"What the hell do you mean he's not here?!"
About a quarter of the way to the DeGrave building, Yua gave up on the handholding and broke into a full sprint once the excitement got the better of her. I had to work my legs as fast as I could just to keep up and keep her swishing tail in sight. And when the building finally came into view, we both ran even faster. For all our want not to draw attention to ourselves, we sure failed at being inconspicuous fantastically. Turned heads as we ran, earning baffled gasps and pointed fingers, we ran. Just ran. Straight for DeGrave without stopping. I could say with ninety-percent certainty that, had anyone gotten in our way or chosen not to move aside, our momentum would have barreled right through them without so much as an apology, for we would have been long gone by the time we even noticed our mistake.
All that running, all that happiness, only to wind up at the DeGrave Imports' front entrance, exhaustion forcing me to breathe as heavily as though the metaphorical gut punch I was stopped with had been real. Yua, ever the fighter she was, wasn't even slightly tired and took the liberty to ask to see Alphonse for me, only to get flat out rejected. At first, I thought it had something to do with the thugs guarding the place remembering one of the past beatings she'd laid out for them and were just being asses about it, but they kept to their story when asked again.
Utterly dumbstruck, and with an abysmally deep pit growing in my gut, I questioned the man whom I recognized as being the same bald thug that had been guarding the door the first time I stopped by, only to receive a sneer that made my breath catch. He looked at me as though I'd asked him something deeply personal.
"It's like I say," he said, trying to look tough. "He ain't here. Left a while ago."
"Then when will he be back?"
"Dunno."
"But… Argh!" Trying my hardest not to say the words Fire Ball right now, I clenched my fists and drew a deep breath. "Okay, please just listen… I have a contract with him that needs to be paid by the end of the day. Can I just finish the deal with someone else?"
"Mr. DeGrave is the only one that actually sells slaves here. So, no, kid. Ain't nobody here gonna take your coin unless we wanna end up with a collar 'round our neck. And I'm not into that. Now, if you aren't going to wait outside, then piss off! We aren't letting you in 'less he's here."
With an unnecessary grunt to show how much effort it took him to remove his bulk from his guard post leaning against the railing, he stood and stepped towards me. I half got the impression that, if we stayed even a moment longer, he'd shove us back down the stairs and right now, I was tempting to let him start something. I wanted so much to let him know that my level now more than doubled his, just to wipe the bravado off his face. And that was without mentioning how Yua here had already been strong enough to beat him down before we even met, but I couldn't. The sudden change would just raise too many questions. Questions I couldn't afford to be asked of me.
Smiling smugly as he stared me down, probably thinking that the only reason I wasn't putting up my fists to have a go at him was because I was scared, he crossed his arms and stuck out his chin, practically giving me a free shot to knock some shame into him. His sort never learned their lessons unless you beat it into them. But I backed off before he could make me cause myself any more problems.
"Come on, Yua."
"But we finally…!"
I spun on my heel, grabbed Yua's hand before she could say another word and stomped off.
"That bastard!"
"Alex?"
With our chance to finally end this bullshit parade stolen from us, Yua and I were headed back to our room at the Lazy Cat Inn. With those thuggish bastards unwilling to even let us wait in the building, we had nowhere else to go to waste a few hours. So, I figured we could just wait at the inn. I doubted it would help, but it was better than nothing.
Yua easily kept pace with me, but she clearly didn't understand why I was so mad.
"There's still plenty of time left before the day is done. He'll head back eventually. We can just complete the contract later."
"Don't you get it? Yua, Alphonse ran off somewhere because today was the last day. Not only did he not expect us to gather enough money to pay him, he even ran off to make sure we couldn't even if we did. That way, ownership of your contract would automatically revert back to him."
If the contract that I so stupidly agreed to without any negotiation held the stipulation that I actually had to hand him the gold to complete the transaction, then all he needed to do to force me to break my part of the agreement was make it so I couldn't physically hand him the coin. It was just another dirty trick he came up with after seeing that I was fool enough to challenge someone with decades more experience than I had. He must have been planning all of this from the start.
No wonder why he laughed. Not only should it have been impossible for us to make that kind of coin so fast, he even had a contingency in wait just in case we did.
