Ploy

Tame

I took Vhidle to a large building adorned with gold and gems. This building is where you can find most of the items you need. Whether it was hunting supplies or little trinkets to decorate your home.

"Lili!" A teenage voice called out from the entrance. He looked to be around fourteen or fifteen years old, sporting a casual tee and shorts. Socks reaching up to his knees and clean white shoes that looked brand new. His bangs were pushed back by a badana showing off his forehead. And his face had a broad grin showcasing his clean white teeth.

"Yrevii." I gave a small smile towards him and he nodded. "Is this the guest you were talking about?"

His face held a subtle frown while looking towards Vhilde. Well, he is my brother, so I hadn't expected him to act all friendly towards a stranger who stayed at my place when we'd only known each other for a minute or two. I would also have acted that way if he was the one who did it.

"Yeppp, this was the person I talked about earlier." I gave Vhilde a light nudge and introduced him. "You can just call him Vhilde, by the way."

My brother gave a light nod toward Vhilde and let out a light smile. "My name's Xyreve, but you can just call me Xai or Vii for short."

Once the introduction was out of the way, Yrevii then led us inside of the building. Just like the outside, the inside of the building would, in short, be described as absurd. Gold-covered decor litters every corner of the building. Gems can be seen inlaid on every wall and expensive wood that requires a person to sell himself, his family, and his every belonging was used freely without any qualms.

Although it might seem that the building is something that could have cost the entire town years of money to build. Such uses of materials are not uncommon, as every building could be seen as if competing with each other with excessiveness. Each and every person in town knows a little bit about crafts; even toddlers are able to carve delicate details into wood.

The building only had three shops on each floor. With each floor containing different types of merchandise, such as the essentials on the first floor, foods and beverages on the second, furniture on the third, so on and so forth. Each family in town has their own shop in the building for the crafts that they specialize in. An example of this would be Lilia's family, who specialized in paintings.

We first went to the fourth floor to buy Vhilde his own clothing. Choosing the shop to buy from is easy since the three families who specialize in making clothes came to an agreement that one should sell female clothing, another for male ones and the last one would be selling children's wear.

The shop we went to is called "CopyCat". The name was a bit of mockery since it was thought that every man wore the same outfit.

"Morning, please come on in." The shop owner, who is also my childhood friend, greeted us with enthusiasm. He was three years older than me and also the oldest out of our group. He wore a coffee-colored dress shirt with two buttons down, tucked into black waist-high pants. He is quite popular — and by quite, it means a lot of girls and even guys come every day to offer themselves to him.

I gave him a friendly smile and pointed at Vhilde. "Can you recommend some clothing for him?"

The shop owner gave me a curious glance, looked at Vhilde up and down, and circled around him before asking us to follow him.

He led us around the shop and helped us pick out different styles of clothing that he thought would match with Vhilde, along with me and my brother giving out our opinions as we picked.

After picking around twenty to thirty sets of clothes, we then went to one of the dressing rooms to test out what we had chosen. The room had a couch and a stage that was curtained where one could change their clothes. There were also lights that were pointing at the stage and mirrors surrounding it so that one could see how well the clothes they chose fit them.

The first set he tried on was something my brother had picked. It was an oversized light gray hoodie with triangle-shaped sleeves tucked in white tight-fitting pants with black lines at the side. He had on a pair of white sneakers. He was wearing a cap under his hood, making his already hard to see expression harder to read.

The second one is from the shop owner as well as the third. The former being: a black and white striped dress shirt, denim shorts reaching just above his knees, sports shoes with his socks just a bit above his shoes, and a cap covering his head. The latter being: a cream-colored oversized casual tee, beige cargo pants, short black gloves and a dirty white hood.

The fourth was what I picked out for him. It was: a white turtle neck and waist-high white pants under a green trench coat, a white bucket hat and white boots. I just thought that an all-white look would look cute on him, especially considering he had moonlight-colored hair.

...

After wasting a few hours picking and trying out clothes. We paid and said our thanks to the shop owner and went downstairs to buy new furniture. We didn't have to worry about carrying what we had just bought, since the building has a delivery service.

We went inside a shop named "Artisan's Workbench". It was the shop that my family had been patronising for years and also the shop of my great-grandmother's family.

"Lili, Vii. Welcome, welcome!" An elderly man greeted us and gave me a quick hug. The elderly, although quite close to death, still looks as vigorous as ever. As expected of a man who death couldn't take away.

He, just like the previous shop owner, gave me a curious glance. He then shook his head and took me and Yrevii by the hand and led us to the side showcasing a bunch of furniture, which I assume is what I had asked him to prepare for me.

"It's all here. You can check it to see if it still needs a couple of modifications. I'll be right there if you need me."

He finished off his speech with his fingers pointing at the left side of the shop where one could see machines for woodworking.

"Thanks granduncle." I gave him a light smile as he waved while he swagged toward where he pointed.

I could feel Vhilde's eyes looking back and forth towards me and my granduncle. He seemed awfully tamed today; well, not really today, more like while we are here in the building. Did he get possessed or something?

"You can do whatever you want, I'll just check how the furnitures are."

I waved them off and went to check on the furniture. I actually had them made a few years back when I just moved out of my family's house but then got too lazy and forgot about it afterwards.

Half an hour passed and I felt satisfied with all of the furniture I have had made. The sofa is neither too short nor too tall, the table was just about the right height, the bookshelves didn't look too shabby, and most of them actually came out just like I had designed.

