Chapter 137: Chapter 129 – The Elven Immigrant

While it would have been nice if I didn't have to be forceful about it, Peitho was someone I really wanted. She had the abilities which the Hourai Commonwealth was sorely lacking.

Or rather, almost everyone was pretty carefree and had little interest in anything resembling paperwork, even though it was quite vital to keep a society moving smoothly. Hopefully the success of the Hunter's Guild would convince the others how important paperwork was, no matter how boring and annoying it was.

"I know it's a bit late after agreeing, but you're sure you can guarantee what you've promised?"

"Some of it might take some time, but I pretty sure I can. At the worst, some of it might not meet your expectations exactly, but I'm sure that all the important things can be covered properly."

"Such as?"

"The food and drink, as well as the pay. Well, the work as well, since I'm the one who wants you to do it. If you want, I can write up a contract."

"Sure. It might make things easier."

"Alright then."

A sheet of paper appeared in my hand, along with an inkwell and steel dip pen in the other. I quickly got to work detailing the terms.

"What's that?"

"...The contract?"

I looked up from my work, only to then realize what she was asking about.

"Oh, you mean the paper?"

"Paper? It looks different from parchment."

"Yea. We recently introduced it. Not quite as smooth, but so much cheaper. Hopefully one day it'll completely replace bark and wooden boards for writing."

I passed the sheet over and Peitho passed her fingers over its surface for a few moments.

It didn't take a genius. Even I could see the light spark as she realized the importance of paper, and how it could revolutionize the world. At least a single aspect of it. In a world where everyone was literate, where writings were accessible to even the poorest people, a new and better method to deliver the written word that was cheap enough for the masses would cause huge ripples across the world.

But at the same time, I at the very least knew that this wasn't good enough. This paper was nice, incomparably nicer than what was already being used, but it wasn't nearly cheap enough. The cost was too high to become widespread. As the demand went up, the price would as well as the method to make it wasn't very good at scaling up.

I really needed to figure out how to make usable pulp paper before paper could take over as the dominant writing medium.

"So how long until you think you can make your way over? If you can get ready within the day, I can take you on my way back. Otherwise we'll have to set up a date when we can meet up."

Once Peitho finished her examination, I asked my own question as I started to write down the clauses of her contract.

"Is it that far?"

"Rather than far, the monsters along the way are pretty tough, so I'd rather take you at least the final leg myself than risk you getting into trouble."

"I see. In that case, I can get everything cleared out before sundown."

"That's good. I'd rather not have to make time for a second trip."

Every time I have to leave the country, I gain less levels before I'm no longer able to safely fight. The less I need to do that, the better. Or rather, it would be nice if I could get other people to do all of that sort of stuff, but the most critical point was carrying goods to Edgeworth Village.

There was a serious shortage of people who could use [Dimensional Magic] to a high enough degree that they could carry the requisite food over. Those few who could do it were generally busy with other duties more critical for the country than trading for paper, and unlike me, they couldn't do the trip in a single day.

I and Claret were the only ones in the entire Commonwealth who could travel overnight without any ill effects, and not even Claret could make the entire distance before sunrise.

It wasn't like there weren't magic bags, but I was pretty hesitant on letting others use my own, and any others that had a large enough capacity were being used to protect important items that belonged to one of the original groups that made up our country.

Making new ones of sufficient capacity wasn't possible for the enchanters we currently had either. If anything, I'd probably have to learn enchanting myself to make the bags. I had the skill for it, just not the knowledge nor experience.

But doing so would take so much precious time, it was hard to justify while I could still safely raise my level. Soon, I'd have to be content with blood from weaker monsters. I had no idea what kind of effect the quality of blood had on Alicia's unborn body, but at the very least, settling for weaker blood wouldn't be beneficial.

I looked up from casually stroking my belly to the elf across the desk.

Things were going pretty well now in so many ways. I couldn't help but wonder how long it would last. How long I had before someone would try something against me or the Hourai Commonwealth.

Thinking about it, asking for Peitho's help was a risk. If she couldn't accept working with people from the dark lands, that peace wasn't possible, she'd be nothing but trouble.

Hopefully all the bribes I had given her would convince her that it was a possibility. At the very least, as a vampire, I myself was one of the dark people, so she should be able to accept that it was possible.

