Foreign Relations
Fuze and the others had left a few days after she'd devoured Charybdis, the papers for the treaty with Blumund in their bags and a promise from Fuze to start working on dismantling Veldora's poor reputation. After that things had been fairly quiet, until out of the blue about two weeks after Fuze and them left, Milim suddenly climbs to her feet after another of their lunches, both just to connect and to catch up on how Milim's new treatments are going as well as the training some like Hakuro and Benimaru against her was progressing.
As soon as she's on her feet, Milim declares, “Alright! I'm off to work!”
She blinks rapidly, “Milim? What could you possibly need to do?”
Milim waves her hand, “Demon Lord business that's come to my attention is all.”
She frowns lightly, “Your treatments…”
Milim smiles, and she had picked up on her emotional adoption, so it's not very surprising that what comes out of her mouth is, “I know Mom, but it's important so I gotta go deal with it. I've been fine for a couple thousand years, or well maybe not fine but it wasn't killing me. I'll be okay if I need to step away for a bit even if I am mid-treatment.”
She still doesn't like it in the slightest, but she can tell just looking at Milim's face that she's not going to budge, “I-” She sighs, “Alright dear. Be careful and don't push yourself please.”
Milim beams, “I will be!” Then she leans over to brush a kiss to her cheek before turning to leave, “Bye Mom! See you later!”
She murmurs her own farewell, still rather concerned, but there isn't a whole lot she can do about it. She'll just have to trust Milim.
She hums thoughtfully, sipping at the next in the taste tests lightly.
They've definitely been making some pretty good progress with alcohols. Diablo had been incredibly happy with the recipes Rowena had handed off and what he could do with them for cooking at least.
As she'd been hoping, it hadn't stymied their creativity with testing new ones, and from Diablo's intent expression for a couple of them, she imagines there's a few that are going to at least be in limited production for his cooking if nothing else. Win-win really. Her husband is pleased with expanding options for his cooking and her people are getting pretty good at yet another thing, and one they can potentially trade with Dwargon at that, which is all the more important now that they've successfully set up the magical banking to get their economy rolling, since it's another form of income for paying people that work for the government their wages. There's taxes of course, but it's always better to have excess rather than find yourself falling short.
Ema was happy with the wines they've been producing as well, though she's fairly confident that she already has an idea on which ones were her wife's favorite while they've been taste testing them.
After they're done giving their opinions on the last one, she straightens a bit as Kaijin looks at her, “There's actually two more groups of tests we've been running with two ingredients, which you actually mentioned Rimuru, though given the discoveries about its medicinal properties, the latter of the two feels a bit wasteful since it uses Apito's honey as one of its key ingredients.”
She nods, “Mm, I've been trying to figure out how to increase production on that without straining Apito, and the possible medicinal uses certainly takes precedence, but if you made good ones, we’ll pin the recipes for potential use later and maybe circle back around to them and further experiments later if production can reach high enough.”
Kaijin nods his understanding and the first alcohol of the first group is brought to them. When she takes her first sip, she knows damn well that idea that had flitted through her head had absolutely had merit. Something backed up by the way her soulmates immediately seemed floored. Diablo looks down at his glass, “What is this?”
Kaijin grins widely, “Miss Rimuru wondered what sort of alcohols could be made with Lembas fruits. Wines were easy enough, but if there's one thing I learned from the lists of things like whiskeys made with fruits, it's that all the titles we apply to such things are more arbitrary then I realized.(1)"
"Speaking of, that's brandy. We have a wide variety though, honestly practically every alcohol you can make can be made with fruits, and since the Lembas fruits the Treants produce are such high quality, unless we screw up, it almost always comes out delicious. Funnily enough, it's actually been somewhat difficult to tell if we were making full use and producing high quality alcohols with it given that. These are some of the best ones though, so we think these may be the ones making the fullest use of the Lambas’. At least for the time being anyway, it's absolutely possible we may find ways to produce something even better later.”
She hums as she tries the next, “From the fact I'm not finding myself full, I assume you figured out how to handle their capacity for filling someone?”
Kaijin nods, but before he can add anything else, Ema looks up at Diablo with gleaming eyes, “You're the cook. You need to start coordinating with Kaijin to see if this is really the peak or if it's possible to make these even better.”
Diablo hums as he gazes into his drink, “I was just thinking that myself actually. And I mean, Shion is arguably at the point she's not a hazard any more, has been for a while if I must admit, I just wasn't ready to trust her yet. I could drop her lessons now that it's dealt with though and rearrange my schedule for when it would be best to work with Kaijin and the others working on it.”
He glances up at the last part, and Kijin grins, “Be more than happy to have your assistance sir, especially given what I know of your expertise.”
Diablo nods in satisfaction and he and Kaijin quickly work out the schedule of the best times for working on such things without pulling away from more important things as they continue to taste test various alcohols they've made.
When they get to the whiskey, she grins at Kaijin, “Do me a favor, make another bottle of that one in a nice fancy bottle.”
He blinks, “Certainly, but may I ask why?”
She laughs lightly, “Because my heading to Dwargon for the official announcement and celebration of our covenant is coming up, and it's rude to show up to a party without a gift. And from what I observed of the alcohol Gazel enjoyed, he'd certainly appreciate the gift properly.”
Kaijin grins back and enthusiastically agrees, not that it's surprising given that's his King.
Diablo only gets more determined and the situation even funnier when they switch to tasting the Lambas fruit and Insectar Honey produced from nectar of plants grown near Treants and Dryads -it absolutely influenced its quality, they'd checked- combo alcohols and they're so damn delicious it damn near drives him to tears.
