Shopping and Back to Reflet

The carriage continued toward central Alephis. Stone buildings passed outside the windows, growing taller and more tightly packed as we entered the commercial district. The streets were filled with colorful awnings, open-fronted workshops, and pedestrians from every part of Belfast. Humans remained the majority, but I saw more beastmen in ten minutes than I had during my entire time in Reflet.

When the carriage slowed near a broad market square, Elze leaned toward the window.

“We should shop while we’re here. It would be stupid to come all the way to the capital and leave without really seeing anything.”

“I would like to visit the magic shops,” Linze said.

“And I require new fundoshi, I do,” Yae added. She glanced down at the narrow white cloth between her legs. “This one has served nobly, but retirement it has earned.”

Considering everything that had soaked into it over the past two days, I could not disagree.

“I need armor,” I said. “Something light enough that it won’t interfere with magic.”

“I’ll go with you,” Elze offered immediately.

Her eager expression sent a pleasant flutter through my chest. Then I imagined accompanying all three women from shop to shop, offering opinions upon fabrics I did not understand before being buried beneath their packages.

“You should help Yae,” I said. “I can find an armor shop by myself.”

Elze’s disappointment lasted only an instant. “Are you sure?”

“Of course. We can meet back here afterward.”

Dan lifted a hand with exaggerated solemnity. “In that case, I volunteer to escort and protect the ladies. Alephis is a large city, after all. You never know when three beautiful women might encounter thieves, ruffians, or some dangerous changing room that requires male supervision.”

Elze laughed and glanced at Yae. Between her gauntlets and Yae’s swords, the two of them could probably have cleared the entire market square without assistance. “Protect us with what? You left your spear at an inn, and I’m fairly sure Yae could defeat you using her empty scabbard.”

Yae gave the idea more consideration than it deserved. “Should danger appear, behind Elze-dono and myself you may remain. Protected there, you shall be.”

Even Linze giggled at that. Dan accepted their mockery without offense and he walked between Linze and Yae, casually groping both while Elze followed beside them. Before they had crossed the square, his hand had descended from Yae’s waist to her bare ass. His fingers kneaded one firm cheek while she adjusted her stride without interrupting her conversation with Linze.

He reached back with his other hand and hooked one finger beneath the string running between Elze’s cheeks.

Elze slapped his wrist.

“Stop pulling it!”

“I’m checking the stitching.”

“You checked it in the carriage.”

“I’m thorough.”

She knocked his hand away again, but she didn’t attempt to cover herself. A moment later Dan’s palm settled over her exposed right cheek, and Elze continued walking while he squeezed it.

I looked around and enjoyed the atmosphere as I made my way through the streets.

Alephis had many more demi-humans than Reflet. People with animal ears, tails, scales, and other inhuman features moved through the market without attracting much attention. I was still looking around when I noticed a young fox beastgirl standing near the armor shop, Belkut, turning in circles as she searched the crowd.

When I asked if she was lost, her ears sprang upright and she introduced herself as Arma. She had become separated from her older sister and knew only that they had planned to visit a magic shop near Belkut. That description, combined with a few details about her sister, gave me enough information to use Search.

The map on my smartphone placed the woman at Luca Magic Shop, only a short distance away. Arma stared at the screen with open fascination as I led her through the market, asking several questions that I answered with increasingly vague references to special magic. We had nearly reached the shop when a tall fox beastwoman emerged and hurried toward us.

“Arma!”

She was taller than most of the women around her, with long orange hair falling in a smooth sheet down her back. A pair of pointed fox ears rose through it, their fur matching her hair, and a full orange tail swept anxiously behind her as rushed over. Her blue-and-white dress was finer than the ordinary clothing worn by most travelers, fitted neatly through the bodice before falling over dark grey tights. Tall black boots reached almost to her knees, practical enough for travel while still giving her a polished appearance.

Arma ran the last few steps and buried herself against the woman's waist. The older foxwoman crouched immediately, holding her sister by both shoulders as she checked her face and arms for injuries.

"Where did you go? I turned around at the stall, and you were gone." Relief softened the reprimand, and she drew Arma into a close embrace before the girl could answer. "You frightened me."

"I'm sorry, Olga. There were people between us, and then I couldn't see you." Arma pointed toward me once her sister released her. "Touya found me. He used a strange magic to learn where you were and brought me all the way here."

The woman looked up at me from her crouch. Her eyes were a warm brown touched with amber, and the concern in them gave way to curiosity as she rose. Standing at her full height, she carried herself with the easy poise of someone accustomed to speaking with strangers and expecting them to listen.

"I owe you an apology as well as my thanks," she said. "My name is Olga Strand. Arma is my younger sister, as you have probably gathered."

"Mochizuki Touya. And you don't owe me anything. She was standing near the armor shops looking lost, so I helped her find you."

