♣♣♣
A few days later, the messengers from De Marl had left to consider my idea. Well…so I was told. I wasn’t there when Dad and Renge ironed things out with them. I was forbidden from speaking to anyone about religion, since there was no telling what might happen. They could get upset and try to hurt me. And if they did, they’d be immediately branded heretics.
And that’s the last thing we want!
Still, I was curious about how Renge and Dad had explained it to them in a way that’d convince them. And honestly, it would’ve been funny to hear Dad explain what mascots are.
“Ughhh, today was just so extra exhausting…” said Dad—who was staying here for the night because of the talks—as he and Renge ambled into the second-floor dining hall, both of them clearly tired.
“Oh! Welcome back, Dad! Renge!” I greeted them. “But…you did convince the messengers, right?”
In response, Dad heaved a deep sigh as he slumped into a chair at one of the tables and sunk in. I joined him at the table and noticed Renge collapsing into his seat in the same way as Dad.
“Well…” Dad finally said, “I don’t know much about these mascot things, but…the idea of a local tourism ambassador went over well with them. But I thought I was going to faint when Renge just smiled and asked them, ‘Well, which do you prefer? This or being branded heretics and destroyed?’”
Whoa! I gaped at Renge briefly. You didn’t have to be that harsh!
“They can’t worship the Gods the way they used to,” Dad went on, “but I agree that they need something to replace it. I used to worship those Gods myself, so I appreciate that you tried to find a way to keep them around, Tina.”
“I hope it works out…” I responded. “I only hope Air feels the same way.”
I looked again at Renge, who simply said moodily, “Air will probably allow that much…”
Oh dear, I thought as I looked at his sour face. His expression is making me feel a bit anxious… Is everything really going to be all right?
“I hope we can convert the gods of my and other countries into mascot characters, but…it all depends on negotiations,” Dad said, sighing again.
“I’m sorry!” I said quickly. “I ended up creating more work for you, didn’t I?”
“Mm? Oh, don’t worry about that, Tina. Besides, it’s not a bad deal for the worshippers who want to keep their gods around. Assuming Air agrees, of course…” Dad glanced at Renge.
Something about Renge’s vague responses probably feels off to Dad, too, I thought. It’d be nice if Air said as much himself. But he never appears directly in front of people, right? If only Renge could see and talk to Air, we could use him to translate for us as we explained.
Dad looked at Renge expectantly, as did I. But Renge simply met us with an unpleasant look of disappointment and despair.
Well, what’s that face supposed to mean?!
“…You do understand, right?” Renge asked us gravely. “What it means for the people of the human continent to ask Air directly for permission?”
“Y-Yeah…” I said, swallowing. “I guess gods like Air don’t just…descend to the surface?”
“No, since ‘descend’ wouldn’t be the right word to begin with. Air is at the planet’s core, so there’s really no ‘up’ or ‘down’ for him. Air could appear here right now if he wanted to. But since he has no love for humans, he won’t be so accommodating. Unless you want mankind wiped away in an act of forced evolution, you might be better off not doing anything so reckless. Air can be merciless…even to those most virtuous to him.”
“H-Huh…?!” Dad and I were both shocked.
Air hates humans that much? Why?!
Renge cradled his head. “Just give up on this idea! Just mentioning human gods to Air is asking for trouble…” He looked so defeated, it was clear to me that even asking him to handle it and ask for permission was just as tricky.
“But…you really did talk to Air directly…didn’t you?” I pleaded.
“Air was my combat instructor. I spent centuries in the world’s core, learning combat and magic from him. We spoke plenty then, sure. But like I’ve told you before, Air’s my father’s uncle. And since I’m half human and Air’s…far beyond human, you can’t exactly say we’re closely tied by blood.”
I was shocked. “You’re… You’re saying you’re related to Air…?”
“Yes…” he sighed. “I guess that’s the easiest way of putting it.”
Yes, he did tell me that before, but it’s still impressive! Being directly related to Air. And, I reflected, Renge wasn’t just strong because of that. He’d trained under Air directly! And it’s because they are so close that Renge can tell just how much Air hates humans…
“Oh!” I said as a thought suddenly occurred to me. “By the way, any requests for dinner tonight?” I asked as I poured both of them some water. “If not, I was just gonna make Hamburg steak.”
“Hamburg steak sounds great!” said Renge, his mood instantly brightening.
“I love Hamburg steak!” Dad chimed in.
Adorable! Apparently, men just love their Hamburg steaks no matter how old they get. I get it, though…!
It was still a bit too early to eat dinner. And since the merchants weren’t here yet, it was just me, Dad, and Renge in the second-floor dining hall. After I’d come up with the idea of turning the storeroom into a shopping block, I had Jiril and Mirage start doing the actual work. Right now, they were down in the storeroom, cleaning it out. There was a lot of stuff left there and the room was huge. So fully cleaning it out would take those two a few days.
The two Mythicals also took charge of who’d get to set up shop in the storeroom, since a lot of people were interested. We’d called out to other merchants to establish distribution channels. Some of them were interested in setting up shop, too. With all that interest, we’d begun considering putting stalls outside the storeroom as well.
And of course, more merchants coming here meant they’d need places to live. Deshmel was already a residence for the ex-slaves and a knights’ barracks, but we honestly had more empty rooms than we could use. Cleaning the whole fort right now was quite the problem. So finding the merchants a place to sleep wasn’t a problem. No, the issue was that we’d need to establish a separate block for them, away from the workers.
After all, everyone living in Deshmel were all technically my guards and caretakers. We didn’t really mind anyone leaving, assuming they had somewhere to go. But with Edesa Kura now destroyed, they were stateless refugees. Rebuilding Edesa Kura wouldn’t be easy, and most people had just given up on ever returning.
But if we could set up more fields around Fort Deshmel and houses and stores, I reflected as I, out of a desire to keep my hands busy and do more than just sit around and think, decided to start prepping the Hamburg steak, people would gather here and this would become a trade spot. And that way, we’d also get lots of customers back home at the Lodge!
Before the day I can finally go back to Rofola arrives, I thought smiling as I got out the meat and supplies, I hope we can make Fort Deshmel a new home for everyone here.
“What’re you doing?” I heard Renge ask as I started chopping the meat.
“Oh, this?” I replied, my head still down. “I’m cutting minced meat up and mixing it with fried oniuns.”
“And what’s this stuff?”
“Those’re breadcrumbs. You wet those with milk and a beaten egg then mix all that in with the meat and oniuns before stirring it some more. Like this…” I said as I put the pan over the fire to warm up, “and then you just…ball it into shape and fry it on a low fire.”
“Why low fire?” Renge asked behind me as the pan heated up.
“Well, since the steak is so thick, you want the heat to reach all the way in. If you fry it on high heat, you’ll just end up burning the surface and the heat won’t go all the way through. But if you cook it carefully over low flame, then it will!”
“Oohhh,” I heard him say as I finally brought my head up to turn around and look at him. But…