Dwargon
As he starts to lead them off towards the blacksmith he was talking about, he glances over at her, “I was wondering though, would you be up to selling some of those potions you have to me?”
She tilts her head, “You guys must be really low on stock, huh? Yeah, sure, I can sell a few, though depending on how many you want, I'm not sure how well I can accommodate you. Though, they are Full Potions, and you can dilute one of them into twenty High Potions, so I guess even a few can make a pretty big difference.”
Kaidou smiles, “Any extras you're willing to part with are fine by me. Even if it's just one.”
She hums, “Alright, then five should be just fine?”
He beams, “Five! Ah, that'd be wonderful!”
She nods as she uses the last of her sand to make bottles, “If you dilute any to High Potions, the mixture is ten parts water to one part potion just so you're aware.”
Then she deposits them into Kaidou's waiting hands, and he hands her a pouch back, “I know it's not much, but I hope you'll accept this. Five gold pieces for each one.”
She hums as she absorbs the pouch, “That's fine. I don't really care about how much they're usually worth right now, since I'm more selling them to you since the guards are in a bit of a bind.”
He smiles happily, “Appreciate it ma'am!”
She hums, “Don't worry about it. Like I was telling you yesterday, I only recently became a reincarnating transmigrant though, so I'm not actually sure about how much this money is actually worth. Like it's buying power and all that. I know it probably fluctuates based on which nation and whether it's a bigger city or a smaller town, but while we're heading over to that blacksmith, do you mind if I ask you some questions to get an idea of it? How much certain things generally sell for and how many lesser currencies, like silver I presume, it takes to equate the worth of one.”
He nods, “Oh, certainly! Ask away!”
She does so happily, and possibly because she'd made it clear she wasn't actually selling him the potions for profit reasons but rather to help him, while he hesitates a little, he does tell her how much Potions usually sell for. Low Potions going for four Silver each and High Potions going thirty-five Silver each, which means a Full Potion, going by the twenty High Potions you can get from it and with one gold being worth one hundred silver, should go for seven Gold each rather than the five she sold them to Kaidou for. But again, she'd been doing it to help out the guards more than anything, so she doesn't much care about the two Gold per potion loss. Especially since it wasn't really a loss since she made them with Hipokute she got for free and crafted them with a Skill which means she didn't pay for labor either. They were utterly free for her, so it was pure profit.
While they'd been talking as they made their way to the blacksmith, they'd gotten friendlier, and he even lets her know that the blacksmith he was taking her to was actually his older brother. Eventually Kaidou breaks off the conversation as he calls out while they enter the shop, “Yo! You in?”
Following him in, she politely adds, “Excuse me.”
As they enter, she actually focuses on what she's seeing in the shop, having been habitually ignoring the data like she does with Elemental Sight so she wasn't spying on everyone around her without really meaning to. To that extent, she's actually a little surprised to see three of the Dwarves who'd come to thank her for supplying the healing potions earlier inside, looking a bit glum. They look equally as surprised to see her.
The shop is rather cozy, and the fourth annoyed looking Dwarf looks baffled at the other three's reactions, before glancing over at them, “Whaddya want?”
One of the three, the same who spoke first last time actually, pipes up quickly, “Kaijin, this is it! The Slime! The one who saved us…”
The second adds, “Yeah! It sure is!”
The third is still quiet, she's still not sure if he's mute or selectively mute or just shy or what, but he's nodding along with the other two. Kaijin suddenly looks less irritated and more interested, “Oh? The Slime, you say? We were just talking about you! Thanks for getting these guys out of a bad way.”
She lifts a tendril to wave it off, “Oh no, it was nothing.”
The man leans back, “So, what brings you here today?”
She'd come to talk to him about the village, so there's no reason to beat around the bush, so she explains what she's in Dwargon for. Kaijin hums when she's done, “All right, I understand, but what do you want? I can't do anything for you. I've got a job I gotta deal with too. None of this leaves the room, but since you saved them, I owe you that much…”
Then he explains that practically every blacksmith in Dwargon was busy with an order for more gear for the Kingdom. He personally was supposed to be in the middle of crafting twenty magic swords, but due to a Marquis named Vesta, he's lacking on both time and magic ore. That was actually apparently the entire reason the other three -a trio of biological brothers named Garm, Dord, and and Myrd from oldest to youngest that were practically brothers to him as well- were in the mines to begin with. They were trying to secure magic ore for him from the source since Vesta was going around buying practically all of it up.
Kaijin shakes his head, “So, I managed to pull an all nighter to wrap up the last of an order for two hundred steel spears day before last... but I gotta come up with twenty magic swords by the end of the week too, and I ain't even got one yet. Like I was sayin’ there's just no material!”
Kaidou looks troubled, “Why don't you just say you can't fill the order?”
Kaijin gives him a frustrated look, “Fool! You think I didn't, at first? But that damned Vesta told me ‘So you're saying the great Kaijin, renowned across the entire kingdom, can't even fill a simple order like this one? Is that it?’ in front of the King himself, no less! Can you believe that damned idiot?!”
She tilts her head, “And you couldn't just point out how unreasonable it was to expect a blacksmith to fill an order with no materials? Like asking crops to grow with no water?”
Kaijin throws his hands up, “He kept sidestepping the issue and making it about my ability to complete the order! And for some damned reason that makes no sense to me given he's always been rather reasonable before, King Gazel told me to get on with it!”
She tilts her head, “Well, if he's always been reasonable before, if you ask me, I'd say it's less likely that he's actually expecting you to make the swords and more likely giving this Vesta more metaphorical rope to proverbially hang himself with. To see just how far he'll take how unreasonable he intends to be, that is.”
Kaijin stills from where he'd been wildly gesturing as he ranted in frustration, “That-! …No… No that… actually sounds way more like the King Gazel I know to ask something outrageous while something else entirely is going on actually…” He slaps the counter, “You mean to tell me I've been stressed out trying to figure out what the hell I'm going to do and even putting those three in a position to run across that Armorsaurus for no reason?!”
