Chapter 65

My two lovers seemed not just determined, but on a mission to spoil me. Before bed, they properly brushed my tails. And my hair! Then I got a backrub. But not the kind that would have liquefied my muscles to the point of total relaxation.

Of course, that kind of attention led to other things... Aisha was even submissive!

And lastly, Haruhime changed into her fox form, and I got to hug her like a pillow until I fell asleep.

Still, I woke up with the exact same problems I had the night before, but felt well rested, still had some happy tingles floating over my skin, and was allowed to brush all of Haruhime's fur before she changed back to her usual two legged form when I woke up.

"Well, it was an almost perfect morning." I said, hugging the two of them close, not quite willing to stand up and get dressed just yet. "Rain is going to make today's tour a bit less enjoyable."

"You didn't have to invent umbrellas here." Aisha chuckled, "Hey, who's tail is that?"

"Oh, mine." Haruhime said, "You're a little warmer than either of us, and it feels a little cold."

The three of us looked out of the window for a moment longer, sighed, then started to untangle ourselves so we could get dressed for the day.

Hugging children, carrying them downstairs, greeting everyone as they made their way to the dining area, breakfast, cleanup, people telling others what their 'plan' for the day was, then getting ready. It was the usual morning, rain or shine.

Haruhime, myself, Mikoto and Ouka went to the Gate to pick up Cato, the four of us carrying umbrellas, as well as a couple spare, since a weather report wasn't part of the meeting last night.

And Cato, not wanting to seem like some kind of country bumpkin hedge magician (his words) actually used a very small spell to create an umbrella of solid air over his head. Of course, Nanami pointed out that such a waste of power only made it seem like he was a hedge magician trying too hard to impress people.

And so we started towards the city, getting onto our rented wagon, since Cato was old and would have complained about the long walk into town, and there was no way I was going to carry him.

"That tower." Cato pointed with his staff, the massive orange thing on top sparkling even in the gloom of the morning. "You say it's been there a thousand years? And the Gods themselves built it?"

"To our understanding, it was the last act of power that the Gods used." Mikoto said, "Since then, they have sealed their magic away to live among us."

"Mostly." I said, "There are many little things they still do, but anything major will alert the other Gods to its use, and well..."

"The last one to do that was Freya-sama." Ouka said.

"Ah yes, you mentioned her." Cato mused.

"Nanami-san? Are you feeling well?" Haruhime asked.

"I heard what happened." She said, "You know I'm not nearly strong enough for something like that."

Skipping right to business it seemed. "We all support each other, and your skill may come in handy." I said, "For now though, you can enjoy a second tour, or not and we can drop you off at the Manor first?"

She considered, "I think so, yes." She nodded, "You promised a lesson or two if I wanted and now seems like a good time. I also want to interview a few of you guys. You know, cause I couldn't just come over here 'for fun' and my boss wanted me to work."

"Sounds like he's jealous." Ouka chuckled. "Good. He made me feel like I needed a bath after meeting him."

"So! What sort of entertainment do you have in this city?" Cato asked, sounding more and more like Odin did, back on Earth.

We all sighed, but I replied with, "We can talk about that after the child safe tour. And yes, there will be Amazons."

"Lelei-san will be sad if you don't return, so please remember your health." Haruhime reminded him before he could start emitting pink fog. But even he couldn't bring himself to talk back to her.

For his age, Cato was just as energetic as the stories told. He was also just as curious as the other two, and I was starting to think we might need a leash to keep him from just running off to the next shiny thing, on our long list of shiny things to show him.

We also had to stop him from asking the first God he met if he could study him. He was somewhat unhappy we were 'suppressing his curiosity', but we corrected him with 'you can ask a willing God, politely, when we get back to the Manor'.

The Daedalus Maze was just as confusing to him as it was to any of us. And I found an odd sort of comfort with that.

The mix of architecture wasn't lost on him either. Or the architecture itself. He noted angles, shapes, sizes and even colours used in the paint!

He had a staring contest with one of Jamil's bees. Cato lost because he couldn't go cross-eyed enough when it landed on his nose. It didn't sting, and he didn't swat at it. And Jamil called it a draw between them, Cato and Him sharing an 'old man' laugh.

