Hi this is Benji Himura I am starting a new fanfic. I don't own Ragnarok online I also don't own the characters of that story or the plot; taking out the changes that I will make and the characters that I will create. I own Benji Himura and others characters that will show up in the story. It might be violence and sex in the story so if you are underage of seventeen are warned the content might be too improper to your age. Read by your own will and risk. In anyway enjoy the story.
Signed: Benji Himura
"Text" Talked sentences.
'Text' Thoughts.
-Text- Sounds effects.
(Text) Talked sentences in a foreign language
: Text: Messages show in an electronic screen or written.
Text: something being recalled, flashbacks, scenes being replayed.
Text: a detail found in a location, scene, person, recording and images that originally wasn't there.
Chapter thirty two: Time off
Tomotaka wasn't expecting to see Benji, he did heard about his return and Mutsumi had informed him that Benji was currently recovering from his journey, so when Benji asked for an audience he was truly surprised, especially when seeing that Benji didn't brought only Mutsumi with him, but five more women, four of them carrying two palanquins in pairs, not the type to carry people on, but to carry cargo, on this case something under two sheets.
Tomotaka and Hiromi looks at Benji and his entourage, Benji was clad in the same outfit that he wore in the dinner when Mitsumi became part of his guild, Mutsumi was wearing a formal kimono, not a royal or noble one, yet very formal and detailed, Saki was wearing a simple but still formal kimono, while the four others are wearing the same outfit. Tomotaka knew that the visit wasn't a casual one.
Benji formally sits in the floor in a traditional Japanese way and is followed by the others, after few formalities as thanking for the audience Benji looks at Tomotaka. "One hundred and seventy five billions." Benji said while raising his hand, at the signal Chris, all the four of her uncover one of the palanquins revealing on it a large pile of gold, silver, bags of coins and gems. "Seventy five billions more than the amount that you invested in the Silver Moon castle."
"And what is the meaning of that amount?" Tomotaka asked seriously, while guessing what it would be. Benji's lips moved to a small smile. "I want to buy the castle and the area around it." Benji answered. "What else?"
Other than Chris and Saki everyone else was shocked with Benji's words, Mutsumi was stunned, that kind of money was three times the amount that was collected as taxes by the emperor in one year from the entire country!
Tomotaka himself was shocked, that kind of money easily represented the fortune of ancient noble families of his court. "And why should I agree with this?" Tomotaka asked seriously, not letting the confusion overcome him.
"Because a regular WoE castle isn't as elaborate as the Silver Moon." Benji answered. "With this amount you can build six WoE castles par with Prontera's and still have some billions to spare to haste the construction of them. Not to mention that this amount added with the boost of economy thanks to the last nine months more than make up for the investment to build the Silver Moon, with this you made what? Two times you invested?"
Tomotaka nodded minutely, with the money that Benji just offered the Silver Moon castle paid for itself twice, more than one a half time solely by Benji's hand. "I am sure that you understand that I just can't allow a military force with a fortress so near of my imperial city." Tomotaka said seriously.
"Unless that force is directly connected and loyal to the empire." Benji replied gesturing to Mutsumi. "This trade would directly benefit us both, I would get a stable home for those who I love and you would get an new force to rely in times of struggle and need. Of course without the need of making me part of the court."
Tomotaka weights what Benji said, the court was indeed troublesome, while emperor Tomotaka knew that he wasn't above the intrigue of the court, many lords would just love to get a chance of assassinating him, having Benji as an ally, unconnected to the court and of course close enough not only of the capital but of his family would be very benefiting.
"So you are asking for Mutsumi's hand?" Tomotaka asked seriously. "As far as the public and the court will hear about yes." Benji answered. "Of course that as far as everyone knows Mutsumi isn't a princess anymore." "But she is from noble blood." Tomotaka said with a nod. "Her mother was after all from the second purest noble breed of this empire. So no one can contest your right in gaining lands."
Only Mutsumi's strict upbringing prevented her from an outburst at the discussion, plus things were too fast for her. "As a sign of my willingness for this pact I brought a little something." Benji said gesturing again for Chris to uncover the palanquin. This time revealing several gold bars with a total of twenty onis heads over them. "A small show of my capability to take care of the land entrusted to me as well of the wife to me entrusted."
Tomotaka nodded pleased at that. "A very fitting display." Tomotaka said, onis were hard to kill and Benji just showed twenty freshly decapitated ones. "Why the gold?" "That is for the purchase of lands." Benji answered. "I also wish to buy some lands that are connected directly to a particular area."
"Ah, I remember, that farm that you have part on." Tomotaka commented, after meeting Benji few times he studied more and learned that Benji had part on a farming area. "So you intend to have that as part of your lands. Very well, it is acceptable. How much it sums?"
"Thirty billions." Benji answered. "In that amount is added Mutsumi's bride price." Tomotaka nodded, that amount was far more than needed to purchase the area. "Then let us discuss this." Tomotaka said seriously. "I am quite intrigued about this."
