Chapter 81

"Please, Azuki-san," the dragon Princess said. "Please change to a Western Dress."

They were still in the clearing outside the palace's giant inner defensive walls. That was only one set of walls. They still had another set, the one that edged the moat, to negotiate before they were entirely free of the huge compound.

"Elder Sister! Please, just do it. It's a good idea." Shota added his plea to Renko's. "Japanese women are wearing Western dresses now. Why not you?"

Azuki wrinkled her overlong human nose. "Oh, all right," she said, "I will." She wondered if she could improve upon the only Western dress she'd ever seen worn. She'd use her usual colors and the lustrous fabric her feathers naturally produced. She thought she'd better use the same cut as Renko's near reproduction of Anko's dress because she knew for sure that dress was suitable for daytime. Evening clothes were an entirely different matter, it seemed, not just the same style in a dressier fabric.