"Master?"
I blinked, looking up from the display of the reconstruction efforts. "Yeah, Sprite?" I asked, looking over at her hologram. Something was clearly wrong. She looked… upset. And afraid. I had never seen her like this, but now that I did… I felt for my connection to her and could sense it, a deep, almost overwhelming fear and dread.
"There's something you should see."
"Show me." I nodded and gestured for her to go ahead. An image of the mountain range ahead of us appeared, focused on a man.
[spoiler=Orsted]
.
.
[/spoiler]
"Huh. He looks… super serious."
"He scares me."
"I know. I can feel it. What about him scares you?"
Sprite shook her head. "I'm not sure. It's… almost like Ruijerd, but more. So, so much more."
"Ah. A curse of some kind, then. Where is he, anyway?" I asked. He had come in on Eris's ship and then gone off to do his own thing, as usual.
Sprite brought up another image—this time, of the deck of the Roxy, and Ruijerd practicing with/teaching Norn his own style of combat. "He's been with Norn all morning, testing her and helping her with her spear work."
"Alright. Give me a hologram, would you?" Sprite nodded and a moment later, a hologram of myself popped up near the two.
Ruijerd intercepted Norn's latest strike and held up a hand, indicating they should stop. Turning, he looked at me with curiosity. "Rudeus. Is something wrong?"
"Yeah, you could say that. Got a minute?" When Ruijerd simply nodded, I began explaining. "Sprite spotted some guy up ahead, in the mountains. He's kinda glaring death at us up here and she said he scares her, kinda like the curse on you."
Ruijerd's eyes narrowed. "Show me." A new hologram spawned and Ruijerd winced. "That is Orsted, the Dragon God. Second of the Great Powers. We should avoid him at all costs."
I considered it for a moment before grinning. "Nah."
"Rudeus, he is not someone you wish to have as a foe—"
"Exactly," I agreed. "I'd rather have someone like that as a friend. So, let's go say 'hi.'"
Ruijerd sighed, pulling a face I knew well and kind of hated making him make. It was the one he made any time I did or wanted to do something that most would consider insane. He'd worn that one a lot, during our time on the demon continent. Pretty sure I gave the poor man an ulcer. "If you insist on this lunacy, I'm going."
"That's fine. I'll grab Eris and Roxy and we'll make a trip out of it. Meet us in the hangar."
With that, I had Sprite shut off the holograms. Before I could ask, Sprite said, "I've alerted Roxy and Eris. They're on their way."
"Great. Let's go." Grabbing my coat, I slung it on and made my way down to the hangar, where I found the others waiting.
"Rudeus, what's going on?" Eris demanded as she slid onto her bike.
Making my way over to my own bike, I popped up the back seat for Roxy and helped her up onto it as Ruijerd mounted his own bike. "Sprite found some guy giving us the evil eye down below and he gives her the creeps. So, we're gonna go say 'hi.'"
Roxy sighed, palming her face. "This seems like a monumentally bad idea, Rudy."
"As I tried to tell him, but I've learned that Rudeus will do as he will," Ruijerd shared a commiserating look with my blue-haired future wife.
"I'm sorry," Roxy apologized.
"Don't apologize for me," I told her, as Sprite opened the hangar doors on the side of the ship.
"Someone should," Roxy countered, and I heard the smile in her voice. And the exasperation. "I know what I'm marrying."
"I'm not a…" I blinked, then laughed. "I am not your Eris."
"Hey!" Eris protested as I laughed harder.
With that, we took off, Ruijerd taking the lead as the Roxy and Eris changed course and ascended to go well around and above this Orsted guy in case he proved to be trouble. We flew down into the mountains, finding the pass he was walking through, and slowed to a stop only thirty yards from the man's imposing figure. A severe frown pulled at his lips as he continued walking down the path towards us, his pace never changing. I slid off the bike and summoned Aqua Heartia to hand, while Roxy did likewise for her own staff. Eris stretched and limbered up and Ruijerd held his spear at the ready.
The tall man in white stopped roughly ten yards away from us. Golden eyes studied us intently and I could feel the tension in the air. Beside me, Roxy shivered, and I reached out and took her hand. Eris looked unsure of herself, while Ruijerd looked like he would rather be anywhere else but was ready to do whatever he needed. Finally, the silver-haired man spoke.
"Eris Boreas Greyrat. Ruijerd Superdia. Roxy Migurdia. You should not be here."