"That's horrible!" Yua cried, grabbing my sleeve as if to protest the truth of my conclusion.
"Yea, it is…"
I was so God damn close!
We had the money. We had more than enough money, and that bastard pulls this cheap trick. Yua and I were so close! So! God! Damn! Close!
I stopped in the middle of the street, clenching my fists hard enough to dig my nails into my palms, hoping the pain could stem the tears threatening to build up from the hateful mixture of anger and sadness. I was of half a mind to run out into the crowd, yell his name at the top of my lungs and punch the first person looking even remotely similar to him in the face. But Yua, sensing this, rushed to my side and took my forearm into her hands and gave it a light, hopeful squeeze.
"Maybe… Maybe he really did just go out for a little while. Maybe he'll be back later."
Of course, that was possible. But seeing as how he forced this screwed up contract on me in the first place, I doubted that he wasn't up to something.
He must have figured out that we found in the dungeon worth something. Figured out the real reason why we were at the auction house yesterday and went into hiding. Hell, Bradley said he wouldn't give out any personal information about his customers, but he was quick to mention Lord Barrily traded in slaves when I asked. And I was just a random nobody to him. He no doubt would have spilled the beans to Alphonse, a valued partner and one of the most prolific merchants in the city. He found out about the ring, discovered its potential value and skipped town just in case, so he could come back with two new slaves waiting for him to sell.
Yua, still trying to comfort me even as I explained this, shook her head.
"You can't just assume that."
"When you lived in the DeGrave building, did you ever see him leave to run errands or something? Did he ever leave for anything other than business?"
"N-No… He usually just made one of us slaves do whatever he wanted done… I even had to go get him food a couple times."
"Well, there you go!"
An arrogant, slave house running bastard like him had to have his slaves handle all his errands. It only made sense. That's basically the whole point of slavery, to force someone else to handle your shit.
"Yua, would trespassing count towards making me a Thief?"
"Um, I don't know. Why?"
"Because I'm half tempted to just teleport into his place, check if he's hiding under his desk laughing at us, so I can drag him out into the hall and beat him over the head with the gold and…"
Fuck. I can't do that either, as tempting as it sounded. Regardless of whether or not he was there, I'd be outing myself for knowing a teleportation spell, since I could accidentally land right in front of him or another member of his staff. That wouldn't be too bad if it meant paying him off, we could just run away somewhere where his influence didn't reach after anyways, but the risk would be too high. If it turned me into a Thief, I'd be handing myself to him on a silver platter before we could even try to pay the debt back. No to mention my knowing that spell would just up the price he'd be able to ask for me, assuming he doesn't keep me around just to gloat once he's turned me.
My magic is useless here. It's still better to just run.
"He's fucked us, then fucked off and left to make sure it stuck!"
Dejected, rejected and for the first time since we've met, looking utterly broken, Yua's hands slipped off of mine and I instantly regretted what I said when her shoulders started to shake. Yua knew more than I ever could about exactly what kind of bastard Alphonse was. She was just trying to look on the brighter side of this shitty situation. Getting mad and yelling at her for trying to calm me down wouldn't solve our problems any more than beating myself up over them would.
The one and only good thing about all of this was her. I don't regret buying her, not one bit where just getting to know her was concerned. But after all our effort, all the times we had to put our lives on the line just to make back what I owed, just for him to pull this shit. It's like I made a deal with the literal devil. I honestly can't believe I ever once compared myself to that man.
"I'm sorry. It's just… I don't want to lose you."
"I don't either. But if he's not there right now, all we can do is wait and hope."
I let out a sigh, positive that I must have looked like a child on the tail-end of a tantrum in the middle of the street as I tried to calm myself. Despite my yelling and the uncomfortable attention it brought on us, Yua took my hand in hers, this time lacing her fingers between mine. This lasted for maybe a second before we embraced each other. I couldn't' be sure which of us broke her rule first, but knowing myself…
Yua didn't fight me on it. Didn't complain. Didn't say a word in protest when I held her as tight as I could, squeezing out as much of the comfort she offered as I possibly could and tried to give as much back. She was almost a full head shorter than me, but for all the strength she put into us just to hold me upright, she might as well have been the older one here.
