Fellen Town
Eastern Borderlands
"This is amazing, Delica. So this is what a countryside inn looks like, oh, I just saw a dog! That's a dog, correct? It doesn't look anything like Radius though," Mieu was leaning against the windowsill, almost at the edge of falling off. The girl was positively glowing as she hugged her doll. From an outsiders point of view, she might look like any child talking and playing with her dolly. Only, the innocent plaything was far from the normal toys.
"Yes, yes, Radius is ten times more adorable," doll-Delica answered. They were at the second floor of the three-storey building, but the two were not minding the height as they kept naming every objects that moved past their eyesight.
Like before, the girls were inseparable. Not only because of Delica's stubborn watch over her master, but also because Mieu's holy aura perfectly mask any dangerous miasma from the lich. This also caused her holy element to become indistinguishable, similarly cancelling out the two abnormal elements the two were exhuding from their aura.
Even if they were at the heart of the town, not once did the villagers took interest at the little girl and her doll.
Sharing the room with them, was Aiven. He was sitting at the bed while reading a book. He flipped another page and chance a glance at the little girl who was oblivious at the morning cold.
Morning at Fellen was relaxing. Situated in between a steep valley, the town would often not see the sun until midday, making the scenery felt like it was on the suspended colors of dawn for hours. With its high altitude, fogs and grey clouds would often form right before the villagers stir to life, creating a comfortable atmosphere to drink tea or coffee to chase the lazy morning away.
She was still amusing herself at the plaza and market place outside, when she straightened as if alerted by something and slowly pushed herself away from the window and started walking towards the door.
As if timed, the door knob slowly turned followed by a knock. Finding the occupants already awake, Simos entered loudly as if to announce his return while carrying a tray of breakfast.
"Welcome back, Si-R-Remus!" Mieu greeted.
"Busy morning, dear brother," doll-Delica followed, seeing as her brother had made his way at the diner's kitchen for food, even if he just came straight from his travels.
"Good morn. It's good to be back." he smiled and the room seemed to brightened with all of them warmly smiling with each other. But the quiet corner of Aiven didn't went unnoticed, "Yo, you too, Ainee. What's this? Still in bed?" He asked, dropping the tray at the bedside table and took off his boots along the way.
"Morning," he replied, then cozied up to the soft pillow under on his back.
"Hah, I didn't knew you'll miss a bed this much, anyway, I got bread, coffee and milk. Want to hear my report with that?" he answered back. He also lifted Mieu and placed her in his lap.
"Oh, there's apples and cereals, you should try it with honey, master," Delica chipped in, already used at the familiar actions of her brother to their new pet..correction, ward.
"Nee, you know I can eat by myself now, you know?" Mieu can't help but complain, seeing how Simos busied his hand to prepare her bowl infront of her.
"Apologies, but there is only one seat in this room," the boy looked around as if to show his point and added, "well, I don't mind eating on the floor."
He started to get up but Mieu panicked and hold on to his arm, her voice on a higher pitch, "D-don't bother."
"Really? I don't mind the floor, princess."
Simos was probably the only person who addressed the demon lord in such a way. It was a slip of a tongue that stuck when he reasoned out that since she was yet to be crowned, she deserved to be called as princess first, as protocol demanded.
"I told you, there's no need," she said, her ears starting to turn pink while gesturing for him to settle down already.
But Simos proceeded to tease Mieu. The girl had been trying to pull a serious front with them that Aiven understood Simos' lighthearted interest at poking fun at the demon lordling.
Shaking his head at the peaceful atmosphere of the start of their journey, Aiven dragged himself out of the bed and also took his coffee, before returning to his usual comfy spot.
While they were talking nonchalantly, Simos had handed some receipts to Aiven. The receipts were all addressed after the common house of Gallinthe, mostly under the name of Ainee, which dated weeks ago.
Earlier on their preparation for their move, Simos had went ahead with the [transportation gate] stationed at the center of this town. As an official depot of the Exine City-Fortress, this place was connected directly to the eastern fortress, and was considered to be one of the main hub for trade and merchants throughout the borderlands.
In terms of funds, a quarter of their golds were given to Cuboid as she dealt with the bandits. It was also true that even if he didn't planned for it, majority of their money on hand was spent trying to actualize Delica's vision of a complete combat maids and butler for her master, and the rest were on the undead's make-up, especially since there were some materials that can't be easilly acquired on the wilderness.
Hah, I guess I did spend the most ..?
