CH.320 Capital Things

CH.320 Capital Things

“So... where are we going to stay?” Lua asked. “Do we just... go to HomeBase every day?”

“Basically yes.” I answered. “Well, officially we will be staying in the Sawyer manor located in the city, but in actuality, I will park HomeBase above the city so that we can beam ourselves there and back. Well, we can also stay in the Sawyer manor, if you prefer that, but I can’t just ignore HomeBase for too long, so I will probably spend at least every other night there.”

“I think I’ll be staying at both.” Alice said. “I want to sleep in my own bed, but I also want to spend time with Mariina and Cressida.”

“... Lady Cressida... she was the civil official sister, if I remember correctly.” Ria muttered.

“Yes. And she is the one in charge of keeping the capital house in good condition when Grandfather isn’t here.” Alice said. “So when I told Grandfather that we would be going to the capital, he quickly said that we should stay in this house, as it is usually quite vacant.”

“And what about Violet or Paulina coming here? Weren’t they supposed to help me meet with the King, or has that plan been altered?” I asked about something Christina said a long time ago. Like before I ever left Alewatch long ago.

“If we need them, we can go pick one of them up.” Alice said. “But Big Sis Cressida should be able to help us, as long as she isn’t too busy.”

“We also shouldn’t pull Paulina away from the mana flowers. They are still experimental and need to be looked after.” I added. “So if we need one of them, it will have to be Violet.”

“Actually she already taught the gardeners to do that, so we could take her as well.” Alice corrected. “You would know if you read the report she sent.”

“... I skimmed over it. As long as everything is fine, I don’t need to interfere.” I defended myself. “Besides, I’ve been waiting for her to be ready to report on the staff, so I’ve kind of been putting off a meeting with her.”

“What staff? Did you give her one?”

“Yeah. An experimental one. It is kind of out there, so it needs to be tested.”

“I could have tested it.”

“I don’t want you breaking it.” Well, that wasn’t the real reason, but let’s go with that.

“I’ve only broken one staff in my life.”

“And that is one more than most have.”

“Actually it isn’t that uncommon.” Lua cut in. “Some magicians end up breaking their first staves as they grow more powerful.”

“... well, I stand corrected then.” I admitted. “But still. I wanted someone other than you to test it out.” I told Alice. “So that is why I enlisted your aunt’s help.”

“I’ll forgive you. ... as long as you make that mana staff that can pull mana from HomeBase.” Alice said.

“... I kind of already did, but it has a massive material problem.” I told her. “I have to use stuff like void uranium and orichalcum to make it or the staff will break, so the cost to make one is sky high. I need ways to get the materials cheaper before I make one. And there aren’t exactly books available on how to obtain legendary metals.”

“Can’t you ask Laura?”

“Do you think I didn’t? Limited to Perfect level System Support.”

“Maybe we could do something based on the names?” Alice suggested. “Like star titanium is some mix of titanium and star material?”

“And how would we obtain star material? Stars are kind of warm.”

“Can’t one of your monsters survive it?”

Spoiler[collapse]

“As you wish. I shall arrange it as such.”

Soon enough, we were shown to a large guest room. It seemed to be one of the best in the manor, as the room itself was quite sizable, it had an attached bathroom with a tub that could fit multiple people, and the bed was large. Not huge like the bed I made for myself at HomeBase, but still big enough that even on earth it would have to be a custom order.

We spent a bit of time setting stuff from Storage into the closets in the room, but most of our stuff was still going to be in Storage. Just because we really don’t have a reason to put any of it out, except for appearances.

Eventually, both Mariina and Cressida returned so we could have dinner together, while we could also speak of the future.

“Yes. I can arrange it. It will actually be quite simple now.” Cressida replied, when I asked her about meeting the King.

“... now? Has something changed?”

“Do you really need to ask? Want me to get the list?”

“... yes?”

“Taking down two SS-rank monsters, defending a city from dragons, taming a dragon, holding the System Support, revealing an illegal slave trade, curing dhampirs of their blood curse. Oh, and let’s not forget founding a dungeon. And I feel like I didn’t mention at least something.”

“I didn’t know you had been informed of all of those already. I assumed at least some of that info would be ... secretive.”

“Blame yourself. After we returned from Father’s birthday party, His Highness Prince Elias hired me as his personal adviser. I have access to some ... classified information because of that.”

“And here you are sharing it. Maybe I should report that to the Prince.” I joked.

“As if you didn’t know of it already, as you are the one it is about.”

“... true. But still not a good look. ... but I guess I’m thankful that I have easy access to the Royal family, so thank you.”

“... now I don’t know how to feel about this.” Cressida said. “I was going to complain that it is your fault that I have a ton of work nowadays, but if you are going to be like that, then it would be awkward.”

“I can make you coffee or energy drinks, if that would help.” I told her.

I had actually already located coffee, both beans and the ground stuff, in the Chaos God Dungeon catalog, but I don’t really need it, so I never made any. Then I decided to quickly check for energy drinks, but those didn’t seem to exist. At least caffeine based energy drinks. Revitalizing potions were a thing, but those are more like stamina potions. But using the CGD item developer, I quickly isolated the caffeine compound from coffee, so I was now able to make artificial caffeine. Then just mix that into a drink and you have yourself an energy drink.

“... you have coffee? Where did you get some?” Mariina asked. “It isn’t exported from the Crystal Empire.”

“You know, when you know people you might get access to some stuff.” I avoided the question. But if anyone asks, I’ll tell it was Lady Janina, as she does trade with people from the Crystal Empire.

“Also what is an energy drink? I’ve heard that coffee has an energizing effect, but I don’t know of these energy drinks.”

“They are drinks made by extracting caffeine from the coffee. That caffeine is then mixed into other drinks to make it something easier to drink.” I explained.

“... why did you never tell us about it?” Alice asked.

“Because at our level, as long as we sleep at night, it isn’t really a problem.” I told her.

Honestly speaking, I could probably stay up for three days no problem, if I wanted to. But I just never have seen a need for it.

We kept on chatting about this and that, and I almost offered Cressida some level ups as an apology for her getting a more demanding job because of me, but I got the feeling that she was actually glad to have her current job as the Prince’s assistant. Not that I think leveling her up would be a bad thing, but if I did it for her, then I’d have to level up Mariina as well. And that would mean way too many questions, so let’s just not.