Shilo was the only one left in the clothing store.
He sat on the sofa with a sour face, his eyes looking at everyone as if they owed him twenty-five thousand gold coins.
He really didn’t understand how every person he met was a drama queen. It was as if they felt uncomfortable if they didn’t tease him until he got angry at least once a day.
‘Is everyone just too energetic?’
The Saintess had been dragged into the dressing room by Sery to have her measurements taken and to pick out some casual clothes and underwear.
Initially, he had only lent her the gold coin because she was being too annoying, but by now, he actually had no intention of asking for it back.
Thinking of this, he pulled a ring from his pocket. The ring had clean, sharp lines, its simple band emitting a cold, white, soft glow. The size was just right to fit a woman’s knuckle.
Yes… this was the ring he had stolen from the Saintess. It contained a large amount of wealth, a pile of fancy and gaudy clothes, a lantern, and a silver sickle-shaped pendant.
He hadn’t touched a single thing inside. At first, it was because he didn’t care for their things and planned to find an orphanage to donate them to. As for now…
After realizing that the Saintess was not the same kind of person as those others he knew, he had even less reason to use these things. He had been calculating how to return the ring the entire way to the clothing store.
However, now that the words were at the tip of his tongue, he didn’t know how to start the conversation.
If he said something like, “I stole your ring, I misunderstood you, Saintess, and your situation these past few days was all my fault,” he would probably get beaten up, right?
Worse yet, he would probably be stripped of his status as a knight. After all, theft was not something a knight would ever do.
Not to mention, the target of his theft was someone of significant importance within the Church.
‘What a hassle…’
He couldn’t leave yet—at least not until he finished cleaning up those beasts within the Isol City Church.
*Click.*
There was movement from the dressing room. Shilo immediately stuffed the ring back into his pocket and looked over.
Miss Sery was the first to walk out. Her face was glowing, and she had her hands on her hips as if she had accomplished something magnificent.
“Come, come, come! Look closely, young Shilo! I really don’t know where you found such a cute girl. I’m practically jealous!”
As she spoke, Sery pulled Lintis, whose eyes were blinking with a bit of excitement, out of the dressing room.
At this moment, Lintis had changed out of her priestess robes. She wore a white striped Peter Pan collar shirt with a deep blue satin bow tied at the neck. The sleeves were slightly flared, and she wore a black high-waisted skirt underneath. The high waistline perfectly highlighted the girl’s slender figure.
Her long platinum-blonde hair, which usually flowed freely behind her back, was tied into a high ponytail. Only a few strands were left to hang by her ears and fall over her chest. The overall look was clean and sharp without losing its youthful charm.
Seeing this scene, Shilo’s expression froze for a moment, but he quickly shifted his gaze to Sery. For some reason, he let out a sigh of relief.
Several large question marks appeared over Sery’s head. She felt as though she had been offended.
“Hey, hey, hey, that’s really uncalled for!”
Sery’s sudden anger made Shilo feel a bit strange. “Huh? Miss Sery, please don’t say such strange things.”
Sery said, “…”
Her fist tightened. Her fist was getting very tight!
“Hellooo?”
Following the girl’s sweet voice was her cute face, which had leaned close to his before he even noticed, and a faint fragrance that drifted around his nose.
Shilo was startled and retreated a few steps in embarrassment, dropping a grumpy remark as he did so.
“What?”
Seeing Shilo distance himself, Lintis first tilted her head in confusion. Then, seeing his awkward expression, she let out a small “oh” and flashed a mischievous smile.
“Hey, hey, Mr. Shilo, do I look good?”
After saying that, Lintis grabbed her skirt and spun around lightly. Her brilliant smile was exceptionally dazzling under the indoor lights.
Shilo silently turned his head away and answered coldly, “Average.”
“Eh?”
Lintis froze for a moment. Then, her cheeks puffed up as she walked aggressively toward Shilo. She put her hands on her hips and puffed out her chest defiantly.
“Is it pretty or not!”
She repeated herself, a hint of a threat appearing in her eyes.
Shilo subconsciously covered his waist and retreated several steps as if escaping. He looked at Lintis warily and reached out to stop her from trying to get closer again.
“I admit it’s quite pretty, Miss Lintis. Please don’t come any closer!”
As he spoke, he re-examined the girl in front of him. To be honest, she was likely very beautiful. This Saintess was indeed the cutest girl he had ever seen in his life; it was just that her personality left much to be desired.
‘But… isn’t her chest a bit too large?’
Of course, to prevent his waist from suffering any more, he gave up on saying those offending words out loud.
Hearing the compliment, Lintis smiled somewhat shyly.
“Hmph, you brute.”
Ignoring someone’s low-voiced grumbling, Lintis tapped her chin in thought. Soon, her eyes lit up, and she looked at Sery, who was watching with great interest as if she were missing a handful of melon seeds to snack on.
“Sister Sery, I want a few more outfits!”
“You got it!” Sery agreed without a second thought.
She grabbed Lintis and started heading back inside.
“Hey.”
The two of them stopped and turned around in unison, looking at Shilo in confusion.
Shilo curled his lip. “Miss Lintis, I only lent you one gold coin. Please don’t pick so many clothes. These are expensive!”
Did this foolish Saintess even have a concept of what a gold coin was?
1 gold coin = 10 silver coins = 100 copper coins
(1 gold coin ≈ ordinary family’s living expenses for half a month)
His own salary for an entire year was less than ten gold coins.
Including the money he lent her and what she had earned not long ago, this girl only had less than two gold coins. The fabric of that outfit obviously wasn’t cheap, yet she still wanted several more sets?
Hearing this, the two who were preparing to change clothes looked at each other.
Lintis turned her head first and muttered discontentedly with a pout.
“Stingy jerk!”
“Tsk… you brat. If I had known, I wouldn’t have brought you here. Go ahead and buy them, but if you can’t afford it, you’ll have to get a job yourself. Don’t expect me to lend you more!”
Shilo was getting a bit angry. He didn’t even notice he had dropped his formal speech, and his voice had grown louder.
“Ugh… you’re not even using honorifics anymore. You’ve changed, Mr. Shilo… You’ve really started to find me annoying. I understand, I’ll leave right now, boohoo…”
“Hey, please don’t say things that cause misunderstandings. Besides, I’ve always found you annoying, that hasn’t changed. If you want to leave, I’m all for it!”
“Wow, how cruel!”
While the two were bickering back and forth, Sery suddenly burst into laughter.
“Hahahahaha! No, you two are just too funny!”
Shilo clicked his tongue slightly and looked at Sery with dissatisfaction.
Sery, who was clutching her stomach and laughing so hard she couldn’t stand straight, took several deep breaths to adjust her emotions and tried her best to hold back her laughter.
“Young Shilo—I’m covering all of Sis-sis’s future clothing. We’ve already made an agreement. I’ll provide her wardrobe, and in return, she’ll regularly come to my shop to serve as a model and help greet customers.”
“So, you don’t need to worry about the money~”
Shilo froze. He turned his gaze toward the Saintess to confirm the news, only to see the Saintess playfully tap her own head and let out an “ehe.”
“……”
The next moment, Shilo’s cheeks flushed slightly, but he still acted as if nothing had happened.
“Oh, fine then. By the way, how did you two get so close? Forget it, it’s not important. It’s a bit hot inside, I’m going to wait outside for a bit.”
After speaking, he didn’t wait for a reply and left the clothing store without looking back. Before he left, he could still hear laughter coming from behind him.
He was so annoyed that he sat down on the stone steps at the entrance of the clothing store, glaring at the passing pedestrians as if they were his mortal enemies.