TGBAP 21

“You’ve waited a long time!”

Just then, the employee appeared, bringing the owner. The owner wore a smiling face, yet her hawk-like eyes swept the two of them from head to toe.

“This is a cool T-shirt made with fabric that’s perfect for this muggy season, so it won’t cling to your skin and it feels refreshing. Pair this T-shirt with knee-length shorts and it’s just perfect!”

“How about this outfit, something you can wear easily? Even though the design is simple, the stitching is meticulous from the sleeves to the neckline, so it’s sturdier than the others, and the delicate details really stand out.”

“Our young master would look great in this too! And with suspenders as well, you look very bright and capable!”

The owner began her full-on sales pitch, words pouring out like a dam had burst.

Lucian’s head spun from changing clothes so many times, but Kaiser examined each item carefully, one by one.

After finishing his selection, he pointed at the pile that remained after excluding what didn’t suit Lucian.

“Ring it all up.”

Seeing the mountain of clothes, Lucian freaked out.

“That’s too many!”

“Tsk, just stay still. While we’re at it, let’s wear that and go. Throw away those rags with the drooping sleeves. What are you doing? Hurry up and pay.”

The velvet pouch Kaiser tossed onto the table was stuffed full of gold coins. Seeing the glittering pouch, the owner and the employee swallowed hard.

“J-just a moment, please!”

First, they finished things so Lucian could leave wearing the clothes he had on, then they began wrapping up the countless sets of clothing.

“Hyuuung…….”

“I’m not telling you to pay me back, so stop whining and wear it. It’s coming out of my money anyway, so Ria won’t say anything.”

[Oh my? You bought it? What a surprise. Ohohoho!]

She’ll probably like it, if anything.

Thinking of Ria, Kaiser shook his head.

“O-oh, you’ve waited a long time!”

“All together, it comes to 24 gold. We’ll return the remaining money to you.”

“You have a lot of luggage, so shall we call a carriage or—kkuuaaa……?”

The employee couldn’t finish his sentence. Kaiser had stuffed all of it into his pocket space in an instant.

Hic.

The employee hiccuped.

“Alright, now let’s go. This time we need to buy shoes. Is there a decent shoe shop nearby?”

“S-shoes? The shop right next to ours is a shoe shop. They make them comfortably and prettily, very well.”

As Kaiser was about to leave with a sufficient answer, the owner stopped them.

“Just a moment! Here, take this.”

What she handed over was a boy’s hat.

“We didn’t order this.”

“It’s on the house. Please be sure to stop by our shop again next time. Then we’ll repay you with even better clothes. So please, we ask for your continued patronage.”

Kaiser must have liked the hat quite a bit; he took off the floppy hat Lucian had been wearing and put this one on him right away.

“I’ll remember that.”

Jingle-

“Thank you! Please come again!”

The two sparkling faces disappeared beyond the door. Lucian followed behind Kaiser, who headed straight for the shoe shop.

“But I won’t be able to go there next time.”

“Why? Because you won’t have money?”

“Y-yeah…….”

“Then only buy it when I come. I’ll buy it for you next time too.”

“Really? It cost a lot just now.”

“If you knew how much money I have in my pocket space, you’d pass out.”

Not yet knowing that dragons are crazy about gold and jewels, Lucian tilted his head.

And so the two of them went to the shoe shop and fought a second shopping war.

In a pattern similar to the clothing shop, they ordered a total of five pairs by type. The only drawback was that since they weren’t ready-made but had to be reserved, he couldn’t wear the shoes right away and leave.

“Next time you’ll have to come and pick them up.”

“Yeah! I can do it alone! I even memorized the whole way!”

“Yeah? Then on the way back, I’ll check whether you really memorized it properly.”

The last thing on the list was a training wooden sword. After asking people, they entered the most popular weapon shop.

Inside, burly men were looking over the weapons.

They glanced sideways at the two entering the shop.

‘A weakling and a runt.’

‘That scrawny—can he even be a proper man?’

Based on their looks, sure, but why does the back of my neck feel so cold?

The men instinctively edged away from Kaiser.

