Chapter 94: Hae-won's Gift

“Welcome to the land of Rene.” Aegis said from atop the ledge overlooking the grassy fields. Standing on the bridge of Rene looking up at them, waiting for them to return, was Ruffily, Amlie, Farlion, Chax, Tinsel and Luca. Savika, Priestess Clara, Celestian, Yuki, Erikson, Elric, Lina, and Josephine all looked down over the ledge alongside many other NPCs in wonder, taking in the beautiful scene before them.

Aegis could see that two new buildings had been constructed since he’d left. Another house and a large Trading Hall, which Aegis could only assume were both built for Chax.

“Wow, it’s beautiful!” Savika said excitedly.

“I love it!” Yuki cheered.

“Awesome.” Erikson grinned ear to ear.

“That mountain is very tall. It reaches high up to the stars.” Priestess Clara said hopeful.

“It is good to be back.” Lina smiled, and Aegis looked at her and gave a nod of agreement.

“Come, I’ll introduce you to the other council members, who don’t know they are council members yet.” Aegis motioned to the bridge and led the group down the ramp towards it. Once they’d crossed it and exchanged greetings, Aegis shuffled them off to the side of the bridge to make room for all of the Arallian’s to cross it.

“Celestian, we’re going to be building houses over there, if you could lead everyone to start setting up tents and stuff.” Aegis ordered him as he pointed to the eastern fields where the other houses were already built, and Celestian gave a nod. Aegis then rounded up all of his council members to the west of the road, just over the bridge and across from the lagnok pasture, and formed a circle with them.

“So.” Aegis turned to Chax, Ruffily, and Amlie. “I don’t know what I’m doing, I just wanted some land to level up my crafting skills. But I accidentally saved a Kingdom, and now I’ve got 800 survivors and a Princess who need a home.” Aegis explained the situation as everyone stared at him, getting a few chuckles.

“Once we get everything settled, my Land Rank should go up and I can assign you guys appropriate roles and ownerships, but for now, just know, I’m broke and have no gold to pay any of you.” Aegis said, sounding unashamed.

“That’s not exactly true,” Chax interrupted. “I’ve managed to sell the excess leather and wooden crafts you left behind, and given the quality of the crafting stations you built, I’d say Rene will have very profitable exports to Kordas and Orm, and not just to players but NPCs as well. A readily available source of direwolf leather to the west, good farmland next to a river, and plenty of Birch trees nearby.”

“For now we’ll be gathering that stuff and crafting things for ourselves. So, are you guys ready to work?” Aegis asked them and they all nodded excitedly. “Perfect.” He took a deep breath and looked at the group. He’d had a lot of time to plan this out in his head on the walk back to Rene and knew exactly what he needed everyone to do.

“Farlion, round up the Arallian guards that Celestian found, bring them to the training grounds and start training them up. You’ll be acting as Guard Captain for now and you’ll need to make sure they know the laws of Kordas.” Aegis said, and Farlion nodded.

“Princess Savika, Yuki, Erikson. I need a census done on the survivors. I want to know exactly who we have with us, family sizes, what skills they are good at, ect. Once we have that we can start assigning jobs and land. Keep a particular eye out for anyone with high architecture skills and send them to me and Ruffily right away.” Aegis said and the three of them nodded.

“In the meantime, Ruffily, before we know what housing situation we’ve got, I need you to help Amlie with expanding her farm fields, and work on a tavern and public dining hall for everyone. Make a work project and use any of the architect NPCs that Savika sends to you to get things done faster.” Aegis said, and Amlie and Ruffily nodded.

“Chax, I doubt we’re going to grow enough food for all these people anytime soon, so, I need you to give me a rough idea on what sort of trading income we’ll need to buy supplies from Orm and Kordas, so we can get some work orders going on that. Once the Princess, Yuki, and Erikson have found us enough high skill crafters, instruct them on what they need to gather and make, using the crafting stations.” Aegis said and Chax gave him a nod.

“Tinsel and Luca, please help the Arallians settle in. They come from a land of desert and sand so a lot of things here will be unfamiliar to them.” Aegis smiled and Tinsel and Luca both nodded.

“You two,” Aegis motioned to Josephine and Priestess Clara. “We’re going to do the most important part.” Aegis pointed to the top of the mountain. “We’ve got to find the perfect spot and start building the new Monastery of the Stars. Strictly speaking, the mountain isn’t a part of my land yet, but I hope I can fix that once the land ranks up. But either way, it’s more important that it gets built then that it gets registered to my land.” Aegis said.

