Chapter 71

How closely did their new outfits resemble French maid outfits you ask? Very closely as it turns out. Morrigan and Torien stood side by side in their new 'battle maid' equipment. Their outfits shared a similar color scheme and style, dark blue with light purple trim.

Torien's outfit was fairly tight fitting and moved with her well. Despite resembling a dress, it didn't bunch up or restrict her movements anywhere. All of the loose fabric at the joints allowed her full range of movement while being cleverly disguised as decorative, making for a surprisingly functional outfit despite how fancy it looked. Underneath her skirt she wore light purple tights that hugged her curves well and stretched with her movements. I was a little surprised to see such stretchy material but apparently it came from a particular kind of spider that was regularly hunted in a dungeon near the capital. On her arms were long fingerless gloves made from the same material as her tights. The main body of her dress was dark blue with intricate patterns of lighter blue woven into the fabric and the front was covered by a light blue apron. Her tail was pulled through a hole in the back, right above where the dress began to flare out. The only thing that really broke the image of a maid uniform was the lack of a frilly headband.

Morrigan's outfit had matching colors but the fabric for the body of the dress had a different pattern woven into it. Morrigan's dress was much looser fitting on her body and instead had long flowing sleeves and a mantle. I wasn't sure if there was a reason behind this or not but the fabric hung on her more like the robes that most mages wore rather than the tighter dress her sister wore. While they were much less obvious than Torien's outfit, she shared the same tights and gloves that Torien did and the apron was basically identical across the two outfits. The aprons on this outfit really accentuated their bust rather than their last outfits that hid their chest instead. Though despite being rather feminine outfits, they didn't feel over the top. It would be easy for something like this to look too frilly or hyper-girly but I felt like they still looked like reasonable clothing. It was a bit of a relief honestly.

"Didn't we talk about blood staining the outfits the first time we met?" I joked.

"Psssh, the people I was talking about didn't shell out for the super expensive fabrics. Blood should wash out of this no problem, servant's gear has to be tough. Doubly so if they're also going to also be used as adventuring gear."

Morrigan held her arms out wide, showing off her sleeves. "How does it look?" She spun and posed, excited to show off her new outfit.

I smiled. As much as it would be odd to see them fighting in maid outfits, they did look very pretty in them. "You look gorgeous, they suit you both really well."

Torien was turning this way and that, seemingly impressed that the dress didn't seem to restrict her in the slightest. The dress looked rather feminine which I thought might look funny on the tomboyish Torien but it instead made her look dignified and serious. The dress' design actually complimented her personality perfectly. Torien strapped on her knife belts and arrow quiver and they strangely blended in naturally, becoming hidden in the structure of the outfit.

"I'm frankly floored by the quality of these two outfits Ameliana, I did not expect to be this impressed."

The sprite smugly smiled. "Well, you get what you pay for. These dresses weren't cheap. If you ever need them repaired, I'd prefer you come to me. I know that you can't really promise that though. Oh! one more thing."

She jumped off the top of the desk she had been sitting on and dug through one of her drawers before bringing over two wide-edged matching chokers. She pulled Morrigan over to herself and fitted it around her neck. The choker covered her slave collar just enough to leave it visible but decorated enough that it was obvious that their status was above most other slaves.

"These chokers will make most people recognize that these two are intended to be servants rather than slaves even if they aren't wearing the rest of their outfits for some reason. I personally had these specially enchanted to be extra durable, water proof and fire proof. Think of these as a gift, both to celebrate their status and as thank you for supporting my shop. Your repeated, expensive orders has been a bit of a windfall for me, even if I keep having to do rush orders," she said with a laugh.

Morrigan traced her fingers along the choker covering her collar. "Thank you ma'am. It's... it means a lot."

I looked over my party and realized... everyone was wearing a dress except for me now. I didn't dare voice that thought aloud. I don't know if I was completely ready for that step. As comfortable with my new body as I was becoming, I still felt a bit... detached from being a woman still. I probably should dress more femininely at some point, just to see how it feels. But not right now.

The four of us walked out of the shop fully dressed. Morrigan pulled the hood of her new outfit over her head, shading herself from the sun. Torien pulled her hood up too, happy to match her sister and explore a new feature of her outfit. I just smiled and let them mess around. They seemed more relaxed and jubilant than I had ever seen them.

The four of us walked down to Meena and Twill's shop to pick up our trunks next. The cowbell at the door welcomed us as we stepped inside the shop. Like usual there weren't any customers and only the lone mousegirl was in the shop at the moment. Meena was sitting at the counter looking a little tired but she smiled excitedly when she saw us.

"Good afternoon Lilith! Here to pick up your trunks?"