She shrugs, “That, I can't comment on, since I don't know this King Gazel or his personality, but it seems more likely to me. Or at least, I might do something like that, but then again, unless I didn't think they could act the part, I'd also probably tell the person being the recipient of the unreasonable requests what's going on precisely so they wouldn't stress it.”
“Unless I was making a point to them that is. Or just didn't realize I was being unreasonable to begin with, but that one is absolutely on the employee or servant or whatever to explain why they can't do it since someone higher up doesn't necessarily know about the sort of supply issues you're having. If he does know and he's usually reasonable, I'd say it's more likely that its like I said earlier and he's just going along with it either to make a point to Vesta or he's seeing how far he'll go.” She shrugs, “But, we don't know that absolutely for sure. And I can help with that actually.”
Kaijin gives her a slightly confused look, but she just removes an ingot of magisteel from her Stomach Skill, depositing it on the table she was resting on to make talking to her smaller form easier. Kaijin gives it a startled look, “Wait. Whoa, that's magic ore! And my god, look at how pure it is!”
She gives him a bemused look, which doesn't translate obviously, so she makes sure her tone makes up the lack, “Mister, don't you know ores don't come in perfect rectangle blocks?”
He tilts his head as he takes another look at it, “Course I do, I- No… It can't be! This entire piece is magisteel?!”
She nods, “Mhm. I just need your help finding people willing to come to the village for a little while at least for technical guidance on clothes and building and all that, but I'll give you this in return to make a sword. And as long as you make one I can even re-absorb it with my storage Skill then use the crafting portion of said Skill to duplicate it from raw materials. It'd still be your work since my Skill is just copying it, but that also means you'll have to make sure it's a sword you're happy with, since the copy will be perfect, including any potential flaws.”
The man laughs heartily, “If that's all you want in return, then of course!”
They iron out the details of their verbal contract waiting for and over a dinner the three brothers put together while they were talking, and even as Kaidou heads out after, having some things he needs to see to. Kaijin immediately gets started, wanting to have as much time as possible in case he does make a mistake since as she said, if there are any, those will get copied as well. While she doesn't think it's necessary to pull an all nighter so soon after his last one for the spears a couple days ago, she can't disagree that it's best if Kaijin makes sure he has as much time as possible just in case.
Kaijin kindly lets Gobta borrow his own bed since he won't be using it tonight anyway. Since she's physically incapable of sleep anyway and Kaijin doesn't mind since she assists him in more minor things, grabbing things for him and that kind of stuff -and even immediately knows what he's talking about when he asks for something since while she is in no ways a master smith or anything and straight up says so, she did learn a decent bit back when she was Calanthe- he doesn't mind her hanging around his forge while he works.
Quite the opposite really, since while he obviously doesn't need it when he's hammering and they're incapable of doing so over the noise anyway, he claims it helps him stay awake to be talking with her the rest of the time and she can't deny it helps keep her mind off of things she'd rather not think about that she's been having to desperately distract herself from at night when there are no other distractions to be had. While he's waiting for the metal to heat and that sort of thing, that is. She'd have been fine with practically any topic, but he's particularly interested in the village and how the situation became what it is. So she finds herself telling the story yet again.
It's not a particularly long one of course, but afterwards Kaijin expresses curiosity about her previous lives, so while it's not the whole story like before, they end up talking about those as well.
She's watching as he finishes up, doing the quenching and that last possible straightening of any bending the metal did in said quenching before it cools totally and it's no longer possible, idly adding, “So, all that being said, it was pretty weird finding myself as one of these Slime's given I'm used to a human body. Like I said before when I mentioned needing to find buyers for some valuables, I did summon the Trunk to myself, and I actually had some runic Polyjuice transformation bracelets geared towards my previous appearances stored inside.”
“I actually managed to get those out and absorb them, and I actually did gain the ability to take on those forms, but well the clothes I have stored in the Trunk have absorbed a certain amount of my previous magics. The metals are fine even if they spark and pop a bit before those magics can be taken out of them, which I know for a fact since I've already removed a good chunk from the Trunk to my storage Skill in down time I've had at night, as forget just not needing it, Slimes are actually physically incapable of sleep. Clothes however are a bit more flammable, so I wouldn't be able to use those, and I didn't want to distract the Hobgoblins who were busy trying to at least put together rudimentary clothes for themselves from the hides and the like, so…”
Kaijin nods in understanding as he finishes and hangs the sword by its handle so it can finish cooling, “Yeah, I can understand that. You've got a form that don't need clothes, and even if you'd probably be more familiar with the other ones, you're not inherently uncomfortable so you don't want to take away from the folks you find yourself leading. It may have been sudden, but you're a good leader Lady Rimuru, and those Hobgoblins and Direwolves are lucky to have gotten you of all people for their Lord. Well, Lady, but you know what I mean.”
She laughs lightly, “Yeah, I do. There's no reason for you to call me Lady Rimuru though Kaijin, it's not like you've sworn yourself to me like they have and I'm not a noble in this life.”
He hums as he settles down with a small tired groan, “Maybe so, but you saved the lives of people who are brothers to me in every manner but blood and are helping me myself out of quite the bind. I certainly owe you a nice chunk of respect if nothing else.”
She hums, “I suppose.” She eyes the sword, “Technically, I have the Skill Cancel Temperature, so there's no reason I couldn't absorb it now since it's not like it could potentially burn me, but it may be better to wait on that part for it to cool, since I have no idea if the perfect copy means they'll even come out at the same temperature as well.”
He eyes the sword thoughtfully, “A good point. Better just to let it cool and for me to give it one last lookover first.”
She nods, and that's around the time Garm pokes his head in, grinning widely, “Thought I heard the quench and you were done! We got breakfast ready.”
Kaijin pushes himself to his feet somewhat eagerly, “I appreciate it! I could definitely do with some grub after a full night's work!”
