Volume 8
Chapter 30
Dragged away from Wandor's workshop, Nozomu found himself back on the main street of the Craftsman's District, being pulled along by the arm. Tatata! With light steps, Lisa pulled Nozomu along. Nozomu had somehow managed to keep up, flustered, but because she was pulling his arm so forcefully, a considerable pain was shooting through his hand.
"Lisa, wait, let
go of my hand! Ouch, it hurts!"
"Hm? Oh, sorry,
sorry!"
When Nozomu cried out
at his limit, Lisa finally slowed her pace. Nozomu's shoulders slumped in
relief as the pain in his arm finally subsided.
"Ouch...
Seriously, what was that all of a sudden...?"
"It couldn't be
helped. If we stayed, Wandor-san's lecture would have just continued."
"But, seeing him
like that, I'm pretty sure the lecture will just restart when you go to pick up
your sword, right?"
"La~ la~ la~. I
can't hear you~~"
Nozomu sighed at Lisa,
who had covered her ears with both hands and was looking up at the sky.
Resigned, he decided to ignore the unrepentant Lisa and take care of his next
errand. The bell was finished, but just handing it over as-is was too plain.
Since it was a gift, he figured he should add some kind of nice craftsmanship
or accessory to it. In fact, when he had given a bell to Somia before, he had
crafted it so she could wear it on her wrist, as a replacement for the bracelet
she cherished.
"Well then, I
have another errand, so I'll see you..."
"Hey, wait. Are
you just going to leave?"
As Nozomu tried to
walk away, Lisa grabbed his hand again. Her tone of voice clearly held a note
of displeasure.
"Yeah..."
"...You're coming
with me. There's somewhere I want to go."
Lisa, who had raised
an eyebrow for a moment, began to pull Nozomu's hand again. Compared to before,
her pace was somewhat gentler, and the pull on his hand wasn't as strong. But
her hand seemed to stick to his, and strangely, he couldn't shake it off.
"Somewhere you
want to go? Where? Besides, like I said, I have other errands..."
"Is that errand
related to the bell you were making at Wandor-san's smithy?"
"Ah, yeah..."
As Lisa kept glancing
at the parcel Nozomu was holding, he felt uncomfortable and hid it behind his
body.
"The reason
you're giving that bell to Irisdina-san is as thanks for helping you practice
dancing before the Opening Festival, right? Which means your next errand is to
find decorations to attach to that bell?"
Nozomu's eyes widened
at Lisa's accurate deduction. He had never told Lisa his reason for giving Irisdina
the bell. Watching Lisa puff out her chest as if to say "I knew it," he was once again
struck by how perceptive a childhood friend could be.
"Yeah,
but..."
"Well then, I
know a good shop. You can get some pretty nice cloth and thread there, so let's
go."
Her grip on his hand
tightened again. A chill ran down Nozomu's spine at the force, which reminded
him of her heavy-handedness at Wandor's shop. Perhaps sensing Nozomu's
hesitation, the biggest possible smile spread across Lisa's face. Although it
was a smile that would make an onlooker stare in admiration, now that he knew
her recent lively and reckless nature, it only served to accelerate his
anxiety.
"It's fine, it's
fine! It's a really good shop!"
"No, it doesn't
matter if you know it or not, you're being too pushy... I said, stop pulling my
arm with all your strength-! Aaaaaaaah!"
Completely ignoring
Nozomu's anxiety, Lisa once again started running, pulling his arm. The boy's
scream echoed through the alleys as he was dragged along by the sprinting
red-haired girl.
***
After being forcibly
dragged around by Lisa, Nozomu finished shopping at the store she'd guided him
to and settled down on a bench in Central Park. As he sat on the long, wooden bench,
Nozomu's shoulders slumped and he let out a great sigh, as if to show his
exhaustion. A bag, presumably containing the items he'd bought at the shop she
introduced him to, sat beside the bench. Colorful fabrics peeked out from its
opening.
"Haa... That was
rough."
"But you got some
good stuff, right?"
"Well,
yeah..."