"You found me in a city this large with magic?" Olga glanced toward the smartphone still in my hand. She did not reach for it, though her ears angled forward with interest. "I have met skilled trackers who would struggle to locate someone so quickly in this crowd."

"It's a Null spell called Search. I only needed Arma to describe you, and the rest was easy."

That explanation made the magic sound far less extraordinary than it was, but Olga accepted it with a thoughtful nod. She explained that she was in Alephis on business from Mismede and had brought Arma along rather than leave her behind during the journey. A meeting had occupied more of the morning than expected, and they had become separated while crossing the market afterward.

"I should have kept a closer watch on her," Olga admitted, resting one hand protectively on Arma's head. "You have spared both of us a great deal of fear. At least allow me to buy your lunch."

"There really isn't any need. I'm supposed to meet my friends soon, anyway."

"Then perhaps another time. I dislike leaving a debt unpaid."

She smiled as she said it, and with Arma safely beside her, I finally had enough attention to appreciate the rest of her. The first thing I had noticed was a worried older sister searching for a lost girl. The woman standing before me now was also extremely attractive.

Olga's height gave her a more mature presence than Elze, Linze, or Yae. Her breasts were fuller than theirs without being especially large, sitting high and pert beneath the blue bodice of her dress. The white fabric bordering her neckline made the shape difficult to ignore once I had noticed it. Her waist drew in neatly before widening into firm hips, and the dark grey tights traced the lines of her legs beneath the shorter outer layer of her dress.

When Olga turned to straighten Arma's hair, the dress shifted across a rounded, well-shaped ass. It was not huge or exaggerated, merely firm and womanly enough that I watched it for longer than politeness allowed.

My imagination promptly betrayed me. I pictured those grey-clad legs spread across Dan's lap, then stripped bare and locked around his waist while Olga bounced upon his cock. Her long orange hair would spill over her shoulders, her pert breasts jumping inside the loosened dress while her tail lashed behind her. I could almost see myself kneeling beside them with my smartphone, recording the thick length disappearing into her and wondering how her face would change when Dan reached her deepest point.

The fox ears made the fantasy worse. Hentai and anime back in Japan had filled my head with stories in which beastmen possessed enormous animalistic cocks and beastwomen had the appetites to match. I had no reason to believe any of it applied here. I knew almost nothing about real beastmen, and for all I knew their bodies differed from human bodies only by the addition of ears and tails.

Still, I found myself wondering whether Olga had ever been with a fox beastman and whether she would consider an ordinary human penis small by comparison. If she saw mine, which was currently failing to produce a respectable bulge despite my increasingly indecent thoughts, would she smile politely while feeling disappointed? Dan would certainly have nothing to fear from such a comparison.

"Touya?" Arma asked.

I realized that both sisters were looking at me. Olga's ears had tilted slightly, and the restrained curve of her lips suggested she had noticed at least some of my wandering attention.

"Sorry," I said quickly. "I was thinking about the armor shop."

Olga glanced over her shoulder at Belkut, then back toward me. Her smile grew a little warmer, though she kindly refrained from pointing out that the armor shop was on the opposite side of the street from where I had been staring.

"Then we should not keep you from it. Thank you again for helping Arma, Touya. If we meet while I am still in Alephis, I hope you will allow me to repay the kindness."
Arma waved enthusiastically as they entered Luca Magic Shop together. Olga paused at the doorway to look back once, her orange tail sweeping across the rear of her blue dress, before following her sister inside.

After we parted, I entered Belkut Armor Shop, having to show my crest from the Duke in order to be allowed entry as this place was only for the elite of society apparently.

Inside, enchanted armor stood behind glass or upon polished wooden frames. Even the cheapest pieces cost more than some buildings in Reflet. I was beginning to think I would have to settle for ordinary leather when the shopkeeper showed me a long white coat with dark trousers and fur around its collar and cuffs.

The coat resisted heat, cold, blades, and blunt impacts. It also reduced damage from any magical attribute for which its wearer possessed an aptitude. Its flaw was severe enough to explain why it had gone unsold: magic belonging to an incompatible attribute would inflict twice the normal damage.

Since I possessed every attribute, the dangerous flaw meant nothing to me. The price of eight gold coins still hurt, despite the shopkeeper's repeated assurance that it was greatly discounted, but I eventually bought it. The coat fit well and looked considerably more impressive than the one I had worn since arriving in this world.

The shopkeeper looked relieved to be rid of it.

Before returning to the fountain, I stopped back at Luca Magic Shop. Olga and Arma were gone by then. I purchased a thick book devoted entirely to Null Magic. By then I had spent enough money to make me nervous, yet discovering one useful spell would justify the purchase. The clerk told me that new volumes sometimes arrived from foreign collections, so I made a note to return whenever I visited Alephis.

