Seigyou Tensei - Legitimately Employed Reincarnation
33
Commissioned by kyo amamoto and choir.
I made a face as a tongue lapped over my face and neck.
"Ugh, knock it off!" I groaned, trying and failing to get away from the giant (six feet tall at the shoulder), glittering silver pupper (who looked like a Shiba Inu) who had borne me to the ground the moment I got him out of the magic circle keeping him in. A magic circle Sprite was already working on reverse engineering and finding a counter to—because we didn't want to get jumped by some dickhead using one of these to strip us of our power.
"Woof!"
I sighed in relief as goodest boy finally let me up. Summoning a ball of hot water, I washed the slobber off. "Blech. Seriously bud, you need a breath mint. Now, come on. Let's get you back home. We've already got the others here."
Goodest boy followed me as I led us out of the building where we had rescued him and seven kids from yet another group of smugglers. With the intel we kept gathering every time we hit another group, in addition to Kishirika's demon eyes and Sprite's panopticon surveillance state we kept finding more more as we worked our way across the forest, dropping kids off as we went.
"Rudeus!" Eris bounced up to me and immediately grabbed her hair, pulling it up and adopting her cutest look. My cock twitched in my pants.
"No."
She glared. "You didn't even let me say it!"
I looked around her, to the beastkin kids who Lilia was providing clothes for, even as goodest boy left my side and padded over to the girl with the silver cat ears and tail, who looked kind of vaguely like Ghislaine. A younger, loli Ghislaine maybe. Shifting back to Eris, I raised an eyebrow at her. My future second wife had the decency to blush, but she looked no less excited. I sighed. "If you can persuadeone or two of the girls to work for you as a servant, then yes. You can keep them. But don't push. Don't bully. Don't try to force something. Try making friends first, okay?"
"Mm!" Eris bounced up and kissed me on the lips with a happy little smile. "Love you," she giggled, before turning to rush for the beastkin.
I caught her by the back of the shirt and hefted her up. "Fuck sake, Eris. We just rescued them. Have some decorum."
"Nng! But Rudeus~!"
Picking her up, I slung her over my shoulder like a pouty, curvy, redheaded sack of potatoes… which I would have to dick down later to keep her from going after one of those girls. The comparison kind of fell apart.
Like Eris's self-control the moment she saw beastkin.
Walking over to the group as I smacked Eris's ass, I nodded in greeting to them as they eyed me warily. "Sorry about her, kids. Eris has a condition and she can't really control herself around beastkin. If she gets grabby or makes you feel uncomfortable, just grab a stick and whack her on the nose, okay?" I demonstrated, raising my hand and making a flicking swatting motion. "'Bad!' 'Stop!' See? Easy."
Some of the kids laughed and goodest boy barked. The loli Ghislaine looked between the dog and me. "Thank you for saving the sacred beast, mister. He's incredibly important to our tribes."
"No problem. I couldn't just leave a cute, fluffy puppy chained up like that when I saw him. So, I'm Rudeus and this is Eris," I gave Eris's ass a pat before setting her on her feet now that she seemed to have calmed down. "That there is Lilia, my maid. Over there," I gestured towards our resident Superd, currently glaring at the captured men awaiting interrogation, "is Ruijerd. What are your names?"
They introduced themselves but two stood out. Tersena, a cutie patootie dog girl with floppy ears. And Minitona, or just Tona Dedoldia.
Hearing that she shared Ghislaine's name, Eris and I exchanged looks and I asked the question on both our minds. "You wouldn't happen to be related to a Ghislaine Dedoldia, would you?"
"Mm! She's my aunt. Papa said she was mean and had to leave the village a long time ago, before I was born."
That didn't sound like our Ghislaine, but then, people change. "We can call her—"
"Later," I cut Eris off. "Get them settled in first. Lilia, we're going to send you all up to the Roxy. If you and Eris would get the kids settled in with the other beastkin? Show them how to work the showers. Get them fed and tucked away in bed?"
"Of course, master Rudeus," Lilia nodded, a small smile on her lips.
"Alright kids. Be good for Lilia, or I'll sic Eris on you. Get cleaned up, get some food in you, and bed down for the night. We can work out where you all came from tomorrow."
With that, the kids, plus Lilia and Eris and one big doggo, lifted off as Sprite took the initiative and hauled them up to the Roxy—to squeals of fear and/or delight. Meanwhile, I turned and made my way over to Ruijerd. Stopping in front of the prisoners, I looked them over.
"Alright. So, here's the deal. I'm not going to threaten you with torture. Instead, I'm going to just tell you this flat out: I intend to kill every last one of you. But. One of you may, just maybe, be able to earn his freedom. The person who provides me the most useful information gets to live. The rest?"
I turned to Ruijerd and the man nodded, removing his headband. Pants-shitting terror roiled off the men on the ground as they began scrambling to get away. Literally. Several of them soiled themselves.
"I'll give you to my friend here. Ruijerd really hates people who abuse kids. Now! Who wants to go first?"
The next morning, I sat with Roxy, Eris, Elinalise, Kishirika, Aisha, and Lilia in attendance as we had our usual morning call. We had a guest this time, however—in the form of Tona. She had left goodest boy, who I learned was named Leo, with Tersena and the rest of the reunited beastkin kids. Ruijerd was watching over them, along with Tallhand, as the warrior sparred lightly with them—helping them regain their strength after being in captivity and training them against future capture. He really was a softy.
Aisha sat in my lap, with Eris to my left and Roxy to my right, Kishirika, Elinalise, and Tona across from me at the small round table, and Lilia serving us breakfast. Sprite was, of course, always present—though in this case she appeared as a hologram on the table, beside the display waiting for the others to connect.
"Rudeus my boy!"
I rolled my eyes at the enthusiastic greeting from Sauros. "Gramps," I greeted.
He looked around the table, nodding his head and smiling as he spotted Roxy. "It's good to see you there, Ms. Roxy. Eris!"
"Yes grandfather!" Eris shouted and I winced, reaching over and smacking the side of her ass lightly, reminding her to turn the volume down.
"I see you've found an absolutely adorable beastkin girl… he he he~"
"I know, right?! Ue he he he~"
Leaning to the side slightly to see around the hologram, I sent Tona an apologetic look. "Sorry for them. Eris's condition is hereditary. Her whole family has it."
"I… it's fine?" Tona asked hesitantly. "I kind of like the attention. And she, uh," Tona blushed and looked down. "Eris helped me bathe and she knows all the best places to scratch my ears."
Sauros sent his granddaughter a thumbs up and a nod as he grinned. I, on the other hand, sent Eris a flat look. "Eris."
"Eep! Rudeus?!" she asked, recognizing the warning tone in my voice and growing nervous.
"Did you explain the situation to her before you did this?"
Eris looked shifty-eyed, her red eyes looking anywhere but me. "I told her you were my husband…"
"Not yet," I sighed, pulling the girl into a hug. I gestured at the table and Sprite sent Sauros's hologram off to the side, shrinking it—it wouldn't actually change anything on his side, but it would give us more space for the others once they connected. "Tona, I'm going to take you aside and talk to you about this later, okay?"
