“What a coincidence. I also have a lot of questions to ask you, Jin.”
After hearing Sally’s response, Jin guided her to the dining hall inside Nidou Castle.
“Oh, this is a unique menu. … I ate roundly shaped food yesterday. It was delicious. What’s it called?”
The only thing that came to Jin’s mind was rice balls.
“It’s called rice. When cooked like this, we call it ‘steamed rice’ in my hometown. Sometimes we call it a meal, too.”
“Hmm. Does it mean that this food called ‘rice’ is so popular that people are calling it a meal? It’s indeed delicious.”
The menu that morning was white rice, pickled vegetables, grilled fish, and sweet omelet.
However, Jin had always been craving miso soup.
Leaving Jin’s craving, Sally seemed to enjoy the rice very much.
“I’ve eaten stewed wheat before, but this is incomparable to that. You are indeed amazing, Jin.”
“Haha, maybe so.”
“And you’re so skillful. What are those … wooden sticks?”
Sally was using a spoon, while Jin was using “chopsticks”. Sally was impressed seeing him using it so skillfully.
“These are chopsticks, and I use them when I eat rice in my hometown.”
“There are many ways to use them, such as pinching, piercing, and tearing food.”
After finishing breakfast while chitchatting, they moved to the conference room on the third floor.
Belle served tea and went downstairs.
“Hmm, your castle is, well, in a nutshell, it’s wonderful.”
Sally commented as an icebreaker while she was looking around the room.
“S-so, what would you like to ask me about?”
“Oh, first of all, there’s no mistake that this is Klein Kingdom, correct?”
“Eh? Yes, this is part of the Klein Kingdom. I’m leasing the land.”
Upon hearing that, Sally nodded and continued to ask her next question.
“What is the immigration procedure like?”
“What?”
“Well, you see, I basically crossed the border into this kingdom. So I was wondering how the immigration work in this case.”
“…”
Jin was stumped. He had never thought about that. It was probably similar to the worries he had when entering Shouro Empire from Celuroa Kingdom.
“… Well, that’s fine. It’s not a crime anyway.”
Immigration control was also lenient in this world, where a family registry system did not exist. If you were not a noble, royal family, big merchant, or celebrity, freely crossing borders was virtually not a crime.
In fact, peddlers and merchants sometimes cross borders without permission.
Jin was thinking of consulting regarding this with each country.
“And I’d like to ask something about you. You mentioned Warp Gate, didn’t you? How did such an Artifact come to your possession? Who are you really?”
Someone else finally asked those questions. Jin explained to Reinhardt and the others,
regarding the fact that he was an orphan. He learned everything from his master. He lived on an isolated island. There were Artifacts there, and so on.
“I see. I got the big picture. Well, I think there are still things you haven’t told me, but I’m not going to snoop that far. … So, what did you wanted to talk to me about?”
“Yes. Doctor, would you be willing to settle in this village?”
“… Oh, that.”
Sally nodded because she was expecting such a request from Jin.
“Yes, that’s right. Apparently, another baby is going to be born.”
“Huh?”
Sally’s remark took Jin by surprise. Sally stared at him with a bitter smile.
“Haha, even if you own an Artifact, but you’re pretty slow in this. According to my observation, there will be 4 more people giving birth by the end of this year.”
“Uh …”
“Hasn’t the living condition in this village improved since last year? That would most likely be the reason.”
Speaking of which, Jin came last year and improved the village in various aspects. Jin thought it was great that the number of children increased because of his improvement to the village’s living condition.
“So, will you stay?”
“Yeah, sure. I have just arrived, but this is a cozy little village. In addition …”
“In addition?”
“… I’m curious about those books on the shelf there.”
She pointed at the books that were created by Laojun and were put on the shelf as decoration to the conference room. “Old Book of Demolition” was written on the back cover of one of them.
(What’s with naming it “old”?)
It was probably a deliberate pun created by Laojun* (a peculiar sense of humor he inherited from Jin).
“May I see them?”
“Oh, yes, please.”
Jin had no other choice but to let her. Sally took the aforementioned book off the shelf and flipped through it.
“Hmm, this is amazing! The human skeleton, muscles, internal organs are fully illustrated! … Let’s see the publication information. ‘2446 First Edition, 3434 Reprint’. What?!”
(Laojun, you’re too much …)
Jin also had not seen every book that was placed there. So he was amazed at Laojun’s work.