His meeting with Enki went a little differently as well. Enki's chef was working, so no food was tested, but the two of them shook hands and Enki invited him to have a debate about some of the previously encountered architecture. The Rhibus invited themselves to that debate, since mentioning the words 'explain how it was built' seemed to just summon them from where ever it was they were.

I had to stop Chloe from tossing him across the street. Twice. Then Mama loomed over him and he knocked that the hell off.

I AM GANESHA was added to his list of 'how the heck did they build it', followed by a new list, 'I the heck did they build it?'

One of the Lamia children (though, they were 'full grown' and Xenos, so technically adults) stole his hat. But gave it back when Cato expertly used 'old man tears'.

Delly zapped him for getting a little too handsy when looking at her wings. This was followed by the three Swol-nix giving him the 'you are food' stare for offending their mama. Delly apologized, but didn't fix Cato's hair and beard, which had made his entire head look kind of like a surprised porcupine. And no, Cato's 'old man tears' didn't work.

Finally, we rode the wagon towards the tower.

"I almost can't see." Cato complained as he tried to paw his hair back into place, "Imagine doing that to an old man!"

"And old man who was warned. Many times." Mikoto said a little icily.

"You must understand, Cato-san." Haruhime said, "The dungeon is very dangerous. A single slip of attention can lead to tragedy. Delly-chan simply reacted to your touch like she would something trying to bite her tail."

"Everyone who is successful in the dungeon will react differently to surprise. Some may simply have drawn steel and attacked without thinking about it." Ouka added, "That's what it means to survive in the dungeon."

"And as peaceful as it is up here, there's always a chance someone will try and get away with literal murder." I said, "A small one now, but we've worked hard to clean the place up a little." I chuckled, looking ahead to the tower, "Shame I can't ask you the same question I did to Nanami."

Cato had finally seemed to pick up on the seriousness of his 'harmless examinations', and his voice was sombre when he asked, "Question?"

"Yes. Do you want boring first, or second? Since you can fly, it wouldn't matter." I laughed, "We have two stops left, three if you wanted to get a better idea of how adventurers start their lives here."

"Well, you've already told me about the local politics, the Guild, and all this other stuff. Why not?" He sighed, "The magic of this world seems so limited, yet it's obviously abundant. I'd much rather figure that out than hear about how Loki gets away with whatever it is she's done."

"That's mostly because she only does that kind of thing to her own Familia, not random people she doesn't know." Ouka said, "Usually at least."

"Yes, Ko-san bribes Loki-sama with... favours... from time to time." Haruhime gave me one of her almost pouts, "But never near a full moon."

"Oh? So the Gods can engage in-" Cato hmm'ed.

"While we're going up the elevator, we can tell you about Ishtar." I said, "And why most gods don't do that kind of thing."

The elevator was just as interesting to Cato as everything else had been. The first trip however, just to save his legs, was to the 'novice equipment shop. Sadly, since I was still cursed, I couldn't do more than give the simple explanation. He was also fascinated by all the SHINY monster-made items. Bones that had been made into weapons, shiny bits used for mage staves or armour ornaments, orc leather that was demonstrated to be tough enough to snap Cato's traveller's knife while hardly making a mark on it...

He was theorizing up a storm, and I was feeling more and more irritated at Hardy, since I knew a lot of the answers he wanted, but couldn't recall them. Every time I wanted to explain something, the words simply didn't surface, and I remained silent. Ouka, Mikoto and Haruhime were more than enough to fill in for me though.

But then we got back to the elevator, for the second last part of the tour.

"Curious..." He mumbled as we started up the long elevator ride, "I heard about such conveyances from Lelei. She said they operated with something called electricity, cables and counterweights. Yet, you do not have such a thing here."

"Some things are simply magic." Mikoto said.

"Even magic should be explained." Cato countered with the speed of reflex.

Everyone else looked at me, since I'd said many times that 'magic' had basically left my old home. "And what would you do with that knowledge?" I asked, "You've seen the machines the JSDF use, and to someone of your world, a good deal of it must seem like magic."

