Chapter 9 – Filolial King
We had spent three days and three nights killing monsters out in the fields and the hinterlands of Castle Town. Be it porcupines, giant lizards, giant frogs or giant bees, we eliminated them all, and sold their materials to the street vendors for some hard-earned money.
Every night, after the grinding was complete and Eda, Welst and Rojeel fell asleep, I would spend an hour or two to orate what I wanted to become the Arcian constitution to Jean-Pier so he could write it down. I obviously wasn't literate at all in the languages of this world, since the legendary weapons would only translate spoken language. Thus, having a person who could read and write was extremely useful, and Jean-Pier was the only man up for the task anyways since he's the only one who was fluent in the language they spoke up north.
Regarding Indigo, we had to spend a few silvers to buy him some food, as he ate and he ate until he grew from the size of a chicken to the size of an ostrich. I was quite surprised at this rapid growth, but Welst assured me it was normal. Since we had spent so long leveling up the filolial, I had gained four levels in the process, while the rest of my party gained two and Jean-Pier gained none.
Well, today was day 4 of Operation: Level Up Indigo. Opening my eyes, blinded by rays of sunshine blasting through the window, I rolled off my blanket and wandered out the room, locking it just in case a thief or robber broke in. I stumbled down the steps, out the door, and into the inn's stable.
Where was Indigo? Umm… why wasn't he in the place that I had left him yesterday?
I peeked over the creaky wooden gate in front of Indigo's box stall. Inside, I found a… streaker?
"What are you doing here?" I asked. "Why are you naked? And what did you do to my filolial?"
The streaker stood up; his nether regions conveniently blocked by the wooden gate.
And his looks put Motoyasu's to complete shame.
He had purple hair, the same shade as Indigo's feathers. He was tall and lean, only a half inch shorter than me, with vibrant purple eyes and an ovular jawline. He had feathery wings that had a wingspan of about a meter, which made him look like an angel straight from heaven. If I was back in America, this guy would definitely become a male supermodel, no questions asked.
"Oh, gee, sorry, Satoshi! Here, I'll switch back to my filolial form."
"Wha-wait, what are you talking about? How-"
POOF!
Before I could audibly voice my confusions, the good-looking fellow before me disappeared into a cloud of smoke, him being replaced by what looked to be a fat, round chicken. It had purple feathers, the same hue as Indigo's, and it was way taller than the ostrich-like form that Indigo looked like. Although it looked like it could go on a diet, it still looked quite majestic and menacing.
"WAIITTT-WHA-WHAT-WHAT THE?"
"Satoshi! What's going on? Uh… what is that?"
My party members, evidently hearing all the ruckus that was going on, stood shocked behind the stable gate.
Welst was the first to speak.
"That looks like a filolial king! According to legend, they are rumored to be the powerful leaders of wild filolial flocks!"
"Not sure about that, but that seems pretty cool?"
Strange. The same voice of the purple-haired man that transformed into that bird was speaking. Wait… did this mean…
That bird could talk?
Well, I should probably be more weirded out by the fact it could transform from human to bird.
"THAT FILOLAL CAN TALK?" My party members exclaimed.
"Yep, I can," the filolial confirmed, "By the way, in case you guys haven't noticed already, I'm Indigo."
"INDIGO?" We all gasped in disbelief.
"Yep, Indigo's my name."
"Er… Indigo, could you transform into the shape of a man again?"
"No problem! Three, two, one…"
Poof!
The feathery giant had returned to his human form.
And he was buck naked. Luckily, he was still standing behind the wooden gate, so that's good and all.
"Rojeel?" I asked. "Would you mind grabbing some of my spare clothes? I think we need to cover Indigo up with some clothes."
"Yeah, that would probably be for the better," a still confused Rojeel agreed.
The man scurried off into the distance.
I turned around, curious to see my party member's reactions. Jean-Pier didn't have much of one, Welst just looked confused, but Eda was drooling all over the place.
"Ahh… he's so handsome…"
I could almost see her saliva dripping onto the floor, judging by how wide open her mouth was.
"You know," Welst broke the awkward silence, "We should really get Indigo here some magic clothes. Ones that won't explode if he transforms from human to monster and vice versa. I mean, I'm not sure if he will destroy the clothes upon transformation, but it's not worth the risk. We don't want to be arrested for public nudity here. Come on, let's head to the best magic thread maker in town once Rojeel gets back."
"Why would we go there instead of a tailor's shop?"
"You see, tailors only convert magic cloth to clothes. If you want magic clothes, you need the person to convert their magical power into thread, bring the thread to the magic cloth maker, and deliver that to the tailor."
"Ahh, that makes sense. Seems kind complex though, don't you think?"
"It is complex, but the end result is amazing."
I sat down on a wooden bench abutting Indigo's stable, anxiously tapping my feet in a rhythmic fashion.
