In the Land of Leadale - Volume 1 - Chapter SS

Bonus Short Story – A Workplace Inspection

Cayna had adjusted to life in Felskeilo by that time. 

“Come to think of it, I wonder what they normally do?” 

And it was then that her questions about her children began. 

She’d originally created them with the sole intention of selling them off to the Admins. Who could have ever imagined she’d be able to meet them face-to-face and carry on conversations like this? When Cayna thought back on it, she could clearly remember the moment she’d made her foster characters. 

She also happened to remember her terrible, horrible, no-good friend. 

For better or worse, this friend was like a slightly annoying in-law. No one irritated her more. Even so, Cayna couldn’t help but wonder what had transpired now that they hadn’t seen each other in a while. If that person ever found out about this curiosity of hers, she would be sure to send a flying kick their way. Definitely. 

It happened while she was creating Mai-Mai. 

“You’re projecting onto your daughter way too much. If she’s related to you, there’s no way she’d be that busty. Make her as flat as you.” 

“I get it. You’re just trying to pick a fight. Go away!” 

At the time, a team of four girls and one idiot had stayed behind at Cayna’s base and were looking worse for wear after a multiplayer battle. 

In all honesty, Cayna’s character did indeed leave a lot to be desired. However, that issue had to do with a function common throughout the genre as a whole. Most VR games created a basic character skin by scanning the user’s real body. Players had to be prepared in the event that their in-game body’s movements were drastically different from their physical body’s; after all, there were multiple incidents of people logging in and out so many times that their brains malfunctioned and could no longer return to reality. 

Since Cayna had started the game when she was admitted to the hospital after her accident, it created data based on a skinny, paralyzed body. For this reason, one might say it was also inevitable that she was smaller and less developed than others her age. 

“Cayna, you’re getting distracted. Don’t let your mind wander from the task at hand.” 

“Y-yeah, you’re right. I can’t go thinking about that idiot now. Begone, evil spirits! Away!” 

“That isn’t quite what I meant…” 

A moment later, the moronic shadow was wiped from her mind, and Cayna nodded. 

“Okay then, let’s check out Mai-Mai’s classes. We can go observe Kartatz’s factory, too.” 

“You appear to be excluding Skargo.” 

“He’ll probably neglect his church duties and come charging at me if he sees me, so I figure I really have no choice but to make myself scarce.” 

“…I suppose I can’t refute that.” 

Alas, Skargo’s behavior was something even Divine Spirits were aware of. And for all the wrong reasons. 

Since dawdling and chatting with Kee wouldn’t get her anywhere, Cayna headed out to tour Kartatz’s and Mai-Mai’s workplaces. Kee resided within her, so she was free to talk with him mentally. 

To any outsider, however, it only looked as if she was laughing, nodding, talking, and surprising herself. There was no question she made people cringe. When a child passed by one day with their mother and said, “Mommy, what’s that girl doing?” and the mother replied, “Shh, don’t look!” it was pretty much a foregone conclusion. 

Cayna once again turned over a new leaf and headed toward the factory on Felskeilo’s sandbar. 

She had originally planned to confirm his schedule ahead of time, but that was pretty difficult when you lived in a world with no telephones. 

Actually, there were equivalent skills for that, but while her children had them, she had lost them. 

So Cayna decided to just drop in. If he was there, great; if not, she figured she could ask the workers all kinds of questions. 

From what she could see in the entranceway, Kartatz wasn’t there. 

Although it indeed appeared to be a shipbuilding factory, they actually seemed to be making other things as well. There was a waterway within the factory that held finished vessels until they were ready to be launched, and though the framework of a ship they were working on was mounted on a central pedestal, for some reason, workers also seemed to be making carriages at the outer edges of the factory. 

One of the employees spotted Cayna poking her head in curiously. 

“Huh?! You’re the boss’s girlfriend from before!” 

“Wha—?! His girlfriend?!” 

Since Cayna looked around sixteen or seventeen, it would have been reasonable to think she and Kartatz were grandfather and grandchild when you saw them next to each other. 

The workers’ eyes all fell on her, and she slightly recoiled. 

However, there was no way she could keep letting them think she was his girlfriend, so she confidently asserted, “I’m his mother, not his girlfriend!” 

“““““His mother?!””””” 

Their eyes almost flew out of their heads in shock. You couldn’t blame them, considering this was coming from a girl who looked younger than them. 

Cayna, however, was used to the surprised reaction, and she looked around the factory curiously. 