Nozomu had been
dragged around by Lisa again and ended up with yet more pain in his arm, but
the shop she'd taken him to was indeed an excellent one, with a wide selection
and reasonable prices.
"Dyed Silkbug thread and cloth aren't
easy to come by..."
As he said this,
Nozomu glanced at the cloth peeking out of the bag beside him. What he had
purchased was cloth woven from a special thread found in the eastern Arkmel
Continent. Its raw material comes from the thread of a giant insect called a
"Silkbug," but the Silkbug itself is an extremely rare
creature. Silkbugs are giant insects
that are originally "Moss Galamoth"
magic beasts. Moss Galamoth are
treated as pests; they are purple, and farmers find them troublesome because
they suck all the moisture from plants with their sharp proboscises, causing
them to wither. But among the Moss
Galamoth, there are rare individuals that mutate into Silkbugs. Unlike Moss
Galamoth, Silkbugs are white and
have the characteristic of being very weak. They are sluggish and would
otherwise disappear in the process of natural selection, but the thread their
larvae produce is extremely soft to the touch and is treated as a luxury item.
Nozomu hadn't bought that many Silkbug
thread and cloth. Frankly, it was just scraps left over from making clothes.
Still, it was all thanks to Lisa that they had sold such an item, which was out
of reach for ordinary commoners, to him.
"It's the kind of
thing you can only get in Arcazam. This sweet, too. It's one of the things that
makes me glad I came to Arcazam."
Lisa smiled, nibbling
on the flat, pie-like sweet in her hand. She was eating a confection called a
"Kouign-amann." It was a
sweet from the southwestern Arkmel Continent, made from fermented strong flour
dough, sweetened with butter and sugar. The hard dough, made with salt and
butter and baked after rising, was crispy on the outside and fluffy on the
inside. The salty, sweet flavor of the butter spreading in her mouth seemed to
bring her the ultimate euphoria and sense of bliss; the way she nibbled at the
sweet was just like a squirrel given a walnut.
"I'm the one who
paid for that Kouign-amann, you
know."
"It's a finder's
fee! A finder's fee! You only got that Silkbug
thread so cheap because of me, right?"
"I know, I know.
I just never expected you to have connections like this, Lisa..."
The shop where Nozomu
got the Silkbug cloth and thread was
a dress shop that Lisa frequented. Apparently, it was a shop the academy had
introduced her to when she was looking for a costume for her first Opening
Festival as a first-year. Shops that handle Silkbug
thread are usually large-scale businesses, and such luxury items are almost
never sold to the general public. But, true to Solminati Academy's policy of
accepting commoners if they have talent, the dress shop took the students'
circumstances into account, preparing costumes at surprisingly low prices and
even helping them pick out other accessories if asked. Of course, the shop had
a mutually beneficial relationship with the academy. They get large orders from
the academy, which more than makes up for the student discounts, and it's a
long-term investment to make a good impression on these promising "golden
eggs." They seemed especially willing to help outstanding students like
Lisa, and thanks to her word, Nozomu was able to get even better materials than
he had been looking for.
"Well, I am a
promising student of the academy, you know~~"
Lisa flashed a cheeky nishishi laugh, as if boasting about her
broad connections. While she couldn't match a noble like Irisdina, she also
seemed to have her own connections in various places within the city.
"Haa... So full
of yourself..."
"For us, right
now, being this forward and boastful is just right. Being cheeky is a privilege
of youth, you know. Chomp!"
She paid no mind to
Nozomu sighing next to her. Lisa flashed a proud smile and bit into the Kouign-amann. Don't worry about what
others think, give it your all so you have no regrets, and laugh off your
failures. Her smile, overflowing with vitality and spirit, made Nozomu realize
anew that she had truly gotten back on her feet.
"A lot has
happened, but worrying just isn't my style. 'Overthinking
is as bad as not thinking,' as they say."
"Spoken like
someone who spectacularly blows up her spare swords one after another..."
That's why he couldn't
help but tease her, letting the words slip out. At Nozomu's slightly mean-spirited
words, Lisa swallowed the last piece of her sweet and scratched the back of her
head, looking troubled.
