Chapter 99
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Gren felt that his day couldn't get any worse. The mysterious deaths early in the morning and the incident with the goblin had already left him feeling defeated. There were requests that he could take but he needed a day off. There was enough death for one day.
Upstairs in her bedroom, Estella was currently comforting Gren by giving him a massage. "I understand how you feel, Gren. Although goblins are less intelligent and more rowdy than us, it doesn't mean that you won't get attached to them." It felt weird being told that by a hobgoblin since her words were similar to what you would use for pets. "You know, Esmeralda might be a normal goblin just like them when she grows up." Goblins didn't have much hair on their head and their facial features were mostly the same so if that happened then Gren might not be able to tell her apart from the other goblins.
The idea of not being to recognize his own child was a thought that frightened him. Would she need to wear a bracelet with her name on it just so that he could tell her apart from the others? "I hope you're wrong, for her sake." Gren didn't think of the outcome of having a normal goblin as a baby when Estella became pregnant. "We'll need to take extra care of her if you're right. The other kids might grow up and leave her behind since she'll always have the mental age of a child."
Estella put more strength into massaging his shoulders. "You're so tense. Does it really bother you that much? As long as we still care for her and show her love then she'll grow up to be happy. Isn't that enough?" While it was true that he'd always love his children, it didn't seem likely that she would be able to live a full life in just thirty five years.
Gren turned around and grabbed Estella, pulling her down next to him on top of the bed. "I'm just worried about her. I'll do my best to help her have a good life regardless of whichever type of goblin she is."
Estella hugged Gren and pressed her forehead to his. "It's good that you worry about her but you're not alone. You've got people all around you that will help you raise her." Estella pushed Gren onto his back and mounted him, rubbing his shoulders from the front. "If you ever feel like you don't have an answer then just talk about it."
"You should probably get off of me." Estella tilted her head. "If you keep on sitting on me like that then you'll end up getting pregnant again." Estella realized what he was talking about and gave him a smile.
"Try to impregnate me again and it comes off." Little Gren shriveled up when he heard that. Was Estella learning from Annie? "Go find another wife if you want to have sex and make more children." In his previous world that would mean a divorce but she seriously meant that he should take a fourth wife. "Why do conversations with you always become about sex?"
There was a very simple answer to that. "Because you're a very sexy woman." Gren sat up which meant that she was now sitting on his lap. "Don't worry. I understand that your pregnancy was difficult. I won't ask you to have my children again." Gren gave her a light kiss before getting up.
Gren had already thought about it but he could research the materials for making condoms. The only reason he hadn't done so is that he had been too busy and didn't want to be without the system for twenty hours since he relied on the pocket dimension for his weapons. The Carbon Byproducts research project would help give him oil, petroleum, plastic, and synthetic rubber among a few other things. He wasn't quite sure why it was separated from carbon as a chemical element. "Let's go see if the others need help with the kids. I'm feeling a bit better after your massage."
———————————
Gren had built playground equipment underground for the kids. Their courtyard wasn't large enough to allow him to build it outside so he made a padded room using rubber and installed it there. There were always lots of magic lights on in there so that nobody would get hurt trying to play in the dark. The fake pirate ship was currently their favorite thing to play on but last month it was the bouncy animals.
Ruby was wearing a captain's outfit complete with a hat and eye patch that Gren made for her. "Ahooey, you land lovers, there's a monster in the water." The way that she tried to imitate Gren's speech when he pretended to be a pirate captain was adorable to Gren but he couldn't dwell on it since he had a part to play. Gren gathered water into the shape of a serpent and made noises to make it seem like they were under attack by a sea dragon.
Ruby grabbed her scepter and yelled out, "Fire arrow!" The scepter lit up with a magic light so Gren used fire magic to create a tiny explosion next to the water serpent. "It's hit!"
Gren made it recover and start to get close. "Sasha, finish it off!" Sasha nodded back at Ruby and threw her rubber ball as hard as she could, hitting the watery serpent. Gren made the serpent retreat and land into a barrel he set down before storing it away. Ruby was celebrating their victory while Sasha looked confused and Tahlia was playing with a wolf pup. It seemed like only Ruby liked pretending to be a pirate.
The toddlers were fenced off from the rest of the playground. They had hollow rubber balls, stuffed animals, and blocks to play with. Chloe was biting a stuffed puppy while napping, Esmeralda was stacking blocks, and the monochrome duo were throwing balls at each other. Gren arrived just in time to see Solaire's ball wipe out the stack of blocks that Esmeralda was working on.
Knowing that she'd begin to cry, Gren brought out a small donut from his pocket dimension and put it in Esmeralda's hand. While she was preoccupied with smushing the donut, Gren restacked her little tower. With that, a crisis was averted. If one of the babies cried then they'd all begin to cry. The only exception was Clarissa since she just didn't cry. She was such a good little girl but Gren really worried about her since he could remember that children with autism often wouldn't cry as children. Even if she grew up autistic he'd still love her like he does all of his children but others might not accept her.
Gren played with the babies while Estella watched them. After Chloe woke up, Gren started juggling a few of the rubber balls to entertain them. They started to get bored of that after a while so he brought out a bunch of pictures that he had a guild member draw; it turned out that the fairy--Tina--was actually a great artist.
The story that went along with the drawings was about a group of children that were taken in and raised by fairies. They eventually grew up and left the fairies but returned when the fairies were in trouble. Gren had to modify the ending since the original ending was too depressing; most of the kids had died and many of the fairies were captured, forcing them to flee their homes. It took a team of Jessica, Gren, and the elderly centaur--Layla--to come up with the new ending. Now it ended with them playing tricks on the bad guys to get them to run away.
