"-o we should send a construction team, alongside a regiment of soldiers to the village of Smolderhall tasked with the construction of a chapel, a marketplace, town hall, granary, rudimentary walls and guard lodgings, as well as several wells?" Vivian looked at the papers I presented her with as she drank deeply from a mana potion with an absent look on her face.

Nodding lightly as I poked a piece of steaming chicken breast with my fork, I replied. "Yes, I think that improving that village will make people want to migrate there and eventually grow it into a small city."

"This is true, but why do you want that specific location to prosper? We already have a good market in the northern region and I'm sure the resident duke will not be happy about having extra compettition." She rose another paper up with a sigh. "Besides, if all you want is to make a city out of a village, we can just round up some excess population from other areas and forcefully migrate them there."

She spoke with a regal but otherwise disinterested tone as she discussed the livelyhoods of many people as if they were nothing but numbers on a piece of paper. Then again, this is her job as a noble and I can't say that she gave me the impression of a completely good person. Wait, didn't she say that she enjoyed this kind of stuff?

Hmm, might be that she's a bigger sadist than I thought. Then again, she was my childhood friend, wasn't she? That means we had simillar personalities, at least. "A forceful migration, eh? That could work but I'm not sure its the right way. If we force people to go there, they will hate the land and thus negativity will spread."

Pointing towards the northern mountains with a finger, I continued on with a smirk. "Considering that this is all done in an effort to establish trade with the nearby dwarves, we can't have the people be filled with hate, especially if they realize that they were brought there in order to please the stunted ones."

Vivian's eyes lit up in realization as she nodded and scratched her chin. "Yes! That makes much more sense now." Then her expression grew confused as she pondered something sudden. It actually made her look quite adorable. "But wait, this still does not solve the main problem! We already have many trading towns at the border of the mountains and that alone hasn't made any significant number of dwarves come out of their mountainhomes in order to trade."

That is a good point. Hmm... "What exactly are you hoping to gain by trading with the dwarves?"

Her expression was dumbfounded for only a moment. "Metal, rare leathers and underground crops." With another sip of her mana potion and the difficult swallowing of a potato slice, she added to her explanation. "The reasoning behind metal should be obvious, the rare leathers that the dwarves have in abundance from hunting the creatures of the underlands are durable and beautiful which makes them a good resource for both armor and clothing..." She sighed somewhat exasperatedly. "And the crops are for a personal wish of mine to introduce their cultivation into our nation as an emergency source of food for the peasantry which should lessen their mortality rates during harsh harvests or winters in general."

"I see. Well, we could grant a tax exemption to merchants that come to barter these types of goods in bulk." Vivian's eyebrow quirked faster than lightning. "Merchants? As in all merchants, not just dwarves?" She hummed with interest, waiting for my answer as I smiled. "Humans are far more naturally ambitious than the other races, no? Way I see it, we don't really need the dwarves specifically, but a reason for our already established merchants to go and get those goods for us."

Then I offered her a grimace. "Not to mention that giving special rights to one race will just breed contempt in others."

Vivian mused lightly with a smile. "Hmm~, looks like your reincarnation gave you the ability to understand people at quite the astonishing level."

Understand people? I quirked a confused eyebrow at her. "What are you talking about? This is just simple logic. There's nothing astonishing there."

"Except for the fact that most could never come to that conclusion until it is far too late, Klaus." She chuckled and waved her hand, dismissing my claim to supposed humility with what was seemingly practiced ease. "Anyways, that solves the dwarves in the north but not the ones in the west."

She circled a plot of land above the Vestilander mountain range, below the Bleeding Stretch and starting from the foot of the Limbs mountain. It seemed to be a particularily green patch of forested flatland that was currently under the control of the church and presented our nations border with the dwarves of Bladespine Fjord. "So what's the problem there?"

Vivian sighed with so much spite that her breath was visible. "Raiding parties." With a grimace of her own, she continued. "You may not remember this but those lands have been raided multiple times in the past year alone by an ever-increasing amount of dwarves. It is clear that they want nothing less than total war with us."

"And how is the church handling it?" She laughed. "The church? They aren't part of it. Such mere, *mortal concerns*, do not matter to them. After all, it does not matter who governs the land they build their churches on because all people may worship the gods in equal measure."

