Chapter Thirty One

  Harmony purchased two meat pies outside the uy campus with the sun high. The beef, carrot, and gravy stuffed pastries steamed in her hand. Witnessing Len's exam had taken the m away, but with the information she gleaned, it wasn't a total loss.

  Street urs selling news sheets were still at it. Usually, it was a m ht gig, capturing the day's events for people before they go to sleep or summarizing it in the m for those who've woken up. The sdal aement created an all-day news cycle.

  "False duke has no Authority, ism at its worst!"

  "Prince Adric spotted in sewers with a lizard-person lover!"

  "Wizard spills all, sensational Kelly White's daughter shines."

  Harmony wi hearing her mother's 's not like they've spoken since she was kicked out. She told herself that her mom would use this as publicity to keep up her big fish in a small pond fort zone and only talk about herself.

  Today wasn't a day for dwelling. You only get so many day's off from work, and tomorrow is Ambrosia's thank-you-for-helping-with-the-pet-problem day, even if she did let him run loose. This meant the need for a fit. She couldn't borrow her taller friends' ones without most of them failing to fit properly. It didn't help that the maid knew she was burning through clothing whenever she o don her new armor or that her best dress had been ged and incorporated into that armor.

  The area around the uy did have some of the best shopping that wasn't dungeon diving focused. It had shops, baths, taverns, and various eai options. Three indoor theatres and a pair of outdoor amphitheaters, haunts from a life she left behind. Kelly White's name was being yelled, rather than Harmony wasn't a ce, as she'd' seen her mom pay the loewsboys extra to make sure her name was called when she made the news.

  The maid spent the afternoon walking down still familiar streets, ign posters advertising a py with her mother's fa it and looking around the shops.

  Lad Ladies advertised capital and evolved fashions in the window o dispys holding colorful dresses covered in ribbon and ce. Harmoered.

  A skill pressed against her, taking measurements and weighing her. Height, proportions, inseam, the kind of skill on to tailors aresses. A skill that some maids at the manor had taken and used before.

  "How may I be of service to you today?" Asked a kind woman's voibsp;

  "I'm looking for a dress. No. Two dresses. My friend has pns, and knowihere will be dang, singing, and possibly drinking involved."

  The seamstress stepped out from behind a mannequin. She nearly matched Harmony's short stature.

  "Finally, a t who I won't need a step stool for. What you're looking for will be active social wear. It's more evolved kingdom fashion than capitol based, which is what you get when you push all the citizens to gh at least one evolution the first two years of getting their profession and css. Have to have sturdy clothes to survive thh and tumble skill cshes."

  Sturdy is what she needed. "I have a skill that equips me with armor, but it's murder on clothes. Do you think maybe something that survive that?"

  "e on back to the ging area."

  The seamstress used her fio whistle. One of the mannequins in the back shifted into a bipedal man. Some kind of golem or struct. "Keep an eye on the shop." The woman instructed it.

  "I'm Misha." She told Harmony as they stepped into the ging area, a simple, curtained-off area with a rge mirror on the far wall.

  "I don't want to damage my current outfit."

  "You strip out those boy clothes, and I'll find a scrap gown to see what I'm w with. You're not the first one who grow armor, project, or whatever. Ba Calestia, you'd be surprised at how on such quick defense skills are for evolved csses."

  "You're from an evolved kingdom?"

  "Don't hold it against me. Sometimes you want to go where the petition is light, and your skills are needed. I'm probably the only Master seamstress in Hazeldown."

  Harmony began to strip off her more ral boyish clothes as the seamstress left the room.

  The seamstress returned with almost a potato sack, a one-piece outfit of dozens of stitched pieces of fabric. "To test the skill wear against specific material." Misha pointed out upon seeing Harmony's questioning look.

  Sliding it on, she felt like a in the oversized, baggy one-piece outfit. Donning her armor, Night, took stripped that feeling off. The new bulk in her soul sat unfortably there like a lump iomach. Stripping naked before donning the armor referable. [Small Armor] was joyful at being equipped, and even [High Kick] appreciated the armored boots. [Beauti] knew she looked good. Eveher skills and stats felt a sympathetiion to the sparkling bck armor through its creation and form. It resonated pleasantly to feel plete in form and fun.

  "Blocked paths! You're Kelly White's daughter. The Sket the sheet didn't do you justice."

  That did not feel pleasant. There were only so many times you could be introduced as Kelly White's daughter growing up and overhear someone asking, "what was her name" in the distance before you wao be as invisible as you felt. That old life was supposed to be buried when she was thrown out with scraps and bones.

  "My name is Harmony."

  [Cold Touch] fred, making the words not only e out with a chilly to also drop the room's temperature several degrees. The ck of trol was a stark remihat she'd yet to adjust to all the new levels and skills she'd acquired. Lord Tyler routiook week-loreats and training sessions after getting even one new skill, but some people had to work for a living.

  "Sorry, my dy. I was simply shocked by your presence." Misha apologized with a curtsy

  Harmony stood there dumbfounded by the address and curtsy. Because of her css, she'd suffered insults, mog, aion. Pretending about a le was new. Was there a subtle insult behind such a thing? She'd read something about the evolved kingdoms taking lords, dies, and the like much more seriously thainy strip of a kingdom does.

  "Is it true your father was a lord, and you've unlocked your royal bloodline?"

  Dead before she left the womb. Her father was the st thing Harmony wao talk about. A Laborer, and a fire mage. Harmony activated [Poise and Bearing], letting the skill take over and present a calm facade.

