With Gauss's "escort," the tiefling boy made it safely into the general store.
Gauss watched him pick through a pile of knickknacks and asked casually,
"What's your name?"
"Are you speaking to me, sir?"
"Mm-hmm."
"Delai. My name is Delai."
Delai secretly glanced up at Gauss a few times.
This was the first time someone of such high status had asked his name of their own accord. For a moment, he felt a little overwhelmed by the honor.
"Don't have enough money?"
Gauss saw him picking through a pile of the cheapest secondhand cotton dolls and noticed his hesitant expression, so he asked.
There was a rabbit doll with a fairly delicate design that Gauss had already seen him pick up and put down several times.
"I'll keep looking," Delai replied without answering directly.
"Let's get this one."
Gauss picked up the pale red doll himself.
"If you're short, I'll cover the difference."
He didn't say he would pay for the whole gift. The amount was nothing to him, but since Delai was choosing a gift for someone else, paying for all of it might diminish the thought behind it. That would be a shame.
The boy hesitated for a moment.
In the end, he nodded.
Mostly because he truly thought his little sister would love the doll.
"Then, thank you."
"Just don't call me an idiot next time."
Gauss waved a hand.
They went to the counter, where the doll was wrapped and paid for.
Gauss covered the final fourteen copper coins Delai was short.
Watching him carefully carry the gift-wrapped package, Gauss's lips curved slightly upward.
It was nice.
Sometimes, happiness really couldn't be measured in money.
The joy brought by a secondhand doll worth a few dozen copper coins was no less than that brought by an