Eventually, Rojeel returned, a lump of rags in his arms. I did take him some good few minutes, though.
I threw Indigo the heap of clothes.
"Put this on," I told him, "We're heading off soon."
"Sure thing, Satoshi!"
I gave him his privacy as he slipped on his garments.
"Are you done yet?"
"Yeah, I am."
"Okay then. Welst, please lead the way."
After exiting the stable, we headed down the main road towards the shop of the well-known tailor. Apparently, she was very experienced in her field, and produced many gorgeous garments over her career. She was definitely the right one for the job.
I also had a lot of money left over from those monsters that I had butchered. Might as well put a tiny fraction of it to good use.
As we strode along the street, Indigo's unearthly good looks drew the attention of many fair maidens.
"Wowwww!" One exclaimed. "I wish that were my husband."
If looks could kill, everyone around Indigo would be dead. Even though he was dressed in literal rags, he still emanated a light of, well how should I put it, elegance, over the rest of us.
After nearly getting mobbed by a swarm of females, we had finally arrived at the magic thread maker's shop. Although it was supposed to be a short journey, I felt like I had just crossed half the country and then some.
"Hello," Welst greeted the shop owner, who he apparently was pretty chummy with, "We are here to buy some magic thread to make some clothes for our new friend. Can we use your spinning wheel?"
"Sure. Go to that spinning wheel lying over there and use that to convert your friend's mana into magic thread. Then, you just have to pay me and then you're done."
"You heard that, Indigo?"
"You bet."
The tall young filolial man walked over to the wheel and began furiously spinning the crank.
"Yo, you don't gotta be so aggressive, Indigo!"
"While he's spinning," Eda said, "Why don't you sketch out what clothes you want Indigo to wear?"
"That's certainly a good idea. Say, do you have some paper on you?"
"Sure do. Here, take some. And you can borrow a pen from the shop owner."
"Oh, you need a pen?" The shop owner, overhearing us, joined in. "Sure, and here's some ink!"
"Thank you so much!"
Placing the paper Eda gave me on one of the multiple tables lying around, I began sketching what clothes I wanted the tailor to make. After a few minutes, I was quite impressed with what I had come up with.
The garment was absolutely breathtaking. It was a long, light blue cross-collar robe, closely resembling the ceremonial garbs of ancient East Asia, that reached all the way down to the feet. The lengthy, loose-fitting wide cut sleeves were light green, with runic patterns on the bottom. A yellow coat covered most of the garment, notably excluding the middle of the chest, that reached the belt made of thick, orange fabric. I even designed slits to put the wings through.
Well, I can't say this is an original design. I kinda copied it off something that already existed on the internet.
Doesn't matter though. This world has no copyright laws, so I can copy as much as I want without any repercussions.
I showed it to Jean-Pier, who immediately commented on it.
"This looks like something that a Siltvelt noble would wear. I haven't seen many of them before, but the design certainly is memorable."
"Is that a bad thing?" I asked.
"Well, this nation is mortal enemies with Siltvelt, but the average person wouldn't be able to recognize this as a Siltvelt design, so I say you should be fine."
"Thanks for the info. I guess this will do."
I felt an arm resting on my shoulder. The only person tall enough to do so would be Indigo.
"Hey, Indigo. What do you think about this design?"
"It looks great! By the way, Satoshi, I've already spun all the magic thread I'll probably need."
"Good job. Now, I just have to pay the shop owner."
I left the agreed amount on the front desk and exited the building with the rest of my party members.
"Where should we go next, Welst?"
"Now, we have to hit the magic cloth shop. This guy will convert the magic thread to magic cloth and deliver it to the tailor. Then, we have to go to the tailor, get him measured, wait a day and then pick up the completed product at the tailor's shop."
I was already told this once, but I'll reiterate again. Why was this such a convoluted process? Hell if I know.
Luckily, the two shops weren't that far away. After a short walk, we had arrived at our destination. I explained our situation to the shop owner.
"This is a very rare material," the magic cloth shop owner analyzed as he picked up the magic thread, "This will take a lot of effort, but I should have it done by the end of the day. I know what tailor you are probably going to go to, so I will bring the cloth to her when I am done. Please just pay now, and rest assured."
I paid him the silver he asked for, and we headed to the tailor to take measurements. Since this guy apparently had an amazing reputation, I had no qualms about paying him early.
Eda waved hello to the tailor, since the two seemed to know each other.
"Welcome to my shop! You seem to be good friends of Eda here. What brings you here today? And isn't that a handsome fellow?"
She was obviously talking about Indigo. My looks were pretty good, but they were not as good as Motoyasu's, who himself was not even comparable with Indigo. Guess purebred filolials do have the best genes.
"Well, this handsome fellow is the one that needs a new set of clothes. I have a design that would look amazing on him, and I was wondering if you could make it."
"Oohhh!" The tailor's eyes lit up. "Do tell."
