Chapter 53

"Why are you hugging Bell?" Hestia usually didn't get jealous when I gave Bell the odd bit of attention, since she knew I wasn't interested, had proven so by getting married and having children, and generally limited my attention to small moments of contact. A hug here, a hair ruffle there, you know, little things you might do to a sibling.

Today however, I was holding Bell off the ground and giving him the biggest hug ever. The kind where you pick someone up, mush them to your chest, and then swing them back and forth like your favourite pillow. It obviously wasn't because I wanted to carry him off someplace (I wasn't interested, and Aisha, Haruhime and I finally did a little catching up the other day), but because he was a great lucky charm.

So, after putting a mildly stunned Bell back where I found him, I put a hand on Hestia's shoulder, and made a wide sweeping motion with my hand. "Do you see these wagons, Lady Hestia?" We had what amounted to a full twenty wagons surrounding the construction site. Each and EVERY one of them was drawn by four horses, and loaded with that nice white marble with the mild black veins running through it, just like our original home used to have.

"Well, yes. Hard to miss." She gave me a grumpy look.

"Stonebelter just did a little tour, and every single block is perfect. There were no incidents on the way here, no one got hurt loading it, and they are here two days early." I explained, "Doesn't that sound just a little lucky to you?"

She crossed her arms and seemed determined to pout at least a little more, but finally just gave up and sighed, "Okay, yes, it does seem lucky."

She then grabbed Bell's arm and gave it a hug. This of course made most of his arm vanish between her divine assets, but instead of turning into a stuttering idiot, or blushing as red as Welf's hair, he knelt down so Hestia could give him a headpat. "Thank you Lady Hestia, Miss Kodori." He said, "Was... this why you gave me the money to pay for the stone?"

Don't let his innocent looks fool you, he was still very sharp when it came to most things. "I had a theory that your 'luck' only works when you are directly involved. Remember? I said, 'This money is yours, go pay for the stone with it please?'"

He puzzled over the words, then his eyes went wide, "That made the money mine, so if I used it, I would be directly involved with buying it!"

"I don't get it." Hestia admitted, "Why would that matter? You aren't teaching him weird things are you?"

"Ah, um... Miss Delly has been teaching me to be subtle." Bell said, "And how to read people better."

"Her race, the Fairy, can't lie. They also can't break promises." I explained, "This makes them experts in misdirection and speaking truth, without actually giving things away. We've thought long and hard on how falna works, and it's kind of like a contract. Something else the Fairy take super seriously."

"So... If Bell has the Lucky skill, only Bell is lucky. But, if he is involved, his luck can effect the results... So you got him involved in buying the stone, so the entire event would be lucky?" Hestia strung a bunch of guesses together.

"That's exactly it." I nodded.

"And your curse, 'weapons used to attack will break on impact'." Hestia mused, "A knife is a weapon, until it's used as a tool. So you can cut up food or skin monsters, but not hurt someone."

"I can also touch the plate with my knife edge, but if I try and stab the plate, using the 'tool' incorrectly, it will break." I nodded, "Many of the skills and talents described on our backs are much less difficult to understand, if you can think about it like this."

Hestia finally relented, and tugged my hand so I'd bend down. "Okay, I forgive you." She gave my ears a careful pat, making all my tails swish happily, "I suppose we have work to do again..."

"We do." I nodded, "Today we get to start the second floor. If you're feeling adventurous yourself, Lady Hestia, why not work with Weine and make clay for the roof? We're going to need thousands of tiles.

The next week wasn't actually building the second floor. Not quite. It was planning for the things we would be putting up there, while making sure the first floor had what it needed to get those things up there in the first place.

Stairs were one such thing. What goes up and down, but never moves? Yes, stairs. The new layout of the Manor still had the dual 'half spiral' split staircase of the original. (A single set of stairs about half way up, then the split and half spiral the rest of the way). We, the occupants, debated on this, but then Haruhime hinted at a sad face, and mentioned our wedding, so, debate stopped and we got to designing and cutting the stone and marble for it. We also made sure to put stairs in at both ends of the halls, since the Manor was a 'U' shape.

