"Lady Rozemyne, look! Look how much we gathered!" Lynna shouted happily, as the bunny girl lifted up the large basket full of the herbs she had gathered during that day's trip.
"That's really good. Thank you for the hard work." Rozemyne said as she patted the girl's head, starting a little fight between all of the children who wanted to receive headpats from their master. "Alright, that's enough. All of you go and wash up. We will be having dinner soon."
"Okay!" The children said as one and rushed to get cleaned up.
After buying the slaves, Rozemyne had taken a handful of golden dust she had made from one of the monster's crystals and used it to produce an orphanage outside of the city, large enough to hold a hundred children. It was a polished white and in the style of a temple, with all of the magical defenses that would protect them from attacks. Sadly, she couldn't make the furniture and they all only had furs and sleeping bags instead of proper beds. She would have had enough money for something better, but she'd needed to purchase a license with the Adventurer's Guild for the organized harvesting of herbs around the city.
Though after she had used her magic to heal the children of all of their injuries, the kids still couldn't be happier, considering they weren't being beaten or forced to do anything against their will and were receiving three square meals a day.
In the past week and a half, Rozemyne had returned to the slave trader two more times and now had forty children in total. But she was running into a problem.
She was saturating the market with her potions. Meaning that there was no one left trying to buy them, even though they were high quality goods. Not only that, her buying up all the slaves was causing their prices to increase as well.
If she wanted to make more money and save the rest of the children, she'd need to expand into other industries.
Paper was an obvious one, but she was going to have to negotiate terms with the local Parchment Guild, which was going to be a pain.
She'd been able to avoid that with the Potion Maker's Guild by making use of an existing member to sell her products through, but that wasn't likely to fly here. Even the Potion Maker's Guild was starting to make noises about how unfair Rozemyne's products were.
She'd do it of course, and had already sent the request for it to the Parchment Guild, but it could end up causing problems and take time. She still didn't know how the world had a printing press before it had plant based paper, but it seemed that Heroes of the past often brought technologies with them, messing with the natural progression.
Not that it mattered. Regardless of what had happened, she needed a faster way of making money now.
"Lady Rozemyne!" Another of the Demihuman children called out, a child with raccoon ears and a tail named Raphtalia. "Lady Rozemyne, there are some people with weapons at the gate!"
All of the children were immediately frightened, but Rozemyne stayed calm. "Don't worry. So long as you remain in the small temple, no one can harm you." She said as she put down her cooking utensils and stepped towards the doorway. "Let's see what these men with weapons want."
She was prepared to defend the orphanage, but when she reached the door, she was met by a pleasant surprise.
"Lord Ren. I didn't expect that our fates would have been woven together again so soon. To what do we owe the pleasure." Rozemyne said with a bright noblewoman's smile as she found Ren and four other men standing at the gate.
"I had asked the potion's shop owner if he knew if you were still around and he pointed me to this place." Ren said, a little stiffly, but friendly enough. "I was wondering if there are any more potions that I can buy."
"Of course. We would be glad to accept your patronage." Rozemyne replied happily, glad to receive a small influx of funds for her new orphanage.
"I'm glad to hear it. May we come in." Ren asked, seeing the children staring at them from behind Rozemyne with fearful eyes.
"Anyone who can walk past the threshold will always be welcome here." Rozemyne replied.
Ren and his companions stepped forward at her invitation… only for one of the men to bounce off of an invisible barrier.
"Huh? Gregory, what happened?" Ren said, surprised as he saw the man being flung away.
"I told you. Anyone who can cross the threshold is welcome." Rozemyne said as the man stood up, her voice going cold. "This entire building is surrounded by a barrier that prevents anyone who intends to hurt those inside of it from entering."
"...Gregory." Ren said in shock, he and his other companions staring wide eyed at the middle aged nobleman.
The man walked forward and tried to enter again and was once again thrown away, before looking at Ren was panicking eyes. "Lord Ren, please do not listen to this witch! You know me and that I am a man of honor!"
Ren slowly started to shake his head. "Get out of here. Get out of here now before I change my mind about letting you go!" Ren snarled, his hand going to his sword. Gregory paled before running away, shouting back about how the Shield could not be trusted. "...Damn. I wasted so much time and resources on that man."
