章 30: The shop is empty no longer

Between my little jog to refresh my thoughts, the small encounter at my now former part-time job, and then the slow stroll back home with Tom, and then the short rest at my place, it took me roughly until midday before I could finally get on the move.

'Sleep is for the week…' I thought, only for an ugly grimace to take over my lips as I could feel weakness all over. 'Yeah, I'm too old for that kind of crap…'

As much as I didn't want to acknowledge it, without the proper eight… or, at the very least, six hours of sleep, I simply was unable to be at my top performance.

But with how I just got myself fired, settling the deal with Claire and her father was now of utmost importance. After all, even though Claire paid me for the device I sold her… between the daily living costs and all the materials I hurriedly bought to keep testing my crafting ability, those funds were already running out.

Sure, I could live off the small pile of my savings, but it was a critical step I really didn't want to take.

That's why, after getting just enough rest to keep my mind relatively fresh, I got myself up again before leaving for a slightly longer stroll.

With a night's worth of crafting behind my back, I didn't dare to step onto the bike. Even though I treated my hands roughly for the past few years, I just couldn't risk getting into even a small accident due to exhaustion, only to have my hands rendered immobile even for a few days.

Right now, crafting was my lifeline, something I went all in on, and I wasn't going to take any unnecessary risks.

And so, I strolled through the city, through the path I already made twice just yesterday.

I still wasn't sure whether my choice of going all for crafting was correct. In fact, the amount of worry and anxiety that making this choice gave birth to only made me ponder whether or not it was actually a smart thing to do…

There was no telling whether my choice to burn the bridges behind me and force myself onto this path with no way out was a genius move or an example of intrepid stupidity. Only time would tell whether I'd just gone vabank to win the pot or if things went wrong, just brought my independent life to its ruin.

Whether I won my gamble or not, however, it would be a result of my choices, as much as I could claim it to be my choice when by no means or measure was my unexpected talent for crafting something I decided on my own.

'Is there actually anything wrong with jumping on the opportunity?' I asked myself as I watched how the displays of the stores grew nicer, fancier, and filled with more and more expensive stuff as I approached the border of the cultivation district.

There, once again, with a single step, I moved over to an entirely different world.

Whether the barrier of the district kept the pollution of the air at bay or not I couldn't tell… but it certainly felt like it.

Looking down from the sky, I moved my attention to the shopfronts already within the district. And the first thing I noticed, was the drastically visible drop of quality between the shops at the edge of the actual shopping street and the entrance of the cultivation district. It was like…

'It's like people here are going more for the old-timey vibe, while the shops outside are much more focused on clean displays and architecture…'

It was a weird feeling to see two such distinctive styles clash so near to each other, with seemingly nothing more but a few steps splitting them apart. In the end, however, this realization served as nothing more but another thing to occupy my mind as I drew closer to Claire's shop hidden within one of the side alleys.

The closer to the shop I got, the more my hands and chest trembled. It was the feeling of anxiety incarnate, a feeling that drew stronger the closer I got to the place where I would have no other choice but to reveal my decision… and by doing so, set it in stone.

A decision that while within the frame of what I thought about before… still went outside of the frames of the three choices I believed I had when I excused Claire and her father out of my place.

My hands trembled harder and harder, all the way to the point where I reached out and grabbed the knob before pulling the doors open.

Now, not even this flimsy-looking piece of wood stood in the way of my setting my destiny in stone. Yet, rather than greeting me right at the door, which I low-key came to expect, Claire didn't move an inch from behind her counter.

And how could she, given the line of seven other customers all waiting for their turn to pay for whatever they picked off the shelves?

'I guess I will have to wait a bit,' I realized before drawing my eyes toward the many shelves that Claire densely packed inside the small area of the shop. Doing so surely turned this place into a small labyrinth of sorts… but both allowed the shop to display more products for sale while also forcing the customer to pretty much inspect them all on their way to the counter.

A selling tactic I usually found annoying in normal marketplaces, here, didn't feel all that bad.

After all, it was a prime opportunity for me to take my time checking just what kind of precious or simply useful tools and half-products Claire could offer me right from her shop's supply. My interest was quite loose, making my eyes linger on most random pieces… but that didn't mean I had no greater goal in mind.

Specifically speaking, I just couldn't help but wonder if there was some sort of tool that purified the air from all the impurities that pretty much the entire modern world was afflicted with?

It was a task immersive enough that when I finally turned my head to answer someone calling my name… It became obvious from the annoyed look on Claire's face that it wasn't the first time she called out for me.

"Are you done browsing, sir?" she asked while forcing a smile on her face. "If so, would you mind coming with me to the back of the shop for a moment?"

"Are you sure? Didn't we just meet? Isn't it a little bit too early for such brazen…"

The look Claire threw me in response to my teasing would definitely be lethal if she practiced some sort of sight-related battle arts. Right now, however, all it did was inform me just how little she appreciated my silly humor.

"Just lock the doors and flip the open plague on them," Claire cut to the chase before standing up from behind her counter and pointing her hand at the doors she moved towards. "While I cannot wait to hear what's your decision, there are some more things we need to discuss first."