"Much less now." He nodded, "While I'll admit, I don't know how to make one myself, the idea of using combustion to move an object seems less wild to me now."

"And by learning that, did it make you feel any better?"

"Well, I stopped wanting to open the 'hood' to look inside so much." He said, "The en-gin-ear tried to ward me away by saying my beard would get caught! Bah!"

"A machine doesn't care." I said. "If given the right input, and nothing is wrong, it will simply do its job. There is no magic in that. And yes, there are a lot of moving parts under the 'hood', and the machine inside wouldn't care if your beard got caught."

"Ko-san? We should add one more spot to the tour. The school." Haruhime said, "Cato-san, we have many simple machines that demonstrate simple 'physics' of things we deal with day to day."

He perked up, "Ah! Lelei wasn't allowed to bring back a book on that when she visited Sir Itami's world."

"Kodori-dono calls them toys from Itami-san's world." Ouka said, "After seeing the children we teach take to them though, I believe it."

"It's no wonder the merchants were so upset." Cato laughed, "They couldn't fool the JSDF with their calculations."

I laughed, "Back in his world? They learn that stuff before they're ten years old."

"You seem to know a lot about his world."

DING!

Cato almost jumped out of his skin when the too-cheerful elevator announced the top floor. We all filed out of the elevator, and I tugged him along with a tail so he didn't accidentally get sent back to the ground floor.

"That's because I grew up there." I said, giving Haruhime the most scandalous public display of hand holding ever, "But this is my world."

There was a sudden CRACKBOOM of thunder outside. "Oh dear, the rain's gotten worse."

Both Ouka and Mikoto had almost drawn weapons. Not because of the thunder, but because 'hiding yourself with noise' was something monsters did. But they relaxed again once they saw the state of the former chambers of Freya.

"It's kinda empty up here." Ouka said with a hmm.

"Somehow I was expecting more. Yet, find it fitting it's reduced to this considering the prior owner." Mikoto added.

"Yes, this used to be the nest of the former unofficial ruler of Orario, Freya. But she can no longer afford rent. And so, it has been vacant for a while now." I said, "But, the rent is just as high as the room itself."

Silly puns aside, yes, the top room of the tower was just as empty as before, yet perfectly clean as always. It was hard to tell though, since the storm outside had darkened the room considerably. Cato however simply tapped his staff on the floor and made the lump of shiny material on the end glow softly.

"Incredible." He said, looking out the nearest window and slowly walking towards it. "Flying near the clouds on your staff is a soggy experience, and clouds like these are dangerous. Are we safe up here in this weather?"

There was a flash of light from outside, making everyone's shadow almost seem alive for an instant. After the crash of thunder faded from our ears, Haruhime replied with a, "The tower is unbreakable, the Gods of our world making it just as timeless as they themselves are."

Cato 'hmm'ed, and before I could stop him, casually tossed a small fireball at the wall next to one of the balcony doors. It was bright, flashy, hot, made my ears wobble with the pressure change and noise...

But didn't even leave a mark on the wall, or the window next to the impact.

We all (yes even Haruhime) glared at him for a moment, but even while backing up a half step said, "You said unbreakable! That just begs to be tested!"

"There are other ways to test that, than throwing a fireball inside a confined space." Mikoto said patiently.

"What did I say about testing something?" I asked.

"Not to do it at maximum power." He replied, "And that was far from maximum power." He huffed.

I sighed, opened the nearest balcony door just a tiny bit. The tower was impervious, sure, but we still had to deal with things like air quality and smoke. I caught Ouka's eye and he moved to crack open another door just a tiny bit to allow airflow.

And an idea came to me. "Though, this might be relevant." I mused.

"Ko-san?"

I wrapped my fingers around the edge of the balcony door frame and gave the wall a bit of a tug. It was no surprise it didn't move. So I slowly increased the force I was using. "When I break Hardy's curse on me..." I braced my other hand on the wall, getting some push/pull action in there.

"You were cursed!?" Cato asked, "What could you possibly have done to earn the ire of Hardy?"

