Chapter 300: The Right Tools For The Job

“Okay, Daniel. Nothing fancy… High pressure, tiny hole. Indestructible.” Daniel quickly scribbles down some design shapes on paper as Ahok and Wenlianna stand over him to watch. Ahok, naturally, is standing on the workbench for the moment, and she has taken a fair amount less caution with Daniel this time, though she did ask for all other men to remain out of the room. The two chief Magic Artisans of the Fievegal, one of whom is an Empress as well, have already finished their primary task; preparing a large number of water and pure magic crystals, lengths of mana conductors to match the crystals into pairs.

“You hope to cut stone… with just water?” asks Wenlianna. “Is such a thing even possible?”

“Technically, no,” replies Daniel. “Not ‘just’ water, anyways. Usually. On Earth, we had these handy little things called ‘physics’ that say a lot of what we can do here on Zenkon shouldn’t match what actually does happen. Square-cube law says dragons shouldn’t be able to exist at the sizes they get to, let alone fly. Though there’s probably something we don’t know yet explaining it, magic summoning seems to defy the law of conservation of energy. And even these little guys…” Daniel picks up one of the diamonds, which would be on the news for its size were this Earth, but as ‘enhanced magic crystals’, the small pepper-shaker-sized crystal has its own rule-bending properties on Zenkon. “If I’m right, it should be able to produce the water pressures we need.”

“And, what water pressure is that?” asks Ahok.

“Not sure,” replies Daniel as he considers everything he has to hastily design into the device. He can make it as big as an SUV, and Zuzia would still be able to wield it somewhat, but he obviously wants it to be as compact as possible. If the recoil somehow ends up less than what he fears, then it could potentially be used by anyone of sufficient strength for demolition projects. That said, he has a new question.

“If you were to imbue a magic crystal with earth- er, uh, ground magic, what would come out when it’s powered?” Daniel looks at both of his lady artisans, and they share a glance with each other.

Wenlianna replies sincerely, “It’s not going to help contain rock-breaking pressures. I’ve done it for fun, but it only ever produces powder. ‘Mountain ash’, my mentor called it. Pretty, but minimal practical use that we know of.”

Daniel starts laughing as he leans over the table, and the two women look at each other. He grins at them, saying, “It can be powdered diamond for all I care. As long as it’s something that will come out as powder, you’ve just given me a treasure.” Daniel swiftly scoops Wenlianna close, and she gasps before humming when he kisses her.

When he parts with her, Ahok waves her hands nervously, saying, “N-No kiss for me, thanks!”

Daniel grins at her, and then at Wenlianna again, who is now blushing. “Think you two can make me a couple of ground crystals, then? If I’m not able to break something after this, then I’m getting Zuzia her shovel.”

Wenlianna and Ahok smile. “Leave it to us! But, isn’t there more we can do?”

“I need to figure out the right way to position everything so that we can chamber everything internally. I’ll thread the nozzle on last, which should be able to let us make use of all of the properties of Sharmelkolle, but keeping the crystals in place will be tricky once the pressure skyrockets. Not to mention the earth… sorry, ground crystals. If you want to help me try to figure out a good pattern…”

“I can handle the crystals,” replies Ahok. “No problem. Though, if I may… your Grace.”

“Go ahead, my Lady,” replies Daniel warmly. He keeps tracing over his drawings with his fingertip, trying to think, but he does look at her to hear her question.

“You’ve done that a few times… called ground magic or ground crystals ‘earth’. Isn’t ‘Earth’ the name of the world you come from?”

Daniel nods. “I’m not entirely sure how they became the same word for both things, other than the ground, dirt, rock… it’s one of the few things you can always count on knowing exactly where it is, because even when water and light are absent, earth is always somewhere beneath your feet, just like the planet itself.” He chuckles, “‘Zenkon’ doesn’t quite hold the same… charm, I guess. ‘Zen’ could work, though on Earth, that was actually a whole concept to itself. A sort of balance… or something…” Daniel has an idea, and he sketches how he envisions it, placing the ground crystal in the center.

“That makes sense!” replies the half-goblin happily. “I’ll keep it in mind if you say it in the future. So no worries there!” She grins, and she jogs to the edge of the desk and jumps down fearlessly, moving to start charging the ground –or earth– magic crystals for the rig.