She'd thought that over breakfast the Dwarf brothers would be interested in how the sword came out, but while there is a question about it which Kaijin answers gruffly, they quickly start asking about the village like Kaijin had the previous night. Since they hadn't been there for that discussion, she ends up repeating a lot of things yet again, but that was okay. She supposes she can't blame them for being interested given from what she knows of this world so far, it's not every day you hear about ‘monsters’ trying to do something like making something more akin to a proper village or town rather than what most of them actually have.
Kaijin even rustled up some clothes for her to be able to shift to her human form, which given it had occurred to her that as a shapeshifter she should be able to manipulate her form, and since she didn't want to physically be a child had actually led to her trying to see if she could alter her form's age. She totally could, though it made the mimicry go from something entirely passive to actually drawing on magic. However, it was miniscule enough that combined with the increased magic recovery Skill she'd gained she recuperated it faster than she lost it, she had zero reason to remain in child form. Practically immediately she had used Occlumency to essentially ‘pin’ the concentration of it to her subconscious so she didn't have to consciously maintain the twenty year old form she's taken.
Given it meant she was a full grown human, the clothes from Kaijin weren't a great fit though. Mostly in the fact that the pants were more like capris on her, since Kaijin being so much more burly than her means there's enough excess material that the shirt drapes far enough down just fine. Even after the months she's been in her Slime form, her human form is still significantly more comfortable. In fairness, even if the Slime form has been her form for every second of every day for months now, she was human for centuries prior.
After breakfast, they head back into the forge, and Kaijin checks the sword to make sure it's cooled and to give it one last look over for any flaws, the three brothers tagging along to watch in interest. When he's done, he holds it out to her, “It's cool, and as good as any other work of mine.”
She extends a couple tendrils of her body to take it, not wanting to risk Kaijin getting caught up in Predator or -even if it left him alone- to potentially get hurt when Predator inevitably yanks it out of his hand. Only once she has it does she activate Predator on it, swallowing it in a split second. After a quick analyze and using a little iron for the non-magic ore parts she had stored previously at Kaijin's directions of how much she'd need for the other nineteen -she technically had the iron and the like from her own stores but Kaijin was already getting magisteel from her and didn't want to take more-, she quickly deposits all twenty of the swords in a neat line on the table.
Kaijin shakes his head in amusement as he picks up two different swords to compare them, “I'll be damned. You really can just copy it if you have the materials.”
She nods, “Yep! So, all you gotta do now is deliver those and then hold up your end of the bargain on getting me the help I'm looking for. Also, could you show me around Dwargon so I could trade some of my valuables and buy some things? Tools and all that for building, crafting, and various material processings, and also I know agriculture isn't really Dwargon's specialty, but unprocessed foods for growing cultivation would be good. Which, speaking of foods, the Goblins have evolved into Hobgoblins, but they'll need cooking utensils, so a couple of those to start getting into better food would be nice as well. On a more personal note, clothes to use for my human forms so I can take them when I want without having to worry about taking away from the village's crafting attention would be nice for another.”
He grins widely, “Oh, I don't think you need to go very far actually! See, it didn't really come up before, but I was talking to the boys when you went to help Gobta get settled last night, and after everything you've done, the four of us definitely owe you big time, and well.” He points at himself, “Former Engineering Corps, so good at organizing, planning, research, as well as forging.”
He moves onto the other three, pointing at Garm first, who's grinning in the line of smug brothers, “Blacksmith who specializes in Armor, but knows his way around weapons well enough.” His finger moves to Dord, “Craftsman who focuses on high class clothes, but is perfectly capable of making more mundane things. Arts too, but that's not important right now.” Finally he points at the ever silent Myrd, “Construction specialist. They know what they're doing too. Damn good at it, and I can personally vouch for that. Really, the biggest reason I've been helping them out of a bind lately has nothing to do with a lack of skill and everything to do with the fact they're terrible at getting their money's worth, so they're constantly getting cheated.”
She blinks rapidly, quickly running the idea through Prophet just to make sure it's a good one getting a ‘great’ result, then lifts a hand to her mouth, “Pfft! Talk about luck! Especially since if what my analysis said of that sword's quality is any indication, it says a lot about their skills if you're personally vouching for them.”
Kaijin snickers, “Lucky on both our sides I'd say.” He shakes his head, glancing at the brothers, “Anyway, I don't have to make the delivery myself, and I doubt they'd mind doing it for me while I showed you around and helped you sell some valuables,” They all grin and shake their heads to let him know they don't mind, so he turns back to her with a smile, “so I'm ready to head out if you are.”
She nods, “Yeah, I'm ready. Though, if you guys are the ones coming back, I can actually use my storage Skill on your belongings, so you could have the other three pack up anything you intend to bring while we're out so I can just store it all later if you like. If you do that though, you may wanna leave a few changes of clothes and other daily necessities out in bags to save yourselves the trouble of having to ask me for them everyday.” She glances at the three and they give her nods and thumbs up, so she smiles then looks at her companion, “Gobta, you have anything else you need to do before we leave, or..?”
Gobta smiles, “Nah, I'm good Lady Rimuru!”
She lifts a hand as she glances back at the three Dwarf brothers while they follow Kaijin out, “I suppose I'll see you boys later then!”
They all acknowledge it, be it with a quiet grin and nod from the ever silent Myrd, or verbally from the other two, and she's soon walking down the street with Kaijin. She glances over at him when she catches him looking over with Magic Perception, “If you've got metals in ingot form, for those it may be best to sell to the mint directly. Which ones do you have?”
She snorts, “I made a stockpile of basic every metal I could since I couldn't guarantee I would find myself in a world where circumstances may have something like gold being common but iron being rare, right?” Her lips twitch in amusement, “Something which is absolutely true, though the other way around.” Kaijin tilts his head in curiosity and she grins, “Magisteel didn't exist in my previous worlds, and I do mean it just straight up didn't exist because even millenia old weapons didn't undergo any sort of change like that, so the most valuable metal I have in abundance would be either platinum or gold. I do have a decent storage of gems though too.”