"I called her... all kinds of names..." My body was just under the 'mana/matter' limits now, "Then while she was possessing me, had someone set me on fire to cause her pain." I grunted, feeling my clothes tighten around my body as I slid into my version of 'Oni' mode.

"Ko-san? What are you doing?" Haruhime asked, not quite with her best 'worried kitten' voice, "Don't hurt yourself!"

"Kodori-dono? What are you trying to prove?" Mikoto asked.

This was well past the amount of force needed to bend forged adamant, where even Ottar himself was impressed. But that was when I was a high powered level five, and that adamant returned to its original shape right afterwards. "I have. Two options." Taking a breath with each pause, I was putting more effort into it, trying to push my hand through the wall, and bend the door frame inwards. "Open field..."

I realized this would be the first time I'd ever pushed this hard. Nothing so far in this world had demanded my absolute full power. The Balor was close, but the (VERY high) limits of its organic body needed only precision to overcome. If I ended up like the Oni had before they became 'civilized'...

Behind me, Ouka finished my thought for me, "Or containment."

My arms, back, hips and legs felt like they were on fire. The energy flow through my system was making the air around me vibrate and spark, and taking in deep breaths was no longer meeting the needs of either my physical or magical demands.

Yet, the tower simply ignored my strength.

So I eased back, pulling away from the edge of my limits, letting my magic and effort dial down slowly instead of crash to zero. My limbs were still quivering with exertion, so much so that Haruhime broke her usual 'public displays of affection' rule and clung to my back for a moment to steady me, then ease me to the floor.

"Well." I huffed, "I think this will do for containment."

Everyone was speechless for a moment, then, "Ko-san... fix your clothes."

I looked at her, then everyone else, and saw that poor Cato had a little dribble of blood coming from his nose. "Ah damnit..." My two golden tails boffed my head, and I summoned up a fresh set of mana cloth clothing. "I even wore real clothes under this!" Since yes, I was dressed in my Fenrir hide armour. Everything that wasn't made of godly wolf, super magical leather or adamant had evaporated. "Huh... I can say Adamant."

A pause, "Is your curse broken then?" Ouka asked, "Let's see... noise, noise noise noise, noise."

I shook my head. "I didn't hear the last five words." I pondered, "Maybe Adamant as I know it, doesn't exist in your world." I looked to Cato.

"The JSDF called it noise. But our common name for it is noise as you say it here." He mused, "Interesting. Perhaps she can only limit you based on her own sphere of influence as she knows it?"

I looked outside, "Well, since the reason I brought you up here is still blocked by clouds, we can debate on that." I looked to Haruhime, "Love?" Then Ouka, "You didn't forget did you?"

He grinned, "Of course not." He grinned, pulling out a thin sheet of nameless material that folded out a little into a table. "Portable picnic grill, courtesy of Odds'n'Ends workshop. Mikoto-san, Hime-san?"

I summoned a little foxfire, turned up the temperature a little, and put it under the little table. Lunchtime.

To everyone's surprise, just as we were getting ready to eat, the elevator 'ding'ed cheerfully again. Most of us pausing in mid mouth-open-to-bite, closed our mouths and looked towards the elevator door as it slid open.

"Ah, Lady Kodori, I suspected it might be you." It was Fels, in all his unnaturally black floaty-cloak glory. "Lady Haruhime, Mikoto, Ouka, and Sage Cato, a surprise."

"Ah right, you still have the antenna on the tower." I had forgotten about that, "We were giving Sage Cato a little tour, like the others, but the last part was delayed a little due to rain." I motioned to the still grey and unhappy clouds outside the windows.

"Ah, Sage Fels." Cato greeted, shuffling his rear over a little to make space, "Sit with us, though, I suppose eating with us is out of the question."

"Ah, Fels-san, you've shown them, then?" Haruhime asked, taking a dainty nibble from her food.

"I have, yes. Our collective curiosity got the better of us, and I showed them the fruit, and failure, of my research those many years ago." Fels replied, kneeling Japanese style between Cato and Ouka.

"Don't sound so depressed. You still managed to become immortal." Ouka said, "And you're still a hit with the children."

"Undying, not immortal." Fels corrected with a sandy chuckle, "I'm sure if I were to be smashed enough, the forces holding my soul to this shell would vanish as it would yours."

