Sparrows chirped an explicit background melody while divergent birds were gently flying in the clear sky and their melodious dawn chorus was clearly audible.
The first orange hued rays appeared on the skyline, which went through the clouds and the immense sky was plainly visible. The sun came out of its dwelling across the sparkling orange horizon and shone in the sky. The sparkling sun started slowly rising up and painted the blue sky in a beautiful golden color with its rays. The warm breeze could be felt and the few plants in the barren lands made a blissful smile towards the sun.
Aside from the early birds in the sky, there were two figures standing on swords and flew towards Virnam. The two figures were Don and Arrora, Don was going to a new place and he didn't want to show his powers in case he met with some trouble because it was more advantageous to him if he hid his powers from princess Darlene for a time being.
Since Arrora was a peak level great master and having a beautiful bodyguard with them was not rare among the royalty, Don decided to bring Arrora with him to meet princess Darlene.
Although Don decided to bring along Arrora, he made her wear the magical mask to change her face so no one would recognize her from the auction or anywhere. Other than the magical mask Don gave a silver pendant for Arrora to wear, at first Arrora hesitated before wearing as the silver pendant was like an ugly web of wears and metals forged into a triangle also it was considerably big to call as a pendant.
Seeing the familiar gates in the distance Don and Arrora descended to the ground and started to walk to the gates.
"What's your purpose of coming to Virnam?" Don was asked by the guard when his turn came to enter the city.
The guards had no idea the brown-haired youth before them was their king since Don had his face changed with the mask just like Arrora.
The guard looked at Don and Arrora for a moment then signaled the both of them to enter the city. When he entered the city Don was slightly surprised at seeing the crowd on the streets, unlike his first visit. It was clear that Warren's doing good as the streets had more people with all ages and races, each and every store in Don's view had at least a couple of customers.
"Let's go" Don remembered the route to reach Luther and Granner, while navigating through the maze of streets Don and Arrora noticed few petty crimes like pickpocketing or thievery which indicated the lack of soldiers and guards but this was not the time for Don to deal with these crimes.
Fortunately, no one picked Don and Arrora as their target to pickpocket and eventually both of them reached Luther and Granner.
"Truly magnificent" Arrora exclaimed when she saw the five storey building before her.
"Welcome to Luther and Granner my lord, my lady" a human girl wearing a silver dress welcomed Don and Arrora.
"Where's the section for men?" Don asked the girl while Arrora stared at the store and the clothes in wonder.
"This way my lord" the girl gestured at Don to follow her towards the stairs leaving Arrora who was still gawking around the store.
The floor for the men section had countless robes, tunics, jackets, and jewelry neatly hung in the stands.
"Your size will be there my lord" the girl led Don to the stand that surprisingly had perfect sized dresses for Don.
Don was not a picker when it comes to dresses so he just picked the clothes that were not pink, yellow, or green. While picking the clothes it was obvious to Don that most of the clothes were not high quality like his black armor or the clothes Jemma wore but he didn't care much.
"My lord, don't you want to try these on?" the girl couldn't but ask seeing Don picking the dresses like he's picking fruits from a tree.
"No, show me the other sizes" after picking clothes for him Don decided to buy clothes for the people in the castle back in Everlight.
Seeing Don taking this many clothes, the girl quickly took out a s.p.a.ce ring and put all the clothes he chose into the ring as her smile now turned into joy thinking about her commission.
Don finished picking the clothes and grabbed one silver long-sleeved coat and black trouser which lined with grayish fur and went into the trail room to change.
"My lady" the girl said when she saw Arrora walking towards her
"My lord is in there changing" as the girl said Don walked out of the room wearing his new clothes.
"You..." Arrora was awestruck for a moment, the silver long coat perfectly fitted his well-built physique and his new face. If Don would have worn this dress with his original face he would be so handsome and attractive to any girls that lay eyes on him.
"You look great" Arrora said and closed the sales girl's mouth with her hand.
