The other wrote for them.Celtine didn"t seem to disappointed to not come along with them. Riding his armored shoulders was always uncomfortable and the stares of everyone on the streets were very displeasing. Instead, she"d rather stay here and try her hands at dusting the place a bit. That was the kind of task she preferred because she could use the broom as a crutch.
Like he had expected, the elixir had not fixed her balancing issues but now at least, he wasn"t afraid she would hurt herself badly if she fell. He believed that now, he could have her practice the use some useful weapons like a short bow without risking her breaking her own arms.
At first he had been skeptical of the rumors saying that the winged tribe members could injure themselves by using weapons but Celtine herself had confirmed it. Her tribe never fought in melee range because the chock of each strike could snap the bones in their arms. They all had weak and brittle bones that could easily break from the silliest reason.
They did have some bows to defend themselves but their bows had very low string tensions and were only used while aiming downward from high up in the sky. The fall of the arrow generated much more power than the actual bow.
However, with the effects of the elixir, Emp was convinced that a real bow would pose no danger to her now. Would it not be fun to have her shoot arrows from his shoulder while he fought? He knew it was a bit silly but he couldn"t help but want to try it.
Aside from that, he hoped that she would now be able to gain some muscle on her exaggeratedly thin frame and gain a better autonomy. It would still be a while before he could give her wings back to her so he was hopeful that the concoction he gave her would improve her life in the meantime.
As for the effect of said potion on himself, he found them very great.
Everything seemed lighter than before to him, it was as if he had worked out with the overburdening hammer for months.
When he stretched himself before training, he found out that he could bend much more easily, in fact, he could now bend backward so far that he could touch the ground with his hands with no apparent difficulty.
He could now understand what Tacey meant when she said it was like being in a dream. The difference with before was so jarring that it did seem unreal. Things that would have seemed ill advised before like jumping from the roof of a house now seemed easy and simple. Before, he could have just s.p.a.ce stepped down but now, even a two floor building didn"t seem that tall to him and he didn"t think he would hurt himself from falling from such a height.
His speed also greatly increased, it still wasn"t at the level of the mouse but it was close to the speed of his son Jin. Before, he could see a lot of things without being able to react in time but now, it was almost the opposite, it was his head that couldn"t keep up with his speed if he went all out.
The heavy thunder-chew hammer now felt like a simple stick in his hand. It could have been ten times heavier and he would still have been able to swing it easily.
There was no doubt in his mind that the next spar he held with Brenia would be very unfairly in his advantage. They had been pretty close to each other"s strength up to now and he had lost about as many as he had won against her but now, he couldn"t see how he could possibly loose.
Now was not the time for a spar though, now, he only needed to think about clothing. He would have preferred to try out his new improved body but everyone else was right, he did need new clothes.
Harriett and him waved goodbye to Celtine and left his room to join up with Mable and the others.
It only took a few moments to reach her room. He kept his new helmet in his hand as he knocked on the door. The others didn"t know about his new armor yet so he didn"t want to frighten them by hiding his face as well.
The new helmet was sleek and had a sort of edged line pointing in front of his face. It was a close helm that had an articulated visor in four different parts and a bevor that protected the upper part of his neck and held the helm in place on his head when correctly fixed with a strap. Under it, there was a gorget that protected his neck and shoulders but he didn"t have to mess with it to remove his helm.
The way the visor was forged, it looked like many layers of a wall that was erected between his face and the enemy, with the upper part looking like crenelated battlements and meurtriere as openings for his eyes. (1)
The bevor under it was like the base of the wall which turned into thick roots painfully hammered into its shape. The roots extended all the way down to the gorget and gave the impression that the wall had grown like a tree from his torso. He liked it lot, it was made to represent the Muraciers but for those that didn"t know, it was just a great looking helm with many details and a lot of inlaid gold ornaments.
"Who is it?" Aglaya"s voice came from inside.
"It"s me."
"Ah, Emp, come in."
He turned the door handle and let himself in. The four girls and their servants were sat around the table, drinking tea while they waited for him.
When they saw him, they all examined his new armor with interest.
"Woah, that armor looks great! You look like an imperial knight!"
Mable clapped her hands in excitement and came up to him to look at the details.
"Where did you get it?"
"Isn"t it too large for you?" Aglaya added to Nessa"s question.