When the men who had been loud as if they owned the place fell silent all at once, the shop owner burst into laughter.

“Well now, a big shot has come in! Just how does one get that kind of killing intent?”

The owner asked with easy familiarity, but Kaiser wore a sullen expression. Of course, to others, it looked like he was going stone-faced.

The owner laughed awkwardly.

“Haha…… so what can I do for you, sir?”

“Do you have a training wooden sword this kid can use?”

“So you came to buy for the kid, not yourself! Let’s see…….”

The owner’s large body moved forward, matching Lucian’s eye level. He touched Lucian here and there, judging his measurements by sight.

“How old are you?”

“E-e-eight.”

“Same age as Dio, huh. You’re a bit small for your age. Maybe you’re just small-bodied.”

Even though he’d grown taller and plumped up under Ria’s care, he was still on the small side compared to his peers.

“Still, looks like you exercise steadily. You’re getting some muscle. Preferred sword—well, you won’t have that. I’ll give you something standard. Dio!”

“Why!”

At the owner’s shout, a buzz-cut boy called Dio popped out. For a moment, Lucian and Dio’s eyes met.

“Bring a few swords this kid can use.”

“Dad, you do it.”

“Tsk! If I say bring them, bring them.”

“Tch, you always make me do the errands.”

Dio grumbled, went somewhere, then came back carrying about five training wooden swords.

They were all similar in shape, but the details differed slightly, and perhaps because each used different wood, there were subtle differences in color.

“Here.”

Lucian took the sword Dio held out, absentmindedly.

He’d seen Kaiser polymorph into a child before, but this was the first time he was seeing a real human his own age.

Maybe because of that, he kept glancing at him. Dio, wearing a sullen expression, felt Lucian’s gaze and tilted his head.

“Why? Got something on my face?”

“N-no. It’s nothing.”

Lucian hurriedly turned his head away.

Watching that, Kaiser narrowed his eyes.

“Lucian, pick quickly and let’s go. The sun’s going to set soon.”

“Okay.”

Lucian held each of the swords Dio brought, one by one.

They were definitely easier to handle than the swords in the mansion. He could lift them up, and even swing them around one-handed.

“Hyung! It’s super light!”

“Looks like it.”

The owner and Dio watched, inwardly surprised.

“Well now, looks like he’s stronger than I thought, huh, Dio?”

“……Yeah.”

In fact, every wooden sword Lucian was picking up had an iron core inside, so most children couldn’t swing them easily.

Dio could carry them around easily because he’d been toughened up while helping his father at the weapon shop, but swinging them without wobbling was a different matter entirely.

Seeing someone smaller than him swinging the sword so easily made Dio curious.

“Which one do you like best?”

“Um…… I don’t know. They all feel pretty similar.”

Every sword was light and fit his hand snugly, so he couldn’t tell what to choose.

When Lucian couldn’t decide, Kaiser stepped in.

He lightly tapped and swung them, then chose the fourth sword.

“This one. It’s the lightest and the sturdiest.”

“Oh? You’ve got a good eye. That one’s made of Tiorisan oak, so it’s lighter than the others, and it’s much more durable too. But the price is a bit higher.”

“Doesn’t matter. I’ll pay for this.”

“You don’t need anything else? If you’re just starting swordsmanship, you’ll need protective gear.”

Kaiser glanced at Lucian, then picked an expensive pair of leather gloves again.

“This too.”

“Very generous! All together, that’s 2 gold.”

Lucian fished out 2 gold and handed it over. Since Kaiser had bought all the clothes and shoes for him, even after buying the wooden sword, he still had 1 gold left.

“There’s money left, so can I buy something tasty with this?”

“Do whatever you want.”

Lucian’s face lit up. He thought of the snacks he’d seen at the market earlier.

Before he knew it, Dio appeared, holding the packed wooden sword and gloves. Dio looked Lucian up and down, then handed him the items.

“……If you need something, come again.”

“Yeah. That’s for kids ten and under, so when you grow a bit you’ll have to change swords. If the sword starts to rattle or gets too small, come by again.”

