Chapter 478 (1/2)

Setting the bottle down on the table, Tanya turned to regard the man who walked into her shop. The first thing she noticed about him was his feet: they were bare.

The man scratched his head awkwardly. “H-hello…. I, uh, just want my hair shorn off.”

Sighing to herself inwardly, Tanya nodded and smiled. Better be positive about it. “Of course, please have a seat. Ah…”

There, she stumbled. Very quickly, she had been told that they didn’t really have US money anymore. Instead, they used a local currency. This seemed… fanciful to Tanya, and she distrusted it. Although it was silly, in a way, she much preferred the gifts that people seemed very willing to give her, in exchange for the haircuts.

“I…” Tanya searched around for the words. The man’s face was darkening, for some reason, which caused her anxiety to spike, making the words even more slippery. “Um… I… would it be okay to pa…. to pay in goods? I’m new here…. so… I don’t…”

The man frowned, tilting his head to the side. His eyes were sharp and emerald, and quite beautiful. “New?”

“Yes.” She stammered. “To t-town. I, uh, was in the border place, that just opened up.”

“Oh. Oh. That’s fine, I can pay in goods.” The man said, blinking. His strange coldness faded away as swiftly as it came. That made Tanya anxious about him in a different way. It wasn’t an enjoyable prospect to be in an enclosed space with a man who experienced such rapid emotional changes, but she would accept it for now.

She pointed to the seat. “Sit? How much do you want off?’

“All of it…. Well, most of it.” The man said sheepishly. His hair was almost to his shoulders, thick and black. Tanya sighed in jealousy, shaking her head at her own mousy brown curls.

“I haven’t gotten a haircut in a long time,” The man admitted. “It just hasn’t seemed… important.”

“Mmm.” Tanya hummed at that. It was probably true. After all, if there were monsters around, there was no doubt that dealing with those were more important than getting a haircut. But it seemed the town they were in right now was a bit weird, but it was safe enough. Tanya had only seen a few places, and that was when she was too shellshocked to notice much, so she had a timid curiosity about the place.

They lapsed into silence as Tanya began cutting the man’s hair. It was surprisingly difficult. Tanya frowned at the hair. This was… literally the toughest hair she had ever encountered. Not impossible, with the magically sharp sheers Dinesh had provided for her, but very, very difficult.

“So,” Tanya said, hoping to fill the heavy silence. “What do you do?”

“What do I do?” She could feel the man frown.

“Like… your job. Or… did you get a Class from the Village? I really don’t know much about…” Tanya trailed off. It abruptly struck her how strange these past several days had been. She couldn’t find words to articulate all the things she didn’t know or understand what happened. In so many ways she just wanted to ignore the changes, and pretend nothing had happened.

But every time she thought about that, she remembered the crooked yellow teeth in that monster’s smile.

“Oh. Um.” The man seemed to think about that. He thought very hard about it, for almost 20 seconds, taking enough time that Tanya began to sweat. Immediately, she remembered that this man was barefoot.

Cursing herself for bringing it up, Tanya cast her mind around, looking for a good transition. ‘Unemployment still exists, dummy,’ she reprimanded herself. It was a good reminder that without Dinesh, she would be whisked off to some city miles away.

“Well, I believe I’m going to become a sorta Scout, Explorer type.” The man said finally. Tanya’s expression brightened, feeding off his positivity.

“Exploring? That sounds amazing. I’ve always enjoyed nature. Are you excited to be gone?”

Again, the temperature in the room seemed to shift abruptly downwards as the man frowned. “...well, no, I would prefer to remain. But I don’t believe I can in good conscience.”

When Dinesh opened the door, almost exactly after the man had finished, Tanya wanted to do a dance of relief. A familiar presence was just what she needed, with this moody man.