Chapter 20: Fishermen guild and Roof tile procuring [PART1/2]

That day I went to sleep with no energy to continue building anything so once I picked up the parcel and headed to the west side of the city. Originally, Blanche and Lena were supposed to go hunting Kobolds, but after what happened yesterday, they decided to go with me.

To get to the Fishermen guild, we had to go through the city and over one of the three bridges across the river, where we would find the three lakes, each of them as big as half of the Aula city. Speaking of the bridges, they all had two towers and looked a lot like Tower bridge in London, they could even rise in the middle, allowing the ships to go under it. On the bank of the river were also docks where many ships were anchored. As I found out later, there was a ship line from the Royal capital in the north leading all the way through Nomille and Reva duchies to border regions of the kingdom. For that reason, this line was heavily guarded and checked against illegal contraband periodically.

The lakes were surrounded by three or four villages each and the fastest travel between them was by boat. As it was currently summer, most of the fishermen were hard at work preparing for the fishing season happening during early to mid autumn. Some of them were repairing nets, some were making threads used for fishing lines from spider silk and so on.

"I guess I could use the Steel thread of Cocoon slimes for a fishing rod… Making one wouldn't be that hard, I believe. But the material for the rod though… Should I use magimetal, or some other material…"

"Arito, the Gallun village is before us." Blanche cut my muttering short.

"Oh, right!"

We headed to an elderly guard with a spear sitting before his booth on a wooden chair. His beard wasn’t trimmed, not even cared for, so it looked like a bush. Were it not for a bandana holding his long gray hair back from his face, we might’ve not even seen his almost youthfully sparkling eyes.

"Oh? What can I do for you, kids?"

"Excuse me, could we find the guildmaster of the Fisherman's guild here? We came with a delivery from the guildmaster of the Adventurers guild."

"Oh? Then you are in luck, kids, that old coot is still here. He got a little rowdy with drinks yesterday so he's still stuck in his office. If you have anything else to discuss with him, you better talk to his daughter who works as his secretary too."

"Thank you for the advice," I bowed politely and added a question, "Could you tell me where I would find the guild, then?"

"Oh, right. Go straight from here to the town center, where the well is located. Then go towards the lake, you will see a big strikingly red building with adjacent docks, that's the processing plant where we process fish. On the side of that building is a staircase. Go up and you get to the guild."

"Thank you. We will be on our way, then."

"Good luck, kids!" The friendly guard waved us off and we walked to the village named Gallun.

The place smelled with fish and mud, but strangely enough, it felt nice to my lungs. That may be because I went with my gramps on fishing trips to the mountainside village so many times.

As I smiled to myself, I spotted a few kids watching us from the shade of the buildings.

"Seems we are popular."

"I guess it's because of the time. Every year this place hires adventurers to hunt monsters that attack fishermen when they pull their catch to the boats. It’s not like the fishermen are weak, it’s just because there are so many monsters."

"I see. And what kind of monsters are that?"

"A quite few appear every year. Emeraldscale anacondas, River Sahuagins, Slime-shredders, Mud Newts, Crab Fiends and sometimes overgrown Lunar Slugs appears."

"Lunar Slugs? What are those?" Blanche asked thanks to which my own uneducation on the subject was hidden.

"They look like your typical garden Slug, but they eat meat, which makes them rather hard to deal with. They eat fish, other crustaceans and when they overgrow, they could even prey on humans. Luckily, the Slime-shredders are keeping their numbers in check, but as they are carnivorous too, when they can't get their own food, they will hunt fish."

"I see, those sound really nasty."

Later, I learned that Lunar Slugs’ lifespan is only half a year. They lay eggs during the full moon on their own bodies and because the newborns are too weak to hunt, they eat their parents and their siblings, so from circa one thousand eggs only about fifty or sixty slugs reach adulthood.

"They really are, but Slime-Shredders can be used for ink as well, as they are octopi-type monsters."

"Really? And isn't there an ink guild too, then?"

"It is, but on the first lake. This is the third one so they come here only during the fishing season. From what my dad told me, they collect all the Slime-Shredders and Octolocks and transport them to the first lake, where they have an artificial breeding ground."

"Let me guess, a lot of slimes appear there and they are keeping them for food."

"Yep. That’s the gist of it," Lena nodded to my question and I vowed to myself to never go near there with my slimes.

As we chatted, we arrived at the processing plant and headed up to the fishermen guild. I knocked on the doors and got a response of a deep growl and a lady's voice inviting us in. On the other side, we got to see a dwarf sized beaver —a beaverfolk man— sitting behind a table with his head slumped against the desk of his table and a beautifully shaped young woman with a beaver tail and ears.