Pipes. Pipes were another very important thing. Our baths were on the first floor sure, but most of the bedrooms were on the second floor, and having to walk all the way down stairs and in some cases down two or three hallways, just to get to the bathroom in the middle of the night... Thanks to just how modern Orario was, thanks to the power of the magic stone, running water was not only common, but in -almost- every household. So, bathrooms on both floors, running water on both floors, and our 'grand bath house' on the first floor.

We didn't need to worry about electrical, but one day...

I also mentioned something I wanted on the roof above my future lab, but Goibniu and the Ribhus looked at me like I was insane. I then showed them both a little demonstration of 'ratio gears', basically a gear system that acts like a pulley system. Two rotations moved the bigger gear one turn, but took half the effort of a one-to-one mechanism. Like a pulley, this could be done more or less infinitely, but the less effort it took, the longer it would take to move. What did I want? A retractable roof. I wanted a telescope.

They still thought I was crazy, but they didn't mind helping me try to build it.

"Things are really shaping up." I mused, looking at the mostly built front of the Manor. We kept the same design, the front 'porch' nice and prominent, so we could later mount our emblem over it again, but also so the gods could relax and watch their children (us) spar in the morning.

"They might act a little goofy, but those three really did well with our front wall there." Welf waved a hand at our restored 'wall of hands' the still scorched marble having been taken down, and put back up again by the expert hands of the three Ribhus.

"How's our supply of stone? Do we need to order some now and save time later? Or will we have enough?"

"Ah..." Bell looked at a bit of paper, "Lord Goibniu said we have a little more than we need, but we should order more wood now, so we don't have to wait for it when we get to the roof."

"Good call." Welf nodded, "There isn't a lot of wood in the structure this time. But we're still going to need some." He sighed, "All those bookshelves you want to make... Are you sure we need a library?"

"Lady Astraea and Lord Takemikazuchi want to run a school, not just for the orphans. And for that we need books." I said, Bell and I giving Welf a firm 'nod nod' "Besides, with Odds and her new template tables," That's what she called them, "We can make all kinds of wood stuff really fast, without needing to measure everything three times before cutting."

"It IS a time saver, I'll admit." Welf nodded, "Just like building the stair wells first, then mounting cranes on them. That's really saving time getting the stone to the second floor."

"Well, not all of us can throw a block of marble accurately, or have it stay in one piece when it gets there." No, I didn't even try and play catch with the blocks, "It's another thing we do where I'm from." It was only half the explanation, since the only elevator in the city was in Babel and I hardly suspected they used a crane to build it.

"Speaking of time..." Bell looked towards the nearest shadow, then up in the general direction of the sun, "I should hurry to the markets with Lilly, or we won't have dinner for the workers.

Welf and I watched him run off, meeting up with a giant backpack that got up and started walking a moment later. "We should fire up the glass furnace." Welf reminded me, "They'll be leaving soon, and you wanted to give them an Occulus, right?"

I nodded, remembering "Oh yeah. Silly me, almost forgot... I also need to get one to Marius... I'll work the glass, but can you make a couple of ko-steel plates? I have to make something a little extra because of the distance."

During the next week, I was gently (given a little sleeve tug and an -almost- sad look) reminded that it was my turn to go to I AM GANESHA to watch over our children for the day. Now, I'll admit, the work was moving really fast now. Most of the second floor inner walls were done, the floors were almost ready to be poured, and a lot of the 'extra bits' (like little stone pillars for the balconies) had been done already. It had been super busy and productive, and I was already planning for what was next.

But, it would have to wait until tomorrow. Because I didn't want that -almost- sad look to become an -actual- sad look. So, I brushed Haruhime's hand away, captured it, pulled her in for a huge hug, and thanked her for the reminder. (And since we were still at the Madam's place, and alone save for the children, a little extra attention, since no one was looking.)

