章 37: 7.2 Glamour System?

Looking at her, the drowsiness was still present in those golden eyes of hers. As soon as they focused themselves onto mine, however, a glower replaced her half-awake state.

"You woke me up," she accused. "That's rude, Stranger."

"We're not in the palace, Princess," I scoffed. "I'm still paying for your stay here, remember?"

At my words, Shizu actually backed down as she slowly stood up. Her hands quickly went to her clothes as she fixed them.

"Sorry..." she weakly muttered. "I'll be decent in a minute."

"I'll be waiting in the lobby then."

Leaving Shizu to her own devices, I made my way back down to reception, where the old lady was visibly waiting for me to pay my dues.

"You are due a thousand Leafs," she neutrally reminded.

"Sure."

With a nod, I pulled out the sack of Leafs that I had just withdrawn. Reaching in, I pulled out what was hopefully the right amount of... gold tokens that represented this Empire's currency. Placing them on the old lady's palm, she smiled as she closed her fist around them.

"Thank you for your patronage, young sir."

Returning her bow, I gave her back the key to my room before I took a seat on a small bench just beside the counter. I was still waiting for Shizu to come down and join me, and I'm just sure that she'd be famished. And speaking of...

"Do you serve take out?"

The innkeeper paused to look at me. With a smile, she responded, "Take out?"

I blinked, a part of me somehow sensing that she was confused at the term. "I mean, can we order food that we can eat outside?"

At my correction, the old lady quickly perked up, "You mean rations? Yes, young sir. We sell them as well."

"I'd like four please," I ordered, taking out 400 Leafs as I recalled the price.

Taking my money, the innkeeper disappeared behind the counter, returning with four packs of lunch boxes wrapped in cloth. Huh... Bentos?

"Here you are, young sir," she smiled. "Thank you for your patronage."

Giving yet another bow, I grabbed the four boxes with me to the bench. I suppose I'll have to manually put them inside my inventory?

"[INV1]"

{CHIME!}

[INVENTORY 1][INV2][INV3]

[N/A]

Hmm.... How should I do this...

Grabbing three of the lunch boxes, I tried pushing one of them into the open window. And to my surprise, it actually worked.

"Neat..."

I watched as the box disappeared into motes of light, seemingly disintegrating before merging into the open window. Doing the same with the other two, my inventory changed its status the more of the stuff I put into it.

[INVENTORY 1][INV2][INV3]

[BENTO RATION 3X]

I raised an eyebrow. Weird name for an item, but it worked well enough.

"[CLOSE]"

Leaving one outside for Shizu, I closed my eyes as I waited for her to finally show herself. She was taking a bit more time than I expected, but that was to be expected anyway.

She was a princess, after all. She might not be used to not having attendants helping her get decent.

⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛

"Took you long enough..."

After what seemed to be almost half an hour, Shizu finally came back down the stairs of the inn. Looking at her, she was clearly worse for wear as her battle kimono looked off in some places. Her hair was tied into a loose ponytail, and her eyes oozed stress and frustration as her hands tugged on some of the loose parts of her clothes.

"Thank you for your patronage, young miss."

"Whatever..."

I couldn't help but scoff as Shizu blew the old lady off. While I'm sure she would've shown proper decorum if she was able, now was clearly not the time for her to do so.

"I'm hungry..." she droned out, her eyes unfocused as she stood in front of me. "Can we eat first?"

"I already bought something for you," I replied, raising the [Bento Box] that I just bought. "We can eat outside though. We've wasted enough time as it is."

"Ehh...."

Not letting Shizu whine, I grabbed her hand and dragged her out into the street. Making our way out, the city seemed to be back in full swing as people walked to and fro to do whatever it is that they did for a living. Damn... Still impressive no matter how many times I've seen it.

"Oh!"

"How indecent!"

I ignored the gasps that echoed from the NPCs. They didn't matter as much anyway. I just need to get some progress done in as little time as possible.

"S-Stranger?"

Pulling a Shizu, I dragged her all the way back to the arch where she first got her physical upgrades. The streets practically parted in front of us, giving way to our charge as I focused on getting to our destination.

"Stranger! S-Slow down!"

Ignoring the pang of guilt showing up in my chest, I booked it even faster as we finally reached the city entrance.

[Kattleynan Forest: North]

The prompt appeared just in time, meaning that were out of the city limits as I finally slowed down my pace. The grass crumbled beneath my feet as I led us a ways away from the city gate, making sure that we were in a somewhat empty space before sitting down on the ground.

"S-Stranger..."

Looking up, I prepared to give Shizu her [Bento Box] when my cheeks reddened at what was in front of me.

"Uhhh...."

"Y-you didn't even wait..."

I could only wince as Shizu's absolute state of disarray greeted me with a mad blush spread all across her body. Her clothes were practically falling off, exposing a part of her chest as her kimono was almost flayed open for all to see. She was panting, possibly from all of the running that I just forced on her to do.

Immediately, I knew that it was all my fault, "I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean t-"

"I-It's fine..." Shizu cut me off, her hands already slowly fastening her kimono back on. "I don't really mind. But at least let me do it on my own terms..."