"W-Well, let's leave
it at that for now... So, what are you making with that cloth and thread?"
She made a gesture as
if moving a box from right to left, like in a comedy skit, forcibly changing
the subject. Nozomu gave her a wry smile, then looked down at the goods he had
bought at the shop she introduced.
"I'm still
debating which color to use, but I'm thinking of making a cord-style hair tie. Iris's
hair is long."
Nozomu had bought
purple, white, black, and red thread and cloth. And some decorative beads. He
planned to braid the threads to make a cord and decorate it with beads that
matched the thread. The mithril was already a pale, shining silver, so Nozomu
wanted to choose something that would match Irisdina's hair color. Feeling a
sharp pang in his chest, Nozomu thought of her for a moment. Her original hair
color was black, but it had been bleached white from that incident. What would
suit that color? Or should he go with something that represented her original
black hair? Or would she prefer something similar to the bracelet he gave
Somia-chan? What would make her happy? He found himself dwelling on that
question. Just then, a small flower blooming on a tree quietly growing near the
park caught his eye. A small flower with distinctive, long, thin purple petals.
Its star-like shape and slender yet firm stem and leaves somehow reminded him
of her.
"A
flower..."
"A flower? Oh,
you mean the Crowea? It's a flower
that blooms from autumn to winter..."
"Ah, is that what
it's called?"
"You didn't
know?"
"I've never heard
of it being used for medicine or anything."
"Well, no, but...
That flower blooms from autumn to winter. Depending on where it takes root, it
can survive the winter, but it gets pretty cold in Arcazam, so it might be
difficult here..."
Crowea. Also known as
Southern Cross, it's a small evergreen shrub that blooms with small purple
flowers. Irisdina's long hair. A purple flower that would suit both black and
white. The image clicked into place in Nozomu's mind. Seeing his expression,
Lisa peered into his face, as if trying to gauge his thoughts.
"Hmm, so you
prefer long hair, Nozomu?"
Even without him
saying anything, Lisa seemed to guess what he was thinking. As expected of a
childhood friend.
"No, it's not
that. I just think... it suits Iris."
Nozomu himself felt
that Irisdina's long, sleek, straight black hair represented her unwavering
nature, and he felt something close to admiration for it. She herself had said
she was proud of her black hair. That's why, when he saw her hair, now bleached
white, he felt a pang of regret for his own inadequacy.
(Calm down. The
important thing now isn't for me to keep regretting...)
Noticing he was about
to get caught in a negative loop, Nozomu took another deep breath and exhaled
slowly. Along with his breath, the stagnation swirling in his chest seemed to
fade.
"Suits her,
huh... Well, what about my hair~?"
Lisa, looking slightly
dissatisfied that Nozomu was still on the topic of Irisdina, ran her fingers
through her own, now-short hair, as if to show him. Nozomu's rampage was also
the reason Lisa's hair was short. But the mischievous smile plastered on her
lips instantly washed away his guilt. Even if they weren't lovers, they had
spent so much time together that there was little room for reservation in the
first place.
"...I think yours
suits you, too."
"Booo~. That
sounded so half-hearted. Like it was just an afterthought."
Lisa puffed out her
cheeks and grumbled, "Boo, boo," kicking her feet petulantly. Her
antics made Nozomu smile. At the same time, even though she had helped him get
the materials he needed, he'd been dragged around all day. A mischievous desire
to get a little payback began to rear its head.
"That's not true.
It's my honest opinion. Besides, you're the one who asked."
And since Nozomu was usually
passive, when he did go on the offensive, he tended to push all the way in.
Time for a little teasing. Driven by this mischievous impulse, Nozomu was about
to press his advantage, but his playful spirit was shattered in one blow by
Lisa's next words.
"Well, it can't
be helped. My ex-boyfriend is going on and on about another girl. It's
annoying, and it puts me in a bad mood. I do still like you, you know,
Nozomu."
"Ffbt!"
I still like
you.
At the overly direct
confession, uttered in such a light tone, Nozomu's mischievous spirit instantly
shriveled up and died.
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