———————————
Gren's playtime with the kids came to an end when he was told to go upstairs to meet with unexpected company. He had only met this guy once before and it was when he had first arrived in Adierton with Estella and Annie. The man was the soldier with a weak chin that asked him about the attack on Newton. The soldier was sitting down and drinking a glass of water that Jessica had served him. By his side were eight armored guards which had much nicer armor than the regular soldiers that maintained the peace in this city.
"You must be Gren. You've grown up a lot since I've last seen you." The man gestured to the seat on the other side of the table so Gren sat down. "I'm not sure if I introduced myself when we first met; my name is Raymond. I'm sure that you're busy so I'll just lay down the reason that I'm here. This morning, there were reports about a strange incident in front of your shop. Usually we wouldn't care about some lowlifes from one of the guilds in the slums but the descriptions of the incident are disturbing, to say the least."
He must be talking about the angry mob. "I have been told that you're a magician despite there being no records of you being under anybody's tutelage. Can you tell me what types of magic you can use? Even a small spell of that type would count as long as you successfully used it."
"Can you tell me why you need to know this?" It was an odd question. Gren didn't see any reason for them to ask it.
"It's for the records. Magicians are supposed to report what types of magic they can use so that the kingdom can keep track of them. If you had a magic teacher then they would have taken care of the paperwork for you. There were no records of you using magic last year so it didn't affect you then but you're required to fill out a form by the end of the year." Gren used magic at the end of last year but it seems that nobody reported it. "If you learn more magic before the end of the year then you're allowed to go without reporting it. They just need a yearly report. Many magicians just report at the end of one year and then the beginning of the next so that they can just fill in the same things both times but I recommend doing it earlier so that you don't forget."
There didn't seem to be any point in doing it right this moment. "I'll fill out the form later when I'm less busy. Jess, please remind me to do so before the end of the year." Jessica always kept paper in the bag that she carried now so it was easy for her to write it down.
"That's a shame. The records would make our investigation go by much quicker. The blood sample needed for the record would be able to prove whether or not you've used undead magic." Is that what kind of magic summoned those hands?
"I've never even heard of undead magic before now." Raymond wrote that down before looking back up to Gren. "The things you've said make it seem like it's illegal to use undead magic."
"It is. If you had a magic teacher they would have told you this. You should find a magic teacher before you accidentally do something illegal." Raymond touched the tip of his nose with the feather on his quill. "Well, my father would probably let you off the first time with just a lecture on all of the rules a magician must adhere to."
"Who's your father?" Someone in the position to give a sentence to a crime... a judge?
"The Duke. I don't really like telling people that since I want to make a name for myself without using my identity." Wait, didn't they say that the son of the Duke was the Regent a while back?
"Aren't you the former Regent?" The regent was removed from his post a while back. The reason given to the public was mismanagement that allowed the destruction of three villages under his watch so he wasn't a popular person right now.
Raymond waved his hand. "No, that's my brother, Robert. He's more into politics so you can tell us apart by our muscles. I'm the bigger one." Gren couldn't tell how big Raymond's muscles were since he was wearing armor.
Gren could hear the side door opening up. "Hey, lunkhead, I've got the samples. If you're done then let's get going." A short girl with a weird helmet on her head and glasses over her eyes entered the kitchen. Her body was covered in a baggy robe and she had several bags suspended from her neck and shoulders.
"Just a moment. I'm trying to get this man to give you a blood sample." He said it. Raymond actually said that he was trying to get a blood sample. Usually people didn't admit to things like that so Gren was impressed in a weird way. "The neighbors saw him standing outside when it happened and he's the only magician in the area that we know of."
The girl didn't agree with Raymond. "There's no way that he did it. Look at those muscles. They're more well-toned than yours." Gren was currently wearing a t-shirt so his arms were on display. "Nobody that can use magic like that would have enough time to build muscles like his."
"Not all magicians have a knight following them around like you do. Maybe he realized that he'd need muscles for when he ran out of magic energy." How much longer were they going to talk about Gren like he wasn't there? "Besides, he didn't take long to build those muscles. He was even shrimpier than you when I first met him."
"Do you want to take this outside!? I'll show you who's shrimpy!" She got hostile and started yelling towards Raymond so quickly that it startled Gren. "I'll make you and your muscles disappear into the horizon!
As much as Gren would love to see someone get sent so far away that they became a twinkle in the sky, she was being too loud. "Enough fighting. If you keep being this loud then you'll wake the dead." The knights behind Raymond put their hands on the pommels of their swords and took a stance like they'd pull them out in a moment's notice.
The girl that was arguing with Raymond didn't seem amused by his comment either. "Why would the dead wake up? Is there a curse?" On top of her helmet were a bunch of lenses of different colors that she started looking through.
"It's just a saying. The dead aren't going to start walking around." If Gren knew that they would react like that then he wouldn't have said anything.
"It's a stupid saying." This girl really liked to speak her mind. "People shouldn't be joking around about things like that. The undead are a very serious threat and right now I would be very careful of using words like that if I were you."
"She's right. These guys are specially trained to fight the undead." Raymond spoke up in the girl's defense. "If we didn't suspect that the undead were involved then we wouldn't have brought them."
Things were a bit awkward now in the room but at least the tension had gone away. "Sorry. I didn't realize that the undead were that touchy of a subject. I know that you said that it was illegal to use undead magic but my only interaction with any undead are the two I bought from the Genrich Company."