“And, lastly.” Aegis turned to Lina, but he pulled her off to the side away from the group as the others pretended to be uninterested in what they were saying, Aegis leaning into her ear. “I know it’s a bit weird with all these new people, but I was hoping I could count on you for something…” Aegis whispered to Lina and she gave a nodding smile.

“You can.” She replied confidently.

“There’s a pretty good chance that some Arallian bandit players are going to try and take out the Princess, to remove Arallia from the game world and get rid of their bounties. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some hiding among the NPCs. Could you keep an eye on Savika and Yuki to make sure nothing happens?” Aegis asked her, and Lina gave a reassuring nod.

“I’ll protect them.” Lina said.

“Okay, good. That’s all the tasks for now. I’m counting on you guys.” Aegis said and they all gave him reassuring words before spreading out around Rene, save for Priestess Clara and Josephine who followed Aegis as he headed northward away from the encampment and towards the mountain of Jia’nir. Once they’d gotten far enough away, it became quiet and serene, with nothing but the sound of their footsteps and the wind blowing through the trees that dotted the rocky mountainside. Aegis caught Josephine and Clara both looking back down the mountain repeatedly to enjoy the view.

“It really feels a bit like Arallia, to be able to look down the mountain at the city below. But I like the greenery much more.” Josephine smiled. “Are there any enemies we should be worried about?” She asked while scanning over the landscape.

“Direwolves to the west,” Aegis pointed at the western tree line. “Oh, there’s a raid boss under the mountain but he’s not bugging anyone. We’ll sort that out though, I hope.” Aegis said as he’d just realized he'd forgotten to mention that detail to literally everyone. Josephine’s eyes suddenly went wide with worry. “Probably shouldn’t tell anyone else about that for now.” Aegis said after seeing her reaction.

“R-right.” She nodded back uncomfortably. They wandered around the mountain, surveying it for decent locations to build a monastery. Aegis was sure that the ideal spot would be as close to the peak as possible, but the mountain was much more rocky and jagged than Arallia’s mountain, with many cliff faces and ledges, making it difficult to reach the peak. They’d gotten nearly to the top when Priestess Clara stopped abruptly and closed her eyes.

“Everything okay?” Aegis turned to ask her once he’d noticed. She didn’t respond right away, instead clasping her hands together and taking in a deep breath of fresh air.

“Yes. It’s here.” She said after she’d opened her eyes again and looked upwards towards the sunny afternoon sky. “This is the perfect spot.” She spoke with confidence.

“Really? Are you sure?” Aegis asked as he did a double take to see they’d still had a bit ways to go to get to the top of the mountain.

“Yes, this spot basks in the light of the star Aegis. I can feel it. If you build it here, it will receive much of Eirene’s light.” She said as she motioned up to the sky. Aegis and Josephine both looked up with her, but couldn’t see what she meant. They looked to each other and Josephine gave him a shrug.

“Okay, I’ll trust you on this.” Aegis said as he looked around at the land around them. “If it’s going to be the monastery, then Priests will need to be able to train here like they did in Arallia. Let’s mark out the different rooms and get a general layout.” He instructed Josephine and she nodded. The three of them spent the better half of the afternoon moving about the land. It wasn’t flat, meaning Aegis would have a lot of work to do to build the rooms required, but his Architecture skill was now intermediate and it was up for the task.

They used loose stones to start marking where walls would be, making sure to create enough space for a large garden as both the monastery in Arallia, and the shrine in Kordas had. It wasn’t until the sun began to set that they were interrupted by an Arallian guard approaching from Rene, looking at Aegis expectantly.

“Excuse me, Lord Aegis.” The guard said to get his attention.

“Just Aegis.” Aegis corrected him.

“Sorry, Aegis. A woman by the name of Hae-won is requesting your presence at the townsquare, she said you were expecting her.” The guard said politely.

“Oh, right.” Aegis remembered what he’d said back in Kordas to the interviewers. “I suppose we can head back, hopefully there are workers ready to start the construction waiting for us.” Aegis said, and Clara and Josephine followed him along back down the mountain. All the way down, Aegis took his time marking off where the road would be built between the Monastery and Rene, and as he did he realized just how much work it’d be. By the time he’d finally got back to Rene, the sun had set, and he could already see Ruffily had started work on building a Tavern just off the side of the town square with quite a few Arallian NPCs listening to her orders as she woofed at them.

