Chapter 7: Chapter 7: Shopping with a friend

After I return from altering the circuit, I see Arana holding Longleg from a thread tied to her finger, she's repeatedly letting him fall and pulling him back up as if he was a yo-yo, does he not get dizzy from that?

"So are you done messing with the town's water?"

"Please don't word it like that..."

Since we have some time to kill while we wait for everyone to drink some water, we should go back to our original goal of buying everything we need for our journey.

I thought that we would need to find another shop but Arana just went back to the one we had visited before and told me to wait outside, isn't she worried about that woman freaking out again when she sees her? I hope she's not planning on making her do good on her offer to let us 'take anything we want'...

She soon comes out holding two heavy-looking bags on her hands.

"I knew she would not recognize me, you make so much more of an impression compared to me that she doesn't even remember my face"

Do I really make such a big impression on people?

I place the bags inside of my storage, now that I think about it, just how much stuff can I put inside? I've never tested it before and this is already the most I've ever been carrying, I guess I'll put 'test the limits of storage' on my to-do list.

"Next we should go to a weapon shop" Arana is leading the way.

Since I'm a mage a weapon is not something I truly need, but it may still be a good idea to get one just in case I'm ever in a situation where I can't or don't want to use magic.

The owner of this shop does not seem to have as big of a reaction to me as everyone else, could it be that suspicious-looking people buying weapons is just a common occurrence? That's probably not a good thing...

"Luna, make sure sure the durability rating on the weapon you pick is eight or higher, otherwise it will break the moment you try to swing it considering your strength stat"

Each weapon has a sticker with a few stats written on it, weapons with high enough durability are on the expensive side, but since I don't really care about anything else I should still be able to find something affordable.

Let's see, since this is meant to be just a sidearm I should go with something simple and easy to use, a shortsword is probably the best choice.

"I found a perfect weapon for you Luna!"

"A perfect weapon?"

"It's something called a war scythe, they're on the other side of the shop"

"You want me to fight with a scythe? Aren't those meant to be used for farming"

I bet that she just wants me to look like death or something, why does she enjoy seeing people being afraid of me?

"No, no, this is a war scythe, it's something completely different, come on, you'll look so cool using it"

"You probably just want to make me look even more sinister, I'm not buying it"

Yeah, I don't care how much you pout, you're not getting your way this time.

I go back to choosing a weapon, but then I notice that there's a shortsword mistakenly placed among the longswords.

"That's weird, that wasn't there before, I would have noticed"

I go to move it to its proper place, but from my new location I see a spear with the point facing downwards when all the others are facing upwards, how do you even make a mistake like that?

After I turn it around, I see a dagger on the floor near the corner of the shop, I guess I'll pick it up.

Now I realize that I'm standing right in front of those war scythes that Arana was talking about, why do I get the feeling that I was led here?

The war scythes seem to be pole weapons with a blade that looks similar to a regular scythe, however, the blade curves forward from the pole as opposed to sideways and the cutting edge is on the concave side.

"Arana..."

"Don't they look cool? That black one over there would suit you perfectly, oh, but the purple one feels a bit more unique..."

Who chooses a weapon because it's color? Is she taking this seriously at all?

"These look like they are intended to be used as a primary weapon, they are not what I'm looking for"

"You'll keep it inside your storage when you're not using it, right? It won't get in the way at all"

"Look, I've already decided that I'll take a short sword, stop insisting" I just have to put my foot down sometimes.

"Well, fine, then I'll just buy one for myself"

She says that, but she's buying one with a durability rating of ten, is she really planning on using that herself?

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We then go to a clothing store to buy a pair of boots for me, it's not like the shoes I've been wearing are uncomfortable but they were not made to walk for long distances.

We do not buy any clothes, instead, Arana buys some materials and says that she'll just fix our clothes herself if necessary. That's right, since I so rarely see her when she's working I keep forgetting that she's a tailor.

The sun is already starting to set down by the time we're done, I always wondered why other girls tend to enjoy going shopping with their friends, and now that I tried it myself, I still have no idea, going shopping is just a chore after all.

"Well, that was fun, this is the first time we went shopping together, right?"

However, Arana seems to disagree.

"By the way, were you not going to go around curing people of that parasite? It's not like you to leave that for the end"

Uh? but I already...

Oh right, I forgot to tell Arana about the method I used to distribute the cure and my plan to make people accept my research.

When she hears my explanation she lets out a heavy sigh.

"I can see what you were trying to do... but you didn't really think this through did you"

"Eh? what didn't I think through?"

I think it was a good idea, wasn't it? Since nobody would let me use my dark magic to heal them if I tell them about it, I just heal them first and only tell them after they have already seen the results, so what's the problem?

"First of all, how do you expect anyone to even know about what you did?"

"How? Obviously, because they were sick before and now they're not" I didn't think that's something I needed to explain.

"I mean how do they know that YOU healed them? What exactly is supposed to make them think that they were healed by a new treatment that uses dark magic and that they had never heard about before?"

Oh now that she mentions it, most people would have a hard time figuring that out.

"Well, maybe there's someone around here who can sense mana? There are still traces of dark mana left on the people who got healed, the spells I placed on the water only activated for those who had the parasites, so they'll notice that those are the ones with dark mana on their bodies"

There has to be at least one person capable of sensing mana in this town, right?

"Second, how can you prove that the parasites ever existed in the first place? You fixed the magic circuit, so no more of them will appear, and since by now everyone has probably drunk some water your spell must have completely destroyed them"

That's true, but everyone still knows that there was an illness that got healed, right? Why does it matter which specific illness it was?

"You said that there must be someone who can sense mana, but it would probably be better for you if there isn't"

"What? why?"

"Try to put yourself in the shoes of someone who can sense mana and who, like everyone else, is used to dark magic harming people instead of healing, this person, of course, knows nothing about your research, then, one day, a bunch of people fall ill, since the mana the parasites are made of is the same as the drinking water, they would not notice anything, but after the patients get better, there are remains of dark mana inside their bodies, what conclusion would you take if you were that person?"

"I would think that the thing that made them sick was a darkness spell and they got better after it ended... I would assume that the mana from the spell was just not detectable while the spell was still active"

"Exactly!" Arana smiles and gives me a thumbs up.

"Nooooooo!!!"

I can't believe this, I only made everything worse.

People won't let me use dark magic on them if I tell them beforehand and I can't prove what I did if I tell them afterward, then what am I supposed to do?

Maybe I should ask Arana to help me... but that's too dangerous, knowing her, she's just as likely to give me bad advice on purpose just to have a laugh as she's of helping me...

"Wait! I know! There's Joe!"

He knows about the parasites and also about the error in the circuit, he should be able to explain what happened to everyone.

I rush to the building that hosts the magic circuit, but when I'm about to enter a girl crashes into me, the ribbon on her head comes undone from the impact.

"Ah, sorry" She apologizes.

Wait, I think I've seen this girl before.