Casual Outing

Ataru awoke to the sound of carriages rolling outside. He was about to leap out of bed when he remembered that the only thing he had covering him was a towel. He looked over to Rosalind’s bed to see her back facing him. She was seated on the bed reading a book. Graciously, she was dressed. “You talk in your sleep, did you know that?” She said, flipping a page. This was news to him.

“Oh yeah? What was I saying?”

“Mostly nonsense, though you kept repeating the word ‘curves’ over and over. Is that a baseball term?”

“Haha… Yeah, I must have been thinking about the good ol’ curveball.”

“Really? Are you sure it wasn’t about me?” She turned her head to face him, a sly smirk on her face. He should have known, she wasn’t that naive. She really was hard to figure out sometimes.

“Anyway! I’m getting dressed.” He proclaimed. Rosalind went back to reading.

“Go ahead.” She said with a chuckle.

Sure enough, the clothes he’d painstakingly washed with nothing but soap and a bucket were completely dry after being hung up next to a spell Rosalind had planted on the wall. The spell blew a constant breeze, just enough to dry the clothes after some time. He quickly got dressed and stepped out. Rosalind closed the book she was reading and placed it in the drawer next to her bed.

“Just a small book on attractions in the city.” She said, standing up. “I believe I know a place we can visit to find some spare clothes. Also…” She lifted her left hand and reached to her right. A round portal opened in the air, she stuck her hand inside and pulled her witch’s hat from inside it. “What do you think? Dimensional magic is quite difficult I’ll have you know.” Ataru let out an impressed whistle.

“Now that’s convenient, did you just learn that?”

“You could say that. I’d always known the basic principle behind it, but I’d never had a reason to properly learn it before. We’ll be traveling a lot from now on, so I decided to bite the stone already.”

“Huh, hey, aren’t you a genius?” He said casually. Rosalind let out a fake cough and crossed her arms.

“Y-yeah? Well I am a future rank five duster after all.” She stammered. It was becoming obvious to him that she was extremely weak to compliments.

“Rank five?” He asked, giving her a break.

“Yes.” She said, uncrossing her arms. “The guild issues a rank to each member, generally it is used to help match dusters with requests that fit their ability. Rank one being a beginner, and rank five being the best of the best.” She explained.

“Is that so? I guess we have our work cut out for us then.” Ataru said, rolling his shoulder. Rosalind narrowed her eyes, and opened her mouth to say something, but then shook her head and looked towards the door.

“Shall we? I’ll lead the way.”

As they exited their rooms they stopped by the inn’s kitchen. At the very least the inn offered breakfast in the morning, and dinner in the afternoon. The two of them looked down at their meals. “This is food for people… Right?” Ataru asked, as he stared at a bowl of gray mush. He looked up at the dwarf that had handed them the bowls from the kitchen. “Isn’t this place called ‘Gourmet Inn’?” He asked.

“Yeah? That’s the family name! Dun like it, ya can get your food elsewhere!” The old man let out an annoyed huff before walking off.

“I suppose it’s better than nothing.” Rosalind said, putting a spoonful in her mouth. Her face reflexively grimaced. Ataru let out a barely stifled laugh.

“Are you sure about that?

After forcing their gruel down the two of them walked through the streets. “So, how is it, walking among a big crowd like this?” He asked as they waded past a busy food market. Rosalind smiled faintly.

“Wonderful. It’s everything I imagined.” As she looked through the crowd of various species, her smile slowly faded. “It’s wonderful, I only wish I could see demons living just as happily.” She let out a sigh.

“I’ve been meaning to ask.” Ataru said. “What exactly was the war over?” Rosalind walked quietly for a moment before finally speaking.

“I guess when it comes down to it, land. Ralechi, our homeland, isn’t the most arable. Natural disasters are also commonplace, so life for the average person is often a struggle. In the past, demons tried to come to a peaceful agreement, but umm.” She thought for a moment. “Something happened around one hundred years ago. Demon refugees already had a bad reputation, but apparently someone murdered an envoy of peace sent to Ralechi, and of course it was assumed to be a demon peasant. At least that’s the story. I was never able to gather more details holed up in my prison of a castle. After that, tensions boiled over until full scale war broke out between Ralechi and the kingdom of Agronia fifty years ago. My father insisted that the other species were intent on wiping us out and stealing our land, and that we had a duty to fight back and...” She let out a groan. “Claim our future.” She said, her hands creating air quotes.

“Ah, sorry.” Ataru said. Rosalind simply shrugged her shoulders.

“It’s fine, you’d have found out eventually anyway.”

They continued along their way until they found themselves standing in front of a clothing store. He’d had the same thought multiple times now, but standing by this storefront really solidified it. “Ya know, some of the businesses here look a bit more modern than I’d have expected. Also, the plumbing is pretty advanced too.” He made note of the glass windows that adorned many of the businesses, along with the precise stichting on most people’s clothing.

“Modern, you say? Ataru, this world isn’t set in what you would consider the past, at least I don’t think so. If the theory I’ve read is correct, our two worlds should be exactly the same in age. Actually, shouldn’t you be wondering something else, like how the two of us are even speaking?” Ataru scrunched up his face, he had thought about it in fact, it just made his head hurt thinking about it.

“I just assumed it was some kinda magic?” He said. Rosalind let out a giggle.

“Sure, let’s go with that. I spent a couple months ensuring the translation formula was implemented into my summoning spell, my dear summon.” She poked him in the ribs a few times to really make sure he understood the effort she’d put in.

“Okay, so you’re a super genius is what I'm hearing.”

“Exactly! Now accompany this genius as she searches for the cheapest set of clothing she can find!” Rosalind puffed out her chest and entered the store, the name of which was ‘Stitch and Fix’ if the sign outside was anything to go by. Looking around, the store did seem to focus on second hand goods much like the thrift shops on Earth, though like its name implied they also offered tailoring services.

“Oh, if it isn’t the two bully boar slayers!” They heard a familiar voice call out to them by the shop’s counter. It was Gerald Heimsworth. He appeared to be picking up a suit from the attendant behind the counter.

“I wasn’t expecting to run into you so soon, maybe if we’d got into some kinda trouble.” Ataru said. Gerald let out a hearty laugh.

“You’re a funny one, young man. Say, I don’t believe we fully paid you back for that incident by the gate. Typically a duster would be paid for exterminating a beast such as that, but you two are unregistered.” He cleared his throat and whispered to the two of them. “That beast sells for quite the sum, and while this isn’t official policy, you two going unrewarded has been weighing on my conscience.” The man leaned back and took out a coin purse. He took out two golden coins and handed them to Ataru. “Take it as a favor from the city, we hope you’ll serve us well in the future.”

“Are you sure?” Rosalind asked.

“Look at the man, of course he’s sure!” Ataru laughed and patted the man on the back. “We’ll be sure to become respectable citizens, and hard working dusters!”

“That’s the spirit my boy!” The two of them exchanged pats on the back before Gerald bid them farewell.

“Hey Rosalind.” Ataru said as he waved the man off in the distance. “How much is a gold coin worth?”

“It’s worth fifteen silver.” She said, That was a lot of beef stew.

“You wouldn’t happen to have a broken luck stat, would you?”

“Stat?”

“Nevermind.” He turned back around to the racks of clothing. “Let’s spend our hard earned money!”