Chapter 26: CH26 Dress

Bob and Fufi returned to the farm. They had been out looking for the nymph that was behind all this trouble.  Merumeru came in a bit later.  She had spent the day building with bricks.

"Alex is still here?" Bob asked.  Then he did a double take and was left speechless at Martha's new outfit.  Looking his wife up and down a few times, Bob tried to say something but was at a loss for words.

"What do you think dear?" Martha said with a grin.

"I'm sorry Martha. This is just too much. You look amazing. Have you been working on your new outfit in secret?" Bob said and stepped forward and gave his wife a hug.

"I have not. Alex made this for me. I think it is perfect. I hope I can keep it clean. I don't know how to take care of such fancy clothes." Martha said and looked at the floor.

"I think you will be just fine. I'm sure Alex would be willing to help you learn how to take care of it. After all, when he showed up several days ago he claimed to be a traveling seamstress. Anyway, let's get dinner started. I'm sure everyone is hungry." Bob said and helped set the table.  Martha walked into the kitchen to finish preparing dinner.

Alex was sitting quietly in his chair, lost in thought.

"Meru?" Merumeru asked as she sat down at the table with everyone.

"Oh hello Merumeru. I didn't hear you come in." Alex said.

"Ru, ru, meee." Merumeru said cheerfully.

"I'm not sure what that means. But thanks for your support." Alex said with a weak smile.

"Dinner is served." Martha said and brought over a plate of roast chicken.

"I'm not sure if I'm supposed to eat it. I don't know if I can eat meat." Alex said and looked away.  He wasn't sure if it was nerves or something else but he had way less of an appetite then he should have after skipping lunch.

Martha frowned and asked, "Won't you at least try? I don't know anything about the diet of nymphs."

"I'll give it a shot. I guess I can't hurt." Alex said and reluctantly picked up a piece of chicken to inspect.

"Alex, I know you don't want to talk right now. But we want to know what is going on." Martha said, giving the now-nymph Alex a look.

"I know. I know. I'm just nervous.  This whole siguation is too much for me. Even talking and hearing my own voice is disconcerting. Which Alex is the real Alex?  I feel like the tall muscled man who lived in a cabin and cut down trees for a living is a different person.  And that scares me. Knowing that eating something can change your race scares me.  My first thought after transforming was that I wanted to give up this whole quest to defeat the demon queen and just go back home to my cabin where it is safe. But a nymph can't leave her tree so I can't even run away. After thinking about it today I even wonder if that would make me happy.  The old Alex lived alone. His life was just work, taking care of the cabin, and a few shallow relationships." Alex confessed, struggling to keep his voice steady.

"I see. I understand." Bob said and patted Alex's shoulder.

"But you are not the same person you were before. Your power is greater than before and your outlook has changed. You are no longer alone. And you have friends. So you are doing the best you can. That is enough." Fufi stated with conviction.

Alex decided not to answer but instead tried to take a bite of the meat.  It tasted like spoiled milk and he had to force himself not to gag. Apparently nymphs don't eat meat.

"Alex! Are you okay? I swear I haven't been in the woods today or been around any nymphs. . . Well besides the one in front of us.  The food is safe." Martha said, both defending her cooking and wondering if she made a mistake at the same time.

"It just tastes rotten. I guess my palette is different now that I am a nymph. I'll try something else." Alex mumbled and tried eating some vegetables.

"Try the bread. It is delicious. I made it today." Martha said proudly.

Alex took a small piece and put it in his mouth.

"Mmmm, that is really good. I'm glad bread and veggies still have flavor." Alex said and took another bite.

"Alex, why don't you tell me about the dream you mentioned earlier?" Bob asked.

"Oh yeah, it was a weird dream. It was so vivid. It was like it was happening to me. There was a woman named Kaede who wanted me to join her in the woods.  I think she said something about meeting her mistress.  I told this all to Fufi before." Alex said while gazing into space, trying to remember.

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Fufi honked, "Alex you didn't say the part about Kaede having a mistress.  That means there is more than one woodland spirit we are dealing with."

Alex sighed, "Sorry, I thought it was just a strange dream and I shouldn't worry about it." He lowered his head and just stared at the plate. This dinner was beginning to feel like an interrogation.

"I'm sorry Alex. This is my fault for taking the apples. I just want to make things right but don't know how." Martha said, her eyes welling up.

Fufi answered in Alex's stead, "No, Martha you were charmed.  It wasn't your fault."

Martha wiped her eyes, "I know. It is just hard when I can't do anything."