So far, the Canary's treasuries were untouched, but since those were too eye-catching to use at this small and quaint town, Simos had volunteered to trade them off at a more appropriate place. Thankfully, even the most common of accessories and jewels, it still added a hefty sum to their budget.
Aiven sipped his coffee and was trying to account for the receipts. And just like what they discussed, there were also slips of receipts and banknotes which was, at most, a year or more old.
"Good job," Aiven complimented. He was a bit skeptic Simos could pull it off but his friend proved his resourcefulness.
"Well, what do you expect?" Simos cheekily remarked and took one full bite at his apple. "But what was it for, really?" he asked after pondering about the weird request from Aiven.
"Insurance."
It could be considered as going overboard, but establishing a credible credit was the best way to validate their identities.
Still, it took a lot of guts to sneak inside establishments and messing with the records. Then showing in the merchant's doorsteps the next day like he's been there before. With Simos charm, the clerks and shop owners could never deny him. Not once was the dignified and charming boy who was generously sightseeing at the fortress was suspected of any crime. And anyway, what was to report? No one had reported any stolen goods.
A month of breaking-and-entering at Exine's merchantile district was enough to make Simos notorious if it were to be known, but compared to trespassing at the HIgher Districts of Cessine, it was nothing the prodigy of higher bloods couldn't handle.
It also helped that the boy only targetted the lower establishments with not much security to break in.
"Oh, before I forgot, here," Simos took out an inventory bracelet and tossed it to Aiven. It bounced once on the bed and when he recovered the items, his eyes widened.
"Bought them along the way, liked it?" Simos said, keeping an eye at his friend's reaction and just as he expected, Aiven's eye twitched.
"Pastels?"he asked, his voice was strained.
"What is it Remus?" Mieu was cleaning up her bowl when she saw the distracted look from Aiven.
On his lap was a set of dress and skirts in a soft colors of light blue, tint green, pink among others, and his expression was at a loss on what to do with them.
"Araah, aren't those from the Spinning Spindle?" Delica asked, recognizing the highly reknowned tailoring guild at Alvalar Kingdom, "how lucky. Oi, Aiven, don't rip them to shreds!"
"Too flimsy," he remarked and gave a withering glare at Simos. He did asked for sample clothing for his craft and for casual use, but he didn't expected that his friend would buy something as diabetically girlish for his taste. As a tailor with only counterfeited designs and a shady effects on all his crafts due to his negative status, there was no way for him to chance selling or using his crafted items in the open.
"What? Can't I give any souveneirs to my cute little sisters. Afterall I am surrounded by girls, now, aren't I"
Simos laughed and snidely advised Aiven to cool his head first, not batting an eye at the waste his friend did with the expensive dress.
By this time, Aiven's initial mood plummeted on the ground. He was still technically wearing pants and pajama, but Simos' comment was a telling reminder that he was now posing as a girl.
As it was then, he had decided to continue with his identity as Ainee, and crossdress as a young apprentice tailor indefinitely. Among the four of them, his identity as Aiven was the most wanted at Alvalar and they have extensive info about him, so disguising himself as far away from his image was the safest move for them to take.
And now that he had grown his hair, it had softened his feminine features even more, and his slender arms and legs had yet to amass the needed muscles during puberty.
Compared to Simos, his training had mostly focus on agility and dexterity, making it a disadvantage and a challenge for him to gain body weight.
He was aware of its necessity but that doesn't mean he was not pissed off.
When Simos saw Aiven taking out his whole stocks of needles with a murderous aura, he immediately raised his hand in surrender, "Wait, wait, just kidding! They're on the fifth slot!" He shouted while breaking a sweat.
Still distrusting Simos' nature for mischief, he hovered his hand on the inventory and flicked towards the said slot. And right on mark, a collection of doublets, knee-length cloaks, leggings and corsets were stocked inside. Not one of them bearing any additional effect from a crafter, or mana signature and he was insttantly absorbed on studying the casual clothes any respectable adventurer might use.
It took Aiven no time at all to use [cut] and the [repair] command spell at the clothes. He also took great care not to imbued it with any of his mana so that it'll not activate his [Butcher of the Silk Button] side effects. It was long established that repairing crafts would not overwrite a crafter's signature, so these clothes were still untainted from his crafting.
Seeing the way he was handling the clothes, his companions already left him to his own thoughts and continued chatting while enjoying their breakfast, though it was mostly Simos regalling Mieu with anecdotes of his shopping trip at the eastern fortress which was known for its clockworkers and alchemists.
By the time he was finishing the third coffee offered to him by Simos, he was able to finish a couple sets of clothes for his everyday use.
