There are times when I am so utterly grateful that [Inventory] exists in this world. Not just for myself, but because Lena had a massive wardrobe full of outfits, accessories, and a shoe closet that was larger than my apartment in my previous world. All of it got sucked up into a little satchel that her maid, Priss, got to carry around. I couldn’t begin to imagine what travel with her would have been like if the magic tech didn’t exist.

Of course, my life would be considerably different without it as well. I’d probably have to build myself a trailer that I hauled around all the time. The thought made me wonder if Optimus had an [Inventory] system that he stored his trailer in when in bot mode.

The Baron didn’t come out to see us off when we left his mansion, which was fine by me. The goat maid was there though, standing by the coach that would take us to the local airfield. She waited patiently, holding a small wooden chest and looking slightly annoyed.

“His Lordship, the Baron, wishes to apologize once again. Please accept this as a token of his sincerity,” she said, taking a half step to block me from boarding.

“What is it?” I asked, eyeing the chest skeptically.

“A token of the Baron’s sincerity,” she repeated in a put-out tone and thrusting the chest into mine.

As soon as I took it she turned and walked back to the mansion.

“Charming, to the last,” I muttered in my best Peter Cushing.

I shook my head as if to dislodge any residual stink-eye from the estate that might be clinging to me and climbed into the coach.

“What do you have there?” Lena asked, looking curious.

“A token of the Baron’s sincerity,” I repeated.

Lena leaned heavily into me as I opened up the chest. The inside was lined with a soft, expensive-looking cloth dyed the color of blood. Nestled in the center sat a block of... nothing. Endless void, eternal darkness, all encompassing blackness, in the silhouette of a cube in the range of 20 centimeters on a side.

“You ever seen anything like this?” I asked.

Lena silently shook her head, eyes transfixed on the cube. I tried poking it. It was solid... sort of. My finger apparently touched it and refused to push into it or smush it at all, but it made no sound to touch it, nor did any of my feedback sensors report that I was touching anything.

Carefully, I picked it up, pulling it from its plush blood pillow. Again, there was zero sensation that I was actually touching anything or that it had any weight in my hand. I tried [Inspect]ing it, but quickly had to close out the results window. Most of the text was garbled and glitchy, putting me in a panic that it might infect my systems if I left it open. The only details I could make out were that it was a type of metal. I flicked it a couple times and my finger behaved as though I’d hit something, though I didn’t feel anything or hear any sounds.

“Try holding it,” I suggested, holding it out to Lena.

Briefly she glanced at me then back at it. Cautiously she took it from me.

“It is as though I hold nothing at all,” she said, mesmerized.

“Toadwart, you try,” I suggested, looking over at the goblin and plucking it from Lena.

“Uh, sure?” he responded, raising an eyebrow.

I held out the cube and dropped it into his hands. His hands dipped as he caught it, suggesting that it had weight. His eyebrows shot up in surprise.

“It’s just as her ‘ighness says. Like nothin’,” he said, dumbfounded.

I took the cube back and dropped it into its chest, watching as the fabric buckled and deformed as the block plopped in.

“It clearly has weight to it. We can see how it impacts its environment. It has substance and resists being pushed against... If I had to guess... this thing resists being observed,” I wondered, thinking aloud.

“What do you mean?” Lena asked.

“We can’t observe it directly, only the effects it has on things around it. Like light. You can’t actually see light, just the effect it has when it hits something. Even sunbeams or whatever are just light reflecting off of dust in the air. Light itself is completely unobservable. I think this stuff is similar in that regard. It’s blocking or disrupting any means we have of observing it. So if it has color, it blocks your ability to see it. If it has weight, it blocks your ability to feel it. If it makes sound, it blocks your ability to hear it. I can’t begin to guess how it works though.”

“You lost me professor, wake me when we get to the dragon ranch,” Toadwart muttered, closing his eyes and leaning his head back.

“Were you a teacher or a tutor in your past, Prime?” Lena asked me teasingly.

“Ah, sorry. I just find it interesting to speculate on how things work.”

“Do not dwell on it. The loftier question is: what are you going to do with it?”

“The first thing that comes to mind is stealth. If I can work this stuff to put a thin skin of it onto magisteel then I can build an Automata shade. I wonder if there is enough material to coat Carnivac in this...” I mused.

“A shade Carnivac would be terrifying. As it is, he is already a cut above in terms of covert capability, from what I saw in his duel,” Lena warned, looking at me from the side of her eye.

“If’n ya need a test subject, ah volunteer,” Remi suggested, speaking up.

“Hmm... what’s your maximum effective range?” I asked.

“Four hundred meters or so ah guess with this bow,” he answered.

“That’s impressive for hitting center mass,” I praised.

“Ah no. That’d be for headshots. Center mass would be six but ya can’t guarantee a kill with a torso shot so I wouldn’t call it effective range.”

“Now you’re just bragging. A shade sniper with a range like that... that’d be a heck of an asset on any team. I’ll consider it. What’s the range on that thing regardless of target hit?”