"O-okay?"
"You're not in trouble or anything."
"Oh," she relaxed.
Roxy shifted beside me, gently elbowing me in the side. "I think it might be better if I spoke to her, along with Sylphie and Eris."
"Don't leave me out," Kishirika grinned.
"Yes, Roxy, don't forget about me~," Elinalise teased.
"I wish I could," my Migurd wife sighed. But she nodded in acceptance regardless.
"Be my guest," I agreed. Turning back to Sauros, I asked, "How far are you from Ars?"
"About a day by horse now. I should get there some time tomorrow."
We talked a bit about his plans, once he got there. He would be speaking with the king, Ariel's father, and informing him of the coming resolution to the teleport disaster. Following that, Sauros would act as our point of contact for the time being to negotiate with the Asuran kingdom regarding the rebuilding of the Fittoa region and Roa, along with the trade agreements we would be establishing later on. He and Ariel had been working closely together, going over everything they knew about the king, court, and other nobles—namely, the information Sprite was gathering from her constant spying in the capitol.
More people began connecting. Sylvia, Sylphie's mother, connected shortly after, holding the squirming three year old Elin. Following her were Sylphie and Ariel, then Ghislaine and Phillip, then Hilda.
"Alright. It's been a week since we did one of these and the situation's changed," I began, before nodding towards Sprite. A hologram of the Roxy and the fleet moving over the forest was added to the others. "We've started making our way home. Things are moving a little slower than we planned, but that's because we've been rooting out a slaving ring. It's actually kind of useful for info on Fittoa survivors—we've already caught a few leads. A few of them were actually captured in these parts and shipped off elsewhere, so we're running those down. I think this may put us a couple of weeks behind projections, but it'll be worth it."
"Roxy… is that you on the front of the ship?" Sylphie asked, innocently.
"Nn," Roxy made a quiet noise of distress as she lit up in a blush and hid her face against my chest.
Eris laughed and nodded. "Oh yeah! It was great! You should have seen her face."
"I recorded it. Do you want me to play it, Eris?" Sprite asked, her tone teasing.
"Nooo~!" Roxy wailed, shaking her head.
That got laughs from everyone as my poor first wife was bullied. I petted her hair and leaned down to kiss the top of her head. "I love you," I murmured against her head.
Roxy whimpered, pulling back just enough to pout up at me, looking sulky and adorable. I turned my attention back to the table as Phillip continued. "We're finished here and heading up to Ars. We should arrive within the week, where we'll be joining you, father."
"Good, good," Sauros nodded.
"Be careful. My father is going to be looking for someone for the kingdom to lay the blame on," Ariel warned. "I recommend going as a group."
Sauros waved her off. "I'll be fine. Besides, I don't want to involve Phillip in my problems. I'll handle that old blowhard."
"It's the Prime Minister you have to worry about," Phillip muttered, earning nods from both Ariel and Sylphie.
"How's Tristina, by the way? We haven't heard from her in a while?" Eris asked.
"She's doing well!" Sylphie beamed. "Though… she's made friends with some troublemakers." At my raised eyebrow, she answered, "Lilia Dedoldia and Pursena Adoldia—"
"Ah!" Tona perked up. "You know my big sister?"
Sylphie blinked, before her red eyes cut over to the beastkin girl. "You look just like her."
Ghislaine, meanwhile, hummed. "So, you're Gyes' brats?"
"Yes!" Tona nodded. "You're my aunt, right?! I want to know you more!"
Ghislaine looked a bit awkward and Roxy pulled away from my chest. Straightening up, she looked across the table to Tona. "We can continue that later. I'm sure Sprite would be happy to let you talk, assuming Ghislaine wants to…?"
"Sure," the woman shrugged. "Wouldn't mind hearing how the village is doing. Or why you're with Rudeus."
"We were kidnapped!"
Ghislaine sat up a bit straighter, her visible golden eye tracking to me. I nodded and she settled down a bit. "I owe you again, Rudeus."
"You can pay me back in the usual way," I sent the muscular woman a leer.
"Oh yes~. I've heard all about your little romp with Rudeus and Eris, Ghislaine. I'll have you know, I've sampled Rudeus myself—"
Ghislaine blinked, a frown crossing her face as she turned back to me. "You're not dead."
"Nope," I confirmed.
Her frown morphed to a look of worry as she turned back to Elinalise. "You didn't manage to wear him out?"
"Quite the contrary! Rudeus gave me the ride of my life! I've never been so thoroughly satisfied by one man before. Oh, certainly, Roxy, Eris, and Kishirika were fun—"
"'Fun,' she says. I'll show her just fun," Kishirika muttered, glaring at the lewd elf as her pride made itself known.
"—but Rudeus really wore me out."
Ghislaine turned and locked eyes with Roxy. Roxy nodded, before turning her gaze to Sylphie and Ariel. "Send help."
"Oh my~" Hilda murmured, hiding her smile behind her hand. "Rudy, have you been treating those girls well?"
"It sounds like he's been treating them very well," Sylvia pointed out dryly.
"Moving on!" I announced loudly. "Fittoa." Everyone perked up at that. "Sprite, pull up the plans for Rebuild."
"Yes, master," she nodded, and a new hologram joined the others. "Per Operation Rebuild, I will begin covering the land with fertile soil, using a topographical map to return the land to its pre-teleporation state, or as close as possible, with a few improvements. I will begin regrowing fields of Bardius plants using samples taken by Master." Sauros and Phillip nodded along, knowing that the lavender-like plants were the region's main source of income—actually a large percentage of the income for the Asura Kingdom as a whole, something close to a quarter. Which should tell you all you need to know about where all that money was going, if not back into the community actually harvesting the plants.
"Following that, I will replant and grow new forests for lumber. Additionally, I will seed the area with crops that were formerly native to the region. While I'm recovering the native environment, I will begin rebuilding the villages, homes, roads, and other structures—working my way inwards, towards Roa. Because of the inefficiencies and structural deficiencies prevalent in many of the old structures, I will instead be replacing the old structures with brick and mortar exterior construction reinforced with steel bars, steel roofing, and wood framework and construction for interiors. I know this will change the way the area looks as far as aesthetics and culture, but—"
Sauros snorted. "My girl, no one is going to complain when you replace their drafty old homes with sturdy construction that's going to last generations. Go right on ahead. If you want though, and if you have the time, you could face the exteriors with wood or stone to make each more unique."
"I agree. Refugees coming home to find their homes not just intact but improved aren't going to complain if they don't look quite the same. And if they do, tell them they can always go back to where they were found," Phillip nodded.
"Very well," Sprite nodded. "Following the reconstruction of homes, I'll begin the minutae of individual enchantments for each village—lights, running hot water, waste disposal, and so on, along with improving the local industries with modernized facilities for processing lumber, grain, metal, and the like. While I'm rebuilding the villages, I will be adding several new villages for our Migurd refugees—"
"And any other race or group who wants it," I spoke up, drawing Sprite's attention. "I've been thinking. We could make the offer to move to any of the adult slaves we're going to be picking up—because at this point, we may as well completely destroy slavery as a trade, kill the slavers, and collect every slave we come across along the way. They're going to need somewhere to live, where they won't have to worry about being recaptured and sold again. Plus, well, the Demon Continent is kind of a shithole. Sorry Kishirika."