For Simos, now Remus, his attire was the normal low-level novice's garb of leather vests, heavy platings and metal chainmail. The more standard his clothing were, the better, so there was no need for Aiven to make his clothes for him. It can't be helped since his [charisma] was already abnormally high and still on the rise. Just wearing even the cheapest material at the market, Simos still had a way to make it look fancy.
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Delica still had her wardrobe for Mieu and a few dresses and sturdy cloaks that needed only a few snips from Aiven for the little girl to wear.
However, Aivens clothing needed to be tailored specifically for him. If he simply wear female clothes, his built is still that of a boy.
So he fashioned a corset inside a tight-fitting doublet. He chose the vest so the padding wouldn't be noticeable. Aside from the doublet contoured for a feminine line, he would also cover his sillhouete with a cloak, so from behind, it would look like he was wearing a dress, and the added girth on his upper torso would distract people from taking note of his flat chest. Though he was technically wearing leggings.
He also brought his satchel and customized it to a belt latched with all sorts of crafting tools so his hips would also seemingly look wider.
The first prototype was tested the moment they tried entering the town. Noting the uninterested reactions of the people at his disguise, he marked it as a success and asked Simos for materials so he could reproduce the results.
All this considerations so he wouldn't need to wear any bloody skirts. With this, he would look like a normal girl with a tad of tomboyish gear, that leans on practicability.
"Why are you always so cautious, more than that, I think even if you wear a full-body armor, you'll still be mistaken as a girl..?" doll-Delica said when Aiven revealed his new get-up.
"It's stylish, Ainee!" Mieu said, looping her fingers at his hand.
"Whatever makes you happy, I'll support you," Simos pull a thumbs up towards Aiven.
To be honest, the first week of their reintroduction to society was the most stressful week for Aiven's masculinity, or what remains of it.
Thankfully, Alvalar's society have a liberated distinction between male and female and would hardly discriminate a woman, aside from those of Higher Bloods with their obsession to lineage. So basically, trying to blend in as a girl had not much consequences for him as long as they continued living with the common houses.
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"Hey, Ainee, you coming?" Simos shouted when he and Mieu were readying to start their day. The Fellen town was just a simple stopover before they resumed their journey to Runsaer so their group decided it wouldn't hurt to make their presence known here first and have a little tour for the demon lordling, not only as a step for her to socialize but also as a break from her studies.
"I'll catch up later," ["I'll just check up on something,"] Aiven said and added in slide a handsign for Simos to read.
"Let's meet at the plaza for lunch then."
"Plaza, twelve," he repeated while waving his goodbye at the entrance of the inn.
"Come now Mieu, the monkey show would be over soon," and the boy offered his hand to Mieu as they started their leisurely walk.
Aiven didn't felt any lingering gazes at their retreat so he breathe a sign of relief.
The diner was clean and the counter was manned by a friendly balding man, who always had a ready smile. He made his customary greeting at the staff and started to walk back to their room.
The staff was also easy to deal with and had seen their fair share of adventurers so hopefully, they wouldn't place any interest at the appearance of a novice and apprentice pair. Their group's cargo, complete with two horses, was also mediocre at best, and was currently housed at the inn's stables.
But as he was making his way back, he felt someone triggering his security at their room.
He was expecting this development that he wasn't surprised when he opened their room and saw, at the vacated seat at the window, was a woman. The curtains was closed but that didn't prevent him to identify the intruder.
But before he could say anything, the woman stood up and bowed towards him, "lesser master, I..."
He pushed his finger to her lips to quiet her down, and the woman complied. He glanced at the corners of the room and finding his security scrolls still in active, he released her and said, "Greetings, Cuboid, how are you faring?"
The beautiful woman smiled at his words, giving her a more ephemereal feel. "This servant has been well, thanking lesser master for his concern."
Without second thoughts, he started taking her hood off and brushing her hair away from her face. With a soft touch, he started caressing her cheek. "The corruption is spreading," he murmured, noting at the gradual discoloration from the undead's hairline and neck. He started shifting his hand at his crafting inventory, "you've done a passable job at maintenance. Try this once a week and report to me the results," Aiven handed Cuboid a small bottle, "do this treatment to the others."
"Yes, Master Aiven," Cuboid said.
And just like that, he started re-applying the undead her disguise. It might not be that noticeable but from his sharp and critical eyes, there were jarring smudges along her exposed skin. One of his job afterall was to make sure that the undeads they have planted at the bandits would remain.