Her ears gave a cute little involuntary flicks when the heated breaths escaping my nostrils pushed them around. Her tail, limp only seconds ago, now almost seemed to be trying to lull me into a hypnotized sense of relaxation with the ease in which it floated through the air.
The moment she wrapper her arms around me she felt weak, but her strength soon returned as the beating of my heart eased. I don't know how she does it, but within the few seconds we held each other, she was able to bring me back before I could completely give into old habits.
I wasn't going to give this up, ever. If this is how Alphonse has chosen to play, then maybe I should spend the rest of the day setting up my own backup plan while we wait.
"… Let's go do some shopping," I said, trying to walk off, but she stopped me.
"Why shop now?"
"I said we'd run away if we needed to and I meant it. But we'll need some supplies first."
It would probably be safe to assume that we shouldn't head to any other cities for a while yet. With as much influence and resources as Alphonse has, he wouldn't even need to ask the Adventurer's Guild to put a bounty on our capture. He'd no doubt do it himself and that was only if he didn't decide to use his rights as Yua's true master to track her down. So, we'd most likely be living off the land and off whatever we could carry for the time being. And since my item box was bottomless, our only real limitation was how much we could buy tonight.
"You mean… you're giving up?"
"Hell no! I'll do what I can, but if Alphonse doesn't show his face in time, I'm taking you away from this place."
We talked about the possible need earlier and while might need to run for a different reason, the plan hasn't changed. I didn't know when exactly the contract was set to expire, so I'll need to keep an eye on my status page for if and when the Thief tag shows up. That, if anything good could be taken from it, would be an indicator that it was time to leave.
Running from your problems sounded like the coward's way out, but what choice did we really have? A life of enslavement or trying to start a life together somewhere else? It was an easy pick for me and I was sure it was for Yua.
"We have more than enough gold, so let's use it to stock up on the things we'll need to get by. That way, even if Alphonse really has decided to cheat us on the contract, we'll be ready before he can come for us."
If he was going to screw us over, the least I could do was be prepared for it.
Yua's ears twitched and her eyes widened at the prospect of us running away together coming up again. But she nodded and without hesitation. Then, with a tug on the straps of her backpack, she said, "Let's do it. I will carry everything you need me to."
"Thanks, but I'm planning on buying a lot. So, I'll be putting most of it in my item box."
We were going to have to buy up all the necessities we'd need to go on the run, meaning enough food to last weeks if not months, cookware, camping supplies, anything Yua herself could think of that my otherworldly brain wouldn't have been able to consider and so much more that I couldn't have been more grateful to have been given this item box, because on top of everything we already had, carrying it all would have been impossible.
"Hold still a second," I said, putting my hands on her shoulders to spin her around to walk her into a secluded alley.
"What are we doing?"
Her tail curiously thumping against my thigh, I reached into her backpack to retrieve one of the affles we bought earlier. Unfortunately, I hadn't given it enough time to test if could rot in the item box, but when I showed the fruit to her, it looked completely fine. Still a firm, red and with a pleasant shine to its skin. I made sure to check its info box as well, just in case it was somehow magically poisoned by that purple miasma that inexplicably needed to show up every time I used the item box. Thankfully, it showed to be a perfectly normal, not-apple, affle. So, at least the test proved food could be stored in there temporarily without it being altered.
"If food like this will be fine in there," I said, gesturing to her backpack. "Then we should be able to increase the amount of food we can take with us to include pre-cooked meals."
Anything we bought that was already cooked or that was edible as is would be invaluable to a pair on the run, as we wouldn't need to stop and cook. It also meant I'd have an excuse to get Yua to give up more of her favorite food stalls.
"Since we use the item box for food," I said, putting the fruit back. "Why don't you show me to some more places to get food. We'll order as much as we can."
Her ears shot to attention and she spun around before I could completely tie up her bag. With a happy grin wide enough to show that she already had several places in mind, she nodded, grabbed my hand and we set off towards the first of many stores we'd be visiting. Amoranth was a great trading hub, and I intended to make great use of that fact.