She's also fairly certain that figuring out how to increase production on the latter two of those ingredients without straining Apito enough to justify using it for alcohols just became her wife's personal project.
She finishes manipulating the thread, stepping back in satisfaction. She'd figured out how to make a core, but it had taken longer than she expected for her Sticky Steel Thread to absorb enough magicules to be suitable for the muscles and skin.
While using Full Potion wasn't inherently necessary, given the thread soaking in the magicule rich water from Veldora still wasn't ready, and it wasn't coming out as well as the Full Potion soaked threads anyway.
It's not particularly useful given who will be inhabiting the bodies, what with them possessing various levels of resistance to physical attacks as well as regeneration, but she's pretty sure the threads have actually picked up self-regenerative properties from being soaked in Full Potion specifically to gain the needed magicules.
It's something that should have some use somewhere, right? She's not totally sure where, other than fairly basic self repairing clothes, but… Well, if she's going to use it for something like that, she wouldn't want to take from the Hipokute Jura-Tempest is growing and the Full Potions it's producing.
She has plenty of room in Imaginary Space though, it's literally limitless, so she could easily just plant fields of grass in there and expose it to her magicules specifically and process and replant as it grows.
Then just start soaking her threads in what the fields within Imaginary Space produces and pass that off to Shuna and Dord. At minimum, she'd at least like her and her wife's future wedding dresses made from it, since they still haven't fully sorted out the details, and as Diablo pointed out, their previous ones not being so was more because all the trouble was already sorted out by the time they got married. With the curveballs this life keeps throwing, she doesn't trust it not to toss another their way on their wedding day.
It's something else to think about for later though. Right now, she was finalizing the last details of the artificial magisteel, Sticky Steel Thread, artificial core construct for her soulmates and sister-in-law. Once the first is finished, as she'd mentioned when the idea was first proposed, she absorbs it with Azathoth to reproduce it easily.
She's not even surprised that it takes some of the Full Potion stored there too, given the specific Sticky Steel Thread used in the making was soaked in it and it absorbed more than just magicules, and that also makes it clear she really ought to make a field of grass/Hipokute in Azathoth's Imaginary Space like she was just contemplating, since while she still has plenty, she keeps finding more and more uses for it.
Once she has all three ready, she turns to the other three who had been watching in curiosity. They step over to the bodies without hesitation, sinking into them and their artificial cores with ease.
It's fascinating to watch the Sticky Steel Thread morph itself into flesh and hair and take on their forms as they claim the new bodies for themselves, even if the process happens at ‘blink and you'll miss it’ levels of speed. The three sit up with ease, examining their bodies in curiosity and critical eyes, not because they're inherently critical of her work, but because they know full well if there are any issues they need to try to fix them as quickly as possible.
Ema looks up with a smile, “Well, I don't see anything wrong with the bodies. I must admit though, I didn't realize there was a feeling of physicality I wasn't experiencing before. I mean, obviously I wasn't since I was a spiritual life form, just- …I didn't even notice it's lacking until it was suddenly back.”
She hums, “If it's anything like what I experienced between lives, I know what you mean.”
Diablo's gaze unfocuses a moment as she feels a tug at her memories before he shakes his head, “Nah, it's not to that extreme. It's sort of yes, but not at that level.”
She nods even as she extends her hands down to her soulmates to help them up. As they stretch a bit, getting reacquainted with having physical bodies, she reaches down for her sister-in-law as well.
Once all three are on their feet, she watches them for a moment before tilting her head and smiling faintly as she smiles at her husband, “Wanna combine a celebration lunch with seeing if having physical bodies changes your senses of taste somehow?”
Her sister and wife both laugh as Diablo starts all but dragging them off in his eagerness, Ema cheerfully adding, “You should go all out and make something that pairs with one of the Lambas wines and maybe uses one of them or another Lambas alcohol in its cooking.”
Her husband looks back over his shoulder with eager delight, all too happy to agree.
She's a bit sad to see Benimaru and his crew head out, but Carrion had sent a messenger suggesting they both send envoys to one another to see first hand whether trade relations would be beneficial. She hadn't inherently been against it, since she obviously had no way of knowing whether or not Eurazania had anything of value to them as things currently stood. To that extent, she had agreed and after a bit of deliberation, the crew Benimaru was selected to be in charge of overall, with Rigur serving as his second in command and a carefully selected group who had both good manners as well as keen eyes in all sorts of various fields to determine whether or not Eurazania possessed anything they may find of value was chosen.
She's even less fond of the fact there was a formal send off ceremony then she is to see them go to begin with, but she supposes it can't be helped. Keeping up morale and wishing them luck and all that.
Once they see them off, there are preparations to be made to receive the Eurazania envoy. Vesta actually shows up on his own, wanting to make sure the staff that would be attending to such things knows what they need to for receiving high profile guests. She's more than happy to let him handle it, given she may have been a noble in previous lives, it didn't inherently mean she was familiar with the customs that would be expected to meet such guests here.
To that extent, she's also gotten some lessons from Vesta, but that was less to learn how to behave with other nobles and royalty in general and more for the specifics of this world in particular. Thankfully, it wasn't all too different than what she was used to, so it hadn't taken a whole lot before Vesta had declared she knew what she needed to so as to conduct herself properly in this world.
Vesta declares the service staff is also ready and up to even catering to royalty before they receive word that the envoy is approaching, and with the other preparations having fallen into place, the only thing left is to wait for them to reach the town. Or, rather, the city, given it's long since progressed from a mere town to a city, and she should probably call it that to respect the work her people have put into making it.