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Mutsumi is plainly shocked, she couldn't believe in what just had happened, Hiromi smiled gently at her sister, the maneuver impressed her a lot, even used to the court Benji's actions surprised her. "I can understand your surprise." Hiromi said to Mutsumi. "Even after this your life haven't changed at all."
"But taisho just bought me." Mutsumi replied confused. "That is what he wanted to the others believe, you are still free to find love and live the life that you wish for." Hiromi said with a smile. "And with this you can come visit us more often, it isn't a bad deal." "I can't deny that." Mutsumi commented, she knew that Benji wouldn't force her to take the obligations of a wife since she was only a hoax, but still the whole incident is making her head spin, just in the other room Benji and her father are signing the documents that would grant him the Silver Moon castle and a large portion of land in exchange of assisting the royal family.
"And this means that you won't have to fight in those horrible WoE events." Hiromi said smiling. "The castle that is now your home is your home forever and no one can take that from you and your friends." It was just then that Mutsumi realized why the maneuver, Benji was removing the castle from the WoE, as a private castle it couldn't be seized in the WoE.
But Mutsumi wonders from where Benji got that much money, he just produced two hundred and twenty five billions zeny in less than twelve hours and was using it without showing any type of second thoughts.
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On the way back to the Silver Moon Mutsumi looks at Benji meekly, for all that matters she is wed to him now, plus she always felt a little intimidated and attracted by him, all that added to her own meek nature made her even meeker. Benji in the other hand is stretching leisurely, clearly relieved of a great deal of stress. Mutsumi opens her mouth, but unsure of how address Benji she doesn't say anything.
"What is wrong?" Benji asked for the ninja princess, the carriage was small enough to notice that kind of thing. "I don't know how to address to you now." Mutsumi answered. "We are married now." "It is just for appearances." Benji said. "You can treat me as you always did. I don't intend to take you as wife and taking the acts that are implied on it if you don't want to."
"But why you proposed all this?" Mutsumi asked confused. "Because I don't like the WoE." Benji answered. "I don't want to lose the place that I came to call home in some stupid mock war. Sadly Mutsumi the only way that your father would agree in giving me the Silver Moon like this is if I proposed an alliance between him and me, and for that you are important. The court could contest the decision based in the fact that I am not natural of this land, but by taking a noble wife of this land I am considered natural of this land, and they are unable to contest my properties and your father's decision."
"Then what will happen to me?" Mutsumi asked. "I am just a pawn in this game of politics?" "A queen." Benji replied. "And you can continue to live as you did, nothing changed other than titles, you can go on with your adventurer's life, I said that I don't intend to force you to act as my wife, you only act as such when we are in court."
Mutsumi could agree with that, but part of her felt a little offended that he wouldn't force her to share his bed, that would also give her time to just think about the whole ordeal before trying to come to a decision.
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Back in the castle Benji moves to his room, Mutsumi quickly moves to hers not wanting to face the others now. Saki follows Benji while everyone is pretty much confused about everything, the entire day was wrapped in mystery for them, Benji left early after giving stuff to his friends, then returned and left with Mutsumi wearing formal clothes.
Half an hour later Benji now wearing his regular clothes is in his office, Layla, Atsuko, Erika, Haruka, Makie and the inner circle members are there as well, everyone is sited in foldable chairs in front of Benji's desk. "I will make this short." Benji said to everyone. "The Silver Moon castle isn't a WoE castle anymore."
That declaration causes uproar on everyone, they can't believe on that. Benji shows to them a document. "This is the scripture of the castle, the valley and the surrounding mountains." Benji said to them. "It is in my name therefore this castle is no longer a valid WoE castle."
"How?" Jannine asked in disbelief. "This afternoon I had an audience with the emperor." Benji answered. "On it I paid him one and half time the value of this castle to make it mine." "What happens to us now?" Saya asked. "The castle is mine, so I can pretty much do whatever I want." Benji answered. "And that means keeping my guild here, look nothing changed all that much, this is our home, I just made sure that no one can take it from us."
"But how you paid for this?" Atsuko asked seriously. "This castle wasn't cheap." "I used my own money." Benji answered. "Everything that I had saved until today plus the amount that Sage and Marisa got for the goods, and some more that I got from certain things that I had stored. The guild's funds are untouched."
"We aren't worried about that." Layla said. "We don't care if the guild is penniless. What about you?" "I still have a nice amount stored." Benji answered. "Few millions in the bank, so this won't really affect me." Atsuko was pretty impressed, but wonders how much Benji really had and how he got it.
"So we don't have to fight anymore." Haruka commented. "We still have a WoE castle." Benji replied. "Anyone who wants can fight there; our home is still safe here." Now that the shock passed everyone smiled at that, they wouldn't have to worry about losing their home anymore, fearing that one day they would be thrown away from there, they would be able to live peacefully there.