"Yeah? Says who?!" Eris demanded, reaching behind herself and laying her hand on her sword handle, but not drawing it.
"Well now, that's interesting," I murmured. "You recognize them on sight, but not me?"
Orsted shook his head, his eyes locking on me with an intensity that made my guts clench. It was like staring down Badigadi, in that instant when I knew I was dead and couldn't do anything about it. "I do not know you."
Nodding, I released Roxy's hand and stepped forward, closing the distance between us and offering the man my hand to shake. "Rudeus."
"…Orsted," he answered a moment later, but didn't take the offered hand. "You aren't affected by my curse."
"Nope," I confirmed, before jerking a thumb at Ruijerd. "Wasn't bothered by his, either."
"Hn." The man considered me for a moment and I let my hand drop. "What is your surname, if you have one?"
I chuckled. "Ah, well, it was Greyrat."
"Impossible."
"Mm, nope. But why would you think that?"
Instead of answering, he asked, "Who are your parents?"
I fought down the frown as I answered, "Paul and Zenith Greyrat. I had a falling out with my father and kind of disowned myself."
The man shook his head. "Paul and Zenith's only child is Norn. His only other acknowledged child is Aisha Greyrat."
"Now how do you know my sisters? Last I checked, one of them has been on the road this entire time with her mother, Roxy, Elinalise Dragonroad, and Tallhand—plus my summoned spirit watching over them. They'd have mentioned seeing you. The other was hidden away in a little valley on the Begaritt continent and we only just found her."
"That's not possible…" he frowned a bit harder, before looking up at the ships moving over the range—barely specs in the sky at this point. Finally, he shifted his gaze back to the bikes. "You aren't supposed to be here."
"Here…? Here, here," I gestured around us, "Or something else?"
"In this time. This world."
I blinked, considering that for a moment. "Time magic? And what do you know about parallel worlds?"
Orsted stared at me for a few moments before asking, "Tell me, have you met someone called Hitogami?"
I shook my head. "No." He relaxed minutely and I continued. "But considering that shithead has been trying to have me killed, I'd really like to so I can return the favor."
Now I apparently had his interest, as his eyebrows went up. "Explain."
"Look, bud. If we're playing 'twenty questions,' you're going to answer some yourself." His eyes narrowed briefly and he nodded once. "Alright. Badigadi. Ever heard of him?"
"The Fighting God. He resides on the demon continent."
I nodded. "Yeah. So, long story short: there was a teleport disaster that wiped Fittoa off the map, centered on Roa. Eris and I were teleported to the demon continent. I met Kishirika and she promised to help me out, in exchange for me helping find her fiancee, Badigadi. Well, we found him. He tried to kill me and didn't survive the attempt."
"That… why would he attack you?"
I shrugged. "Sprite, could you play that back for me?"
Both of Orsted's eyebrows went up as Sprite produced the hologram of Badigadi muttering to himself before launching his attack, and cutting it off there. Then, unprompted, she played back Kishirika's explanation to us about Hitogami.
Finally, when the hologram disappeared, Orsted crossed his arms over his chest. By now, Roxy and Eris had moved to my sides and Ruijerd stood beside us. It looked like everyone had relaxed a bit, since there were no sudden explosions and magic being flung around.
"He can't see you."
"Apparently not," I shrugged. "Oh! Almost forgot. Got a message from a source asking me kill one of Hitogami's apostles. Geese Nukadia—"
Orsted's eyes widened. "He was one of Hitogami's…? I see."
"Now, I've been friendly and forthcoming here. Your turn. Who are you and how do you know what you know?"
The taller man considered for a moment before saying, "You wouldn't believe me."
"Try me," I countered.
"Very well," Orsted nodded. "I have been at war with Hitogami for a long, long time. So long that I have lost count. I know a magic to allow me to go back in time and have used it to learn everything I can and plan to fight Hitogami. In all the times I've lived through this time period, this is the first time I've met you. The first time you've existed."
"Huh."
"Time travel?" Roxy murmured. "That's possible?"
""Yes,"" Orsted and I answered at the same time, before he shot me a curious look. "Remind me to tell you about Archer later, now that I can," I told her, before turning my focus back to Orsted. "Okay. So you've been living in a time loop and using it to map out Hitogami's stooges and potential weaknesses. And I'm the first real variable you've seen. He can't see me and because I fuck with his future sight, he wants me dead. You've got a grudge against him for…?"