From the General Store, to the Apothecary and to the most popular and most remote food stalls, we bought and collected as many necessities as we could. After a couple hours of stocking up on a fairly large array of household and camping goods, the easy part was done. Switching to focus the majority of our attention on grabbing a healthy supply of foods, we filled Yua's bag until couldn't carry any more, hid ourselves behind a building, in an alley or behind a large tree or anywhere else where we could have a moment of privacy and I spirited everything into the item box so we could start again. First, we bought up all of the long-lasting foods we could find at the General Store to make sure we had food for a while yet. Though most of these foods were either dried or salted meats, only some of which I was familiar with and none that I was looking forward to sampling later.
Once we cleared these stops, we made our rounds to each and every food stall that offered either fresh or freshly cooked food stuffs that Yua managed to sniff out or whose locations I'd memorized during our earlier trips. Much to the delight of each of these vendors, we bought up as much of their stock as they would allow. A few of the smaller vendors let us buy all they carried and were exceedingly happy to get to retire early for the night with their purses practically spilling over, but many more favored their ability to feed their more frequent customers to keep them coming, which they couldn't do if we cleared them out.
We went into this little shopping spree worried, but hopeful for our future. And as we fought against the flow of the crowd pushing and pulling us from stall to stall so that we could get what we could before it was too late, that feeling only seemed to grow. But only at first. As we ended our days of frugality by blowing as much of our hard-earned coin as we could on everything that looked even remotely necessary, it started to feel less like we were soon-to-be-fugitives on the run and more like we were a pair of newlyweds discussing picking out sets of dinnerware before moving into their new house together. And as soon as I made that connection, I actually started to enjoy myself. Watching our savings slowly chip away with each purchase and feeling nothing but the warmth that came with Yua pulling me all over the place, it felt sort of like our little would-be-date from last night had continued through to this morning and right up until now, but it was necessity that drove us, not love.
That is not to say that there wasn't any there, of course. For my part, I could barely contain myself whenever Yua switched from dutifully pointing out which pots and pans would be best suited for cooking over an open fire, only to end up visibly trembling in an attempt to prevent herself from drooling all over the pre-cooked meats that her nose alone found especially delicious before het tastebuds could even have a say, was nothing if not hilarious. Especially when you factored in the bewildered look of the cooks that watched with slack-jawed disbelief as I stuffed plate after plate of their freshly cooked meals into her bag, instead of eating them.
Not that I was the only one finding some joy in this, as Yua giggled to herself each and every time we tried to buy a slice of meat, vegetable or piece of fruit that I couldn't name or that was named differently than its Earthen counterpart. She did try to hide behind her admittedly gracious and informative explanations, but that her smirk of hers couldn't have been wiped away if she tried. She was the one born to some forest tribe somewhere, but as she lectured me on the true name of the meat we'd eaten for dinner last night and described the animal it came from, which I could only assume was a sheep from how she described its fur, I felt like I was the one that had been hiding under a rock. However, no matter how many times she had to stop me from making a fool of myself when asking a vendor for food by a name only I was privy to, she never once looked bothered for having to help.
Seeing her still so happy despite the cruel situation I convinced her we were in store for, it didn't take long for me to decide it was best to just enjoy what time we had left in the city. It could be our last for a long while, if not forever. So, after our supply of food was abundant enough to make a glutton look upon us with a worldly nod of respect, we continued our shopping with the things we didn't necessarily need, but that I thought would be best to own since we still had a healthy supply of gold to carry us.
"I think the next thing we're going to need is some armor," I said, mentally checking our stash of gold to see how bad our spree hit us so far.
"Armor? I thought we were doing fine."
"In the dungeons, maybe. But I'm talking about if and when Alphonse and his goons come for us."
If the need arose and we were ambushed somewhere after fleeing Amoranth, we'd have to fight our way to freedom again. We'd likely be able to just teleport away if we were attacked, but we had to last long enough for me to activate my spell. And that means, if worse came to worse, we'd need to be able to take a hit.
Yua nodded somberly at this possibility.
"You think the blacksmith has anything you'd be okay wearing?"
She'd outright rejected the idea of me buying her a weapon when we first started in the dungeons, but I didn't ask about armor, which was probably more important to a melee specialist like her. Even if she was a great fighter, it'd be best if she protected herself a little more, instead of over-relying on her agility. That gash she'd received from the Proud Great Wolf may not have happened had she'd been properly armored and I'd like to not have to have the same happen should we end up in a fight again.
