Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 2.1 - Chapter 6

Buying Secondhand Clothes 

After enough mana returned to my body for me to move again, I ate the bread soup that Mark made and slowly regained my strength. 

“Myne, are you gonna get casual clothes for your attendants? Or would you rather me get them for you?” 

“Where should I buy their casual clothes? I’m guessing that the secondhand store my family goes to won’t be good for this, right?” 

It was difficult for commoners to make new clothes given their poverty, and excluding abnormal cases such as myself, children grew steadily larger. As time passed they would need larger clothes, and their smaller clothes would become unwearable. There was no point storing useless clothes in their already small homes, so commoners tended to sell their casual clothes to a secondhand clothing store the moment they became unwearable by the youngest child. The money earned would be spent to buy secondhand clothes. This way, they would get clothes at more or less a discounted price. 

Standards for outfits were low. They were fine as long as they fit, and secondhand clothes being filthy was just a matter of course. What if they’re covered in patches? You’re lucky you get any decoration at all. What about the design? Clothes for poor people don’t have designs. All that mattered was how thick the cloth was and how strong they were. When the cloth got too raggedy and loose to be worn, the clothes were turned into rags. 

“Idiot. Don’t even think about making them wear clothes like that in the north.” 

My attendants, who would presumably be following me to the Gilberta Company and back to the temple, would generally be sticking to the rich part of the city, the north. It wouldn’t be smart to have them walking around in poor, raggedy clothes like what I usually wore. 

“I think I’ll let you handle all of this, Benno. I don’t know any fancy secondhand clothing stores, and I don’t know what clothes would be good for attendants, so.” 

“I’ll take you to a secondhand store tomorrow if you’re not sick, then. I’ve gotta go check on how the restaurant’s coming along too, so yeah. You’re coming with me.” 

“Okay.” I nodded, and Benno turned his eyes to Lutz. 

“Lutz, that’d normally be your day off, but you’re coming too.” 

“Sorry for wrapping you up in this, Lutz.” 

“Don’t worry about it, I was just thinking I wanted to buy some casual clothes for cheap.” It seemed that Lutz, still stuck following me around even after I entered the temple, wanted some non-apprentice clothes he could wear on his days off. Unlike casual clothes, he apparently had to wash his apprentice clothes every time he wore them. A clean appearance was necessary for those working in a high-class business. But naturally, clothes get increasingly damaged the more you wash them. Lutz didn’t want to damage his apprentice outfits, but they were all he had for walking around the north part of the city. 

“I’ll have to buy new apprentice outfits if I don’t have casual clothes to wear on my days off, y’know?” said Lutz, which made me want casual clothes of my own. I also only had my apprentice outfit for walking around the north of the city. 

“Mr. Benno, please find some clothes for me too.” I had never gone shopping for my own clothes in this world before. Feeling excited for the shopping that awaited me tomorrow, I went home with Lutz.

“Bye, Lutz. See you tomorrow.” I waved Lutz goodbye with a smile, but he glared at me. 

“I haven’t told your family what happened yet.” His words struck fear in my heart, but naturally, I had no way of stopping him... 

“Why don’t you take better care of yourself, Myne?!” 

“Don’t cry, Tuuli!” 

“I’m not crying! I’m mad!” 

I knew that Tuuli had been worried about whether or not going to the temple would actually make my Devouring better, and that she was terrified of me suddenly disappearing, so I felt biting guilt as she angrily cried at me. 

“Sorry. I’m really sorry. I won’t let it happen again.” 

“...You’ll eat lunch from now on?” 

“Of course!” I nodded eagerly and Tuuli’s flared eyebrows lowered a bit. 

“Will you talk to that important person about mana? Will you promise you won’t forget, even if you get to read books?” 

“...Ngh...” 

“Myne?” Tuuli glared at me, but I couldn’t make a promise I knew I wouldn’t keep. I was confident that if a book was put in front of me, I would forget every promise I ever made. 

“...I-I’ll tell my attendant so he can remind me if I forget. He’s a serious person, it’ll be fine!” 

“Haaah. I guess you won’t make promises you can’t keep, huh?” Tuuli shook her head in exasperation, but seriously, I had no confidence in keeping that promise. My whole family was exasperated at me, but they weren’t as mad as they were before, so I changed the topic. 

