He pauses, and gently pulls out a two-piece dress from the bottom.
No, wait—how could that 'thing' be dress?! It lacks too much cloth to be called a dress! Who would wear that?
Obrecht, "..."
"..." Who would wear...
Obrecht with his fixed gaze at me, "..."
"..."
"Vi—"
"No."
I stand abruptly and dash away with Obrecht on my heels.
There is no way I'll be wearing something so skimpy! Absolutely not!
Half an hour later—
"..."
"Next please", a guard yells somewhere ahead of us.
Standing in line, I play with the thin purple Gypsy's veil that covers half of my upper face. It was the easy-to-see-through type of cloth but distorts the line of sight at a certain distance. The bangles on my wrist, arms and ankles are heavy, and the ornaments on my hair are itchy to my scalp. The upper part is a short off-shoulder blouse, and the lower part are bulky leg-pants that have a top-to-bottom slit that makes my legs feel breezy.
"..." Why do I have to wear this veil along with this annoyingly thin and skin-exposing Gypsy outfit?!
I take a deep breath and try to relax, ignoring the increasingly urging itch on my scalp. It's a good thing that the 'dress' was bulky enough to hide my inadequacy in certain 'compartments', particularly, the chest area. I sigh.
"...Why are smiling like that?"
Obrecht looks away to hide his face. "No reason", he says, "Just... it's nice to have just the two of us."
If Laris heard that, he just might get angry. Admittedly though, it does feel nice to be alone together. We haven't been spared from lightbulbs and third parties ever since we made up.
Obrecht watches around us silently while we wait in line. As much as I'd love to savor the moment, I have my priorities; the more we move up the line, the more detailed the escape route in my head gets sketched out.
"Next... Name?"
"Oberto", Obrecht answers. "Oberto Caelholdt." His stance completely changes. He wore my magic imbued coat, his sword, wrapped in white cloth, blatantly strapped over on his back. If it wasn't for the sword, he could've pulled off the mage-look just fine.
"Occupation and race?" The guard looks at Obrecht, judging him.
"Swordsman, Sorcerer-kind."
"How come I haven't seen you leaving Evidna before?"
Obrecht, "We usually travel by broom. And my workplace is inside Lycan Kingdom so I seldom come to the home."
The population of the Sorcerer-kind was by far, third in the continent, so there was no way for them to tell who's who. We were riding on this chance to pull through fooling them.
"Why didn't you travel by broom then?" The guard scrutinized Obrecht, as if doubtful of the information he provided. Sure enough, he asked again, "Are you sure you're a Sorcerer-kind?"
Obrecht, "Yes. What, you're doubting me too?" Dissatisfied, he crosses his arms.
Another guard approaches with intrigue displayed on his face. He asks, "Too?"
People do love their daily gossip.
"Lost a lot of clients in the North, bah~" Obrecht grumpily waves a hand. "Every time I offer my expertise, they say it's more convenient to buy a magic sword or item—that I ask for too much. Bah! They don't know what they're missing out on!"
"What's your expertise, brother?" The second guard laughs amusedly, leaving the first guard to loosen his tension.
"I'm an expert at integrating my magic and my swordsmanship. You know how you need to imbued magic while you're crafting weapons for it to be a magic weapon? Basically, I thought, why can't I do the reverse of that and practice magic that can make any weapon a magic weapon?" Obrecht does a little demonstration of lighting his sword on fire.
"Cool~!"
"Then, how are you not traveling by broom right now?" The first guard repeats the unanswered question, not intending to give it up.
I tensely flex my bare toes on the ground, feeling a small network of my shadows spread underground just in case.
"Ai, brother", the second guard clasps the shoulder of the first guard. "You didn't know? Haven't you heard of the broom travel ban from the brass yet? Then you probably don't know about our replacements arriving soon, do you?"
"When was the ban approved? What replacements?" The two guards went to the side discuss for a moment before returning.
The first guard, "Seriously, is nobody telling me things anymore." He shakes his head. "You can pay two silvers there and you're good to go."
"And her?" The second guard gestures at me. "Oh~ Is this a legendary beauty?!"
He comes closer, crouching to try and see the rest of my face. I inch behind Obrecht.
"Are you with her", the first guard asks Obrecht.
"This is Vid...rohati."
I secretly pinch his waist. Of all the people, you choose Tita Rohati's name? Are you inadvertently telling me to polish up her and Tito Otis' teachings because I still haven't been able to beat you even once yet? I pinch harder; though even if I did that, the professional mask on Obrecht's face won't crack.
"Her name's Vidrohati?"
"Vidrohati Bydern."
The guard repeats my 'name' and comments, "Unusual name. Occupation and race?"
Obrecht, "Oh, she's my slave. I bought her years back—assists me in my work and life."
"A slave—so she's Korrigan? She doesn't look like she has wings—she a Wingless, brother?"
I'm right here. You're speaking as if I'm the equivalent of a voiceless object that already has an owner.
"Yes", Obrecht smiled.
The first guard, "Why is her hair black? Don't the Korrigan-kind have golden locks? Show me her slave mark."
"We're matching right now", Obrecht points to his hair, so genuinely happy that my eyes stray to the ground. "Besides, it's also camouflage when hunting at night. You'd rather not stand out in front of vicious beasts." He then pulls up his sleeve, "I put her mark somewhere only I can see ah", he suggestively said. "If you want to see the master's mark counterpart, you can look at mine."
Both guards leaned over curiously to peek at said mark.
"Sister, we've been talking for so long, why don't you show your face for a while and we'll let you through—"
The hand that reached out to lift my veil was grasped by Obrecht.
"Three silvers, no, four silvers if you want to look at my slave's face."
"Eh? That much?"
"Uh uh, don't think it's pricey! Do you know how much I spent just to have her? Why did you think I made her wear a veil?"
The guards looked enlightened, "So her beauty won't attract trouble!"
Obrecht righteously denied, "Yes! No! It's so she won't be too shy when I kiss her—" He pecks my lips in front of people. It was already done by the time I reacted with hitting him with a fist and covering my lips with my hand for safe-guarding.
"Ahaha! Genius. So that's why."
"Brother, you made her shy ahaha."
"Excuse me", the impatient person behind us hollers. "But how long does this typically take?"
"Ai, we're finishing." The first guard proceeds to hand us two pieces of certified paper. "Pay four silvers for the both of you over there. These are your passes."
Obrecht, "Thank you. Sorry to take so much or your time." He bowed his head slightly to express his sincerity as we pass through and enter the city.
I shyly whisper to Obrecht, "Why did you show my mark on you? They might have realized your lie because or it."
"The both of them didn't look like they're rich enough to afford a slave. If they couldn't afford, then they wouldn't know about wither slave or master's mark."
"...Oh." I pause. "Who's Caelholdt?"
"That's Girtro's last name."
"...And Bydern?"
"That's...Theo's last name." He scratches the back of his ear.
"..." Let's pretend we never asked that or else I just might feel guilty for revealing and using their names.