Ch.366[Episode 366] Alice in Gacha Land

Sir Dominic and Alice went out to the city.

They were shopping for furniture to decorate Lady Alice’s room.

“I’d like a princess style.”

Lady Alice said to Sir Dominic.

“You used to hate that sort of thing, has your taste changed so quickly?”

Sir Dominic thought back to when he was in Ferallant.

Back then, Lady Alice preferred extremely frugal and simple things.

The most extravagant thing she owned was the platinum armor inherited from her father, the Count of Ferallant.

“Well, it doesn’t seem right to overspend as a ruler.”

Lady Alice shrugged in response to Sir Dominic’s question.

“I actually always liked pink things. But as you know… pink is rare in Ferallant, right?”

Sir Dominic briefly recalled Ferallant.

Ferallant was a place far removed from bright colors.

A place full of dry brown and depressing gray.

Flowers did bloom occasionally, but even those were withered colors, far from cheerful and bright hues.

To obtain bright colors in Ferallant might cost as much as acquiring a decent suit of plate armor.

Above all, Ferallant was a very barren place.

A place where everyone lived in scarcity, where everyone struggled to survive.

In such a place, Lady Alice must have felt self-conscious.

Especially after seeing how her father, the Count of Ferallant, who was extravagant enough to buy platinum armor, had to pass power to the Lady.

“Well, now I don’t need to be self-conscious anymore. Who would say anything if I spend my own money? Besides, this isn’t Ferallant.”

Lady Alice hummed a tune, seemingly quite excited.

She imagined all sorts of furniture in her mind as if to compensate for the hundreds of years that had passed.

Most were luxury pieces that only a king or queen would use.

As she continued humming, Sir Dominic and Alice arrived at a furniture store.

“Here we are. I come here often.”

“Hmm.”

Alice looked around among the furniture.

She was scanning to find furniture that suited her taste.

However, Alice soon realized that the furniture she wanted wasn’t here.

“There’s no pink furniture that I want?”

Lady Alice became dejected.

“Are you telling me to buy something cheap? Like before?”

“That’s not it.”

Sir Dominic, flustered by Lady Alice’s sudden tearfulness, began explaining about the furniture.

“Gacharland’s furniture is different from Ferallant’s. Would you like to see this?”

When Sir Dominic placed his finger on a bed, a UI appeared from the furniture.

The window that appeared had separate menus for concept and color selection. Sir Dominic changed the concept to princess style and the color to pink.

Then the previously plain bed transformed into a pink bed full of frills fit for a princess.

“The furniture here changes as you wish. So you just need to buy one, and you can modify the rest when you get home.”

“My goodness.”

Lady Alice was so surprised by this phenomenon that seemed to defy natural law that she couldn’t continue speaking.

She knew Gacharland was unusual, but she didn’t realize the rules would be so different.

“This… this is truly amazing. I’m blown away.”

Alice staggered as if she’d been hit hard, though she wasn’t sure what had hit her.

That’s how strong the cultural shock she received was.

“Anyway, you can buy the furniture you need here. No need to choose between different pieces. It’s efficient.”

Sir Dominic said as he sat down on a nearby chair.

“Look around and let me know if you need anything. I’ll wait here and help carry things when we leave.”

Sir Dominic assumed that Lady Alice wouldn’t have an inventory.

There were wizards in Ferallant too, but he had never heard of them having extradimensional space.

Sir Dominic’s assumption was correct, as Lady Alice looked at him with surprised eyes.

“There will be quite a lot, can you help alone? Shouldn’t we call more people?”

“It’s fine. I have an inventory.”

Sir Dominic opened his inventory and took out a few jellies, popping them into his mouth.

While this was now natural for Sir Dominic, to Alice it looked as if he had summoned something from thin air.

“Sir Dominic, were you a magic swordsman?”

“No. I’ve never learned magic.”

Lady Alice stroked her chin thoughtfully at Sir Dominic’s words.

If it’s not magic, it seems he’s been blessed by the Stars of Gacharland.

With that thought, Lady Alice became dejected.

“To be so loved by the Stars. Will there even be a place for me?”

“What did you say?”

“No, nothing. It’s just quite fascinating.”