“Hey, Tuuli. If you have tomorrow off, do you want to go shopping with me? I’m going to buy clothes for my attendants tomorrow, like, rich clothes for people in the north of the city, so maybe it’ll be good for your studies.” Not to mention that Benno would be the one picking out clothes. He was the owner of a store dealing with clothes for nobles. No doubt Tuuli would learn a lot from him. 

“We have a lot of things to do tomorrow, so you’ll have to follow us around other places too, but if you’re okay with that...” 

“Okay, sounds fun!” said Tuuli with a wide smile. The sight of her usual bright smile made me sigh in relief. Whew... Looks like she’s not mad anymore. 

“Tuuli? What, you’re not gonna go to the forest with us?” As Tuuli, Lutz, and I held hands on our way to the main street past the well, we heard a sharp voice calling out to us from behind. 

“Oh, Ralph.” 

We turned around and saw that Lutz’s older brother Ralph had run after us, a basket on his back. He was dressed to go to the forest and he was grimacing a bit as he looked at us — Lutz and I in our apprentice uniforms and Tuuli in her cleanest clothes. 

“Where are you going?” 

“I’m gonna go learn about clothes. You’re going to the forest, right?” Tuuli often went to the forest on her days off so she could meet her friends and chat, but unlike before, she didn’t absolutely have to go to the forest to keep the family budget afloat. Our financial situation was a lot better thanks to me and her having jobs, not to mention me not getting sick as often as before. 

In contrast, Lutz’s family consisted of four growing boys that ate up food and therefore money. Their finances were still tight even with all of their kids working. Apprentices weren’t paid much, so if they weren’t careful about going to the forest regularly, it was possible they might end up with less food than before. It was natural, then, that going to the forest on their days off was a regular thing for them, and that Lutz’s family did not think highly of him going to the store on his day off. Lutz had mentioned that they would rather him get stuff directly from the forest than give them more apprentice money. 

On the way to the main street, Tuuli walked next to Ralph while Lutz walked a little behind them, looking uncomfortable. I walked while holding hands with Lutz and saw him sigh at Ralph, who was occasionally glancing back at him. 

“Bye, Ralph. Good luck in the forest!” 

“Yeah.” Once reaching the main street, Ralph headed to the south while we headed to the north. Tuuli enthusiastically waved Ralph goodbye while taking hold of my other hand. 

We then headed north along the main street. Tuuli was so excited to learn about clothes that she spent the whole time talking about them. Lutz used the opportunity to practice being a good listener like Mark had taught him. 

I suddenly felt eyes on my back and turned around to see Ralph where we had left him, standing in place and looking at us like he had something to say. The second we made eye contact, he hurriedly turned around and raced south, as if he had been caught in the middle of doing something bad. The distance growing between us as he ran felt symbolic for the growing emotional distance between Lutz and his brothers, a thought which made me lower my eyes sadly. 

When we arrived at the Gilberta Company, we found Benno working and already prepared to leave at any moment. He was giving instructions to Mark and several other employees. 

“You’re with Tuuli today? Alright. Corinna was talking about how you’ll be a real good seamstress when you grow up, Tuuli,” Benno complimented Tuuli with a friendly smile. 

“Really?! That’s so nice!” 

We were going out with Benno, not Mark like usual. It seemed he needed to personally check the construction site for the Italian restaurant to make sure it was being built according to his specifications, without any of the materials being switched out for cheaper ones or anything of the sort. 

“So the restaurant’s already being built, then?” 

“Yup, I found a good place sooner than I expected. They’re in the middle of expanding the kitchen right now.” 

Benno had bought an old restaurant from the Eatery Guild, located in the north of the city. It was in the middle of being renovated. Once the oven was put into the expanded kitchen, all the wood flooring would be replaced and the interior decoration would be swapped out with more expensive furnishings fit for a restaurant selling food good enough for nobles. The idea was to be a high-class eatery where somewhat wealthy people could feel like they were nobles. 

“Once the restaurant’s finished, I’ll invite several merchants that do business with nobles and see what they think of the place.” 

“Oh, you’re learning from the guildmas—” 

“No! You’re the one who thought up the idea for that taste-testing event, I didn’t learn anything from the guildmaster.” 

“...Oh, okay.” 

As far as I could tell, there was no issue with the lumber, bricks, or iron, nor was there an issue with the construction itself. The oven wasn’t installed yet, but once it was, Benno would hire a chef and train them prior to the store’s opening. 

“I’m glad things are going well,” I said after Benno carried me around within the under-construction building, though that just made him frown. He whispered in a quiet voice only I could hear. 

