Chapter 470: You Stupid Disciple!
Now, getting punched by Christina was nothing new for Lucas, it actually happened quite frequently; however, the silver-haired princess would normally hold back just enough so as not to really injure him.
Not today.
When Lucas revealed his ’gift’ to her, along with the sets made for Eris and Celestina to match, Tina had turned a shade of red that should’ve been impossible for humans and lashed out furiously.
She didn’t use her Internal Qi to reinforce her strike, but Christina certainly put a lot more weight behind her fists than normal.
Checking his injuries, Lucas anticipated having at least one black eye and some serious muscle pain for the next few days.
Grabbing the outstretched hand his Master was offering him, a gesture that would have looked sympathetic if it wasn’t for the giant mocking grin on her face, Lucas got to his feet again and dusted himself off.
"D-Does... does this mean... Young Lady Christina didn’t like it?" Felicity, always the shy one, asked, looking distressed that her masterpiece was so harshly dismissed by its intended owner.
"Oh, I wouldn’t say that," Celestina answered in place of Lucas, walking over to the tallest mannequin in this back dressing room to take a closer look at her First Disciple’s creation.
Just 1 year shy of 300, Celestina had long stopped being embarrassed by the little things in life, but even she had to admit that when she saw this... ’bra and panty set’, as Lucas called it, she couldn’t help blushing a bit.
She also understood why Christina had reacted so violently to Lucas gifting her a new type of underwear, especially on her 16th birthday which was technically when she became an adult.
Still, putting that mild bout of embarrassment, and the subsequent large bout of amusement aside, as Celestina examined these new undergarments, she quickly began thinking they were quite a good thing.
Celestina was a bit taller than average, standing around 178 cm, and while she had a rather slender, athletic build for her height, her chest measurements were quite significant, pushing 100 cm at their apex.
She didn’t have the tallest mountains of the women around Lucas, but she was certainly up there in size.
Putting it bluntly, Celestina was an incredible beauty who many men would likely be pursuing if they weren’t so terrified of her.
That said, having such... significant assets often caused problems for Celestina, especially when it came to high-speed movements.
Her solution to this issue up until now had been to tightly bind her chest in order to ensure that things didn’t... flop around when she was engaged in life-and-death battles.
She had actually heard of clothing designed specifically to restrict the globes of fat on a woman’s chest before, and had even seen a few examples, but none of those options had ever been appealing to Celestina as they were bulky and looked incredibly uncomfortable, much more resembled armour than clothing.
In fact, some of those undergarments were even advertised as an extra layer of protection to one’s regular armour as they were made from hard bone, leather, and metal!
Needless to say, such things weren’t meant for everyday use, much less casually relaxing.
Lucas’ new underwear was very different.
The best description Celestina could make of the lower piece was a fabric bowl with a flexible cord around its rim for support, and two holes cut in it to fit one’s legs through.
As for the top piece, it was two triangular fabric cups, again linked with flexible cords, but this time with a set of small metal hooks at the back for ease of fastening and removal.
They were both simple, minimalistic, elegant designs, and even if they didn’t feature any elaborate decorations or embellishments, they still appeared quite exquisite in Celestina’s opinion.
Feeling the smoothness of the red fabric and gently pulling on the elastic pieces, Celestina certainly thought these would be more comfortable than her current underwear, and certainly much more so than armour masquerading as undergarments, but thinking about how thin and soft everything was, and how fragile it all appeared, she had to ask, "What is this made of? Won’t it snap the moment I try to run at full speed or swing my spear?"
Lucas, who was still nursing his wounds, simply glanced over at Isaac and motioned for him to answer.
Even the usually bold young man felt out of his depth discussing underwear with the strongest woman in the Rockwell Kingdom, but Isaac’s enthusiasm and passion for his work quickly overcame his hesitancy as he stepped forward and explained, "Reporting to Lady Balfour, when choosing the materials, we made sure to take your full range of duties into account."
Stepping a bit closer, the tall man, who wore a look that was half-fanatical, half-fearful, gestured to the fabric first, "This is Sovereign Silk, a product unique to the Kore Sovereignty. It is made from the threads spun from the secretions of a special type of caterpillar and is capable of withstanding extreme stress. The padding is also made of the same material, as are all the seams to ensure a uniform quality."
Pointing next to the elastic chords, Isaac continued, "As for these, we originally intended to use some of Boss Lucas’ newly made rubber, but we found its strength and flexibility not quite up to par, so we instead went with processed tendon from Giant Snow Hares, a species native to the Black Tiger Kingdom’s northern mountains."
Finally able to move a bit more easily, Lucas finished up the description, "The hooks were actually quite a challenge, as we needed them to be strong enough, yet also small enough. In the end, I had Old Braxton forge them personally from the best Spirit Steel we had on hand. He complained the whole time, but the workmanship is definitely top notch."
Celestina was well traveled and well informed, so when she heard this list of extremely high-quality materials, her brow involuntarily twitched.
Sovereign Silk could be anything from a Low-Rank 3 Mortal Fabric to a Peak-Rank 3 Spirit Fabric, while mature Giant Snow Hares were Wild Beasts which could reach the Low Seventh Order given the right circumstances.
The exact Tier of materials Lucas and his two crazy tailors had used here was unclear to Celestina, but she did know that in the Balfour Family’s forges, the best Spirit Steel currently available was High-Rank Spirit Grade Tier 2.
If Lucas had decided to use similar quality materials to that metal...
"How much did this cost..." Celestina unconsciously blurted out.
Scratching his cheek awkwardly, Lucas muttered under his breath, "Including all the research and development, materials, as well as time and labour, about 760..."
"760 Gold?" Celestina frowned, thinking this bra, while still stupidly expensive, was actually much, much cheaper than she originally expected it would be.
Maybe Lady Ariana got the materials for him on the cheap, she quickly figured, the Second Queen Ancestor had taken quite a liking to her First Disciple, after all.
When Celestina glanced over at said Disciple, however, he was actually looking away awkwardly, as if he wanted to say something but didn’t dare to.
Seeing this all-too-familiar look on Lucas’ face, Celestina realized she had misunderstood something and narrowed her eyes, going over everything he had said to her, as well as her original cost estimations.
Soon, the redheaded beauty realized where she had gone wrong and her fist clenched up tight.
Not missing the threatening aura leaking from his Master, Lucas attempted to curl up and defend himself, but he was too slow.
*BAM!~*
As Lucas lay sprawled out on the floor again, Celestina stood over him and roared furiously, "You stupid Disciple! You actually spent 760 Low-Grade Spirit Crystals just to make a few sets of underwear?!"
"Uh... um..." Felicity, who had been mostly silent this whole time, hesitantly spoke up.
"What!?" Celestina snapped, feeling quite irritated right now.
Under the intense glare of such a powerful Cultivator, who also happened to be her current boss’ boss, Felicity nearly fainted from the stress but still somehow managed to stutter out, "It... it was 760 Spirit Crystals... f-f-for your set, alone L-Lady Balfour... t-t-the ones for... for Lady Christina a-and Lady Eris were a separate charge..."
*BAM!~!~*
"GAH!!"