The news spread quickly on the guild and the alliance, by dinnertime Mana and Shina were in the castle questioning Benji, even Juliet was there wondering what had happened. Benji just explained to them calmly, he was in a good mood because of the deal.
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"I have to admit that I am impressed." Elle commented to Benji, few days had passed since the announcement that the castle wouldn't be a battlefield anymore, the mood in the castle was clearly a happy, light and cheerful one, and it showed on Benji as he was healing much faster. "How you pulled that stunt?"
"When you are killing like I am killing you tend to know people and places." Benji answered. "I did come across a good amount of treasure while traveling around." "What next?" Elle asked. "You did buy the area around the farm and that connects this place to the farm."
"We can do what we want." Benji answered. "I was thinking on expanding the castle walls a little." "You know?" Elle commented. "You just started a clan. You got a land, a castle and a group of followers." "I noticed that." Benji replied. "Well I did that a while ago, anyway I was thinking in annexing extra quarters in the south wing. Some of the girls who got fiancés also commented in looking for a place to live."
"You do have enough land to start a village here." Elle commented. "And we are far enough from Amatsu to not be an issue and close enough to be able to use some of their commodities." "It might happen but I really don't want to run a village or anything like that I have enough responsibilities now." Benji said with a sigh. "I thought in giving them a place to build a house or something nearby."
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Jannine and Saya are holding a meeting with the other guild girls, more than few of them were a bit confused about the whole thing, they got used to WoE and weren't all that willing to just stop taking part of it. "Anyone who wishes to fight in the WoE can make use of our second castle in the WoE days." Saya said to them all. "The Silver Moon is our home and won't be endangered anymore and we can all still live here."
"What about the guild?" Leona asked. "It is still a guild." Jannine answered. "We just returned to our previous state before we were given this castle, originally the guild wasn't a WoE guild, we became a WoE guild because this castle is worth fighting for." No one could deny that.
"What about our friends?" Tia a whitesmith asked to them. "We can still help them as they helped us." Jannine answered. "It is strictly voluntary unless taisho says otherwise; no one will be forced to do anything even if ordered for a serious reason. Taisho had already discussed with our allies and they agreed with this arrangement, even if is just two of us who wish to fight with them, they will take them in the WoE days, and if is truly needed we all will fight to aid our allies in an emergency."
"What we will do now?" Leona asked. "I mean I was pretty much recruited for WoE purposes." "We don't deny that you were recruited for WoE." Saya replied. "But you are part of this guild not only in WoE, if you like you can fight in our second castle, or take a break from WoE as well, there are more in life than WoE."
"I know that this is pretty intimidating it is a big change that happened too suddenly." Jannine said to everyone in a gentle tone. "But changes are good, I am sure that we all will adapt to this change, didn't we adapted to everything else until now? Why we wouldn't adapt to this?" No one could counter that argument, Jannine was right and no one could contest that.
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Three months later Elle looks at Benji with a nod. "Good, the past months clearly took a lot of strain away from you." She said seriously while poking and pressing on his naked back. "The muscle tone is fine, three more months and you will be just like a new one; you even put more weight."
"My stomach finally settled with more food." Benji commented, he still wasn't eating his normal amount but he was getting around three quarters of it down without problems. "Well just keep the routine of light exercises, a closer to balanced meal considering that you are a picky eater to everything that isn't meat or carbohydrates, I will even say to keep with the regular sex routine as well." Elle said casually. "Like this in the next three months you will be back in shape one or two weeks after your watch drawbacks end and you can heal normally."
Benji nodded while putting on his pants, it was a major pain to be denied of natural healing, but it was the price to pay for the massive bonuses of his watch's activation. "So any pregnancies yet?" Elle asked casually. "Still none." Benji answered a bit relieved. "I am sure that I can't handle that above everything that I have to deal with."
Elle couldn't really contest that, in the months after his return a small settlement started to grow a little under one kilometer away from the castle in the direction of the farm, four girls from the guild who had lovers asked them to move closer of them, since Benji allowed them to use the land they moved there, even Juliet got herself a nice cabin not so far from there.
The lovers of the girls, plus some of the others' families started out a farming area in areas approved by Benji, Leona was quite glad about that and her family moved there as well and was tending the community fields among the others, as well tending a smaller private field near to their house.
Thanks to games like Caesar, Command and Conquer and others like that Benji had an idea of administration, of course he counted with Makie, Elle and the others aid to deal with everything, keeping a small friendly tax of one percent that will be given to the guild to maintain everything the settlement was happy, Benji was a kind ruler and gave them what they believed to be magic earth that made the soil fertile, the sprouts are growing strong and beautiful.
'I knew that studying in that studying agriculture would eventually pay itself off.' Benji thought when thinking about the settlement, while he got just the basic in the year that he studied he learned enough to apply in Amatsu, and unknowing to the girls is that the guild's organic trash as fruit and vegetable peels, leftovers and other food waste was being used to make fertilizer for the farm, a simple process of making compost allowed them to make the most of the land, even the ones considered unfertile.