“Aegis! Finally! I’ve been waiting for hours.” Hae-won complained as she called out to him, getting his attention. He turned to look over at the Scribe’s Hall to see her standing in the door way. “I’m set up here, ready for you whenever, so come on.” She said urgently.

“Okay.” Aegis gave her a nod. He was surprised to see she looked exactly as she did in her broadcast, including wearing a red V-neck dress which looked a bit out of place in the fantasy setting. On top of that, she was level 15. “I shouldn’t be long, talk with Ruffily and Savika and round up anyone with decent architecture skill that isn’t already working.” Aegis said to Josephine and Clara before reluctantly heading towards the Scribe’s hall.

When he peered inside he saw that the desks had been set up neatly with chairs behind them for an interview, but sitting behind the desks already waiting was Yuki. Yuki looked at Aegis, just as nervous as he was, before moving to sit beside her, while Hae-won made some last minute adjustments to her hair. He could see now that Hae-won was live streaming, and both of their numbers began to suddenly climb, so that they were collectively sitting close to 150 000 viewers.

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“Before we start, Shinji would just like me to confirm with you that you are comfortable with answering any of my questions.” Hae-won said to Aegis, and Aegis gave an uncomfortable nod.

“As long as they aren’t weird…” Aegis replied as he adjusted his seat. “She made you come too?” Aegis whispered to Yuki.

“She said you wanted me to come…” Yuki replied, confused for a second, which caused Aegis to roll his eyes.

“Well, everyone.” Hae-won cleared her throat. “I’m joined here in Rene, on the Island of Kalmoore, with the famous Tailor Yuki, and Aegis, the Intermediate Crafter. And of course, my name is Hae-won with the Fanta-See Network.” She said calmly. “I’ve been broadcasting for you over the recent weeks and seen a great number of questions that everyone is eager to have answered, and I’ve collected the most popular ones here," she motioned to her interface in front of her eyes, "if you wouldn’t mind me asking some of them. And if you don’t feel comfortable answering, feel free to skip them.” Hae-won smiled and Aegis and Yuki both smiled back.

“So Aegis, how do you feel, knowing that Yumily is coming to perform here on Kalmoore?” Hae-won asked. Aegis was preparing his mind for all sorts of difficult questions, but was completely caught off guard by this simple, weird one.

“Uh, huh? I’m…” Aegis looked at Yuki confused, who just smiled awkwardly back at him. “I guess I’m glad?” Aegis shrugged.

“Have you heard her new single, Setting Sun? Written in Memory of Arallia?” Hae-won asked excitedly.

“I, uh… I haven’t…” Aegis replied.

“Have you heard it yet, Yuki? I mean, of course you probably have.” Hae-won asked Yuki excitedly.

“I- yes, I listened to it, I think it is beautiful and really captures the heart of Arallia. I can hear her feelings in the lyrics and the violin.” Yuki replied.

“Do you know if she plans to perform it during her upcoming concert in Kalmoore?” Hae-won asked her.

“Uhm. I think so.” Yuki smiled back.

“I imagine you have some beautiful outfits designed for her already, right?” Hae-won continued.

“I, well, not yet. She is bringing with her a lot of crafting materials from her trip in Lanusk to help me re-open my shop.” Yuki replied.

“I see, I see. That’s so nice of her! Are you worried about business now that you’ve come so far out on the island of Kalmoore? Many of your loyal customers and players who love your designs are curious when and where they can get clothing made by you again.” Hae-won asked, at this point Aegis leaned back and looked at the two of them, confused.

“Well, they don’t need to worry. I have spoken with Yumily, and she will take some of my designs with her whenever she comes to Kalmoore, and sell them at her concerts on the various islands. And anyone else is free to visit me in Kalmoore and I will do my best to make sure everyone can wear my best crafted cloth outfits and armor.” Yuki replied confidently.

“So you’re officially staying in Kalmoore?” Hae-won confirmed.

“Yes… I will be staying with Aegis on his land, with the other survivors of Arallia, since they are all friends of mine.” Yuki said, while motioning to Aegis. “You probably want to ask him some questions, too, right?” She said awkwardly.

“Huh? Him? Oh, yeah, sure.” Hae-won looked over at Aegis with an annoyed expression. “Aegis. Are you planning to use your connections in Kalmoore to get me into Yumily’s concert?” Hae-won asked with a deadpan serious expression.

“That’s the question?” Aegis asked her with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes. It’s the question.” Hae-won replied straight faced.