“Is Kartatz here today?” 

“Y-yeah. The boss had a meeting thing—I mean, he’s in a business meeting. He’ll be back in no time—I mean, I believe he’ll return shortly.” 

Perhaps it was because he realized she was his senior, but the one worker clumsily tried to sound more polite. 

“Oh, don’t worry about sounding all formal. I just came to tour the factory on my own, so this has nothing to do with anyone here.” 

Hearing this, the workers gave relieved looks and relaxed. They apparently weren’t used to speaking with superiors. Cayna took this to mean that the duty normally fell to Kartatz. 

“Why are you making carriages?” 

“Ah, this is kind of like a woodshop. We mostly make boats, but when orders for those aren’t coming in, we also make carriages and wagons.” 

The workers were of all different races. The mild-mannered man who had explained this to her was an elf, while the one who had first spotted her was a werecat. There were also humans and dwarves just like Kartatz. 

As for the ship-in-progress that currently only consisted of framework for the bilge, it looked as if they couldn’t work on it without Kartatz. Rather than what the workers called “ancient arts,” these were made with good old-fashioned elbow grease. 

Cayna wanted to ask more about this, but since she couldn’t very well march into the meeting they were off having somewhere, she decided to save it for next time. Later on, she heard that even if they did build ships and architecture with these ancient arts, no one could inherit and preserve those techniques. That was why Kartatz had first become the pupil of a shipbuilder in a large workshop and spent fifty years learning his craft. He then set out on his own and spent one hundred years in diligent study. 

After that, Cayna had his pupils tell her more about the ship they were building as well as the process before bidding them farewell. 

She also left them with a small request and overall thought it was a fun, productive day. 

Kartatz returned shortly after Cayna left the shop, but… 

“WHAT THE?! WHAT THE HECK IS THIS?!” 

“Hey, boss. Welcome back.” 

The pupils and workers noticed Kartatz standing dumbfounded in the entryway. He stared aghast at the two almost-three-meter-tall rock golems standing in a side chest pose that highlighted their pectorals. 

“What’s going on?! What are those?!” 

As their boss raged while still clearly confused, the pupils looked at one another and nodded with a “Yeah?” and “Uh-huh.” 

The rock golems Kartatz pointed at switched to another position, this time an abdominal and thigh pose that showed off their lower halves. 

“Miss Cayna left those for us to use instead of the crane.” 

“Huh?! Mum did?!” 

“Yeah, she was just here to—what’d she call it?— ‘tour’ the factory. We all showed her around the place. The crane broke yesterday, right? When she heard about it, she built these guys for us.” 

As this explanation went on, the bodybuilding rock golems continued their unified posing with several grunts for emphasis. Kartatz started to feel a headache coming on. 

The next day, Cayna visited the Academy. 

The guard at the gate had been notified of her visit beforehand, so getting through was no trouble at all. Unfortunately, however, she was informed that the headmaster had left for a meeting that day. 

“I really should have contacted her ahead of time.” 

“Lady Mai-Mai would have most likely skipped her meeting to see you.” 

There were no words to describe the picture that came to mind. It would have surely put a strain on the other attendees of this meeting. 

Left with no other choice, Cayna wandered around the Academy. Perhaps it was just bad timing, but she didn’t even run into Lonti. 

Just as she was thinking that she should probably come by another day, she passed a familiar face in the hallway. 

“Oh, Lady Cayna. It’s been some time since we last saw each other.” 

“Ah, Sir Lopus, was it? Hello.” 

There stood a lethargic, messy-haired professor in a pair of grimy, shabby-looking overalls. It was Mai-Mai’s husband, Lopus Harvey. 

Despite being a member of the baronage, he was a lauded alchemy professor—at least, that was what Cayna had heard from Lonti, herself the daughter of a marquis. She apparently considered Lopus a rather tough nut to crack. 

“You-know-who is out. What brings you here?” 

“I thought I’d come see what her daily routine was like. Looks like I missed her, though.” 

You-know-who and her both referred to Mai-Mai. Even though Lopus and Mai-Mai were married, when Mai-Mai wasn’t around, Lopus referred to her in more casual terms. 

He chuckled, and with an inquiry of “Got some free time?” he invited Cayna to his research lab in the Alchemy Department. 

Lopus’s lab was surprisingly tidy. Since he himself was worn-out and disheveled, she had just assumed it would be full of garbage. 

“It’s quite clean.” 

“Yeah, well, I’m sure I could find anything on the shelves even if I dumped them all over, but you-know-who would get mad.” 