"Welcome to Gallun Fishermen guild. My name is Eeva and I am the assistant of the sorry-excuse-for-a-guildmaster-father-and-a-grandfather, next to me," she said with a happy smile. Yeesh, that’s one harsh lady, I can’t even imagine what she would come up with for our group…

"My name is Arito Aruze and I came here with a delivery from the guildmaster of Adventurers guild. May I retrieve it from my Item box?"

"Do as you please," she gave me a smile and once I took out the package and handed it to her, "Oh, it seems that that old geezer is sending you hangover medicine and a letter… I see so you came here to dig some clay for roof tiles. That geezer asks for us to be accommodating as it will be used for a new orphanage you are building. Well isn't that sweet," she folded the letter and looked to be in a thought.

"Okay, I guess I could allow you to dig some of the clay along the northern side. There is also a lot of sand you can use as well," she said before opening the window and grabbing something on the other side.

"Aaaah!! Let me go! I didn't do anything!!'' Surprisingly, she picked up a monkeyfolk boy and pulled him in.

"And the rest of you get here before I get angry!" she yelled at the rest of the kids down by the wall, which made the man lying on the table growl in pain, and turning on her heel she smiled at us and said: "Sorry about this, these guys are just too curious for their own good."

"It's fine… we weren't talking about anything confidential. Just make sure it won't happen again."

"I surely will," she beamed another smile. The boy on the other hand became completely lifeless.

Soon, two more kids came to the room, their heads hanging low. One of them was a girl monkeyfolk like the captured boy and the second was a bulky boy that looked similar to Miss Eeva.

"Haddo, Fina and Ed… honestly, you guys are such a handful… Do you know what could happen if our visitors were nobles? You could end up punished like old Frezede!"

The kid's faces turned pale as Eeva started lecturing them. The air around her was so strong that it even whipped our back into a straight line.

"…so! As your punishment, you will act as guides to these visitors, is that clear?!"

"Yes, Ma'am!" The kids saluted and turned to us before bowing to us, "We are terribly sorry for eavesdropping on you and chief!"

"It's fine. Given you are our guides now, could you take us to the northern beach? We want to get some clay for roof tiles."

"""Understood!""" the kids smiled softly and led us out of the guild room, but the guildmaster stopped us.

"Hey! If you wanna be sure there are no monsters the clay you are bouta dig up, you gotta use mud magic!" he didn’t even try to stand up, just extended his weakly trembling hand towards us.

"Mud magic? What is that?" I asked at the sudden appearance of a new term.

"It's a term for compound magic of water and earth elements. It's hard to use for beginners, but surprisingly handy in this environment," Eeva added a small tidbit as we were standing in doors and added: "You will show them, right?"

"""YES!""" the kids said excitedly and led us to the docks. There we borrowed one boat and started rowing to the north until we caught wind and started sailing for the rest of the way.

The trio turned out to be better sailors than we expected as they skillfully sailed the ship to northern beach in little less than half an hour.

"These waters are safe at this time of year. Once the Blue-tailed lizard's mating season starts, the monsters here will start moving as well," Ed, the beaverfolk boy, said as he steered the ship towards the beach.

"Our pops are always getting angry during this time of year, because clams start appearing in our catches and most of them are inedible," Fina, the monkeyfolk girl and sister of Haddo, the captured boy, said with a small laugh that sounded a little bitter.

"Are there a lot of clams?"

"About one tenth of our entire catch is made from clams and only one out of fifteen is the edible kind. But the shells can't be used for anything except for monster detectors and our Newt Hounds are much better at that than some shells on strings," Haddo added.

Some clams are capable of creating a thin layer of nacre… maybe I could use my slimes to melt them away to get it… I might be able to make artificial pearls too…

"You are thinking about pearls, aren't you?" Lena whispered to my ear.

"Yep."

"Well, those are really precious in this world. Just so you know, one small pearl goes for around one million Alba."

"Wanna be known as the Pearl duchess, milady?"

"Hah-hah, real funny. If you will become capable of making pearls, then I'm afraid the nobles will take notice. You are already recognized by 'Named Adventurer' so it's more than likely that you will bring eyes on yourself from the nobles and high standing people."

"Yeah, those diamonds didn't really help me."

"Yes."

"If I learn how to make them, I will keep it a secret."

"That's for the best," Lena said as we hit the land and helped the three kids with the boat on land.

