CHAPTER 123: 123- SHOPPING

July 11, 2080.

Saturday, 10:05 AM.

...

...

(Eve’s POV)

Today is Saturday, and I’m currently outside the Lunar Academy.

To be specific, I’m in a place called [Xenia].

The name of this place is from its original and first owner, but she’s already dead, so who cares...

Anyway, [Xenia] is a famous shopping centre. You can find various kinds of artifacts, herbs, weapons, armors, and other things being sold here.

And this building is huge...

Looking at it from the outside, it’s about half the size of the academy, and this shopping centre has 5 floors.

Obviously, there are a lot of people here, so it’s noisy as hell.

And almost everything in this place is white. It does look clean, but it’s too bright.

’It’s annoying...’

Also, I didn’t come alone to this noisy, bright, and crowded place.

"Eve, where should we go?"

Adelle, who’s with me, asked me.

Yes, I came with her.

And not just her — Aoi, Alec, Blake, and Curtis are also with us.

As to why we’re here, it’s because on Monday, me and the others will use our special permission to enter one of Lunar’s private dungeons.

So we’re preparing things we might need, as we’re planning to stay inside the dungeon for a week...

Anyway, our group is attracting a lot of unnecessary attention from the other shoppers.

Though, I ignored them and just answered Adelle’s question.

"I don’t know. I don’t go to places like this that often."

I stated to her.

"We’re the same, huh."

And Adelle responded before looking at Aoi.

Sensing Adelle’s gaze at her, Aoi shook her head.

"I’m the same as you guys. My parents always buy me all the things I need to use anyway."

She said that.

Anyway, I looked at Alec.

And he sure looks nervous. It seems like it’s his first time coming to this kind of place.

’He looks like a bunny...’

I thought.

And on the other hand, Curtis is just curiously looking around.

I’m pretty sure he’s the same as me, Adelle, and Aoi, who are not familiar with this kind of place.

Curtis doesn’t like places with too many people after all.

As for the reason, I don’t know... And I don’t really care that much.

Anyway, I looked back at Aoi and Adelle.

They’re talking to each other. It seems like the two of them are figuring out where we should go.

Then I suddenly glanced at Blake.

And I’m quite surprised to see that, unlike us...

Blake is really calm. It also appears that he knows something about this place...

"Blake?"

I called him.

"Hm? Oh, what is it?"

Blake looked at me and asked.

Then, without beating around the bush.

"Did you already go here before?"

I asked him.

And at my question, Blake nodded his head with a smile as a response.

"I’ve been here many times now."

He answered.

"I buy my potions here after all."

Then Blake added.

Adelle and the others looked at him.

And when everyone’s eyes were on him, Blake smiled confidently.

"I think we should start looking at the fourth floor. The items there are good in quality and they’re pretty affordable."

Then he confidently suggested that.

(I don’t think they’re all worried about money :v)

*****

Anyway, on Blake’s suggestion— we headed to the 4th floor.

And his words were only half true, to be honest.

The quality of the items being sold on the 4th floor is really good.

But they’re expensive as fuck. I don’t know why Blake said they’re affordable...

Anyway, we started shopping around.

We also checked the other floors.

But it does seem like the shops on the 4th floor are a lot better than the other floors.

So with that, we continued shopping for hours.

Until the time hit [3:00 PM]...

*****

"I’m getting hungry."

Adelle suddenly mumbled.

"Me too..."

And Alec followed.

Then after that, they both looked at Blake.

"Hey, guide us next where we can eat..."

Adelle said to him.

I’m also getting hungry too, and it seems like that’s the same for the others as well.

So we looked at Blake too, waiting for his answer.

Blake immediately caught on to what we were thinking, so he nodded his head.

"Let’s go to the second floor. There’s a food court there and the food stalls there are the best."

He said.

"Yes!"

"Nice."

Adelle and Alec immediately responded.

And after that, Blake guided us to the food court on the 2nd floor that he mentioned.

It didn’t take us long to reach our destination, and as soon as we did...

We all immediately bought our food and started eating.

...

...

"Thanks for the meal."

Alec muttered after he finished eating his 2nd portion of food.

"That was nice..."

