Empress Forminaxtrass, the lich dragon of Dusk Nest and rank S dark-elemental dragon. Like the majority of the dragon empresses apart from Gaistrus and Mom, she was not a former dragon ruler of her nest, but to the sisterhood of dragon empresses, she was considered by all of them to be an equal. Mom was fond of all of them, and from the interactions I witnessed myself, even if they had a fight or argument, their battle bond forged during the civil war kept them all close.
This unity was one part of the stability of Kargryx, now that Eltharion was mostly absent from his duties as emperor. The empresses were his hands and will. A power struggle would be fatal, especially if one of them acted like a normal dragon and lorded over the others with their strength. If I were an outsider, I would focus on Mom, as she wasn’t just a rank SS, unlike the others, but she has shown her defiance towards Eltharion numerous times for my sake. And every dragon child knew how obsessive dragon mothers could be.
Yet, Mom did not let that obstruct her and her empress-sisters’ duties. Gyadiosa handled peacekeeping and the military, Gaistrus managed the economy and mining operations, Virrflax had a hand on transportation and education, Yuilengreill was responsible for trade and cultural development, and Mom’s sole duty was to manage and assure that the usually independent-thinking Frozen Nest remained “chill” with the rest of Kagryx.
So, what was Forminaxtrass responsible for?
“Finally! This damn rock of a continent can finally take a step forward in scientific progression!” The lich dragon raised her arms in the air, causing gas to ooze out of her jelly-like body parts like a steam tank. “Marvelous! The knowledge of the ancients will be recorded in more than simple books!”
The development of technology and the preservation of history and information for the true dragonkin. To assure history would not repeat itself and that Kargryx may continue to prosper, even if the current dragon empress system were to be demolished once this generation ended.
However, at the same time, she might be the dragon who wished for cultural and scientific development the most. At least, that was what I understood from her almost fanatical poses she was doing in front of me. Her excitement about this matter was pretty infectious, if not a little bit intimidating.
Mom told her everything, I think. Hopefully she didn’t show her my sleeping videos … I felt a disturbance on my daughter alarm. Something told me that Mom did, in fact, show those vids again, and not only to Forminaxtrass, but to all remaining dragon empresses.
“Empress Forminaxtrass actually gave us the last ‘eureka’ for an issue we’ve been having,” Haruka explained. “While it’s true that Aleistunum’s idea for information transference can be beneficial, they still haven't found a way to implement that idea currently. Mana leaks on long-range communications, and we’ve solved one part of that problem by utilizing the mana barrier around a city like the internet. However, that only works inside that one city, which makes it more like a local network than the world wide web.”
“Say we want to send a warning call to Griffonpeak from Inkoran-Tazul; at this point, it would be better to send the message with a manatech bird,” Jadhund added. “While using mana would be faster, and generally safer, as manatech birds can be easily intercepted by wildlife or an enemy, the information will be incomplete. We cannot assure that part of the information won’t be lost, and that can cause some rather critical misunderstandings. In a state of war, that is a disaster just waiting to happen. For your idol career, it means your music will be cut and interrupted multiple times.”
Watching streamed videos buffering was a horrible enough experience, so what about streamed content which skip massive portions of it? Even worse.
Considering we have the memory cards, it was easy to transport them to other cities and towns like CDs, which allowed the locals there to store all my music and videos on the nearest [Crystals of the Divine System]. They could then download everything onto their personal ID cards or memory stick and boom, they could use it whenever without an issue.
However, the area needed a [Crystal of the Divine System] around for this plan to work seamlessly. Not to mention, with how the streaming technology everybody explained to me worked? It was just impossible to stream my content to villages or growing towns. No mana barrier or crystal, no streaming. You could even use the crystal like a movie projector. You didn’t need a party bracelet, per se, to listen to my music or watch a video. It was just convenient.
As such, I could see that long-range communications was going to be a challenge from the way Haruka and Jadhund explained everything, but it was a welcomed one. Metosei and Borom wore grins so wide, you could see their dirt-brown teeth behind their thick, dirtied beards, with eyes brimming with so much enthusiasm to overcome the task. I could now understand why they were so impatient.