"No offense taken," she waved the apology off. "It really is."
"So, we can start offering the remote villages there, living on the ragged edge like the Migurd, a home in Fittoa. We've got the room. If they become a problem—that is, if they start problems with the locals—then we can deal with them. If the locals start problems, we'll deal with them, too. But if the lord of Fittoa were to decree that they were as welcome as any of his other taxpayers, and word it as, say, a grant of land to be repaid over time by taxes…"
"Hmm. Yes," Sauros nodded slowly, stroking his beard. "Yes, I can see it. Ars isn't going to complain about more taxpayers, more soldiers, and more mages. Milis will complain, but…"
"But if they do, Rudy will engage in American diplomacy," Ariel muttered, and I smirked at that, even as the others looked confused. Looking up and taking in the confused looks, Ariel elaborated. "If they complain, ignore them. If they attack, blow the shit out of them, destroy their largest cities, then move in and rebuild their countries better than before and turn them into a vassal state."
"Still sore about that whole Hiroshima thing I see."
"And Nagasaki! You didn't have to do it twice!"
"Yeah, but we got anime out of it, so…"
"And hentai."
"Point."
Beside me, Roxy shivered, recognizing both of those names and having the context to actually understand what we were talking about. "Please don't."
After that, Sprite detailed the rest of her plan—seeding the area with game captured and moved in from other regions (there were going to be a bunch of very confused animals telekinetically flying through the sky at night soon), dropping off initial stockpiles of supplies for each village to be released once the villagers moved in, walling every individual village off, walling the entire area off to keep monsters and unwanted visitors out unless they used the main roads, and so on. The only thing she wouldn't do would be fixing Roa.
That, I was going to do myself.
Sprite finished up her little presentation and I sent her a smile. "So," I looked around at everyone gathered, in person and by hologram. "That's it. What do we say? Go ahead or not?"
"Do it, my boy."
"Get started now, but if I were you, I'd have Sprite start talking to your passengers. Find out where they all lived, and show them the reconstruction efforts. Take their input into consideration. What happened was a tragedy, admittedly, but it has given us a chance to correct all the little mistakes we didn't realize we were dealing with for years. Things like putting the tannery too close to the town, for instance," Phillip supplied.
There were a few more suggestions as the consensus came to a unanimous vote of 'yes.' Turning my attention back to Sprite, I nodded. "Well, you heard them. Go ahead and get started, please."
After that, the meeting wound down as people broke off into smaller groups to chat amongst themselves. My soon-to-be wives and lovers all absconded to another room, dragging Tona with them. I spoke a bit more with Phillip and Sauros before they hung up. Finally, it was just myself, Aisha, and Lilia. Picking Aisha up, I held her in my arms and turned to Lilia. "I'm going out on the deck. It's a nice day out. Cool breeze coming in, lots of sun. I'm going to run Aisha through her paces and see where she stands on magic. Why don't you join us, Lilia? We can spend some time together and catch up while we work."
"I believe I would enjoy that, master."
"Not wearing your uniform, Lilia."
The maid smiled. "Clothes do not make the maid, Master Rudeus. A maid's uniform is the clothes she wears. She could be bare naked or wearing full plate armor and a maid would still be a maid."
"Don't expect me to put on the uniform again," Aisha griped.
"You don't want to wear a cute little maid outfit for your big brother? I could take pictures and use them to embarrass you for years to come—"
"No!" Aisha pouted, shaking her head as she crossed her arms.
Lilia and I laughed at the little redhead and made our way out. We stopped by one of the kitchens on the way, Lilia packing up a picnic basket with a light lunch and drinks for the three of us, along with a blanket.
The wind was nice and cool at this altitude and we could see for miles and miles—the Great Forest a sea of green below and around us, to the horizon. Lilia sat out the blanket and sat down. Not wanting her to bake in the sun, I had Sprite send a few materials and fashion a canvas shade that fluttered in the wind to keep most of the sun off of the older redhead.
Putting Aisha down, I gestured out over the side of the Roxy. "Alright, let's start simple. Show me one each of the 'ball' type spells."
Aisha blinked, before looking up at me skeptically. "That's all?"
My lips twitched into a grin. "You think you can do better?"
"I can cast advanced level spells, big brother!"
"Oh, I see. That's pretty awesome, Aisha. But for now, I want to see the basics. There's a reason for it, I promise. You have to have a strong foundation to build on, after all. Now, give me a water ball, please."
Aisha sighed, but pointed her hand out over the side and conjured a ball of water that flew off and exploded into a shower of droplets. "See?"
"Good summoning speed. Good mana control but it could use a little work. Decent accuracy, but I'll give you that one because of the wind and the fact that we're moving. Good power and spell formation. Next. Wind ball."
And so it went as I spent the next hour or so stepping her through all the basic, elementary level elemental spells, followed by the advanced spells she knew. Then, I had her show me everything else she knew. We sparred a bit too, so I could get an idea how serious she was being in her studies.
Aisha was, quite frankly, terrifying.
Me? I was a reincarnated cheater, so I didn't even count myself.
Roxy was a very technical learner. She was like me in a lot of ways. Only once she sufficiently understood something could she start doing things that Eris took for granted. It took forever to teach her silent casting, but once she had it, she was easily able to grasp how to apply it to all of her spells from then on. That technical knowledge led Roxy to being able to manipulate spells in ways that should have gone against their original intent, or create entirely new spells based on natural sciences—the same way I did.
Eris? I had to beat it into her. Quite literally. But once I got her focused, Eris was a creative girl with her own intuitive learning and experimenting ability. She hated having to sit down and think through anything, even if she could and would do it now. Her forte was in quickly using what she knew instinctively, with no thought and no need to think put into it, aside from working towards a goal. When she made the occasional new spell, she just did it. She was, well… I hate to say it, but she was like a female Paul. Just go like 'hnng!'
Sylphie? She had natural skill, power, and smarts. She trained herself hard and used everything I taught her to her advantage. She was, from what I could see, somewhere between Roxy and Eris. She could learn things the technical route and apply that, or she could go the 'hnng' route, as she demonstrated in a few of her early spars against Eris, coming up with new things on the fly.
Aisha though? She was like Sylphie, only better on the intelligence side. Smarter. Not as powerful, but what she lacked in raw power she made up for in sheer brains. She could use the technical method or the intuitive method, or combine the two. And she was frightfully creative. Even better, she was very, very dedicated to learning and mastering her magic and had an amazing work ethic—but, like me, saw magic as an everyday tool, not just a weapon. So if Lilia asked her to clean, Aisha defaulted to using magic. Cooking? Magic. And so on. She had apparently memorized my list of anti-chores spells and expanded upon it.
I was so proud.
Lunch time rolled around and I called a halt to our practice. We made our way under the shade and ate lunch with Lilia. Then, Lilia gently urged me to lay down, using her thicc thighs as a pillow. I accepted and a moment later was joined by Aisha curling up on me. Lilia laid down herself, a smile on her face as she ran her hands through our hair and we drifted off to nap like that in a pile.