"Shame you won't visit our world." Cato said, "You'd give Hardy a headache just by walking around."

"A thing I'm terrified of." Fels replied, "As we saw with one of our Gods visiting your world, there is no telling what might happen if I made the trip as well." He motioned towards me, "Her world would likely be fine, as it seems tuned to a more universal acceptance."

Cato looked at me, "Oh?"

"Discounting the people themselves, yes. If you knew where to look, you'd probably find just about every kind of magic." I stroked one of my tails, "The masses however, have shunned, ignored, or killed any magic they've found for so long, that unless you have power yourself, you'd likely never find it."

"Ahhh, that's why the story sounds different between Lelei and yourself." Cato mused.

"Speaking of magic, what were you attempting, Lady Kodori?" Fels asked, "As usual, you made my poor instruments go haywire with how much energy you were using."

"I was trying to break the wall." I shrugged, "Hardy was less than pleased with our meeting, and cursed me. Local authorities on curses say it's outside of their ability, so I'm going to try something more primal."

"Cursed you say?" He hmm'ed, "If you are waiting out the weather, you'll have time to tell me."

I laughed, "Well, only fair I tell you a story for all the times you've entertained the children with yours."

His first words on the matter were, "I see. Well, if any place in the world could contain you, it would be here. Though, if you are to remain trapped here for long, someone will have to speak to the guild about renting it."

"Rules are rules." We all said, except Cato, since he didn't care much for rules.

"It's my hope you come out the other side of this as well." Fels said, "I'm quite looking forward to your newest endeavour. And if it's successful, it may help our future loss with the Amazon." He held up a hand before anyone could comment, "It is simply Sir Royman, projecting numbers for the future. If any of these refugees have talent for the dungeon, things may even out a little better."

"Huh. Hadn't thought of that." I admitted, "But I'm sure if we get any number of Warrior Bunnies over..." I shook my head, "That's years away though, I hope. But..." I looked out the nearest window, "It seems we can actually get on with the tour now."

"Splendid." Cato said, "Sage Fels, I'd love to chat more, when I get back to the other side again."

"Of course. I have time in abundance, after all." He stood and moved to the elevator, "I'll be sure to push the button for the top floor once I get back down."

"Thank you." I said as the door closed. "Now lets see..."

The clouds had divided. Below the balcony was sparse, gloomy cloud cover. The city of Orario was still quite visible. Above us, far above even the tower, the clouds were simply thick and gloomy, not stormy as they had been for most of the day. "Still a little damp." Ouka said, "You know... I've never been up here to see this."

Haruhime said nothing, but gave me a look and tangled her tails with mine as we stepped out onto the balcony. We'd been up here a couple of times. You know, for reasons.

"There is the Manor." Mikoto said, stepping out as well, "Careful, Cato-san, the wind is still strong."

Cato stepped out as well, looking out at the view, "This is quite incredible!" He marvelled, "The city is... wait..." He started looking left and right, "That's odd..."

"Don't even think about it." I said, "But yes, it IS a magic circle."

"And there you go trying to-"

"Sage Cato." I stopped him, "Under our feet, under this tower, is where all those monsters that nearly wiped out the JSDF base came from. And those monsters were weaker versions of what you can find daily under us."

"They are what we, the Adventurers, fight, so they don't spill out into the world again." Mikoto said.

"There is nothing stopping you from drawing it out to study later, on your own time, and far away from here." I added.

He grumbled, but pulled out a bit of paper, quill and inkpot, using a little telekinetic magic to keep them all in place as he drew. "This is part of the problem you know. Limiting yourself with too much caution. If you do not try, you will never know!"

"That is the problem Cato-san. We do not know. But finding out risks too much." Haruhime said, "There are many people here in Orario, and if disturbing this ancient magic harms them, how would you correct that?"

"Back home." I said, taking in the view, "There have been many people like you throughout history. Many of them even did great things for the advancement of society." I turned to look at him, leaning against the rail, "Let's say you had a sick man under your care, dying of an unknown disease. He gives his consent to let you study him, even if it kills him, so that you might find a cure. Would you do it?"

