While Kazue’s friends made their way through the series of pys, she paid careful attention to the other party. The shrine maidens were going to be a while, even in short ses it was going to take half an hour or so per stage to give all six of them time to shine.

  The priest and the warriors were being more cautious than they really had to be on the sed floor, but there was wisdom in that as they were serving their resources for tougher challehe huntress was not scouting as far as she had before as her main objective became to identify what the challenges were, such as trying each of the ast paths while others covered her. The nature of the three options quickly became clear to them, and after some sultation they elected to focus on the tral, easiest path and work together to defend against aerial attack.

  Throughout the rest of the obstacles the huntress proved the most adroit at g with the terrain challenges, and spent much of her time assisting the others when she wasn’t providing c fire. The two shield bearers also switched to bows, while the spear wielder kept to her long spear, both because it at least had se and so that at least one of them was armed properly if something did get close and o be dealt with.

  For the tunnels all of them adopted their full kitsune forms, as those teo be a fair bit shorter than their humanoid or hybrid forms. Well, except for the mage, who looked smug as she shrank into an actual fox form and trotted along pletely unbothered by the cramped tunnels. The shorter kitsune forms made navigating the tunnels easier for the rest but did not fully alleviate the cramped ditions.

  When the explorers had regrouped for the boss battle, Kazue let her bosses make their dramatitrances. Hildegard went first, making her way majestically dowh to the tral hill, aling herself in a perfectly posed posture as the path disappeared. Then a beat ter, about the time that the group might sider the room set up, Crios burst out of his pool with a spray of water and then scuttled over to hunker down in front of Hildegard’s little hill. Meanwhile, several ledges around the upper edge of the room became occupied by the fliers that had not been taken down by the group earlier.

  Teically Kazue could add more without making the fight truly unfair given the power discrepancy sihis was still only the sed floor, but this setup should be enough to force a challenge. She’d not had the fliers do more than harass the party which kept most of them alive to bee part of this fight. Numbers weren’t everything, but they meant a lot. Her strategy was simple enough, Hildegard and Crios were going to be very defensive. If the party tried to take out all the smaller creatures first, both of them had ratacks to make things more difficult. If the party tried to focus on the bosses, fliers would swarm them. This didn’t meaher strategy or a hybrid couldn’t work, it just meant that they’d have to use more potent spells to get through the fight faster or risk being worn down by numbers.

  Resource ma was what Mordecai liked to call it. For stronger parties, the early floors were never going to be challenges in and of themselves, but spending too much magic or using one-shot magic items too early could leave them at a deficit ter on.

  The party chose a hybrid approach, with the three warriors in a tight defensive formation up front and the priest, mage, and huntress in a lrouping behind them, giving them more room to dodge as they couldn’t take the same hits their more heavily armored patriots could. The warriors focused on the bosses while the others focused on clearing out the minions.

  Their approach was hindered by Crios’s jet of sticky fluid, but the shield bearers mao deflect most of the force of it before jumping out of the f puddle, leaving them only slowed down a little instead of fully stuck as it rapidly thied. Meanwhile, the mage and priest had started using stronger spells that could catch several fliers at once if they grouped up. This forced the fliers to stagger their attacks, whi turhe huntress have a better shot at taking one down before it could bomb the group.

  The mage in particur caught Kazue’s attention. She’d ed herself in an aura that Kazue reized from Mordecai’s training, allowio both fling her foxfire further and to el spells into it, allowio hit harder at the cost of the greater tration slowing her down. But this also gave she spells a greater reach, so could certainly be worth it.

  Kazue wouldn’t say she had mastered the teique, but she judged herself to be about as adept as this mage was. Spells that already behaved simirly to fox fire, impag a siarget it’s aimed at, were more patible with the teique than other spells, but Mordecai promised that with further practid experience almost any attack spell could be used, allowing the foxfire impact to bee the in point for a lightning bolt or fireball.

  Small-scale skirmishes in close quarters rarely sted for very long, and this one was drawn out mostly by the minions not all entering bat at the same time, lest they all be caught in an explosion like the first group that got close to each other had. It was further drawn out by Crios goiirely on the defensive when the group got close, and Hildegard fog on a mix of protective and healing spells. The warriors couldn’t afford to split up, and attempting to move around Crios ointless as he would have been on the inside of the curve, and able to move in the sideways motion crabs preferred while still fag them. So they had to try ahrough him while their patriots kept them from being overwhelmed by the minions.

  But there were only so many fliers, and when enough of them were down the mage was able to join in the assault on Crios while the priest bolstered the party’s strength with a prayer. Despite Hildegard’s best efforts several cracks were f on Crios’s cws as they blocked most of the attacks, and when he lost one of his legs to a well-aimed blow from one of the shield bearers, Kazue k was time to call the fight. At least, if she wao keep both bosses avaible for the rest of the day, which she did, and they had doheir duty in f the party to step up their resource usage. So she ordered Hildegard to retreat and actively despawned Crios, ref him ba his cave where Hildegard would be able to reach him ter to heal his wounds.

  Moriko’s sharing of that small secret amongst Orchid’s sisters had reached across a barrier, one she realized was mostly of her own making. Maybe it was her small city background, with a helping of most of her time at the capital having bee at the monastery or pursuiertai, but she’d always dreaded the idea of dealing with the court or anythied to it. Mordecai’s thoughts were tinged with amusement as he suggested that open court might be more like what she feared, and the royal family just ignored what they could when in private. Of course, he also thought Kuic was a strangely set-up kingdom anyway, so he aowledged that he could be wrong there too.

  The several minutes were spent on what Moriko could only call gossip, starting with Princess Orchid as their on point. Really, she was letting the royals guide the versation as she was less certain about what to say. She was also just leaving her mind open to Mordecai, letting her husband sort through the flow of her thoughts a memories as it was as close as they could get to letting him see through her eyes. It felt good to have him there, even with every indication being that the four of them intehis to be friendly and as minimally formal as possible. Standing in front of all those merts had been bad enough.

