Chapter 118: Chapter 111 – For the Sake of Leather Shoes

"Ah, we're here."

Before I knew it, we had arrived at a brick building. Some of the walls were still in poor condition. Or rather, there were glaring holes in them, literally. But the roof was newly built with a rough set of stone plates covering it in an overlapping pattern. The roof eaves also overhung well past the damaged sections of the walls to protect them better from the elements.

It was crude and likely hurriedly built, but effective. Presuming the occupants didn't mind effectively having permanently open windows.

But the smell from the building suggested that it was more a feature than a fault.

"The one I want to introduce you to doesn't have his own workshop built yet, so he's been working out of our only tannery right now."

Elli made her way to the building and opened the heavy looking door as if it was made of hollow wood or something.

"Is Skirfir in?"

The elderly dokkalfar called out.

The entire building interior was simply one giant room. There were sheets of treated hide hanging in one corner, a wide but shallow vat catching the occasional drip that made its way off of the wet skins. Next to them was someone slowly swirling around a hide in a large tub, occasionally lifting it to have a closer look.

Beyond him was a small group of people. They were working on some skins stretched out on a frame, scraping bits off of it. There were buckets filled with white stuff with the occasional little bits of pink or red beside each of them.

On the other side of the room there were several people working on a stack of leather, making anything from pants to pieces of armour. Each person was working on something different, using a wide variety of tools I hadn't ever seen before, and some I had.

Beyond this group, was another doing strange things which I had difficulty even describing. All I could think was they were doing some sort of additional treatment of the leather for various purposes. One person was even held a sheet of leather over an open flame, letting the smoke envelope it.

"Ah, Elder Elli? Something the matter? Finally gonna get some proper armour?"

A demon, older than most of the others, yet still appearing to be well before middle age got up from the group working on the final products.

"Your idea of armour is far too restrictive for my kind. We can talk if you ever get any sense in your head for something properly light."

"Hey! My breast plate's plenty light!"

He picked up some armour that appeared to be mostly finished. It was a cuirass which covered the front, back, and side of the torso pretty well.

"It is only one plate, and it goes down over the waist. Far too restrictive."

"Hey! It's not restrictive. You dokkalfar are just nudists!"

"We are not nudists! We are merely practical with our clothes!"

I was forced to step back from how the two were yelling. Seeing this nice old granny suddenly flaring up like this was a bit...unexpected.

Though this demon did have a point. Elli's middle was completely exposed, and she wasn't covering her legs at all. Of course she was sleeveless too, but only the most anal conservative would consider that an issue. Frankly speaking, while her outfit was made of many layers of some sort of long, loose piece of cloth wrapped around her over and over, it was hardly any better than those slutty women who went out wearing micro skirts and midriff tops.

This wasn't the beach or something. Who wears that sort of thing everywhere?

The dokkalfar apparently...

On the other hand, I could understand not wanting to wear something stiff which covered the body's middle. It would severely restrict the spine's flexibility, and if you were the sort to rely on agility to stay out of trouble, this armour was simply too much, even if leather was often toted as armour for the agility conscious.

Or rather, that only applied to fantasy. Heavy armour was almost always preferable over light on Earth from what I could tell. Nobody could move fast enough to justify going deliberately light armour unless if you weren't even planning on getting into a fight in the first place. Aside from maybe archers and the like, but that was usually about it.

That, and leather was insane expensive during the middle ages. Quilted linen was magnitudes cheaper and often just as strong. I think it was called gambeson?

Personally, it made me even more proud of my robes. Practical, functional, while aesthetically pleasing. Its material meant that it worked as armour, yet the design didn't compromise on my agility.

What was underneath it was an issue, but hopefully that would be resolved soon.

I really, really hoped it would.

The thought of Anthousai disregarding the agreed upon design and making me something that covered my body as poorly as Elli's outfit made me shudder.

She wouldn't do that to me, would she? As a vampire, it was like I had a racial which went against exposing my skin.

