Merida walked out of a large fungal portal that was tucked away inside one of her closets, shaking the entire room. As she pushed the closet’s doors open and stepped out, the maids standing guard in her room glanced at her. "Lady Merida, you’re finally back."

She stood still for a second, looked at them, and then at the pile of dresses piled up on her bed. "Picking one for me?" She approached, gave everything a quick look, and frowned. "Can’t I just... go with my regular clothes?"

Three of the maids already swarmed her. One brought her a chair, the other took her boots off, and the other sprayed a bit of perfume on her to hide the abyss’s stench in the meantime. They’ll send her to take a bath soon, but that needs to be prepared first.

One of the maids stared at her with a tired face. "You’re the one who made all of those." This was their biggest problem ever since they started serving her. While a single dress that Merida makes can sell for thousands of gold coins to nobles and royals, she barely wears fifty silver coins’ worth of linen and used clothes picked from the flea market. They were certain that the pants she wore belonged to her father when he was in the army, and that the tank top was Arad’s at one point.

"Yeah." She pointed at the dresses one by one. "This was made with an elf in mind; look at the long arms, sleeves, and the slender waist. This with a human slightly bigger than me, my chest isn’t that big, I don’t have any fat. And this one for someone skinnier, sorry to disappoint you, but I got some things that don’t like tight places. This red dress goes well with long hair and makeup, and I don’t wear makeup; it gets all messy the moment I start sweating in fights, training, or in bed. But this blue one here would look horrendous even on me. It’s a failed experiment."

The maid approached, lifted the blue dress, "This one sold for over twenty thousand gold coins and it was called the Sapphire Royal Star. People don’t even know there is a second one."

Another maid approached, and this one was the maid the merchant tried to strong-arm into helping him. "You don’t wear makeup; then what about those red lips of yours?" She pointed at Merida’s lips, and they immediately turned pale, then purple, and then took on a light pinkish hue.

"My fungus can cut or increase the blood flow to any part of my body that I want. I can even get a natural blush at will or even bags." She smiled, returned her face to normal, and then threw another look at the clothes on the bed.

Another one of the maids approached with slow steps and gave Merida a sharp glare. "Then, which one fits you best. Don’t tell me you didn’t make one for yourself?" They were done with her having nothing decent to wear like the other wives. Even the dress of her wedding, she had long since scrapped it for fabric and made something else.

The maid wasn’t just angry at Merida; she was dismayed. She herself had been born into a wealthy noble family; There, clothes, jewelry, and beauty were a sign of status and wealth. A noble lady who doesn’t wear a decent dress brings shame on her family, so that would be even worse if one were a Royal Queen. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Right now, the other maids think she is the one who can’t get anything decent for Merida to wear, and she fears the word would reach the Emperor’s ear. She was putting them in a hard spot.

Merida tapped her toned abs and then looked down at her feet. "I have a slender enough waist. I’m a bit shorter than the others, but still, I don’t think I’m that much of a halfling. I don’t need heels to make up for it."

The maid remained silent for a second as she thought of a way to convince Merida. The corset indeed wasn’t needed as Merida had a great figure, but the high heels were a must. It would be good if she got her to at least wear something for the ceremony.

"The high heels make you look taller, yes. But they also perk up your butt, think of it for the Emperor." As the maid pointed, Merida looked at her with a grin. "I have enough muscles on me. If any of you think she has a better butt that me, then you’re free to bet on it."

The maid froze and shook her head. She had a smaller one, and all of the maids were the same. Merida could jump for several kilometers, and that alone should give an idea of what kind of glutes she has hidden underneath those baggy military cargo pants.

The maid had to change her strategy.

"You will wear it because that is right for a royal ceremony. You can’t just stroll in wearing... the clothes of a farmer. Which queen is out there walking with cargo pants and a leather top?" The maids were right. Despite being the one who designed and made the best-selling noble and royal clothes in the entire empire, she still wore nothing of her creations.

Merida looked at them. "Well, that’s the point, isn’t it? I’m a queen now. I set the fashion trends; I don’t follow them." She smiled. "I’ll make a whole new fit for myself, one unlike anything out there. Of course, I need to be battle-ready as well."

She stood from her chair, looked at the maids, and started walking toward the door, intending to head toward her workshop. But before she could reach the door, one of the maids blocked her path, while the other two started stripping her.

"You stink of the abyss’s stench. We’ll have you take a quick shower first to get rid of that smell, and then we’ll let you walk through the hallways." As the maid stated, Merida was dragged into the shower to get cleaned.

"Is the smell that bad?" Merida sighed as she headed into the shower without being dragged, and the maids nodded. "Sometimes, it is a strong earthy smell. Sometimes it is like yeast, and in the worst case, if you fought demons or stayed there for a prolonged time, you’ll start to smell like your entire body is cursed with athlete’s foot."

The abyss certainly didn’t have a nice smell, and especially Merida’s layer, which was a boiling pot of fungus, rot, and walking corpses of both demonic and mortal origin. She herself didn’t smell much, simply because she never needs to overexert her body to the point of sweating.

As she walked into the bath and the maids started pouring water on her head, some of them started scrubbing her body with soap and oils; one of the maids started reading Merida’s schedule for the day, which she was already planning to ignore.

She needed to check on the workshop, which was fine. She then had a meeting with a lot of merchants and nobles to discuss the sales of the clothes she makes, which was like two hours of just boring rambles. And then she even had a private, fancy lunch with the lead seamstress of the elvish castle, where they should plan how to bring the two races together through the clothes.

After that dinner, she had a few dealings with the other demon lords to coordinate their arrival into the mortal world and the timing of their departure afterward, and she even had to make sure they got a nice place to camp in on her abyss layer, which would make taking a bath here useless.

"My lady... You don’t need shaving anymore?" One of the maids asked, and Merida smiled. "My fungal control had become precise enough that I can do that. And before you ask, no, I can’t do that to your body. You’ll have to be dead first."

The maid sighed with a disappointed face. "I don’t want to ask Gamond... that spell hurts." She could remember the spell called [Instant Wax] and how painful it was.

As she finished taking a quick shower, the maids had Merida wear one of the countless dresses she had in her closet and set her to work immediately.