My sword clashed against that of Elinalise. The elf shifted her body just so and my sword began sliding off. I moved with the momentum, rolling out to the side as she attempted a counter. Rolling back to my feet, I came in again, matching her speed and strength.
"You're not as good at this as Paul," she commented lightly.
"I know."
"Mm… no. I mean, okay, yes. You're very good at Water God," she parried a blow aimed at her midsection and riposted, only for me to smack it aside. "I would say Water Saint. Sword God, I would rank you as Advanced. The problem," Elinalise skipped back from a thrust, using her shield to deflect the blade, "is that you are almost entirely lacking in North God techniques."
"Well, that happens when someone refuses to teach you," I grumbled. "Do you think I could beat him with just a sword?"
"Hmm," Elinalise considered for a moment as she launched into a flurry of thrusts with her estoc that I had to either parry or dodge. I wasn't using the Demon Eye of Foresight here, specifically to train my own reflexes—which was also why I wasn't simply overpowering her with my greater touki. She was able to land some glancing slices here and there, forcing me purely into Water God to go on the defensive and wait for a moment to counter. Honestly, she wasn't as good or as strong as Ruijerd, but she was different. I knew Ruijerd's style by now and even if he was better, I could predict him, most of the time—unless he started pulling out shit I had never seen before. Elinalise was an entirely new partner, so I couldn't fall into familiar routines.
"No."
"Explain," I said simply, watching her (admittedly sexy) form for tells as I parried and deflected blows.
Elinalise went in for a shield bash and I stepped into her guard, swinging for her head, only for her to turn her forward momentum into a roll, come up on the other side, and trade places with me. "You outrank him in skill with Water God, for sure. And you could match him with Sword God. Ruijerd has really been working you kids hard. I've seen Eris and she's easily a Sword King to match Ghislaine. But your weakness is always going to be North God, which was specifically made to counter Water God. And if Paul thinks he's going to lose, he'll use it. He has no honor to speak of, so he won't care if other people would consider it cheating."
"There is no such thing as a fair fight," I said, and she nodded. "Do you know North God?"
"Nope! Sorry," she shook her head. "Paul taught me a little of this and that to help me defend against it, but… well, I kind of don't think he actually wanted me to be able to fight him off if he got serious."
"So he intentionally handicapped your training. Sounds fucking familiar." I took a breath, pulling back and lowering my sword. "What would you suggest?"
Elinalise considered me for a moment, resting her hands on her sword as she leaned against it. After a bit, she nodded. "Stop holding back. Stand there and pull on your touki. Guard yourself as well as you can. I'm going to try to pierce you with all my might. Piercing attacks are the strongest, because all that force is focused down into one point. I'm actually stronger than Paul—not better, but stronger. If I can't pierce you, he won't be able to do anything."
I gave it a bit of thought before nodding. It was dumb, and risky, but I knew healing magic and so did Sprite. If something happened, I would be fine. "Not going to aim for my heart or anything?"
"No! Absolutely not," Elinalise shook her head. "Non-lethal and non-crippling even if it pierces. I'm very, very good at putting my sword where I want it. Trust in me, Rudeus."
"Okay. Go for it."
I pulled up my touki, covering my body with it and—
"Rudy, I know you have more."
Taking a breath, I stopped holding back. Fully. The deck under my feet warped slightly as I shifted, even just that little bit of force causing damage. I didn't like doing this. I had so much mana, which translated into an equal amount of touki, that I kind of agreed with Superman if I actually used it fully—the world was made of cardboard. I had been learning to control it, but I didn't trust myself not to hurt Eris or Ruijerd when we sparred, so I never used it against them.
Elinalise nodded, whistling quietly. "That gets me all wet, Rudy. Be sure to take good care of me after this, okay? Your horny slut elf needs attention. I'm a horny rape beast and I need you to subdue me before I start raping my way across the land again—"
"Just come at me, you walking sexual calamity."
"Hehe~"
Elinalise glowed faintly as she pulled up her own touki. Then, she flashed forward… so very slowly. I blinked as I realized I had unconsciously channeled touki to my eyes. And just like that time I was clinging desperately to Eris as we were shot through the sky, the world slowed down.
The estoc hit my chest, just below the left shoulder joint. It froze in place as Elinalise pushed… and nothing happened. After a moment, she let off entirely and backed away. I let go of my touki as well. "Well, just do that and you'll be fine. Let him wail on you. When he sees that he can't do anything, he'll give up."
"Doubtful."
"Why are you so sure that you're going to fight him when you see him again?"
"Because we butt heads. More than that though, he legitimately thinks I'm basically Geese plus the Notos side of the family. The last time we spoke, we almost came to blows because he wouldn't let me see my sisters. There's a reckoning coming, the next time we see each other."
Elinalise sighed, before sheathing her sword and putting her shield on her belt. Walking over, she put her arms around me in a hug. "I've met both of them, Rudy. You're nothing like either of them. Paul's just being stupid. He's a meat-head. Sometimes, you just have to beat the stupid out of them. And keep beating until they accept that they were beaten."
"I've beaten him before. But because I used magic, which is my strength and not his, apparently that's cheating."
"Yeah, that's Paul. You're going to have to beat him in his own field for him to acknowledge it. And even then… he's dense. It's going to take a few beatings back to back."
"It figures." With a sigh, I gave the elf a squeeze that popped her back and drew a pleased sound from her. Then, I picked her up into a princess carry. "Thanks, Elinalise. Now, let's go below deck and I'll reward you for helping out."
"Make sure to satisfy me thoroughly, okay Rudy? It's the only way to be sure—to appease the curse for any length of time."
"And scratch your itch."
"That too!" the lewd elf grinned.
"So, that's your village?"
"Woof!" Best doggo answered, leaning against my side.
"Mhmm!" Tona agreed, around a quiet purr as she leaned into my hands scratching at her ears. "You're really good at this, Rudy."
"Thanks. I studied a bit with your aunt," I admitted. Ghislaine got tense after long study sessions when I was teaching her and Eris and I rewarded her hard work with ear and head scratches from time to time. There had been nothing really sexual in it for me, not really, but… dirty old man brain had wanted to just grab her by the ears and force my cock down her throat at the time. Now knowing beastkin can smell arousal, I was surprised she had kept that to herself when I was paying her attention.
"Ahh~! I'm so jealous!" Eris pouted.
Roxy chuckled. "You have to share, you know."
"I know! But still!"
Sighing at the redhead's antics, I quietly asked, "She isn't pressuring you into anything, is she?"
"Nunuh," Tona shook her head. "Eris is fun! I like when she pets me. Can I come to bed with all of you next time?"
I blinked. "Next time…?"
"Next time you're all having sex. Eris said you might feel weird about it because she thinks I'm too young."
"…And how old are you?"
"Eleven."
I looked down at the girl. Tona looked about as developed now as Eris did at twelve, almost thirteen—about when her tits really started coming in nicely. Unfortunately, early bloomer or not… "I told Sylphie thirteen—"
"That didn't exactly happen with us," Eris pointed out.