Adelle mumbled. She just finished eating her 3rd food...

"Anyway, do we still have something to buy?"

Then Curtis suddenly asked. He’s still eating his fried storm hawk, and it’s actually his 4th time buying it now.

"I think we already bought everything on the list."

Aoi replied to Curtis. She finished eating first before all of us, as she didn’t order much to begin with.

"Then we can go home now?"

I joined the conversation. I finished eating earlier, after Aoi.

"Let’s just take a short rest first."

Blake suggested.

"Well, I don’t really mind that."

And I replied to him.

I don’t feel like going back to the academy yet, after all.

And after a while...

"Anyway, shopping with you guys is really fun!"

Adelle exclaimed that.

Our attention shifted to her.

"Yeah, I had fun too."

Then Alec responded to her.

"Me too, it was a nice experience."

Aoi shyly agreed with them both.

"Well, at least it’s better than doing it alone."

After that, Curtis followed.

And I kinda agree with his statement, so I nodded my head as a response.

But then...

"Too bad Raven couldn’t come with us."

Blake suddenly mentioned that guy.

"Well, he said he’s busy."

"Maybe he’s training really hard, huh."

Alec and Adelle respectively said with a bit of a gloomy voice.

"He’s a freak if he’s still training."

"Maybe he’s just preparing to enter the dungeon separately."

Then Curtis and Aoi followed!

And feeling the weird atmosphere around us, I frowned.

We actually invited Raven to come with us today, but he declined, saying that he already had a plan for the day.

But he recommended things we should buy.

And we followed his recommendation because they seemed reasonable enough.

Anyway, honestly speaking, I don’t really care if Raven came with us or not today.

But it’s annoying seeing the atmosphere being like this right after I finished eating and was currently resting.

So, I opened my mouth...

"We could just buy something for him if you guys want."

Then I suggested that.

I don’t really have anything against Raven, he’s just annoying from time to time, and what I mean by that is almost every time.

But when he’s being quiet, I would even sit beside him to avoid disturbance.

No one interferes with what Raven is doing in the classroom after all.

But me, Alec, and the others still get approached by others because they think we’re more approachable than Raven.

Anyway...

"Oh, that’s a good idea, Eve!"

"Yeah, a gift would work!"

"But what does Raven want in the first place?"

"A condom, probably."

"Shut up, Curtis."

At my suggestion, the others regained their energy.

And that’s enough for me, so I didn’t join their conversation about what to buy for Raven.

"Wow, they look good..."

"Are they celebrities?"

"Do you think they’ll mind if we ask them for pictures?"

But then, I started hearing people whispering among themselves.

And hearing their words, I frowned and prepared myself for the worst.

Also, it seems like I was not the only one who heard them, as Alec and the others shut up too. They became a bit serious too...

And with that, we remained still in our place, waiting for someone to approach us so we could decline whatever their offer was.

By doing that, the others wouldn’t go near us anymore.

We thought of this strategy weeks ago in the academy because so many students kept approaching us.

Anyway, that’s what we did.

"..."

"..."

"..."

But after some time passed—

"...?"

No one approached us, nor even planned to.

And I also noticed that the gazes we were receiving were getting lower and lower!

Me, Alec, and the others were confused about what was happening.

So we looked around...

And that’s when we saw a group of people a few tens of meters away from us.

They all had their backs against us...

"What are they doing?"

Blake asked.

"I don’t know, but it seems like they’re looking at something."

Then Adelle replied.

We were glad that people’s attention got shifted away from us, so it wasn’t going to be troublesome.

But we became curious about what people were on about.

So me and the others looked at each other, then we nodded our heads and stood up from our seats.

And after that, we approached whatever the others were looking at.

And then we saw what caught their attention...

It was a handsome and tall man!

He had shiny black hair and sharp black eyes, his nose was pointed and his lips were pinkish.

He also had a well-built body.

And he was a person that me and the others were familiar with! Very much so!

"Raven?"

Alec mumbled.

That’s right, it was Raven!

"Huh, big brother, someone called your name."

And in Raven’s arms was a cute little girl with hair and eye color same as his!

’Is that his daughter?!’

I exclaimed internally!