“Nah, there’s a mountain of problems here.” 

“Wha?” 

“...Nothing you should know about. C’mon, we’re leaving,” he said, calling out to Lutz and Tuuli. We started walking toward a secondhand clothing store with deep connections to the Gilberta Company. Tuuli came skipping toward us, her braid bouncing as she looked back at the store. 

“What kind of food do nobles eat? I really want to try noble food at least once!” Lutz and Tuuli were walking behind Benno, so I looked over his shoulder at them while thinking about recipes. 

“Mmm, for this restaurant food at least, about thirty percent of it is stuff we’ve eaten at home. Fifty percent of it is new stuff and sweets that need an oven. The last twenty percent is kind of like Leise’s modified recipes, kinda.” 

Tuuli made a weird face. “...Wait, is that restaurant going to serve your weird food, Myne?” 

“Tuuli, don’t call my food weird! You always love eating it!” I slumped over, depressed that my sister would call my food weird despite loving it, and Tuuli hurriedly corrected herself. 

“It tastes good! It tastes super good. I just think the chef will be really surprised when he makes one of your recipes for the first time. I’m used to them already, though.” 

“Anything’s fine as long as it tastes good, right? Right?” Lutz shrugged and agreed, but he didn’t say my food wasn’t weird. I guess it was hard to argue when my cooking methods were indeed abnormal here. 

“...What, you two have eaten Myne’s cooking before?” Since the restaurant was under construction and he hadn’t hired a chef yet, Benno was the only one among us who hadn’t eaten my cooking yet. 

Lutz and Tuuli looked at each other with conflicted expressions. 

“Mmm, we use Myne’s recipes, but... You know what I mean, Lutz?” 

“Yeah, we have to make it ourselves. Doesn’t really feel like we’re eating Myne’s cooking.” 

...Okay, that’s fair. Everyone else was growing steadily while I stayed the same, so there was an enormous difference in size and strength between us. From the perspective of someone on Earth, it would be like the difference between a preschooler and an elementary schooler, or even a middle schooler. There was that much of a difference between our heights, how far we could reach, how strong we were, and so on. There was a world of difference in our physical abilities, no matter the situation. I remained unable to do basically anything, while they became increasingly capable of doing things without the help of any parents. 

“I wanna grow, too...” My sad murmur reached the ears of only Benno, thanks to him carrying me. But I hadn’t intended to speak aloud, so I let out a choke of surprise when he patted my back. 

My lack of growth was due to my Devouring, and there was nothing anyone could do about it. If Tuuli or Lutz heard my complaining, they would definitely just get sad. I peered at them to make sure they hadn’t heard me and let out a sigh of relief after seeing them talking about which of my recipes was their favorite. 

Both the restaurant and the secondhand store were in the north of town, so it didn’t take long to reach our destination. As expected, the northern secondhand store was completely different from the one my family generally went to. The place I was used to organized clothes roughly by size via large baskets with mountains of dirty gray and brown clothes heaped within. This store, likely due to the quality of the colorful clothes, hung everything but underwear on cross-shaped hangers. Since everything had originally been made to order, what you saw was what you got. It resembled the kind of small clothing store you might find in a smallish Japanese town, where there were no variations in size or color for particular outfits — there was just the one outfit of each type, with the one size and color scheme. 

As soon as we entered the store, a woman who seemed to be the owner of the store opened her eyes wide and came rushing over. She had tightly bound dark-brown hair and both her eyes with sparkling with curiosity. 

“Goodness, Benno. What brings you here? When did you have so many children?” 

“What are you prattling on about?” 

“Be a dear and play along, Benno. You just came into my store with a pack of children following you along. You can bet I will blow this as far out of proportion as I can to have some fun gossiping with the girls.” 

“Quit it, you’re not funny.” 

We watched the two of them — obviously close friends — duel with words, our eyes wide, until soon enough Benno interrupted the woman and stated his business. 

“I’m here to buy some clothes for them. While we’re at it, my apprentice there can learn a bit about how clothes work.” 

“Your apprentice? Wait, why are you going to make Lutz learn too?” 

“Come on, Myne. An apprentice at my store’s gotta know how to pick out good clothing. That’s not even a question,” said Benno, making Lutz flinch. He and Tuuli, having grown up in an environment where the strength of clothes mattered more than anything else, had never developed a knack for identifying quality clothes. Benno intended to fix that. 

