CedRic Lthues. Claret City

Chapter 3

Besides the weird situation I was stuck in, somehow, I felt right at home. The aura around the city was somehow very relaxed. It looked like a city that didn't know the existence of crime. Or so that was my first analysis. Immediately after I thought that Amber City was squeaky clean, two men on a motorcycle grabbed an old woman's purse and skedaddled their way out. I wanted to act, but I dind't have the tools to capture those two bastards. Luckily, Roy and Jenntih had. Roy quickly tossed some metal disc of some sort and it almost magically went straight for the wheel of the motorcycle, immediately putting it to a stop and throwing the two thieves a good 10ft into the hard pavement. Jenntih saw the moment of opportunity and grabbed it tight—she dashed to them and held their heads to the ground. Roy did the same not even a second after. They handcuffed the men and Roy personally returned the purse back to the old woman right before the crowd clapped. The scene made me remember a similar event from my, I would guess, past: I would do my job in public and the public would applaud my service. It all suddenly felt very nostalgic.
"Sorry," Roy said, "We had to do it."
"I know, I know, it's your job. I very much understand," I replied.
"Well then," Jenntih continued, "Should we go?"
The first place I wanted to go to was a tailor or a clothes shop. Up until that moment I was wearing my detective outfit, which was the standard tuxedo under a brown coat and a black hat for my head. There were clothing stores at every single nook and cranny of the city, so I decided to just ask my two companions for the best one in the city. They recommended a store named Les Vêtements and it was the fanciest clothing store I've evers seen. It was like one of those ridiculously expensive luxury brands, Prada, Givenchy, the kind that would cost an arm and a leg. I suddenly started having second thoughts because of the impression that formed in my mind. "S-should we be buying here?" I asked.
"Well, you said it was the best clothing shop in town, " Jenntih answered, "This is the best clothing store in Claret." Her words weren't helping in the slightest. Roy suddenly placed his hands on my shoulders and told me that I should start shopping till I drop.
"What?" I asked in bewilderment.
"You are gonna use the company card anyway. Do you know how rich our organization is?"
"That card we were given contains 1/4096 of the company's entire financial value," Jenntih claimed.
"Which is how much?" I asked.
"Somewhere around..." she paused, "...500 million dollars."
My jaw dropped, crashed straight to the concrete and stuttered, "There's that much money in that little card?"
The two nodded unfazed, like the whole thing was normal. "Well, should we head on in?" she asked.
One minute I was walking calmly with Roy and Jenntih, the next, I was being dragged around like a toddler. For a few minutes straight, I put on more tuxedos than I have ever worn in my life. By the time we walked out of the Les Vêtements, we'd spent more than 5,000,000 dollars on tuxedos and pants alone. I felt a little weird spending that much money on something so trivial. The most money I had was 150,000 dollars and the whole spree felt very uncomfortable, but there was more to be done and for that moment, I swallowed the weird feeling and kept on moving.
I spent the remaining time getting what I thought I would need—a phone, a home computer setup, and some miscellaneous things that I either thought I would need in the future or just objects that I found amusing. At the end of the entire Amber City escapade, we headed back to where we were dropped off to call a cab back to the headquarters. As Jenntih raised her hand, the weird feeling came back to me, but this time, it wasn't the same as last time. This time, I felt like something was missing, as if I forgot to buy something very important. It was only when the cab arrived that I finally remembered what I felt was missing. I asked the two to hold up before they entered the cab.
"What?" Jenntih asked
"Is there a thrift shop nearby?"
"Umm, yeah, there is."
"Let's go," I demanded. They looked at each other before agreeing to my small request.
I then spent the next hour or so in the thrift store buying some second-hand clothes and that made me finally feel good. My stomach wasn't used to me spending a lot of money, and the act of merely spending a normal amount on inexpensive items calmed my restlessness. My mind settled and on our way back, I finally saw the Orion group headquarters. The medium-sized building was built on the ground, unlike some of its siblings that were hovering above. There was nothing of particular uniqueness to it, but that was not to say I didn't like it.
Qor listened to Idaliah's revelation.
"My grandfather and I were as close as any human could. When I was a kid, whenever school was out for summer, I remember being an annoying brat and irritating my parents to death just to get them to take me to my grandfather. They, of course, said yes because why wouldn't they? They had no good reason not to. Whenever I spent the month in my grandfather's place, I remember him always having a specific smile on his face. He knew I was a handful of a child, but it was one of the things he loved about me. One summer, I did what I always did. When we arrived at our destination, the house was empty. My parents searched the whole place, but no one was there. We started to get worried until his nieghbor came to the house and said that he was admitted to the hospital by some guest who knocked on his door and found him lying on the floor. When we got to the hospital, my grandfather was unconcsious, there were tubes attached to his body. I remember feeling scared, very scared. When I came to his side, his last words were: Watch out for him. I recall chills slowly crept down my spine and a hot stream down my cheeks. Ever since then I never trusted a boy ever again, or to be specific, I never went on a date."