I showed her the sketch I made. Snatching the paper from my hand, she hurried into the back room and began making her own adjustments.
"There." She slammed the updated design on the table. "What do you think?"
"It's your clothes, Indigo," I spoke, "Indigo, do you like it?"
"Yeah, that'd be sick."
This might just be me, but Indigo was giving me some serious Veldora vibes.
"Great!" The shop owner rambled. "Now, if you would leave this sheet of paper to me, I'll whip up a beautiful set of new clothes for the handsome fellow by tomorrow morning! Don't you worry!"
"That'd be brilliant! We'll see you tomorrow!"
By the time we exited the tailor's shop, it was around midday. Now, it was time to decide what to do.
Well, we could go grinding in the forest, we could take the day off and have some fun, or I could be a responsible person and keep working on my blueprints.
Being the responsible hero that I was, I decided to go with the latter.
"So, everybody, I have a proposal. Jean-Pier and I will go back to the inn and do some paperwork, while the rest of you can go purchase some supplies. How does that sound?"
"Works for us."
"See you all back at the inn in a few hours. Good luck!"
Jean-Pier and I split up with the rest of the group. I decided that Indigo should go with the other three, so he could experience the bells and whistles of the capital, which he was perfectly fine doing. Thus, it was just the two of us, cruising down the busy street.
"Jean-Pier," I asked, "How do guns work in this world?"
"Well, I'm not exactly an experienced military commander or anything, but I do know a thing or two about the guns you're talking about. As you probably already know, weapons rely on the status of the user here. The guns that we have here mainly operate on flintlock and matchlock mechanisms, being able to fire off one shot every half minute, and they are incredibly inaccurate with terribly short ranges. Furthermore, they have all sorts of operational problems, and cost a lot to keep running. Therefore, compared to a bow, only a few incredibly wealthy nations such as Faubrey up north can afford to equip their armies with them."
"Any other drawbacks?"
"They also run the risk of blowing up if they get hit by fire magic. If you want to make ranged attacks, magic, a bow or a thrown weapon is a far better bet."
Hmm. I'm pretty sure most of these drawbacks only come with a muskets incredibly long reload time and inaccuracy, and the fact that the user being forced to stand in an upright position while reloading would facilitate them being hit with fire magic. If I could make a bolt-action or automatic rifle, that would solve most of the issues listed above. I could probably solve the problems that surround firearms. After all, I'm probably the only hero that has ever made his own firearm.
Seriously! I did!
Back when I was in my junior year of high school, I took it as a side project of mine. Building every component by hand, from the transporter to the firing pin, from the stock to the trapdoor, I had made my own trapdoor style rifle in a few months. Even though it was very similar to the Springfield Model 1888, it had some key differences, those being that it shot 6.5mm Carcano instead of a black powder cartridge, that it had a tubular magazine similar to the one used in the Lebel 1886, and that my rifle had a slightly better buttplate.
"Well," I deduced, "It seems like guns in this world aren't exactly very useful. However, I have a way around that."
"What's your solution?" He asked. "If you could make those things work properly, that could potentially a game changer. Just note, that lower leveled troops will never be able to use them to great effect."
"Oh, we won't be using low leveled troops. For the time being, I suggest making an automatic rifle as soon as the revolution is complete, and factories have been constructed. It fires, get this, thousands of times faster than what current guns can fire, its reliability is leaps and bounds higher due to the robustness of moving parts, and its accuracy is not even comparable, being able to accurately hit a man-sized target from, how do I describe the unit of measurement, about two hundred of me lying flat on the floor."
"What?" he exclaimed. "Those feats are only achievable by the most elite of archer units in the military! If we equip our level 65 troops with such weapons, our armies will be able to hit enemy armies before they even see us!"
"Oh yeah, and to alleviate the cost concerns, I want to construct things called factories. Apparently, from what I've heard, the countries of Faubrey and Shieldfreeden also have these things. But, ours will be more efficient, and I know a way to make them cheap to build as well. One of these factories alone can produce more steel in a year than the whole world combined can in five years. If we have enough of these, we can produce nearly unlimited guns and ammunition, making the whole process faster and almost as cheap as a bow!"
"Is this even possible?" Jean-Pier questioned in disbelief, "No society in the world has ever achieved such levels of productivity, even Faubrey!"
"It is," I replied, "When I was studying in university, which probably exists in your world, I minored in a field called mechanical engineering. Although it was just a minor, it was from the most prestigious college in the world, and I also studied much of it and other similar topics in my free time. I believe I have what it takes to bring Arcium to greatness."
We had arrived back at the inn. Entering our room, I pulled out the drawer and set a fat stack of blueprints on the table.
"Jean-Pier. These are all the things that Arcium will construct, if my plan comes to fruition. Do you want me to explain them to you?"
"Oh, most definitely," the man replied, "I want to see what you have planned out, and maybe I could advise you on how to edit them to better suit this world's mechanics."