While Benji knew that his knowledge wasn't enough to deal with everything, but speaking with seasoned farmers aided to build a good picture that covered a lot of issues and ensured a healthy crop. And that made the girls and their families happy, and if they are happy them Benji won't be bothered, so he will be happy as well, though they did got luck that the settlement started in the beginning of the spring, Amatsu's winter could be quite unforgiving.
After the checkup with Elle Benji is free to resume his regular routine, and thankfully that meant no more tasks related to the settlement or guild as they were settled in the previous day, and that mean that Benji could indulge himself on whatever he wanted. And it wasn't sex, which surprised Elle quite much, she had guessed that Benji was pretty much having sex at every moment when he wasn't doing something else.
What Benji wanted is quite simple, and honestly his lovers liked it as much as he did, he wanted a vacation and that meant that nice little private island in a secret location, for Benji it meant his lovers in nice swimsuits tanning under the sun, a pleasure that he deprived himself of in the past.
And with all moving well and peacefully no one really contested that little vacation, the brunt of the guild girls would take that time for themselves, play a little in some random city, maybe even shopping leisurely at Prontera, or just being with their loved ones. Jannine, Saya and Makie agreed in taking the role of temporary leaders and managers of the guild and the settlement while Benji and the usual ring of leaders aren't there.
Mana and Shina were a little angry that they weren't invited to that get away, but again they haven't really became Benji's lovers, it was closer to sex friends, Maria was a bit miffed at the fact that she isn't going either, but the promise from Benji of spending a day with her after it pleased her.
Layla and the others didn't protested when Benji told them that Saki would be going with them as well, along with two of his maids, for them it meant less time spent doing things as cooking and cleaning, which meant more time for being with Benji, plus they pretty much settled that Benji used them for more than that, with the amount of stamina that he had it was a welcomed thing, there was times that not even Layla couldn't keep up with him in that department.
Dante didn't took the removal of the Silver Moon all that well, he was pissed that he lost his chance to fight Benji, but again WoE was different than a duel, after some sulking Dante accepted the fact, plus Benji had a second castle, there was chances of him being there to defend it.
Helen was just surprised with it, she wasn't expecting that Benji was able to produce that amount of money, Atsuko told her that it was from his own pocket and not from the guild, which surprised her, but again she made large amounts of money easily everyday.
Yuma smiled when hearing the late news in a tavern in Geffen, it meant that the castle was safe, but it wasn't the end of the intrigue and politics, she knew that all too well, but would make Benji harder to reach than before. Gently running her hand on the soft fur of her Lunatic Yuma allows herself to wonder how it would be living there, even thought she won't.
But there was someone who wasn't pleased at all with that, King Tristan didn't supported that, but since Amatsu was an allied sovereign nation there was little that he could do, it was a legal maneuver, the Silver Moon castle was experimental, now that the trial of it was over Tomotaka could do whatever he wanted with it, even if meant selling it, the experience and the gold were used to build the official WoE grounds in a different area of Amatsu.
It was clear that Tomotaka was making his visit to Amatsu take more time to happen that Tristan liked, but he knew all too well the politics involved in such things and can't just force his way on it, especially now that Benji was directly connected to the imperial family.
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"I knew that this place was great." Benji commented looking at the beach, white sand beach, crystal clear blue water, vivid green trees around the beach, the large beach house in a stone platform no more than five hundred meters away from the sand, it was a tropical paradise, with coconuts and everything!
"In the other hand this sight is even better." Benji said with a nod while looking at his swimsuit clad lovers. Sure he knows every millimeter of skin of them by heart and saw them nude more times that he cared to count, but as anyone knows nudity isn't the ultimate peak of sexiness, Benji could see a lot of skin, yet the best parts are covered by the swimsuits.
Layla is embarrassed, Atsuko just smiles and poses a little, Haruka is adjusting her top, she was glad that it got tighter than it originally was, Erika stretches lazily foreseeing two weeks of relaxation, and there was Mutsumi who is blushing madly at her swimsuit, after much thought Mutsumi decided to take her chances as Benji's lover, needless to say that when facing the experience of Benji in that area Mutsumi's mind blew and she was out of service for a while, it was too much for the until then virgin princess.
Haruka was the one who made Mutsumi get a new swimsuit, a bikini, mostly because Mutsumi was less developed than herself and Haruka liked that, it made her feel better about her own assets. Saki in the other hand kept things simple with a one piece swimsuit that after Benji convinced her that a loincloth wouldn't work.
Aliza and Alice are wearing maid uniforms, but Benji made sure to get them summer ones, meaning short skirt, no sleeves and made of a lighter fabric, no need for his maids get a heatstroke. "If you don't mind answering this, how you got this place?" Atsuko asked to Benji a question that was bugging her for a while.