"You actually have undead!?" Why did she get so loud all of a sudden?
"Calm down, Henrietta. Those two are exceptions. They're harmless." Raymond already knew about the slaves bought by Gren. "Neither of them were created with undead magic and they both have minds of their own."
"How do you create the undead without using undead magic?" She adjusted her glasses and brought out a notepad from one of her bags.
"I don't know all of the details but one of them was an experiment using magical devices on a corpse." After jotting down his words, Henrietta nodded her head. "The other one was the daughter of the former high priestess. After her daughter's death, the high priestess is said to have gone insane. She got her hands on an old copy of the third volume of those Healing Light spell books and tried to use a spell to revive her daughter. It almost worked but there wasn't enough magic energy so the daughter's soul was bound to her bones."
Gren read in the description that she had a backstory but didn't ask Albert Genrich about it. "Nobody ever found out where her spell books ended up since she got rid of them before the knights apprehended her. Some think that she burned them." There was one person in the room that was pretty sure that they knew where they were but they weren't about to expose that information. "It's a shame since that was one of the only copies left. Only the Divine Priestess and the Goddess herself would have access to a copy now."
Henrietta finished writing down the information given to her by Raymond and suddenly turned towards Gren. "Can I see them?" For a moment, Gren thought that she was talking about the books but realized that she meant the undead that were in his guild. Her puppy dog eyes looked kinda scary since they were enlarged through the lenses of her glasses.
She looked like she really wanted to go look at them so there was only one response that he could give her. "No. I have no idea what you plan on doing to them." He wasn't going to let someone in that might pose a threat to the guild members.
Henrietta started pouting. "I just want to look at them." She started looking through her bags until she found the one filled with coins. "Fine. How much do you want for them?"
"They're not for sale." Gren turned down her offer. "They're already free individuals that get to choose where they go. There are no slaves here anymore." Purrnina was treated like a pet even though she was legally a slave but that wouldn't matter; Gren had already forgotten that she existed since he never really saw her in the guild.
"Can you tell them that I want to meet them then?" Gren shook his head to tell her no. "How am I supposed to meet them!?"
"Henrietta, that's enough. You're not going to convince him to let you see them. He doesn't know you well enough to trust you yet. Isn't that right, Gren?" Raymond was exactly right.
"Correct. I don't want to risk the safety of my guild members." Gren had been thinking about this for the entire day. "Even a child like you could pose a threat. When I was your size I..." Gren's words were stopped by a surprise knee to his groin. Gren applied healing magic almost immediately but needed to catch his breath.
"I'm not a child!" Henrietta ran out the side door the next instant. Gren could swear that he saw tears in her eyes.
"What's her problem?" Gren closed his legs; if he ever met her again then he'd never sit with his legs apart in front of her. His groin was healed but there was a phantom sensation that lingered.
Raymond shook his head and explained what caused Henrietta's outburst, "You know, she's actually older than you by about five years. Henrietta had always had problems with her height since she was a kid. The doctors say that it's related to her irregular heartbeat but there's nothing they can do about it." Raymond sighed and shook his head.
"Why don't you just take her to a healer?" If she had heart problems then the second volume of the Healing Light spell books had it covered. They weren't even that far away from the Land of Healing Light.
Raymond slouched back in the seat and looked up. "She's my sister, an Adier. No healers from the Church will even look at her and the ones outside the Church aren't skilled enough." Gren had figured that they were related since they acted close but he didn't realize that she was the Duke's daughter. "They could easily heal her heart and eyes in their holy city but my grandfather completely ruined our relationship with the Church."
Gren didn't like the idea of punishing the family for the actions of a relative. He couldn't control the Church's actions but he had the power to help her. "We should go after her." Raymond seemed confused but Gren was already out the door before he could ask for an explanation.
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Gren felt that his day couldn't get any worse. The mysterious deaths early in the morning and the incident with the goblin had already left him feeling defeated. There were requests that he could take but he needed a day off. There was enough death for one day.
Upstairs in her bedroom, Estella was currently comforting Gren by giving him a massage. "I understand how you feel, Gren. Although goblins are less intelligent and more rowdy than us, it doesn't mean that you won't get attached to them." It felt weird being told that by a hobgoblin since her words were similar to what you would use for pets. "You know, Esmeralda might be a normal goblin just like them when she grows up." Goblins didn't have much hair on their head and their facial features were mostly the same so if that happened then Gren might not be able to tell her apart from the other goblins.
The idea of not being to recognize his own child was a thought that frightened him. Would she need to wear a bracelet with her name on it just so that he could tell her apart from the others? "I hope you're wrong, for her sake." Gren didn't think of the outcome of having a normal goblin as a baby when Estella became pregnant. "We'll need to take extra care of her if you're right. The other kids might grow up and leave her behind since she'll always have the mental age of a child."
Estella put more strength into massaging his shoulders. "You're so tense. Does it really bother you that much? As long as we still care for her and show her love then she'll grow up to be happy. Isn't that enough?" While it was true that he'd always love his children, it didn't seem likely that she would be able to live a full life in just thirty five years.
Gren turned around and grabbed Estella, pulling her down next to him on top of the bed. "I'm just worried about her. I'll do my best to help her have a good life regardless of whichever type of goblin she is."
Estella hugged Gren and pressed her forehead to his. "It's good that you worry about her but you're not alone. You've got people all around you that will help you raise her." Estella pushed Gren onto his back and mounted him, rubbing his shoulders from the front. "If you ever feel like you don't have an answer then just talk about it."
