Chapter 89 - Near Miss (1/2)
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Sheryl was changing into her next dress inside a changing room as Akira was just waiting while sitting on a chair. That was when Kashua approached him with a slightly pale face.
She thought that it might be better to wait for Sheryl, but since it should be no problem as long as the one paying was okay with it, she decided to go straight to Akira. Since it would only get harder the more she waited, it was better to just go ahead and out with it. After all, the more she waits, the readjustment will take more time to finish.
Kashua made her resolve and spoke to Akira.
“Excuse me, there’s something I need to ask.”
After listening to her explanation, Akira did not take too long to make a decision.
“Alright. I’ll pay that extra 1,500,000 Aurum above the initial 1,000,000 Aurum.”
He did not show much reaction when he said that he would pay the extra 1,500,000 Aurum. Although Kashua was surprised by it, she was barely able to maintain her usual expression. But since it did catch her by surprise, she inadvertently asked for a confirmation.
“Are you sure you’re okay with that?”
“Yeah, I’m not an expert in readjusting clothing, so if you tell me that’s how much it would take, I bet that’s really how much it would take. It’s basically like fitting equipment, so I have no plans to get a bad result just so that I can pay less, not to mention that I want to see it in its perfect condition. So I’ll leave it to you… It’s okay if I leave it to you, right?”
“Of course!”
Kashua was able to completely hide her surprise as she said that to Akira with a smile full of confidence. She fully trusted Celen’s skill. If that was not the case, she would have recommended Akira to decline her offer. But even though she was confident of Celen’s skill, it took everything she had to hide her nervousness.
Akira did not notice that at all as he said to Kashua.
“Well, I’ll leave it to you then.”
“With pleasure, please let me excuse myself to tell Celen to start readjusting the dress.”
Kashua was about to head back to Celen, but she remembered something and asked Akira.
“…Excuse me, you did say that it’s something like your equipment, may I ask you how much you spent on your equipment? Although we handle a different kind of clothing, I couldn’t help but wonder.”
Akira did say that fixing Sheryl’s dress was something like making maintenance for his equipment. So Kashua thought that she should be able to gauge how much Akira was willing to spend this time from asking how much he spent on his own equipment.
Akira did not notice Kashua’s intention as he casually replied.
“This? Well, I bought this suit as a combo with some of the other stuff too. So I don’t think you can use it as a reference, you know?”
“People buy accessories and shoes to fit their dress, so I believe it’s not that much different. So if I may, I want to know how much you paid in total.”
“In that case, it was 80,000,000 Aurum.”
“…As I thought, Hunters’ equipment does cost way more than usual apparel. Well then, please let me excuse myself to tell Celen to start her work.”
Kashua lightly bowed at Akira while hiding her grin before returning back to Celen. The reason why she was barely able to avoid getting herself frozen when she heard Akira’s answer was because of her disposition as a businesswoman.
When she went back to Celen, she quickly told her to get started with the readjustment.
“Celen, I got confirmation. He said he’ll pay the extra 1,500,000 Aurum. So you can start your work.”
“Okay, by the way, how did you convince him to pay more?”
Celen thought that even if Kashua was able to get a confirmation in the end, it would at least take her some time to convince Akira. But not only was she back way sooner than Celen thought, she even got Akira’s affirmation. Celen knew that Kashua was not that skillful, so she wondered what kind of technique she used.
Although that remark from Celen sounded as if she was a scammer, Kashua just ignored it as she quickly replied.
“When I told him about the situation, he didn’t hesitate to make that decision. And when I asked him how much he spent on his equipment, he said he paid 80,000,000 Aurum, you know. No wonder he didn’t bat an eyelash when he decided to pay for that extra 1,500,000 Aurum.”
“80,000,000 Aurum. Good grief, a healthy Hunter does earn a huge amount of money. Miss manager, can you go and seduce him?”
“Don’t be stupid and do your job. We did boast that we’re a shop which specializes in readjusting clothing and that we’re worth paying 1,500,000 Aurum, so I expect nothing less than perfect.”
“You don’t even need to tell me that, I won’t hold back.”
Then Celen started her work with a big smile and a serious face that showed her pride in her own skill.
As time pa.s.sed by, Sheryl had tried a lot of clothes, but she had not decided to buy anything yet. She must have her reasons as to why she did that, but the biggest reason might be because none of them incited any particular reaction from Akira.
Kashua, who was always standing near Akira and Sheryl, slowly noticed that too. Thus she made a suggestion to Akira.
“Excuse me, would you like to try picking clothes for your companion?”
“Me?”
“Yes. I believe she’ll be happy too if you do that.”
Kashua thought that if it was something that Akira picked, Sheryl would definitely want to buy it.
“Well, even if you tell me so…”
Since Akira had no confidence in his fas.h.i.+on sense at all, he did not think it was a good idea. But Sheryl, who heard that, seemed to be interested in that idea.
“Eh, Akira will pick my clothing for me?”
Sheryl looked at Akira with eyes full of hope, which made it hard for him to refuse her. But to be honest, Akira did not think he could pick anything good.
Looking at the troubled Akira, Alpha just giggled and offered help.