As usual, we were met by Aisha, who gave us a knowing look at Haruhime's still blushing face, but didn't comment as she fell into place beside us both, instead telling us about some of the random things that went on in the last few days to pass the time on the way to the Manor.

Once there, breakfast was had, the general plan for the day shared, and we all split again to fulfill our tasks for the day.

A little later, happily squeaking children being pushed along in the giant rolling crib, I arrived in the I AM GANESHA daycare. And the first thing to greet me was...

"Yay! It's auntie Kodori!"

Not only were the orphans who usually stayed with Takemikazuchi here, but a bunch of other children from around the city. Citizen's children, adventurer's children, orphans, of almost every race the city held. And, collectively, I was known as 'Auntie'. Meh, not the worst thing I'd ever been called, haha.

So, I continued rolling my crib along to its usual resting spot, my tails swishing playfully at the gathering children, mostly to keep them amused and out of the way while I parked my own children. The youngest here, aside from them, was about four years, while the oldest was ten (or eleven? He was an orphan and didn't know his birthday, so we guessed). Quite the age range, but they were all good kids, and aside from the very occasional 'but I was playing with it first' everyone got along.

One of the other adults, a Ganesha Familia lady who looked far too gentle for dungeon work (but I knew better), helped herd the children away while I got my own kids settled in and made sure no one needed (yeah, of course you'd make a mess ten minutes after I changed you...) a diaper change.

The Hearthstone mini-diplomat, the half elf child from Rakia managed to slip past the Ganesha lady, but stopped as my tails went to investigate who was behind me, "Lady Kodori." She greeted, my tails switching from 'who dis' to 'hug dis', making her giggle, "Did you bring another one of those things today?"

I smiled, giving Toshi's ears a pat for staying still for me, "I did." I nodded while putting him back in with his siblings, "And I think you'll all love it."

Now, this might have just been me being overly paranoid. Or maybe I'd watched far too many movies on the subject. But, while I'd been working with the children here, I'd been slowly bringing little science experiments with me. I mean, if I was going to sit among the children, (I was even getting paid!) I was going to at least try and be entertaining while I did it. But, anyone could play tag, or hide and seek, or do a story time...

Instead, I was trying to teach them stuff. Really simple stuff too. Because of my little bit of paranoia, it had to be simple enough for the parents to understand as well, since I didn't want to be suddenly accused of trying to teach 'outlandish' things to their children. The daycare was still a business, and I didn't want anyone taking their children elsewhere because the 'Ganesha people' were teaching their children weird things.

So, yeah. When I visited with the children, it was 'simple science time'. Today's lesson?

"So, as you all know, we're building a new home for my Familia." I said, reaching into my 'all purpose' pouch and taking out an object wrapped up in cloth. "And of course, since we don't want to live in a dark box, we're putting in windows."

I unwrapped the object, and looked over to the Ganesha lady. She nodded and brought over a big white sheet of paper, "Here you go." And she set it behind...

A tall triangular prism. It had taken a couple of tries, but I made it while making Occulus. Unlike the Occulus, this was just clear glass.

"Today's lesson starts with something you only notice when there is too much, or none at all."

"Smell?" Someone guessed, getting a few giggles from the other children.

"Well, that's not wrong I guess." I accepted a second item from the Ganesha Lady, a magic stone lamp with a special cover over the glass. Commonly, this would be called a 'bullseye lantern', or a 'signal lantern'. By moving the cover, I could basically turn it on and off, while the lamp itself was still lit. A moment later, the room started to darken as the Lady touched all the lamps around the room. "When there is too much light, your eyes hurt. But when there is too little, well, it's hard, or impossible to see."

"But... I can still see fine." A little cat-girl said, a chienthrope boy nodding next to her.

"We'll get back to that." I said with a smile, "Has anyone seen a rainbow before?" Of course, I got a bunch of raised hands, "Well, today, I'm going to show you why they happen." And I opened the lamp up just a little, pointing a ray of light at the side of my prism.

I had to admit here, that as much as I was enjoying teaching these ultra simple science lessons, I had two ulterior motives.