"That I am! Are they ready for us?"

"Yep! Just like we agreed. Twill just finished attaching the last of the hardware to them about a bell ago."

"You look a bit tired, I hope this wasn't too much of an inconvenience. We just want to get moving."

"No problem! You paid well for it and missing half a night of sleep every now and then won't kill me. Come, follow me."

She led us to the back again, this time through the small gate to Twill's outside forge. I don't really know much about blacksmithing beyond some of the basics but from my perspective it looked well stocked. There were a number of different pieces of forging equipment as well as three different sized and shaped anvils. Everything looked well maintained and a lot cleaner than you might expect an outside work environment. The forge was hot and running, Twill was currently focused on heating a piece of metal in his forge and didn't pay us any attention.

In the corner was a stack of the crates we ordered. These four boxes looked beautiful, they were lacquered with a slightly redish color that gave the boxes a well made look. On each corner were rounded metal fasteners to protect the corners of the container and each box was embossed with our names, a nice touch that I hadn't expected. They were exactly the size I was thinking, enough for us to keep a reasonable amount of things without burdening Mimi too much.

Meena put her hand on the stack of boxes. "Alright, are each of you going to carry one out of here or do you need me to round up some helpers?"

I was intrigued that these two hired people in the area for odd jobs but I decided it would be easier to just have Mimi store them for us now. "Thanks but that won't be necessary," I said. I lightly gripped Mimi's handle and wordlessly conveyed my intensions through our link. The four boxes broke into motes of light and trailed into Mimi's hilt.

Morrigan and Torien both covered their faces with their hands and Meena looked at me with a shocked face. "You have spatial storage magic? Or no wait, an item," she said looking at Mimi on my belt.

"Something like that." I nodded.

She cupped her chin lightly. "As an honest merchant I'll keep this to myself of course but would it be alright if I requested you for some specific jobs?"

"Of course. And yes, I would prefer discretion if possible. We're likely leaving on a trip to the capital as soon as some business with the guild is taken care of though."

"That's perfect!" She was vibrating with excitement at this point. "Would you come see us before you leave? I'd like you to make a delivery for me, something small but... a bit conspicuous. A spatial storage skill would make this a whole lot easier."

I hesitated. "This isn't anything dangerous or illegal is it?"

She looked shocked. "No! Of course not, it's just..." She rubbed her arm anxiously. "It's hard to explain but it's not anything bad I promise. Just come back before you leave to the capital and I'll explain it all then."

I raised an eyebrow. "You can't just explain it to me now?"

"Well... I'd rather not tell you about the job if you decide not to come back... Not that I don't trust you of course! It's just... the fewer people know the situation the better."

"Alright, we can talk about it before we leave town. But naturally we'll refuse any jobs that we don't feel comfortable with." I was still a bit skeptical but I suppose that reasoning made as much sense as any.

"Naturally" She nodded.

I looked over at everyone else and they didn't seem to have any complaints about what I said so I just left it at that.

The four of us walked out of the shop and it was only moments before the dam burst.

"I can't believe you used Mimi's spatial magic in front of someone else," Torien said.

Bella was quick to defend me. "But Lilith got us a potential job, that should count for something right?..."

Morrigan just sighed and shook her head.

"Look," I said. "Something tells me that I can trust those two. I don't think they really can afford to stab us in the back. It looks like we're one of their few customers."

"That's exactly why we can't trust them! Their shop was dead, selling information about you potentially having that kind of ability could be worth a lot to the right broker."

I shook my head. "No, I don't think so. I've been watching Meena closely since we started interacting with her. That girl wears her heart on her sleeve. Every time we've come back she's been more and more happy to see us. I don't think she would risk this kind of relationship, we pay too well for her to stab us in the back... at least right now. I doubt she would be able to fake the look of relief on her face when I paid for those trunks up front. I think there's a good chance we saved their business."

Torien still looked skeptical but didn't look as angry anymore. "You could intuit that just from the few times we've talked with her?"

I nodded. "I'm pretty sure of it. I showed the ability to her intentionally, I was positive she would react favorably and I trust her. I know how useful an ability like this could be to a merchant, I'm not stupid."

Torien chuckled. "Sometimes I wonder... Alright, if you're sure then okay. It isn't as bad of a move if you did it intentionally. I was just afraid you slipped up again."

"Yeah, I could see why you could think so." I was happy to receive her barb, she's starting to loosen up on me. I decided to tease her back. "That dress looks cute on you by the way, it really brings out your feminine side."

Her face flushed red and she started walking a bit father ahead of our group. Morrigan caught up to her and whispered something in her ear only to be shoved away with a giggle.

I smiled. Things were looking up.