“And well, that is my report.” Eric was sitting in Lady Vannil’s office.

She was holding her head and let out a long sigh. “You never cease to surprise me Eric. Micah, why didn’t you rein him in?”

“I was on board to help. People were being enslaved! Do you really think I could sit idly by while that was happening?”

“What about you Ruby? Oh, you have a bit of sauce on your face.” Lady Vannil wiped Ruby’s cheek with a handkerchief.

“I was happy to help Pa-, big brother! I took down all kinds of bad people!”

“You let this little adorable defenseless lady fight?!”

“Stop playing around Lady Vannil, and just so you know, she is just as strong as Micah in a fight.” Eric chastised her which led to her laughing.

“Okay, fine, fine.”

Man she likes spoiling Ruby.

“So, any news on your investigation?” He asked.

“Only a few things, nothing related to where the marked collars are coming from, only rumors. Though there has been a stir in the shadows of Goun, supposedly they are plotting something but none of our people can get close enough to get even a squeak of information.”

Goun is planning something?

“Well, just keep me informed. If it ends up being an emergency, contact Douglas in Lenmos, he will be able to get in contact with me.”

“You’re still planning on finding Ruby’s family? You should just adopt her.” Lady Vannil’s words got Ruby’s eyes shining.

“The idea is an option, but I am worried about them. I heard that her family reached out to her mother before they were attacked. I would not want them coming to look for her or trying to kidnap her.”

“I would slaughter anyone who tries to take her.” Micah had a dark look on her face.

“Oh, I see the reason now.” Lady Vannil had an amused smile on her face.

Yeah, I don’t want my wife to become a murderer.

“So you’re off to Obai huh?”

“Yes. Though we will likely be going as ourselves this time. If I go as Hephaestus, I won’t be able to get out of Merluka for a month.” He sighed.

“Well, it probably would be for the best. With Hephaestus being known as a Hero, the church is likely to act.”

“I know. I will be stopping in Lenmos before heading to Merluka to catch a ship to Obai. It has been nearly a month I have been away. A lot has surely changed.”

“Alright. I still think you should just adopt.” She hugged Ruby one last time.

“I predict he will have eight children in total.” Rorroco pipes in.

“And how do you figure that?”

“A hunch.” Rorroco was speaking the common tongue perfectly without drawing out her words.

There were points of trouble when it came to her communicating to the royal soldiers that Eric created a new spell [Share Language] where Micah taught her the common tongue. When Eric tried to share his knowledge it ended up overloading the other person’s mind, causing them to lose consciousness without learning anything, so he transferred the spell to Micah. He was able to transfer any knowledge of his home world language, but he could not do it with any of the ones from this world. Eric did it with every one of his party so that they could understand the movies, shows, videos, and books he had in his Haven.

“Why are you blushing Micah?” Eric asked her.

“Um, no reason.” She squeaked out, as she knew it was not a hunch.

“Well, let’s head back.” They gathered together and he teleported them back to Lenmos.

“Haah, honestly speaking, it is nice to be home.” Eric said before the door burst open.

“Ah! Master Eric you have returned! You need to change, quickly.” Douglas called out.

Eric changed over to Phaestus and Micah to Dite.

“What is going on? I just got back.”

“The church, they sent someone to speak with you. They just showed up and demanded to see you.”

“Can’t you send them away?”

“Not after that light flash in your office. They will know I am lying.”

Dammit, teleporting finally became an inconvenience, I will have to make an enclosed room specifically for returning.

“Fine. Rorroco, take Ruby into the next room. I would rather them not see her.”

“Understood. Let’s go Ruby! We can listen in!” She cheerfully led Ruby into the next door room.

“Your Holiness, it seems our Lord just returned from his trip and he will see you. Please, this way.” The butler said, leading the man dressed in priestly robes.

I cannot fail this mission given to me by the Pope himself. I will succeed.

He was led into an office that had many books, humble decorations, a table with a couple of couches around it and two large desks toward the back of the room, where a masked man sat going through paperwork. He had a similarly masked attendant next to him, and a stout dwarf, Douglas Ironwall, standing to the other side of the desk.