“Mukori, I know we talked about… something to do with crystal output seeming to have no limit, as far as pressure, right?” asks Wenlianna as she slides up beside him once more, leaning her arm against his to study the rejected pictures he has drawn so far. Daniel doesn’t believe in simply crumpling them and tossing them away, because he might be able to combine aspects of older ideas with new ones, if he sees them all scattered in front of him.

He answers the brunette’s question, “Obviously, as far as we can tell, yes. The vessel would break long before we might reach a structural limit to magic or the crystal itself, since I doubt it could actually reach ‘millions of tons’ of pressure.”

“Right, that makes sense. And, this nozzle is what will make the water… break rock?”

“With the grit we’ve just figured out how to add, it’ll be more like cutting it with a scalpel, rather than smashing it with a hammer. A… scalpel capable of cutting rock, obviously.”

Wenlianna nods, and she points to the drawing Daniel just finished, but subsequently moved to the ‘maybe’ pile. “Then, what’s wrong with this one?”

“Well, if we let too much of the grit rest, it’ll become a mass of sand, or a thick slurry, which will clog the nozzle. If this powder turns out to be carbon, we might accidentally be making some new solid diamonds, rather than cutting rock away.”

Wenlianna nods as she takes the drawing and studies it. She adjusts her glasses on her face while the gears turn, and Daniel watches her for a moment.

Feeling the oppressive silence, he explains, “The other problem is this water crystal. Having here will prevent the sand from resting, or at the very least, it’ll be able to draw it towards the nozzle. Normally, grit is injected… here.” Daniel points to a space between the ‘pure water nozzle’ and the ‘jet cutter’ final stage nozzle on one of his earlier drawings that uses what he could recall about the extreme basics of a water jet cutter.

Wenlianna absorbs this information without a word as she thinks, and she reaches into the inside of her lab smock, withdrawing her pencil.

“Forgive me if I’m going off course,” murmurs Wenlianna. “But, what if we adjust a few things to solve both of those issues?”

“Show me,” replies Daniel as he stands behind her, looking over her shoulder to see what she’s drawing. He can see much of the basic shape he had already scribbled in most of the drawings, which has a sort of squirt gun or even heavy power cutter, like a cement saw or concrete drill as an underhand-held tool requiring both hands.

Wenlianna asks as she draws, “Will it need as many… earth crystals as water crystals?” She smiles at Daniel with a little playfulness.

The mechanic smirks, replying sincerely, “No. In fact, we’ll need to throttle the earth crystal quite a lot. We don’t need a mass of sand coming out. We just need to be able to scale it up.”

“Perfect, then, here’s what I’m thinking.”

Wenlianna shows her design as she adds some finishing touches. Hers uses the underhand design, but it looks a bit like a portable gatling gun, or maybe an M60 machine gun, since it does only have one ‘barrel’. But, like Daniel’s ‘real’ design, she has a chamber that contains a water crystal on top with the earth crystal in the middle and which feeds fully into the mixing chamber. Below the mixing chamber, she has added a curved, full-width pipe leading to a magic circle in a box. She explains, “We can use this to flush in emergencies, if it clogs for any reason. I’ve been working on miniature portals that are more compact than what we used on the airship. Though it’ll have a far greater mana cost, it will be a safer way to evacuate people from the battlefield, instead of those terrible void bags I keep hearing about.”

Daniel is surprised by her, and she adds softly, “Some… of Mother’s… No, the, um, Stalvaltan men… had to be brought back. At least… a few are unaccounted for.”

Daniel is quiet, and the brunette continues, “Mother herself was terrified when Silence seemingly disintegrated a man who had just saved Mother’s life, but it was the void storage spell. The portal, however, links to a physical place, so if we just dump the excess water somewhere like the lake, or that forest where the tree monster was, we won’t have to worry about the pressure, right?” She holds her finished drawing up towards Daniel as she ‘hides’ her blushing face behind it.

“I’m not so arrogant in my own intelligence to believe I have nothing to learn from you, Mukori. Ever.”

Daniel looks at the drawing, and he smiles with a relaxed posture. He adds gently, “And, I have plenty I can still learn from you, Mukori…”

“Mukori,” growls a strangely ‘soft’ icy voice, startling both of them. Reignleif, who is roughly the same height as Wenlianna if her horns are excluded, is suddenly standing behind Daniel. “Stop flirting. The clock is ticking.”