The first one was easy to guess. I was trying to get people used to the things I was 'inventing' and while the general education of the city was much higher than you might think for a 'primitive' world (they had a 90 percent literacy rate after the age of ten!) it just wasn't really enough for the things I was planning. I wanted more people in the city to think like Odds and Welf, innovative and flexible. Instead of just warriors, merchants and citizens.

The second one however, was to satisfy my curiosity. I wanted to learn more about the races of the world. And while some of the differences were obvious, like ears and tails, there were others that I would need to figure out through experimentation.

Like dark vision. Many races had it, while humans did not. But like in nature, there was going to be a trade off. For example, I could see in total darkness. Now, part of that was my adventurer status, but even before that, I could still read in dim moonlight without issue. But, in trade, I couldn't see some shades of red (much to the detriment of my eyebrows early in my smithing career). But what about other races?

One experiment/demonstration/colouring session later, I discovered that Elves (and half elves) had no colour blindness, but instead saw things 'brighter' than humans, suggesting a greater amount of 'Rods' (the light sensitive bits inside your eyes) while not losing any 'cones' (the colour sensitive bits).

Cat-folk and Chienthrope saw greens more vividly, and reds much like I did (muted somewhat), but had no increase or decrease in light sensitivity, but could take in light more easily, suggesting very similar eyes to that of cats and dogs in nature.

Palum were much like humans, and seemed to have no night vision to speak of, but, their eyes seemed to pick up more detail, like seeing fingerprint lines at arm's length.

The one mountain dwarf we had there saw blues slightly dimmer than the others, but had good night vision.

And lastly, the only hill dwarf in the daycare needed glasses, but was exactly the same as her mountain dwarf cousin.

Yes, I could have asked the adults of each of the races, but I might have gotten weird looks, rude responses, or had incorrect information from someone who didn't want to tell me the truth... And Rias wondered why there weren't many 'scientific types' in Orario...

Another week of building, with fewer stone cutters, but more alchemists. We no longer needed large amounts of stone, but we still needed a lot of mortar, resin, polish and other such 'chemical' things to hold the place together, insulate it, and get started on the Terrazzo to make it nice and smooth. Wood workers were called in as well, and to my delight, Yumil was among the Gods present and he had brought his entire Familia to help with the wood working and (to Weine's happy squee of approval) the gardens we were laying out around the walls out back.

Since I was one of the better climbers, I didn't get much chance to talk to the dark skinned (Incan maybe?) God. But he was not afraid of working along with his Familia, knew his gardening, and gave Weine all the headpats for taking care of such a lovely garden, at least, before Freya's invasion had trampled it. He was still impressed, since Weine had somehow managed to salvage a couple of flowers, and he was particularly interested in the Sakura tree we had.

Now, we could have done the roof with more stone. The supports were in place, and it could have easily held it up until elements eroded it right off the Manor. But instead, to respect Takemikazuchi and his part in the Alliance, settled on clay shingles in the common Eastern style. This saved on money and time, since we would have needed more stone, and clay was super cheap.

However, just doing that would be drafty, let out all the heat in winter, and invite insects into the home. So, being the practical person I was, and wanting to recycle as much as possible, the alchemists and I got together and made a really big batch of wood glue, while I got Welf and Odds to do a little alteration on a metal rolling press.

Yes, we made 'particle board'. It took a few tries, but with Welf and Odds on the job, well... They took it personally when they didn't get it right. In the end, they were making nice sheets of one CM thick boards made up of glue and rough sawdust. Once the glue had dried properly, we cut them into nice rectangles, reused the edges for more particle board mix, and coated the good sheets in weather proofing varnish.

This would go under the clay roof tiles, and keep all the weather that might get through the clay out of the manor.

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL! (Yes I got all kinds of strange looks when I finished my explanation of how to make particle board and declared this like Ganesha would).

You can also make bamboo boards like this, though, you need to do things a little differently. Since we'd used a lot of bamboo for the scaffolding around the Manor and no longer needed it... Well, it was paid for, so why not make it last?

