Our remaining two nights here passed in the blink of an eye with a whirlwind of rushed energy, but they were altogether peaceful.
The morning after our outing to the merchant’s guild, I holed up in the inn room to single-mindedly prepare for our journey onward.
I crafted several clothing sets for us, including other variations on highlander wear, townsfolk attire, peasant garb, and lighter garments for the summer. I even made underwear.
Deciding it would be best to give the prince some items of value, I fitted some gold and silver coins behind his belt and into the folds of his boots.
After all, what if we got separated, or if I were to die? I had to consider those scenarios as well. I’d previously thought that if I were knocking on death’s door, he’d probably already have passed by then, but it was important to plan for the worst.
While I was deep in my work, I created some fantastic multipurpose bangles for the prince to wear.
I’d fashioned a bangle for his right arm with some particularly designed grooves that items could be pressed into. Converting revival potions and light orbs into flat disks, I slotted them into those open grooves—they sat there, looking like nothing more than decorative colored gemstones.
Even though I was tempted, I had to stop myself from carving a pattern into the wooden base of the bangle. If I had, the bangle would’ve become an artisanal piece of workmanship.
Then, I crafted an S-rank anti-appraisal bangle for his other wrist. It was meant to be intentionally visible for anyone observing him.
While the prince wore the Royal Diadem on his upper arm, I realized that having it equipped made him impossible to appraise. That crown was seriously pulling a heckuva lot of weight. However, because of that, anyone trying to appraise him would receive a message informing them that he couldn’t be appraised—and that alone would make him suspicious.
The Royal Diadem was a Heraldry, and one that prevented appraisals—even SSS-rank ones.
Wald suggested we hide the crown in my Pocket Dimension, but it turned out that Heraldries couldn’t be placed into my storage space. So, the only option left to us was to give him an obvious stand-in to wear. That way, we might avoid drawing any attention to the crown itself.
The idea of an average person owning an S-rank accessory was ridiculous in itself, but considering the fact that we needed to fool transmigrators, we just had to roll with it. If, on the off chance, someone noticed it and decided to give us grief, we could wave them off by explaining the bangle was a family heirloom.
✦ ✦ ✦
While I was knee-deep in my crafts, the prince had found himself with free hands and ample time. I asked him to spend some time washing our laundry in the inn’s inner courtyard.
It wasn’t like I could ask him to go shopping alone. If he were to, he was definitely going to get catcalled.
So, he’d dutifully gone to the courtyard with our dirty clothes, but he returned far earlier than I expected. The innkeeper had apparently helped him.
Since we were in the safe confines of an inn, I decided not to dry our laundry with magic and instead opened the window. After giving the prince a few tips—I wasn’t going to help him with this task—I had him hang a rope across our room to use as a clothesline and asked him to hang our wet clothing up to dry.
With that, the prince finished his very first laundry assignment without a fuss.
He came to me with a glowing smile and pestered me for another job, so this time, I asked him to do some embroidery on our overcoats. His smile changed to a grimace as he picked up the needle.
Embroidery was clearly not his forte. I probably should have expected that, given the way he’d struggled with it from his time masquerading as Princess Catharine.
I stared at him. “Since you’ll be wearing these clothes, isn’t it worth making them look a bit nicer?” I wondered aloud. His reaction confused me a bit.
The prince sighed and suggested a counter-proposal. “If I really must embroider something, I’d like to embroider your clothes. I’d really rather not do it for myself, but I suppose I could do it for you— Er, for someone else’s clothing. I can’t say my work will be impressive, but I’ll do my best.”
“I see... Well, thank you,” I replied.
The lovely young man’s bright smile returned instantly.
Damn, Prince Charming over here is honestly cute as a button. I’ll never let some lowly nobody take him away. As if I’d ever let someone take his hand in marriage in the first place. I guess he’s the one who’d take a bride, though.
At any rate, that was how we spent our time together, both hard at work in our inn room until the sun started its descent and the laundry finished drying.
When I went down to fetch our dinner, the proprietress greeted me with a radiant smile. She passed me a tray loaded with our dinner.
“Helenna isn’t a very large town,” she hummed with a twinkle in her eye. “A person could see all the sights there are to see here in a single day.”
Why did she...? Oh, right. I asked her for hot water early in the day for use with my work.
“Your wife is still just a young thing, so don’t work her too hard,” she said, still smiling.
“I won’t,” I replied stiffly.
Yeah, I’ll be careful. And in more ways than one.