And (N)one Shall Remain

“You sure this stuff would be best for me, Ethan?” asked Alissa two days later when the Royal Armorer sent a page to inform them that their order was done. They were in the old man’s workshop at the moment, the old, grizzled white-haired man looking at his work for the past couple of days with the obvious pride of an artist who had just created a work of art.

“I mean, if what Cerilla told us about the other side likely going to gun for you any chance they got is correct, then you’d need every advantage you got to survive that, Allie,” said Ethan with a shrug of his shoulders. He had been the one to suggest the set of armor Alissa had made for her use, a suggestion both the Royal Armorer and Cerilla had agreed with.

“You’d know better about this stuff, I figure, so no point in me doubting too much I guess,” admitted Alissa with a shake of her head. While she was somewhat uncertain still, she knew better than to doubt her oldest friend, and besides, the armorer had agreed with him, so clearly his suggestion had some merit to the local artisan.

The main reason for her uncertainty was the beautiful - it was a literal work of art, she’d almost say - set of plate mail armor set up on a stand before her, the metal polished to a mirror sheen to the point that she could clearly see her reflection on it. Alissa had her doubts whether the armor would prove too hefty or unwieldy for her to use, but since she had decided to trust them, she went over to it and moved to put it on.

“Tut-tut, lassie. You don’t want to wear that right on your clothes. It’d chafe most terribly that way!” reprimanded the old armorer. Unlike most in the Royal Castle, the old man had not seemed to give a damn on whether Alissa and Ethan were summoned heroes or not, and just treated them like them were teenagers way out of the depth, which was something she appreciated greatly. “Put those on first, then the armor. Might be a bit hard to put it on at first, but we’ll show ya the way.”

What the old armorer pointed at was a set of what looked like a jacket made from thick fabric. There was a pair of them, looking identical to each other, other than their differing sizes. Alissa naturally caught on that the bigger one was for Ethan, while the smaller one was for her. She picked it up from the stand and felt that it was heavier than the sort of thicker jeans jacket she sometimes wore by a good bit.

“This is some really nice Gambeson, Master Utgarth,” praised Ethan as he picked up his jacket and admired it for a moment, which brought another smile to the face of the old armorer. The old man lit up much like an artist would when they heard praise directed towards their work. “How did you make it to feel this nice to the touch?”

“Aye, lad, it’s got Fendron Silk for the outermost and innermost layers, the real good stuff. Usually only the royals ever used that stuff, but since yer both heroes and all, they weren’t stingy with it,” said the old armorer with a wide grin that had a hint of schadenfreude within. “So of course I got some extra rolls of it to use it on your other armor too. That silk alone’s tough enough to turn a blade, and I got another twenty layers of the best Rovenian wool beneath it, knit really tight that any spear or arrow would get caught and tangled rather than go through. That thing’s as good as a gambeson could be with what this Kingdom’s got.”

“Since the old master put so much work into it, we better try it on, Allie,” said Ethan with a nod of his head. The Gambeson, as he called it, looked like a long-sleeved jacket that opened on the front, and reached halfway down their thighs. It had been measured just right that when they wore it over their clothing it fitted perfectly, and was closed with several belts on the front side.

Alissa tried moving around in it and was surprised to find that it felt little different than just wearing a thick jeans or a heavy leather jacket, and that the thick fabric was surprisingly lighter on her shoulders than she expected. It had not really bothered her movements much either, and Ethan clearly found it just as pleasant to wear given the big grin on his face.

Then the old armorer pointed to a sleeveless shirt made out of many tiny metal rings woven together and told Alissa to wear it on top of the gambeson. She shrugged on the shirt of chainmail with little difficulty, as it had been measured to perfectly fit over the gambeson she wore. Much like the thick jacket-like armor, the chainmail was far lighter than she expected, probably just a little heavier than the gambeson, and felt even lighter after she tightened a belt over her waist like the old armorer told her to.

A couple of the old man’s assistants helped her put on the suit of plate mail built for her for the first time. The breastplate itself consisted of two pieces, one to cover her front and another for her back, secured to each other with multiple belts on the sides and shoulders. It took quite a bit of help from the old man’s assistants for her to tighten them properly the first time, but they also showed her some tricks she could use for times when she would need to put it on alone.

The rest of the design was just a clever thing. The pauldrons secured themselves over the gap on her shoulders and completely covered it, while the pieces that covered her arms and legs were only three-quarter mails, those on her arm open on the inside while those that covered her leg open in the rear. They still provided plenty of protection where most danger would come from while minimizing weight and maximizing freedom of movement at the same time.

