It was a good thing I had gone shopping for ingredients and other items yesterday. I needed more than I had thought. Plus there had been quite a few good deals going on. Of course, I did get quite a bit of bunny meat. I mean, the stuff was cheap and the AI said it would go great in a stew. But that wasn’t the thing that had me practically salivating right now.

No, that would be the pieces of steaks sitting in my inventory. Each large enough to cover Michael’s hand, and nearly as thick. The instructions for cooking it looked stupidly simple, which made it the best thing for me to try.

I took seven pieces out and placed them onto the cutting board. Small pools of blood started to seep out of each piece. Seeing as how the instructions said nothing about this, I had to assume it was normal and ignore it.

Next came some olive oil. Or at least the oil that was closest to olive oil as my AI could find in the market. Not that it guaranteed anything. According to it, it could only go off of look and viscosity given the lack of any other information. I rubbed it into the steaks one at a time. Making sure to get the entire surface before moving on.

I practically poured the salt and pepper onto the steaks. Rubbing them in as much as I could, which left my hands raw as hell. A bit of magic and water fixed those right off as well as got me ready for the next step. Searing.

My new stove was nice. It was like the one in my room in the way that it could accept mana directly and didn’t require any mana stones or wood to work. Add to that the iron skillet, and I was ready to travel.

Following the instructions closely, I let the skillet warm up while adding a tiny bit of oil to the pan. As soon as the pan was too hot for my hand to get close, I dropped the first steak in. It sounded as if someone was running a bubbler in a fish tank on full blast. The oil burned as it touched my hand but I refused to back away. Nothing was going to get between me and my steak. As I flipped the steak over, I dropped a small amount of butter into the pan as well as a tiny dollop of Linda’s secret sauce. I mean, it wouldn’t hurt to add it, would it?

Now, I just had to baste the steak. Who came up with that term? All it meant was to ladle the liquid out of the pan and onto the item being cooked. Why couldn’t they just call it something like ladleing, or something else? Then again, it didn’t really matter. The only thing that mattered was the end result. Of which, my steak was a failure.

The moment I basted the steak, it blackened and turned into a brick. Looking almost like it was a piece of charcoal in the shape of a steak. Grumbling, I tossed the mess on the ground and tried again. Again, the steak turned into a useless lump of charcoal. This time though, Linda saw me dump the food and made her way over to see what I was doing.

“Steaks?” She asked after looking over my setup. I nodded as I went to baste yet another piece. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her face scrunch up in confusion as she watched the piece blacken the moment I basted it. “What are you basting it with?”

“Butter and the sauce I got from you,” I said, not seeing any issue with either.

She took the skillet and spoon from me as she gestured me back. “Let me.” Her arms moved fairly fast as she turned off the stove and moved over to the steaks. Mixing a bunch of liquids, including a red liquid I recognized, and spices in a bowl before rubbing the resulting paste onto the remaining steaks. “Do you happen to have three more pieces?”

Without saying a word, I passed the requested pieces over. She must not have liked me standing there, watching her work as she shooed me away. “Go practice your sword or something. It will be a little while before lunch anyway.”

I was getting sick of being dismissed by people. Where was the harm in letting me stand here and watch? Maybe then I wouldn’t ruin so much food. Not that I would argue with her. Not when she had just saved my life. Which brought up the reason I had been sent to make lunch in the first place. I needed to think about what I wanted to do.

Wandering off, I found a nice dry patch of grass and laid down. As I looked up at the sky, I ran the options through my mind over and over. Unfortunately, no matter how many times I did so, it boiled down to whether or not I was willing to waste an entire day following people around or not. My answer to that was I didn’t, but I also didn’t want to wear it. At least not where others could see it.

Maybe I could just ask the group to keep it between us. Even if they did let it slip, I could probably pay for someone to help me get to the next town. It would be harder to level as everything would be way out of my skill range, but it wasn’t the first time I had done something similar in one game or another.

“Lunch,” Linda called out. Standing up, I found the rest of the group already grabbing plates and moving to find a spot to sit.

As I grabbed mine and started to cut the pieces up, I spoke just loud enough for everyone to hear. “I will agree to wear the piece of armor but only under one condition.”

“What would that be?” Victor said through at least a third of his steak. Linda whacked the back of his head but looked at me expectantly.

“All I ask is that you tell no one about the damned thing.” I ate a piece of steak. The thing was soft and so juicy. If I could afford to eat steak every day, I would pay someone to teach me to cook it so I could.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“We are good with that,” Jeremiah spoke from where he was standing. “Must be something pretty damn rare for you to want to keep it hidden.”

“What do you mean by that.” I shot at him. He was acting as if he knew me but I doubted it.

He put his silverware onto his plate and held up his hand in surrender. “Hey, I meant nothing by it. It would be the only reason I could see myself doing what you are is all.” He wasn’t wrong, but that didn’t mean I liked it. Especially considering how wrong he was. Well, wrong and right. God, I hated the fact that my best and rarest piece of equipment was the damn dress.

Suddenly, I didn’t feel good showing them this thing, but it wasn’t like I had a choice now. Either they would make fun of me or start hitting on me. The very idea of either was enough to sour my steak. Knowing I would need the energy, I forced myself to finish before setting down my plate to wait for the rest of them to finish.