"So they do not protect their own followers?" A sigh escaped me. "No. And why would they? The dwarves have made it very known that they will not assault any of Rhothmir's holy places." She responded with clear spite.

"You keep mentioning dwarves this and dwarves that..." Clicking my tongue, I continued. "But I sincerely doubt that the entirety of the dwarven race is our enemy here, nor would I endeavor to make them into one. This is likely done by a particularily vile clan or an alliance of smaller clans, not the entire nation in the west."

She seemed shocked and surprised as well as mildly insulted, yet she also contemplated my words carefully. "You're right." Then she sighed again. "You're right, this is a bad way to look at things, but even so..."

Her expression twisted with disappointment, but also held a visible mote of hope. "We have no open diplomatic channel with any of the dwarven nations... or any of the other races in general. Even if we wanted to find out the clan or clans responsible, we simply can't."

A smile then etched itself on mine. "Indeed, but what if we sent diplomats to all corners of the land in order to establish exactly that? In fact, since we were discussing the opening of trading routes, this mission might allow us to more easily achieve that with more than just our neighbours."

"And just who do you plan to hire for this?" Her innate spite was instantly defeated by rising confusion as she posed her question, causing me to stop and think for a moment. Who would be able to complete this without much room for failure? Ambitious nobles, for one. Merchants perhaps? Hmm, I wonder if there's adventurers in this world? Then again, why limit ourselves to a single choice when they would work out for the best in tandem?

After all, in a mission of diplomacy, it is important to represent as much of oneself as possible. "I was thinking of assembling a party of nobles to handle the politics, with complementary merchants and/or adventurers who have experience and understanding of the cultures and customs of other races."

"Hmm... I think I know just the people to organize the expedition but... I can't say that I see this as a worthwhile endeavour." This gave me some pause. "And why would that be?"

"Because doing this would be to completely ignore the century of hatred that has sewn itself into the hearts of all of Terravests people!" Exclaiming with an exasperated tone as if she was stating something painfully obvious, she leaned back into her couch as she crossed her hands and looked away from me in a motion of clear dissapproval. "And you think that'll make their jobs difficult?"

My joking tone caught her attention once more as she turned towards me with an inquisitive gaze. "I'm not sure I like the tone with which you asked that. What do you know that I don't, Klaus? How can you make light of a century of hate?..."

A smile etched itself on my face as I played around with a glass of red wine. "Vivian, when people hate each other simply because they were taught to do so even if they never met each other, they tend to turn the other person into a monster, demonizing them with complete evil and expecting nothing but that same evil from the other party."

Like moving a chess piece, I placed the glass of wine on the table next to the bottle from which its delicious liquid originated. "So all we have to do in order to fix this is approach the situation with friendliness and honesty." Smirking as I lifted the glass up once more and took a single sip, I continued with a tone of amusement that was simply impossible to hide. "We want to trade with them? They will expect us to lie and trick them, doing exactly what they preach we would do. Once this first conflict arrives, we forgive their transgression, causing their fragile, ignorant hatred to shatter~."

My musings caused her mouth to gape in total silence as my smirk turned into a sly smile. "After they realize that their hatred of us was unfounded, they will begin to question those who would see it spread and view them with suspicion and mistrust." A chuckle escaped me as I took another sip of my wine. "With any luck, the saner minds among them should do our job for us and expose the offending clan or clans in an effort to appease us and repay what is owed. After all, are the dwarves not famous for both holding grudges as well as remembering goodwill for what seems to be an eternity in the eyes of others?"

Silence continued to fill the room for several minutes after I finished my explanation, causing me to shrug as I watched the gears turning in Vivian's head, attempting to understand what I just said. Eventually, she managed to mutter out. "You know what? I wont pretend that I understand even a fraction of what you just said, but for some reason, it makes sense."

She appeared baffled and confused, yet also hopeful, much as she was a few minutes ago. It seems like the way to gleam favor with this woman lies with diplomacy and trade. However, I have to say that I feel a bit offended because of what she said just now. "Well, of course it makes sense! Its a conclusion made from pure reason and cold logic."

Vivian's laughter erupted from her like magma from a volcano, causing me to swear as I heard a guard's weapon drop to the floor with a loud thunk, the man likely being spooked by her withered voice. She calmed down after a couple moments of stifling herself, then turned to look at me with a bemused, but also flabbergasted expression. "Reason? Cold logic? You surely jest! To me it seemed as if you spoke of both the dwarves and our diplomats as if you knew them on a personal level, as if you understood them and could predict with ease as to how they would react given the situation at hand."