Again, Welf and Odds came to the creative rescue, and made a kind of... bladed potato masher. Sounds silly, but if you apply that to the end of a length of bamboo, you get squared off strips of bamboo. Taking those, you apply glue, roll it under the press a few times, let it dry, then sand the sides down nice and smooth. There, bamboo boards. Not really good for roofing however, since it would absorb water a lot faster than wood, then expand and warp. However, it made really good panelling for low humidity rooms and such. Marble walls are pretty to look at, but in the winter you'd feel like you were living in a freezer. It also made nice flooring, so long as you treated it regularly and didn't drop stuff on it. Bamboo splinters sucked.

After the roof was up, including a crank powered retracting section in the room my new 'science' lab would be in, we had only one thing left to do for the outside.

Windows. LOTS of windows.

Well, okay, there weren't actually a lot of windows. Less than a dozen more than the first Manor had. But, Astraea wanted a greenhouse. As promised, I allowed Goibniu to 'source' the glaziers (the fancy word for glass workers/makers). Welf and I, as well as some more ot Goibniu's Familia, had to make special metal frames for the glass. It had to slot in just so, so when the greenhouse was built, you could control the temperature and humidity properly. Leaks in the frame would let in/out things you didn't want, and cause really temperamental plants of fail.

So, we got to work on that, -very carefully-, since really good glass was hard to make. Sure, I made the Occulus out of high grade glass. But those were tiny compared to the half meter wide, one meter tall sheets we wanted. The actual windows were a little less difficult, since they were thinner than the greenhouse glass, and we had those framed by wood, not metal.

And so, the outside of our home was finished. The walls were heavy marble, polished and sound, free of flaws and sparkling that almost opalescent white with hints of black. The only wall that bore any hint of what had passed, was the blackened 'wall of hands'. At the suggestion of Haruhime, and to honour those who worked with us to rebuild our home, we 'scorched' the wall further, from the front porch to the corner that led to the workshop, and allowed anyone who wanted to to put their hand print on the wall as well.

Not everyone did, but there was certainly enough to show just how much of a group effort this had been. We had to stop one person from drawing a silly face in place of a hand print, but otherwise the ones who wanted to leave their mark on our home did so with an appropriate level of ceremony. We even convinced Gros to put his paw print on there, and if you looked closely, way down at the bottom, Chime and her kits left little marks too (they also ran away before we could clean the paint off their feet, and left paw prints everywhere else they went for a little while.)

Of course, we still had work to do. The inside was still mostly unfinished, with only the floors and walls done to any real degree. But, if we really wanted, we could sleep in our own home again, and do everything one usually could in their own home.

It was here though, that we sent 'THE BILL' to Freya Familia and the Guild. The strict wording of the fine was 'until the manor was rebuilt'. Well, it was rebuilt. So, with Maki doing most of the math (to keep in practise, and to impress people with her MaD sChOlAr SkIlLz), we got all the invoices together, made sure to note exactly how much we spent, AND how much we saved by deal hunting. To my understanding, the Guild had already received the money, and was holding it in escrow. Once the Bill was submitted, we would get the money, and anything left would go back to Freya Familia.

Yes, we won, but no, we weren't petty. Even if I had to headpat Hestia until she let us admit we were giving Freya a discount.

This however, was the time our friends from the East decided to leave.

"Thank you, kind Fox for all your hard work." Susanoo said formally, kneeling on the grass (nice new grass that was just starting to take on that 'fluffy' feeling under the feet again).

It wasn't to me that he was kneeling in front of though. I certainly didn't mind however, since all I did was tell her to deliver a message. She did all the hard work. Maki's Fox sat imperiously in front of the kneeling God. After his formal thank you, she leaned forward just a little, and poked him with her nose, right in the forehead.