"Kind of a long story." Benji answered. "Making it short I found it on a dungeon." "How you find an island in a dungeon?" Haruka asked seriously, after everything that she saw, she wouldn't be surprised if he really did. "This island is isolated from others by magic." Benji answered. "When I went to this dungeon that I won't tell you the name or where it is, because I don't want you going there, I found a map and a item that makes me the owner of this island. I did also found a nice treasure there as well, anyway with the use of the treasure and a construction crew I had the house built in this secret island."
"That is enough for me." Layla commented. "No wonder no one knows about this place." Erika commented agreeing. "How many secret places you actually know about?" "Well a lot." Benji answered. "Let's just say that when you start doing things outside the regular areas for adventuring you learn a lot."
"Enough with this." Haruka said casually. "We are here for two weeks of relaxation under the sun." She frowns a little and looks at Benji and her fellow lovers. "If is just us here why are we wearing swimsuits?" She asked seriously. "Because I don't want sand on my ass." Benji answered. "We think the very same thing." The others agreed as one, as getting sand in their private parts would be really bad and uncomfortable.
"And my most important reason is that I like seeing you with swimsuits." Benji added. "I see you naked everyday, besides it is sexier." Atsuko and Layla nodded agreeing, while they like of the sight of Benji's naked body his swimsuit that was nothing more than a pair of loose shorts was also very interesting, sure they would have liked of something smaller and tighter, but again it was hiding very well a part of him that they liked a lot, making them imagine things.
"I guess that I can't contest that." Haruka commented. "But what about those two?" She asked pointing to the maids. "They also have swimsuits." Benji replied. "But for now they are on duty." "And it is a tad too hot and bright for us." Aliza said in a level tone, she still wasn't used to tropical levels of sunlight. Alice just blushes silently; she is much embarrassed in wearing the swimsuit than servicing Benji.
While in the beach Benji doesn't really feels like being on the sand, sure was white and not goldish yellow one was the desert sand and there was water nearby, but he still was a bit sick of sand, he would first relax in the deck under a large beach umbrella while the maids deal with the barbecue, all the time looking at his frolicking lovers, it was a good plan, they are well stocked and eventually he would feel the mood of swimming a little or playing in the water, there was plenty of time to enjoy things and take easy.
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Two weeks, lots of tanning, games and fun later Benji and his pack returns to the castle, Benji was surprised in seeing that the settlement was slightly bigger than before, a quick explanation later Benji learns that other girls moved with their families or lovers there, Benji was even required to be part of the weddings, not the fancy adventuring wedding that is held in Prontera but the traditional religious wedding that was held for generations.
He doesn't really mind it, he even contacted Marisa to deal with the parties after the weddings, even took some money from the guild to help with the wedding as well as a present for the couple. Sure the parties turned into something closer to festivals every time but it was okay to celebrate it like that, the girls had many friends among the allies and outside them.
Months passed and things were quite peaceful and it seemed that the girls, especially the ones that Benji freed were moving on with their lives positively. Mana and Shina changed to the next classes, Maria and Raki changed to thief and under Alexis and Isis care were leveling smoothly.
Tsugumi and Ruri fully adapted to sunlight, while Tsugumi was openly jealous of Saki, not hiding at all her disliking of the oni woman, Saki just accepted that as rivalry, Ruri in the other hand just accepted Saki, didn't got along all that well with her, Saki was by far too polite and serious to be fun, so Ruri normally hand with more interesting people and pets.
And there was Yami, well she was still being trained, and more often that not Benji had to beat the doppelganger into shape, thought he noticed that she did it in purpose. Everyone was pretty surprised when learning that Yami was a doppelganger, after all doppelgangers are male, at least the know ones, and Yami was clearly female.
Elle was intrigued by it and was content in study the creature, too much for Yami's dismay Benji gave the thumbs up to it, isn't like Yami would die if dissected anyway. Benji explained to them that Yami claimed that doppelgangers can change sex pretty much at will, while it is normally influenced by the individual doppelganger personality, preferences and how the doppelganger sees itself in the gender, making the 'original' gender the one that fits most the doppelganger.
Though that doesn't explain how doppelgangers reproduce or why they can change sexes like that or why no one ever saw a female doppelganger, or even why doppelgangers always look like swordsmen.
"She just doesn't learn does she?" Atsuko asked when seeing a broken Yami fallen in a corner of Benji's office. "I am pretty sure that she does in purpose." Benji answered while writing something. "But she is more obedient than she used to be, so I am sure that I am in the right path."
Considering that Benji was bashing Yami's skull in or breaking her into bits every time that she misbehaves Atsuko is sure that Yami would start to listen more to what he says. "We heard some noise in the dungeon." Atsuko said to Benji seriously. "And when we opened the door there was this red head woman wearing this odd outfit who said that wanted to see you.
"You mean a woman with red hair reaching her hips, a sailor like top with a short black skirt; that looks just like human and has purple eyes?" Benji asked looking up to Atsuko. "That is the one." Atsuko answered. "You know her?" "Yes." Benji answered while putting his pen down.