"A bit big yes, we made it this way on purpose because I wasn"t done growing."
"We?"
"Yeah, I partic.i.p.ated in making it. I hammered more than half of those parts into the right shape, it took me days. I wasn"t good enough to make the details or any of the small articulations though. I only made the general shape and prepared the materials and tools for my mother."
"Your mother! You"re saying it"s your mother who made it? She"s so talented it"s incredible."
Mable praised their work as she turned around him and traced her fingers over all the embossing and engraving work on it.
"I agree, it looks incredible but if it was made by you and your mother, is it just a work of art?" Nessa asked.
It did happen sometimes that n.o.bles had some armor made for them with no other use than parade in them. Those weren"t really made to battle and only served to cover them in ornaments, the metal was weak and often unwieldy. Nessa"s question was a legit one.
"It"s not just for show I can promise you. This thing was made from the bones of the unnameable of chaos covered and welded together with soaked-cold steel. The under-layer is made with leather from the same beast and the thing is covered in magic runes."
One might wonder how you could emboss something if there was a layer of literal bones at the spot you needed to hammer to make it work and they would be right to do so. The answer was a bit complicated and included two parts.
Even though the creature was gigantic, you could not cover a human in its bones because you had to carve them into a usable shape. Even with enough material, they would not play nicely enough with each other and there was a lot of leftovers. What is more, some parts couldn"t be thick enough to hold the bones if they wanted it all to move properly.
The second part of the answer was a crafty trick Marcy employed. She made a second thinner layer of soaked-cold steel she riveted and welded over the first that held the bones together. It was that one she embossed and gilded before snapping it in place for good.
For someone ordinary, this was way too much steel and would be too heavy but for Emp, it was nothing at all.
"Really? Woah, it must have cost you an arm!"
Githa started sweating just at the thought of the cost.
It was true that it ended up costing them a lot in raw material to make those two layers but Emp would never resent paying as much as needed for the equipment that was meant to keep him alive.
"Yes but it was more than worth it I think. I like it a lot and I can"t wait to try it out for real."
"It"s true that it"s very good looking, it"s completely different from your old one too." Commented Aglaya.
The old one was full of edgy bits and menacing, this one was much more n.o.ble.
The overall balance of the armor colors was great, with the bright gold really enhancing the purple sheen of the armor by contrasting the borders and important details of it. Plus, he liked purple a lot. That armor just made him like it more.
"Put the helmet on, I wanna see!"
He did as Mable asked and clasped the whole thing in place. It wasn"t that much harder to do with his gauntlets than it would be with his bare fingers. In fact, he found the way all the small plates moved when his fingers bent to be very entertaining. It was the satisfaction of a perfectly working mechanism.
"Now you really look like a knight. It"s really fun to know the one under the armor well for once. Usually, it"s just a bunch of stranger wearing plates and its a bit scary and intimidating. Since its you though, its the opposite. It"s not intimidating at all."
Emp was about to protest but Aglaya was faster.
"Mable doesn"t mean to say you aren"t intimidating, she means that it doesn"t feel that way because she knows you are the one underneath. I"m sure any ordinary townsmen would s.h.i.+ver if you were to walk straight at them."
That was rea.s.suring to hear. It would have been real disappointment if no one found it impressive.
"Yeah, sorry, that"s what I meant. I meant to say that it feels like that because you"re with me rather than against me. I know you"re not there yet but even a Muracier would pause to evaluate his chances before he fought you."
If by that she meant that he wasn"t strong enough to fight against a real Muracier yet, then she was right. Being the strongest student didn"t make him a strong warrior, it only made him someone who wouldn"t die instantly in a real fight. He was pretty sure that even Marcy was still much stronger than him.
Thinking about Marcy, it seemed that Aglaya kept her words and didn"t question him about his mother. She had told him she had given up looking for who he was and that seemed to be the case.
"I might not be strong enough yet but I hope I will soon."
"I hope so too!" Mable cheered him on with a resolute smile.
"Well then, we"ll be able to check that armor as much as we want on the way, we should go already." Nessa declared before drinking all that was left in her cup at a quick pace.
The others agreed, having new clothes made for them was a serious affair, at least for them. It would take a lot of time if they were all to buy things, they couldn"t afford to waste it all standing here talking about Emp"s armor.
