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Chapter 283: Chapter 263

"I do not hold grudges!"

"Just how you aren\'t competitive?" I raised an eyebrow.

"I am also not competitive." She puffed up. "I merely have a strong desire to win when competing."

"So, you\'re not upset anymore that I cheated on our first day in that axe throwing contest?"

"You admit you cheated!" She jabbed her finger at me in righteous accusation.

I turned to Raikou. "Exhibit A"

Artoria reddened and turned away with a huff. She calmed down and looked around. "What happened here? There is a lot of destruction."

"Our War." Raikou replied. "This is where Master destroyed Assassin\'s Noble Phantasm."

"The First time using my Yggdrasil." I admired the landscape. There were craters and scorched earth all around. Luckily it was deserted without anyone nearby except for the Yggdmillennia family.

"It seems the large pieces of her fortress have been cleaned up." Raikou swept the horizon. "How long has it been since we have last been here, Master?" Raikou asked.

"Should be about two months." I tapped my chin. "I wanted to give them time to get their stuff together before looking for a status report."

"Status report?" Artoria faced me again.

"Did I not mention it?" I blinked in realization. "I sorta...am sponsoring and or rather subordinated the Yggdmillennia family after the war. They were going to be snuffed out after the Mage\'s Association got done with them, so I stepped in and offered them a way out with conditions."

"You have subordinates now?" Artoria looked intrigued. "I am curious to see how you lead them. I have yet to see you command large forces."

"I\'m not very hands on, I don\'t want to micromanage them. I basically told them what they\'re not allowed to do, and what I expect them to provide and then left them to their own devices."

"Not all leadership is about watching or controlling their every action but directing them with purpose." She stated.

"I preferred commanding small units." Raikou pulled me back into her arms, her boobs resting atop my head.

"Yes, smaller and well-coordinated groups are always a more pleasant alternative to large armies." Artoria nodded along. "Most of my fond memories are from leading my knights on adventures in smaller groups, not the battles that took place amongst my armies."

"Luckily I don\'t have to do deal with the day to day stuff. I honestly don\'t know how you both dealt with it in the past, nor how Yasaka currently deals with it." The thought just made me nauseated. "Having to be responsible for so many people and every little issue.....bleh."

"There were many trying times. However, there was a pride that came with it as well." Artoria chuckled.

"Indeed, it was difficult to manage the personalities of even my Heavenly kings, but I will always look upon them proudly." Raikou also agreed.

"I wanna hear more stories later." There were probably many things I still didn\'t know about their lives, and I knew we had a long time together, but I wanted to hear it all. "But for now, that\'s the Yggdmillennia Castle." I gestured behind us towards the large castle in the distance.

"I do not look forward to interacting with these people again, Master." Raikou frowned slightly. "I do not recall any fondness for them even after....being fixed."

"Can you still scowl at them like they\'re disgusting insects?" I asked.

She tilt her head, looking thoughtful. "Like this?" she scrunched her face in a way that elicit a strange reaction from me.

"Oh that is disconcerting. I can understand some of Mordred\'s sentiments now." Artoria quietly commented, but I felt something different.

[I want to do some lewd things to you while you look at me like that.] I sent through our link.

"Master!" Raikou let out an adorable squeak, hands shooting up to hide her embarrassment.

"W-what?" Artoria looked at us in confusion.

"Master is being naughty." Raikou\'s lips trembled to keep from reacting.

"I may or may not have said something through our link." I cleared my throat. "Regardless! Let\'s head on over." And I masterfully deflected her question.

***

"Lord Schweinorg." Darnic was there to greet us as the gates to the castle were opened. Along with his entourage, they all bowed politely.

"Darnic Yggdmillennia, I\'m glad to see that you\'re still alive." I looked around, eyeing the place and inspecting it.

"It was closer than I would have liked." He replied. "If not for your intervention, and by extension, the Wizard Marshall, I would not be here."

"And I\'m curious how that went." I knew he would escape relatively unscathed, but the details were worth noting. "But before that, my companions." I gestured to Raikou first. "You know my Servant, Minamoto-no-Raikou."

And she did that scowl of hers from before.

It made me tingly.

Was it because she wasn\'t under her madness now that I could feel more comfortable thinking about it?

