Chapter 173: Be Eaten Up?

Chapter 173: Be Eaten Up?

"Welcome to Lillet's Desserts Shop!"
While Shien was still stunned, what looked like the store's owner had already arrived before him and showed him a professional smile.
The eyes of the store's owner kept shifting toward the little girl pulling Shien along with undisguised affection however.
The girl didn't seem to notice any of that though. She just pointed toward the desserts on the display window.
"I want that one… That one… That one… And also that one!"
The girl had pointed to practically every item on the display.
"That…"
The store owner's eyes went from an affectionate expression to a difficult one.
Just as Shien was thinking that it's because all those desserts were merely display items, not for sale, or perhaps it's because the girl picked too many, the owner spoke up.
"My apologies, but our store's products are high quality items that cater exclusively to the nobility. Not only are they expensive, they also require a proof of noble status before they can be sold. Are the two here…?"
The owner spoke a slightly probing statement.
"Only the nobility can buy it?"
Shien was shocked as well.
"Indeed." The owner once again showed a professional smile before explaining, "It's because all the items of our store are made from very high level ingredients. Said ingredients can even be used to make magic potions, and they have certain magical effects when eaten such as mental recovery or fatigue relief. They even require certain specific magic items to be processed and made into our products. The ingredients are shipped here from various place around the world via merchant orders, so not only is it expensive, it's also noble exclusive. Thus, for the average commoner, they'd require an introductory letter or token from a noble before they can purchase any."
That really is seriously troublesome. No wonder this shop is located only in the noble district.
If it was just Shien here on his own, then he's probably have already turned about and left at this point.
But the little girl was still pulling on him as she looked up at him.
"You can't buy it?"
The little girl's tone was disappointed.
Seeing her like that, even the owner's heart ached, never mind Shien. Now that it's come to this point, he'd lose face if he were to say that he couldn't but it now.
Thus…
"Pack it up to go for me." Shien told the owner while sighing.
"But…"
The owner showed a difficult expression.
Shien rolled his eyes before pulling out the pendant that he wore on his neck and tossing it into the owner's hands.
"T-this is…!?"
Seeing the pendant, the owner's eyes widened while turning pale.
"Now can I buy it?"
Shien confirmed it again in a bullying fashion.
"O-of course!" The owner spoke in a panic, "I'll get it for you… No, I'll pack it up for you now! Please wait just a moment!"
With that, the owner hurriedly ran off, but they only moved a bit before they ran right back, fearfully returning the pendant to Shien, before running off again to package the items.
This whole chain of events had let Shien somewhat experience what it felt like to show off like in those city novels.
"How boring."
Shien put the pendant back on his neck with a lonely expression.
What Shien didn't notice though was that the little girl was also stuffing a pendant back into her clothes.
If he paid attention, then he would have seen that the pendant in question had a dragon's head carved on it, and the whole thing was pitch black.
In the future, Shien ended up coincidentally finding out about it. Since then, he was relieved more than once that he used Lucy's pendant to resolve the matter at the time.
Otherwise, if that little girl ended up showing her pendant, then likely the entire Capital would have fallen into chaos. Even the King and all his high ministers would have ran up in an undignified manner to present themselves.
…
"Please come again!"
After about ten minutes later, the store's owner politely said goodbye as Shien left the store with the little girl in tow.
He not only had a number of packages of desert with him, but also a pained expression on his face.
"It's just a couple of desserts, and yet it costed me 50 whole gold. That's seriously unbelievable."
Shien finally experienced what that "expensive" the owner spoke of really meant.
That's not something that a normal person could possibly be able to afford.
Even for the nobility, it's likely that they won't have done like Shien and ended up buying a whole bunch in one sitting, right?
But, when considering the fact that the desserts in question had magic potion like effects, the expensive costs seem somewhat understandable.
So long as it had something to do with magic, then practically anything would end up turning super expensive. That was a common sense of this world.
"Thank goodness I don't need to buy a decent weapon anymore. Otherwise, I really wouldn't have been able to afford this stuff."
Shien had already basically spent most of the money that Leili originally gave him as support. He didn't have much left at all.
"So good."
On the other hand, that little girl was still holding the pillow with one hand while holding up a piece of pastry with the other as she happily took little bites out of it.
While watching the girl act so self-assuredly, Shien had a thought.
"You wouldn't actually happen to be some kind of big shot would you, little girl?"
Shien had some serious suspicions as he remembered the items worth tens of thousands of gold that the little girl previously mentioned.
But the little girl just frowned.
"I'm not called little girl." She raised her head and looked at Shien, "My name is Airi."
"Airi?" Shien repeated the name.
"Hn." Airi nodded and spoke, "You can just directly call me by name. It's fine if it's you."
Shien didn't quite understand what that latter part meant, but he didn't particularly care either.
"Well then little Airi, I've bought what you wanted, so you should be good and go home now. Uncl- cough, big brother here has got some things to do, so I can't play with you anymore. Let's meet again later if it's fated."
Shien patted Airi's head and got ready to bid her farewell.
"Don't add little to my name. I'm not little at all." Airi slapped away Shien's hand unhappily, but she continued to stare at Shien, "You're going then?"
"Yeah." Shien didn't mind it and sighed, "Big brother's been targeted by a little witch. I might even end up getting turned into her playmate. If a little one as cute as you went with me and said witch notices you, you might very well be eaten up by her."
"… Is that so?" Airi raised an eyebrow and, after seeming to think it over a bit, spoke, "Then bring me with you."
"Ha?" Shien stopped for a moment before letting out a bitter laugh, "Did you not hear what I just said?"
Yet, she gave him a completely unexpected response.
"It's always been me who eats up others. There's never been someone who could eat me up."
Airi said something very dangerous sounding.
"So I want to go take a look. See just who it is that can eat me up."
With that, Airi got ready to move.
However, at this moment, a pair of hands grabbed Airi and lifted her up.
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