Summer Break

Chapter 7

It was the last night at home, come tomorrow morning Arthur and his friends begin their summer break as adventurers. Arthur had just finished inventorying his supplies and put them into his dimensional ring, and was looking down at his bed. On his bed were the clothes he would wear as an adventurer, even his cloak which arrived only a week ago were all laid out neatly. He had been worried that it wasn't going to be ready in time, so he was grateful when Elder Viron had dropped it off when he came to visit Tess and evaluate her progress. Sadly though Tess' clothes weren't ready yet, although they did promise her order would be ready today. Sylvie was curled up in a ball on one of the pillows that she had claimed as hers, when there was a sudden knock on his bedroom door.

"Hey Tess," Arthur greeted as he opened his door.

"Hey Art, I got you something!" Tess announced nervously as she quickly pushed a thin wooden box out in front of her.

"Oh, thanks. What's this for?" Arthur asked as he took the box.

"I-I don't need a reason to give you something do I?" Tess replied, still sounding a little nervous.

"I guess not," Arthur replied with a chuckle at her nervousness. "Can I open it now?" Tess nodded vigorously, and Arthur gestured for her to come in.

Arthur placed the box on his bed and sat down next to it while Tess remained standing twiddling her fingers nervously. Arthur looked down at the wooden box, it was for the most part simple, with the logo and name of the shop it was purchased from engraved in the middle of the lid and filled with gold.

"I knew that place seemed too fancy," Arthur thought to himself.

He then removed the lid to see a cream colored shirt, similar to the one he was going to wear. He picked it up and immediately noticed the material was different from any other he had felt in this world, reminding him of workout clothes from his previous world. As he lifted it up and it unfolded he saw that there was a gold trim along the seams. The gold was subtle against the color of the shirt, but it did shine when the light reflected off of it. Once fully unfolded an image was seen, at the abdomen where his mana core would be was an image of a dragon outlined in gold. No doubt it was intended to resemble Sylvie, but with the color of the shirt it more so resembled Sylvie's mother and dragon who gave him his beast will, Sylvia. Underneath was also a black pair of pants made of the same material, but with no special details.

"Thank you," Arthur replied with a smile, genuinely loving the gift.

"I'm happy you like it," Tess replied with a sigh of relief. "The material it's made of is also very special. When mana is channeled into it the fibers become stronger than steel and when hit with mana it redistributes it to lessen the impact."

"Oh wow. I can't believe I've never heard of anything like this before. Is the elven army equipped with this?" Arthur replied as he gazed at the clothes in amazement.

"Umm, no. The fabric is made from the leaves of a very rare tree found only in the Elshire Forest that's at least a thousand years old. It's also extremely difficult to turn the leaves into usable threads, even weaving the threads and making them into clothes is a painstaking task, so there are only a few tailors who are even willing to work with it. That's why it took so long to get the gift and my clothes back. Because of all this anything made from these require permission from the royal family," Tess explained.

"Tess, I can't..." Arthur started to refuse the gift, feeling she was taking advantage of her position as the former Princess of Elenoir.