I tilted my head in confusion. "Since when do you need to know someone in order to predict what they'll do? I mean sure, it helps at times, but knowing someone is in no way a requirement for predicting what actions they are likely to undertake." She nodded fiercely. "Agreed! Predicting them is possible, but you spoke with such certainty in your tone that it made me believe there was no room for doubt! It made me think you were absolutely, ineffably correct, without even being presented with concrete proof or any kind of evidence in general."

With another grimace and a sigh, I replied. "And what kind of proof would you have me offer you to explain the way people are expected to behave? Whatever I may give you, even if it refferences their past actions, it will always be little more than conjecture."

"But that's exactly my point, Klaus!" Vivian's chuckling echoed through the room. It would have been a pleasant sound, had they not been directed at me in this moment. I let out a sigh. "Whatever. You can continue laughing at me should this diplomatic expedition fail, but for now, we should continue our work for there is still plenty left to discuss."

She shook her head in negative with a calm expression. "No, I think that we've done enough for one hour. Lets take a break and enjoy ourselves~." She mused happily as she poured herself some more of the entirely-unappetizing bluish liquid from her mana potion. Quirking an eyebrow at her, I let out a defeated sigh and leaned back into my chair, relaxing and instantly realizing just how tense I was mere moments before. "Enjoy ourselves, eh? Sounds good to me, I suppose."

"Indeed, but if you don't mind, there are some... pleasantries, that'd I'd like to solve while we are on break." Her admission made me open my eyes wide in both interest and confusion. "Pleasantries? What do you mean?"

With an expression that was full of melancholy as if she didn't know how to put her question, she asked in a somber tone. "You mentioned before how you were reincarnated and that your memories have been befuddled because of it, but with your ability to understand people without meeting them, as well as the strange properties of your arcana... I can't help but wonder what you were in your other life?"

Her question gave me pause for considerating as I didn't really know how to answer it. I suppose telling her the truth couldn't hurt? Hmm.. "I was a healer, of sorts."

"Of sorts?" She tilted her head in an adorable manner, eliciting a chuckle to escape me. "I healed people but I didn't use magic in order to do it. You see, where I came from, we used a different power called science which basically constitutes the manipulation of the natural world in order to suit the users needs."

Quirking an eyebrow at me, she asked. "Eh? But that's exactly what magic is, though?"

Blinking several times at her, I replied. "What? Not it isn't? Magic is the power of wishes, used by those capable of manipulating mana in order to cast spells which in turn, manipulate the world around them in accordance, while science is using the world in order to manipulate the world, so to speak."

"Can you give me an example of what you mean?" Despite her apparent confusion, Vivian seemed to be interested indeed as her gaze was curious and her eyes held a familiar spark to them, causing me to smile as I took my glass of wine and one of the bottles which still had some liquid in them. "Of course. Using experiments to prove scientific hypotheses is a must, after all." I placed the two objects in clear view, in the middle of the table and then slowly pured the wine into the glass. "See the way that the wine is flowing out into the glass? This happens because I had physically turned the bottle to its side, causing the liquid to *push* itself out, so to speak." I put massive quotations on the push word there, even if she couldn't see that happen.

"This kind of cause and effect is what I would call science, as I used the natural laws of the world in order to achieve my desired result. Magic, on the other hand, would be to move the liquid out of the bottle and into the glass without physically moving it or perhaps by moving it with mana and not by hand." She nodded in understanding.

"I see.. So to use science, one must abuse the natural laws of the world themselves, while a mage rejects them outright, is what you're saying?" Blinking a couple times at her explanation, I eventually nodded. "I suppose that's correct, but not all science is abusive towards nature. In fact, much of it is made with the intent to heal and help its growth."

She laughed and rolled her eyes. "That's because the majority of it exploits nature, much the same way magic does." With another exasperated sigh, she continued. "And much like you said that your science does, magic users also do their best to lessen the damage they deal to their environments, despite the fact that the arcane is deathly poisonous to natural life."

