The rest of the night passed like a blur. I ended up with a lot of new numbers in my mobile, though I admit I was a little disappointed I never got the Prime Minster’s direct number, although I did score the number for his under-secretary if I needed to contact him urgently. Damn, it would have made persuading my father easy, if I could have shown him that. Still, considering my phone only had family and my friends from Uni in it a couple of months ago, now it’s bursting with contacts.
I had Fujiwara-san’s personal secretary as well, and Tsumura-san’s actual number, and having a direct line to the Minister for Defence definitely made me feel a big-shot. Though to be honest I felt It was more because I would be hanging around his beloved granddaughter, rather than the concerns of the country. He definitely seemed the doting, overprotective sort.
Before leaving Shaeula went back for more food at the party, and I was again amazed where she put it all, seeing as she had a small frame. I made a joke that I should start calling her Goku from now on, and the puzzled tilt of her head as she was confused was shockingly cute. I then remembered she was more into magical girl and fantasy anime than stuff like Dragon Ball, so she hadn’t seen it. Anyway, we made a bit more small-talk with the lingering guests, and since some of them had seen us leave the private room where Fujiwara-san was residing, this time they were not so dismissive of us, and we made a few contacts that might be useful for various matters in the future.
On our return to Shirohebizumi shrine we went to bed, not for any fun, but merely to rest, as it had been quite the exhausting day, mentally anyway. Tomorrow we would need to be up reasonably early, as Kana-chan was having guests, and our home had been selected as the venue. Before I had left to pick up my suit and run various arrands that morning, Kana-chan had come up to me, red-faced and nervous, to ask about her own gathering. I had smiled and told her it was fine, and that her parents had already asked me. She managed to flush more, going almost purple, and her pouting was quite charming. Still, I told her I’d left her plenty of money, so she could go wild, and my reward was a bright smile, her annoyance forgotten.
Thinking of the events of the day, Shaeula already asleep beside me, only wearing her underwear, I slipped into slumber myself, the alarm set for six in the morning, as we could manage with just a few hours’ sleep, and I wanted to check in on my Territory before the upcoming events of the day and the important meeting with the priest of Hisuikomushi shrine…
********
“Well, this is quite the change.” I said, surprised, as I looked around the Boundary version of my home. The dilapidated building had been completely refurbished, the floors now wooden boards, polished until they literally gleamed, and the decrepit walls and gap-filled roof had been patched with wood and vines, making it look a lot like some of the rustic cottages I had seen in some of my mom’s old photographs from her youth back in Britain.
“Indeed is it.” Shaeula agreed beside me. “Still, this is more suitable for us, is it not-not? Having the shrine be shabby is an affront to… oh, it is you two.” Shaeula finished, her tone not exactly delighted to see her two weaselkin maids, who on sensing her arrival had rushed over to provide assistance.
“I see you have returned, mistress. Though your form-form would sadden your father.” One maid said. Risha maybe? Or is it Velna, I still can’t really tell them apart…
“Indeed, your beautiful amber fur is something to-to treasure.” The other said, bowing to Shaeula. As they settled in behind her, ready to follow and attend to her needs, I couldn’t help but notice the maids were giving me dirty looks. Shaeula noticed too, and a sudden whip-crack of wind made a thunderous noise, causing the maids to flinch back, unnerved.
“If you feel you must follow me, I shall not-not stop you.” she growled, displeased. “However we shall not-not repeat the mistakes of the past. My pride was too high, and entirely unearned. Now-now I shall only take pride in achievements I have earned, so be aware of this.” At her harsh words the maids looked a bit confused, but they agreed.
“And lastly, and much-much more importantly…” her amber eyes blazed and another whip-crack of wind broke the silence. “I shall tolerate none-none who disrespect my husband. So show him the respect he has earned. Besides…” she took my hand, smiling proudly. “… you do him a great disservice, looking down on him. Why, only last night, did we not-not meet the leader of a very powerful country, who did hang on your every word, eager for your counsel?”
Well, I don’t think he was ‘hanging on my every word’ but I suppose you can definitely say he was seeking my advice. Although in exchange… Damn, I was going to have to speak to Haru-san while I was here, a task I wasn’t looking forward to.
“I see-see.” One maid said, and the other nodded too, deep in thought. “I would expect no-no less from the princess. Even if she must consort with a mortal, he would be a noble one, right-right?”
As the maids took Shaeula’s words literally and ran with them, she gave my hand a squeeze and a wry grin. Since I could tell she was looking for praise I leaned over and gave her a kiss, before we left the main room and entered the corridor, only to find the little Zashiki-Warashi Azuki wearing an apron and gloves, her hair tucked behind her head with a handkerchief, wiping furiously at the newly-laid wooden flooring with a polishing cloth. On seeing us she looked up, her ruby eyes moist.
“Oh, you’ve come back. Please, help me! She’s a tyrant, she…”
“Azuki, yooou better not be slacking! I feel the master and mistress have returned.” Hyacinth shouted from the doorway as she raced inside, her long hair swaying behind her, though now it was neatly bundled up into a ponytail, her black, green and purple hair looking rather fetching now it was clean, groomed and tied with cloth ribbons. Her rags were gone too, and she now wore a similar maid outfit to Risha and Velna, the older, Victorian-era style.