After a moment, Susanoo nodded, and started to expertly give the black fox ear scroofles. "The invitation you extended allowed us to come here, renew friendships, and give us hope for a better future." Scroofles were followed by some chin scratches, cheek brushes, and some neck scritching. All done with a gentle hand that was at odds with Susanoo's usual exuberance.

Now, to most people, bowing to an animal would be weird. For a god to do so even more so. But even his four Familia behind him were nodding in thanks to the spirit fox.

But then the moment was over, and Susanoo stood back up, grinning like the 'loud and proud' man he was, "Take', Little Hestia, Astraea-chan! Thank you for your hospitality! Maybe we'll come back and visit, see what you've done to the place."

"I'm not little..." Hestia pouted.

"There there, Hestia." Bell administered a headpat.

"While it wasn't what we hoped you'd arrive to, we are glad you visited all the same." Takemikazuchi said with his usual calm smile, "You will be welcome, any time."

"You have a way to contact us now, so if you need any help, please, don't hesitate." Astraea added.

"With what we've earned, and learned here, I foresee a time of prosperity when we return, at least, for those of us outside the capitol." Susanoo nodded grimly, "Thank you again." And then he turned and left, three of the four samurai following him.

Kuroyuki stayed behind a moment longer, motioning me over, "It has been a great pleasure, Kodori-sama, Hime-sama." He said to me, then just past me to Haruhime, "I will make sure this gets to my daughter, and perhaps her child can meet all of yours." He gave his freshly polished breastplate a pat, the string of a pouch around his neck. "This Occulus is... an amazing thing."

"Go back to her, Kuroyuki-dono." I said, "Give her our regards, and use the knowledge you've gained here to make sure she, her children, and her grandchildren grow strong and fine."

"We may ask her for some advice as well, since she is a little ahead of us." Haruhime said with a smile.

And then he turned and left, joining the others as they did a final check of a 'mobile home' wagon, similar to what we used on our trip to Rakia.

"The children will miss him." Haruhime mumbled up to me.

"I'll miss him." I said without shame, "He's a good father. Let's hope he gets home so he can continue being one."

Two more weeks went by in a blur.

Almost everyone was going into the dungeon again, and when they weren't, they were inside the new Manor and making it more habitable. On their days off, they were material hunting so Welf and I (as well as Maki a couple of times) could make new furniture. Tables, chairs, bed frames, couches, lamp posts, coat racks, doors, shelves, lamps, curtain rods, nails, hinges, metal banding, door knobs.

Everything. Including the kitchen sinks. Actually, -especially- the kitchen sinks, as well as some other things so I could finally have one of those super awesome kitchens like I had back with Rias.

We did outsource some work yes. Goibniu and his crew came back to do our baths again, and with the cypress wood (or this world's equivalent) that Mikoto had found (at great personal expense), there was a smaller bath just for her (and maybe two others, if they were friendly).

Extra pipes? Hephaestus sent a couple of people over for that.

All the fiddly bits? Odds. She used her new jigs to make all the things we needed lots of. Nails, hinges, spoons, forks, knives, even our door knobs and levers were the exact same all around the Manor. She really took the foundation of the idea I gave her, and ran with it. So much so, that she now had the problem almost every shop owner wished they had: Too much business. She had a slowly growing waiting list of people who wanted ALL of the fittings in their homes to look the same.

We got a few of the smaller crafting Familia to come over and help us upholster our fancy chairs and such. Yes, I could have done it, but I had all kinds of other stuff to build, and most of it was in the 'hot' side of our new workshop. Having them over also let our Gods have a bit of fun, since they got to pick and choose colours for things.

As mentioned, our Alliance was doing a lot of dungeon time to make money for all this. Yes, we still had a bunch from Freya's -other- fines. But that would have evaporated almost instantly if we didn't at least work a little to replace what we used from it. Our rookie team (Delly, Maki, Momiji and Kaede) really missed our Eastern friends, but they were still ripping things up in the upper dungeon. Since none of them could carry all the things like Lilly could, they were sometimes making more than one trip into the dungeon a day, coming up around lunch to empty packs of magic stone and the occasional monster drop.

