The next day me Linia and Luna were walking through the inner streets of Mistveil. We just arrived yesterday and thus we wanted to familiarize ourselves with the surroundings. Mom gave us some pocket money so that we could buy a few treats here and there.
On a side note, I asked Mom earlier how she was earning her money and she told me that she really was living off of pension funds alone. She revealed that, yes, she was basically jobless ever since she gave birth to Luna and Linia .
I remember Mom's face as she told me, 'I'm telling you dear, countryside expenses plus city money is a deadly combination'. She admitted to living on some faraway village solely because the living costs were much lower there while the money she was receiving was based on city standards. That basically allowed her to live for two decades without working a dime.
Of course, now we were at the city, at the inner parts of the city, no less. The same things that we used to buy probably skyrocketed in price, so we had to be a little more intelligent with our finances. Mom had a lot of money saved up through the years and she wouldn't hesitate to spend it for our sake, but I wasn't the comfortable with it.
Spending money without a reliable constant source of income just felt bad. There was no other way to put it. Sure one could argue that Mom's pension payments is a source of money, but the amount wasn't meant for living in an upper-class residential area, where the prices of goods are probably inflated. That would mean that we will always be living off a deficit, where Mom's money would slowly but surely be drained.
Luckily, I had a silver lining. My two teachers, duke's daughters who couldn't run out of money to spend. Aerin said she would be my sugar mo-, 'sponsor', as long as I remained close to her. Was it bad? Ehh, Linia said that it was her family that gave Linia and Luna the scholarship in the first place. So, in a way, she was the reason that we moved to the city in the first place. If she could do that, I'm sure she wouldn't mind throwing some cash out for her lovely student.
I was soon snapped out of my reverie as Linia flicked my forehead.
"Ow" the pain was real, Linia didn't hold back at all
"You've been spacing out for a while now" she said with a frown "Come, let's walk around to see the surroundings"
"Where should we go to first?" I asked my Sister Luna who was reading a guide sort of map regarding the city
"Let's go the inner city's western quadrant first, it is the place where businesses are located so we can assume the shops there will be delightful"
We were currently at the southern quadrant, where a lot of the residents live, I nodded at my Luna's word and we took a walk first around our street before heading west.
Located at the side of the road, were well-maintained trees and hedges that added the much needed greenery in this streets of grey. And beyond those hedges were the large gardens, maintained by each residents, each with their own villas or mansions.
As we wound on our way, and the sun rose higher and higher above us, the golden rays of the sun slowly began catching up to us. Luckily the trees planted by the roadside did well to serve as our shade, protecting us from the sun's overzealous love. Here and there, we would pass by a few elves, all dressed in pleasantly old-fashioned attires, a fashion sense that the people of my previous world would associate with the late Victorian era. Do they not find it hot? To walk around at noon wearing such stuffy outfits.
Sun probably tell me who is hotter than me
Yet while I was questioning whether or not the people wearing such outfits felt snug at all, Linia and Luna were in a trance looking at them with fascination. I could see stars in their eyes as they looked at the city fashion, entranced by their unique charms.
As we got closer and closer to where the shopping district were, there were more and more of such people that could be seen walking down the streets. Fortunately, even with more people the streets never felt crowded. There were ample space within the road to prevent any people accidentally bumping into each other.
"Still, it really surpassed my expectations." I said in amazement, as I looked at the paved brick road we were walking on. We were finally at the shopping district.
I've said this many times but I was amazed because it looked like an actual city, with actual stone roads and buildings, and not some nature-loving city built on trees or forests. The streets of Mistveil were wide and elegant, busy with traffic of feet, carriages, and horses, it reminded me of the streets of Frankfurt. There was a sort of ambiance to it, one that reminded me of my hometown, a very European ambiance, so similar yet so different with its own unique flavor belonging only to that of elves.