“I present to you Duke Hephaestus, Lord of Lenmos, Duke of Dunlap, and Hero of Merluka. His wife, Lady Aphrodite, The Dancing Blade and The Hidden Goddess. Lastly, Viscount Douglas Ironwall, Steward to the House of the Fire Lord. Please have a seat here.” Allen showed the cardinal to a seat in front of Duke Hephaestus’ desk.

Hero? When the hell did that happen? What happened in Merluka? House of the Fire Lord? What the hell has been happening?!

“Greetings Hephaestus-.”

“You will address him as Lord or Duke, unless you wish for the same disrespect.” Dite cut in.

Bitch, watch your tongue.

“My apologies. I am Cardinal Banks of the Church of Light.”

Bow before me!

“You also showed up at my doorstep unannounced, with no prior notification. I am sure you can see that I am a busy man. You should be thankful that I am even seeing you. Can you not see this pile of paperwork? I have little time to spare. Speak your purpose, Cardinal.” Duke Hephaestus looked upon the cardinal in annoyance.

Such disrespect! You piece of shit! I will have you collared, eating and drinking my waste! Then I will use up that bitch of a woman until she is broken!

The Duke stopped his work, placing his pen down.

What kind of pen is that? Is that a new tool coming out of this backwater shithole?

“Your purpose. Are you going to speak it or waste my time?”

Eek, what is with those eyes? I am a Cardinal you know!

“I am here to bring you good tidings. A personal letter from the Pope himself.” The Cardinal pulled out a wax sealed letter.

Douglas picked it up and opened it to check for anything nefarious.

“Here you go my lord.”

Just touch it so the curse affects you!

“Just place it there.” The Duke pulled up a cup and drank from it while he picked up the letter.

What? Is he not from another world? The Mark of Domination the Pope put on that should have cursed him! Could he be, truly, blessed by the gods? Have our sins caught up with us?

“Hmm, so he sends his greetings and an offer to build a church branch here? Sorry, but I am not interested.” With a flip of his wrist, he burned it up.

“W-WHAT?! What blasphemy is this!?”

“I have no faith in the Church of Light or your god of light. I have no interest in your Heroes or anything you are offering. Besides, I am a Duke of Dunlap, which the kingdom I am a part of has a nationwide ban on the Church of Light, after one of your fanatics summoned a Queen Basilisk to attack us. Do not think I have forgotten the friends and people your religion has taken from me.” Magic began flaring up around the Duke’s body, his eyes filled with rage.

“Eeeek.” The Cardinal fell out of the chair.

“Get out.”

“You bastard! Do you know what this means! You will-.”

“Tal afear gode alan [Dislocation].” The Duke casted a spell and the Cardinal was outside on the ground.

“Y-your holiness? What happened? Are you alright?” One of the cardinal’s attendants asked.

“I am fine! We are returning to Dawn! I have to report this heretic to the-.”

SPLASH.

The Cardinal was hit with a ball of muddy water that completely covered and stained his white robe. He looked up to see the Duke looking down at him from his office window.

“YOU BASTARD YOU WILL REGRET THIS!” The Cardinal and his attendant entered their waiting carriage. As they closed the door a ball of water flew in and popped, splashing everything inside.

“GUAH! WHAT IS THIS SMELL!?”

“I DON’T KNOW YOUR baaaarrrf.”

“AH! Keep away from me! Why won’t the doors open!? Open the windows! Dammit! Why are the windows so small! I can’t climb out this! Oh god! Baaarrrrrf.”

Then the carriage vanished, getting moved outside the city limits of Lenmos.

“Um Master Phaestus, what did you do there?” Douglas asked, dropping formalities now that it was them.

“Just a few spells. [Dislocation] Allows me to move things around. The greater the distance and/or mass, the greater the magic cost. Next was [Muddy Water Ball], I just covered him in muddy water. Then the one I put into the carriage with them, [Skunk Water Ball], was a liquid of extremely foul smelling water that is very difficult to get rid of the smell, even if it gets on your skin. The last spell I used was one similar to [Welding], I call [Melding]. I melded the wood of the door to the wood of the carriage itself, trapping them inside.” Phaestus had a wicked grin on his face.

“You really don’t show mercy.” Douglas said dumbfounded.

“If you heard the things he was thinking, you would have wanted to gut and hang him by his entrails.” Phaestus slammed his fist against the wall, rage in his eyes.

“What did he say?” Dite asked.