She heads out when they get word the envoy is almost at the border of the city to greet them. She arrives with Diablo, Ema, Mari, and Shuna who had basically assigned herself to helping receive them to make sure the service staff that works under her knows what to expect. There was also a grouping of the rest of the higher ups, both of Rigurd and the other Hobgoblins, and also of the Dwarves and Hakuro and the like. It isn't too long that gilded carriages pulled by what her analysis informs her are thunder tigers start coming into view.
As they wait for them to pull closer, she can hear Hakuro chatting with Shuna in the background about the -presumably given how weak they would be otherwise- gold coated carriages. She tilts her head towards them, “Don't get too swept up by it. The decor of it isn't all that phenomenal if I'm being honest. It's certainly nothing the dwarf Brothers and Kaijin couldn't easily outdo if they wanted to. Bit obnoxious to have a solid gold plated carriage for my personal tastes, but if they had reason too…”
Kaijin grins at her, “Thanks for the compliment boss. Makes us proud to hear.”
She nods and the conversation comes to a stop as the lead carriage, which was also the one with the most ostentatious designs pulls to a stop not far away before two women emerge from it.
Basically immediately, one of the two smiles lightly at her, “A pleasure to meet you, Queen of the Forest of Jura. I am Alvis, the Golden Snakehorn and one of the Three Lycanthopeers serving the Demon Lord Carrion.”
The other one huffs, “I know Lord Carrion said to behave, but I still can't see how it's supposed to benefit us to have formal relations with this nation. They don't look very strong at all, I don't know why Lord Carrion made an alliance with them.”
She tilts her head as she lets go of her control of her magic for a few moments, causing the two to stumble back in surprise, “It's called control. Perhaps you ought to exercise some rather than roll up to a place your Lord made an alliance with and immediately start spitting insults.”
The first woman gives the second a look, “Especially given it questions Lord Carrion's judgement. He may have been fine with you expressing disbelief, but I still think it was wildly inappropriate.” She turns to her with an apologetic smile, “Please forgive Suphia, she's rather… brash and proud sometimes and has been struggling to wrap her head around the idea that you're worthy of our Lord forging an alliance with you.”
She waves it off as she pulls her magic back under control, “Don't concern yourself with it Miss Alvis.”
Alvis smiles thankfully before glancing at the still unhappy Suphia, “If you're amenable to it, perhaps you would indulge me and let Suphia spar with one of your stronger subordinates so she can see for herself?”
She hums as she glances at her people, “I'm not inherently against it, no. Given the general ‘might makes right’ mentality, I sort of expected it to be honest.”
Suphia grins widely, “Then let me fight your strongest and see for myself!”
She snorts, “No.” At the woman's faltering, she gives her an amused look, “The strongest person here other than myself would be my husband. Who's a Primordial Daemon. As in, a compatriot of Guy Crimson, and one who spars with him and to a draw at that frequently. You'd be absolutely decimated.”
The woman falters, suddenly looking a bit nervous, laughing a little nervously, “Ah, yeah, uh, maybe- maybe not your strongest…”
She glances over her people, “Perhaps Hakuro. Given he's our Instructor, it's a good gauge of the rest of them since they either learn from him directly or his students.”
Hakuro laughs, “I would be happy to, My Lady!”
She's not even surprised when Suphia doesn't even last fifteen seconds against him.
She leans over the woman, desperately heaving air into her lungs in spite of how brief the conflict had been, “Do you need someone weaker?”
Suphia gives her an incredulous look, “What the hell is with you people? What sort of hellish training do you put your subordinates through if that's their teacher?! And you! Not to mention that you're apparently married to a Primordial Daemon! What the hell is going on here?!”
She smiles, but doesn't answer the question, “You didn't answer me. Did you want someone weaker, or..?”
Suphia looks at her like she's insane, “No! You can keep this nonsense to yourself, thanks! You're strong enough and I want nothing to do with it!”
She smiles in amusement at the woman. If they were satisfied though, they can just leave things there.
Once they've settled that, they move on to accepting them in, and while they head off to get settled at first, by the time they have, it's time for the welcoming feast they put together.
The menu that Diablo had helped put together, made by cooks that had gotten more than a couple lessons from him while he was in the kitchens either to teach Shion how not to be an absolute hazard via her cooking or just from making her lunch and the like is absolutely delicious. Perhaps not to the levels of Diablo himself, but it's very obvious the chefs have been very dutiful in learning what they can from him.
Suphia actually cries after the first bite, muttering about how the beat down Hakuro gave her earlier was totally worth it just to taste the welcome feast. Alvis has more decorum, but she's also rather enthusiastic about their food. She has a sudden feeling, that amongst other possible things, Eurazania was probably going to want to either send over some chefs to get lessons, or have them send a couple to give lessons over there.
That and trading them alcohol, given even Alvis’ decorum gets tossed out the window after they taste the apple brandy that's served with the meal. She wonders idly in amusement if Alvis would've started crying as well if they'd used some of their currently limited Lambas brandy with the meal instead.
It's probably a good thing they didn't though, given how heavily a drinker she seems to be, since she genuinely finds herself wondering where she's putting it all, seeing as Alvis is chugging through the apple brandy by the barrel. Given the aforementioned limited qualities they have of the Lambas alcohols, they wouldn't have nearly enough for her heavy drinking.
The sheer quality of what they've been making with it has had her turning a bit more of her focus onto crossing the Lembas fruits with other plants to get them to produce them to increase their yields. It's not like she's wasting time, given how quickly her general work is done and most of her time is taken up by translating magics and her own research. She was already done translating the magic calculation area treatments before Milim left and had already had those started before she left. She'd also already finished one of her personal projects in translating data fortification to apply it to the buildings in the city to make the entire thing sturdier. There was already a group she'd trained going around adding the engravings for them to the buildings.
