Shopping At The Mall With A Female Knight

Once we’d reached an agreement, Kaho went home to retrieve her family’s car.

I only had a Kei Truck. Since it was a two-seater, it wasn’t suitable for three people traveling a long distance.

The Oba family’s car could accommodate six people. It made more sense to use that for our trip.

“Seram, we’re going shopping.”

I informed Seram, who had no idea what was going on, about our plans.

I felt a little bad after telling her she could take it easy, but getting her some proper clothes was an urgent priority.

“That’s fine, but what are we going to buy?”

“Mainly clothes for you, Seram. It must be inconvenient having nothing but men’s clothes to wear, right?”

“Your clothes are of very high quality, Jin-dono, so I don’t particularly mind wearing these…”

Seram answered while gently running her fingers over the fabric of her tracksuit.

Perhaps she simply wasn’t very particular about clothing, but she genuinely didn’t seem bothered by the situation.

Still, if I kept making her wear nothing but men’s clothes, who knew what the people around us would think?

“Even if you don’t mind, it’ll cause problems for me. Besides, we need to buy some daily necessities too, so we’re definitely going shopping.”

“Understood.”

Once I made it clear that the decision was final, Seram nodded in understanding.

After taking a quick shower to wash off the sweat, I headed to my bedroom and changed out of my work clothes into something more casual.

When I returned to the living room, Seram looked at me in surprise.

“What?”

“…It’s just that I’ve never seen you wearing clothes for going out before, Jin-dono, so I was surprised.”

“Ah, right. I usually wear work clothes or something comfortable around the house.”

That said, my current outfit was nothing special: a navy-blue top, chinos, and sandals. Just a comfortable summer outfit.

If I called something this simple fashionable, people who actually put effort into their appearance would probably get offended.

Next, Seram took a shower and changed back into her tracksuit. Just as she finished, we heard a car horn outside. Apparently, Kaho had arrived with her family’s car.

“All right! I’ll leave the driving to you!”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Part of me wanted to tell her to keep driving since she was already sitting in the driver’s seat, but she was doing us a favor by accompanying Seram on her shopping trip. I decided to accept my role as chauffeur without complaining.

“This vehicle is quite different from yours, Jin-dono.”

“Mine’s meant for transporting cargo, not carrying passengers.”

Although Seram seemed somewhat bewildered by the unfamiliar vehicle, she climbed into the back seat.

“Seram-san, it’s dangerous if you don’t wear your seat belt.”

“Seat belt?”

“See, you just pull this belt over here and fasten it beside your seat—wait, they’re even bigger than I thought.”

Once Kaho fastened the seat belt around Seram, it happened to emphasize her ample chest. Perhaps because she wasn’t wearing a bra, the size and shape of her breasts were even more clearly outlined.

I quickly averted my eyes from the sight reflected in the rearview mirror and gripped the steering wheel to calm myself.

“All right, let’s go.”

The engine rumbled to life, and the car slowly began moving.

Seram had ridden in the bed of my Kei Truck before, but she’d never sat in the passenger seat or back seat of a vehicle.

I’d been worried she might react strangely, but thanks to having seen me drive the Kei Truck many times and having ridden in its bed herself, she didn’t seem particularly disturbed.

However, she apparently found the passing scenery fascinating, as she stared intently out the window.

When I pressed a button beside the driver’s seat to lower the window next to Seram, she looked surprised.

“The breeze feels wonderful.”

The wind blowing into the car gently fluttered Seram’s golden, silk-like hair.

Even such a simple scene looked like something straight out of a beautiful painting or a movie.

“…Mr. Driver, keep your eyes on the road, please.”

“I know.”

Kaho caught me looking at Seram through the rearview mirror, so I firmly directed my gaze straight ahead.

Even though we were traveling along a straight road with practically nobody else around, I couldn’t afford to let my guard down.

I needed to concentrate on driving safely.

After driving for a little under an hour from home, we arrived at our destination.

It was a shopping mall.

If we were only buying a few pieces of clothing, we wouldn’t have needed to travel this far, but this time we had to put together an entire wardrobe for Seram.

When you needed to do some serious clothes shopping, you had to come all the way out here. That was simply part of living in the countryside.

“Jin-dono, there are so many people and enormous buildings everywhere! This must be a city!”

The moment she stepped out of the car, Seram exclaimed with sparkling eyes.

It was exactly the sort of reaction you’d expect from someone visiting a city for the first time. Watching her reminded me of myself as a child, which was a little embarrassing.

“No, this is the suburbs… Actually, I’d still call this the countryside. We’re definitely getting closer to the city center, though.”

“You call this the countryside when there are so many people!? Just how prosperous is this country…?”

When I stated that plainly, Seram looked utterly shaken.

The total population of her world was probably on an entirely different scale from ours.

“Seram-san, you’re reacting like this is your first time visiting a shopping mall.”

Kaho’s sharp observation made my shoulders twitch involuntarily.

“She’s probably just fascinated by the sights in Japan. Apparently, the place she used to live was pretty rural too.”

“Hmm, I see.”

“There’s probably a lot she doesn’t understand yet, so I’d appreciate it if you could look after her.”

“Sure thing.”

The fact that Kaho readily agreed showed that, despite her occasional attitude, she was actually quite considerate.

After making sure Kaho understood the situation, I leaned toward the thoroughly excited Seram and whispered to her.

“I know it’s exciting visiting somewhere new, but Kaho’s with us today. Try not to say anything strange, okay?”

“Ugh, understood. I’ll be careful.”

If Seram started talking too much about Another World in front of Kaho, she’d definitely find it suspicious.

I wanted her to avoid making those kinds of remarks as much as possible.

We walked from the parking lot into the mall, where a café stood on the left and a long row of restaurants stretched along the right.

Since we had no business with either of them for now, we ignored them and kept walking.

“Which floor has most of the women’s clothing stores?”

I knew roughly where the men’s fashion stores were because I’d shopped at some of them before, but I had no idea where to look for women’s clothing.

“They’re toward the back of the third floor. If we go there, we can visit most of the stores without having to walk around too much.”

I was about to check the mall directory, but Kaho smoothly answered as we walked.

As expected, having a woman along really helped at times like this.

Following Kaho’s advice, we decided to head up to the third floor.

We walked across the spotless white floor until we came to an escalator, which we decided to take.

“…Jin-dono, what is that moving floor?”

As we waited in line, Seram lowered her voice and asked me.

“It’s an escalator. All you have to do is stand inside the yellow markings, and it’ll carry you upstairs.”

“It’s true. People are being carried upward one after another. What a peculiar sight.”

Fortunately, there was a line, so Seram had a chance to watch how the people ahead of us used it.

Thanks to that, she was able to step onto the escalator naturally by imitating Kaho and me.

And without any trouble, we reached the second floor.

Seram had excellent coordination, so she didn’t stumble or fall when stepping off.

“See? That’s how it works.”

“Indeed. If we’d had something like this, transporting supplies would have been so much easier…”

Apparently, experiencing this modern convenience had given her quite a few things to think about.

I imagined there were large buildings in Another World too, and if everyone had to use stairs to move between floors, carrying supplies around must have been a nightmare.

Without pressing her for details, I stepped onto another escalator.