Benno went on, “Myne, the clothes around here should be good enough for your attendants. Their designs are on the newer side and their short sleeves should be good for work.” 

“Out of the clothes in this section, I think that dark green one or the brown one would look best on him. What do you think? He’s a serious, tightly wound kind of person, so I think his clothes should match the color of his eyes and hair.” 

“...Yeah, sounds good to me. Can’t say anything about the other two though, I haven’t seen them. You should be fine if you follow the same kind of thought process. Just pick whatever you want.” 

“Okaaay.” Benno set me down, so I started looking through the child-sized clothes for outfits that would look good on Gil or Delia. He said I could pick whatever I wanted, but since there were only so many outfits of the same size, my options were fairly limited. I naturally chose my picks pretty fast. All that was left was comparing clothes with Lutz and making sure the new clothes were the right size. 

...Haaah. I reaaally wish there were more clothes here. My dreams of spending a fun day clothes shopping was ruined, and my enthusiasm plummeted immediately. Only now did I know what excess I had lived in back on Earth. Clothes had surrounded me at every turn. I had little interest in fashion at the time, but the moment clothes vanished, I found myself wanting them. How annoying. 

“Lutz, Lutz, do you have a second?” 

“What’s up, Myne?” 

“Gil is like, the exact same height as you, so I want to see if this shirt will fit on you.” I spread out the three outfits and held them up against Lutz. They all seemed to be the right size. With that done, I held out one of the outfits to Lutz. 

“Out of all these clothes, I think this one looks the best on you, Lutz. This one’s probably the best for Gil, maybe...” As I compared Gil’s potential clothes, Benno let out a sigh. 

“Myne, where’d you learn to pick out clothes?” 

“Where...? Um, I’ve never studied clothes anywhere.” I had read several books about color coordination and all sorts of magazines about attire, but I never studied any of it, so to speak. At most, the topic of clothes came up at school sometimes. 

“Guess it’s a waste of time to question anything about you, huh?” 

“Uh huh. It’ll be better for everyone if you just don’t think about it. Lutz, let’s try this one out next.” I held up a dress I was getting for Delia, and Lutz shook his head hard. He crossed his arms in an X shape to ward off the cute red dress. 

“Ask Tuuli for that, come on! I don’t wanna.” 

“But Tuuli is still bigger than you. Delia is smaller. It has to be you.” Lutz didn’t like it, but I held Delia’s clothes against his back to check them. But like I said, Tuuli and I weren’t Delia’s size. It had to be him, there was no helping it. 

“Alright, Lutz. Start by looking for colors that’ll look good on Myne. Look at that green one and that green one. They’re both green, but not the same kind of green. Which would look better on Myne?” Just like I had been putting clothes against him, Lutz started putting clothes against me. Both he and Tuuli looked between the clothes and me with serious expressions, then pointed firmly at the same outfit. 

“This one!” 

“Right. That one looks better with Myne’s skin. But what about these two?” Benno’s lecture on primary colors, secondary colors, complementary colors, analogous colors, saturation, and so on began as he pressed clothes against me to serve as examples. I found it fascinating that his sum of knowledge, accumulated through years of experience, could quite possibly be compiled into a book pretty similar to the color coordination book I had read in the past. I contemplated the subject in depth as outfit after outfit was pushed against me. 

“Once you’ve figured out what colors will look good on the customer, you start working on the design. Clothes, more than anything else, are a sign of one’s status and position. Nothing but trouble will come from wearing the clothes of a social class higher than yours. The closest example for you two will be Myne’s baptism outfit.” 

“Aww...” 

“This time, we’re picking clothes that Myne will wear when going in and out of the temple. Her sleeves will be important, then, as someone who has attendants.” That reminded me, Benno wore an outfit with exceptionally large sleeves when he went to the temple. The sleeves were so long they looked like they would get in the way no matter what he was doing. 

“Large sleeves indicate that attendants will do all the work for you, such that you won’t need to worry about your clothes getting dirty or in the way. Those actually doing the work will need tighter sleeves.” 

“Wait, but weren’t Mr. Mark’s sleeves really long too? They weren’t half as long as yours, but still.” 

“That was a special outfit for meeting with a noble. We knew their attendants would handle the work and Mark wouldn’t be doing much. On the other hand, if a noble came to visit me, Mark would need to cater to their needs in an outfit with short sleeves. Not that a noble would come directly to our store,” explained Benno. 

I nodded absentmindedly, not extremely interested, but Tuuli and Lutz were listening with sparkling eyes. 

