23-A Shift in Priorities

7/1/5/4353 M.A.C - Niwut - Late Morning

"Alright, we've done enough to make up for an afternoon's work. We still have a bit over an hour before lunch, want to show me your new metals?"

Doro and his father had worked diligently the previous afternoon, but Suyum had been more productive than usual, thanks to Doro's help, and the two had needed to put in a bit more work the next morning to keep up. They would head to the central district after lunch, but for now, Khetep requested a lesson.

"Sure, I'll even do you one better."

Over the next hour, Doro showed his father how he had extracted the two metals, as well as the intermediary substances. Most of the hour was spent getting Khetep to understand Doro's process of estimating the yields. The math itself was simple but Doro had to explain how chemical formulae translated into the real world. Eventually, Doro had to use his Abilities to make some simple molecular models to help Khetep fully understand the concept.

"See, the numbers show the relative quantities of each element found in a substance. If you use the figures I gave you for the weight of the elements in question, you can figure out how much of the mass of something consists of a particular element. We've done enough for this morning, but I'll write up a periodic table and I'll record the information I can recall on each element at some point. Luckily, this was important to the field I studied in and I should have most of the relevant data available if I use my memory Ability."

"I think this might be enough for today. If you keep going, we might have a repeat of our first lesson, and I'd rather not have my brain fried when I meet your new teacher this afternoon. We really should come up with a name for your metals though. We wouldn't want the Empire, or some zealots, to take you away and try to use you if they find out you are a Blessed. Not that I can say much, considering I'm having you teach me, but better keep it a secret until you have enough power to guarantee your freedom."

"On that note, I spoke with Scholar Atwut about signing a confidentiality agreement, and I plan on letting him in on the secret if we do. He will be useful when it comes to finding ways of keeping my identity secret. Until we have something binding though, don't let it slip. I'm going to bring a billet of both metals, and a bit of the titanium nitride coating, to serve as an excuse for the contract."

Khetep nodded and told Doro that he thought it was a sound plan. The two cleared up the workshop and Khetep left to prepare lunch.

I still have the bauxite to process in order to get aluminum, but I don't really need it for now. Better save my energy for this afternoon and do it tonight before bed. Not gonna bother with the math this time though, since it's made of a bunch of different aluminum hydroxides.

Dad raised a good point, what the heck am I going to name them? This world doesn't seem to have developed elemental theory, or the idea of a periodic table, so their naming seems all over the place. I could call them something like mythril, adamantine, or after one of the other fantasy metals, but again, other Blessed might catch on. Luckily, it seems that modern imperial follows a lot of trends from Latin, probably due to the same ancient Blesseds who made Libra the standard unit. I think the least suspicious thing would be to come up with something random and add -um to the end to stay similar to latin. I mean, the words they use for gold, silver and iron are aurum, argentum and ferrum. The word for white sounds like alba, so maybe I can use albium for titanium. In keeping with this naming sense, chromium makes a green pigment so virid becomes Viridium...wait, that's already an element. I got it from Umayer iron so Umayum would work. I'll figure out aluminum later. I still have at least fifteen minutes before lunch so maybe I should get a bit of prep for mom's present done.

After spending a few minutes thinking up names for the metals, Doro went to change into his silk tunic and rejoined his father. Lunch went by without any surprises, and Suyum sent the two of them off after the meal.

"Don't do somethin' dumb, yeah? I'll have dinner ready just after sixth bell so don't be late. Good luck."

"Don't worry Mom, Dad is coming with me."

Suyum turned to address her husband.

"Don't do what I would do and make sure you two stay out of trouble alright?"

"You know me, I don't take any unnecessary risks...outside of the workshop."

Suyum and Doro giggled at the second half of Khetep's statement, remembering random explosions and smoke clouds that had originated from Khetep's workshop over the years.

"We should get going, better not be late for my first lesson."

The father and son pair made their way toward the central district while discussing the names Doro had come up with. As it turns out there was already a metal known as albaurum, white gold.

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Doro deduced it was probably platinum after his father told him of its properties. The two decided that the name "Albium" was different enough to avoid confusion, and was close enough to normal naming conventions that it wouldn't stick out. Khetep approved of Umayum as well, although he seemed to find it a bit unimaginative. As the pair grew closer to their destination, Khetep asked his son for more information about the scholar.

"Well, he seems to be a dedicated and intelligent man. He can be a bit petty, but it should be fine. Just treat him respectfully, and try not to question his worth, he seems to get a bit prickly when that happens. If you disagree with him, try to phrase it in a non-confrontational way and all should be well, I think. If you don't feed him one of Mom's super spicy buns like I did, by mistake, you'll be fine."

"Good thing you didn't ask your mother to come instead then. You two might have been thrown out less than a minute into the conversation."

"Considering he knows Mom was the ultimate culprit behind the spicy bun incident, he would have probably tried getting payback in some way. Knowing Mom's answer to confrontation is to outdo whoever is coming at her, I agree. Bringing her would have been disastrous."

The two shared a laugh as they continued making their way to the plaza. As they entered it, Khetep singled out a large complex to one side and told Doro it was the Niwut Free Legion, HQ where Dhruvah had headed off to the previous day.