Kaijin looks forward with a bemused expression, “Worlds where magisteel don't exist, huh? Never thought that would be something I'd come across. I mean, I knew otherworlders exist obviously, but I never really spoke to any enough to hear about something like that. I always just assumed…” He shakes himself a bit, “Anyway! When it comes to gems, probably be best to go to jewelers for selling, though honestly, from what you've said about your stocks, you'll get plenty just from selling enough metals.”
She hums, “I suppose that's fair.”
Kaijin nods, “So then, first stop is the mint to sell off a nice bit of gold and maybe platinum. The gold would practically get you a one to one weight wise of gold coins though it wouldn't quite be one to one given labor cost, but while they do use platinum for stellar coins, that certainly won't be one to one, since stellar coins may be made of platinum(1), but a good bit of their value is in their artistic work.”
She smiles, “Sounds like a plan to me. I should probably also get some of the gold basically downgraded into smaller currency to make things easier though.”
Kaijin nods again, “It'd be the sensible thing to do, yeah.”
They chat the whole way there, though given they already spent the entirety of the previous night and breakfast talking over the village, now it's just them getting to know each other a bit better.
The conversation only pauses when they get to the mint so she can sell a nice bit of gold and even some platinum. It's probably a good thing it's the mint and therefore has access aplenty to money. Given she sells off a solid fifteen percent of her gold stores as well as five percent of her platinum stores, she walks away with a frankly stupid amount of money. She does, of course, make sure to get a decent chunk in smaller denominations, the silver and bronze coins that is.
Actually, she doesn't know what's funnier, how stupefied both the mint and Kaijin seemed at just how much she had/was selling off, or their expressions when she responded to Kaijin asking her why she was selling all she had by informing them of what percentages of her stocks she was actually parting with.
Kaijin is shaking his head expression torn between amusement and bafflement, “If I may ask, why did you even make stocks of that much? I can get why a nation would store that much, but…”
She laughs, “Same reason I sold so much of it. I'm very firmly someone who believes more in overkill. Better to have more than is needed then find yourself lacking.”
He snorts in amusement, “Can't argue with that I suppose.”
She turns to him more, “Yeah, actually I wanted to ask about that engraving magic we spoke about briefly in the mint. When I saw that tool they use to check the purity of metals? Are there books I could buy on the basics of that? Magic in general honestly, but I'm particularly interested in engraving magic.”
Kaijin runs a hand over his beard, “Well, that sort of stuff tends to be pretty secretive, so while you'd be able to find books on basics or commonly known things available to the public, for the better things… No, not really.”
She smiles, “That's perfectly fine. Actually, in my first life, runes were my specialty, so just being able to learn the basics to be able to build my own magic engravings would be more than enough.”
He laughs, “Oh, if that's all you're wanting, yeah there are books you can buy. I'll take you to get a couple, though unless you wanna be wandering back and forth across Dwargon, it'd be better to get those later.”
She smiles happily, “That's fine! I'd just like to get some books about it in general. That and magic, but it doesn't need to be right this second.”
He nods, “Alright then. If you're fine waiting, while you may have been interested for personal reasons, clothes are first up based on where everything is.”
She hums, “You know, I was thinking about that a bit more, and it occurs to me I could buy a bunch of extras to take the pressure off of Dord on how soon the village needs them, couldn't I? Though, there is the issue of sizing.”
Kaijin hums, “That's not a bad plan actually. And as far as sizing goes, I'd say just buy large clothes and have Dord bring them in to be a better fit first, since that's certainly way easier and less time intensive then starting from scratch for all of them. And even if they don't quite fit since Dord hasn't had a chance to refit that particular wearer's clothes yet, they could still technically wear them.”
She nods, “That's true enough I suppose. So then, they'll need at least two sets so they have something to wear while the other set of clothes is being cleaned, but maybe just to be safe, get three sets of clothes for each of them? That would make what I need to get around three hundred sets of clothes in total for the village, plus whatever I get for myself. Probably limit that to just a few as well since it'd be pretty selfish if I got myself more clothes then I got them.”
Kaijin tilts his head, “Sounds sensible to me. Though, if they've sworn themselves to you, I doubt they'd take it poorly if you bought more for yourself.”
Gobta, who's mostly just been following around quietly pipes up at that point, “Certainly not Lady Rimuru! You are our Lady, if anything, doesn't it make sense for you to have more than us?”
She tilts her head, “I suppose.” Then she shakes herself, “Well, if nothing else, the number of sets of clothes I need means I probably can't just go to any shop for the clothes for that, is there someplace to buy that sort of thing in bulk by any chance? Both since I need a lot and because I wouldn't want to clean places out since there are other people and I wouldn't want to make things difficult for them.”
Kaijin hums, “Not really? I mean, since you're looking for quantity as basically a placeholder, there are some places with more stock than tailored clothing stores. If you're wanting to avoid inconveniencing anyone else, best bet would be to either hit three of them for a hundred outfits each, or four for seventy-five each I'd say.”
She hums, “That works.”
Kaijin nods, but Gobta pipes up again at that point, “We'd be going somewhere nicer for Lady Rimuru's clothes specifically though right?”
Kaijin smiles over at where Gobta is walking along her other side, “Oh certainly. Speaking of actually, we should probably go there first, since they'll need a bit of time to tailor anything you pick out to fit you if it doesn't already and if we do it first, they'll have time to do so while we're doing other shopping.”
She nods, and it isn't long at all before they're entering a clothing shop. It's not a super upscale one or anything since she's just after a few outfits for herself but it's also not some place that focuses on just sturdier quantity rather than quality. The things she picks out actually fit pretty well as is, so she doesn't bother having them do some minor adjustments to make them fit perfectly. Since she's purchasing them anyway she doesn't bother to change out of the last set of clothes she tries on.
After storing her other clothes into her Predator Skill, she glances at Kaijin as they leave as she holds up the folded set of clothes, “Thanks again for the loan Kaijin. Would you prefer if I just stored the clothes in my storage Skill so you don't have to tote them around?”
Kaijin hums, “No problem Lady Rimuru, and yeah, it'd save me a bit of trouble carrying them around.”