“Alright. With all that in mind, go pick an outfit for Myne. Who’s gonna pick the better outfit, Lutz or Tuuli?” The two of them glared at each other, then walked through the store, picking out clothes. Benno cackled in amusement at them. “Good thinking Myne, bringing Tuuli along. People grow a lot faster if they’ve got someone to compete with.” 

“Tuuli’s learning a lot from this too, so it’s fine with me.” As I watched the two of them fervently trying to pick out the best clothes and master what they had been taught, I tried asking Benno more about noble society, but he just shook his head. 

“You and I are in different situations. All I know is from the perspective of a merchant doing business with merchants. You need to know how nobles act among nobles, and Fran’s the best person to ask about that. Give precise questions about anything that comes to mind, just like Lutz is. If you don’t say anything, nobody will know that you aren’t understanding something,” said Benno. I nodded in return, just as the two rivals came rushing this way with clothes in hand. 

“Which do you like more, Myne?” Tuuli asked. 

“Bwuh...? Ummm...” Frightened by how Lutz and Tuuli were ganging up on me, I nervously looked at the clothes they had picked out. Tuuli had chosen a cute pink dress, whereas Lutz had picked a nice blue dress. 

“Tuuli’s outfit is more cute and would be better for walking outside, but Lutz’s outfit is more formal and would be better for going inside the temple. This is a hard choice.” 

“Try wearing them,” suggested Benno, so I took the outfits to a changing room with the store’s owner. She first changed me into Tuuli’s outfit, then stood me in front of a well-polished mirror-shaped piece of metal. 

“...Wooow.” It was the first time I saw my own face. My skin was less “delicate white akin to the purest eggs” and more kinda gross with a sickly looking pallor. My straight, dark-blue hair stood out against my skin and made its paleness stick out more, though probably in a good way. My round yellow eyes were visible in the mirror like chunks of gold, and they were opened wide in surprise. My shapely nose and lips resembled Mom’s, but aside from the shape of my eyes, I didn’t resemble Tuuli very much. 

If one looked at me with the generosity given to children, then from an Earth perspective, I was without complaint a cute little girl. But I wasn’t sure how those of this world would judge my appearance. Lutz called me cute, so I could imagine that our worlds shared a general sense of bodily aesthetics. Feeling a bit conflicted, I left the room to show off the outfit. 

“Wow! Myne, you’re so cute! It looks perfect on you.” Tuuli lavished me with praise as I stood there in the outfit she picked out, but Lutz didn’t seem so convinced. Though judging by the frustrated expression on his face, the outfit suited me enough that it was difficult for him to criticize it much. Benno waved his hand with an unimpressed smile, as if to tell me to go get changed into the other one. 

“I knew it, this one looks way better on you!” When I returned wearing Lutz’s outfit, he immediately complimented me with a bright smile on his face. Tuuli pursed her lips and said her outfit looked better on me, which started an argument between them. 

I looked to Benno for help as the argument escalated, only to see him looking around the store while stroking his chin. “You saw yourself in the mirror, right? Which clothes here do you think suit you best?” 

“Well... Considering what I’ll need them for, maybe these three?” I first picked out a white blouse. It had long sleeves, plus lace decorations along the sleeves and by the neck. It seemed like the best thing here for wearing around nobles. I then picked out a blue skirt that would be perfect for when I went to the temple. It had flower embroidering, but that would be hidden once I put on my shrine maiden robes. Finally, I picked out a red bodice-like vest with lace and flower embroidering. 

“With these three forming an outfit, I can replace or swap out individual parts to change how the outfit feels as a whole. I think I can wear these along with my apprentice uniform to maximize my options. How does that sound?” I looked up and saw Benno smirking while looking at Lutz and Tuuli. They were both stunned, looking at the clothes I had picked out with shocked expressions. 

“Lutz. Tuuli. There are more than just dresses here. You have to abandon the idea that girls only wear dresses.” In general, poor girls only ever wore dresses. It would take extra cloth to make a blouse and a skirt instead of just a single dress. Although sometimes girls would wear layers to fight off the cold, they never wore pants for fashion or anything like that. They didn’t have blouses with lace on the sleeves or removable collars. They just didn’t exist. 

“Study hard before we come here again.” The two of them had been slumped over sadly, but after hearing that, they lifted their heads up and for some reason looked at me, their eyes burning with the determination and enthusiasm of a newly born rivalry.