(Speaking of vampires...)

"Oh yea, last time we met..."

"Yes?"

Peitho looked up from the pile of bark covered in scribbles.

"How much of the incident west of Eremus did you know at the time?"

The whole incident involving that bastard and lives he ruined. Peitho had originally convinced me to go that way in the hopes of finding information about vampires. In the end, I did get the information I wanted, but that was due to observing the situation, not being able to talk to some expert which Peitho suggested was in the area.

As expected, the elf across from me put down her writing quill and let out a deep breath before looking me directly in the eye.

"To be honest, not much. We knew that there was an unusually high number of disappearances in the area over the last few decades, and suspected a vampire was involved. The clues were there. The likely timings of the attacks, the indiscriminate nature of it, and the locations. As well as the few traces we could find. It looked like bandits, but some of the victims didn't make sense for a bandit group that seemed as well organized and successful as they seemed. Bandits would have no reason to target ordinary travellers and adventurers normally rather than only merchants. Well, most of the guild was still convinced it was bandits. Even for me, it was little more than a suspicion."

I nodded. Everything I saw suggested that they were trying to disguise themselves as bandits. It was a reasonable move, as small time bandits wouldn't attract much attention.

"We could have been wrong. Dragonkin were known to cross the Abyssal Chasm in that area since it was narrower there than most of the rest of the continent. Though it could have also just been other flying monsters as well, but then there would have been sightings at Parietina Village, so it was much more likely that the damage in the area was caused by something intelligent."

"Speaking of Parientia, wasn't its destruction the reason why you wanted me to go that way?"

But against my expectation, Peitho shook her head.

"I didn't even know about that at the time. While it was true that it had been reported by that point, there was no reason to send that information through the guild's magic transmission network to a place this far removed from the location. Nobody could reasonably expect that we could make a difference in time from so far after all. Really, the victims were lucky that you got involved the way you did."

I couldn't say that her words entirely set entirely right with me, but her explanation did make sense. There was no indication when we last met that she was in that much of a hurry for me to go to Eremus, nor know that I could make it there in time for the rescue mission.

If anything, it felt more like she wanted to lead me towards solving the bandit issue in general, rather than rescue the survivors of an annihilated village. The fact that she suspected that a vampire was involved with all of this only meant that she hadn't lied about a single thing when she told me what she knew.

It didn't change the fact that she did still proactively deceive me, so it was a fact that she owed me a big one both for that and helping to solve the entire thing.

On the other hand, I couldn't really blame her for the difficulty of the actual fight itself. Frankly, encountering someone even higher level than myself without the chance to prepare was such an unlikely scenario, especially when that bastard was hiding and disguising his actions like that of a bandit boss's.

Or at the very least, I thought it was that unlikely. Probability may say otherwise.

Overall, it seemed like things only got as bad as they did due to bad luck.

In reality, while Peitho did manipulate me, it seemed clear that the intent was to lead me to a normal problem that's been plaguing a region for a long time and didn't have someone strong enough who could solve it. Not plunge me into a battle where the fate of over a hundred, if not thousands of people lay in the balance.

For that matter, even looking at the evidence afterwards, aside from the attack on Parietina Village, the group did seem a bit small time yet intelligent and only a problem because the region simply lacked high ranked adventurers or experienced knights to deal with rather than be something which could have devastated the region in only a few more years.

And on top of that, Peitho was right in that I'd find the information I wanted by going there as well, even if the way I learned it wasn't exactly what she had in mind.

Peitho didn't wrong me that badly. Things just blew up way beyond what she had expected, despite proving that she was quite an intelligent and capable staff member of the Adventurers' Guild.

While making a bit of casual chit chat in between, we continued to write and refine the contract while Peitho finished up the documentation she needed to quit her current job.

I felt a little sorry for the guild members here, but they had been pushing her way too much for far too long. My conscience felt quite a bit soothed once I considered it as their just desserts.

 

Once morning came, Peitho handed in her paperwork and formalized the termination of her employment, then we moved on to her house where I put away the things she wanted to take with her.

We continued on to finish off all her business to move out of the city. Anything we weren't bringing with us was sold off, or given away, and her money stored in the Adventures' Guild's bank.