Bell, Aisha, Ryuu (when she could get away from dish duty), Mikoto and the Takemikazuchi Familia took a couple of trips to the waterfall. They were gone over night both times, but came back with all kinds of neat things. I'd of course passed on Okakai and Fukawa's lesson on 'how to butcher a monster' and with Bell's luck, and the over all party strength, well, it was almost cheating at this point.

Speaking of, the two sons of Shuten Doji were still in the dungeon. They'd apparently come up to the eighteenth once since they'd left, leaving behind a heap of things at the inn there, then heading back down again. I was tempted to call for them, but no, I'd leave them to their fun. As they promised, they were still 'earning their keep'. That 'bunch of stuff' was brought up by Bell's team, and... well... I knew how they got it, but thankfully no one questioned how they had managed to get enough mermaid's blood make Nazza's tail flail about like Loaner's when he was really happy, and Airmid finally change her facial expression to something other than 'bored'. There were other things in the bundle as well, but the blood was by far the most valuable since it was a key ingredient of the Elixir.

The Xenos had started to become more of a 'fact' in the dungeon. Now that the fox was out of the bag, they were appearing more often in the dungeon. The Adventurers were talking about how they would 'show up' just in time to help them out. They didn't accept rewards, always had something nice to say, and left peacefully, even if they were met with doubt or mistrust.

The Ganesha Zoo was still getting far more traffic than normal, and the Lamia family was quite happy to talk to whomever was 'brave' enough to start a conversation. Spot was seen wandering the city more often, but never -ever- without one or two of the orphans, holding on to the thin little string that was his 'leash'. Chime and Gros got the occasional guest as well, and not just Stonebelter. Still charged ten valis to pet Chime though, unless they brought something for her to eat.

Sir Skitters, when he wasn't weaving all kinds of stuff for us (and sleeping off food comas to recover from all the silk he was making), was just as awesome as always. Aside from his silk, he was very helpful in reaching all the high up places we couldn't get to when using a ladder would be overkill for the job. He was also saving the Alliance a lot of money, since that silk was used for a respectable portion of stuff around the Manor.

Jiru and Weine, as well as the Phoenix, seemed to have formed some kind of alliance of their own. Jiru and Weine (with Yumil's fatherly advice) had put in real work to line nearly the entire 'skirt' of the Manor (you know, that first half metre of wall all around the bottom), with all kinds of flowers. The part she didn't line with nice flowers was transplanted with some kind of weird almost bushy grass. This was apparently for the phoenix, who would each go by, nip a little off it, then wander off again. Delly was just as clueless as I was, but since everyone seemed to be happy, I just gave the birds a pat (they were at least as tall as I was now), Jiru a really good brushing with my fingertips, and Weine a hug.

When Jiru wasn't outside with Weine, he was usually on one of three windowsills we'd made just for him, soaking up sun and the occasional friendly word from anyone who passed by.

The Manor was entering its final stages of completion now, and we were almost all moved back in. The yard had been resurfaced with proper clay befitting a training field. The pool was almost done (again), all the plumbing worked (double and triple checked), and it was basically just 'minor refurnishing' and 'putting things away' for the most part.

And as luck would have it, I was just setting up the last of my alchemy sets in my new lab, when I heard one of the Occulus call out.

"This is Marius. Is anyone listening?"

Thankful I could never drop something in surprise (unless I was really just acting), I turned my head towards the bit of soft leather that was resting over a perfectly round lump. Much like the hidden communication Hub, I had set them up in different alcoves. One for Rakia, another for the Black Fox clan, and a third for Rias and her bunch. Each of them were resting on a version of the 'long distance' metal plates, though the one for Rias was obviously much more elaborate.

So, I set the glass tube I had in my hand down, made sure it wouldn't roll away, and went over to the alcove. "Marius!" I took the cover off, tapping a finger to the nearest magic stone lamp so he could see me clearly. "Oh wait." I 'ahem'ed', "King Marius, how can this humble fox help you?"