“Yes, sir.”

Lucian answered bravely, then, glancing at Dio, hesitated and said awkwardly,

“……I’ll come again later.”

Dio wrinkled the bridge of his nose and turned away sharply. At the cold reaction, Lucian’s shoulders drooped, but the owner laughed heartily.

“That kid. Looks like he took a liking to you.”

“He doesn’t hate me?”

“Hate you? If he really hated you, he wouldn’t tell you to come again. He’s probably just embarrassed. There aren’t many kids around here learning swordsmanship, so come often. Better yet, come be friends with my son.”

Saying it was on the house, the owner gave him oil used to maintain the wooden sword.

This time, instead of putting the items into pocket space, he made Lucian carry them slung over his shoulder. Because Lucian hugged it tight and wouldn’t let go.

Seeing his expression go all soft and fuzzy, he must like it quite a bit. Whether it’s because of the wooden sword or because of the new friend, he doesn’t know, but.

When you look at Lucian, there are one or two strange things—no, more than that.

He doesn’t know a lot about humans, but at the very least, he can tell Lucian isn’t used to human society.

He’s not an infant—does it make any sense that he’s eight and has never even been to a village once?

And when you look at how he acted when I polymorphed into a child, and how he looked at that kid Dio, it’s obvious he wants to get close.

Since I didn’t see him when I came 4–5 years ago, it means he hasn’t been in the mansion long…….

‘But something about asking where he came from feels off.’

With his temperament, he would’ve asked long ago.

But for some reason, with Lucian, he couldn’t do it like usual.

It’s like dew that disappears if you poke it.

“Hyung! What are you going to eat?”

“I don’t feel like eating anything, so you eat your fill.”

“If there’s something you want to eat, tell me. I’ll buy you everything!”

With only 1 gold, who’s nose are you going to stick that on?

Kaiser let out a small snort of laughter and followed behind Lucian.

* * *

Ria sat on the stairs in front of the mansion’s main gate, waiting only for Lucian and Kaiser to return.

It had already been four hours since the two left.

She knew well that with Kaiser there, nothing would happen, but this was the first time she’d been separated from Lucian for this long, this far, so she couldn’t help worrying.

“Why are they so late?”

She regretted asking them to do so many things at once.

Riiia~~~!

At the familiar voice, Ria sprang to her feet. Then she hurried right up to the fence.

From far down below, she could see Lucian, smiling brightly, holding something in both hands. In Kaiser’s hand beside him, there were several skewers.

Huh? Skewers?

“Ria! Look at this! I bought all of it with the leftover money!”

Lucian boasted what he was holding.

It was all food. For a moment she was dumbfounded; when she looked at Kaiser, he was chewing on skewers with a blank face as he said,

“There was 1 gold left. He insisted on spending it all.”

[…How do you buy 1 gold’s worth of food?]

1 gold isn’t such a small amount. And he bought it so neatly too. Skewers, bread, candy, jelly, juice, and even fried food.

It didn’t look like something he could eat all within today.

“I did good, right! I spent it all without leaving a single coin!”

He looked like he wanted praise. If he had a tail, it definitely would’ve been wagging furiously.

[You didn’t have to spend it all. It’s better to bring some back.]

Lucian froze. It seems he misunderstood “use the leftover money however you want” as “you must spend it all.”

When Lucian’s expression darkened, Ria hurriedly said,

[N-no! You did well! If you store the candy and jelly properly, you can eat them for days.]

“Right?!”

Lucian perked right back up and went into the mansion, saying he’d put the luggage down. Watching his back with a smile, Ria immediately wiped her expression and turned to Kaiser.

[And what were you doing, not stopping him?]

“You shouldn’t talk if you didn’t see him. He was so excited he ran around everywhere. Even when I told him to stop, he said he wanted to try all of it.”

[…]

For a moment she had nothing to say. Right—this must have been Lucian’s first outing, so everything would’ve been fascinating.

And there are limits to the food she can make, and there are things you can only eat when you go out.

It was enough to make her wonder whether she should start giving him separate snack money every time he goes out from now on.