After finishing his conversation with Min, Rei headed to a shoe shop.
Since he had left his Sleipnir boots with Asimov, Rei was currently borrowing a pair of oversized shoes from Asimov's house, and they were considerably large.
Given that, they were inevitably difficult to walk in — and more than anything, he wanted to know how long the reinforcement of his Sleipnir boots would take.
If it would only be a day or two, Rei wouldn't have minded using Asimov's shoes as-is. But if it ended up taking a week, half a month, a month... there was a real chance of running into problems.
He also figured it would be wise to have a backup pair ready beyond his Sleipnir boots... and so he found himself at the shoe shop.
"Welcome. ...Oh? You're Rei? That's a rare sight."
A man in his twenties looked at Rei with a surprised expression.
...And it was only natural. What Rei bought most in Gilm was food, followed by weapons, tools, Magic Items... and so on.
At the very least, Rei could count on one hand the number of times he'd visited a shoe shop in Gilm.
And even then, he had never properly looked inside — just glanced in casually.
That was precisely why the shopkeeper voiced his surprise upon seeing Rei walk through the door.
Normally, showing such an attitude toward a customer wasn't desirable for a merchant.
But Rei fully understood why he was being looked at that way, so he spoke without any sign of concern.
"Yeah, I'm actually looking for some shoes. As you can see, the ones I'm wearing right now are a bit... no, quite large."
Rei held out his right foot as he spoke.
Indeed, the shoes Rei was wearing were noticeably oversized and clearly didn't match his feet by any measure.
"What happened? Weren't you wearing those amazing boots, Rei?"
In this case, "amazing" didn't refer to the abilities of the Sleipnir boots, but rather to their sheer craftsmanship as footwear.
In fact, the Sleipnir boots Rei had been wearing were made during the era when the Zephyle Clan was still active — and yet even looking at them now, there were few boots one could say surpassed them in quality. It was enough to convince anyone who dealt in shoes.
"Yeah, I left those boots with someone for a bit, so I borrowed these in their place, but..."
"They're large, I see."
Rei nodded at the shoe merchant's words.
Seeing Rei's demeanor, the merchant couldn't help but think it was a waste.
If someone was going to work on boots of that caliber, he wanted them brought to his own shop — or more precisely, to his father, the Shoemaker.
He knew those boots were a Magic Item, but even so, he couldn't help but wish... Even as a merchant — no, precisely because he was a merchant, he couldn't help but be particular about the quality of footwear.
"Hmm, got it. Could you wait a moment? I'll go get some shoes ready right away."
The merchant clearly had plenty he wanted to say, but he apparently understood that voicing it here wouldn't be appropriate. He headed toward the back of the shop.
After seeing him off, Rei looked around the interior with genuine admiration.
Rei's mental image of a shoe shop was still heavily influenced by his time in Japan.
But unlike shoes mass-produced by machines, in Elgin, craftsmen made each pair by hand.
That was precisely why a single pair of shoes cost considerably more here than it had back in Japan.
...Of course, even in Modern Japan, if you visited a high-end shoe store, a craftsman would make a custom pair by hand. But unfortunately, Rei had lived in the countryside and never had the chance to visit such a shop.
"Hmm, as an adventurer, you might want light iron plates in the instep, or monster leather. Do you just want normal ones?"
When the merchant asked what he'd prefer, Rei hesitated slightly.
Thinking about it logically, there was no need to buy boots built like adventurer's Armor.
After all, Rei was only borrowing shoes from Asimov until the reinforcement of his Sleipnir boots was finished.
But the biggest question was when that reinforcement would actually be completed.
No matter how skilled an Alchemist Asimov was, this would be his first time working with Silver Lion materials.
If that was the case, it could very well take until spring... or possibly even longer.
Given that they were high-performance Magic Items, that was simply unavoidable.
In fact, the Twilight Spear — which had taken that much time to create — had performance Rei was fully satisfied with, and it had become one of his main weapons alongside Death Scythe.
So he could certainly accept that crafting a good Magic Item took time.
In other words, there was a very real possibility that even when spring arrived and adventurers became active again, the reinforcement of his Sleipnir boots might still not be finished.
(Well, it's not like the shoe shop is going to run away. If the Sleipnir boots still aren't done by spring, I can always buy some then.)
Even so, since there was no telling what might happen next, he judged that one could never have too many spare pairs of shoes — and spoke up.
"Let's see. Give me five pairs of normal shoes for walking around town... no, make it ten. And I want sturdy ones like what adventurers wear — with metal reinforcement on the instep and toe. Ten pairs of those too."
"...That many?"
Rei's words must have been that unexpected. The merchant's eyes went wide.
Clothing was the same way — since everything was fundamentally handmade by craftsmen, each individual item was expensive.
Of course, quite a few people could make their own, but the difference in quality between an amateur's work and a craftsman's was obvious.
That was precisely why the merchant was startled that Rei had just asked for twenty pairs all at once.
But as expected of a merchant, he quickly composed himself.
It was already widely known in Gilm that Rei was a wealthy man.
...Naturally — if he weren't wealthy, he wouldn't be able to buy massive quantities of food nearly every day, stay at the high-class Wheat Inn as his regular lodging, or — most of all — keep Gryphon Seto as a Tamed Monster, which required enormous feeding costs.
(He is an Alias Holder, so I suppose that much is to be expected.)
Having quickly convinced himself, the merchant smiled and spoke.