"Who is her anyway?" Atsuko asked curious, the dungeon was very high level and still was out of limits to everyone of the guild. "She is the ruler of the dungeon." Benji answered while pulling a box from one of his drawers. "We kind of have a deal about things."
"What kind of deal?" Atsuko asked surprised, she never heard of someone making deals with monsters. "I helped her to get the ruling place in the dungeon and we would have a trade agreement that favors me a lot." Benji answered while standing up. "In exchange of rather cheap items for the surface that is very rare and expensive there I get back high grade weapons, gems, items and several other stuff that are rare and expensive here, but common there." Atsuko frowns a little and follows Benji, sure it sounded like a good deal, but what kind of person would start a deal with a monster? Then again Benji did…
"Yo Hime has been a while." Benji said when seeing the red head leaning on midair of the open dungeon door. "Yeah, you went missing and then don't send news here for months." She replied a bit annoyed. "We build up a lot of goods here." "I know, I know." Benji said with a smile. "I got everything as well, here are the samples."
Benji hands to her the box and she smiles opening, Atsuko peeks on it and sees nothing more than dried webfoot, roasted lizards, some beads of something, and a pair of clips. "Just great." She said with a smile. Saki arrives with a much larger box. "Everything else is in there." Benji said while Saki pushes the box through the door.
"You brought more carriers?" The red head asked. "We got a lot of stuff." Then Atsuko sees a rather long line of girls in similar clothes to the red head holding heaps of unstring bows, swords, spears, others carrying rolls of fabric in different colors, some with chests, and a group with large clay jars sealed shut.
Benji focuses, snaps his fingers and large group of Alices and Alizas appear in the hall, it takes ten minutes for the army of maids to take everything upstairs. "Come for a tea sometime." The red head said to Benji while adjusting the hair clips on her hair. "We got some new leaves." "Sure, I will drop by sometime." Benji replied. "As usual it was a pleasure seeing you Reika."
"Same here." Reika replied with a smile before leaving the door. "Okay what was that?" Atsuko asked confused. "You mean that you shut the dungeon because you have business down there?"
"Actually because is too high level." Benji answered. "But also because Reika keeps a nice little society there, look there are monsters and monsters. Some monsters are peaceful, others are violent, and others are nice people once you know them."
Atsuko can't deny that, Saki was a nice person and she is a monster. "Besides the girls would mess up with things there." Benji added. "There is this race of monsters that is nice, and there is everything else that is pretty dangerous."
"And what race that Reika monster is?" Atsuko asked. "Demon." Benji answered. "Well is it somewhere between demon and demi-human, anyway the girls could end killing someone that they shouldn't and send the dungeon amok. Besides I don't think that they would be able to deal with reds."
Atsuko was confused with the term that he used, it was clear that was some particular classification for some kind of monster that lives in the dungeon, she decides that is better let the subject die, but of course she intends to follow Benji on his excursion in the dungeon.
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Benji looks around the now filled depot where his maids took the goods, by now Layla and the others learned from Atsuko about the trade and moved to see the items. Haruka curious opens one of the chests and gasped in surprised when seeing it filled with diamonds.
Every eye turns to Benji who is idly opening one of the large clay jars, he fishes a small bright red orb from it and eats it, letting out a small sound of satisfaction, then a sweet smell reaches the girls. "Cherries?" Haruka asked confused, she recognized the scent but was also different from maraschino cherries. "They are the only ones who can make them right." Benji answered licking the red liquor from his fingers.
"Forget the cherries." Atsuko exclaimed. "How and why they gave you that many diamonds just like that? Three carats diamonds above everything!" "As I said we trade." Benji answered. "What could possible be so worthy to them?" Erika asked in disbelief, the diamond chest alone must be worth several dozens millions.
"Salt." Benji answered. "One of the main things that I give them is salt, for them one barrel of salt is worth more than two barrels of diamonds." It was insane, the girls can't believe that something as minor as salt would mean so much for them, but Elle knew better, those monsters in the dungeon are confined to it, there wasn't any source of salt there and salt is important to every animal, besides what would they use those diamonds for? Still was impressive that they gave out that many diamonds, and that was only from one chest, there was eight more.
Haruka and the others find everything too absurd, there was millions if not billions worth in items in that room, Atsuko could start to understand where Benji got the massive amount that he used to purchase the castle, even if what they see are the accumulation of one year worth of goods, the months before his disappearance were more than enough to build a sizable fortune.
Layla picks one of the many swords that were stacked inside a barrel, from the style looked like a katana, but she could tell that wasn't one of those generic katanas that you can find anywhere, that katana felt by far superior, the craftsmanship was clearly simple, the sword wasn't heavily adorned or fancy, it was simple looking, concealing the sword's magnificence.