“You said you’ve collected questions from viewers to ask me. That’s a question that the viewers have been asking?” Aegis confirmed, still looking at Hae-won suspiciously.

“It is.” She replied without hesitation. Aegis glanced to Yuki to see that Yuki was having trouble not laughing.

“Right. I wasn’t planning to do that, actually.” Aegis replied annoyed.

“Okay, next question. Don’t you think it’s a bit rude to not invite your caster to a concert, when she clearly likes the singer more than you do, but for some reason you get to go and she doesn’t?” Hae-won asked.

“That’s another one? A question that a viewer asked?” Aegis replied.

“Yup.” Hae-won nodded while crossing her arms. For some reason, the viewership on their streams were going up.

“I’d like to see where you saw that message, in the chat.” Aegis crossed his arms back, looking at her skeptically.

“Okay, fine.” Hae-won replied with defiance, pressing around some buttons in her interface, the she sent Aegis a message through the friends list with a screen capture. Aegis opened it and looked at it quickly.

“That’s- it says Hae-won. You said it, you just asked it in my chat right now.” Aegis pointed out.

“I’m a viewer, so it still counts.” Hae-won retorted. “I must say, you are not being a very cooperative interviewee, Yuki has much better manners.” Hae-won huffed.

“Seriously?” Aegis glared at her.

“Answer the damn question!” Hae-won replied, annoyed.

“What, what was the question again? Do I think it’s rude to not invite you?” Aegis confirmed.

“Yup.” Hae-won nodded.

“No, I don’t think it’s rude.” Aegis huffed back at her, at this point Yuki was looking away and covering her mouth to hide the fact that she was laughing.

“Fine, then ask me.” Hae-won replied.

“Ask you what?” Aegis looked at her confused.

“Ask me if I think it's rude. Answer: Yes, it's totally rude and you should totally invite me.” Hae-won replied grumpily.

“You are supposed to be the one asking me questions, aren’t you?” Aegis replied.

“Hah? Why would I ask you anything, I know the answers better than you do.” Hae-won waved him off aggressively. “Now, Yuki on the other hand.” Hae-won turned back to Yuki, causing her to look up at Hae-won again, straightening her face as best she could.

“No, no, leave Yuki alone. You made me come all the way down here when I was in the middle of building a monastery.”

“Yeah, but that was just so I could get Yuki to do an interview.” Hae-won dismissed him quickly.

“So I can leave?” Aegis asked. “Yuki, you don’t have to stay, by the way. Hae-won tricked you.” Aegis said and Yuki nodded politely.

“It’s okay, I’m used to interviews, so I don’t mind…” Yuki smiled politely.

“See? Manners.” Hae-won motioned to Yuki with an impressed nod.

“Okay, then, I’m going.” Aegis shrugged as he stood up, but Yuki stood up worriedly as well when he did.

“Wait, I really don’t want to intrude on Aegis’ interview.” Yuki said with a concerned look.

“Pf, it’s fine, don’t worry about him. He can’t even answer half the questions his viewers ask.” Hae-won waved it off, as if she was challenging Aegis.

“You haven’t even asked me one.” Aegis replied.

“Alright, fine. You want a real one?” Hae-won said. “Sit.” She motioned him down back into his chair. Aegis hesitated before slowly sitting down, Yuki copying him. “How many direwolf steaks did you need to eat to keep your stamina up when you were escaping Arallia?” Hae-won asked. Aegis suddenly had to think, he hadn’t been keeping track of the number himself, but he had a rough idea.

“I think it was about 27?” Aegis replied.

“Wrong, it was 35.” Hae-won shook her head with disappointment.

“What? How do you know?” Aegis asked her.

“Because I’m your caster, I know more about you than you do.” Hae-won replied.

“O-okay, give me another one.” Aegis said.

“What is your strength stat currently, at this exact moment.” Hae-won asked. As she did, Aegis started opening up his interface, “Ah, tut tut tut, no peeking.” She stopped him.

“It’s uh…” Aegis thought really hard, resisting the urge to just check.

“This is a toughie, since you hide your UI from your viewers. It gets asked a lot.” Hae-won smirked.

“It’s 50. I think.”

“51. Check it.” Hae-won crossed her arms again. Aegis quickly fiddled with his interface and opened it, confirming that Hae-won was right.

“How did you…?” Aegis looked at her in disbelief.

“I told you, I know more about you than you do.” Hae-won smiled mischievously.

“Okay, okay.” Aegis cracked his neck, getting competitive now. “Give me one more.” Aegis replied confidently.

