“Bridgette!” I called out, waving my hand even as I rushed out the door. Not that I could actually see her, yet, but knowing her she’d show up soon enough - and there she was! Shaking her head in exasperation, before tilting her head up to the sky as if to ask why she’d been burdened with someone like me.

“Yes, Amy, hello. I’m here.”

“To take me to the guild, right?” I asked, grinning. “We’ll need to take the carriage, again, in order to reach the closest town I suppose? But then we’ll be able to go to the guild! And I can get lessons, and maybe experiment on some training dummies or the like?”

“I’m pretty sure that would work,” Bridgette confirmed. “First steps first, though - we have got to get you out of those clothes.”

“What’s wrong with my clothes?” I asked, peering down at myself. I’d chosen a dark red dress today, with a slit down the sides to make for easier movements. It perhaps wasn’t the best for trekking through the wilds and fighting monsters, but it was surely good enough for a trip to the guild?

“Nothing,” Bridgette said, perhaps a touch too quickly. “It’s just that they basically scream that you’re a noble.”

“I’m not a noble,” I reminded her, frowning.

“Yeah, but everything about you still screams at the world like you are. You’re too pale to have spent any real time in the sun, you have practically no calluses, and you’re wearing a dress worth more than some commoners will earn in a year. Plus, there’s the way you talk, the way you walk, and just… everything about you, really.”

“Then why even bother with changing my outfit?” I demanded. “If literally everything about me screams noble, anyway?”

“Because the attempt at disguising it matters!” Bridgette explained. “Most commoners can recognize a noble pretending to be one of them - but they also know to more or less stay out of that noble’s way and pretend like everything’s normal for their own sakes. Just like most of the nobles who try slumming it like that know not to kick up a big fuss about every tiny thing, when they’re pretending to be commoners. It’s like… a social contract, I guess? But if you go in there wearing a freaking noble dress, you’re basically shouting to the world that you’re there as a noble, rather than having the decency to at least try to blend in.”

“I guess that makes sense…? But what do I do? It’s not like I have any commoner’s clothes hanging around…”

“Well, I’d offer to let you have some of mine, but I don’t think we’re quite the same size,” she said, staring at my chest for some reason. “But don’t worry! The king gave me a stipend to take care of you with - not much, but we should be able to get some second hand clothes that more or less fit you.”

“Second hand?” I asked. “Can we not even afford new clothes, then?”

“Well, we could, but it would take time to get something made fresh and tailored to you, and I thought you wanted to visit The Guild today?”

“I do! I just… I don’t know… second hand commoner clothes? You’ll have to forgive me, but I can’t imagine they’ll be that comfortable to wear, compared to what I’m used to.”

“They might not be the cleanest, either,” Bridgette remarked. “But hey, if you really wanna delay going to The Guild, then-”

“No, no!” I interrupted, shaking my head rapidly. “Second hand commoner clothes it is! I’ll make do… but ah… do you think we could put in an order for something specially tailored to me, while we’re at it?”

“I think we can come up with something,” Bridgette said, before taking my hand. “Come on. Let’s get you to the carriage.”

“R-right,” I murmured, glancing down at Bridgette’s hand, with a faint blush on my cheeks. Maybe it was just my inexperience with the fairer sex - though I’d been getting quite a lot of that since joining them, come to think of it - but the idea of holding hands with a cute girl…

Well, it made me just a little bit nervous… but it was probably fine, wasn’t it? I mean, Bridgette certainly didn’t seem to mind… and she was wearing gauntlets, anyway.

The carriage ride really was annoyingly bumpy - especially for someone who wasn’t used to riding in them. I mean, usually I’d just sorta run to the nearest town and back, but the trip could be sorta long and boring by myself, and now that Amelia had her own magic I probably wouldn’t be able to take her into the slowed down world I liked to zoom through. Plus, I didn’t really feel like carrying someone in my arms the entire way, either. Though I’d do it in an emergency! I’d done it once, already, when I had to carry Amy back with me…

An image flashed through my mind - Amy, bleeding out of her neck, her body limp and cold and so much blood. She should have been dead - would have been dead, if not for that weird potion the demon had given her. At the time, it hadn’t bothered me too much. A little, yeah, especially with me being so unsure what was going on with her, but she’d basically been a stranger to me, at the time. Just someone I was honor bound to try and save.

Now? Well, I guess she was still sort of a stranger, by some metrics… I mean, we’d barely known each other for two weeks, at this point, and we’d spent most of it getting on each other’s nerves

So why did imagining her bleeding out feel so much worse than it did before? Did it have something to do with that warm feeling I got when I’d grabbed her hand? Or the way I’d instantly run over to her class the moment mine was over, without even taking the time to say goodbye to my teachers?

It… probably did, honestly. In fact, I was pretty sure I knew what it meant, too - I wasn’t a total idiot. Unlike a certain someone who was sitting across from me, absurdly oblivious to my inner turmoil as she hummed a happy tune she’d picked up from who the hell knew where. Her old world, maybe?

Whatever. I wasn’t going to put my feelings into words, in any case - not yet, at least. I mean I barely knew her, in the end, and she really was annoying… Always so quick to get lost in her own head, missing obvious things at every opportunity, refusing to take things seriously - she was going to get in major trouble, one of these days, I just knew it. She’d probably get pulled into some scheme or another without even realizing it!

