Chapter 40

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth.

Dungeon Factory, Workshop.

"That's...A lot of prototypes."

Alexandra looked at the items arranged on the table.

"You think? I mean, it's pretty simple stuff..."

Emilia shook her head silently, and Alexandra looked again at the table. Maybe the vampire girl had a point. At least if you looked at it from a low tech perspective. And a slightly less paranoid point of view, she supposed.

The problem was that a lot of things she wanted to do depended on explosives of some sort. Especially things relating to security measures. So as soon as she had gotten some...Well, she might have gone a tiny itsy bit crazy with all the stuff she wanted to make.

In total, there were around a dozen devices on the table. The very first one was a key component in all the others. It was a simple thing really, a small, even tiny mana crystal, linked to a rune of flame, serving as a modular detonator, that could be activated from a variety of means, with addons such as timers, buttons, remote detonation -although that had to go through her influence-, wired detonation, ect...

The next device was just the satchel bag containing the gel, just like the core thieves had. A few others were different types of bombs. One was just a sphere of wrought iron with studs -which had been a bitch to make by the forge-, essentially a very large version of a US F1 'pineaple grenade'. There was another, smaller version as well, which served decently as a cheap-ish grenade -the gel is very expensive to make-, as well as an attempt to make an explosive crossbow bolt. It worked...sort of.

Sort of as in if the bolt hit armor, it was pretty much useless. The combination of poor structural integrity due to having most of the bolt head hollowed out, and the unreliability of her percussion detonator, as the 'percussion part' worked just fine, but to keep the runes cheap they were made out of a thin sheet of wrought iron, and had a tendency to survive kinetic impacts poorly, made it so that it was absolutely lethal if it hit flesh, but would only do a surface explosion on an armored target at best, doing little damage.

Next were a group of demolition charges, going from a simple brick like cloth packet that could be easily stacked to a literal crate for more...energetic demolition needs. There was also a bouncing betty mine using a proper explosive warhead, although in it's case Alexandra had decided that until she could manufacture the explosive gel through a cheaper method, she would use the magical ones, as they were actually cheaper. Next to it was a claymore mine, that had proven much more satisfactory. Sure, it was expensive as all hell, but anything that projected 500 3mm iron bullets at 3 times the speed of sound was invaluable. She had immediately replaced the bouncing betty warheads in the walls of the core hallway with those. If anyone ever tried to attack her again, she would turn the entire hallway into a literal meat grinder by flooding it with several thousand musket balls. She'd like to see those core thieves dodge that.

And that thought had carried her to the last few devices...Which was, if that gel was so stable....couldn't she make a firearm out of it?

The answer was no. The thing was that contrary to popular opinion -at least in the European Federation-, firearms relied on a deflagration, and not a detonation. Essentially, the propellant didn't detonate, it just burned really, really quickly, and it's shockwave remained subsonic, whereas a detonation went boom, and produced a supersonic shockwave. Well, that was the simple version. The equations and chemistry were far more complicated than that, but chemistry was hardly her specialty.

So she'd tried to make a musket, and, well...It would make for a fantastic booby trap, if nothing else. Even scaling it up hadn't helped at all. It was simply too hard to channel the detonation in any meaningful way without just making a tunnel in the rock, and stuffing it with explosives and a projectile, which was one use.

Still, it had given her some ideas...which lead her to the last device. This one was what she called the Shredder. At it's core, it was simple, a wrought iron tube with a cap hammered in on one end, and then mostly filled with explosive gel, with the remaining volume taken by the same 3mm iron musket balls as in the claymore, then capped on that end with some cloth.

It was, in essence, a one use shotgun. The detonator had to be basically drilled into the side, and it wasn't exactly a precision weapon -nor a usable one for anything but disposable golems, as the tube acted like a hand grenade-, but it fulfilled it's purpose admirably well. Right now she had no plan to deploy them throughout the dungeon, but she'd already earmarked it for her own Praetorian Guard.

"Alright, fair enough. But still, I'm sure they'll all prove their value."

"I hope so. They were quite expensive."

Alexandra shrugged.

"I know. But we have a stable source of extra income in the form of the dungeon delves now. We're not as pinched on mana as we used to be, far from that! So we should really start stepping away from that 'every speck of mana counts!' mentality, and start thinking about how to actually use that mana."

"Fair enough." Emilia giggled. "Sorry, I suppose that working with such limited resources for so long has made me a bit...skittish."

The Earth-born smiled.

"It's fine. Now, ready for a demonstration?"

The vampire girl nodded, looking at the table filled with explosives, as she absentmindedly pulled out her grimoire and opened it at the chapter containing her protection spells. She had a feeling she was going to need them.