"Hmm, something seems to be wrong with this thing. There's a voice inside of it, and it's teasing me." Marius said absently. His face was just how I remembered it. Friendly, square jaw, keen eyes, short hair. "Kodori. Your friend delivered your gift. Though, he was a little distraught at how long it took him to get here."

Loaner's angular fox face popped up, his head bumping Marius's chin while his eyes glared at me.

"Maki's fox had a worse time." I said, "And when he gets back, well, the Madam apparently really knows how to pamper foxes."

Loaner's glare was replaced by a silly fox smile and some tail flailing, and he dropped out of sight of the Occulus again.

"This thing is really interesting. I had to stop Asfi from smashing it to figure out how it works." Marius chuckled, "Though, the card you gave me works just as well, right?"

"Well, only if you are trying to contact that exact person." I shrugged, "And have the card for the one trying to call you." There were exceptions, but they were very few. "And I fully intend to try and teach Asfi how to make these. But that's for later. You would not believe what went on..."

It took several hours to fill him in on everything, though to be fair, there were many interruptions. Everyone, once word had spread through the Manor that I was talking to Marius, came to say hello. This of course was followed by various 'how are yous' and 'good to see you agains'. Even Chime made sure to wave her ears at him.

But finally...

"And that's how it went. I was just putting the last of my alchemy stuff in place when you called." I said, holding Kei while they stomped on my knee to 'walk'.

"Well, I'm glad my biggest problem is paperwork. Your gift, by the way, is basically overturning our entire crop system here. I'm going to forgive you for the sudden need to build places to store our next couple of harvests though."

"You hear that Kei? Marius us such a kind King. Can you say 'Marius is good'?"

Kei seemed to think about that for a moment, but instead of saying anything Kei waved at the Occulus and giggled at him. Then, hid against my shoulder.

"I accept your praise." Marius said seriously, "Getting bigger by the day. Are they all getting that big now?"

"Each and every one." I said, "We're almost done the living room, so they can run around properly indoors again." I gave Kei's back a pat, running my fingers over the two white tails that were swishing happily. "So, I have a project... Part two of the gift I gave you."

"Oh? I mean... I shouldn't be even a little bit surprised you still have a plan. But what is it?" He asked.

"Well, now that you are well on your way to having a heap of viable trade goods, that, by the way, can't grow well here in Orario, and certainly won't grow in a bunch of other places that Melen trades with..."

"I do like the paperwork when it has positive monetary gains mentioned on it someplace."

"Well, it would make sense to build a road to Orario, wouldn't it?" I smiled, "And, apparently, you already know how to make them, since the Ribhus were there helping you develop your lands."

"That kind of project would take..." His eyes went wide, but then narrowed, "You're right though. We've already built and connected a number of farming settlements around Rakia. Our stone quarries provide all the gravel we will ever need to make them how the Ribhus showed us. And once they're done, we can skip a lot of the usual problems we have when carting things to Orario. You would not believe how many wagons we lost to random potholes in the 'roads'." He looked at me, "How soon?"

"In your own time." I said sincerely, "But, the extra dirt you dig up, leave on one side of the road. Don't cart it away, just leave it built up on one side."

"I'll be sure to note that." He nodded, not asking, since I was sure he already knew I had a plan for it. "Hm, have we really been talking this long? My candle is about to go out..."

I saw his face waver a little with the flickering of the light around him, "Well, we had a lot to talk about. I suppose I should go as well, Kei is nibbling on my shoulder meaningfully."

We gave each other a final nod, while I of course got Kei to wave at the nice King. I then put the leather cloth over the Occulus, and went to deal with dinner.

NOTES!

Okay okay... NEXT chapter will be the lead in for Gate... Along with more time skip as things chug along. It's not very exciting I know, but I'm world building, and well, I have something much different planned for Gate. I should also binge the anime again...

And yes... still working on the Manor layout.

Daeore on Ko-fi, if you want to toss a coin to your writer.

Daeore on Inkitt, if you want to read my book 'Were too?'