Chapter 116: Final Preparations

Early Afternoon - Early Winter : Home

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*puff* Setting Maria down in the snow, I immediately noticed her red cheeks. "Are you alright?"

"I-I'm okay, m-my Lord..." She spoke with a bit of a stutter while she reached up and gently rubbed the metal collar on her neck.

-Ah, is the cold making that too uncomfortable?- Thinking I might as well do it while I was thinking about it, I nudged up her chin. "Look up towards the sky for me."

Reluctantly complying, she looked up and closed her eyes.

*Clank-puff* After immediately cutting the collar with earth magic, it fell to the ground in several pieces.

"Huh?" Maria didn't even realize what happened.

"Just stay looking up for a second…" Intently staring at her neck, I tried to think of what to do for a new collar. -It needs to be able to stretch… I wonder if I could make an elasticity rune that works on metal…-

Thinking this might take a moment, I warmed up the air around Maria before quickly making a small steel ring and fiddling with earth runes on it.

After around a minute or so, Maria finally looked down to see what I was doing, but she just looked confused. "If I may be so rude as to ask… What are you doing, my Lord?"

"Making you a new collar. You need one that won't kill you if you change to your dragon form." *vwoop-clink* The small ring snapped as I spoke. -Dammit…-

"A metal collar that.. changes size?"

"Mhm…" *creaaak* -Okay.. a little too tight still…-

I continued to fiddle with the rune for several moments after that until eventually finding something that was somewhat passable. *ssssngg* An odd ring came out of the metal band as I stretched it like a rubber band. -What an odd sensation…-

Currently, it was quite an inefficient rune, but since it was enough to run off her aura I stopped messing with it. -If it fits, it sits…-

Quickly turning back to her, I reached up and started making a new band around her neck, ignoring her look of awe. "What's your favorite flower?"

"A..a rose, my Lord…"

-Wow.. roses exist in this world?- Not even thinking that it probably looked totally different, I quickly finished up the runes and rose decorations before putting my insignia on the back of it.

-Hey.. not bad…- After finally finishing it, I simply stood there and stared at it for a moment, feeling quite proud of myself. "That should be good enough for now. I'll let you look in a mirror once we get to Bahamut."

Maria immediately reached up and touched the collar to feel its texture after I turned away and changed to my dragon form.

The moment she looked up, however, her face paled.

-I guess that's an understandable reaction…- "I'll be gentle on takeoff. Just tap me if you need anything because I won't be able to hear you."

As I stuck my paw out toward her, she nervously hesitated before eventually nodding and climbing on.

-If she's susceptible to the cold.. I should probably just treat her like a strong human…- Nervous that I would crush her when I accelerated, I lifted off the ground with a gentle flap of my wings before continuing up into the air with thrusters.

Having to be so careful did cost us some time, but I wasn't in a rush. -We actually should be getting close…-

It was around the middle of the afternoon, but the clouds were so thick I couldn't see through them at all. -I wonder if it's snowing yet…-

Finally descending, I entered the shadowed world below the clouds and made my way down the mountainside toward the cave.

I didn't see anyone outside as I descended but Krystallo came running out of the cave right as I was landing. *Fwoosh* *Fwoosh-Thump*

"Welcome bac-… Who is she?" Krystallo gave Maria a scolding look as I set her down.

"This is Maria, your personal maid or attendant, or.. whatever you want her to be."

The hostility in her expression immediately faded as she walked up and looked at Maria up close. "The collar is quite pretty… What's it for?"

"It's a slave collar, but I thought you would like it more if she looked and acted more like a maid than a slave."

"I-I do! It's quite pretty…"

I smiled a bit seeing that she liked it before noticing Mother at the entrance of the cave. -Does she need me for something?- Wanting to wrap things up, I gently patted Krystallo's head with my wing and glanced at Maria. "You two go ahead and get acclimated then. Maria, this is Krystallo, your master, so treat her better than you treat me."

Seeing her give a slightly excited nod, I finally turned back around and headed into the cave.

"That was fast." She gave me a warm smile as I came inside.

"Haha, I told you I'm fast." Continuing down the hallway with her, we quickly came into the main room, where I saw an out-of-place box by Fengari's memorial and Father in his humanoid form placing coins in a small chest. "What are you doing, Father?"

He jolted a bit when he heard me as if I somehow snuck up on him. "Just making sure we have all our royal gold in this chest again. It opened and spilled at some point."

-Royal gold?- I slowly panned down to get a better look at the chest when my eyes went wide. -WHAT?!-

Although the chest was quite small, being barely 30 centimeters wide, it was packed full of rose gold coins.

-Just how much money…- I was stunned, and could only marvel at the unfathomable amount of money I was looking at.

My trance was eventually broken by Father though. "So what are you planning on bringing, Vasilias?"

"Ah…" It took me a moment to snap out of it. "J-just that little black artifact." I casually motioned to the small black phone-shaped artifact from Kaelallan laying on the treasure pile. "In any case, do you think we should carry Maria, or should she fly?"

"I doubt she will be able to keep up so you will probably need to carry her." She glanced down the hallway before turning back to me. "Where is she?"

"She's outside getting acclimated with Krystallo."

"So you ended up making her a slave, huh?" He seemed shockingly indifferent.

"Yeah, I thought it would be more worthwhile for Krtystallo to have her own personal attendant."

"She still has a collar though, right? What owner insignia did you use?"

"I actually made one for myself."

"Hoh?" Immediately grabbing his attention, he set down the coins in his hands and turned around. "What is it?"

Getting a bit nervous as both Mother and Father both gave me their undivided attention, I just said what it was. "Well.. it's a wolf with dragon wings."

I was actually a little nervous they would disapprove, but shockingly, they both just smiled and nodded.

"Phew…" -Why did that make me so nervous…- Quickly trying to change the subject, I glanced over at the box-like thing next to Fengari's memorial. "In any case, is there anything else I can help with?"

Mother spoke up immediately. "Actually, yes… Could you help me for a moment?"

"Of course! What do you need?" Following her around toward the memorial, I sat down and gave her an eager look.

"I'm trying to make a container to carry Fengari in, but.. I don't have any good ideas on ways to make sure it doesn't break…"

-Oh it's just that?- "I can make the box, just make sure you leave it to me to take out when we get to Bahamut."

She immediately gave me a nervous look but tried to push past it. "A..alright…"

Quickly wanting to get to it, I gently walked over to the memorial and sat down to get brainstorming.

But it actually didn't take me long to figure out what I wanted to do.

To keep things fairly simple, I was going to use a simple metal box with wood on the inside and use foam to fill the gaps and give it all some more support, but I severely underestimated how hard making foam would be.

Fortunately, however, I eventually found something that worked. With a cushion around the egg, then the foam holding it, and the pedestal… This should be alright…-

After a bit of testing to make sure the foam was just the right stiffness, I finally started putting things together and boxing it up, but the sun was already setting by the time I finished.

"Haah…" -Finally done…- Quickly creating some hooks and straps to make carrying it a bit easier, I finally cleaned up the mess I made and brought it outside. "I finished, Mother."

She immediately set down her things and came running over as I came outside. "So it's in this? What did you end up using?"

So the outside is metal, then there is some wood, then some of this foam I made, then a cushion around the egg. Then I made these hooks so you could tie straps to them and make it a bit easier to carry."

"Hooh…" Letting out a breath of relief as she gently squeezed a piece of the foam I gave as an example, she warmly moved her head over and rubbed it against my cheek. "Thank you, Vasilias…"

An indescribable warmth filled my chest immediately. "You're welcome, Mom."

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Sorry for the late release, I thought I published it earlier.