My own cash was withdrawn, as the rewards from before I holed up back around Hourai Mountain was sitting there waiting for me to claim them.

(Still, this is quite a lot of money I've saved up. Despite the fact that I've made an effort to use it last time, it's increased to such a level already. If I sell the random crap I've horded over the last year, wouldn't this cause deflation in this country?)

In terms of drops, I've collected quite a lot between the two dungeons I've gone into, and an amazing amount of it is quite high value. If I sold all that, I'd be instantly quite rich. Not like I wasn't already. But it was possible that my own assets was on the level that would rival a national level merchant group, or even an international level one. Selling all my liquidable assets would likely mean that I would personally own a measurable percentage of the nation's coinage.

After all, they included dozens of those divine coins which were valued so high that just one silver one was worth a handful of normal gold coins. Combine that with all the mythical metals and dragon parts I've collected in the last half year, and I probably owned enough to make a noticeable dent in this country's economy.

That presumed I had buyers of course, but in the first place selling rare things that could be used as war materials didn't feel very good. Let alone the threat that it could be used against my own country.

I really had no reason to sell them, though slowly distributing them around Hourai was possible. Preferably once some of the hunters managed to get close to the floors where such drops actually appeared in. Giving people overpowered weapons was a quick way to make them dependent on them rather than actually improve.

Sarah was a perfect example of that. Her swings with her sword were terrible, and she definitely only got to a slightly high level because she was able to steam roll most of the monsters in Knossos's dungeon with ease.

(Actually, where is that woman anyways?)

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This was probably the first time in months since I had last thought about that weird woman who was trying to kill me due to being tricked by the god who wanted me dead. As my mind was directed towards her and her location, I felt a blip on my consciousness.

I was filled with the feeling that Sarah was to the north. As to how far north, I couldn't tell, but she was definitely north of my current location.

But once I confirmed the effectiveness of the familiar connection I had with that strange woman, I pushed all thoughts of her out of my mind. As long as she didn't try something against me again, I didn't particularly care what she did.

All that aside, it took Peitho a bit of time to sign the sale of her home over to a trusted merchant who would handle the actual sale of the old building which she had apparently spent less time sleeping at than her office.

As a finality, I made her some salted fish fried rice for dinner before we headed out of the city under the crimson assault of the sun's dying light.

Once we were out of sight of the city's gates, I picked her up in a piggy back, mostly because she refused a princess carry. Lightly kicking off the ground, I activated [Float] and used [Wind Magic] to both propel me through the air and create a shield to block out the wind.

It was tempting to use my wings, but it would probably scare Peitho at this point, so I just sucked it up and dealt with the extra travel time.

The elf held on to me pretty tightly during the trip. Claret on the other hand radiated silent annoyance, but I needed her to bear with this. It was only for a single night after all.

We first started our way west, away from the main road, but I quickly altered the angle towards the massive mountain in the far distance. Part of it was to reduce the travel distance, but another was to avoid being seen by anyone. Especially since I couldn't undo [Materialize] and Peitho didn't have a way to turn invisible, we could easily be seen by anybody who had decent night vision and happened to decide to look upwards.

With this awkward mood which made it quite difficult to start some sort of conversation to stave off the boring monotony of simply flying long distance, I went for my only method of alleviating at least a bit of this atmosphere.

[Here you go. Enjoy.]

I condensed and floated over one of my usual special mana treats to my favourite familiar. She immediately caught it and started to nibble on it like a squirrel.

(Ah, that look of pure joy is just as healing as always.)

 

Soon after the sun had started its usual morning assault, the massive cloud of fluffballs became visible.

Like usual, it was floating around above the fairy settlement. Groups of fluffballs meandered around, dipping below the treeline before rising just above it again as they danced around to suit their mood.

"What...just what is that?"

Peitho's whispered words reached my ears.

"That's my home."

Frankly speaking, I wasn't quite sure what else I could say. Any explanation further than that would take quite a lot of time, and it was just better to see it for herself.

"Are those...all spirits?"

"Oh, yea. There's a lot like usual."

As we continued our approach, the ocean of colourful fluffballs continued to fill our vision. Since flying the way we were meant that I lost quite a lot of my manoeuvring capacity, I simply opted to make our way over the forest canopy rather than dip below and evade the tree trunks and branches like I usually did.

