The clothier shop Gwendith found a block off the western square was filled with ready-to-wear garments that ran the gamut from blouses, shirts–short-sleeved and long–trousers, skirts, coats, cardigans, and all sorts of pretty underclothes.

Gwendith inspected a provocatively lacey set of brassiere and panties, both in black, and upon checking the price tag and the size, was sure it would fit Yuriko well. Her beloved was quite slender, though when she exerted herself, muscles tended to pop out. She imagined Yuriko bursting out of a tight shirt, hie hie!

More seriously, though, she noticed that Yuriko’d been cycling a small set of underwear, all of her clothes really, over the week and that just wouldn’t do. The stuff in the clothier’s wasn’t all that great, mostly since they didn’t have the comfort runescript pattern that allowed the enhanced clothes to shape themselves to the wearer. It wouldn’t expand a small garment, but it could shrink down a voluminous one. The runescript weaving required ambient Chaos though, and her own clothes cost her a bit of regeneration to power. She didn’t think Yuriko had that problem, but it was better to grab a whole new set of gear. Besides, if they appear in any kind of professional setting it would be disgraceful to wear the same set of clothes all the time.

Not that this place had good enough stuff for permanent wear, but they weren’t staying in Felbridge long enough to hire a seamstress. That would wait until they got to Nirlith where she suspected they’d stay for an extended period.

She picked out some clothes for herself, too. And, hmmm, maybe she should get some for Desire, Ryoko, and Saki? She didn’t know their sizes though, and that would be relevant with unenhanced garments. Well, she shouldn’t waste coins, though Yuriko could probably put in the proper runescript weaving for these…wait, no ambient Chaos!

She managed to figure out how to convert Heat or Cold elemental energy into Animus, though the efficiency was horrendous. Still, it only took her about an hour’s effort to refill her inner reserves and her frost scales. The latter had spread throughout most of her body, though she always shifted them away whenever she and Yuri got intimate. Too many scales also weighed on her mind unpleasantly, so she was trying to find the proper balance. The original amount she had, about eight hundred lumen’s worth, was easy enough to bear, but they only covered her arms. She shifted the scales to her torso, over her heart, and was working on covering her other vital spots. While she could make the scales transparent, they still distorted the light, so she couldn’t cover her face and eyes with them unless she was fighting and relying on her Anima perception.

She had a few gold marks in her hip satchel, but when she tried to pay with them, the woman at the cashier protested.

“This isn’t Standard Coinage,” she said.

“I’m a foreigner,” Gwendith said quickly. “I’ve not had the chance to change the coinage. The bursar from Duskfoot Guard exchanged one of my gold marks for two golds.” She also had silver crowns and marks, but as both coins don’t weigh ten times more than the lower denomination, Gwendith felt that she wouldn’t get as good a conversion.

“Oh, well, there’s always a surcharge to change this,” the cashier grumbled. “I can give you four golds to three of these, at most.”

Gwendith clicked her tongue but didn’t have much of a choice, unless she was willing to wait for Heron’s silvers from the guild. She didn’t want to have to go back and do this all over again. “I hope you aren’t telling me these cost four golds?”

“Oh, no, no. It comes to about forty-seven silvers,” the woman muttered.

Too bad Gwendith didn’t have that much in silver pennies. Ah well, she handed over two gold marks and got twenty eight Bresian silver coins back. Well, for that, she got a nice set of underwear for both herself and Yuriko as well as a couple of sun dresses, that were probably cheap because of the current weather.

When she left the clothier’s, she meandered down the road. This one wasn’t a designated wagon street, so it was rather narrow and filled with pedestrians. Not to the point where each one would be pressed up against each other, but her bubble of personal space was getting invaded more often than she’d like. She still flinched internally whenever a large man came close to her–human men anyway–that she subconsciously hardened her Anima to push back. They looked confused for a moment, but shrugged it off afterwards.

The scent of sizzling meat on skewers caught her nose and she followed it to a line of streetside stalls a couple of blocks from the clothier. Now that she had some silvers, she could buy snacks with them without the hassle. Each meat on a wooden skewer cost about three coppers. It wasn’t really much meat, but it was tasty.

What caught her eye next were hawkers offering globs of sweets. Gwendith stared at the offering for a long while, not sure what the faintly orange confection was.

“Butter candies, ma’am,” the young hawker said. “A silver, a packet.” There were about four butter candies in each small bag. It was expensive, but Yuriko loved sweets, so…

“Five please.”

“Thank you!”

Gwendith slipped the candy bags in her hip satchel, took a glance at the afternoon sun, and decided it was about time she started crossing the town. She could walk, of course, but it might take too long considering the town was at least a couple of longstrides across on each side of the ravine.

She had just made it to the main thoroughfare when the alarm bells sounded. The reaction amongst the pedestrians had a practiced feel. They all moved towards the sides, as did the wagons and coaches, making room in the middle of the road, presumably for the soldiers.