She nods and stores them as well, and they quickly set off to pick up the three hundred sets of clothes she was looking to acquire to tide over the village. She also adds a lot of rolls of cloth to supplement the hides and furs they were getting via hunting until they can get a cotton farm or something up. She does contemplate getting some blankets at least but they do have a steady supply of furs and it was spring so she discards the idea, just getting the clothes and cloth, storing those away before turning to Kaijin, “So, where to next?”
Kaijin hums, “From the way things are laid out, originally I was intending to sort of take you on a loop to hit the areas with each type and food and cooking utensils and all that would've been, but given you expressed interest, grabbing the books on magic, engraving or otherwise, would be.”
The small detour from the loop to pick up a good bit of books on the fundamentals of both written and regular magic doesn't take very long and they're soon heading off towards the food shops.
She smiles happily down at one of the engraving magic books, fighting the urge to crack it open immediately -though while she's gotten a promise from Kaijin to teach her the written alphabet here, she doesn't know it yet-, torn between reluctance when she stores it away and eagerness out of protectiveness at the possibility of it getting damned. She shifts mental gears back to the foods to distract herself from her new books as well as the where, where, where, and why, why, why ‘individual not found’ regarding her soulmates, “I've actually been wanting to examine some fruits and vegetables since while some were utterly different then the ones from my old world, other ones were strangely similar.”
Kaijin tilts his head, “Really?”
She nods, “Mm, I was expecting everything here to be different, but when I was wandering around I found a couple things I absolutely know. Like wild onions and that kind of thing.”
Kaijin hums in interest, “It's a bit surprising that you'd find the same foodstuffs in two different universes.”
There's something to be said regarding that in the way that every universe she's been to so far have had the same things, but in fairness, until she came to this world, she had been moving from what was essentially one alternate Earth to another so it probably wasn't that surprising. And given what Veldora told her about Veldanava creating this world as well as a couple adjacent such as that Earth, it wasn't that surprising that this place seemed like it had similar foods as well. Really, the real question is how Veldanava is related to the other worlds since they had the same fruits and vegetables and all that as her first two Earths.
And given from her understanding he was making distinct worlds rather than the same world just slightlydifferent like the other two universe's Earths she's lived on, the real question was how two godless -to her knowledge- worlds ended up with the same foods and animals as the Earth that Veldanava made. Was it just some sort of natural progression when you gave humans plants that vaguely resemble the ones she's used to that they'd domesticate them into what she's used to? Like, any sort of grain similar enough to wheat would inevitably end up as wheat? Obviously there are other sorts of grains, but she just means that those are inevitable from their own grain plants that are similar to them.
She finds herself mulling it over even as she chats with Kaijin about the things she wasn't familiar with from other worlds. In fairness, that made up the bulk of her findings in the Forest, but Hipokute already makes it abundantly clear that the magic of this world, the magicules that is, are perfectly capable of altering the wildlife. So while obviously she wasn't familiar with every plant on her first few worlds to begin with, it's also entirely possible that those used to be plants she would've been more familiar with but they were altered by the magicules over millennia, changed completely and utterly on a fundamental level that even Hipokute wasn't.
It doesn't prove or disprove those ideas when they get to the food stores and she finds that she's absolutely familiar with the vast majority of them. She makes a few bulk purchases to help tide the village over until they can start to get established agriculturally.
While she's making purchases she makes sure to analyze everything and after she finishes making her purchases and Kaijin is leading her off to buy cookware she finds herself gazing at an apple thoughtfully, “Mm. I've kinda been growing more and more suspicious of it, but it looks like for the most part the same plants exist in this world, if these cultivated plants are any indication compared to the wild ones. Which is a relief in the sense that I can use the seeds I have stored in my seed vaults, that I took out to it's own isolation to get rid of any magic traces- rather than holding back out of concern of wrecking the ecosystem of this world by introducing entirely alien plants. Probably still want to poke around a bit at some point to see if there are any other unique ones, since even in the Forest I was coming across plenty I'm entirely unfamiliar with.”
Kaijin shrugs, “I'm not sure there are many more available in Dwargon that we haven't already seen, so it'd be something you'd have to look into elsewhere to be honest.”
She smiles, “That's fine, it's not really pressing. And really, unless I find something like some of the things I'm already familiar with but inherently better or something unique that can add potential distinct flavors either raw or in cooking, it's really just personal curiosity.”
Kaijin laughs, “That's fair! I mean, I imagine I'd be mighty curious about the new plants if I found myself in a whole new world with its own host of them on top of the familiar ones myself.”
They continue to chat about it as they pick up cookware, pots and pans and all that. Technically, they could probably make them pretty quickly and easily, including the eating utensils she also gets. Plates, bowls, and silverware that is. It requires going to a couple shops to avoid cleaning any one out completely since she buys about two hundred of each of those to use while they get the hang of making sturdy ones themselves, but that's fine.
Once that's done, it's time for tools. Everything from cheaper weapons to things for weaving things like fabric from thread, and even the tools needed to make the thread from raw materials to begin with. It's not like she wouldn't still need Kaijin and the rest to come with either, since for one thing none of it helps with construction and for another, that doesn't make them self sufficient. Just because they have the tools doesn't mean they know how to use them after all. It's just the beginnings and enough stock to hopefully tide them over until they are ready to take care of themselves.
The grown food certainly wouldn't last that long mind, since even if they planted immediately after she got back, it would still be a bit before things matured. That was fine though, since they did have hunting to rely on for the majority and plenty of things to hunt in the Forest of Jura. Really, the food she bought was more supplemental. Things to go with the hunted food, sides or additives to soups and the like.
Speaking of, she'd really need to start teaching them proper cooking when she got back, or at least the basics of it. There were definitely things missing from the recipes she was familiar with, salt primarily, but also processed additives like sauces. Though, now that she thinks about it, as far as salt goes, she could probably use Analysis and her Magic Perception to try to find natural deposits nearby at night when she's trying to kill some time while basically everyone is asleep.
