Incubus Banishment - Vol 2 Chapter 18

Chapter 18 – Armor Replacement And Cosplay Convention
After subjugating the Melter Escargot.

We replaced our melted armors before returning to the scene and collected a part of the shell.

We reported to the guild about the cause of the armor melting incident and its resolution. After that we entrusted the collection of the remaining shell to other adventurers before heading to Weips-san’s place right away.

There was the matter of the church’s wanted poster, so we couldn’t dawdle too much.

「……I can’t believe that you two resolved the strange phenomenon in the same day I told you about it. I thought that you guys aren’t just some ordinary people but, you two must have some absurd Gifts.」

Weips-san looked dumbfounded for a while after we told her the story of what happened before she said that in half-exasperation.

I avoided that topic by laughing「A-ahaha」 while asking Weips-san to create armor for us once more.

「Ou. Just leave it to me. The quality of this metal lump that you guys took from the unique Melter Escargot is also something that I’ve never seen before. I’ll finish your order right away.」

Weips-san stared with the eyes of an artisan that were filled with deep interest toward the escargot shell that we collected while laughing in delight.

After that we discussed about the function of the armors that she was going to create, had our measurements taken, and so on. In the middle of it Weips-san said「Come to think of it」.

「You guys, what kind of appearance do you want with the new armors?」

「Appearance?」

「Ou. You see, appearance is also really important when buying new armor. Especially for skilful bunch like you guys who got into high level scrap, even just a bit of discomfort can affect the result of your fight. It’s not just about the ease of wearing the armor, even just changing the armor’s color can possibly reduce your ability to focus a little. Conversely some guys can also get high tensioned from wearing brand new armor. Well, that’s why we gotta talk about that beforehand like this. These armors are going to be for you guys who’ve gotten far stronger than when I gave you your weapons. You should be thorough with your request even until the small details.」

「I see……」

Certainly even with the holy knights at the capital, the stronger they were the stronger they tended to be more finicky when renewing their equipments. Even Tou-san could spend days having discussion with his craftsman. And I predicted that we would get into dangerous fights in the future, so there would be no harm for us to be fussy with even the smallest details here.

And so Alicia and I fell into thought about how our armors should look. It was then.

「I heard the storyyy」

「Eh?」

A familiar voice came from the storefront. When I turned around, I found Rouge-san, the merchant guild’s business leader standing over there.

Rouge-san entered the store while holding a tobacco pipe that wasn’t lit up in her mouth.

「Yoou two are ordering new armors before going to the dungeon city eh? I haave a good product if you two are worrying about your armor’s look.」

She said that and took out a tag that had some kind of symbol on it from her pocket.

And then she stuck it on Alicia’s armor. Right at that moment,

「Wa……」

Alicia’s outfit changed to look like the outfit of someone with magician type Gift.

Eh, what’s this!? Our eyes widened in surprise from seeing it.

「Kekeke. That’s a good reaction. This is a rare high class item called which is hard to find even in my company. Thiis piece of paper can memorize the look of an existing clothes or armor and reproduced it over the equipment that it got stuck on. And oof course it won’t change wearing comfort and the function of the actual clothing at all.」

So it’s something like that…….

Rouge-san whispered to the ears of us who were in shock.

「With this you can freely decide the appearance of your armor to some degree. It can chance the appearance even after the armor has been finished so you don’t need to worry at all about it beforehand……and it won’t change the equipment’s functionality so it’ll be easy to change your appearance to something completely different.」

「……-」

I finally realized Rouge-san’s true intention from those words that she faintly whispered into our ears.

She was trying to sell a convenient support item for hiding while also tacking in some nice excuse for us who were currently being pursued by the church.

It would be nice to have another option for us to hide our face and equipment all at once other than wearing robe.

In that case we had to buy this item right now but……from the side Weips-san let out a low voice「Aa?」 seeing us stealthily exchanging words like that.

「Oi Rouge. What are you doing selling your own thing in someone else’s shop huh? What’s more it’s something to cover up my creation with different look? You think I’ll also something like that? Aa?」

C-crap.

Weips-san was a moody craftsman who was fastidious when it came to certain things.

She didn’t know about our circumstance so naturally she was displeased by this magic item.

I could just buy the item secretly later but, it would feel like some kind of misconduct to do that……while I was feeling troubled like that, Rouge-san whispered into the ear of Weips-san this time.

「Doon’t make a scary face like that. Don’t you remember who was the one who loaned you that fine “free sample”? Or ratheer, originally I came here today to tell you that I’m going to keep selling the actual thing for cheap to you as thanks for your help with testing the sample, so don’t be so mean like that to me.」

「Wha-, you!? Don’t bring up strange thing like that when there are brats present! Besides why the hell are you offering me the thing cheaply just when I finally decided to hold back……that’s just too great to refuse dammit!」

「?」

Weips-san turned bright red for some reason and fell quiet.

