-=Day five, Plush POV=-

After eating some breakfast (bacon and eggs) we get all our stuff and leave the inn.

“You still look really tired Ronnie, are you okay?”

“I- *yawn* I was having some trouble falling asleep yesterday…”

“Aww, you couldn’t sleep in a different room from us?” Shiona cheekily chimes in.

“No... The bed was just too soft and fluffy, I’ve never slept in a bed like that before and it really just made me feel uncomfortable and out of place…”

“Ah…”

“But don’t worry, we’re only staying here two or three more days right? I think I can hold out.”

“Well if you’re sure you’ll be fine…”

“Yeah I’m sure. So master, what do we need to do today?”

“...”

“Shiona?”

“Ah! Sorry, I was spacing out a bit…”

“Did something happen master?”

“No I, ehm, I was just caught a bit off guard by how dark that was… Right, the things we have to do in Logholm, we need to buy some souvenirs for back home, that’s really all the plans we had I think… After that we could just go sightseeing? The guild did have those nice tourist pamphlets after all.”

“Sounds good to me. What about you Ronnie? Anything you want to do?”

“Ehm… I don’t think so? I hadn’t thought about it actually.”

“... Wonder if they have dojos in this world…” whispered Shiona.

“What did you say Shiona? I couldn’t hear you.”

“Err, training facilities, I was wondering if Logholm had any knight training facilities that we could check out, maybe Ronnie could join in on some sparring.”

“Do you really think so? Wouldn’t a kingdom's knights and their training regime count as classified info?”

“...” x2

“You know, the kind of classified info that you wouldn’t just let any random travelers find out?”

“Yeah, w-we get what you mean Plush, it’s just…” Starts Shiona, however she doesn’t finish her sentence.

“Just that…?”

“Uhm…” Starts Ronnie. “We… We sort of didn’t expect you to be the one bringing in sensible logic into this?”

“Ah, no that’s fine, I used to get that a lot in school.” I say, not even phased by something that certain others I know would certainly be outraged by.

“Right… Well, have you two decided on what souvenirs you’re getting? I don’t know the people you’re getting them for so I can’t really help.”

“Yeah we’ve already decided, it was… What was it Shiona?” I say sheepishly.

“I… I don’t remember…”

“Oh…”

“Ah! maybe you wrote it down in the book?”

“!! Good Idea!”

I take the book off of my back and start looking through the pages.

Notes

Gift list:

Anne: Pillow

Grizz: Tinker tools

Anna: Notebook & pen

Rico: New glasses

Red & Cathy: Wandless Magic book

Joanne: Cooking book

Hugh: Sleep mask

Rupe: Sleeping medicine

“Okay, here it is.”

“Phew, I was worried for a moment there...”

While Shiona and I were merrily celebrating not having to think up gifts again Ronnie starting fidgeting.

“Uhm…”

“? What is it Ronnie?”

“Hate you rain on your parade, but do you even know what strength this Rico person’s glasses needs to be?”

“Ah!” “Ah!”

“Mumumu…”

“What to do…”

“Uhm, back in the black market the slave dealers would give the slaves that needed glasses these special enchanted glasses that would automatically adjust to the user-

“That’s a great idea Ronnie!”

“...”

“Ah… Sorry for interrupting… But if magic glasses like that exist why do they even have glasses with different strengths anymore?”

“Ahem, normally they’re much more expensive than normal glasses, but the black market boss had a few connections here and there and got them extra cheap.”

“Huh… Okay… Well do you know where we could get some?”

“Err… I saw one of the crates they came in once, there were logos that read “Ike’s” on the sides.”

“Ike’s?” I say, reminded of a certain store chain from back home.

“Yeah, guess the guy who owns it is called Ike” Responds Ronnie.

“Sounds like a sleazy pizza place.” Says Shiona.

‘I guess she likes pizza more than furniture, fair enough.’

While Ronnie and Shiona keep talking to each other about the other gifts I take out the tourist pamphlet to see whether I can find Ike’s anywhere.

‘Here we go’

“Guys, I found Ike’s on the map, it’s in some place called the founder’s square. Also there’s some other places that might be worth checking out there.” I say, they both agree after looking at the pamphlet and we start walking to Ike’s.

* * * *

“Is this the place?” I ask Ronnie.

Right now we’re standing in an open plaza where the path splits in two and goes in two half circles before meeting back up again.

It’s practically a roundabout.

No, it is a roundabout.

The road was shaped exactly like a roundabout with a large stone monument in the middle, the roundabout was connected to two different paths, one of those paths was the one we came on while the other continued to the drawbridge in front of the castle.

“I dunno, can you see a place with a sign that reads ‘founders square’, or maybe one that says ‘Ike’s’?”

“Uhh, yes actually. Right on that big monument actually.”

The monument that was in the center of the roundabout was that of a large square tablet which stood on one of its short sides like a gravestone.

At the top of the monument it said “founder’s square” In big bold letters, below that there was a paragraph of smaller text.

Shiona started reading it.

“Suppressing diseases and furthering trades, bettering the economy and improving the lives of those in need, this monument stands before you to pay respect to the founder of Logholm and to honor the deeds of a very great man..”

Shiona then looks at a similar but smaller monument which stand a small distance away from the big one.

