The Pendragon Family’s Daily Life
“Satou here. Sometimes, if you run into a dead end that you can’t break through on your own, someone else might be able to figure it out from a different point of view. Although sometimes you might just wander off course.”
“Satou!”
“Hello, Ms. Aaze.”
When I arrived in our tree house in the Bolenan Forest, I was greeted by none other than my beloved high elf, Lady Aaze, her long platinum-blond hair swaying.
I was visiting to introduce Nana’s sisters to the elf teachers. Of course, the rest of my group had come along as well.
“So those are Nana’s sisters you were telling me about.”
Since I’d explained the situation over the Space Magic spell Telephone, things had gone very smoothly.
“Nice to meet you all. I am Aialize, the high elf of Bolenan Forest. Any friend of Satou’s is a friend of mine. Feel free to call me Aaze.”
“““Understood. We shall call you Aaze.”””
Nana’s sisters nodded with their usual blank expressions.
“A high elf…? You’re one of the legendary high elves?”
“Incredible.”
“Tria is surprised, too.”
The eldest three of Nana’s sisters, at least, seemed to know about high elves.
“I-it is an honor to meet you, great Holy Tree of Bolenan Forest. We are homunculi, designed by Lord Trazayuya, created by our former master, Lord Zen, and now servants of Master Satou. I am Number 1, now known as Adin. My sisters and I are eternally grateful for your compassion in allowing us to receive the teachings of the honorable elves.”
The other sisters all stared at Adin.
“Ithnani, Adin is acting strange.”
“Tria?”
The youngest sister, Huit, looked questioningly at the second-eldest, Ithnani, who immediately redirected her to Tria.
I guess Ithnani was even less talkative than I realized.
“Tria is surprised, too, but it isn’t strange. The learning apparatus taught Tria in World Knowledge III that Holy Trees are important figures who protect the world.”
The third sister, Tria, explained to the youngest sisters.
“Adin, bow.”
“Of course. Please, O Holy Tree, forgive our rudeness.”
The second-eldest pointed out a missing part of Adin’s greeting, and the two of them bowed.
“““We apologize for our rudeness, we declare.”””
The other sisters followed suit after Adin and Ithnani, bowing stiffly.
“No need to be so formal. As I said, any friend of Satou’s is a friend of mine, too. You may call me Aaze just like the other girls do.”
“““Yes, Aaze.”””
Again, the youngest five sisters all immediately agreed to Aaze’s request, and the eldest, Adin, scolded them, saying, “That’s Lady Aaze!”
Aaze said that no such titles were necessary, but then her priestess, Lua, happened to come in and call her “Lady Aaze,” so all the other sisters but Nana ended up calling her “Lady Aaze” from that point on.
“Satou, candy!”
“Candy, pleez!”
“I want some, too!”
Fairies, the doll-sized beings with wings like butterflies and dragonflies, came zooming in from the balcony of the tree house.
“““Larvae!”””
One of the fairies was caught immediately.
“Nana! Candy first.”
The fairy tried to escape, but the capturing hand refused to let go.
“That is my younger sister, Huit, not me, I declare.”
“Huh?”
“““LARVAE!”””
Nana’s sisters all flocked to the fairies.
Like Nana, they all seemed to adore small creatures. Even Adin was no exception, chasing the fairies around with her eyes sparkling.
“Geh!”
“So many Nanas!”
“This is bad.”
“Real bad!”
The fairies scattered, fleeing in all directions.
But it was impossible to escape from Nana and her sisters when their larvae senses had been activated, and the fairies were caught one after another.
Lady Aaze looked alarmed by the sudden developments.
“Satou, help us.”
“Help us, Aaze.”
I forced myself to stop admiring Aaze long enough to oblige with their request.
“Adin, Ithnani, Tria, Vier, Fünf, Seis, Huit! Let go of the fairies. Master’s orders.”
“““Yes, master.”””
The words “master’s orders” were surprisingly effective; they released the fairies immediately.
