Chapter 55: Chapter 55 – Shopping trip

"There are so many people," Fynn said as he looked out the carriage window and at the masses that crowded the streets. The young man's eyes seemed to be plastered on a small stall that was selling what Scarlett could only liken to some sort of candied apples to a group of kids.

"Is this your first time in the capital for the Light Fest?" Allyssa asked him from beside Scarlett.

"Yes. Where I'm from we don't have it," he said.

"Where's that?"

Fynn stilled, and Scarlett could practically see the cogs moving in his head as he tried to answer. She knew he was terrible with lies, so she decided to help him out this once.

"If I recall correctly, you were from Dimfrost, were you not?" she said casually.

He looked towards her with slight surprise, then slowly nodded his head. "...That's right."

From what Scarlett remembered, that was a village that was closely connected to his tribe. In the game it was where he said he was from up until he started trusting you more.

"Dimfrost? That's somwhere to the west, isn't it?" Allyssa asked.

"It's situated between the eastern edge of the Whitdown Mountains and the Three Streams. Just south of the Blasted Lands," Shin said, not looking up from the thick book he was reading.

"Oh." Allyssa's eyes widened. "Then during the Dragon Rampage you..."

Fynn's expression darkened somewhat, and Allyssa went quiet.

"...I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring up something personal."

He shook his head, turning to look out the window once more. "It's fine," he muttered.

Scarlett kept her gaze on him, observing the young man. His eyes were glued to the children visiting the stalls outside.

Silence descended on the carriage for a while following that. Scarlett eventually shifted her attention to the crowds that were passing by outside as well.

The Light Fest truly was in full swing now. Earlier they had traveled across part of the Sunset Walk, the large road that ran through the center of the city, and were currently in The Coins district. Its busy streets, filled with pedestrians who were enjoying the festival, made their progress slower than usual, but the bright and lively environment outside made up for part of that. Even though they were several days into the celebration by now there were still plenty of colorful banners hanging from the different buildings, and various sun-themed iconography could be seen on every street corner.

It was a bit before noon right now, and they had left the mansion about forty minutes earlier. Their current destination was the shop where she tried to sell the Cabal equipment. They had received a notice about it the day before, so Scarlett had decided to handle the matter as early as possible.

Unfortunately she hadn't talked at all with Evelyne since they'd had their conversation the day before. She was hoping the younger woman would be ready to talk more later today, but she wasn't quite certain how Evelyne had taken what she told her. She didn't want to hound her about it. They had both been a bit...agitated, the day before. And she wanted to let Evelyne fully digest everything before they spoke any further. But just waiting for a response was nerve-racking in its own way. She also felt a bit embarrassed about meeting her right now. Her outburst during their conversation had been surprising in more ways than one. Not only because she had ended up getting a lot more worked up than she had expected, but also because she was pretty sure that a part of her personality had poked through.

A part of Amy Bernal.

Honestly, that was the thing that had shocked her the most. For just a brief moment the anger and irritation she felt from Scarlett's half had merged with her real personality and she had unwittingly acted like she might have back in her world when she was upset. Of course, she had regretted it immediately after. The Scarlett part of her had practically been writhing in shame from the display, and she had ended up basically running away from the conversation soon after that.

But it also made her a bit relieved. She didn't know what it meant, but this was the first sign she had seen that the traits shackling her weren't unbendable. And she sorely wished for a future where she wasn't bounded by those stupid traits of hers.

But for now, she wasn't quite certain how to use this phenomenon. At the moment, it seemed like all it would take was her getting unreasonably angry at her estranged—substitute—sister. Easy enough to do in her situation, although not exactly the most constructive way of spending one's time. Nor was it proven to be repeatable. She had gotten angry at Evelyne plenty of times previously, after all.

But all of those thoughts were for another day. Right now, she was just hoping she hadn't royally pooched things even further by telling Evelyne about her situation. Or, well, an abridged and tweaked version of her situation. For the time being, she could do nothing but wait on that front though.

Scarlett's itinerary for the whole day was to visit the shop regarding the equipment, perhaps look around for a place where she could get some materials for Allyssa—who was still thinking about her offer related to the young Shielder's alchemy—and last but not least, visit the residence of the Tyndall duchy.

She would have preferred to have delayed the visit to the Tyndalls to a later date. She wasn't exactly excited about poking the hornet's nest that was the empire's noble society more than necessary, and getting some guidance from Evelyne before this meeting had been one of the reasons why she had gone to her yesterday. But unfortunately, Scarlett had received a response to her previous message this morning—they had been a lot slower with replying this time than the last—saying that the second son of the Tyndall family was willing to meet with her today. However, only briefly. And the time for the visit was not negotiable.

At least she had managed to arrange the meeting. That was good news in and of itself. And the meeting wasn't actually related to any noble matters, so hopefully it wouldn't go as bad as any of her previous interactions of the same nature.

She kept pondering over things as their carriage made its way through the district, until eventually, they stopped at the side of the street, next to a large building made out of white wood.

"Apologies, my Lady," the coachman's voice rang out from the front of the carriage. "There seems to be a stop in the flow of traffic up ahead. It will take some time before we arrive."

Scarlett frowned involuntarily, leaning closer to the window to look ahead. Rows of carriages stood still on the road ahead of them, and one of the streets that turned right was completely congested with people and motionless vehicles.