She was making pretty good progress on getting other trees to grow Lambas fruit already. She was estimating that it would at most be done within six months. Probably more like three. Well, it could technically be done significantly faster if she handed it to Rowena to do under Azathoth's Thought Acceleration, but she had so little to do herself that she hasn't been able to bring herself to do it. From there, they could accelerate the growth on the trees to get them set up.
Given the unlimited space of Azathoth's Imaginary Space, she was also thinking she'd set up an orchard inside of it just to be safe. She wants them to dehydrate a certain amount of their yields for the same eventuality, but the fact they never go bad if dehydrated makes them an incredible protective measure against some sort of famine. Especially since they can serve as food not just for the people, but also their livestock. Having an orchard within Azathoth adds another layer of protection against something like a famine hitting her people.
The only real potential problem would be a drought, but with the Dryads and their Spirit magic around, it probably wasn't really a problem, given they can probably make water with things like that. And they aren't even the only potential means of dealing with such things around, given her naming the previous Direwolves ‘Tempest Wolves’ gave them a lot of storm related powers, of which rain was an aspect of.
Really, her nation was incredibly resilient against natural disaster, since the data fortification would help with earthquakes.
If she's going to set up a backup in Azathoth though, she may as well have Rowena set up an entire area with its own water ecosystem and include not just a Lambas orchard but also other orchards and fields. It would serve as both a layer of protection against famine as well as essentially a seed vault, since they aren't potentially exposed to any diseases the crops in Jura-Tempest are.
With her Time Acceleration power, she can also use it as an area to grow fruit trees to transplant out of Azathoth into Jura-Tempest's farms. She should do that soon actually, given they've been focused on other faster crops and haven't gotten to things that take a bit more cultivation like trees, even if they do have Dryads around to accelerate their growth. Rowena had already cultivated rice, since there weren't any seeds on the market.
Something which Fuze had easily explained given there apparently wasn't any nation he knew of that grew rice in any form, certainly not the domesticated version she was used to. That had been done on her request, not because she was particularly attached to rice, but because Ema missed it given how much of a staple it was in Japanese cuisine and how annoyed Diablo was not to have it as an option for his various dishes.
She'd initially thought to have the Dragonewts in the Sealed Cave -that is to say, Gabil and his men- manage it after getting taught by Rowena how to, since they only really had to deal with the grass-to-Hipokute cultivation and helping Vesta. It wasn't difficult to alter the terrain around the lake a little, making its sides a steadier slope rather than straight up to make a small marsh around its edges. And Vesta had worked out an engraving for UV lighting entirely on his own to provide the light for their growth.
The problem is, the rice Rowena had domesticated had grown with black grains in there. They'd been incredibly worried at first. Plus side after they'd examined it, it wasn't diseased or anything like that. Downside, how it affected the color was difficult to say, but the reason it was black was because it was a side effect of growing in high magical saturation like the grass-to-Hipokute reaction. Specifically, it had gotten so filled with magicules it could make anyone with too little magic in their bodies either sick or maybe even kill them.
It wasn't as big a deal for Demi-Humans and Magic Born, since even the weakest of them had more magic then the average human and they had a significantly higher resistance to levels of magic that exceed their own, but it could still be dangerous.
It was a good thing they'd made their first go at putting magic into numerical values, which they've dubbed Existence Value, since while it's practically guaranteed to need some tweaking and smoothing, it gave them an idea of how much magic the black rice contained which in turn gave an idea of how much magic someone needs to be able to eat it safely. Specifically, the rice seemed to possess about fifty thousand Existence Value's worth of magic.(2) It wasn't anything to scoff at either, given by the numbers they put together basing one thousand on an average adult human, it placed that about at the strength of a mid-level Kaijin. Which means it's incredibly dangerous to anyone who couldn't resist at least that much magic.
She'd decided they would continue to grow more of it, and after discussing with the Dryad's, they'd actually rearranged things near the Treants so there was a marsh nearby to sustain the magic requirements of growing Black Rice specifically. That being said, once Rowena had domesticated some wild plants into rice successfully, to grow regular rice, since Veldora's still lingering magic made the Sealed Cave unsuitable, they'd set up a field for cultivation in the Dragonewts’ marshes. They'd actually been concerned about whether the ambient magic from the Forest of Jura in general and the Dragonewts specifically may turn it into Black Rice, but thankfully the saturation doesn't seem to be nearly enough for that.
The Dragonewts had been more than happy to take it over as well, given that while they did have some of their people dedicated to patrolling, and another group to fishing and hunting, not everyone was suitable for those things. It gave such people something to do, which actually seemed to make them happy. It makes sense in a way. It must be frustrating to want to contribute but for your people to have nothing you're suited for.
Actually, the Black Rice was part of the feast, and so was the sake they'd made it with. Both of which also seem to be hits with the Eurazania folks.
The surprise of the rice had reminded her that she'd spaced wanting to run experiments on other potential magicule driven mutations. She's set up an area in Azathoth's Imaginary Space whose entire goal is to fill the space with her magicules and grow plants. A third of them are growing normally, another third of them are having their growth accelerated, and the final third have their growth slowed down. It's almost entirely to figure out if there were plants that needed to absorb the magicules over a slower growth period, or if what matters is the amount of magicules they absorb during the growth, even if said growth is accelerated. In other words, whether or not they can only absorb the magicules for mutation at a certain speed or not and therefore accelerating their growth doesn't give them time to absorb enough.