“We’ve only talked about the idea this morning,” Metosei elaborated. “Empress Forminaxtrass had to finish her discussion with Empress Melloxtressa before we could finalize it, so we were waiting! Alcohol can only stifle the need to work by so much!”
“Ha, more like, the empress said it in passing and we had to boil the thought down to something workable, with no ending in sight. Torture, lass! It was torture!” Borom shouted like a drug addict. “Tsk, the initial design was always flawed, if you think about it. As the lass said, it’s very ambitious.”
“At the end of the day, we’re trying to recreate the internet in this world,” Haruka stated with a face ready to give another lecture. “Now, my father is only a programmer and Daichi’s parents are IT specialists and tech entrepreneurs, so we do not know how to make the cables necessary for the internet. Not to mention, it’s impossible to establish the cables underwater with all the threats down there, not unless we brokered a deal with Caedhul.”
“Cables?” I tilted my head.
Smiling, Haruka explained, “Essentially, our internet back on Earth worked through cables connecting information from one megaserver to the next, all down to the simple router, which we use with WiFi—essentially radio waves—to allow your computer at home to access and recall information from another server. That is our internet. We built things that way because, similar to our problem, microwaves and radiowaves aren’t the most reliable at long distances, which is why we use physical medium in the form of cables to transfer the information through electricity and various forms of light.”
… Uhm, okay?
Sooo, setting aside the fact that I had to process that entire jargon, Boron showed the blueprints for the plans of an “information tower.” Due to the distance from one city’s mana barrier to the next, the mana lines would leak information and ruin any message, which was why the guild decided they had to build towers to reduce the length of these mana lines to circumvent most of the leaking problems.
A series of “cables,” the physical medium that Haruka described, would protect these mana lines better from leaking, but since Peolynca was populated with more creatures that could destroy buildings and large walls with ease, it made it hard to replicate Earth’s internet structure one-to-one. As such, it wasn’t feasible to use the cabals and we had to rely on invisible energy. Or, to use the internet example once again, we had to fully rely on microwave signals to transfer information from America to Europe ‘cause dragons existed in this world.
So, using the program they made using the System, they were fully able to connect everybody within a mana barrier to the local crystal. This was like a WiFi service. Now, they were trying to expand this WiFi service, but similar to any teenagers’ issue whenever they go into the countryside, their WiFI service would not connect to the internet ‘cause they were too far from the nearest server, so a weak connection, or rather, the infrastructure wasn’t there yet, so no internet at all!
As such, this was one of the reasons for this tower. To allow isolated villages and faraway towns and cities to access and watch my concert streams. They would act like a medium or midway connector, essentially.
So, what was the issue then? This entire explanation sounded pretty fine logically, so what was Forminaxtrass so happy about?
“It goes back to the same issue—mana leaks.” Haruka grimaced. “Not to mention, each tower is quite expensive, since they not only require a [Crystal of the Divine System] but also a catalyst used to create a small mana barrier around the tower to emulate a city’s. It would protect the structure and people inside from the local fauna, and our program works best with a mana barrier, as this is the best method to transfer and store information locally. There’s no real way of cutting costs on these mana-signal towers.”
“So we have to make this work,” Metosei stated. “We can’t just build two or three of these towers to connect Iceskale with the closest dragonewt town on Miononbolax, for example, and our tests result in nothing. This is your project money, lass, we can’t just waste it. You’ll lose all your credibility from those ice dragons if this fails.”
Uncle Guyul and Sieg would be livid … No, they probably wouldn’t be, but they might not trust me with a large sum of money again. If I want my music career to grow ever more, I need streaming to become a more normal thing.
‘Or, we can just work with CDs for now,’ Hikari stated, and while I agreed I should be more cautious—too much ambition had never served me well—I didn’t believe I could stop the digital media guild with the way they were looking at things. They might try to scrounge up the funds themselves.