"I'm sorry. Finding out that someone you had put your faith in was not worthy of that trust isn't easy." Rozemyne said apologetically. "Would you like to join us for dinner?"
"...Sure."
The food was surprisingly okay.
Ren still had his taste buds keyed into modern day junk food, but Rozemyne's cooking was like that of a family restaurant. There were also homemade sauces and condiments that were from the modern day, which surprised him.
"Why does an Archduchess know how to cook?" Ren asked, curious about the food as he finished his plate.
"It is the duty of the high nobility to introduce new forms of culture into society in order to stimulate the economy. As such, I was involved in research for the expedition of many different industries, including paper, printing, clothes, ink, dyes, food, communication, transportation and more." Rozemyne said. "Admittedly though, they never allowed me to cook with my own hands. I always had an advisory role. I always did like it when people called my food delicious and being able to prepare it myself makes it feel even more fulfilling."
"The nobility is more complex than I had thought." Ren said, scratching his chin.
"That was my first reaction too, when my mother told me." Rozemyne chuckled. "However, I have to ask, is Lord Ren not being educated in regards to noble culture?"
"Well, no." Ren admitted.
"That is… strange." Rozemyne said before starting to mumble to herself. "I thought it was odd how they let us walk around town without a carriage, and how we were assigned neither scholars nor attendants. It would usually be unthinkable for a person of high status to go without them, like walking around without a bodyguard. Perhaps the nobility of this world is just more relaxed than my old world. Even so, not educating the Heroes in how to interact with nobles without making a scene, that just doesn't make sense."
"Isn't it just that our time is better spent getting stronger?" Ren asked, hinting that Rozemyne should also be thinking about training, rather than playing with orphans.
Good as the girl's intentions were, if they failed in their fight against the Waves of Calamity, it would be the end of everything. Even if the Shielder was the least valuable class for solos like Ren, it still held value for raids if they couldn't get their levels high enough in time for the late game bosses to be DPS rushed.
"It is extremely important." Rozemyne said seriously. "In my home world, one of the Mayors in a town I was setting up a workshop in made the very poor choice of disobeying my uncle. Because of his ignorance of who he was dealing with, he ended up committing an act of treason which would have resulted in the entire town being sentenced to death, if I hadn't convinced my adopted father to spare their lives."
Ren was taken aback and glanced towards his own party members. "Does that kind of thing really happen?"
"Sometimes. Most commoners just know better than to question the nobility though." The man replied. "That Mayor was probably just a fool who'd never seen a real nobleman."
"I see." Ren said, thinking back to his actions over the last two weeks and wondering if he had done anything that could accidentally cause a mass execution. "I'll try to be more mindful of that in the future."
"I'm just glad you won't have to learn the hard way, like I did." Rozemyne said with a small shake of his head. "I never thought that taking orphans away from a mayor who was beating them could have snowballed into an entire town nearly being killed."
"You seem to be fawned of orphans." Ren said, desperate to change the subject away from deaths of untold hundreds because of an innocent mistake.
"The Temples in my home world doubled as orphanages. I was given the orphanage director's quarters because the Archbishop at the time hated me and it was the only room in a completely separate building from his. After finding out that there were a hundred children starving to death just feet away from where I read my books every day… it was so unnerving that I had to do something. So at the age of seven, I became responsible for the lives of over four hundred people and had to figure out a way to raise enough money to feed them all." Rozemyne said with a chuckle. "That was probably the scariest thing I have ever done. Far more frightening than going to war and the Lord of Winter."
Ren was temporarily rendered speechless.
In his eyes, Rozemyne had appeared to be a delicate and whimsical noble girl. Naive and in need of protection. He might have even seen his role as a hero to protect her. He hadn't understood the kinds of burdens she had been made to carry.
"And you are trying to do the same thing here with all of these slaves?" One of Ren's companions said, confusing Ren. "But if your objective is to save them, why do they still have slave marks on them?"
"Slaves?" Ren said, looking at the children, seeing some with small inked magic circles peeking out from under their shirts.
