Chapter 61: The Most Beautiful Bride

After repeating the promise I had made to myself, I removed my clothes and carefully slipped into the wedding dress.

The shoulders settled into place more easily than I had expected. The sleeves were slightly too long, but not so much that they couldn’t be fixed. When I tried to close the zipper at the back, however, I realized that Eris had been right.

No matter how far I stretched my arm, I couldn’t pull the zipper above my waist.

I struggled with it by myself for a while longer. When the muscles in my shoulder began to strain, I reluctantly looked toward the curtain.

"Eris..."

The curtain opened immediately.

It was as if she had been waiting outside for me to say exactly that.

"Do you need help?"

"Wipe that expression off your face and close this zipper."

Eris entered the fitting room and closed the curtain behind her. The moment she saw me in the mirror, surprise briefly appeared in her eyes, but she quickly hid it and moved behind me.

"Lift your hair."

I gathered my blue hair over one shoulder. When Eris placed her fingers on the zipper, her hand brushed lightly against my back, making my shoulders tense involuntarily.

"Don’t move," she said.

"Why are your hands so warm?"

"I have a Fire Nexus. What did you expect?"

She slowly pulled the zipper upward. As the fabric settled around my body, the waist became tighter than I had expected.

Eris took several steps back to examine my reflection.

The shoulders and waist fit almost perfectly. The only problem was the extra space around the chest.

After looking at that area, Eris nodded thoughtfully.

"Just as I expected."

"Don’t say it."

"It’s completely empty."

"Oiii!"

When she reached toward the fabric over my chest, I slapped her wrist away.

"Stop touching me!"

"I’m only checking how much padding we’ll need."

"Do that with your eyes."

"My eyes are already telling me you’re flat."

Ignoring my warning, Eris gathered the excess fabric around the chest with both hands. She then gripped the dress at both sides of my waist and pulled it tighter against my body.

My entire body tensed as her fingers followed the curve of my waist through the fabric, moving along my sides and down toward my hips.

"Eris..."

"I’m checking where the dress needs to be taken in."

"That’s what the saleswoman’s measuring tape was for!"

She grabbed my shoulders and turned me toward the mirror. While one hand smoothed the fabric over my back, the other closed around my waist again.

"Your waist is thinner than I thought."

"Are you going to keep feeling up my body now that you have the chance?"

"I’m being completely professional."

"There isn’t a professional bone in your body!"

When Eris reached out to check the empty space around the chest one last time, I caught both of her wrists. I spun her around and pushed her toward the entrance.

"All right, you’re done. Out!"

"I haven’t checked the hips yet."

"I said out!"

Eris raised her hands while laughing. After pushing her out of the fitting room, I closed the curtain behind her.

"Fine, fine. We’ll choose something medium-sized. It doesn’t need to be too large for Evelyn’s body."

"How do you manage to talk about this so casually?"

"I’m not the one who’ll be choosing the breasts."

After saying that, she returned to the chair outside. I silently ran through several creative curses while staring after her, but I was too afraid of tearing the dress to chase her.

When I lifted the skirt slightly with both hands and stepped out of the fitting room, the conversations inside the store stopped for a moment.

The saleswoman examined me from head to toe with a satisfied smile. Even the young woman trying on a dress in front of a nearby mirror had turned toward me, staring while holding a veil in her hands.

Since the store’s glass front was completely open to the corridor, the people passing outside could see me as well. First, two young women slowed their steps. Then one of them touched her friend’s arm and pointed toward me.

Within seconds, a small crowd began forming in front of the glass.

A woman carrying shopping bags stopped and stared inside in admiration, while the man walking beside her took several more steps before turning back. A young couple had stopped talking and were studying me inside the store.

"Is she a bridal model?" I heard someone whisper, even through the glass.

When another young woman tried to raise her phone, Eris’s gaze immediately hardened. The moment the woman noticed Eris watching her, she slipped the phone back into her pocket as though nothing had happened.

I wished the ground would open and swallow me.

Eris, meanwhile, was staring at my face without saying anything.

The longer her silence continued, the more nervous I became.

"What? Do I look that bad?"

When Eris came back to her senses, she quickly looked away.

"No. It looks better than I expected."

"That’s all?"

"What else do you expect me to say?"

"I don’t know. You’ve been staring at me with your mouth open for the last few seconds."

"My mouth wasn’t open."

"I could see your uvula."

"Shut up."

When I noticed the faint redness on her face, the corners of my lips rose without my permission. I wanted to keep teasing her, but the moment I saw my reflection in the tall mirror, all my attention shifted to myself.

The wedding dress suited my body far better than I had expected.

The fitted waist emphasized my slender build, while the layered skirt fell gracefully from my hips. Although my blue hair clashed with the white fabric, my face didn’t look strange with the dress.