The girls took on their purses and the group left the school with a few of their servants. They ended up being a group of ten. The sky was clear and bright but it had rained the previous day so the streets were all muddy and the stones slippery.
The girls all wore knee length skirts or dresses to keep the cloth out of reach from the filth. They walked close to each other and kept their servants in a sort of circle around them. n.o.bles often did that in order to keep something between them and the rest of the world. If something happened, the servants would be first in line and could potentially buy some time for the n.o.bles to react.
Emp was of two mind about this. He understood this was a good idea and likely the best way to do things but he also felt that those slaves had spent a lot of time with them. If they knew them as much as he knew Harriett and Celtine, it felt like a waste to sacrifice them to a random thug. He"d rather protect them too.
Since he was alone to watch over a group of nine others, it was a hard task to do. If he stood in the back to watch over everything and someone attacked them head-on, he would have to go through the group in order to reach the attackers. If he led from the front, he would have the same problem if they were ambushed from the back.
In a corner of his mind, he understood that getting attacked in the middle of the street was very unlikely but at the same time, his own experiences until now led him to believe otherwise. Every time he went out shopping, he got into a fight with someone. He hoped that since they were clearly all n.o.bles, no one would have the idea of messing with them.
In the end, he ended up leading the way to the clothes maker. He walked in front and made a path for the rest of the group through the crowd.
He was very happy to notice that he could now see through the crowds, he wasn"t the shortest anymore. In fact, he was now above the average.
Like every time he went outside, he attracted the eyes of many people because of what he wore. Last time it was because of Celtine on his shoulders while this time, it was the armor. Despite how magnificent and intimidating it looked, it was very out of place here in Bêtéclair.
People here wore gaudy clothes of extravagant feathers and risque cuts, adorned with mismatched jewels and tinted furs. The armors one could see on the streets were either similar to his old one or painted from head to toe with colorful imagery. (2)
The girls stood out as well because of their clothes. Emp would describe them as more tasteful than those surrounding them but the locals would call them foreigner clothes instead, or just bland.
In summary, they seemed like a group of strangers. It was obvious that the girls at least were from the imperial school. Aside from that, because they had so much attention, it was easy for him to cut between the pa.s.sersby. (3)
They walked peacefully towards the store as they talked. The girls chatted about how long it had been since each of them had been escorted like that. Githa was the only one for whom this was a new experience but she liked it a lot. There was a satisfying feeling provided by how people made way in front of Emp and them.
Emp thought it was amusing how much fun they had just walking around and watching everyone get out of their way. They would be the ones who would have to get out of the way if they met with a very high ranked n.o.ble but since Nessa was the daughter of a duke, the chances of meeting someone higher on the ladder where slim.
Once at the tailor"s place, the part Emp disliked started. If someone had told him that choosing clothes could get even worse than what he had already experienced, he would never have believed it.
First of all, he had not realized before he got there that the clothes-maker would need to retake his measurements, therefore, he needed to remove the armor.
Second of all, they had many person to go through. Each of the four girls wanted some new clothes and thus, he had to sit through the whole process five whole times in a row.
The third thing they had to worry about was scissors. They had to send Githa inside first to make sure there was no scissors in sight. Afterwards, every time they needed something cut, they had to ask the clothes maker to do it in the backroom to spare Mable.
Finally, the girls were very vocals about their opinions and kept discussing the choices of everyone. Emp only desired two things in his clothes, he wanted them to be comfortable and easy to move in and he wanted a bit of purple on them. The girls were much more demanding.
They talked and talked, asking for the others" thoughts on every bit of details. They constantly changed their minds about their previous decisions in order to accommodate new ideas.
Not only did she ask the others but Mable also asked him what he thought about most of her decisions. The moment he seemed unsure about something, she discarded it and chose something else.
It was hard for him because he had no clue about what to answer most of the time. Even if she asked him which fabric would look better with the design she wanted, how was he supposed to know? It wasn"t like he had extensive knowledge about fabrics or even clothes in general.
The best he could do was to answer the simplest questions like which would look better between this and this.
As if their discussion didn"t feel busy enough to Emp, they put a layer of small talk over it all. They spent their whole afternoon in that shop, talking about clothes, cla.s.ses and whatever else they happened to think about.