"Goshujin-sama why you asked for these weapons?" Layla asked seriously, she never saw swords like that for sale before, so he wasn't selling them. "Well I have my reasons." Benji answered not really answering anything, but Elle in the other hand understood. "You are stocking." She said seriously. "First grade, war purpose weapons, unlike the mostly generic and bad ones that are available in merchants."
Elle did figure out as Benji sighed annoyed. "Why?" Mutsumi asked, she was utterly confused with everything, the craftsmanship of the weapons there are by far superior of most of the weapon smiths of Amatsu. "Being ready never hurts." Benji answered. Elle understood that as well, Benji was taking from experience of what happened to Junko.
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After a short discussion the girls decided that was better to leave that as it was before, a secret, they examined the weapons, some of them were far too powerful to be given to the others so lightly, and the girls did recognized that some of the bows there looked just like the one that Sora uses, they saw it on action, it was better let Benji store those away wherever he stashes them.
Foodstuff where separated in what would be sold and what would be consumed by them, so it was the fabric, needless to say that the girls specially Haruka and Mutsumi were really happy in selecting the fabrics, knowing very well the gorgeous kimonos that it could be made with them.
In the end everything returned to normal, Haruka's and Mutsumi's enthusiasm seeped to the others as they also got excited with the idea of the new kimonos, since Benji allowed them to use what they liked of the fabric they enjoyed to their hearts' content.
Benji just moved to let the girls measure themselves and work on the kimonos, it would be nice to see them wearing them in the next festival, with that in mind Benji moves to the library to get a book, Saki who was used in making her own kimonos was helping the girls with measuring and everything related to that.
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"Benji-taisho we got more reports about the settlement for you to look over…" Haruka stops speaking when not seeing Benji on his office, instead an unpleased looking Makie is checking on the documents on the desk. "He ran away again?" Haruka asked to the gypsy.
"He did." Makie answered in an annoyed tone, but again she was the one who first suggested to Benji to make the settlement even before the news about the castle was one hour old, so she shouldered the blame for that and took care of the work whenever he felt like not doing so, and as she does she could fully understand why he does run away. "It is almost like when we started the guild."
Haruka could also remember that very well, whenever Benji got too tired of tanking for them he ran away to rest for a while, besides she really didn't liked the settlement idea in the first place it was too much work and responsibility, and the most important reason, it cutted on her private time with Benji.
Unfortunately as the owner and lord of the land Benji had to deal with the responsibilities of the position, or having willing or not so willing pawns to do it on his place, the pawns, in this case Makie, Elle, Erika, and sometimes Layla took the job seriously to leave the little and only the most needed to be judged by him stuff for him to do, and for Benji that means that he could afford his escapades.
And in this particular case lazing out under a cherry tree several kilometers away from the castle and Amatsu, in one of the areas out of access for adventurers, Benji enjoys the peacefulness of the area, the silence of human voices with only the sounds of nature around him, if he was able to sleep during the daytime it would be a nice time and place to take a nap, and since he actually couldn't he was just sited with his back against the trunk of the tree reading a book.
Benji wasn't the only one in a unscheduled outing in the guild, Atsuko also was out, at first she went to buy few stuff for herself and had a nice tea with Helen, but that was two hours ago, now she was back in Amatsu, actually in the out of limits area looking for Benji, Atsuko had a pretty good idea of where Benji would be, he always went there when escaping from the guild, even if was just for a short while before moving to some other place.
It was a nice pastime for her, Benji could be anywhere on his outings, she had fun looking for him in his favorite spots or in new ones, and isn't like Benji made it hard for her, knowing that normally Atsuko or Layla would try tracking him down outside he left pointers or small hints behind turning the search in a small treasure hunt.
Atsuko smiled softly when finding Benji lying under the tree with the book covering his face, she knew for sure that he wasn't sleeping, his breathing wasn't soft enough for that, but was clear that he was resting, and she pretty much guessed that he had heard her coming have a while now.
Atsuko sits next to Benji and softly lifts the book up and pats on her lap after Benji opened one of his eyes, Benji moves a little and rests his head on Atsuko's thighs, Atsuko softly runs her hand on his hair after placing the book a little lower on his face leaving his eyes uncovered.
Benji reaches ups and removes the book from his face, closing it as he rests it over his stomach, Atsuko could easily hear the unspoken half sarcastic and had teasing words that crossed his mind 'Why you just didn't took the whole thing away?' Atsuko leans forward and kisses Benji softly on the lips, no words were really needed then.
End of the chapter third two:
Author explanation corner:
Mutsumi: Well needless to say that there was a large amount of hentai suppressed in this chapter with her involved, juicy, juicy hentai… anyway as explained in the story Mutsumi become important to grant Benji stability as the lord and owner of his lands, given the plans for the land greedy nobles would eagerly contest about Benji's right over them, especially after Benji implements his knowledge to make the farming area produce large amounts of crops, what some basic agricultural knowledge paired with what you can learn nowadays can do to land in the 'feudal' era.