"You should probably get off of me." Estella tilted her head. "If you keep on sitting on me like that then you'll end up getting pregnant again." Estella realized what he was talking about and gave him a smile.
"Try to impregnate me again and it comes off." Little Gren shriveled up when he heard that. Was Estella learning from Annie? "Go find another wife if you want to have sex and make more children." In his previous world that would mean a divorce but she seriously meant that he should take a fourth wife. "Why do conversations with you always become about sex?"
There was a very simple answer to that. "Because you're a very sexy woman." Gren sat up which meant that she was now sitting on his lap. "Don't worry. I understand that your pregnancy was difficult. I won't ask you to have my children again." Gren gave her a light kiss before getting up.
Gren had already thought about it but he could research the materials for making condoms. The only reason he hadn't done so is that he had been too busy and didn't want to be without the system for twenty hours since he relied on the pocket dimension for his weapons. The Carbon Byproducts research project would help give him oil, petroleum, plastic, and synthetic rubber among a few other things. He wasn't quite sure why it was separated from carbon as a chemical element. "Let's go see if the others need help with the kids. I'm feeling a bit better after your massage."
———————————
Gren had built playground equipment underground for the kids. Their courtyard wasn't large enough to allow him to build it outside so he made a padded room using rubber and installed it there. There were always lots of magic lights on in there so that nobody would get hurt trying to play in the dark. The fake pirate ship was currently their favorite thing to play on but last month it was the bouncy animals.
Ruby was wearing a captain's outfit complete with a hat and eye patch that Gren made for her. "Ahooey, you land lovers, there's a monster in the water." The way that she tried to imitate Gren's speech when he pretended to be a pirate captain was adorable to Gren but he couldn't dwell on it since he had a part to play. Gren gathered water into the shape of a serpent and made noises to make it seem like they were under attack by a sea dragon.
Ruby grabbed her scepter and yelled out, "Fire arrow!" The scepter lit up with a magic light so Gren used fire magic to create a tiny explosion next to the water serpent. "It's hit!"
Gren made it recover and start to get close. "Sasha, finish it off!" Sasha nodded back at Ruby and threw her rubber ball as hard as she could, hitting the watery serpent. Gren made the serpent retreat and land into a barrel he set down before storing it away. Ruby was celebrating their victory while Sasha looked confused and Tahlia was playing with a wolf pup. It seemed like only Ruby liked pretending to be a pirate.
The toddlers were fenced off from the rest of the playground. They had hollow rubber balls, stuffed animals, and blocks to play with. Chloe was biting a stuffed puppy while napping, Esmeralda was stacking blocks, and the monochrome duo were throwing balls at each other. Gren arrived just in time to see Solaire's ball wipe out the stack of blocks that Esmeralda was working on.
Knowing that she'd begin to cry, Gren brought out a small donut from his pocket dimension and put it in Esmeralda's hand. While she was preoccupied with smushing the donut, Gren restacked her little tower. With that, a crisis was averted. If one of the babies cried then they'd all begin to cry. The only exception was Clarissa since she just didn't cry. She was such a good little girl but Gren really worried about her since he could remember that children with autism often wouldn't cry as children. Even if she grew up autistic he'd still love her like he does all of his children but others might not accept her.
Gren played with the babies while Estella watched them. After Chloe woke up, Gren started juggling a few of the rubber balls to entertain them. They started to get bored of that after a while so he brought out a bunch of pictures that he had a guild member draw; it turned out that the fairy--Tina--was actually a great artist.
The story that went along with the drawings was about a group of children that were taken in and raised by fairies. They eventually grew up and left the fairies but returned when the fairies were in trouble. Gren had to modify the ending since the original ending was too depressing; most of the kids had died and many of the fairies were captured, forcing them to flee their homes. It took a team of Jessica, Gren, and the elderly centaur--Layla--to come up with the new ending. Now it ended with them playing tricks on the bad guys to get them to run away.
———————————
Gren's playtime with the kids came to an end when he was told to go upstairs to meet with unexpected company. He had only met this guy once before and it was when he had first arrived in Adierton with Estella and Annie. The man was the soldier with a weak chin that asked him about the attack on Newton. The soldier was sitting down and drinking a glass of water that Jessica had served him. By his side were eight armored guards which had much nicer armor than the regular soldiers that maintained the peace in this city.
"You must be Gren. You've grown up a lot since I've last seen you." The man gestured to the seat on the other side of the table so Gren sat down. "I'm not sure if I introduced myself when we first met; my name is Raymond. I'm sure that you're busy so I'll just lay down the reason that I'm here. This morning, there were reports about a strange incident in front of your shop. Usually we wouldn't care about some lowlifes from one of the guilds in the slums but the descriptions of the incident are disturbing, to say the least."
He must be talking about the angry mob. "I have been told that you're a magician despite there being no records of you being under anybody's tutelage. Can you tell me what types of magic you can use? Even a small spell of that type would count as long as you successfully used it."
"Can you tell me why you need to know this?" It was an odd question. Gren didn't see any reason for them to ask it.
"It's for the records. Magicians are supposed to report what types of magic they can use so that the kingdom can keep track of them. If you had a magic teacher then they would have taken care of the paperwork for you. There were no records of you using magic last year so it didn't affect you then but you're required to fill out a form by the end of the year." Gren used magic at the end of last year but it seems that nobody reported it. "If you learn more magic before the end of the year then you're allowed to go without reporting it. They just need a yearly report. Many magicians just report at the end of one year and then the beginning of the next so that they can just fill in the same things both times but I recommend doing it earlier so that you don't forget."