"No, it did, actually. We didn't have sex until your thirteenth birthday."
Eris blinked, before frowning. "Was it? I thought it was sooner. Wait, how old am I now?"
I groaned quietly. "I know we spent a lot of time in the Demon Continent and the time sort of blurred together, but for fuck sake. You're turning fifteen this year, Eris."
"Oooh, right!" she nodded. "Get me something nice for my birthday, Rudeus!"
"Of course," I agreed easily.
"It's going to be hard to top the bike," Eris admitted.
Roxy sighed. "I should have lied and said I was fourteen when he asked."
Snorting quietly, I sent my blue haired future wife an amused look. "I like older women just fine, you know. But I did say I would get you something nice…"
"You got me books, Rudy. I couldn't have asked for better, considering what was in them," Roxy reminded with a smile pulling at her lips.
Shifting under my hand, Tona asked, "So?"
"That's a no, sorry," I shook my head. "Wait a couple of years and come back, then we'll see."
"Fine~," the girl pouted. "It looks like they're really panicking down there."
"Yep," I agreed. "Sprite? Could you send a hologram?"
A moment later, we watched as a hologram of us on the deck appeared in the town square. Tona took a deep breath before yelling, "Everyone! We're back! And we brought the Sacred Beast with us!"
"Tona?!" A man who looked like he was related to her yelled, approaching the hologram. "Where are you?"
"On top of the ship, papa. Above you. We'll come down and bring everyone else with us!"
"Just make sure you clear a space in the square," I warned.
The man I now realized was Gyes turned a glare on my hologram, his eyes tracking to where my hand was scratching his daughter's head. I pulled my hand off, only for Tona to reach up, grab it, and pull it back down. Gyes's glare grew in intensity.
I shrugged and went right back to scratching those cute kitty ears.
Seigyou Tensei - Legitimately Employed Reincarnation
34
"Get your filthy hands off my daughter!" Gyes growled as we landed in the village.
I considered it for a moment, but Tona stood on her tiptoes and butted her head against my hand harder. "…Nah."
Gyes came flying at me to throw a punch over his daughter's head.
I bitch slapped him into the ground with magic, pressing him flat with telekinesis.
After a moment of just holding him there, I let go and the man glared at me. He opened his mouth, sucking in a breath. I waved my hand and created a layered bubble of air and vacuum around him. I had seen that trick when Tona sparred against Eris and I wasn't inclined to having my mana scrambled, thanks. Thankfully, it didn't actually directly scramble mana—rather, it messed with a caster's ability to properly shape mana. So persistent magic effects, or things already cast, were unaffected.
Sprite was already looking into a way to counter this ability to disrupt casting, outside of the 'seal them in a bubble' method. My spirit really was the best.
The man roared, silently. When none of us collapsed, he looked confused. "Sprite, keep him in a bubble. Tona, who's the village chief or whoever we need to talk to."
I was all out of fucks to give for niceties when it came to people starting fights with me these days. It probably had something to do with the fact that we were moving and Archer still hadn't responded to my message. I was getting antsy and my sleep had been shit for the past couple of days. I had, admittedly, been taking it out on the prisoners we captured, just a bit.
Last night, I woke up from another nightmare about Zenith and Norn to Eris's hand wrapped around my wrist in a grip like steel… and my fist about two inches from Roxy's face, who had moved in her sleep. I had kissed the sleeping Roxy and Eris both, thanked the redhead, and quietly left. I spent the rest of the night alone on the deck under the stars, until Lilia came up with a blanket and sat with me, pulling me into her lap and resting her chin on top of my head.
I would have to revise Eris's strategy for dealing with my restless sleeping habits, if they were coming back. There was one person on the ship I could fuck to exhaustion and who needed it besides. I'd be dicking down Elinalise last every night for the foreseeable future.
As for the village… It was a beautiful place. All tree house architecture, built high up in the giant trees of the Great Forest. The people were all scantily clad beastkin that had Eris drooling and even Roxy's eyes wandered a bit, only to guiltily come back to Eris or myself… where she found Eris drooling and me giving her a smile.
Tona lead us to the village elder's home, where we met Gustav Dedoldia—Ghislaine's father and Tona's grandfather. The old man took in me petting Tona's ears, the happy look on Tona's blissed out face, and the fact that Gyes was silently screaming at me from over a yard away and every time he tried to get closer he was telekinetically picked up and moved back to that minimum distance. He sighed.
"Thank you for returning my granddaughter to us. Tona, will you be leaving with them?"
"Mm!" she nodded happily, a huge smile on her face. "Rudy and Eris are nice! They know all the best places to scratch my ears. Rudy promised to teach me magic if I come with them. Eris wants to pay me to be her maid, but I think I'd rather do something else."
I sighed, palming my face. "Eris."
"What? I said I'd pay!"
Roxy sent the redhead an amused look before turning back to Gustav. "King-level Water Mage, Roxy Migurdia. My fiancee, Emperor-level Elemental mage, Rudeus Greyrat. And our fiancee…" she turned to Eris. "What are you?"
"Ruijerd says Sword King."
"Saint-level Fire Mage," I added. "Almost King. She could probably do it, we just haven't really taken the time to test."
Roxy nodded and returned her focus to the chief. "Eris Boreas Greyrat. We are here to return the children stolen from you and your sacred beast. Additionally, to offer an opportunity. If any families would like to leave, we're traveling back to the Fittoa region of the central continent. Several other groups are already relocating there with us, including my own tribe."
"I'll have to speak to the others. There may be some who wish to leave, given the yearly raids by slavers—"
"Those won't be a problem any more." When the man looked to me, incredulous, I shrugged. "We're killing every slaver we come across and leaving the bodies out as a message to others. Slaving is done as a profession and slavers will be killed on sight."
"That's all well and good, until you leave."
"Sprite. Local monster count?"
My summoned spirit materialized beside me (thankfully clothed). "Fifteen giant arachnids—water spiders. All on the ground, hiding in the under brush. Nothing else within a mile."
"Show us." A hologram appeared floating between us and Gustav. "Now, put pretty little holes in all their heads."
"Yes, master." A single bright white light streaked between the spiders—bending in midair as it punched through one, bent, and hit another, and another, until there were no more spiders living. "Targets eliminated."
"Thank you, sweetie." I looked at Gustav. Off to the side, Gyes had stopped trying to shout and get out of his bubble. Pointing to the dead spiders, I said, "Now imagine that's slavers."
Roxy smiled, reaching out and laying a hand on my thigh. "Now, there is some other business we would like to talk about while we're here. What sort of fruits and vegetables grow locally? What about wild game? Local delicacies and the like. We would like to try a few things, purchase some, and perhaps establish some sort of agreement for future trade…"
After that, I sat back and let Roxy do the talking, while Tona wore a strangely smug little grin on her face and kept staring her father down. That was probably my fault.
Not even twelve hours later, I was being woken up in the middle of the night by Sprite.
"Master, there's a problem."
I sat up in bed, easing Kishirika off of me and onto Eris while, at the foot of the bed, Elinalise slept on soundly. Eris's quiet snoring abated and her red eyes cracked open as she eyed us. On my other side, Roxy continued sleeping peacefully.