"Could we stop by the free Legion HQ for a minute? We managed a better pace than I expected and there is something I want to check out."

"Sure. What do you have in mind?"

***

"Excuse me sir but do you have a moment? I would like to make some inquiries about the Free Legion, if it isn't too much of a bother."

Damn, Dhruvah seems to be the exception and not the norm. Some of the guys around here have some rather scary faces...and that receptionist...

Back in his old life, Emi had gotten Doro to watch a couple of isekai anime with her, and so he had subconsciously assumed the receptionist would be an attractive woman. The appearance of the receptionist sitting on the other side of the counter turned out to be quite a departure from the image Doro had in his mind. The man sitting there was stout and muscular, and judging from the greying in his hair and the thickness of his beard, Doro assumed he was quite old. The scars visible on his exposed skin, and the metal prosthetic he wore where his left forearm and hand ought to be, made the man's situation clear to Doro.

Makes sense. Why would you go hire a bunch of young people to sit behind desks when your organization produces veterans who may be unable to do field work anymore? Gotta watch out. Don't know how many stupid and illogical anime tropes Emi got burned into my brain.

"You can be as polite as you want, little one, but the minimum age to join up is twelve, and that is not something that can be easily waved."

What kind of meathead anime protagonist does he take me for? Why the hell would I want to join this world's equivalent to an adventurer's guild while this young...Maybe if you didn't have such an intimidating scowl, I would be a bit more at ease...

"Understood. This is not what I came here for, but it is good to know. I was wondering how one went about posting a request."

The man behind the counter looked like he was about to shoo Doro away, but he then noticed Khetep standing behind him and his attitude became more welcoming.

"Is this your son? What can I do for you today? If you tell me what kind of request you have in mind, I can let you know if it is feasible, and what kind of reward should be offered if you want someone to pick it up."

"My son is the one with the request, I am just accompanying him. However, please be assured that I will guarantee any payment he offers as long as I agree with it."

The receptionist gave a small sigh before his gaze returned to Doro.

"Alright boy, what do you need?"

Man, I know I'm a kid but maybe show a little more enthusiasm...

"I was attacked in an alley the other day, as I was out on my own, and was saved by a passing legionnaire. I live in the industrial district but I have to make my way here to take lessons from a scholar every Seventh-day afternoon. However, I don't really feel safe going out alone so far from home since the incident. I want to post a request for someone to come train me in self-defense on Seventh-day mornings, and accompany me to my lesson and back. I do not require their time during my lessons, so they would be free to spend that as they wish. I was planning on offering a homecooked lunch and dinner, and then negotiating a payment depending on the going rates."

The receptionist's expression took a more sympathetic turn as he heard Doro's request, his reply was a lot friendlier than it was before.

"Yeah, you can't always expect someone to be there to save you, so training yourself is not a bad idea. Sorry to hear you got attacked, but it is nice to hear that one of my brethren was there to do the right thing. Tell you what, I reckon just having an adult with you should limit the chances of being attacked, and since you are inexperienced, even the freshest recruit should be enough to train you initially. Some of the young ones might be willing to take a safe steady job like this just for the food if they don't have any other job planned that day, but please a least offer a small monetary reward regardless so the legion can take their 10% fee."

Guess he knows his stuff. I'll just leave it to him then.

"Doesn't seem like a problem. How about we guarantee a minimum of one silver mark as payment with room to negotiate? You can leave it open to legionnaires of any level, but please specify on the offer that I am looking for defensive training. How to block, dodge and deflect attacks. Maybe someone skilled with shields or light armor would be nice considering my Choice."

"Alright, I won't put anything specific on the offer, but I will let anyone who tries to accept the job know of your preferences. Anyone who has gone through basic training should know enough to teach you for the first few decans, at least. Since you are still young I recommend making your payments through the HQ to keep whoever we end up sending your way honest. You can offer them a bonus, off the books, but make sure to post the job and pay the agreed-upon fees through the HQ. Any unregistered deal you make with off-duty legionnaires will be your private business, and the Free Legion will not guarantee anything. Please give me your address so that I can direct applicants your way."

The receptionist scribbled down the address and retrieved a small object from his desk drawer. He then wrote a matching series of numbers on the back of the object, and on the top of the page he had been using to take notes.

"Here take this token. Give it to the applicant if you are willing to have them come back the next decan. If they don't show it to me, I will know to put your offer back on the listing without you having to come by in person. You will have to pay for the request in advance, but if there is an issue with the service you can come here to make a complaint. Depending on the nature of the problem, we may offer up to a full refund or even extra compensation."

Khetep stepped forward and handed the receptionist a silver mark. The receptionist put it away in what appeared to be a half-step between a cash box and a simplistic cash register, and proceeded to slip the page he had been taking notes on into a filing cabinet.

"If no one takes the offer for a while, feel free to drop by and increase the reward. Things are pretty calm at the moment though, so I don't think it will be a problem for now. That wraps up everything we needed to get sorted. Good luck with your training Kid."

The father-son pair bade their farewells to the receptionist and headed off to resume their afternoon plans.