It was already showing results in certain plants that would mutate like the Rice and certain ones that either wouldn't, or sometimes can't even handle the concentration of magicule and end up dying. Which makes it a good thing she's been having Rowena set aside seed vaults in Azathoth's Imaginary Space that are either devoid of magic or contain enough of the correct kind of magic to keep the seeds viable, in the case of some of her Calanthe world seeds.
Things are progressing nicely overall, so she doesn't really feel the need to try and hurry them along.
Her attention is drawn back to Alvis and Suphia as Alvis starts to get drunk enough that she seems to instinctively turn into her more animalistic form, looking like how Lamias are usually depicted. A thought stirs at the sight. She'd totally forgotten that Alvis had introduced herself as the Golden Snakehorn. It makes her wonder... Would she understand Parseltongue?
Out of sheer curiosity, she switches to it as she says to Alvis, "I'm glad to see our alcohols have been taken so well."
Alvis laughs merrily, and she's only half surprised when she responds in Parseltongue herself, likely natural purely because she is part snake, "Ahaha! Yes! It's absolutely delicious, I have never had such wonderful alcohols. Right Suphia?"
She turns to ger fellow Lycanthopeer who's starting at her blankly, far from the only one in the utter silence that's descended, before flicking a glance over to her, "...I assume you're asking me something, but I have no idea what you just said since you and Lady Rimuru are just hissing at each other."
Alvis' brows furrow in that over exaggerated manner drunk people can exhibit, "I was not!"
She laughs, "You were actually Alvis. In my first life, while there weren't Skills in the manner you're familiar with, people could be born with unique or hereditary magic abilities. Parseltongue, the ability to speak to and understand snakes, was one of the more known ones which I happened to possess. Forgive me, I was just curious if you'd understand it since you're a snake Lycanthopeer. I was honestly half expecting it since you are part snake when you seemingly instinctively replied in parseltongue."
Alvis gasps, overdramatic of course given her inebriated state, "I can speak to snakes?!"
She laughs again, "You'd have to practice to be able to do it manually, but it seems so."
Suphia gives Alvis a funny look, "Shouldn't you already know this from running into regular snakes?"
Alvis gets a little defensive, "I never have, okay?!"
She shakes her head in amusement as the two start bickering over the sheer unlikelihood of the fact Alvis has never run into a snake that wasn't a Lycanthope, glancing in amusement at her people, "That, by the way, is why I always say to be careful about sensitive information around animals. They don't have the same sort of intelligence we do, but anyone can tell you they'll learn at least basic patterns. That people use certain trails and the like. And even if they can't tell you 'they're working on some sort of secret project' if one possesses the ability to talk to certain animals, you can often still piece together information."
She tilts her head at her enraptured audience, "Such as the example of what they can't tell you, they can tell you something like 'groups of them keep going away from the herd nest and bang around at night. It keeps waking me up' and while that one isn't difficult to parse through, they're more of a wealth of information then you realize. They aren't necessarily inherently malicious towards who they're reporting about, but you never know who, if anyone, they're reporting to. "
There are serious nods from her people, and she can literally see Soei writing notes down. Undoubtedly she just unintentionally gave Soei and the Dryads another avenue of security to keep an eye on. She'll have to keep an eye on them. Make sure they don't overwork themselves.
She studiously avoids the Looks her soulmates are giving her. It's different.
The next day, she can't decide what's more ridiculous. Just how much alcohol the two managed to somehow drink, or the fact they're refreshed rather than hungover.
Irregardless, she's not surprised in the slightest when Alvis basically immediately makes it clear they're very interested in trading for some of their liquor, as well as the Black Rice-made sake and some of the rice itself.
When she tries to ask what they're thinking of as far as equal trade though, they don't seem to have a very good idea of details like that and seem more than happy to leave it to them as long as they get what they're wanting. She's not entirely certain about Eurazania's economy and what's considered fair there, even the actual value of what's nearly the international standard -the Dwargon coin- fluctuates depending on whether its a well established urban area of a kingdom or a heavily rural area after all. And she wasn't even sure if the Demon Lords used Dwargon coins as their currency anyhow.
However, a while back, the Kobold's who used to trade with Rigurd's village had shown up. They'd been unbelievably surprised at the city before eventually requesting to build a headquarters in town. She'd been more than happy to okay it, given she hadn't been joking with Gobta when she told him back during their visit to Dwargon that she had a positive impression of them from the story of them saving him after he got beat nearly to death for his spot in line.
The Kobolds had almost cried in utter joy. Apparently, a decent part of their nomadic lifestyle was because there wasn't anywhere that they weren't seen as bottom of the barrel monster scum and weren't allowed to settle. They were also traders, yes, but it wasn't because of that they had no home. They just weren't permitted one anywhere they'd looked.
Their leader, who she'd named Koby, had mentioned trading in Eurazania before. He should have an idea of their economy. Without hesitation, she sends for him, explaining the situation to him when he arrives before turning to Alvis, “This is Koby by the way. As I was telling him, I'm unfamiliar with Eurazania's economy, so I'm going to leave him and his Kobolds in charge of the trade to make sure everything is fair. Do make sure he has safe passage through your country to deliver goods back and forth.”
Suphia nods happily, “Excellent! I'll personally oversee guaranteeing their safety in Eurazania!”
Koby looks a bit out of his depth and overwhelmed, “Ah, um, what?! Ah-ahh Lady Lycanthopeer?!”
She glances at Koby with a soothing look, wordlessly telling him to steel himself and they'll talk more later. He nods somewhat helplessly as she turns back to the other two, “Wonderful. Was there anything else you saw here that you were interested in trading for? We may as well cover what all you're hoping to get before we discuss what you have to offer in return.”