It also gives her an idea though. Her Elemental Sight was constantly on in her life as Toshiko, which means she at least knew the composition of such things. Could she, potentially, feed that information into Great Sage and get an explanation on how to artificially make it back? Well, it's worth a shot anyway.
For the time being though, she's actually busy with buying a couple different kinds of bricks. She's going to use Analysis and Great Sage on them to get the composition, any additives other than clay and all that, so they can just make any more they need, but it'd be rude to just analyze them and leave, hence the purchase of at least one of each kind. Which she straight up explains to the bemused Kaijin and vendor, since they're unsurprisingly confused as to why she's buying just one of each. The vendor, thankfully, doesn't get mad, just shrugging it off since she did go out of her way to buy them when she could have just analyzed them and left.
By the time they're done meandering around collecting various things on her shopping list, it's approaching dinner time. She, Kaijin, and Gobta had grabbed lunch in the middle of her shopping of course, but that just means they aren't absolutely starving now that it's approaching dinner.
Kaijin stretches after they leave the last shop, “Whew! It seems like so little when you're just listing things off, but it's definitely more than it sounds like, that's for sure! Come on though, I spoke to the boys while you popped off to change this morning and we made plans to meet up for dinner.” He grins as he nudges her good-naturedly, “Our treat for your help.”
She gives him a bemused look, “Isn't you guys coming back to the village with me you paying back my assistance already?”
He laughs boisterously, “Yeah, but that don't mean we don't wanna treat you as well! I mean, you did arguably save Garm, Dord, and Myrd's lives by supplying those potions, and that's without mentioning the possibly sticky situation you got me out of.”
She huffs a small laugh, “Fair enough I suppose.”
Kaijin smiles happily then glances over at the uncertain looking Gobta,’”Oh, don't get that expression. May be miss Rimuru we're wanting to treat, but that don't mean we ain't gonna feed you too. We ain't mean like that.”
Gobta's uncertainty fades and he grins widely, “Thanks!”
Kaijin laughs at how cheerful Gobta is, and they chat all the way to the restaurant. It's not super upscale or anything, but it does look like a nicer place. The Dwarf brothers happily join in on the conversation as they settle at the table they'd already been waiting at, only pausing briefly when the waitress comes to put in their orders, and again briefly to thank her when she comes back with their drinks as well as their food a bit later.
The conversation is easy and lively, but halfway through their meal, a hush falls over the building inhabitants when someone calls out, “Well! If it isn't Kaijin! Goodness me, what are you doing, bringing these vulgar monsters into an upstanding establishment like this?”
She gives him a bemused look, “You make no sense. Given Dwargon is open to practically everyone with the intelligence to respect their laws, arguably Dwargon is all about inclusion. And given the description of ‘intelligent enough to respect laws’ fits Gobta and myself, I'd say it doesn't really matter if we're monsters.” She pauses, “Though, technically Hobgoblins are a form of Demi-Human much like Dwarves, so the only monster here is me.”
He seems to grow flustered at that, even as Kaijin chuckles, “Aye, she isn't wrong there Vesta.”
Vesta's face flushes and he gives her a dirty look, “What would a dirty monster like you know? You know what sort of treatment best suits a monster? This!”
He snatches up a glass from a nearby table and dumps it on her head. Or tries to anyway. She casually uses Molecular Manipulation -of which her Control Water she'd gained while experimenting on her way down to Veldora had been one of the Skills used in the melting pot to create it- and easily manipulates the fluid away from her. She actually arches it all the way back into the cup, which she casually catches before it can hit the ground and shatter when it slips from Vesta's hand in shock. Leaning over to place it back on the table Vesta had snatched it from, she flashes an apologetic smile at the people seated there.
Before she can do or say anything, Kaijin shoots to his feet angrily, “You think you can run around and try to make fun of my honored guest, Vesta?! You think I'm not gonna mind that?! You think?!”
Vesta takes a startled step back at the way Kaijin was talking to him, which was somewhat fair, given from her understanding he was a noble and minister. He probably wasn't used to people talking to him like that, which is undoubtedly why he splutters, “How- How dare you speak to me like that, you-!”
He's cut off by Kaijin, “Will you shut up already?!”
The man accompanies the shout with a punch to Vesta's face. He doesn't knock him out, which is a bit of a shame, since it means he and Vesta get into what's practically a screaming match. Probably due to the fact Kaijin got physical with a noble and minister, it isn't very long before guards hustle up to take them all into custody. Probably because he's the head of the guards, Kaidou himself shows up quickly, soon chastising Kaijin.
As she's led away by guards, she looks over at Kaidou, “If we're under arrest, am I allowed to ask for a copy of the Dwargon legal code?”
He glances over, “Hm? Yeah, sure. Suppose you'll need it to know procedure if nothing else.”
She nods, “Thank you.”
She'll have to ask Kaijin to give her a quick rundown on the letters sooner rather than later to make sense of it, but laws are… something of a specialty of hers, as someone who used to be a member of the Wizengamot.
Kaijin and the others had been rather… surprised at how quickly she picked up on the letters, but given its entirely internal magic, nothing is stopping her from using her Occlumency on that much like she had when she was practicing the spoken language. And since she already had that down and also had essentially a mental dictionary stored in her Occlumency as well in case she comes across a word she's unfamiliar with and really just needed to associate the letters to the sounds…
Well, combined with analyzing and feeding the book and the letters of this world's language to Great Sage and then storing the results directly into her Occlumency, it was really just a matter of moments to get the whole thing down, though it does take a while to assimilate the information. That's fine though, they technically have all night, which actually turns into two days and with Thought Acceleration on top of that… Well, she has plenty of time.
Enough so that she not only assimilates the information in the book on Dwargon's laws and legal system and all that, but even has time to find out what the deal is with the beef between Kaijin and Vesta. As he'd briefly mentioned before, Kaijin actually used to be a captain on the palace's royal knight corps, in charge of one of the seven armies. Three dedicated to support -one dedicated to engineering, one dedicated to supply, and one dedicated to emergency aid-, three more dedicated to combat -one a heavy strike group, one a magic strike group, and one a magic support group-, and the final one being the royal guard itself. Kaijin had led the engineering corps, and they'd been looking into a sort of magic mech armor.
