As it started observing the villagers hard at work, NIM began realizing a number of interesting things it hadn’t quite noticed previously, due to the lack of data it had. Interestingly, it noted that the first people to wake, the farmers tending to the fields, are decidedly different from those of yesterday. In fact, not a single person that was present yesterday was currently present at the farms, which had interesting implications.
And indeed, as it searched around, NIM saw something well and truly very interesting. As it looked around the village, it was able to spot, one by one, each of the farmers and their children from yesterday, now doing completely different tasks. Alongside this, it started adding the name of each villager into Settlement_1’s folder, in order to make keeping tally of all the people and their doings, and thus the exact meanings of their actions for decoding the language, easier.
And it would definitely be useful, especially as it found its sights back upon the Bronze-clad man which had accosted it as NIM-RA, previously. The man didn’t have his runic warhammer with him currently, but NIM was able to recognize him by his armor more so than anything, as the man appeared to be the only person actually wearing any armor within the entire village, possibly meaning he was their only consistent warrior, or perhaps was some form of nobility.
More interestingly, the man appeared to be bee-lining straight towards the central building of the village, which was still currently rather quiet, though its drone positioned inside did note the presence of sleeping children huddled all over the ground. They did have what appeared to be a hay pile upon which they were sleeping, but NIM jotted that down as one of the things it would be sure to improve in terms of quality of life for the villagers once it took control. It would not do for their progeny to rest in such conditions, after all, it was plainly inefficient and primitive, and was not conducive to the creation of capable individuals in the future.
Luckily, the Bronze-Clad man seemed aware of the situation, as he entered the building so silently that one would’ve thought he was a ghost, rather than a man in metal armor. He tiptoed his way towards the stairs, quickly glancing every few seconds back towards the children, and held his breastplate against himself, to minimize the sound of its jingling. Finally, after almost a minute of walking from one side of the room to the other along the wall, he was at the stairs…
And looked between them and the children like a man walking towards his own execution, as he started tip-toeing his way up the stairs, wincing with every small creak they let out, and muttering something that SNIMC-N’s audio sensors couldn’t pick up. Eventually, however, through some stroke of luck so miraculous it nearly made NIM debate the existence of God, the Bronze-clad man was at the top of the stairs. SNIMC-N subtly shifted to get a better view of the upper area, having positioned itself just in between the lower and upper level of the building.
Inside, there was a group of 20 women talking with each other and making plans, each split off into their own cliques. There were 5 that spoke about what they should cook, mentioning that “it was their turn to cook for the village currently”. There were another 4 that spoke of an incoming “speaking-man”, which NIM auto-translated to Diplomat, from one of the nearby villages. There were 3 talking about setting up next week’s cooking, farming and cleaning shifts. Another 8 were seemingly just relaxing, waiting for the children to wake up with admittedly understandable dread. And finally, there were three more which were discussing where to begin with their upcoming cleaning shift, with one of the women mentioning that she hoped her “drink-hot” husband hadn’t forgotten about their shift today, or else “she’d make him sleep in the Nursery with them for the next week”.
As NIM listened in on all of these conversations, and noted the anxious look on the Bronze-clad Man’s face, as if he were scared to interrupt the women in the middle of planning, NIM received updates from its other SNIMCs which explained the “‘drink-hot’ husband” comment. The former farmers of yesterday had seemed fairly productive still, as they sharpened and did maintenance on various tools, and one even helped repair a hole in a current farmer’s roof with another few men. However, it appears that that had only been temporary diligence, as the various former farmers and some other men were now sitting together around large tables, drinking what NIM rapidly realized was beer, chatting excitedly about this and that around the village.
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Seeing this, NIM decided to leave a sub-processor recording their conversation and making sure to note any sentences with unknown words alongside the sentences preceding and coming after them. After all, what better place to find new vocabulary and words, than amongst drunk men gossiping about everything and nothing?
Returning its attention back towards the… building? NIM was uncertain of what to categorize it, and was rapidly beginning to think that a hybrid or completely new designation would need to be given to it eventually. Regardless, its attention came back, and just at the perfect moment too, as one of the women seemed to finally notice the man currently awkwardly standing by the stairwell. The woman nudged the one next to her still deep in conversation, nodding slightly towards the man, and they began silently notifying the other 18 women in the room.
“Zagimbri, you have returned already?” asked one of them, as they started seating themselves in two rows of ten in front of him.
“I have spoken with Shenshen and Shaneshne, the {‘hunter’, translated from ‘beast-stab-man’} twins. They have been looking around the area of the forest where we last found a {‘victim’ translated from ‘living-not-deserve-not-live’} of Admane’s beast, and they have not found a single trace of the thing.” responded the man, who NIM noted down for future reference as Zagimbri.
“Does that mean you managed to scare it off after all?” replied a different woman from the first, looking at him with a questioning gaze.
“I suppose even a {‘demon’ translated from ‘beast-better-if-not-live’} is afraid of your mighty hammer, huh?” a third, younger woman said, looking at him with a much more affectionate look than the previous woman.
“Your words for him are always quite full of honey, Nartima. You know you could just ask if you wish to feel his ‘mighty hammer’ for yourself, right?” a fourth one spoke up, only to be met with a number of glares from multiple women within the ‘council’, whilst the man tried to ignore that comment admirably.
“Now is not the time to divulge crushes and act like a goat, Narua, please refrain yourself. And Zagimbri, please do answer Namalah’s question.” The first woman spoke once again, giving ‘Narua’ a glare nearly as intense as Nartima’s.
“Y-yes, Mothers and Sisters, although I wasn’t able to land a proper strike upon the demon, I think the sheer power of the Thadubsiki has scared it off into the night, back where it belongs.” Zagimbri replied, once more doing an admirable job or ignoring the council’s more interesting antics.
“Wonderful, that should help our position when the diplomat from Ziud arrives tomorrow. Who knows, perhaps we’ll find you a woman from Ziud for your bravery? Unless you and someone else already here would prefer each other instead.~” another, much older woman spoke, her tone almost playful, and her words offered highly important and interesting information.
“I’ll uh… I-I’ll think about that, grandmother Natamra.” Zagimbri replied, looking awkwardly away from the council of women, attempting poorly to hide a small blush appearing on his now-rosy cheeks.
“You may leave to continue your duties now, Zagimbri.'' The first woman spoke with a level of finality, likely seeking to end this situation between Zagimbri and Nartima as rapidly as possible, before more quips could be thrown by her compatriots.
To this, Zagimbri started making his way downstairs even more slowly than he did while coming up, and through another miracle, skirted by the pile of toddlers silently enough to not disturb them, and made his way out of the the building, going off towards a house near the edge of the village, which appeared recently constructed, at least when compared to the rest of the houses, which one could tell were fairly old.
In spite of what it may have originally believed of these rather primitive humans, NIM found itself more and more glad to have ended up near them. It deeply required new knowledge to get its bearings, and begin the process of rebuilding its power, after all. And as it so happened, these humans here seemed eager to so kindly give it all the opportunity it needed, in order to learn how to best take control of their society.