"Killing my people. My father. Destroying my world."
"So that's the Dragon God Kishirika was talking about?" I asked, and he nodded. "Okay. Seems to me like we're kinda natural allies here."
He hesitated for a moment before nodding. "Yes."
"Great. Let's try this again." I held out my hand. After a moment, Orsted took it and we shook. "There. Sprite, you got a spare phone?"
"Yes, master," she answered aloud, before Sending a phone above my hand.
Catching it, I offered it to Orsted. "If you need anything, or want to discuss plans, use this. It's how we communicate. Just talk and Sprite will hear you."
Accepting the phone, Orsted hummed as it produced a hologram above its surface with options. Nodding, he tucked it away in his pocket. "Very well."
"Well, nice meeting you, but we really want to get home. I need to rebuild Roa soon." Slipping my arms around Eris and Roxy, I pulled them towards the bikes with me. "Later."
Orsted simply nodded as we mounted the bikes and took off for the Roxy. When we were far enough away, Ruijerd called, "Rudeus! What do you intend to do?"
I shrugged. "Figure it out as I go. If this assclown Hitogami is going to try to kill us at every turn, then he's got to go in the ground. You in?"
Ruijerd considered for a bit. Finally, he said, "I intend to leave and wander for a while once I see you safely home. If you would leave me a phone, I will help you as I can."
"Sure thing."
Now, who else would be handy in a fight against a 'god?' I wondered as we flew back to the ships. Basically everyone on the list of people not to fuck with. But of those, two are Laplace and he's dead. One's Badi and he's super dead. One's Orsted and one's me. That leaves three. I'll have to look into finding them. So, who else?
Hasn't Perugius been around since that time? Fuck it, why not rock up to his knockoff Laputa in the Roxy and say 'hi?'
…Actually, now that I think about it, I kinda want my own Laputa.
Standing on the deck of the Roxy, we looked out over Fittoa. What had been blasted away down to the bedrock in places, then become a flat circle of grass sea. Now, it was healthy again. The terrain built back up, trees transplanted, streams and lakes put back where they should be and even a few added, wildlife moved in, and roads, villages, and homes rebuilt. In fact, right below us, was the first village on the outermost edge of the blast zone.
"Ye did good work, lad," Tallhand broke the silence. "These people all have a home to return to, thanks to you."
"We saw it when it was still grassland. It hurt to look at," Elinalise murmured. "But Rudy, this is amazing. You and Sprite both are amazing."
Zenith's hands found my shoulders and the woman pulled me into a hug from behind. "I'm so proud of you," she whispered, kissing the back of my neck.
I shook my head. "Job's not done yet."
"Rudy," Roxy sent me a knowing look. "It's almost done. You can celebrate."
"Job's not done until the refugees are dropped off. Until Sylphie and Sylvia are back with us and Roa's been rebuilt. Then we can celebrate. Sprite, let them know and get them sent off."
I turned and headed for the entry. Eris was at my side within two steps. "What next?"
"We've already got everyone spread out among the ships by village. So we send them out to be dropped off. Send out the ships with the other races settling to their own villages. We take the Roxy and drop off the Migurd and make sure they're settled in. Then we head to Roa."
"On it, master. I'm redirecting the other ships now," Sprite confirmed. "We should be arriving at our destination within the hour."
"Thanks, Sprite," I told her as I made my way into the lounge room beneath the bridge. The walls shifted to show the exterior view as people began taking their seats. Roxy and Eris sat down to my left and right, while Aisha dropped into my lap I pushed Eris down a spot and scooted over, gestured to Norn, and patted the seat between me and Roxy. The blonde girl nodded and settled in on the couch beside me since she was too big to share my lap with her sister.
I sat, paying half an ear as conversation washed over me and the others made plans. Talked about what they wanted. What they were going to do next. For most of them, next would be settling down and not going anywhere for a while.
Ruijerd confirmed that he would be leaving, with Tallhand nodding and agreeing. Elinalise had decided to stick with us because, as she put it, it was easier to scratch her itch with one person who she knew could satisfy her than to go trawling through bars and hope for the best. Lilia, serving us tea and cookies, confirmed she would be going with me and bringing Aisha with her. Zenith echoed her a moment later. Hilda would be staying in Roa, as soon as her home was rebuilt, and she extended an invitation for us all to stay there any time we were in Roa—though that invitation was more along the lines of asking us to permanently live there for myself, Eris, and Roxy.
