14 Chapter 014: Let's Go Shopping

"So, what's the plan for today." Maou sat on the edge of the bed bouncing. "Some food would sound nice right about now."

"Well, that's a good idea but first we need to buy you some new clothes." I dropped the travel bag on the bed and took out a pouch to count my funds. 

I only had 2 large silver coins, 28 silver coins, 1 large copper coin and 30 copper coins left since coming to this town. 

Over the time I spent as a bandit, I saved what little money I could after giving most of my funds to the orphanage; around 95 per cent.

I took out another smaller pouch to carry with me, placing some money inside and pushed my large travel bag under the bed to keep it out of sight.

"The budget is 11 silver coins for food and buying clothes." I dropped the coins in the pouch.

"What are those coins for?" Maou bounced off the bed, landing graciously on the floor.

"Oh, it's simple. Let me show you." I went back under the bed and pulled out the travel bag. I took out 1 copper coin, 1 large copper coin, 1 silver coin and 1 large silver coin. 

"There are four different types of coins: Copper, Silver, Gold and Platinum. You use them to buy stuff like food." I dropped the coins in Maou's hands so he could feel and weigh them. 

"100 copper coins equal 1 silver coin, 2 large copper coins equal 1 silver coin and so forth. Does that make sense?"

"Oh! I get it now." Maou rubbed and tossed the coins in his hands. 

"Here you go." Maou handed the coins back to me. 

I placed the coins in the travel bag and hid it under the bed.

"Are you ready to go shopping, Maou?" 

"Skip the shopping, I'm ready to eat." 

"No way am I skipping buying new clothes for you. That cloak can't be worn forever."

"But I like wearing this cloak."

"We can find someplace to eat at when we're finished."

"Fine…" Maou sighed, dropping his shoulders.

Locking our room door with the key, I hid the key underneath my clothes. We soon left the Inn and walked along the streets of the town looking for a clothing store. It was now 3 past noon and the sun's heat was becoming less intense. 

"Here looks like a nice place to start." We walked into a small clothing store.

"Haa! I just want to eat some food already." Maou whined.

"Stop the whining, this will be over soon then we can eat." 

"Pssh! This cloak is just fine." Maou mumbled inaudibly.

The store's assistant approached us as we entered. "Good afternoon. My name is Amari. How may I help you two today?" 

Amari had shoulder length, brown hair which curled at the ends, brown eyes and wore a white frills dress with hand stitched flower designs everywhere.

"We are looking for some clothes in children sizes for this little guy right here." I put my hand on Maou's head. 

"Right this way ma'am." She walked us over to the children's section and pointed out some nice looking clothes.

"These shirts are all 2 silver coins apiece, pants are 3 silver coins apiece and underwear is 1 silver coin apiece." She explained pointing out each clothing.

I was screaming internally and shaking in my boots because these prices were too close to the budget and left little money for food.

"Wow! They look so nice." Maou excitedly touched the clothes. It was the first he had ever seen such cool designs.

"Oh really, well let's not get too touchy." I took the clothes out of Maou's hands and placed them back on the rack. 

"Are these the cheapest clothes you have for children?"

"Yes, this is the cheapest children clothing we have." 

Directly behind Amari, Maou spotted a barrel filled with something. It caught his attention and he walked over to it. 

"Hey, clothes lady." Maou slapped the barrel repeatedly. "What's in this?"

"Oh, that. It's the damaged clothes we brought for today. Those aren't for sale right now." 

"Why? What happened to them?" I spoke in a curious tone.

Maou did a good job of spotting that barrel. If I could somehow convince her to sell me those, I could save a lot of money.

"Many of these items are badly damaged and no one would be interested in buying them as they are." Amari pulled out a tunic torn almost halfway through.

"Wow! That really is damaged." In my mind, I smiled. The cards were being played in my favour. 

"What are you planning to do with all those clothes? Throw them away, perhaps?" 

"We bought them from people in this town but we plan on repairing and reselling as many as we can." The assistant dropped the tunic into the barrel.

"It must be difficult selling those." I tried to sound as sympathetic as possible. 

"Yeah, it is a little difficult sometimes, but we try to manage with what we can."

All the cards were now out in the open. Now I needed to go in for the final kill.

(Shelly's Miser Skill Active: Manipulation)

"Since you have such a difficult time selling those, how about I buy a few pieces from you?" 

"I'm sorry ma'am, but these aren't for sale yet."

"Please, reason with me, Amari." I placed a hand on my chest and soften my tone and facial expressions trying to sound and look as charitable and friendly as I could.

"Trust me, Amari. I understand your struggles of being such a kind-hearted store that would buy used clothes. Even though the cost and effort used to buy, repair and resell them is nowhere worth the investment. Am I right?" 

"Ah… yes, you're absolutely right." Amari was taken aback by Shelly's compassionate demeanour and keen perception. "The payout isn't anywhere near worth the effort at all."

I gently held Amari's hand and kept looking her in the eyes.

"It's okay Amari, I totally understand your distress." 

"I've tried convincing my parents to not buy all these damaged clothes because they rarely sell, even when we repair them but they won't listen. And to increase our stress, we also try to sell the clothes we make." Tears crept up into the corners of Amari's eyes and her voice became a little shaky.

I slowly pulled Amari in for a hug and gently stroked her head to soothe her. 