Almost as if on cue, the lich dragon empress stepped forward, prompting the dwarves to make way as she presented herself before me, all while Mom kept a smile as she walked behind her sister. “As such, is there no easier method to copy such a method? Is there no other option? What say you, Hestia?”
“… If I was the tech savvy person in the party, I wouldn’t need Haruka to explain things to me twice, Mother-Empress,” I replied with some sass.
Hearing this, she could only giggle, nodding in understanding. “Well, you are a light dragon, after all. The light world is what you are used to and this is all that you can see! However, look below, to your shadows. A realm so deep and wide, no mortal should dare stay inside for too long. Marsven only invites us as guests in his world, yet we should never overindulge in his mercy. Look below.”
I did what she wanted me to and gave it some thought. “… [Shadow Dash]?”
“Yes, but no!” she answered, making me want to scream at her to stop these puzzling questions. “You have an arcane trickster as a friend, no? A fenrir master of the shadows? I would love to discuss this topic with her, as I believe it would be fully enlightening for all to hear. A simple explanation is all so dull, after all.”
I simply nodded and grunted in approval.
“As such … you need a guide, a physical medium, as this young girl here has stated.” Forminaxtrass patted Haruka’s shoulder, causing the latter to nod sheepishly. “However, it is difficult to continuously protect it in a world as dangerous as ours. As such, turn to the shadows and allow Marsven to help out a bit.”
“To summarize, our towers will be connected by having our mana lines travel through the shadow world. They will be maintained by a group of artificers and also dark mages,” Metosei explained. “It will be harder for outsiders to tamper with them, as mana is equally hard to detect in the shadow world, and trying to find them in the first place will equally be as daunting.”
“Ahhh!” I nodded firmly this time. “I see! So that’s what you mean by looking down. Okay, but if you’re doing this with [Shadow Dash], then it shouldn’t be impossible, no? The spell needs line-of-sight with its target to create the magic circle, and I don’t believe you can go too far with it.”
That was my understanding from talking with Saori, at least.
“Exactly why I said, ‘Yes, but no.’” The lich dragon smirks, clapping her hands as if she was waiting for this moment. “We will have to create a new custom spell for the process, and then turn the spell into a rune. [Shadow Dash] has its limits as a spell due to the fact you cannot stay inside God Marsven’s world indefinitely. There is a reason why the spell always has an opening and end, and they cannot be too far apart, as you need to be able to see you exit to escape the world.”
My biggest fear about going into the shadow world whenever Saori pulled me in with [Shadow Dash] was the fact it was pitch-black with nothing inside. You could create small lights, but you barely see anything in front of you except maybe your companion; the abyss of the shadow world was too deep to even fathom its depths.
It was like being trapped under the ocean with no light or directions, making maneuvering impossible, as you couldn’t even tell from the pressure difference in which direction you went. Were you going upwards, or were you continuing your descent? The only lighthouse in the shadow world was that one faint light emitted from a small hole where your magic circle was supposed to be.
The worst part was that Saori had no idea what would happen if she suddenly left somebody inside who wasn’t a dark mage. Would that person be eternally lost? Well, the answer to that was—
“Yes!” Forminaxtrass replied randomly, almost as if she was reading my mind. “I can see from your face that you’ve seen it and went through it. That befuddlement that creates a naive curiosity to understand the unknown is such a thrill to see as a dark dragon. Temper yourself though; nobody likes somebody desperate for knowledge! I say this even if I understand Istari’s willingness to even debase himself for information, hahaha!”
Sweeping her hair back to reveal her second eye, she continued, “To be left in the shadow world will eventually make even the stoutest of minds go insane, for there is nothing there. After too long, you will drift deeper into Marsven’s realm and you will never see another person again. Nobody will kill you, for you end up doing the deed yourself.”
A chill went down my spine, and it seemed like everybody felt the same when Forminaxtrass said all of that with a smile on her face, unperturbed by the surreal terror this mere thought would cause. Mom did tell her to stop, but instead of apologizing, she simply laughed it off, telling us she forgot not everybody was used to it as much as her kinspeople were.
