I have a confession to make: I always thought that plate armor was heavy and cumberso. I an, that was what all the movies were telling , and I've read at least one essay online talking about how knights were lumbering tanks a samurai could totally defeat with superior martial arts, so I doubt anyone could bla for having a few preconceived notions about the topic. All of those prejudices imdiately evaporated the mont I actually wore one though, as it was rather easy to move in it. Comfortable, even. Now, granted, I was only wearing the chest piece, the spaulders, and the boots, but I doubted things would beco significantly worse with the helt and the gauntlets added to the mix.
I hopped in place a couple of tis, in part because I was curious how much noise I would make in the process, but if I wanted to be entirely honest, I did it mostly due to just how full of energy I felt at the mont. I reckoned it had sothing to do with the enchantnts on the suit, and while I didn't look into the specific effect chanics due to a severe lack of ti, I at least made sure they were safe. I just didn't expect them to be so, for the lack of a better term, energizing as well. If Brang and Karukk weren't looking at at the mont, I would've been tempted to even shadow box a little, but for now, I figured it was best to be mindful of my surroundings.
Speaking of those, I was currently inside the secret base, the training area to be precise, and I had all the knightly equipnt I've reclaid from my deposit box laid out on a table in front of . I asked the two Fauns to stick around because I needed so help to fully buckle up the chest plate, plus after reading all of those horror stories about dieval knights falling over and being unable to get up, I figured having a few extra helping hands around wouldn't hurt.
At the end of the day, it turned out there was no need to be that cautious at all. In fact, I was fairly sure I could most likely do full cartwheels in this tal suit without breaking a sweat.
"[Thine new armants are truly becoming in thine form, Blackcloak.]"
"Thanks for the complint," I responded a tad absently as I looked over my shoulder. "Speaking of which, do you think I can fit one of my black long coats over this if I removed the cape?"
"[The possibility of thine words is palpable, although I'm afraid the removal of thine lionesque pauldrons may beco a necessity.]"
"[It would be a sha,]" Karukk whispered on the side, and I couldn't help but raise a curious brow at his comnt. It didn't take long for him to notice it, and so he hastily added, "[It's a fine suit of armor. If I had one like it, I wouldn't think about covering it up.]"
"Are you jealous by any chance?" I teased him a little, and his ears imdiately started darting around in a familiar, yet not any less amusing, display of embarrassnt.
"[No, of course I— Maybe a little.]" The sudden switch in the middle caused my brows to climb even higher on my forehead, and after so further ear-propellering later, he sheepishly added, "[It's a really fine armor.]"
Before I could get a word in, the elderly Faun let out a long chuckle and roughly patted him on the back.
"[Aye, it is only natural for young Karukk to admire thine armants, Blackcloak.]" His movents paused for a beat before he let his hand down and faced with an inquisitive gleam in his eyes. "[Please do forgive these words, but mine curiosity shan't let rest unless I ask thee this: this old one was under the impression thine title of being cloaked in black was one thee wished to be rid of, was it not?]"
"Yes, I wanted to, but plans change." My response was slightly muffled, since I just put on the helt, therefore I continued in a louder voice while I turned my head left and right. "It was a losing battle anyway. Everyone already knows about it, along with the whole Chira Slayer thing, so I decided that instead of fighting against the inevitable, I would embrace it and make it into my own brand." I inserted a short pause here, then added, "On a completely unrelated note, this helt is pretty neat. Once its enchantnt linked with the control node in the chest piece, it completely disappeared from my field of vision. It's like I'm not wearing anything at all. If only it didn't glow, it would be perfect."
"[I'm afraid I'm not well versed enough in the mystic magicks of enhancent, but these old eyes of mine see no light around thine helm.]"
"It's a '' thing, don't worry about it," I replied a little unsteadily, as I just finished shaking my head to see how stable the helt was on my head, and I was feeling a little dizzy as a result. For the record, it was uncannily stable, almost as if it was glued to my scalp.
I was still a little weirded out by the transparency and the traces of colorless magical light at the edge of my vision, but all things considered, I was astonished by how practical this armor set was. It didn't hinder , I felt like it weighed less than nothing, and it didn't even interfere with my vision. Could it be that I just discovered the reason why the nefarious Knights of the superfluously long na were always wearing theirs whenever I Far Glanced over?
Speaking of which, I did just that, and I found their little group huddled around a large, circular wooden table, probably custom-made, inside their new hidey-hole within the city. Thankfully the squire I marked was on guard duty outside the door, so I could easily pass through the wall and take a look at their eting place. By the looks of it, they've rented a small-ish office space on the first floor of a multi-story building on the edge of the comrcial district, and while the place was clean, it was also completely bare save for the aforentioned table and so simple tal chairs arranged around it.
Wait, no. On second look, they actually had a single, if large, ye-olde style swallow-tailed banner hanging on the wall. It looked eerily similar to the banner of Wales, except with the dragon beheaded and lying on the ground, and it might have even been imposing if not for the fluorescent lights making it seem discolored. Not exactly the main hall of Calot, but hey, at least they were trying.