Due to that, this sight was a bit unusual for me, but only due to the angle. Frankly it wasn't very surprising for me once I got used to the sight of the fluffballs making up the entire sky when I was in the fairy settlement.

The sight was a bit strange, but they did disrupt the sun's magical assault, so it was quite welcome from my perspective. And that didn't take into consideration just how cute the fluffballs were.

"This is normal here?! I don't even remember seeing so many spirits back when I grew up in Arcadia."

"That's the country most of the elves live in, right?"

It was a name I'd hardly heard, but made the effort to remember when Aurae talked about the larger world to help get rid of some of my naivety.

"That's right. The land of elves, fairies, and spirits. To think there was a place where spirits gathered outside of Arcadia."

Since it seemed like she hadn't heard about it, it was a bit hard for me to tell her that the fluffballs here were the ones who had migrated from Arcadia together with the fairies. It really made me wonder how the remaining elves took the huge migration. Hopefully it wouldn't negatively impact the commonwealth in the future. At least for now, staying hidden was a better thought though.

"Anyways, I'll take you over to the Hunter's Guild building first and teach you about your new job, unless if you want to sleep in my room until you've rested?"

"No, it's okay. I don't think I'll be able to sleep so soon anyways."

I could feel how the elf on my back was filled with awe at the sight of so many fluffballs in one place.

"Could you head them off a bit Claret? I'll meet up with you after."

"Yes Master!"

I handed over a substantial number of mini mana treats that she could use to distract the swarm of fluffballs. Even at this distance their formation had changed, probably because they noticed that I was approaching. But this wasn't a good time to play with them.

My ever faithful familiar sped up and intercepted the group ahead of us, starting up the distraction of slowly giving out the treats a few at a time.

"Is Claret the name of that spirit that's always with you?"

"Huh? Ah, yea. I guess you noticed her the first time we met as well?"

"I did, but I wasn't entirely sure. She seemed different from any other spirit I've seen."

(Really? She's just bigger than the others. She's hardly any more different than that for the most part.)

"Hmm...oh. Maybe it's because she's a greater spirit?"

"A greater spirit?! You have something that amazing following you?!"

"Yea, I guess? I'm surprised you never noticed."

"My [Spirit Perception] is only rank three, so I can't really see them very well. They just look like a coloured heat haze."

"I see. Still, she's that amazing huh?"

It certainly didn't feel like it. Sure, she was pretty strong, and her level was rising quite well lately on top of that, but to specifically consider her as something amazing because of her race?

"Of course she is! She's a greater spirit! There's only a handful of them in the entire world!"

Certainly they were rare, but that only made them as special as a novelty rather than anything. Claret was weird in her own ways, but now that I got to know the fairies, she was hardly a novelty anymore.

"But it's just that, right? She's rare. As a greater spirit, it's nothing more than that, right?"

"Well, certainly. But they're incomparably more powerful than a lesser spirit as well!"

"Maybe compared to the others, but I don't think greater spirits are innately that strong."

"Well...maybe compared to the other races they aren't strong..."

"So yea. Aside from being rare, they're not that special then."

"But...she is! Being that powerful, as a spirit user can't you feel the difference between a lesser spirit and a greater one?"

"I'm not a spirit user."

"Huh?"

(Why did she even presume I was?)

"I'm not a spirit user."

"But Claret follows you around, right? She's your familiar?"

"She is."

"Then..."

"I'm not a spirit user. Just because you have a spirit as a familiar doesn't mean that you're a spirit user. It's not like spirits are the only race that can become a familiar after all."

"Well, no...but..."

"I don't use her like a spirit user, so I'm not a spirit user. Alright?"

"Umm...sure..."

Only after Peitho's response grew so meek that I realized I had gone a bit too far. I hadn't even realized that I was snapping at her for even talking about spirit users until then, and made me feel a little bad. From her perspective, she wasn't doing anything wrong, and even just calling me a spirit user wasn't actually anything bad.

What was bad was how those elven spirit users used their spirits, not the fact that they were spirit users. Most likely, spirit users could provide an equally beneficial symbiotic relationship with their familiar spirits.

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