"Welcome to northern beach. As you can see, we have a lot of sand here. The clay deposit is a little way to walk from here," Haddo said as he wiped his nonexistent sweat.

"This place is nice. I gotta show it to the kids too."

"Kids?" The three were confused as I opened my Dimension home and let the kids and my monsters out. As it turned out however, the lizards and snakes I had, felt too cold so they stayed inside the dimension home with the Fire beetles and Red fox (who at this point was just being lazy).

"Behold! This is the sun our late king dreamed about! Brothers and sisters thank the gods for the great mercy they showed us by letting us meet our master, lord Arito!" The white kobold led his fellow Kobolds in a group prayer.

"Whoa! There are so many!"

"All of those are your monsters, Arito? That's an amazing number!"

"Yeah, I study monsters and their evolutionary possibilities as a hobby. As you can see by the diversity, the slimes are the easiest test subject. Could I ask you if you know about slimes living near here?"

"Um… that would be Mud Slimes, right?"

"Yeah. Those are almost everywhere. Finding them with mud magic is the easiest way most of the time," Haddo said and the remaining two nodded to his words.

"I see, I guess I would like to catch some, then."

"Leave it to us! We were ordered to show you some mud magic after all!"

"Right, but give me a moment first. Blanche, Lena, these are for you," I handed them pants which were connected to boots airtightly, turning them into impromptu wading pants.

"Oh, those are nice," Lena smiled at me, picking one pair and going to the dimension home to put them on. Blanche already knew me so she did the same without questioning anything. I for change just took off my regular shoes and had the Cleaning slimes clean them. Before they were done, I took on my own pants, getting myself ready to get dirty. Once the Cleaning slimes finished cleaning my shoes I put the shoes away in the Item box.

"Thank you for waiting, we are back," Lena said as the two girls got out of the Dimension home.

"You look amazing, really."

"Oh, Arito, you are such a swooner," Lena smiled teasingly.

"R-really?" Blanche blushed and looked up at me ignoring Lenas remarks.

"Y-yeah…"

"Okay, you lovebirds! Time to get to work!!" Lena snapped and called over the kids.

"We are just a little way from the city, but don't get separated and stay in sight of each other. While we don't have to see them right now, there might be monsters lurking around, so just stay clear of water, 'kay?"

"'Kaaaaay!'' The kids answered me and went to play around.

"Aniki. Aniki! Look here!" Venti, the dwarf girl called me over because she saw ten of the Stone slimes and two Resin slimes eating sand.

"This is unusual, the rest of the Stone Slimes don't even bat an eye to it, it's most likely they will evolve into Sandy slimes or something. The Resin slimes are more of a mystery, though. Could you help me separate them?"

"Of course!" Venti looked ready to go and once I took out a few big containers, we quickly filled them with sand and the sand eating Stone and Resin slimes.

"Aniki! There are Acid slimes eating shells!" another girl called me over, this time it was Xalopeh, the Sphinx girl. Everyone was calling her Lopi, and I was no exception.

"Really? Interesting. Then could you collect some shells while I go make some roof tiles for our new home?"

"'Kaaay!"

I have such good kids. I smiled to myself and left them with ten baskets, warning them that they don't need to fill all of them, and that they can keep shells they like too. Just to be safe, I left Romi to watch over them.

"Okay, so let's start with the basics of Mud magic. Mud magic is a compound magic category of Water and Earth element. Watch this <Mud wave>" Haddo put his hand to the ground and used his magic. Thanks to my Magic detection skill, I could notice the earth and water magic elements moving in equal numbers. The spell created a small crescent shaped rise of mud that dissipated about meter and half away from him.

"I see, that's an interesting spell," Blanche nodded.

"Right?!" Haddo tried to puff up his chest with pride, but from his little showcase I managed to understand that the ratio of the two elements affects how much fluidity the spell would have. I guess that if I made a spell with a 2:8 earth to water magic ratio, then I could create a swamp-like trap.

"I will try it too, then."

"Okay, but don't be said if it doesn't work on first time, just like miss Eeva said, first time is the har—"

"<Mud wave>!" I used the spell and a wave about three meters tall swept away from us.

"The heck?!!"

"I see, so if I use too much magic, it will do something like this. Good to know. I need to use about 1,5 amount of mana needed to activate the Earth wall spell— <Pick Up>!" I spotted a blob of mud rising on top of my wave, which resisted the magical force, so I quickly used Pick Up in thought that it was the aforementioned Mud Slime, but it was something different.