Anyhow, at the mont there were only two of them inside the room. From a previous sneak peek I already knew they were about to hold a big eting to discuss an operation during the weekend. This ant two things. For one, I totally called it. Secondly, since they weren't all present yet, it ant I still had so ti to prepare.
I would have probably continued to keep an eye on them if not for the tily arrival of a certain science-adjacent man and his robotic… sothing. Seriously though, what was the relationship between these two again? On the surface, Galatea kept calling him 'master', but they were actually acting more like rowdy siblings, or an embarrassing father and his rebellious daughter. Actually, now that I think about it, wasn't there a trope called sothing along the lines of 'mad scientist's hot daughter'? I couldn't help but wonder whether that was applicable to these two.
"Ki-hi-hi! Not too shabby, boss."
Unlike Fred, his android companion didn't greet , only observed. She also had a couple of items one her, naly a sword, a small sack with a long object in it, and a familiar carnival mask.
"It also feels pretty good," I responded to Labcoat Guy, and he gave a knowing nod in return.
"It's only natural. It is a powerful set of physical enchantnt gear; it would be stranger if you didn't feel invigorated."
To elaborate on his point, while I didn't have the ti to do a deep-dive into the enchantnts on the armor pieces, a cursory glance told they were all either defensive wards, or arrays designed to enhance the wearer's physical prowess. There were also a few other caveats, which I figured must have been related to those knightly oaths we still didn't know much about, but as far as actual functionality was concerned, things were fairly straightforward. Fred also examined the armor with his own thods, so there were no questions about it.
Well, on second thought, I might've spoken too soon. There actually was a single question remaining: what would happen if I wore all the parts at once? We both independently confird that the individual pieces were interlocking elents of one bigger enchantnt, and I would be lying if I said I wasn't curious about how much of a boost it would give when I was fully suited up.
Just to be sure, I sent one last Far Glance at the Knights, but since they were still idle, I decided I had the ti for one last test, so I picked up the gauntlets still on the table, and slowly slipped my left hand in. Needless to say, it fit like a glove, no pun intended. In fact, it almost felt like the gauntlet was readjusting itself on the fly to better accommodate my hand. Now there was only one last piece left and I—
"Bleeding mother of a goat-rchant!"
My off-color exclamation was imdiately followed up by the harsh tallic noise of the gauntlet hitting the ground as I tore it off my injured hand practically at the sa mont I tried to put it on.
"[My Liege, are you all right?]"
Brang imdiately tried to help , but I used my good hand to tell him I didn't need assistance. A few deep breaths later I realized I was hunched over, so I forcefully straightened my back and exhaled a long sigh.
"What just happened?" Labcoat Guy asked the question on everyone's mind. Before I could answer him, Galatea provided an answer of her own.
"He threw the gauntlet at the ground."
"I noticed," he responded just a smidgen flatly. "I wanted to know why he did that."
"Then you should have asked that question," the android answered just as flatly, and so I spoke up to interrupt their skit before it could gather steam.
"When I tried to put on the left gauntlet my whole body started heating up starting from my chest, but then when it reached my hand, it turned into a piercing pain. It felt like soone stabbed a nail through my palm."
I didn't think my explanation was particularly insightful, yet Labcoat Guy apparently understood what I ant right away and provided with an instant conjecture as well.
"Ah, I see. It must have been so kind of adverse reaction to mana."
In retrospect, his answer suddenly made a lot of sense. Really, I should have been able to put together the pieces ahead of ti. Sebastian said that my hand had an 'internal injury'. He also told people usually get those by channeling 'energies', and warned not to do it. In my defense, I couldn't really predict that wearing the full suit of armor would result in that, but all the elents checked out, so I concluded that Labcoat Guy was probably right.
"What the hell is 'mana' anyway?" the question slipped through my lips before I knew it, and while it was more or less just venting my stress while recovering, Fred imdiately turned defensive.
"Mana is just mana."
"Yeah, but what is it? What is it made of, where does it co from, why can't scientists detect it yet it can make my hand hurt like a motherfu—?"
"Beep."
The abrupt, unexpected noise made stop on my tracks and face its source with the textbook example of a confused frown on my face.
"What was that?"
"Excuse . My anti-profanity subroutine was acting up."
The straightforward answer, combined with the expressionless way it was delivered, sohow only managed to make Galatea even less convincing. However, this really wasn't the ti to start discussing robot-jokes, so I promptly ignored her and focused my attention back onto her creator instead. The mont I did so, Labcoat Guy imdiately tugged on his collar in the most obvious display of nervousness I've ever seen.
"Ki-hi-hi. Please, boss. We already have our hands full with our current research into the supernatural stratum of reality, as you call it. You can't expect us to do everything at once!"
I really wanted to counter his point by asking how figuring out the supernatural currency used to pay off the world to look the other way when using magic was not integral to their current investigation, but my rebuttal never materialized due to the latest of my periodic Far Glances revealing that another Entitled Knight entered the room with the round table. That ant this really wasn't the ti for dallying around, so I dropped the issue and gestured for Karukk to co to my side instead.
