“Why me? Umm…” I asked, feeling quite confused.
I’m pretty sure if they wanted a poster girl, there’s plenty of other girls prettier than I am out there.
Sure, Lisa may have rejected the idea, but that doesn’t mean they need to settle for me… Besides, you’re looking for a model and I’m most definitely not one.
He stood up, “Oh forgive me, I had been so excited to see you that I forgot my manners. I am Aruule, the owner of this establishment.”
“Ah, I’m Aster and this is Lisa. Nice to meet you.”
“Ho ho! The pleasure is all mine! Now where were we? Ah, that’s right! Please be our poster girl, Miss Aster!”
“Umm… Like I was asking… Why me?”
“You like sweets and you’re absolutely beautiful, so the question isn’t why you but why not you?”
Now he’s just trying to flatter me to get me to agree to his request.
I managed to stop myself from rolling my eyes at his fake compliment and asked, “Ok… What’s in it for me?”
He leaned forward slightly, “Of course we’ll pay you! We’ll first pay you a one time payment of ten Creas! Then we’ll see how much the business grows from there and we might negotiate a more permanent form of payment after that. What do you think?”
I shook my head, “I have no intention of making this my permanent form of employment. I wish to travel the World and taste all the sweets instead of staying here.”
“Explore the World? Are you perhaps an Adventurer?”
“Oh, not really. I’m a Mercenary and Dungeoneer.”
“Ah… I see… In that case, I understand. What if we just do the first one and then if it goes well, we’ll pay you a set amount of money every time we make use of your likeness on promoting our wares?”
So it’s like paying Royalties? I get it. Although I wonder what kind of magic they would be using to capture my likeness for their promotion?
This might seem like a very attractive offer since all I needed to do was to let them take some pictures of me and I’ll be able to get money without needing to do anything after that, but the problem was that I do not have a lack of money so I don’t really care about it.
Now I’m seriously wondering if he actually somehow hid his Off-Worlder title since he could come up with an idea like this?
I shook my head once again, “I’m not that interested in money actually.”
“Eh? Not interested in money? Are you… Oh! You’re that Aster from Aerialla Academy aren’t you?!”
Oh wow, what did I do to even have someone outside the school know about me? I know I have a reputation within the school but I never thought that people outside the school might know me too.
“Yes? Why?”
“I see, I see… This explains a lot. In that case, I apologise… I do not think that I would be able to hire you because of your position… I am sorry to have wasted your time…”
He then stood up and gestured to the door, indicating that our meeting was over.
Oh wow, so now that he knows that he can’t use me, all the courtesy he had from before had vanished into thin air… Now I’m having second thoughts about coming here again…
Lisa and I were then ushered out of the office, the door closing shut behind us with neither of us making any noises of complaint.
The secretary woman raised an eyebrow at us before pointing at the main door, “Exit is that way. You can see yourself out.”
We did just that and Lisa and I ended up standing at the bottom of the stairs with me feeling a little upset.
I frowned at the shop, “That was rude… Why would his attitude change so quickly like that?”
Lisa tilted her head, “Eh? Did Aster forget about the time when the nobles were trying to get you to marry their children?”
“What does that have to do with this though?”
Lisa giggled, “I suppose it’s better that Aster doesn’t know~”
“Ehhhh… Tell meeee!” I whined.
That only made her laugh louder before she took my hand in hers, “What do you think will happen to him if the other nobles found out that a talented futa like Aster is working as a poster girl for some sweets shop?”
𝗈𝓥𝔩𝒩xt.𝑐𝗈𝑚
“Err… I dunno? Visit the shop?”
“That’s right, but not to eat the sweets if that’s what you’re thinking. They would be trying to get him to spill out the secret on how he managed to get you to work with him, maybe even destroying his business in the process.”
“EHHH?! Why?!”
