Chapter 139: Rouge “Guilty!”
After that, we finished lunch at a terrace seat, and on the way back to the academy, we looked around several Street Stalls handling accessories.
As expected of Street Stalls opened by traveling merchants from outside the Royal Capital, there were many accessories of dubious origin lined up. If I hadn’t switched to my
However, treasures often lie dormant in such minefields, and at the third stall, I was finally able to find a ring that made me think, “This is it!”
Quality: A. Rarity: C. The gemstone used is iolite. It has a color just like Lucretia’s eyes. And above all, the price was good. The actual price was nearly thirty percent cheaper than the fair price displayed by my
When I asked the shopkeeper the reason, it seems the ring was apparently made by a young apprentice craftsman. Because the craftsman lacked name recognition, and the embedded iolite was small and lacked flashiness, it apparently hadn’t found a buyer easily.
“A gift for your cute girlfriend?”
“Eh, yeah. Sort of.”
“Then for your girlfriend’s sake, I’ll make it cheaper for you!”
It seems the shopkeeper misunderstood Lecty to be my girlfriend, but correcting him felt strange, so I decided to just brush it off for now. Strictly speaking, it wasn’t even a gift for my girlfriend in the first place, but there was no point explaining everything from scratch to the shopkeeper.
The shopkeeper offered another twenty percent off the listed price, half the fair price. It was an amount I could easily afford within my budget. Rather, I started to worry if it was okay for him to make it this cheap, but perhaps that’s just what you’d expect from a merchant…
“Right, I also have earrings and a necklace by the same craftsman. If you’d like, please take a look at those too.”
…he immediately tried to sell me other products. I was wary that maybe these were his main goal, but apparently, that wasn’t the case.
The earrings and necklace he showed me were both Quality A, but Rarity E. Apparently, they were made with low-value gemstones that were widely circulated in the market, so their fair prices were also low.
The necklace used Amethyst. The earrings used Jade, huh…
“They’re accessories the craftsman who made the ring made for practice. The quality was so good I bought them, but they just haven’t sold well. Seems the residents of the Royal Capital won’t even look unless they use flashy gemstones. In that respect, your eye is the real deal, lad. You understand their value, don’t you? Could it be you have some kind of
“Err… well, something like that.”
To think he’d even see through to my Skill, the merchant’s eye is terrifying… It gave me a fright, wondering if he had a Skill to see through Skills.
“How about it, lad? Won’t you buy these earrings and this necklace as a set with that ring? Of course, I’ll make it even cheaper for you as a set price. How about this much?”
The amount the merchant proposed was just barely within my budget. If I bought them, I’d have next to no money left, and my wallet would be completely empty again.
Even if I refused his sales pitch, the merchant would probably still sell me the ring. If it was just the ring, I’d still have about half my money left, and I could use it when I go on a date with Lucretia after returning from the Off-Campus Training Exercise. Thinking about the future, it’s definitely better to keep some money.
…Or so I would have thought, if the gemstones used in the necklace and earrings the merchant showed me weren’t Amethyst and Jade… This coincidence, as if perfectly aimed, almost feels like fate, destiny, providence, or something of that sort.
“Alright. I’ll take everything.”
“Cases for each of them too, please,” I added, handing the shopkeeper the drawstring pouch containing all the money I had. After checking the contents, the shopkeeper said, “Much obliged!” tucked the pouch into his breast pocket, and prepared dedicated cases for the ring, necklace, and earrings.
“You caught yourself a good boyfriend, missy.”
“Eh, um… yes.”
Spoken to by the shopkeeper, Lecty lowered the ends of her eyebrows troubledly and gave a wry smile. It must have been different from the reaction he expected; the shopkeeper tilted his head and sent a dubious gaze my way.
…Seems like it’d be better to beat a retreat before he starts prying, yeah.
“Thank you very much. Shall we go, Lecty?”
“Y-Yes!”
Taking the three boxes, Lecty and I left the Street Stall and started on our way back to the academy. After walking for a while, we decided to stop by a park we happened to be passing.
We sat down on a bench in the shade of a tree, as if escaping the early summer sunlight. Even if we rested here for a bit before returning to the academy, it seemed we’d still make it back well before dusk.
“It’s wonderful that you found such a lovely present, Hugh-san.”
“It’s thanks to you coming with me, Lecty. Thanks, Lecty.”
“N-No, no! I was just keeping you company!”
Lecty said humbly, but if I had been alone, I probably would have been unable to decide what to gift and ended up searching until nightfall. Thanks to Lecty, I thought of gifting a ring, and I also came across good items at the Street Stall.
“Fufu. I had fun going out with you today, Hugh-san.”
At first, I wondered how things would turn out with just the two of us, but as we spent time together, the strange tension between us must have eased. I feel like we can converse naturally now. Even the occasional moments of silence felt more comfortable than awkward now. I hope Lecty feels the same way.
“Come to think of it, you bought other accessories besides the ring earlier, are those presents too?”
“Eh? Ah, yeah. Something like that, I guess.”
The Amethyst necklace and the Jade earrings. They are indeed presents, but the recipients aren’t Lucretia. I think it’s rather simplistic of me, but I plan to give the Amethyst necklace to Lecty and the Jade earrings to Lily.
I want them to wear the presents I give them. This feeling I have is probably what you’d call possessiveness. I’m aware that I’m greedy, and I think I’m a real scumbag bastard myself. But at the same time, there’s definitely a part of me that doesn’t want to hand Lecty and Lily over to anyone else.
These presents are a declaration of my resolve that I will be the one to make Lecty and Lily happy.
…That said, I’ll give the presents to Lecty and Lily after we return from the Off-Campus Training Exercise. I don’t know if this is the ‘step beyond kissing’… but they did say they wanted to be first.
“I hope Rouge-san will be happy.”
“Yeah.”
Right now, giving Lucretia her birthday present and confessing to her.
That is the absolute top priority.