"Let me go call my father then. Could you wait a moment? We'll need to check the shape of your feet."
When Rei nodded, the merchant — thinking there was no way he'd let such a premium customer slip away — urged Rei to take a seat before heading toward the back of the shop.
That was where the merchant's father... the man who actually made the shoes sold in this shop, was presumably working.
After seeing the merchant off, Rei looked around to pass the time.
As expected of a shoe shop, numerous shoes were on display.
But when making custom-order shoes, Rei briefly wondered if there was any point in making sample products and lining them up like this.
(Well, in terms of making it obvious from the outside that this is a shoe shop, I suppose there's no harm in it.)
Thinking they could just put up a sign like the Guild, eateries, or inns did, Rei caught the sound of footsteps approaching from the back of the shop — the merchant from before and someone else.
The man who appeared looked so stubborn that it was hard to believe he was the merchant's father.
Rather than stern, stubborn was the better word — and that was the most fitting way to describe him.
If asked whether he looked the part of a craftsman, one would strangely find themselves nodding in agreement.
"You're Rei? ...Show me your feet."
Skipping the pleasantries and getting straight to the point — Rei actually found that refreshing.
Rei nodded, slipped off his right shoe, and held it out toward the man.
The craftsman looked at the foot — or more accurately, at the shoe that clearly didn't fit it at all — and frowned, his stubborn expression deepening.
As someone who had spent his life making shoes, seeing someone wear a pair so obviously ill-fitting must have genuinely bothered him.
"..."
But in the end, he said nothing. He simply reached out and touched Rei's feet.
Taking a wooden stick in hand, he measured the size.
In under ten seconds, the measurement was done, and the craftsman spoke.
"Ten pairs each — normal shoes for walking around town, and shoes with iron plates in the instep and toe. That right?"
"Yeah."
"What about the appearance? All different, or all the same?"
"...How does that change things?"
"Different designs take more time. Same design is faster."
"Then same."
Rei didn't particularly care what the shoes looked like.
Of course, if they were something that would make him stand out in a bad way, that would be another matter. But looking at the shoes displayed around him, he didn't think they'd make anything that conspicuous.
(Ah, I see. To show off this level of skill, having samples on display makes sense after all.)
While Rei was belatedly realizing why a custom-order shop would have so many shoes on display, the measurement of his right foot must have been completed.
Prompted by the craftsman's gaze to give him the other one, Rei extended his left foot.
After examining it just as swiftly, the craftsman quickly calculated the number of days until completion.
"Four days. Come pick them up around then."
"...That's quite..."
—fast, he almost said, but swallowed the word.
He had always assumed custom-order work would take far longer.
But at the same time, he could accept that perhaps a truly skilled craftsman could move at such a pace.
"And... hey, Selithos. Give this guy a pair that actually fits his feet — one pair's fine. Making the owner of feet like these wear cheap, ill-fitting shoes... as a Shoemaker, I can't allow it."
"Yeah, got it, Dad."
"Alright, I leave the rest to you. I'm getting started right away."
With only that, the craftsman retreated to the back of the shop.
True to his word, he was apparently going to start on Rei's shoes immediately.
After seeing him off... Rei suddenly voiced something that had caught his attention in that exchange.
"Feet like these?"
"Hm? Ah, you mean my father's words? He may not look it, but he's the finest Shoemaker in Gilm. The reason, according to him, is that by looking at someone's feet, he can understand everything about that person... or so he says. Well, I can't quite wrap my head around it myself."
But thanks to that ability, he can make shoes that fit a person's feet as perfectly as humanly possible.
Hearing the merchant's words, Rei nodded inwardly — as expected of a master craftsman.
"Alright then... hang on a moment. I'm not as good as my father, but I'm a shoe shop owner's son. I can size you up to some extent."
Cutting off the conversation, the merchant turned his gaze to Rei's feet.
After about ten seconds, he brought over a pair of shoes from the display nearby.
They appeared to be made from the leather of some kind of monster, and were without a doubt what one would call a first-class product.
"Umm, are you... sure this is okay?"
"Yeah, it's fine. You brought in a pretty big order this time. Think of it as a thank-you. These are made from Lizardman leather — they might not hold up for adventurer work, but for just walking around town, they should be more than fine."
Rei slipped on the Lizardman leather shoes the merchant handed him.
Perhaps because the shoes he'd been wearing until now hadn't fit at all, these felt like they hugged his feet as perfectly as could be.
"Wow... these are incredible."
"Nah, they're not that incredible. It's just that the shoes you've been wearing up to now were terrible in every possible way."
"...Is that how it works? Because to me, these feel plenty incredible."
Though Rei said that, in terms of fitting his feet flawlessly, the Sleipnir boots he'd left with Asimov were the same.
The reason these prepared shoes felt so agreeable was simply because Asimov's shoes hadn't fit him at all.
"Well, anyway, my father is a man who keeps his promises. He'll have them ready by the date he said."
His slightly proud smile said everything about how much he trusted his father's work.
Rei smiled at the exchange between father and son, then tested how the new shoes felt.
They had fit perfectly the moment he put them on, and even after moving around a bit, that sense of perfect fit never wavered.
Satisfied, Rei paid a somewhat higher price... and stepped out of the shoe shop.
The snow that had been falling since earlier had grown even heavier — the kind of snow that would surely pile up by tomorrow. Walking through it, Rei set off toward the Wheat Inn.