I didn’t have to wait long. Each of them were interested in seeing just what I was keeping hidden from everyone. Hell, I would probably had better luck keeping the thing under wraps if I didn’t work so hard to hide it.

Taking a deep breath, I pulled the dress out of my inventory. It had returned to being a pure white color. They all looked at it, trying to figure out what it was or what it was made out of. I thought that Linda would have been the first to call out the fact it was a dress, but Victor surprised everyone. “It’s a dress, isn’t it.” We all looked at him. “What, I have three sisters. Don’t you think they would drag me with them on shopping trips?”

“I sometimes forget that you were not an only child,” Jeremiah said, “you sure as hell don’t act like it.”

“What does that mean?” he asked. To be honest, I was curious too. Anything to keep the attention off the dress in my hand.

Unfortunately, Linda didn’t seem to care about their bickering. After setting her plate down on the table next to mine, she inspected the dress. Feeling the fur and how easily the fabric bent and moved. Even going so far as to take a stab at it with a knife. “What is this made out of?” She finally asked. Her eyes glinted with greed and jealousy.

I took a glance at the dress's information before answering. “Moonlight Fox Fur.”

The group, as one, whistled. “And here I was thinking you were hiding it because it was a dress,” Jeremiah said.

“No, no, that was exactly why I was hiding it.” I rushed out, not wanting them to get the wrong impression, I continued, “It was a gift from someone who thought I was a girl in need of clothes.”

“Why would someone think that you needed clothing?” Michael asked. His eyes squinting at me.

“Because I got my ass kicked by a veritable horde of bunnies,” I said, rolling my eyes. “They tore my one outfit to ribbons. The group took me shopping and demanded I try on dress after dress. Even after I told them I was a guy.” Now that I thought back on that day, I felt bad for the girls I had yelled at. They didn’t deserve that. Maybe when I got back I would look for them and apologize.

“The dress should work, but only if you put it on.” Linda helpfully pointed out. Likely wanting to see me in the thing. Looking at the rest of the group, I found that, while each had a different emotion, they were all curious about how I looked with it on.

“Fine, but I'm going to go change over there.” I gestured to the large rock that had nearly blocked two of the boars from sight. It would be large enough for me to get changed without everyone's eyes on me. No one argued. If anything, Linda looked angry at the insinuation that any of them might spy on me getting changed. Taking that as my queue, I walked around the rock and out of sight.

Getting undressed was easy, if chilly. Granted, the sun was up and spring was working its way into the world, but that didn’t mean that winter had given up its grip quite yet. Even with the chill present, I hesitated when it came time to put on the dress. This would be the first time I had ever willingly put a dress on and shown others what I looked like. Sure there had been times that I had put it on, but those times could be attributed to peer pressure. Here, no one had demanded that I show them the dress. They only told me that I couldn’t keep fighting without armor. I had been the one to agree to this course.

An icy blast of air caused the few hairs I had on my body to stand on end as my skin broke out in goosebumps. Not wanting to catch a cold, I closed my eyes and slipped the dress over my head. Letting its weight pull it down until it finally settled into place. Still keeping my eyes closed, I took a deep breath and stepped out from behind the rock.

No one said a word. I didn’t hear a single sound from the direction of the group. No sounds of hitched breaths or words of ridicule. Nothing. Let me tell you, the lack of noise was unsettling as hell. Unable to stand it any longer, I opened my eyes and looked at them. Each of them stood there, stunned.

All of the guys except for Michael looked like they couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Michael looked impressed but otherwise uninterested. Linda, she was hard to get a read on. It was like her emotions were rapidly flipping between awe, jealousy, and irritation.

“Any of your sisters ever look that good in a dress?” Jeremiah asked Victor. He responded with a simple shake of his head. Not that his answer mattered. Jeremiah’s question had served to break the silence.

As one, the group acted like what I was wearing made no difference. “Victor, Jeremiah,” Linda called the two of them out before they disappeared. “Since you both seem to have so much energy, why don’t you both clean up after lunch.” While they both muttered, they did as she bade.

“After they are done, we will head off to the next group,” Michael added as Linda walked toward me.

While she was close enough to talk without having to raise our voices over the noise the two guys were making as they cleaned, she asked a simple question. “Have you ever fought in a dress?”

I shook my head. “No, though I did fight in a skirt if that counts.”

“Not really.” She said with a sigh of annoyance. “Just means you need to practice a bit before we head out.” Looking over at the two guys, she was just in time to see Victor flick a bit of soap at Jeremiah. “Knowing those two, you have time.” Gesturing for Patric to come towards us, she continued, “Work with Patric here on your sword forms. Focus on how the dress bunches differently. Try to adjust your stances and movements until it feels natural and isn’t affected by the fabric.”

She walked away after I nodded in understanding. Seeing Patric’s raised eyebrow, I let him know what she wanted me to work on. He simply pulled a sword out and gestured for me to do the same. He watched me as I moved through my first set of movements. The second time I went through them, he joined me.

On top of copying the movements after only seeing them one time, he was more fluid than I was. As if he had been doing them for as long as Barti. To say I was jealous of his skill was an understatement. Gritting my teeth, I vowed to myself to get to that point myself someday.