Once the blob fell into my hand, some of the mud on it fell away, showing me a pair of black eyes. I instantly used <Tame> on it, followed by Monster Appraisal.

Newt Hound

A species of dog monster living in swamps giving it the appearance of a pile of mud. Even when they are washed and dried, they look slimy due to their short fur that always sticks together and absorbs moisture. Bite 2, Fast running 1, Howl 3, Synchronize (mud) 4, Earth magic 2, Water magic 2, Dry up 2, Earth magic resistance 8, Absorb moisture 4

"So this is the Newt Hound, eh? Well, aren't you quite a muddy cutie?" I patted the pup's chin and it wagged its tail so fast that it shot some of its mud at the others. Its eyes were sparkling as it was looking at me so I continued patting and rubbing him as much as I could. That was when it hit me. It could use Dry up skill, so I asked him to use it. As it turned out this skill consisted of shaking off the excess mud and hardening the remaining mud into a hard shell. In this state he moved slowly then before and was losing some of the mud while trying to run. Finding this a success, I used the newly acquired mud magic to do the opposite of Mud wave with a spell I thought up on spot I later called Mud Gathering. Once I had a ball of mud secured on steady land, I used <Drying wind> spell, I previously used only on fruits and meat, and followed it with <Clay> to evenly distribute sand inside the clay mass, then I used <Block> spell to chop the ball into even blocks before I used Mold to change their shape into roof tiles.

"Wh-what am I watching?" Haddo let out a surprised yelp.

"Arito is a mage on par with Royal sorcerers, you know?" Lena smiled smugly and went back to the kids.

"Be in awe, my brethren! Watch the magnificent magic our master is using!"

"Oooooh!"

"Hey Kobolds! Be good boys and girls and go capture some monsters!" I gave each of them a basket with a glass container inside, "Use this to transport filter sponges, clams and mud slimes if you find any."

"Uh… understood, boss."

"And once you return, I shall personally prepare dinner for you guys. Not to mention the Cleaning slime's bath will be waiting for you too."

"You hear that everyone?! We will get washed today!"

"Oooooohh!!!"

Oh, how easy it is to fool idiots…

***

Now that I had my imbe— I mean Kobolds —taken care of, I could try out some Compound magic. I first used a spell similar to Drying wind I came up with here to fire the roof tiles.

"I guess I will name this spell Furnace… Okay, now for other experiments, Water with Earth magic makes Mud magic and Wind with Fire makes Heat Magic so what if I combined some other elements?"

"There is a lot of sand, so why not try combining earth and wind?" Lena offered an idea.

"That could be good… hmm… earth and wind… break rock makes stones into dirt and sand right? Then… I could have the wind take off the sand… I got it! Sandstorm!" I sent magic energy to the sand with a clear image and a gust of wind instantly burst from behind me and kicked up a sandstorm, full of lashing winds and sand that gets everywhere. I quickly put a lid on my magic to lower the output and a lot of the sand fell down, but I managed to keep a steady sand tornado at a reasonable distance and of even strength.

"Oh, that looks nice."

"Yeah, but using Wind shot or Wind cutter might be more effective for wind magic and Rock bullet for Earth magic would be better too. I can't see this spell being used for anything except for obstructing the view."

"It might be good for polishing, though," Lena added to my mutter.

"There is something about that. Okay, I will pack some sand in my item box I still don't know how much I will need to evolve those Stone slimes…" I opened said spell and took out bags I made from Cocoon slime silk. I used the sand spell again to fill them.

"How much sand can you pack?"

"About 750 kilos I think? Each of these sacks are about twenty five kilograms each."

"My lord! We brought you the catch!" At that moment the Kobolds returned with their baskets, surprisingly less dirty than I expected them to be.

"Oh really? Then show me."

"Here sir!"

They opened all ten baskets and showed me what was inside. Two of them were filled with green sponge-like creatures, the Filter Sponges. They were taking in and out water in the basket, making for quite a lot of waves. Three other baskets were filled with Octolocks, four baskets following that were filled with clams which were both the edible and the poisonous varieties.

"So far, your catches were all over the place, I wonder what is in the last one," Fina said, taking off the lid of the last basket and with a bitter smile closed it again.

"What? What is it?" Haddo asked.

"It's Ellee," Fina explained and the rest of the village kids made an understanding look.

Little confused, I opened the lid and appraised the snake-like creature inside.

Ellee

Eel monster found commonly in lakes by the Aula city. Grows up to 1,5 meters. It's considered useless and trash fish due to its poisonous blood and muddy taste.

