Return of the Runebound Professor Chapter 832: Machinations

“Oh, yeah,” Eliana said, crossing her arms in front of her chest and giving Noah an approving nod. “That’s the stuff.”

“You really don’t have to word it like that,” Noah said. His voice was surprisingly clear from behind the cloth mask covering his face. He raised his hands above his head, then shifted from foot to foot. The clothes fit him perfectly. It was almost unnerving. “But I have to admit that you’re right. This is impressive.”

“That’s all? Impressive?” Eliana grumbled. “This is more than impressive. You could at least sound a little awed. That’s a damn work of art you’re wearing. How many tailors do you know capable of weaving sothing that’s likely to survive as long as your soul does? And look at yourself!”

“It’s very good,” Noah said with a laugh. “Sorry. I’ve just seen a lot. I don’t know how you managed to make this so quickly. Did you have the components sitting around?”

“So,” Eliana replied. “But most of it was hand-done. I work quickly when inspiration strikes. And there aren’t many people that would go around willingly associating themselves with spiders. Not exactly a very friendly creature to tie yourself to. At least it wasn’t a wolf.”

“Wow. You really hate—”

“I really hate idiots who think they’re wolves,” Eliana interjected. “Would you be surprised to find that group of people that fancy themselves an arse-sniffing canine is identical to the one that want capes?”

“Capes?” Noah’s brow furrowed. What’s wrong with—”

“Stop!” Eliana snapped, flinging her hands up. “Do not finish that sentence. Don’t even think about it. I don’t want to say it. You don’t want to say it. Just drop it now. There will be no discussion of capes, cape-related objects, or any manner whatsoever of flowy cape-adjacent materials that exist for you to snag upon shit and get yourself killed mid-fight.”

Noah blinked. Then he raised his hands in surrender. “Understood. No capes.”

“Very good,” Eliana said. She gave him an approving nod. “Glad we’ve gotten that established. So you have no issues? No requests for modification?”

“I can do those?”

“No,” Eliana replied. “But I figured I’d be polite and ask just to pretend like it had been an option.”

“I see,” Noah said. “Well, then I suppose I have no requests. This is pretty much exactly what I wanted. It’s more, to be honest. I only ca in here for a mask. But this is better. I didn’t think it would fit this well.”

“And it’s got built in travel imbuents,” Eliana added with a smug grin. “God knows adventurers need them.”

“Travel?” Noah tilted his head to the side. “What are—”

“For when you can’t locate a body of water and insert yourself into it for a prolonged period of ti,” Eliana said crossly. “Which tends to be a great deal of your fellows. The sll often announces your presence well before anything else. Those clothes will make sure that doesn’t happen. Self-cleaning. Mostly. Please still take baths.”

“Ah,” Noah said. He looked down at himself, then cleared his throat. “That’s nice.”

“Yes,” Eliana said. “Especially for the rest of us. So you’re satisfied, then?”

“Quite,” Noah said.

Eliana grinned. “Then it is ti to discuss paynt. Work like this doesn’t co for free. Or for cheap. And I believe my crystals are just about to arrive.”

Noah blinked. At the very mont that Eliana spoke, he felt a prickle at the edge of his domain. Lee was back. Her presence made its way over to the door, which swung open before the demon could even knock.

Lee blinked. Her hand was still raised midway into the air. Then she spotted Noah and her eyes went wide.

“Whoa,” Lee breathed. “That’s perfect. He actually looks cool now.”

“Thank you,” Eliana said. “I know. And I believe you are carrying my paynt.”

Lee looked down at her hand. There was a small copper ring on her thumb that hadn’t been there the last ti Noah had seen her.

“I just got these,” Lee grumbled. “I wanted to spend so first. How much did you agree to, Noah?”

“I haven’t actually agreed to anything yet,” Noah said. “I have no idea if we can even afford this.”

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“10 mid-grade crystals,” Eliana said. “And that’s a discount.”

Lee’s eyes widened. “10? Are you kidding ? That’s practically everything we got! We only have 12 left!”

“Left?” Noah asked. His eyes narrowed. “How many did you spend already, Lee?”

Lee’s nose twitched. She cleared her throat. “That really isn’t that relevant right now. Side note. Did you know that there are vendors here that sell all sorts of snacks that I’ve never heard of before on the streets? Can you believe that? Snacks I’ve never seen. Like kebabs. The bits in the middle are crunchy. I like them.”

Noah pinched the bridge of his nose. “We have enough crystals left to pay Eliana, yes?”

“Only if you limit yourself to a very small number of snacks,” Lee said. “You might only be able to taste all of them once or twice. That’s nowhere near enough to get a good understanding of the flavors.”

