Chapter 57: City of Canals (part four)
The passers-by who passed us were looking back with a glance.
Their line of sights was pointed towards the black figure walking next to me.
Both the mantle and the gloves were black.
Moreover, his face was wrapped around with a cloth like a bandage.
Thick and long arms, an extraordinarily wide shoulders.
Somewhat stooping attitude, awkward footsteps.
That giant looked like the monster that seemed to come out in a classic mystery novel.
On his left hand was a slightly larger alchemists’ bag.
His right hand was holding my hand.
A familiar voice echoed from the side covered by bandages.
『Aren’t we becoming more conspicuous like this, Erica?』
“Still, it should be better than the original figure.”
Towards my reply, Tirnanog groaned and I thought carefully.
This time, he used the deformation mechanism of the star steel armor and disguised himself as a human being.
Extended his limbs by enlargement, kept upright posture, shortened the length of his tail and neck.
At the last moment when the silhouette looked like a human being, she hid the armor with bandages and mantle.
At least, with this he didn’t look like a homunculus.
The purpose of this disguise was to have a role of a guardian.
If I had an adult with me, I might be able to smoothly negotiate rather than if I went alone as a child.
Also, since the disguised Tirnanog looked very scary, most of the troubles could be avoided.
“Look, some people have similar appearances with you.”
『Umu. When you say so, that’s true.』
Looking around, we could see someone who covered their armor-like limbs with clothing and bandages like Tirnanog.
Many of them were dressed as miners, sailors, soldiers, and so on.
They were wearing prosthetic limbs that were diverted from golem technique to replace their limbs that were lost in an accident or war.
It was an expensive high-performance artificial limb unique to alchemy.
Tirnanog would be seen as a person who had experienced a fierce battle or a major accident.
『Now, daughter. Where should we go first?』
“Dad, I want to repair and charge the wands. Let’s head to 〈Crucible Street〉.”
With a parent-child roleplay in between, we aimed towards our destination.
We took a horse-drawn cab instead boarding the small boat at the boat boarding area, and got off at the alchemy area, Crucible Street of the Town of All Kinds of Goods.
Specialty stores such as materials for alchemy and finished wands were lining up.
The name of the store of our destination was Tulum Wand Store.
It was the store that my friend that I made during the Spring Festival, Tricia, had recommended to me.
From its name, it was likely to be a family store of the famous Tulum family.
It seemed that they not only sell, repair, and charge wands, but also create custom-made wands.
This time, due to the limited money we had in hand, we would only repair and charge the wands as planned.
Beautiful signboards made with brass and white tin were lining up at the shop front facing the street.
It seemed that there was an arrangement to set up a signboard related to handled goods in Town of All Kinds of Goods.
Crystal and pickaxe for the ore stores.
Unicorn and others for the magical beast material stores.
Material stores for potions had a lily of the valley in front of it.
And of course, the wand stores had the design of a wand.
In addition to basic designs, some shops sometimes combined symbols representing the origin of their own houses.
For example, Tulum’s family stores had a moon and a tower on it.
The moon represented their ancestors who came from Harvan’s mages, and the tower represented the origin of their house’s name1.
『Ooh, Erica. Isn’t it here?』
I looked up at the signboard in front of the store pointed by Tirnanog.
A tower made of white tin in an oval crescent made of brass.
On top of the tower were two crossed brass wands.
Apparently, it seemed that we could arrive at our destination without any trouble.
The shop was small, but it was made of fine quality stones and looked nice.
Since the door was open, it should be open, but there were no shoe marks in the mat in front of the store, indicating that there were only few visitors.
It was supposed to be a recommended shop, what a strange store.
When Tirnanog and I were observing about the state in front of the store, loud voices came from the inside.
“……What was that?”
『It seems like a fight or an argument.』
We hid the sound of our footsteps somehow and sneaked into the store without anyone noticing us.
Sure enough, I couldn’t see any customer.
Was this a small scale shop that wasn’t very popular?
When I thought so and looked again, everything was a product that seemed to be valuable.
The quality of the wands that were decorating the inside was also good.
As expected of the Tulum’s company.
There were only an old man and a boy inside the store.
The shopkeeper and his grandson?
Apart from those two people, I couldn’t see the clerk.
The boy had a burning red short hair.
With large almond-shaped, intense dark green eyes.
He was wearing a dark green outerwear that matched the color of his eyes perfectly.
He was about 5 cm shorter than my height.
He had a youthful face that was appropriate for his age.
The old man was balding and the remnant of his hair was pure white.
Sharp eyes behind the eyeglasses, deep wrinkles carved between his eyebrows.
He was a hard-hearted and obstinate old man.
The good quality silk shirt he had on was another top-quality woollen fabric that was likely to be the best.
The worn arm cover indicate that he was a craftsman.
“Master, this design, why not!”
“Harry, your wand is outstanding, but the safety is too low. It cannot be on sale.”
“It’s because you are this hard-headed that your real son ran away, Master!”
“This and that are different stories!”
The old man and the boy kept on arguing without noticing us.
I exchanged looks with Tirnanog.
『Teacher and student disagreement, huh.』
“We heard the family situation of others that we shouldn’t listen to.
We shouldn’t bother them, shall we go out before they noticed us, Tir?”
『Umu, we will visit again later, or we should go to a different shop.』
The redheaded boy and the balding old man who were in a disagreement turned around at the same time.
Uh, they noticed us.
“Welcome to Tulum Wand Store!!”
“Welcome, are you here to repair your wands?”
The boy went into the entrance side quickly and spread both hands.
