Chapter 227 The Date Begins
"Hey."
Seeing Evan act so casually dispelled some of the nervousness that Eliza had been feeling for the past few days. The blonde teenager couldn't help but heave a small sigh as she waved her hand at him and responded to his 'greeting'.
They chatted lightly a bit before Evan called for a taxi carriage which the two of them got onto. It was then that Evan clicked his tongue and spoke.
"Finally."
"huh? Finally, what?"
Eliza tilted her head to the side as she asked Evan, however, the young hero's reply was completely out of her expectations.
"Nothing much. Just that today, you look prettier than you already are on a normal basis so there were more 'pests' staring at you.
It was a bit infuriating seeing them look at you like that."
He ran a hand through his hair as he spoke, while facing away from Eliza so she would not see the expression he had on his face at the time.
'W-wh-what?!'
Which was why he completely missed the sight of the blonde teenager's face turning redder than a tomato in an instant.
"Oy, yeah!"
Evan lightly exclaimed as he opened up his inventory and pulled out a small flower accessory and a hand-held mirror.
He then moved at a speed that the still blushing Eliza could barely catch and grabbed her hand, pulling her closer before his other hand went towards her hair and placed the accessory there.
'Magic power traces? Did he just use magic?'
The girl's blushing face was replaced by a look of confusion as Evan held up the mirror in front of her and allowed her to see how the newly placed accessory fit perfectly with her blonde hair and matched well with her black coat.
"Oh..."
"You like it?"
"Mmh."
She nodded lightly as she looked up from the mirror to his face, only to realize how close the two were and pull back with a slightly red face.
Evan was about to speak but there was a knock on the carriage before the driver's voice saying they were close to their destination rang out.
"Speaking of which, where is our 'destination'?"
The blonde teenager voiced out her question as she looked at the passing buildings through the window of the carriage, trying to see if she could recognize what part of Kasteblum they were in.
'Huh? Isn't this the Fashion District?'
A second after her thought, Evan's voice rang out as the carriage began slowing down.
"We're going to the Clothing shop where we had the coats made. There are a few other stuff that needs to be picked up."
Although Eliza wondered how this could be related to their date, she didn't voice out her thoughts as she came down from the carriage with Evan and entered into the building.
The moment she walked in, there was an attendant waiting to receive them in the reception who quickly led them to a waiting room on the first floor of the building.
She couldn't help but notice that the gazes that the employees she passed on the way gave her were quite strange, to say the least.
It didn't take a minute after they arrived at the waiting room, when the same dressmaker who had handed their winter coats walked in with a bright smile on her face.
"You're earlier than I had expected."
The woman spoke to the two as she sat down and crossed her legs, her gaze alternating between Evan and Eliza before a look of realization appeared on her face.
"Hmm? Your cute girlfriend looks as clueless as ever. Did you perhaps not tell her?"
"Huh?"
"This woman...!"
Evan facepalmed upon hearing the woman's words, before taking a quick glance at Eliza and speaking.
"She's not my girlfriend..."
He turned his gaze back to the woman and continued in a slightly lower voice.
"...yet."
Even though he reduced the volume of his voice, the three of them were so close to each other that it was almost meaningless and they all heard him loud and clear.
Their reactions were varied as the dressmaker had an amused smile on her face while Eliza just stared at Evan in silence.
If only the young hero knew that she was holding back the small smile that threatened to form on her face.
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In the end, the blonde teenager found out about what Evan did; namely his action of ordering a bunch of custom-made outfits for her without her knowledge.
Unlike her expectations, majority of the outfits seemed to fit her tastes perfectly, making her a tad bit surprised.
"You do realize that you keep your stuff in my inventory when we travel, right? Is it really that weird that I'd be able to figure out your tastes in fashion by seeing your clothes?
Oh, and worry not, I didn't attempt to look into the bags you sealed with magic. Though I can pretty much guess what was in them."
"Evan, are you asking for a beating?"
"Nope."
The young hero dodged the right fist that shot towards his head before grabbing her hand with his right hand and pulling her closer to him as his left hand went around her waist.
"Let's get this small issue out of the way and move on with the rest of our date, shall we?"
Evan spoke with a small smile as he led the blonde girl out of the building and back into the carriage waiting for them.
◇ ◇ ◇
The two teenagers then went on with their date, looking around various shops for a while, before going over to the park and some other nearby districts that caught their attention.
After that, they took a ride to a totally different part of Kasteblum, one filled with an artificial snow-tipped small mountain range that was created by magic.
"To think that these guys actually built a ski resort here..."
Eliza was a bit surprised as she didn't know the ski resort until Evan informed her about it. The artificial mountains were also not too high, with the tallest of them peaking at a thousand metres.