“Good morning. I am here to deliver the order for Lord Peks.” Wilma told the guards at the gate to the Lord’s manor. With her was me, as well as Ria dressed in her maid outfit. You know, the one Sawyer’s made based on the painting I have of Laura in one. I had her dress up in it for appearances, and I was also in my noble’s clothing.
You might wonder why, but there is a very simple reason for it. Insurance. I don’t know if this noble is behind the harassment Wilma has been under, but if he is, this is a reasonable way of getting him off her case. I wrote him a letter yesterday evening, saying that Wilma and I would be coming to deliver the staff today, so at least I did give him warning.
We were also in my carriage, using it as a golem carriage. At first, I was going to have Ria drive us, but she wasn’t comfortable driving yet, so I summoned Cybernetic Magician to drive instead.
Spoiler
[collapse]
Most of my spellcasters, who are actually human sized and not giant or tiny, can drive my carriage, as they learned how to do so in the factory. I think there was some talks about me needing drivers, so a lot of them learned to do so, just to increase their chance of being summoned.
I was also asked a few questions by the guards, but we quickly got past when I showed my noble’s ID, and explained that I was going to employ Wilma after this delivery.
After we pulled up to the front door of the manor, the three of us got out, Ria first, then Wilma and I was last. I then unsummoned my spellcaster and took the carriage into Storage. No reason to bother the manor’s staff with it, as it is a bit unusual.
We were guided inside the manor, and into a parlor room. Wilma and I sat down on two separate seats, while Ria stayed standing just behind me, slightly to the left.
Soon enough, who I think is the Lord came into the room, so I stood up. He seemed to be in his early thirties, dark brown, almost black hair and green eyes. His build was quite thin, but he was tall as anything, probably just over 2 meters in height. He then walked to the couch opposite to where the two of us were, and took a seat. After he was seated, the two of us sat back down.
“Welcome, miss Wilhelmina. You as well, Sir Wood. Though I don’t see a reason for you to come.”
“Thank you, my Lord. I have come to bring our order as informed.” Wilma said very formally.
“I do apologize, Lord Peks. I normally wouldn’t invade your home like this, but considering the situation, I felt like I had no choice.” I quickly explained, even if that explained nothing.
“Yes. You did write that you had a reason. But I would have preferred some details.”
“Again, I apologize. But because of its nature, it isn’t something that I could write into a letter.” Well I could, but then I wouldn’t see his reaction. Unless I sent some sort of spy monster to… well, spy on him. “But please, do take care of the miss first. My business can wait until she is done.”
“Yes. I shall.” Baron Peks agreed. “So, miss Wilhelmina. The staff. Bring it out.” He ordered.
“Yes. Item box.” She opened her item box and brought out the staff.
“Ria.” I gave a quick one word order to my ‘maid’. Actually, she is my maid, so the quotation marks are completely unnecessary.
Ria walked next to Wilma, received the staff from her, then walked over to the Baron, and presented it to him.
The baron took a good long look at it, but he did seem happy with it.
“Yes. This is a staff of the highest quality. It is even more impressive than I assumed.” The Baron complemented the … weapon? Or should a staff be a tool? I guess it is a weapon.
“Th-thank you.” Wilma got just a bit flustered by the compliment. “It is made from cotta treant wood I acquired thanks to Lord Wood. It has…” She then went on a long-ish technical explanation of the staff, as well as all of its properties.
| Mission: Help the Blacksmith |
| Mission Complete |
| Reward: Promo Trades ‘Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories’, ‘Yu-Gi-Oh! The Eternal Duelist Soul’, ‘Yu-Gi-Oh! Worldwide Edition: Stairway to the Destined Duel’ and ‘Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom’ unlocked. |
“The contract has been signed and you have turned the workshop over to me. With this, your debt has been cleared.” Baron Peks said. “May I ask what your plans are from here on out?”
“I have received an offer from Lord Wood, so I plan on working for him.” Wilma answered.
The Baron looked at me, so I continued.