There didn't seem to be any point in doing it right this moment. "I'll fill out the form later when I'm less busy. Jess, please remind me to do so before the end of the year." Jessica always kept paper in the bag that she carried now so it was easy for her to write it down.
"That's a shame. The records would make our investigation go by much quicker. The blood sample needed for the record would be able to prove whether or not you've used undead magic." Is that what kind of magic summoned those hands?
"I've never even heard of undead magic before now." Raymond wrote that down before looking back up to Gren. "The things you've said make it seem like it's illegal to use undead magic."
"It is. If you had a magic teacher they would have told you this. You should find a magic teacher before you accidentally do something illegal." Raymond touched the tip of his nose with the feather on his quill. "Well, my father would probably let you off the first time with just a lecture on all of the rules a magician must adhere to."
"Who's your father?" Someone in the position to give a sentence to a crime... a judge?
"The Duke. I don't really like telling people that since I want to make a name for myself without using my identity." Wait, didn't they say that the son of the Duke was the Regent a while back?
"Aren't you the former Regent?" The regent was removed from his post a while back. The reason given to the public was mismanagement that allowed the destruction of three villages under his watch so he wasn't a popular person right now.
Raymond waved his hand. "No, that's my brother, Robert. He's more into politics so you can tell us apart by our muscles. I'm the bigger one." Gren couldn't tell how big Raymond's muscles were since he was wearing armor.
Gren could hear the side door opening up. "Hey, lunkhead, I've got the samples. If you're done then let's get going." A short girl with a weird helmet on her head and glasses over her eyes entered the kitchen. Her body was covered in a baggy robe and she had several bags suspended from her neck and shoulders.
"Just a moment. I'm trying to get this man to give you a blood sample." He said it. Raymond actually said that he was trying to get a blood sample. Usually people didn't admit to things like that so Gren was impressed in a weird way. "The neighbors saw him standing outside when it happened and he's the only magician in the area that we know of."
The girl didn't agree with Raymond. "There's no way that he did it. Look at those muscles. They're more well-toned than yours." Gren was currently wearing a t-shirt so his arms were on display. "Nobody that can use magic like that would have enough time to build muscles like his."
"Not all magicians have a knight following them around like you do. Maybe he realized that he'd need muscles for when he ran out of magic energy." How much longer were they going to talk about Gren like he wasn't there? "Besides, he didn't take long to build those muscles. He was even shrimpier than you when I first met him."
"Do you want to take this outside!? I'll show you who's shrimpy!" She got hostile and started yelling towards Raymond so quickly that it startled Gren. "I'll make you and your muscles disappear into the horizon!
As much as Gren would love to see someone get sent so far away that they became a twinkle in the sky, she was being too loud. "Enough fighting. If you keep being this loud then you'll wake the dead." The knights behind Raymond put their hands on the pommels of their swords and took a stance like they'd pull them out in a moment's notice.
The girl that was arguing with Raymond didn't seem amused by his comment either. "Why would the dead wake up? Is there a curse?" On top of her helmet were a bunch of lenses of different colors that she started looking through.
"It's just a saying. The dead aren't going to start walking around." If Gren knew that they would react like that then he wouldn't have said anything.
"It's a stupid saying." This girl really liked to speak her mind. "People shouldn't be joking around about things like that. The undead are a very serious threat and right now I would be very careful of using words like that if I were you."
"She's right. These guys are specially trained to fight the undead." Raymond spoke up in the girl's defense. "If we didn't suspect that the undead were involved then we wouldn't have brought them."
Things were a bit awkward now in the room but at least the tension had gone away. "Sorry. I didn't realize that the undead were that touchy of a subject. I know that you said that it was illegal to use undead magic but my only interaction with any undead are the two I bought from the Genrich Company."
"You actually have undead!?" Why did she get so loud all of a sudden?
"Calm down, Henrietta. Those two are exceptions. They're harmless." Raymond already knew about the slaves bought by Gren. "Neither of them were created with undead magic and they both have minds of their own."
"How do you create the undead without using undead magic?" She adjusted her glasses and brought out a notepad from one of her bags.
"I don't know all of the details but one of them was an experiment using magical devices on a corpse." After jotting down his words, Henrietta nodded her head. "The other one was the daughter of the former high priestess. After her daughter's death, the high priestess is said to have gone insane. She got her hands on an old copy of the third volume of those Healing Light spell books and tried to use a spell to revive her daughter. It almost worked but there wasn't enough magic energy so the daughter's soul was bound to her bones."
Gren read in the description that she had a backstory but didn't ask Albert Genrich about it. "Nobody ever found out where her spell books ended up since she got rid of them before the knights apprehended her. Some think that she burned them." There was one person in the room that was pretty sure that they knew where they were but they weren't about to expose that information. "It's a shame since that was one of the only copies left. Only the Divine Priestess and the Goddess herself would have access to a copy now."
Henrietta finished writing down the information given to her by Raymond and suddenly turned towards Gren. "Can I see them?" For a moment, Gren thought that she was talking about the books but realized that she meant the undead that were in his guild. Her puppy dog eyes looked kinda scary since they were enlarged through the lenses of her glasses.
She looked like she really wanted to go look at them so there was only one response that he could give her. "No. I have no idea what you plan on doing to them." He wasn't going to let someone in that might pose a threat to the guild members.
Henrietta started pouting. "I just want to look at them." She started looking through her bags until she found the one filled with coins. "Fine. How much do you want for them?"
