It seemed that Ryuji had been set down in a country called the Tzho’off Kingdom. The capital of the kingdom was Tzho’aan and it was far to the south of them. They were in Lyrill which sat across the river of the same name. The city was named for an elven water goddess who legends say fell in love with the first duke of the city, over eight hundred years ago.
On a less joyful note, the country was bordered to the north by the Braa’en kingdom. The two countries had been at war for nearly a century. Apparently, there was a lot of iron in the ground near the border of the two countries as well as a silver mine. Both countries claimed the rights to the land and waged war over the small strip of land from the edge of the Ganos mountains to the east to the Kalandry Ocean in the west.
Karen looked increasingly troubled as she talked about the war. So Ryuji began looking for a way to change the subject. The last thing he wanted was for Karen to associate her first date with thoughts and memories of the war. As if in answer to his prayers he looked over and spotted a shop sporting a beautiful dress on the open patio. Ryuji quickly grabbed her hand and began pulling her toward the shop in question. He glanced at her for a brief moment and she was blushing a deep red and looking at the hand holding her own as she was pulled out of her gloomy train of thought by force.
The dress on display was a red and gold affair with a long skirt and alluring frills running along the right shoulder strap. Karen flatly refused to try it on. apparently, she was the decisive type of shopper and didn’t shop around forever like most of the girls Ryuji had ever heard of. Even his mother liked to shop for a long time even though they didn’t have a lot of money to buy things with.
By contrast, Karen took one look at the dress and declared that it wouldn’t look good on her and she didn’t want it. Thankfully she did walk into the store though and it served to change the subject. It only took her a few moments to find a dress that she did like, one that was light green with no frills or anything on it. It did look like it would look good on her and the attendant suggested a gold leaf belt to go with it. In the end, it only took her a few minutes to be fitted for the dress and she was ready to leave. Ryuji told the attendant that he wanted a similar dress and shoes in both a deep shade of blue and a cream color sent to the inn and paid for it all.
They were making their way toward the armor shop that Karen wanted to show him when he spotted a group of familiar faces. It was the trio from the day before, the thugs who had stolen his coin pouches and kicked him numerous times. It seemed that they spotted him at the same time he saw them because the big one nudged the leader’s arm and grinned.
Just as the three were getting ready to come over and make trouble for Ryuji with big grins on their faces the crowd parted a bit between them. Suddenly they started to go pale and look for a different place to be. Ryuji smiled to himself and slid the sword he had been in the process of drawing back into its scabbard. That’s when he felt murderous intent and darted his eyes around. He was almost convinced that he had been imagining it when he caught a brief glimpse of Karen’s face turned in the direction of the thieves. When he turned to look fully at her she was already looking forward and the murderous aura was gone so quick he couldn’t be sure he hadn’t imagined it. Perhaps there was more to her than he thought! No, he probably just imagined it he thought to himself.
Miyako had just spotted the pair she was searching for and was headed toward them when three guys came rushing in her direction. The three seemed so lost in looking over their shoulders that the one in front, a tall lanky guy with “thug” written all over him bumped into her and knocked her over. She landed on her butt hard and it seemed the guy had just now realized that he knocked her over.
Miyako was expecting to hear him apologize or even make up an excuse and keep on walking. She jumped up and started looking for the tall handsome sun elf when the thug's words came to her ears. “Hey, Watch where you’re going! You should pay me for being so rude, lady.”
She slowly turned her head to look at the three guys. Once they saw the look in her eyes it was only then that the short one noticed the huge weapons hanging from her waist. He began frantically pulling on the other's clothing. He was hoping to get away before she decided how to respond but he was already too late. Miyako was already in a bad mood from several near misses with her intended quarry and now this? It was time to blow off some steam!
The moment a ruckus broke out the crowd had dispersed and the guard was called. They arrived just as she finished tying the three thugs up. The lieutenant guardsman looked a bit bewildered as he walked up to the scene. Here were three guys who looked fairly tough but were beaten black and blue and tied up by a single smallish dark elf.
At that point, he spotted the cleavers, and just as he was about to say something about them the girl held out her guild ID. The guard took the small block of wood with the unique scorched brand of the mercenary’s guild on it and her rank in the center was a 7 with two lines under it. That was a pretty respectable ranking. It was in the second tier but just barely so nobody that you might have even heard of in passing but she was getting there. He knew that guild rankings started at tier one and rank eight and worked their way to one before jumping to the next tier. Usually, nobody would be very well known before they reached the third tier. In fact, there were almost no fifth-tier mercenaries.
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Just to be sure, the guard took out a small pendant and pressed it to the block of wood and the magic in the ID activated. Above the block of wood stood a floating image of the dark elf Miyako holding her cleavers. That was indeed the person whose name was also listed on the ID. Satisfied that she was who she claimed to be the guard heard her out.
