Paladin of the End - Volume 3.2 - Chapter SS2

Hobbies: Meneldor

The outfit consisted of a soft, black satin shirt and neatly sewn woolen pants, a thin cloak of well-tanned leather with polished, plain wood buttons, brightly colored cuff bracelets, high-quality deer-leather boots, and a jade hair ornament adorning his braided silver hair.

“Good?” he asked.

I ooh’ed. “It’s amazing. You’re like a prince.”

“It’s not that amazing.”

Inside a room of my mansion in Torch Port, Menel huffed a short laugh, dressed to the nines in newly tailored clothes. He normally wore hunter’s attire, which was uncompromisingly practical, but when he seriously decked himself out, his clothes and half-elf features worked together to make him look like a young noble or something.

“You really do have style,” I said.

“Ya, well, fairies and other spirits are fussy as hell about appearance.”

“Huh? They are?” I said, unintentionally wide-eyed.

Menel looked at me with a face that said, “You didn’t know that?” but even I had things I didn’t know. Gus had an encyclopedic knowledge and a strong memory, but his knowledge of the worlds of the fae and the fairies was pretty spotty in places. On top of that, there had been no elementalists in that city of the dead. Without them, Gus had figured it would be difficult for me to truly understand and appreciate knowledge about fairies, so he always put off teaching me about them in favor of more important things. Because of that, I only had superficial knowledge about spirits and the fae.

“Huh, you really don’t know.” Menel hummed in thought. “You know how they often say stuff like... things that are beautiful or perfect catch the attention of otherworldly beings?”

“Yeah.”

Similar ways of thinking had been part of my previous world, too. In order to avoid disaster and not attract unworldly beings, some people would give their children strange names or deliberately leave a single imperfection when constructing a building. That concept, that “beautiful things” were imbued with a certain kind of magical or spiritual power, could be found in many places across the world even in my previous life.

“Ephemeral beings who wander the transient world, you who love the beautiful, you who adore the radiant, you who detest the ugly, you who revile the sullied...”

Menel recited what sounded like a verse of poetry from memory.

“The fae have a different character than the gods. They’re picky, and they play favorites. They give their power to beautiful things, and they won’t look twice at anything ugly.”

“So in a way, they have easy-to-understand standards... Oh, wait a minute, is that why elves are so graceful?”

“Ya, that probably has to do with it, too.”

Being beautiful, in both a physical and a mental sense, increased the support that the fae and the fairies would provide. In short, there were advantages to being graceful. A society formed to make a lot of use of the powers of fae and nature’s spirits would naturally become noble and elegant in certain aspects.

“I mean, that’s the reason I keep my hair long, y’know? The transient world’s well known for liking long, beautiful hair.”

Now that I thought about it, Menel put practicality first in hunting and battles, yet he’d never once shown any sign of cutting his long hair, which took a lot of effort just to take care of. I’d also met a group of elves from Lothdor during the Valacirca incident, and I remembered most of them having long hair as well.

“So that’s why you don’t cut your hair.”

It all made so much sense that I couldn’t help feeling satisfied by the explanation. So it was all so the residents of the transient world would take to them...

“I shouldn’t make it out like they’re all the same, I guess. They’ve all got their own type.”

“Type, you say.”

“I mean it’s not like, have a handsome face and then they’ll like you. They’re not that simple.”

The fae and spirits associated with light and fire liked flashiness and preferred people with sunny, positive dispositions, as well as those who held intense anger inside them. The fae and spirits associated with air and water had a preference for unworldly people who didn’t obsess over material things. They also liked everything graceful and delicate, as well as people who had conflicting emotions like joy and sorrow inside them. The fae and spirits associated with earth and trees preferred those with simple and collected personalities, as well as easygoing, peaceful optimists. They were fond of aspects like simplicity and functional beauty.

“Or take the fae of darkness, chaos, fear, or jealousy. They tend to love people twisted with deep obsession, jealousy, bloodlust, brutality, or passion.”

Menel told me that the “beauty” the fae admired took many different forms.

“And all the elven settlements and clans have different aesthetics depending on what kinds of fae they revere and what kinds of boons they mainly have.”

“Umm, there are places that specialize in fae of darkness, chaos, fear, and jealousy?”

“There are, but... well, they’re not really places you’d wanna go.”

He told me that most of those places were a little shady. Some were harsh environments where there was no choice but to become good at going along with stuff like that, while other times, there were ruffians who used abilities from those kinds of fae to fight, or executors who used those abilities to lay curses.

“So when you see an elementalist, it’s important to keep in mind the impression you get from how they look. What they can do and the vibe they give off match up, most times.”

“I see,” I said, nodding.

I never interacted very deeply with the world of fae and spirits, but maybe it was time I deepened my knowledge a little.

“So, we got a bit off-topic. What are you doing, then?”

“Huh? Me?”

“Uh, ya? The king’s brother invited you to the party, remember?”

“Yep.” I nodded.

After the Valacirca scare was past, Ethel had invited me and Menel to attend the party he was going to hold in Whitesails at the winter solstice, the day after which the days started to get longer again. In other words, it was a party to celebrate the beginning of the new year. As His Excellency’s knight, I naturally had no objection to accepting his invitation and wishing him a happy new year. However...

“So, clothing? This is what I’m planning on wearing.”

“Huh? I was going to wear the formal clothes I always use for—Is that... wrong?”

With every word, Menel’s eyes became narrower and narrower. By the time I realized I’d misspoken, it was too late.

“Will. Will, brother. Think about how much attention you attract, you idiot!” He slapped me on the back of the head. “You’ve pulled off one hell of an achievement, and everyone’s gonna be like, ‘Okay, here he comes, what’s the legendary paladin’s entrance gonna be like?’ and you’re gonna walk in wearing the same, safe-ass outfit you wear every year?!”

“But formal clothes are expensive, and they’ll have to work really fast to get some made up now!”

“You can afford it! And the workers’ll make an effort for you! More to the point, you’re the one who’s meant to be creating jobs for the tailors! Knock off your weird money-saving thing and drop some fig cash!”

“B-But I’m no good at fashion...”

“You’re popular. Even if the clothes look a bit weird, just wear them with confidence and everyone’ll just accept it like that’s the style!”

Whap, whap.

“That’s it, I’m getting some made for you! Bee and Tonio probably know what’s in right now. I’ll talk to them, and we’ll get your outfit ready by the winter solstice!”

And so Menel dragged me to the tailor’s. As I listened to him talk about materials and color schemes, I learned for the first time that there was a side to him that was really into extravagant clothes.

“We’re gonna ace these clothes, and when you’re at the party, you’re gonna hit on a girl or two and show me you can pick one up. I’ll help you out.”

“Whaa? No way! Impossible!”

“What’s impossible?!”

“I can’t handle talking to women, there’s no way!”

“How is it you’ve got so much guts when you’re fighting monsters, but you get cold feet when it comes to women?!”

“I can beat monsters! You just hit them with muscle!”

“Are you ever gonna do anything about that barbarian brain?!”

And so we continued, arguing and laughing noisily.