Hero Of Harmony

"Haa, finally, I finished, and thankfully, I didn't make any irreversible mistakes." Said Alexander with a sigh of relief as he set down the pointy metal stick and began polishing the silver ring in his hand with a wet towel.

Cleaning the ring to the best of my ability, I dried it off with a light gust of wind and closely inspected the ring, making sure I hadn't missed something, though luckily there was nothing wrong with it, causing me to smile as I gently placed it back inside the ring-box, filled with tender leaves before closing it.

Standing up, I did a little stretching as my body had gotten stiff from sitting in the same posture for such a long time, which caused me to wonder how long I'd been down here.

'Eh, probably a few hours.' Thought Alexander as he grabbed the ring box and headed back down the entrance passageway.

Approaching the boulder, I moved it out of the way, entering back into the large cavern where the guardian usually resides; a new one hadn't been created yet, but the corpse of the one I killed was missing. It is not the first time such a thing has happened, so it didn't surprise me; while I've never seen it happen, I'm prone to assume the dungeon is absorbing the body to reuse for later, at least, that would be the only logical sense to me, I've never really bothered to confirm my theory or not.

Anyways, I didn't linger for long, and after putting the boulder back in its place, I exited the cavern, heading back up to the fourth floor. When I arrived, I instantly started sprinting through the passageway, passing by numerous alpha centipedes that chased after me in the process, though with my speed, they were quickly left behind, and a few minutes later, I arrived back outside, though what I saw caused my eyes to widen.

"It's nighttime?" Muttered Alexander with widened eyes as he looked at the sun setting behind the horizon, emitting a soft, reddish glow.

To say I was surprised would be an understatement, but I shook my head and quickly sprinted back home, even going so far as to use [Wind Steps] since I didn't want to keep Master waiting. Dashing through the forest, I evaded every tree and beast I encountered before returning to the clearing in a minute.

Looking around, I noticed the tarp was still in place, and I didn't see Master, which prompted me to sigh in relief that I'd returned in time, as I wasn't really keen on being late for such an important thing that I'd been preparing for months.

Before entering the house, I stuffed the ring box in my pouch, concealing it from Master's eyes, and only then did I open the door. Entering inside, I headed towards Master's office, though she surprisingly wasn't there, so I headed towards her bedroom, and again she wasn't there, but just before I left, I heard chirping coming from her closet.

"Talis? Are you in there?" Asked Alexander with a raised eyebrow as he approached the door, though it was slammed shut before he could fully open it.

"Don't come in, Alexander; I'm getting dressed." Said Lavender solemnly while leaning against the door, preventing him from entering.

"Hmm, what's the big deal, Master? I've seen you naked plenty of times before; you were even naked in the morning today?" Remarked Alexander as he tilted his head in confusion; though he didn't try to open the door, he could tell by her voice Lavender was being serious.

"I'm not concerned with you seeing me nude. I'm currently greeting dressed, you know, for tonight, and I didn't want you to see me until I was ready." Stated Lavender as her eye twitched in annoyance as she remembered the morning; she calmed down and shook her head, though it wasn't like Alexander could see her.

"Alright, I'll wait then, Master, but don't take too long; it's not every day I'll get to see you in a dress. I want to be given the opportunity to relish such a breathtaking sight." Said Alexander with an eager smile as he imagined Lavender in various dresses, though none of them would ever compare to the real thing.

"How do you know I'm going to look breathtaking? You haven't even seen me yet." Asked Lavender with a soft smile as she slightly opened the door and peeked her head through, looking up at Alexander.

"Well, because I don't recall a time when you haven't ever been beautiful, so going by that logic, and considering you're wearing something that's meant to enhance your beauty, it only makes sense you'll be utterly breathtaking." Declared Alexander with a brazen smile as he looked into Lavender's orange eyes while she smiled back.

"Fufu, when you put it like that, I suppose I can't refute your logic; your Master is one hell of a beautiful woman, after all." Said Lavender with fake arrogance as she flipped back her red, vine-like hair.