“Yet, it explains why nobody figured this out sooner!” she bellowed out an unrestrained laugh. “The shadow world is equally as filled with mana as ours. It just doesn’t support life. Water, light, fire, wind, earth — none of that will impede the pure mana following through the shadows, in fact, the dark mana will even support its travel! The Divine System will make it so because we are creating a custom spell. And I will gladly do it for you, Hestia!”
The second chill. Her eyes and smile looked like they were trying to assess if I could give them something, demanding that I tell them my piece before Forminaxtrass grasped on to whatever she wanted. It didn’t feel as dangerous as the glare Maustoovaka gave me, no, there was no bloodlust to be felt here, but genuine affection. Though, for whom? Not me; I couldn’t feel any warmth from it.
Scholastic desire, maybe?
“… From the sound of it, you want us to support dark mages, correct?”
“Yes, but no!” she replied, but unlike her previous answer, I felt more on-guard than annoyed. She probably meant no harm to me, but I really shouldn’t forget one of Mom’s first tips to me when I started living on Frozen Nest.
I could trade with a dragon in exchange for information, materials, or training, but they didn’t need Davi or gold. An old dragon, especially ancient ones, had all the wealth and treasure they could ever wish for inside their homes, which was why they wanted something novel or interesting. Forminaxtrass wanted something for her idea and also the creation of a spell for this structure, and I had to give it.
It was a dragon to dragon deal.
Her smile waned. “Connect Miononbolax with Altrust.”
“That’s it?” I tilted my head. “We’re trying to do it now already.”
She shook her head, frustratingly bending her brows as she looked at me in disappointment. “No, nothing so trivial or menial, undeserving of the attention of a dragon imperial. No, no, I’ve heard about what you did with this little alliance of yours, Hestia. Unlike Eltharion’s and most of my battle sisters’ wish to keep Kargryx isolated from the rest of the world, I personally believe we need to interact with them more. Although, I am no fool; to bridge the gap would mean being dragged into wars.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Mom glared at her, but the latter simply shrugged. “See the conundrum here? Not to mention, Wendriosa is having issues doing exactly that right now as well, so I don’t expect you to have any more success. No, I wish to help this project for myself since I want those recorders, and I also wish to help Marsven’s wife out a bit with dark mages gaining a better standing on Altrust.”
Forminaxtrass was old enough to have met Edna in her mortal days, although I didn’t feel in the mood to confirm or deny this presumption. She wasn’t done speaking, after all.
“As such, my proposal is simple, I want you to send the first batch of recorders to us, Dusk Nest. Free of charge to every single ancient dark dragon; I will make the list for you,” she replied as she pointed at the larger recorder.
“Free!” Metosei clutched his chest as if he just had a heart attack. “These things need larger shards to make and you want one for every single ancient dragon. Crustacia’s twin-tails, how are we supposed to finance that?”
“Call Siegragxus and Guyulthanos, Hestia,” Mom suddenly ordered and I obeyed, with Tasianna helping out by calling Uncle Sieg, as the two dragons were currently at two different locations.
After some time had passed, and mostly ‘cause Uncle Kary was with Uncle Guyul and, after he overheard everything, wished to come with us along with a few dragonewt artificers, we arrived back in my room. Seeing the crowd gathered, I wanted to relocate since I didn’t want my room to get dirty, but everybody told me the information should be tight-lipped until everything was confirmed.
“Do not worry, my lady, I shall clean everything while you speak,” Tasianna stated with sparkling eyes, her passion burning like crazy. I guess she preferred this over standing around, listening to our techies explain all these new concepts.
After an initial onboarding session on how the different technologies would work and the functions available for our customers, the ice dragons were instantly enraptured by the recorder’s functions. Uncle Kary, especially, was playing with the manatech like a teenager getting a new, expensive toy—carefully, but he was so engrossed in it, he was barely responding.
