Chapter 48: Place Cachée

"Something is supposed to happen if we approach that statue," explained Harry as he took the lead, carefully walking towards the bronze statue. Some kind of mind magic was at play as none of the other people on Rue Richer paid attention to them.

Once they were close enough to the statue, as if responding to their presence, it began to stir. Its stone features softened, and the life within it awakened. Slowly and gracefully, the statue moved its leg, stepping away from the pedestal that had anchored it. Its dress, intricately carved in stone, billowed and swirled as if caught in an unseen breeze. Between its legs, the entrance to Place Cachée, the French counterpart of Diagon Alley, was revealed. None of the non-magical people were any wiser, continuing with their daily lives.

"Well, this seems to be it," said Akeno with a polite smile as she observed the entrance.

"It seems so," muttered Harry.

"What are we waiting for? Let's go!" decided Rias excitedly as she moved forward through the entrance, disappearing in it. With a shrug of their shoulders and a helpless smile, the others followed her lead and passed through the entrance between the legs of the bronze statue.

Behind the entrance, a big stone plaza revealed itself. The place was crowded with people shopping in this magical place. Multiple small streets led away from this big central plaza. The streets were lined with whimsical shops, their colorful facades adorned with intricate carvings and shimmering signs.

Unlike the architecture of Diagon Alley, the French wizards seemed to have progressed from the Middle Ages towards the Renaissance, as the architectural style was more modern and elegant. It was quite a sight for them. While Diagon Alley had its own unique flair, this place was bustling with elegance.

"Wow, this place looks amazing," said Rias in wonder as she watched the different stores in this place, with their magical goods on display in their windows. Magical lights, moving objects, or the strong feeling of magic encompassed this place. The others could only nod and agree with her assessment of wonder.

A particularly colorful shop caught Koneko's attention, as the smell wafting from there was wonderful. It was called Confiserie Enchantée de K. Rammelle, a magical sweet shop with a varied collection of enchanted sweets.

"Well, it seems we already have the first place to check out," laughed Harry as he patted Koneko's head, who only nodded in excitement. Luckily for them, they didn't need to look for a bank first to exchange some money, since the Galleon was the global currency of the wizarding world. Goblins and the Swiss Gnomes had a monopoly on banking and determined a unified currency centuries ago.

All they had to do was request Lord Gremory to exchange some currency for them, and they had a comfortable amount of spending money ready for today. They bought quite an assortment of sweets at the store, like cakes, sugar unicorn horns, pumpkin pasties, and many other different sweets. After they finished there, Harry stored the bags filled with sweets inside his Sacred Gear as they continued on.

They made another stop at a magical cafe called Café Abringer, where they enjoyed quite tasty magical beverages like taste and color-changing tea, tasty cappuccino with magical cinnamon aroma cream, and more.

As they walked down the street, they checked many of the stores out, like cauldron shops, astronomy shops, and in an apothecary, Harry added ingredients not available or rare in Britain to his stock. They stopped at a pet shop called Le Corbeau Mystique, where the others each bought their own owl, as they had developed a method for owls to teleport between the Gremory Hotel and the Underworld, allowing them the possibility to communicate with Harry in the wizarding method. It was a bit more inefficient but added its own charm, and each of them now had an intelligent pet bird as an additional companion. They could also form a summoning contract with them, making them another familiar for them.

In this manner, everyone had something they wanted to explore and continued to explore every possible corner of Place Cachée, checking all kinds of different stores and learning about more magical items at every store. As Harry had to store more and more goods in his Sacred Gear, acting as their personal inventory.

Harry chose the next shop he wanted to check out, the book store for any interesting tomes to add to his library, so they visited Magillard: Plumes et Tome. It was a store filled with many colorful books. But they were all in French, although their Devil's physiology allowed them to communicate in any language in the world. It didn't mean that they could just read every language in the world, and they had to learn it normally. But once Harry knew he would be visiting France, he began studying the language in his free time, as he always planned to add tomes from anywhere he visited to his collection.

His understanding of French was good enough for him to identify and purchase the most interesting books on every topic. But quite a lot of books in stock were just versions of many books he already possessed, just in French. In the end, he still managed to add a lot to his collection. While leaving the store to join the others who got bored as they couldn't read anything, he had a flash of inspiration. Why was he even learning French himself? All he had to do was to buy some books teaching French to English speakers and add them to the libraries in his Sacred Gear. The inhabitants of his planet would do the work for him. He absolutely should do it with every language.

With this new idea in his mind, Harry happily continued towards the next store where the others said they would be waiting for him. His goal was a clothing store called Maison Capenoir, located next to a Quidditch shop called Gaston McAaron Équipement Quidditch on Rue Girardon, the street he was currently walking down.

Once he arrived at the clothing store, holding multiple fashionable items in their window, he could already see from the outside that something was wrong. Rias, Akeno, Koneko, and Kiba were standing protectively in front of a pair of beautiful blonde girls. One young girl a bit younger than Koneko, while the older girl seemed to be around three years older than them.

Both of them were very beautiful and clearly related to each other as they looked quite similar. They were probably sisters. The strange thing about them was that they were releasing some kind of magical aura trying to affect them, but his Sacred Gear seemed to interrupt the effect of this aura, blocking it from affecting him.

Stepping inside the store, he could see that the whole peerage was quite angry. Rias said to someone in front of her, "What are you doing here?" She was ready to fight whoever it was that stood in front of her. Kiba even had pulled out a sword that he created with his Sacred Gear, Sword Birth. While the two girls behind them watched with awe and concern.

"What is going on here?" asked Harry his voice cutting through the tension as he approached the group, trying to see who they were confronting.

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