The others were already waiting when I reached the fountain. Linze had several parcels floating behind her with magic, Yae was eating from two skewers at once, and Elze carried a dress box beneath one arm while Dan's hand rested comfortably on her exposed ass. He had somehow passed the entire shopping trip without acquiring a single bag.

“Nice coat,” he said. “You finally buy something that doesn’t make you look like an NPC?”

Dan stepped closer and pinched the fur at one cuff between his fingers, apparently giving the garment a more serious inspection than anything he had examined during his own shopping trip. Elze circled me once, then pulled open the front of the coat to inspect the dark clothing underneath. Linze’s gaze followed her hands, and the faint flush that appeared on her cheeks made me wonder whether she liked the new outfit more than she was willing to say.

“I think it looks handsome,” Linze said. “The white makes you seem taller.”

“I agree,” Yae said. “White suits Touya-dono’s noble spirit.”

Her earnest praise left me smiling helplessly while Elze straightened the collar and brushed away a piece of lint that I could not see. I admitted that the coat had cost eight gold pieces, which made all three women stare at me. Their alarm eased when I explained the enchantments and the dangerous flaw that had made the garment so difficult for Belkut to sell.

“So it protects you from any kind of magic you can use, but doubles the damage from anything you can’t?” Elze asked, still holding the front of the coat. When I nodded, her expression shifted as she remembered the results of my aptitude test. “Then it doesn’t have a weakness for you at all.”

“That was the idea. Eight gold still feels like a lot.”

Dan released the cuff and gave the coat an approving pat. “I’ll allow it.”

Linze began redistributing the purchases before we returned to the stable. Yae had acquired several new fundoshi, neatly folded inside a paper parcel, along with two whetstones and enough preserved food to make me wonder whether she expected the ride back to last several weeks. Elze’s dress box joined the other packages floating behind Linze. Dan sat on the rim of the fountain eating a pastry I think he’d just taken from a nearby stall, offering occasional advice while making no effort to stand.

We recovered the carriage and traveled beyond Alephis before I asked Elze to stop. The capital walls remained visible behind us, but the road was quiet and bordered by enough trees to conceal us from casual observation. I climbed down, selected a familiar stretch of road outside Reflet on my smartphone, and cast Gate.

Yae had seen enough of my unusual magic that she usually maintained her composure, yet the shimmering doorway left her staring through it at a countryside that should have been days away. She stepped close enough to compare the trees on either side, then looked from the Gate to me with open amazement.

“This truly is Reflet beyond?”

“The road just south of town. We can bring the carriage through as well, although the horse may need some encouragement.”

The horse needed quite a lot of encouragement. Elze held the reins while Linze covered its eyes, and Dan took hold of the bridle from the ground before walking backward through the Gate. The animal followed him reluctantly, emerging on the other side with a frightened whinny and enough force to nearly knock him over. Yae passed through after the carriage, one hand resting on the hilt of her sword until she had confirmed that Reflet was real.

“To cross so great a distance with one step...” She turned slowly, comparing the familiar road with the still-open doorway behind us. “An army could appear within an enemy’s walls before alarm was raised. Merchants might carry goods between nations without roads, ships, or danger from bandits. Even the wounded could be delivered to a healer before their blood was lost.”

Those were applications I had considered only vaguely, but Yae’s life as the daughter of a samurai had apparently taught her to appreciate the military implications of convenient transportation. I dismissed the Gate before anyone else appeared on the road, and we continued into town while she asked how many places I could remember well enough to reach.

Elze returned the carriage to the rental yard, taking the dress box with her so she could stop at the tailor on the way back. The rest of us carried the purchases to the Silver Moon, where Micah greeted us from behind the counter. A broad, red-bearded man stood beside her unpacking small cloth bags of spices, filling the common room with unfamiliar scents whenever he loosened one of their cords.

Micah introduced him as Dolan, her father and the owner of the inn. He had been traveling through the south since before Dan and I arrived in Reflet, purchasing spices and arranging shipments for the kitchen. His handshake nearly swallowed mine, and he greeted Dan with an equally firm clasp before listening to Micah summarize everything that had happened during his absence. The story grew in scale as she told it, moving from our first jobs around town to the capital, the attack upon the Duke’s carriage, and Duchess Ellen’s recovery.

Yae’s name interested him because he had heard of Eashen swordsmen during his years as an adventurer. He welcomed her to the Silver Moon and offered the same room rate we paid, including breakfast and supper. That arrangement seemed generous until Yae began eating.

