Chapter 33. New Uniform

By the time we reached the administration building, a line of people had already been queued near the entrance. I recognized some of those people from the hall where we had our first introduction, and I could already see a handful of them standing by the side with a jacket and a pair of pants on their hands as they inspected them.

“Oh… we must’ve been the last to come here it seems…” Victoria said with a low voice.

“Dude! The design of the uniform looks sick!” Brian exclaimed, looking at the handful of people that I was also looking at. “Come on, I don’t want to be the very last on the line!”

Saying that, Brian and Steven hurried to queue in line, while me and Victoria calmly made our way to stand behind them. From that position in the line, it was hard to see the people that were walking out with the uniforms, so the only thing I could see was the red color of the cloth, but no other particular detail on them.

The line was steadily moving, so we wouldn’t be spending the rest of the day here if it was going at this speed, but we would still be waiting for a while longer. Because of that, I was tempted to speak with Victoria, and get to know more about what kind of person the nobles of this world were, but she was distracted by the phone in her hand, while Steven and Brian were bickering with each about the kind of powers that the uniforms could give them.

It was then that the phone I kept with me also vibrated. I remembered what Nicole said about that, so it could mean that someone was trying to contact me. I quickly reached for it and turned it on the same way that she had taught me.

As if thinking about her would summon her, the message that appeared on the screen was also from Nicole. It said: ‘Hey how’s it goin’? Where are you?’.

I gripped the phone with my left hand, and did what she told me to do whenever I wanted to write on the artifact. I still didn’t quite have the dexterity to write as fast as the people of this world, especially when I had to go back and forth in the seemingly random arrangement of letters and symbols that one had to choose to respond with, so it took me a while to simply respond with: ‘It is going well. I am at the administrative building.’

Under her name on the screen I saw that she was writing, so I put my phone aside and waited for her to say something, but she replied so much faster than me, that I didn’t even have time to turn the screen off.

‘Really? I’m going there. I want to see your uniform!!!’ she replied, followed by the hieroglyph of a running person.

I didn’t see the reason for her to be here just to see a uniform that she likely also had, so I started writing to her that she shouldn’t come here, but just as I was half way through the first word, I felt Victoria tapping me on the arm. I turned to look at her to see what she wanted.

“Hey, would you like to exchange phone numbers?” she asked, looking between the phone in my hand and hers.

I looked down at the word I had half written and realized that by the time I finished writing the message, Nicole would’ve already been rushing this way, so it wouldn’t be fair for her to tell her to go back. I deleted the message and looked at Victoria.

“Yes, that would be good,” I replied and tried swapping the ‘app’ to the one with the contacts but… I couldn’t find it.

“Okay! What’s your number?” she asked and I put away the phone for a moment.

Luckily I had memorized the number when Nicole showed me what it was, so I didn’t have to go searching for it in the artifact only to be lost just as I was right now. Victoria wrote the numbers on the phone with just my name on it and sent a message to me from hers.

‘Althea?’ it read. I didn’t want to respond to her with the artifact since it would be too much of a hassle so I turned to the girl.

“Yes, that’s correct,” I replied with a nod. Victoria smiled and I thought it would be a good opportunity to ask her to add her name to the phone, so I brought it up while showing her the screen. “How do I add you on the phone?”

“Hm?” she replied, looking down on the screen. “Just go to your contacts and hit add new contact.”

I looked back at the screen and looked at it for a moment, shaking my head after a few seconds. “I don’t see it.”

“Eh? What do you mean? Let me see,” she said and looked at the phone for a moment.

Without saying anything, she started tapping her finger on the phone’s screen. I was amazed at how fast she managed to reach the painting with the contacts, quickly getting to the point where I could add her.

“There you go,” she said and leaned away. “Is it like a new phone?”

“Yes… something like that,” I vaguely replied, since admitting that I was likely the only one in this world that didn’t know how to use a phone felt somewhat embarrassing.

After slowly writing her name on the list, and hitting on the part that said confirm, I sighed in relief, since this part was now over. However, the moment was short lived as Steven and Brian moved over to our side, their phones ready at their hands.

“Hey, I want to add you as well,” Steven said and Brian nodded along.

“Uh… well…” Victoria replied with some uncertainty, but I didn’t see the issue with accepting, so I went back to the same painting that she showed me before.