“They would want to eliminate any risk of him getting you of course~”
Ugh… I don’t understand… Isn’t this just like a job? It’s not like I’m marrying him…
Nobles are so weird…
I guess they just want to eliminate any form of competition or something, not that I would know how they think anyway.
Good to know that I would probably not be able to get a normal day job because of my position then.
But then again… There shouldn’t be a need for me to do that… The fact that I’m choosing to be a Mercenary instead of just taking over Mother’s family was already weird to begin with…
I wonder how would the attitude of the nobles change if they were to know just which family I belonged to? Would it make it worse or better than before?
On second thought… I don’t want to know…
All I know is that this still doesn’t give him the right to just chase us out so rudely like that!
Hmph! I won’t eat at his patisserie again! See how he likes it! I’ll even go and make one that’s bigger than his after I come back!
I turned to Lisa, “Well! We got sidetracked a little! But we’re still on our date, right?”
“Ehehehe~ Yes we are~ Shall we continue?”
My arm wrapped around hers as I pulled myself to her side, “Hehe~ Of course! Where are we going?”
“Hnnng! Haaa… Haaaa… Ahem… I have a plan for us to go to the sea outside the city, would Aster like that?”
“Ohhh~ That sounds fun~ What are we going to do there?”
“Ehehe, you’ll see~”
That sounds so mysterious. I’m going to guess that she’s planning for us to go for a swim or something, but I don’t have any swimsuits though? Are we just going to strip down to our underwear to swim?
Keeping the questions to myself for now, I let her guide me towards a stable down the road where I assumed she was looking for horses to rent.
After Lisa handed over a few coins to the owner of the stable, we were shown to a particular horse.
And by horse…
“Hey, you can call me Dreamcatcher, I’ll be serving as your transport for today!” The centauress greeted us.
She was wearing what looked like padded clothing on her human half while a cloth was draped around her equine half so only her legs were visible below.
On one side was also a bow and arrow as well as a short sword and spear strapped to her body, which I assume she would use to defend us in the event of meeting monsters outside.
A very prominent collar was also wrapped around her neck, cluing me in that she was a slave which also suggested her name might not be her real one.
Oh, we’re not riding on her back by the way, she had a small cart hitched to her back that she would pull along behind her.
The cart had two seats facing the front and no doors with a tarp roof overhead, so you would have to climb in and out from the front.
Lisa nodded at her, “We’ll be counting on you!”
She was about to gesture to the cart when she paused and turned towards me.
“You… Why… Why are you…”
Without finishing her words, she came over to me and started sniffing in my direction.
“O… Ohhh… You smell nice~ Do you want to ride on my back instead?” She asked.
E… Eh?
I turned to Lisa for help and she giggled, “Centaurs won’t let just anyone ride on their backs~ It’s similar to how you won’t carry someone in your arms and fly around, Aster~”
Ah… I see. But that’s not what I wanted to know… Also, we just met and this centauress was already offering this for me? Just because I smell nice?
Lisa then turned to the centauress while snaking a hand around my waist, “I’m sorry but you’ll need to get in line~”
“Oh? Ahahaha~ You don’t need to worry about me stealing her from you! She just has a smell on her that reminds me of home. Unfortunately it’ll be another two years before I finally finish my slavery sentence to be let free.”
I tilted my head at her, “Eh? What did you do?”
“Oh, nothing much. Just raided a few merchant caravans here and there until I got caught and sentenced to slavery~ Been doing this for about eight years now~”
So she’s a former bandit which means she’s most likely a criminal slave. And she got sentenced to ten years? I don’t know if that’s a harsh or lenient sentence in this World since I’m pretty sure she must have killed some people during her bandit days.
Oh well… None of my business anyway.
I ended up rejecting her offer of riding on her back and climbed onto the cart with Lisa.
Dreamcatcher didn’t seem too upset about my rejection and merely told us to hang on before beginning to trot towards our destination.
This was my first time sitting on a centaur driven cart and I have to say… This is pretty fun~