On the other hand, while the thought of exposing myself like that in public was something I would like to avoid, something light and easy to wear in private was something that would be nice to try out.

A cotton t-shirt and boxers...would look terrible on the current me. And I couldn't help but think maybe boxers wouldn't feel so good now that I had experienced how properly fitted panties felt. So a t-shirt and panties...sounded lewd. The image of that combo seemed a bit too slutty.

But it was close to something that appeared on various shows and movies. An oversized t-shirt being worn like a crude dress.

Would that work?

It felt like there was a strong yes somewhere there.

I would have to remember to ask Anathousai to make a nice t-shirt for me someday.

Going back to the issue at hand...

"Umm...putting aside the exposure levels, I think cultural heritage is something that needs to be respected."

This bickering wasn't going anywhere, so I tried stepping in.

"Oh! As expected! You understand, do you not? Your robes are exquisite, but how about I have one of our tailors provide some long wraps for you? I imagine you would look wonderful in them! You certainly have the figure for it!"

Elli chuckled with that last line as my already pale cheeks grew even whiter.

"Umm, no, it's alright. If I wore something like that, I wouldn't even be able to go outdoors. Not with my constitution."

"It really is unfortunate, but I suppose you are right. Perhaps for special occasions, but for now I suppose we would have to do without. I really do think you would look good in them though."

"Well, thanks for the compliment."

"No, no, I really mean it. You really will look good in it, I guarantee it!"

That was probably true, but I certainly wouldn't enjoy it at all. It wouldn't even make good casuals as it didn't look very quick to get into or out of, with the uncountable layers of wrappings around her body.

The very thought of wearing something like that in public...my cheeks quickly grew hot enough to fry an egg.

"Umm...that aside..."

"Oh yes, business."

"What? You actually came here for something, Elder Elli?"

"You make it sound like I normally come here without any real business, Skirfir."

The demon's expression stiffened. He clearly wanted to say that was exactly what he expected from her, but held back from actually saying so.

"So? What is your business then?"

In the end this demon, Skirfir, forced those words out after a minute.

"I want you to make some shoes for our guest."

"Guest? Here? Have you finally gone senile? Who the hell aside from us would come so close to Hourai Mountain?"

"Senile?! And who was it who wet himself on his first hunt against...!

"Aaaah! I can't hear you! LA LA LA!"

The large man of a demon pressed his hands against the side of his head while letting out a voice loud enough to leave a bit of ringing in my ears. A few of the workers in the building glared at him for a moment, but most of them simply ignored him.

This...

(This guy is just plain annoying to deal with, isn't he?)

"Enough! Let us return to what is important."

Elli ended up relenting first as she uncovered her long ears, pain clearly on her expression.

"Our guest, Scarlet, desires a pair of shoes."

"And what, just because she has the same name as Lord Scarlet, you think I should be the one to make them?"

"No, because the mountain is her territory, and she is offering to allow us to live here and borrow the power of her dungeon. This is part of the payment for that."

Calling it a payment was pushing things a bit, but if it made things move smoother, then I didn't mind working with that story.

"The shoes I'm currently wearing doesn't allow too much freedom of movement, so I wanted a new pair. I can even provide the materials for them as well."

Normally the high ankle ones I was currently wearing would be better for someone who had to move around in rough terrain all the time due to the ankle support, but spraining my ankles wasn't really a concern for me. I could just heal it with a spell or drinking some blood. And if I didn't have time for that, I could just go airborne in the meantime.

The mobility gained from removing the ankle supports far outstripped the nearly nonexistent upsides.

"Freedom of movement? So what, you're her kind?"

"Ah, no. Exposing my skin to the light of day like that is a bit..."

Embarrassing? Dangerous? Terrifying. That last one was the word that would describe it best.

The man stooped down to look into my hood a bit.

"A vampire? I get it. Yea, a dokkalfar's long wraps wouldn't cut it well for your kind. And if one of our elders' asking me to make you some shoes, I'm in no position to refuse. Not if you're even gonna go as far as providing the hide for it."

"Alright! Then..."

