Angelus Carduus

Chapter 17: Teddy Bears

After they had rested enough, Aelius paid for their food and left the cafe. Valeria noticed a store not far from the cafe they had just left. It was a toy store with a large teddy bear sitting at the display window.

She pressed her lips into a thin line before turning to Aelius who had a somewhat disheartened look on his face. Valeria assumed it was caused by her so she swallowed back her words on wanting to see if they could check the store.

'I'm too old anyway.' she reminded herself but her eyes continued falling towards the store even as they walked past it.

"Do you want to go in?" Aelius asked out of nowhere.

Valeria looked over at him. The look he had before this was gone and was replaced by a neutral look. She slowly nodded.

'He probably thinks it's childish-'

"Do you want the teddy bear?" Aelius asked, cutting the line of thought she had.

Valeria paused before nodding again. She couldn't have any stuffed toys around her as it would cause her to be unable to breathe since all the stuffed toys had a type of fibers which affected her nose making it clogged.

Aelius stared at the teddy bear before turning back to her, "Do you want more?"

"Huh?" Valeria blinked at him, baffled by his suggestion.

He pointed at the store and repeated his words thinking she didn't hear him, "Do you want more?"

Valeria was gonna decline it but he had already opened the door to the store, waiting at the side so she could walk in first. She decided to go with it and headed in.

The store was filled with toys on every shelf. It had different types of toys from dolls to toy cars which could move if it was wind up. Valeria walked around the store with Aelius tailing behind her quietly.

A worker noticed them and hurriedly went to greet them, "Hello dear customers! How may I help you? Is there something which caught your eye?"

Valeria gave them a quick look before turning her gaze to the teddy bear at the display window. She pointed at it and said, "How much is it?"

The worker smiled brightly, "It is 150 silvers!"

Valeria frowned at the pricing, 150? That's worth almost one year of a commoner's salary. She stared at the teddy bear.

She assumed there were at least around 50 silvers since it was quite big but 150? This store is eating people's money without a care and upon taking a closer look at the store the materials used to make the toys didn't seem high quality either.

'Well it is a store in the Empire.'

"Shall we buy it?" Aelius asked but she shook her head.

She turned her heel, beginning to walk out of the store. Aelius followed her and left the store.

"Did you not like it?" he softly asked as they walked away from the store.

Valeria turned to Aelius and shook her head, "It was nice but the price wasn't worth it."

Aelius paused before nodding. Not far from the previous toy store, another came into view. Aelius lightly tapped on Valeria's shoulder before pointing at the other toy store.

"We can check this one."

Valeria agreed and the two headed inside. This store didn't have many toys in the store but it had a warm atmosphere. Valeria walked to one of the shelves, picking up a doll which was sitting there.