'Satsuki, you're in the right place. Why don't you come to my room?'

'Huh, ......?

It was late afternoon the next day after I returned from my quest to kill the goblins.

When I went downstairs from my room to the dining room to see if anyone was there, I found Satsuki carefully eating an early afternoon sweet.

I was just bringing a piece of pancake with fruit and honey to my mouth with my fork, when the girl looked at me with a squirming mouth.

'Oh, you can wait until after the meal. I'm asking you out on a date, come with me.'

That's all I said, and I sat down next to Satsuki at the counter eating a pancake.
I gave the master a copper coin and ordered a glass of milk.

'Nngu, gunkun. What? What did you say?

'I said, "I'm asking you on a date, please go out with me."'

'What? ......What? What does that mean, ......?

'By the way, that was a joke.

Satsuki's shoulders slumped.

'Oh, I see. ...... So this is what Mi was talking about. ......'

'But I wasn't lying when I asked you to go out with me. Satsuki, I have a favor to ask you.'

'Yes, ......, okay, whatever, I'll go out with you.'

Satsuki became depressed at once.

So I finished my milk and took Satsuki, who had finished her pancakes, upstairs to my room in the inn.

When we came to the door, Satsuki blushed and squirmed.

'Oh, you know, Will. Do you know what it means for a man to invite a woman to his room?

'......? Do you think I'm the kind of person who would bring a woman into my room in the middle of the day to engage in questionable behavior in an inn where I'm not allowed to have an affair? If that's the case, then you have a very serious misunderstanding of my humanity, and I'd like to request a discussion to clear up that misunderstanding.

'Oh, yes, I'm sorry. I was wrong.'

Satsuki apologized with a straight face.
She seems to have understood, so that's good.

With that, I quickly opened the door to the room.
Satsuki, led by me, tries to enter the room.

'Excuse me for disturbing you...' What the hell is this?

Satsuki shouted at the entrance of the room.
She was stunned to see the chaos inside the room.

Inside the room, the cloths I had made with the Cloth Form magic were piled up in a heap.
Not only was there nowhere to step, but they were piled high even on the bed, and it was not a place where a person could enter.

'Hmm. Satsuki, here's what I want you to do.

'What's with all this cloth, where did it come from? I mean, what are you going to do with it?

'I made it with magic. I want you to carry this to the sewer. I'll pay for the labor. I can't do it alone.'

'Oh, ......, no, that's fine. ......'

So Satsuki and I carried the pile of cloth on our backs from the Sleeping Deer Pavilion to the sewing shop on the Artisan Street in town.

One piece of cloth is large enough to make a jacket or a pair of pants, and there are about a hundred of them in total.
Carrying them all at once was more difficult than carrying a full plate armor like that worn by a high class knight, because it weighed more than the armor and was bulkier than the weight.

I carried it to the warehouse of the sewing craftsman's workshop and received four gold coins as compensation.
As I had just walked in, I was a bit overcharged, but I guess that's about right.

He also handed three silver coins to Satsuki for her help in carrying the items.

'What, that's so good? I only carried a few things.

'Yes, I added some color to it because I asked for extra help. Some of you carried more than I did.'

Satsuki seemed to be skilled at manipulating auras, and by enhancing her physical abilities, she was able to carry a much larger amount of cloth than I could as a man.
I've heard that the ability to manipulate auras is an essential skill for upper class warriors, and Satsuki already possesses that skill.

'Heh, lucky me. ...... But can't a sorcerer make cloth like that? The fact that the craftsman bought it means that it won't disappear after a while. Magicians are amazing, aren't they?

'Yeah, it's a cloth woven with threads of mana, but once it's materialized, it's fixed as an entity and can't be erased even with a magic dispel spell. Don't you know about the Garment Revolution that took place one hundred and twenty years ago?

'Twelve hundred and twenty years ago? How could I possibly know that? I'm only 16. Even my great-grandmother wasn't born that way.

I see.
Is that how people who don't have the habit of reading books perceive things?

'About 120 years ago, an adventurer discovered a cloth-forming spellbook in ancient ruins, which revolutionized the culture of human clothing. Until then, all cloth was woven by hand, and a single garment could only be obtained by shelling out dozens of gold coins. It was the discovery of this spell that made it possible to obtain a minimal amount of clothing for a few silver coins, as it is now.

In the case of hand-woven cloth, there is the problem of the cost of materials, but above all, the labor cost of making the cloth must be added to the price of the product.

For example, in order for a traditional weaver to earn a daily wage of two gold coins, a piece of cloth woven in ten days must be bought by a sewing craftsman for at least twenty gold coins plus the cost of materials.
Add to that the labor costs of the craftsmen in the downstream processes and those of the merchants in charge of distribution, and the final selling price of the garment will inevitably be as high as 50 gold coins.

However, the magic of cross-formation changed this situation.
A sorcerer can produce dozens to a hundred pieces of cloth in a day with this spell.

At present, the daily wage of a magician who can use cross-form is usually two to five gold coins, but in order to earn this daily wage, he can sell each piece of cloth he makes for about five copper coins.
This made it possible for him to reduce the final selling price of his clothes significantly.

'...... Wow. I don't know what it is, but it's amazing, isn't it?

'Yeah, it's a spell with a very high social value. It's also the kimono Satsuki is wearing. ...... Hmm? Wait, is that a natural, hand-woven kimono that Satsuki is wearing?

Basically, most of the clothes on the market today are made from cloth made by sorcerers in cross-form.

However, I had seen and touched a natural cotton fabric once, and the one Satsuki was wearing had an appearance reminiscent of the natural one I had seen at that time.

'Oh, I don't know, I don't know. I was told never to lose it, just like a sword.'

'Hm, ......, I'm sorry.'

I put my nose close to Satsuki's clothes and sniffed them.
As a result, I was convinced that it was the natural smell I had smelled before.

'Hey, ......, what are you doing ......'.

When I looked at her, Satsuki's face turned red, as if she thought she had smelled my body odor.

'Oh, no, it's nothing personal. It seems to be a natural product after all. It's a very expensive item. You'd better take good care of it.



'Shut up! Oh God, which way is it! Will, you idiot!'

Satsuki was very angry about something.
But she quickly pondered as if she had come up with something, and then asked me a question.

'...... Huh? But then again, Will, you don't have to be an adventurer, a dangerous and unprofitable job, to make a good living, right? Why are you being an adventurer?

It was a sharp question that got to the heart of the matter.
I chose my words carefully and explained my thoughts to Satsuki.

'Hmm ......, I don't mean to deny such a way of life, but I personally didn't find the life of making and selling cloth every day very appealing.

'Ah, life... ....... You're always thinking about difficult things, aren't you?

I didn't mean to say anything difficult, but that's what I concluded.
I thought that she should think about something more difficult.