Daniel began to watch the scene with interest, and then it hit him. Melissa had cut off part of her dress at the bottom. It was the one that had turned to rags and was in the way as they walked through the woods, although he thought she was doing it more for the peace of mind of her aesthetic appearance. Whatever the case, he raised his opinion of her a little in his mind.
He didn't know how much such a dress cost, but he could guess that ordinary people couldn't even dream of buying clothes made of such material without breaking their budget. Usually, everyone sewed their own clothes from hemp cloth that would not spoil from excessive humidity, from cloth that was bought for the whole family or even the village.
The girl's dress, on the other hand, was made of what looked like cotton with silk trimmings. Perhaps even she did not know how much her clothes cost, for she came from a wealthy family. Danielle, on the other hand, had clothes made of the same material, but the Herald had bought them without telling her how much they cost.
The Herald had tried more than once to train him to wear such clothes, causing more and more arguments between them, but Daniel still preferred clothes made from parts of animals he killed and then sewed with his own hands. However, in the last few days he had managed to make a cloak entirely from materials he had found in the forest, and then he had made some rough preparations so that the cloak wouldn't disintegrate on the way. However, due to the quick drying of the leather and the drying of the small tendrils he used to hold the threads together, the cape was not very elastic and prickled at the neck where he had attached a fur collar to the leather with small tendrils.
The girl had already done her manipulations with the dagger and the dress, but it was very rough and uneven, so Daniel simply walked over and took the dagger from her without asking, then gently pulled the hem of the dress towards him with his hands.
Melissa was about to burst out, but she noticed that he was looking very intently at the dress and carefully straightening the fabric at the bottom of the dress, so she wasn't sure how to react, but she remained silent with a nervous face. Daniel then found a stone nearby to sharpen the dagger, which was all jagged.
After sharpening the blade, he gave a small nod of satisfaction, then began to carefully cut the cloth along the line he had constructed in his mind.
With another nod, he motioned for Melissa to stand.
The girl hesitated for a few moments, but stood up anyway, horrified. She knew she'd cut the dress rather crooked, but she hadn't thought the man would be able to cut it so straight with the weight.
"How's that? Is that better?" With a smug smile, the guy decided to inquire.
"Well..." Melissa said a little surprised, but then remembered who she was talking to and continued with a nervously dismissive tone, "You seem to be good at something, but there are still threads sticking out and the line isn't too straight!"
"I'm sorry, Princess!" Daniel, embarrassed that he had decided to help out of the goodness of his heart and had his actions disregarded once again, continued in an intriguingly unnatural tone. "You can look around here for thread and needles and I'll make a trim in this part for your comfort and if you don't mind the whole bottom being pieced up, I can use my pathetic skills to use vines for that."
"Hmpf" Melissa realised that she had been wrong to treat his work like that, but she didn't want to apologise to this guy, it had been too long since he had treated her so badly. In her mind, though, she marvelled at the fact that maybe he didn't annoy her so much anymore.
She didn't know if he was annoying her by acting like he was much older than her, calling her petty and ordering her to obey him, or if it was her defence against all the new things she had encountered during her time in the forest while she was not under the eternal control of her family. Still, she only knew about the outside world from books, and she couldn't imagine what would happen to her if she were left alone in the forest.