*****

Allya looked around as she stepped into the guild hall. She'd been there several times before when setting up everything, but she hadn't visited it after the convoy had arrived and the dungeon had been opened for delves. To say that it had gotten more...lively would have been a considerable understatement.

She looked around for a few seconds as she moved in, before making a beeline for the desk. She carefully noted the guarded ballot box at the back of the room, which according to a discussion she'd had with Starvak, was where people slipped in their party's name and list of members for the dungeon delves, as the guild attendants had otherwise been under siege, for it to be sorted through at the end of every day, and the list of the day's delvers would be posted on the mostly empty quest board every morning. She also noticed how some of the more acute adventurers, stopped talking, and started elbowing their comrades and nodding towards her. Well, that was fine, she was hardly here for business that required anonymity after all. In fact, the more public it was, the better.

"Hello!" She said as she stopped in front of the desk. She'd expected to have to wait in line for a while, but fortunately it seemed like there wasn't that many people solicitating the attendants right now.

"Greetings!" The attendant smiled as she looked up from her paperwork, briefly looking at her guild medallion, probably to get her rank. "What can I do for you?"

Allya smiled back, suppressing a chuckle as the attendant's colleague looked up briefly from his own paperwork, and his eyes widened as he recognized her. She recognized him as well from a few meetings with Starvak, meaning that he was one of the original attendants of the expedition, while the other was probably a newcomer.

"I'd like to enquire about the whereabouts of a guild attendant."

The attendant's eyebrow rose.

"That's...an unusual request, but sure. The person's name?"

"I don't know it, hence my presence." She chuckled. "I'm fairly sure I could have found her easily otherwise. I'm looking for the attendant that stopped the riot at the dungeon entrance."

The room fell into silence, with the more sharp eared adventurers elbowing or stepping on their friends' foot to get them to shut up as they tried to listen in.

The attendant frowned and bristled slightly, apparently oblivious to the room around her.

"And you would be? To ask for such...information."

Allya blinked. That was...particularly brazen of her. Couldn't she see the medallion of nobility that she was wearing? Or did she just miss it? Wouldn't the first time guild attendants just looked at the guild medallions and ignored everything else, but still.

"I'm Allya Aubétoile, baroness of this city, and by the grace of their majesties Princess protector of the Principality of Rebirth."

The guild attendant opened her mouth, then closed it, and looked down at her medallions, and her eyes widened.

"O-Oh! I'm sorry, I missed your medallion milady. My apologies! I-I, uh, I'll see what I can do right away!"

"Thank you." Simply said Allya. No need to humiliate the girl. Plus, making enemies of guild attendants was never a good idea.

As the guild attendant got up, bowed to her, and walked off into the guild administration area of the tent, Allya simply leaned against the desk, and looked around the room, meeting the gaze of anyone staring at her, and raising her eyebrows.

That seemed to get the message across, and the adventurers promptly turned back towards each other, with conversations beginning anew, although this time they felt a bit...off. Like they were muted. It was pretty obvious that they were still waiting on the chance to eavesdrop...but weren't willing to be obvious about it.

Allya waited for a minute, nodding at a few of the adventurers she knew as Éclair did her best to glare and scowl at anyone that so much as glanced at her charge. At least she wasn't actively frowning, which usually meant that she was pissed. Allya had gotten better at reading her bodyguards over time, especially the pink haired young woman. Not that there was much need to get better at reading the others anyway. Rogard didn't understand the words 'tact' or 'subtelty', and outside of official settings where he looked like a granite statue he pretty much radiated whatever he was feeling. Valker was a bit more complex, but he was usually fairly easy to read if she took the time. Éclair though...she wasn't sure if that woman was just always angry or just was naturally scowling. She'd seen her smile only a few times, and that was pretty much always when she was opening and reading letters, presumably from her loved ones.

The baroness shook herself out of her thoughts as the tent flap opened once again, and the guild attendant stepped through, followed by...

"Dominique?" Said Allya.

"Allya!" Answered the guild attendant as she stepped around the desk, smiling. "I haven't seen you in forever! How have you bee-"

Dominique froze as Éclair simply landed her hand on her sword's pommel. Allya sighed, and grabbed her bodyguard's arm, exchanging a glance with her, and shaking her head slightly. The pink haired woman nodded, and stepped back, letting go of her sword.

"Well, your friend is...protective." Commented Dominique, her eyebrows raised as she walked up to Allya and they shook hands.

"She's not my friend. She's my bodyguard. Dominique, Éclair, Éclair, Dominique." Said Allya as she made the universal introduction back and forth gestures.

"Nice to meet you!" Dominique smiled, then went back to Allya as Éclair simply nodded in response. "Your bodyguard? Wait." She looked down at her medallions, and whistled softly. "So you're the noble....Like, I know, I got the briefing with your name and all, but I hadn't truly believed it."