“It is as she said.” I confirmed. “Yesterday, I saw her work ethic and I was quite pleased with it, so I offered her a job. I hope you won’t mind me stealing a skilled artisan from your lands.”
“That is not something I would get mad about. It is simply business in the end.” Baron Peks responded. “And I do understand that for her to stay here might be quite … difficult.”
“I see. So you must know at least some of it as well.” I muttered, just loud enough where I assumed he heard me.
“Would you elaborate on your knowledge then? You just got into town, but you seem to know something.”
“... well, I do. That is why I came here today. Well, more precisely, this is.” I said, as I placed a black ball on the table. A dual stage smoke bomb, like the one Agunan pulled out of the coal pit of the forge in Wilma’s workshop. Through this one is an unused one I made with HomeBase.
“Would you happen to know what this is?” I asked the Baron, after I set the orb on the table.
“... I’m not familiar with it. Please, do share.”
“It is called a dual stage smoke bomb. My dragon companion pulled it out of the coal pit in miss Wilhelmina’s forge yesterday.” As I said that, Wilma’s eyes widened a bit. But as the Baron didn’t seem to fully understand, I kept going. “It is an assassination tool. At first, it releases a sleeping gas, but after a bit, it begins to bellow out carbon monoxide at great volume. I believe someone either set it up in the coal pit, or threw it in through the smokestack yesterday, in an attempt to end miss Wilhelmina’s life.”
As my explanation kept on, Wilma looked even more perplexed. I never told her about this, as I didn’t think it would be good to tell her about this at that time.
I honestly wasn’t sure if I wanted to tell the Baron about this, but as Wilma is now officially under no debt to him, and he doesn’t seem to be the bad guy, I think telling him is fine.
“... is … Is this true?” Baron Peks asked me.
“Yes. I swear that it is.” Well, everything but that being the one that Agunan pulled out. That one was a bit too far gone for Storage to fix it, so I made a new one. … And well the entire thing about Wilma actually dying and getting resurrected.
“... I see. This is a complicated situation we find ourselves in.”
“I do not believe so. Even if someone in this town wants to take miss Wilhelmina’s life, she won’t be in town for much longer. And I can assure you, my party and I are capable of keeping her safe from almost anything, including some would-be assassins.”
“Just thinking of yourself, I see. Your safety might be guaranteed, but I will still run into trouble myself. I can’t just have assassins around my town.”
“... Yes. I understand now. I apologize.” I was about half sincere. About half, I wanted to call him out for just having shitty security. “Then please, do take this as a token of my gratitude for taking good care of miss Wilhelmina, as well as your willingness to let her go.” I said as I took an object out of my Storage.
It was a gift I prepared for the Lord yesterday, after I sent him the letter informing him I’d come visit. It would be rude to just come and not bring anything, after all.
I gave it to Ria and let her take it over to Baron Peks.
“... and this is?” He asked, as he looked at the ring I gave him.
“A ring of poison detection. It detects poisons and will shine if it finds any. Also, for one time, it can nullify any lethal or highly harmful poison you have been subjected to. Though it will break after that.” I explained.
The ring was something I had spotted while going through the Chaos God Dungeon catalog, and it wasn’t too expensive to make, so I decided to give it to the Lord. I thought it would be fitting, as we did just talk about someone trying to use poison gas to kill Wilma.
“What? Where would you acquire something like that?”
“I have my sources.” I answered, switching my position so that my founder’s terminal was a bit more obvious.
“I see. I suppose someone like you just might.” Baron Peks said, and after a moment, he kept going. “I do thank you for this, as well as bringing the problem to my attention. I shall promise you this. I will look into this issue and punish the ones responsible.”
“Of course. If you feel that it is necessary.”
We chatted for a bit longer, until a butler came and whispered something to the Baron’s ear. I couldn’t overhear much of it, but I think there was some talk about a fire.
“Sir Wood, miss Wilhelmina. I believe it is best for us to call it a day here. There has been an incident, and I must see to it at once.” The Baron told us. “And I’d like you two to come with me, as they do have something to do with you.”