Given her birth as princess is obvious that Mutsumi is from traditional, old and respected noble bloodlines from both her father's and mother's sides, even banned from being a princess Mutsumi is still noble, which gives more benefits for Benji than a peasant Amatsu woman.
Originally Mutsumi wouldn't end on Benji's bed, though it crossed my mind few times, but as I wrote the scene of Benji discussing with Tomotaka about the castle and the new lands I realized that it would be unnatural to Tomotaka just accept an armed group with a castle so near of Amatsu, so I needed something that would ensure Tomotaka that Benji would be loyal to the imperial family, so Mutsumi ended taking that role.
Since I removed Mutsumi's debate about taking the role of Benji's wife or not let me explain some of it here, Mutsumi is seventeen and some (months) old, curious about sex (even though she is easily embarrassed and shy about it), given her curiosity and some naughty chats with Haruka as well listening to some conversations around the guild Mutsumi decided to try it out, in the worse case she would go back to her place as a trophy wife and get some experience in sex.
Silver Moon castle and the lands: The idea of having Benji owning the lands around the castle have been bugging me from a long while, so it was Benji letting the guild girls import their families there and the families starting out a village under the guild's protection.
Some of the lands were assigned as farming lands, others were assigned as living areas for the newcomers, others were assigned as protected areas (mountainsides, riversides and other sensible to erosion areas, it is a known fact that those areas are very sensible to disforestation as the plants' roots is what holds the soil together), the living areas are again divided according to Benji's wishes with some aid of Makie for urban planning, ensuring that things won't get problematic later.
The taxes from the families living there are to help maintaining the settlement, the girls also pay a lease to Benji granting them or their families the use of his land, that extra money is to be used to make the settlement better as well pay for the extra policing and protection of the people there (real protection and not the mafia one, the protection is against stray monsters).
Benji and agriculture: I did study one year in a agricultural school when younger, I didn't continued as I didn't really liked of the career, but I don't deny that was interesting, but wasn't my calling, still I learned a lot of stuff there, specially about land, its types, how to grow crops and maintain the land fertile, including how to make few homemade fertilizers (while I don't make them, I am growing a mulberry sapling to plant it somewhere).
Benji and his mysterious large amount of money: Benji explored some unusual places in the three months void in the story, as well in some of the time skips during the story, in there he found large amounts of treasures (like in that new dungeon that I forgot the name, the one with a huge pile of gold and stuff on it), Benji also made trade with monsters to get more treasures that for monsters are just garbage.
Rating and selling the stuff would grant Benji a large amount of money, I have seen players with fortunes in the past, especially ones in guilds, anyway Benji had a nice fortune stashed away, for anyone wondering he has some more as well.
Yami and doppelgangers: Since nothing is said about how monsters reproduce I am throwing some stuff here, unless doppelgangers reproduce without sex (mitosis) they need to have sex, to have sex they need to have females (well not necessarily but you get the meaning), so I made doppelgangers 'select' their sexes, if the mind is female then the doppelganger is female while it can take male form its 'true' form is female, if the mind is male then the doppelganger is male, the same of the above takes place here inverted.
Who gets to be the male can be selected by fighting or discussion, or who gets on the top first, do some research about hermaphrodite animals and pick your favorite method of who is the female on that mating. Anyway since in the game we only see male doppelgangers (and normally only one) the male form even for females might be a disguise to protect the females from male attackers (you can think whatever you want as what kind of attack). One last thing doppelgangers are naturally light haired (blonde), and by saying this I save myself a long explanation of why Yami is blonde since when she shifted to Benji when he killed her she was brunette, and why all doppelgangers are blonde.
Beach vacation: Edited for hentai, lots of hentai, nudity and inappropriate scenes for the current rating, as if I would leave alone sparsely dressed girls and two maids.
Reika: She is a schoolgirl class monster. Okay kidding a bit, she is dressed like an anime schoolgirl, her race is between demi-human and demon, in one of Benji's solo visits in the dungeon Benji met her and they come to terms (pretty much what happened to Tsugumi, seeing a guy in a dangerous dungeon killing time instead of monsters made her curious), after getting to know her Benji sided with her to created a ruling on the dungeon that would benefit him, so he helped Reika to get control of the dungeon and organizing other demon schoolgirls together to form a nice society.
It took lots of killing and oppressing of the previously ruling group but Benji got Reika in the ruling place and established a trading agreement between him and the dungeon for both helping her to take the ruling place and to keep the adventurers out of the dungeon so they could make a society faster.
Benji's escapade: Originally was going to end after the "and since he actually couldn't he was just sited with his back against the trunk of the tree reading a book." part but I ended writing that nice scene with Atsuko in the start of the chapter 33 and decided that would be a better ending for this chapter instead of the beginning of the next one.
Anyway going back to the old ways of Benji getting sick of his work and escaping from it to have some time for himself to do whatever he wanted, just like he did back when the guild started. And to think that in the story the guild is around one year and some months old, I need to track down the passage of time, but I am sure that still haven't passed two years.