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chapter 21
Lunatic has four grades of rooms. Not something I ever wanted to know, but after living as Mare Aquera for ten years, I ended up learning it by accident.
“We’ll guide you to the Ruby Room.”
And after a moment, the Lunatic staff led us straight into the Ruby Room.
“What’s a Ruby Room? Do you know?”
“How would I know.”
I never thought I’d be guided into this room…
The room grades went Diamond, Emerald, Sapphire. Emerald and above were members-only. You had to use the Emerald Room several times to qualify for Diamond. And Ruby…
“The Ruby Room is the finest room we have. We hope you enjoy your stay.”
It was the highest of the highest, a place so legendary among regular customers that most had never even seen it open.
As far as I knew, they only opened it when one of the Six Great Houses visited.
Wow… they’re giving this to us?
Apparently, Lunatic from twenty years ago hadn’t yet gained the prestige it had once I became an adult.
“So Ruby means it’s good?”
“Gold’s better if you’re planning to pawn it clean.”
Completely unaware of the significance, Nereus and Gilbert casually chatted like leisurely old men—completely opposite of the chilly, threatening presence they gave off standing next to each other.
“Lara, do you know anything?”
“She knows even less than we do, obviously.”
I know more…
If they had been wearing their usual outfits, they would’ve looked out of place in such a room, but with how neatly they were dressed today, Nereus surprisingly fit the atmosphere despite his rough tone.
But Nereus still doesn’t look like some high noble…
So it is money, huh? Lunatic must not have been as rich at this point in time.
Without money, pride came second. Pride didn’t earn you food.
While I drifted in thought, the adults were enthusiastically pulling out the various dresses displayed in the room.
“For our little lady, I recommend this cream dress. It’s made from a newly imported fabric and accented with pearl powder—”
“Hm. What do you think?”
“What if Polaris spills tomato sauce on it? No.”
I don’t spill food when I eat.
Not that I liked the dress anyway, so I kept my mouth shut and let Gilbert talk as he pleased.
“Ooh, this one’s nice. Hey, look at this! Doesn’t this bright yellow one look perfect on Lara? Like a little chick!”
“So childish. I say this one fits Polaris better.”
Nereus held up a bright yellow puff dress decorated with white lace and ribbons.
Gilbert held a navy dress with white and red accents.
The two glared at each other like lightning was about to strike.
“Lara! Which one? You like mine, right?!”
“Hah! Just because Polaris puts up with you doesn’t mean she’ll accept your ridiculous, childish taste! This one is perfect for her. Isn’t it great?!”
The two of them shot daggers at each other, then whipped their heads toward me at the exact same moment.
I stared at them with tired eyes… then pointed elsewhere.
“I want this one.”
“……”
“……”
My finger was pointed at a simple gray one-piece dress. No frills, only one ribbon. Clean and tidy—just the way I liked it.
“L-Lara?”
“…Haah…”
Nereus looked like his world had collapsed. Gilbert sighed so heavily you’d think the sky was falling.
“Lara, sweetie, Daddy has money, okay? You don’t need to save money like this.”
“That’s right, Polaris. Even if it looks like this bastard over here and the other idiots spend money like water, the ship is financially stable. No need to hesitate.”
“No, I really like this one…”
It looked comfortable, easy to move in. Clothes should be comfortable. And once you buy them, you wear them until they wear out, right?
It’s even similar in design to the civilian clothes I used to wear in the navy… comforting, actually.
While I was touching the gray dress, a staff member hurried over.
“Our young lady has excellent taste! This dress comes in a sophisticated design that suits all ages, so there’s a separate lineup for each age group.”
“Oh.”
So if we bought one set for each age, I’d never need new clothes again?
Tempting… very tempting.
“No!!”
“No way!!”
“Huh?”
“Over my dead—no, over the moment all the blood in my body turns into seawater—will that be allowed!! Lara!”
“Dad, if a person’s body turns into seawater, that’s bad.”
“Exactly, which means never! Do you want me to die?! Huh?!”
I had no idea what Nereus was even talking about. I just blinked.
“Right?! So that one is absolutely forbidden. Gil, don’t just scream ‘no,’ say something!”
Nereus shook Gilbert violently with his free hand. Gilbert, looking tired, let himself be jostled before leaning down to talk to me.
“Polaris, Nereus has had a wish since he was young.”
“A wish?”
“Yes. When he had a child someday, he wanted to dress them in expensive dresses and feed them only the finest things.”
“……”
“So how about picking something prettier than that?”