Furthermore she completely stopped complaining about the Layering Tag. The talk was concluded somehow like that.

I-I didn’t know what just happened but, as expected from the rank 1 businesswoman. She convinced Weips-san with just one or two sentences.

「E-err. About the Layering Tag, if there’s no problem with using it then can I buy several of them just in case?」

「Thaanks for your business. Ah, aalso while I’m here……there’s also something like this among the Layering Tags.」

Rouge-san took out some more tags from her pocket after we decided to buy them.

She immediately stuck one on Alicia. Immediately,

「Eh……!?」

My eyes widened.

The reason――because Alicia’s appearance transformed into a lovely maid.

「…..,Wah, so cute.」

Alicia said that and twirled once. It made her looked even cuter that I reflexively almost hugged her on the spot. No, rather than that,

「W-why is there Layering Tag like this?」

That question naturally welled up inside me after seeing the layering that seemed to be made just for screwing around. Rouge-san laughed「kekeke」 and said,

「Unexpectedly there is a lot of demands for this you knoow? Especially for duel. Nobody will think that you’re actually wearing actual equipment under this kind of playful costume, so this thing also sell like hot cakes among people who perform ambush and the like, not just for elopement like you two.」

The reason was more serious than I imagined!

「Weell, because there’s also that kind of demand, we have a lot of layering designs that completely went to strange direction that is designed to make the opponent let their guard down. There’s also this kind of design.」

Rouge-san started sticking various type of tag on Alicia after she said that.

「First is this. The girl uniform of a prestigious magic academy in the powerful country at the west.」

「……Wa」

「Guh!?」

My chest hurt throbbed painfully seeing Alicia wearing the lovable outfit called mini skirt.

「Neext is this. The uniform of fortress city Gretona’s popular café.」

「……Ah, it’s the clothes that I wanted to try at least once……」

「Gufuh!?」

The refreshing design that emphasized the chest raised Alicia’s charm by many times over!

「And this is the classic costume for casino, the bunny girl!」

「……As expected, this is embarrassing……」

「UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!?」

Alicia who already had great figure became the strongest when it was paired with the radical outfit and that bashful look.

Kuh, just what is this feeling since this began?

Even though I had been getting along with Alicia everyday and should have known about her charm better than anyone!

It was just like when I couldn’t take my eyes off from Alicia when her armors were melted during the battle against Melter Escargot. A violent charm that she didn’t have until now was flooding me one after another.

Just when I was about to reach my limit from the consecutive attack of cuteness,

「Aand naturally……this kind of unique layering is also available for man’s use.」

「Eh?」

Rouge-san said that and stuck a tag on my armor.

Immediately――I was transformed to have beastman ears, collar, half naked shirt, and underwear only.

「Wait, what is this!?」

I yelled seeing the outfit that was even more of a joke compared to the bunny girl and other outfits.

「Aahaha. It became this outrageous thing after we took the opinions of various madams applied them all. Naaturally we shelved this design but, it looked crazier than expected when it’s actually used like this.」

This isn’t at the level of crazy anymore! Wait, how do I dispel this!? I accepted another Layering Tag from Rouge-san to overwrite this design but, it was then,

*SNAP!* There was the sound of something rupturing.

Eh? I thought and turned my eyes toward that presence. There,

「……Erio, let’s go back to the inn right away.」

Alicia was breathing hard with a frightening expression. She was grasping my hands tightly. Eh?

「Wait, why so suddenly!? Or rather I can’t go outside while looking like this!」

Alicia pulled me insistently to go outside to the street. I resisted her with all my strength.

「? By that……you mean it’s alright to get along right here?」

It’s no good Alicia has lost all reason and ethic from her eyes!

She’s also calling me with my real name instead of the fake name!

Then Alicia looked at Rouge-san.

「……I’ll visit later to buy this Layering Tag so please prepare more of it……dozens of them.」

Wait!?

「Kekeke. Thaanks for your patronage. Ahahaa, I thought you two might help with clearing out my stock but you bite far more enthusiastically than I expected.」

「I don’t really get it but don’t turn my shop into display case for strange thing like this……that brat’s strange outfit strangely made me hot and bothered again……-」

I could faintly hear such words from Rouge-san and Weips-san who glanced at me while I was getting dragged to the inn.

Thank god I had the Local Wife skill.

If not around this time I would be exposed to the public eye while looking outrageous like this.

.

――Even though such things happened.

For the time being we decided to keep our armor’s appearance the same like before.

We also bought the magic item from Rouge-san just in case. With that our preparation to go to the dungeon city was quickly taken care of.