I went to where my granduncle told me he would be and saw the three guys grouped up seemingly focused on talking about something. I felt a bit curious, so I silently crept up towards them and overheard them saying my name.

"What are you guys talking about?"

I could see them slightly freeze up before they started to ask me how I thought the furniture was. Suspicious behavior but not something that I felt was a problem.

"It was as I had designed, there isn't a need for revision so I expect it to be delivered tomorrow at latest."

"Good, good. You can just mail me if you need anything else."

I nodded and thanked him for the furniture. I had already paid for it years before, so there wasn't a need to pay him anymore. He then pulled me aside and talked to me for a few minutes before leading us out of the shop.

Before going to the last shop, I pulled them to a restaurant on the second floor. It was the restaurant my friends and I frequented while we were still deep into our school work. It was a mixture of casual and formal dining, so it was a popular stop for people who wanted to eat "proper" food while studying.

I led them to the spot where my friends and I usually sat and gestured for the waiter to come over.

It was still its usual theme of homeliness, with a lot of plants decorating the place as well as its signature open terraces and windows. The lighting is easy for the eyes, catered to students and workers who needed good lighting to view their books and documents. The seats are comfortable and soft. And the air smelled good with a few hints of the scent one would get when someone is cooking.

I gave the menu to Vhilde for him to pick what he'd like to eat. He eyed me and pushed the menu back to me and uttered it in a low voice.

"The same as yours." He crossed his arms and leaned his head against the wall.

The waiter quickly came towards us and asked what we would like to eat. His hands were holding a pen and notepad, ready to write it down.

"Just the usual for me," I gave him a light smile and continued. "Make it two."

"I'll have the usual too!"

The waiter nodded and uttered, "Five minutes."

He then walked towards the kitchen to give our orders to the chiefs.

"Wanna talk?" I started. "You guys seemed to have talked about something earlier, care to share?"

I leaned back on the couch and stared at them. Yrevii was staring at the ceiling, seemingly pondering about something, while Vhilde looked like he was having a nap. I shook my head at them and stared out of the window.

Outside, you can see buildings of different heights and multiple-colored roofs with potted plants and vines thriving under the sun. The pots of the plants have been custom made to fit the shape of the roof so it wouldn't easily fall off. Everyone made sure that plants and trees could be seen when one looked at every corner of the town.

The waiter quickly brought our food to us. My usual meal consisted of: a small baked potato with four different types of cheese, a spoonful of butter, and bits of bacon, four pieces of chicken wings (without bones), three pieces of garlic bread with cream cheese (as a side), and a cup of coffee. My brother's usual meal, on the other hand, consisted of: three slices of chicken breasts, a bowl of rice, and a vegetable shake. How does he even eat that?

I first started off with eating a single wing, then I proceeded to spread a bit of the baked potato and cream cheese on the garlic bread and finished it off by placing a piece of chicken wings on top. After doing that to the other two, I proceeded to eat them one by one, drinking a bit of coffee at every bite.

I could see in the corner of my eye that Vhilde was copying exactly what I was doing, earnestly too. I held on to my chuckle and simply minded my own business. So he could be cute sometimes too.

After finishing our meal, we headed to our last stop for the day.

I wanted to quickly finish this up and take a nap, so I just told them what we needed to buy and said my goodbye before speedily searching for the items.

After finding the fourth item on the list, I couldn't take it anymore, so I turned towards the stalker and asked him, "You're not going to find some of the items yourself?"

"Don't wanna."

"Don't be a bother and just sit somewhere." I gave him an annoyed glance and went on to search for the other items on the list.

...

"This too." He pointed to the mug that had half a heart on it.

Seriously, can't this guy just find the items on his own? I took the item and placed it in the basket and asked, "Anything else?"

He shook his head and said, "Vii already told me to tell you to pay for the items."

"Already?" I asked in disbelief.

He nodded at me and gave me a light nudge, "Quick, I wanna go back to sleep."

I led him to the counter to pay for the items. After waiting for a minute or two for our turn, the clerk quickly scanned my items and I paid after seeing the number he wrote.

I quickly led Vhilde outside the shop and saw my brother waiting for us with what seemed like a protein shake in his hands. I raised my eyebrows and stated, "That was quick."

He gave a chuckle and shrugged. "It wasn't quick, you were just too slow."

"Heh." I let out a snort and simply walked away from them. I can't be bothered to argue with him when I can just quickly get over this and go back to sleep.

Once we were at the front of the tunnel, I thanked Yrevii for his help and took the bags that he carried. It's a big pity that the person who these items would belong to didn't even lend a hand to a struggling, polite and cute host.

I placed the bags on the floor and made a quick heart shape with my hands, "Thank you ~When would my guest learn about helping others out?

Once we were in front of the door, I placed what I was carrying on the floor and the door with my keys. Home, at last! I changed the shoes I was wearing for my house slippers and picked up what I was carrying inside.

I didn't bother to glance or talk to Vhilde and just made my way upstairs to give myself a refreshing break. I first went to my room to grab some clothes, then made my way to the bathroom to release some stress.

After a couple of minutes, I went out of the bathroom with hair slightly wet and new clothes on my body. I opened the door to my room, went inside, closed and locked it, and threw myself onto my bed. I really deserve a good sleep.