The gray dress would still be much more expensive than the cheap ones Clara wore. But Nereus, oblivious, shoved aside the catalog and yelled:
“Bring us the most expensive ones!”
The staff lit up like someone had rung the Golden Bell and rushed off.
“Well… if it’s your wish… okay.”
I didn’t love that they were spending so much money on me, but if it was Nereus’s wish, I didn’t want to reject it.
Gilbert stared at me for a moment, then ruffled my hair.
“You messed up my hair.”
“It was already a mess the moment Nereus tied it.”
“Fair… but still.”
At my reaction, Gilbert let out a weak laugh.
“You two! What are you doing? Come here! The clothes are here!”
“We’re talking trash about you. Coming, coming.”
“What?!”
At the word “trash,” Nereus stared wide-eyed and blurted out:
“Hey, don’t say behind my back what you can’t say to my face—”
“You’re terrible with your hands.”
“Dad, you always tie my hair horribly.”
We recited exactly what we’d said behind him. Nereus looked between us, then shook his head.
“Fine, fine. I’m the adult here, I’ll let it go. Geez.”
“See, Polaris? That is how someone who is an adult in age but not in maturity reacts.”
“Ooh…”
Nereus shot Gilbert a dirty look, then suddenly picked me up.
“Okay, okay. Lara, look! All of these are yours. How about it?”
“Hmm?”
Gilbert lazily inspected the displayed dresses.
“The material is a bit underwhelming.”
“This shop is the best around—meaning everything else is worse.”
“True. Poor fabric can cause rashes, so we should at least buy these. Hope they have the right size…”
I stared at the row of dresses and felt something was off.
Something’s wrong.
One of Lunatic’s strengths was that its quality was incomparable to other boutiques.
So much so that even franchise stores had noble ladies wanting Lunatic dresses for their debutante balls.
It was one of their founding principles—extreme quality differentiation. They had the business sense for it, and by ten years from now, they’d grow even bigger. At this point in time, with new branches opening, there was no way they’d offer something mediocre.
But the “special-grade products” the staff brought out were of equal—or even poorer—quality than the gray dress I’d seen earlier.
Of course, for other shops, it’d still count as high quality. But for Lunatic’s price, it was impossible.
Hmm?
Looking closely, the display was crooked, like something had been hurriedly swapped out.
The dyeing looks weird too…
As I hesitated, I caught the staff exchanging uneasy glances.
Oh? Look at these clowns.
Nereus and Gilbert could easily identify the value of gems and treasure, but dresses? They rarely saw them.
Most women on Caelum didn’t wear dresses, except Clara—and hers were always the cheap kind.
So these people saw we had money and tried to scam us—sell fakes or low-grade items to gullible customers.
I was dumbfounded.
As if that’ll work on me.
I widened my eyes and looked up at Nereus.
“Dad, can I wear one of these now? Trying all of them on is too hard.”
“Huh? Sure. We’re buying everything anyway, so no need to try them on. You want to wear the most expensive one?”
Of course. In Nereus’s mind, “most expensive = best.”
If he hadn’t said “most expensive,” Lunatic would’ve brought out a genuine high-quality piece just to avoid suspicion.
But since we asked for the priciest, they had no choice but to choose from these so-called “special-grade” items.
Not that these scammers wouldn’t choose a fake either way.
I went into the dressing room with an employee.
“I’ll help you change~”
“Okay~”
Once I put it on, I was certain. Cheap workmanship.
They treated it with chemicals.
And not the good kind. I smelled the faint sweetness that wasn’t from fruit or sugar—a cloying, unpleasant scent.
This is the herbal solution used to mask the smell of cheap dye.
Cheap dyes could easily produce pretty colors.
Unfortunately, they also caused rashes after a few contacts with the skin.
The issue wasn’t widely known yet—mostly whispered among industry workers.
If it weren’t for me, no one would notice.
And they used that on a child?!
I was furious.
I immediately started scratching my body.
“Are you okay?”
“My body feels itchy.”
Scratch, scratch scratch scratch.
With my nails, I dragged red lines over my skin.
“L-Little lady?!”
The panicked employee grabbed my hands, but too late.
I saw the red marks rising and immediately wailed at the top of my lungs.
“It’s itchy!! It hurts! It’s itchy!! Daddy!! Daaaddy!! This lady hurt me!!”
The moment I screamed, there was a loud crash outside.
Nereus and Gilbert burst in with hardened faces.
“Lara!”
“Polaris!”