Alvis smiles, “Quite actually. The clothing you all wear is of very fine cloth. The bedding I enjoyed last night was of similar quality.” She sighs blissfully, “It felt so smooth against my skin…” She shakes her head, returning to the present, “I absolutely loved it. If it's possible to get some of that for ourselves…”
She nods, “Mm, the silk. Shuna does do quite a wonderful job with it, doesn't she?”
Suphia laughs boisterously, “You can say that again!”
Alvis smiles again, “Regardingless, there wasn't anything else that immediately caught my eye.” She glances at Suphia who shakes her head rather than add anything, “It's entirely possible there are other things you have that we may want to trade for later of course, but the alcohols, the Black Rice, and the silks are what we're immediately interested in. About all we can offer in return right now is these decorative stones.”(3)
She glances back at one of her attendants who steps forward with a box, “These are what we have to offer in return.”
Opening it, a variety of 'decorative stones' is revealed, which she immediately uses analysis on. They are, as she suspected, raw and unrefined gems. Lifting one to examine it, she hums, “These are certainly valuable. If you have mines for that as well, I'd be happy to lower the percentage of these gems somewhat for gold and silver.”
Suphia tilts her head, “If I recall correctly, we do have mines for gold and silver as well, don't we Alvis?”
Alvis nods without hesitation, “We do. We usually just use them to decorate the palace, but we have more than we know what to do with. If you'd like to adjust the percentages of gems for gold and silver, that's perfectly acceptable.”
She nods, glancing at Koby, “Then, as Koby here has conducted business in both Tempest and Eurazania and therefore has a notion of the value placed on such things in each place, given they vary by region, I'll trust him to handle the trade to make sure it's fair based on the value we each place on our goods. Us our alcohols, black rice, and silk, and you the gems, gold, and silver.”
Alvis nods, “That sounds perfectly reasonable to me.”
She turns to Koby, “Koby, I know it can be complicated since we place different values on things, but that doesn't ultimately matter, just that both sides walk away happy with the trade, alright? Don't stress the differences in the value we place on things.”
Koby searches her face, then nods jerkily, “Y-Yes ma'am.”
She smiles, “Then, you'll need to get an idea of what the logistics would look like in a bit, though I'd prefer if you stayed for now to get an idea of what we're trading. If we're going to open permanent trade with Eurazania, we'll need to build a road to them too, but that's alright. Since they're almost done with the one to Dwargon, they can be reassigned to that when they're done. It may be a bit complicated in the meantime, but we'll talk more on details and how to handle that and I'll answer any questions you have later, alright?”
He nods again and she purposely shifts attention away from him, given he looks a bit stressed, turning to Alvis and Suphia, “Speaking of trades we're interested in though, would you like a taste testing of the various alcohols we have available to decide exactly what you want to trade for and what percentages of your shipments you want taken up by which ones?”
Suphia looks excited, “You have more than just those two from last night?!”
She laughs, “Oh, certainly. The first one was just paired to go well with the food last night and the second selected as a good post meal follow up. We have a wide selection actually.”
Alvis smiles, “Then, we would be delighted.”
She glances back at Diablo, who nods to let her know he's handling setting things up mentally to bring a wider selection over even as he starts setting up a few they have around the office for things like toasting the closing of a deal or just relaxing a bit at the end of the day when they aren't ready to head home yet, “Mind, some of the tests we have aren't fully in production yet, since we're still in the process of securing a larger production of the fruit used in it.”
Suphia grins toothily, “Maybe we can help with that! We've got lots of fruits!”
She smiles, “I mean no offense, but I know you can't, given it's Lambas fruit.”
Alvis tilts her head, “Lambas fruit? I can't say I've ever heard of it.”
She laughs lightly, “My apologies. I've gotten used to the new name since we renamed it. It'd be more commonly known as Treant fruit.”
Alvis makes an expression of understanding as she accepts the first glass to taste from Diablo, “Ah. No, unfortunately we cannot assist with that particular fruit. I am surprised you would use something of such high value in something like that if I may say.”
She accepts her own glass, which Diablo seemed to have mostly served her as a reminder of what exactly the other two are tasting, “We've been looking into crossing it with other plants to get something other than a Treant to grow them in an attempt to increase production. Our current time estimate until we have it is three months.”
Suphia sighs blissfully after taking a sip, “Man, you guys are just good at alcohol in general, aren't you? This is just as good as the one from last night.”
She smiles gently, “Thank you.”
Alvis hums, “Still, getting Treant- sorry, Lambas fruit to grow from other trees? That's rather ambitious, isn't it? Then again, I suppose if you're close enough that you're projecting you're almost done with it… I am curious though, wouldn't their filling properties be detrimental for alcohols?”
She hums, “Yes and no. The simple answer? We've been draining part of the yield of the magic that gives it that property explicitly to avoid that. The more detailed answer? There's not a whole lot of market for Lambas fruits without potentially crashing other markets, which would have disastrous consequences on the people who grow the food for their livelihood, since while maybe they can take care of themselves via food given they have farms and the like, they would suddenly find themselves with no way to purchase other necessities. Clothing and medicine and all that. So while there is some value in that property of theirs as emergency rations or something, from the get go, it cannot undercut food on the market and potentially put people out of business.”
