Chapter 24: Let's make it Official

Catching his breath after sprinting out and away of the workshop as fast as he could, Carman glanced around carefully making sure Livre wasn't sneaking up behind him again.

After a few moments of peace Carman let out a sigh of relief. Placing his hand into one of his pockets to disguise removing a notebook from his item storage, Carman realized that the adoption document and the letter he had preparing to send to the orphanage had fallen out sometime while he was being chased in the workshop. Not wanting to go back into the workshop where Livre would likely be waiting Carman decided to go around the city, with the alchemy table in his new workshop it seemed prudent to see if there were any books on basic alchemy in the library or the shops.

Ryuzu was out in the fields, completing a commission for the Adventurer's Guild. Apparently there was a spike in the number of malfunctioning Gardemeks roaming a trade route, the guards were making patrols regularly, but the Fontainian government had submitted a commission to the Adventurer's Guild for bringing down groups of Gardemeks and return with their identification plates as proof.

Commissions like this served not only as a source of income for Ryuzu and Carman, but also supplied the decommissioned Gardemeks that Carman had repurposed into his Brass Wraith persona. While out in the fields she also located several small beetles shaped devices that Carman had identified as Subdetection Units. He had promptly directed the miniature devices and had started to design similar ones that could record sound and visual data that he could use to collect evidence, however he was stuck when trying to translate the data back into visual form, with the technology he currently had at his disposal the closest thing he could make was a tiny spool of film that would start recording once a certain sound requirement is triggered, however this idea was scrapped due to how inefficient it was. He asked Ryuzu to start looking through ancient ruins and domains for machines that had visual output systems that he could study. He however asked her to wait to do this until after he had enrolled in one of the schools he was considering and had dealt with meeting the matron of the orphanage.

Ryuzu wondered what sort of relationship he had with the matron, he spoke with a feeling of respect towards her, and knowing Carman's trust issues, that spoke alot towards her actions and character.

Ryuzu came back to earth after hearing a thud, it seems that while in her revery she had stumbled across a group of Gardemeks and had subconsciously taken them all out, the posed virtually zero threat to her due to the materials used in her construction, however she found getting zapped by the ones powered by the element Carman refered to as "Electro" caused her a slight discomfort as the energy zipped between every conductive material in her body before dissipating.

Walking over to the broken constructs she used her sythes to cut through the outer platting and expose the components within each of them, using her sythes as screwdrivers, she slowly and meticulously disassembled and collected several components before getting to the power core of the machine, seeing the plate, she tore it from the structure and left the rest in a pile, she would report the location of the scrap to the guild for further cleanup.

Deciding that she had made enough for the day she turned back, at the pace she was currently walking it would take an hour or two to make it back to the city, however as there were adventurers out and about the area also hunting for the constructs she did not want to risk being spotted displaying superhuman speed and strength.

At the pace she was going she would be able to enter the city before evening and have time to submit her spoils and gather ingredients for tonight's dinner. She wondered what Carman was up to.

After looking through the library and only finding one book on alchemy Carman started perusing the few bookstores in Fontaine, and while he did find books on alchemy, all of them were out of his current price range. It seems that due to it's potential value and relative few people knowledgeable or with enoughtime to write a book to teach the subject, books that explain how to perform alchemy were quite expensive.

As he perused the collections Carman reflected on what Livre had said, he had intended to ask if Livre would continue to teach him more according to his understanding of clockwork engineering, but Livre's statement that he would support any path he chose boosted Carman's confidence in his decision to attend the school teaching the militarized engineering. With so many battles happening in the future, Carman wasn't going to feel safe until he had his own force to protect himself and his loved ones. When he returned home he went into the office space in the apartment, and sat down behind the desk. He started to draft a letter to inform the school of his intent to enroll, including his current skills and history in the field of clockwork engineering, while keeping some information such as his designs for the Brass Wraith and his revisions to Ryuzu secret. He listed Livre as the adult who would be the one sponsoring him, although Ryuzu would be reimburseing Livre using some of her funds from adventuring.

After completing a final draft of the letter, he heard Ryuzu's voice behind him.

"Carman it is time for dinner, I perused one of the cookbooks you procured recently and have decided to test out a few of the recipes, I hope that they will be to your liking."

"Do you not have a sense of taste? There were a few components around you mouth that I couldn't identify when making alterations to your visual input, do none of them provide you with a sense of taste?" Asked Carman, the question suddenly occuring to him.

"No, unfortunately while I have equivalents to most senses that biological being have, my creator was unable to design a way for me to have a sense of taste or sense of smell. I can detect certain airborne particles, but it is not in a way that I would equate to a full sense but rather a rudementery imitation. However I see this as a blessing in disguise as I do not have to deal with the foul odors when people and animals defecate themselves in fear of my might, nor do I have to suffer from the conflicting flavor palettes of unskilled chefs when my creator took my sister and I to dinner."

"I see." Said Carman, but deep down he felt that Ryuzu was likely covering and rationalizing why this detail didn't matter due to her superiority complex, he resolved to rectify this issue once he got his hands on better technology and engineering techniques.

-to be continued

A/N

Hey guys just wanted to check in after the chapter, in case it wasn't clear, I've been shifting my update schedule to Mondays, as my Sundays have been taken up by meetings and travel as of late.

As always I am glad to see people are enjoying the story so far, and I'm glad you've made it to the end of this chapter. I am always looking for constructive feedback and advice so do not be shy and share what's on your mind. I'll listen, and I enjoy interacting with you all even if it's just something silly like pondering if a Fontainian ever.. you know what I'll stop right there lol.

Anywho thanks for reading this week's chapter, I hope to see you in the next one.

Happy reading!