The areas near the joints had visible gaps in them, but that was the price to be paid for the freedom of movement she wanted, and what the gambeson she wore beneath was for. Similarly the gauntlets were crafted out of metal plates that had been attached to the outside of a leather glove, the insides of which was lined with the same sort of silk that went into making the gambeson. She barely felt like she was wearing gloves despite their noticeable weight.

Overall, the whole suit of armor was far lighter than Alissa expected. Probably twenty to thirty pounds? She was no expert at approximating weight just by wearing something, but it definitely felt a lot lighter than what she thought that sort of armor would weigh in the first place. Doubly so since she’d visited a local HEMA event where Ethan’s dad was a participant and had gotten a chance to wear one of their replicas at one time. That one had weighed at least twice as much as what she wore at the moment.

“Keep in mind that Master Utgarth here’s got the system helping him out with classes and skills and many decades of experience with stuff like this,” said Ethan as if he heard her unvoiced question, something her old friend habitually did at times. “What you got there’s probably made out of some sort of alloy uncle Bob would kill to get so he could make an even better piece, unlike that clunky one he made for the event back then.”

“It’s just… so much lighter and easier to move in,” said Alissa as she jumped in place to demonstrate what she meant. To her surprise she managed to leap almost as high as she usually did during matches when she had to contend for the Jump Balls, despite not truly putting full effort into the jump. The old armorer seemed to grin wider at her flabbergasted and surprised look.

“As your big friend here said, lassie, I’ve got decades of experience doing this sorta shit for the King and his pa before him. My [Royal Grandmaster Armorer] class is nearly at the end of the fourth tier, and I got more than a few skills that let me put in some nice touches into stuff I make,” said the old man. “For example, yer friend’s armor there got heavy reinforcements that’d disperse the force of most blows that got to him.”

Alissa noticed the armor that Ethan wore - one that looked like an even bigger jacket of sorts with straps on the side like hers - and saw how he wore it too easily, as if it was almost a second skin to him. The armor piece reminded her of things she was in pictures in Ethan’s room, yet also different. At a glance it looked like a thick fabric jacket with many metal rivets all over its surface.

“Yeah, this is a real sweet piece of brigandine, master,” said Ethan as he smacked one of his hands - he had gauntlets that covered his entire hand and forearm as well as pauldrons from what looked like the same material along with the armor - against his broad chest in a metallic thumping noise that clued Alissa in that there were likely metal plates beneath that fabric. “Much appreciated, really. This went way beyond anything I expected, honestly.”

“And mine?” asked Alissa curiously.

“Yers got stuff that’d amplify the force you use while wearing it. You should actually find moving and fighting with it easier than when you’re not wearing it, the amplification more than making up for its weight,” said the old armorer with obvious pride. “It should also be tough enough to keep you safe from most threats up to the third tier for the most part, and maybe even some in the fourth, though that’s if you can catch the hit on the plates properly, and only if they’re not too big. Armor can’t save you from getting stepped on by a giant, after all.”

“We’ll take care not to get stepped on by anything, Master. Thanks for the warning!” said Ethan cheerfully, as he gave a cheerful slap to Alissa’s back. To her surprise, she barely even felt the impact, as the layers of armor she wore dispersed the impact almost entirely before she could feel it. That made her look at the things she wore with wonderment once more.

“Yeah, the gambeson and chainmail also got some extra going on for ‘em, lassie. They’ll keep you alive, so learn to get used to ‘em!” said the old armorer cheerfully, thoroughly enjoying the impressed looks of wonderment on the faces of the young heroes as he turned away while guffawing loudly. It was only after he disappeared to the further areas of his workshop that Alissa and Ethan politely left as they headed to their next destination for the day.

Namely the Royal Castle’s armory, where on Ethan’s suggestion they would go “shopping” for some weapons to use. While their armor had been made by someone who was arguably the greatest master of the art in the Kingdom and likely won’t get better, weapons were another matter. They both realized that they had so much room for growth in their statistics, and that weapons that might be far too unwieldy for them now might well be something they needed to use in the future to fight properly.

As such, what they picked now would be a temporary measure meant to be used until they could use better things more effectively, since they would be able to use increasingly heftier weapons with the same efficiency as their physical prowess increased along with their stats.

Fighting was not something that Alissa liked to think about, but at the same time she also accepted the fact that it looked like she would have to do it whether she liked it or not. As such, it was better to be properly prepared for it rather than have it catch up to her at the worst possible time, when she was unprepared to deal with it.