“The fairies are citizens of Bolenan Forest, too. If you want them to like you, treat them like you would a small child, not a cute animal!”
“““Yes, master.”””
The sisters obediently changed their approach toward the fairies, but now the latter already had a negative impression of them and refused to let the sisters near them.
“““Master…”””
The sisters had little to no variation in their expressions, but they still sounded despondent, so I suggested that they give the fairies candy in my stead.
While the fairies didn’t seem thrilled, they couldn’t resist the allure of candy; they snuck up cautiously, snatched the candy away, and fled before coming back for more.
Fairies forget things quickly, though. I imagined they would treat the sisters normally again by the following day.
“Yo, Satou. These are the kids you wanted us to train, huh?”
Holding her magic Blue Rose Sword in its scabbard, Pochi’s teacher, Portomea, looked up at Nana’s sisters.
In spite of her uncouth way of speaking, she had beautiful, delicate features. Her wavy hair was cut just above her shoulders, her adorable face making her look like a doll.
“Teacher, sir!”
“Hey, it’s been a minute, Pochi! You wanna go?!”
“Yes, sir!”
Pochi’s tail and arms waved happily as she ran over to Ms. Poa.
“Wait a minute, Poa. We’re here to meet these girls today.”
Tama’s teacher, Shishitouya, an elf dressed in light samurai-like garb, scolded Ms. Poa. Tama stood nearby grinning, and Mr. Shiya patted her head.
“Shiya’s right. Sorry, Poa, but can you wait to spar with your pupil until after our introductions?”
“Oh fine, Hiya.”
Mr. Hishirotoya, Lulu’s shooting teacher and the ringleader of the elf teachers, was able to rein in Ms. Poa.
“Sorry, Pochi. We’ll have our fun later.”
“Roger that, sir!” Pochi saluted cheerfully.
“So you’re Nana’s sisters, eh?”
Mr. Hishirotoya introduced Mr. Shiya and Ms. Poa, followed by a few later arrivals: Liza’s teachers, the spriggan short spear user, Mr. Yusaku, and the quiet elf helix spear user, Mr. Gurgapoya; then Nana’s teachers, the equally quiet elf and Magic Sword user, Gimasarua (Ms. Gia), and the dwarf shield user, Mr. Keriul.
“Are you all aiming to be shield users like Nana?”
“I am a shield user, but my younger sisters each have their own favored weapon.” Adin spoke for the sisters. “We’d be deeply appreciative if you could teach them corresponding techniques.”
“Tria wants to be a cook,” Tria added, eliciting a smile from Mr. Hishirotoya.
“Then I’ll introduce you to our chef, Nea, later. She’s an expert in elf cooking—I’m sure you’ll learn a lot from her.”
“Thank you! Tria will do her best!” Tria smiled brightly and nodded.
“Oh, I know. If you like cooking, want to try learning how to use bows and traps, too? If you can procure your own birds and beasts, it’ll be a great help for cooking while you’re camping out.”
“Tria is very intrigued!”
Unaware that she was playing right into Mr. Hishirotoya’s hands, Tria happily agreed to train in marksmanship and traps.
Soon, the other sisters had all paired off with their own teachers, too, and they all went off to train.
“Master, we wish to engage in additional training, too, I request.”
The beastfolk girls all chimed in agreement with Nana.
I guess their matches with the Shiga Eight Swordsmen had gotten them excited to get stronger.
“What about you, Lulu and Arisa?”
Mia wasn’t around, as her parents had appeared shortly after our arrival in the tree house and carried her off.
“I’m going to bring some sakura salmon and mochi to Ms. Nea, and learn some new recipes from her.”
“I think I’ll go to the sewing workshop, since I’ve got some things to make for the Echigoya Company. We’re staying in the tree house today, right?”
“Yeah, we’ll head back tomorrow morning.”
It would be nice to stay longer, but it was best not to leave our home in the royal capital empty for too long. We should’ve brought a few of the maids from Labyrinth City along to the royal capital.
