[Third Person POV]
As the carriage flew over Ashkarion, Erza and Riser looked out the windows to take in the scenery.
Several large towers stood clustered together, dwarfing the rest of the city around them. The towers themselves were a 'noble district' of sorts. Each tower was similar to the one given to Issei, though much taller.
Every tower housed a different minor noble working under the Phenex clan's banner. Though they were rich enough to afford homes outside the city, these nobles preferred to live here. For some, this was the city they grew up in; for others, they just enjoyed city life, but all of them lived in those towers.
The city streets beneath the carriage glowed golden as if in constant celebration of the Phenex clan's prosperity. The street lights illuminated the thousands of people below.
"Wow!" Erza exclaimed, having never seen buildings so tall before. There was the Tower of Heaven, but she preferred to forget about that, where she could. "Do your people use magic to make buildings that tall?" She inquired.
"Do we use magic? Yes. Is it required? No." Riser answered to avoid confusion. "We use magic during construction, but to maintain the building's structure using magic is outlawed. It was tried a few centuries ago by a member of the Stolas clan, but during a gathering at their home, a child accidentally cast a spell on one of the pillars while playing and sent the whole place crashing down."
"Was anyone hurt?"
"Not permanently, but you can imagine how furious the guests were about being invited into such a dangerous building."
The carriage soon slowed, losing altitude as it descended toward an open area near the many towers.
When they finally came to a stop, Riser and Erza got out of the carriage, climbing down onto a platform that resembled a helipad. Unlike Earth, the underworld and several other magical realms used flying carriages, usually for transporting nobility within and around cities.
Though all devils had wings, flying above cities was mostly prohibited since the right-of-way became infinitely more difficult to understand in three dimensions. Exceptions existed, such as parks that added large statues meant to be flown around.
Riser and Erza looked around at the unfamiliar sights.
Street lamps stretched into the city, lit by fire rather than bulbs. The fire kept a steady-ish level, flickering slightly and almost certainly magical in nature, given its strangeness.
Riser had seen trees dotting the streets, but up close, they were much more interesting. The trees looked like the kind you would find in New York or London, but with strange blue droplets secreting from the trunk.
Riser hadn't seen it before, but knew what it was. Glow sap, a byproduct of the Heartleaf tree. Named after the aptly described leaf shape, the sap would often leak from perfectly healthy trees, meant to incentivise the magical equivalent of bees to come and pollinate them more.
Walking down the street with Erza by his side, Riser went deeper into parts of the city he hadn't explored before.
Back when his mother brought him here, they kept to the upper-class areas under the watchful eye of his father's rook. Not that they thought other parts of the city were dangerous. Anyone willing to attack one of them in the capital of Phenex territory was either dumb, suicidal, or both, and almost none of them would be strong enough to do anything.
When they passed by a clothing store, Erza practically vibrated in excitement, wanting to go in.
Turning to Riser, the only one with money, he nodded before she practically teleported inside with how fast she moved, with Riser following right behind.
Erza flew through the racks, grabbing several selections in her whirlwind of excitement before heading into the changing room, with Riser sitting just outside.
Less than a minute after entering, Erza came out wearing denim jeans and a thick red pullover.
"Well? How's it look, Master Riser?"
"You look beautiful, Erza," Riser honestly complimented. Since he was getting a free fashion show, no way he would enjoy it to the fullest.
Over the next ten minutes, Erza came out wearing several outfits.
A light-purple dress with the upper chest and shoulders covered in a thin, see-through fabric, showcasing the blue Fairy Tail tattoo on her left arm.
A blue off-shoulder top and a white skirt that covered her knees.
A white office blouse tucked into a thin, black pencil skirt.
Each outfit highlighted her beauty in different ways.
Finally, having tried on the last outfit, Erza came out with a large pile of clothes in her arms. If Riser didn't know how strong she was, he'd assume Erza was barely able to carry everything.
"Master Riser, is it fine to get all these outfits?" Erza asked, worried she might be overstepping.
"Of course it is. Even if the clothes cost $10,000, I'm sure my parents wouldn't notice. I'm pretty sure the dress my mother wore when you met her was worth at least $1,000,000," Riser answered.
Hearing that, Erza was no longer as worried about buying so many outfits. Though Erza had only a few casual outfits in her Requip due to limited storage space, she still liked wearing new clothes whenever she could.
After Riser purchased everything, Erza grabbed the bags and stored them in Requip before they exited the store.
Though all the other clothing stores gave Erza the same tingle, when Riser asked if she wanted to go in, she shook her head.
Erza explained that she hadn't repaid Riser for the first set of clothes, so how could she get more? But Riser waved her off.
Erza was his summon, his knight, and his friend; to him, the least he could do was to have her enjoy herself. Still, Erza held firm in her choice.
She wasn't one to take charity. She would work off the debt to him, though Riser ignored that promise, knowing he'd pay for her stuff regardless of whether she asked or not. Even though it had been only a week since Riser had summoned Erza, he considered her a member of the Phenex family.
Like Gremory's views on peerages, Riser believed that treating his servants as family only made sense. Even if his summons couldn't betray him, no matter how he treated them, he still loved their characters. Treating them poorly would feel wrong.
As for any other servants he might get, what reason would he have to treat them badly? Lower class? Weaker? Different race? He had memories of an average human; he, for all intents and purposes, had been all those things.
Eventually, the two stopped at a bakery. Erza practically floated in because of a certain smell coming from inside. Riser shook his head expectantly, already understanding Erza's actions before he followed her inside.
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Author's Note:
Thanks for reading; I'll see you next time!