Ms. Emeralda was hesitant at first, but once she saw how calm Leo was, her expression softened and she looked like she was dreaming.
…It was not the kind of expression that most ladies would make in public.
I was just a little put off by Ms. Emeralda’s expression.
“Ms. Emeralda.”
“Yes!”
As her expression started to turn to that of a drunken stupor, Ms. Claire called to her.
Emeralda suddenly returned to herself and pulled her hand back as she turned in Ms. Claire’s direction.
“Leo is a Silver Fenrir and our honored guest. Do you need any further assurance of safety?”
“N-no, indeed. I am…terribly sorry for being frightened.”
“Not at all. It’s fine. It’s true that Leo looks frightening.”
“Wou!”
When I said that Leo looked frightening, Leo howled in protest.
Sorry, Leo.
I don’t actually think you look frightening. I think you look very cool.
…But maybe Leo didn’t find that flattering either?
“Wuff.”
Perhaps Leo had read my expression, as she nodded with satisfaction.
So she doesn’t mind being cool…
After that, we called the others around Emeralda and explained to them as well.
While not all of them, most were satisfied in the end.
Some of them even said that they would help spread the word in town that Leo was a safe Silver Fenrir.
What a relief, Leo… I would feel bad for her if people were afraid every time she visited.
However, we were still not able to reach our destination, which was the general store, immediately.
This was because, in order to prove that Leo was gentle, the people who had gathered had started to pet her.
But I thought that Leo wouldn’t like it if everyone was allowed to pet her freely, and so we had them line up for a turn to pet Leo’s paw.
Some people were in tears as they thanked her, or even bowed as if in worship. However, the line felt like it would never end.
Nearly two hours later, the line of people who wanted to pet Leo had finally ended, and we also separated from Ms. Emeralda. After that, we were able to go to the general store.
“While we were greatly delayed… Mr. Takumi, here is the biggest general store in Ractos.”
“Woah.”
I couldn’t help but mutter.
While it wasn’t as big as Ms. Claire’s mansion, it was bigger than any building that I had seen in the town so far.
It was three stories tall and made of wood. And the entrance looked more like a great gate.
“Welcome to our store, Lady Claire.”
“Hein, it’s good to see you today.”
“Thank you. And who is…”
“Ah, I’m Takumi.”
“Mr. Takumi. I am Hein. The owner of this shop.”
Mr. Hein was a slightly plump man who wore expensive-looking clothes and had a mustache that twirled out on both sides.
That moustache…I think they called it a kaiser mustache.
I had wanted to grow one like that when I was a child…but I won’t do it now, as I know it won’t suit me.
Sebastian had been leading us until now, but Mr. Hein took the lead as he showed us the different products in the store.
They had all kinds of items, including food.
But I was a little surprised when I saw a certain section on the second floor.
This was because they had a variety of swords, spears, and armor.
According to Mr. Hein, they were not as good as what you could get at a store that specializes in such things. But they were good for beginners or people who wanted to use them as decoration.
And so they were appropriately cheap.
There was another thing that caught my interest as Mr. Hein showed me around. It was the clocks.
There were pocket watches and larger table clocks etcetera.
The clocks themselves looked ordinary enough, until I noticed something while staring at them.
They didn’t have hands for minutes and seconds.
While walking, I asked Ms. Claire about it, and she said that in this world, clocks only measured the hours, and they didn’t think about minutes and seconds.
And so she was quite surprised when I told her that an hour was 60 minutes and a minute was sixty seconds.
However, I was even more surprised when I inspected the clocks further.
In my world, there were 12 numbers, and once the hand made two full rotations, it was a single day.
However, there were 14 numbers on these clocks, and they rotated twice to make a day. In other words, there were 28 hours in a day here.
Perhaps the rotation speed was different? Or they thought of numbers differently…
Up until this point, the only big divergence between this world and mind had been monsters. So this was rather surprising.
I suppose that an hour would not be 60 minutes then.
“Is there something that has caught your interest?”
“Indeed… I was wondering about the clocks.”
“You will be able to tell the time with precision if you have a clock. You could place one in your room.”
“Yes. I would like to have a pocket watch to carry with me, and one to put in my room…”
But it was Mr. Claire who was buying them.
And so it was always a little awkward to say that I wanted something.
“I do not mind. You should buy those two.”
“Thank you.”
Ms. Claire happily agreed as she picked them up and handed them to Mr. Hein.
“Thank you. Is there anything else that you need?”
“Let me see…”
While I couldn’t just buy anything that caught my interest, I did want to get things that I actually needed.
And so I followed Mr. Hein around the store and bought a few items that I thought I would need.
I was quite pleased to find something that looked closer to an actual shaving razor than the knife I had been given in the morning.
It wasn’t shaped like ‘T’ but it should make shaving a little easier.
I didn’t want to have to cut up my face every morning.