After the bizarre audience with the queen, they retired back to their rooms. Kotori was left baffled at the events that had occurred.

Once they got back to their room, Fawks heaved a sigh of relief and collapsed onto the sunken couch in the ground.

“Haaaaa-” He sighed.

“She was… quite a character” Kotori noted trying to make small talk to defuse the awkward mood in the room.

Fawks look exasperated.

“You see what I mean? She’s insane”

[Well, I wouldn’t say that] Kotori thought. Although, Fawk’s mother was quite the character she reminded Kotori of the helicopter parent in her old world. In fact, Kotori quite liked Fawk’s mom. Though, Kotori could see why it would be difficult to live with a mother like that. She could see now why Fawks wanted to be a merchant and live a full continent away from her.

[It’s kind of like a college student going far away from home no?] She thought.

Fawks didn’t seem to dislike his mother rather he seemed to have a troubled relationship with her.

Kotori could see Amelie giving him back rub saying “there, there” It seemed like she was sympathetic to Fawk’s plight

[Well, she’s pretty used to having troubled familial relationships too.] Kotori thought smirking.

It seemed like ages ago that Kotori had been in the elf village around 3 years had passed since then and she wondered if it would soon be the time to visit the village and say hi to the Boss and Mari.

[Well to get that chance I have to win this thing in the first place] Kotori thought grimly. The trials still hung on her mind. She had to win them.

A small knock came at their door.

Kotori went to go answered it and a girl wearing a purple veil handing Kotori a wrapped package. She bowed and nodded and then walked off without a word.

[Odd?] Kotori thought. The package was very light. It felt like there was something soft inside.

“who was it?” Amelie called out.

“I’m not sure, it was a girl who left me a package and then walked away.” Kotori said. The girl said nothing she only handed Kotori a package and then left.

“Well? Open it up” Amelie said while lazing on the couch

Kotori peeled back the cloth covering the package to find thin sheer cloth.

[No, not cloth, it’s clothing] She thought.

The thin fabric appeared to be part of something kind of outfit. Folded in the cloth were several gold necklaces and other assorted gold accessories.

[Is this the clothing that the queen wanted to give us? Gold too?] Evidently, the queen must’ve been quite wealthy if she was willing to give such expensive jewelry for free.

Kotori used [Gourmet] in the clothing just in case there was slave magic on it. She was pretty sure there wasn’t anything on it, but her encounter with Gerard had made her wary of gifts in general.

The clothing was thankfully, fairly vanilla and didn’t have any sort of enchantments on them. Still, Kotori felt unsure about taking the gift. There was no such thing as a free gift from a stranger after all.

“It’s the clothes the queen gave us” Kotori said with a slightly unsure tone.

“Oh! Then have Umi and Layla try it on” Amelie said

Both Umi and Layla seemed like there were receptive to the idea.

“Is there two outfits?” Umi asked

“Yes,” Kotori said as she handed Umi the Package.

Umi picked out one of the outfits and a few pieces of clothing and handed the rest too Layla.

“Then would you like us to change into this now?” Layla asked

“Do it when you want I guess.” Kotori said half-heartedly. Amelie on the other hand seemed to disappoint.

“Amelie, did you want them to change now?” Kotori asked her.

“Well… I kinda wanted to see Umi and Layla in new outfits.” Amelie said

Kotori shrugged

“Do as you wish”

In  a snap Umi suddenly became naked

“HOLD IT!” Kotori said, Hikari instantly knocked down Fawks and covered his eyes right as he was about to look over

Kotori shook her head. She should’ve known, Umi was a spirit after all. She didn’t have human concepts of “modesty”. This coupled with the fact that Umi’s clothes were even real in the first place meant Kotori didn’t have time to react.

Kotori averted her eyes for a moment before realized that she was a woman as well.

[Well, just one little peak could hurt…] She thought.

Kotori looked at Umi.

!!!

[Bad idea]. She could feel herself starting to get a nosebleed.

Umi had a rather seductive body. One that would make men and women alike bend over.

“Umi,” Kotori started to say making sure to place her eyes firmly on Umi’s face and not the rest of Umi’s body.

“Please change in a room away from our eyes”

“Umi was smiling, Oh? Do you like this Kotori sama?” Her voice turning into a sultry tone.

“Just change somewhere else,” Kotori said exasperated.

“Umi no fair!” Layla said. And suddenly she became naked as well.

[Guh!] Kotori thought.

“Both of you! Stopppppppppp” She pleaded

Kitsura

Silly chapter before we go into the more serious stuff. On a side note, I think I've gotten out of my depressive funk, I seem to wax and wane with how much my writers block acts up. This arc is plotted out now and hopefully, I'll be updating more regularly than the shitshow that's been my upload schedule recently. It might be too early say but I'm going to set myself a goal of 10 forward chapters to give me wiggle room to be depressed and not write.