Preparation for the Mission

"Thank you for your hard work. This is the stamp for the report to the adventurer's guild."

The sun had set, a sign that Elijah's patrol time was finally over. Elijah had just come out of the city guard's office to report his mission. A stamped paper was given to him as usual. Although the mission had been a little tiring at the beginning, Elijah could hardly believe that he had earned a considerable amount of money just by helping a few people during the festival.

Now that he was done, Elijah rushed back to the guild to get paid for his successful mission as well as meet up with Heidi, who was supposed to finish at the same time as him.

After Elijah was sure he would catch the villain who kidnapped the dance competition winners at night, he promised to meet with Heidi at the guild building to prepare their initial plan.

When Elijah entered the guild building, he did not see Heidi anywhere, a sign that he had returned ahead of the cat girl. Elijah reached the reception desk to report the success of the mission first. Perhaps because the sun had just set, Agda was still busy with her duties at the reception desk.

"Welcome back, Elijah. Did you have fun at the festival?"

Once Elijah had gotten close enough to the bespectacled woman, even if Elijah hadn't said anything yet, Agda recognized his presence and greeted him with a friendly smile. Elijah handed Agda the stamp he had gotten from the city guard. Then, for the sake of politeness, Elijah also replied to Agda's question as briefly as possible.

"I went out on a mission. There's not much to see there."

"Hm... too bad. However, there's nothing we can do since you're the serious type whenever you go on a mission, right?"

Agda replied while writing down the results of Elijah's mission in the ledger on her desk. Agda took 75 gold coins from the drawer at the reception desk after that. She handed it to Elijah, who immediately accepted it without saying much.

"Seventy-five gold coins as payment for helping the city guards secure the festival. Good job, Elijah. You get one guild point for this successful mission."

"Ah, Elijah! I see you seem to have arrived at the guild before me."

Elijah and Agda turned their heads towards the entrance of the adventurer's guild as Heidi called Elijah's name. Just like Elijah, the cat girl entered carrying the stamped results of the mission she was on. Heidi came to the reception desk and handed the mission results to Agda.

"Heidi, do you know Elijah?"

Agda seemed to be quite familiar with Heidi, as the woman familiarly addressed Heidi. Heidi nodded in response to Agda's question. "I met him when he first enrolled in the academy. Oh, yes. I was the one who introduced Elijah to the adventurer's guild," she said proudly.

"Ah... I should have told him that you were the one who took the same mission in the first place then," Agda said. The two women were busy talking to themselves. At one point, Heidi finally came to her senses about her mission and turned around to look at Elijah, who remained there without saying anything.

"Oh my! Look at me, talking without realizing time again. Agda, I'm sorry, but I have to leave to work on another mission with Elijah after this."

"Eh? You guys will be working on another mission on the festival night?"

Nighttime was the high point of the festival. Even the guild building planned to close at night. However, at such an important time, someone would instead go to work on another mission.

"Yup! You see, students like us need a lot of money to survive."

Heidi replied cheerfully, but her answer made Agda no longer able to protest about their decision.

"Alright. What mission are you guys going to take?" Agda asked again.

"It's actually a personal mission. We won't be taking any guild missions," Heidi replied. Agda nodded again. As a friend, he would not prevent Heidi from taking on other missions as long as she did not do anything illegal.

"In that case, be careful. Elijah, even though I know Heidi is your senior, I'll leave her to you, okay?"

"Hey, I'm stronger than him, you know!"

Heidi protested when Agda entrusted her to Elijah as if she was someone troublesome. But, even if Heidi protested, Agda only replied by shrugging his shoulders casually. "You are careless sometimes. I want Elijah to at least know about it," she informed.

"I'm not-"

"Good luck, you two. Don't do anything illegal and come back safely, okay?"

Agda could tell that Elijah did not want to watch their argument, so she immediately stopped Heidi's protest with another sentence. Fortunately, Heidi stopped looking for trouble when she heard Agda's remark. The cat girl snorted but nodded seriously anyway.

"Then, we're leaving first!"

Accompanied by Heidi's words, Elijah finally walked out of the adventurer's guild building again to start another mission.

***

"Alright. First, let's make yourself into a woman, Elijah."

That was the first thing Heidi said after they exited the adventurer's guild building, so they went to the clothing store immediately afterward. Elijah did not protest as he knew he had no choice but to follow the plan Heidi had made. The teenager entered the shop that Heidi had chosen and let the cat girl pick the right clothes for him.

"Alright. Now, take off your clothes, Elijah."

After finding the right clothes, Heidi asked Elijah to take off his clothes shamelessly. Elijah also did not feel strange when showing his body to an NPC. The teenager undressed calmly, earning an admiring whistle from Heidi, who couldn't believe Elijah could be that calm when undressing in front of a girl.

"Wow... I didn't expect you to have a pretty good body even though you're a mage."

Heidi couldn't help but comment as Elijah finished taking off his clothes. Underneath the pale skin, because Elijah had not been exposed to much sun in the past, a lean muscle was formed as a result of Elijah's hard training. Perhaps because Elijah had always worn long clothes all this time, Heidi had no idea that there was a solid body behind Elijah's slender figure.

"The clothes."

Elijah stretched out his hand to take the clothes Heidi had chosen. But Heidi pulled his hand away again this time. The girl looked at Elijah's body, then shook her head again with an apologetic face.

"I thought your body didn't have as many muscles as the average mage, so I chose a slightly revealing outfit. But looking at your current body... let me find you something else, okay?"

Elijah frowned as Heidi almost asked him to wear a revealing dance outfit just because he looked pale and slender. Elijah did not say anything about that. However, the frown on his forehead had already managed to make Heidi feel guilty for looking down on Elijah just because he looked weak and easy to beat.

"I'm sorry, Elijah! Try on this outfit. I promise I won't bother you anymore after this."

Elijah accepted the new clothes chosen by Heidi and stopped looking upset when he saw that the clothes Heidi had chosen this time were unisex clothes that would not make him too embarrassed when wearing them. Elijah put on the clothes quickly. When he looked at Heidi again, all he could see was Heidi nodding with satisfaction as she looked at him.

"Alright! Now, all that's left is to dress you up, and we're ready to go."

"...I have to dress up?"

Elijah couldn't help but halt his steps as Heidi said he had to dress up for his mission this time. Heidi gave him a confused look. "Of course. You can't possibly dance with that short hair, can you?" she told him.

Elijah couldn't resist, so he surrendered as Heidi took him to another shop. The cat girl seemed so determined to catch the villain. Because all the expenses, from the clothes to Elijah's make-up were all paid in full using Heidi's money.

"Alright! Now you're ready. Honestly, I almost didn't recognize you, Elijah."

After being given a new wig, makeup, and clothes, Elijah finally looked like a beautiful tall woman. Heidi and the person who dressed Elijah couldn't stop saying that she looked very beautiful. However, for his mental health, Elijah decided not to look in the mirror earlier.

Elijah's flat face didn't change even if he became a 'woman' this time. The man looked at the crowd outside the store, then said seriously to Heidi.

"We should go now."

Heidi nodded. "You are right. Then, thank you for your help, Anna."

"Sure! Come back later!"

The make-up artist called Anna replied, while Heidi and Elijah went out afterward. Elijah had to keep convincing himself that he was only on a mission. And there was nothing wrong with wearing women's clothing for the sake of the mission he had to complete.

"Come on, Elijah! The competition will start in a minute!"

Even so, Elijah couldn't help but be embarrassed when he came out as a woman. Elijah followed Heidi, who would register him for the competition while praying that no one would see him with this embarrassing appearance.