I took off my bag and dug into it, looking for some suitable leather to use. Since it was for my feet, something tough was ideal, though at the same time maybe a soft inner layer would be nice as well. Then again, I could always just get Anathousai to make me some socks, so maybe it wasn't so important.

"Woah woah woah! What the hell is this?!"

"Umm, drops from the monsters in the dungeon?"

I really didn't know much about leather working, so I had ended up just pulling out various high level monster hides, trying my best to figure out what might be good from the touch. Some were preprocessed leathers, and others were simply whole hides, complete with soft and wet undersides, still complete with their fur if the original beast had any.

"You got all of this from the Hourai Mountain dungeon?"

"I did."

(Was that so unbelievable?)

"I see. Looks like the elder wasn't lying when she said the dungeon's yours."

"Oh? You dare imply I am a liar?"

"Woah, no way! I just, ummm...had trouble believing your words, that's right!"

The demon's cheeks, despite his bright red skin, looked surprisingly pale.

"Is that not the very definition of calling someone a liar?"

"No, it's not! Everyone knows you're the most beautiful, most youthful, smartest, and most honourable of the elders! No matter how hard something you say is to be believed, everyone knows it's still the truth!"

"Hmph. I suppose I'll leave it at that."

As relieved as I was that this wasn't going to turn into another fight, it was hard for me to avoid noticing that Elli's cheeks had turned a little purple and the corners of her lips were slightly upturned.

This was probably something I should remember just in case.

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"Anyways! This! This'll work great! I can do a ton with this one!"

The leather worker pulled out a quite large piece of rawhide. This one was completely unprocessed, and quite a complicated piece. It had long fur at one end, short fur along most of its length, then the tail wasn't even leather of any kind, but the shell of an exoskeleton.

"A manticore? Long since I had seen the hide of one."

It seemed like the monster was exactly as I had thought back when I had fought it back in the 84th floor's boss room. The thing was quite tough, its thick mane doing a great job of absorbing my attacks from the front and its scorpion like stinger being quick and accurate whenever I tried to get close. It wasn't slow either, as it could pounce at me using its wings from anywhere in the boss room. But even then, it wasn't fast enough to actually hit me, and a steady barrage of magic against its flank did wonders.

That was, until it started to focus on shooting needles from its tail. Individually they weren't too difficult to dodge, but it was able to keep up a large barrage of needles, and they didn't go away after embedding themselves in the ground. What made things worse was when the monster suddenly started to breath fire after a while of shooting at me from a distance while tanking my magic attacks. The needles that it had spread around caught fire, severely restricting my own movement if I didn't want to suffer continuous damage. But what was the worst was all the black smoke that rose up, making breathing and seeing difficult.

In the end, I was forced to rush towards the boss, and after evading its tail strikes a few times, I managed to cut it off with my claws. In revenge for all the trouble it had given me, I dug my claws into its flank and bit into its middle, slowly killing it by draining it of all its blood.

The taste itself was quite nice, akin to a deeply marbled steak well marinated in jerk sauce. Well, probably not quite jerk sauce, as the one time I had that, I suffered from an upset stomach for the rest of the day. It was delicious, but I was forced to swear it off ever since. The manticore wasn't really spicy in the first place, but the taste simply brought up memories of the jerk chicken I had.

I should probably go and hunt another manticore again. The taste of its blood alone was worth the effort of fighting one, and a second run should be much easier than the first. Its probably best just to get rid of its tail asap.

"So will that do then?"

I started to put the rest of the hides back into my bag. There really was too many, and I wasn't fond of working with leather. Not after that debacle with that damn coat I tried to make years ago.

"Yea, I can make some really great stuff with this. You said you want shoes? Is that it? You don't need anything else?"

"No, not really."

Pretty much everything else was covered by Anathousai. Silk based clothes felt really nice. They were really soft and smooth on my skin, and extremely light. Switching to heavy leather, even with my high strength, just didn't feel right. There was no way I could feel comfortable wearing something as heavy and rough as that.

At least aside from the shoes.