“Y-yes, Great Aunt Reina!” exclaims Wenlianna with an even more flushed face. “Here! Take this!” She shoves the picture at Daniel, while he laughs.

“Mukori, did you need something?”

“I finished this piece for you.” The soft-spoken dragon holds up a device that could pass for a small boat anchor, though it possesses more of a missile or arrow-head sort of shape. It is rounded and conical, but with a series of eight indented ridges running from the rounded tip to the back end, and it’s riddled with holes. The back end is necked down to a threaded socket, and the whole thing is made of mithril in this case.

While not as ‘invincible’ as sharmelkolle, mithril is a close second, and more specifically, it’s pretty much unfazed by fire, including dragon fire.

Daniel turns the object that could be fired out of a destroyer’s main gun in his hand, studying its construction. He asks, “How do you turn it on?”

“This is the ‘Neith’ version,” replies the blue dragon with a deadpan expression, straightening Daniel’s jacket for him for no other reason than to fidget with his clothes. “As he adds sections, he can breathe fire through them, and it’ll reach. That is in case this one fails.”

Reignleif then presents the second one from a void bag hidden under her usual mantle. It shares a similar design, but has a more elongated shaft of its own, as well as a more obvious slider switch to turn it on. She explains, “It’ll be difficult for anyone but a dragon to touch anways, but if it’s turned like this…” Reignleif turns the head counterclockwise while holding the shaft firm. There’s a click, and she replies, “That will disconnect the crystals as well. So, tell Neith to only turn it this way while he’s using it, and when he breaks through, to turn it counter-clockwise.”

“Clockwise to use, counterclockwise to turn off. Got it. Right is right, Left is off.”

Reignleif stares at him, and he complains, “What? It’s not my fault this world doesn’t have the clocks I know yet.”

“Then help us make some!” exclaims Wenlianna from his right side. “A-After this, of course.”

Daniel laughs. “Right. Alright, I need to get to the summoning room and hope I can explain this all to the golems.”

Daniel quickly kisses Reignleif, saying, “Thank you, Mukori.”

“My pleasure, Mukori,” replies the blue dragon. She then says to Wenlianna, “Wenlie, go with Daniel. I’ll work with Lady Ahok on another backup strategy that won’t require vast stores of magic.”

“Thank you, Great Aunt Reina!” replies Wenlianna with a hint of relief in her voice.

“Thank you, Mukori,” replies Daniel with a slump of his shoulders. She’s right. No plan survives contact with the enemy, so they need to be ready if they encounter issues.

Not least of which might be radioactive material deposits, which are just present enough in the main mountain ranges to crush any hopes of tunnelling through for both sides for the longest time. Lead shielding around the rig should make it possible to prevent any issues, even if the miner ends up on top of a five ton uranium deposit, but it’s hard to say for certain.

All they can do is put in the best effort they can and hope for the best.

Wenlianna takes Daniel’s hand and says, “Hurry up, Daniel! I want to see how you accomplish this part!”

Daniel has never once felt truly unlucky on Zenkon. Through his trials and tribulations, and managing to keep marching forward even when everything seemed hopeless, he has managed to gather the best of the best around himself. And, just like Wenlianna pulling him along right now, many of them he has come to treasure as his family.

The miners have families who miss them as well, and this will serve as just one small piece of solidifying the Fievegal’s place in the world, both as a fearsome carnivore that isn’t afraid to defend itself, but also as a shining light to guide people out of darkness as well as lead them into the future.

***

The Stalvaltan Guardsmen are often considered the pinnacle of ‘battlemage’ forms of combat. The Late Grand Duke Yaandrestarr kos Stalvaltan favored the blend, and through his own impressive willpower and ability, he cultivated an atmosphere of pride and humility that all but awakened an endless hunger in his soldiers. They crave training to become stronger; to be the true best of the best not for military parades, but because the Stalvaltan family is the most valuable thing in the world, because they act as one; a machine whose parts create an indestructible whole; the wealth and business acumen of the noble family, having survived the Grand Duke’s passing into the hands of his wife, who proved she was never a shadow, but a near-mirror partner of the Grand Duke himself.

