"Why visit so many shops when this one is fine? Actually I think these clothes are pretty good. They're sturdy!" Cyra said, tugging hard on the clothes she just bought. Seeing they didn't tear, she nodded with satisfaction.
Even though we've become girls now, it doesn't mean Cyra and I enjoy bouncing between different shops comparing things endlessly, wasting time for no reason. She has always cared most about value for money and efficiency, though I'm not sure what she's in such a rush for...
"How does this look?" I held up a dress next to me, tried it on in the mirror, and decided to ask for an opinion.
"It looks great! Actually you look good in anything!" Adrian's eyes lit up and he quickly gave his approval. But I was worried the dress might be a bit short. What if I got into a fight - would it show too much?
Looking at the pants outfit in my other hand... Forget it, only kids make choices. I'll take all of these. It's not like we're short on money!
"What about you?" After paying and leaving the store, we realized Adrian hadn't bought anything! He just waited for us in the shop. Didn't they sell men's clothes too?
"It's okay, why don't we look over there?" He pointed across the street to the bustling Adventurers Guild.
Like other big cities, a prosperous place like Crescent City would definitely have an Adventurers Guild. As soon as we entered the hall, our eyes lit up. It was so luxurious - beautiful decorations, over 10 quest counters side by side! This place alone was several times bigger than the guild in the capital, at least as big as a football field. Standing at the entrance, even angel eyes couldn't make out the writing on the quest board on the opposite wall.
It was impressive, but I was thinking about checking my account status. My account was under investigation in the holy city guild because of Carl the coachman's death, and I needed to complete the Vivianne rescue quest. But Adrian just said hello and walked straight to the guild's own shops across from the counters.
"How's this? I just changed my whole outfit." When he came out again, he was no longer wearing his noble clothes from when he was king. Now he wore the adventurer outfit from when we first met.
Cyra and I have mixed feelings about that adventurer outfit! It's very sturdy and durable. As the guild's signature equipment, the quality is excellent and the price is very reasonable. But it also brings back bad memories from Makalan city, where it gave us so much trouble we were traumatized! So none of us had worn it since then.
"He's about the same height and build as Nicola. Since he likes it so much, maybe we could give him that outfit as hand-me-downs?" Cyra suggested, staring at Adrian. She meant the adventurer outfit Nicola finally took off, which was still in a corner of my storage ring. Since these clothes are designed for practicality, not gender, both men and women can wear them.
"We can't do that!" I didn't agree of course. After all, that outfit got a corner burned when Nicola was fighting the male phoenix. It's damaged now. At most I keep it as a spare, I don't even want to wear it myself usually, let alone give it to someone else.
"Why don't we get some other clothes? It seems cheap to only wear this one type," I suggested, even though Adrian does look very handsome and capable in the adventurer outfit.
"It's fine, I bought several sets like Cyra did. It's enough to wear for a long time!" But he was stubborn about this. After trying to convince him several times with no luck, I had to give up.
Next we continued sightseeing. Unlike other cities, Crescent City's buildings seemed to follow the high tower style completely. Even many residential houses had pointed tower-shaped roofs that tourists might mistake for chimneys.
Stolen story; please report.
"What! Reed didn't come back at all?" While having a quick lunch with Adrian, I got this worrying news during a spirit call with Edenmere.
According to Elara, Reed only sent the "Eye of Galadra" through the portal she opened in the Crestvale Republic, but didn't come through herself. There had been no contact since then.
"It's only the second day. Even for regular check-ins it wouldn't be this fast. Relax! That girl is actually very clever, and Mia flew over to protect her too!" Cyra waved her hand, seeming not to care at all. But this earned her a scolding from Elara.
"Reed isn't like you. Her research and inventions are very useful for Edenmere. Can you guarantee her absolute safety? Don't forget you still need Feliciana's protection, with no improvement at all! I heard the True Church's pope even sacrificed himself on the battlefield to save you. This is a big deal! If the church people use this against us, where will we angels show our faces?"
"But I've already advanced to six wings now! And Feliciana and the others only just..." Cyra couldn't help defending herself in a wronged voice, but...
"You dare mention that! Don't you know where those six wings really came from? And can you use high-level magic? How's your sword training? Can you defeat opponents at the same level?"
Faced with this grilling from the other end of the spirit network, Cyra shrank back and didn't dare say anything more. To be fair, she's not completely unskilled. She knows some low and mid-level magic at least, not to mention that Source magic she "learned" in a pinch. That's a hugely powerful killer move!
But Source magic is officially a gift Elara gave me as a reward. She didn't dare tell Elara she learned it from me, so she could only accept the scolding meekly like an ostrich.
"So it's still safer to learn more high-level magic to protect yourself. If there's anything you don't understand, I can teach you too." The call finally ended. Seeing her hanging her head unable to look up, I fell into my usual nagging state and reminded her as always. But Cyra still didn't listen, ignoring it as usual.
Actually, I haven't reported my relationship with Adrian to Elara either. It's another headache.
I'll have to find a chance to bring it up later. Relationships between angels and humans are very rare, especially among the conservative old fogies in the angel council. If they found out they'd definitely oppose it strongly. Elara is more of a moderate, so I really can't predict her reaction.
Today was a rare leisure day. The afternoon of sightseeing passed in the blink of an eye. Even with Cyra as a third wheel, we still had a lot of fun. In the evening we turned down Adonis's offer of accommodation and settled into the Adventurers Guild's inn instead.
This was where we had agreed to meet Nicola. The inn's facilities were quite good. The downside was the mix of guests - noisy people with varying manners in the lobby, and very expensive rates.
Since it's the guild's inn, they know adventurers will pay for the convenient location to get good quests early. Most people wouldn't choose a place like this.
"If Nicola doesn't come tomorrow, we won't wait for her. We'll go to the Soul Research Institute first and come back later!" We got three rooms since we're not short on money now. Before bed, when Adrian brought this up, I thought about it and had to make a decision.
Crescent City's night lights aren't very bright, probably to make it easier to see the stars. Plus it's on a flat mountaintop. Opening the window in my room, I was surprised to find the stars looked brighter here than in other cities.
Suddenly I regretted separating from Adrian so early. It would be so nice if we could watch the stars together!
"Should I go find him?" As I was thinking this, I suddenly heard a cold snort from somewhere.
"Hmph, you're really enjoying yourself down here! Not only can you go sightseeing and play all day, you even get to stay in such a nice room at night. Unlike me, always running around just to stay alive, almost dying several times! Elder Elara is so biased!"
"Who's there?!" I was startled and called out in surprise. But calming down, I quickly noticed a very obvious ball of light element hovering above my head. I immediately locked onto its position.
My room was on the second floor of the guild building, which only had two floors. Above that was just the roof. I spread my wings and flew up, and right away saw a girl sitting there, brazenly waiting for me to find her.
I didn't need to ask - just from the light element aura I could easily guess she was actually an angel too, just not showing her wings right now.
This is Crescent City, the Sage Council's main city. There are many more humans who can use magic here than other places, so it's hard to be sure there's no light magic users nearby. Me casually spreading my wings was a bit risky, even at night it could attract attention.
But seeing the girl's face in the lamplight really startled me again! I instantly abandoned the idea of hiding my wings, drew my sword, and put it to her neck without a word.