On seeing her Azuki darted behind my legs, trying to hide, but vines sprang from under Hyacinth’s long skirt and snaked out, grabbing her, dragging the protesting doll out of her cover. Uh, when she uses her vines like that, her skirt really rides up. Luckily I can’t see above her thighs, but even so…
Looking away my eyes met Shaeula, who grinned, knowing what I was thinking. “Having seen maid outfits in Japan, these dowdy Seelie outfits seem rather lacking, do they not-not?” she asked me, and for a while I contemplated the pretty Hyacinth working in a maid café. On hearing Shaeula, Hyacinth bounced excitedly, heedless of the crying Azuki as she was swung around in the hallway by the vines, occasionally bumping into the walls.
“The mortal wooorld! I am sooo jealous of you, mistress! You get to see such wonders, I have nooo doubts!” Hyacinth was envious, spinning around madly.
“Yes, it is indeed rather wonderful. Still…” Shaeula was still wary of her, because she was Unseelie, or if not officially part of the Dark Court, she was definitely fallen as a Seelie. Still, Shaeula would never miss a chance to brag. “… perhaps one day, if you work-work hard and prove your loyalty, Akio will bestow you a chance to walk the mortal world as well-well.”
“Really? I want that, I want it!” Hyacinth started singing. “You have a home there toooo do you not? I simply must tend to it as well, I cry thinking of that hooouse all dirty and neglected. It pains my heart.”
“Well, actually we do keep it reasonably tidy…” I interjected cautiously. Hyacinth didn’t seem dangerous, but her behaviour was certainly erratic and excitable.
“I knooow, I know!” Hyacinth froze, her expression twisting into one of triumph. Swinging her vines she thumped down the sobbing Azuki in front of us. Velna and Risha were standing behind us, very confused by this strange turn of events, and I could sympathise. Me too. Me too.
“This hooouse-brownie…” Hyacinth began, only for the weeping Azuki to insist angrily that she wasn’t a ‘stupid brownie’, but a noble ‘Zashiki-Warashi’ which Hyacinth promptly ignored. “… she is very sly, very clever, ooobviously wishes to wooork. She has a body in the mortal world. You should put her to use.”
“Of course.” Shaeula exclaimed. “The doll. I simply knew-knew we had to have it.” she looked over at me, grinning. “It was quite-quite the costly gift, but for me, you would spare no expense, would you Akio?”
“Of course not.” We kissed again, Hyacinth hiding her eyes with her hands but peering through the open fingers, blushing, just like the classic trope, while the maids looked uncomfortable.
“I… I can move it for a while. Or call upon fortune for the home.” Azuki sniffled. “But the spiritual energy I managed to store within will be used up quickly. The mortal world has little power…”
“Even sooo, I am jealous.” Hyacinth sighed.
So, does that mean that if we had a way of supplying ether and aether to Azuki, she could function for longer, or maybe all the time? One building came to mind, and I’d need it anyway as soon as the Anchor upgrade finished, considering I now had ownership of Shirohebizumi shrine.
“Well, we need to put a pin in that for now. We have a lot of other matters to attend to. So if you’ll excuse us?”
Hyacinth protested that she needed to accompany us, and she fell in behind us, with the weaselkin maids, who shied away from her, though at least she did leave Azuki behind, who shot us grateful looks as we took Hyacinth away.
Stepping outside, the changes were big here too. The once-burned out area where we had staged our Trials of Three was now resplendent with grasses, wildflowers and small trees, and several large wooden huts had been set up. I saw several ratkin going into one of them, and I paused, puzzled, not having seen them before. As they caught sight of me, one knocked on the door of the largest hut, which had a tall chimney, from which dark blue smoke was belching incessantly. The door opened, and Ixitt popped his head out, expression brightening when he saw me.
“Keh-keh-keh. If it isn’t Akio and the princess. Welcome back, I trust all is well?”
“Yes, everything is going smoothly.” I greeted, and Shaeula nodded at him regally. “So… there seems to be a few more ratkin around?”
“Keh-keh, of course. How could I, keh, forget? Thanquiss, come out and greet, keh-keh, Akio and the princess.” At his words a female ratkin wearing a leather bodysuit and protective apron came out. On seeing us she bowed. “Princess. It is an honour. I hope my husband has not caused trouble?”
“Keh-keh, have more faith, my dear.” Ixitt broke in. “This is my fourth wife, Thanquiss. She has come via the Ring, keh-keh, Gate and brought some of my children who had little better to do. Keh-keh.”
Fourth wife, huh? He wasn’t kidding when he said he had a lot. “So, ah, how many wives do you have?” I had to ask, and he giggled, which was interrupted by more coughing. It turned out he had eight! When I expressed shock at that, he merely quipped back that I’d likely surpass him in no time at all. When I tried to deny it, he merely laughed and offered me the pick of his daughters for my next bride!
