A Black Benz waited for us right outside the mansion on the stony pavement. Anton, my sister's assistant was waiting for us outside the car.
He got us into the backseats and took over the job to drive us to the mall.
A few minutes later we took a turn and entered the highway. The weather was warm as the sun played hide and seek with the blue clouds. Entranced by the beautiful sight, I lowered the windowpane to let in some fresh air and beamed in the anticipation of the future.

Lost in my thoughts, I pondered over the things that happened in the last few hours. I was unsure what exactly the system was or how it worked. The system was lacking a purpose, and it was important for me to find out if I was indeed in the mirror world as claimed or this was just my mind playing tricks. 
Another perplexing matter being, If I am in the mirror world, then who is in the real world?

 

<The information is locked until the main quest-line is finished>

 

Damn your system and the quest-line. I don't care about your system. You can go shut down for all I care. How about we make a deal to not bother each other. 

I must have been visibly fuming because I felt the soft touch of Katya's hand on my thighs. She bought her blossoming face near mine and whispered as warm air tickled my ears, "You might want to keep your legs together unless you want to give Anton a view of your thighs." She smiled as she calmly and unhurriedly pushed my legs together. 

For someone like me who was used to wearing jeans and pants, the policies and intricacies of wearing a skirt were still foreign. 

I gasped at the thought of the mishap that might have transpired, and took a glance at Anton from the corner of my eyes. His eyes were on the road, so I was unsure if he was even aware of what was happening. 
I turned to face Katya with an anxious expression as I pushed my skirt down. She blinked at me and said, "How cute! You were daydreaming so I was just teasing you." trying to assure me that nothing had transpired. 

For good or for worse, I became conscious of the way I was dressed, fidgeting all the way to make sure my dress stayed in place much to the amusement of my sister.  

We soon reached the city center as we were greeted by the scenic beauty of the St. Petersburg city. The Baroque-style buildings enhanced with the sporadic Neoclassical soviet-style architecture made the city a refreshing change to the sky-piercing modern cities around the world.
Our car parked near a mall, which was pretty small compared to the mall I was expecting us to be visiting. 

"Are we not going to Galeria?" I inquired. 

"I am crazy, but not enough to go to such a crowded place. Those shops sell tacky clothes and are a fashion disaster anyways. 
Now this place, on the other hand, is small but has the best and latest trends in fashion." Before I could even ask, I was handed the answer. "Because the people here are the ones who set the trends." 

I shuffled behind her like the ugly duckling following her mama to a whole new world- amazed at the glamorous world she was unaware of.
The shops were like palaces of glass and the floors were covered with carpet. Colorful flowers were neatly lined in pots in the center of the corridor. It felt like I was exposed to a whole new side of the fashion industry. There were all kinds of apparel on the pedestals glistening under the warm lights of the stores. The mannequins were so real that they put dummies in the university to disgrace. 
The whole place smelled foreign and I felt suffocated in the exquisiteness and grandeur of the place. 
 'I do not belong here' is all I could think of.

Katya came over and linked her arms into mine and dragged me along with her. We stopped near a shop that seemed to specialize in women's clothing. Two girls greeted us by the entrance and showed us the way in. The inside of the store was empty and relatively warm, and there were numerous mannequins dressed in elegant dresses and a glass showcase exhibiting various footwear, mostly sandals and heels. 
There was a comfortable couch that seemed really inviting to me, so I decided to do head over and take a seat, remembering to keep my legs together. 

"Where is Enzo?" Katya inquired rolling her hand through a dress on display. 

"Enzo Jean-Pierre at your service." A raucous voice came from behind me. 
I was greeted to a sight of a taut square-faced man with a horseshoe mustache. He was wearing clothes that could only be described as a mystery because I had never seen anything like it before. His pants were tucked inside the knee-high socks and his shirt seemed to have more frills than my own? I was clearly amused at the sight and a chuckle escaped my lips.

"Greetings Miss. Ekaterina, always a pleasure to accompany you." He bowed a little and then turned to me, "And this mademoiselle is?" examining me with his small brown eyes.

"She is my younger sister," she replied nonchalantly and continued browsing through the dresses on display. 

"I see, It looks like your family is blessed by Aphrodite herself. Your sister is also very beautiful, but has a very different demeanor than you." he expressed as while instructing his assistants to go look for something.

"Yeah she is pretty alright. Don't try anything funny with her like you did to me though. Unless you want me to hunt you down." threatened Katya as she finally turned to face Enzo.

"Surely you jest. I am an honorable man, I only do things that people have consented to." 

"Mhm, I trust you alright. Now, back to business, is my gown ready?

I had absolutely no idea what these two were talking about. Yet, I was certain that a lot of words were exchanged between them without being spoken. 

"How can I dare delay the dress that the princess herself requested. I still wish to make a name for myself in this industry." 

My sister sighed and finally succumbed "Enzo, there is no need to behave like that. We have known each other for so long, stop being so pretentious." Before Enzo could even reply, she continued, "Just... okay? Just stop. It's giving me a headache."

I just sat there quietly trying to understand the courtroom proceedings of this garment shop. It felt like the lady held more power in this court than the master himself. I was not judging anyone, but rather, peacefully appreciating the show. 

