《Blood Demon's Retirement》Chapter 120 - Winter Wear
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"Differences in climates always necessitated differences in clothing. People in the goblin lands mostly went around nearly or completely naked, as they had both scorching heat and stifling humidity to contend with. On the other hand, inhabitants of the El-Maroof desert with its arid climate favored loose clothes that covered most parts of their body.
Meanwhile, in the colder areas, winter wear also varied greatly. The people of Al-Shan favored simply wearing multiple layers of cloth, whereas in Jötunberg fur coats are the norm when it comes to winter wear. This discrepancy came partly from cultural reasons, and partly also based on which resource was more easily available." - Garth Wainwrought, professor of socioeconomics at the Levain Institute of Higher Learning.
"Come on, we'll get you two something more proper to wear," said Cal as she led their way through the city. Before long the three of them stood before another longhouse, but this one had a sign that displayed scissors and needles on it. That of a tailor.
The main reason she looked for a tailor was because they had already tried several stores that sold clothing, and they quickly found out that most of the clothing sold were not a good fit for them. They were all either too short or too broad, which didn't really surprise Cal, as according to her knowledge, there were no nearby elven settlements to Jötunberg, and thus they never really considered elven customers.
When they opened the door to the tailor's longhouse, a bell chimed and notified the people inside of their entrance. The entire longhouse seemed to be divided up into a multitude of workplaces, where busy tailors were at work. An old goblin matron with a rather unusual shade of blue on her skin came and greeted them shortly after they entered.
"Welcome, dear customers, to Gobbledy & Daughters Tailoring. How can we be of service on this fine summer day?" Asked the old goblin as she gave a polite bow.
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Cal looked around the place and was quite satisfied with what she saw, completed articles of clothing were of fine quality, and various pelts lined the walls, from so many kinds of animals she had little idea where many of them originated from.
"These two will be needing proper winter wear," said Cal as she pointed at her nieces behind her. The old goblin looked at them briefly and nodded as she invited her to continue. "We will want them to be warm, but also to allow free movement. Cost is not an issue, so use whatever material would be best."
"Mm-hmm… will you girls come with me? Will be needing them measurements," replied the old goblin as the turned and beckoned them to follow.
"I'm guessing you'd be fighter types since you want clothes that move well," said the matron as she measured the length of Elaina's arm with a measuring tape, making a note at where her elbow was as well, and then rolled the tape to measure the circumference of her upper arm and lower arm at several places. An assistant dilligently jotted down the numbers she said as she measured for her.
"We are," replied Cal briefly without giving away much information. She watched as the matron had Elaina lift her arms, then measured the circumference of her chest, as well as once again around her small breasts. "Around how long would it take to have the clothes ready?"
"You said cost ain't no issue, so I wager you'd want them done soon, wouldn't you?" Asked the matron back, to which Cal nodded. By now another younger worker in the shop had brought them hot tea and a platter of the same brown cheese they had earlier in the eatery to nibble on. "Three sets each… how does three days sound? Any shorter and I can't really guarantee the quality of the results."
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"Three days is perfectly acceptable," Cal replied while she and Sidonie nibbled on the pleasant bittersweet cheese. She took a sip from the cup of tea proferred as well, and smiled quite widely, while Sidonie coughed and almost choked on her tea. Apparently people in Jötunberg also liked to brew their tea strong and bitter, the way she herself preferred it. "How much will it be?"
"Twelve golds a piece, for materials and labor and getting it done fast," said the goblin matron as she measured around Elaina's thigh. Both Elaina and Sidonie gulped upon hearing the price. Their family was reasonably well off, but they themselves had little personal wealth, and the price rather intimidated them. "Since you're so nice to order in bulk I'll round them down to seventy. What say you?"
"We have a deal," Cal said as she plucked out a single coin out of her pendant, and after she showed it to catch the matron's attention, flicked it to her nonchalantly. The matron deftly caught the coin in mid air with one hand, and inspected the platinum coin carefully for a minute or so, while Cal's nieces looked on with surprise.
"It's good money, yeah," said the matron as she pocketed the platinum coin and extracted three small pouches from her own storage, which she tossed back to Cal. She caught them easily and checked them to find that each contained ten gold coins, her exact change. "We'll have them made and ready by noon three days from now, or my name not be Ginny Gobbledy no more."
"We'll look forward to it," replied Cal as the matron let Elaina off since her measuring was done and beckoned Sidonie over for her measurements.
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At noon three days later, Cal brought her nieces to the tailor shop. The same goblin matron welcomed her, and bid them to sit while she fetched their order.
Ginny Gobbledy had two assistants bring two neatly folded piles of clothing with them, and gave one each to Elaina and Sidonie. One of the assistants then led the girls to a set of small rooms partitioned with cloth to prevent others from looking in where they could change and try them out.
After a few minutes, the girls came out in their new outfit. Cal saw that the outfit were of two layers, an inner layer of soft leather lined with cotton, and an outer layer of animal pelt. The animal pelt used was unfamiliar to her, but it had dense, short fur of a light brown shade.
The outfits themselves were in the form of a pair of trousers and a long sleeved hooded tunic. Cal watched as her nieces tried some exercises to test their range of movement when they wore the clothes, and was quite please when she saw them do it without a hitch. Her nieces also smiled as they nodded at her.
"It's a fine piece of work you made for my nieces," said Cal to the old goblin. She fished out one of the small pouches the goblin gave her as change three days ago, and tossed it back to the matron with a smile. "Consider it our gratitude."
"Why, many thanks!" Said the old goblin as a smile beamed on her face. Satisfied customers giving extra payment as tips were far from uncommon, but ones that tipped ten gold coins? Definitely uncommon. "Do come again!"
"Lads and laddetes! Dinner's on me tonight, at the Longbottom! Courtesy of the generous lady!" Cal heard shortly after she left the tailor shop. Humans would probably miss the sound, but her sharper hearing caught it just fine. She just smiled as she brought her nieces back towards the inn they stayed at.
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