And, at present, Muindis, as well as dozens of the Stalvaltan Guardsmen stationed in the Fievegal to serve Aramellianna as an arm of the Fievegal are all gathered in the training grounds, silently watching an unfathomable feat.

A human woman with hair the color of golden honey, and a physique that can be called neither muscular nor unfit is walking across the training grounds.

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Of course, anyone can walk. But, few can do so while holding the weight of a dragon on top of their hands.

Let alone three.

It looks absolutely ridiculous, but Neith in his true form is standing on one leg, firmly atop Zuzia’s hands above her head, while Magnir and Roetta stand on his back.

They could be putting on a ridiculous show, except that it’s some kind of training for Zuzia, specifically, where she walks forward.

And, the many craters and foot-sized holes in the training ground surface stand as testament to what happens when Zuzia’s focus falters.

The three dragons together probably weigh upwards of two hundred tons, all of which is concentrated down onto Zuzia.

And, Zuzia is using barriers that she’s summoning under her feet in order to prevent herself from simply penetrating into the ground with the force of a piledriver.

Roetta, specifically, is trying to hide her face, even though she’s the only rose-pink dragon in the Fievegal, and in her true form, she couldn’t possibly hope to hide her identity.

Regardless, it is an amazing sight, and many of the men are betting on how long each of Zuzia’s attempts will last, cheering her on, or otherwise despairing about how truly steep the mountain of strength actually is.

It’s a truth that the late Grand Duke hoped his men would be able to square off against a dragon one-on-one, but it’s now known that the dragons a Guardsman can hold his or her own against is one of the lesser dragons, like Magnir or Roetta, who possess a fraction of the mana pool that the greater dragons like the Empresses and Neith possess. Lesser dragons were ‘expendable’, and were it not for Daniel’s weapons, Mulmonbargonaed attacking Fort Peony would have simply been a ‘bit of mischief’ to spur the Demon ‘Tyrant’ into action, most likely, rather than a full dragon-led invasion.

And, now, Magnir carries his own arsenal of Fievegal weapons custom-tailored to take advantage of his dragon physique, in addition to the two named revolvers he carries, Serenity and Tranquility as his self-imposed role of ‘The Messenger of Calamity’.

Muindis chuckles as he shakes his head. He, too, knows exactly how terrifying the heights of power are in the Fievegal, now that he has seen so many of them up close. And, just as he’s thinking about this, a chill runs down his spine.

A powerful source of mana, other than the four slowly trudging the training ground, has just approached him.

Muindis looks around, and he quickly notices who it is. Everyone else is too distracted at the moment, which might need to be a new area of training, because the person that just walked right into their midst is a living superweapon capable of erasing everyone present; likely including Zuzia and Neith.

Muindis shouts, “Attention on-...!” as he snaps his arm up to salute.

“At ease!” shouts the highest ranking person in the Fievegal, Hekate fell Lawson, a black haired girl with large, fox-like ears and a massive, bushy black tail. It’s too late for her to avoid notice entirely, as almost everyone has turned to look, while Zuzia has paused on top of her current foothold barriers, to look at who it is.

Hekate walks right up to Muindis and places her fists on her hips. “You weren’t even looking at me.”

“Yours is a mana so fast that is difficult to hide, your Greatness,” replies Muindis, who knows not to get flustered in the face of the Imperial family. He has been threatened with death by this very teenager, humiliated in her impenetrable defenses, and sent home with his pride in the dirt. She’s half his height, ignoring her ears, but she can cast magic that would rival Daniel’s worst weapons in sheer destruction.

“Hmm… Fair enough,” replies Hekate. She looks around at the other soldiers, who are murmuring and whispering about her. It’s all positive, given their expressions, but there’s something they don’t seem to realize.

Hekate waves Muindis closer, and he kneels so that he is closer to her level, making it easy for her to lean close to him and whisper into his ear.

“You can tell them later that I can hear them…’

Muindis scoffs and chuckles. He manages to reply, “I’ll do that, your Greatness. Is there anything I can help you with at present?”

“Yes. I want to ask you something in private.”

