Guests

Chp 36

Recessed into the mountain a few yards from the waterfall feeding the valley river, I enjoyed the view of the town from a wide terrace. It was just off from the living room of Andrea’s apartment which I’d sculpted into the stone of the mountain. She’d wanted to be separated from both the dungeon proper and the town, so this was the location I’d picked out.

I’d gone for a wide design and added large windows and terrace access to every room. None of which she spent much time in. The whole of her focus was on the training hall inside, the one she wasn’t currently allowed in at the moment. Behind me, Andrea was lounging on my best approximation of a memory foam stuffed beanbag.

She’d been reluctant to sit in it at first, but after that had taken every opportunity to claim it when she wasn’t training. I’d come up to do my weekly check-in with her and it had gone like the ones before. She was fine and she didn’t need anything, even if she did. The only thing I could do was let her train harder. That would be grand.

The fact she was already training as much as was sensible didn’t mean anything to her. Anxious for her revenge, she’d have pushed herself to exhaustion, if not injury, in her hurry. Thankfully she literally couldn’t disobey me and had to rest and eat normally.

“If you want to do something for me, get me more sparring partners. There’s only so much I can learn from someone of the same class,” Andrea said with a huff, irritated I was lingering. Something harsh formed on my tongue but died unspoken.

“Alright, I know someone who can give you a workout,” I said with a smile full of teeth. I didn’t like her attitude toward anything in the first place and Henry in particular. She did as she was told, but wasn’t really taking much of it in, or trying to understand his reasoning. It was normal teenager behavior in my book, but that didn’t stop it getting under my skin.

Though I’d been trying to be as considerate as possible I decided to sic Chris on her. Before I’d gotten to know them better, I’d thought they’d be able to become friends and console each other. Now I had a less cheerful image in mind. One that was more them fighting until they exhausted each other and less a teen dramatic comedy series.

Giving her a nemesis who wouldn’t feel sorry for her no matter what happened could be a tonic. In the worst case I’d just pull them apart and not have them spar anymore. Locking her up in a protective box because I felt bad for her might have an undesirable effect in the end.

“You know the drill, let me know if you want or need something, just ask. Food and such included,” I said more cheerfully than before. Andrea gave me a desultory wave of acknowledgement as I left while I sent off a pair of texts. Henry and Chris both needed to be aware and onboard before I’d move forward with my dastardly plot.

I had things to do and couldn’t search them out for faster answers. Down in the valley near the entrance Dawn was waiting for me. Hetcha and Mira had been busy and were sending at least a dozen refugees my way. Knowing this, I’d hastily erected bunkhouses to receive them and I was scheduled to do a walkthrough.

My first instinct had been to clone the boarding house for adventurers, but I was starting to get a feel for this world’s norms. The bunkhouse would still be luxurious by most standards but was a little closer to normal. Essentially it had racks of bunk beds and places where fabric dividers could be tied to create private units.

Instead of placing all the bunks against the wall, I’d opted to put those against the front a few feet back to create a corridor without a physical hallway. It looked weird to me, but hopefully wouldn’t be too strange for the new occupants. More importantly, it wasn’t intended as a long-term solution. Once the new townsfolk arrived, they’d be sorted into new dwellings and helped to find work of one kind or another.

Dawn and I exchanged brief greetings before heading inside. We did a walkthrough of all the buildings without saying much. They all followed the same design principles and featured a set of bathrooms and baths for each building. The main difference lay in size, with two of them being a third smaller than the largest building.

“I never thought about stacking beds,” Dawn said contemplatively as she looked over what I’d done.

“Why three though?” She asked. It was honestly a lot more space than technically needed for the expected group size.

“Families in the biggest one, singles in the smaller ones,” I explained. Refugee groups weren’t guaranteed to get along or be criminal free. Separating them along the most obvious lines would hopefully ease anxieties and discourage crime.

“I see, that makes sense,” Dawn said, faster than I was used to. Since I’d last spoken with Icarus about their living situation, she seemed to have relaxed in unexpected ways. I didn’t mind. She still made the same kind of decisions as before, just more quickly.

“How’s your house, by the way? Need anything adjusted?” I asked. Blending a space for species of disparate sizes had been something of a challenge.

“A narrower bed would be nice,” Dawn said absently then looked startled by her own words. Blushing, she looked up at me and I tried but failed not to laugh. I wasn’t laughing at the request, just her overreaction. I honestly didn’t understand why she was embarrassed, I just found it cute.

“Uhm.. that’s..” Dawn fumbled for an explanation and I put a hand on her shoulder.