But I still wanted silk socks.

"Hmm...but this is supposed to be payment for letting us use the dungeon, right? It doesn't even come close to adding up."

"I can take the rest from somewhere else. You don't have to pay for it all yourself. Oh, and you can keep the rest of the hide as well."

"Wha?! You know how much of it is used to make a pair of shoes?! And you probably want low profile ones as well, right? Since you want something flexible?"

"Well, I guess?"

"*Sigh* Do you have any idea how much the remainder of this hide is worth?"

All of a sudden, the image of all those isekai protagonists who practically gave away absurdly expensive things as if they were nothing for no good reason came to mind. All those protagonists I wanted to yell at for doing things that didn't make any sense.

For me, this thing really wasn't worth much and I had quite a lot of funds as things stood already, but it was difficult not to make parallels with such foolish actions which essentially was begging for the character to be taken advantage of if the author didn't practically ignore that fact.

On the other hand, I was stumped. The hide was close to trash to me as it was difficult to even imagine what I could get from trading it which I didn't already have more than enough of. Food was better gotten by myself, as it was both fresher and would contribute to raising my level anyways. I didn't really need any clothes or gear either, once I got my shoes. Anathousai was responsible for making everything else I needed. I didn't use weapons or armour in the first place, so anything which would slow me down was kinda pointless. I had all the furniture I wanted back in my room. Maybe a nicer couch would be good, but it was quite a low priority.

Soap and other products for the body...if my experience was any real measure, the stuff I made was better than what was available in this world. I could teach these people how to make it, but that would just compound the issue rather than solve it.

And it wasn't like I needed any soap at the moment. I've built up my stockpile once again, along with hair oil and even body oil this time.

Maybe I could ask for materials? Spider silk would be nice and save me a bit of time, as I needed a lot to meet Anathousai's needs for making the rest of my clothes. But at most that was a minor inconvenience and the best source of them was the 75th floor, reasonably deep into the dungeon. So getting it myself would contribute to my XP as well.

Any other materials were things I used to make things for others in the first place. Having my debt paid only for it to be increased and transferred to the fairies was quite mercantile, but also contrary to the entire point.

(Is there really nothing I need?)

Thanks to basically being the owner of a dungeon, there really wasn't much that someone else could provide which I actually needed. I had survived for years on my own thanks to it, and I couldn't say it was particularly hard either. I wasn't swimming in luxury, but that was because my hobby was taking up all of my time, since I could afford to live that way. Raising my level, gathering and raising skills, and diving deeper and deeper into the dungeon was what I enjoyed to do, and basically what I lived for when I first arrived in this world.

Things changed since Alicia entered my life, but that only redirected my energies. The time spent on dungeon delving was replaced with time spent on her. Once she was born in her new body, there were plenty of things which I would need, but nothing this leather worker could provide me. And that was still a while in the future. This was still too early to have things made for Alicia, especially when I wasn't sure how much she needed beyond baby clothes.

"This vampire of ours really lacks greed, doesn't she?"

"It truly is a problem in its own right, I must admit."

"Sorry..."

Normally something like this wasn't supposed to be a problem, but it seemed I had turned it into one.

"No, it is not something which you should apologize for. Instead, perhaps it is better for us to come up with something appropriate for her."

"Leather armour then! I can make you a full set for the entire body and still have plenty of manticore hide left!"

"I...I'd like to refrain..."

Flashbacks of that leather coat I had made came rushing back.

"What?! Why not?!"

"Seems like our guest has little want for leather!"

Skirfir looked depressed from my rejection, Elli on the other was having trouble containing herself.

"How about this then? While the axe you had received earlier is enchanted to protect you from light magic, such a thing is unwieldy for a normal stroll. Would you have want for something enchanted against light?"

(Enchanted against light?)

"Would that work against sunlight as well?!"

Magical objects was far outside of my expertise. I did own some such items, like my bag and current shoes, but as to what was possible, I had no idea.

(Or rather, my Dane axe is actually enchanted to protect against light huh?)