Changing the subject as Shaeula was finding this hilarious, I asked about the Ring Gates, and apparently Shaeraggo had set one up within his own lands, so one could go to the hidden mansion and then use their Gate to reach here easily enough. Apparently though the price that the Fae nature and plant spirits demanded for the mushrooms that comprised them was by no means cheap. Yeah, Shaeraggo does love his sister, even if he sometimes has a shitty way of showing it.
With the mystery of the additional ratkin solved, I turned to my other business. “Oh, Ixitt, I managed to get the chance to study some firearms in-depth the other day. I was going to see Master Bjarki about them. Are you interested?”
“Keh-keh, mortal guns? Me, keh, interested…? Keh-keh…” his coughing erupted as he got terribly excited, spitting blood disgustingly. Perhaps I can use him as a target for Ether Healing? No, no time for that right now. I have too much to do. In any case, he was very interested, of course, and followed us along with his wife to the second outbuilding… which was even more shockingly renovated than the first!
The walls had been patched, yes, wooden planks covering the gaps, but several brick chimneys had been erected, as well as some metal structures that were giving off heat and smoke. Storage sheds had been put up, and kobolds and weaselkin were running around, dropping off heavy loads of metals and ores. Looking up from the metal forge, Master Bjarki saw us coming and thumped his chest in greeting.
“Ah, it be t’princess and her consort. Well, what d’ye think of my forge? A beauty, ain’t she? Nae bad for a quick job.” He slapped it barehanded, not even caring the brickwork was scalding hot. “T’kobolds dig up good ore, and I be getting m’pick of them.” He went on to explain that in addition to the ore Shaeraggo had sent as part of the price of Trial, the kobolds were gifting him metals from their mine, so he had adequate stocks to start work.
“That’s great.” I agreed, and that reminded me to make sure the kobolds still had everything they needed. They had sat out the war, being pathetically weak in combat, and had just been mining, using the degraded kobolds from the Spawning Spire. Still, there was no point letting them die needlessly, even if they are degraded ones. It was more productive letting them gather resources.
“In any case. I’m here to discuss a project.” As Ixitt and Bjarki closed in eagerly, I explained a bit about firearms and how they worked. Both were fascinated, but it was when I produced a set of pieces for the simplest ones, a pistol and a shotgun, forging them using my Ether Crafting and some nearby metal ingots, they were astonished. I assembled the pieces, having to make small adjustments to my work as I went along, and soon we had several functional guns, although since they were made from iron and steel in their entirety, they were rather too heavy.
“Of course, they won’t work without bullets.” I grinned as they fussed over the pieces, taking them apart and marvelling at the firing mechanisms. “Here.” I crafted a few bullet shells too, and Ixitt went wild, as explosive powders and alchemy was his area of expertise.
“Merely replicating them is not-not enough.” Shaeula piped up, having grasped my intent. “We must improve them, using mortal knowledge and our elemental and spiritual powers. Bullets of wind-wind, flame, and worse.” Her grin was vicious. “Imagine it, Akio. Foehn, carried within these shells. Let our foes fear us then!”
“Yeah, I knew you’d understand.” I ruffled her hair, and she purred in happiness. Behind us Hyacinth looked as if she couldn’t follow along, but was making noises of wonder anyway, just to please us, no doubt.
“Well, I’ll leave you two to experiment on ways to get the basic designs up and running, then we can look at more complicated ones. I have other matters to attend to now.” They barely even responded, engrossed in their work, and I headed for the centre of my Territory, entering the spatial dungeon that had grown around my Anchor in the apartment I used to call home.
The Anchor was growing, piercing the shadows above, and at the base small lumps were starting to bulge. The silvery metal was shining with a full rainbow of colours, and it was still quite pretty. Around my Silo there was more ether gathered, and at a quick estimation there must have been roughly fifty or sixty-thousand ether outside. We make roughly six thousand ether per day on Earth currently, though it fluctuates based on the time dilation and the tides.
In addition, we were still plundering areas around us and grabbing what ores we could, though most of our troops were still on the defensive. As I calculated, Shaeula watched me silently, a happy grin on her face.
Checking the Anchor, it now had just a little over eight astral days remaining to completion, so around three and a half days on Earth. We’ll finally be done Wednesday evening. That’s great.
Adding around eighteen thousand more ether from the Territory, plus whatever we could scrounge up, as well as the one hundred and fifty thousand in the silo, plus the box of Etherite ores worth over a hundred thousand too… I mustn’t forget what ores the kobolds dug up, as well as what we found during our expansion… I doubt it is huge numbers, but even so, ten thousand ether maybe, perhaps a little more?
As I ran the numbers, seeing my Territory expand in my head, Shaeula reached her arms out and hugged me from behind. “I love seeing you like this-this. All eager and dreaming of the future. Eri does too. Aiko as well-well.” Her amber eyes gleamed under the strange lights of the expanding Anchor. “We have defeated many trials. Now is the time to reap our rewards.”
What could I say to that? With a grin, I decided to fill Shaeula in on my expansion plans, both of us getting more and more excited as we debated the possibilities…