Stumbling out of the cart and returning to the bustling market square, I barely managed to peek at the masked merchant before blushing and rushing back into the crowd, wanting nothing more than to just disappear from her sight for the time being.
There was a sort of shame that I had never once experienced rushing through my veins right now, and it had me feeling some sort of way as I departed from the market as quickly as I possibly could, heading into the city and just... walking wherever my legs wanted to take me.
I wasn't able to think of anything at all besides the actions that had taken part in that cart, my mind constantly drifting back to the good and the bad of it, ping ponging between them and sending me through a rollercoaster of emotions.
It felt incredible, and that wasn't something that was up for debate - the way her hands felt around me and the heat of her body against mine even through her robes and my clothes was just... addicting - while the shame that came from the way everything ended up happening was just... eating at me slightly.
It was so easy to get me to do what she wanted, and the ramifications sort of hit me in an odd way; it was also very easy to just dismiss what had happened as this being a new world with new rules, but at the same time I was still the same person who had been raised in a world where sex was more... intimate.
Where anyone who was 'free' with their sexual expression was looked at differently, where being so open to seeking pleasure was seen as unholy, loose and 'telling' of your character; that was the world where I had been from, and it wasn't something that was going to change anytime soon.
This was just something I was going to need to acclimate to, and whether or not I was able to accept how different this world was from my previous would just need that bit of time; it sounded like it was all fun and games until you were actually in that kind of world.
The worries about health and any potential stigma that might still be around someone doing these things so easily was unknown to me at this moment in time, and since this wasn't just a perfect one to one of the game - at least, I was willing to bet that it wasn't - I didn't want to take a risk and catch something.
Wouldn't that be a wonderful start to this new world... catching some kind of sexually transmitted disease right away because I was under the assumption that an Eroge would be free of that sort of thing...
Honestly though all I was doing was working myself up over pretty much nothing, so... maybe I just needed to stop thinking about these things and instead be thankful that my life hadn't ended completely over some stray bullet that was meant for some random, stupid gangster or whatever.
Taking a deep breath, balling my hands into fists and biting my cheek a little bit too hard, I refocused myself and made the effort to push my thoughts away from all of that, to stop degrading myself based on just a single thing I had done in a situation where thinking wasn't really much of an option.
The easiest way to distract myself was - of course - with the two new items I had just gotten, their effects and set listing helping my mind focus on something else as this exciting thing was revealed to me.
First there was the ring, which was practically identical to how I remembered it; the ring benefitted me immensely in the short term, and it would allow me to create a solid foundation going forwards for all things related to magic.
[Ring Of Petty Origin (Beginner Series 1/4) : Boosts any and all magical circulation within your body. Amplifies your perception to mana slightly as well as your sensitivity.]
It was another part of the Beginner Series, and just like the medallion it was technically viable forever, but it was also immediately outclassed by other items available relatively soon, though getting them would be a bit more of a challenge...
Mainly because they were rewards for certain exams and tournaments and the like that the Academy constantly sponsored to encourage growth, pushing the students to improve as best they could as quickly as they could.
As for the other item that I had been 'forced' to purchase, it at least had some benefits to it that made me less regretful about having to do this; sadly - and interestingly - enough it wasn't one of the four items apart of the Beginner Series, which was weird considering it was a set piece for the ring.
[Teardrop Of Leone (??? Set 1/?) : Greatly improves meditation effects and slightly improves mana regeneration.]
It was definitely far more useful and more of a support item used in the safety of the Academy during study, but that was still extremely useful no matter how you looked at it; considering it was also named after the surrounding landscape I was rather intrigued to research more about the woman of that name.
Such an unassuming little thing turned out to be quite the boon for me, and considering I had literally been handed it without even looking for it I was rather happy, though that did worry me a little since it meant there were more items like this just waiting to be found.
How did the merchant have it and did she know just what this was, or was she peddling something to me on the basis of it being an identical opal and nothing else..?
If that was the case then this was even more fascinating, but if it wasn't then I had no real idea where to start besides the library... though whether or not anything at all would be discovered by reading about this Leone woman was yet to be determined.