"Of course! The rays of the sun shine down light magic after all! However weak it is."

It certainly didn't feel weak to me, but that was a different issue.

"In, in that case I can...!"

"I know the perfect dokkalfar tailor who can do what is required. No need to force an unwanted product on our dear guest."

"Un...unwanted..."

(These two...)

While I was grateful for their help, I couldn't help but wonder what was between these two. That was, unless if it was racial pride and competitive spirit which was getting in the way of them being cordial beyond one or two lines at a time.

"Excuse me, if you don't mind."

"?"

I turned to Elli, who grabbed a bit of my robes and rubbed the material between her fingers. With a slight frown, she let out a sigh.

"As skilled as our tailor is, providing work as terrific as this is quite impossible without proper materials. There are some things we can use, but the base material, I doubt we have anything sufficient. I apologize, but could you provide us with the same material as your robes are made from?"

"Ah, you mean the silk? I do have a few bolts on me."

They were originally for Anathousai, but I hadn't gotten around to giving them to her yet. Gathering more wasn't really going to be an issue.

Elli's eyes glimmered as I pulled them all out and handed them to her.

"I will ensure that the end product more than makes up for the cost, Scarlet."

"I look forward to it. Ah, about the design..."

"Leave that to us. I believe a surprise would be most pleasant?"

"Uh...sure."

Surprises made me nervous, but the way the elderly woman looked at the silk threads and imagined the final product made it difficult to actually argue with her.

"Umm...so about my shoes...?"

I couldn't leave Skirfir to sulk on his own, or else the entire reason why I came to this building would be thrown out of the window.

"Oh yea, oh yea! Your important shoes! I just need to check your measurements and I'll get started right away!"

It was quite amazing how quickly this guy could switch back and forth. It would be nice if he didn't suffer from mood swings too much.

I was lead to a simple chair and I took off my current shoe, showing the tall demon my foot.

"Geez. You have tiny feet. Do you eat right?"

"I finished off a pair of gardener trolls and a timbre troll last night."

"Seriously? How'd you pack so much into such a tiny body like yours? Ah, wait, you only drink the blood, don't you?"

"I do."

"That is still quite the quantity. I believe that three trolls would have enough blood to fill the smallest of your hide soaking vats."

"Seriously?"

Elli pointed at one of the clay tubs lining the far wall. Five of the smaller ones were standing along with two medium size and one larger tub. But the smallest was still big enough for me to squeeze into if I tucked my legs in for an emergency bath if I was desperate enough.

"Ah, can I see your other foot now?"

Skirfir finished up his measurements of my right foot. It seemed like he was doing all of his measurements by using his hands and fingers to determine my size. It was a little worrying as his hands were bigger than my feet, but I could only trust that he was well capable of making articles my size.

"Huh? Won't they measure up the same?"

"You've really got no idea about this sort of thing, do you?"

I was a bit annoyed at the tone he was giving me, but getting angry about being ignorant to an expert was just plain stupid and rude.

"Look, no matter how similar both feet are, there are always little differences. The same goes for the rest of the body. That's why I got to check all your measurements. I don't make second rate products. Drill that into your pretty little head, alright?"

"...Alright."

It was a little mortifying, and he didn't have to insult me like that, but I just sucked it in and didn't argue. I had insulted him first after all, even if it was by accident.

A little while later, my foot was let go and I was allowed to leave.

"It'll be ready in three days. Don't forget, alright?"

I nodded and waved the tall man as Elli and I left the tannery.

With that, I had finished all my official business here, but there was still the issue of sharing the dungeon with the fairies. While telling Elli that it was part of the agreement was technically enough, that would only delay problems for a later date, and when they did end up boiling over, things would become even more difficult.

While technically I wasn't obligated to help out with this sort of thing, having two groups of neighbours at each other's throats would be like living in a neighbourhood where a gang war was going on. Definitely not pleasant, and even more definitely a terrible environment to raise a child in.

As to how I could prevent such issues, the prospects looked filled with lots of work.

I could only sigh at that thought.

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