She, however, shook her head rapidly to reject the idea, but not for the reason I would have thought.
"You don't want any of armor the blacksmith sells. She only makes the heavier plate and chain mails. Something like that wouldn't be good for either of us."
"What? Are they too bulky?"
I'd seen a documentary or two on just how restrictive full sets of armor could be for the wearer because such armors were designed to protect as much of the body as possible, obviously. So, weight of the metals aside, I figured it'd be too restricting on her due to how she fought. She loved fighting, but saying I just wanted to help her by forcing such a thing on her would just be me getting in the way of her strange hobby.
But as for myself, it was an entirely different story. I could easily imagine myself, walking through the dungeons in a set of full plate mail, laughing as the wolves shattered their teeth as they tried to bite me and as the goblin's spears bounced off of me, all while I, untouched by the thought of danger, blasted them with my magic. A mobile fortress with the ability to fight back.
"That's not the only problem," she said, puling me out of my daydream. "The metals they are made of would make you too slow."
"That's true, I guess," I said with a small sigh.
Those types of tanky builds didn't generally allow for high mobility as you were supposed to be taking the hits your weaker teammates couldn't, so they could piggy-back off your efforts to deal some damage. If I were to wear such a thing, while I surely wouldn't take as much damage from each individual hit, I'd likely end up taking more of them than I would otherwise. And I wasn't practicing my dodging in the dungeon, just to get into the habit of letting things hit me in the face.
"Well, there has to be somewhere that has something better for us, right? Unless all the Adventurers go out of their way to buy their gear from another city."
Yua touched a finger to her chin as we walked the city streets and thought for a second or two before making a suggestion.
"I think the city Armorer would be best. You could probably get a good robe there."
"Haha. Thanks, but no. No robes. At least, not unless they have some sort of enchantment on them."
"Why not?"
"Because of my abilities," I said, leaning in to whisper low enough for only her to hear. "I can cast magic without saying a word and can hide weapons in another dimension. Because of this, I should be able to keep what I can really do a secret for the most part."
For the same reason why I thought seeing people's info boxes gave me the unfair advantage of seeing their class before a fight, walking around in a mage's robe would just make it obvious that I could use magic and I'd rather not telegraph what I can do to our potential enemies. Aside from the need to wear your weapon on your person, I never understood why games tended to lock characters into armor types more stereotypically suited to their classes. Sure, the character's strength needed to be taken into consideration, but strength can be improved through effort.
Come to think of it, once I put enough points into my Strength stat, maybe I could make that idea of becoming a tanky mage a reality, once I was strong enough to move as easily in armor as I could outside of it. It'd at least save Yua from needing to protect me so much.
"You don't need to worry about that," Yua said with a grin. "I'll protect you no matter what."
"Thanks, but I'm pretty sure I should be the one protecting you."
Even I have some pride, you know?
"Then you'll have to get a lot stronger. But since I'll be getting stronger too… I'm sure you can do it."
"Oh? Sounds like someone's getting cocky again."
"Hehehe."
Unsure if I should take that as a slight against my potential or a boast towards her own, I laughed it off. She giggled, changing direction from our mostly aimless wondering through the merchant's district, and started towards the Armorer.
Along the way, we agreed to get us both something light to wear for now. With the "for now" being emphasized when Yua ended up boasting that she could wear any armor just fine, while jokingly jabbing me with the fact that her earlier consideration was mainly for me and my weakness. But in truth, I knew the sorts of armors I was imagining would just get in her way, so we'd just see what they had before making a decision.
It's not like I had anything in particular in mind when I suggested we look, anyways. I just didn't want to feel like I'd get one-shot after every slip up I would inevitably make. Yua's Healing Punch may have healed me up to full, but I swear I could still feel where the trent hit me.
The outside of the building was strikingly similar to that of the blacksmith's, burning forge and all. It might have even been designed by the same person, as my improved memory told me that the only points of interest where the two differed were the fact that the Armorer clearly took better care to keep the place looking as tidy as possible and that they didn't leave random metal scraps and tools lying about. And if the light burning inside the shop that filtered into the dusk already in the sky was anything to go off of, the Armorer was inside tending to the shop instead of working the forge.
