Chapter 80: A Moment Made Of Steel

I always found it nice to rest under a tree shade, the cool breeze is usually very calming and the sensation of the body touching the soil is perfect for relaxing.

Add a beautiful sky and a pretty girl by your side and you have a moment that will surely make you nostalgically reminisce about in the future.

Though the kingdom is filled with oddities, it's unreasonable to complain about the impossibly beautiful scenery that it offers.

Even the recent forest that suddenly spawned here also makes the whole place feel more alive... well, it literally makes it more alive thanks to the monsters that spawn in it, but the point still stands.

The only thing I'm lacking right now to make this perfect is a pretty girl...

Anna, Beatrice, and Mia went to the forest to gather wood. Ellie and Claire are busy training and Licia is currently taking a bath...

It's actually pretty disappointing to think that any of them would manage to improve the mood, and yet, none of them are here...

And to add salt to injury, of all people that I could be sharing this moment with, it just had to be the fucking Merchant.

Merchant: "Are you worried about the monsters spawning in the forest?"

Miwen: "No.... we can handle them."

Merchant: "True... but then, why did you send a small party there? Wouldn't it be nicer to share this view with a cute girl?"

I really don't need him to remind me of that, no matter how true it is. But it seems like he's got the wrong impression of me.

I get that he's trying to dig as deep as possible into my character in the limited time he has, but it's not like all actions a person takes have a deep meaning behind them.

This one for example is quite simple...

Miwen: "I can trade some points for tents, I thought it would be a nice change of pace to camp here tonight."

Merchant: "And the fact that it helps you keep a closer eye on the forest, watch how the monsters act at night and what they do when there's a bunch of strong forces nearby, doesn't have anything to do with it ?"

Miwen: "That's just a bonus."

To be fair, I did think about advantages such as the ones the Merchant presented, but overall, they are quite minimal and weren't a deciding factor for my decision. I truthfully thought this could be good once in a while.

The monsters as of now aren't really something we have to worry about since we can keep their population pretty low by ourselves and nothing outrageous has spawned.

I don't like that we have to hunt them to begin with, I much rather we go back to when there wasn't any other entity in here, but, it's by no means the end of the world either.

Merchant: "I see... I feel like I understand you better and better by the day."

Miwen: "I wish I could say it goes both ways. The more I ask you, the more questions I'm left with. Ones you purposefully refuse to answer."

Merchant: "You gotta trust me when I say it's better this way."

Trust...

Now that's something I'm not very good with. But I might be beginning to warm up to it one way or another.

However, in this case, I don't really have a choice. The Merchant holds the answers but thinks it's better if I don't get them now and without knowing what it's all about, I can only accept his judgment on the matter.

Well, as far as intent goes, he probably means well for me and the girls. I mean, he's already an honorary member of the kingdom as far as I'm concerned.

Not only is he doing his best to help out, but he's fun to be around and as an ally, I cannot think of anyone more reliable.

Even if his reliability comes with a price, and even taking into account that he would be way more reliable if not for his personality to begin with.

Merchant: "Never. Is it from your planet?"

Miwen: "That's a very good question... I'm beginning to think so..."

It's hard to say... while I'm not good with wooden ships, I'm even worse when it comes to modern ships. And that is already assuming it's a modern ship.

As far as I'm concerned, it might be from World War 1, or I might just see news tomorrow about a ship that suddenly vanished into thin air leaving the crew lost on the open sea.

Hell, this thing might even be from the future or another world that the Merchant just happens to have never been in.

Although... the chances of the latter are looking pretty abysmal right now...

From everything going around on the internet, what I could gather from the girls, and now this situation with the Merchant, I'm beginning to think that Earth just might be the only planet to have developed technology so much.

As for the reasons why that might be, there's a bunch that I can think of, like for example-

Merchant: "I can't wrap my head around this one. It doesn't make sense at all."

Miwen: "That's gold coming from you."

The Merchant was still in awe as he tried his best to come to terms with what he was seeing.

No matter how many times I told him that this was as good as any other ship in here, he just couldn't believe it.

More importantly, though, Licia had finally finished with her bath and asked to join us.

Seeing as there wasn't any problem with that, I let her.

Licia: "...Miwen, honey..."

Miwen: "Yes dear?"

Licia: "I believe I only left for like, half an hour?"

Miwen: "More or less."

Licia: "...Then can you explain why there's an entire fleet in our backyard?"

Miwen: "...That would be... the Merchant's fault."

In all senses. It was his idea to begin with. And he failed to do away with the ships as he kept mesmerizing the warship.

Licia: "And what is that!?"

Merchant: "Believe it or not, it's also a ship."

The two of them kept in denial, but when I told the Merchant we could explore the warship today with everyone he finally started to send the ships somewhere else using his power.

I can't really prove to him that the thing works, but it will probably be fun to take a look around either way.

And so, when everyone reunited, we took some time to explore the ship.

Of course, this took me back to the time when everything was new to the girls and they always reacted surprised, so I made sure to bring a camera and register this moment.

Getting a photo of the Merchant as amazed as a kid is probably the biggest loot of today. If I had to guess, it's probably worth an entire planet or two.

Lucky for him, these photos and videos are simply priceless, as I have no intention of ever trading these moments for anything.