"Ah, I see. This is no problem."

"No problem? If you drain their blood poorly, you could fall deadly ill!" Ed tried to stop me, but I pushed him away gently and set up gril I had in my Dimension home. Luckily, I had enough wood scraps and coal in my item box for grilling all week long. I set up the fire and let it preheat.

Then I grabbed one Ellee and cut its gills, letting the Bloody slime invade its body and drink the blood. The slime did level up its poison resistance skill, but that was a side effect I was happy to see anyway. When bleeding was done, I took my knife, cut it open and fed the innards to the Corpse slimes who I tried to multiply in order for them to merge into Big Corpse Slime. I had to do something about the smell though, so I had the Cleaning slimes give it a one over, getting rid of the mucus on the meat and slime on the skin. Then came fileting as a final step before cooking. And speaking of cooking, I seasoned it with salt I made with magic, little pepper I grew in the forest and to give it a final touch, I smeared it with little oil that had rosemary essence, this was one of bandit loot, and it was good food addiction, so I was more than happy to use it.

I poke the meat on metal needles and place them on the grill. Soon enough, the smell waffled all around us and everyone started drooling. Well, the Kobolds didn't, but that was because I had them take bath with the Cleaning slimes in the Dimension home at the same time.

"So, does anyone want the first bit—" before I could even finish, Alma, the Catfolk girl that liked working with the Wooly wolf, was standing before me with sparkling eyes.

"I will gladly eat it, Aniki!" Her enthusiasm was so great that I just put the skewered meat in her hand and watched her eat it.

Just like any cat I knew, she bit into the fish without holding back.

"Nyaaaaa! So gooooood!!!" She started stuffing her face like there was no tomorrow.

"""Aniki!"""

""Aniki, me too please!""

The kids swarmed me and started asking for skewered meat as well. I guess I will have to make more of this eel.

"I would also like some," Ed wiped his droll as he looked at the kids eating.

"Okay, one Ellee skewer right on your way. Blanche, could you prepare two more Ellees?"

"On it!" she smiled and went to the basket with the eel monsters, quickly capturing two of them. I guess she really trained by catching snakes back in the forest… and she even caught that Blue Moon Viper, too…

I watched Blanche prepare filets of the eel monster just as expertly as I did. To think she watched me and was instantly able to replicate it… Blanche is really amazing.

As I was reminded of how great a companion I have this time around, I continued grilling meat until everyone was satisfied. I got to eat some too, and was honestly surprised at how greatly they turned out. The rosemary really suppressed the fish smell and the salt with pepper was just about the right balance.

"It's starting to get darker, we should head back," Ed said, looking at the position of the sun, wiping some oil from his face with his hand.

"Yeah, we should head back too… wait! Don't go to the boat!"

"What?"

I quickly took out my bow and quiver with arrows and shot one arrow behind Haddo. There, a monster screeched as its hiding spot was discovered.

"N-No way…"

"Emeraldscale Anaconda?!"

"It's so big…"

The local trio was surprised and afraid at the same time. The snake before me, could very well be more than fifteen meters long. I managed to take out one of its eyes with my first arrow so I was not waiting and prepared more arrows.

Emeraldscale Anaconda

An anaconda with verdant scales, its constricting coil resembling entangled vines. It lives in mangrove forests and climbs trees where it can wait for ambush for days. It grows up to 15 meters, but it can be even longer if its prey is bountiful. It is an extremely venomous snake that possesses paralyzing glare. Its scales can be made into sturdy armor.

Running Appraisal on it was a good call as it showed me a great threat this monster possessed.

"<Sandstorm>!" I quickly used my new spell to obstruct its vision and followed it with Ice Arrows. The anaconda tried to pass the raging sands, but I sent them following its head and shot more Ice arrows. Like it or not, but ice magic really does wonders on reptiles and snakes… wait…

"Let's try something different! Blizzard!!" I tried combining ice and wind magic in a 4:6 ice to wind ratio and I created a gust of freezing wind.

"Sh-shaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"

The Anaconda could not handle the surprising cold and entered a hypothermic state. It slumped against ground shaking. I took out my machete from the Item box, ending its suffering.

"Alright! It's all clear."

"H-he beat the anaconda even adults have a hard time dealing with…"

"Really? No assistance again? And what was that continuous use of multiple elemental magics?" Lena seemed really angry with me.

"Well, given the Compound magic is all about using two elements, I thought I could even activate more spells at once, though I didn't think two compound spells at once would be possible. On the other hand, maybe it was because they used one element together that it worked."