"And my Girlfriend, Artoria Pendragon." I then held my hand out to Saber.

"A pleasure." She said curtly.

I don\'t think they quite guessed her real identity yet. Possibly only taking note of her family name.

"Any associate of Lord Schweinorg is welcome within these walls." He bowed politely once more. "May I ask the purpose of your visit?" He turned back to me.

"I wanted to see how you lot were doing and maybe get some finished products if there was any surplus." There was no need to hide my intentions. I preferred everyone operating above board.

Darnic smiled, no doubt suspecting as much. "I shall personally lead you to our workshops that have taken over the projects you have assigned."

"Wonderful, and I\'m curious, how did the meeting with the Mages Association go?" We began to walk towards the inner chambers.

Darnic let out a sign, relaxing a little bit. "We submitted to their authority." He said plainly. "As expected, they attempted to drain every bit of our resources and then disband our faction." And the call for their heads was left unsaid. "The timely intervention of the Wizard Marshall allowed us to keep our lives intact, as well are our....family. While we no longer operate in complete autonomy, we are looked at as any other third rate group outside of the Clock Tower\'s immediate influence."

Two Homunculi next to him pushed open the large wooden doors as we passed the threshold.

"And what about any recompense? I can assume they still tried to take blood from a rock in this case, if only to prove a point to any others with similar opinions or ideas." I glanced at the surroundings. "And the castle looks rebuilt, well done."

"The fines and levies were substantial...in the assumption that we were on the verge of falling apart." There was a small smirk forming on his lips. "Enough to seem heavy handed, yet not absurd enough to have dissention called upon the lords."

"Ah, I see what happened." I nodded along.

"Indeed. The fines as they were would have made a hefty dent into our finances if we were still operating before the Grail. As it stood, in their eyes, it would have ruined us regardless and they would have picked up the pieces that were left once we collapsed."

"And I\'m sure they thought themselves clever sidestepping Zelretch\'s interference." I chuckled at the thought.

"It\'s as you say." He shared my amusement. "But our sudden windfall put a hamper in their plans and we have rebounded quicker than even I suspected. You mentioned the castle, yes. We have rebuilt and stabilized our situation since your left visit."

We began walking down some winding stairs, torches lightning the way and sound muffled by the reinforced stones.

"I take it they also were not pleased with the development?"

"That is a polite way to describe the situation." A frown made its way to his face. "They insisted on sending investigation teams to scour every inch of our estate in retaliation. We of course denied them, but they have yet to cease their attempts to acquire our new founded resources."

I could imagine that things were much less mundane than how they were described.

"And how has business been?"

"Profitable." He chuckled. "Our – your potions have been selling far and wide amongst our communities. Once the effects had been proven. There was skepticism and some underhanded tactics used by our enemies, however, the effects could not be denied."

He seemed to be in a much better mood than the last time I saw him. There was a renewed vigor in his tone and a lot less stress that seemed to have been weighing him down previously.

"Here we are." He walked up to another door. "We originally tried to grow the plants outside, but we quickly realized that the environment to grow these magical plants required very delicate ecosystems."

As he opened the door, I felt a breath of air that wasn\'t too dissimilar to Skyrim. There was a clear difference, but it still was a good effort and they had made significant progress if this was anything to go by.

There were rows upon rows of planted flowers and other plants.

I let out a whistle upon seeing it. "You all have been busy."

"Lord Schweinorg?" I heard a familiar voice. A young girl stepped over with slow steps, a cane supporting her.

"Fiore." I smiled towards the younger girl. She was up and walking, with assistance, but walking all the same. "You\'re doing much better."

"Y-yes, it\'s all thanks to your help." Her eyes shined brightly. "I-I\'ve been taking care of the garden." She held her arm out encompassing the nearby plants.

"Well done." I couldn\'t help but pat her head.

She was being so cute.

"Fiore, give him a status report." Darnic finally spoke up after a moment. Though, his tone was rather soft compared to what I previously remembered.

"Yes, of course." She perked up. "As you can see, we successfully planted the majority of samples you provided. The ones you called Blue Mountain Flowers and Purple Mountain Flowers were the easiest to get to take hold."

"As expected." I rubbed my chin, walking up and inspecting a couple. "They grow like weeds where I found them." I plucked it out, getting a good look at its health, its roots, and looking for discrepancies. "What ones are giving you problems?"

"U-unfortunately, we\'ve had trouble with quite a few as well." She responded with a hesitant tone. "Nirn Root as you\'ve called it...no matter what we\'ve done, we can\'t get it to take hold in any soil."

"Unfortunate, but not unexpected."

"You\'re not upset...?"

"No?" I blinked. "I didn\'t expect everything to transfer in a 1 to 1 ratio. The fact that you all have come this far in such a short time isn\'t anything short of excellent."

She let out a relieved sigh. "Also – Red Mountain Flower is having difficulty and we don\'t know why. By all looks it should behave the same as the other two of a similar name."

"That\'s interesting, I\'ll want to see your notes later." I nodded along with her report. "Continue."

"Going by the names listed in the books you provided the others are – Blister Pod Cap, Bog Beacon, Mora Tapinella, and Creep Cluster." She listed off, fingers extended as she went through the list.

"I believe I see a correlation, all of those seem to have the primary effect of restoring Magical Energy."

"Yes sir, that\'s the conclusion we\'ve come up with so far." She agreed.

Huh, why aren\'t they taking here? Is it something about the world that rejected the concept or are the conditions just impossible to simulate growth?

"So Mana Potions are off the table I presume."

"Y-yes, sir." She nodded.

"Well, they aren\'t my main focus anyways." I shrugged at the new revelation. "And how has the production of potions come along?"

"That isn\'t my area of work...sir."

"I can give a report, if you desire, Lord Schweinorg." Darnic stepped in. "Otherwise the one heading the Alchemic portion of our family is...Gordes."

"Oh." I remembered him, yeah, didn\'t feel like being in the same room with him if I could help it. "Proceed then."

"Right away." He bowed before going on to report. "We have a few samples in here if needed, shall I being my report?\'

"I don\'t need to verify for the moment." I waived him off. "Just an update for now."

"Very well." He nodded. "Our most obvious accomplishment in this new field are the production of Health Potions. Based on the sample you gave us of that completed product, we have been able to thus match roughly 88% of effect."

"Impressive, your family just continues to show its brilliance." It was important to praise them since I was sorta their boss.

"Yes, we have an almost 70% creation rate of each potion. Based on projections I believe we will reach 90% in less than 6 months." He continued. "As for other Potions we have achieved some success in, these Stamina Potions – so aptly named – are more difficult but we have cracked them only two weeks prior. Unfortunately, we are still experimenting with the creation phase and thus only have confidence in a completed product around 20% of the time."

"Impressive once again. I know I didn\'t give you all much in the way of direction and yet you\'ve carved out a production method in such a short amount of time." And the fact that they\'d already started a small farm to keep up with their own demand.

There were clearly bounded Fields around the room to help stimulate the growth. I could only imagine the trial and error that went into figuring out each individual plant\'s needs.

"I thank you on behalf of the Yggdmillennia for your kind words." He dipped his head again. "We have also started experimenting with other Potions but achieved little success. Merely a handful of completed products that we have attributed to unique circumstances or just luck and have been unable to replicated with any certainty."

"I have complete confidence that you and your people will be able to achieve the results we both want in time." I wanted to reassure him that I wasn\'t here to pressure them any further. Their results were already extraordinary compared to what I expected. "And what of the finished stock do you have so far?"

"In total, our percentage, the Wizard Marshall\'s percentage, or your Percentage, Lord Schweinorg?" He asked for clarification.

I suppose Zelretch already told him of our deal, not that I cared. "Just mine, what you do with yours is your business and what the Old man does with his is his own as well."

He appeared happy with my mentality. "Calculating the share you proposed to us you should have about....1200 Health Potions available and around a hundred Stamina Potions."

I opened my mouth and closed it again. I was expecting a twentieth of that amount. "Darnic." I clasped his shoulders. "Well done. I\'m very happy with your results and with your family so far."

"Thank you, Lord Schweinorg." He barely held back his happiness.