“Now, where should we do the training…”
Our home turf in the Celivera Labyrinth would be an obvious choice, but considering that lately my group had been hunting so much they’d put a big dent in the monster population, it was probably best to go somewhere else.
“What about that place Viscount Nina and Baron Muno were talking about before?” Arisa suggested.
“Ah, you mean taking back the city that’s been taken over by monsters?”
I was a little worried the monsters would get scared away by our group and run outside the city, potentially wreaking havoc on nearby villages.
“Why don’t you go take control of the City Core first and put a barrier around the city to blockade it?”
“Hmm, let’s see…”
I used my Space Magic spell Telephone to ask the desert City Core I controlled whether that was possible.
“What’s the verdict?”
“It wouldn’t be possible alone, but it’ll work if I link it with another City Core, it sounds like.”
I was worried about my City Core’s magic power stores, but it reported that it was already fully charged.
Since I was in control of a superior territory—probably the mana source in the Valley of Dragons—the City Core explained that it was able to recharge much faster than expected because of the massive amount of magic flowing from there.
“All right, shall we go?”
I had arrived at the unmanaged city in Muno Barony with my companions in tow, decked out in their secret armor, golden or otherwise. We used the Return spell and the small airship, so less than an hour had passed.
The city itself was treated as a separate map; as soon as we arrived above it, I used “Search Entire Map” to inspect the monsters in the city.
“So waaarm…”
“Hot and humid, sir.”
I inwardly agreed with the pair as I checked the information about the monsters.
Unlike the rest of Muno Barony, which tended toward the cooler side, the air above the city was as warm as an early summer day. This was probably an adjustment from the City Core.
“Lots of monsteeers…?”
“So much Mr. Meat, sir.”
“That looks like a lot of snake meat. Since there are so many, perhaps we should collect the insect monsters afterward instead.”
Naga were monsters that looked like giant snakes with bat wings and four legs, which we saw frequently in the southeast of the neighboring Ougoch Duchy. Despite all appearances, they were actually incredibly tasty.
“Agreed, I declare.”
We looked down at the city from above, searching for a place to land.
Some flying monsters attacked along the way, but my bow, Nana’s Foundation, and the beastfolk girls’ throwing weapons made short work of them. Of course, I used Magic Hand to touch the corpses and put them into Storage.
“Master, a giant naga is coming from the castle!”
“Master, its colors are unpleasantly garish, I report.”
“That really is big for a naga.”
What is that, exactly?
In response to my query, a transparent pop-up window appeared on my AR display with the words “Elder Naga.”
It was level 50, the same as the areamasters we had hunted aplenty by now. Theoretically, this group could probably handle it, but it would be a tough fight against a flying monster without the three rear guard girls who specialized in long-range attacks.
“Let’s jump over and cut its wings off first.”
“Aye-aye.”
“Roger that, sir.”
I was about to fight it myself instead, but the girls seemed eager for a battle.
“I will use my new Foundation technique ‘Jet Javelin’ to attack its eyes, I report.”
The beastfolk girls looked shocked at Nana’s declaration; they nodded grimly, looking like they were fighting back tears.
“Is something wrong with attacking the eyes?” I asked.
“They’re yummyyy…”
“Very tasty, sir.”
I see. I guess I did have a younger relative who always ate her whole-cooked fish starting with the eyes at New Year’s.
“Then do you want me to take it down instead?”
“No, there are other naga. This one will serve not as a feast, but as experience points.”
Liza held back her sorrow as she gazed at the Elder Naga rising from the ground.
It made for a pretty dramatic scene, except she was really just giving up on the tastiest part of the monster.
“Let’s go!”
“Rally-ho~”
“Tally-ho, sir.”
“Fire, I declare.”
The instant the airship and the Elder Naga passed each other, the girls jumped over to it.
Nana’s “Jet Javelin” crushed one of the Elder Naga’s eyes, but the other one managed to escape unharmed.