"Stop looking around so much Lith , people will think we're country bumpkins" Luna whispered as she pinched me in the side, while she coolly looked ahead as if she was used to the surroundings. Perhaps she was more conscious of how she wanted to be perceived by others, when she saw all the people dressed in elegant clothes?
It wasn't like she wearing rags as we walked down the streets. She still looked beautiful in her simple clothing, though it wasn't as sophisticated as the people around us, But no one was staring at us like we some kids from the slums.
Not bothering to ask where she learned the term 'country bumpkin', Linia replied to her "But we are country bumpkins though?" However all that earned Linia was a stronger pinch to her sides and a glare from my loving sister Luna .
All around us were shops selling quality confections and desserts and boutiques selling stylish articles of clothing. Linia's eyes were attracted to a store that was selling the same Victorian era dresses that she was so entranced by earlier, and immediately she dragged us inside with her.
We were greeted by a beautiful elf lady who was serving as an employee. When she saw Limia dragging us , she immediately knew who was the one interested and the one buying, so she quickly started talking to Linia .
"Good Morning Miss, may I know what you're looking for" the salespersons asked
"..." Linia was stumped for an answer, she just realized she didn't know what to call those dresses and she didn't want to look like she was unfamiliar with them. She looked at the elf lady who was dressed much better than her, and Luna came besides Linia and said "we'll look around first, we'll call you if anything catches our eyes."
Both Sis left me for a while and looked around, a bit later it seemed like Luna was dissatisfied with what she saw and seeing that saleslady looking from a distance panicked, I could hear her say to the other people working to get something better.
Thing is, the clothes earlier isn't something that you can just call a 'dress' and be done with it. It was layer upon layer of clothes that gave that fancy look and appeal, and from what I could see they were only selling the coats, bodices, and skirts in this store. So of course they would look rather incomplete. As for the corsets, stockings, boots, and the like. She has to buy that somewhere else. Of course there might be a store that sells all of those, but it wasn't this one.
As Linia and Luna went through more and more clothes, I picked one and decided to ask the saleslady. "Mam, how much would it be for this coat in particular"
Seeing that I finally picked one, the saleslady happily said "That will be 300 Curonnes, cutie". Smiling I thanked the pretty lady before returning it
While I was smiling on the outside, in the inside I was shocked. This was hella expensive. We only had 50 Curonnes with us and that was enough to feed the family for seven days back in the village, yet a single top was already double that. But my two sisters were still browsing through the clothes, and the saleslady was bringing out things that only got more and more expensive.
Quietly walking up to Linia and Luna , I flicked Luna's shoulder lightly before telling her that we couldn't afford any of the things in here.
"Eh?" Luna was surprise when she learned of the prices before looking around awkwardly "Ehem I guess let's come back another day." she said as if she didn't find anything she was satisfied with before leaving the store with me and Linia Linia was little dissatisfied but when Luna told her price she was shocked that dresses cost more than there 7 days meals.
After that eye-opening experience, we didn't have much to do. The 'bountiful ' pocket money that Mom gave us earlier didn't look that much all of a sudden. The restaurants were within our price range, but we didn't want to spend money the money that was able to keep us alive for seven days before, just in a single meal.
As we expected prices in the exclusive parts of the city were much, much higher. But still it wasn't like everything was that expensive "How about we go to the city square? There should be a gate to outer city around here" I suggested and Luna and Linia agreed
After all our new home was located behind the inner wall, a lot closer to the royal palace. Once we're past it, things should be pretty normal, If the large stone gate was the dividing line between Mistveil and the outside world, then the inner wall was the line that separated the common folk from the upper crust of society.
The sun was still blazing high up in the sky, a bright reminder that it was still noon. We still had plenty of time to walk around and familiarize ourselves with the city. It was around a forty minute walk leaving the inner city and toward the city square, not counting the distance from our home to the shopping district. However we three weren't too bothered by it, because we had plenty of training and walking wasn't enough to make us sweat. Instead it was the heat, that was exhausting us.
It wasn't until we finally reached the city square that we were able to cool off.