Chapter 68 Skirts Are For Schoolgirls.

  Isaac and Lenna had to swing by a leather worker’s shop for a new pair of traveling boots for Lenna, because in order to get Lenna’s current boots off of her, they were going to have to break a few of the rivets holding her sabatons together with Isaac’s Truth. That was going to add to the repair bill but the leather boots that were the base of the sabatons had shrunk from the excessive heat and they needed to be ripped out of the sabatons and then cut off of her. It was a task that they would make sure to do that night, but in the meantime Lenna still felt like her feet were being compressed a bit too much to be comfortable, and that was after they had undone the buckles.

  The duo’s next stop was a magic item shop. It was the shop where the students in the artificers’ department of the magic academy sold their successful projects. This meant that there were an unusual amount of enchanted arming swords, shields, and Bottomless Bags. Often the items that were enchanted were of relatively low quality because the students would work with whatever they could get their hands on. Isaac and Lenna ended up buying a duffel bag with the Bottomless enchantment. It was a bit more awkward to carry over long distances but the nature of the original item made it so the duffel bag could hold around eight hundred pounds of gear. That was a bit lower than the backpack’s one thousand but the opening was just as big so they didn’t mind. The trio never carried regular goods with them so losing a few hundred pounds didn’t cut into any metrics.

  The shop itself looked like a halfway-town’s knickknack shop mixed with a re-use-it shop. All of the goods were haphazardly hung on whatever hook or shelf was available and most of it was obviously used before. Whatever goods weren’t used looked like they had been whittled by a child with too much time on their hands or ripped out a discarded weapons bin. It was quant in its own little way in the big city, especially considering that it was only a short walk from the college. After that, they barely made it to a tailor’s shop before they closed. With only ten minutes to spare, Isaac and Lenna just purchased whatever looked like it would fit, a pair of belts, and a set of suspenders. Once they were paid for and the duo were back outside, Isaac turned to Lenna with a raised eyebrow. “Suspenders?”

  Lenna shrugged. “I’ve never worn a pair and was curious. It’s not like you didn’t just save us one hundred thousand gold on my new sword.”

  “Fifty thousand gold.” Isaac replied. “He was always planning on selling it for two hundred and fifty thousand, but I get your point. Even if I didn’t, we still have plenty of money for you to buy whatever clothes you wanted, I just hadn’t expected suspenders.”

  “Would you have preferred I got a skirt?” Lenna questioned her husband who just grinned back. “No, when?” She asked with horror.

  “As soon as you started looking at pants.” Isaac replied. “I bought it and then had to rush to get my own clothes before you were ready to buy your own.”

  “I’m not wearing a skirt, Isaac.” Lenna told him firmly.

  “Why not?” Isaac wondered with only a little bit of teasing in his voice.

  “I can’t fight in a skirt and it isn’t fancy enough for formal functions. It is a useless piece of equipment.” She explained.

  “Ah, but you are missing one key thing.” Isaac told her with an even wider grin.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Lenna knew that she would regret it but she asked anyway: “And what is that?”

  “You can wear it over your underarmor so you aren’t exposing yourself even if you hang upside down.” He pronounced and handed her a wine red colored hundred fold skirt.

  Lenna wrinkled her nose at the prospect. “Do I have to?” Isaac’s laugh did not make her want to comply with his request.

  “You’ll look like a schoolgirl.” Isaac offered her.

  “You are not helping your case.” Lenna shot back flatly. “I am not a doll to be dressed up.”

  “Why not?” Isaac questioned her with an amused grin. “You are far more beautiful than any doll I have ever seen. That only makes you even more suited to it.”

  “I am also far more lethal than any doll you have ever seen.” Lenna reminded him. “Like you said, skirts are for schoolgirls.”

  “What about dresses? Or the waitresses who wear skirts?” Isaac questioned her.

  “Dresses are for specific occasions and waitress skirts are for waitresses, not warriors and certainly not paladins, not unless it is made of plates of protective materials, which this one noticeably is not.” Lenna stood her ground.

  “What if you didn’t wear it out, but just tried it on for me?” Isaac asked his wife with a suggestive look in his eyes.

  Lenna narrowed her eyes on her husband. “Is this what you were going for all along?”

  “No.” Isaac replied honestly. “I truly believe that you will look incredibly cute in it.”

  Lenna rolled her eyes. “Don’t get your hopes up.”

  “That isn’t a ‘no’. I’ll take it.” Isaac grinned. Lenna just sighed and didn’t bother commenting further on his antics. The two were forced to stay at the inn that most of the adventurers tended to stay at simply because it was already late evening by the time they were ready to check in anywhere.

  The inn was noisy but that was to be expected. They managed to get away without any other interactions of note, though they did notice quite a few people staring at them and even a few were whispering about them. Unfortunately, Lenna’s sharp hearing couldn’t pick up what they were saying over the noise of adventurers just being generally rowdy. The food in the inn was a bit better than the meal that they had inside the Adventurers’ Guild but it was still very obviously just cheap food. The beef was ground in an attempt to hide that it was all just the rejected cuts that no one who actually cared would ever buy for themselves. The potatoes were probably from the same place as the ones in the Adventures’ Guild and the stew was full of vegetables that looked like they had been salvaged under the knife of a desperate cook. It all still managed to taste decent but it definitely could have benefited from fresher ingredients and better cuts of beef.

  The night was a bit rough for Isaac and Lenna who were physically rested but mentally exhausted. The noise from the rest of the inn was enough to keep either of them from getting a good night’s rest but they still got enough that they were ready to tackle the next day by the time the sun had risen over the city walls. Breakfast was fresh bread, gravy, and leftover beef bits that had been fried in olive oil to help hide their mediocre taste. Just like the night before, the food was definitely edible but not something that either of the duo would ever have a craving for.

  The duo had just finished breakfast when a kid, who looked to be around the age of ten, showed up with a letter for them from the Smiths’ Guild. Inside was a time, noon, when they could drop off Isaac’s gear at the Functionary building. The smith who was going to work on Lenna’s armor wouldn’t be free for a few more days and the less time the Smiths’ Guild was responsible for Lenna’s armor, the happier they would be.

  “Well, what do you want to do for the rest of the morning and afternoon?” Isaac asked his wife.

  “Well, I don’t really want to go outside.” Lenna replied. “It is bright enough in here.”

  Isaac frowned in thought. “We can go to a glass maker and see if they can make something that you can use when not wearing your armor?” He offered her.

  “Sure,” She agreed. “but that won’t help me in the short term.”

  “Fair.” Isaac conceded. “But our only other option would be to hide in our room until the sun goes down.”

  Lenna frowned. It was times like right then that she truly missed Safeharbor. The city lights and street lamps could be bright but they were rarely ever too bright for her to see. In fact, the people who live in Safeharbor often used the bare minimum of how much light they needed, lighting was expensive after all.

  In the end, the duo decided that a trip to the glassmaker was in order. They commissioned a band of solid and translucent dark grey glass. There was going to be a slot where it would rest on her nose and more slots where it would loop over her ears to help keep it in place. Once it was completed, then Lenna would have a nice barrier between the sun and her sensitive eyes. It wouldn’t be perfect, but it would hopefully be enough for her to operate on the surface in the daytime without her parasol. Only time would tell, however, which seemed to be the duo’s motto as they still had plenty of time to kill before Lenna’s spar with the warrior of Setanta.