Muindis nods and follows her as she leads the way away from the group. She remains out in the open, since it’ll be easier to see if anyone is trying to eavesdrop on them, but Muindis doesn’t think they’re going to be discussing national secrets or the designs of the weapons that are granted to Dragonslayers. Muindis will soon be the official third among the legendary ‘Dragonslayers’, who wield Daniel’s most powerful handheld rifle, which truly is capable of striking down virtually any dragon, so long as the ancient titan is caught off guard.

Once Hekate stops, Muindis waits patiently. She doesn’t look at him right away, and she fidgets with her hands as her ears droop to the sides.

Hekate is a dangerous powerhouse that could probably conquer a nation singlehandedly, but she’s still a teenager.

She finally faces him and asks with a slightly indignant expression, “That spell; how and why do you know it?”

“Spell?” asks Muindis, confused at first. He’s a battlemage, which, in the Guardsmen terms, means he’s skilled in both magecraft and sword arts, combining the two to be a sort of one man army in some situations, and a devastating force when there are multiple of them. He is quite familiar with magic, and he routinely makes use of a massive breadth of spells. It could literally have been any given day that she’s talking about, because he uses magic in training or on missions pretty much every day.

But, Muindis doesn’t interact with Hekate on a daily basis. And, he quickly realizes which spell would be specifically interesting to her.

The one to transform a non-human into a humanoid form.

Muindis immediately kneels again, bowing his head. “Your Greatness, forgive me. I have never intended any duplicitous action with that spell. During the course of my time in the Fievegal, I witnessed the dragons actively use the spell to transform between their true forms and their human forms. A small part of me had hoped it would work in reverse, so I attempted to learn it in order to take the form of a dragon, or even the Stalvaltan’s symbolic ‘Soulwyrm’, in order to increase the ways I could fight for the Stalvaltan house, and by direct extension, the Fievegal.”

Muindis means every word. He truly did take on learning the spell in his free time in order to try to see if humans can turn into other races.

He’ll keep the fact that his only successful attempt to transform so far has been to take the form of a benki to himself for now. In the face of someone like Hekate, it’s a bit embarrassing to admit. Though, it has made him wonder…

“Did it work?” asks Hekate seriously.

Muindis twitches. He doesn’t want to lie to her, but he also didn’t think she’d take an interest in it beyond that.

“I… had a limited proof that humans can successfully transform, your Greatness. But, not into the forms I had hoped. It’s… a touch embarrassing to say out loud what I ended up as.”

“Was it a feldrok?” asks Hekate, her ears and tail sinking a bit.

“I wish,” replies Muindis instantly. “Yours is the emblem of our house long before the Fievegal ever arose. The feldroks were mighty beings; the ‘Soulwyrms’ we call them. I don’t know much about the lore, but I would be honored if I could emulate your glorious form.”

The raven-haired teen looks to the side, hugging her own arm to her side. “That’s… kind of you to say. And, um… Thank you… for what you did. I know I already rewarded you, but…”

Muindis bows his head with his right fist on the ground. “I am your loyal sword, your Greatness. While I wouldn’t refuse more rewards, I won’t ask for them either. Rather,... May I ask a question?”

Hekate turns a cautious gaze on him, but her ears perk up in curiosity, which at least means he’s not stomping on his Empress’s emotions. She’s not unlike the Stalvaltan ideal; an embodiment of Pride and Humility; the ability to know one’s own strength and hold their head high, while also being humble enough to seek out those who are more skilled or knowledgeable, because there is always someone who has already surpassed you somewhere out there. Muindis knew these things, but Hekate and the Fievegal have come to make him believe with his heart and soul.

Hekate seems to have reservations about hearing the question, and Muindis can see a battle play out in her expressions. He starts to say, “Forgive me…”

“A good Empress doesn’t fear words alone…” states Hekate, cutting him off. “I know you are not malicious or seditious, so you may speak freely with me. Um… Just know that I don’t have to like you afterwards if you say something mean.”

It’s an ideal Muindis has heard cropping up in the Fievegal; something from Daniel’s homeland where ‘free speech is a right and a virtue, though there are a very few limits where active intent to cause grave harm starts to appear’. Muindis has seen Daniel passively observing banter making fun of him having a harem, being a human, smelling weird, bumping his head on things, and at worst, he has retaliated against insults with insults of his own, rather than ‘Lèse-majesté! Death!’.