I looked less like a man and more like a young bride waiting for her wedding day.

The thought wounded my pride, but I couldn’t deny that the image before me was impressive. Once I added a white wig, red contact lenses, and the right makeup, people would have difficulty recognizing me as Noctis.

In my mind, I tore parts of the skirt. I stained sections of the white fabric gray and added dark red marks that resembled dried blood. When I imagined a black crown of thorns on my head, a crow on my shoulder, and a red-and-black flower in my hand, the person in the mirror slowly began to transform into Evelyn.

This could work.

If we did it properly, I might not only place in the top three but win the entire competition.

The saleswoman approached and adjusted the fabric around my waist.

"The sleeves need to be shortened, and we’ll have to make a small alteration around the waist. If we also add removable padding to the chest, the dress will fit you perfectly."

When Eris started smiling again, I spoke without looking at her.

"Don’t say a word."

"I didn’t say anything."

The saleswoman nodded in satisfaction as she examined my reflection in the mirror.

"Your facial features are very well suited to dresses like this. Have you ever worked as a model?"

My eye twitched.

"No, I study music."

"I keep telling him he should become a model," Eris interrupted. "But he’s wasting his talent."

"Did everyone decide to gang up on me today?"

The saleswoman glanced toward the people gathered outside the window and smiled.

"If you’d like, we could remove the mannequin from the display and put you there instead. You would certainly attract more customers."

"Absolutely not."

Instead of answering, Eris pulled out her phone. The moment I heard the camera shutter, I turned toward her.

"Did you just take a picture?"

"We need it for planning the cosplay."

"You’re not posting it anywhere without showing me first."

"Don’t worry. For now, I’ll keep it only for myself."

"What do you mean, for now?"

When she took another picture, I lifted the skirt and started toward her. Eris retreated with a laugh, holding the phone in the air where I couldn’t reach it.

With my increased Agility, I thought I could catch her, but trying to move quickly in a wedding dress was far more difficult than expected. My foot caught on the inside of the skirt, and I barely recovered my balance.

"Delete those pictures!"

"I’ll think about it after the competition."

"Eris!"

When I noticed the other customers in the store beginning to laugh, I stopped chasing her. Eris accepted that as a small victory and slipped the phone into her pocket.

I had almost reached the point of admitting that I liked the dress, but the moment I saw the price tag, every positive thought disappeared.

"How can this much fabric cost more than my new phone?!"

The saleswoman calculated the discount offered to competition participants. The discount Eris had mentioned really was significant, but the final amount was still more than my bank account could handle.

"Let’s choose another dress."

"This one is exactly what we want," Eris said.

"The price isn’t what I want."

"I was the one who registered you for the competition, so I’ll pay for the costume too."

I immediately shook my head.

"I can’t accept that."

"You can pay me back later."

"I already spent most of my money on the phone."

"Then you can cook for me. Considering how much your food is worth, you’ll pay off the debt within a few weeks."

I wanted to continue arguing as I watched Eris take out her wallet, but we might not have enough time to find another dress. Besides, the value of a five-star card couldn’t even be compared to the amount we would spend here.

"I’ll definitely pay you back."

"I know, Noc."

While Eris paid for the dress, the saleswoman noted the alterations that needed to be made. The sleeves would be shortened, the waist would be taken in slightly, and removable padding that we could use later would be added to the chest.

We would be able to pick up the dress in two days.

When we explained that we would apply the fake blood and distress the fabric ourselves, the woman advised us to test everything on a small piece before permanently ruining the dress. Eris said she had already researched it and added the theatrical paints we would need to the list on her phone.

When I returned to the fitting room and removed the wedding dress, I should have felt relieved, but I couldn’t get my reflection out of my mind.

The dress had genuinely suited me.

I would never say that out loud.

When I changed back into my clothes and stepped out of the fitting room, Eris had already received the order form. As we left the store, I insisted one last time that she delete the pictures from her phone, but she ignored me.

"We found the wedding dress," I said. "Can we go home now?"

Eris opened the list on her phone.

"We still need a white wig, red contact lenses, a black crown, a fake crow, a flower, makeup supplies, fake blood, and breast forms. We’ve only just started."

My shoulders slumped when I saw the length of the list.

"Let’s get the wig first."

"No, we need to choose the breast forms first. The padding in the dress will be made according to their size."

"Can’t we do that another day?"

"We’re picking up the dress in two days. We need to give them the measurements today."

Eris linked her arm through mine and led me toward the costume and special-effects store on the other side of the corridor. Its display window contained wigs, masks, pointed ears, and various silicone pieces that resembled real human skin.

As we approached the entrance, Eris leaned toward my ear.

"Come on. Let’s pick you out a nice pair of breasts."