“He spoke of horrible things he would do to those important to me. Also, that letter was cursed. If I had touched it, it would have tried to apply the Mark of Domination on me. The Church must have thought I was not of this world and thought they could apply the curse to me. But thanks to me hearing his thoughts, I swapped it out with an old letter when he turned his attention to me getting a drink.”

“Damnable Church of Light! How dare they try to enslave you!”

“I will consult the goddesses to see if they can learn anything from the trapped letter.”

“Understood.”

Phaestus shifted out.

He took off his mask, “Senior Goddess! Luna! Elder Oribaba! I have a letter that carries the Curse of Tartarus!” He called out.

A few seconds later, all three goddesses appeared.

“Eric are you serious! You have an unapplied one!?” Luna asked surprised.

“Yes, don’t touch it though. Supposedly it activates when one touches it.” He summoned a table and the letter atop it.

Elder Oribaba took a close look at it. “Hmm, yes, this does have one, quite potent as well. You would have barely resisted it, but if it reacted to you in front of that man, it would have confirmed to them that you were not from this world. Your play was quite genius Eric, bravo.” She surrounded it in a barrier of light and stored it away.

“This may help Lystmour in combating this curse. I am sure he will pay you back somehow. Is there something you would like? I would like to reward your efforts.” Elder Oribaba smiled warmly.

Hmm, something I want… Oh, I know!

“Elder, one of my big dreams since coming here, I want to build an airship. One that flies through the sky!”

She grinned widely, “Are you sure you don’t want me to create you one?”

“Nope, I want to build it myself. The main thing I am lacking is the part to make it fly magically!”

She laughed due to his childlike excitement. “Very well. These are runes from another world, but they will work here too.” With a glow of light, the knowledge flowed into his mind.

“Oh, OH! Thank you so much Elder Oribaba!” He got so excited he hugged her.

“E-Eric!?” “Oh my!” Luna and the Senior Goddess reacted.

“Ho, ho, ho, you’re very welcome.” Elder Oribaba patted his back.

“Oh, sorry, I uh, probably should not have done that.” Eric said backing away.

“It is fine. By the way, ****** you have the package right?”

“Yes Elder.” The senior goddess handed him wrapped package.

“This is?” Eric unrolled it, revealing multiple small sized hand tools.

“A gift, from your alter ego.” Elder Oribaba laughed.

Wait… wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!

“Y-you mean, tools from Hephaestus?!”

The goddesses smiled.

“I can’t believe it.” He picked up one, it hummed with power, words flowing into his mind of how to activate them.

“Tools from Hephaestus himself… One second!”

He ran off into his workshop, forgetting he could just shift over. Then ran to his house for a few minutes. He came out, breathing a bit faster.

“P-Please, could you give him these as thanks? The ingredients are for Aphrodite, I remember being told that he only eats things made by her. I just hope the ingredients are to their liking. Next is this item, it is a leather wrist support I use when smithing. It helps my wrist to not get as tired. Last is this letter to thank him for his blessing from the time before.”

“I see, I will see to it that it gets to him.” The senior goddess took the items and stored them away.

“Um, Elder Oribaba, would it be okay for me to start coming around here again?” Luna asked.

“Hmm, I guess. I may have been a bit hard on you, since your bumbling might have just greatly helped this world.”

“I know I messed up! I will be more mindful when using my power for blessings. ****** has been helping me train!”

“She has made some improvements.” The senior goddess commented.

“I was beginning to wonder why I haven’t see you lately Luna. I am glad to have my bumbling goddess back.”

“Please take care of my bumbling junior.”

“Be sure to keep your bumbling to a minimum from now on.”

“SO MEAN! ALL OF YOU!” Luna ran away crying in to the house.

“Please take care Eric.” Elder Oribaba said before leaving with the senior goddess.

Eric reappeared in his office along with Luna, who was dressed in a white robe and staff.

“Are you sure you are allowed to do this?”

“Yes! I made sure to ask Elder Oribaba sometime ago. Granted, this is a mortal-ish body. If it is destroyed or killed, I will not be able to travel into this world for a hundred years.”

“O-okay.”

“Papa!” Ruby hopped into the room and hugged onto him.

She finally said it…

“Hey Ruby, isn’t it big brother?”

“Nope! I decided that you are Papa from now on!”

Who put her up to this? Who am I kidding, it was Micah.