Finally, Roxy and Eris traded a look. "Wedding," Eris said, and Roxy nodded.
"As soon as we pick up Sylphie, yes," she confirmed.
Eris chuckled. "Well, in that case," she grabbed my head and forced me to look at her, before laying a kiss on my lips and slipping me her tongue. Then, she bounced up from her seat. Turning a grin on us, she said, "I'll go pick up the others and be back tomorrow."
"You just want an excuse to show off your ship," Roxy accused.
"Yep!" Eris admitted with a grin.
"Alright, have fun. We'll be waiting," I told her and Eris nodded, before hurrying off for the hangar to transfer over to her ship.
"Master, we've arrived. Should I begin unloading things?"
I picked up Aisha and set her on the couch, then stood up and offered Roxy my hand. "Not yet. We're heading down to speak with them."
Roxy and I left the others in the lounge as we made our way down to the floor we had assigned to the Migurd. As we walked, I said, "She's getting restless."
"Mm," Roxy agreed. "I think she just doesn't want the adventure to be over."
I shook my head. "I've had about all I can stand of 'adventure' for a while, thanks. I just want to take some time to… sit still. Stay in one place. Maybe work on some new inventions. Definitely get married and work on knocking up my wives."
"Ah, about that," Roxy murmured, and I looked over at her as we stepped off the elevator. "I'm late."
I sent her a smile. "Maybe we'll get lucky, then. But it could be nothing, so until you've missed several, I won't get my hopes up."
Roxy nodded. "I didn't want to give you false hope, but at the same time, I felt you should know."
Pulling her into my side in a hug, I gave her a squeeze. "Thanks."
Knocking on the door to Rokkus' cabin, we waited for him to answer before stepping in. There, we found him sitting with his two caretakers, who I still didn't know his relation to. "Young Rudeus, Roxy, how are you?"
I gave Roxy a little push to let her know I was deferring to her here. The woman at my side nodded. "We're well," Roxy sent them a smile. "We came down to let you know we've arrived. If you'll let everyone know, we can go to the hangar and Sprite can lower us down. Everyone can pick out their accommodations and Sprite can begin Sending your things."
Rokkus nodded and I felt him reach out to the other Migurd on the ship as I tuned into Migurd radio—that is, the telepathic channel they used to communicate. There was a feeling of excitement and hope from the whole group of them as they began gathering themselves up and moving towards the hangar.
Of course, this wasn't all the Migurd, just those of Roxy's specific tribe. Others were being ferried to their own villages nearby, just as not all of the elves would be in one village, or the dwarves, and so on. There was some swapping back and forth as, once we'd gathered up the various tribes and groups that wanted to move, they had mingled amongst themselves and found like-minded individuals. Some communities grew, others shrank or were separated entirely, and new ones sprang up. There were even a few planning to form villages of lots of different races mixed together.
But, at least in this case, Roxy's clan was well-established and had mostly agreed to stay together, while they had actually gained a few people.
Rokkus had his caretakers help him up and the five of us made our way with the rest of them. We watched as Sprite began lowering down the last Migurd to the ground below. Pausing at the open hangar door, I pointed to a big building in the center of the village. "That's the town hall, for meetings and the like. Your own home is right beside it there," said, indicating the cozy-looking house beside it.
The population now consisted of just over a hundred people, including children. Most of those were families, some even multi-generational families that had been sharing living quarters for generations now. And while we had built with that in mind, Sprite had made sure we had enough homes built that every family or single person could have one, every child had one waiting for them when they got ready to leave their parents' home, and then she added a few extra for future planning.
Looking down on it, I liked what I saw from the air. There was a small 'town' area where all of those who wanted to actually live and work closely together would be, in addition to space for various shops and businesses and a covered market. Each building in the town area was neatly spaced on an acre of land to itself, with stone driveways and smaller foot paths leading to them from the main road, grass, trees—we'd tried to go with as much nature and green space as we reasonably could here, with a lot of input from the people being relocated.
Every building and house had all the magical amenities one could need, provided by magic—hot and cold water, lights, food storage, stoves/ovens, wood burning fireplaces, air conditioning for summer, fully equipped bathrooms. Basically all of the little conveniences I had come up with and improved upon since I built my first flush toilet what felt like ages ago.