However, while the Elder Naga was distracted by her attack, Pochi’s enlarged Magic Sword struck one of its wings.
Pochi’s strike was powered by spinning her entire body like a top, enough that it sliced right through the naga’s magic barrier and cut off one of its wings.
It hadn’t become a special attack skill just yet, but I imagined it would soon. Maybe it’d be called “Vanquish Slicer” or something?
“…Tama?”
As the Elder Naga plunged into a tailspin, Liza, Pochi, and Nana jumped back onto the airship, but Tama was still hanging on to its neck. At first, I thought she had missed her chance to jump, but I changed my mind when I saw the look in her eyes.
Tama had a plan.
Falling backward toward the ground, the Elder Naga shifted at the last moment and crashed headfirst into the ground instead. A cloud of dust and rubble flew into the air.
The naga lay dazed, partway buried in the ground.
“It’s the ‘Naga Drop’ jutsu, sir!” Pochi exclaimed.
I guess I had seen some moves like that in ninja manga and fighting games.
Even at over level 50 with “Body Strengthening” that made her near-superhuman, I hadn’t expected Tama to pull off such a manga-like move in real life. I had to wonder whether the craziness came from the “Ninjutsu” skill or from Tama herself.
“Now is our chance, I declare.”
“Charge! Sir.”
“Let’s go.”
Nana, Pochi, and Liza jumped from the airship toward the base of the Elder Naga’s neck as it lay on the ground.
Their golden armor could definitely absorb a lot of shock, but it was still a pretty reckless thing to do.
“‘Blast Armor,’ I declare.”
Nana’s attack crushed what was left of the naga’s magic barrier and tough scales.
“‘Vanquish Strike,’ sir!”
“‘Draco Buster.’”
Pochi and Liza flew like two arrows of red light, piercing the broken scales side by side and shattering the Elder Naga’s neck.
That was a much quicker kill than I expected.
“Good work, you four. That was impressive.”
I landed the airship at the fortress ruins where the Elder Naga had landed and praised the group.
Then I put them in charge of destroying the monsters within the city limits while I took control of the City Core and put up a barricade around the city as planned.
“The blockade’s all set. Do you need a base?” I asked Liza through the use of Telephone.
“No, it’s all right. We’re hunting on the move.”
There were several other level-40-and-up monsters besides that Elder Naga when we first arrived, but the girls had already brought down half of them. Though the remaining monsters were level 30 and below, they numbered in the tens of thousands. Maybe running around hunting them was safer than fighting in a base and getting surrounded.
Liza told me that Nana wanted to ask me something, so I connected the Space Magic spell Telephone to her instead.
“Master, I request equipment that will speed up my rate of monster extermination.”
“All right, I’ll see what I can come up with.”
Nana’s armor was designed for defense against powerful opponents, but it wasn’t quite ideal for exterminating large swarms of monsters.
It would be tough to add any more features to her golden armor; I decided to try to make some kind of additional equipment for wiping out weaker monsters instead.
“Liza, I’m heading back to Bolenan Forest for now, but I’ll leave Telephone connected. If it looks like anything might go wrong, please contact me right away.”
“Understood.”
Liza sounded a degree more cheerful than usual. I couldn’t help grinning to myself, picturing her excitedly chasing monsters around.
I used the Clairvoyance spell to check on everyone, then moved away from the city with “Flashrunning.”
Before I returned to Bolenan Forest, I wanted to check on the old folks and kids who were living in our Muno Barony villa—the one that used to be a haunted fortress.
“Who goes there?!”
As I rode up to the gates on a golem horse, a young voice called out to me.
The gate was lowered most of the way, enough that a child could just barely enter by crouching down low.
Since Muno Barony was still far from being a safe place, these sorts of precautions were probably necessary.
“I am Akindoh, a merchant. Sir Pendragon sent me.”
I was disguised as my fictional merchant alias.
“Is dat Mr. Pendragon’s friend?”
“Go get Gramps, kiddo.”
