The next morning Ariel was doing his usual training routine at the usual place in the courtyard. He has been trying out the “Nine Winter Shade Meditation” method he found as well as trying to recreate the spells to fit him.

The training method he found was truly amazing, it seemed to be concentrated on refining Mana through nine different and peculier methods, due to this his Mana absorption increased several time and his Mana is also getting refined into being much more pure and increasingly more powerful. However, he feels like there is something missing to this meditation technique that is crucial to the improvement of his power, but no matter for how long he thought, he couldn’t put a finger on it.

Apart from that, he still hasn’t had any luck with recreating the new spell, which disappointed him. Although this thought, would probably make the senior mages drop dead, because of this ridiculous wish, especially when there are a lot of people who even after countless years are unable to use magic with out chanting.

As he was training and trying to comprehend his new skills he suddenly heard very light footsteps coming towards him, in a quick fashion. Opening up his eyes, he saw the two girls he was quite well acquainted to, rushing towards him.

Of course these two were Sarah and Erna, but before Ariel could greet and ask them what’s the rush, the beautiful blue haired girl started speaking. “Ariel, we have been looking for you wanting to invite you to go visit the city.”

He was a bit stunned by the proposal coming out of no where, but it made him remember that he wanted to visit it before. Because of this he didn’t really have a problem with it, so he nodded absentmindedly. To his acceptance, the previous, kind of gloomy Erna, broke out into a smile, before shouting. “Great!”

They were obviously exited to go to the city with him, but Ariel decided to as about the Brendon, who seemed to be missing here. “Where is Brendon, will he not be going?” Hearing him, the girls didn’t seem to care much, as Sarah casually responded. “My brother went to visit father and also to take care of some minor stuff, so he won’t be at the Academy until Monday.”

Ariel felt slightly surprised, but he soon remembered that it was quite common for him. Even in the past years he spent with Brendon, he would constantly return to visit his father, even when his sister Sarah would stay back to stay for a while longer with Ariel.

He quickly snapped out of his though process, as he felt like the two girls were growing a bit impatient. He let out a sigh before speaking. “I will go back to my room to get ready a little. Let’s meet up at the gate.” The two nodded and seemed to have gone to do the same.

Back in his room, he tidied up his appearance and bedroom, took some money, and did all of the other little necessities, just in case.

When he reached the gate, the sun was already a bit higher in the sky. Ariel had to wait for quite some time, after arriving himself. As he saw them finally coming, he felt shock, since they were beautifully dressed up, not in an overbearing way, but a subtle one, making their natural beauty stand out even more, without looking strange. Although Ariel felt disturbed, since he started to feel like he was going on a double date.

Seeing his gaze, Sarah turned very red, while Erna felt satisfaction for being able to make the cold him, stare at her like this.

They stood there for a while checking each other out, before Sarah finally spoke after getting back her composure. “Do you think we look good?” At her words Ariel only nodded, which made the smiles of the two, even brighter, as Erna started speaking. “We should be going now. We don’t want to return too late

Agreeing to her statement, Ariel tried to ignore his new found appreciation for their beauty, and just followed the girls towards the city, since he himself has zero experience visiting it and didn’t know the way, unlike these two.

As they started going down the main street, Sarah asked. “Where would you like to go, Ariel? There are a lot of interesting places all around the city, but we will only be able to do some shopping today. Maybe when the holidays start, we will be able to make a longer visit.” He just shrugged his shoulders before replying. “I have never been here and don’t know anything about this city, so anywhere you think is good, I’m fine with it.” Sarah nodded and replied with a smile. “Okay, then let’s go to the main market first, there is always some interesting stuff there.”

As they started heading to the main market, Ariel took his time to observe the surroundings. The streets were even more active than when he was passing by here towards The Academy, there were so many people now that it was a bit ridiculous, as you could see every one of them scurrying to do something and the guards trying to keep everything in order.

The outlay of the city itself was quite satisfying for him. Ariel could appreciate the good planning as well as the simple, yet excellent architecture that perfectly fit in with the medieval period. There were also many workshops and statues on the way, that attracted his attention in the same way.

While he was evaluating the look of the city, they finally reached the main market. His first impression was that there seemed to actually be several times more people than any other place in the city. There were countless shouts from people advertising their goods and voices that were bargaining with one another, making out a very lively picture.