She turned to the others. "Which of you know the way from here?" she asked.

Rosa, who had been unusually silent this ride, looked at her. "We're going to that magic shop we visited a few days ago, right?"

"That is correct."

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She smiled. "Then I'm your girl."

"Good." Scarlett nodded her head and gestured to the rest. "We are disembarking here. The remainder will be traversed on foot."

They all exited the carriage onto the cobbled road outside and Scarlett turned back to the coachman. "Find a location nearby where you can park the carriage. We will return later."

The older man tipped the wide-brimmed hat he wore to shield his eyes from the sun. "As you wish, my Lady."

Scarlett then began striding towards the nearby walkway where dozens of people were walking back and forth. It hadn't exactly been a pleasant experience last time she had walked around like this, and now there were even more people around, but she would just have to suck it up. She didn't want to waste all of her time sitting around and waiting in the carriage, and she was pretty sure the shop wasn't that far away.

Thankfully it seemed like the appearance of her little group was enough to cause some space to open up among the throngs of moving people, only occasionally causing her to bang into other people. Of course, Scarlett would definitely have preferred it if she hadn't had to knock shoulders with anyone at all.

As they walked on, Rosa leading the way when necessary, the constant shifting and proximity of all the nearby people were getting on Scarlett's nerves a bit faster than she expected, so when they eventually turned off onto a street that only had half the traffic she let out a sigh of relief inside.

The calm didn't last too long, though, as when they were walking down the street she suddenly felt someone slam into her side, almost causing her to lose her balance. She instinctively activated the effect of [Lifeblood's Eternal Circuit] to create a barrier around herself as the wave of irritation she had pressed down for a while surged to the surface.

"Who dares—" she spun around, only to see a child lying on the ground. A small boy that now looked up at her with wide eyes filled with fear. A slightly older girl was kneeling next to him like she was trying to help him up, but she too was completely still now as she stared up at Scarlett.

Realizing that she was scowling, Scarlett tried to school her expression into something more neutral. But it was somewhat hard when the annoyance was still there.

...Apparently, not even children were safe from the original's anger.

And to think not much earlier she had been thinking about how maybe she wasn't letting herself be as affected by the original.

Both Allyssa and Rosa stepped over and kneeled next to the two children. Rosa had a smile on her face as she gently put her hand on the scared boy's back.

Three days sunshine ~

Three days rain

Don't let those tears leave a stain ~

Soon all will be well again

Rosa sang calmly as her other hand moved over the boy's knee which had a large scrape on it from the fall. A soft purple light covered the wound, which soon disappeared to reveal completely smooth skin.

"There we go. Good as new!" the woman declared. "There's no need to be afraid of big ol' Red here. She doesn't bite unless you're a large monster."

The boy threw an amazed look at his knee, before turning to Rosa with wide eyes.

Scarlett merely observed as the bard and Allyssa helped both the boy and the girl up to their feet. Belatedly, she thought of checking her waist to make sure her pouch was still there. It would have been a bit of a cliche to have it stolen like that, but it was still there. She eyed the kids' clothes. Well, they didn't look like they had it especially hard anyways. They were probably just normal kids.

"Elmer! Maira!" a voice rang out as a woman a few years older than Scarlett came running. "I told you not to get too far away from me!" the woman panted, taking a few deep breaths with her hand to her chest. Her eyes then went to Rosa, Scarlett, and the others. "I'm so sorry. I hope they didn't cause you any trouble."

The others' eyes turned to Scarlett, who studied the woman for a couple of seconds. She then shook her head slowly. "No harm was caused. However, I suggest you pay more attention to your child in the future. Not everyone is quite as forgiving to unfamiliar children that run into them."

The woman's eyes widened, and from the looks of it she seemed to have realized that Scarlett wasn't your ordinary person because Scarlett saw how she glanced down at her clothes and the others in her group.

"O-Of course. I'll be more careful in the future," the woman stuttered, holding her two children carefully. Soon enough, she was pushing the two further down the street, away from their company.

Scarlett glanced over the others in her party, who were all looking at her, before turning around and resuming walking without any further words.

Probably not the best impression she could have made, but they probably wouldn't think it was too odd considering how she usually acted.

As they continued moving, they eventually reached the shop that she had left the Cabal Equipment with previously. The old man that was the shop owner soon came out of a back room, fetched by a younger man, presumably his apprentice, who had been manning the storefront.

After speaking some with the old man, he had told her that he could give her 40000 solars for all six of the sets she had given him. That was significantly higher a price than he had cited at first after looking at the equipment—he had originally guessed it would be closer to 10000—but it was still not even half of what the equipment would have been worth brand-new in the game.

But much of it was also broken, and he was more paying for the materials and enchantments placed on the equipment, rather than the equipment itself. Scarlett saw no reason to decline the offer, and so they agreed to that price. And instead of him giving her the entire sum right now he would have it sent over to the mansion later on.

In addition, as he had previously spoken about recycling some of the enchantments, Scarlett had asked him if he could lower the payment and instead reimburse her with an item holding the enchantment on the Cabal helmets that made it so that you could see in the dark. The man had said that he would look into the matter, and contact her about it later on.

After that, they left the shop to continue on to the next subject of the day.

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