Hikari returned to her sanctuary. The maids just left, mumbling about the sheer size of the enclave as they emerged from the curtain door. Ria was standing at the door, at her knee level, waiting for her.
"Good morning, your ladyship."
"Good morning to you too. Hikari. How are the prisoners?"
"Just in time for the sowing season."
Hikari disassembled her outfit. Her drilling fatigues, plain grey shirt, brown skirt, grey socks, have soaked up two training sessions worth, swapping her boots for her heeled sandals for the therapy session. She walked towards the shower basin. Ria chased after her, her tiny legs fluttering, taking ten steps to match one of hers.
"I feel rather regrettable to ask this of you. It feels like it takes something from your modesty."
"Don't worry about it. It's all for a good cause."
A pipe head sticking out of the top of the column, a lever positioned around the middle. Hikari stepped into the basin and pushed the lever. The mechanisms in the wall creaked and rumbled. After a brief pause, a gush of water rushed out of the pipe head.
The giant adjusted her position, allowing the stream of water to flow evenly down her body. The cooling water There was a steel tank the size of Hikari's palm positioned on a platform beside the lever. It had a button on top and a curved opening at the side.
With a push of her finger, a blob of viscous, nice smelling liquid oozed out of the opening onto Hikari's hand, which she rubbed onto herself. Another push of the lever, a stream of cool water washes away the soap.
Hikari started humming. A proper shower without expending mana just to get clean. She has long dreamed of one. But she could little expect it since it would have been quite the feat of engineering, quite a scarce resource, to build one for her.
The stream of water peters out. A stack of square towels, each the size of bedsheets, arranged in a cube. One by one, they floated towards her, assembling into a shower gown.
"Did you enjoy your shower?"
"Yes, very much"
Hikari stepped out of the basin, bent over and patted Ria's head gently with her finger. Ria squealed, rubbing her hair against her finger tip.
She made her way to the wardrobe area. A spread of fine cloth pieces greeted her. Stacks of black and white cloth, roughly equal in number. Her senses tingled at the intensity and the sheer number of enchantments.
"Looks nice."
" HeHe. It wasn't easy getting all of these. Especially since it appears you have grown just a few extra centimetres again."
"I apologize"
"No worries. Go on, try it, I think you'll like it."
The air stirred, the enchantment on the cloth glowed and floated into the air. The white pieces made their way to her arm and torso. The thick black pieces assembled themself into a skirt. And the really elastic black pieces wrapped around her legs, covering the entire length. A small portion of rubbery black pieces assembled onto her hands covering her wrist.
The result, a white shirt, pair of black gloves, black long shirt covering the knee and full length stockings. No frills, special decorations nor skin below the neck revealed. Simple, tidy and the elegance naturally shines through.
The enchantment process was thorough. Weaving enchantments and telekinesis enchantments were the requisite ones. On top of that, shielding enchantment, reinforcement enchantments, speed enchantments and even cooling enchantments to reduce her sweating. The primarily ceremonial outfit was no less potent in a scuffle than her standard armour pieces.
Then, she straps on her belt which houses her short sword and handcannon. Several small belts, holding flying daggers and steel telekinetic beads floated under her skirt and strapped themselves to her thighs.
There remained two badges of curious shape. She pinched them between her fingers, one was the shape of a castle and the other a cartoonist depiction of a wyvern.
"What are these?"
"Tokens of appreciation from the kingdom of Herdial. The destroyer of battlements and the slayer of a hundred wyverns. Keep them. Knights don't have official rankings. Colosseum rankings don't indicate how you might fare in a raid or a war. The badges represent your resume as a knight."
"I see"
The outfit was complete. In the corner, there was a full body mirror, a third of Hikari's height, tilted at an angle. She could see herself in those fine clothes and, oddly for her, it did make her feel good..
"Its nice."
"I'm glad you liked it. Not too enticing like last time or you'll cause another riot. The high heels can go as well, if you get any heavier, the ground below you would buckle."
"So, what's the occasion?"
"Lord Razenheir returns from his campaign, along with the bulk of the RazenHeir's territorial army. A celebration of their surviving the ordeal and their acts of somewhat heroic and glorious but almost getting crushed to bits feats. And then a funeral service to honor the dead. You are to be the knight of honor on this occasion."
"Lord Razenheir? Haven't seen him around."
"Me neither. It's quite the endless meat grinder out there on the front lines. He has been stuck there since forever."
"Orcs. Quite stubborn."
"And deadly too. But I heard when you were 'shorter', you could cleave them in half. Heck, you could even knock them out with your bare fists."
Hikari giggles at the compliment.
"Want to know something interesting?"
"Oh?"
"I eat them too."
"Eek! That sounds gross, how do you even cook that?"
"Only the muscles in the arms are edible. Set it alight to burn away the inedible skin. And then you need jaws that would bend steel to rip out the muscles. I'm probably the only one who could survive on that and that's how I survived all that."
"I see. That's incredible. I'd certainly be dead if I am forced to live off the land like that. Can't imagine what you have gone through."
"When you're hungry, you eat what you can get."
Ria nods grimly.
"Anyway, how did the orc campaign go?"
"The most positive thing I could say is that the coalition army didn't get obliterated in its entirety. As for the more realistic things, we can already feel it. Widespread rationing is already in effect, we are the fortunate few who could still claim our full complement. Those men we lost on the frontlines won't be ploughing fields nor bringing in the harvest anymore. And yet we are compelled to send more. The war is even over yet."
"Sounds like I'm needed at the front"
"You are needed everywhere basically. But the reason you have been confined to the estate and the trade routes is that all of the weavers, metal smiths, rune smiths, enchanters are in and around the estate. And, did you know you eat the same amount as a full fifty man garrison?"
Hikari rolls her eyes. "I…. will try to cut down."
"Don't. The work that you do is very important. We'll be starving or dead if you weren't around. Just leave all the other stuff to me."
Hikari bent down again and patted Ria on the head with her finger.
"I will."
Ria smiled, got down on her knees, and bowed her head to the ground.