"So I probably won't be able to wear the full suit until I'm healed. Sounds like a bit of a design flaw." While I said that, I pointed at the clasps on the breastplate, and that was enough for the Faun to realize what I wanted from him and he began to peel out of the armor.
"Maybe it's a defense chanism," Galatea proposed, and I left it at that. Instead, I focused on the items in her hands.
"More importantly, I see you brought the horn with you."
She nodded and presented with the elongated sack. I couldn't take it yet, since Karukk was still in the process of helping unbuckle the chest parts, so she patiently waited for . Though it was probably obvious at this point, said package contained a certain unicorn horn with a powerful enchantnt engraved upon it. It was used to anchor a large area around it into 'realspace', and thus prevented everyone in the vicinity from escaping or dragging others into a Purple Zone.
I had high hopes for this item, but it turned out that the suppressive effect was a quality of the material itself, while the enchantnt only acted as a simple amplifier and modulator. This ant that I couldn't strategically apply the effect by copying the enchantnts onto other objects, and carrying the original around was the equivalent of waving a giant 'Hey, I'm Bel of the Abyss!' flag in front of the Knights. However, it did have its uses yet, even if replicating it was impossible.
But speaking of replication, she was carrying another item that was quite promising. It was a longsword modeled after the 'gift' I received from Mr. Minotaur, except slightly enlarged to better fit the grip of a Faun. Once I learned about Labcoat Guy's manufacturing capabilities, this simple, unadorned blade was my first request. It wasn't forged like most proper swords, but instead each piece, from the blade to the poml, was machined from so steel blocks we had lying around in the base since the beginning. Because of this, though it looked good on the outside, it probably wasn't comparable to a 'real' sword… but that's where the enchantnt ca in.
This was our first, homade prototype weapon. I supplied the raw materials, Fred (or rather, Galatea) made them into a sword, then I would take it to Gowan and ask him to put a simple enchantnt on it, and finally I would use that as the base to copy and paste actually useful arrays and functions from the other swords I had access to. This way I could hopefully gear up all the Fauns before the end of the month. As for the gang, with the Magiforrs on hand, they didn't really need any more defensive gear, and the only one of them who could potentially use a weapon was Josh… except he seed to be more interested in hand-to-hand combat and magic, so I made outfitting my loyal 'minions' my first priority, if only so that we wouldn't run into another Rinne situation.
While I was considered all of this, I successfully shed my armor and stepped out of the boots as well. Not wearing it anymore was… uncomfortable. I was strangely enervated and my senses beca duller, though the sensation only lasted for a short while. More importantly, now that I didn't have all that tal on , everyone present could see that I was wearing a slightly unusual outfit consisting of a pair of black cotton trousers with a matching back shirt and a red vest. The outfit also included a white, embroidered tailcoat currently on the nearby table, and according to Elly, the full ensemble gave a regal look. Of course, her description was much longer and had the word 'cool' in it in unnecessary abundance, but I wasn't going to hold it against her.
More importantly though, now that my hands were free, I graciously accepted the packed-up horn offered by Galatea and used its string to hang it from my belt. She also tried to give the sword, but that was for later, so I simply shook my head and pointed at the last item in her possession. She obediently handed it over, and now that I could take a better look, I had to say I was impressed.
As for what I was holding in my hands? On the surface it was mask modeled after the one I was wearing during the grand kerfuffle that was the Knights' attack on the Dracis mansion. In reality, it was a slightly modified, tallic version specifically designed to perfectly and comfortably fit my face, and most importantly, it had bigger eye- and actual nose-holes so that I could both see and breathe better. In short, it was Bel Disguise Mask 2.0.
"Thank you. It turned out great."
"You're welco," Galatea answered with a thin-lipped smile before she tried to present the sword to again. "Are you going to take this?"
"No, not now," I told her and instead reached for the white coat on the table. "I'll take it to Gowan later; I have more important things to do first. Please give it to one of the Fauns and they'll put it aside for ."
At this point she tried to hand it over to Karukk, but he hastily excused himself with a curt, "Armor is here. Must put it away," and so she had to settle on Brang, who graciously received from her, and even did a few practice swings with it.
"Decent sword. Little unbalanced. Not much edge."
"I'll try to compensate with the enchantnt later," I told him as I slipped into my costu and put the mask on. It was an even better fit than expected, and even after shaking my head hard, it remained firmly attached to my face.
"Good work on this one too," I addressed the science duo, and then turned to the Faun. "Please put the armor into the storeroom for now; I probably won't be able to use it for a while yet. I have to go and make a deal now, please look after things like usual."
Brang nodded, and once I was sure I wasn't forgetting anything, I took a deep breath, limbered up my shoulders, took up a relaxed, almost slouched posture, and once I was sure I was in character, I let out said breath in the form of the words, "It's showti," and then promptly disappeared from the room.
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