Chapter 184 – A fluffy Monday 4 – If you like it, put a dress on it

Chapter 184 – A fluffy Monday 4 – If you like it, put a dress on it

Aclysia got back on the podium and started testing the options. “One hundred thousand dollars is the amount you will allow me to spend, correct, John?” she asked while tapping around.

“Correct,” he reaffirmed. After working on the sliders for a bit longer, Aclysia announced, “It seems that the average price of clothes here is about 50000. Those are for sets or dresses.”

John’s eyes almost jumped from their sockets, but he regained his calm. He said he wanted only the best for Aclysia, but what kind of clothing demanded that much money? Magic clothing, most likely.

“Does it say why?” he then asked, his bafflement turned into curiosity.

“Material prices. It says that the cloth to produce the clothes here is of incredibly high quality and has mana woven into the threads baseline to allow for better protection against physical threats,” came the answer a moment later.

Okay, so John was now torn between living with those prices or going somewhere else. Not that anywhere else would be any cheaper. Except maybe for stores in real-space. But then why go here in the first place? It was a bit of a headache. Well, it was until he realized that it wasn’t his decision this time around.

“I want to stay here, John,” Aclysia got ahead of his question. “We have lost enough time already, and I want to do other things today. No money in this world is more valuable than your time.”

John smiled and nodded. “Makes sense, so about two articles of clothing then.”

There was a moment of hesitation, when Aclysia looked at the tablet in her hands. “Do you wish to make the choices, John?” She sounded genuinely unsure if she was capable of this on her own. Even if she couldn’t, she would have to learn today. John had no intention to keep Aclysia as his sheltered maid forever. She had learnt how to be independent in the house and in doing the chores, now she would get to gather some experience in shopping for things that weren’t groceries.

Therefore, he shook his head. “No, just buy something that is suitable for the cold weather, otherwise I don’t care,” he told her. Aclysia seemed slightly unhappy about the decision but complied and started fidgeting with the options again.

She clicked a button and suddenly her dress was replaced with a light-grey sweater and almost white jeans. Plain as the clothes were, on Aclysia’s killer body, every pair of pants turned into a deadly weapon. At least John thought so, when he saw the reflection of Aclysia’s backside in the mirror behind her. The artificial guardian seemed less enthused about the legwear, however. A moment later she replaced the jeans with skin-tight, black yoga-pants. If the jeans hadn’t been a danger to the men of the world, the bubble butt hugging yoga-pants definitely were. Aclysia fidgeted with the sliders some more, the sweater becoming more form-fitting to her curves as well. She added a pair of simple sneakers to the mix, and then she was done.

“What do you think, John?” Aclysia asked and slowly turned on the spot so that he could marvel at her from all sides. “It is a very nice casual look,” he said, forcing himself to look her in the eyes. “You won’t run into problems wearing that, unless we are in the deepest winter...which will probably happen soon.”

“I will add a jacket then.” After a few minutes of searching Aclysia found something she liked. A black coat, reaching all the way down to above her knees, materialized. Held closed by several silver buttons and a belt around the waist, it was a stylish piece of clothing. The dark brown fur along the edges of the hood also worked well with her overall look. John approved, Aclysia added the set to her order, and money was withdrawn from his inventory.

“Well, while we are here already,” John said before Aclysia could leave the podium, “why don’t you buy yourself something pretty?”

“Something pretty?” she repeated with a tilted head.

“Like a dress or something,” he specified.

“Is the dress designated as my normal exterior not satisfactory?” now she sounded a bit worried.

“For me, it absolutely is,” John said with a calming smile, “but we will be hanging around in high society in the future, so maybe we should get some classier clothes.”

Aclysia slowly nodded and took the pad again, to look at more options. After some time, she froze for a second, then went into a frantic tapping. Minutes of fidgeting, filled with the simple silence of satisfaction and anticipation, then she knocked his socks off with her choice. Not because what she came up with was overly sexy, but because of what the dress was.

John, having a sudden idea, nodded and pointed at the blue box they had arrived through. “Ladies first.”

Aclysia tilted her head in confusion. They had perfectly fit into that box together, why should she port out alone? However, she obeyed and was teleported out. John walked over to the hovering tablet, where the clothes were still on display. He took it and went through the history.

A few moments later, he teleported after Aclysia, and they were back in the waiting room. The dwarf was missing, but busy noises from the back of the shop indicated that she was still very much around. The two of them sat down on a nearby bench.

“It makes me feel a bit bad,” Aclysia told him.

“What does?” he wondered.

“The fact that I am going to eat her work,” came the swift explanation. “She is sewing and working there, and I will just eat it because it is more convenient to wear the clothes that way.”

“Well, with our lifestyle, it is just way better to have clothes that can easily be repaired,” John said, “but it is indeed a bit of a shame, we better take those elsewhere. Would be pretty rude to just destroy her work in front of her.”

“Affirmative, we shall distance ourselves from this store, before I consume the clothes to learn their structure,” Aclysia nodded.

About ten minutes later, the shopkeeper came out with three boxes. “There, nice and folded up, for ye,” she said. “The dress, the winter outfit and the wedding dress.” John gave her an unappreciative look. He frowned, pulled his eyebrows together, crossed his arms, the full program. In her defence, the dwarf couldn’t have known that she had just ruined his entire surprise, but John had expected SOME tact from the shopkeeper. He didn’t have time to angrily stare at the dwarf, who looked very confused, however. His attention turned to the beautiful guardian at his side.

Aclysia still looked at the box with the picture of the wedding dress printed on top with stunned eyes. “But...I spent all the money you gave me...you said that it was for a wedding...” her voice was a whisper of awe and confusion.

“Yeah, it is, and even if our marriage is not a certainty in the slightest, you looked so happy at the idea that I couldn’t help but buy it for you,” John put his arm around her shoulder. “It’s my gift to you. I can’t promise that you will ever get to wear it, but there is no harm done in having you own it. Especially not if it makes you happy.”

Aclysia was at a loss for words, just looking at him with loving, slightly wet eyes. She didn’t break out into tears, not a second time. Instead, she just kissed him on the lips. “Thank you, John.”

John put the boxes into a bag and then into his inventory. After saying his goodbye to the dwarf, they searched for a quiet place where Aclysia could eat in peace. She consumed the contents of the first two boxes without a care. John noted that none of the clothes showed any wrinkles from being folded and stuffed into that box. Whether that was an attribute of the boxes or the cloth, he didn’t know, however.

He was about to unwrap the last box when Aclysia stopped him. “I do not wish to eat that dress,” she informed him.

“Oh?” John blinked in confusion.

“Wedding dresses are supposed to be worn just once, right?” she asked. “In that case, I want to keep it as it is, if that is fine with you?”

“Of course,” John agreed. “It’s yours anyhow. If you want to keep it, you can,” he put the box back into the bag and handed it over to Aclysia.

“Mine?” Aclysia asked, looking at the bag with wide eyes.

“Yes, yours. You own it, so you can do what you want with it, but you also have to see where you leave it yourself,” John pushed the bag into her hands. The artificial guardian's fingers closed around the handle with slight hesitation. Then she smiled at the box now lying in her lap.

Her left hand softly slid over the surface of the bag, like she was touching something more precious than free will and more beautiful than freedom. “Mine,” she repeated, now with certainty. “I’ll cherish it, John.”