“Okey!”
The boy who’d stopped me sent a smaller child running back into the fortress.
I thought it was wisely cautious of him not to let me in just because I gave a familiar name.
Soon, the child came back with an older gentleman, the one who’d been a civil official in the Muno Marquisate days.
“So, you say Sir Knight sent you…?”
“Yes, my name is Akindoh. This is a dagger Sir Pendragon gave me with his seal on it.”
“Aye, that’s his seal, all right. Welcome, Mr. Merchant.” The old man gave the signal for the gate to be lifted. “Hope ye don’t mind if we hang on to yer weapon. It’s just us old folks and kids here, after all.”
I gave him the dagger and the iron sword at my waist.
I checked in on them regularly with Clairvoyance, but the place gave a very different impression up close and in person.
Vegetables were growing in the garden we’d made, and there were fenced-in goats and orange chickens munching on weeds and vegetable scraps.
“No way!”
My eyes widened when I saw what a handful of elderly ladies and young girls were making in the garden.
“We have a guest?”
“Pardon my rudeness. Are you making dried gourds, by any chance?”
“Oh-ho, you know it?”
“There’s lots of moonflowers what grow in these mountains. We dry the ones we don’t get ’round to eating like this so they’ll keep longer,” an old woman explained.
I had no idea that moonflowers grew into bottle gourds, which could be used to make kanpyou, or strips of dried gourd, a classic Japanese cooking ingredient.
The elderly woman gave me a basic recipe and agreed to sell me some already dried gourds at a reasonable price.
“They’re not really all that tasty, are they?”
“I’m going to use them for makizushi,” I told the former civil official, and I apologized for my sudden outburst.
I wanted to make makizushi right there on the spot, but I’d have to come up with the best way to boil and season the kanpyou first, so I decided to hold off for the time being.
We relocated to a sitting room, and I asked about their lives and if there was anything they needed.
“Actually, we don’t need a thing. Traveling merchants have been coming through lately.”
Viscount Emerin had learned about this place when he was visiting his orchard outside Muno City, and he had kindly instructed his regular merchants to stop by here on their way to meet up for trade. I would have to thank him next time we met.
They added that this was a recent development; they’d sent me a letter about it, but it hadn’t reached me just yet.
“Well, Sir Knight asked me to bring you these.”
I gave them a set of magic potions for stamina, fever reduction, and other health-related concerns, as well as some mental training magic tools like the ones I gave out at the Labyrinth City orphanage. Since the old man who had once been a civil official could read, I left the written instructions with him.
“Oooh, what’s dis?”
“It’s a sword!”
“This one makes a funny noise!”
As the children started picking up the training toys and exclaiming happily, I quickly left the fortress behind.
Once I was out of sight, I used Return to teleport to Bolenan Forest, golem horse and all.
“All righty, production’s finished.”
I wiped my brow as I looked over all the magic tool core parts, magic ovens, and other home conveniences, which I was planning to deliver to the Echigoya Company.
They were all mass-produced versions of tools I had made before.
By using a combination of my magic production device and my original Practical Magic spell Data Output, which uploaded information from my Menu, I could reproduce the same magic tool many times incredibly simply.
It was a little tiring, though, since it required a lot of magic power.
As I took from Storage the blue-green tea Lulu had made for me in advance and sipped it, I heard a bell summoning me from the underground research lab where I was working.
“Lord Satou, your guests have arrived.”
The voice coming through the intercom-style magic tool belonged to the house fairy, Mr. Gillil, who was in charge of the underground lab.
“Thank you, Gillil. Send them down here, please.”
“Of course, sir.”
Before long, Mr. Kiya and Ms. Doa from the elf magic tool workshop arrived by way of the teleport mirror, along with a few other engineers. For some reason, Ms. Aaze was with them, too.
After I greeted Mr. Kiya and company, I addressed Aaze behind them.
“It’s unusual to see you come all this way, Ms. Aaze. Is something the matter?”
