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Just like on the other side of the street and with the temples, the shops here came in all shapes and forms, ranging from simple roadside stalls, through proper locations all the way to some fancy, branded shops and even a mall.

\'No, now that I think about it, there is a greater variety of shops here than there are different kinds of temples behind us,\' I thought, glancing over at the temples for but a second before turning my attention to whatever it was that caught Claire\'s fancy.

But as it turned out, the practice of putting proper descriptions for every item offered for sale was an exception of Claire\'s shop, not the norm of a cultivation district. As such, even when I looked closer and closer… All I could tell was that Claire was now holding some sort of purple flower.

\'A herb?\'

There was a limit to what could be the reason behind Claire\'s interest. Then again, without labels…

"It\'s a sleepweed," Claire raised her head and looked over at my face with a bright smile as she explained, "It has a great, calming aroma, but if you boil and drink it as a brew, it will put even the strongest cultivator to…"

Claire\'s face suddenly tensed up while her eyes escaped to the side, her hand swiftly stuffing the flower back where she picked it from.

I raised my eyebrows a bit.

"Was it what they used in that tranquilizer?" I managed to figure this connection out by a mere accident, nothing more but a stroke of luck of my synapses just aligning in the right way.

Because sure, both this flower and the tranquilizer used on me had the same purpose, and, judging from what Claire just said, they were both potent…

But that wasn\'t enough for me to draw the connection, not even with Claire acting weird about the flower after acting as if she remembered something.

"Y-yeah…" Claire nodded her head, her eyes still turned away as if she couldn\'t face me after such a blunder.

"Claire, dear, it\'s not like I have some sort of trauma…" I muttered, not really sure how to approach the topic.

Humoring someone when they were in a bad mood was something I always thought I was good at… But when it came to rectifying the truth about myself…

It felt weirdly arrogant as if I was pridefully assuming others actually cared.

Nevertheless, I wasn\'t dense enough not to realize that Claire\'s mood sank the very moment she realized she just brought up the topic that could be still quite hurtful to me.

The truth was quite the opposite, given how it was only by the valiant effort of my self-control that I managed to stop myself from just grabbing Claire from behind and hugging the life out of her.

"In fact, I might have a purpose for this flower… Just not yet. So," I pulled the corners of my lips to force out a small, encouraging smile, "so, where do we go next?"

Claire finally turned her head and gave me a reluctant side eye that soon developed into an upturned glance. Then, after what felt like ages, she returned back to my side before gently wrapping her hands around my arm and pulling me ahead.

Thankfully, in just a few steps, Claire appeared to get distracted with another item for sale as the sparks returned to her energetic eyes while her hands dragged me ahead.

"Look, it\'s Porosi herb!" Claire exclaimed, joyfully grabbing a small pot with an even smaller plant in it before carefully raising it to her eyes.

Then, her face contorted a bit as she lowered her hands and carefully put the plant aside.

"Something wrong with it?" I asked, not exactly sure how to interpret her expressions this time.

"It was replanted prematurely," Claire said with a face that looked as if she was about to click her tongue and spit down on the ground in angered frustration. "Just two, three days more and it could reach an even higher level of maturity," she said before leading on with a sigh, "what a waste."

From then on, Claire moved ahead at an ever-increasing pace.

At first, she mostly browsed through the items displayed by the smaller merchants either at a stall or, sometimes, directly from the street\'s floor. And before I could even react, I suddenly found myself carrying two sizeable bags in each of my hands as I struggled more and more to follow the excited girl.

"Here! Take a look! It\'s a calming stone!"

"How about this, a bonafide spiritual stone! Even though they are much more effective when dusted, someone kept a few of them whole!"

Soon, it felt as if every stall, every merchant, every shop had something Claire would happily lay her hands on.

Thankfully, by the time we reached the part where the shops and all the buildings, in general, grew in size and their wares grew both in prizes and the quantity available, we suddenly stepped inside a much bigger building that came with the prestige of looking nothing like any of the other buildings I could see nearby.

Contrary to all the stalls and shops we\'ve visited before, this place actually came with a reception, clerks, security… All of them merely glanced at Clarie before putting on the widest smile their faces could produce and standing aside while bowing down and inviting the two of us in.

"Miss Claire, it\'s a pleasure," soon, one of the clerks in a slightly different uniform than the rest of them appeared and introduced himself to Claire. "In what way could this merchant house be of help today?"

Claire merely spared a glance at the man.

"I need a private room, full stock of your local and neighboring warehouses, and then an accountant," Claire recited as if she came here prepared, having rehearsed every tiniest element of what we were supposed to do in this place.

Or, to put it in perspective, she sounded exactly like all them witches who would come up to the counter at StartsAtTenBucks coffee chain before performing some strange rituals and casting some ancient spells… Or, as a more outgoing person would say, like all those girls who never struggled to list ten-point instructions over how they wanted their fancy coffee made.

"Oh, and bring us a card from…" Claire hesitated for a bit, "Smith and Ulmer", she requested before putting a momentary look of a bored, young lady followed by turning her hands away… and then dragging me deeper and deeper into the impressively sized building.

"I think I fancy a steak today, what do you say?" she turned her head and asked, revealing a much different persona and expression to the one she allowed that male clerk to see.

"I\'m fine with anything, honestly, but…" This time, it was my turn to hesitate a bit, "what are we even supposed to do here?" I then asked, paying no mind to the clerks still hanging around, ready to be at every beck and call of the girl.

Just by appearing by Claire\'s side, I\'ve fed them with enough gossip material for the next month… So did it really matter if I revealed just how unaccustomed I was to this place?

\'Well, if they are going to smirk me out, that only reflects on their professionalism, not me.\'

"What else if not to shop?" Claire replied, turning over and giving me a slightly weirded-out look… quickly followed by a moment of enlightenment when her eyes suddenly widened before quickly settling in. "It\'s your first time here, isn\'t it?" she asked, only to shake her head as she already knew her answer.

"Let me put it this way. We are getting a room so you can put all of those toys away rather than dragging them all over the place," Claire explained as she scooted closer only to wrestle the bags out of my left hand, perfectly happy to share the burden of carrying half of them all. "Then, we are going to check their stock to prepare an order for everything we might need at our company.

The accountant will be there to set up a new business account for us while Smith and Ulmer…"

Claire\'s face physically brightened up as she put on a wide grin that revealed the whites of her teeth.

"I will admit, I just want to see you enjoy their food," she revealed only to lower her head and bring her hands together, raising her chin just high enough to give me a look with her upturned eyes while twiddling her thumbs around each other. "Can\'t I?"

A long sigh escaped from my lips.

"Do you really think I would ever dare to refuse?" I asked, shaking my head before reaching out and aiming to give the girl a pat on her head… Only to then remember we were still out in the public just in time to alter my hand\'s path and pat her shoulder instead.

"So, there\'s no need for you to act all cutesy and all. Just your smile is more than enough to make me do whatever you want, you know?"