David looked around as Louise stepped out of the carriage behind him, dressed in more simple clothes than she normally wore. She looked odd in the brown robes of a commoner, but she held in her complaints for the sake of the mission.
Meanwhile, David was wearing his usual outfit, though he now wore the cloak part of Louise's school uniform, attached via the pentagram pin that completed the outfit usually.
He tugged lightly at the pin to keep it from digging into his neck. Since it was fitted to Louise, who was nearly a foot shorter than him, it certainly was not well-designed for his frame. The hem of the cloak only reached just below his knee level, making it obvious that it wasn't intended for him.
However, despite the lack of a fitting mantle (and Louise's frequent complaints that he was stretching the fabric), there seemed to be no problem blending into the role Henrietta had given them. Him as a noble and her as a servant girl.
The decision was met with quite a bit of opposition from the pinkette, until Henrietta explained that David would not be able to carry Derflinger during the mission if he was acting as a servant, and he was able to convince her that he could act like a convincing nobleman.
He was exercising the style of walking he'd adopted for the mission, a more graceful motion than he normally walked with, as he was mimicking the style that Guiche moved in.
The blond playboy may be a moron, but he was truly a token example of a noble, and while David would never act exactly like Guiche, it was no harm done to use his movement style.
It didn't feel natural in the slightest to move like this, but David knew that he looked natural, and that was what was important.
Of course, Louise, who was not as fluid an actor as David, still walked with the same stiff walk she always did, though she looked somewhat less regal than normal considering her clothing looked much less expensive now.
"We need a horse." Louise said. "I'm not walking everywhere, this village is too big for that!"
David rolled his eyes. Here we go...I was hoping she wouldn't start complaining at least until we got to the cafe. "I checked out this place when we came here to get Derf. Horses are 400 ecu each, we only were given 200."
Louise pouted. "I've never had so little money with me at any time!" she complained, and David sighed, shaking his head and touching his forehead with a couple fingers to relieve himself of the headache that was slowly forming.
"This girl…" he said to himself. "Look, in my world, very few people went around with more than a hundred bucks, and most people didn't even use that. Then again, we had credit cards and electronics that you don't, but still…"
Louise stared at him. "And how much is 'a hundred bucks' in ecus?" she asked curiously. David looked up as he thought.
"I think ecus were worth like 25 dollars before they got rid of them, if I remember correctly…" he said thoughtfully. "So the max most people carried was 4 ecus...Holy mother of God this exchange rate is screwed up."
He shook his head, glancing at the coin pouch he carried with him that held the 200 ecus they had been given. He couldn't help it as his eyebrow ticked at the thought of how much money that actually was. "I find it very hard to believe that anyone in this world can be poor when 5,000 dollars is cheap…"
Louise stared at him in amazement. "How can anyone live with only 4 ecus at a time?! That can't be possible!"
He sweatdropped at the thought, laughing nervously at her. "I rarely carried more than 40 bucks, I never needed much...5 dollars is enough for a full meal at Chick-fil-a."
Louise went silent as she did the mental math to figure out how much that equated to in their world's terms. "5 livres and 4 sous…" she said in shock. "That's...unreal, you can't even buy fish with that price…"
"If this world and Earth were to combine, the global economy would be totally ruined…" he said. "Now I'm kind of glad there's only like two ways to get between the worlds…"
Louise blinked. "There...are ways to go back?" she asked, and he nodded.
He stared at her expression for a few seconds, before laughing and waving his hand. "I can't use any of them until the right conditions have happened, I'm still stuck here for a while, don't worry."
Louise shook her head, looking down at the ground. "I'm not worried. Can I have the money, then? You clearly don't understand the currency of this world if you think that 200 ecu is rich."
He looked at her with as doubtful an expression as he could muster. Of course, he already knew what would happen if he gave her the money. She'd blow it all on a casino and they'd be forced to lodge with the Enchanted Fairy Tavern.
Which was exactly what they needed. He needed to meet Scarron and Jessica, and he couldn't get the level of friendship with them that he wanted if they simply visited.
He couldn't think of any important plot points that related to the two, but this was more of a personal wish. Saito had been very put off by Scarron's oddities, but David already knew what he was getting into, so it wouldn't be nearly as hard to get used to the man...and Scarron had several benefits that David would have been hard-pressed to get from anyone else. Namely, the multitude of times he helped the cast out in the anime...though David didn't really plan to stay long enough for that to be of any use.
Nevertheless, he had made his decision, and untied the pouch from his belt loop, handing it to her.
Almost as soon as she had her hands on it, she disappeared, running off into the town. David sighed, shaking his head, a small smile playing on his face as he walked a little into the town before sitting on the curb of a water fountain to wait for her.
He mentally chuckled to himself. Good thing I informed Henrietta that this would probably happen. he thought, his finger grazing along the second pouch that had been next to the first, hidden by the cloak.