“I’m sorry, Satou…”
Why is she apologizing?
“Good to see you again, Satou. We wanted to get your opinion on the newest update to our geosynchronous satellite observation golem, Kakashi MK 8—”
“Quit babbling, Keze of Bulainan! Satou, our jellyfish investigation deep-space golem Satellite One is coming along nicely. By the new year, it should be approaching the asteroid belt you mentioned.”
Keze, the high elf of the Bulainan clan, and Saaze, the high elf of the Beliunan clan, pushed past Aaze and started clamoring to talk to me.
The pair of them were particularly obsessed with research, even by the standards of their science-loving clans, and I’d helped them a bit with developing their outer space, or void, research golems.
“I see you’re here in person today, not just an image. Is it all right for high elves to leave their own World Tree?”
“Hmm? Sure, as long as we’re not on duty.”
“Yeah, it’s fine. Everyone but Aaze here has backup.”
They explained that they’d come by way of the fairy rings that linked the World Trees with teleportation.
Keze and Saaze both tended to talk at great length, so we decided to take care of my business before theirs.
“I see… So you want to improve on this.”
“Incredible! How did you manage to integrate the magic circuits so well?!”
When I showed the Fortress defense feature I’d built into Nana’s golden armor to Keze and Saaze, they were immediately fascinated.
Its defensive power was almost unnecessarily high, but the drawback was that it couldn’t be moved once it was activated.
I had gathered the elf engineers to help me find a workaround for that weak point.
“The idea of putting a Holytree Stone furnace in an expanded subspace has existed for a long time, but no one like us has ever managed to successfully put it into practice.”
“Usually, the huge amount of magic that leaks from the Holytree Stone furnace rips the subspace apart, or the conducting wires that supply the magic burn, or the boundary of the subspace wears down and breaks. It’s incredibly difficult to implement.”
Mr. Kiya and Ms. Doa were crossing their arms and staring in amazement, too.
I was only now finding out that even though it seemed like a simple idea in theory, there was a reason that it was almost never done in practice.
“So, you want to make this thing move?”
“That’s probably not possible if you’re using the principles of magic like Deracinator or Dimension Pile.”
Ah, I was afraid of that.
“If you’re also using Removable Deracinator, why not just switch everything over to that system?”
“Wouldn’t that consume far too much magic when it deflects a large amount of matter?”
“Well, if you don’t need to move it too many times, what about stationary walls that are disposable?”
Keze and Saaze offered some constructive suggestions.
“That’s impossible, Keze. Look how complicated these circuits are. Once you disposed of one wall, it would take ages before you could create a new one. That’s fine for everyday use, but it’d never hold up to the speed of battle.”
“As usual, you’re not thinking outside the box, Saaze. Why not just add multiple circuit systems?”
“Multiple… I see, if you can install it in a stable subspace, then you don’t need to worry about circuit capacity. I’m a little worried about whether it’d hold up to the shock waves of multiple Holytree Stone engines, but if the information on this ‘day-tah sheet’ is true, then ten or twenty would be fine.”
“You could even throw in a hundred of them and include both a chain-activating mobile mode and a simultaneously running super-strong defense mode. That’d be interesting.”
“So instead of a fixed Fortress, it’d be a mobile Fortress or a Castle…”
These two weren’t top researchers for nothing. Just the idea of a mobile Fortress or an ultra-defensive Castle mode sounded exciting to me.
“Erm, do you mind if I make a small suggestion?”
Ms. Doa, the head of the magic tool workshop, timidly approached the two high elves.
The other high elf, Ms. Aaze, was sitting in a corner, drinking some grape juice Mr. Gillil had given her and smiling in our direction.
I gave her a little wave, then listened to Doa’s opinion.
“Yes, go ahead.”
“Let us hear your thoughts, Doa of Bolenan.”
“O-of course. I believe the magic circuits on the golden armor are already near the limit of integration. Putting multiples of the same device in the subspace is one thing, but would it not be difficult to equip the armor itself with the capacity to activate them?”
