The Creeping Hand Of Fate (6)

"There's no spot for the Ghost Walk potion on this belt."

"That's fine. Put it in the pile," she says as she motions to her right. I see a growing pile of belts on the floor and add to it the one I'm wearing.

"Woah, what are you kids doing?" The large bearded shop owner walks up behind us.

"Hey, Marshall!" Sakura waves as she hangs from the hooks on the wall.

"Oh, Jacques's kid. Well, you just put everything back when you're done, okay?"

"Okay!" Belts begin raining down again as soon as he steps away.

"Here, try this." She throws another belt at me, and I try it on. Sakura takes down every belt on the wall for the next hour. We try on a bunch until she's satisfied.

"This is great. Now, we can carry one Ghost Walk, one speed, one strengthening, two stamina, and two healing potions." Sakura points to each pouch on her belt as she speaks.

"Sounds good; now, we just need to clean these things up."

"Josh will do it. He likes organizing." I look over at Josh, who nods his head while looking at the pile on the ground. I feel bad leaving it all to him, so I pick some up and put them on the wall.

"That doesn't go there." Josh reprimands me for putting the belts back wrong, so I drop them back in the pile and follow Sakura to the counter.

"Three belts, please."

"I only see two... oh, the one you're wearing. Okay, they're normally one hundred fifty Denarii a piece, but since you're Jacques's kid and you offered to reorganize all the belts, I'll give you all of them for one twenty."

"Yay! Thank you so much!" Sakura's bright smile and excitement are infectious. I can see the brawny old man's cheeks flush slightly at her reaction.

"Oh, no problem at all. Thanks for your help, and make sure to stop by again." He chuckles as he walks to the back of the store, and we head over to where Josh is. We've only been gone a few minutes, but he has already made significant progress.

"Are you sure you don't need any help, Josh?" I ask.

"No." He keeps at it while Sakura hums to herself and dances. I still feel pretty bad about what Tyrion said earlier. With my enthusiasm drained, I quickly get bored of the kids' antics and decide to wander around, looking at the wares. I'm quite content with our current armor, but it doesn't hurt to look for better equipment we might use in the future. I find several full armor sets on a wall close to the rear of the store. From my understanding, most people mix and match equipment as they get stronger, but there are also benefits to having a matching set. I see one made out of metal with a faint blue glow that catches my eye. There are several blue engravings along its silver surface. My hand moves on its own to feel the indentations, but I pull it back right before I touch it. Something draws me to those markings. They have some power in them. I shake my head and look at the other sets. They're all well made. Two of them are built from some sort of scale. The first one looks like Punctastar scales. I want to feel it for confirmation, but I control myself.

"Nick!" I whip my head around, but no one is there. "Over here!"

Sakura is standing at the door with Josh. I snap out of my thoughts and meet up with them. Josh has a very satisfied grin on his face, so I assume everything went well.

"How did it go?" I ask, already having an idea myself.

"Great, Josh really did a good job with the belts."

"Sakura bought one for me."

"Yes, I did. Now, if only someone would take me out to eat," she speaks as if talking to nobody while elbowing me in the ribs.

"Ow, no. Do it yourself." She glares at me and opens the door. As I walk out the door, I see Josh staring at the belt around his waist.

"Do you want to get something to eat?"

"Wha?" Shock colors Sakura's previously frustrated face.

"Do you want to get something to eat?"

"Josh! Yes!" Sakura dives into his arms. "Yes! Yes! Yes! A million times, yes!"

"A million times is a lot," he answers flatly.

"Well then, we better get started." Not missing a beat, she grabs him by the hand and drags him out the door. She sticks her tongue out at me as she passes, making me chuckle. Seeing where things are going, I call out to them.

"Are we done for the day, or do you still want to go train in the forest?"

"Yes, I want to show Inari my new belt!" She twirls around happily, showing off her belt as if she's forgotten all the animosity she just had for me.

"So we'll meet at the gate in an hour?"

"Make it two!" She smiles and looks Josh square in the eyes. I can tell he's a bit perplexed by how he avoids her gaze. Sakura grabs him by the hand and runs off into the distance, giggling the whole way.

[I might as well find something to do in the meantime.]

I walk around the area, but there aren't many restaurants open yet.

One thing that's been bothering me lately is how little people eat in this world, even myself. Even though days are longer here, I eat much less every day than I used to. Most people only eat two meals per day. The only possible reasons for this phenomenon are that people somehow use far less energy on this planet or have some supplementary energy source that we can all passively gather, like photosynthesis. My suspicion is that this is related to mana somehow. There's a good chance that we are constantly gaining small amounts of energy from the mana in the atmosphere or that the food we eat contains mana that we're able to digest.

While lost in thought, I enter a random tea shop. I sit down at a table and stare off into the distance.

"Here's a menu. Can I get you anything?" A young woman wearing an apron walks up to my table says.

"Oh, um, what do you recommend?" She catches me off guard, so I respond with the first thing that comes to mind.

"Our house specialty is a black tea blend."

"Do you have anything fruity?"

"Yes, we have a berry rooibos herbal tea."

"I'll take that to start."

"It'll be right out." She bows slightly and walks away. I drift back into my mind and let the thoughts float by. I try not to control my thoughts and let my mind focus on whatever it wants. A conversation from last week, the physics of mana, and how the system of laws is enforced in this town without a judge, I enjoy taking my time to think things through even if it might not lead to anything. I muse through random knowledge and contemplate the pathways I use to arrive at certain conclusions.