Micah and Rorroco entered the room.

“Luna? What are you doing here? You seem different.” Micah said.

“The short story is, Elder Oribaba has her doing some heavy learning to train her to be a better goddess. She has been released from her hellish training and is allowed to take on a mortal form. So in a sense, she wants to take a bit of a vacation from goddess work.”

“Tch, another rival?!” Micah said quietly to herself.

No Micah, if anything, Rorroco would be your only rival, who is pushing for your approval. Luna has no chance.

“You just thought something rude, didn’t you?”

“What? I thought my face became more difficult to read!”

“Goddess’ intuition.”

“Okay, fine, I’m sorry.”

“So sister Luna will be traveling with us! Yay!” Ruby then hugged Luna.

“I kind of find this funny, we basically have three attackers, one caster, and now one priestess. We don’t have any tanks…” Eric commented.

“Tank?” They asked.

“Um, nothing.”

Should have remembered they would not know those kind of gaming terms.

“I know what you mean! One second! Traaaansform!” In a flash of light her equipment changed out and she was now wearing a set of plate mail, a tower shield, and a war hammer.

“Wait, you can change your class at will?” Eric was surprised.

“Yup, I made sure to take on a Paladin class so that I can use healing at well.” She shifted her equipment to something lighter and easier to move in, with a small buckler and mace.

“I will wear this stuff most of the time and switch to the other stuff when needed.” She smiled cutely. “Oh right! Show me around Eric! I want to see the town!”

After notifying Douglas and Ella they headed outside. The central plaza has been upgraded since there last time in the city. The roadways were now paved with stone tiles and the waterways were finished as well. Eric donned his and Micah’s disguises before heading into the town.

The town was rapidly growing as multiple shops had appeared along the central roadway that led from the entrance of Lenmos from Meerka, directly to the entrance of The Grand Forrest Path.

“Greetings to you milord!” Some children had come up to greet their group.

“Hey kids, having fun today?”

“Yup!”

Phaestus recognized some of the kids from the caravan he saved. Families had been coming to Lenmos from Alta, Dunlap, Meerka, and more merfolk had been coming since his actions in Merluka. The population of the city was growing and becoming more diverse. After chatting for a bit, the children went back to playing and they continued their tour.

“Whoa, did Fizzy’s shop get bigger?” Dite asked.

“From what I heard from Douglas, a lot of craftsmen heard that Fizzy’s shop was the forefront of a number of advanced technology, so they joined her to be a part of it.” Phaestus replied.

The door to the shop opened and Fizzy stepped out. The moment she saw Phaestus, she looked back and forth quickly and worriedly. She quickly approached him and grabbed his robe.

“T-They aren’t here are they?!” She asked anxiously.

She must mean her parents.

“I can assure you I did not bring them this time.”

“Heya Lord Phaestus!” “Afternoon Fizzy.” Rexar and Ellen had impeccable timing in showing up immediately after he said it.

“You lied to me!” She whispered angrily.

“I promise I had no idea! Wait…” He got loose from Fizzy and turned to Rexar.

“Rexar, did you finish it?”

The burly dwarf laughed heartily. “It was such a great idea and with the help of those spell grimoires, we rapidly finished the steam train within the first week! It became a national effort with every guild getting onboard. We got the tracks started while we were making the train, so once we finished that, it made transporting goods simple. Construction increased so rapidly that before we knew it, we were in Dunlap!” He began laughing again and Ellen cut in.

“Dunlap heard about the project and also added into the effort of digging the tunnel and laying tracks. The trip between Alta and Dunlap is now a two day trip by train.”

Two day? How fast does that thing go?

“That sounds a lot faster than what was predicted, did something happen?”

“Aye, Lord Tulsen happened.”

Lord Alexander Tulsen!

“Did he assist?”

“That he did! He helped make the engine more efficient while introducing, oh what did he call it, a magic alter-gator?”

“Alternator?”

“Aye that’s it! It helps to recoup magic through mechanical motion! The wheels and wind tubes mounted on it help to recharge the magic core. The engine design was updated by him as well, making it so much faster! It was truly an amazing thing, sadly, Lord Tulsen vanished as soon as the train arrived in Dunlap.”

Alternator… That just makes me think he really is from my world. Though the alternator would be useful for the airship, I will have to get the designs for them later.