"They're not for sale." Gren turned down her offer. "They're already free individuals that get to choose where they go. There are no slaves here anymore." Purrnina was treated like a pet even though she was legally a slave but that wouldn't matter; Gren had already forgotten that she existed since he never really saw her in the guild.
"Can you tell them that I want to meet them then?" Gren shook his head to tell her no. "How am I supposed to meet them!?"
"Henrietta, that's enough. You're not going to convince him to let you see them. He doesn't know you well enough to trust you yet. Isn't that right, Gren?" Raymond was exactly right.
"Correct. I don't want to risk the safety of my guild members." Gren had been thinking about this for the entire day. "Even a child like you could pose a threat. When I was your size I..." Gren's words were stopped by a surprise knee to his groin. Gren applied healing magic almost immediately but needed to catch his breath.
"I'm not a child!" Henrietta ran out the side door the next instant. Gren could swear that he saw tears in her eyes.
"What's her problem?" Gren closed his legs; if he ever met her again then he'd never sit with his legs apart in front of her. His groin was healed but there was a phantom sensation that lingered.
Raymond shook his head and explained what caused Henrietta's outburst, "You know, she's actually older than you by about five years. Henrietta had always had problems with her height since she was a kid. The doctors say that it's related to her irregular heartbeat but there's nothing they can do about it." Raymond sighed and shook his head.
"Why don't you just take her to a healer?" If she had heart problems then the second volume of the Healing Light spell books had it covered. They weren't even that far away from the Land of Healing Light.
Raymond slouched back in the seat and looked up. "She's my sister, an Adier. No healers from the Church will even look at her and the ones outside the Church aren't skilled enough." Gren had figured that they were related since they acted close but he didn't realize that she was the Duke's daughter. "They could easily heal her heart and eyes in their holy city but my grandfather completely ruined our relationship with the Church."
Gren didn't like the idea of punishing the family for the actions of a relative. He couldn't control the Church's actions but he had the power to help her. "We should go after her." Raymond seemed confused but Gren was already out the door before he could ask for an explanation.
Gren felt that his day couldn't get any worse. The mysterious deaths early in the morning and the incident with the goblin had already left him feeling defeated. There were requests that he could take but he needed a day off. There was enough death for one day.Upstairs in her bedroom, Estella was currently comforting Gren by giving him a massage. "I understand how you feel, Gren. Although goblins are less intelligent and more rowdy than us, it doesn't mean that you won't get attached to them." It felt weird being told that by a hobgoblin since her words were similar to what you would use for pets. "You know, Esmeralda might be a normal goblin just like them when she grows up." Goblins didn't have much hair on their head and their facial features were mostly the same so if that happened then Gren might not be able to tell her apart from the other goblins.The idea of not being to recognize his own child was a thought that frightened him. Would she need to wear a bracelet with her name on it just so that he could tell her apart from the others? "I hope you're wrong, for her sake." Gren didn't think of the outcome of having a normal goblin as a baby when Estella became pregnant. "We'll need to take extra care of her if you're right. The other kids might grow up and leave her behind since she'll always have the mental age of a child."Estella put more strength into massaging his shoulders. "You're so tense. Does it really bother you that much? As long as we still care for her and show her love then she'll grow up to be happy. Isn't that enough?" While it was true that he'd always love his children, it didn't seem likely that she would be able to live a full life in just thirty five years.Gren turned around and grabbed Estella, pulling her down next to him on top of the bed. "I'm just worried about her. I'll do my best to help her have a good life regardless of whichever type of goblin she is."Estella hugged Gren and pressed her forehead to his. "It's good that you worry about her but you're not alone. You've got people all around you that will help you raise her." Estella pushed Gren onto his back and mounted him, rubbing his shoulders from the front. "If you ever feel like you don't have an answer then just talk about it.""You should probably get off of me." Estella tilted her head. "If you keep on sitting on me like that then you'll end up getting pregnant again." Estella realized what he was talking about and gave him a smile."Try to impregnate me again and it comes off." Little Gren shriveled up when he heard that. Was Estella learning from Annie? "Go find another wife if you want to have sex and make more children." In his previous world that would mean a divorce but she seriously meant that he should take a fourth wife. "Why do conversations with you always become about sex?"There was a very simple answer to that. "Because you're a very sexy woman." Gren sat up which meant that she was now sitting on his lap. "Don't worry. I understand that your pregnancy was difficult. I won't ask you to have my children again." Gren gave her a light kiss before getting up.Gren had already thought about it but he could research the materials for making condoms. The only reason he hadn't done so is that he had been too busy and didn't want to be without the system for twenty hours since he relied on the pocket dimension for his weapons. The Carbon Byproducts research project would help give him oil, petroleum, plastic, and synthetic rubber among a few other things. He wasn't quite sure why it was separated from carbon as a chemical element. "Let's go see if the others need help with the kids. I'm feeling a bit better after your massage."Gren had built playground equipment underground for the kids. Their courtyard wasn't large enough to allow him to build it outside so he made a padded room using rubber and installed it there. There were always lots of magic lights on in there so that nobody would get hurt trying to play in the dark. The fake pirate ship was currently their favorite thing to play on but last month it was the bouncy animals.Ruby was wearing a captain's outfit complete with a hat and eye patch that Gren made for her. "Ahooey, you land lovers, there's a monster in the water." The way that she tried to imitate Gren's speech when he pretended to be a pirate captain was adorable to Gren but he couldn't dwell on it since he had a part to play. Gren gathered water into the shape of a serpent and made noises to make it seem like they were under attack by a sea