Chapter 171

The clothes were the first to be complete. Daniela borrowed one of the changing rooms and quickly got dressed. The word I would say she embodied when coming out was ‘lovely.’ Damn cute.

“It looks good on you. Terribly cute.”

“Hmm…”

Daniela brushed her hair awkwardly out of her face. Even that gesture was cute, but I had to stop with the compliments at some point.

“Yes, it suits you well. But it is to be expected, since I made it.”

“Turia makes clothes in the style of Usk.”

Turia and Segura joined in assaulting Daniela with praise, causing her to turn bright red.

“Well, that is enough embarrassment for one day…”

“But you look good.”

“Yes.”

“Exactly.”

Daniela glared at us hatefully and stormed back into the changing room. It may or may not have taken me an hour to persuade her to come out.

We thanked the two women of the White Lily Clothes and Accessories store and made our way to an armor shop. Daniela needed a replacement for her broken gauntlets. We still had some wind dragon materials left, so we wanted to get something good.

However, something unexpected happened. None of them were capable of working with dragon materials. No matter how many craftsmen we visited.

“Wind dragon materials? Do you want me to break my bloody hammer?”

They said. The problem was quite a headache for us, and we were not sure how to proceed. Still, to think that there wasn’t a single person who could do it… Well, I didn’t know anything about smithing, so I couldn’t tell what the exact issue was. They could make clothes but not armor?

But they had made me some armor at the Paw Armor Shop back in Spiris. My ice dragon armor. While the dragons were young, the armor was still very strong to this day. They were like my second partner.

Nick could do it, but these craftsmen couldn’t…did it have to do with the environment?

“It is no use. If there is no one who can help us here, we will just have to wait until we reach the imperial capital.”

“Daniela… Yeah, you’re right. There should be no shortage of skilled craftsmen there. It’s the capital, after all.”

I had tremendous expectations for that place. Still, it would be necessary for Daniela to have something to wear until then…

“Well, I shall look for a different gauntlet tomorrow.”

“We don’t have much time left here anyway…”

Just how long had it been…?

“We checked in at the inn on the first day, and the next day I took the wind dragon to the guild. Then I met Rachel, they dismembered the dragon on the day after that. We did a quest and ate curry and then received the money and materials the following day…”

“And then we visited the White Lily, and waited for one week.”

In other words, it had been eleven days. Time stood still in Rachel’s room, so my perceptions had been messed up a little. So we had three more days left.

“We’ll look for your armor tomorrow, the day after will be for preparations and visits. Then we can leave on the following morning.”

“Yes. It is quite impressive that you always insist on visiting people before we leave.”

“Really? Well, I do think saying goodbye will make for a happier reunion, should that happen.”

I didn’t want them to think I was so rude as to not say anything beforehand. It had always bugged me that we had left Fhiraldo without being able to say goodbye to Gardo and Ness. Well, they had been happy enough to see us after that, but that was just how they were.

And so I intended to always make the rounds. I didn’t want to leave any loose ends. Something like that.

“Alright, let’s return to the inn then. I’m tired of all of this walking.”

“Yes.”

The sun was coming down as well… And so we decided to retire for the day.

□ □ □ □

The next day, we returned to one of the armor shops that had looked quite promising.

“This place. Barito’s Armor Shop.”

“They have lots of armor made from monster materials.”

The first thing you saw upon entering the place was armor made of monster bones. The owner was a kind-looking man of short stature.

“Hello.”

“Yes. Oh, you are the people from yesterday…”

“I’m afraid we’ll be disturbing you again.”

“Oh, don’t mention it. It is I who lacked sufficient skill…”

We started on a very apologetic note. When that was all finished, we explained to him why we had come.

“…And so I have given up on dragon armor for now. I will settle with whatever is the best this town can offer.”

“I see… Then you were very wise to single us out!”

Well, it’s not like we put that much thought into it. It was mostly because of the short distance.

“…Yes, if you are looking for armor, you could not have come to a better place!”

“Brilliant. Then please show me your gauntlets.”

“Yes, certainly!”

It was always worth treating people respectfully. The owner came back with several items that he claimed were the best of the best.

“This one was made from the skin of moss lizards. They are aquatic lizards that appear upstream of the Frusulviar River that separates Usk and Nicora.”

“So, does that mean it has the water attribute?”

“Of course!”

“I am sorry to say it, but I use wind and earth. Do you have any others?”

“Certainly…”

The man put his prized gauntlets away and picked up a different pair.

“These are specialized for the wind attribute! They were made by the wings of the Blast Eagle. This means that while they are light, they have the guaranteed durability you would expect from a high ranking monster!”

“Hmm…may I try them on?”

“Yes, please do!”

Daniela accepted them and put them on.

“Hmm…”

She opened and closed her hands and tried unsheathing her sword and pulling out her bow. Every movement must be tested.

“It is too light.”

“You don’t like it…?”

“Do you not have something a little heavier?”

“I…there is the Sword Turtle gauntlet. It has good damage reflection, but it is quite heavy.”

There was a gauntlet sitting on the table that had a retractable blade attached to it. The blade shot out upon impact. It was honestly kind of cool.

“Much too dangerous… It is likely to injure me.”

“Yes… In fact, it is so difficult to handle that no one has agreed to buy it…”

But it really is good! He insisted in vain. Daniela merely shook her head. We ended up leaving the shop without buying anything.

“Hmm… Maybe you’re expecting too much?”

“Well, my originals were very good. Why should I not want something that is at least equal to them?”

I couldn’t disagree with that. But I didn’t feel like we were likely to find anything satisfactory, no matter how much we walked around. But then again, she couldn’t leave without armor. There had to be something…

Just then, Daniela stopped in front of a certain store.

“Daniela?”

“Let us look inside.”

She said, and then entered without waiting for a reply.

“Hey, uh…alright …The Solo Antique Armor Shop, huh?”

Antiques… It sounded like a bit of a gamble, but I guess that meant we just had to win?

I had once wasted quite a bit of money on such machines when I was still working the night shift. And I had a bad feeling about this. But Daniela had already gone in, and so I had to follow her.