“Okay,” I said and I readied myself to redo the same process with the young men.

Victoria didn’t seem to be too keen on the idea of sharing her phone number with the young men, but after a few moments of seeing me do so, she relented and shared with them her phone number as well. Steven reacted by giving her a wide smile, while Brian had a flushed face with a soft smile that hardly hid the joy of the moment.

* * *

A few minutes later, we moved closer to the entrance. They were already done with most of the people and nobody else had come after us to this building, making us the last ones to get the uniform. I had enjoyed so far looking at the bright faces of the people who came out with it, a lot of them already wearing it by the time they were stepping out of the building, just like the younger people in my world when they received their first Holy Knight armor.

Hopefully, the people here wouldn’t turn out like me; killing innocent beings and dooming a world just simply because ‘higher beings’ were demanding it.

As I looked at the people, I noticed someone else coming over with rushed steps. I quickly recognized her as she smiled brightly when she noticed me.

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“Hey, Althea!” she exclaimed once she was a couple of steps away from me.

“Hello, Nicole. I was going to—”

An unexpected hug from the girl caught me by surprise as she embraced me for a couple of seconds before letting me go. I looked down at her with widened eyes, but she just kept her usual smile.

“How did your first day in the Institute go?” she asked.

I lagged in my response slightly, as I was still stunned from her out-of-nowhere hug, but after slightly shaking my head, I recovered from it. “It was… interesting.”

“Really? Did you learn something new?”

“No, but some of the people here I find… curious,” I said.

The image of the blonde man wearing white clothes flashed through my mind before being replaced by the green haired elf.

“Um…” Victoria interjected, looking curiously between the two of us. “Are you guys… related, or something like that?”

“Hm? No, we’re just friends. Best of friends!” Nicole answered with a wide smile while giving Victoria a thumbs up.

“Oh really?” Victoria replied, looking with surprise at Nicole. “Then you must be really high ranking if you’re friends with Althea.”

“Y-yeah… about that… hehe…” Nicole said with a wry smile as she looked away. “I-I’m well… I recently got to E+”

“Oh!” Steven exclaimed. “We’re about the same rank then.”

“No, you ain’t. She’s higher ranked than you!” Brian followed up, causing Steven’s cheek to twitch slightly.

“It’s just a little bit! Nothing that can’t be gapped after a week of hard training!” Steven loudly proclaimed with a forced smile.

“Are you all friends here?” Nicole asked as she looked between the two young men, Victoria and myself.

“Something like that, yes,” Steven proudly said with a nod and his hands on his hips. “We’re all here going to be heroes after all.”

“Really?!” Nicole exclaimed, covering her mouth with her hands as she looked with widened eyes. “Then that must mean you’re all really powerful.” Her expression changed to having narrowed eyes as she beckoned everyone closer. The young people all huddled together around her before she spoke. “Did you guys know that Althea went to the Capital Magic Labyrinth last week?”

“What!?” Steven and Brian exclaimed while Victoria matched their looks of surprise.

“Yes, yes,” Nicole continued nodding while whispering as she said: “She even met with a—”

“There is no need to tell them what I was doing last week,” I interrupted, since I didn’t feel like spreading far and wide the fact that I had worked with a demon. “All I did was go in there for a few coins in exchange for hunting Dark Beasts.”

“Damn though,” Brian said while looking at me with awe. “I heard that shit is scary and super dark.”

“I’ve heard the same. No wonder you got so strong within a week…” Steven followed up with a forced smile. “Do you think that if I went in there, I’d become just as strong as you are?”

“Yeah! Yeah! Maybe we should all go together and train that way! I’m sure that with Victoria and Althea, we can come out with at least D ranks!” Brian excitedly said before looking at my armor. “I bet we can even get gear that’s just as good as that.”

“Eh…?” Nicole waveringly said, “you guys are planning to go into that place?”

“I am not…” Victoria replied with a wry smile.

“What?! Why not?! You’re even higher ranked than Althea, I’m sure that it would be a breeze with the two of you there,” Steven countered.

“Even higher ranked!?” Nicole exclaimed, her eyes going between me and Victoria. “Then maybe… you can all go and—”

“Next!” shouted a man by the entrance, causing us all to turn to look at him. “Are you guys here for the uniforms?”