The first several plates only impressed him. By the seventh, Dolan had stopped contributing to the conversation and begun watching the kitchen door each time Micah passed through it. Yae accepted every serving with sincere gratitude before emptying it at a speed that never quite became messy. Elze returned while Yae was working through a platter of roasted vegetables and placed her dress box with the other purchases near the stairs. Dan had stretched his legs beneath the table and was balancing a mug upon his stomach, appearing entirely content to let the rest of us carry the conversation. Elze took the chair beside him and stole a drink from his mug before asking how many servings Yae had already eaten.

When Yae requested another portion of meat, Dolan rubbed thoughtfully at his beard. “You’ve got an appetite worthy of three adventurers, lass. I’m glad you enjoy the food, but I’ll have to charge a little extra if you intend to eat like this every day.”

Yae looked over the empty dishes and appeared to find the request reasonable. Before she answered, however, Dan beckoned Dolan closer and whispered something into his ear. I could not distinguish a single word over the noise of the common room, but Dolan’s eyes widened and color spread across the visible portions of his cheeks. He glanced toward Micah, who was standing beside the table with another tray, then shook his head.

“No, lad. I’m not that sort of man, and I wouldn’t suggest such a thing with my daughter standing here.”

Dan kept one hand upon his shoulder and spoke quietly into his ear again. While he did so, he flicked the one earring he was wearing, an idle habit I’d noticed he’d taken to lately. Dolan’s embarrassment faded as he listened. His broad shoulders relaxed, and the hesitation in his face gave way to an openly lecherous grin. By the time Dan leaned away, the innkeeper was looking from Yae’s bare breasts to her mouth without the slightest effort to disguise his interest.

“On second thought, there’s no reason to complicate the bill.” Dolan pushed his chair away from the table and opened his knees. “If you enjoy sucking cock, come down here and suck mine. Swallow what I give you, and you can keep eating until you’re full.”

Micah showed none of the shock I expected from his earlier concern. She merely set the tray down, nudged one of her father’s boots aside with her own, and told him to move his chair farther from the aisle so she could continue serving the other tables. From the long-suffering affection in her expression, anyone would have thought she had spent her entire adult life accommodating the appetites of a shamelessly lewd father.

Yae considered the proposal while reaching for the fresh bread Micah had brought. Her gaze lowered to the front of Dolan’s trousers and remained there for a moment before she nodded.

“Gladly I shall pay in that fashion. When both present at the inn we are and time allows, your seed I will take in exchange for my extra meals. Should training, work, or other duties prevent the opportunity, the ordinary charge I shall pay.”

“That sounds fair. You can start now.”

Yae set down the bread, slipped from her chair, and settled onto her knees between Dolan’s boots. He loosened his trousers and drew out a cock that was rather thick through the shaft, though otherwise unremarkable. It still exceeded mine by enough to provoke the usual sting of embarrassment.

She wrapped one hand around the base before taking the head between her lips. Dolan leaned back as her mouth began traveling along him in slow, experienced strokes. The girth stretched her lips more than mine did, though she handled it comfortably, using her tongue along the underside and gently working the lower portion with her hand whenever she drew back toward the head.

Conversation continued around the table while Yae sucked him. Micah collected the empty dishes within reach, refilled her father’s drink, and remained close enough to watch Yae’s head moving between his knees. Dan lounged with his chair tilted onto its rear legs, observing the arrangement with lazy satisfaction while he helped himself to pieces of meat from Yae’s latest platter. Elze sat beside him examining the stitching on one of her purchases, and Linze tried to explain the contents of the magic shops to me despite the wet sounds coming from only a few feet away.

My attention kept returning to Yae. Her bare breasts shifted with each movement of her head, and saliva shone around her lips as she drew Dolan deeper. She had sucked me with the same serious concentration, though my entire length disappeared into her mouth without requiring the help of her hand. Seeing another man enjoy her skill made my cock stiffen inside my new trousers, especially when Dolan placed one broad hand behind her head and began guiding her rhythm.

“That’s a good mouth you’ve got,” he said, watching his thick shaft disappear between her lips. “Keep sucking exactly like that.”

Yae increased her pace, hollowing her cheeks while her tongue continued moving beneath him. Dolan lasted several more minutes before his thighs tightened around her shoulders and his fingers curled into her orange-brown hair. He groaned, holding her lips firmly around the shaft as he ejaculated.

Yae swallowed each pulse without allowing any semen to escape. She continued sucking until his grip loosened and his cock began to soften, then withdrew carefully and licked the remaining moisture from its head. Micah handed her a cloth without being asked. Yae wiped her mouth, returned Dolan’s cock to his trousers, and resumed her place at the table.

“Your seed was satisfying,” she told him as she reached for the bread she had set aside. “A most agreeable arrangement this shall be.”

Dolan fastened his trousers and called toward the kitchen for another platter, plainly delighted with the bargain. Micah remained beside the table to gather the next stack of empty plates, while Dan leaned back with the satisfied expression he wore whenever one of his obscene suggestions somehow became part of ordinary life.