At that, Keze and Saaze looked at each other.
Even they couldn’t come up with a solution for that.
“You got anything?”
“Satou, surely you can come up with something?”
“Let me think…”
It would be impossible to increase the armor’s amount of components with my current equipment.
If I could use chants, I’d be able to control Space Magic much more precisely and could probably increase its capacity a hundredfold without a problem, but that wasn’t helpful right now. I tried to think of something else.
“If we made some kind of enhanced armament and attached the additional features to that, it might be possible.”
“Enhanced armament?”
“Yes, like a vehicle or an exoskeleton.”
I pictured my group flying through the sky in skimpy armor.
Basically, I was describing the sort of power suits that appeared in the science fiction light novels and anime that were popular when I was in school.
There were some that could even combine into a robot-like moving fort.
“That would increase the capacity, too.”
“And an additional piece of equipment could be traded out, depending on the goal.”
Keze and Saaze immediately understood my suggestion and nodded.
Since they’d been doing research for thousands of years now, it was easy for them to extrapolate from a small amount of information.
“That was a pretty productive session.”
“It’s too bad we weren’t able to incorporate the Heavenslight Protection from Lalakie.”
“I think I’ll be able to solve a lot of issues, thanks to all your help.”
Because of the elf engineers Keze, Saaze, and Doa testing things out with me until nearly evening, my prototype was mostly complete.
As an experiment, I tried reducing the golden armor’s circuits a little and changing its color to silver or to red leather armor instead, but those options didn’t seem to have much use aside from spare armor for my companions.
I also tried equipping the armor with “phalanx” circuits that had the disposable version of the Fortress feature, but there were too many issues in the way of completing that version, for the time being.
The one function I was able to successfully implement was a Voice-Changing feature. Technically, it was attached to the neckplate that went on beneath the armor, not to the golden armor itself. I figured it would help disguise the wearer in case they ever had to appear in front of other people in the golden armor.
“One day is far from enough. We need to study this for at least a hundred years.”
That was a typical opinion for a high elf, since their life spans were almost unnecessarily long.
“Humans don’t live long enough for that.”
“Oh, really? Right. I forgot you were a human, Satou.”
That was probably a sign of how thoroughly they accepted me.
“More importantly, let’s have a toast to our successful research results.”
“Good idea. I’ve been wondering where that tempting smell is coming from for a while now.”
“Me too. I haven’t had dragonspring liquor in three hundred years.”
We shared a toast with dragonspring liquor and parted ways, and I went to deliver the oven magic tools and such to the Echigoya Company as Akindoh.
“Now, which should I make first…?”
Once that was done, I headed into a back alley to teleport, murmuring to myself.
There was the mobile Fortress feature to expand on Nana’s armor’s Fortress function feature; the enhanced armament with the Castle feature; a floating Fortress for Lulu based on the same principles, or a floating magic support system for Arisa and Mia; offensive armor for the attacker group…a bunch of fantasy-like equipment had been added to my to-do list.
It would be difficult to make them one at a time, so I decided to start with the magic equipment and techniques I’d need for Nana’s and Lulu’s armor.
If I could finish one or two before the end of the year, that would be perfect—no, if I reduced my sleep to the bare minimum, I could probably squeeze in everything.
Shaking my head at my own workaholic thoughts, I used Return to go back to pick up Liza and the others from their hunt in Muno Barony.
“I don’t know how you can eat eyeballs like that…”
Arisa grimaced as she watched the beastfolk girls happily devour the giant eyeball.
“Deliiish…?”
“It’s really yummy, sir.”
“Yes, it has a mild flavor, smooth yet faintly unctuous mouthfeel, and a thick and savory center with a slight touch of bitterness. When you chew on it, a faint sweetness mingles with…”
Liza’s food reportage was getting lengthier by the day.
It goes without saying that this giant eyeball came from the Elder Naga that Liza and the others defeated that afternoon.