From the Adventurer’s Guild, dozens of warriors emerged from within and started running towards the walls. Well, some of them. A few of them took to the skies, and not all of them were Ib’honara like Adam Ortiz. One middle-aged man had wrapped himself in elemental energy and used it to propel himself against the empty air. He crossed the winds almost as quickly as the birdmen could.

“What’s happening?” Gwendith asked a pedestrian who had stopped to watch the adventurers and soldiers rushing down the main road.

“Either a beast horde or one of the Chaos Founts overflowed. Either way, it’s a bunch of monsters trying to attack the walls.”

“Why though?” Gwendith mused. “There’s a lot of wilderness out there to escape to.”

He gave her an odd look, but said, “The scholars say it’s because of our elemental hearts. The Twisted need it to grow stronger, but I don’t know what overflow Fount monsters want. They always attack the nearest settlement.”

“Hmmm.” Gwendith hummed.

She wanted to take a look at how the locals defended themselves during a siege. Her purchases were secure in her backpack and hip satchel, but she wasn’t sure how effective she could be. She had a Plasma Lancet, and a belt knife, but that was it. Her ice daggers had limited range, and the monster would have to be practically up against the wall before she could reach them. There was also the point that soldiers would not allow civilians, or foreign agents on top of the wall during a battle. Unless they were willing to take volunteers? She was sure Heron would help, but the chances of running into him in the wide wall, or even the town, was actually low. Until he starts flaring his Anima anyway.

“Do they accept volunteers?” she finally asked.

“If you have an Adventurer’s badge,” he answered, “or things get much worse than they are now.”

“Hmmm, I’d like to observe though,” Gwendith muttered.

The walls were five paces high, but there were plenty of buildings that were just as tall or even higher. They were built far from the wall, though, so she’d have to use Enhanced Senses to properly observe. Or she could ask first.

“Thanks for telling me!” she said to the pedestrian, who nodded back a bit wistfully. Gwendith wasn’t too bothered by him since he was rather scrawny.

Gwendith trotted towards the wall, but by the time she arrived, the battle had already started. She headed towards the stairs that were set a few dozen paces from the gate. There were a few anxious soldiers waiting there, as well as a couple of adventurer squads.

“Can I help?” Gwendith asked.

The soldier on guard looked at her doubtfully but asked anyway. “Are you an adventurer?”

“No.”

“Then the only way we can allow you up there is if you’re a full Magus.”

Gwendith blinked. Well, she was at Actualisation, which was equivalent to Knight, and probably equivalent to their Magus. “I am.”

That caught the attention of the guards and the second group of adventurers. The soldier asked, “Can you demonstrate?”

Gwendith simply materialised an ice dagger to hover in from of her without moving a muscle. Their eyes widened in surprise and appreciation.

“Pardon, Lady Magus, I did not mean to be rude.”

“You weren’t.”

“Please proceed up the wall. Ah, please follow the officers’ direction to allow you to contribute as efficiently as possible.”

“Of course,” Gwendith nodded as she was let through, along with the two adventurer groups. Once she arrived at the battlements, she finally got a good look at the enemy, and what the soldiers and adventurers were doing.

A wooden javelin flew towards the wall, flung by a creature that looked like a bulky human covered in vines. The face and most of the head were concealed, but not the muscled physique. She hid a shiver of revulsion, but it wasn’t as bad as it normally would have been.

“…Lady Magus, please head over to the left firing squad,” an officer said, and Gwendith followed her directive. The ad hoc squad was composed of adventurers and a couple of riflemen. The adventurers’ weapons ran the gamut from throwing knives, to pistols and javelins. The riflemen’s weapons were much like the ones she saw in Irvalla, though it looked like they were enhanced with runescript etching across the barrel and stock.

When Gwendith arrived next to them, she decided how she could contribute. While her range with controlling her ice daggers was about three times her reach, so about thirteen paces now, she could simply fling the dagger farther and make new ones as needed. She took about a second to conjure daggers, and could bring about half a dozen at once. The only drawback was her Animus, as each dagger cost about three. Her current reserve was at one thousand five hundred, but that was still a lot. It was a pity she couldn’t use the atmosphere’s Elemental energy to fight directly, as these people were capable of. Even Yuriko’s eye beams came from her internal Ennoia reserves. It was unlimited for her beloved since she could produce as much Radiant energy as she wanted. Hmmm. Perhaps she should learn how the locals did it too. Well, they were headed to an Academy.

“Fire at will! Target the ranged attackers, ignore the brutes trying to climb!”

That would have been a foolish move if they were the only ranged fighter squad, but Gwendith saw another squad with melee weapons, spears and poleaxes, stationed at the edges to take care of those creatures.

Gwendith conjured her ice daggers and flung them at one of the javelin throwers. She used her Anima to aim and throw rather than her arm, which was more accurate. A single dagger turned out to be more than enough to carve the critter up, so with her next volley, she aimed at six different targets.

It was no challenge, but she liked that just fine. It wasn’t as if she was a battle maniac like Yuriko. All she really needed was to be strong enough to protect herself. She had no illusions about being powerful enough to protect Yuriko. All she could do was keep herself safe. That way, she wouldn’t be a burden.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep