Pandora’s Actor sifted through the cacophony of thoughts that came with the Baroness’ party. The locally-made public transportation carriages were nothing new to the Adventurers, but the individuals who emerged caused quite the stir.
He’s so handsome…
That girl with the glasses is just my type!
Eh? They’re making us escort a pregnant woman throu...
2023-12-17 09:21:04 +0000 UTC View PostHmm…
“Is there something else I can help you with, good sir?”
“No, I’m good. Thank you for your assistance.”
“A pleasure, as always!”
Not that it’s impossible, but he seems awfully upbeat for a Skeleton…
In the guise of Momon the Black, Pandora’s Actor stole glances at the diminutive Skeleton Merchant across the bars of the c...
2023-12-15 04:10:26 +0000 UTC View PostWith a new set of troubles on her mind, Frianne followed Nemel out of the schoolhouse to continue their tour of her village. She was still wary of the Goblins that scampered about, but the Human residents – at least the ones that she could see – paid no special attention to them. Out of the members of her party, Rangobart looked like he was trying to emulate the aloofness of the men around ...
2023-12-13 13:26:23 +0000 UTC View Post“I caught up with those entries that arrived while I was away, Lady Zahradnik.”
“What do you think?” Ludmila asked.
“They were interesting,” Nemel said. “It was disappointing to find out that Elena couldn’t qualify for the 897th annual Axis championship. The biggest shock was finding out that the nice guy who kept visiting her at the Imperial Archive was actually the...
2023-12-11 11:55:18 +0000 UTC View PostWhen Frianne emerged from her lodgings the next morning, there was a fluffy thing outside.
It’s a fluffy thing…
She stared at the fluffy thing that stood before her in all of its fluffiness. The fluffy thing stared back at her. It was so fluffy.
Seeing animals in rural territories was to be expected. Warden’s Vale was on the frontier, so did that mean i...
2023-12-09 11:31:42 +0000 UTC View PostThe foundry in Warden’s Vale was located at the end of a seven-kilometre ride to the southern side of the Citadel District. It was fashioned out of stone in the blocky theme shared by most of the buildings in Ludmila’s demesne. Much like everything else, what it lacked in aesthetic sophistication, it made up for in sheer scale. Like the Faculty of Alchemy, it looked like it was constructed ...
2023-12-07 12:19:17 +0000 UTC View PostThe Blacksmiths seemed more than content to feast on crab as Ludmila continued giving Frianne an overview of their metalworking company and its objectives. Frianne sipped on her fourth Summerberry Smoothie of the day – she couldn’t stop drinking them for some reason – pondering Ludmila’s resistance to the Guilds. While it was true that Nobles competed with them for influence, Frianne ha...
2023-12-05 12:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post“Uh…that girl we just passed was being chased by a Beastman,” Dimoiya said. “Is she going to be eaten? She’s not going to be eaten, right?”
Frianne looked over her shoulder through the carriage’s rear window, spotting a girl jogging along the shoulder of the road. A few dozen metres behind her was a hulking Pig Beastman that must have been five times her size. Besides the tw...
2023-12-03 01:23:29 +0000 UTC View PostWith lunch long over, they returned to a much more lively village. As Rangobart had noted, it more resembled an urban centre than a farming community. Most of the population worked in the settlement’s workshops rather than out in the fields and most of the industries present couldn’t usually be found in a rural village.
“It’s harder to tell what’s missing from a regular town tha...
2023-11-30 17:35:40 +0000 UTC View Post“Woo, what a view!” Dimoiya exclaimed.
A gust of cool wind tossed Frianne’s golden locks as they stood atop the village's lichtower. While the view of the Vale was indeed breathtaking, she wasn’t focused on the lake or the distant peaks to the east.
“How far is it to that strip of forest up the road to the northwest?” Frianne asked.
“Four kilometres,” Ludmila a...
2023-11-28 11:37:00 +0000 UTC View Post“Perhaps we should have started from the beginning,” Frianne sighed.
“I know that it is a lot to take in,” Ludmila said. “Is there anything in particular I can help you understand?”
“Master LeNez is a bit…”
“Enthusiastic?”
“Perhaps. She reminds me of the researchers in the Imperial Ministry of Magic.”
“Is that a good thing, or a bad thin...
2023-11-26 12:44:30 +0000 UTC View Post“This is…an ice house?”
A misty sigh rose from Miss LeNez. What annoyed Frianne even more was the look of pity the Alchemist cast in her direction.
“Is that all you can see?” Miss LeNez asked, “Something to be used? Why not recognise it for what it is?”
“It’s cold!” Dimoiya sneezed.
Dimoiya had cast an Endure Elements enchantment on herself, ...
2023-11-24 11:40:18 +0000 UTC View PostMmm, so good…
Frianne walked out of her guest villa – calling it a guest shophouse felt too weird – feeling a sense of relief she hadn’t known she needed. Ludmila walked out behind her and lightly shut the door before strolling back with her to the row of outlets on the western side of the too-large village square. They came across Dimoiya sitting in one of the shaded ben...
2023-11-22 14:25:53 +0000 UTC View PostAfter dinner, Frianne took Ludmila’s suggestion to retire early for the night to get some much-needed rest. She spent three hours writing a summary of the trip for the Court Council before passing out, and when she woke up in the morning and re-read it, she was certain that everyone back in Arwintar would think she had gone insane. Their journey up and down the Azerlisia Mountains, while only...
2023-11-20 12:46:51 +0000 UTC View Post“I’m not sure how to say this,” Frianne said as her seat vibrated against her butt, “but the roads are quite different here.”
“Ah, that’s because we’re not travelling on a road,” Ludmila replied. “It’s just a path over stone. One might think that it would be similar to having pavement, but it’s not. At least it’s better than the usual rural road.”
Frianne...
2023-11-18 12:41:21 +0000 UTC View Post“Dimoiya’s done!”
Frianne stifled a yawn as Dimoiya emerged from the post office in Corelyn Harbour’s west square. Before they departed for Corelyn Harbour, the inquisitive foreign affairs official who couldn’t mail herself to Arwintar insisted on at least mailing a report to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“Out of curiosity,” Frianne said, “how will the post office...
2023-11-16 15:05:34 +0000 UTC View Post“Time to pay up.”
Rangobart froze halfway out of the door to his room. Lady Wagner stood in the corridor outside, adorned in her carnelian dress. The outfit suited her so well that he doubted that any but the wealthiest of noblewomen might question her unchanging garb.
“‘Pay up’ for what, my lady?”
Lady Wagner looked up at him, her topaz eyes going wide. Then, her ...
2023-11-14 12:00:35 +0000 UTC View PostRangobart opened his eyes to find Lady Wagner and Dimoiya staring across the cabin at him. He yawned and stretched, looking groggily out of the windows, but the lack of any scenery showed that they were still travelling on the highway between Feoh Raizo and Feoh Berkana. Rather than return to the surface to resume their way to the Dwarven Kingdom’s capital overland, the highway went undergrou...
2023-11-12 10:13:01 +0000 UTC View Post“It’s huuuuuge!” Dimoiya exclaimed, “I can’t even see the top!”
“Pretty neat, huh?” Lady Wagner said, “What do you think’ll happen if I stick my hand in?”
“Your hand will fall off–AHH!!! Stop!”
Dimoiya jumped forward and grabbed Lady Wagner, pulling her away from the waterfall’s roaring torrent. Rangobart watched them from their ...
2023-11-10 11:26:52 +0000 UTC View PostAfter taking them back to Zwillingstürme, their carriage went north along another highway. It sped up immensely, conveying them to the fringes of the Great Forest of Tob within a half-hour and arriving at the southern shores of a large lake ten minutes later. Lady Wagner referred to it as the ‘Great Lake’, so Rangobart had expected something similar to the larger lakes in the Baharuth Empi...
2023-11-08 13:42:03 +0000 UTC View Post“I hope the morning finds you well, Viscount Roberbad,” Countess Wagner said with a charming smile. “Ah, please do not interrupt your breakfast on my account. I’ve simply come to follow up on what we discussed yesterday evening.”
The Countess’ lady’s maid came forward to offer him a sealed envelope. Rangobart’s eyes were drawn to the set of wands holstered at her hips. To ...
2023-11-06 12:32:46 +0000 UTC View PostWhat is this place…?
Unlike Zwillingstürme, Corelyn Harbour did exist on the Empire’s maps. It was marked as a village on the Katze River, however. After seeing the new town on the imperial border, Rangobart assumed that the village had undergone expansion as well, but he had woefully underestimated the extent.
As they rode south from the crossroads between th...
2023-11-04 12:15:29 +0000 UTC View Post13th Day, Upper Fire Month, 1 CE
“I don’t see anything different…”
“The entire border is like this, esteemed brother,” Rangobart said. “Didn’t your vaunted information network mention as much?”
Rangobart’s brother didn’t dignify his sarcasm with a reply, but Rangobart was certain it was the case. About a year and a half had ...
2023-11-02 12:37:29 +0000 UTC View Post“Well,” Frianne said, “this wasn’t at all what I expected.”
Since Corelyn Harbour had something like a temple university, she expected the public school to have similarities to the temple schools that educated the lucky few villages that were blessed – or cursed, as Jircniv would say – with them. Indeed, even the Imperial Magic Academy and the Empire’s universities took ma...
2023-10-31 12:12:50 +0000 UTC View Post“I didn’t pay any mind to this before,” Frianne said, “but isn’t this town too big to be called a town?”
“When compared to the towns that one usually sees in the region, yes.”
Clara’s reply was so nonchalant that Frianne nodded absently for a second before forcefully stopping herself. It didn’t take long to see that Corelyn Harbour was far from a normal ...
2023-10-29 13:20:03 +0000 UTC View PostThey truly aren’t scared of them…
It was commonly said that seeing was believing. Except that she wasn’t sure whether it was right to believe what she saw. People were averse to the Undead for a very good reason. It wasn’t conducive to a long life to become comfortable with the things.
Frianne watched in envy as Dimoyia went ahead of their group with Liane, running ...
2023-10-26 13:00:11 +0000 UTC View Post“We need more space for the Model S, my lady.”
“The Model S?” Liane frowned, “Space where?”
“The off-road track.”
“Tch. Of all the…”
It wasn’t something that they could fix with time as short as it was.
“What about an old highway? A big rural road?”
“We can ask the administration about that, but I doubt it.”
“You do tha...
2023-10-24 12:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostThe current post format seems alright for now...please feel free to point out any issues if you spot them.
“Rangobart.”
The sound of his brother’s voice brought a hush to the migrants gathered around the fire. Rangobart looked over his shoulder to find his brother standing behind him, arms crossed.
“What is it, esteemed brother?”
“How lo...
2023-10-22 03:07:12 +0000 UTC View PostAlright, let's try this again~
I've added different versions of the PDF version that should work on mobile, as well as a black version for non-crazy people. Epub master race. As for those who want to continue reading the posts on web, here you go...there's no option for spoiler text on Patreon, so I hope scrolling down to get at the files doesn't spoil people -.-
Oh, I also...
2023-10-20 02:10:33 +0000 UTC View PostSo I finally got home to discover that Patreon went through an overhaul that not only messed up my post schedule but also all of the formatting and images for each post.
I'll be experimenting with EPUB/PDF formats to see if this the better option, so please bear with me in the meanwhile...
Any issues that anyone would like to point out with the new posts are greatly appreciated.
... 2023-10-18 17:08:00 +0000 UTC View Post