"Y-You know," Selene said as she drank the three aether potions Aiden had given her as boosters to keep her arm normal for longer, "I never really expected to be using those dance lessons we learned so quickly."
"I'm more surprised by how much Thalia was willing to spend on these dresses," Liora said, looking over to Beatris and Thalia. "Especially Beatris's."
Beatris did not seem fond of the dress Thalia had bought her.
It had been fitted well, but considering Beatris had never worn anything tighter than the string of a cloak around her neck when it rained, she was probably struggling with the sudden lack of mobility.
"Sit still," Thalia hissed. "If so much as one of those stitches breaks, I'm charging you for it."
There was a strange level of animation on Thalia's face.
Apparently, money drove her to emotion in a way most other things did not.
She pulled the strings on the back of Beatris's dress as she pinned her down.
Beatris's claws left small lines in the wooden floor as she hissed against the increasing tightness.
It was times like this that a pang of jealousy rose up in Liora for the guys in their group.
After they had been released from the opening ceremony, which Aiden and Jax apparently thought was their first round of actual events, they had gone back to the inn and taken a proper bath.
Then they spent around three hours resting, with Aiden doing some alchemy and Jax napping.
Then they grabbed lunch.
Came back.
Rested for two more hours.
Then got changed and ready in twenty minutes, despite ten of those minutes being suit shopping.
And somehow, they looked good.
In contrast, after the opening ceremony, the girls had immediately gone to a dress shop.
Got sized.
Came back.
Bathed.
Applied makeup.
Fitted the dresses.
Decided between jewelry.
Helped explain some concepts of fashion to Beatris.
And only now were they wrapping up.
It was rather frustrating, to say the least.
Despite all her complaining, Liora did feel a bit better when Aiden and Jax were both slack-jawed as the girls came out of their rooms.
Yes.
YES.
Fawn over me.
This is six hours of work.
Let it be known.
Liora held her head high as she headed downstairs into the inn and caught a few looks from people.
It also helped that, because they were sort of guests of honor, a fancy vehicle had been sent to pick them up.
Though the experience was dulled a bit by everyone focusing on the wrong parts of the ride itself.
"It's so smooth," Aiden said, staring at the floor with an awestruck expression. "What kind of metal do they use for the springs, I wonder?"
"I-I bet it's enchanted," Selene said beside him. "Maybe they can be heated or cooled by the driver to adjust for terrain severity."
"Holy cow," Jax said, pawing at the seat. "My fur practically vanishes into this fabric. I could go through a full shed, and nobody would know."
"Plus, the fabric is so soft," Beatris said, also pawing at the seat. "If we got some for the A.T.V., we would never have to clean again."
Liora looked out the window, where people were watching them pass.
She felt a bit relieved knowing they could not see her party members being impressed by the strangest possible aspects of the ride.
At least she was not alone.
Thalia seemed composed, sitting calmly as if trying to space out despite Aiden and Selene sitting next to her.
Liora understood the feeling.
In a way, it was comforting to see someone acting somewhat normal about all this.
As they approached the venue, Liora saw a massive ornate marble building with other similar vehicles dropping people off in front.
The people exiting seemed to be members of the other adventuring teams.
Some wore clothes as fancy as theirs, while others seemed content to wear their adventuring gear with a few accessories.
They had left weapons behind for obvious reasons, but Liora was curious what they used to stop people from using skill-based weapons, like Selene's claws.
Or if that was simply a courtesy thing.
Heading up the marble stairs, there was a shift in atmosphere that reminded most of them of their grueling training with Instructor Lily back at the Therindor estate.
Beatris, on the other hand, seemed nervous.
Probably because of how out of place she felt.
Going from the woods to a fancy party in a dress costing five thousand gold was a bit of a leap, so Liora could not blame her for being worried about doing something wrong.
Walking beside them up the steps was another group of six.
They wore nice clothes, though nothing overly fancy or stylish.
They glanced over and waved.
Leading their group was a taller human, around six foot four, with a mustache and a short beard around his chin. He had a bit of a stomach, but it seemed to come more from muscle than fat. His build was like that of a seasoned farmer or miner. He wore a navy suit that seemed somewhat off color-wise, though that might have been because it was tight in certain spots.
He was speaking to a dwarven man at his side.
The dwarf had a head and beard of black hair so thick that only his nose and the area around his eyes were visible. His beard was combed and braided in a seemingly extensive way. He wore a simple black suit that fit him like a glove.
His hands were oddly muscular in the kind of way Liora had only seen with craftsmen.
Behind them walked an elven woman with long, seemingly dyed cyan hair that ran to her middle back. She wore a regal cyan dress that looked like it cost what the others' clothes cost combined. Small gemstones glittered here and there.
Her eyes had a strange blue glow to them.
Strangely enough, she wore a small satchel that contained what seemed to be a book of some kind.
Behind her, a lightblood fox woman with orange hair tied in a ponytail wore a simple dress skirt and a nice shirt. She was wrestling with her collar like she might pop a button.
Preventing said button from popping was a human man in priestly blue robes, who was wrestling with her.
"It's too tight," the fox woman hissed between grunts.
"No, it's not," the priest grunted back. "We are not buying you another shirt for this thing. You broke the last three because you said they were too tight."
The two kept arguing.
Following behind them and watching the pair bicker was a fullblood brown bear wearing a simple bowtie.
He seemed amused by the fight as he stood on his hind legs and walked around like he had practiced this.
Something Aiden's friend Larz apparently did not think was as important.
As they made their way to the door, a crier called out.
"Now arriving are the party of Hog's Feet, and Leftovers and Co."
Both groups turned to each other with what Liora could only assume were matching expressions.
Silent questions hung between them.
That is your party's name?
They headed inside.
Aiden and Jax split off to talk to the two they had heard woke up with them in the lingering dungeon, along with the rest of their party.
Their group consisted of an elven woman with a blond pixie cut, wearing formal pants and a simple white button-up.
There was also a spider fullblood the size of Jax wearing a small vest.
And oddly enough, there was a figure dressed entirely in black, wearing a mask with a strange beak like a crow's. Around his waist sat some kind of ring meant to keep people from getting too close.
That would have struck Liora as odd if not for the deep green ribbon tied around his arm.
It marked him as the Plague class.
One of the other type classes that used disease as its core energy.
They had a passive aura that caused damage and rot around them. As such, they wore a green ribbon somewhere visible to warn people not to get too close.
It seemed he also had the protection of the circle around him in case someone was shuffled into him by the crowd.
Liora watched them from where she stood near the drinks table, Thalia beside her.
Then she heard a strange noise.
A noise almost like…
A pig.
Liora felt a small tug at her dress.
She refused to look down.
Her face tensed into a forced smile.
"Thalia," Liora said, "pray tell, why is Sir Oinks-a-Lot at such an ornate party?"
Thalia refused to look her way.
Instead, she stared ahead, stone-faced.
Liora looked down.
The small piglet stared up at her, his little can sitting on his head like a makeshift helmet.
His tiny tail wagged.
Then he made several small snorting noises.