When we entered the shop, we were met with shelves full of folded up lighter armors and other leather works such as aprons, gloves, boots and even more basic clothes like the sorts of leather pants Yua was wearing. The heavier armors incapable of being stored away discretely were few and were displayed in the open, each either looking like they were supposed to have been worn by some famous general ripe for entry into the history books or were imposing enough to appear in the sorts of dreams you could only have after months on the battlefield. Although this effect was substantially lessened by the bright pink skin of the mannequins propped up to wear them. Likewise, upon closer inspection, a few of the dustier armors had some similarly questionable designs and colors to them.
As jarring as the choice in mannequins meant to proudly display this shop's handiwork was and, going along with the vibrant color scheme that felt like a slap to the face of any manly-man that set foot in this place, there was a large bundle of flowers that had been woven into some kind of wreath hung over a box filled with armored gauntlets of various mismatching qualities. A bargain bin of sorts, I guessed.
Feeling as though we'd walked into the wrong place, I glanced at Yua, who just smiled back, easily unconcerned.
As distracting and out of place as the decor was, in this shop supplying the public with some of the only means for defense any would-be warrior or Adventurer could hope to purchase, my eyes were then immediately drawn to the large, imposing man that stood tall behind the counter. A feather duster pinched carefully between his thumb and index finger; he dusted another ornately designed breastplate that hung on the wall.
It wasn't his dusting that surprised me, but how, when we walked into the shop and the door jingled the bell to alert him to our presence, his back stiffened and his elbows tucked themselves into his sides as his hands shot defensively into the air. He looked very much the way a woman might right before she screamed at the sight of a rodent scampering out from under the pantry door.
He, thankfully, did not scream in terror when he saw us. Instead, he clapped his hands together, careful not to drop his duster.
"Welcome to the Amoranth's Armorer. Whether you are buying or selling, I'm sure we have what you are looking for.~"
We were greeted by a muscular, bearded man with a bald head that fit my idea of a foragemaster much more than that tank-top woman I met yesterday did. However, this guy talked with a strikingly flamboyant vibrato to his voice that was a little off putting. Tucked away beneath his scraggly beard was a pair of smiling lips that at once looked to be inviting us to his shop, but that also looked like they'd been bitten by a snake just the day before.
"Uh, hi. I'm looking to buy some armor for this girl and myself. Preferably something light like leather, but with some good defense."
"Yes, yes. Can't let your Monk there get weighed down by something too heavy, can you?~"
"How did you know I was a Monk?" Yua said, her ears flicking with curiosity. Dressed as she was, she didn't look like any sort of fighter, so I understood her surprise.
"Oh, dear," he chided gently, almost like a mother would a child that wasn't hers to scold. "Why because of your ears and tail first, obviously. You're from the northern tribe of cat-folk, aren't you? But I can also tell because I can feel your strength from all the way over here!~ Ooh! So strong!"
Excited to have her strength acknowledged by someone other than myself for once, Yua's tail suddenly whipped up a frenzy that made the Armorer giggle. And yes, I mean that. This man whose biceps were bigger than my head didn't laugh, didn't chortle, didn't snicker or guffaw, he giggled. Fingertips sheepishly hiding his snake-bite lips, he giggled at Yua's enthusiastic and very toothy grin.
"Her class aside," I said, blinking hard to see if my eyes were working and if a woman was standing behind and speaking for him. "What would you recommend for her?"
"You want to set her up first? Okay then. Let's see what we're working with."
He held his chin between his thumb and index finger and looked her up and down. For some reason, I didn't get the same perverted feeling coming off of this guy that the other guys around the city had when taking too long to accidentally notice her. Possibly because the way his knees bent inwards in an overtly girly pose was a little too distracting.
"Hmm. Let's see what I have for you."
He crossed the shop in front of us to pull down a set of leather armor from one of the many shelves, nearly causing an avalanche of leather when the various sets behind that one tried to fall with it. When he quickly dusted off the leathery bundle to better show its light brown coloring before frowning and putting it back to pick out another, I was forced to look past the brightly colored room and take in exactly how many sets of armor this shop actually had up for sale. I couldn't put a realistic number to a guess, but it was definitely enough for the sets that had been sitting for a while to gather dust. Must have fits for every body type or something.
