Chapter 76 - A little shopping spree

Chapter 76: Chapter 76 - A little shopping spree There isn’t much to say about Alderbury besides ’it’s a nice countryside town.’ It’s as unremarkable as Evergrove. Or it would be, for the seasoned traveler. Not for me. You know, ever since I came to this world, I’ve experienced a lot of game-y stuff like magic, levels, and the absurd system screen. What I haven’t experienced properly is true medieval living. And I’m starving for it. I got a little taste of it back in Evergrove, and I’m thrilled to have another taste today. Again, it’s only me and Lovelace. Now that we know about the Network looking for my mother, we have one more reason to not get in the city with her. Our mission today is partly to do something about exactly that. But before, we need to transform some of our loot into cash. We sell the jewels in a shop near the Adventurer’s Guild and the amulet in an alchemist’s shop in the same plaza. The country has a four-tier system of coinage. The lowest of all is the copper, and ten coppers make a bronze. Most people will live their entire lives basically handling only coppers and bronzes. From Mother, we learned that the inn we paid for was a bit overpriced, at two bronzes per night for a whole room. Most people don’t have the luxury of paying for inns anyway. That’s the whole reason the adventurers’ camps exist, after all. Ten bronzes become a silver, and ten silvers are equivalent to one gold. Only nobles usually have the means to make transactions in gold coins. After selling all our loot besides the sword, we have thirteen silvers, eight bronzes, and five coppers. Now we can do our real mission. We go straight to the street in the merchant’s quarter that is closer to the noble district. From what we heard, there’s a famous beauty salon in this city. One that sells very interesting things. And it’s in front of that salon that we are right now. "Good morning. I would like to see the makeup you have. I’m here to buy some for my master." Lovelace talks with a dignified poise, almost like the maid of some high-status family. It would be less conspicuous than saying that we would be buying for ourselves. We are dressed in commoner clothes, after all. It helps not to stand out on the poorer side. But here, if we buy stuff for ourselves, it would stick out like a sore thumb. "Of course. Just a moment, please. What kind of skin does she have?" "It’s a bit on the darker side, so we would need some darker tones to match it." Which is a lie, obviously. We want darker tones to change her appearance, not to smooth her face. The counter girl goes into the back of the shop and returns just a few minutes afterwards. "Sorry for taking so long. It was hard to find this, as it’s a bit unusual to have people with darker skin in these lands." "No problem. Let me take a look." I wasn’t a makeup girl back in my other life, so I don’t understand much about it. Lovelace, on the other side, loves makeup and was always complaining about the lack of it. "This is very good material indeed. I see that your shop lives up to your reputation. How much is it?" "It’s one silver." Priiiiicy. But that’s exactly what we heard about the salon. The highest prices you would find, but the quality to match. Which means, indirectly, that it’s also the best quality you would find. "I’ll take it. Do you also sell wigs? I would need one at adult size and one at child size. It’s for the Little Master’s theater performance at her school." Schools in the kingdom are known for encouraging the pursuit of arts as a hobby for noble ladies. And being knowledgeable about it is often seen as a plus in the CV for marriage brokering. "Of course, of course. Come, I’ll show you." She leads us to a section of the shop with some mannequins, who are regally dressed and have high-fidelity wigs. Yeah, those would fool anyone. "I’ll like this one and this one." Two perfect black, long, and straight hair wigs. They are very similar to Lovelace’s, which would make us look like a very normal and perfect family. "Ohh, you have a good eye, miss. Those two, plus the makeup, make three silver and four bronze." "Here." Lovelace pays without batting an eye. But knowing that it’s a quarter of our entire budget, vanishing in an instant, is hurting my heart a bit. In any case, it’s a good investment. When we’re back outside, Lovelace takes my hand, and we walk back to the normal side of the merchant’s quarter. "What should we do now?" "Buy some more dresses. If we enter each city with a different dress, then it’s harder to track us down." And so we do. And this time we can invest in some dresses with a bit more of a quality level. Lovelace obviously goes for the ones who make her look like a goth beauty. I mean, the ones who make her look like the goth beauty that she is. Gone are the days of battle-ready improvised leather clothing that hid all her features. At least that kind of clothing isn’t so uncommon in this country. "In my world these dresses would be so out of place in a daily life that I was often afraid of dressing like that in public spaces. Yet here, it’s so normal..." "It’s because of me. Back in the day, the tailors I hired to make the clothes I redesigned from the games I watched liked them so much that they asked my permission to sell them to the general public." "Ohhhh. I’m so glad you did it, then. It means that now I can also wear some of those without feeling out of place." "They are beautiful, aren’t they?" "Indeed, they are. And you look absolutely stunningly gorgeous in them. And I mean it, you’re breathtaking right now." This is the first time I see her face getting a bit red, I think? She’s always so serious; it’s cute to see her a bit embarrassed." "Th-thank you, Aurea... You look very pretty yourself in that dress." "You don’t need to be polite, Lovelace. I know that I’m still in a child’s body. I want so much to be in an adult body again..." "But inside you are not..." "That doesn’t count. A child’s body is a child’s body. That’s not negotiable." "I know... In any case, it’s just a couple more years, right? Those will fly." "I do hope it does... I really do."