He paused his map making, "Well of course. He agreed, and I am there to do the work."

"Ultimately with that one life, you fail. But you feel you are so close to a cure. Now what?"

"Surely others have encountered this disease."

"You find some. And while you get closer to a cure, maybe saving those who have only been lightly infected, you still have no cure. What then?" I held up a hand, "Do you give up? Or do you perhaps infect someone, to study the disease further? Do you ask permission to do this? Or do you take people from the streets? Prisoners? Slaves?"

He was silent for a moment, "This has happened?"

"Yes." I said, "And you were about to do it yourself, just now and you didn't even realize it. If you activated the magic circle, the entire city would have been affected, for good or ill. Most of Itami's world has laws in place to ensure people don't do that kind of thing anymore, but it wasn't always that way."

He sighed and went back to his drawing, a long moment of silence falling over us as we just enjoyed the view. "And I realize." I said, "What I wanted to show you is only visible from the north facing balcony."

We waited for Cato to finish his drawing, then shuffled back inside, then across to the relevant balcony door. "That." I pointed, "Is our railway. It goes from the city, north towards that mountain range there. But between the two, is a river delta."

"I see it, yes." He paused, "Oh, that is where you plan to home them?"

"As someone from the other world, we were hoping for your opinion." Haruhime said.

"It is certainly not lacking for anything I can think of." He said, "Though, most of the demi-human races favour different environments."

"I suspected that. But for a starting population? What do you think?" I asked.

"It would be much like Alnus is now. So long as the people got along, I'm sure there would be little trouble." Cato said after a moment of thought. "They would simply have to work hard, and survive as people usually do."

"We work to eat." We all said with a nod.

Cato nodded, then paused, and with a huge full body shake, sneezed. "snnnnrrrrrk cold is getting to my bones I think." He sniffled.

"We should head back down then. There's a few things I'd like you to do before you head back, you know, on the sly." I said, "Hopefully, it's ready before the end of the week."

"Oh?" Cato asked as we went about cleaning up and making sure we left nothing but footprints behind when we left.

"Well. I wasn't planning on going this far. But Hardy made it personal." I said as we got into the elevator, "But while I was away a couple years ago, I came up with this book..."

Eina was waiting down at the bottom of the elevator, looking just a tiny bit grumpy at us as we exited. Being the Familia Captain, the others (even Haruhime) made right angled turns to avoid her while I stopped in front of her. "How can I help you, Eina?" I asked (as if I hadn't just had a picnic in the single most exclusive room in the world).

"I don't suppose it's too much for you to ask before going to the peak of the tower with your friends?" She asked.

"We left nothing behind but a couple drops of water from the rain." I assured her. "And... the Alliance may need to rent the room for a little while too."

She blinked, surprised, since we (the Gods of the Manor) had always denied wanting to stay up there. "Really?"

"This is something for a smaller room." I said.

"This way then. Even if you are the strongest, I am still your consultant."

"If you don't retire by the time my children are old enough, you can be theirs too." I laughed.

"If they cause even half as much trouble as you do, I'll have over three times the work to do with them." She sighed, opening up the first free private consultation room. She waited until I entered, then locked the door behind us and slid over an 'occupied' sign.

So I got to business, "So, a funny thing happened to me on the other side of the Gate... But, there's a way to fix it."

She didn't kick my shin, but she looked like she really wanted to. "I must question your ethics this time, Kodori." She said, "Ignoring that breaking this curse might drive you insane, and leave you a raving lunatic on top of the tower. You want to distribute your Builder's Almanac on the other side of the Gate, to spite the Gods?"

"Mostly Hardy, since she made it personal." I corrected, "But yes."

I could see her think about just how much damage that could do to a world where people were killed for knowing too much. But then she said something I'd never thought I'd hear from her. "That's not my job." She sighed, "It will take half a day to get the print press converted to their language, then a couple of days for any real number of books to be printed."

"Oh? Ah, you must have been working on that for the merchant swap."

"Yes, it was mentioned books would be popular, so our translators got together and converted many of our story books to their language. Your book had enough pictures to warrant picture 'negatives' made, so all it really needs is set up and binding."