Erna, who was leading the way, suddenly started commenting on the market. “There are ridiculous amount of items you can find here, most of it is garbage, but if you get lucky you might find a treasure here.” Sarah only nodded in understanding, while Ariel got the impression that these two are very familiar with such places, and it might even be their hobby to look for interesting stuff.

They spent a lot of time browsing the stalls and looking at all kind of items. Some of it was strange, some unique, others expensive looking, but all of it was quite interesting. After several hours of window shopping, they started planning to head out to visit some city, clothe stores. However, the girls thought that it would be a shame coming here and not buying anything, so soon Sarah gave a suggestion. “Let’s buy each other an accessory, it doesn’t have to be expensive just something to remember. Like this we will at least, get something out of it”

Erna seemed to agree to her statement and spoke her own opinion. “I think we should have Ariel buy us something, and we could buy something for him. Since he is a boy, I am interested to see what he picks.” Both of them looked towards Ariel with high expectations in their eyes, making Ariel feel helpless, but unable to disagree.

They didn’t look for a long time and found a popular accessory stall, selling quality jewellery. Since he was a man, he decided to be the first one to buy the girls, something. He looked at the merchandise and started carefully pick the potential gifts. He was a bit scared of bringing upon, himself their wrath by picking something trashy, so he put a lot of thought in it.

Soon he decided on what to buy, which he though were very fitting for each of them. For Sarah he picked blue earrings in the shape of tear drops, the material they were made from seemed to be quite rare and advertising, and although it didn’t look too extravagant, the simple aspect of them would help bring out the contrast with her beautiful hair and eyes.

The jewellery he picked for Erna was a silver hairpin in the shape of a phoenix. It would look amazing on her as it seemed to be made by a master craftsman, who put a lot of effort into its details, making it look as if it was alive.

These two peaces were quite expensive and the top quality products of this stall, but seeing the beautiful smiles on the girls faces when they got their gifts made it seem worth it. When they finished gloating about their new accessories, they finally started picking something for him.

Spending a lot of time, they looked through each one of the accessories one by one, looking for the best one for him. Only when looking over the last ones, did they finally they seem to have found something they were satisfied with. What they picked for him was a broach in the form of an extremely beautiful, blue, rose like flower, but what shocked him, was the close resemblance to the flowers he would make using his magic.

Curiosity got the better of him and he decided to ask a question. “Why did you pick this one out all of the rest?” Looking at him for a while, Erna finally responded. “It just has the same feeling as you. I can’t really explain it well.” Hearing her words, Ariel inwardly let out an ironic smile, now he truly thought that maybe magic affinities, people are born with, aren’t just luck. It is too much of a coincidence that he is so well fit for his own magic if it was just luck, but he didn’t have time to ponder about that now.

As they went up to the merchant to finish the transaction, the middle aged man praised their purchase. “You have great taste. All of them are first class products, although the flower is a bit weird.” His strange words ignited some interest in them, making them ask about what he meant. “What do you mean, is there a problem with it?” While scratching his head, he replied. “You see, no matter how you try to warm it, it will always stay cold, to the point that it is unnatural.” The three were surprised at this, but it only made it more unique and an even a better gift. That’s why they quickly bough it, and even got a discount on everything for buying the flower.

Like this they left the market, going onto the main road. Sarah seemed to be satisfied with the gift they picked so she urged him and Erna to start moving to their next destination, the clothe shop.

While happily walking through the streets, the two girls were excitedly talking among themselves, mostly about what kind of clothes they want to buy. It seems like this world is also changing as time passes by, before people would only wear, a couple types of clothing, but now it seem to be slowly changing into what’s it like back on earth. Everyone now is trying be fashionable and tried changing clothes as commonly as possible.

Reaching their destination, Ariel looked up at the shops signboard that read, ‘Gold tailor shop’ on it. Entering inside, he saw many different clothes fit for both men and women, letting out a sigh he understood that they will be here for a while, so he started looking for a place to sit down.

Unfortunately for him, the girls grabbed him by the shoulders while asking. “Where are you going, you are the main person who will be modelling.”

These words made Ariel fall into despair, as now he could relate to the people back on earth who were put through this all the time, by their girlfriends. However, he didn’t have anywhere to run and could only resign to his fate, while looking at the clothes the girls were picking out for him.

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If you want to read further, visit https://verathragna.wordpress.com/ I will always have an extra chapter there