A New Look

Ignoring the various rude remarks that Elizabeth is making in her head toward Astur, the two of them cross the street to the market district of the Town of Dawn. Although it's called a district, in reality, it's just a single long street. Lined up on the side of the street is a myriad of shops, ranging from simple convenience stores and farmers selling produce in a stall, all the way up to high-end stores selling luxury goods.

Although she thought it would end up as a pointless endeavour, Astur still dragged Elizabeth to a few bookstores in search of a useful recipe. But knowing the results ahead of time, Astur wasn't terribly upset when they walked out with nothing to show.

Having an idea of what she wants to buy and test later, with a bit of asking around, Astur finds her way to the workshop of a well-respected blacksmith. With a goal in mind, Astur ignores the welcomes and suggestions of the apprentices manning the storefront and grabs a cheap shortsword for 100 VD before making her way to one of the luxury good stores.

But as they pass by a clothing store, Elizabeth pulls Astur's arm and says, "I want to stop here and get some clothes."

"But you have clothes," Astur says.

"I have tattered and shredded clothes from when I was in disguise and on the run."

"Then what are you wearing right now?"

Raising her brow, Elizabeth says, "Aren't these your clothes, how can you not recognise them? I took them from your house."

In truth, Astur really can't recognise them. After changing into her current equipment, Astur never bothered with changing into different clothes since her equipment cleans itself. She isn't even aware of where her original clothes went after ditching them, so how could she possibly know what the clothes that were prepared alongside her house look like.

Although her coat and hood block most people from getting an in-depth look at Elizabeth's clothing, Astur's position right now gives her a good chance to get a good look at her appearance. And she notices that Elizabeth's current outfit is more than just a bit too big. If not for the belt that is practically strangling her waist, Elizabeth's trousers would undoubtedly fall. Her shirt is much too big, most noticeably around the chest and shoulders. Astur just sighs and gives Elizabeth a look of pity.

"Alright we can take a look, but can you pay for it?" Astur asks.

Hearing this, Elizabeth instantly turns her head away.

"Oi!"

"It's not like I don't have any money, but…"

"But what?" Astur asks.

"I humbly apologise, I don't have enough money after recent events, please pay for it for me and I'll pay you back. I don't want to keep wearing your clothes, they make me feel bad!" Elizabeth says, getting on her knees and bowing down.

Astur sighs once more and takes a quick glance around to see many of the pedestrians are idly standing around watching them.

Taking out a Blast Ball from the storage ring on her finger, "you lot gonna move on with your day or do you want to keep watching my Blast Ball!?" Astur says, threatening everyone around them.

Almost immediately upon seeing the Blast Ball, all the onlookers leave, as Astur puts the bomb away and thinks for a moment.

"Alright, this works actually. I'll buy something for you," Astur says.

"Thank you," Elizabeth says, looking back up.

But because of her hood blocking her full field of view, Elizabeth failed to see the scheming smile on Astur's face.

After a couple of minutes of looking around the clothing store, Astur says, "so how does a one-piece dress sound."

"Quite nice actually. They are my favourite thing to wear, far better than trousers. I don't know how you can wear them all the time."

"You just have no taste. I've worn all kinds of dresses before, and I can safely say they are amongst the worst things I've ever worn," Astur says, picking a dress off a nearby shelf. Handing the dress over to Elizabeth, Astur says, "try it on, I'm 90% certain it fits your size and 100% certain it fits you aesthetically."

"I'm not sure how much I should trust the words of a woman who actually wears the same thing every day," Elizabeth says, squinting her eyes towards Astur.

"My clothes literally clean themselves. Now go try that dress on and if you like it we'll buy the dress and be on our way. I don't like the way the employees here are gossiping about me. I feel that if I spend too much time here I'm gonna take out the big one."

"Why are they pointing at you anyway?" Elizabeth asks as she strains her ears to listen to the conversation between two nearby employees.

"Did you hear that? Do you think we should call the police?" One of the employees says, taking out their phone.

"No, stop, what if we aggravate her. We should do it out of sight or when it looks like something is going to happen," the other employee says, guiding their co-worker away.

"Ok, what did you do?"

"I suppose you were too busy wiping your tears from the ground since my clothes remind you of your washboard, to hear about me threatening everyone around us with a Blast Ball. But don't worry, just because you don't have any curves, doesn't mean you aren't cute."

"First, and pardon my language, but what the fuck is wrong with you? And second, I'm still growing!" Elizabeth shouts.

"Sure, keep telling yourself that, pipsqueak. But does it seem like you're more upset about that than the fact that I threatened everyone with a bomb?"

"Has anyone ever told you that you're an incredibly frustrating person to speak with?"

"Is that so? Thanks for the compliment, glad to hear I'm doing my job right," Astur says with a smile on her face.

"I give up," Elizabeth says, walking into the changing room next to them.

After a minute, Elizabeth walks out wearing a red one-piece dress with several black horizontal stripes. Separating the black stripes from the red base are two rows of frilly white flower patterns on each side of the stripes. Looking over the small red-headed girl, Astur can safely say her fashion sense isn't dead.

Without a word, Astur nods in satisfaction over her work and begins patting Elizabeth on the head.

"Hey, what are you doing, stop it," Elizabeth says, brushing Astur's hand aside.

"Oh, sorry, I just thought you looked cute and felt compelled to pet you."

"Why does it feel like you've been treating me like some kind of pet dog?"

"Eh? You're not?" Astur asks, taking a step back as she looks at Elizabeth in confusion.

"Breath in, breath out, I need to calm down. I'm better than this and I still need her to pay for this dress," Elizabeth thinks before finally saying, "let's go and pay for this."

If you ignore the not so quiet whispering amongst the employees, the clear finger-pointing, the cashier shaking in fear, and the Vampire who is clearly annoyed by the situation, then the checkout process went by easily without a problem… until they left the store and Astur felt a hand on her shoulder.

Turning around, Astur sees two police officers standing behind her as one says, "I'm going to have to ask you to come with us peacefully. You are under suspicion as a potential threat."

"What a pain in the ass," Astur thinks before saying, "allow me to teach you something my small companion it's-- Oh my god is that an alien UFO in the sky!" Astur shouts while pointing up behind the two police officers.

One of the officers looks at Astur as if she's an idiot, but his partner…

"What where! I need to see this," one of the officers yell as he turns around, looking frantically into the sky in search of a UFO.

With one officer not even registering, Astur's existence anymore, and the other completely stunned over his partner's actions, Astur grabs Elizabeth in her arms and says, "secret technique, run away!"

The officer who wasn't fooled quickly returns from his stupor and tries to chase after them, but Astur throws the carcass of the leopard she killed the previous week at the officer, tripping him up and making her getaway.

As Astur makes her way out of the city, she can'T help but say aloud, "damn, I can't believe that worked."