dragon.Ruby grabbed her scepter and yelled out, "Fire arrow!" The scepter lit up with a magic light so Gren used fire magic to create a tiny explosion next to the water serpent. "It's hit!"Gren made it recover and start to get close. "Sasha, finish it off!" Sasha nodded back at Ruby and threw her rubber ball as hard as she could, hitting the watery serpent. Gren made the serpent retreat and land into a barrel he set down before storing it away. Ruby was celebrating their victory while Sasha looked confused and Tahlia was playing with a wolf pup. It seemed like only Ruby liked pretending to be a pirate.The toddlers were fenced off from the rest of the playground. They had hollow rubber balls, stuffed animals, and blocks to play with. Chloe was biting a stuffed puppy while napping, Esmeralda was stacking blocks, and the monochrome duo were throwing balls at each other. Gren arrived just in time to see Solaire's ball wipe out the stack of blocks that Esmeralda was working on.Knowing that she'd begin to cry, Gren brought out a small donut from his pocket dimension and put it in Esmeralda's hand. While she was preoccupied with smushing the donut, Gren restacked her little tower. With that, a crisis was averted. If one of the babies cried then they'd all begin to cry. The only exception was Clarissa since she just didn't cry. She was such a good little girl but Gren really worried about her since he could remember that children with autism often wouldn't cry as children. Even if she grew up autistic he'd still love her like he does all of his children but others might not accept her.Gren played with the babies while Estella watched them. After Chloe woke up, Gren started juggling a few of the rubber balls to entertain them. They started to get bored of that after a while so he brought out a bunch of pictures that he had a guild member draw; it turned out that the fairy--Tina--was actually a great artist.The story that went along with the drawings was about a group of children that were taken in and raised by fairies. They eventually grew up and left the fairies but returned when the fairies were in trouble. Gren had to modify the ending since the original ending was too depressing; most of the kids had died and many of the fairies were captured, forcing them to flee their homes. It took a team of Jessica, Gren, and the elderly centaur--Layla--to come up with the new ending. Now it ended with them playing tricks on the bad guys to get them to run away.Gren's playtime with the kids came to an end when he was told to go upstairs to meet with unexpected company. He had only met this guy once before and it was when he had first arrived in Adierton with Estella and Annie. The man was the soldier with a weak chin that asked him about the attack on Newton. The soldier was sitting down and drinking a glass of water that Jessica had served him. By his side were eight armored guards which had much nicer armor than the regular soldiers that maintained the peace in this city."You must be Gren. You've grown up a lot since I've last seen you." The man gestured to the seat on the other side of the table so Gren sat down. "I'm not sure if I introduced myself when we first met; my name is Raymond. I'm sure that you're busy so I'll just lay down the reason that I'm here. This morning, there were reports about a strange incident in front of your shop. Usually we wouldn't care about some lowlifes from one of the guilds in the slums but the descriptions of the incident are disturbing, to say the least."He must be talking about the angry mob. "I have been told that you're a magician despite there being no records of you being under anybody's tutelage. Can you tell me what types of magic you can use? Even a small spell of that type would count as long as you successfully used it.""Can you tell me why you need to know this?" It was an odd question. Gren didn't see any reason for them to ask it."It's for the records. Magicians are supposed to report what types of magic they can use so that the kingdom can keep track of them. If you had a magic teacher then they would have taken care of the paperwork for you. There were no records of you using magic last year so it didn't affect you then but you're required to fill out a form by the end of the year." Gren used magic at the end of last year but it seems that nobody reported it. "If you learn more magic before the end of the year then you're allowed to go without reporting it. They just need a yearly report. Many magicians just report at the end of one year and then the beginning of the next so that they can just fill in the same things both times but I recommend doing it earlier so that you don't forget."There didn't seem to be any point in doing it right this moment. "I'll fill out the form later when I'm less busy. Jess, please remind me to do so before the end of the year." Jessica always kept paper in the bag that she carried now so it was easy for her to write it down."That's a shame. The records would make our investigation go by much quicker. The blood sample needed for the record would be able to prove whether or not you've used undead magic." Is that what kind of magic summoned those hands?"I've never even heard of undead magic before now." Raymond wrote that down before looking back up to Gren. "The things you've said make it seem like it's illegal to use undead magic.""It is. If you had a magic teacher they would have told you this. You should find a magic teacher before you accidentally do something illegal." Raymond touched the tip of his nose with the feather on his quill. "Well, my father would probably let you off the first time with just a lecture on all of the rules a magician must adhere to.""Who's your father?" Someone in the position to give a sentence to a crime... a judge?"The Duke. I don't really like telling people that since I want to make a name for myself without using my identity." Wait, didn't they say that the son of the Duke was the Regent a while back?"Aren't you the former Regent?" The regent was removed from his post a while back. The reason given to the public was mismanagement that allowed the destruction of three villages under his watch so he wasn't a popular person right now.Raymond waved his hand. "No, that's my brother, Robert. He's more into politics so you can tell us apart by our muscles. I'm the bigger one." Gren couldn't tell how big Raymond's muscles were since he was wearing armor.Gren could hear the side door opening up. "Hey, lunkhead, I've got the samples. If you're done then let's get going." A short girl with a weird helmet on her head and glasses over her eyes entered the kitchen. Her body was covered in a baggy robe and she had several bags suspended from her neck and shoulders."Just a moment. I'm trying to get this man to give you a blood sample." He said it. Raymond actually said that he was trying to get a blood sample. Usually people didn't admit to things like that so Gren was impressed in a weird way. "The neighbors saw him standing outside when it happened and he's the