“So you are moving here now?”

“Aye we are. Thanks to the train, our things are being inspected and should be here soon.”

Fizzy seemed to have a nervous look on her face.

“Fizzy.”

“Yes!” Fizzy replied to Ellen.

“Your father and I will be purchasing a home in town. We hope that you will visit every so often for dinner.” Ellen said with a pleasant smile that caused Fizzy to relax a bit.

“Thanks Ma, Charlie and I will be sure to visit when we can.”

“You can bet on that.” Charlie said as he came out.

“Charlie my good man!”

“Welcome Rexar, Ellen. The two of you will be joining us for dinner tonight correct?”

“They will be, thanks Charlie.” Fizzy replied for them.

The gnome smiled and headed back in followed by Fizzy and her family. After sharing a smile amongst themselves, Phaestus and his group continued walking along.

“Ooo, a magic shop. Can we check in here?” Luna asked.

Don’t see why not, but I am standing in the back.

They entered the shop. “GRAND MASTER!” Wanda came flying forward.

I didn’t teach her the flying spell! Why is she flying!?

Rorroco grabbed Wanda by the head and began to squeeze.

“AHH! That hurts! I’m sorry! Please forgive me!” Dite gave Rorroco a rare thumbs up, which she returned the gesture.

“Welcome my lord. What brings you to our shop today? New spells?” Al approached, his tail lightly swinging expectantly.

“Mostly giving a tour and seeing how things have progressed since my absence. I do have a new spell though. Though I need to do some tweaking to it. It allows a person to meld two pieces of wood together.”

“So like the [Welding] spell?” Al’s tail and ears flipped excitedly.

“Yes, I will come by tomorrow.”

“Thank you my lord.” Al bowed.

Rorroco released the wild Wanda, now that she more tamed.

“Wait! Who is that?! Another woman?! Gah! My chances keep falling!”

“I must admit, I am curious my lord, who is this young lady?” Al asked.

“Heya! I’m Luna and I am Eric’s little sister!” Phaestus’ group tensed up.

“Eric? Why does that name sound familiar?” Wanda asked.

“He was friends with Micah remember.”

“Oh yeah! We haven’t seen them in a while. That Eric was also a bit up my alley hueh, hueh, hueh.” Wanda creepily laughed, until Luna dropped a huge bomb.

“What do you mean? He is standing right her-.” Phaestus smacked her on the head.

“Ouch! What was that for…?” She saw his mask and remembered that he was Phaestus right now.

“Oh, um, nothing, just ignore what I just said. Heheheh.” She laughed awkwardly, but Wanda and Al were not tricked.

“Wait, so Eric is Lord Hephaestus!?” Wanda looked to Dite who sighed and removed her mask.

“Yes, it’s me Wanda.”

Eric did the same.

“W-W-W-What?!”

“Miss Wanda, you mean to say that you did not know already?” Al asked, a rare sound of emotion in his voice.

“Uwah! Why do you sound so disappointed!? You mean you already knew?!”

“I cannot be disappointed now because I am always disappointed in you Miss Wanda.”

She cried out, with a bit of a dirty smile on her face.

“Papa, is she okay?” Ruby asked, hiding behind Eric.

“Just ignore her, she is a pervert Ruby. How did you know Al?” Eric asked.

“I figured it out since Lady Aphrodite acted just like Micah. So I knew it was her, which made it easy to figure out who you were Lord Eric. Mr. Wrinklebottom also figured it out too. When I consulted Fizzy, she said that the two of you revealed yourselves to her to get her to move to Lenmos and to bring us along. Buulgi seemed like he had known for some time though.” Al explained.

“Yeah, that is a giant thing.” Rorroco chimed in.

“I see. Well I assure you that you can trust us to keep your secret Lord Eric.” Al bowed.

“Thanks Al.”

“Hey, Lord Eric, if you want me to keep your secret-.”

“You will keep his secret with nothing in exchange Miss Wanda, or I will expose all of your embarrassing secrets to everyone in every major city and town, causing you to have to live out in small villages.” Al warned her.

“UWAH! You’re so mean Al! Why can’t you let me be with him!?”

“Because you would ruin his image.”

She began crying and rolling around on the ground.

“Papa, I don’t want to be an adult like her.”

“That is good Ruby. I am proud of you.”