“So it's more of a delicacy for its incredible flavor and maybe as an emergency ration for adventurers or more prudent people and regions -anything from towns to nations-, who want to stockpile them as a ‘just in case’ sort of thing. What I'm trying to say is that while we've been keeping a selection as is and available in its dehydrated state for sale for those willing to invest the money into them, we've started purposely draining the magic that gives it that property for anything we use in production like the alcohols. The Treats understand our reasoning and are fine with it since we're doing it to protect people, so you don't need to be concerned about that.”
Alvis nods slowly, “I must confess, whenever I thought of the dried Lambas fruits, I always just thought of them as this incredible resource. It never occurred to me that if they were released more freely- …But the Dryads and Treants did, didn't they? That's why they've always guarded them, isn't it? It wasn't that they were jealously guarding them like so many people have said, they were doing it for people.”
She nods her head, “Just so. The Treants don't particularly care what happens with their Lambas fruits in general, it's not part of more Treants being born like other fruit producing trees. The Dryads, too, aren't particularly bothered by what happens with Lambas fruit, more gathering them and drying them to offer to people in desperate need and as something to keep themselves busy. Both of them have only ever really cared about and been protective of them in the capacity of not wanting them to become so widespread they end up causing harm to people by threatening their livelihoods.”
She accepts the newest sample that's being offered for Alvis and Suphia to try, “That's honestly a good part of why we've started dismantling them and using them so casually. Because yes, we are amenable to selling some for emergency rations for the prudent, purposely overpricing them enough that they aren't really a viable replacement for foods to prevent pushing others out of the market, but it's better for everyone if the quantities of how much retains that property are kept limited and overpriced enough that they're either a somewhat expensive delicacy or an investment against future disaster.”
“So, remove the quality of them feeding one for an extended period of most of them and treat them as just another product. There's no harm in increasing production since they're delicious if we strip them of that quality and just treat them as a particularly delectable fruit ingredient in various products.”
She smiles, “But it also leaves the possibility of falling back on them in times of emergency if we only remove that quality after they're grown, rather than trying to find a way to prevent them from possessing it to begin with. Which is another benefit of increasing the production of them since it means we will have them if we need them. The problem isn't and never has been how much of them there are. It's how many have that quality of feeding someone for a full week that's the potential problem.”
Suphia nods, then glances at Alvis, “Speaking of having a stockpile in case of disaster though…”
She smiles, “As I said, we are amenable to selling some of the ones dehydrated to prevent spoiling that retain that property, but do keep in mind they're purposely overpriced and for good reason. Their price isn't that we're trying to trick you into a bad deal, it's just to keep them as exactly what they should be. Emergency rations and perhaps a somewhat expensive delicacy. So if you do trade for some of them, please do not think poorly of us or be alarmed at how much we ask for them.”
Suphia and Alvis both nod their understanding, and they talk some more about how much they're wanting to trade for as they continue to sample the various liquors Tempest has available, including the ones Kaijin brings over so they can taste all the ones they currently have and decide which they want to trade for specifically.
While he initially seemed a bit over his head and a bit frantic, Koby calms down as they continue talking and starts negotiating details with one of Alvis and Suphia's attendants, Enrio. They can't hammer out the exact details until the two decide which alcohols they want to trade for of course, but they can get the broad stokes of it down at least.
It's only later when it's the two of them that she finds out the main reason Koby had been so frazzled had been because the way Eurazania worked, with its beliefs on strength, means that weaker species like Kobolds weren't generally allowed in Eurazania's capital. It wasn't even that Eurazania specifically was being an asshole. All of the Demon Lord territories to the south of the Forest of Jura tended to have weird ideas about strength that wouldn't really give people like Kobolds a real chance.
With the Harpy Queendom of Fulbrosia and the weight they give to natural wings, they had the duel drawbacks of a lack of strength and wings. It was still better than the Puppet Nation of Jistav though, where such weakness would all too likely result in them being snatched up as slaves for manual labor. At least in Milim's territory, while they may be turned away, it would be politely since her followers, the Dragon Faithful as they call themselves, were rather proud and independent. Really, while on the surface Eurazania may seem harsh, compared to Fulbrosia or worse, Jistav, it really wasn't all that bad.
Still, while she doubts it's all that necessary given they'll be driven by their desire for Tempest's liquors at least, she makes a mental note to make it abundantly clear to Alvis and Suphia that if Eurazania fails to adequately protect Koby and his Kobolds, she will hold them responsible. And that if she finds that it wasn't some tragic accident and they could have prevented it, that right there will result in a breaking of not only their trade agreement, but quite likely their treaty.
Alvis and Suphia had only stayed a few more days, but when they left, some of their attendants stayed behind to get a better idea of the technologies they enjoy. It still feels incredibly strange to call things like running water, hot water on demand, and flushing toilets technologies though. Yes, they technically were, but her twenty-first century and later mind automatically went to things like phones and computers when she thought ‘technology’, rather than things like that.
Diablo and Ema have actually taken to lightheartedly teasing her, because everytime Enrio and the others call things like that technologies, her mind stutters over it for a moment. She keeps threatening to reinvent the smartphone and other shit like that so they get back in the habit of thinking of those things when they think of technology and suffer the same brain stutter. Ema keeps having to dissuade her given a jump in technology like that would likely break people's brains, and with Rowena around to help, it's far too likely she could do it.
Well, there was one exception regarding the attendants left behind. Grucius, who apparently served under Phobio, was ordered to assist in any way they required while Phobio was being punished. He was decently strong from what Hakuro told him while they were sorting out his abilities, so he was assigned to help with patrolling with Gobta.
Benimaru and the others thankfully return a few days after Alvis and Suphia leave, given she herself was supposed to leave soon to head to Dwargon and she didn't want to do that until they returned.