  "I'm afraid you're mistaken. I'm not a dy. I'm merely looking for a new dress."

  "You'll unlock authority soon, don't worry. Then you'll be free to hang with your special friends. Is it the princess? That false duke is so disrespectful."

  The leaking chill of [Cold Touch] at these topics pulled in her. Hanging with the princess, and whht up someone's dead family? So Harmo ride.

  "No. She's just a friend. we move this along?" The cold tone did make her think of stuck-up aristocrats. The temperature dropped enough for the air to deside her mouth as she huffed.

  "Of course. It should be long enough to see how your skill has dispced the outfit or left damaged ses we at for. S bato the test outfit."

  The outfit came ba shreds. The threads used to bind all the bits of fabric together had been the first to go. The neancer wished she hadn't made the room so cold. Where Night had protected her against the cold, the strips of fabric over bare skin brought goosebumps and shivers.

  "Oh my. This is unusual."

  The seamstress picked up squares of fabric. Rubbing the materials between her fingers before iing the ohat mao stay tentatively worn by Harmony.

  "What are you thinking?" The maid asked, now more ed with her current problem than past history.

  "High-grade materials I don't have here could work. I've heard of some sed-evolved crafters who make clothes that repair themselves. What has your trainer said about using the skill to minimize or localize the damage?"

  Trainers, why hadn't she thought of such a thing. Other than the oney and time and the fact that she had yet to hear of this type of skill or item pairing that did this in Hazeldown. Maybe in the evolved kingdoms, it would be different.

  "It's a new ability. You've seen the sheets. I've been too busy to find a trainer."

  "Well, that might help. I'm going to reend you not use the armor unless you o e to have cheaper clothes."

  It's not like Harmo she had much choice when she . She envisioned dumping most of the dungeon run earnings into dresses then, ten minutes after wearing it, needing to stop some idiot and trashing her outfit.

  "Could you add some decorative metal ptes to the dresses? Is that a thing?" Harmony asked.

  "In activewear, it is, my dy."

  Harmony didn't correct her.

  Two dresses took most of Harmony's . Outside of Misha's tendency to slip into honorific modes of address, she knew her job, and they worked well together. [Beauti], [Style and Grace], [Small Armor], and even [High Kick] tributed impressions while Harmony worked with the master Seamstress's opinion to build two new dresses for her. It made her feel secure in handling whatever surprise Ambrosia nning the day.

  With her main chore done, hauling twe dress boxes, Harmony looked at the other shops again. New Leaf Tomes and Tea, a bookstore. She'd avoided entering earlier due to the risk of spending her money before she got to the dresses. The shop was unusual since books teo be more for private colles. Most everyone read news sheets as those with artist, scribe, or author professions found it easier to grind out their skills doing that work than to try to fully copy or write books. Now she felt free to enter.

  Two women got up at the chime of the bell on the door, oh short brown hair with a bandage ed around her shoulder and a blond with her hair up in a messy bun.

  "Not you, darling. You o heal up." The blond told her partner, pushing them down into their cushy seat with a whump. With a smile, she moved eically towards Harmony. "Sorry about that. Kianthe fancies herself a bit of a bodyguard and hurt herself defending me fron spiders. Wele to New Leaf Tomes and Tea. I'm Reyna."

  The maid noticed how she atuated the leaf from the store name like it was the fuhing in the world. As fearsome as their name sounded, dragon spiders were harmless and merely used their scaly c to mimic dragons to scare predators away, nothing like the spiders she'd battled in the manor attibsp;

  "I was w if you had any books on primal bonds?"

  "Let me look. I have some lovely tea if you want as you wait."

  "No, thank you," Harmony responded.

  Reyna bustled to the back shelves, stopping in front of a stirring Kianthe. "Stay seated." She lectured with a wag of her finger.

  Books lihe walls, while fy chairs and small tables for tea took up much of the interior. She sed the titles seeing Tender Love, Low Morals on High Seas, and In the Knight were some of the less btant ones.

  "Cozy spot you have here." Harmony addressed the brue, who looked unfortably well-pampered in her chair.

  "It's ours, and we love it. Reyna fancies herself a magi at making tea. Sometimes a little trouble is all it takes to push off to run away to a city in the middle of nowhere and live your dreams."

  The maid could uand that, having dreamed about having a proper pet and maybe a bit naively imagining it fighting in the colosseum as a career where she could work from the sidelines. "Good for you."

  Reyna dashed ba. "Will Primal Hunter work? It's about a borer transported into a fantastical world."

  Harmony shook her head. "You wouldn't happen to have any books on skills, leveling, and bonds?"

  Reyed. "We have Thibodeaux on Skills, but that's it. We're focused on books to help people escape from the daily grind of leveling, the sore feat of walking paths, the traumas of the dungeon."

  fort books, the kind Fel loved. Harmony asked how much the book was and winced when the price listed was as much as her dress and past what she'd brought for the shopping trip.

  "Would you happen to have any damaged books needing repair that you'll be willing to sell cheaply?"

  "I might have some options in the back that are taking up space. I 't help but care for things that need a little bit of extra love to get better."

  Harmony avoided rolling her eyes at Reyna's wistful look toward the bandaged Kianthe. But that was how she spent the rest of her money on three beaten-up books. Monster Girls, whose pages were stuck together, a crumbling three-hundred-year-old diary by a priest, and an old ledger of skills filled with annotations and ripped pages.

  Possibly a waste, but she figured it was something she could practi to see how well she could repair books after unlog her stats. And if these turned into a pile of bck goo, no one would get mad.