“o-of course.” Wilma quickly agreed, possibly feeling pressured.
“Well, I suppose I can spare a bit of time.” I said, being quite indifferent.
We were led outside, where we entered a carriage with the Baron, and then we took off towards the city. Because of my map, thank you Laura for keeping it up, I knew we were heading towards a certain workshop.
When we got there, what waited for us was Wilhelmina’s workshop fully engulfed in flames.
The owner, wait, she no longer owns it. Anyway. Wilma quickly got out of the carriage and looked at the burning workshop.
“Do you know what happened?” I asked the Baron.
“I sent an aid to check out the workshop. While they were there, the building was set on fire, most likely from the outside.” Baron Peks explained.
“... I see. So because they didn’t get Wilhelmina with yesterday's attack, they just set the entire workshop on fire. Must be getting desperate.” I theorized, even though I have no clue what they will gain by killing Wilma. What are they trying to gain? They won’t get her skills if she is dead and they can’t get her workshop if they burn it down.
“My… my Lord. What does this mean… for our deal?” Wilma asked the Baron.
“Nothing.” He simply answered. “We have signed the paperwork. This was my building already, not yours. I have no right to try to punish you for anything that happened after we signed off on our deal.”
“... I … Thank you, my Lord.”
“I am no longer your lord.” Baron Peks said. “Didn’t you say you have promised your services to Sir Wood? Then you shouldn’t call me ‘my Lord’ in his presence.”
“I’m not that close minded.” I simply stated. “Still, why burn it down? I just don’t understand it.”
“They may have hoped we didn’t sign off on our papers yet. If we hadn’t, miss Wilhelmina wouldn’t have been able to turn over the workshop with the staff, and she would have become a slave.” Baron Peks said.
“Then why not burn it down at night? Wouldn’t that have been more sure?”
“Perhaps they weren’t informed of the miss's survival, until she came to see me today.”
“... I suppose that could be it.” I agreed with his theory.
But if that really is the truth, these are some sloppy ass assassins. Who would try to kill someone, and not even make sure they are dead?
“Wilma, was there anything worthwhile still inside the shop?” I asked.
“... just some tools. A few monster cores. The workbenches, as well as the forge.” She listed off the things left inside. “Other than the forge, everything inside was worth no more than 10 gold coins. The forge was made of special stones I brought from home, so it is a bit more valuable, but it can likely still be salvaged. The stones it was made from won’t crack from this kind of heat.”
So she had a special forge, huh. I guess that could be another reason why someone was attacking her.
“You two should not worry about it for much longer. This is now my problem to solve.” Baron Peks reminded us.
“I see. Thank you.” I thanked him for him actually acting like a good lord.
“I do hope that in return, you will be sending some more items from your dungeon my way.” The Baron requested.
“... I’ll speak with my Dungeon Master about it, and see what we can do.” I promised.
“Also, if possible, I’d like the design of your maid’s dress. I believe it is one that Earl Sawyer showed off at his party just a bit ago, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is.” I confirmed.
“You wouldn’t happen to have the designs for it written down?”
“You know, I just might.”
Of course I would ask for them, and considering that the painting that the designs were drawn from was mine, the tailor that drew the designs did give me a copy of the designs. And as I’ve said multiple times, I respect how this guy operates, so why not share the design with him, if he really wants it. I can either let one of his people copy the design onto some paper, or just make a copy with Dungeon Founder. It won’t cost much at all anyway. A lot less than the ring I gave him anyway.
Besides. Real Victorian style maid outfits are the best there is, so why not share them around?
In the late afternoon, we regrouped with Mariina’s group. Well, in this case it was everyone but the three of us, but still.
Their tests at the adventurer’s guild had gone fine, even though no one actually passed the test here, so Mariina was… quite disappointed. Well, not every town has skilled mages.
We would be leaving tomorrow morning, so that was going to be good. It will be good to say goodbye to this town. This place is too prone to accidents.
Well, I’m not sure if calling attacks ‘accidents’ is even correct.