Maybe I was right in assuming that the forge and now whatever he used to make these were magic items that eased the process of making them enough to warrant keeping such a healthy stock. Then again, maybe it just had something to do with Adventurers repeatedly bringing furs and such out of the dungeon to sell.
Curious to see how this man produced so many sets of leather goods, I checked his info box. All that I got out of it, though, was that he was just an Armorer and that his name was Garfield. Maybe his class has some ability that makes leather working easier.
"Here you go, Miss. I think this top should fit you perfectly."
Satisfied with his second selection, Garfield held out what he claimed to be a leather top, but where I was expecting a jacket, it instead looked more like a vest, as it was perfectly sleeveless. While I couldn't be sure without her putting it on first, it didn't look like it was long enough to reach down all the way to her navel, meaning her stomach would be completely exposed. More striking was the fact that, if she put that thing on, it no doubt would show off more of her cleavage than the shirt she was wearing already did. This was due primarily to how low cut its collar was, but also because the collar was held together by several leather strings, as if Garfield knew a woman's bust might accidentally spill out if not tied down. I couldn't quite decide if the exposure was worth the distraction on the battlefield.
No, realistically, it wasn't. Aside from where my eyes may wonder, this thing didn't magically make her skin more durable like those bikini armors supposedly did. This would just be something that looked sort of sexy while not offering much in terms of defense. She could just wear a t-shirt beneath it if the lack of coverage bothered her, but the lack of protection on her stomach and lower back bothered me.
Still, I had to admit, the tight, but wild design of the thing did fit with her Beast-Warrior aesthetic nicely, even if she was a Monk at heart.
"This vest will protect your vitals without fail! There's even plenty of room for your arms to move, so you can hit, punch and hit anyone dumb enough to get in your way. Or you can just show off those great big biceps of yours.~"
Enjoying his praise, she looked it over too, but focused more on the pants he handed her with the set. They looked to be just as tight as what she was already wearing, but were a little thicker, better made and much more durable. After running her hand over them to test the quality of the material, she handed them back before I could ask why he didn't pick out a top that offered just as much coverage.
"The top is perfect for how I fight, but these pants are too restricting."
"Oh, my! Well, if you are looking for something with a bit more movement, then I can recommend this instead.~"
Before I could offer up the idea of him loosening up or stretching the pants somehow, Garfield pulled down a smaller piece of leather. It was worked into a pair of short shorts that looked like they would provide no coverage at all. I was growing even more concerned for her safety when Yua started looking at them with a favorable smile on her lips, but I had to admit that I really wanted to see her wearing them.
"This looks good," she turned her smile to me and I quickly shook the image of her wearing nothing but those shorts out of my head. "Is it okay to get these?"
"Are you sure? Neither of those looks like they'll cover you all that much."
"Of course! That's what makes them good. Leather that covers my whole body would just end up tearing every time I fought. And Mas… And you'd just end up paying to have it fixed all the time."
I hadn't considered her potential armor tearing, but when I considered how she was strong enough to lift up a mass of stone at least eight feet wide and how the leather would get in her way, she was right. There would be no way something with more coverage wouldn't tear and forget me, she'd end up too distracted in trying to cover herself if that happened in a fight. Forget the coin it'd take to fixt them, we had the money now to not have to worry about that. I was more worried about the danger she'd be in if she tried to fight someone or something while trying to cover her chest.
Still, that must have been why she rarely kicked anything in the dungeon. She was worried her one and only pair of pants would rip. Definitely going to have to rectify that here soon.
"Well, if you think you can fight better in those."
"I definitely can!"
"Then we'll get them," I said with a small nod to Garfield. "Then, if she's all set, what can you recommend for me?"
Happy to receive yet another gift, Yua folded-up the set of leather armor and held it lovingly to her chest while Garfield took his time looking me over, but not quite in the same way he did Yua. He really took his time. And if I wasn't mistaken, the way he was eyeing me, focusing on certain parts of my anatomy more than other, he looked exactly like how the drunks in the Adventurer's Guild looked at Yua.
I felt a shiver run up my spine when he spoke again.