Muindis nods. He asks his question gently, knowing he’s probably not far off, “Your Greatness, do you… perhaps… dislike your true form as a feldrok?”

Hekate is quiet, but her ears give it away instantly when they droop down to the sides, her saddest expression from just her triangular ears alone. Hekate replies while looking off to the side, “I… like this form more than anything else. And, Daniel says I’m cute. I have no attachment to my true form because I spent so little time like that. S-So… please don’t ask me to transform, because it’s not something I want.”

Muindis can feel it in her tone as much as her words. She has some shame about it, and he knew that when he found her hiding under a blanket at Daniel’s side. It’s honestly a secret that could rattle ‘the invincible Empress of Ruin, Hekate’ that the enemies of the Fievegal would trade their entire treasuries to obtain.

But, Muindis is a Dragonslayer of the Fievegal. He earned that role through bravery, grit, and skillful combat. He would rather die from the shame it would cause than live if he were to betray such an honor.

That said, it is a pity.

I always thought the Soulwyrm stories were interesting… And, from what I saw, Hekate was more cute than anything else. Like a puppy… or maybe a kitten?

Muindis scoffs, and Hekate snaps her golden-eyed gaze to him, scowling with irritation growing rapidly.

“Forgive me, your Greatness. I was actually laughing at myself.”

She cocks her head, and her ears adorably flop over to that side, causing him to chuckle again.

Muindis says calmly, “I said I was embarrassed at the results, but I have already witnessed your secret, so please allow me to show you mine in turn.”

Muindis casts the transformation spell on himself, and after a moment, his armor and clothes clatter to the ground. From them emerges a small creature with chestnut fur matching Muindis’s hair color, rounded ears that protrude from the top of his head instead of the sides, tiny paws that are excellent for digging and catching insects and other small creatures as prey. And, he even has a slender, furry tail.

Muindis speaks, and his voice comes out of his new form as a tiny benki, which is smaller than Hekate’s tail was when she was in her true form. “This, your Greatness, is the culmination of my efforts so far. I was able to successfully transform, but…” Muindis spreads his furry arms as he sits on his haunches, showing his whole, adorable form as Hekate stares down at him in utter silence and shock. “As you can see, the best I can do is the humble benki. So, I would happily gain the ability to turn into a wolf or a wiuben, let alone a creature so mighty as a feldrok teen such as yourself. So, please don’t take it to heart too gravely, your Greatness. You have the love and support of we, the Stalvaltan Guardsmen, in your current or true forms.”

Hekate’s mouth hangs open idly, while her tail has puffed up to its maximum volume from sheer surprise, more than anything.

Muindis chuckles, and he can tell that his voice is at least an octave higher than normal in his benki form. “I think you’re incredible, and if you hang around the men too much, you might find yourself embarrassed to discover what they say and do in private, your Greatness. Just know that you have our support, because you and Daniel have yet to steer us wrong, and you have given us a ladder up the mountain of strength that we all desire to continue to ascend through the course of our lives.”

The new Dragonslayer in benki form puts his paws on his hips, saying as proudly as his tiny form will allow, “I, Captain Muindis, am proud to serve you, your Imperial Greatness. Though, I do hope we can mutually keep each others’ secrets. At least until we’re comfortable to tell others about it ourselves. Does this humble request sound amenable to you, your Greatness Hekate?”

This manages to snap the feldrok teen out of her stupor, and she replies, “Oh! Uh, y-yes! Yes, I agree. Um… Thank you, Muindis.” This time, Hekate sits down on her knees so that she is closer to his height, since, with the exception of kamitaizen benkis, regular benkis rarely get much larger than a grown man’s boot. “But… If you don’t mind… Why would only a benki work?”

“Well… I don’t know,” replies the Captain honestly. “I did attempt a dragon form, a feldrok form, even a small one like Prince Fal, and a balinkon, but I couldn’t seem to cause the spell to fully activate. But, when I tried a benki…” He outstretches his paws, making the point that it obviously worked.

This gives Hekate a lot to think about, and she replies, “I’ve heard Ryuo and Reina talk about something to do with… a soul’s image or something, but then… Doephluev can change into pretty much anything she wants, as long as it’s close to the same size she is or smaller. Maybe it’s your mana?”