“Good morning. I am here to deliver the order for Lord Peks.” Wilma told the guards at the gate to the Lord’s manor. With her was me, as well as Ria dressed in her maid outfit. You know, the one Sawyer’s made based on the painting I have of Laura in one. I had her dress up in it for appearances, and I was also in my noble’s clothing.
You might wonder why, but there is a very simple reason for it. Insurance. I don’t know if this noble is behind the harassment Wilma has been under, but if he is, this is a reasonable way of getting him off her case. I wrote him a letter yesterday evening, saying that Wilma and I would be coming to deliver the staff today, so at least I did give him warning.
We were also in my carriage, using it as a golem carriage. At first, I was going to have Ria drive us, but she wasn’t comfortable driving yet, so I summoned Cybernetic Magician to drive instead.
Spoiler
[collapse]
Most of my spellcasters, who are actually human sized and not giant or tiny, can drive my carriage, as they learned how to do so in the factory. I think there was some talks about me needing drivers, so a lot of them learned to do so, just to increase their chance of being summoned.
I was also asked a few questions by the guards, but we quickly got past when I showed my noble’s ID, and explained that I was going to employ Wilma after this delivery.
After we pulled up to the front door of the manor, the three of us got out, Ria first, then Wilma and I was last. I then unsummoned my spellcaster and took the carriage into Storage. No reason to bother the manor’s staff with it, as it is a bit unusual.
We were guided inside the manor, and into a parlor room. Wilma and I sat down on two separate seats, while Ria stayed standing just behind me, slightly to the left.
Soon enough, who I think is the Lord came into the room, so I stood up. He seemed to be in his early thirties, dark brown, almost black hair and green eyes. His build was quite thin, but he was tall as anything, probably just over 2 meters in height. He then walked to the couch opposite to where the two of us were, and took a seat. After he was seated, the two of us sat back down.
“Welcome, miss Wilhelmina. You as well, Sir Wood. Though I don’t see a reason for you to come.”
“Thank you, my Lord. I have come to bring our order as informed.” Wilma said very formally.
“I do apologize, Lord Peks. I normally wouldn’t invade your home like this, but considering the situation, I felt like I had no choice.” I quickly explained, even if that explained nothing.
“Yes. You did write that you had a reason. But I would have preferred some details.”
“Again, I apologize. But because of its nature, it isn’t something that I could write into a letter.” Well I could, but then I wouldn’t see his reaction. Unless I sent some sort of spy monster to… well, spy on him. “But please, do take care of the miss first. My business can wait until she is done.”
“Yes. I shall.” Baron Peks agreed. “So, miss Wilhelmina. The staff. Bring it out.” He ordered.
“Yes. Item box.” She opened her item box and brought out the staff.
“Ria.” I gave a quick one word order to my ‘maid’. Actually, she is my maid, so the quotation marks are completely unnecessary.
Ria walked next to Wilma, received the staff from her, then walked over to the Baron, and presented it to him.
The baron took a good long look at it, but he did seem happy with it.
“Yes. This is a staff of the highest quality. It is even more impressive than I assumed.” The Baron complemented the … weapon? Or should a staff be a tool? I guess it is a weapon.
“Th-thank you.” Wilma got just a bit flustered by the compliment. “It is made from cotta treant wood I acquired thanks to Lord Wood. It has…” She then went on a long-ish technical explanation of the staff, as well as all of its properties.
| Mission: Help the Blacksmith |
| Mission Complete |
| Reward: Promo Trades ‘Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories’, ‘Yu-Gi-Oh! The Eternal Duelist Soul’, ‘Yu-Gi-Oh! Worldwide Edition: Stairway to the Destined Duel’ and ‘Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom’ unlocked. |
“The contract has been signed and you have turned the workshop over to me. With this, your debt has been cleared.” Baron Peks said. “May I ask what your plans are from here on out?”
“I have received an offer from Lord Wood, so I plan on working for him.” Wilma answered.
The Baron looked at me, so I continued.
