Abandoned Reincarnation

Chapter 20 – Shopping For Clothes

I leave the guild and head back to the inn. I’m already completely familiar with the road from the guild to the inn.

After eating and taking a bath, I return to my room, and Aria reveals herself.

“Good job today”

“Good job to you too. I’m glad I was able to sell the potions.”

Even though I got Ryuk’s thumbs up to do so, it’s nice to sell something I made myself.

But wouldn’t this normally require some kind of license? Or maybe that Master is just a special case…

That Master is taciturn and cool, but I don’t know what he’s thinking right now. However, I highly appreciate the fact that he didn’t outright start treating me as a child from the beginning.

“Why don’t you stop being an adventurer and become a pharmacist?”

“That’s… hmm, well, I still have a lot of research to do, so…”

No matter how much I worked in the field of medicine in my previous life, it would be disrespectful to my main job to think about becoming a pharmacist just because I can make low-level recovery potions.

A low-level recovery potion is like the most basic among basic stuff to make, so I’m not planning to change jobs just like that.

Though such a thing could be worth considering once I can make high-level potions.

“But that aside, I’ve been wondering about something for a while.”

“Hmm?”

“You always notice the presence of monsters before I do, Aria. Can you feel them or something?”

Up until now, Aria has never failed to detect a monster’s presence. That’s how we’ve been able to see through their ambushes and know exactly where they are.

If I use a detection spell, I can sometimes know where a monster is to some extent, but not always, so I’ve been wondering if there’s any secret Aria might be using in order to quickly detect monsters as she always does.

Aria suddenly comes near me with a face that seems to be saying “Ah, so that’s what it was?”, and then waves her finger, causing a magic circle to appear in front of her.

From the looks of it, it looks like a detection magic circle, but is it also covered with concealment magic? What does this mean?

“It’s easy. I just have a detection spell active at all times.”

“Can that be done constantly?”

“Yeah, I can. Or rather, you can do it too, Haku. You know, with a physical strengthening spell.”

It’s certainly true that I used a physical strengthening spell to raise my muscle strength when working on making the bottles for my potions became harder than I had expected. But I had thought that it was just a special kind of physical strengthening spell that couldn’t be used with other normal spells.

“You can use it on other spells as well. Of course, being under the effects of a physical strengthening spell will continue to consume magical power.”

“Doesn’t that get you exhausted?”

“Not really, you know? If it’s a spell that doesn’t consume too much magical power, you can keep it up constantly while barely feeling a difference, and in the case of detection spells, it’s like they don’t even count.”

I see, so that’s how she’s been able to find monsters in an instant.

Now that you mention it, this totally makes sense. I thought that physical enhancement spells were like this because they are called “physical”, but I never imagined that they could be used on other spells too. That fact was hiding from me in a blind spot.

However, having a spell constantly active means that its magic circle will always be there as well. Wouldn’t that get in the way…? Ah! That’s why you’re hiding it!

“It looks like you noticed. If you use concealment magic on the magic circle, you can make the magic circle itself invisible. It’s quite annoying to have a magic circle constantly floating in front of you, after all.”

“I see… You might be able to use that to hide the activation of any spell, right?”

“Ah, I see. Yeah, something like that is possible. Just as I’d expect from you, Haku. Always looking outside the box.”

A magic circle always appears whenever magic is being activated. This can let the people around know that you’re about to activate magic. Even if it’s just a few seconds, it is a moment of vulnerability for the caster.

But if you could hide magic circles, you can make it look like spells are suddenly flying without any incantation or magic circles.

Having a spell constantly active has its charm too. Sure, having a detection spell active at all times is very convenient, but this could be applied to ball-type magic to use it like a preset naval mine, or on weapon-type magic to create a simple weapon.

As for magic power consumption, wouldn’t it be possible to apply a considerable amount of magic by using a double magic circle?

Ah, this one is worth investigating. I really want to try it.

“I’ve told you this before, but we can’t stay up late.”

“Ugh! Come on, just for today!”

“No. Come on, off to bed with you.”

Even though I’m still in the middle of making potions, there are more things I want to do. Ugh, I can’t help it. Let’s tear through this little by little.

Urged by Aria, I reluctantly got into the futon bed, but there were so many things in my head that I had trouble falling asleep.

I ended up falling asleep quite late, so I overslept a little.

After a late breakfast, I go downtown as planned.

First of all, let’s go shopping for clothes. Appearance is important… though I never really cared about it until now. To be honest, I think wearing anything is fine as long as it’s comfortable. I don’t really have a sense of fashion.

As I head towards the center of town, the bustle becomes stronger. It’s very lively, with several people coming and going.