“It’s fine. I’ll make it how you want, just let me know the size,” I said, trying to be gentle now, despite how I’d laughed before. She nodded before schooling her expression into its normal neutrality. An effort wasted by her still rosy cheeks.

Walking back out we came to what I called the mess. Instead of building an additional complete building I’d made a roofed outdoor picnic area with a kitchen since I was confident the weather was reasonably dry throughout the year. The bunkhouses formed a “U” shape around it, and I’d assigned some of the new skilled skeletons to it as cooks and caretakers.

Those living in the bunkhouse could still choose to take their meals indoors. I just felt like an outdoor venue would have a better atmosphere and embedded a few light stones in the overhead supports. Once evening came, they would shine for a few hours so everyone could take their evening meal before going out on their own.

“How are things going with… Chris’s request?” Dawn asked, blushing again. She took an active role in the town and was like a mayor of sorts. She made a point of keeping tabs on the goings-on.

“It’s led to an absolute avalanche of requests. We’re going to have two gambling halls, three additional bars, and two more sex businesses as the towns scales up,” I replied then sighed. Not many skeletons were interested in running such establishments. Most of them just wanted to ensure they would exist in the town. The gambling halls made sense; they loved those kinds of games. I just couldn’t place the enthusiasm for the other two.

“Oh, well most of that sounds nice. There isn’t a lot to do outside of work,” Dawn said, expression calming down. Her words struck a chord. I’d been trying to make a functional community, but I hadn’t considered entertainment. Or education for that matter.

I could have made the excuse they were just low priority on my to-do list, but didn’t bother. I’d only be lying for my own benefit and there wasn’t anything to be gained. I’d flat out forgotten to plan anything in those areas. A pretty big oversight considering I wanted to attract people.

“Is racing a popular thing? I could add in a dirt track and some seats,” I asked. I had horses at my disposal and there was the simpler option of having folks go at it in a foot race.

“It will be if we can bet on it,” Dawn replied with easy confidence.

“I’ll arrange for a bookie- a bet taker. Or three… There was this lottery I heard about on my old world. You could either win money or you got a bet on a race, only it wasn’t all horses. You could end up with your fortune riding on a pig or a goat just as easily,” I said contemplatively. I couldn’t figure out if it were a real thing that happened or just something I read in a book. Even so, it seemed unique enough to count as a tourist attraction in my head.

“I think it will draw a good crowd if you don’t do it too often,” Dawn said after some thought.

“Once a month should be good for that one with weekly normal races. Maybe some other odd ones but not frequently or maybe rotating with that one,” I said as I thought about it some more. My vague recollection of roman history included ‘chariots are nightmarishly dangerous’ and that was about it for races.

“We could also have sports events, like weekly qualifiers and then once a year a big tournament,” I added as I recalled the Olympics. Having such a large-scale multinational event every four years made sense given the logistical nightmare involved. My little locals-only deal wouldn’t need that kind of lead time. It would fill a weekend though, and give people something to do.

“That sounds fun,” Dawn agreed. I was already designing an amphitheater for the purpose. Instead of digging into the ground though, I was buying some plots along the perimeter of the valley. It would take several days but once I had enough space, I was going to cut it into the stone above water level. My plan was for it to look like a natural area that had been carved over time. Slapping together a school, library, and theater also became to-do items as well as finding skeletons to run them. As usual, I sent out a mass text as we were talking, detailing the ideas I was going to implement already and asking for some more suggestions.

I almost didn’t notice a gentle chime go off and a new pop up.

[Non-hostile Entry]

[Accept/Reject]

My orbs flickering, I searched my map and found a group of ten entering the stone labyrinth. All of them were in bad shape and one appeared to be on the verge of death.

“Mistress?” Dawn asked curiously after seeing me go rigid.

“A party of disabled and dying Lepusan just entered the labyrinth…” I said as I tried to put my thoughts together. I’d been making plans for receiving people, but I hadn’t put any emergency measures in place for those arriving in a bad state.

“Give me some potions and put me in around a bend from them. I can heal and lead them in,” Dawn said decisively. I just nodded, glad she had a good head in an emergency. I dropped her in with a cart I hastily stocked with water and medical supplies.

Instead of starting a text I went to the monster panel and selected everyone in the dungeon. A group call instantly opened up. I’d never used the feature before, but I’d figured out how it worked after the last round of upgrades.

“Showtime,” I said simply. Around me I could hear whoops of joy and shouting as the town sprang to life in anticipation of new arrivals.