"What is it, Sprite?" Eris asked sleepily, curling into my side and laying a kiss on my bare flesh after pushing Kishirika off of her.
"Sauros is in trouble," Sprite answered, and produced a hologram. That had Eris sitting up beside me, suddenly much more alert. We were treated to the view of the inside of a castle. A bit of magic on Sprite's part got us audio, but kept us separated from the others so they wouldn't hear and be disturbed.
"And so, it is my judgment that Sauros Boreas Greyrat grossly mishandled the events leading up to the Fittoa Calamity, causing the destruction of the Fittoa region and irreparable harm to Asura as a whole. It is my judgment that he be stripped of his titles and any remaining wealth and assets seized. He will be executed tomorrow, at dawn…"
"Yeah. No. Sprite, gimme a hologram. Make sure I'm clothed, please. And get me Ariel. Get ready to make a hologram for her, too."
A hologram appeared in our bedroom of myself, in my usual mage attire and I frowned. I was starting to outgrow it and needed to trade some pieces out. But it would do for now. "That's good. Send it."
"Broadcasting." My hologram appeared beside Sauros. "You're live."
"How are you doing, old man?" I asked, to cries of surprise from the gathered nobles. I gestured, projecting my magic through the hologram, and everyone in the room was abruptly silenced. Dead silence, save for what Sauros and I were saying.
"Rudy my boy! It's good to see you, lad. But it must be the middle of the night over there."
"Yeah," I confirmed. "But when Sprite tells me that someone has decided to have you fall on your sword for a problem you weren't responsible for, that's something I have to roll out of bed for."
Reaching into the magic before me, I puppeted my hologram, making it sweep the room with his eyes, before locking onto the king and prime minister. Another gesture and the king, and him alone, was taken off of mute—the sound inversion spell keeping him quiet canceled. I sent my hologram stepping forward, bringing Sauros with me as the chains holding his arms and legs turned to dust and fell to the ground with a flex of mana.
The guards leapt to action, only to be slapped away, dragged to the walls where they were pressed firmly in place—unharmed, but not going anywhere.
Walking right up to the king, I sent the man a grin. "Good…" I checked the time, "morning. My name is Rudeus Greyrat, and I believe there's been some sort of mistake. Now, I'm guessing this is about the teleport event. Please, allow me to explain what happened, from a mage's perspective. You'll see that Sauros, Phillip, myself, and everyone involved did everything we could—"
"You waltz into my audience chamber, free my prisoner, assault my guards, and expect me to listen to anything you have to say?!" the man rose from his seat, his speech quickly rising to a roar.
"Actually, yeah," I nodded. "Now, sit down and shut the fuck up before I shut you up."
The man took on a poleaxed look for a moment.
"Master, Ariel is ready."
"Send her."
A hologram of Ariel joined me and I sent the beautiful blonde a smile. "Rudeus!" she beamed at me, her hologram reaching out and pulling mine into a hug—the entire sequence animated by Sprite.
"Hello, wife."
"Not yet. But soon~," Ariel giggled. She turned and visibly took in the whole situation, before turning to her father. "Hello, father."
"Ariel? I thought you died—"
The girl shook her head. "No. Just in hiding. Despite the Prime Minister's and my brother's best efforts to find me and have me assassinated."
I gestured towards where Darius Ganius had stood up and looked to be visibly shouting, and growing redder by the moment. "Looks like he wants to say something. Probably deny it or claim you have no evidence."
"I have all the evidence in the world," Ariel smiled. "But first, before we begin the Prime Minister's very incredibly shorttrial," the man turned and began running for the exit. "Sprite, make sure he doesn't leave, please and thank you." The man lifted into the air, still running, before he started flailing as he was lifted back to his seat and forced back down. The king was suddenly looking very nervous. The crowd, however… they were on the edge of their seats as they watched and listened—this was probably the most exciting thing they had seen all year.
Even if some of them looked particularly wary, especially at the way the Prime Minister had been handled. Take, for instance, the man who looked suspiciously like Paul and who wore the Notos Greyrat coat of arms…
"I think official introductions are in order, father. Rudy doesn't like to go throwing his weight around with his titles and such—he says he doesn't feel the need to engage in the sort of dick waving that insecure and weak people are prone to."
"I mean… yeah?" I shrugged. "It's posturing. I'm not going to bother with it when I can just actually do somethinginstead."
"American diplomacy again," Ariel sighed, sending my hologram a fond, if exasperated look. She turned back to her father. "Father, allow me to introduce my fiance." The man turned a sharp look on 'me' at that—apparently, he had dismissed our little play before with me calling her my wife. Now that she was making it official he couldn't just do that. "Rudeus Greyrat. Emperor-level Elemental Mage."
The king froze. "That's impossible."
Ariel nodded. "I don't know if you're aware, but the stones marking the Seven Great Powers have been updated. Did you see the one with the little rat on it?" The blonde pointed at me.
"I hate that system. Just because I killed Badigadi doesn't mean—"
"You killed the Fighting God, so of course you should go on the list," Ariel interrupted. It was a complaint I had voiced a few times recently when she brought it up. She thought it was great, because it was basically verifiable proof that I was a certified badass—and that kind of thing equated to political power in this world where might made right ninety percent of the time.
"He killed—no, that's. No. There are no mages that powerful, outside of Perugius."
"There is now~," Ariel leered. "Furthermore, why don't we bring in Eris?"
I shrugged. "Sure." Turning to Eris, the girl I'd pulled my arms around nodded and, a moment later, her hologram joined ours.
"Eris!"
"Grandfather!" Eris grinned at Sauros before putting herself on my left, opposite Ariel.
"Eris Boreas Greyrat. Also Rudeus's fiancee. Which makes her mine by extension. And dear Sauros is her grandfather. You know what this means, don't you?"
The king shifted in his seat, before turning and looking towards the crowd. Towards his son, the first prince—Grabell Zafin Asura. Towards Darius Ganius and who Sprite told me, on our side of the hologram, was Pilemon Notos Greyrat—and he was indeed Paul's brother. My uncle.
I snapped my fingers, using wind magic to make the sound come out more like a cannon blast. The man flinched, jerking his gaze back to me. "Don't look at them. Look at me. Now. I was the mage on site at the time. I had the most time to study the anomaly. I was a King-level mage at the time of the incident." That I was capable of silent casting went unsaid, given that I had been doing it the entire time. "When I first became aware of it, I brought up the possibility of something happening. Sauros and Phillip both had already had people investigate it, people dispatched from the capital, meaning they were directly in your employ. If they failed to find a solution, how can you expect a couple of men with no magical education or ability do it? As far as they are concerned, they did everything within their power to prevent it short of evacuating the city of Roa—which, as we've seen, would have been pointless. Sprite, aerial view, Fittoa region."
