Chapter 13: New Clothes

  After breakfast, Shade looked at the other residents and noticed the clothes that they were wearing… Ryan and Axel had no choice but to spend a lot of money on their clothes compared to the other.

  As a journalist Ryan had to at least have a presentable appearance and nice clothes. Ryan spends only as much as he has to on his clothes for his work and would often give his old clothes to the younger residents.

  Axel had his work clothes but at times he had no choice but to buy new ones. As a baker he gets his clothes from the owner of the bakery as part of his uniform. The uniform includes white shirts which Axel wears interchangeably as he has three sets.

  Evangeline mostly uses clothes the old caretakers of the orphanage used. The white dress and green apron came from the room used by the caretakers. There was a rather large quantity of white dresses and aprons left behind when the caretakers left.

  As to not waste the perfectly functional and untattered clothes, Evangeline started wearing them when she turned 18. Catelyn has started wearing the white dresses as well, but she pairs the white dresses with a cream coloured jacket she got from a former resident that moved out.

  The other kids use old clothes that Ryan, Axel, Evangeline, Shade, and Catelyn used to wear when they were around their age. Shade had made up his mind, he knew how he would spend this day.

  “Let’s go shopping.”

  Everyone stopped what they were doing, whether it was gathering dishes or walking out of the room, they looked at the source of the voice and saw Shade with a decisive expression. Evangeline turned to look at Ryan as if asking his opinion.

  “We do have more money, more than enough to get us through this week, but shopping? I’m not sure we should do that just yet.

  Ryan’s response was short but informative of the residents’ current situation. While Ryan may have thought that Shade simply wanted to give a suggestion after finally having enough money to spend, contrary to his beliefs, Shade opened his mouth to explain his reasoning behind his suggestion.

  “The clothes the kids use has been through three generations and they were bought as second hand, we can’t keep patching the holes.

  The clothes I used to wear when I was their age has started to look like avant-garde patchwork clothes. Any more and there will be nothing left of the original clothes!

  While Evangeline and Catelyn use clothes the caretakers left behind, after continues use and washing, the dresses have discoloured, and parts have started to become see through.

  We can’t hand see through clothes to Vanessa nor can we let young unmarried women walk around with clothes in that state, they will look like street girls!

  While the white shirts Ryan handed down to me were in good condition. Unfortunately, they aren’t in good conditions anymore because of the damn bullies I had to fight in my early teens!

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  While fighting them off some shirts ripped, and others were discoloured by either paint or blood!”

  To finalize his argument, Shade took a deep breath before saying his last words.

  “1 pounds are more than enough to buy some nice clothes to all of you. I got 2 pounds as a bonus yesterday, I will give you 1 pound, and the rest is mine for food when I work. Now, let’s go shopping!”

  Everyone looked at Shade with dumbfounded expressions. They turned their heads to look at Ryan and noticed that he was in deep thought. After letting out a sigh, Ryan spoke.

  “Let’s go. His words come from a place of worry and if he is that adamant about it, then we should probably do as he wants.”

  The children looked at each other and ran to the door, the others followed. The residents left the tattered building they called home and walked towards the shopping street they frequently visited for groceries.

  They visited multiple stores and searched for the cheapest options, but Shade wasn’t having it… Can’t they choose something more expensive? These clothes probably went out of fashion last decade!

  Shade searched for the most expensive and fashionable clothes he could find. At times he found similar clothes to the ones Ms. Snow usually was wearing.

  Most of them would look good on Evangeline and Vanessa as they matched their brown hair.

  Catelyn walked around with Vanessa in search of clothes and at times would look back at Shade as if asking for his approval. The first few times they did this was rather cute but after the twentieth time, Shade simply held his thumbs up with a deadpan expression.

  Evangeline focused more on getting clothes for the youngest kids but was at time asked to try clothes. Axel and Ryan were simply planning to help chose clothes and carry them but after Shade noticed that they weren’t looking for clothes for themselves he got angry.

  He made them buy at least 2 things for themselves, with his money of course. They reluctantly agreed.

  After having walked around for some time, searching for clothes and buying whatever looked good, Shade started to wonder which store the clothes he got from his captain, Mr. Rouge, came from.

  “Wow! That is expensive!”

  Sebastian looked at a suit on the other side of a glass window. He was standing outside a store tailored for high-class commoners. Inside was suits and dresses worth half a pound, 5 shillings, each.

  The clothes that the orphanage residents were looking at cost anywhere from 5 pence to 10 pence or 1 shilling.

  Ryan stood next to Sebastian and looked at the suit behind the store window. Shade walked up next to them and heard their conversation.

  “Ryan, why are these clothes so expensive?”

  Ryan thought for a moment before answering Sebastian’s question.

  “Because they are made by great artisans and are of expensive materials. I wonder if the extra minting of coins bill caused its price to drop or raise?”

  Ryan was talking about when their home country, Asten, was low on coins. This caused great suffering in the economic and civil sectors.

  To combat the low number of coins in circulation compared to the growing number of citizens, the country decided to make more coins.

  Then the problem of inflation appeared. The Asten pound was losing its worth in the rest of the world, the government only had one plan to change this. It was to change the number of shillings and pence that made up one pound.

  At first 20 shillings made 1 pound, 12 pence make 1 shilling, now 10 shillings make 1 pound, 10 pence make 1 shilling. The market stabilized and somehow the worth of the Asten pound elevated.

  Shade watched the shop through the window and noticed a logo on all of the clothes. A logo that was familiar to him. It looked exactly like the one on the inside of the white shirt he got from Mr. Rouge.

  After looking through the window, Shade noticed the exact copies of what he wore as Magician on display further back in the store.

  Too afraid to walk in and ask for the prices of what made up Shade’s uniform, he turned around and did his best to forget what he had seen.

  His mind wandered…One shirt, top and bottom of a special suit, one silver belt, one purple cape, and accessories.

  Even if all the pieces of clothing and accessories cost only 1 shilling each, the cost still won’t lose out to any of the suits or dresses in there.