only magician in the area that we know of."The girl didn't agree with Raymond. "There's no way that he did it. Look at those muscles. They're more well-toned than yours." Gren was currently wearing a t-shirt so his arms were on display. "Nobody that can use magic like that would have enough time to build muscles like his.""Not all magicians have a knight following them around like you do. Maybe he realized that he'd need muscles for when he ran out of magic energy." How much longer were they going to talk about Gren like he wasn't there? "Besides, he didn't take long to build those muscles. He was even shrimpier than you when I first met him.""Do you want to take this outside!? I'll show you who's shrimpy!" She got hostile and started yelling towards Raymond so quickly that it startled Gren. "I'll make you and your muscles disappear into the horizon!As much as Gren would love to see someone get sent so far away that they became a twinkle in the sky, she was being too loud. "Enough fighting. If you keep being this loud then you'll wake the dead." The knights behind Raymond put their hands on the pommels of their swords and took a stance like they'd pull them out in a moment's notice.The girl that was arguing with Raymond didn't seem amused by his comment either. "Why would the dead wake up? Is there a curse?" On top of her helmet were a bunch of lenses of different colors that she started looking through."It's just a saying. The dead aren't going to start walking around." If Gren knew that they would react like that then he wouldn't have said anything."It's a stupid saying." This girl really liked to speak her mind. "People shouldn't be joking around about things like that. The undead are a very serious threat and right now I would be very careful of using words like that if I were you.""She's right. These guys are specially trained to fight the undead." Raymond spoke up in the girl's defense. "If we didn't suspect that the undead were involved then we wouldn't have brought them."Things were a bit awkward now in the room but at least the tension had gone away. "Sorry. I didn't realize that the undead were that touchy of a subject. I know that you said that it was illegal to use undead magic but my only interaction with any undead are the two I bought from the Genrich Company.""You actually have undead!?" Why did she get so loud all of a sudden?"Calm down, Henrietta. Those two are exceptions. They're harmless." Raymond already knew about the slaves bought by Gren. "Neither of them were created with undead magic and they both have minds of their own.""How do you create the undead without using undead magic?" She adjusted her glasses and brought out a notepad from one of her bags."I don't know all of the details but one of them was an experiment using magical devices on a corpse." After jotting down his words, Henrietta nodded her head. "The other one was the daughter of the former high priestess. After her daughter's death, the high priestess is said to have gone insane. She got her hands on an old copy of the third volume of those Healing Light spell books and tried to use a spell to revive her daughter. It almost worked but there wasn't enough magic energy so the daughter's soul was bound to her bones."Gren read in the description that she had a backstory but didn't ask Albert Genrich about it. "Nobody ever found out where her spell books ended up since she got rid of them before the knights apprehended her. Some think that she burned them." There was one person in the room that was pretty sure that they knew where they were but they weren't about to expose that information. "It's a shame since that was one of the only copies left. Only the Divine Priestess and the Goddess herself would have access to a copy now."Henrietta finished writing down the information given to her by Raymond and suddenly turned towards Gren. "Can I see them?" For a moment, Gren thought that she was talking about the books but realized that she meant the undead that were in his guild. Her puppy dog eyes looked kinda scary since they were enlarged through the lenses of her glasses.She looked like she really wanted to go look at them so there was only one response that he could give her. "No. I have no idea what you plan on doing to them." He wasn't going to let someone in that might pose a threat to the guild members.Henrietta started pouting. "I just want to look at them." She started looking through her bags until she found the one filled with coins. "Fine. How much do you want for them?""They're not for sale." Gren turned down her offer. "They're already free individuals that get to choose where they go. There are no slaves here anymore." Purrnina was treated like a pet even though she was legally a slave but that wouldn't matter; Gren had already forgotten that she existed since he never really saw her in the guild."Can you tell them that I want to meet them then?" Gren shook his head to tell her no. "How am I supposed to meet them!?""Henrietta, that's enough. You're not going to convince him to let you see them. He doesn't know you well enough to trust you yet. Isn't that right, Gren?" Raymond was exactly right."Correct. I don't want to risk the safety of my guild members." Gren had been thinking about this for the entire day. "Even a child like you could pose a threat. When I was your size I..." Gren's words were stopped by a surprise knee to his groin. Gren applied healing magic almost immediately but needed to catch his breath."I'm not a child!" Henrietta ran out the side door the next instant. Gren could swear that he saw tears in her eyes."What's her problem?" Gren closed his legs; if he ever met her again then he'd never sit with his legs apart in front of her. His groin was healed but there was a phantom sensation that lingered.Raymond shook his head and explained what caused Henrietta's outburst, "You know, she's actually older than you by about five years. Henrietta had always had problems with her height since she was a kid. The doctors say that it's related to her irregular heartbeat but there's nothing they can do about it." Raymond sighed and shook his head."Why don't you just take her to a healer?" If she had heart problems then the second volume of the Healing Light spell books had it covered. They weren't even that far away from the Land of Healing Light.Raymond slouched back in the seat and looked up. "She's my sister, an Adier. No healers from the Church will even look at her and the ones outside the Church aren't skilled enough." Gren had figured that they were related since they acted close but he didn't realize that she was the Duke's daughter. "They could easily heal her heart and eyes in their holy city but my grandfather completely ruined our relationship with the Church."Gren didn't like the idea of punishing the family for the actions of a relative. He couldn't control the Church's actions but he had the power to help her. "We should go after her." Raymond seemed confused but Gren was already out the door before he could ask for an explanation.