Since I have a small build, I would sometimes get pushed around, but I somehow manage to avoid this while looking for a store.

That said, I don’t really know anything about this city.

I can see quite a few street stalls just by walking around, but most of them are food stalls. Lured in by the delicious smell, I ended up buying a meat skewer spontaneously.

Oh, this is very delicious. Sure enough, meat tastes good.

But setting that aside, I can’t find any stores that sell clothes. Maybe this isn’t the right area to be looking for them? Hmm… Should I ask someone?

I look around, searching for anyone who looks like a good person. Then, at the edge of my field of vision, I see a familiarly dressed man.

“Ah, Ronil.”

“Huh? Ah, if it isn’t Haku. How’s it going? Have you gotten used to the life of an adventurer?”

“Yes, thanks to you.”

What he seems to be eating in his usual peddler style is a steamed potato. It’s still steaming, and it seems to be freshly made.

He said that he’d be here for a few days, but he’s still here. I thought he had already gone away.

“Are you shopping today?”

“Yes. I’m thinking about buying some clothes now.”

“Ah, it’s true that it might be difficult to walk around town in that outfit. Alright, let me help you with that.”

“Huh?”

“An acquaintance of mine owns a clothing store. I’m sure she’ll have something that you’ll like to wear, Haku.”

I unintentionally let a sigh of wonder slip through my mouth as Ronil winks at me in return.

Well, anything is fine as long as I can find some clothes to wear, but this is a godsend.

I don’t think it’s a good idea to rely too much on Ronil, but in this case, since we’re already here, I guess it’d be nice if he could introduce me with his acquaintance.

Ronil hastily finished eating his steamed potato and then immediately proceeded to walk me down the main street. I almost lost sight of him a few times due to how crowded the street was, but the gentlemanly Ronil waited for me each time.

Leaving the main street and going a little deeper, we arrive at a quiet road. Looking at the various sign boards on the shops here, I can see that this is a commercial district.

“People tend to focus only on the street stalls, but this commercial district is the place to sell things. All of these stores sell only the finest items, so you can expect a lot from them.”

We head for one of the several shops that are lined up in this street, and the sound of a bell ringing resounds as we open the door.

The interior had a calm atmosphere. There are many beautiful fabrics on the shelf, emitting their vibrant colors. The mannequins lined up in the glass-enclosed storefront are decorated with several dresses with extravagant decorations and embroidery, probably for the nobility.

“Welcome. Oh, if it isn’t Ronil! It’s been a while.”

“Hello, Marie. It has indeed.”

A young woman with blond hair that reaches down to her waist and wearing a blue dress comes out from behind the counter, and elegantly shakes hands with Ronil.

So they seem to know each other. I think she is a beautiful person who is as beautiful as the atmosphere of the store. Or maybe I’m a little attracted to her.

Hmm, I’m supposed to be a girl, though. I’m not really attracted to men at the moment. I prefer women. Could this be the result of the memories from my previous life?

“And who’s the young lady?”

“Oh, she’s Haku. We happened across each other in the main street. Haku, this is Marie, the owner of this clothing store.”

“Nice to meet you, Haku.”

“N-nice to meet you.”

That beautiful smile of hers is so lovely…!

Ah, no, that won’t do… I’m a girl… I’m a girl… Well, isn’t it actually okay for young girls to like women? Yeah, there’s nothing wrong with that!

My heart beats faster when I see her pretty figure, which looks like a flower blooming. Calm down, calm down…!

“Marie, I’d like you to pick clothes that would suit Haku. Is that okay?”

“Of course. Hehe, someone as cute as you has to dress up to it, huh?”

“Ah, um… it would be nice if the clothes were easy to move around in, since I’m an adventurer…”

Though I’d love Marie to dress me up like a doll, several people could get angry by seeing an adventurer who wears nothing but cute clothes. Besides, I go to the forest pretty frequently, so they’d be uncomfortable to wear there, plus I wouldn’t want to get them dirty.

“Oh, you’re an adventurer? Even though you’re so young? Well, I’m sure you have your reasons…”

“T-that’s right.”

“You poor thing. You can always count on me if you have any problems, alright?”

“T-thanks…”

She gently hugs me and strokes my head. Ah, is this heaven?

I can sense that Aria is fed up, but I don’t care. I thought I’d never be able to experience being stroked by a woman like this again, so I’m sure she can forgive me for being a little spoiled just this once.

“Well then, let’s take measurements. Please take a seat over there, Ronil.”

“Okay. Off you go, Haku.”

“Got it…”

Marie then takes me deeper into the store.