He has been experimenting, applying full body baths to the most human-like undead so they'll have a more fleshier colors. Aside from that, he had been personally teaching them how to apply make up themselves so they could reapply the colors whenever needed.
He continued his instruction as he pushed Cuboid back to her seat. As one of the few pupils Delica had taught alongside him, her talent at make-up was second only to him.
For the past days, the familiar would routinely visit them at their inn. She and her staff was also housed at this town, only they were occupying the spacious lodging close to the town hall.
While discussing about their disguises, she would also update them on the movements of their bandit sub-branch. The Ulfrs may not know who they were working with, but they were too greedy to care.
They were financing the bandit's operation to take control over the borderlands. They called it financing, but the truth was, they were only giving them the old and shabby equipments they've looted from the one-thousand army of Rust Irons.
Cuboid, with the strength of the other three familiars were supporting the bandit Maco from behind to raise up as he rise up to lead the main line of transport of the eastern borderlands, giving them an active connection with the dark guilds. And like what they agreed before, Cuboid has the whole jurisdiction over the operation.
He also received from Cuboid some news from the Draconian's side. From the inconclusive network of information of the underground guilds, they had sightings of a dragon undead carrying what seemed to be a small party of two unidentified younglings towards the dwarven teritories.
And there were circumstantial evidences that the kingdom was working towards uncovering the mystery of the undead dragon.
So they took the bait, Aiven thought to himself.
So far, the group of the dragon-hybrid Illium, hadn't contacted them, directly.
They could only assumed that no one had yet found out their real identities.
All they could do was wait.
And it was a harrowing and exhausting wait, especially since they have yet to acquire any sound evidence on what their enemies were up to now.
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As he wrapped up the cosmetics, he saw how nervous the familiar was. Tapping her on her forehead he said, "anything else?"
Cuboid nodded.
"Lesser master, may I took a moment of your time?" she said. As always, the topic of their conversations were all business that she seemed to be hesitant to brought out a subject not related to her mission. Still she continued and started her talk while bowing her head. It was a very weird quirk for this familiar who seemed to be always on the verge of lowering hersef in any situation.
He gestured for her to sit again, and waited for her to speak, "lesser master, it's about this one's [summoning requests]."
He tilted his head. A familiar's [summoning request] is the triggering, unfulfilled wish that caused them to linger on the living and made them one of the undead. Basically, most of the familiars of Delica had completed their [summoning requests] when their party destroyed the legacy of High Banners of Sila-ir, but there were few cases where their wishes was not for revenge of their past master.
Just like her case. Aiven thought. "Yes, I remember. I'll pass on yor message."
"Understood, thank you," she said meekly and just like before, Aiven left, not looking back at the woman still sitting silently at the confines of their room.
It was already an unsaid rule that he would never get entangled with the internal workings of the undead familiars, and was only tasked to supervise the miscellaneous jobs and extension projects that their group was investing. Afterall, he was the one handling their finances.
But still, he can't leave these untended side quests alone to Delica. Even if it was considered as her job to comply to the familiar's [summoning requests], she would still need to be discreet about it, and there was no telling what that crazy overprotective girl would do.
With Cuboid's request still fresh on his mind, he started to look for his party's whereabouts.
He was still drifting in thoughts when he saw the familiar sillhouettes of Simos among the throngs of people.
His brows knitted and instinctively made his pace faster. They were only supposed to watch some street performance, so he was not expecting a huge crowd to form along the plaza.
"Brother," he called out, thinning his voice to resemble a girl's. The new title came easy for him, since from the start they had treated each other as family.
When he reached their side, Simos was already shielding Mieu from the wall of people that converged into a curious mob of villagers. He was acting weirdly, that Aiven tried to usher them out, but his friend stood firm and pointed inconspicuously towards the other side of the central well.
A group of battle-worn adventurers were gathered infront of what he guessed to be the town guild branch. Four were with swords, others on light garments of support class, but all of them were suffering a wound or in bandage. The most decent at the party was arguing with the uniformed guild staff, blatantly unconcerned of the attention his tirade was gathering. It was the usual routine that had been happening like clockwork long before their party came to Fellen.
He caught one of the comments of the mob, "che, if this'll continue, the ban won't be lifted."
"Not 'til that son got over his pride or his corpse."
"Don't matter none for us folks, though.
A collective agreement and nods answered the gossipers.
"What's that all about?" Simos whispered to his ear, still frowning. He already picked Mieu up on his arms and the girl was quietly watching one fallen youth at the side of the road. Slowly, she put the doll closer to her lips and murmured something indistinguisable to their ears.
