“I want to buy clothes.”

“But do you have money?”

This was the first thing Tip said after hearing Dorothea’s purpose.

“Why? Do I look like I don’t?”

Dorothea’s lips twisted in dissatisfaction.

Realizing that her mood was quite uncomfortable, Tip quickly waved his hands and explained, “No, don’t misunderstand! It’s just, well, when people come all the way to a big city specifically to buy clothes, it might be for something more luxurious. Those clothes are expensive.”

“Aren’t there any inexpensive clothes?”

“Of course there are, but for ordinary clothes, it’s more common to buy them at markets that open periodically rather than at stores.”

“…”

So I didn’t need to come all this way, I could have just waited for a market or whatever to open in a decently sized village?

Two options collided in Dorothea’s fresh mind:

I could either make everything I’ve done so far pointless and look like someone who doesn’t even know the things a kid getting beaten on the street would know.

Or.

I could become someone who needed to come all this way because expensive clothes were the goal from the start.

The conclusion was quick.

“Of course, I have money. I came here to buy expensive things in the first place. Not rags like these.”

As Dorothea jingled the pouch at her waist, Tip nodded but seemed to hesitate as if he had something to say.

“I see. But, um.”

Dorothea tensed up.

Have I been found out?

“You shouldn’t make such money sounds carelessly. Bad guys might target you. And it’s not good to keep it all in one place either. If you get pickpocketed, you’ll lose everything at once. You should distribute it around your body as much as possible. Like in the soles of your shoes.”

Relieved that she hadn’t been found out, Dorothea inwardly sighed in relief.

“It’s okay. I can protect myself, at least.”

“…Well, you were amazing earlier. Then I’ll guide you, ugh.”

Tip, who was about to start walking, soon grimaced.

It seemed that the pain he hadn’t properly recognized due to the series of situation changes had belatedly caught up with him.

Dorothea clicked her tongue at Tip’s appearance—it wasn’t an action a 13-year-old would typically do, but children usually adopted the habits of the adults they lived with—and then took out an ointment from a pouch different from her money pouch and handed it to Tip.

She had given one container to the village woman on the way here, but Dorothea, who often got minor injuries during errands, tended to keep a good stock of ointment.

“Apply it to your face.”

“Huh? No, it’s okay. It’ll be fine if I leave it. Medicine is expensive, isn’t it?”

“I said apply it. From an outside perspective, t’ll look like I’m dragging you around after beating you.”

“Ah, so that’s why…”

Tip nodded as if understanding.

Indeed, Dorothea had a rather strong overall impression, so she did fit the image of a kid playing in alleys quite well.

Tip, who applied the ointment from the shell container to the painful parts of his body, was startled at first by the sensation as if bugs were crawling on his skin, but soon his eyes sparkled as he felt the pain quickly subsiding.

“Dorothy, you’re really amazing. You’re strong, and you know how to make things like this.”

“I wonder.”

Even while being praised, Dorothea didn’t seem particularly pleased.

At this time, she had a strong tendency to use her teacher, the Witch of the East, as a standard, so she didn’t consider her own knowledge or magic to be that great.

Tip was puzzled, but didn’t ask Dorothea anything more.

After walking through the city together for a while.

Tip stopped in front of a store and said, “This is the most expensive and luxurious clothing store in this city. The owner of this place even goes to noble families to sell clothes.”

Dorothea tilted her head.

“Isn’t a clothing store where customers should come? Why does the store owner go to them?”

“Huh?”

Not expecting such a question, Tip visibly showed signs of confusion.

“Well, I guess it’s because they’re nobles?”

“Is that so?”

“I think so, probably.”

“…What are you kids doing in front of our store?”

Perhaps because they were chatting too openly in front of the store.

A woman who had opened the door and came out at some point was looking down at the two children with a strange gaze.

A dress with a deeply cut neckline and a waist-cinching corset. Even a scarf draped over her shoulders.

The appearance of the woman, who possessed both mature beauty and decadent allure, reminded one more of a night establishment than a seamstress, but Dorothea, who had never properly visited either, didn’t realize this problem or difference.

“Ooh.”

She was just impressed, thinking, “So that’s what ‘luxurious clothes’ look like.”

Compared to the mostly dull gray or muddy yellow clothes of the people she had seen so far, the woman wearing a corset dress mixed with red and black looked incredibly gorgeous and beautiful.

“Um…”

Tip, who had a higher level of common sense than Dorothea, was flustered, thinking, “Did I introduce the wrong place?” but in fact, Tip himself had only seen expensive clothing stores from afar and had never properly visited one, so he hesitated, unsure whether this was normal or not.

“Hmm.”