They talked about the rising number of refugees from Greenpeaks, they talked about Nessa"s progress in the strategy cla.s.s, about Zoran"s misfortune, what they"d like to wish for when the new year came and so on. They even talked about their sleeping postures and how Githa found older men more to her liking than the boys their age. (4)
Emp stayed out of most of the topic and only commented when he felt it was worth to say it or when he was directly asked. The subject changed so often and so quickly that he was often left behind.
They only went back towards the school after they had spent hours there and Githa didn"t even buy anything in the end.
That sort of trip wasn"t for him. He was kinda relieved once it was finally over. In reverse, Mable had a lot of fun and was beaming from the jolly outing.
"Thank you Emp for accompanying us." She told him as they walked back into the school.
Emp removed his helm again to answer more easily.
"No problem, I"m supposed to anyway."
"There"s something great about being watched over by someone reliable isn"t there?" Aglaya nudged her friend.
"Yes, I understand what you meant now. I never thought going shopping for clothes could be this fun. It was way better than back home."
Mable was satisfied it seemed. Emp was just glad they had not been attacked like every other time. He finally had a peaceful shopping trip after two years of existence.
The girls all left one by one until only Mable remained. He walked her all the way to her room and she thanked him again for the day.
"I know you don"t like to talk about clothing but I don"t think it would have been as fun without you so thank you again. I had a great day and I like your new armor a lot. I think its charming in a manly sort of way."
"You think?"
"Yeah..."
She seemed to hesitate for a second before leaning forward on her tiptoe and whispering a strange secret to his ear.
"I"m kinda glad there"s no ridiculous codpiece on it. My uncle had one so large he kept knocking tables and things over with it. One time, one of my aunts was furious and slammed a door shut on it. It left that huge dent and my uncle went pale."
Emp could help but laugh out loud at that ridiculous story. As he was laughing, Mable used her position close to his ear to press a light kiss on his cheek and ran inside her room before he could react.
"Night! Bye!"
And the door was slammed shut.
***
"Tonight is the first big step in our plan, I"m all ready now, you can go to bed, I"ll join you later."
"..."
"Yes I love you too, good night. Don"t worry, I won"t do anything exaggerated."
So, who should I go get first, this one or that one? Hard to choose. Should I go for who she recommended as sisters? She"s cuter than I expected, maybe I"ll keep her after all this is over. In that case, I should pick one or two from her list to please her.
Although I"m not sure she will be as cute as before when she finds out how I plan to convince them. Soft suggestions and mild mind altering potions worked well on her but I don"t think the others will be so easy.
The gla.s.s merchant girl would be a good choice for the money alone but she"s not a pressing matter. The n.o.ble girls are many times more valuable, I"ll get so many t.i.tles!
Then the Greenpeaks princess? She"s not the inheritor and her kingdom will probably collapse soon, maybe later. She"s not even in the list she gave.
Then who"s the most interesting out of her top three?
This one is very curious, I wonder what"s her name. Shall we gamble a bit? I can only go for her at night anyway because she"s followed all the time by her guardian and her friend. Scissors? Where did I store those things, they might get handy...
***
(1) Note that meurtriere is a misspelled French word, (meurtrière) that literally means murderer (in its feminine form). Just in case you don"t know, meurtriere are the slits in the battlements that they use to shoot arrows through. So they were indeed murder openings. Openings being a feminine word in French, they called it meurtrière and the English version just removed the accent.
Likewise, gorget come from the word "gorge" which is the French word for throat.
(2) I often disagree with American spelling of words but in the case of color and armor I do not. You see, in French, "ou" is p.r.o.nounced the same way you say "who". Every time I see colour or armour I go crazy because I say it "col-who-r" and "Arm-who-r" in my head. Fun fact, armour is only a letter away from the French word amour which means love. Anyway, I"m just complaining because my text editing software thinks I misspelled all words including color or armor in them and it"s getting annoying.
(3) Yes, I finally learned that the plural of pa.s.serby is not Pa.s.serbys but pa.s.sersby instead.
(4) I do not remember if I precised it already but It needs to be pointed out. I often use the terms boys or girls to describe anyone up to around twenty years old. I even sometimes use the words for 28 years old that look young. In fact, in real life conversation I almost never use the words women or men. I felt like this habit of mine needed to be pointed out once and for all before the readers started complaining about how confusing my choice of words were. In my head, boy and girl doesn"t equal kids. If I really mean a kid, I will say either kid or small boy/girl. Same kind of thing for teenagers.