Kochugunshikan Boukensha ni Naru

We had our lunch at Tally’s place as usual. I had the meat set today. Selena and Sharon ordered the same meal as me, Elna ordered the fish set, and Cleria ordered a large serving of the meat set as usual.

“Do you need armor as well, Sharon? You too, Selena.” Cleria asked.

“Armor? Is it something important?” Sharon replied.

Oh, now that Cleria mentioned it. If we were to purchase two sets of armor of the same grade as mine, we’ll have to fork out thirty thousand each. That means I’ll have to pay a total of sixty thousand Guineas. No, I can’t worry about the cost right now. My head is filled with nothing but thoughts about finances lately. Any more and I feel I’ll go crazy. I have to prioritize the two’s safety after all.

“Right. It’s definitely important for you two to have equipment to protect yourselves. Let’s go to Zaluke’s place later then. If we’re gonna buy some weapons and equipment, it would be better to purchase them from Zaluke since we’re already familiar with him.”

After finishing a hearty meal, we all went to Zaluke’s shop next.

“Yo, Zaluke. How’s it going?”

“Hey, it’s been a while, you lot. I see your companions have increased again. They’re twins?”

“Yup, that’s right. I want to buy armor sets for the two of them. Oh, right. What kind of armor do you prefer, guys?”

“It would be best if it was easier to move in. The armor Cleria-san and Elna-san are wearing are a bit…” Sharon replied.

“I also want something that won’t hinder movement please.” Selena followed up.

“So I guess you’ll need to go with leather armor. I just got some new ones delivered, actually.”

Zaluke guided us to the leather armor corner of the store, where a new armor set was displayed in place of the armor I bought a while back. It seemed a bit similar to my armor, and yet different at the same time. The price tag indicated forty thousand Guineas.

“This is the new armor we got, sourced straight from the royal capital. This is actually a new version of the armor you bought back then Alan.”

“Man. So mine is out of date already?”

“Well, most of the basic stuff remains the same. It just has little tweaks done to its structure a bit.”

Zaluke explained the specifics of the armor to Selena and Sharon.

“Eh!? Magic tool?”

They were quite surprised when they heard from Zaluke that the armor was classified as a kind of magic tool.

“I’ll get this one!” Sharon exclaimed.

“Me too!”

“I see. Actually, I also recommend getting this one guys. So, how much for two sets. Zaluke?”

“Oh, so you want two of them huh. Okay then. I’ll give you a twenty percent discount. Actually, let me take off two thousand more from that. It’ll be sixty two thousand Guineas all in all. How about it?”

“Great. We’ll take them.”

As I was about to get some money from my bag to pay for the armor, Selena and Sharon took out their own money. Man, that’s a lotta money!

“We will pay for the armor ourselves.”

“Whoah! You ladies sure are loaded! How come?”

Actually, I had a pretty good idea already.

“We brought them from the ship of course.”

(How much did you bring?)

(Each of us brought thirty large gold coins. We also have a few other lower valued coins as well.)

So that’s sixty large gold coins in total. All in all, they had six million Guineas! That really is a lot of money. Come to think of it, I did notice Selena’s luggage to be on the heavy side when I was helping her move them from the inn she first booked. So it was because of the coins she brought with her.

“Alan, aren’t Sharon and Selena going to be part of our party? Then isn’t it better to use the party funds to buy their equipment?”

“Yeah, you’re right. Hey Selena, Sharon. Since these equipment are basically for the improvement of our party’s performance, it’s better to use the party funds to buy them.”

“Eh? Is that so?”

“Alright, Zaluke. Here you go.”

I handed Zaluke the sixty two thousand Guineas.

“Thanks for the business. I’ll get their measurements then.”

Zaluke took Selena’s measurements straight away. He finished taking down her measurements quite quickly.

“You’re up next, young lady.”

“My body’s measurements are exactly the same as Selena’s, so there’s no need for you to take them, sir.”

“Oh, is that so? Having a twin sure is convenient.”

Well, I guess their measurements really were exactly the same. Rather, it’ll be more surprising if they were different.

“Hey Zaluke, we also wanna buy some swords. Do you have any weapon shops you can recommend?”

“Well, I’ll definitely have to recommend one of our partner shops. Exit this shop and turn right. It’s just five shops away from here. A guy named Joe is the clerk over there. You guys are already pretty well known among our partner stores, Alan. So I’m sure they’ll be more than happy to give you discounts as well.”

So they did have a partner store specialized in weaponry. Man, Tarus-san really has his hands on a lot of different businesses, doesn’t he?

“Really? That’s great then. We’ll check it out right away then.”

“I’ll finish the adjustments to both armors in three days, just like last time. Please come back for them afterward.”

“Understood. We’re counting on you then.”

We exited the shop and turned right, passing by five other shop fronts. It was the same as the other shops managed by Tarus-san’s family. It was on the smaller side, but looked nice and tidy.

“Welcome! Please feel free to browse our wares, dear customers.”

We were greeted by the store clerk right after we entered the shop. The clerk was a young man.

“So you’re Joe? We were introduced here through the armor shop managed by Zaluke. I’m Alan, by the way.”

“Oh! So it’s Alan-san! I’ve heard of you. You’re the benefactors who saved the Master, aren’t you? Please go ahead and check our goods out. I’ll give you a nice discount.”

“I see. Thanks. We’re thinking of buying swords for these two ladies here. So, girls. What kind of swords do you two want?”

“We’re not really familiar with swords though. What kind of sword are you using by the way, Alan?” Sharon asked.

Right. These girls haven’t even touched a sword yet. I drew my sword out of its sheath and presented it to Sharon.

“Oh, so you have a magic sword. And it looks like quite the fine article as well.”

Joe commented as such when he took a gander at the sword. Magic sword, he says?

“Magic sword?” Sharon inquired further.

“That’s right. It’s a sword that can dramatically increase its sharpness through the use of magic power. We don’t have a sword of this fine quality here, but we do have magic swords available.”

I see. So this thing’s a magic sword huh. To think my sword was the magical sort. So that explains why I couldn’t perform the Final Blade technique when I tried doing it using one of Verse’s knives.

“Magic sword! Please show them to us!” Sharon requested excitedly.

Sharon and Selena seem to be really interested in magic swords. Joe carefully brought out a case containing ten swords from the back of the store.

“These are all the magic swords we have on hand.”

Come to think of it, I already saw Cleria’s sword glow a while back, but I haven’t seen Elna’s sword glow until now. So does that mean Elna’s sword wasn’t a magic sword?

“Is your sword not a magic sword, Elna?”

“Why, yes, it isn’t. Someone like me isn’t really fit to use such an article.”

“I beg to disagree, Elna. You have dedicated yourself to protecting me after all. Alan, can Elna also get a magic sword for herself?”

“Of course. Since it’ll increase our party’s strength, it’s more than welcome.”

“By the way, these swords all have the same length. They only differ in weight and appearance by a bit.” Joe informed us.

“How much for one?”

“One sword costs one hundred twenty thousand Guineas. If you’ll get three, I’ll take twenty percent plus a thousand Guineas off as additional service and give them to you for ninety five thousand Guineas each.”

Oh man! That’s surprisingly expensive. I’m glad I managed to make some money before coming here.

“Alan, I think the party funds aren’t enough, right?” Cleria worriedly asked.

“Yeah. The remaining party funds are two hundred ten thousand Guineas. But I’ll just pay for the remainder myself. I’ll just get them back once our party’s started earning from taking quests.”

“If the money isn’t enough, then we’ll pay with the money we brought. These aren’t supposed to be our personal funds anyway. We were supposed to give them all to you, Alan.” Selena chimed in.