“Thousand on flat terrain,” he said evenly.

“Fwoof. I guess when you factor in an Automata’s strength, muscle control, and enhanced optics then your standard wooden longbow isn’t going to cut it.”

“I used to quite enjoy archery in my leisure time,” Lena added. “Of course the idea of shooting a target farther than you feel like walking to retrieve your arrows is ridiculous.”

“I would have thought that servants retrieved arrows,” I teased.

“Of course they did, but it’s nice to inspect your shot up close when you get a clean one,” Lena replied completely without shame. “I have a selection of archery dresses and some rather cute bows packed away. I’ll model them for you sometime.”

I blinked at Lena a bit. Leave it to her to take a conversation about shooting people in the head and turn it towards cute fashion.

“Don’t ever change Lena,” I supplied.

“Why would I?” she smiled, scrunching her face and closing her eyes.

We arrived at the Ladywick dragon ranch where our ride was waiting for us. It wasn’t nearly the fortress of the imperial ranch. If anything, it reminded me of a dude ranch with horses and lots of wide open space wrapped in a fence.

“Good afternoon your highness, we are ready to embark as soon as your party is on board,” our pilot, the night elf Captain Major Rywind greeted.

“Captain Major,” she responded elegantly.

“If I may,” he said, “I just wished to extend my thanks in having you and your Auto help deal with the air bandits during the first leg of our trip. I am ashamed that we were insufficient to deal with the threat on our own.”

Before I could say anything I felt Lena’s hand on top of my head gently patting me.

“Yes. This little fellow packs quite a punch in a small package, does he not? I am quite fond of him,” she said, shooting me a wink.

“If bandits are an issue, I’m surprised that security wasn’t better,” I complained.

The elf looked at me in surprise. I guessed that me speaking candidly caught him off guard.

“Er, yes. Normally we would have a wyvern squadron escort but they’ve all been mobilized for the pending war.”

“You’d think that the princess would be worth sparing a wyvern or two,” I grumbled.

“Er... yes... my apologies. Excuse me, I must attend to the pre-flight checks,” he said, slinking off.

“Cheeky,” Lena accused, “though not that I mind when it is to my advantage.”

Like before, the quadrupeds were strapped into special harnesses and sedated and the same cabin crew of beefy cyclops Sergeant Pria and Automata stewardess Marybell greeted us. I was tempted to ask about riding on top of the dragon but thought against it when Lena cleared her throat and patted the spot next to her.

The takeoff was just as rough as the last time too. Possibly rougher. Once we’d leveled off, people were free to relax. The cards came out between Toadwart and Roy and Priss pulled out an embroidery project she was working on. Marybell got up and walked over to us, standing in front of the Princess.

“May I get you anything, your highness? We have a small selection of wines and some cheeses on hand. Dinner won’t be served until the eighteenth bell,” she asked.

“I am fine for now, thank you Marybell,” Lena responded.

“Mister Prime, it’s nice to see you’ve returned safely from your walk,” Marybell said warmly, addressing me. “Is Mister Hide not with you? I admit I was worried when he jumped from the cabin.”

“He’s okay, no worries. We were grounded in the fight and had to catch up but met up with some old friends on the way. He’s decided to stay with them for now. Ah, may I introduce my friend Remi, a long range archer unit.”

“Ma’am,” Remi said cooly, tilting his head.

Marybell nodded back and stepped away to check on the card players.

“Alrighty. I’m going to see if I can get some work done. I won’t be intentionally ignoring you or anything,” I warned Lena.

Lena, however, looked like she was seeing things I couldn’t as her optics moved about and her fingers twitched. I assumed she was looking at internal things in her HUD.

“I agree. We have the time so we should make the best use of it,” she answered without looking at me.

“What are you working on?” I asked.

“I am rewriting some of my spells and attempting to craft ones for elements that I don’t usually have installed.”

“You can do that? I didn’t realize you had access to those files,” I said, impressed.

“I must admit that it is quite difficult navigating and updating the raw files but I think that I am beginning to understand how the magic language works. I have been struggling with this for a while now but I do not see any other means to do this. I have always been an adept study in the magic arts. I do not intend to give that up.”

“Oh sweety, if I knew you were interested I would have helped!”

She stopped what she was doing and looked directly at me.

“You called me sweety,” she said with a coy smile.

I waved away her comment and touched a finger to her forehead, pushing a file packet over to her.

“This is my magic development environment or MDE. It’ll help you access, update, and manage your system files. I can also help you out if you have questions about syntax or code structure.”

“Sin tax? Code? I do not understand,” she said confused.

I spent the next two hours walking her through the basics of code development, best practices, navigating her files, and how to use the MDE. She was excited about having documentation to read through along with boilerplate starter files. She then vowed to completely refactor all of her spells now that she could easily see what was happening and test them in a virtual simulation. I was excited to see her interest in code development. The idea that I would have anyone else to talk to about this sort of stuff that wasn’t a proxy of mine had never even occurred to me.