“When serving and selling fish and merfiend to our brethren in the south, be aware that due to ice-aligned mana around our island and seas that the fish will show signs of being frozen after three bells if you do not immediately store it well. Such fish will be immediately delivered south to uphold our quota, while anything else may be preserved in our storage,” Uncle Kary lectured in front of the expensive recorder, being helped by Haruka and Jadhund, who were teaching him everything he needed to use it. Once his recording was finished and some more helpful directions were given, he played back the video, marveling as he could hear his voice. “The quality is far superior to the recording the young princess had shown me. This! This should be perfect to record our dives, and this will be perfect to help us teach the next generation of fishers!”
“Sir, please be aware that they are still manatech. While they are sealed to survive underwater for a lengthy time, damages may cause leaks and the water will compromise the internal structure,” Haruka warned, advice which Uncle Kary absorbed like a sponge. It didn’t matter if Haruka was stating the obvious, he would still listen in with the attention of a perfect student, probably not wanting to mess this up since we did tell him how expensive everything was.
“Every broken machine will harm the fishing industry’s budget!” he stated beforehand.
“Also, the metal casing is normal eoriant,” Jadhund added. “It won’t endure abuse when it gets too warm or cold, but due to the special mana battery used for these things, you can customize them to your needs.”
“Oh? Do tell!” Uncle Kary got hooked.
“Arcane crystal batteries are created with alchemy and then you may add enchantments on it, while on the objects you use them with? Proper runesmithing, artificerwork, and runes can fully empower the entire object even further! Haha, for the recorder, such a performance enhancement isn’t as important as the fact you can change the elemental alignment of the battery,” he explained. “Enchant one to be ice-aligned, and the other to fire, and you can switch the batteries around for the type of weather and temperature. They absorb any type of mana just like normal batteries, so you have no need to worry even if you buy a fire-aligned battery! The runes on your recorder have to be standardized, though.”
Uncle Kary was far too excited to rationally think his purchase through, so it was inevitable that the digital media guild would find their first customer in him. At least this way, they could recoup some of the cost from our transaction with Forminaxtrass.
In any case, the important part of this discussion wasn’t the fact Uncle Kary was once again committing himself to my plan, but that Sieg and Uncle Guyul had yet to be persuaded. Metosei and Borom were doing their best to give them all the details, including the necessary materials, work skills, and labor cost for all the different projects and products. It got a bit rowdy when they spoke about the tower.
“This project is supposed to develop Frozen Nest, Princess Hestia!” Guyul massaged his temples after he calculated the cost for everything, showing me the bill. “Our maximum agreed upon budget would be 160 million Davi, with 100 of them reserved for the initial investment and ten for employee recruitment and training. 50 million is left for everything else. Each large video recorder will need about one-fourth of a dungeon core, and we need to gift 24 of them to the ancient dark dragon Empress Forminaxtrass had listed? We have three dungeon cores we can use for this project, Princess Hestia.”
O-oh shit!
“We will need, at least, six to repay our debt to her,” Sieg added. “Each of our cores can be transformed into a crystal for 20 million, but they can also be broken down to build a total of twelve recorders. For the remaining twelve one-fourth sized dungeon core shard, we will have to engage with mark-up prices, and those would cost us 34 million in opportunity cost.”
I paid 26m for my [Crystal of the Divine System]! Ahhh, Aleistunum scammed me!
“S-so, what if we just bought the shards? What would they cost?” I asked, meekly.
“For three more, I can buy us them for eight large goldite each,” Metosei answered
Daaamn, so most of the cost of a [Crystal of the Divine System] comes from the production method.
“Cores do not circulate around Miononbolax as much, since we do not spawn many dungeons at all. I haven’t heard a single one appearing on Frozen Nest since the Origin Gods first came to our world,” Guyul stated.
“Then, how do you have so many?” I asked, prompting Uncle Kary to wave at us.
“Due to us fishers and the leviathan family of the first empress!” he stated. “Unlike our continent, the oceans and seas are filled to the brim with dungeons, appearing out of nowhere in the middle of the ocean. The only way you can see them is through air bubbles and a ‘crack’ in the water.”
To be specific, unlike on Miomnobolax where mana contamination was heavily moderated due to the local dragonkin population hunting down unwanted monster spawns, the ocean was a free-for-all. It was too huge, even for the massive leviathans and adamantoises swimming in the depths, to protect every nook-and-cranny, leading to certain areas filling up with mana as it flowed through the seas pretty well.