A moment later, a hologram pulled from our reconnaissance photos sprang up above us, filling the air for everyone to see clearly. A series of photos and videos taken at various altitudes and angles, to showcase the entire region, gathered over the time we had been gone. It showed Fittoa from right after the disaster, when it was a bare circle of land stripped of everything, through grass growing over it in the intervening years, to now when it had become known as the Grass Sea of Fittoa. Miles and miles of nothing but grass, with a small settlement near the center now where refugees had begun to rebuild. "As you can see, everything within a hundred mile radius was teleported away. Ten thousand square miles, knocked flat in an instant. I was there," I squeezed Eris against me and our holograms mirrored the action, "We both were. There was nothing that could be done. Believe me, I investigated it myself. The anomaly ate magic. It couldn't be moved. Couldn't be touched. And even if we had evacuated, we'd have had to abandon the entire region to avoid the blast—which you wouldn't have allowed, Fittoa being where Bardius plants were harvested. So in a way… the responsibility for this travesty falls to you. Your government, your nobles, your policies, your decisions. If anyone is going to be stripped of titles and wealth and executed for this mistake, it's going to be you. I'll make sure of it, personally."
I let that one hang for just a moment. The king's face reddened, before he paled as he realized that I was fully capable of carrying out the promise. "…I believe you may be correct… Rudeus," he tried, guessing at the fact that I didn't need the verbal ego stroking that titles represented given the way Ariel and I interacted, and I nodded. "The Fittoa Calamity was a terrible, unavoidable event that can be likened to a wildfire, tornado, flood, or earthquake. A natural disaster that couldn't have been prevented. I… was mistaken. For that, I," he gritted out the word, and apparently it tasted like shit in his mouth, but he spat it out anyway, "apologize, Sauros. No man should bear the blame for something mages couldn't foresee or prevent."
"Of course, your majesty. Your wisdom and magnanimity are truly… remarkable," Sauros sassed. "Without compare. Why, I'm sure that even if young Rudeus hadn't come along, you would surely have discerned the truth of the matter."
"Yes. I think that's quite enough praise, Lord Greyrat," the beleaguered man grumbled. I couldn't say I blamed him. It wasn't every day that someone who should ostensibly be one of your subjects came in, casually mentioned that he was essentially a nuclear armed power all to himself, and politely informed you how you were going to conduct business in your own country… and all you could do was grin and bear it.
"Alrighty then. Now that that's settled," I began, flicking my hand at the hologram above us. Sprite took the cue and dismissed it. "I'm thinking, while I've got you all here, a captive audience… so to speak." I let that one breathe long enough for them to realize that yes, they really weren't going anywhere I didn't want them to, given what happened with Darius when he tried to flee. "We might as well just go right on ahead and take care of this business now, instead of letting it go until I get back. No point in letting the rot continue to fester."
I moved back a bit, towards the center of the room. My hologram gestured while I cast through it, creating a series of steps leading up to a set of three stone thrones, all of equal height and noticeably much taller than that of the king. My hologram took Ariel's and Eris's by the hands and led them up, seating them on the thrones before plopping down in the middle one and adopting a lazy, carefree pose. "Ariel, please begin your presentation."
The king at least had the balls to stand up and begin to protest. "You can't just—"
I snapped my fingers, setting off another cannon blast of sound. "Ah, you're right. How silly of me to forget. You were going to go ahead and retire. Step down from the throne and pass the crown on to the most qualified heir." I reached out and laid a hand on Ariel's shoulder, making it plainly clear who that was. "Let's get that taken care of now, father," I emphasized our soon-to-be relation.
"I don't believe that will be necessary," he tried. "Please. Continue."
"You made it necessary when you allowed your house to fall into petty infighting, backstabbing, and allowed that piece of shit," I pointed at the soon-to-be former Prime Minister, "the power to just do whatever he wants. So. We're having a house cleaning. Starting from the top and working our way down, using the evidence we've gathered over the last years, spoken from your own lips and recorded for all to hear. Don't think of this as a coup, think of it as your retirement and your daughter's ascension to the throne, as the most viable heir. And then, when this is all said and done and you and this country are enjoying the benefits of this political marriage between your second princess and an Emperor-level mage, you'll see that it really was the best choice you could have made."
"Not much of a choice."
I shrugged. "It's better than the 'choice' your Prime Minister would have given my fiancee." I turned and fixed the fat bastard with a glare—one that was easily outstripped by Eris beside me. "Don't think we don't know it was you who ordered Eris kidnapped."
"Rudeus. I'm going to give him to Tristina." Darius began shaking his head, his lips flapping silently as he rapidly paled.
"No. I think that'd only hurt her. Why don't you handle it?"
Eris nodded. "'Kay. I'll kill him later."
I turned back to the king. "So. Go ahead and pass that crown on up here and let's get this shit show started."
The following weeks passed quickly. I handed off all the stuff in Ars to Ariel and Sprite. The Japanese reincarnation was enjoying actually having the power to start clearing out the mess she had seen and been forced to live through during her childhood. She said it was cathartic. Sylphie said she had never seen Ariel so happy. Or handsy in bed.
What's that you say? I conquered the largest nation on the Central continent, declared myself the ruler by virtue of the fact that they only continued to exist because I hadn't erased them from the face of the world, then handed off the actual work of cleaning up the mess to my fiancee and summoned spirit?
I mean… yeah? I hadn't really intended for it to happen, but what little patience I had had kind of… snapped, exploded, and burned down to ash when they decided to kill my second wife's grandfather as a fucking scapegoat. I knew, realistically, I could and should have taken a softer approach… but I was so fucking done with stupidity and things, or people, causing problems for me and mine.
And really, well, it was always going to happen eventually. We always intended for me to come back with a fleet of airships once I was done dropping off refugees, park them over the capital, and walk Ariel straight into the palace to accuse her brother and the Prime Minister and have them ousted, and from there politely ask her father to go ahead and hand over the throne to her. This just sped things up a bit.
Good news though! There weren't going to be any political roadblocks to rebuilding Fittoa and Roa. So I could put that one to bed and let Sprite handle it for now.
As for the continuing hunt for Fittoa survivors, that continued much the same as it had. Scour the surrounding area for slavers and their hideouts. Gather information. Strike. Collect slaves. Release a surviving slaver to run home to his buddies… and lead us straight to them. Repeat. Then fly them back home to their villages. All told, we collected some three hundred and change in former beastkin slaves and people looking for a change who wanted to relocate to Fittoa.
Unfortunately, it wasn't just beastkin taken by the slave rings. The Great Forest was home to beastkin, elves, and dwarves all along the east cost and halflings/hobbits on the west coast, butted up against the Blue Dragon Mountain Range separating the Great Forest from Milis. We started seeing more and more of other races, even humans.
Additionally, we actually found several Fittoa survivors who had spent the past few years living amongst the races of the Great Forest. They were, for the most part, eager to go home—with only a few actually wanting to stay, having embraced their new lives, found some niche to fit in, or a new craft or trade.
So, between Fittoa survivors and former slaves or people who wanted to leave for greener pastures so to speak, we collected over twelve hundred additional passengers. Which meant Sprite had to spend some effort collecting fruit and vegetables from the Forest, in addition to fish from the sea. Not that she minded, because she was excited for us to try new foods.