Allya chuckled.

"That's fair enough. We were pretty careful to keep the information under wraps." The baroness tilted her head. "So, you're the one that stopped the riot? That was pretty courageous of you."

"Yep." Dominique shrugged. "Seemed like the right thing to do at the time. Besides, I knew I had backup, or was about to have some anyway."

"Well, in any case, you have my thanks." Allya grabbed the guild attendant's hand and squeezed it, beaming at her. "If you ever need anything, just call me." Her smile turned into a grin. "Of course I'll probably also call you. Tell me, what rank are you?"

"I, uh...Silver, why?"

"Perfect! I intend to do a dungeon delve one of those time. When I do, I'll make sure to ask you if you want to be part of the party, alright?"

"Uh, yeah, sure, if I have the time."

"Excellent! I can't ask for more." Allya bowed slightly. "Well, it's time for me to go. Good bye Dominique, see you around!"

"Oh, uh, bye!"

They waved goodbye at each other as Allya made her way out of the tent, adventurers parting like magic -probably due to Éclair's glare- before her, and before long they were outside once again.

"Well, that went well." Said Allya to no one in particular, before wincing as something crashed, and she started hearing outraged screaming in the distance. She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Someday I'm going to learn to shut my stupid mouth."

She could have sworn she saw the shadow of a grin on her bodyguard's lips...but then again maybe she hadn't. She sighed again, and started walking towards the origin of the sounds, which seemed to be the warehouses.

After a few minutes of walking, she stopped, and stared at the scene unfolding in front of her. A young woman with white hair, and a pair of fox ears as well as a fox tail was currently busy screaming at a worker, probably a crew member from one of the ships, while pointing at a crate marked 'fragile' and....'danger: explosive'.

Allya's eyes went wide at that last warning sign, and she immediately started walking forward.

"WHAT KIND OF DROOLING IDIOT ARE YOU?!? CAN'T YOU FUCKING READ?!? YOU WANT TO BLOW US ALL UP OR WHA-"

"What the hell is going on here?" Said Allya, interrupting the rather loud and long winded fox-eared woman.

The fox-eared woman looked up from the worker, and blinked.

"Oh, hello there. Sorry, I was chastising this...idiot." The last word was almost hissed. "For breaking my stuff. And risking killing all of us."

"Right. And you are?"

The fox-eared woman blinked, and her eyes widened as she saw Allya's medallion. She curtsied with surprising elegance, given how she seemed to be covered in potions, attached to bandoliers or her belt. And...was that a pistol by her side? As in, an actual, modern Erisian semi-automatic pistol?

"My apologies milady. I am Ellyana Lorien, alchemist, and graduate from the New Raleigh University of the Sciences." She straightened back up. "Do I have the pleasure of addressing baroness Allya Aubétoile? You fit the description Master Elkaryos gave me."

Allya blinked, and nodded. New Raleigh? Wasn't that Rook the Sunderer's city? The city founded exclusively by ex-slaves, and whose citizen hated slavers with such a passion the only reason the city still stood was because said Rook and his party of Eternium and Divinium ranked allies, called The Seven, were it's stalwart defenders? What the hell was someone from there doing in the Asarian Kingdom to begin with?

"Yes, I am. You were sent by Elkaryos?"

"Yes and no. We are under contract with him."

"We?"

Ellyana smacked her forehead.

"Oh, I forgot! I'm such an idiot!" She turned around, facing the small airship shuttle that she had presumably been unloading cargo from, put her hands around her mouth to amplify her voice, and yelled out with surprising strength.

"EISMI! The baroness is here!"

"What?" Answered a voice on the ship, almost identical from Ellyana's. A split second later, a head crowned by the same fox ears topped the ship's railing. "Oh. I'll be right there!"

Allya looked at that head as it moved towards one of the deployable stairways linked to the side of the ship, before gazing at the woman that came down it with almost indecent haste, and stopped by Ellyana's side. They were....almost identical.

In fact, if the newcomer didn't have a cybernetic right arm -and if her eye wasn't obviously an augment as well-, she wouldn't have been able to differentiate between them if they'd swapped clothes. Well, maybe she could have done it, given the difference in posture and expression, but still.

So twins then. Or clones, thought Allya. She rather hoped they were twins, clones usually came with complications.

"Sorry milady! This is my twin sister, Eismi. She's an artificer and an enchantress. She graduated from the same university I did."

Eismi curtsied -far more stiffly than her sister, despite the lack of hazardous potion vials, Allya noted-, and Allya nodded in acknowledgement.