"Aaaaaah… why am I not surprised you thought about something like that?"

"Well, Arito always comes up with amazing things under pressure," Blanche came up to me and inspected the corpse while putting her Bloody slime to work.

"Those scales can be sold for quite a lot of money, so we better treat it carefully."

"Right!" Blanche smiled at me and started butchering the snake while I prepared a cold box for its meat.

***

About two hours later, we headed back to the village. The reason it took so long was just due to the anaconda that actually had not fifteen meters, but twenty. Talk about an overgrown bastard! It better make for good meat or I will really be angry!

"Finally! I said to go to the northern beach, but you had to go by lake route! It's almost dark you know?! Do you know how worried we were?!!!" Eeva greeted us with a dark look on her face.

"M-mom! We encountered Anaconda on our way back!"

"If it wasn't for Arito we could've been eaten!" Fina added to Ed's defense and I procured the head of the Anaconda from behind them.

"Such a big head… Okay, I understand why you took so long, but next time go on foot, it's not that much longer!" Eeva sighed and turned to us, "Have you collected enough material?"

"Yes. Firing it was a little harder, but nevertheless, we managed to do it in record time. By tomorrow I will have the roof placed and I will be able to furnish the place and have the kids sleep there a day or two later."

"Oh, so fast?"

"Yes. Though I still need to build a second building where I will hold their classes. After all, the more you learn, the more options you get going forward."

"You seem really mature for your age, I just hope these three would take a page of your book," Eeva said with another sigh and took the kids to their homes after we said our goodbyes.

"It was really hectic, wasn't it today?"

"Yeah, but in a good way I think."

"We might even manage to have the kids spread the good word about Ellee."

"How did you like it anyway?"

"It was better than the snake we had that one time. I really enjoyed it."

"Yeah, same with me," Lena added to Blanche's satisfied approval.

"Well, I packed some for your family too, do you think they will like it?"

"Well, first have them taste it and then tell them what you are serving them like with the Octolocks."

"Though, I don't think that they will trust you if you pull this too many times," Blanche added.

"Yeah, I should come clean with them once in a while."

"That sounds terrible when you say it out loud like that."

"Well, it's the truth, though."

We walked home feeling strangely motivated for the days to come. Once we returned to the inn, it was already dark outside. As I opened the doors, I was almost knocked over by Laina who was apparently about to go looking for us.

"Do you know what time it is?!" We were thrust into one more lecture which we diligently sat through.

Once we were released, I was surprised by receiving letters from not just Guildmaster Graldi, but from Mozz of the Gemma company, slum leader Grieva and guildmaster of the merchants guild Merle.

"So the hunt in the mine and dungeon was concluded today and we have no need to pay a penalty for not participating in the last day because we were on the mission directly from the guildmaster, that's great."

"Yeah, especially because the two of us bailed the last day," Lena said after I finished reading the first letter.

"That's great! And what are the rest of the letters about?"

"Miss Marle wrote me a list of vacant buildings that I could use for my shop. She apparently heard about the items I am selling under the pretense of MonsterWork company with Mozz. She also mentions that if I want to see her, then I can come the day after tomorrow when she has an opening in her meeting schedule. Mozz wants to discuss something about the orphanage with me that he can't write about in a letter. Last that came is from Grieva, who wants to know how many kids the orphanage would be able to house and if I would be willing to take in some kids from the streets under my wings."

"The building will have twenty rooms on each floor, right?"

"Yeah, I wanted everyone to get their own privacy, but when I talked about it with them, I found out that they would rather live in rooms with four or five of them together, so I thought of making bunk beds for all rooms."

"Yeah, that's probably the best way to increase the space… Will they have enough space in the dining room, though?"

"Well, worst case scenario, I will have them eat in turns. Though, if the number increases, I will have to hire some help."

"That's true. Should I ask Father and Mother? They will gladly help you get some people, I'm sure."

"I can't count on their kindness with everything. This is something I decided for myself so I need to come up with solutions myself too."

"Aren't you acting a bit too adult-like?" Lena tried to tease me.

"Someone has to," I paid her back in kind.

"Nununu…"

"Anyway, since the Kobold hunt ended, I will go to Mozz first thing tomorrow morning and then finish the building process, so we can have the kids live there."

"Yeah, Dimension Home is definitely comfy, but nothing beats a real room and warm bed," Blanche snuggled against me and I patted her head.

AN: Okay, I had to split the chapter becouse of the word count