Which is why she needed me. To protect her. From the physical stuff, at least - Clara was probably more of a help with the politics and scheming, as much as I hated to admit it. Maybe Firanna could help, too, though? Assuming she could ever bring herself to accept that Amy wasn’t Amelia… Which it seemed like she was at least starting to, judging by how she’d apparently agreed to getting engaged?

Which was another reason for me not to try and put my feelings into words. Amy was engaged. Which… okay, maybe that didn’t mean much so far as the average noble was concerned, but Amy wasn’t a noble. She didn’t have a scheming bone in her body! She’d probably take any oaths of marriage seriously - and I wouldn’t wanna trample over that with some stupid half-formed feelings that were just starting to stir in my gut.

Way better to just ignore that. Hopefully Firanna and her would be happy together, that way, and I’d… I don’t know… find someone else? I mean, I was probably only even attracted to her because she let me live out my fantasy of protecting an innocent maiden as her knight, to begin with…

I sighed, shaking my head, only to be startled out of my thoughts a second later by a hand gently pushing against my shoulder.

“Are you alright?” Amy asked. “You seem troubled.”

“I’m fine,” I said, only to regret it an instant later when I saw Amy’s eyes widen. Right. Lie detector. “Okay, I’m not fine, but I’ll be fine, and I’d rather not talk about it, so can we please just go shopping already?”

“Alright,” Amy said, heading towards the carriage door. She opened it and stepped out without even waiting for the coachman to do so - something the real Amelia would never have even thought about doing - and then turned around to offer her hand to me.

“You know, I’m pretty sure the knight is the one who’s supposed to do that sorta thing for her Lady, not the other way around,” I grumbled. Not that it stopped me from taking her hand, though.

I wondered how warm her hand would feel, if I wasn’t wearing metal gloves? I was honestly kinda tempted to take it off and find out - but also that definitely wasn’t the sort of thing I should have been thinking about, especially when I was supposed to be acting like her guardian knight.

“Come on,” I said, pushing the thought away. “This way. I know just the place to take you.”

“Do you, now?” Amy asked, chuckling faintly. “I’m starting to think you must have had this little outing planned from the start…”

“Not really,” I admitted, shaking my head. “It honestly sort of slipped my mind until I saw you at class…” Looking unfairly pretty in that dress… wait… was that the real reason I didn’t want her going out like this? Because of how The Guild’s members would look at her? I didn’t think so - I wasn’t really the jealous type… usually.. probably?

I… hadn’t actually ever had anyone to test that on, come to think of it… I’d always been too busy focusing on my training to really think about love, or… well, anything, really… Maybe I just preferred not thinking in general, since it meant I didn’t have to think about things like this.

“So you just happen to know the perfect place to take me for second hand clothes?” Amy asked, completely unaware of my inner turmoil. Which was maybe for the best? But also just like her. “You’ll have to forgive me for struggling to believe you.”

“I mean, considering you’re a truthteller, I’d think it would be pretty obvious that I’m not lying,” I pointed out.

“I guess… but the ability honestly feels pretty unreliable, sometimes…”

“Then don’t rely on it,” I replied. “Just trust me when I say that this is a complete coincidence! Though I think you’ll probably like it.”

“What are you talking about?” Amy asked me, furrowing her brow. “And… where are we going? Because… I mean, no offense to those who live around here, but the buildings seem to be getting… ah… a bit dingier as we go?”

“Okay, so it’s not the best place,” Bridgette admitted. “Though I do wanna point out that it’s not as seedy as it could be - I mean, I would have gotten her a ritzier job if I could have, but I don’t exactly have a ton of high class contacts, and the woman who owns this store seemed to think she owed me a favor ever since I outed a few rough types from her store a year or so back…”

“What are you even talking about?” Amy asked, now completely confused. She looked so cute when confused, too… though you’d think I’d be used to seeing it by now. “Who is this her you’re referring to?”

“You’ll see in a second,” I said, gesturing to a store not too far from us. “Come on, right through here.”

“Alright,” Amy said, shaking her head even as I led her there. “But I don’t get the secrecy… Honestly, if I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were leading me into a trap.”

“Not a trap,” I promised her. “More like a reunion?”

“A reunion?” she parroted back, even as she opened the door. “What sort of person could I possibly know he-”

“Lady Amelia!” a voice called, and for a moment I saw a look of pure panic on Amy’s face. Which was actually pretty guilty making - she must have been wondering just what I brought her here for… but it turned into confusion when a tiny figure rocketed across the shop and threw herself in Amy’s arms. 

“I… wha… Bean?”

~~~

Author's Notes

This was the fourth of four chapters I wrote in twelve hours, running off a single hour of sleep - I edited it after, trying to make Bridgette's voice more distinct from Amelia's, but it might be a bit rough still as a result of all that.

That said... Bean! (The child from chapter 3, for those who've forgotten.) Next up is a chapter I'm very much looking forward to. It's titled "Beastkin" and I'll say no more about it (other that that I'm considering renaming it The Beast Within. I took off an "A" for this chapter title, too, for that matter.)

It'll probably end up released on Friday, but if you find yourself impatient for it do feel free to check out my Patreon, where you can read 6* chapters ahead for as little as $1~! (Also two chapters ahead on the majority of my other series! And all members - even free ones - get access to my discord, where you can peruse pictures of my lizard. Or, y'know, chat me up I guess? If you're into that sort of thing.)

*It's usually 5 chapters, and may go down to that, but I writing it so fast there's currently a surplus.... We'll see if that goes up or down...