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「Welcome!」

Upon entering Miss Shusii’s store, she cheerfully greeted us.
Other than her, there were two unfamiliar women inside.
One has a relatively large amount of magic power, while the other is looking at protective gear.
Since they’re shopping here, they’re likely high-ranked hunters.

When Ciel entered the store, the two seemed to have a scrutinizing gaze, but then they quickly looked down as if to avoid eye contact.
Maybe they thought that this isn’t a place for a random child, but then tried to play it off as they realized that it’s actually Mother Fii’s child?

Regardless of why, I don’t care as long as they don’t bother us.
It’s fine for me, and Ciel doesn’t seem to care about it either.

「Shusii, I have a request.」
「Understood. Let us discuss the details in the back room.」

I was wondering why the polite speech, but it must be because there are customers around.
Before Shusii entered the back room, she said, “Big sis, can you manage the store for me?”
A grumpy looking Yunmica appeared behind the door, but as she noticed Ciel, she asked “Can I close the shop after the remaining customers leave?”

「Yeah, su~re.」
「Stop drawing out your words. Seriously… Pardon the commotion; please make yourself at home.」

Miss Yunmica bowed to Ciel. Again, it’s likely because there are other people present.
As Miss Yunmica left through the back door, Miss Shusii asked, “Lady Cielmer, what’ll it be today?” after closing the door behind us.

「I want you to make a lot of clothes.」
「What kind of clothes?」
『Ain, could you explain for me?』
『I still haven’t told you what we need, have I? Understood.』

While I have been thinking of what clothes we would need, I haven’t actually shared my thoughts with Ciel yet.
It’ll be sure to take time if I have to relay it through Ciel, so I’ll do as Ciel requested and come out to explain.
Yup, what did I say about not coming out at all again?

Switching with Ciel, I replaced Ciel’s accessories with mine.
While it might seem like extra effort, it personally feels weirder not to do this. It’s like doing this has become so natural; it’s already second nature.
If someone in the future ever asks if it’s troublesome to do every time, I’d likely just smile it off.

「Umm, Lady Ainsel?… Will you be the one to explain?」

From Miss Shusii’s timid tone, she probably hasn’t fully memorized my name yet.
Well, my name rarely comes up anyway. Still, Ciel will probably get mad if she notices this, so I’m not going to comment on that.

「Yes. We are planning on attending school at Ausente, so we need clothes for our stay. 」
「Attending school?」
「There are reasons behind it. We’ll be going incognito, so we would like to have clothes to serve that purpose.」
「I won’t ask the details, but okay, understood.」

From her expression, it looks like she’s really curious about the said reasons, but it’s nothing particularly interesting.
Technically, we are going there under Mother’s—or rather the Creator God’s—request, but we are mostly there to study.

「Specifically, we would need an outfit that would fit a newbie hunter, another that would look suitable for an A-rank hunter, clothes that a daughter of nobility would wear when acting incognito, a dress for a noble lady to wear at parties, garbs that wouldn’t look strange for a commoner, and lastly, an attire that wouldn’t put shame on our status as Fiiyanamia’s daughter.」
「Wait, give me a moment!」

Miss Shusii is frantically jotting down notes, so I wait until she finishes writing.
It’s quite long when explained verbally, but it shouldn’t hurt to prepare at least that much. Our magic pouch has—due to my tampering—significantly increased in carrying capacity, so it wouldn’t be a burden to bring along either.
At this point, we might as well get a magic pouch strictly for storing clothes, but decently large magic pouches aren’t easy to come by.

It would be great if I can just make one, but it appears that I don’t have talent in creating sorceric tools, as I’ve never succeeded in making one so far.
It might be an issue of technique, but I feel like the construction method is just fundamentally different from what I’m trying. Which is why we’re going to study.

「Umm, I could probably make everything except the last one. But for the noble clothing, it might be difficult to find suitable materials.」
「What makes the last one different?」
「It majorly deviates from our store’s specialization, you see. At most, I might be able to make the aristocratic dress while passing time during winter.」
「I see. What kind of materials would be good to use?」

There might be useful materials sleeping unused in our magic pouch.
That’s why I asked her, but of all things, Miss Shusii answered, “A safe bet would be spider silk, I guess…”
That won’t do. It might be a safe bet, but that material is unacceptable.

It might be fine for other people to wear, but Ciel—and I, of course—cannot wear a dress made of that.
It’ll bring back awful memories.

「That’ll be a no.」
「You mean spider silk?」
「Yes. It’s made from the silk spun by spiders, correct?」
「Well, yeah. But this material, relative to its size, is pretty–」
「I know that it’s quite sturdy, and I can imagine that it should make for high-quality fabrics. But spiders are a no.」
「Umm, can I ask why?」

Miss Shusii seems confused about my adamant rejection.

「Would you like to hear about the time when we woke up with spiders crawling all over Ciel? I’m confident that I can vividly explain the details.」
「O-Okay, let’s not use spider silk. Yup.」

Miss Shusii conceded thanks to my light persuasion, so we returned to choosing materials.
Still, it’s apparently difficult to obtain fabric materials that could be used for an aristocratic lady’s wardrobe.
And as Miss Shusii started brainstorming, Ciel said, “Aren’t there good materials from the monsters we hunted in the den?”

That’s right, among the monsters we hunted but have yet to present to the guild—those from the 51st floor and below—many possess materials that can be processed into fabric.
For example, the silk from the giant caterpillars that appear around the 70th floor. What seems to be the adult form of this caterpillar is an extremely beautiful butterfly that starts appearing around the 80th floor.
The said monster was far larger than Ciel and was protected by a barrier that her attacks couldn’t break through at all.

And that ends the first half of the second half??? Of this AinCiel interlude! Don’t question it, lol.

We’re met again with our elf seamstress sisters, and this time it’s Ain out and about! Funny how even she pointed out how quickly turned on her own words last chapter. Also, spider silk dress was a close one. That would have been a custom-made PTSD dress, no can do. The reaction is understandable. “Light Persuasion” she said, lol. Still, it seems like our cast will be digging through the inventory next chapter.

Now then, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please feel free to comment. Stay healthy, stay safe, and have a nice day~!