Just as she was finishing up her account of how the guy attacked her after she yelled at him and she proceeded to beat the crap out of them, the other guard came up and whispered into the lieutenant’s ear. “Sir, we’ve actually been trying to catch this group for a little while. There’s even a reward for them because they attacked a couple of the lesser nobles.”
As soon as the regular guardsman finished talking to the lieutenant they looked over at Miyako. She wore a big grin on her face that told them she had heard every word. Honestly, why do elves have to have such good hearing. Well, whatever, he was going to pay her anyway.
After handing her a couple small silver she thanked him and rushed off. Miyako wasn’t sure she could catch up after this last mess she had ended up in. With determination in her stride, she set off in the last direction she’d seen them heading in.
The armor shop turned out to be a fairly straightforward visit. The shop in question had a good assortment of different types of armor but Ryuji couldn’t stand the weight of most of them. He bought some basic boiled hide armor with metal plate strips attached at various places. And a couple pairs of boots of a similar type.
He commented to Karen that it didn’t look like it was actually made of leather at all and she explained how it was made. The armorers would take the leather and soften it in water then mold it. After it sat in the mold it was time to be treated. Once it was hard it then got fitted with the metal strips that were cold riveted in place. After all that the outer surface was brushed with a special mixture of glue and crushed stones or crystals to give it extra protective properties.
Ryuji marveled at the method for making such armor. It was also easier to pick out since armor, unlike clothing, was adjustable. He looked through the different armor sets for sale and settled on a set studded with chips of light green crystals in the blue-tinted coating. After only a few minutes of fitting and adjusting, he was wearing his new set of armor.
The set cost significantly less than he was expecting at only six large silver and another four small silver per pair of boots totaling only seven large silver. Karen again explained that with how little metal was in the set it was just that much cheaper. By comparison, a set of half-plate mail, the kind that only covers the front half of the wearer, costs three small gold. That was one of the cheaper sets of metal armor too. But all of those prices reflected how much metal was worth. Also, there was a high demand for better armorers in the military which drove the prices even higher.
Ryuji paid for the set and they set off to get a little snack before returning to the inn. That was when Ryuji got the idea that he might like to find some kind of jewelry for Karen in addition to the dress. As they walked and talked about various things, Ryuji was scanning the stalls to find a suitable gift for her.
Miyako was very upset but she had accepted defeat for the time. There was no helping it, the trio of idiots had simply cost her the chance to catch up to the sun elf guy. Oh well, there was always the next time she was in town. With that she was just about to head to the inn she was staying at. Suddenly she was struck by the realization that she recognized the elf she had just passed. At first, he hadn’t registered in her mind because he was now wearing a set of blue-green armor but that was him! She turned and rushed after the now distant and retreating figures.
Karen was saying something about getting some skewers of meat when the smell suddenly caught Ryuji’s attention. At first, it was just a nag at the corner of his awareness but in no time, it was all he could think about. Karen was saying something about one of the stalls to the side but that didn’t seem important at the moment, only that smell!
When Karen looked back Ryuji was gone! She looked frantically for him but she couldn’t spot him anywhere in the crowd. Had he gotten lost? Had he kept walking when she stopped or was he looking at something nearby? She began searching the stalls and shops around as she equally tried to hurry in the direction that they were heading before. Where could he have gone? She was in such a state of worry that she didn’t notice the dark elf passing her in the same state she was in.
For a good minute or this world’s equivalent, Ryuji just kept walking through the crowd. By this point he wasn’t even able to think, there was kind of a red haze in his vision. Finally, he turned into an alleyway and took off again. What was that smell? As he exited the alleyway, he spotted a stand selling meat skewers. That was it! He had to have some this very instant.
As he approached the stand, he could feel the drool at the corners of his mouth and went to wipe it away. that’s when he got a real good fright. He had a muzzle and the hand that he wiped the drool with was gray and furry with short claws at the tips of the fingers.
Ryuji looked around and finally spotted what he was looking for in the edge of the alleyway he had just left. There was a puddle in the mud of the alleyway and just enough light that he might be able to see himself in it. He tentatively peeked into the puddle and the sight that greeted him drew a yelp from him. He was not an elf anymore!
Miyako rounded the entrance to the alleyway and standing there near the other end was a dog beastfolk. Well, maybe? He did look a little wild and scruffy to be a dog so maybe a wolf beastfolk? Either way, there was no denying that he was wearing the very same set of armor that she had been chasing just now. What was going on, she wondered to herself? Had she been so obsessed with catching the sun elf that she thought that this random beastfolk was him? Confused and disappointed she walked out of the alleyway past the equally confused-looking guy as he stared into a puddle. What was his problem anyway?