Benjamin pushed himself out of the capsule and stretched. His body always felt so stiff after being in the capsule for too long. With a slight yawn, he made his way out of his room and stepped into the bathroom across the hallway. After relieving himself and washing up, the old man made his way to the kitchen. It was time for dinner, though a very, very late dinner.
Since the schedule that the five of them lived at was fairly different from normal, the five originals ended up eating alone together in the evenings. Though, Andrew did generally eat with his wife as well, but after his body started adapting to his orcish metabolism, he needed to eat a lot more to avoid going hungry, so he ate five full meals a day instead of three.
"There you are! You're always the last one, huh?" Jasmin pointed out with a raised brow, and Benjamin chuckled slightly as he sat down at the table.
"I guess so. I just finished making Girland some helpers, and it took a little longer than I hoped," the old man explained, as Haruo raised his brows.
"Oh? Finally, I see! She is always so busy, I'm sure with some extra hands, she could let loose a bit, huh?" he pointed out, but Jasmin just let out a loud scoff.
"Girland? Let loose? I'd love to see that one," with a laugh, Jasmin rolled her wheelchair up to the table next to Benjamin, but from the stove, Natalie protested.
"Oh come on, she's so nice though! She helps me out all the time!"
"I didn't say she wasn't nice, she's just all about work, you know? She always brings me so much stuff for me to sign and look over..."
Andrew crossed his arms as he leaned back in his chair, "You're the one that decided to found a goddamn magic school. You know how much work goes into that?"
"Oh, don't even start, I know that you're planning on just tacking yourself onto the academy when the basics are all set up."
"Yeah. Like a smart person would do it. I've got shit to do. How do you think we're expanding the country at the moment?" Andrew pointed out, "I don't have time to sit at a desk and sign shit. And even then, I've still got to write up tons of reports... Oh, by the way, how's that train coming along?
Travelling by ship is getting so annoying."
Benjamin couldn't help himself but laugh, "We've built our country on an archipelago, I don't think we can ever fully avoid ship-travel."
Andrew silently looked back at Natalie, before turning right to Haruo, "You didn't tell them about it, right?"
"Of course not, you're just not the best at subtlety... But, yes, his plan is to let loose a monster on the island with my help and subjugate it nearby at the right moment. Just a small display of power," Haruo explained, his tail nervously circling behind him.
Everyone slowly turned toward Benjamin to see what he was thinking, but the old man was just quietly running his fingers through his beard.
Experience the excitement on m_vl_em_p_yr
"That... might not be the worst idea," Benjamin pointed out, "Of course, you've got to do it the right way, otherwise it can have the opposite effect. I mean, look at the opinion that some of the countries have of the wastelands and the orcs in general.
Just because there's a ton of powerful monsters there, they think it's wild and uncontrollable, so orcs have been brandished as barbarians for far too long. If we're not careful, they might think that of our country as well. Since we're coexisting with monsters, we're already too far on the edge anyway."
Andrew grinned broadly, "You think I didn't take that into account?"
Benjamin raised his brow, "What do you mean?"
"Well, Komer told me a lot about all the people that are coming, and there's this one guy that is practically addicted to smoking this one specific type of tobacco. It's nothing too special, but according to Jyuuk, it's known to attract certain species of monsters.
Not an issue if you live in the middle of the capital anyway, as this guy does, but when you're travelling across lands with numerous powerful monsters, that might be a bit too risky, don't'cha think?"
The old man thought for a moment, "So you're planning on making it the fault of that one individual? Well, it's not the worst plan to make them a bit more meek, but who exactly are you talking about? If we're already on good terms with them, I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with that."
Haruo scoffed, shaking his head, "Oh, you don't have to worry about that. It's that Bishop from the Holy Empire that came last time as well. The one that was a massive dick."
"If it's the Holy Empire we're dealing with, then bring three of those monsters for all I care," Benjamin let out a loud laugh.
"Come on, let's not talk about that, I put a lot of effort into this dish... I looked up a ton of recipes online and even practiced for like a week in the other world for when my turn came around... I don't want it to get cold!" Natalie complained with a slight pout, and everyone quickly agreed. They were all fairly hungry anyway, and they could talk about all of this as much as they wanted to later.