"It's okay Amari, cry all you need to. I can tell that you have been holding all this in, stressing over it."

"Not to mention the extra work I have to do by helping my mother repair all those useless clothes. I don't even have time to hang out with my friends or get a husband, like other girls my age." 

"Oh you sweet summer child, Amari. You've been going through all this by yourself." I wiped away the tears from Amari's eyes. She actually sounded stressed out about the situation, which made me feel a little bad for manipulating her like this but what has to be done, has to be done. 

"Amari, believe me when I say that you are stronger and wiser beyond your years." Amari held her hand across her eyes rubbing away the leftover tears that sprung up. 

To end this show with a bang, I softly placed my index finger under her chin and slowly tilted her face to me, forcing her to look up at me and spoke in a charming tone saying. 

"Trust me, with such a cute face and slender body like this." I glided my other hand seductively down her side and hips."You'll score a good husband very soon."

Amari was full-blown blushing, her face was bright pink and steam seemed to be slightly coming from her head out of shyness. 

Amari stepped two steps back from Shelly's seductive embrace and looked down to the floor while fiddling with her fingers. Amari spoke in a weak and blushing tone. 

"Ahh… umm… well… for the clothes… the lowest I can sell them is... 30 copper pieces. I wish I could give you a cheaper price but that's the lowest I can go. I'm sorry."

"Thank you so much, Amari!" I gave her a tight and sudden hug.

Amari began blushing and steaming even more than before. 

"I should be… thanking you," Amari mumbled as I let her go. 

"Please, take your time." Amari shuffled her way to another section of the store, holding her blushing cheeks.

I lit up with joy, looking at the barrel filled with the cheap items. This was perfect for me as I grew up poor and spent miserly. The sound of cheap stuff was like music to my ears.

"Let me pick out some items for you Maou," I leaned into the barrel, grabbing clothes and throwing them to the ground. 

"Okay, try these on quickly." I pulled myself out the barrel. 

Maou stared at me with an unpleasant expression. 

"Why are you looking at me like that?" 

"I understand being a cheapskate, but why did you play with her heart like that?" 

"Don't make it sound so terrible, I wasn't playing with her heart. I just convinced her to sell these to me."

"Hmmm… Is that so?" Maou looked towards Amari's direction. 

When I followed his eyesight, I saw Amari hiding behind some clothes, peeking at me from a distance. I waved at her and she quickly hid with a blushing face.

"What were you saying about not playing with her heart?" Maou peered daggers of guilt into me with just his eyes.

"Okay! You're right, maybe I shouldn't have done that but don't you want more money for food?" 

I tried to justify my actions to make myself feel better but Maou was right, what I did was wrong.

"Haah!" Maou sighed loudly. "Fine… but please don't do that again."

"Okay, I won't do that ever again but let's get this over with quickly before this becomes an even bigger mess than it already is." I caught a glance of Amari gawking at me once more. 

The first fit was a large grey shirt with some stains and brown pants too big for him with a tear in the crotch. 

"Are you kidding me? I look ridiculous in this." Maou had an unhappy look on his face as he kept pulling up the pants onto his hips.

"Just work with me." I put together another outfit for Maou to try on. "I can easily repair these with needle and thread back at the Inn."

The next fit was a white shirt with a hole under the right arm and dirt marks, a vest that had some of its stitches lose and a beige shorts that had a pocket torn halfway through. It honestly looked quite nice on him except it was too big for him.

The next fit was a black button-up shirt with 4 out of 5 buttons gone and some cute red shorts. Although the shorts' colour was fading away in a lot of spots, it matched Maou's eyes somewhat nicely. 

I noticed a shoe stand nearby, walked over and looked at the prices.

"50 copper coins for the cheapest pair of children shoes," I said to myself.

"Maou try these on." I gave Maou the shoes and he looked at them weirdly, examining them as if it was the first time seeing something like this.

"What are these?" Maou asked in confusion.

"Haven't you heard of shoes before? They protect your feet from being damaged by the ground or dirtied." I explained pointing at the shoes on my feet.

"Oh! That's what those were?! I saw everyone wearing it and I thought it was strange." Maou spoke in a surprised tone. 

"Why wouldn't you want to feel the ground beneath your feet? Human stupidity I guess." Maou shrugged his shoulders.

"Anyways! Just put them on."

"Fine." Maou rolled his eyes. He struggled to try to figure out which shoe went on which foot. "Shelly! I need help." 

"Give them to me." Maou handed the shoes to me. "This foot goes in this shoe and the other go here. Always remember the right shoe on the right foot and left shoe on the left foot. You'll have to practice how to tie your shoelaces later." 

"How do the shoes feel?" I stood up from kneeling.

"I hate it. It's tight and uncomfortable." Maou answered pulling the shoes off his feet. "Y'know, I can just continue walking bare feet? It's more comfortable anyway." 

"Stop complaining, it will stretch soon enough. All I have to do is stuff it and it'll fit perfectly." I turned back to the shoe stand and grabbed another pair. "I'll grab some underwear to put with these." 

I took out three of the best male underwear I could find in the barrel. They mainly had tears here and there, the waistband was loose and it was oversized for Maou.

"If my calculations are correct everything here should cost 4 silver coins," I thought to myself with joy, seeing how much money I would save. 

I paid Amari for the clothes with 4 silver coins, leaving me with 7 silver coins to spend on food. We received a paper bag to carry the clothes in.