"I see. Greetings miss. I'm Allya Aubétoile, baroness of Rebirth. I came here due to the disturbance that this was causing." She gestured at the crate, which was now slowly oozing liquid. "But given what your sister has told me, you have have had to meet me at some point either way. Care to wrap this up and come with me in my office? I have time right now, and I quite frankly don't want to disrupt my schedule again."

"Oh, uh, sure." Said Ellyana, before looking to the side, glaring at the poor crewmember. "Don't.Touch.ANYTHING. Until we get back, got it?"

"Y-Yes ma'am!" Stuttered out the poor skier, and Ellyana shook her head, before focusing back on Allya.

"We're ready to go then!"

Allya gestured for them to follow her, and she turned around, making a beeline for the administration tent. It looks like this was going to be an interesting discussion...and the city really needed a good alchemist and artificer either way, plus given their university's reputation -and the fact that Elkaryos made a deal with them-, they were probably going to end up being the best they'll have for a while at least...and it always paid to be on the good side of the people making your potions and equipment, especially if you could get special gear from them.

That might be a bit cold of her, but she was planning to delve into Crystal's dungeon...And, well, she'd seen the state a lot of the adventuring parties came out in.

A few minutes of walking and idle chatting about the weather later, Allya sat down with a sigh in her seat -the new one she had gotten from the supply convoy was almost sinfully comfortable-, and gestured for the twins to sit down as well, Éclair standing by her shoulder, looming ominously over everyone in the room.

"Alright, so, Elkaryos hired you."

"Not really." Corrected Eismi, and Allya rose an eyebrow. She sounded considerably calmer and more collected than her twin...and now that she thought about it, was also far more heavily dressed, almost like if they were in a northern province, not the middle of the desert. Dressed in...were those clothes enchanted? "We signed a contract with Elkaryos. In exchange for some rights to use his transport networks and affiliates, we agreed to set up shop in this town, give an assessment of the dungeon's value, and publish it publicly as well as send a copy to our university. Additionally, we also agreed on giving counseling on certain matters to your administration, should it be required. Paid counseling, by the hour."

Allya chuckled.

"That's fine with me. It's not like I'm pinched for money after all." Especially not after Melia had sold off the loot they had taxed to the merchants, right as they were preparing to pack up the first ship, and were ready to put crazy prices on anything else they could get their hands on. Melia had pocketed a tidy comission of course -Allya could have insisted she forego it, since the dark elf served on her council, but decided against it. It was only 1%, and she liked rewarding valuable services, not mentioning building loyalty-, but it had still netted her a...comfortable amount of money. Whose benefits she had scrupulously divided between her, Pyn and Elkaryos according to their agreement...Then proceeded to send most of her and Pyn's benefits to him to buy his own shares, once again according to their agreement. Given the fact that they had almost made as much mana with this than they had gotten from the dungeon bounty, she was pretty sure she'd have bought back all of those shares in no time, even with all the operating expenses they had to shoulder.

"Thank you. Well, in that case, I suppose there isn't that much else to talk about. Oh, do you have someone in charge of city planning?"

"Yep. Pyn -my knight- is in charge of that. Tell her I sent you for your shop's location."

Eismi's eyebrow rose, and she nodded.

"Of course. Well, in that case...?"

"Right, you still have unloading and unpacking to do." Allya got up, and shook the twin's hand -her cold, cybernetic hand-, smiling. "See you around then! I'll make sure to pass by once you're set up."

"Thank you. Goodbye milady."

"Goodbye!" Said Ellyana as she shook Allya's hand -much more energically and forcefully than her sister, although she wasn't trying to crush her fingers-.

Allya nodded, and watched them leave the room, before looking to her side at Éclair, and raising an eyebrow.

The pink haired bodyguard waited for a second, before sighing as the sound-proofing enchantment came back on.

"They look...interesting. But I think they're sincere."

Allya smiled, and nodded. She'd gotten into the habit of asking her bodyguards' opinion of people that she had just met or were going through her office, especially when Pyn wasn't around -since she would ask her instead-. Éclair didn't seem to like it, probably because she didn't seem comfortable casting judgement on people, but she was surprisingly good at reading people, when everything was said and done. Which was probably why she was chosen as her bodyguard, now that Allya thought about it.

"I think so too. Well, at least now we have an alchemist. And an enchantress!" Allya sighed as she looked at her desk, and the seemingly never ending paperwork on it. She debated for a second on whether she should check on Pyn or not...then firmly squashed the temptation. She'd already procrastinated enough with her little excursion, she really needed to get to work. No matter how boring said work would be.

She pulled up the first report on top of the pile, and sighed. This was going to be a loooong day...but a smile returned to her lips as she thought about what would await her in the evening. If Pyn wasn't too tired, she was fairly sure she would be more than happy to help her relieve today's stress.