We had even redirected a stream through the middle of the town and put in several small ponds, both for aesthetics and easy access to fish—of which there were many. Sprite had even made sure that the place would have street lights, both inside and outside the village, lighting the paths between the village and the homes on the outskirts. All of the homes and buildings, inside and outside the village, had been painted with the same sort of patterns the Migurd liked for their own village—just with some new touches here and there, like coloring roofs either green, blue, or red and adding lots of greens, blues, and reds to the paint scheme. They liked it and, looking at it from where we stood, I thought it looked nice.
The town proper was surrounded by a ten foot stone wall with heavy iron gates that could be shut as needed. Outside the town were the larger farms and other homes, each surrounded by its own wall, and bordering the limits of the whole settlement was yet another wall, this one with several entrances that they could open manually using a push-button mechanism—which really just checked to make sure they were a Migurd, then opened. The whole settlement was surrounded by deep woods, just as all the others were—natural barriers to dissuade unwanted visitors from approaching by anything but the main road. And, of course, the entire settlement was watched over by Sprite.
Just to keep things clean and easier for the locals, Sprite had gone the extra mile and constructed vehicles as well. Namely, a few of the trucks like the one Lilia now mostly used, for public use moving things around and getting around inside the village, or trading with other villages.
We had explained to them that while we would maintain the structures, cleaning everything and keeping things neat was on the residents—but they were happy to oblige. Especially when we were handling their trash anyway—all they had to do was put it in the designated garbage bins where it would be Sent to the relevant areas to be processed. Nearly nothing would be going to waste here—including literal waste, as the waste reclaimed from the sewer system would be purified, dried, and used as fertilizer in the fields.
"It's… beautiful," Rokkus sighed, reaching up and wiping at his eyes. "I never thought I would live to see the day when our people could live free of the desert all demon-kind had been relegated to." Turning to us, he gave a watery smile. "Thank you. Both of you. This means more to us than you can possibly imagine."
The two women with him wore watery smiles as well. Both of them moved forward and took turns hugging myself and Roxy. "You've saved us."
"We are in your debt."
Roxy cast a glance at me and shook her head. "Family doesn't mark debts."
Rokkus cleared his throat and chuckled. "Well, if you would be so kind, would you mind showing an old man around?"
"Sure," I agreed and lifted us up from the hangar, lowering us directly into the center of the village. As we went, I began pointing out things. "It rains a lot more here, snows too, so we covered the open air market you wanted. The ponds are fair game for anyone to fish in, or swim, whatever you decide to do with them—just don't do laundry in them, your homes have magical equipment for that. I'll let you and Ariel work out taxation and whatever else she feels you owe the kingdom for taking your people in, but it'll probably boil down to just a few recruits for the army, cycled through every few years from what she told me. If you have any problems with anything, let Roxy know and we'll take care of it…"
"Oh! And one more thing." Roxy eyed me suspiciously as we moved into the town square. "Here's good?" I asked, before nodding. "Yeah, this looks good."
"Rudy, what are you…" Stone began to shift and rise from the ground. It began to take form and Roxy's eyes widened. "Rudy, no! Don't you dare! Rudy~!"
Rokkus and his caretakers laughed as I erected one final statue of Roxy the Wayfinder, Roxy wailing and hiding her blushing face as her likeness took shape—sized 1:1 and colored appropriately. This Roxy stood with her hat on her head and her staff over her shoulder, a gentle smile on her face. The inscription beneath it read simply: 'Welcome home, traveler.' And below it, of course, I created another compass rose—this one containing a full map of the newly remade Fittoa region, with directions to Ars and other cities and locations.
Reaching out, I pulled her into my side. "I love you~."
"You're awful!" she mewled, burying her face in my chest as I teased her.
And yet, your reactions are too great for me to ever stop.
"Roxy~!" I heard Rokari yelling from nearby, coming nearer.
Roxy whimpered and I squeezed her tighter, petting her head. Because of course, now that she was connected to 'Migurd radio,' she could actually hear and feel the amusement of the entire village at her expense. Not to mention her mother's own mischievous desire to see for herself and tease her daughter. I was kind of going to miss having my (soon to be) mother-in-law around. I actually had a good relationship with my to-be in-laws. Well, most of them. That was good enough for me.
It's not like they can't visit.
Roxy was sulky and pouty as we left the village, on our way to Roa, but I dragged her into our cabin and cheered her up.
By which I mean, I fucked her silly and left her with a smile on her face and a belly full of my sperm. Sprite announced our arrival outside what had been Roa and we quickly got dressed and headed up to the deck… where we were quickly joined by everyone else. Turning to the group, I asked, "What are you all doing here?"