Meanwhile, the woman who was the owner of the tailor shop subtly curled up the corners of her mouth.

She was a highly skilled seamstress and had confidence befitting her skills.

However, since her main clients were often female nobles or wealthy young ladies trying to captivate men they liked in an instant, it was quite rare to receive such admiring gazes from young children like this.

The woman, who had been thinking of chasing away the two kids for interfering with business, changed her mind and said, “Did you come to look at clothes?”

Dorothea nodded.

“Yes, do you have small clothes, too?”

“Even if we don’t, we can make them, so don’t worry about that. The question is whether you have money or not.”

“Is this enough?”

Dorothea held out her money pouch to the woman.

It wasn’t her entire fortune… but it was about a third of it.

Although Dorothea wasn’t very adept at monetary transactions, she intuitively grasped that it wasn’t good to show everything she had from the start.

The woman, looking inside Dorothea’s pouch, frowned.

Dorothea thought.

Is it too little?

“…Little miss, are you perhaps a young lady from a noble family? Or are your parents from a famous merchant guild?”

“No?”

“Then why do you have so much? Haa, never mind. It’s only to my disadvantage to dig into a customer’s circumstances. Anyway, are you going to pay with all of this?”

“Can I buy without paying all of it?”

“It depends on your requirements, but there should be some left over in most cases.”

“Something like what you’re wearing now?”

At Dorothea’s words, the woman made a sour face.

“…If you really want it, there’s nothing I can’t do, but isn’t it a bit early for you, miss?”

“…Then when would it be okay?”

“Well, maybe in about 5-6 more years?”

“Hmm. Well, never mind then. Please make it normal. But, make the color black.”

“For that, I happen to have something suitable.”

The woman grinned and then led Dorothea deep into the store.

Tip sat awkwardly on a chair inside the store entrance, passing the time.

And how much time passed?

“Good, the size adjustment seems to have gone well. How is it? Do you like it?”

At the woman’s words, Dorothea examined her reflection in the mirror.

What the woman had dressed Dorothea in was, in Tin Knight’s language, a type of clothing called Gothic fashion.

Certainly, the woman was somewhat ahead of her time.

“It feels a bit cumbersome with all these frills…”

“That cumbersome part is what makes it stylish.”

“Really?”

In truth, Dorothea had almost no proper concept of fashion.

Since the expert woman said so, and even to her eyes, it looked much better than the dull clothes people wore outside, Dorothea nodded like that.

The woman was pleased to be able to dispose of a dress that had turned into bad inventory after an old, decrepit nobleman ordered it to dress his young bride nearly 40 years his junior, only to die from blood pressure issues after catching a cold wind in the morning. Dorothea was also pleased to have finally obtained proper clothes, and Tip decided to just keep his mouth shut even though something seemed to be going a bit strangely.

“Little miss, this is a gift. It might not be helpful to you now, but take a look at it later.”

“What is it?”

“It’s a book about very, very historical and popular fashion.”

The woman was generously gifting an item she had ambitiously prepared for promotion but couldn’t even recover the binding costs for.

In fact, for merchants of this era, this level of lip service was like a basic skill, so it wasn’t really fair to say the woman lacked conscience particularly.

After the enjoyable—perhaps—shopping at the store.

Dorothea, with a slightly excited look, said to Tip, “Thanks for guiding me. Thanks to you, I finished my business safely.”

“…”

Tip couldn’t easily open his mouth.

Even when she was wearing clothes barely better than rags, it showed a bit, but Dorothea’s beauty, now dressed in certainly luxurious and beautiful clothes, albeit with a somewhat unique sense, was outstanding.

Tip felt a great distance from Dorothea, a gap he hadn’t noticed when they were both wearing dirty clothes.

“What’s wrong?”

“Ah, it’s nothing. I’m glad I could help.”

Tip carefully asked, “Will we meet again?”

Dorothea answered simply, “If I need to buy new clothes, I’ll stop by here again. I don’t know if you’ll still be here by then.”

“I see.”

Tip nodded.

That was the end of it.

Since they were two people who weren’t particularly related to begin with, Tip couldn’t bring himself to ask her to come back just to meet him.

Even if it’s years from now, I hope we can meet at least once more. Heavenly God, please grant my wish just once.

That prayer was the best Tip could do.

Of course, God had never granted Tip’s wishes in his life.

But was this also God’s whim?

Or was it just because someone’s misfortune was so severe?

“Huh? Dorothy?”

“…We met a little earlier than expected.”

Exactly one week later.

Dorothea, whose stylish Gothic dress had all decayed as if it were decades old due to necromancy, returned with a dirty appearance and a red face.

Tip broke out in a cold sweat.

Wasn’t the wish fulfilled too fast?

***

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