"Oh ho… For you, I recommend this.~"
He pulled out another set of leather armor and thankfully, it looked to offer much more body coverage. The top looked similar to the one he gave Yua, but mine had shining metal plates stitched onto it to cover my vitals. From the looks of it, the plates could easily be removed if they ended up getting in the way, but they didn't look heavy enough to warrant cutting them out. The pants were also lightly armored and looked a lot more loose-fitting and comfortable than what he offered Yua. So, I gave the okay on that as well.
"Oh, Alex," Yua said, her eyes glittering. "I think that would be perfect for you."
"Hold on, Miss. There's more to it. I have something that would go perfect with that. One second."
Dashing, or should I say skipping over to another corner of the shop, Garfield produced another useful addition to my new set of armor. He handed me a long dark blue cloak with a furred hood that he'd pulled off of a hook under some shelves lined with helmets. It was long enough to cover almost my entire body and while it didn't look like it could offer any more protection than a regular shirt could, once I noticed how long the sleeves were, I thought up several uses for it that I could imagine using frequently.
Sensing my approval, Garfield nodded to himself and thumped his meaty hands onto his hips.
"I knew you'd like that. Any good Mage should have a cloak if he's not wearing a robe. And that armor, while light, should be able to protect you in case any of those nasty monsters slip past your cat-girl here and manage to hit you."
"Yea… But how did you know I was a Mage?"
"Oh? Easy. You came in here to buy armor, but you didn't have a weapon on you and you don't really carry yourself like a fighter. So, I figured you were either a Mage that didn't need one, or you chose to buy armor instead of a weapon. And while that would make my little ol' heart happy, you'd be a fool for choosing to buy armor first. Even if it's mine. You can't beat up a monster with just armor, can you? Oh, well, maybe this big strong cat-girl could?"
"Definitely!"
"Oh my! So strong! You definitely gotta protect this boy, Miss."
"I'll do my best!"
Yua flexed her bicep and Garfield played at being scared, while I just stood there, dumfounded and gawking at how I'd been seen through yet again while the two fooled around. I admired him just a tad for being able to speak to someone like her so openly and so easily after only just meeting, but having the things I meant to be a secret yanked into the light with seemingly little effort was starting to get to me.
Then again, I guess he's seen through Yua too. Maybe it's just part of the job… Somehow.
"… Thank you."
Watching the two talk, Garfield possibly just buttering her up to buy more of his stuff and her eating it right up, I suppose him knowing I was a Mage wasn't a big deal. So long as he never found out what spells I knew, anyways. That was one troublesome secret I'd rather keep from the public.
I tried on the cloak, readying myself to ignore the two fooling around for a bit of testing before I bought it. Careful to make sure he was able to see what I was doing, I closed and buttoned the cloak and, with my hand inside of and covered by the oversized sleeve, I quietly accessed my item box while trying not to let on that I was gauging his reaction. I pulled out a random item and immediately put it back. Thankfully, Garfield never seemed to notice what I was doing, meaning the sleeve was able to contain both the miasma and my actions.
This would save me from needing to use my pouch or Yua's backpack every time I needed to grab something out of my item box. And aside from larger object, I could do it while standing perfectly still. It might even be possible to hide a sword beneath this thing. The thought almost made me feel like he should advertise it as perfect for the potential fugitive on the run.
"How do you like it?~" Garfield said, fluttering his eyelashes.
"It's, uh… It's great. I'll take the leather armor and the cloak. Oh, and could you get her a cloak like mine, please."
"Right away, Sir!~"
After resisting Garfield's awkward attempt at getting me to try on the armor in the store, I braved stepping past him to hurriedly stack up a total of 70 silvers on his silver tray since he didn't offer it to me. As I did this, Yua stuffed the armors, cloaks and the twin pair of leather gloves I thought we might need into her bag. Now that her bag was filled and once more in need of emptying, we left the shop.
"Do come again! I can mend your armor if you ever need it! Don't be shy!"
Because we had the time and after emptying Yua's bag in the alley behind the Armorer's shop, we decided to check in again at DeGrave imports, only for his thugs to once more push us away. I again considered the pros and cons of teleporting inside, but now that we weren't so heated, Yua took a good whiff of the air and confirmed that he hadn't been by in a while.
So, we had nothing left to do but head to the next shop and try again later.