It might be a welcome pose, but it also seemed to be a gesture to not let his prey escaped.
The old man went towards us swiftly as we could no longer move anywhere.
It was a breathtaking collaboration even though they had been fighting until a moment ago.
“Customers, we have good wands at the ready!”
“……This, Harry. These people came to repair their wands.”
Somehow the old man knew our requirement here.
I pulled the mantle of Tirnanog and urged him to reply.
『Aah, even without me saying it, it seems that you are quick to understand.
We want to repair and charge our wands. Can you do it?』
“First of all, please sit down and relax. The business negotiations will be after that.
Harry, tea for our customers. In the back of the cupboard, with the seal of firebirds on it.”
“Yes, Master. The most expensive tea, right away.”
To Tirnanog who was showing the bag, the old shop owner recommended him to sit on the sofa.
We sat as we were told.
The atmosphere of the old man switched to a sort of professional specific one.
I felt like we wouldn’t have any problem even if I left the negotiations to him.
『First of all, can we estimate the price?』
“Yes, I don’t mind.”
『Well then.』
Tirnanog opened the bag and spread the damaged wands and the empty wands on the table.
The old man opened his eyes wide and picked up one of them.
“Hou……this, this is a rare wand……”
After the old man placed the pince-nez glasses on the table, he took out a magnifying glass and examined it.
The facial expression of the old man changed and he seemed to be having fun.
It was a very good craftsman’s atmosphere.
“Customers, please come here. My Master will not move for a while when this happens.”
“Thank you very much.”
A teaware was prepared on a different table by the redheaded boy.
As Tirnanog declined with a hand gesture, I decided to accept it gratefully after putting Tirnanog in charge of the matter.
The redheaded boy winked while handing the tea poured into the porcelain cup.
“Are you traveling from the Aurelia Ducal neighbourhood?”
“Yes, that’s correct. I wonder if it is so easy to recognize.”
I felt curious as I had made sure that my clothing didn’t have any coat of arms on it.
“It’s because your shoe soles are the ones that noble people related to Aurelia would wear.
Thanks to the welt and the rugged leather from adult cow, the shoe soles don’t absorb water.”
The boy told me and I looked at my feet.
I didn’t know that soles were so distinctive that the identity of the wearer could be known.
“That’s amazing. I didn’t know that my shoes can show my birthplace.”
The boy rubbed under his nose with his index finger while grinning shyly.
He was feeling triumphant, but he seemed to be slightly embarrassed.
“Besides that, the noblemen from royal territory of Ignitia use expensive cordovan for their shoes.
Harvan’s noblemen use elegant shoes using soft calf leather.
With fleece on the backside of their shoes is the characteristic of the whole area of Lucanrant.”
I see, clothing would change due to cultural differences.
This boy seemed to see the world in much detail.
“Even though you look the same age as me, you know better than I am.”
“Um, I just turned 8 years old last month.”
“Oh my, you really are the same age as myself. You are a studious person.”
“No, no, those are the knowledge I got from my Master.
In fact, I shouldn’t reveal all of my cards, that was my mistake.
Ah, never mind, just drink. This one is superb.”
Somehow I felt that his wording became more relaxed.
Because he knew that we were about the same age, his natural way of talking came out, huh.
I tried the cup of tea while enjoying the refreshing scent.
Fruit-like astringency with mild sweetness.
While tilting the cup, I kept chatting.
“Are you his grandchild?”
“No, I’m just hanging out in Master’s shop. If I have to say it, I guess I’m his disciple.”
“You can call me Erica. Is it fine if I call you Harry?”
“Aah, just Harold is fine. That’s my real name.”
Saying so, he showed his protruding tooth as he grinned.
Oh?
That was similar to the capture target of the third scenario.
No way he would be in a place like this though.
Besides, he was too short for Harold Nibelheim, and his character was too cheerful.
I wondered if there were many people with the same names in the Northwest area.
“Why is Harold hanging out in this shop?”
“I like to make wands.
I was forbidden by my father to make it, but Master allowed me to make it quietly.”
It seemed that he liked to make wands, somehow he had a disposition like Onii-sama.
However, it was tough that he was forbidden by his parents.
“Then I wonder why the argument became so heated that it could be heard from the outside of the shop.”
“Uehh~, you heard that?”
“Yes.”
“Because I cannot use wands, I wanted to ask for a trial shoot instead.
I was told that it wasn’t possible because I didn’t think about the recoil properly.”
“Even if you wear the alchemists’ gloves, you can’t use wands?”
“Aah, I have a constitution that is more susceptible to the recoiling reaction of a wand than other people.”
The advantage of wands was ‘everyone can use it as long as it has been charged’.
I was surprised that some people couldn’t use wands.
Some people suffered from an unexpected constitution in this world.
I had a constitution that I couldn’t make wands even if I could use wands, I felt a little close with him.
“If you like, shall I try?”
“Eh, is that fine? It’s dangerous, you know?”
“I cannot create a wand, so I had plenty of exercise in using wands.”
“Heeh, that’s tough. So there is a constitution like that, huh~”
Harold glanced at the other table.
I also looked in that direction.
The shop owner was still studying the wands eagerly.
Surprisingly, it seemed that the old man and Tirnanog were chatting excitedly.
“It seems that your guardian and Master will still take some time.
There are my workshop and the test site nearby, but are you sure you want to go there?”
“Nearby?”
“Yeah, it’s over here.”
Harold drank his own tea in one breath and walked towards the back of the store.
I also hurriedly placed the cup down, got off the chair and followed Harold.
1 Tulum is the name of a ruins in Mexico. The ruins look like a tower. (source)