“It is as she said.” I confirmed. “Yesterday, I saw her work ethic and I was quite pleased with it, so I offered her a job. I hope you won’t mind me stealing a skilled artisan from your lands.”
“That is not something I would get mad about. It is simply business in the end.” Baron Peks responded. “And I do understand that for her to stay here might be quite … difficult.”
“I see. So you must know at least some of it as well.” I muttered, just loud enough where I assumed he heard me.
“Would you elaborate on your knowledge then? You just got into town, but you seem to know something.”
“... well, I do. That is why I came here today. Well, more precisely, this is.” I said, as I placed a black ball on the table. A dual stage smoke bomb, like the one Agunan pulled out of the coal pit of the forge in Wilma’s workshop. Through this one is an unused one I made with HomeBase.
“Would you happen to know what this is?” I asked the Baron, after I set the orb on the table.
“... I’m not familiar with it. Please, do share.”
“It is called a dual stage smoke bomb. My dragon companion pulled it out of the coal pit in miss Wilhelmina’s forge yesterday.” As I said that, Wilma’s eyes widened a bit. But as the Baron didn’t seem to fully understand, I kept going. “It is an assassination tool. At first, it releases a sleeping gas, but after a bit, it begins to bellow out carbon monoxide at great volume. I believe someone either set it up in the coal pit, or threw it in through the smokestack yesterday, in an attempt to end miss Wilhelmina’s life.”
As my explanation kept on, Wilma looked even more perplexed. I never told her about this, as I didn’t think it would be good to tell her about this at that time.
I honestly wasn’t sure if I wanted to tell the Baron about this, but as Wilma is now officially under no debt to him, and he doesn’t seem to be the bad guy, I think telling him is fine.
“... is … Is this true?” Baron Peks asked me.
“Yes. I swear that it is.” Well, everything but that being the one that Agunan pulled out. That one was a bit too far gone for Storage to fix it, so I made a new one. … And well the entire thing about Wilma actually dying and getting resurrected.
“... I see. This is a complicated situation we find ourselves in.”
“I do not believe so. Even if someone in this town wants to take miss Wilhelmina’s life, she won’t be in town for much longer. And I can assure you, my party and I are capable of keeping her safe from almost anything, including some would-be assassins.”
“Just thinking of yourself, I see. Your safety might be guaranteed, but I will still run into trouble myself. I can’t just have assassins around my town.”
“... Yes. I understand now. I apologize.” I was about half sincere. About half, I wanted to call him out for just having shitty security. “Then please, do take this as a token of my gratitude for taking good care of miss Wilhelmina, as well as your willingness to let her go.” I said as I took an object out of my Storage.
It was a gift I prepared for the Lord yesterday, after I sent him the letter informing him I’d come visit. It would be rude to just come and not bring anything, after all.
I gave it to Ria and let her take it over to Baron Peks.
“... and this is?” He asked, as he looked at the ring I gave him.
“A ring of poison detection. It detects poisons and will shine if it finds any. Also, for one time, it can nullify any lethal or highly harmful poison you have been subjected to. Though it will break after that.” I explained.
The ring was something I had spotted while going through the Chaos God Dungeon catalog, and it wasn’t too expensive to make, so I decided to give it to the Lord. I thought it would be fitting, as we did just talk about someone trying to use poison gas to kill Wilma.
“What? Where would you acquire something like that?”
“I have my sources.” I answered, switching my position so that my founder’s terminal was a bit more obvious.
“I see. I suppose someone like you just might.” Baron Peks said, and after a moment, he kept going. “I do thank you for this, as well as bringing the problem to my attention. I shall promise you this. I will look into this issue and punish the ones responsible.”
“Of course. If you feel that it is necessary.”
We chatted for a bit longer, until a butler came and whispered something to the Baron’s ear. I couldn’t overhear much of it, but I think there was some talk about a fire.
“Sir Wood, miss Wilhelmina. I believe it is best for us to call it a day here. There has been an incident, and I must see to it at once.” The Baron told us. “And I’d like you two to come with me, as they do have something to do with you.”