Ruby’s comment seemed to be the last straw as Wanda cried even harder, running out of the room with a creepy smile and blushing face. The whole group stood stunned at the woman, but eventually said their goodbyes to Al and left.

“Um, Phaestus, I am sorry.” Luna said.

“Don’t worry too much about it, it was kind of expected.”

“Ngh.” She couldn’t deny his comment.

He patted her head comfortingly, which caused her to smile.

Well, I guess she’s like a little sister, a bumbling one.

There next stop was Wrinklebottom’s alchemist shop.

“Hello my lord! What brings you here today?” The talkative gnome welcomed them to his shop.

“Hello Wrinklebottom. Just stopping in to see how things are going.”

“Business has been great! Thanks to the Grand Forest Path, we have access to rare ingredients from the forest allowing me to stock and experiment more. I found some ways to improve my potion quality.”

“Grandfather, I finished compounding the mixture.” A small gnomish girl with blue hair entered.

“Oh, well done Mini, let me take a look. Hmm, looks good, well done. Oh my lord, allow me to introduce my granddaughter who is my apprentice, Minimoon.”

“Greetings my lord, please call me Mini.” She hid behind her grandfather.

Aw, that’s cute.

“Sorry my lord, she is a bit shy.”

“It is no issue. Mini, would you like a piece of candy?” He handed it to Ruby who knelt down, handing it to the shy girl.

“It’s really good!” Ruby took one out she had on her and popped it in her mouth.

“You put in your mouth and let it gradually melt.”

Mini put the candy in her mouth and tried it.

“Mm! This is tasty! Thank you milord!” She danced about happily.

“Heheheh, thank you my lord.”

“You seem to have softened up you old gnome.” Dite said.

“Well yes, since living with Mini I have become soft. How have you been Micah?”

She removed her mask.

“So that’s what you really look like? Quite a lovely lass you are.”

They gave each other a friendly hug. Mini watched curiously, which her grandfather advised her to keep this secret.

“Okay!” She happily said.

I guess she likes secrets?

“My Lord, thank you for looking after her and making her a happy woman. Now get to making a kid so my granddaughter can have another friend!” Wrinklebottom laughed and smiled while Micah blushed.

“Oh, uh, right. Here is a list of reagents I am looking for in the following quantities, would you be able to get this?” He handed a list over to the old gnome.

“Hmm, I have a majority of this, I will just have to order some extra. Give me till tomorrow and I should have all of it.” They said their goodbyes and headed off to Buulgi’s carpentry shop.

“Oh, welcome brother.” Buulgi welcomed them to his shop in the giant tongue.

“Hey Buulgi. How are things?”

“Quite good. Business is good with all the construction. Do you need anything?”

“I do actually! I am working on a new project and am in need of quite a bit of wood. Do you of any wood that is light, durable, and works well with runes?”

“Hmm, there is only one that comes to mind. It is difficult to come by, well, normally it was, but thanks to the Grand Forest Path I should be able to get it. It is call Thaumal wood. Give me a couple of days and I should have some for you. What are you planning on making? So I have a better idea of what you will be building.”

“A boat, about have the size of a river ship. It will not have a mast.”

“Hmm, a strange sounding vessel, but I am sure it will turn out as something amazing in your hands. Very well.”

“Thank you Buulgi. I will swing by then.”

“E-Eric, is this what I think it is?” Dite asked, forgetting that they were in disguise.

“Yes, Dite, I got the missing piece to make it work. Now hush.”

She straightened, realizing what she did and looked around to see if anyone other than Buulgi was around, sighing in relief.

“Well, we will be off Buulgi, I have one last stop for the day.”

“Of course brother. Take care.” Buulgi bowed his head and Phaestus’ group headed to their final location, the smithy of the Lacroix dwarf brothers, Manji and Sanji.

“My lord Hephaestus! It is good to see you. I know I do this every time, but thank you for helping me kid brother out of that spot. What can we do for you?” Sanji greeted them as they entered.

Sanji had a tough looking body from his time working in their family mine. His hair and short beard were a light brown.

“I came to see if you were able to fulfill my order from a month ago.”

“Ah, yes. We have the iron, silver, gold, and mithril. The orihalcum is sadly very difficult to mine. We have been having better luck with those mithril picks you loaned us. Some magnificent rune work on them.”