“P.s this monument is a translated recreation of the original monument which was written in Ancient Normic, due to this there may be translation errors present.”

She then looked at yet another monument, this one small enough that I’d barely be able to hide behind it if I crouched.

“...”

However she didn’t read it this time, so then I did it instead.

“If you ca-”

“Tchut!”

Only to be interrupted by Shiona with a complicated expression.

So then I read it to myself rather than out loud.

‘If you can read this you can read Ancient Normic and are thus requested to visit the Museum of Normic research and understanding… What?’

I look at Shiona, however when I’m going to ask her about the monument I’m… “Tchut”-ed again so I decide to wait with asking about it until we get to the inn later today.

“Well we're at the founder's square, but where’s Ike- Oh.”

The place was filled with people so it was hard to see anything, however Ronnie who was taller than me and Shiona easily found a large lavender colored oval shaped sign hanging on one of the buildings which read “Ike’s” in big simple letters.

“This… This doesn’t look like an optician.” Says Shiona.

The storesign was hanging above two sets of doors, one for entering and one for exiting, and on both sides of the doors there were big display windows filled with a variety of seemingly random items.

“That’s because it isn’t.” Starts Ronnie. “I heard it’s supposed to be an ‘everything store’. That’s why they’re one of the few places that have these things.”

“Really? But then, what’s the point of even having normal glasses when you can just have these?” I say.

“Well why wouldn’t they? I already told you how normal glasses are much cheaper and appeal more to commoners.”

“Nobles then, what about them? Wouldn’t they just buy these magic glasses to show off their wealth?”

“You’d think so, and usually you’d be right, however there’s one thing nobles hate more than having cheap possessions, and that is having the same possessions as someone else. Because of this the nobles tend buy lenses made specifically for them and then install them in expensive looking frames instead. Actually I heard one of the excuses that a noble use once, something about feeling disgusted at the thought of having… what did they call it again? Filthy common-gear? Something like that. Anyway, they said they felt appalled by having something that any money-wise commoner could wear so close to their eyes, kept claiming it made everything they saw through them look worse than if they didn’t have any glasses at all.”

“Wow, erm, you seem to know a lot about this…”

“Yeah, some noble came by the black market and started prattling on about it, I still see his sweaty figure shouting at the slave dealer for even thinking that he’d have his slave wear one of them when I close my eyes sometimes.”

“...” x2

Without saying anything else we enter Ike’s.

*ding ding* Rang a bell when we entered.

“Welcome!” Shouted an overly excited lady from within a group of people.

The lady started sprinting from the group of people and approached us, when she arrived she bent forwards and started gasping for air.

“Wel- *gasp* Welcome- *gasp* Welcome to Ike’s- *gasp* valued customer-” said the lady, barely getting her words through her mouth.

I then saw the group of people that had been left behind by the lady, they were a group made a number of gaudy nobles and a number of muscular men look towards us with anger and jealousy evident in their eyes.

And although I don’t share their thoughts I do understand where they’re coming from.

“This lady is… Impressive in many ways.”

Normally I’m good at looking at people's faces rather than their bodies, however when the lady bent forwards her face was way too close to her… chest. Her face was way too close to her chest for me to only see one of them and not the other, it was so important that I had to repeat it twice.

“!”

Suddenly I felt a very scary presence behind me, however when I turned around I only saw Shiona and Ronnie so I must’ve been imagining things.

For whatever reason Shiona picks me up by my neck like a kitten and-

“Here.”

-hands me over to Ronnie who readily accepted as though it was completely normal.

The lady then finally caught her breath and stood back up.

“Sorry about that. Again, welcome valued cust- IYYAAA!!!”

‘Oh boy, here we go again…’

I was starting to understand why they picked me up, it was to disguise me as a normal stuffed toy so people don’t freak out like this.

‘Maybe I should just stay in Shiona’s bag like Litly? I wonder if the magic book has something that lets me use the telepathy spell with just a few people so I can talk to Shiona and Ronnie without people wondering why the bag is talking.’ I think, trying to distract myself from the inevitable shitstorm that’s about to go down.

“Guh?!”

I reflexively release a weird sound as the lady hug-tackles me out of Ronnie’s grip.

“Iya! It’s adorable! Did one of you two make it!?” Asks the lady Shiona and Ronnie While I-

‘I can’t breath! I can’t- wait... I can’t suffocate.’

“...” x2

Suddenly the scary feeling I had before comes back and I soon find myself back in Ronnie’s grasp while the lady has fallen to the ground with a big bump on her head.

Next to the lady stood Shiona who had somehow managed to curl her feathers into a surprisingly efficient fist.

“How dare you!” x? Shouted a number of the men from the group a small distance away.

“To do this to the lady!!” Said one muscular man while tightening his fist in front of his face.

“For the first person to taste the lady’s heaven to be an inanimate object…!” Said one of the fat nobles while staring at me with envy.

The mob of seemingly made of suitor-wannabes all had very different thoughts from one another, however a single sentence was able to make them band together against a common enemy.

That sentence was uttered by a certain demi-bird.

“How dare you try to seduce my husband!?”

When Shiona said this a single unified thought traveled through all the men’s heads.

‘That thing is a male!?’ x?

All the men instantly looked at me with eyes filled with scorn.

“Uhm… Hi?” I said while awkwardly smiling and waving my hand.