"Awesome." I grinned, "I mean, I could just walk back through the Gate, go back to Hardy's temple, and rip it up by the roots. But then I'd just be a tyrant fanatic who hated their Goddess. Hardy also doesn't seem to care much about what happens to people, hers or otherwise, and likely wouldn't remove my curse anyhow."

She shook her head, "Certainly not my job." She sighed, "But, after all I've heard about the other side of the Gate..."

"Thank you Eina." I said, "Ah, just in case... do you have a rental form? I'll take it home with me."

I walked home alone, along the rain slicked streets of Orario. It was no surprise, since the horse and wagon were rented and Cato was an old man who would have gotten impatient waiting who knew how long, while I dealt with the administration.

Eina did bring up a good point though. If this were a Star Trek situation, I'd be violating the Prime Directive so badly, it would never come out of the closet again. But, if the seeds of information weren't more or less instantly burned away, then the simplified 'modern machines' in the book would spread. People would prosper, learn, grown, advance.

But if that knowledge took hold a little, and their Apostles tried to suppress it, then the Gods would all be seen as tyrants. The easier, safer, cleaner way of living would be taken away, and the people would shun the Gods.

One way or the other, the Gods would lose. Unless they took a slightly more direct role. Of course... Oh... That was clever...And once I got rid of Hardy's curse...

"That's never a good sign." Gros said as I walked through the gate and onto the Manor's property. "Maniacal giggling before you even get to playing with your children."

"Oh, just planning some good old fashioned revenge." I replied, walking over to Gros's enclosure, "Huh... That's kinda weird looking." Gros's pit of fine white particles was spotted with bits of unnatural darkness. "Suppose I won't be going into our basement either..."

"Sadly, it's mostly mud right now. But I do enjoy the smell after a rain." He grumbled, "Oh, I nearly had to bite your guest."

"Lemme guess, he wanted to know how you move when you're made of..." Nope, couldn't think of that either...

"Yes. Hagane was quite brave in offering himself for examination in my stead."

"Hah! Well, suppose I'll go rescue both of them from each other..."

"Listen, boy."

Uh oh... Hagane almost never used the 'age' card outside of a 'passive' manner. You know, like, 'I've seen this before' or, '4000 years ago when I'...

"Your idea of 'examination' and mine are vastly different. And it is not my problem if your magic can't get under my skin."

"But if I can't see past the surface, how can I figure you out?" Cato raved.

I rounded the corner just past the 'mud room', and saw almost everyone in our front hall gathered around the two, like a bunch of kids waiting for the school bully and the new kid to start swinging. Hagane, as usual when he wanted to speak 'eye to eye' with someone, was sitting like a good nightmare catto, while Cato was standing in front of him, one hand on his hip the other holding his staff.

"Not my problem. For one of your world's wisest, you are acting incredibly stupid. Even Aristotle understood the scientific method, and he died over two thousand years ago." Hagane paused, his expressionless face giving the impression that he was squinting at the elder sage, "Yet instead of that, you were asking Welf for a hammer and (noise)."

Freshly back from the administration, I borrowed Eina's superpower, "Ahem." Most looked relieved, but Cato looked like someone had put an ice cube down his back. "Sage Cato. Despite his body, Hagane does feel things. Suggesting to take crude implements to his body, for something so base as 'getting to peek inside', would make you a poor guest under most situations."

Haruhime, with all the children clinging to her tails and edges of her nice house kimono, asked the most feared and hated words of any child who's done wrong to another, "Now what do you say? Sage Cato?" And also gave him a demotion in 'respect' too, using his title instead of the usual 'san' at the end.

There was a long pause, and I could see the weight of Cato's thoughts play over his weathered features. It looked like he at least knew he dun screwed up. "I'm sorry." He said finally.

"Good. Come with me, there's one more place on your tour." I said with a smile as everyone had a little sigh of relief.

After getting to my Lab, with Cato pouting behind me (acting like a total child really...), I motioned for him into the room, with a very firm warning, "Don't touch anything until I explain a little first. You might lose a hand on some of the stuff in there."