"Sprite said you were going to raise Roa!" Zenith beamed a smile. "Of course we want to see you build a city from the ground up!"
"Still don't believe he can do it," Norn muttered quietly.
A frown pulled at my lips as Aisha turned and yelled at her sister. "Rudy can do anything! If he says he can do it, he can do it!"
Before it could devolve further, I pecked Roxy on the cheek and stepped off the side of the ship, flying closer towards the city as I summoned Aqua Heartia.
"She didn't mean it like that, master. Rudy," Sprite murmured in my ear, appearing beside me and keeping pace with my flight.
"Maybe." Shaking my head, I said, "Give me a hologram of Old Roa, please."
"Mm!" she nodded, and not one but two holograms sprang into being. One in front of me and one on the ground—a ghostly image of the Citadel of Roa as it had been.
"It's so… cramped," I murmured, having a new appreciation for city planning and wide open areas after we had rebuilt all the villages and built entirely new villages suited to the needs of each group of immigrants. "Expand it… fifty percent." The hologram spread out and, interpreting the desire behind it, Sprite put that new area to use putting space between the buildings. "No, double it. I want more green space and it's not like we're lacking for land here. And it'll give us room to expand."
Looking at the labels for each area, I frowned when I spotted the area labeled as 'slums.' "Why did the city even have slums? Just, no. Fuck that. Level that entire area." All the buildings in the area designated as the slums disappeared. "Alright, approach it like we're designing a mid-sized village. But in this case, we're going to take a 'communal housing' approach. Give me a few buildings, five stories tall, each large enough to house… call it fifty families. So ten dwellings per floor. Four bedrooms, two bath, kitchen/dining area, and living room per apartment, with all the usual amenities…"
We went on through the rest of the city, fixing problems the original city planners hadn't accounted for when they first built the place, and then later expanded, and expanded, and expanded some more. We straightened out and widened the roads, laying most of the area out in a nice even pattern. Since Roa was more of a roundish shape, we went ahead and made the exterior perfectly circular and lined up all the roads along the compass points, with the whole city comprised of even rings.
Then, we separated out the whole place into various districts—residential one (former slums with cheap accommodations), residential two (larger, single-family homes for the various merchants and others who lived in the city), the trade district (furthest away from the residential and noble districts due to the smells of forges, tanneries and other things), storage district, business district and market (for storefronts that didn't sell their wares directly out of the trade district), a red-light district (because prostitution happened, so you might as well put all the brothels in one place and make sure it was clean), religious district, magic district, and noble district. And finally, in the center, the lord's district—with the residences for the lord of Fittoa and the governor of Roa. And of course, below the city, a network of sewers and sewer pipes to move waste to a waste disposal facility outside the city, where it would be picked up and used as fertilizer.
With the redesign phase over, I cracked my neck and sent Sprite a grin. "Alright. Let's get to it."
Pulling up my magic and pointing Aqua Heartia at the ground below, I heard the ground rumble as things began filling in underground. Walls began to rise outside the city. Buildings began to take shape. Roads pushed themselves up from the ground. Sprite began summoning and transplanting trees. Terrain changed as I raised the center of the town up going inwards, giving the whole thing the look of a wedding cake—though I did make sure the grade wasn't too steep and it wouldn't cause problems in the future; mostly I did it so that the city wouldn't be one big fucking sprawling mess like it had been.
"I wonder what people are going to say when they see this," I mused aloud as I worked.
"I have a feeling I know," Sprite giggled beside me. "Speaking of reactions… I recorded the reaction of the Eris entering Ars' airspace."
"I thought she was going after Sylphie?"
"Yes, but apparently Eris decided to stop and pick up her grandfather, father, and Ghislaine first," Sprite shrugged.
I nodded. "Fair enough. So. Let me guess. She turned on the public address system and yelled down at the city."
Sprite giggled. "You know her well."
I sighed. "Of course. It's Eris."
"And Sauros being who he is…"
"Shouted right back."
Sprite nodded. "A few mages actually tried to fire on the Eris when she descended towards the palace. I knocked them out."
"Good girl."
"Praise me more, master," Sprite smiled.
"Mm… nah. You might get a big head."
My summoned spirit pouted. "Mistress Roxy was right, master is a meanie."
"Only because I love you."
"Squee~!"
And I had a spirit's hologram latched onto me now. Oh well, I could still work like this.