“Should I do it for you then? Although, I can’t say for sure if I’ll do a good job since I’m not really knowledgeable with all the clothes in this shop.”
“Are you sure you’re okay with that?”
“I’m the one who chose this shop after all. So, let’s see if my choice can defeat your bad luck or not.”
“Now that you mention it, I did say something like that too.”
Akira decided to completely rely on Alpha to pick Sheryl’s clothing. He then looked back at Sheryl who was staring at him with hopeful eyes.
“Well, I’ll go and pick something, just wait here for a bit.”
“I’ll be looking forward to it while waiting.”
Sheryl smiled happily at him. Although, in reality, Akira was not the one who was picking clothing for her, she had no way of knowing that. She was so happy since she thought that Akira would do that for her.
Akira browsed through all the articles in that shop. Even though from outside it looked as if he was only randomly glancing through the clothes in the displays and racks, it was enough for Alpha to scan all the clothes there. But of course, Kashua who did not know that looked a bit surprised by how Akira was behaving.
He already made a round through that shop. But Alpha had not picked anything yet and he found that strange.
“You didn’t find anything good?”
“Nope. That was only to check all the clothes in this shop so that I can make a good combination. I’ll tell you which one to pick, so carry them when I tell you, okay?”
“Okay.”
Akira followed Alpha’s instruction as he went and picked a set of clothing complete with the shoes before he returned to Sheryl and handed them over to her.
Sheryl then went back to the changing room to try the clothing that Akira, or to be more precise, Alpha, picked for her.
After she finished changing, she stepped out from the changing room and bashfully asked for Akira’s opinion.
“H-how do I look?”
Rather than focusing more on showing the cuteness of a girl of her age, it was a beautiful dress that gave off innocence or pure feeling. It also had an opening on its back that showed a bit of Sheryl’s girly charm. Her already beautiful figure made that dress look even more attractive. Sheryl, who was clad in that dress, looked bashful as her cheeks turned reddish, it gave off a conflicting impression of cuteness and loveliness compared to the mature-like dress that she was previously wearing.
Kashua could not help but to give genuine praise.
“It looks really good on you.”
Kashua also gave Akira a compliment inside her heart. Other than the fact that all of those clothes that Akira picked were relatively cheap articles in that shop, she had no complaints at all. But also because of that, it was hard for her to recommend something more expensive right after that.
Alpha smiled smugly and asked Akira.
“How’s it? It’s pretty good, isn’t it?”
“Well, I think it’s better than all the other clothing until now.”
“You don’t look that excited though. Do you have any complaints or something?”
“Even if you tell me so. Just like you said, I might have gotten used to this kind of thing because of the clothes that you usually use. And also, to be honest, I like your current clothes more.”
In order to increase her likeability, Alpha’s appearance was actually adjusted to Akira’s preference, so it was not surprising at all. Not to mention, all of Alpha’s clothes were high-cla.s.s clothes. Thus, it was rather unfair to compare that to Sheryl’s clothes.
Alpha just smiled bitterly as she said to him.
“Well, at least I know that you think the clothes I picked are better than what that clerk recommended. I guess I’ll settle with that for now. It seems that compared to your bad luck, my skill still has the upper hand.”
“What are you even talking about?”
Akira exasperatedly replied to Alpha, but of course, he did not show that on his face.
Sheryl was still waiting for Akira’s opinion. Since Akira was the one who picked it for her, he carefully chose his words.
“I do think it looks pretty good on you. What do you think?”
“I like it quite a lot.”
“I see, I’m glad to hear that.”
“Yes, thank you very much for picking this wonderful dress for me.”
Sheryl looked overjoyed as she thanked Akira.
Akira and Sheryl then sat on a chair and were talking to each other to spend time.
Sheryl, who was still wearing the dress that Akira picked for her, looked extremely delighted. She looked both mature and a bit childish from the other people’s point of view.
They still had some time until Celen finished adjusting Sheryl’s dress. Since Akira had paid for the bill, he actually could spend time outside the shop and return back later. But for Sheryl, Celen asked her to stay in the shop in case she needed her for basting or other fine adjustments. In order to get nothing less than perfect adjustment, Sheryl obediently followed Celen’s request to stay in the shop. So Akira also decided to stay in that shop to accompany Sheryl.
While they were waiting, Akira also finished discussing about the things related to their next expedition to Higaraka residence ruin.
Unlike what he had expected, Sheryl quickly agreed with his offer to regularly go to gather relics. But after their discussion, there were a lot of changes compared to before.
One of the big changes was related to the owners.h.i.+p of the relics. All of the gathered relics would be owned by Akira; Sheryl and her gang would then sell them and get 50% of the profit from the sales. As for how to sell them, it was all up to Sheryl and her gang. It also applied to the relics that they had gathered last time.
Just to be sure, Akira then asked Sheryl again.
“Well, it might be strange to ask you this since I’m the one who came up with it, but a lot of things happened last time, so like, are you really okay with that?”
Sheryl and her gang had gone through a lot of stuff the previous time they went out to the wasteland. Not only did they get attacked by a swarm of monsters, one of the Hunters that were together with them also attacked them. But even so, Sheryl accepted his offer with a straight face and that made Akira a bit worried.
But her smile did not change at all as she replied.