Essentially, Vesta got impatient to prove the corps’ value, as it had a poor reputation back then. Vesta had little to no respect for the common born Kaijin and was also quite possibly chafing at the proverbial bit to be taking a commoner's orders. He had subsequently ignored Kaijin's numerous warnings that he was hurrying the project too fast and not thoroughly investigating.
Unsurprisingly given that, the project had a catastrophic failure, the sort that would be public whether you wanted it to be or not. Between the fact Kaijin was the head of the engineering corps and should've had a solid hold on his subordinates as well as Vesta getting some of his higher ranked friends to give false testimony against Kaijin, and well, he'd ended up taking the full blame for the affair and had subsequently resigned.
It had, unsurprisingly, started something of a feud between them.
Even after that and absorbing the book's information, she still had the second day pretty much entirely free. So other than occasionally chatting with the Dwarves, she has plenty of time to get started on the engraving magic books. She reads those physically, wanting to take her time since she has some to spare, mostly to let ideas form as she reads.
Well, by the time they're brought out of the jail, she's pretty thoroughly learned in the Dwargon laws and it's legal system, including the fact that for some reason, in the Dwargon King's court, you aren't allowed to speak unless you were either expressly given permission or hold a noble title of at least Earl. The person assigned to speak on their behalf had come by occasionally during the two days they were waiting, getting their side of the story and making sure they knew procedure and all that.
He was also crock full of shit. It was so laughably obvious he was bought off by Vesta in the way he starts immediately proclaiming that they just went in and assaulted Vesta while he was enjoying some food. She barely lets him get two sentences in before she claps her hands to draw attention, using some Molecular Manipulation to write in blazing letters, “He's lying through his teeth.”
Gasps ripple through the courtroom, and the man in charge of keeping order narrows his eyes, “You are not allowed to speak-”
She changes the words to read, “Key word being speak. ‘Speak’ is defined by verbal communication. Spirit of the law says I'm not allowed to communicate, letter of the law only says I'm not allowed to speak. Normally I would respect the spirit of the law, but I cannot do that when the man who's been assigned to speak for us is utterly lying.”
Before she can go further, King Gazel speaks, “Quite the bold woman, aren't you?”
She flashes a smile, “That's probably an accurate description.”
The guy who'd told her off for writing bristles, “That was inarguably- ”
She tilts her head, “King Gazel spoke directly to me, asking me a question specifically. By law, that is indirect permission to speak.”
King Gazel huffs in amusement, waving the man off, “Besides, she's not wrong that it may not fit the spirit of the law but her writing trick does technically follow the letter of it. As such, there's not much point in her using it as an intermediary.” He turns back to her, “Continue.”
She lifts her chin, “The only truth our defender spoke is that Kaijin punched Vesta, but that was only after Vesta practically incited him to do so.”
Vesta, who'd paled the moment she wrote that her speaker was lying, sputters out, “I did no such thing!”
She rattles off direct quotes on the Dwargon legal code, namely regarding Dwarven Honor, drawing up the necessary laws to establish the fact that as far as the law of honor was concerned, the three brothers were Kaijin's siblings, “With that out of the way, that Skill of yours should be capable of recognizing the truth,” King Gazel tenses at the mention of his Skill, which she only knew he had when he brushed against her Occlumency and she'd used Analysis on the energy of the contact before feeding it to Great Sage, “within an illusion of what actually happened King Gazel. Though there are a few other things that may seem unrelated that I need to establish, so I ask your patience.”
With a nod okaying it from the King, she creates an illusion linked directly to her Occlumency to pull the relevant memories up perfectly, starting with the altercation that saw her brought in for questioning. She can tell that the two royal guards on either side of the throne are having to fight to hold any sign of amusement at her suggestion of that one jerk using his ass to make money. But that's mostly just to establish that she wasn't being questioned by Kaidou because she did anything wrong, since it wouldn't be a good look considering she was in court for something else entirely, which she comments on as it plays out. Then she shows the other guard bursting in to inform Kaidou about the Armorsaurus and lack of healers, as well as the fact the castle denied their request for potions.
King Gazel straightens sharply at that, holding out a hand to have her stop the illusion playing out for a moment and looking over at one of his men, jaw tense, face infuriated, “Find whoever denied that request. I will deal with them later. That stockpile may primarily be in case of emergencies in the castle or war, but it is the duty of a King to help his people. It is unacceptable to have turned down a request for aid from the guards.” The man he'd looked over at bows before marching off, and King Gazel turns back to her, “Continue.”
She does exactly that, showing her handing over the potions to assist them, then jumps forward to the brothers thanking her for her part in saving their lives. King Gazel gets an understanding look, the why she was showing this for establishing purposes clearly clicking for him, and she moves on to showing her being led by Kaidou to Kaijin, where the brothers also were. She also shows her offer to help Kaijin and the explanation that it would still be his work since her Skill would just duplicate it using the raw materials.
The brief discussion on how he got into that mess, or more accurately her mentioning that she personally would've let Kaijin in on what she was doing so as not to stress him unnecessarily has King Gazel's expression changing from the mostly hidden approval at her reasoning at why he'd pressed Kaijin to complete the order to a faint frown as he flicks a quick glance at Kaijin. Maybe it hadn't occurred to him that he should let Kaijin in on what was really happening and he felt bad for stressing him out over trying to complete a task he knew was impossible.
Regardless, with all that out of the way, she temporarily stops her illusion, “So we've established that the three brothers are also brothers to Kaijin as far as the law of honor is concerned, despite lacking the blood connection Kaidou has, that I had a significant if indirect hand in saving their lives, and helped Kaijin out of a problem which could have potentially ruined his professional reputation as a blacksmith. So now we get to what actually happened the other night.”