Muindis smiles and lifts his head high, since he isn’t ashamed of his shortcomings. They are merely crags and boulders of his personal mountain that he must overcome. “I will explore this more thoroughly, your Greatness.”

She nods. “Oh! By the way, have you heard anything about the mission we’re about to launch?”

“Her Grace the Grand Duchess Senior requested that we gather soon to select teams, though the details will likely only be discussed at that time. I believe the time was about an hour, and those of us who are essentially ready to deploy already came out to train, only to discover…” He looks towards the training ground, where Roetta seems to be saying something to Zuzia or Neith, but regardless, the gigantic dragons make it easy to know what the human in benki form is talking about.

“Right… If you want the mission, you can tell Aramellianna I said to accept you. I’ll confirm it. We’re going to help with a collapsed mine to try to rescue the miners. I don’t know what you’ll be able to do, since it’s not a combat mission, but…”

“I accept,” replies Muindis without hesitation. “Rescue missions are just as important as any other, and although I can’t say I know much about mine rescue, I have arms, legs, and magic. I’ll do anything you or your direct delegates instruct.”

Hekate smiles. “Thank you, Captain. Um… Can I ask you one more thing?”

“Of course, your Greatness. I am your sword. Order me as you see fit.”

“May I… pet you?”

This stops the Captain dead, and now he’s the one staring up at her in shock and disbelief.

Hekate fidgets as she looms over him. “It’s just… small animals are usually afraid of me, so… I’ve never been able to pet a benki. Also…, um… when I might’ve had a chance to, I was… not in a good place. So… they probably knew I was trying to… um… eat them… So,...”

Muindis is stunned, because he is a human. His mind, heart, and soul are those of a human. He was born a human. He was raised a human. He has been a human champion of battle competitions. He has won actual battles in war as a human.

But on this day, when his raven-haired Empress of Ruin asks it of him, Captain Muindis the Third Dragonslayer can only do one thing.

He holds his paws out and his head high, and he replies with confidence, “Your Greatness, you may handle me as you wish. I only ask that you are gentle enough not to harm me.”

Hekate blushes a little, and she gently touches his head, before also sliding her hand down his neck and back. His fur is probably pretty standard for a benki, but he knows from his own experience holding them, especially in his youth, that benkis are quite soft and cozy to hold, so long as they aren’t afraid or agitated.

Hekate feels his temporary fur in her fingers, possibly comparing it to her own or to Daniel’s hair as she ponders the likenesses and differences between them.

Whether or not she’s satisfied, though, she perks up, looking in the direction of the training field where a few people are approaching from. Hekate says quickly, “Don’t panic.”

She casts a teleportation spell that immediately causes Muindis to feel weightless, and he suddenly lands on a hard floor with his armor clattering around him. He doesn’t recognize where he’s at in the moment, but he knows it’s somewhere in the Citadel itself. By the looks of it, he’s in someone’s private quarters, but they’re pretty spartan, with only a bed, a few dressers, and a couple of dolls, with one of them made of straw.

Muindis’s blood runs cold. He doesn’t know everything that happens to the Fievegal’s oversized Imperial family, but he does know just enough to recognize this room after surveying its contents.

Assuming she isn’t already sharing a room with Daniel, this is Hekate’s personal quarters.

Needless to say, Muindis swiftly transforms back into human form and dons his clothes and armor again. He’s not sure how the dragons do it such that they have clothes when they emerge in their human forms, but he’ll have to study some more.

Thankfully, it seems like Hekate was in a pretty good mood, such that she went out of her way to offer a mission to him. Though simple, it is an opportunity; a chance to be attached to something that will increase the reputation of the Fievegal directly, and in turn, reasonably provide reputation to those who help with the operation.

Muindis is feeling a little excited already, though he’ll need to find a mana potation to restore his energy, which is pretty much depleted after using the transformation spell twice after his normal level of daily training.

He wants to help the miners before anything else, of course, but a soldier, knight, or Stalvaltan Guardsman should always be mindful of ways to promote a positive reputation for themselves and their employer, such that it upholds a stronger foundation overall.

He saw a moment of weakness in the most powerful empress in the world. And, if he can contribute in the slightest, he would see her and the rest of the Fievegal become stronger still.

***