“All of them?” Eliana blinked in surprise. “You tried every single food on the vendor street? How is that even physically—”

“Questions are going to cost you,” Lee said. “I accept paynt in snacks or crystals. Both are equally edible.”

She ate a crystal? Actually, that’s hardly a surprise. Of course she did.

Noah sighed. “Please give Eliana her pay, Lee. I’m just glad we’ve got enough.”

“Kay,” Lee said. She held her hand out. Eliana accepted it, and Noah spotted an identical ring to the one Lee wore on her hand. The two of them shook. A faint shimr of energy passed between the two rings as they touched.

“Thank you,” Eliana said. She gave Lee a once over. “You could use an update yourself. Why have you clothed yourself in scraps? Clothing is the picture fra of man. Do you see great art displayed in ratty old wood?”

“Dunno,” Lee said. “But I like clothes. Do you have anything for 2 crystals?”

“No,” Eliana replied. “I do not. I will excuse the insult of your suggestion and chalk it up to ignorance.”

“Noah, can we get so more crystals?” Lee asked. “I want to look cool too.”

“You already look cool,” Noah said. “And maybe we’d have more crystals left if you weren’t eating them.”

“If they didn’t want to be eaten, they shouldn’t have been tasty.” Lee scrunched her nose. “Let’s just go kill sothing again. A few things. You need to try the food here. It’s too good.”

“We are not going to decimate the local population because you’re hungry,” Noah said, fighting back a laugh. “And don’t forget that we’re not just traveling aimlessly. We can’t get waylaid for too long. Knowing our luck, we’ll end up getting to Aqua Terra late if we don’t head straight there.”

Not to ntion the fact that we’ve probably still got those creeps chasing us. I don’t want to sit around for long enough for them to catch up. They were strong. I want to manifest a few more Runes and get closer to Rank 6 before we et again.

“Aw,” Lee said. “Okay.”

“Are both of you participating in the tournant?” Eliana asked, a flicker of curiosity passing through her features.

“Yeah,” Lee said with a small nod. “Why?”

“No reason,” Eliana said with a small shake of her head. “Just interested. You seem a bit different from the other adventurers I’ve seen heading for the tournant. I could always use a few more worthwhile clients.”

She reached into her pocket and pulled free a small slip of glossy paper. Noah nearly choked.

It was a business card. A very nice one, at that. It was plain, save for where Eliana’s na had been sewn into the paper in shimring gold silk.

There’s no fucking way. How have those damn things followed here from Earth? I better not find so Patrick Bateman wandering around.

Noah took the card from Eliana. The cloth mask on his face did nothing to hide the incredulity that he did his best to suppress.

“It’s a calling card,” Eliana said, as if that explained anything.

“Thank you. I’ll keep it,” Noah promised, sliding it into an inner pocket inside his new jacket. “I can think of a few people that would probably be happy to purchase your services in the future. And I’m sure Lee will be looking forward to when we can get enough crystals to hire you again. Assuming she doesn’t eat them all first, that is.”

“I’ll do my best.” Lee placed a hand over her heart. “No promises, though.”

Eliana snorted. “See that you do. I can already think of a few designs that would suit you quite nicely. I’ll keep them in the back of my head until you seek out again. But you’ve got nothing left, then get moving. I don’t make a habit of entertaining guests when our business is done. I’m a busy woman.”

Noah glanced around the shop. Save for them and the rows of mannequins, it was completely empty.

“Right,” Noah said. “We’ll do that. Thanks for your hard work.”

Eliana just nodded as he and Lee made their way back out the door. Before Lee could even turn to wave goodbye, it slamd shut behind them.

“She was interesting,” Lee said.

“That’s definitely the word I would have used as well,” Noah said. He glanced down at his new outfit. “This is really nice, though. I’ve never worn anything like it.”

“Now you look too cool for this city,” Lee said as the two of them stepped out into the tightly packed streets. “That mask cos off, right?”

“Yeah.” Noah pulled the mask off and slipped it into a pocket. “Why? Is this better?”

“No. It’s worse. But you need to be able to take it off if you’re going to try the food before we leave,” Lee replied, grabbing him by the arm and dragging him down the tightly packed street. “Co on. I’ll show you the best places. We’ve got a bunch of crystals to spend, and we we’ll only need part of one for the inn tonight.”

“A bunch?” Noah asked. “We’ve got one left, don’t we? You spent the rest.”

“Oh. I lied about that,” Lee said. “We got 25 crystals for the kill and I only spent part of one on food.”

“Wait, what?”

“I didn’t want to tell her how many crystals we had,” Lee said with a snicker. “That’s never a good idea. It’s how you get overcharged.”

“But didn’t you want—”

“Yeah. But I’ll wait to see if yours is good or not first,” Lee said, sending a wicked grin back at Noah. “I don’t want magic clothes if they blow up. Now let’s go eat!”