Monster spawning numbers rise, which leads to the local population of merfiends to be exterminated, increasing the difficulty of the area to the point the System had to intervene and isolate all that mana into a dungeon. This was happening even now, to the point dungeons would even compete against their own “kind!”
“Two dungeons ruling an area, devoiding themselves of dungeon dwellers will eventually try to predate the others,” Mom explained. “They will send monsters against the other, leading to a war until one of the dungeon’s cores would be stolen, leading to one’s destruction while the other can feast on the mana stored inside. It will grow in size and strength, and the larger you are as a predator, the more challengers you will attract until a rank A leviathan comes along, seeking to gain experience to evolve into a rank S. It defeats the dungeon and the used mana created from this conflict would flow into other areas, repeating the cycle. It’s almost as fluid as our glacier’s movement of mana.”
“… Such an abundance, but nobody manages them?” I tilted my head, prompting Uncle Kary to shake his head.
“Too many is not good either,” he said. “The three cores we currently have were provided by me. I destroyed them because the materials found inside were the same you would find anywhere else in the ocean, and our island has a bounty of roaming herds and minerals to satisfy us. Managing a dungeon, making sure a dungeon break doesn’t happen, is tedious. Not to mention, while Caedhul might be large, Goddess Plesia’s realm overshadows even the largest leviathans.”
So, the solution was simple, right? Uncle Kary would raid some dungeons! However, Mom quickly intervened to remind us that the leviathans were currently quite aggressive around Coral Beard. She could not assure us that a random leviathan wouldn’t try to target Uncle Kary or his followers, so we had to accept the fact we had to buy the remaining dungeon cores.
Yet, another issue that presented to us was the fact we needed dungeon cores to create more recorders and also to make the information tower function in the first place. The cost was skyrocketing as we were bottlenecked not only by Grimnir’s weekly arcane crystal creation but also by all these dungeon cores. It wasn’t just a money issue we were facing, it was a time and supply problem.
As such, while Sieg and Uncle Guyul were fully on-board with my plan for developing the recorders, they had to put their foot down on the internet idea for now. They didn’t want to pay Dusk Nest their citizen’s taxes nor did they think my internet idea would help Frozen Nest at all. My project was supposed to help our home to flourish, not the rest of the world; instead, we should be looking to sell the recorders, my music videos, and Uncle Kary’s films to enrich Frozen Nest!
I was starting to see some fictional dragon hoarding problems here … I had no choice, I had to reveal my trump card.
[“Uncle Guyul!”] I created a telepathic link with only him. Once I got his attention, I continued. [“Please, think about it. Currently, it would be impossible to spread my streaming video to the people on the frontier, far north on the prairie since we need these towers to send the message to them. I can’t stream to them!”]
[“I understand this is what you want out of your project, Hestia, but we already require a large sum for the initial investment. I also agreed with the dwarves to create this digital media guild branch on our island, giving them more control over our artificers,”] he argued. [“There is time for everything, my dear. Do not believe I will treat you poorly. You are my princess, and my friend’s only beloved daughter. For all I care, you are Frozen Nest’s legitimate princess, despite your difficult past. One day, once we have the funds, I can assure you I will pay the price to Empress Forminaxtrass. Not now, though!”]
Rationally, I could understand him very well. Sadly, this was my streaming and idol career. If I didn’t fight for my music and fans, who would?
[“Then you aren’t thinking about it properly, Uncle!”] I rebuked, lowering my voice. [“Mom’s birthday.”]
[“What about it?”]
[“She doesn’t want to celebrate it, but my birthday is in a year. You still want to properly present me to our people, correct?”] I said, prompting him to nod. His admittance right now confirmed how much of a loyalist he was, to the point my whole birthday was supposed to be used to legitimize me as Frozen Nest’s princess in the eyes of the people. [“Then, I say, we combine them. Celebrate Mom for the people’s sake, and I can use this chance to promote my voice and presence, also helping our cultural development. Music is an art, as well, right? Oh, but I’ll make sure to learn some throat singing, too, not only human music.”]