Arcane is poisonous to natural life? This caused me to blink again. "What do you mean by that? The arcane being poison to life?" She nodded and took a sip of her potion before replying. "Unlike what the elves would like the world to believe, when regular plantlife is exposed to too much raw mana at any given time, it withers and dies, transforming into a sort of pinkish crystal made out of pure magic." She grimaced and continued with a tone of utter distaste. "Naturally, this has made some aspiring mages to twist the nature around them on purpose, making a grand profit out of its abuse as the crystals are quite beautiful and are used in all manner of artistry, as well as expensive but high quality mana potions."

With a sigh and a sip of her wine, she finished her tale. "Thankfully, the amount of magical power required to do this is insane in comparison to the amount possessed by a regular human to the point that only the truly talented can actually do such a thing. Sadly, these same people tend to be the very ambitious sort, so the practice is insufferably popular."

"And you? Could you do it?" My question gave her pause as she looked at me with an insulted expression. "... I think so, not that I ever would." She gripped her fist tightly in anger. "And no, not even if you asked me to do so just out of curiosity."

I let out a cheery laugh. "I would never ask such a thing of you, Vivian~." After all, why use your power when I could give it a try myself? Well, if I even reach the point where I possess the magical power required to do it, anyways. "I'm not so sure about that, Klaus~." Her tone turned instantly to amusement, matching mine with equal measure. "That science of yours certainly seems like a proffession that would seek out the completion of an experiment such as this."

Shrugging at her, I replied with a smile on my face. "Well, you aren't wrong about that. There are certainly those that would do it for the sake of documentation and personal experience alone, but I have greater goals in mind right now."

Vivian quirked an eyebrow at me quicker than my sight could follow. "Oh? Greater goals, you say? Like what?"

"Oh, you know, the usual: pursuit of immortality, expanding my influence and understanding, governing the kingdom in a way that is non-threatening to my health, healing the damage done to you and so on." Her face flushed crimson at my last admission as she muttered out. "H-heal me? Ha, ha.. I'd t-thank you b-but.. where would you even start? This body of mine is basically already dead. In fact, as soon as I run out of mana, I'll probably turn to dust, anyways..."

Despite the despressive nature of her wording, her tone was full of hope. It was clear that this woman wanted to live and that alone made my job ten times easier, eliciting a smile to etch itself onto my frame. "This may be the case right now and, I'll admit, I am having a hard time deciding where to begin your road to recovery, considering the state of your organs."

"So thats the power of your arcana, then? Insight into the body without direct intreferece... how very much like a healer." She let out a breath, seemingly out of relief. "Eh?" My confusion was instantly apparent. What kind of response was that? It had no connection to...

Wait. "You.. can you see it? My arcana?"

Her cheeks flared up with crimson once again as she covered her mouth with a hand and looked away in embarrassment. "I uhm.. you do realize that my eyes have gone blind due to my experience, yes? Right now, I see the world through the power of a spell which I had cast on myself. This magical sight grants me the ability to see many things not normally visible to the human eye, such as spectres, elemental spirits, winds of magic and.. well, the arcana of other people."

She swallowed down hard and coughed into her hand, which was still covering her mouth awkwardly. "So yes, Klaus. I can definitely see the tentacles you've been prodding me with for the past several hours."

A tremendously loud slapping sound echoed throughout the room as I cringed harder than I think I ever did before in either of my lives. ".. why didn't you say anything?" Then I shook my head, a red marking in the shape of my palm appearing in the midst of my face as soon as I remove the hand. "No, no, never mind. This is my fault. I should have noticed that I was making you uncomfortable."

"This is quite shameless of you, yes." She coughed into her hand again with a chuckle. "But it didn't make me uncomfortable. In fact, your tentacle gives off no feeling whatsoever and it didn't seem to be doing anything exactly dangerous, so I didn't bother mentioning it."

I gave ger a deadpan look. "For some reason, hearing you say that does not make me feel any better about it, but I'll stop doing it now, anyways." With a sigh, I dismissed the crimson tendril.

Vivian gave out a breath of relief before continuing the conversation. "So.. what did you discover?" Her question made me sigh out loudly as I turned my head away. "It might be for the best that you do not know."

After an uncomfortable silence, she nodded with understanding. "Alright. Healers often refuse to speak of the severity of their patients wounds, so I assume that your refusal is due to exactly that but... could you at least tell me what you plan on doing first?"

This question caused me to put my hand on my chin in thought, as it had been bothering me for a while now. As she had said a few minutes ago, her body is basically already dead, kept alive by the combined force of her magic and willpower. Fixing her eyes or any other sensory organ would be a worthless endeavor as they would rot away again in the time it would take me to heal the rest of her body that is required for their natural maintenance.