"I'd say far more than just simply beautiful; I think she's more along the lines of being sexy, arousing, seductive, erotic." Remarked Alexander with a sensual smile as he leaned in and tried to kiss Lavender, though before he could get close, she stopped him with her finger.

"Wait a little bit longer, boy; I'm still not fully dressed, and I'm not allowing any sneak peeks, no matter how much you praise me." Said Lavender with a smirk, seeing right through Alexander's plan as she placed a finger atop his lips, causing him to click his tongue.

"Tch, it was worth a try; anyway, Talis is in there, right? I heard her chirping earlier." Asked Alexander with a shake of his head, only for Talis to also appear from behind the door.

"Did you need something, Alex?" Asked Talis while looking up at Alexander from behind the door, causing his expression to twitch while Lavender quietly chuckled.

"Don't tell me you're also wearing something, Talis?" Asked Alexander, finding the concept of Talis wearing clothes to be weird, considering she's never worn clothes before.

"Heh, yep; what you think, Alex? Miss Lavender picked it out for me." Asked Talis, fully emerging from behind the door as she proudly lifted her beak and showed off her tiny white bowtie.

Honestly, this was much better than I had envisioned; I don't know why, but I had pictured Talis wearing a full suit for some reason. I mean, she could; it would just be a weird sight of a bird wearing human clothes, though I think Talis could pull it off, or maybe I'm just being biased; who knows?

"You look adorable with that little white bowtie." Said Alexander with a smile as he squatted down and stroked her head, though his words annoyed Talis.

"What do you mean adorable? I'm supposed to look intimidating; Miss Lavender said I looked intimidating, right?" Questioned Talis with a huff of annoyance quelled by Alexander's rubbing as she looked up at Lavender.

"Yes, you look much more intimidating; people who dress well are very intimidating, after all." Said Lavender as she agreed With Talis, causing Alexander to give her a blank look.

I wasn't about to tell her that while Master's statement can be true, that isn't always the case, but I didn't feel like ruining Talis's mood, not when an important event is about to take place, so I just went with the flow.

"Eh, I guess Master's right; you just don't seem intimidating to me 'cause I know you, but I bet you're even more intimidating to everyone else." Stated Alexander, lying right through his teeth, and luckily for him, Talis couldn't determine whether he was speaking the truth or not.

"Exactly! Now that I'm even more intimidating, no one in the forest will mess with me; I'll become the Queen of the Skies!" Yelled Talis with a nod as she proudly declared her ambition before she exited the closet and flew out the window.

'Well, as long as she's happy, I suppose.' Mused Alexander while slightly shaking his head at her antics.

"Anyways, I'll be leaving, Master. If I stay, you won't ever get dressed." Said Alexander as he turned around, though Lavender called out to him before he left.

"Ahh, I just remembered; stay right there, Alexander; I think I've got something for you." Said Lavender as she closed the door and started rummaging through her closet, making all kinds of noise.

For a solid two minutes, I stood outside Master's closet while listening to her ransack it, creating who knows how big a mess that she'll probably ask me to help clean up later; just when I finished sighing at the inevitable, Master opened the door and handed me what looked to be a tuxedo.

"Here, have this; Talis and I can't be the only ones wearing fancy clothes if you call a bowtie fancy." Remarked Lavender as she handed Alexander a brown tuxedo with an accent color of green, seemingly paying homage to a dryad's skin tone.

Grabbing the brown tuxedo from Master's hand, I gave it a slight inspection, but other than it looking similar to the suits from Earth; there wasn't anything different; at least not anything I could pin-point, I was relatively poor after all, so it's not like I knew a lot about suits.

"Thanks, Master, but why do you have this in your closet?" Asked Alexander with a raised eyebrow as he looked at the shy Lavender.

"Well, It's a long story, but I'll save the details for another day; but as you've figured out, I'm from a rather prestigious family, and well, when we get married, we have the person who marries into our family wear our clothes." Replied Lavender awkwardly as she looked away from Alexander's purple eyes.