Testing My Luck in the New World

Volume 1 - Chapter 26c

"I never said who the noble was."

"Haha. Right."

"Anyways," he said putting his hand on his lower back to stretch. "Are you here to sell more pelts?"

"No, actually. Just here to buy this time."

Same as it did the blacksmith, the news that we were here to spend money instead of ask for it caused Gideon to liven up a bit. I wouldn't go so far as to say the bags under his eyes disappeared, but he looked much more alert than he was seconds ago.

"Oh, well, then please feel free to look around. I don't plan on staying open much longer, but you're welcome to take your time. If you have any questions, please feel free to call on me."

We thanked the man and perused the store we had all to ourselves, doing our best to stay out of his way as he cleaned up.

The collection of clothes was as shockingly impressive as before. Almost the entire floor was filled with tables, shelves and racks filled with clothes for men, women and children, all of which were clearly handmade. Now that we were actually here to look around, I had a chance to honestly admire Gideon's craft as I picked up a random pair of pants to look them over.

I would have thought the stitchwork would have been left entirely invisible due to a lack of machinery to work it, but he hid it perfectly. The only bindings left in sight were those meant to be seen, such as the leather straps keeping Yua's blouse from falling apart, as hers was clearly just a knockoff version of a type of blouse that had been thrown into the pile of folded pants. There were many more here and with several bright colors to decorate them.

Setting the pants back down, realizing only after the fact that they were meant for women, I turned to Yua only to find her eyes darting back and forth all over what looked to be the children's section of the shop.

"Find anything you like, Yua?"

Looking almost startled, Yua looked down at her clothes. She picked up the hem of her blouse and looked the whole thing over with a slightly worried twist to her brow. Touching a tentative hand to the fabric of a small dress that would probably look more like a short sundress on a fully grown woman such as her.

She wasn't trying to avoid looking for some clothes for herself because she's still worried about spending money on herself, was she?

While her shirt and leather pants weren't all that dirty now and most definitely looked good on her, she couldn't wear them every day. She would only end up getting sick if she did or they would eventually wear out and end up with a bunch of holes in them. And while the thought of that tantalized me just a little, and regardless of if my new spells potentially being able to fix said holes, I wasn't going to actually let her run around like that.

Even if it's just a few things, we should have at least another set or two for each of us, so we had something to wear while the dirty clothes are being washed. Actually filling up our wardrobe could come later.

"I'm serious about this," I said. "Go ahead and pick out some things you like. I'm looking for myself too, so don't feel the need to hold back."

"Th-Thanks, but, um... I don't really have a good sense for human clothes. So, I don't know what I should pick."

I paused and blinked at her. She blushed and clasped her hands together sheepishly in front of her hips, looking almost like she was repenting for forcing the decision onto me.