“All of your skills are intermediate now. How many of them are above level 30 though?” Hae-won asked confidently.

“Shit, okay. Well, let’s see.” Aegis started looking at his fingers and counting. “Riding, Leadership, Shield Mastery… then refining went up when I was helping Tullan… Four, it’s four.” Aegis said confidently.

“You forgot taming.” Hae-won sighed.

“Aw c’mon, you’re just asking questions you already know the answers to. Let me ask you one.” Aegis frustratedly went into his interface and started looking around in his stats. “What level is my Riding skill?”

“45.” Hae-won faked a yawn.

“What’s my spirit?”

“114.”

“Oh yeah? What’s my damage reduction currently?

“Thirty two point something, I’m not a robot so don’t try to get me on the decimals.” Hae-won grumbled back.

“Ok, ok.” Aegis closed his interface out. “You’ve got the numbers memorized, so what? I can memorize numbers for a test too.” Aegis said as he started pondering harder questions. “What’s the first skill I got intermediate?”

“Easy, Enchanting.”

“How about this? What is the last skill that I obtained out of all my skills that are now intermediate.” Aegis crossed his arms, confident she wouldn’t know this.

“Seriously? That’s what you’re trying to stump me with? Taming.” Hae-won rolled her eyes. “Like I said, I know more about you than you do. Anything that any of the viewers want to ask you, they can just ask me instead.” Hae-won smiled, and it was at that exact moment Aegis finally realized what Hae-won was doing for him. She had an odd approach, but she was acting like this for his benefit.

“Well, surely, you can’t answer questions regarding how Aegis feels about things, right?” Yuki joined in, trying to side with Aegis as she hadn’t realized what Hae-won was trying to do.

“Pff, are you kidding? He’s easier to read than a children's book. Try it, ask a question and we’ll see who can answer it faster.” Hae-won turned to Yuki, looking competitive.

“Uh, hum.” Yuki looked nervously between Aegis and Hae-won. “Oh, I know. What is Aegis’ favorite food?” She said excitedly.

“Mac ‘n cheese.” Hae-won and Aegis both said in unison, surprising Yuki, and she was suddenly feeling competitive as well.

“Okay. What’s his favorite color?!” Yuki asked, hoping to stump Hae-won.

“Purple.” They both said in unison.

“Wait how the hell’d you know that?” Aegis asked her, confused.

“When you were voting on colors in Rene, you kept voting for purple even though everyone else wanted blue.” Hae-won shrugged.

“You were watching that? I only had three viewers then.”

“Exactly.” Hae-won grinned.

“Try something harder.” Aegis insisted to Yuki, and Yuki nodded.

“Do you have a girl that you like?!” Yuki blurted out, but as she did her face suddenly went bright red, embarrassed by her own question she threw her hands over her mouth. Instead of trying to answer, Aegis turned to Hae-won, worried that she would answer for him.

“Yep, but he’s an idiot who doesn’t know anything about women. He only notices girls are interested in him when multiple people tell him about it. And even then, he still doesn’t really get it.” Hae-won replied.

“T-that’s not true.” Aegis protested, looking embarrassed now himself.

“Which part?” Hae-won raised an eyebrow at him while Yuki listened intently.

“Well…” Aegis hesitated for a second. “Ah screw it, this interview is stupid.” Aegis stood up and started heading out. “And you, you know way too much about me, it’s weird.” Aegis grumbled.

“It’s my job. So, as I was saying lovely viewers, from now on you can direct your Aegis questions to me, and let that poor shy little boy focus on his crafting and adventures.” Hae-won smiled at her audience. “Now, Yuki, what are the chances you think that Yumily would want to do an interview with me?” Hae-won asked hopefully.

“Uh…” Yuki watched Aegis leave with a worried expression before turning back to Hae-won. “I’m not sure she’s allowed to give interviews with other networks because of her VGN contract. Sorry, I should go, I think I embarrassed Aegis. Thank you for your time.” Yuki stood up and bowed politely to Hae-won before rushing out after Aegis. Hae-won just leaned back with a long sigh.

“See? Told you, idiot who doesn’t know women.” Hae-won smirked. “That’s been it for our exclusive interview here with Yuki and Aegis on the Fanta-see Network, I’ll be hopping back onto the caster desk in a moment so you can have your questions answered by me on Aegis’ stream, in real time. I’ll see you all there.” Hae-won smiled as she logged out of the Shattered World simulation, stepping out of her Simbox.

“Damn I’m good.” She pumped her fist for herself.