That seemed to kick the wounded animal that his curiosity had become in the last half day or so. It also pulled him out of his little self pity party enough that he took a really good look around. "This... Lelei didn't describe this properly."

"I've done a little thinking, Sage Cato. And I want to give this room to your world." I smiled, "Hardy has made my dissatisfaction with your Gods personal, and I'm going to force them into either action, or obscurity."

He blinked at me, "You would try and destroy them? Your actions would bring the apostles down on you before you even got started!"

"I've done a little extrapolation. You know. Science." I sat in my usual chair when I worked in here, "Each God seems to be limited to one Apostle. They are about the same strength as a level four or so adventurer here. And after I beat Rory, I'm sure I alone could beat every Apostle on your world, all at once, and still be home in time for dinner."

His eyes narrowed at me, "So why bother telling me? Not like I could stop you."

"No, you couldn't." I shrugged, spinning (yes, you bet I designed a proper office chair for my own use) to face my bookshelf and getting a book, "But if I did that, it would be seen as just another act of tyranny from 'the strong'. No, I need an opinion, and a little help."

"Why ask me? If you plan on giving the information in this room to my world, I'd... never see it to completion." He sighed, the rapid fire pokes at his ego making him say it outright, "I'm just an old man."

"A wise old man." I corrected, "Despite your habits, Rondel respects you. Your word on things would put the finger on the scale for people, and they might listen to this 'other worldly' knowledge." I handed him my Japanese copy of the Builder's Almanac, "But I'm wondering, how would Ral and Elange react to this?"

He paused, hand hovering over the offered book, "You would petition them? Almost no one has tried to do that. It's seen as... not taboo, but..." He searched for the word, "Unprofessional. The entire point of Rondel, their city, was to have a place for people to figure things out on their own." He took the book, but didn't open it.

"I've already 'figured it out'. But with a little backing things would go smoother." I leaned forward a little, resting my elbows on my knees and peering at him, "I'm going to force your Gods to make a hard choice. Step up, or step back. One way or another, the information in that book will evolve on your world. But you've seen what happened without the Gods, with the JSDF. And with the Gods, here in Orario."

He pondered that a moment, "Yes... I have seen it." He smiled a little, bitterly, "It will fall to Lelei and Arpeggio to finish it though."

"Well... Maybe." I smiled, "You can find anything in Orario, Sage Cato. I mean, have you stopped to think why almost everyone in this city looks so young?"

To think I'd get to see someone his age 'blue screen'. One reboot later, he asked, "Would it be possible?"

"A god's falna changes a person. A drop of your soul for them, a touch of their divinity for you. Unless you managed to find a reliable way back here from time to time, you may only live another twenty or so years longer. But even the most basic of adventurer hardly ever gets sick, heals minor injuries and fractures with a good sleep, and finds all their senses just a little sharper." I smiled, "But. You'd have to find a God who would agree to give you this gift. You'd be a world away and give them nothing in return."

He hobbled to my 'guest' chair, (no rolling wheels on this one), and sighed himself into it. "You're quite cruel, to suggest that. I've devoted myself to Elange since I was a boy. True, the gifts we get in return for such devotion are minor compared to those here... It has still been my life's work to follow their example."

"Then I'll ask permission for you." I said with a shrug, "If they like my idea, they'd forgive you getting a little something extra from another God." I leaned forward again, "If not, I'll still go with my plan, but they'll have proven they don't deserve your devotion."

He looked stung. I had just insinuated that his Gods of Knowledge might be total hypocrites. They would help, and maybe even step in a little to spread some basic knowledge, like simple reliable medicine, machines, hygiene... Or they wouldn't. Proving they are just as bad as all the other 'advancement' fearing Gods of his world.

"Let's hope I live a little longer then." He said, tucking my book into his robes.

"Good." I stood up, "Let me show you some of the stuff in here, now that you're sitting down."

NOTES!

Yes, Kodori is kinda mean sometimes. But it wouldn't be the first time she's dragged a bunch of people kicking and screaming to greatness.

Thank you for reading! And if you want to see any full colour art, join the discord!

aKAQg4bnYu for the discord!

And my actual book, Were Too? is on Inkitt.