Alice had unconsciously let her inner thoughts slip out.

Fortunately, she hadn’t spoken loudly, but had muttered so quietly that Sir Dominic couldn’t hear her words.

Alice was relieved about this fact and began to formulate another plan in her mind.

A plan involving Sir Dominic.

“Um, do you have time after buying furniture?”

Alice said, looking at the pink princess bed that Sir Dominic had just reconfigured.

“I found Gacharland’s coffee quite delicious. You bought last time, so I thought I might treat this time.”

“Well, that sounds good.”

Sir Dominic readily accepted Alice’s proposal.

There was a justification of repaying him for the coffee he bought, so there was no particular reason to refuse.

Good.

Lady Alice breathed a sigh of relief.

If Sir Dominic had refused, she would have had to come up with another new plan.

Lady Alice suddenly thought that the battlefield might be better than the current situation.

At least on the battlefield, even if plans went awry, it was a field she knew best.

These matters of human relationships were not her area of expertise.

Neither during her time as a lord, nor during her 200 years as a Star.

…

While Sir Dominic and Alice were busy selecting furniture at the store, there was someone watching them nearby.

As everyone might have guessed, it was Unryu Hime.

“…Who is that woman?”

Unryu Hime, with her remarkably excellent stealth skills, hid behind a utility pole and watched Sir Dominic and Alice inside the store.

A slender beauty with white hair. Hime realized that for some reason, she felt incredibly jealous of the woman’s appearance.

“Could she be… Sir Dominic’s girlfriend?”

Hime suddenly widened her eyes and glared at Alice.

It might seem sudden, but this was the result of Hime’s deep thinking.

Knowing Sir Dominic’s personality very well, Hime understood what it meant for him to allow someone to maintain such close proximity.

It meant that person was one of his own.

How hard did I work to get into that space!

Hime thought as she chewed on her lips.

Of course, this was because Hime was thoughtful and cautious, but Hime, already consumed by jealousy, such things…

“…No. It must be a misunderstanding.”

…she overcame it!

“It happened before, and the time before that too. And it always turned out to be a misunderstanding.”

Being so close to Sir Dominic, don’t you understand his psychology? Hime said to herself.

That’s right.

Hime had grown.

Past misunderstandings about Sir Dominic’s relationship with Seed Alice.

Misunderstandings with Pandemonium, the tank from the Tanker Union.

Misunderstandings about Sir Dominica and other unmentioned misunderstandings.

Hime had been jealous of many things due to her jealousy, but none of them turned out to be true.

Everything was jealousy born from Hime’s one-sided misunderstandings, and after experiencing several misunderstandings, Hime had finally learned.

“She’s probably just an acquaintance of Sir Dominic. Sir Dominic is kind and can’t leave an acquaintance in a difficult situation.”

Hime muttered as she emerged from behind the utility pole with a somehow refreshed expression.

“Well, it’s probably nothing this time too.”

Hime said as she disappeared along the path she had been walking.

Hime grew today as well.

But why did she have to grow today of all days?

…

“My goodness. That’s quite convenient.”

Lady Alice clicked her tongue in admiration at the existence of Sir Dominic’s inventory.

Alice had bought over dozens of pieces of furniture, but Sir Dominic’s inventory accommodated all of them without showing any signs of strain.

“It’s nothing special. It’s normal in Gacharland.”

“But this is my first time in Gacharland. It’s natural to find things amazing, isn’t it?”

Sir Dominic nodded at Alice’s words.

Indeed, how clueless had he himself been when he first came to Gacharland?

Now he prided himself on knowing quite a bit about Gacharland, but back then, Sir Dominic was a complete novice.

“That’s true.”

Sir Dominic agreed with Alice’s statement.

“By the way, I said I’d buy you coffee, right? You helped with the furniture shopping, so I’d like to buy you something more expensive…”

“?”

Sir Dominic looked at Alice in response to her words.

For some reason, she was looking at Sir Dominic with a coquettish expression, tucking her bangs behind her ear with her fingertips.

“Would you like to… go for a drink?”

After saying that, Alice just silently looked at Sir Dominic.

Sir Dominic didn’t open his mouth in response to Lady Alice’s words.