Chapter 21: Divergent Goals

"Stelaria... I need new clothes. I only have the one dress you gave me." Nio pokes Stelaria’s back while she’s writing letters.

"Haa..." Stelaria just sighs. Why is Nio so frustratingly annoying, she asks nonstop questions about everything, and she always imposes her words.

"What is it now, my gods? I’m busy. Go play with butterflies in the garden or something, I don’t know."

"..." Nio looks down at her clothes, somewhat irritated with her new female body, and even more frustrated with her slave’s lack of consideration. If it had been one of her NPCs back at the palace, they would have helped her.

"Fine then, Stelaria. I had a wet dream and ended up staining the dress because you didn’t give me any panties or extra dresses. But I’ll just walk around and let people think the new saint pissed herself."

"I mean, the bottom of my dress got completely soaked with my nighttime erotic fluids, but who would ever guess that’s what it is, right?" Nio rolls her eyes — a phenomenon more common in men, but one that happened to her as a girl, and it was a complete mess for her clothes.

"W-Wait, what the hell?" Stelaria stands up quickly, looking at Nio. Her brain involuntarily pictures the scene, making her blush, but she also makes an irritated expression as she looks at Nio’s dress, which is wet in the front.

"Okay! Okay! I’ll send a maid to take your measurements. Find something to wear in my wardrobe... and why the hell did you... did you have that? And don’t talk so shamelessly about something so intimate! You’re a saint!! And a girl! Girls don’t talk about that..." Stelaria’s question makes Nio think. She herself isn’t sure and doesn’t remember the dream. She only knows it was "pleasurable" and that she woke up wet with that viscous stuff.

’Must be because I’m biologically a teenager or something, I guess... Nio was pretty young in her lore.’ Despite being an "adult" in terms of age, dragons age very slowly, so in terms of physical size and body, Nio is in the age range of a girl who just reached 18–20 years old, and she’s barely above that, so she’s young.

Of course, Nio, being a mature dragon, is at the peak of life as a female dragon, so her body is hyperactive in general.

And although Nio could just grab clothes from her inventory or use magic to clean herself, she prefers not to make any suspicious moves or do things that draw attention to her, since even though Stelaria is a slave, she could end up writing problematic things in letters about what she saw Nio doing. ℴℴ𝘮

"Thanks for the clothes." Nio moves toward the wardrobe. Despite the wet dream, she doesn’t feel aroused by anything, so she deduces that for a dragon, it must be different from just feeling horny like humans.

’Being a dragon is strange... I think the problem isn’t even about being a woman, but about everything I feel. The wings, the tail, the horn, the smell of things, the urge to hunt living things to eat... all of it is different from what I wish it were...’ Nio takes off her clothes, searching for anything that fits her in Stelaria’s wardrobe.

’Her clothes are excellent...’ She’s surprised by the quality. The refinement is at the level of high-tier crafted clothes from the game.

"Stelaria, who made your clothes?" Nio sniffs Stelaria’s clothes deeply. To Stelaria, she just looks at Nio with disgust, but to Nio, the scent of the clothes reveals several things.

’It smells of magic. It’s not just fabric...’

"I don’t know, some famous tailor. The church has many good servants, but I barely have contact with them..."

"Stelaria, you write a lot of letters. Who do you send them to?"

"They’re for the nobles. Your existence changed the balance of power in the theocracy. I send letters and receive letters, so I have to reply again."

’How inefficient... don’t they have anything for long-distance communication?’ Nio grabs a piece of clothing at the back that seems to fit her. It’s kind of cute, but Nio just ignores that, putting it on while weakly kicking the clothes on the floor aside.

"Why not use magic for long-distance communication?"

"It’s expensive to have scrolls for that."

’So they do have the message spell or something similar... maybe... although "expensive" is too broad. How expensive?’

"I know how to make something for long-distance communication," Nio says as if it were something casual, which immediately catches Stelaria’s attention.

"What did you say?!"

"I know how to make something that lets you talk over long distances. It’s easy, cheap, and I can teach you." Nio speaks in a way that makes it clear the recipe would stay with Stelaria. Immediately, Stelaria’s eyes shine with greed, taking the bait.

"That’s... very good, Nio. How about you give me the recipe and I’ll verify it?" Stelaria is already planning to commercialize it right away, and her attitude makes that almost blatantly obvious when she says they’ll verify the recipe.

’How greedy...’

"Of course, I can teach you. So my clothes—"

"I’ll buy whatever you want. Just write the recipe here before... I mean, it’s better to write the recipe so I can give it some attention later." She approaches with paper and an inkpot with quills.

"...But I need panties—"

"We’ll see about that later. Please write here... it’s just that I’m busy and want to finish everything quickly."

’Pretty desperate... why?’ Nio looks at her with suspicion and then thinks for a few seconds.

"Do we need money?"

"What?"

"Stelaria, are we in need of money? Is that why the church barely has any servants? Like, it looks perfectly fine, but financially the coffers are empty?" Nio knows something important about politics thanks to an in-game event.

And it’s that a country can be perfectly fine and stable, with its rulers living wonderful lives and it paying everything it needs, funding armies and harvests, but the kingdom’s personal treasury can be completely bankrupt. This happens because the country might produce the exact amount it spends and can’t fill its reserves, or for other reasons.

In the modern world, this happens all the time — countries with budgets in the red or literally in debt while their economy is stable or relatively fine.

"...No." Stelaria’s slow denial gives away the answer Nio had been searching for over the past few days while observing the church she’s living in.

"Alright, I’ll draw." Nio takes the paper, feigning innocence, while Stelaria obsessively watches the paper. She doesn’t even wonder how Nio knows this; she only wants to know if it works.

"Here. You use this magic stone here, this communication magic scroll, and you use this preservation spell. This turns the stone into an artifact that keeps the communication magic inscribed and stabilized — it practically becomes a rune. It allows up to 1,000 uses, and then the stone breaks and the magic dissipates." Nio hands over the spell with a completely uninterested attitude to Stelaria.

’It was basic in the game... it seems like the basics of the game are valuable in this world... just like the basics of the modern world would be valuable in the medieval world... I’m going to take full advantage of this. I have plenty of useful things to use.’

"So about my panty—" Before Nio can finish the question, Stelaria runs out of the room with the blueprint.

"..." Nio looks down before her face turns into one of pure disgust. She’s been incessantly searching for panties because ever since Stelaria changed her clothes, they keep rubbing against her groin, and it bothers her.

"Stupid bitch... I just wanted the absolute basics of female clothing..." Out of pure spite, Nio throws ink on all of Stelaria’s letters, on the bed, and on the windows. She also ties strings across the front of the door to trip whoever enters the room and even places ink on the floor so the person falls into the ink.

"Haa..." She looks at the clothes on the floor and burns them, not wanting anyone to touch the clothes she accidentally dirtied while sleeping.

’I should go out and explore this kingdom on my own. I can see Stelaria is useless outside of her support NPC services.’ To Nio, her comfort is more relevant than the economy of some random kingdom she’s staying in, so her priorities diverge 100% from Stelaria’s, who is the saint of this place.