Short Story: Online Shopping?

“Oh, this is good… That one, Touya.”

“Uhhh…”

“Touya, Touya… These shoes, too!”

“Okaaay…”

I didn’t really know what to say, exactly. Lu and Sue were on their phones, showing me images of various articles of clothing and shoes. The fashion websites and clothing images were projected in the air, shown on a large screen in front of me. My other fiancees stood around, looking up at the images and giving their opinions as well.

Obviously, I couldn’t go home and buy them, so we did the next best thing and gave the designs to Zanac, who would then use his company’s resources to create the outfits himself. Zanac’s little fashion store had developed into a fullon brand with many branches all over the world. It’d be no exaggeration to say that he had the world’s aristocracy awaiting his newest creations with bated breath. These cutting-edge designs were all, of course, stuff that I had looked up online and passed on to Zanac, creating a fashion revolution that I had effectively imported wholesale.

“This one’s nice, Touya. Oh, this too.”

“Ughhh…” I groaned quietly in response to Elze, but I saved the image all the same. I’d been doing this for about three hours straight, so I was basically on auto-pilot. Zanac called for the designs once per month, so I basically had to do this before the end of each month in order to ensure that his business could continue thriving.

I never paid much attention to it back in the day, but the fashion scene was constantly shifting. There were new products released every week, let alone every season. What was considered ‘in’ or ‘out’ fluctuated wildly. Honestly, I couldn’t even begin to predict what would be popular two years down the line.

Plus, I had nine fiancees. That meant catering to nine different senses of taste and aesthetics. And since they all had preferred brands and styles, I had to sit here for hours and listen to their individual picks until it eventually ended… Then, after it was finally over, I’d compile the saved images and send them off to Zanac. But I also had to put in a little extra time to look up gentlemen’s fashion, since Zanac’s brand catered to more than just women. For stuff like that, I asked Kousaka and Laim for help, since they were older men who had a good finger on general taste.

“I can handle it from here, Touya.”

“Th-Thank you.”

I quietly groaned in relief as my sister Karen came over, apparently done with her love consultation with our knights for the day. I’d been showing her how to properly use the internet so she could handle fashion affairs going forward. Fortunately, it seemed to have been paying off.

“Here… Here… Aaand… Here…”

Karen deftly swiped her hands over the smartphone, switching from fashion website to fashion website with peerless speed. As she moved her hands, several colorful images and designs were projected into the air in front of me. I could barely blink before the images all lined up against each other… It was only then that I realized they were lingerie. I turned and walked out of the room, knowing I couldn’t handle the sight. Not at all.

I couldn’t help but glance at the selected lingerie once they were all done later, but I had no way of telling which of my brides-to-be had chosen which design. Some of the outfits were seriously risque, so I couldn’t help but panic while wondering which of the girls had wanted to wear them…

I quietly shook my head, deciding that not worrying about it would be better for my mental health, then headed to the cafeteria for a late lunch.