"I reward my people, Darnic. The share you\'re getting is payment for your hard work, but I want to reward you all separately." I mentally shuffled through my storage, deciding on what to give him and saw something I thought/figured they would be quite pleased with. With a gesture I deposited a small pile on bones on the ground. "I believe you all can do quite a bit with some Dragon Bones, yes?"

His eyes widened, and even Fiore, who had been quiet, looked like she was about to fall over. I believed some of the Homunculi who were staying out of sight also went stiff.

"D-dragon bones?" Darnic repeated.

"Admittedly, they were used in a ritual to create an Undead Bone Dragon so their a little.....worn in a sense." Necrotic Energy had seeped into them after so many years. "But Dragon Bones are still Dragon Bones."

And It\'s not like I don\'t have quite a bit more and with access to an even further amount.

"I am unable to express my thanks for this gift, Lord Schweinorg." Darnic bowed again, but it felt more....genuine this time. "I hope to live up to your expectations."

He was really good at kissing ass, huh?

He didn\'t even try to do the whole \'oh we can\'t accept such a gift\' deal. Magi were still a greedy bunch. I found it hard to think of more than one or two crafts that couldn\'t make use of Dragon Bones to an absurd degree.

"Keep up the good work, Darnic. And keep your nose clean, you know my lines, please don\'t cross them." I just wanted to reiterate my position. "Now, do you mind if I take a look at the research of the other stuff I gave you?"

"Yes, right away!" He stood up, swinging his cane around. "Prepare what he requested immediately!" He commanded to everyone in the room.

***

"This was an interesting trip." Artoria commented as we sat quietly in a room, still at the Castle.

I had asked for somewhere quiet to look over some things.

"You both had been awfully quiet. Was it that boring?"

"Not at all." Artoria denied, shaking her head. "I wished to observe how you interacted with those who you perceived as your subordinates. I enjoyed watching you work as a leader." She smiled warmly. "They were originally your enemies in your previous War, and I could not detect any resentment from the one called Darnic."

"Yes, Master. I recall how displeased he was at our last meeting. The man we just saw could have been mistaken for someone else." Raikou also added.

"Well, that could be attributed to having just lost the War and had to settle for a consolation prize. However, it appears they\'ve hit quite the windfall." I didn\'t even bother asking them about their finances, it was their concern not mine. I only cared that they continued to provide my share of Potions and such. "And the Potions aren\'t the only thing, their research into Dust so far has given me some interesting ideas. They dabble into a lot of different crafts and they had a preliminary idea of grinding down a bunch of Dust and creating artificial Jewels with it." The idea sounded fascinating and gave me many thoughts. It obviously wasn\'t that simple, otherwise Dust Crystals would be a complete replacement for regular Jewels. But they still had some neat ideas.

"I\'m happy~" Raikou wrapped herself around me again, the excitable servant sometimes just decided she wanted some affection. "The place we first met is stilling bringing my son happiness. Your Mother is happy~" She said again.

"Yes it appears we have an abundance of Potions now, and I believe it is easy to understand the significance of them for our allies." Artoria hovered right next to me as well. "Do you have plans for distributing them?"

Split between Yasaka and Thorum in some manner, but I needed to work out the finer details there.

I was about to respond until I felt my Kaleidophone buzz inside my storage. I took it out to see that Yasaka was on the other end.

Both Raikou and Artoria noticed and peaked over my shoulder.

"Heya, everything okay?" I asked, answering the call as the beautiful Kitsune appeared on the other end.

"Wilhelm." She smiled brightly. "And both of you as well~. Are you busy at the moment?" She asked.

"Not particularly, was just wrapping up some things."

"Good, would it be possible to come home soon? I have someone.....asking for you." She seemed to choose her words carefully.

"Asking for me?" I couldn\'t even think who would cause her to have to call me.

"Yes." She sighed. "Normally, I could turn people away like this but.....that damn old Man sent him my way with a letter of recommendation." I could tell Yasaka wanted to drop her head to her desk. "And he\'s not....a bad person. I have spoken with him for all of ten minutes and deduced that much. A bit of an.....idiot though."

"I honestly have no idea who you\'re talking about." Who the hell was looking for me?

"That old bastard mentioned him when we were there the other day. You should know him, the one who got kicked out of his family – Sairaorg Bael."

***

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