[“The empress has stated that she—”]
[“How can she say no to her daughter when she wishes to celebrate her birthday?”] I stated, silencing Guyul. [“She’s stuck on the mainland, Uncle Guyul. Think! If she doesn’t know, she can’t become angry, and when the day comes, I can be your shield. However, she’s stuck on the mainland! How do we show her the festival, then?”]
[“Your subspace portal. We can fly around,”] he said, causing me to smirk as I managed to hook him in. If he wasn’t complaining about the idea, but the execution, then I had him in my palms!
[“The idea is good if you only want to make the people around the portal aware of her, but what about the many dragonewts on the frontier, as I said? Sure, they will travel over to Frozen Nest for the day, but you of all people know that it is far and dangerous for them, with many not being able to make it, even with wyvern escorts. Unless their dragon relatives help them, they will be struck by the elements,”] I said. [“So, why not use this chance to promote the internet and recorders? Make Frozen Nest get used to everything. That is how we make sure this cultural and technological development stays in everybody’s memory! Make the dragons aware they can record all of this! Let us use Mom’s birthday as a promotion to tell the world that we, Frozen Nest, are the inventors of this video recorder variant and the internet that will surely take over Peolynca! We drove this technological revolution, Uncle! Just like the Revolution Queen that everybody knows about!”]
Uncle Guyul’s eyes and mouth widened as he heard this, scratching his chin with such a focus that it was starting to attract everybody’s attention to us. [“ … We would be more than just part of Mionobolax in the history books. This can … Such a reputation can help our island’s visitor count. It can also make sure our artificer remain here and it might bring back our wayward kinsmen now that Iceskale is stepping into the future.”]
[“I know you wanted this. I heard you complain enough during our first meeting for this, Uncle. Grasped it!”] I smiled deviously, causing him to nod with the same excitement I was having. Outfoxed the Ievfuchsdra clan, hehehe.
As such, a compromise was made, with Mom’s help, both knowing and unwitting, to make sure Forminaxtrass wouldn’t be too greedy. Frozen Nest would become the test for the digital media guild for all these projects, which includes the information towers. Once it was confirmed that everything worked, the next phase would be to connect Frozen Nest with Eltharion’s castle and Coral Beard.
Our payment to Forminaxtrass would happen in increments until we connected the entirety of Miononbolax, and until then, she had sole ownership of the custom spell for our project. Until then, only she could decide where to build the towers, so we couldn’t just build one on Altrust until we connected Miononbolax. Even afterwards, the digital media guild would only be loaned the spell through the people she taught.
It was better than having to pay her 24 high-quality recorders all at once, though, as we could make the money to repay our debt over time. Our first payment would, of course, go to her, her son, and her two most trustworthy friends. Fortunately, this would also act as an advertisement similar to Mom showing my sleeping videos to her friends, so we could expect customers.
We just had to make sure everything was set.
“Siegragxus, assign the people for the project and have your father send some dragoons to guard them. Make sure no random delinquent causes them any trouble. I do not want the kinkyuro to delay anything; finish the paperwork as fast as possible!” Uncle Guyul ordered and Sieg obeyed without a moment’s hesitation. “Budget the materials once you are done, and have Princess Hestia take a role in its management. Train her in what she needs to know, so you don’t have to.”
“Yes, Lord Guyulthanos.”
Oh well, guess I can’t slack off …
“Guyulthanos!” Uncle Kary called, prompting his friend to snap around.
“I already have an escort in mind, my friend.” He then turned back to Metosei. “I want a list of people for the branch on our island. Make sure they understand Frozen Nest’s rules and that it is cold here. I will have the accommodations ready, the land, and also personally ferry them. Make haste, yes?”
“Time waits for nobody here; you can only join the revolution or be stomped out by it, haha!” he bellowed out, prompting Borom to do the same. “Jadhund! May Queen Dravlia bless you ‘cause you will be the branch’s guild master! Only one I can trust with this.”
