"One million." I answered without any hesitation.
"…"
"…"
Silence.
'Wh—Why is he staring at me like that?'
I turned my head towards Aria, and even she's making a strange face.
What!? Was it too cheap?
Am I not worthy?
Will they call me peasant, and shoo me away.
Damn you rich people!
Okay, let's analyze again, if one million is cheap for them, then maybe five million—
"O-One million!?" The butler Adolf said, "P-Please sir, have a seat, Nina! We have a customer. Bring me a catalog."
"Eh?"
'I don't like their reaction.'
Aria and I both took our seats on the sofa.
After a couple of minutes, a young lady with black hair and green eyes walked down the stairs, her face was rather pretty, she looked like a rich aristocrat herself.
As she came closer, her eyes first landed on Aria, who was quietly resting on the sofa. Seeing her coming, Aria waved her hand to her direction.
'Did they know each other?' I noticed some familiarity in their exchange.
"Good morning, Miss Aria, what do I owe the pleasure of having you come here?"
Crossing her leg and glancing towards me Aria finally spoke.
"My friend here needs a suit for tomorrow's party, kindly fulfill his request."
Nina's eyes landed on mine. But her smile suddenly froze. Her eyes repeatedly moved from Aria to mine.
I know what she is thinking.
-'Who is this filthy peasant? Coming to my shop wearing some plain looking clothes.'
Yeah, something along that line.
"May I ask who this gentleman is?"
Taking the catalog from Nina's hand, Aria said with an indifferent tone.
"He is my classmate, a fellow Nova student."
After hearing the reply, Nina's brows twitched slightly.
"A classmate, huh? Interesting."
Turning towards my direction, Nina greeted me with a cold tone in her voice, "Hello sir, my name is Nina Frostheart, and it's a pleasure to meet you."
"Frostheart…?" those words escaped my mouth.
"Ah! I'm sorry Zane, I forgot to tell," Aria clapped her hands, turned towards me and added, "this shop 'Gloria' is run by my uncle, and I assure you, this place has the finest quality clothes you can ever find on this planet."
It makes sense now why she accompanied me and guided me to this place.
Yeah, no-doubt, she is a business minded lady, and here I thought she was being nice to me.
Sigh..
"Here," Aria handed me the catalog, "and choose whatever you like, I will be giving you fifty percent off."
Fifty percent!
That's a lot.
'Thank you, Aria! You are such a kind lady.'
I will forever remember it.
Taking the catalog, I searched though it, the catalog is nothing but a tablet containing various models wearing designer suits. The cost corresponding to the suit is written beneath it.
There's a variety of options from hand-tailored suits, shirts, pants, ties, and jackets.
But what caught me was their price.
The most costly suit in the catalog was only 800 thousand. That's just way less than I imagined.
'Nice! They won't kick me after all.'
But then again, my one million budget was rather ridiculous.
But why didn't Aria question me?
It's not like I want her to question me.
As I thought that, I took a slight glance towards Aria, she was quietly sitting on the sofa, stuffing her mouth with some cake. How nice.
'Wait, cake!?'
When did she get these?
She did tell me, she came to the market to try some pastries.
Anyways, as I scrolled through the tablet, I narrowed down my search list. They have a massive range of collections, and the quality is rather high, it's bound to be pricey.
Haaah..
Taking a deep breath, I stopped thinking much and just chose a light-brown single-breasted suit, it's made up of a mixture of silk and cotton.
Its quiet nice if you ask me.
Perfect.
"I'll be choosing this one." I handed the tablet to Miss Nina, who was for some reason staring at Aria.
"… Alright sir, a fine choice," Miss Nina said, "Its one of our limited stock."
Although it was expensive, it's worth it—quality has its price.
Couple of seconds later, Miss Nina handed me the receipt.
I looked at the receipt in my hand, and went into deep thought.
700 thousand.
Adding Aria's fifty percent offer.
I only have to spend a total of 350 thousand for this suit, which I will only be wearing for one day.
Still though, I didn't regret my decision.
After all, I am filthy rich.
'No I need to stop thinking like that.' I can't afford to be careless with my money.
For my future plans and missions, I needed money, a huge sum of money.
"The suite will be delivered to your given address, thank you for the purchase." Miss Nina bowed slightly.
Now that I look at her, she is quite similar to Aria—cold, introverted, beautiful.
Is Frostheart House full of these kinds of people?
'I hope not.'
"Shall we go?" Beside me Aria asked.
It looks like she finished her pastry.
'That was fast.'
"Right," I said, standing up from the sofa.
We both walked out of the place.
I originally thought it would take me about hours to choose a proper suit, but it just took about 20 minutes.
'Guess, I will go home and slee—'
"Lets go Zane."
Eh?
What? Where?
I tilted my head, and asked, "Where to?"
"To that newly opened cake shop," Aria too tilted her head and added, "I just told you, I wanted to try their pastry, didn't I."
"…"
Is she serious? Didn't she just ate that cake?
"What? Not coming?" Aria once again asked, "you don't like cakes?"
"N-No, let's go."
"Great, follow me."
I think, she loves cake.
***
We walked towards a small shop that looked quite modern, glancing at Aria I asked.
"Is this the place?"
Nodding her head she replied.
"Yes."
As we made our way inside the cake shop, a warm air brushed past me caring a scent of strawberry and vanilla.
Varieties of Cake and pastries were displayed on the rack.
"Welcome."
Welcoming me and Aria at the register was an old lady. Greetings her back both Aria and I took our seat.
Sitting on the opposite side of me Aria smoothly talked with the waiters and ordered two iced Americano and two vanilla pastries.
"So, do you like pastries?" I asked.
"Mhmm." She nodded.
Just few minutes later our orders arrived.
Aria's eyes brimmed with sparkles as she took a bite of her pastry.
But as we joyfully dig into our pastries, a sudden breaking news caught my attention, coming from the display above.
"Emergency broadcast! Reports has been surfaced regarding abnormal fluctuations detected within the demon continent 'Tartarus'. Around four Fallen's were spotted near the border."
I stopped eating, my gaze was fixated on the screen.
Memories of the past flooded in my mind, Tartarus was one of the most dangerous territories in existence, a land ruled by highly intelligence monsters. Even I didn't stepped foot into that region, the threats were still unknown, we still don't know much about that place.
The news anchor continued.
"Due to potential risk, the Hero Association deployed around 30 double rankers and 70 triple rankers, leading this team was none other than Hope the Rank-1 Hero…."
A cold shiver ran down my spine.
"Hope." This name escaped my lips.
"Hahaha," I couldn't help but chuckle.
For some reason Its laughable.
"Zane…?"
Aria's voice snapped me out of my trance.
I exhaled, letting my tension off.
"Sorry. That news just caught my attention."
I wasn't the Rank-1 Hero anymore.
Right now, I was just Zane.
A normal guy living with his parents and elder sister…
Shopping for his suit.
Nothing more.
Nothing less.
End of Chapter.