching him. It appeared they were interested in him, but not fearful of him, so it was safe to assume that they didn't notice his tail. Then, why were they approaching him?
Jogrin turned to his left and saw the three presences that were getting close to him.
"Hi~ You here alone? Let's go to a cafe and have a drink!"
"What?"
The three presences stopped when they were directly before Jogrin. Apparently, they were girls that looked to be young adults. They looked up at Jogrin and one of the girls posed him such a question. Unable to comprehend their intentions, Jogrin could only return with a question of his own.
"You're not from around here, right? I like meeting new people! Let's go to a cafe and get to know each other!" Another girl spoke up as she grabbed Jogrin's left hand.
"Yeah! Let's go let's go!"
The last girl was even more forceful as she attempted to wrap her arms around Jogrin's right arm. However, he instinctively dodged it by pulling his arm away, so she missed.
"Are you shy? Hehe!"
She tried to go for it again, but her arm was caught by Kapel who just came out from the store.
"Apologies, young lady. We are currently on an errand, so forgive him for not being able to accompany you."
"Errand? Wait, you mean this military clothing isn't a cosplay?" One of the girls was taken aback after understanding the situation.
"Ah, sorry about that! I hope we didn't get in the way!"
"No worries. Please enjoy the rest of your day, young ladies."
"Um! We can go chat the next time when you're free!"
It seemed that despite Kapel's interference, the girls wouldn't be giving up any time soon. They waved at Jogrin with wry smiles on their faces as they left. After that, Kapel glared at Jogrin as if the latter had done something wrong.
"I didn't do anything. They just came close to me and kept inviting me to this 'cafe.'"
"I am aware. I was just wondering if we would be encountering situations such as this again later."
"Why?"
The door of the store opened, and Fron came out with a few bags in both of his hands.
"Jogrin... I didn't know you're quite the charmer... Now that I get a good look at you, you're actually real good looking..." Fron was impressed by the stunt Jogrin managed to pull just now.
"Hmm... I don't really understand. But isn't it a problem if something like this were to happen frequently?" Jogrin asked both Kapel and Fron.
"You sure have become full of yourself after having this happen to you once..." Fron was even more impressed by what Jogrin said.
"Although I could see that you did not intend to harm them, it is still in our best interest to avoid this taking place again..."
"I won't make them nauseous with my powers."
"You had better not, Jogrin... From now on, just stay close to me. If we can convey to the residents of the neighborhood that we are on an errand, it should minimize the number of people disrupting us."
"Maybe I shouldn't have been brought out at all."
"That's..."
"Instead of restricting your movements, which I do believe is undeserved after much thought, we should work to come up with some ideas to prevent it."
"You sure have become more agreeable lately..."
"Did you say something?"
"... No. If you've bought everything Naytia needs here, let's head to the next place."
"Let's see... We need to buy some lubricant for the door hinges."
"Let us go, then."
Putting aside the fact that Jogrin was approached by girls, the trio decided to look for a store that was selling the item that they needed. Other than that, they would prefer that the store had one extra feature...
That it was wide enough that Jogrin with the backpack could walk within without being clumsy.