14xx/8/3

184 days since arrival…

I decided to go back to the abandoned castle near the Nameless Slums. The castle according to the source in the library is named Mithra, a castle that was known for its toleration for all kind of Monster Girls, even the ones that barely exist. Sophie used to live there, that is until Ilias decided to firebomb that place from heaven and shit.

The castle here will serve as my hideout in case Luka gone rouge or I'll ended up making an enemy of everybody I see. I just have to clean up the place a little. That is until I found the king and queen again. They no longer wear their regal robes, opting to wear simple worn traveller garb and covers themselves with large black cloak.

They have travelled in their land extensively and realised how fucked up it was. The entire region that they testify as green and lush with life is now nothing but a barren wasteland even a skeleton struggle to live. Their name forgotten, a little unfortunate footnote in the annals of history. Alone, penniless and forgotten, they returned home to figure out what to do next and they are running low on options.

To be fair, they have at least until the end of times to decide what to do. They're skeletons after all, and I don't think Ilias would want to come back at this barren wasteland that was once a prosperous kingdom. Which is why I choose this place. Nobody has a good reason to visit this area. The tall mountains surrounding the area is a natural barrier against invader as well as snooping eyes.

I admit, it can be frustrating to see your fruit of your labour are undone when you woke up. Just beyond the barren wasteland and over the mountainside is the Lost Forest, a forest brimming with life. It is a mocking reminder of the couple's former glory.

They were happy when they saw Sophie at my side. they said that they expected great things from a weapon of legend and felt happy that they saved at least a single weapon to fulfil the prophecy.

They were planning on rebuilding the castle first. They didn't have anything better to do and they figured that a home is a foundation for future plans. I asked them how are they gonna rebuild a castle without materials or funding. They intend on quarrying from the mountain itself. I asked them how, and then the answer came shuffling forward.

The pile of rotting corpses where I found Sophie is now a small group of zombies, their eyes glazed over and their movement jittery and stiff. They stood nearby the door, watching us creepily from afar. The Queen apparently has some points on necromancy.

They gave me permission to live in their castle when it finishes building. I have my doubts though; her helpers don't look competent enough. Pair that with the non-existent transportation we have a recipe for a soon-to-be abandoned project.

So that's why they're happy to see me. They realised the difficulty of transporting construction in this environment and asked me for opinion. To be fair, I've done my fair share of logistics back home but mostly on smuggling small amount of stuffs across borders. However, I saw only two options at that moment.

Option A: I'll blow a path through the mountainside toward the Lost Forest where they purportedly harvested their lumber and other materials. It'll be destructive to the environment and I'll probably offend a fuck-ton of Monster Girls that lived under their rocks, but we'll get ourselves a nice convenient little road. Besides, it's much cheaper and faster to do so.

Option B: I'll build an air-balloon. It will be used to carry the materials over the mountains without disturbing the environment. It'll take much, much longer to build. Besides, the material needed to make a single airship would be astronomical. I can't just go and conjure a football field length of canvas outta my ass.

When in doubt: Dynamite.

But of course, I asked them first if they already have made contact with the inhabitant of Lost Forest. They were taken aback by what I said, surprised that a small village deep exist deep inside said forest. They were doubly surprised when I told them that the village is consisted of angels and fallen angels.

They visibly hesitated when they heard about them. Their kingdom was ravaged by Ilias and her angels. It would be awkward for them to meet face to face again. To be fair, I don't know the stance those angels have now. The war, if what the royal couple said was true was a very long time ago, but immortals always have a strange sense of time. They could still harbour grudge against the Mithra Royal Family, they could've forgotten it, or they couldn't give a flying fuck.

However, I need a base that is not in Luka's pocket castle. I still didn't trust that midget. Whatever the White Rabbit bitch gave me always bites me in the ass, so I gotta take her words with a grain of salt. Besides, I owe them Sophie. That beautiful rifle saved my ass all the damn time.

I need to become the messenger for them to ensure that the angels didn't accidentally start shit. However, there's also a huge chance that I'll start some shit as well, so I gonna need a way to communicate with each other in case shit hit the fan.

Thankfully, I already have that answer.

I returned to Pocket Castle again, this time I know what I'm doing. Thanks to the newfound intelligence on minerals and ores, I manage to create an upgraded version of the military-grade walkie-talkie Sophie has. I used a special cobalt gem to enhance the radio signal of said equipment so that it won't clatter all the damn time.

I borrowed Radio's spare parts to make the walkie-talkies. Told her that I'm making an electrical magical project. The casing was made from spare wooden box and reinforced with some iron plating on the outside. I managed to only make two before the sun goes down. Thankfully, skeletons never sleep and I still have my feathers.

Seriously, these Harpy feathers are too damned convenient. They should've put more research on these feathers. If they can find a way to teleport large amount of equipment and materials at the same time safely then they could've solved so many logistical woes across the world! Even beyond!

Testing the radio at night is dangerous so we decided to hold off until tomorrow. Even then, the Mithra royal couple were impressed by what I made. The Skeleton King of Mithra stated that one of the reasons they failed to defend themselves during the war is because the total collapse of discipline and line of communication among his ranks. When the angels start to rush in it was impossible to order any soldiers that are beyond the castle gate to do anything at all. Even before then, generals can only plan, but he cannot directly order their soldiers to change strategies unless they too are in the battlefield, risking their life as well.

They were pleased by my work and asked me if I can provide them more of these. I agreed, on condition that the Mithra family and my family form an alliance with each other. As long as any Scarlet Devil Family member lives in this world, they are obligated to aid them as much as they can. In return, the Scarlet Devil Family will lend their strength and intelligence to aid the rising old kingdom.

On August 3rd 14xx, around 2200 hours, the Mithra Kingdom is formally an ally of the Scarlet Devil Family.

I asked them what is their name as I can't call them Lord or Lady Mithra all the damn time. The Lord was named Lord Espen Mithra, the son of Joachim Mithra. The lady's real name is Lady Dorothea Wilhemine, of the Wilhemine Family, which sadly no longer exist.

I asked them what are they planning to do now. rebuilding a kingdom requires massive resources which they lacked and they really don't have anything to trade with to be honest. Negotiating with the angels or anyone for that matter would be hard considering our impoverished position. It's like a starving man promising a wealthy man that he can give him abundance of food in return for some food.

They're planning to restart their own economy by creating a company. A government-backed company in this case. However, we didn't really know what to sell. Agriculture would take too long. They can mine around the mountain, but who's gonna buy it? How are they gonna transport all of that material out of the valley if we have a buyer?

In the end, I told them to simply focus on restoring the castle first with whatever they found around here. They haven't explored outside the world yet and the world changed too much for their previous knowledge to be obsolete. I need to figure out who owns the land around Mithra and what our competition will be.

For now, I need to get my beauty sleep. A long day awaits me tomorrow.