Benimaru, unsurprisingly, had been eyeing their military strength while they were there. He had expressed that if they discounted herself and Carrion, he wasn't entirely confident they'd come out the victor in a conflict. That, of course, undoubtedly meant he had a metaphorical fire lit underneath him to increase his own and everyone else's training. While she sincerely doubts they would fight given how wary of her Carrion seemed to be, there was no harm in strengthening their people just to be safe. To that end, she just sort of let Benimaru do what he felt was necessary regarding training. Besides, she had named him her General, so it technically was part of his job.
After discussing potential tactics with him for a few moments as more of a just in case, she turns her attention to Rigur. He had been paying attention to other things. He'd found their building capabilities to be poorer than their own, with their buildings cruder than theirs with the exception of the palace. That, he'd described, seemed to be the focus point of Eurazania's wealth. Less in a bad way of Carrion demanding everything from his people and more in that it seems to be what his people want. From his description, it makes the whole thing incredibly extravagant.
Rigur had also found their industrial craftsmanship lacking compared to their own. Really, about the only thing he noticed that was better than theirs was their agriculture. However, given Rowena's server of information, that was ultimately more a matter of practice, given it took time to teach people the relevant information from that.
Ultimately, while they could potentially be good allies if they got into it with another country, and they were decent trading partners given they haven't yet discovered any places they could mine gold or gems within the territory that's fallen under her control in the Forest of Jura, there wasn't a whole lot more they could potentially gain from them. And even then, it was entirely possible there were places they could mine such resources in the Forest of Jura, but while Treyni had declared the entire thing to be under her as one of its wardens, given she didn't want to violently get inhabited regions under her control, Treyni and the others were still working at securing things.
Well, even if there are and there really isn't anything to be gained from their treaty and trade agreement, arguably the non-aggression part of all that is the most valuable thing anyway, since it's one less potential avenue of attack to worry about.
With them safely home the day before she's supposed to leave, there's no reason to delay her trip to Dwargon that's scheduled for tomorrow.
She has an official announcement of their covenant to attend.
She hums as the carriage Kaijin and them had built for her -covered in the usual grim reaper, lethal flowers, and newer dragon related designs hidden in Gothic scrollwork of course- starts down the road. She glances up at Diablo and Ema, “Kaijin and the others seem to have put the information on shocks and the like to good use. It's quite a smooth ride.”
Ema grins, “That it is! It's been such an incredibly long time since I experienced such a smooth ride I'd definitely have forgotten what it felt like if it wasn't for Occlumency and the fact you kinda can't truly forget anything. It's not quite as smooth, but it's a lot closer to a modern paved road and cars than anything I've experienced in this world previously.”
Diablo nods, “Indeed, Kaijin and the others did a wonderful job on it. Geld and his crew certainly deserve praise as well, given it wouldn't be as smooth as this if it didn't have a good road.”
She nods, “Quite.” Then she grins teasingly at Ema, causing her to give her a questioning look, “It's a shame, but you'll have to wait a while yet before you can get a replication of your beloved Porsche, though one that runs on magic instead of gas, since it's a bit further then Kaijin and the others’ current skill level.”
Ema blinks rapidly then grins jokingly, “What?! I don't get a Porsche?! I take it all back, their talents are still woefully inadequate and I want a divorce for you not pushing them.”
She laughs, “Such a shame. Divorced before we even officially get married in this life.” She turns to the amused Diablo, “A couple centuries going strong and this seems to be the end of the relationship. Guess we'll have to sort out the custody arrangement for you as our shared husband.”
Diablo's lips twitch before he teasingly says back, “You did it to yourself. I mean, what were you thinking? Keeping her beloved Porsche from her?”
Ema gasps dramatically, pointing at Diablo, “Wait a minute! My Porsche 911 Carrera S is considered an everyday supercar! Diablo may mean ‘devil’ but it's also the name of a supercar!” Ema turns to her, face full of mischief, “So I guess I do have my supercar to ride.” Diablo chokes on his own spit in surprise, not having expected that turn in the conversation, “Nevermind, let's cancel the divorce.”
She can't help but laugh at the expression on Diablo's face as he flounders to adjust to the sudden pivot in the conversion. Not that he necessarily struggles to keep up when they start flirting or being suggestive, more that he wasn't remotely expecting it to turn from joking about cars to Ema joking about sex. Or maybe he was taken off guard by being declared to be Ema's ‘supercar to ride’ so suddenly.
Really though, if anything she's surprised at his surprise at the turn the conversation took.
She shakes her head in amusement as Ema pivots to focusing on Diablo teasing him with suggestive jokes, “Ema, you shouldn't tease our husband too much. It'd be cruel, given that while technically we have this wagon to ourselves and theoretically we could use magic to soundproof it, if we got up to the sorts of activities that sort of teasing leads to in here, it would be incredibly obvious from outside anyway, given it would undoubtedly shake the carriage.”
“Hence the cruel part, since it's not a very good place for something like that, so we probably shouldn't get up to those kinds of things. Especially since it'd undoubtedly make things awkward for Ranga from where he's pulling the carriage during the day. Arguably we'll be able to put up soundproofing magic around our rooms in the rest houses the Orcs built to stay in as they worked that we intend to turn into inns along the road when we stop for the night, but when we'll stop for the night is still a good while away, so it'd be cruel to tease our poor husband now.”
Ema snickers lightly, “Fine, fine. I'll leave him alone.” She grins widely, "For now anyway.”
She shakes her head in amusement at her wife's teasing look and her husband's expression, torn between relief at not being teased when he can't act on it and disappointment at there not being aforementioned ‘pay off’ as it were to the joking.