"We're gonna get through this together." Bob said, putting his arm around his wife.

"I hope so. Let's eat. One thing at a time right?" Martha said and began serving the rest of the meal.

 

The next day, Alex woke up early and headed towards the workshop. He stumbled a few times due to the ill fit of his pink robes. Merumeru's handiwork was quite noticeable.  She had already finished a new outhouse with bricks from the pile she made while they were building the well.  Also, a stone wall was in progress around the small apple tree.  A pile of transparent blocks were also in a neat stack.  Maybe transparent wasn't the right word.  They were slightly opaque.  

"Do they even have transparent glass in this world?  I saw some windows in Luna's palace but the ruined town just seemed to use wooden shutters on the windows. If slimes can make glass without a kiln then all the glass blowers in this world could be put out of business." Alex spoke to himself as he entered the run-down workshop. Solving problems like the demon queen or Kaede were too big right now.  Just thinking about them brought a strong feeling of discouragement.  He was developing a new appreciation of people who felt gender dysphoria or imposter syndrome.

Alex decided to switch to the outfit from the dungeon. It wasn't that hard to wear.  With how slender a nymph's waist is, slipping on the corset is easy. He even wore the pink panties that Luna gifted him.  Is it still cross dressing if someone identifies as a male but has the body of a female? To avoid questions like these Alex decided to create another outfit.

"Lets try making a set of clothes that look like a magical girl's outfit. I'm just using a normal cloth for the base. I'll need to sew on the frills and ribbons. I'll just have to figure it out as I go along." Alex said to the empty room.

Alex started by creating a simple dress. After he made the basic pattern and cut the fabric, then started sewing by hand. The odd treasures from the dungeon for clothcraft were coming in handy.

After he had sewn all the pieces he started to add the details. First, he added the ribbon. Then he used the scissors to cut the edges. Next, he attached the ribbon to the neckline and sleeves. Finally, he created the frill and switched it to the edges. The whole time he was humming a tune from his old world cheerfully. After the dress was done he made some thigh high stockings to go with it.  Some white gloves also complemented the outfit.  To finish the look, Alex cut some ribbons and tied his plant-like hair into twin tails.

"I'm done." Alex said and held up the dress proudly. Alex created a very feminine looking dress. It looked like something a girl out of a certain sailor squad might wear.

"I guess I'll go try it on." Alex said and walked over to a bucket of water.  That was the closest thing to a mirror in this place.

"Oh, this outfit suits nymph Alex well." Alex said and looked at the reflection.  He had to bend over quite a bit to get a look.  He wished they wouldn't have lost that big mirror they had got from the dungeon right now.

"No one is looking, maybe I'll try it out." Alex said with a quick glance around and walked back to get the dress laying on the table.

"I've never worn something like this before. It can't be too difficult to get into right?" Alex wondered aloud.

He slipped the corset and skirt off and sat down on a stool to take his sandals and socks off.  Sadly, the floor was dirt so it was impossible not to get his feet dirty.  Though his feet didn't look like his feet.  They were so small.  Trying to not think about that, Alex put the stockings on and draped the dress over his head.

"It feels so weird to be wearing a girl's clothing." Alex said, his voice muffled. He didn't want to admit it but getting all dolled up was not a bad feeling.

"Oh, I forgot about the shoes. I actually have no idea how to make shoes." Alex said sadly.

He stood up and tried walking in the outfit.  Every step caused dirt to get on the white shockings.  

Alex pulled out his phone and checked his stats.  It turned out that this outfit gave +2 to cuteness. +2 to cuteness was the biggest bonus to anything he had crafted so far.

Quietly getting changed back to the crafting outfit, Alex sneakily placed the frilly dress in the cart under the dolls. They could guard the secret magical girl outfit. Going outside, Alex noticed that Merumeru had been busy. The soul tree was surrounded by a circular stone wall. Several glass bricks were placed in places around eye height to let some light through.  The glass was too cloudy to actually see through but it was a nice touch. Merumeru had created a metal gate made out of a grid of pipes. Alex liked it. Even the hinges were pipes.  It gave it a bit of a steampunk look. A bull was lazing about, chewing his cud staring at the new construction.  Alex shuddered.  Some of the farm animals were likely to just eat that tree.  He made a mental note to thank Merumeru later for doing something to protect his soul. Going inside the gate, Alex noticed a stone well against the inside of the wall.  There was no bucket or any way to draw water from it.  The well looked almost exactly like the strange one that Merumeru randomly created back in the basement of the adventurer's guild.

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