All of those extra passengers, Sprite, Roxy, and I sat down and spoke with. Well, more like we had each group who would be forming villages together elect their own leaders and we sat down with those and Rokkus. Then, we went through what would be available when they got to Fittoa. The general areas where they would or could be settled. What each village specialized in previously, if anything—and if not, if they were willing to take on a new trade, which they were.
We worked out where everyone would be resettled and who they would or could be settled beside (elves preferred not to be settled next to demons but didn't mind humans and hobbits, dwarves preferred not to be settled next to elves but had no problems with anyone else, the Migurd (in fact, most of those from the Demon Continent) didn't care who they were settled near as long as the area was nicer than what they had), the roads between villages, and so on. Then we got down into the nitty-gritty details of housing, structures, and other requirements and what we could/would be providing. For instance, nearly everyone of every race wanted larger homes and a few more empty homes because they planned to start making larger families soon.
Then, I brought in Lilia, Aisha, and Eris and got them, Sylphie, Roxy, Sauros, and Ariel together with the village leaders to discuss matters of schooling for children, and starting their children on learning magic at the earliest age possible—using my direct students as examples. Aisha, however, was the clincher there. She wasn't a direct student of mine, but a student of my student, who had learned a lot of what she knew from the books I had given her.
An idea was proposed for a large school—similar to the Ranoa Academy of Magic, but for children to learn at a lower grade level. We would have to work out transportation back and forth every day, but that wasn't really a problem given what I could build. We would make early education mandatory for everyone, commoner and noble alike, across the nation of Asura soon but Fittoa would be our test for not just a standardized education, but including magic in that education. As the lord of Fittoa, Sauros would be passing down the order officially to have the human children sent to school, with the backing of the new queen—whereas the non-human refugees looked at it as a matter of practicality. An Emperor-level mage who could cast silently was offering to teach their children magic.
They wouldn't say no, even if it meant the temporary loss of workforce in the short term… because as Aisha happily demonstrated, in the long term, having people who could run around casting magic for everyday use would improve things overall. They were especially impressed when we went down to the ground and Aisha demonstrated the process I had noted down for readying fields with Earth magic, watering them with Water magic, planting seeds with telekinesis, and then speed-growing them with Healing magic. Though, to be fair, that last one I demonstrated myself since I hadn't had time to teach Aisha how to do it yet.
Needless to say, they were very interested in their own children being able to do that in the future. Their children, their children's children, and so on.
Finally tough, we finished scouring the Great Forest and crossed over the Blue Dragon Mountain Range (taking the time to kill and store a few blue dragons for processing, to see what we could make from them) and into Milis, where more drones spread out and began scouting.
"So, that's Milishion," I muttered, looking at the city displayed in a hologram as we sat around our communal lounge area. The city was beautiful, lit up as it was in the dark, visible from miles around. I imagined it would be even more stunning in the daytime.
"It's pretty!" Aisha beamed from my lap.
"Mm!" Eris nodded, petting Tona in her own lap. "Rudeus!"
"Yeah Eris?" I asked, looking over.
The redhead took on a sudden serious look. "I want to go kill goblins."
I blinked. "Huh? Goblins?"
"Mm!"
"Why?"
"Because it's one of the first things real adventurers do!"
I considered her for a moment, before turning to Roxy. My blue-haired future wife smiled and nodded. "I don't mind. It'll be fun."
"Alright. I guess we're going to be killing some goblins."
"Yes!"
"After," I interrupted, causing Eris to pause, "we scan the city for Fittoa survivors and slaves, gather those up, resupply, and get Tona and Aisha their Adventurer cards. Then we can all go out together and do it. Sound good?"
"Sure!"
"Oi. As long as we stop to have a proper drink. Cannae believe ya would'na let me drink with my own kin—"
"Your kin who ran you out for being a homosexual deviant," Elinalise sniped.
"Says the woman who had to pay men to sleep with her," Tallhand returned fire.
Yeah, that was the kind of casual banter and shit talk that happened any time those two were in a room together. You could tell they were basically family with the way they constantly picked at each other. It was one of those love/hate relationships.
"Look," I cut in before they started going at it. "We didn't have a month for you to just sit around drinking."
"Ye coulda joined us."
"Dwarven drinking holidays are how alcoholics are made," Roxy countered.
"So that's how new dwarves are born," Elinalise nodded along.
Quietly, Ruijerd muttered, "I always suspected as much."
Look at him go, folks! Ruijerd actually has a great sense of humor, it's just convincing him to open up and get comfortable enough to display it that's the problem.
"Yeah, no thanks," Eris shook her head. "I like a pint every now and then, or a nice bottle of wine, but there's such a thing as too much."
"Blasphemy, lass! You take that back!"
"I won't! Learn some moderation!"
"I moderate it as it goes in!"
The elf rolled her eyes. "By the barrel."
"Aye," the dwarf confirmed.
"I've finished scanning the city, master," Sprite reported. "I've found several slaves being held captive. Because the normal population is almost entirely human in Milis, I'm unsure of how many of those are Fittoa survivors. Though, there are a large number of non-human slaves."
That made sense. Milis was notoriously anti-everything but human. Of course there wouldn't be much in the way of non-human population, aside from their slaves.
I couldn't say I disagreed, at least not entirely. Every other race had their own nations, there was no reason why humans shouldn't have their own as well. Even banning non-humans from their country would have been fine, normally. As long as they didn't go out and actively hunt and kill, or enslave, peaceful non-humans I wouldn't have a problem with them. They could do their thing, everyone else could do their own thing, everyone gets along.
The problem was that the Holy Kingdom of Milis was fucking huge, taking up the entire south western half of the Milis Continent, on this side of the Blue Dragon Mountains. Also, the overland route between the Demon Continent and the rest of the world cut straight through their territory. They didn't ban travel from all non-humans, thankfully, just demons specifically—those that looked grossly non-human, anyway. Races like Migurd were allowed to pass, because they typically claimed to be elves or hobbits. They just got charged more in fees and hassled more at the ports.
"Save them all. Take any slavers prisoner and bring them up as well, so we can question them about any survivors they might have taken and sold off. Keep records on who was rescued from where. If there are any nobles or royalty involved, put that in a separate file."
"Yes, master," Sprite nodded, already getting to work. Thankfully, it was already dark, so we could go ahead and begin operations on that front. It was much easier to rescue people when strangers on the street didn't see them flying through the air towards our ships.
"There is something else…"
I sent my summoned companion a curious look. "What's up?"
"I found your father."
Sprite produced a hologram, clearly of the inside of a bar. Sitting at a table with a younger woman at his side and several others gathered around, he was drinking from a tankard of beer.
Honestly, he looked like shit. Haggard. Thinner than I had last seen him. Bags under his eyes. His hair was starting to show a few strands of gray. He was unshaved and his clothes looked unwashed.
Lilia sighed. "He hasn't been taking care of himself."
I considered her for a moment as Aisha squirmed in my lap. "Can we go see papa?"
Squeezing Aisha tightly, I nodded. "Sure. Just not right now."
Aisha nodded. "Mm. I don't want to deal with him when he's drunk like this. Wait until he sobers up."
Lilia hesitantly nodded. "Tomorrow, then."
Well, this is going to be… fun.