The people that had been waiting in line before us had already gone in, and judging by the large gap that was between us and the entrance, they might’ve gone in a while ago, so we all moved with hurried steps to the entrance.

“Yes, sir. We’re also here for them,” Steven said while standing as straight as a youngster starting his Holy Knight training.

The man at the entrance hardly acknowledged his attitude and simply pointed at a door inside the building. “Please move over there.”

“Okay! Thank you, sir!” Steven excitedly replied before moving over with gleeful steps.

We followed after him, save for Nicole who stood at the side of the building by the entrance. “I’ll be waiting here! Please make sure to put it on so I know how good it looks on you.”

I considered what she said for a moment, but I just didn’t feel like changing out of the armor. “We’ll see about that…”

* * *

Inside the room we were told to go, there were a couple of choices for the uniform. One where it had long black pants and the other one with a black skirt. I considered for a moment to pick the one with pants, but seeing Victoria pick the skirt, I decided to follow her choice and do the same.

I had no plans on wearing this uniform if I didn’t have to so I was simply going to put it away, but a middle aged woman dressed in elegant clothes walked up to me, looking at my armor for a moment. “Quite the impressive gear you have there. I can see why you’re so hesitant to wear the uniform.”

“It does indeed offer good protection,” I replied while nodding and looking down at the clothes in my hand.

“Still, you should try them on. Just to make sure that you’ve picked the right size,” the woman continued before grabbing another one of those red jackets. “These aren’t just any kind of normal clothes either, as you might’ve guessed by now.”

“The ones I’m wearing offer just as good if not better protection as these ones,” I said with a shake of my head.

The woman chuckled for a moment. “Not everything is going to be fighting and warring. These are made to both protect and be worn outside the campus, as a way to show everyone that you’re part of our institute.” She passed her hand over the clothes’ fabric before looking at me. “Besides, I assure you that these are much more comfortable than that metal armor.”

I looked down at the armor on my torso, tapping it a couple of times to feel the hardness of the material. She was indeed right that these sorts of things could be somewhat uncomfortable, but I was used to these and much worse, so I didn’t see the reason to change out of them.

As I was about to deny her by saying that I wouldn’t wear the uniform, I saw Victoria come out of a small stall, wearing the uniform. She was blushing slightly as she walked over to a mirror, and I took the opportunity to carefully look at the details of the clothes.

They fit the girl’s shape perfectly, something that I didn’t expect for clothes that were just picked up from a table. The jacket that I hadn’t paid attention to was almost completely red, save for a couple of black lines that went around the sleeves, the black lapels, and the edges of the pockets, which were also black.

There was a crest with the shape of a shield embroidered to the front of a chest pocket in golden threads, with intricate details of a laurel surrounding a shield that was split in four with one vertical line and another horizontal. On the top left, there was the shape of a simple closed yellow fist; on the top right, a red heart; on the bottom left, a light blue four point star; and on the bottom right, a half-full circle.

Under the jacket, she was wearing a plain white shirt with a collar buttoned up to cover most of her neck. For the skirt, it was completely black, and was about as long as the short one I was wearing with the armor. And below the skirt, Victoria was wearing a pair of socks that looked more like pants, since they went down from inside the skirt all the way to a pair of shiny black shoes.

“Oh, that looks fantastic, especially on such a cute young woman like yourself,” the woman exclaimed, doing a couple of soundless claps.

“R-really?” she replied with a hushed voice before softly smiling. “Thank you…”

I also had to admit that the uniform looked quite nice on her, but I couldn’t understand why she would let go of the better leather armor. “What about the protection that you came with?”

“Eh!?” Victoria exclaimed before looking over the stall she had used before. She quickly dashed over to it, grabbing the pieces of leathery armor and shoving them inside a backpack. “T-they’re nothing to worry about.”

“Wouldn’t you be better protected with that?” I asked, raising an eyebrow and tilting my head to the side slightly.

The woman chuckled before Victoria could answer. “I assure you, young lady, that the uniform is just as good as that ugly piece of brown cardboard. Like I was telling you before: it is all magically enchanted—even the socks—so the protection is top notch.” The woman looked back at me. “You should try for yourself.”

I looked down at the clothes in my hands before looking at the armor. I sighed and made my way to one of those stalls.