“o-of course.” Wilma quickly agreed, possibly feeling pressured.
“Well, I suppose I can spare a bit of time.” I said, being quite indifferent.
We were led outside, where we entered a carriage with the Baron, and then we took off towards the city. Because of my map, thank you Laura for keeping it up, I knew we were heading towards a certain workshop.
When we got there, what waited for us was Wilhelmina’s workshop fully engulfed in flames.
The owner, wait, she no longer owns it. Anyway. Wilma quickly got out of the carriage and looked at the burning workshop.
“Do you know what happened?” I asked the Baron.
“I sent an aid to check out the workshop. While they were there, the building was set on fire, most likely from the outside.” Baron Peks explained.
“... I see. So because they didn’t get Wilhelmina with yesterday's attack, they just set the entire workshop on fire. Must be getting desperate.” I theorized, even though I have no clue what they will gain by killing Wilma. What are they trying to gain? They won’t get her skills if she is dead and they can’t get her workshop if they burn it down.
“My… my Lord. What does this mean… for our deal?” Wilma asked the Baron.
“Nothing.” He simply answered. “We have signed the paperwork. This was my building already, not yours. I have no right to try to punish you for anything that happened after we signed off on our deal.”
“... I … Thank you, my Lord.”
“I am no longer your lord.” Baron Peks said. “Didn’t you say you have promised your services to Sir Wood? Then you shouldn’t call me ‘my Lord’ in his presence.”
“I’m not that close minded.” I simply stated. “Still, why burn it down? I just don’t understand it.”
“They may have hoped we didn’t sign off on our papers yet. If we hadn’t, miss Wilhelmina wouldn’t have been able to turn over the workshop with the staff, and she would have become a slave.” Baron Peks said.
“Then why not burn it down at night? Wouldn’t that have been more sure?”
“Perhaps they weren’t informed of the miss's survival, until she came to see me today.”
“... I suppose that could be it.” I agreed with his theory.
But if that really is the truth, these are some sloppy ass assassins. Who would try to kill someone, and not even make sure they are dead?
“Wilma, was there anything worthwhile still inside the shop?” I asked.
“... just some tools. A few monster cores. The workbenches, as well as the forge.” She listed off the things left inside. “Other than the forge, everything inside was worth no more than 10 gold coins. The forge was made of special stones I brought from home, so it is a bit more valuable, but it can likely still be salvaged. The stones it was made from won’t crack from this kind of heat.”
So she had a special forge, huh. I guess that could be another reason why someone was attacking her.
“You two should not worry about it for much longer. This is now my problem to solve.” Baron Peks reminded us.
“I see. Thank you.” I thanked him for him actually acting like a good lord.
“I do hope that in return, you will be sending some more items from your dungeon my way.” The Baron requested.
“... I’ll speak with my Dungeon Master about it, and see what we can do.” I promised.
“Also, if possible, I’d like the design of your maid’s dress. I believe it is one that Earl Sawyer showed off at his party just a bit ago, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is.” I confirmed.
“You wouldn’t happen to have the designs for it written down?”
“You know, I just might.”
Of course I would ask for them, and considering that the painting that the designs were drawn from was mine, the tailor that drew the designs did give me a copy of the designs. And as I’ve said multiple times, I respect how this guy operates, so why not share the design with him, if he really wants it. I can either let one of his people copy the design onto some paper, or just make a copy with Dungeon Founder. It won’t cost much at all anyway. A lot less than the ring I gave him anyway.
Besides. Real Victorian style maid outfits are the best there is, so why not share them around?
In the late afternoon, we regrouped with Mariina’s group. Well, in this case it was everyone but the three of us, but still.
Their tests at the adventurer’s guild had gone fine, even though no one actually passed the test here, so Mariina was… quite disappointed. Well, not every town has skilled mages.
We would be leaving tomorrow morning, so that was going to be good. It will be good to say goodbye to this town. This place is too prone to accidents.
Well, I’m not sure if calling attacks ‘accidents’ is even correct.
