Chapter 203: Traitors (4)
The commercial district was the busiest place in all of Valhalla City. A melting pot of the cultures and goods of the three nations, it was always lively with residents and tourists from across the continent. However, the district was popular for one more reason—it was the number-one dating spot, packed with cadet couples on weekend outings. Newly enrolled cadets liked to call it the hottest place in Valhalla City.
As I walked through the crowded street, beside me was a silver-haired beauty, drawing every pair of eyes around us. Yurina had tied her moonlit silver hair into a neat ponytail and worn a skirt that showed her pale legs and a blouse that revealed just a hint of cleavage.
She nervously fidgeted with her skirt hem, clearly not used to wearing something like this. “Um, D-Dale.”
I turned to her. “Hm?”
“Do I, uh, look weird?” she asked.
“Weird?”
Today, Yurina had even put on light makeup, with Iris’s help. She looked breathtaking at this moment, so beautiful that I almost forgot to breathe.
“You look great,” I replied.
“R-really?”
“Yeah. But...”
“But?”
The downside, if it could actually be called one, was that she attracted way too much attention. I sent a faint killing intent toward the men openly gawking at her. They flinched as if they had been scalded, stumbling away in fear.
Clicking my tongue, I turned back to Yurina. “Aren’t you cold wearing that? It’s chilly today.”
“Hehe. I’m fine.”
Even though she looked delicate, Yurina could tear steel apart with her bare hands. A little exposed skin in winter probably didn’t bother her at all.
But I couldn’t help myself and said, “Still, just in case, let’s buy some stockings for you later.”
“Oh? What’s this, Dale? Do you like stockings?”
“No, it’s not about liking them.”
“You don’t like them?”
Good grief. Stockings, seriously?
I shook my head firmly. “I’m not interested in stuff like stockings.”
“Oh? Really?”
“Yeah. I just meant they’d help keep you warm in winter. There’s absolutely no other meaning.”
“Black or white, which do you prefer?” she asked.
“Well, they each have their charm. Black stockings feel more mature, while white stockings give off a pure sort of beauty. You can’t really say one is better than the other. Personally, if they’re slightly see-through, like when they get a bit wet, white ones look nicer. Normally, black stockings are more attractive. And since we’re not going near the water today, the standard black pair would probably...”
Suddenly, I realized something. Wait a minute! I spoke too much.
Yurina blinked. “D-Dale. You really like stockings, huh.”
“N-no! That’s not...”
“Hehe. Okay. I’ll buy a pair later and wear them.”
“Ugh! Damn it!”
Despite all my efforts to clear the misunderstanding, Yurina simply nodded with a knowing smile, entirely convinced she had figured out the truth.
After a moment, she asked, “Anyway, Dale, did you decide where we’re going today?”
“Well...”
We were supposed to go to a place for a date. When I had gone on a date with Iris the last time, we went to the movies. However, we couldn’t do that today. Our true goal for this visit wasn’t dating; it was finding the suspicious masked group rumored to be moving around lately.
“Let’s check the crowded areas first,” I suggested.
“Hm. But wouldn’t demons hide somewhere quiet?”
“Probably. But if we want to catch people acting strange, it’s easier when lots of people are around.”
I had kept a piece of information from her. It was likely that the organization we were searching for did not consist solely of demons. Heroes could be hiding among them as well. And if the enemies included heroes, they had no reason to hide in deserted places.
I let my mana flow, sharpening my senses as I scanned the bustling street. Then, I turned to Yurina, “Is there anywhere you want to go?”
She scratched her cheek shyly, smiling. “Hmm. Nothing really comes to mind. Hehe. This is my first date ever.”
I let out a soft laugh. “Then let’s just walk for now.”
“Okay!”
We walked side by side, matching each other’s pace.
Looking around, Yurina asked, “Um, Dale.”
“Yeah?”
“It really has gotten colder, hasn’t it?”
“Well, it is winter.”
“R-right? And maybe, b-because it’s winter, um, my hands are kind of cold.”
She awkwardly slid a pale hand out of her pocket and held it out toward me.
I snorted under my breath. “That’s strange. I could’ve sworn someone said she wasn’t cold.”
“Ugh!”
“Haha, I’m joking.”
I took her hand. She didn’t need the warmth, but the simple act of my holding her hand made her feel warmer.
She tightened her grip, smiling brightly. “Hehe. It’s warm.”
And so our “date,” or rather, our undercover investigation began. Blending into the crowd as an ordinary couple, Yurina and I scanned the streets of Valhalla City.
“Hmm. Nothing so far,” I muttered.
Even with my senses heightened, it was difficult to pick out suspicious behavior in a crowd of hundreds, possibly thousands.
“No need to rush. Professor Baldwin said we probably wouldn’t find them in just one day.”
“Yeah.”