"Later, someone is waiting for us," he said clutching him by the collar.
"Wait, what?" Simos was forcibly dragged out by Aiven.
Even if they were already out of the open blue skies and fresh air, Aiven still continued on his brisk walk, not stopping to give any explanation.
Simos stopped him on the shoulder and said, "Oi, slow down, what's going on?"
"I knew it, Delica, Remus forgot about our lunch date," Mieu said to her doll, while poking Simos' cheek.
"Lunch date..?" he repeated the word as if trying hard to grasp something on his mind. Then his eyes widened and as if enlightened muttered, "was that today?"
Aiven blankly nodded a reply and gestured to one business estabishment beside the town hall.
Simos promptly put Mieu down and tried to made himself presentable. He was smoothing his vest when he started airing his complaints, "you should have said something earlier...we don't even have our guild cards yet..!"
Aiven tossed him a metallic plate and he caught it without missing a beat. He raised his brow, impressed, "... copper?" He was flipping it backwards when he added, "I don't expect you also have...!" another item was flung to his face.
When he reflexive snatched it by hand, Simos saw an identity ore, "I see you also opened an account from the Treasuries."
Aiven didn't made any movements. They were on the edge of the busy streets but their group was still on those part that didn't have much traffic.
Somehow Simos was able checked the time at the townsquare, still visible on their sight, and saw that there were only a few spare seconds before it strike twelve midday.
Mieu tugged his arm, and when he looked down on the girl, she smiled confidently, her eyes full of trust, "everything will turn out fine."
"When did I ever doubted you, little sister?" Simos said and calmly gave a nod to his friend.
When he did so, Aiven was already smiling mysteriously. It transformed his face to an innocent expression and made him look younger than his years. The three of them made a calming picture of cheerful bystanders.
Slowly, while still facing them, he stepped back, then another one. And just as the bell chime, a rush of horses came bolting on their way. A familiar shout came thundering for Aiven to get out of the way.
And just like any cliche cinematic scene, the innocent clueless girl was pushed out of harm's way by a handsome youth from the oncoming carriage.
That was the stage of their play.
Unfortunately, receiving a full-on tackle from Simos was enough for his ribcage to cave in. He was coughing when the rude driver finally reigned in his horses to a calm gallop.
"The hellion were you dim lass doing at the road? You whore-bit have a hole on your brain to wander infront of our carriage?!"
Hearing the driver who was on his barrage of insult to them, Simos can't help but whisper, "Hoh, I think he's enjoying himself a bit."
Still wheezing from getting the wind knocked out of his lungs, Aiven looked at the red-headed man, young enough to be a teen, with a roguish, almost dangerous animal air to his being. It's been a long time since they've last seen each other, but Radius seemed to be doing fairly well. Despite looking disgruntled, he had a weird light on his eyes as he smugly made his line more convincing in his role as the rude driver.
They have gathered reasonable eyes to be a spectacle themselves. Simos would have already retorted his own indignant speech when they noticed Mieu, who had a sad expression and huddling close to Aiven. In a split of a second, white light covered them both, instantly removing the stinging pain from his scrapes and bleeding wounds on his knees and hand which he used to break their fall.
"Bad dog, Radius is not cute at all," she murmured disheartened. Her voice wasn't loud that it was drowned by the sound of the busy square, but Radius stammered to his next words.
With his innate canine features, it wouldn't be surprising if he heard his liege's poor assessment of him.
"Hush now, you'll make him cry, princess" Simos commented softly.
"Too late," Aiven noticed the pointing hand of Radius trembling as if he wanted to retract them any moment now.
Even with the beaver hat, he could easily imagine the undead's ears drooping low and was staggering at his domineering fascade.
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All this can be seen inside the carriage.
"Oh no, what a poor child," a melodious voice came said. A dignified lady was watching the scene and was followed by two loyal maidservants.
Cuboid's benevolent words were heartfelt and was very fitting at the accident that almost happened due to their carriage, and yet, her sympathetic eyes were directed to Radius.
"How tragic," the young Cranial, said while peeking under the curtains, "I bet you three skulls he'll broke down in three minutes."
"Make it five, if it was me, I wouldn't have lasted on one," little Palatine replied.
They were too entertained at the pain of their fellow undead that they didn't noticed that time had passed. "Ayah, is that our cue? Could we step out now?" Cuboid asked.
"Could we?"
"Should we?"
"Must we?"
The two girls looked pleadingly to Cuboid.
Smiling, she said airily, "hmm, five more minutes."
"Yay!" the two cheered.