Hmm... "Tell me, can you feel any pain as you are right now?" As expected, she shook her head in negative. "No. In fact, my entire body is numb... if it wasn't for my magic, I could scarcely feel anything at all." Blinking at her, I asked. "Can you allow yourself to feel nothing without compromising the magic that keeps you alive?"

She quirked an eyebrow with both confusion and interest, but nodded nonetheless. "It would require me doing some modifications on the enchantment overrall, but I should be able to accomplish it with ease. Why?"

"Because I need to open up your stomach and take out all the rotten meat, bones and viscous fluid gathered inside..." I muttered out in thought before realizing what I said, my head jerking upward at the speed of light as I saw her expression visibly twist with disgust, shock and horror. "Uhm..."

Much to her credit, Vivian remained calm as she realized what this meant. "So.. my stomach.. it isn't functioning right now, is it?" Well, the beans are spilled so I might aswell throw in the sauce as well. "That is correct."

"So what happened to all the food I just ate and all the wine I just drank?" She seemed to quiver in fear, but managed to keep herself strong. "As far as I could see, it basically falls into the pile of refuse, then transforms into a pink crystal and melty aways within seconds."

With a slow nod, she asked. "Is that why you wanted to know why the arcane was poisonous to life? Because you saw what was happening inside of me?"

I returned her nod with one of my own. "That was part of it, yes. I could only speculate without proof at that moment, after all." I drank some of my wine before continuing. "According to my analysis, when you consume any form of sustenance, the powerful magic that keeps your body in this state transforms it into mana and uses it to fuel the spell."

"Which explains why I felt refreshed after eating, ... and why my hunger hasn't lessened in the least, even if I have already eaten three times as much as I used to..." She trailed off sadly as she put her hands together and grasped them tightly, steeling herself. "So you're going to cut me open and clean my insides, yes? How will this help me?"

"To be fair, I do not exactly know yet, but its better to not have that pit of disease and toxicity inside of you when I finally figure out what to do." She nodded and sighed. "Well, it is a start, I suppose... but wait, if all food turns into mana when I eat it, why didn't the refuse pile do the same?"

Leaning into my chair and sighing out loudly, I replied. "No idea. So far, all the explanation I have for it is that you locked your entire body in time when you cast the spell that keeps you alive and the refuse is part of that."

"But if my body is locked in time as you say, what can you even do? If that is true, then everything we do will just return how it was..." She muttered out in sadness and desperation, to which I could only offer a slight nod. "The only course of action that I can think of is that you update the spell whenever we change something. Lets say, I manage to heal your stomach and it now works properly, so you modifiy your spell to lock it in time as it is right now."

She nodded fiercely as her eyes lit up with hope. "That would work!... but.. when I cast the spell for the first time, I traded much of my remaining life-force in order to cast it successfully... even as I am now, with my soul constantly expanding and mana pool growing due to the immense, constant strain caused by keeping myself alive, I just do not have enough mana to cast it again."

"Then all we have to do is secure the required amount, no?" She shook head head in negative. "No, you don't understand, Klaus! This is a spell cast with life-force. My, life-force! I can only maintain and upgrade it with my own magic."

Nodding towards her, I replied with a calm tone. "Then we have to find ways to replenish your life-force."

"And how do you suppose I do that? Drain it from other people?!" She exclaimed in disbelief as I nodded again, slower this time. "If that is what it takes, yes. However, I don't think your situation is as severe as you may be thinking. One of the reasons I want to send a diplomatic entourage to the elves is to find a capable healer of their kind, as perhaps they would know of a way to cure you that is better than what we currently have on offer."

She swallowed down hard and leaned backward in defeat. "If that is what it takes..." Vivian chuckled hoarsely but nodded after a few moments of contemplation. "Criminals. If we can't find a good enough elf or healer in general, then I want my victims to be criminals."

With a massive sigh, I nodded back in approval. "Its going to be difficult to find particularily healthy criminals, as scum like that is often unwashed, but I will do my best." Shrugging and smiling in an effort to defuse the situation somewhat, I continued. "Or well, my constable will~."

With a sigh of her own, Vivian eventually chuckled and let out a laugh. "Feels good to be the king eh, Klaus~?"