By the time I went to get them, they had already finished wiping out the monsters and retrieved the cores from the tens of thousands of monster corpses, and they had even broken down the meat and materials from a few dozen of them, beginning with the Elder Naga.
I used a combination of Magic Hand and Storage to collect all the corpses and materials, then changed the barricade from the City Core to a general anti-monster barrier and relinquished my control over the City Core.
Aside from whatever the elves wanted, most of the materials we acquired from this monster massacre would probably stay in Storage indefinitely.
The meat was a different matter, though.
Pochi and Tama seemed most excited about the Elder Naga eyeball, which I had Ms. Nea and the other elf chefs prepare right away.
I had them prepare the long-awaited kanpyou by simmering the dried gourd strips in a simple base of mirin, soy sauce, and sugar, so the makizushi rolls were already good to go.
Sadly, aside from Arisa and me, nobody else seemed particularly impressed with them.
Since I’d made extra, I planned to bring them to the reincarnations who lived in the Lower Stratum of the labyrinth, like Yuika and Ban, next time I was back in that area.
Regardless, I was extremely satisfied to finally eat makizushi with kanpyou again.
As I was enjoying the makizushi with some hot tea, Huit came over with an update.
“Master, the naga kabayaki is delicious, I report.”
She was holding a soy sauce–broiled skewer in each hand, giving off an incredibly pleased air, despite her expressionless face.
“I agree with Huit, I declare.”
“Tria also believes that naga kabayaki should be spread throughout the world, I assert.”
The other sisters seemed to be enjoying the kabayaki just as much as the beastfolk girls.
It seemed like their training with the elf teachers had been pretty intense, but the elves were experienced enough to know how far to push pupils without going overboard; thus, the homunculi sisters still had enough energy to eat.
The sauce used for the kabayaki skewers this time around was an experimental new recipe Lulu and Nea developed, using ant honey from Labyrinth City in place of sugar, and it was surprisingly delicious. This new sauce might be the perfect thing for the Echigoya Company’s new food carts.
“So, how’d taking that city back go?”
“Deliciooous…”
“There was lots of meat, sir!”
Ignoring Tama’s and Pochi’s usual responses, Arisa looked at Liza, who’d finished her share of the eyeball and was reaching for some naga kabayaki.
At that, Liza stopped and responded with a glance in my direction.
“There were a few stronger enemies, but overall most of them were weak monsters level 20 and below.”
“Oh dear, what about the experience points, then?” Arisa asked me.
“It was more time-efficient than going around to wipe out monster territories, but not much more experience than a single area of the labyrinth.”
As I gave my response, I compared Liza’s current experience bar to the numbers I’d noted before the undertaking.
“It’d be nice if we could find some better hunting grounds besides the Celivera Labyrinth, huh?”
“Well, there are other labyrinths besides Celivera. Once the kingdom meeting in the royal capital is over, we can check out some labyrinths as part of our sightseeing tour around the world.”
As I’d discovered in my tour of the Celivera Labyrinth’s Lower Stratum, there were a surprising number of sightseeing spots to be found inside labyrinths.
“Master, we must say farewell for now.”
Adin came over to bid me farewell on behalf of the homunculi sisters.
“Do as your teachers say, and be careful not to get hurt, all right?”
With that, we left Bolenan Forest behind.
Of course, we had already said good-bye to Nana’s other sisters, Ms. Aaze, and the rest of our friends in Bolenan Forest.
I wished we could have stayed longer, but we had to get back because I’d been invited to a garden party at Count Litton’s home that afternoon.
We stopped by Paradise Island on the way back, but only long enough to give Rei and her sister Yuuneia some naga meat, fun magic tools, and other gifts, since we didn’t have much time to chat.
I was planning to go back to Bolenan Forest before the end of the year to check on Nana’s sisters, at which point we could stick around and catch up a little longer.
Maybe we could stay in Bolenan Forest for more than just a night or two next time, too?
I did want to continue developing new equipment in the underground research lab.
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