"Because if no one owned them, they would become targets of kidnapping and would be sold back into slavery again." Rozemyne explained. "I know I can't save them all, but it is hard to turn a blind eye when I think back to all of the children at the orphanage workshop."
"I see." Ren said, nodding his head in understanding.
"Lord Ren, I've been meaning to ask, and I understand if you cannot tell me, but, where do you get all of your money?" Rozemyne asked the young man. "I'm sure those hero clothes weren't cheap. It must have cost a lot to get high quality threads fitted to you so quickly. They look really good on you."
"Ah, these." Ren said, flushing with embarrassment. "I didn't have them made. These were an item drop from a Horny Dusk Lizard."
"Item drop?" Rozemyne said, tilting her head. "Monsters don't actually drop items though."
"It is a function of the Legendary Weapons. Any monster you absorb into the weapon has a chance for item drops, which can be stored inside of your weapon along with use items like potions." Ren replied.
"Since when!?" Rozemyne said in disbelief before going into her status menu.
"Didn't you read the help page?" Ren said with a raised eyebrow.
"...Are you asking me, Lady Rozemyne, the mother of print, founder of the Royal Academy Library Committee, and builder of a library the size of an entire city, if I read the instructions manual? OF COURSE I DID! I'VE READ IT TEN TIMES!" Rozemyne shouted as she lost her cool, seeing Ren's stunned face, she flushed and quickly collected herself. "Sorry. I get worked up over the subject of reading."
"...Anyways. You could probably make a bit of money by pawning off whatever items you get as loot drops from fighting monsters." Ren said, finding her embarrassed face super cute.
"I… Suppose that is an option." Rozemyne said, not sounding so sure of herself.
"Are you frightened of monsters?" Ren asked her.
"No. Not really. I've fought monsters in the past, and they aren't a problem for me. But I… There is a good reason why I shouldn't be the one fighting monsters." Rozemyne said.
"I see." Ren said, not getting it at all.
"We'll fight them for you, Lady Rozemyne!" One of the older children said proudly. "If we defeat the monsters and bring them back to you, that would work, right!?"
"Quin, you aren't trained." Rozemyne said, trying to stop the child.
"I've been training a lot, and we have the magic tools that Lady Rozemyne made to protect us!" Quin said, showing off a bracelet that he was wearing, which held a glowing golden jewel in its center.
"A magic tool?" Ren said, immediately interested.
"It's just a defensive magic tool that negates an attack and sends a blast of mana back at the attacker. It is strong enough to kill any of the monsters I have seen around here. But the people who designed it didn't have to worry about fuel efficiency, so it costs a lot of mana to recharge after it is out of uses." Rozemyne explained.
"You didn't think of selling these?" Ren asked, believing that such an item would be invaluable to adventurers.
"...You think people would buy them?" Rozemyne said. "Like I said, without someone with enough mana to recharge it, you'd only get around five shots before it is just a normal piece of jewelry. And most nobles don't trust magic tools not made by one of their retainers or a family member."
"Even if it only has a few uses, something that could save your life like that is invaluable to adventurers. I'd certainly buy them." Ren immediately said. "Can you do other sorts of enchantments? I'd like for someone to add some resistances to my cape."
Rozemyne stared at him in shock, then broke into a fit of laughter.
"...What? What is so funny?" Ren demanded, confused and embarrassed.
"Well, where I come from, asking a noble girl to enchant your cape is something a man says as a proposal for marriage." Rozemyne said through her giggles, causing Ren's eyes to widen and his face to turn bright red. "My goodness, I have received several marriage requests by letters, but no one has ever just come out and asked me to marry them publicly like this. Well, except for Lestilaut."
"I… that isn't what I…" Ren stuttered, unable to find his words, only for Rozemyne to wave him down.
"I know. I know. As for your question, I was trained to be the highest class of noble woman, at least while people were watching, so I am very capable when it comes to all forms of enchantments known in my homeland. If you will gather the materials required to make the magic inks, I would be happy to enchant anything for you, if you are willing to help with the orphanage's finances."
"Gladly." Ren said.
"It is starting to get late. We have a few extra sleeping bags if you would like to stay here. Or I can give you all a ride back to town in my panda bus." Rozemyne offered.
"...Panda bus?"