“Thanks, I will take what you have of my order.”

“Understood. This way please.”

Sanji led him to a back store room, chanted a passphrase that opened a hatch in the floor that led them to a much larger storeroom that they kept their most precious ores and orders. Typically they would bring the customer’s order out to them, but they always brought Phaestus in as he was a major patron of their shop in Lenmos.

“Here is your order my lord. This is only a tenth of the orihalcum you wanted though.”

“Good enough. Thank you for your hard work Sanji.”

The dwarf laughed and thanked him. “No need for payment either. Thanks to the new tools and investment, business has been so much better. Not to mention that we get a lot of orders from Meerka. I had to hire on a bunch of new people to keep up with the demand wuhahahahahah!”

Phaestus thanked the laughing dwarf and moved all the ores to his Haven.

“Where is Manji?” Phaestus asked while they were heading out.

“Oh, me brother headed back to Dunlap to finish up closing down our place there. We decided that we want to make this place our permanent home.”

“I see, thank you.”

Sanji gave a big toothy grin and wished them a good day as they left.

“Ah! What a great city Eric! This place has so much positive energy!” Luna commented plopping down on a sofa in his office.

Laura the maid brought in snacks and set them up on the table for everyone.

“Thanks Luna. It was due to the efforts of Douglas, Ella, Fizzy, Buulgi, Al, Wrinklebottom, Micah, Rorroco, and many others.”

“Don’t be so humble Master Eric, you played the biggest part. The growth of the town is due to the Grand Forest Path, the crossbows and ballistae, your good nature and natural charisma. You are the heart of this town. People move here because of you.”

Eric thanked Douglas for his comment.

“So, when do you plan to start building the Airship?” Micah asked anxiously.

Eric could only laugh.

“What is an Air-Ship?” Ella asked.

“Simply, it will be a boat the size of a river boat, have no mast, and the best part… Fly through the sky.”

Most of the group looked surprised, while Micah looked happily smug over how great her husband is, but Luna just smiled since she already knew that Elder Oribaba already approved the project and she would not get in trouble again.

“It will probably take me a while to build it, but for now I will be working on the designs. I should have the designs done before we head to Obai. We will head there by ship, and should be coming back via Airship.”

The group cheered excitedly.

In the evening, their group was relaxing in the Haven. Most everyone was relaxing in the hot spring with the exception of Eric and Ruby. Ruby wanted to learn some crafting skills, so Eric had her in the workshop with him.

“Papa, does this look good so far?” She asked, handing a small piece of wood she was working on.

“Hahahah, stop worrying over making mistakes Ruby. Making mistakes is a part of process, you just need to make sure that you learn from them. Let’s see, you just need to shave a bit more here and here, then start on the next piece.”

“Okay!” She said energetically.

Eric was drawing up his design plans on his drafting table. It was a well-worn table that he had used so many times in his life. He smiled sadly, remembering his parents buying it for him as a graduation gift.

“Papa?” Ruby sensed his feelings.

“I am okay Ruby. I am just remembering my parents. I have been here for around a year now.”

“You lost your parents too?”

“Yeah. I made a big mistake that brought me to this world. I won’t be able to see them ever again. They bought me this table, even helped me get this house.”

“Were they gods?”

He tilts his head and smiles quizzically.

“Big sister said that your Haven was a gift from the gods.”

He laughed. “True, the Haven is, but the buildings, this table, a few of my tools, they were gifts from them.” He looked at his drafting table nostalgically.

I really hope they are doing okay. I should ask Luna later.

He then felt a warm embrace from behind him.

“You have us, don’t feel so lonely.” Micah rested her head on his shoulder.

I am really thankful I met her. Without her, my time in this world might have been much harder. Same with Lady Vannil, Fizzy, Wrinklebottom, Jiggly, Simon, Al, Ruby, Rorroco, the King and Queen, Luna, Senior Goddess, Elder Oribaba, and so many others, I guess even Wanda…

A warm and content smile came to his face.

“Thank you. All of you.” He hugged her arms to his chest.

Rorroco, Ruby, and even Luna joined in on the hug.

This might be the greatest blessing I could receive.

“Thank you Luna.”

“Hmm? Um, yeah! Sure!” She happily smiled.

He looked over his half-way done plans and smiled.