“I see. Your mentor also possessed pre-Magi War scholarly books. They had been rewritten like this … amazing!”
“T-thank you very much.”
Sally jumped in joy after Jin gave her permission to read the books in the Nidou Castle library anytime she wanted to.
“R-really?! I’m so happy. Then I’ll be staying at the mayor’s house for a while.”
According to Sally, it would be more convenient to stay in the center of the village. Jin did not mind if she wanted to live in Nidou Castle. But since it would be more convenient for her to stay in the village, he thought to build her a house.
After all, Eric was going to build a house here to open a store, so it would be better to build another house for Sally at the same time.
“All right, please let me know if you need anything. Oh, yes. Would you like an assistant golem?”
“Oh, thank you. I see, you’re a golem user as well. Then I’d like to borrow one.”
“Understood.”
Their morning meeting ended. Sally borrowed a book and rushed to Giebeck’s house.
Jin immediately transported to Horai Island and asked Laojun about the progress of the nurse golem.
“Yes, My Lord. I made three prototypes.”
Three golems appeared in front of Jin. They were wearing a white coat and a nurse’s cap. Their appearance was delicate to avoid intimidating the patients. What made Jin even more curious, was their faces.
“… Why do they look like Elsa?”
All three of them looked very similar to Elsa.
“Yes, Miss Elsa is the best Healer on Horai Island. So I created them this way in honor of her.”
“…”
“At Potlock, My Lord created the golem ‘Arrow’, who resembled Miss Marcia, and ‘Lotte’, who looked just like Miss Viina at the request of Earl Kuzuma. So this time …”
“O-okay, okay.”
The problem would be the internal system. According to Laojun, the basics were the same as the golem maid, but taking hygiene under consideration, the surface was made of silver-clad.
Clad material was a material in which two or more kinds of metals were bonded together to enhance the function. In this case, antibacterial silver was bonded. Since it was thicker than plating, it had a durable characteristic that did not peel away easily.
“I see you’ve made their appearance matte as well.”
Silver was a highly reflective metal. In other words, its appearance was “shiny and dazzling.” Therefore, it had been matted. It was also partially oxidized (blackened with a sulfide film).
“The difference between the three of them is the tactile sensor. α is Aal type, β is Noir type, γ is Horai Island type.”
Jin understood Aal type, but didn’t understand Noir and the Horai Island types. However, Laojun interjected his thoughts of asking for a more detailed explanation.
“Noir type uses demon leather only on the palm and sole to improve the ability to detect the necessary parts.”
“Horai Island type is an alloy of Mithril bonded with silver-clad to generate magical power potential.”
“I see. Then, let’s lend γ to Doctor Sally to test.”
As such, Jin returned to Kaina Village with the nurse golem γ prototype. Since it was closer to the mayor’s house, instead of returning to Nidou Castle, he went to the workshop basement.
“Is it okay to call her ‘Gamma’?”
“Yes, My Lord.”
“All right. For the time being, please be Doctor Sally’s assistant.”
While having such a conversation. they arrived at Giebeck’s house.
“Oh, Jin. You’ve brought her here so soon. All right, I’m Sally Milleshan. Nice to meet you.”
“Yes, Doctor Sally. My name is Gamma. Nice to meet you.”
“Wow, your golem is indeed amazing. Well then, let’s go to Linus’ house, where a baby was newly born yesterday. Since I haven’t heard a word from them, I’m assuming both the mother and the baby are doing fine.”
Elsa and Mine should be staying there just in case.
They all had arrived at Linus’ house. We knocked, and Elsa came to open the door for us.
“Oh, Brother Jin, and Doctor.”
“Yo! Elsa, was it? Are Sera and her baby doing well?”
Elsa smiled and nodded.
“Yes, Doctor. Sera is eating normally, and her baby is now being breast-fed.”
“Ah, I see. … May I intrude for a bit?”
“Yes, please come in.”
“Okay, Gamma, come here.”
“Yes, Doctor.”
“… Ah!”
Elsa was astonished when she first laid eyes on Gamma.
“Brother Jin …”
And the next moment, she glared at Jin.
“No, no, Laojun made the design. I told him to create a nurse golem. The next thing I know, he said he made it to be similar to Horai Island’s best Healer. And that’s you, Elsa.”
“…”
Elsa made a conflicted expression. She then said,
“… I somehow understand how Marcia and Viina felt.”
Author’s note:
Since this is a parallel universe, they don’t have nurses, but they have female nurses.