"Didn't you buy anything for yourself?" Don didn't see any clothes in Arrora's hand and hearing Don's question Arrora shook her head
"Show her the ladies section" Don said to the girl
"You don't have to do that, I'm fine" Arrora waved her hand and refused to follow the girl
"It's an order" Don knew Arrora would never do this unless she was given an order. Even though Don was ruthless to his enemies, he treated his friends and loyal aides well if not Don wouldn't have bought almost the entire men's section for them.
Arrora realized there was no talking out of this as she sighed heavily and gestured to the girl to lead the way while Don stood there without any intention to follow them.
"What's the problem?"
"..."Don was slightly puzzled because the ladies section was not for men like him to go, besides he heard that the women take ages to choose a dress in stores like this, and Don didn't want to go there and sit like a mannequin on the waiting benches.
"You should come, you are the one paying right?"
Although every fiber in his body told him not to go, seeing the adamant look on her face Don sighed and followed the girls to the ladies section.
The ladies section at least had twice the amount of dresses in the men section and Don had no idea about some of the dresses on the floor. Arrora chuckled seeing Don's confused face. Don regretted his choice as he turned to see female mannequins wearing nothing but undergarments.
As a gentleman, Don consciously chose to avoid looking at the mannequins and turned his gaze towards the windows to see the outside city.
While looking at the city through the gla.s.s window, Don saw the reflection of Arrora picking a dress and taking a peek at the price tag then putting it back on the stand, Arrora did the same many times as Don decided to go and see what's happening.
"My lady, this color will suit you perfectly" the girl showed a velvet gown with edges laced with golden silk. Arrora grabbed the dress from the girl and placed it on her as she stood before a mirror. The velvet gown was clearly not suited for battle but it was a perfect regal dress for b.a.l.l.s and galas held by n.o.bles and royalties.
"She'll take that" Don interrupted before Arrora could see the price tag on the dress "you know what, we'll take everything" Don pointed the entire floor to the girl while Arrora seemed like she could faint any minute
"My lord, it'll cost..."
"Don't worry about the coins, pack up everything and bring me the bill"
"Yes! yes my lord" the girl almost bouncing in excitement while Don picked up a dark blue long coat and leather trousers
"here you should change into these, it'll allow you to engage in combat without restricting your movements" Don handed over the dress to Arrora and left the room to wait for the bill on the ground floor.
After a few minutes of waiting, Don saw Arrora coming towards him wearing her new dress but when he noticed her troubled face, Don knew something's wrong
"There was blood in the changing room Don, there was a struggle here recently" Arrora frowned and said.
"Could be anything" Don was not a hero who would try to save everyone in the world, of course, that didn't mean he would never help. As long as it was beneficial to him or if there weren't any serious consequences, Don would help.
But in this case, Don didn't see anything that could benefit him from investigating blood in a store.
"Don please, I have a feeling that someone needs help" Arrora begged Don cupping her hands together, this was the first Don see Arrora beg and he didn't want to see her like this.
"Alright, I'll contact Knight and put someone to this task"
"Thank you" Arrora sighed and said as the salesgirl finally came to Don with a bill and a s.p.a.ce ring in her hand.
"Here's the bill my lord" the girl handed over the card which had the list of items and prices calligraphed on it, looking at the end of the bill Don quickly put the bill into his pockets because he didn't want Arrora to see the amount and blame herself considering every dress in the ladies sections cost more than dress in the men section.
Don was glad he kept a stack of low-quality magic stones because if he had to pay in gold coins, it would take hours to count them.
"Here " Don tossed a low-quality magic stone to the girl and said
"Keep the balance" Don knew the balance was just a couple of gold coins so he didn't want to wait for her to bring the balance.
"Thank... thank you, my lord" the girl gave the s.p.a.ce ring containing the dresses and grinned happily as Don could see her clutching the gold coins against her chest.
"Let's go" after nodding at the girl, Don and Arrora made their way towards the door to exit the store in new clothes.