King Gazel nods slightly and she immediately changes the illusion to play what happened that night in the restaurant. It wasn't exactly a very long altercation and once it's done, she finishes, “So yes, Kaijin did punch Vesta, there's no denying that, but only after he practically incited him to do so with the way he spoke of, to, and tried to treat me, who by the laws regarding honor, he owes the lives of three of his four brothers to, as well as prevention of damage to his well established and highly esteemed professional reputation.” Her tone turns dry, “May want to question our defender as well, since he's either friends with Vesta and it's a conflict of interest, or he was bribed, but that's technically a separate case.”
King Gazel nods slowly, waving one of his men forward as he pins their defender under a heavy gaze, “I will deal with you in a bit.”
Then he turns to the trembling Vesta, who had been steadily paling as her illusions played out, likely realizing that she wasn't wrong that he'd practically goaded Kaijin into punching him given the debts of honor Kajin owes her. And he couldn't even claim that he didn't know, given Kajin outright called her his ‘honored guest’ and hadn't punched him immediately after. Only doing so when Vesta kept on, given rather than apologizing he'd just gotten all pissy about the way Kaijin was speaking to him.
King Gazel narrows his eyes, “Well Vesta? I will give you one chance to amend your statement regarding this case. You won't be let off since you did still provide false statement in my royal court, but it would go better for you if you were honest rather than doubling down. So which do you claim is true? Your version of the story? Or the Slim- Rimuru's?"
Vesta almost rams his head into the table in front of him in his hurry to bow, “Forgive me King Gazel! I- Yes, the way Miss Rimuru showed things happening is the truth.”
King Gazel nods slowly, “I'll deal with you in a moment.” Then he turns back to them, “The case is rather open and shut in light of all this. Yes, Kaijin did technically assault a noble, but as Rimuru here so rightly pointed out earlier, under the laws of honor, Vesta practically incited him to do so given the debts he owes Miss Rimuru. In light of everything, I hereby declare them innocent of the charges.” Then he looks over at Kaijin, “Before you go, Kaijin… When she was showing us things related to context, I heard a brief mention of you going with her to her village…”
Kaijin nods, “Yes my liege.”
King Gazel's brows furrow, “...You used to be the head of the engineering corps Kaijin. There are quite a few of Dwargon's secrets that you know.”
Kaijin looks somewhat offended, “I would never reveal such things, my liege! And Lady Rimuru would not ask them of me either!” King Gazel looks uncertain, so Kaijin presses on, “Lady Rimuru is the sort of woman who buys a single brick of each type purely because she intends to use an analysis Skill -which she's perfectly capable of doing without even picking them up- to see if they have anything added to the clay so her own people may produce them yet she does not wish to essentially steal the bricks!”
King Gazel relaxes a bit at that, huffing a small laugh, “Admirable. Very well, then I shall trust that you will respect our secrets that you know and that she will not ask them of you.”
She looks over at Kajin, “If you do know secrets, you know you'll have to tell me if you can't answer some sort of question because it's related to that, right? I can't know I'm asking about Dwargon secrets otherwise. And I'll admit, I've been known to be a bit persistent on getting answers if I'm not given a reason to back off.”
Kaijin laughs lightly, “That's fine. There's no harm just saying I can't tell you because it's related to Dwargon secrets.”
She nods, pleased he hadn't been strange about it, since some people have weird ideas about even mentioning that it's related to a secret like even the knowledge of the secret is in and of itself secret. She looks up at the amused King Gazel, “So we're free to go, right?” He nods, so the five of them leave the defendants table and start to head out, and she glances over at Kaijin, “I really won't ask for secrets, but are you sure it's fine? I just… I wouldn't want anyone to think you've turned traitor and have been telling me them even if you haven't or anything like that.”
Kaijin laughs, “It's fine. And I don't much care if others want to jump to conclusions. As long as those in charge like King Gazel know I'm not, then I really couldn't care less. Thank you for your concern though.”
She hums, “Alright, if you're sure. And of course. I wouldn't want to make things difficult for you by getting you in trouble!”
Kaijin laughs again as they leave the courtroom, “You really are too kind Lady Rimuru.”
She shrugs. She's personally of the opinion that it's basic decency, but then again, it's unfortunately far too common for people in positions of power to be perfectly comfortable putting people below them in awkward positions even at the cost of those people. And in a world where practically every government is a monarchy, she supposes the people here are a little too used to the idea of being pressured by higher ups.
It doesn't take very long to head back to Kaijin's shop where the Dwarf brothers had packed everything up before meeting them for dinner and use Predator on it all. From there they're off to leave Dwargon itself. Given she'd told them all about how she came to be the Lady of the village, they aren't very surprised to see the Tempest Wolves with the rest of her traveling group thankfully, though they do seem a little hesitant to climb onto a couple of them to ride back.
Thankfully, they do get on, though once they take off, the Dwarves look rather sick. On the plus side, during the decades in her previous life as Toshiko, she had observed exactly what a lot of potions and spells from her life as Calanthe did, and that included things like potions to help with motion sickness. She can't use either of those magics in this world of course, but she can replicate their function with magicules. That seems to help a lot in and of itself, but half of the equation seems to be the wind.
In fairness, the Tempest Wolves were doing what she'd estimate was something like eighty kilometers per hour(2). For one thing, motorcycles didn't exactly exist in this world, and for another, even if they had familiarity with something like that, they don't exactly have helmets. Which maybe not everyone feels it's needed as far as wind resistance goes, but some people don't like feeling eighty kilometer an hour winds. That's also easy enough to deal with. Even more so actually, since she just needs to erect magic shields in front of them to protect them from the wind.
They're perfectly fine after that, and they all give her thankful smiles, since they can't initiate Thought Communication nor is talking verbally at these speeds really all that easy. She smiles back, using some magic to make an illusion in front of them reading, “Let me know if the magic to offset the motion sickness starts to fade. Just tell the Tempest Wolves and they can Thought Communication me.”
The dwarves give her thumbs up to pass on their understanding. They have a couple days until they get back to the village, but she wasn't about to make them suffer discomfort about their mode of transportation. In the meantime, she'll just put up her own wind shield and read more of her books on engraving magic.