"I understand, is there anything else you would like my help with?" Enzo now clearly out of his character spoke in precise Russian. 

"Leysan is also looking for a dress. Do you have any casual outfits? Something for daily wear." She blinked at Enzo, waiting for his reply.

"Since you are asking me with those puppy eyes, I will help you out. The fall collection I was working on is almost finished. I will personally pick one out that suits her the best." he raised his hands in defeat.

The short female assistant came over and whispered something in Enzo's ear. He nodded and told Katya to go in the first dressing room to try out her outfit. 
She looked at me with her glittering eyes, "I am going to try the outfit. Go with him and see if you like anything for yourself." and left me behind with those words as she darted away behind curtains with the assistant. 

"Shall we go too?" asked Enzo courteously and extended his hand.
Since it was just the two of us left, I nodded and got up, ignoring the hand he had extended to help me. 
Enzo apparently was frozen in the space as he was still glued to the same position with extended hand. 

"Let's go."

"Ah! yes, my bad. Please follow me." He got out of his shocked expression, gave me a painful smile, and walked towards the other dressing room. 

My jaw almost dropped to the floor as I entered the dressing room. 
What the hell? Is this a dressing room? This is almost as big as the shop outside.
It's good that I had developed a resistance to bizarre things or I would have uttered those words out creating a very awkward scene. The so-called 'dressing room' was huge. It had even more panels on the walls and even more clothing on the hanging displays while the other wall had four wardrobes. 
There was a circular two-stage pedestal in the center with the lights converging in the middle. The top pedestal about two meters in diameter and the one below it a size bigger than that. There were a pair of couch on the left side facing each other and a tea table in the middle.

I was brought back to the mortal realm by Enzo's interruption. "What kind of dress would you like?"

"I am not sure, Do you have something that can be worn casually or just simply while going around the town?" I just blurted out random words hoping that they made sense.

"Sure, would you like to look around yourself, or should I suggest something to you?" He asked with the same plastered smile.

I did not want to embarrass myself any further by pretending to be knowledgeable about something that I was clearly not. The only person left in the room after being abandoned by my sister was this man in front of me. Although, he did not seem reliable due to his patented plastered smile, he was still the owner of the shop, and probably more insightful about the matter at hand.
I was feeling a little confident today, and for some very strange reason, I did not want to lose to him. 
What reason? I don't know that myself, What I did know that I was not willing to back even an inch in front of this man. 

"Sure, surprise me," I replied pridefully.

I am pretty sure that his eyes were trying to shoot lasers at me, however, his mouth was still curved up in a smile. He nodded and motioned towards the couch for me to take a seat. 
It took him about five minutes to pick out three dresses for me. He hung them on the moving clothes rack for display. 
The first one was a sky blue dress with white pearly adornments, it had a puffy half sleeve and a bottom part that fanned out from below the chest. 

"This is a babydoll dress, the sky blue color creates a beautiful harmony with the summer season and the shades of orange in fall brings out the beauty. It is a light dress and is made of pure cotton for the comfort of the person wearing it. You can pair it with a leather or denim jacket in the fall to complete the pairing."

"Moving on to the next one, this is a suit dress and is made to complement women with good figures. It hugs the body tightly to showcase the feminine curves. It is internally lined with silk and is very comfortable. This is one of the most popular dressing styles currently among working women."

"Lastly, this is a light cotton blouse, with short pants. A white top never goes out of fashion. It is made of a thin material and can be paired with dark-colored brassiere "

The second dress was a little raunchy for me, and I would not be comfortable wearing it yet. The last dress had pretty small pants and I was not going to wear something so small anytime soon. The top had no buttons but a cut till the end of the sternum. Although, I did have to concede to the fact that both of these outfits looked pretty good and I definitely wondered what I'd look like in them, I was not bold enough to wear something like that yet. 

I stood up and went over to look at the first dress that had caught my attention. Turning it over, I found that it was a knot it up in the back and exposed a fair amount of skin. I looked at Enzo who was nodding as he was satisfied with his choices. 

 

<<Initiating Instant Quest>>
<<Instant Quest: Try outfits>>

[Description: Try two out of the three outfits]
[Rewards: Gold +10, unlock stat ‘fashion’]

 

This again? Hide this right now. I grimaced as if I had swallowed a mosquito down my throat. 

Standing there, I considered the three dresses in front of me. 
Lost in the thoughts of the system suddenly making a move, I ignored one very simple fact. Call it panic or name it what you will, but I still forgot the fact that this was not a mandatory quest. This was my first mistake.  

I can try this blue dress. It's not bad, but these other two dresses are a nightmare.
Screaming internally, I had to choose one of the two evils. Ultimately, I decided to go with the black suit dress because the white blouse looked scandalous and not something I wanted to wear with my small bra.
This, arguably was my second mistake in the span of a few seconds...

Motioning towards the first and the second dresses, I spoke in a tone befitting a calm a collected woman, "May I try these two outfits?" 

"Sure, over there is the trial room" 

 

<<Quest locked>>

 

I nodded and moved towards the changing room ignoring and hiding the system messages, unaware of the tickling bomb that I had set on myself and the stupid system that clearly had issues with interpretation.