  One of the juicier tidbits that Moriko was let in on about Orchid was that apparently, she had learned an appearance-sing spell fairly young, and that at least some of the rumored sdals about her behavior had actually been the results of her sisters’ as. Which rumors and which sisters was not crified however, which Moriko was more than happy with. Sometimes not knowiails was best. And all of this seemed to have been the result of Orchid knowing from a young age that she was going to be heading off to joisune , so she felt she had less of a reputation to protect than her sisters did.

  Princess Kagami eventually led the versation back to the matter at hand, and the five of them rejoihe clothier to look over the patterns presented. Sed Princess Kitiara, the somewhat stern looking blond, only gave the designs a cursory look over and hat they were practical enough with an approving too her voice. She didn’t seem to particurly care about the appearance, and Moriko was getting the impression that the broad-shouldered woman cared far more about martial matters than social, though her own dress was certainly kept and sharp.

  Third Priiriana seemed to be the most enthused about the clothing itself and was quipare it against the fashions of the elven courts. The fiery-haired you, Fifth Princess Bridgette, rolled her eyes behind Tiriana’s bad leaned in close to whisper to Moriko “Ever since she got engaged, she’s been obsessed with everything about Danuana.”

  Moriko did not dare ask how long Tiriana had been engaged, she was not good at keeping up with noble affairs. It had probably even been widely announced, which did not mean that Moriko had noticed at all when it happened. She rather thought Kazue would have paid more attention, but the kitsune was busy and Moriko didn’t see a reason to bother her wife right now.

  Ohe princesses who cared had agreed with the current design decisions, the topic turo shoes. Or rather, boots. “Hmm,” Tiriana began as she tapped her lips. “I’m guessing you want to go with something you wear rather than dit case of a fight, and given how expensive Mistress U’s designs are we’d rather buy you something that you will wear again iure. So I’d suggest nice leather boots with a low wide heel. As the dress is floor length they won’t be seen muyway, so all that matters is the little bit that will be glimpsed. Which brings up the question of how long should they be?”

  “Oh, I think she’d look great in thigh highs!” Bridgette interjected excitedly. “I mean, if we wao wear these again, we should make sure she has options for mixing with other outfits too!”

  Moriko frowned a bit at this. “While I appreciate the idea, my training already makes my calves difficult for most boots, thigh highs don’t fit me well. And Mistress U doesn’t seem to be a cobbler, shouldn’t we be discussing this part with someone else?”

  “Oh, that’s not a problem.” U responded. “I have a subtractor for that, I want to make sure my outfits are pleted to my standards. As for the boots, there are a few tricks to make them fit better, starting with more detailed measurements, which I do here. They may be a bit trickier to get on and off, but they’ll fit snugly without chafing or binding. So the question is simply how tall do you want them?”

  She sidered the question for a moment, but it didn’t take long for her to decide. She didn’t have any tall boots like that, and being difficult to remove could be an amusing boon uhe right circumstances. Moriko couldn’t suppress a slight smirk at the thought, and she U. “Alright, let’s make them as tall and tight as we get away with then.” They wouldn’t be a surprise for Mordecai, given that he was in her head right now, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t work. And they would be a surprise for Kazue.

  The stout woman raised a brow. “Oh-ho, I think there’s someone you want to make an impression on with these. Well, I certainly keep that in mind. Now, for materials-”

  “No expenses spared.” Princess Kagami interrupted. U turoward her with an inquisitive look, and the First Princess nodded for verification. “Your only limitation is time. Other than that, make it the best you .”

  U pursed her lips thoughtfully. “Well, that ahat question, I just have to see what I have in stock for the appropriate types and amounts to make my final decision.” She smiled slightly at Moriko’s fusion. “The design of the dress already stricts the options of fabric weight, softness, and other properties. Going to the best materials for something that is also durable restricts it even further, so you’ll just o entrust the choices to me. Now, what about colors?”

  The four princesses turoward Moriko and offered no suggestion here, though Kagami made a small enciure. This didn’t take as much thought. “Well, Mordecai’s core is a bright purple, and Kazue’s is a bright gold, and I think both of those work well as trim or embroidery. For a base dark colors work best, except freen which doesn’t work with his purple at all, and I have decided I like red best of those.”

  U nodded as she took her hen paused with a look of surprise. “Wait, cores? As in dungeon cores? You’re the ‘Dungeon’s Bride’?!”

  Moriko’s eyes widened a little at the title, and a quice at the slightly guilty-looking princesses revealed that they at least knew about it. She cmped down on her irritation and took a deep breath so that she could keep her voice soft and chose her words with care. “I haven’t heard that appeltion before, but while it has some teical accurad I am proud to have them as my husband and wife, I find that title sounds more than a little reductive.” And like some fairy tale princess who got carried off in the night, but she felt it best to not mention that part in her present pany. “I would like to ask that you not use it, and suggest to others that they not use it either.”

  U winced a little as she realized her faux pas. “Ah, I am sorry. I hadn’t thought about how it sounded, and I only heard the rumor earlier today. It makes sense you wouldn’t like it, it does make you sound a bit like their property. I’ll see what I do to squelch its use, but I am afraid that it’s probably too te.”

  Moriko sighed and nodded. “I uand. Well, back to the topic at hand. Do you think you work with those colors? And if you manage any designs, well, Mordecai has a dragon theme, Kazue loves all things cute, and as for me, well, I think my uniform speaks to my specialty.”

  “Indeed. Hmm, yes, I think I mahat. All that’s left now is to measure you. Let’s take you to the back.”

  Zagaroth