Chapter 31
The weapon shop Lana introduced me to, well, if I can be blunt about it.
"It's rundown."
"It's quite rundown, isn't it?"
It was shabby.
It was in tatters.
It was so rundown that I wondered how anyone could think of doing business here.
If it weren't for Lana's introduction, I probably wouldn't have even considered stepping inside.
In fact, I likely wouldn't have even realized it was a weapon shop.
Erika looks at me with eyes that seem to ask what I'm going to do, so I muster my resolve and step forward.
As I open the door, trembling with fear that it might break the moment I touch it, the interior beyond the door is surprisingly clean.
Clean, or rather, this is...
"There's nothing here, is there?"
Erika says from behind me.
Inside the shop, there are no weapons, no shelves, nothing at all.
For a moment, I thought I'd entered the wrong store, but on the counter, there was a wooden plate with "Torurosso Weapon Shop" written on it.
Despite my confusion at the empty shop with no displays of goods or even people, I walk up to the counter.
There's no bell to call for service on the counter, and as I look down at it, thinking there's really nothing here, I see a person sprawled on the floor.
"Sorry, sorry!"
The sight of a woman with messy black hair down to her waist, shaking it wildly up and down while wearing glasses, apologizing, was a bit frightening.
"I was so bored that I ended up falling asleep, and I'm sorry for startling you."
Even if she was bored, I wish she wouldn't sleep in a place like that.
I panicked, thinking I'd stumbled upon a murder scene or something.
"Honestly, I couldn't sense any presence at all, so I thought it was a corpse."
When Erika protests, the black-haired woman apologizes again, shaking her hair wildly with a "sorry."
"Well, be that as it may."
Erika stops the apologizing woman and continues speaking.
"Do you deal in weapons here?"
She glances at the counter.
"Torurosso shopkeeper? Ma'am?"
"Ahhh, my apologies for the late introduction. I'm the owner of Torurosso Weapon Shop, Tepe Torurosso. Uh, you're customers, right?"
What an unusual first-person pronoun; her accent seems close to a southern dialect, so she might be from that region.
"Yeah, we're customers. We came to buy a sword."
"Hooooh!"
Tepe lets out a strange cry in response to my answer.
What do I do? I want to leave right now.
"Waaah, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"
Perhaps my expression gave me away, as Tepe clings to my arm.
Even though I was caught off guard by Tepe's unexpected strength, I nearly lose my balance for a moment.
"I got too excited because it's been so long since I've had customers."
Tepe appeals to me with teary eyes.
"Alright, alright, I get it."
I just want her to let go of me already.
Erika's face looks a bit displeased.
As a former marquis's daughter, seeing a shopkeeper with no manners must be unpleasant for her to witness.
But not only does Tepe not let go of my arm, she starts rubbing it with her hands, muttering things like "Hoo" and "Heh."
Each time she does, her rather large chest brushes against my arm.
Even through the rough leather apron, I can't help but be aware of it.
Just as I start thinking I should yell at her to let go, Tepe lifts her face from staring intently at my arm.
"Customer, you're quite unusual. The foundation is the knight orders' swordsmanship used by nobles, and on top of that, a self-taught style? No, this is a southern-derived swordsmanship, isn't it? You have very unique muscles."
Tepe suddenly guesses the origins of my swordsmanship.
Wait, she was looking at my muscles?
But seriously, can she tell just from looking at muscles?
It's true that my swordsmanship is based on the knight orders' techniques I learned at the academy, combined with a southern style taught by my mentor, which has shaped it into what it is now.
"Oh, and you're almost entirely a pure swordsman type, aren't you? You seem capable of using physical enhancement magic at a high level, but... I can tell you're quite bad at emission-type magic."
It's terrifying how she keeps guessing my traits one after another.
It's not normal to discern so much just from looking at the muscles of one arm.
I even start feeling something close to fear.
"That's enough."
The one who stopped Tepe from saying anything more was Erika's voice.
"This goes too far as a topic to discuss without the person's permission."
At Erika's cold tone, Tepe lets out a strange cry, releases my arm, and bows her head repeatedly, saying, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
I didn't think she meant any harm, and seeing Tepe apologize so many times felt pitiful—plus, every time she apologized, her hair hit my face—so I tried to reassure her that I didn't mind, but for some reason, I ended up getting scolded too.
She asked me, what kind of husband lets another woman touch him so familiarly in front of his wife?
Feeling ashamed for not considering that while being part of this farce, I deeply reflected on my actions.