“Understood, Master! I will make Goddess Chihiro proud!”
“Attaboy! Refill it!” Metosei ordered as his many apprentices began filling his tankards with ale to the point the foam was overflowing, dripping onto the handle and floor. He then handed them over to Forminaxtrass, Uncle Guyul, and Mom, raising them up. “You should know our custom already! Can’t begin our partnership without both sides drinking to seal the deal! For progress!”
“For Miononbolax’s development!” Forminaxtrass cheered with a wicked laugh, giving me the chills as her voice sounded like she could pierce my soul.
“For Frozen Nest’s future!” Uncle Guyul clanked his tankard against the dwarf’s.
“For my daughter’s dreams,” Mom stated with a smile, causing my heart to instantly warm up as I ignored my lich dragon empress’s cackling.
With that, the contract was established and under Eltharion’s—not Kramp’s—authority the oath would now have to be upheld. Nevertheless, even if they sealed it with Eltharion’s name, any newly-made oath would still benefit Kramps one way or another. As long as he could forgive the ego damage.
Afterwards, I did ask why Haruka and Daichi didn’t speak up about joining Jadhund, but it seemed like neither could leave the student party’s side. They were still needed there, as Haruka was still a decent rogue since her unique Job pivoted her towards it, while having Daichi around would make maintaining their weapons easier.
If you thought about it, having these two around means you have an artificer and smith around. Pretty important for the many manatech weapons the students are using.
In any case, with all the tech and business talk over, I had Tasianna grab one of the new recorders and took it as my own while finally retiring Chihiro’s. The original video recorder we found at one of Chihiro’s shrines could finally rest, probably become part of the guild’s history, or it could be donated to the church of Chihiro for safekeeping as a historic piece.
Tasianna then pulled out the recorder’s memory stick and uploaded everything it had on my personal [Crystal of the Divine System]. Everything, as Mom was making sure Tasianna wouldn’t delete anything I found embarrassing. Even though Tasianna probably wouldn’t have listened to my orders, as she personally loved watching these same videos! Sometimes, I was starting to believe that Mom had successfully stolen Tasianna from me … but I digress.
Mooooom, please!
Once all the videos were downloaded on one of the new memory cards, we made some extra copies for Tasianna and myself, which included some of my music videos I had recorded. Installing all this onto our ID cards, the “first music CD” was created. After Tasianna handed me the new recorder and my ID, I played one of my songs on my party bracelet.
“If you asked me if I remembered that day ♫
I would say, yes, for it was the day that we met ♫
The hope and warmth that I felt, the memories that we made ♫
So I smiled. Together. ♫
With every day that passed, I just want to wonder ♫
Will this all last ♫
The peace we have is so fleeting ♫
I worry about what could happen, I don’t want all to be gone ♫
But you smiled. ♫”
“Hahaha!” A smile immediately formed on my face as I couldn’t stop myself from feeling like I had made the next step. This was my voice, singing “Memories.”
Sadly, as it was recorded on the older recorder, the quality was far below what I would accept now, knowing the newer ones were crisp as heck. The instruments were slightly fuzzy to hear, and my pronunciation of the lyrics was making it hard for me to understand the words. Yet, it still felt like I was listening to my phone’s music recordings. If only I had some earphones, as well …
Sadly, my music videos did not even invoke the [Music Resonation (Minor)], which meant it was most likely impossible to spread it with a static music recording. Streaming, though, did spread the status buff, as I was actively singing and dancing in the moment for people to see, and it didn’t matter that they could only see and hear me through a screen.
The information tower was my chance to start my streaming career, but it was also there to empower my own skills … Speaking about streaming, this was the time to finally try it ou—
“Oi, lass!” Grimnir suddenly called me. “Goddess Chihiro just sent me a divine Quest to film you singing and dancing with the new recorders.”
Speak of the devil! So, then—Hikari!
I called for my other half.
I want you to do this. Let’s finally follow Papa’s tip and start our streaming career, for real!
‘A chance to say sorry. Oooh, let’s do this!’