We continued strolling hand in hand when Yurina suddenly stopped.
She stood still, her eyes fixed somewhere. “Oh!”
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Dale, do you want to go inside there?”
Yurina was pointing at a clothing store in the middle of the shopping district, the same one we had visited back when she and I had slipped over the academy wall and snuck into Valhalla City.
“Wow, brings back memories,” I said.
“Hehe. Right? It actually hasn’t been that long, but it feels like ages ago.”
“Well, that was back when I didn’t even know you were a girl.”
When I looked back at it now, so much had happened in just a few months.
“Let’s go in.”
“Mm!”
A clear chime rang as we opened the store door.
Yurina tugged my hand. “Dale, over here.”
She led me straight to the women’s clothing section. It was a place we hadn’t visited last time. It made me recall how she had kept staring blankly at this corner. At the time, unaware she was actually a woman, I just thought it was strange that Yuren stood there spacing out at women’s clothes. Now that I understood what she had probably been feeling at that time, my chest tightened a little.
Yurina’s eyes sparkled as she wandered through the displays of dresses and skirts. “Waaah! I always dreamed of coming here to buy clothes.”
“The women’s section?”
“Yeah. Back when I was disguised as Yuren, even if I wanted something, I couldn’t buy it.”
Calling it a dream sounded like an exaggeration, but for someone who had been forced to live as a man, it really was a dream she couldn’t reach.
I swallowed a bitter laugh and gently pulled her hand. “If you see anything you like, pick whatever you want. I’ll buy it all.”
“Ah, n-no. I have enough money to buy clothes.”
“I want to get them for you. As a gift.”
“Uuhh, i-in that case, I’m really going to pick whatever I want?”
“By all means, milady.”
I even gave an exaggerated escorting gesture, like I were a nobleman attending to his lady, which she technically was, but that was besides the point.
Yurina burst into giggles. “Hehehe.”
“What’s so funny?”
“Pffft! Dale, it... really doesn’t suit you at all.”
“Ugh.”
“But, thank you.”
Still laughing softly, she accepted my awkward escort and tiptoed toward the clothing racks.
However, as if she had remembered something, she turned back and gave me a playful wink. “Oh, right. I’ll buy the stockings you like too. In black.”
I was speechless.
No. I do not like stockings. Why does she keep saying that?
Giving up on explaining myself, I replied, “Maybe you should grab a white pair too. You never know when they might be useful.”
“Dale.”
For some reason, the way she looked at me felt a little cold.
***
If there was one thing I had learned while shopping for women’s clothes, it was that they were unbelievably expensive compared to men’s.
“That’ll be 1,270 gold in total,” said the saleswoman.
How did it go over a thousand gold when she barely picked anything?
Considering I was wearing a 10-gold shirt, the price felt almost insulting.
“Thanks, Dale. I’ll wear them well,” Yurina said.
“It’s nothing,” I replied.
Expensive or not, compared to the gold I earned selling the Behemoth’s byproducts, this was pocket change.
Yurina looked at me. “You can go out first, Dale. There’s something else I want to buy alone.”
“Hm? I told you I’d buy everything.”
Her face reddened as she glanced at a particular corner. “A-ah, no, it’s just...”
It was a corner filled entirely with women’s underwear.
“Ah!”
Having someone else buy your underwear would indeed feel weird.
“Got it. I’ll wait outside.”
She rushed toward the lingerie section, saying, “O-okay! I’ll be quick!”
A few minutes passed as I waited outside. Getting a little impatient, I peeked inside from a bench in front of the store. Maybe because it was the underwear corner, I couldn’t see her from my seat.
But I could understand her taking time. This was probably her first time buying real underwear. Back when we had briefly lived together, she barely had any feminine underwear. She spent her days disguised as Yuren with the pendant and only returned to her real form before bed, so she never really needed many undergarments. The ones I had glimpsed while doing laundry were all practical, sports-type ones.
Since she was picking out real lingerie for the first time, she’d naturally need time. While I didn’t know much since I had never chosen women’s underwear, I was sure they took much longer than men, who mostly just checked the size.
Just then, the door chimed again. I turned my head, wondering if it was Yurina, but it was a store employee, a young woman, carrying a large trash bag. She had probably come out to empty the bin beside the bench.
She met my eyes. “Ah, um, excuse me.”
“Yes?”
“The person in the lingerie section, is she your girlfriend? The, um, silver-haired one.”
“Oh. Yes, that’s her.”
The employee looked me up and down, nodding as if she understood something. “Heeeh, I see.”
“Is something wrong?”
“Oh, no, nothing.” She glanced discreetly toward the underwear section, then, with a grin, gave me a big thumbs-up. “You can look forward to tonight.”
I couldn’t muster up a reply. Just what kind of underwear did she buy?