“Ah, I see what you mean. You seem to have it tough.” 

“Sure do. She doesn’t lecture when she gets mad. She takes control of my body and makes me clean it up myself.” 

“Your muscles must be very sore the next day.” 

Lopus grimaced at Cayna’s grin. 

That alone told her what skill Mai-Mai had used. Its description stated, “If used on a disagreeable subject, the subject’s muscles will be overexerted.” It was a nasty technique that left the body feeling sore immediately after it was cast, let alone a day later. 

Cayna didn’t remember ever giving Mai-Mai such a dark side and tilted her head questioningly. However, she decided to just accept that a lot can change in two hundred years. 

She looked around the room and saw glass vials with orange liquid lined up along one of the desks. They weren’t all necessarily the same shade. Some were slightly lighter, while others were a little darker. 

“Are these poison antidotes?” 

“So you can tell. This is a drek antidote, and this one is a doh antidote. And this one…” 

Cayna started fostering some doubts about Lopus as he rattled off the names of antidotes she rarely heard about. Drek was a weed that was often mistaken for an edible grass that grew in the area. If ingested, it caused ongoing fatigue and fever. 

“Do you mix a compound for each individual poison?” 

“That’s right. It’s pretty standard these days. If you go to a place that specializes in medicines, the shelves are buried in nothing but antidotes.” 

“The world certainly has become inconvenient,” Cayna murmured. 

She stared at one of the vials and then looked up. She took a bright-orange vial out of her own Item Box and showed it to Lopus. 

“Wh-what’s this…?” he asked. 

“It is an antidote made with what you folks call ‘ancient arts.’” 

“Ah… I see…” 

Lopus took it in his trembling hand carefully and stared at it so hard he might have bored a hole into it. He hurriedly took out several vials from a shelf and lined them along the desk. They appeared to be filled with either blackish-brown or greenish-brown liquid. 

“What are those?” Cayna asked. 

“Poison.” 

Moments after answering, Lopus placed a bit of poison on several small dishes. He then poured some of the Cayna’s antidote onto a spoon and dripped it on one of the poisonous dishes. 

In less than an instant, the single orange drop he’d poured on the blackish-brown poison began undergoing a drastic transformation. An instant later, the two substances didn’t mix but instead became completely transparent. 

“WH-WHAAAT?!” 

As Lopus stood there dumbfounded, Cayna, next to him, wondered what the big deal was. He then dripped the antidote on each poison one after the other and let out a cry of awe each and every time. Once it was all finished, Lopus’s face was flushed, and he was brimming with the desire to research. 

“Wow, this is amazing. I didn’t think such medicine even existed in this world.” 

“I’ll give it to you if you want. You can use it as a sample.” 

Cayna placed two more vials on the desk. 

“Y-you sure? Don’t get me wrong; I appreciate it. But I can’t give you anything that’s gonna come even close to this.” 

“Research fanatics are the same no matter where you go. Keep using that casual tone with me, and we’ll call it even. Best of luck!” 

“Thanks, I owe you one.” 

Realizing it’d only get boring if she hung around any longer, Cayna waved good-bye to Lopus and left the Academy. 

When Mai-Mai returned later on, her husband was so engrossed in his research that he completely forgot about work. Eventually, he pushed himself too far and collapsed from malnutrition. Mai-Mai soon gave him the lecture of his life. 

When she found out the reason a few days later, she angrily shouted, “MOTHER, YOU BIG DUMMYYYYY!!” 

“Wh-what the…?” 

It would be problematic if Skargo caused an uproar in the church, so Cayna went to go check on him in secret a few days after visiting the Academy. 

However, when she peeked into his office, she froze in place with a weary expression. 

It wasn’t simply because Skargo was there. The problem was his eccentric behavior. 

To put a fine point on it: High Priest Skargo was dancing with a nun’s habit. 

One, two, turn. 

Each time he did so, the sleeves and back of the habit fluttered. His footwork and dancing were impeccably elegant, but the mere fact he was doing it was undeniably strange. 

“Ah, Mother Dear. Won’t you please hasten here to visit with me as well?” 

Bright and shining verdant leaves cascaded behind him as a backdrop. 

“I simply must guide you around my workplace while you wear this habit I made especially for you.” 

A gentle peach-colored wind fluttered his priestly robes. 

“Ah. Won’t you please join me soon, Mother Dear? I must offer up this love to you.” 

Before she knew it, the office had turned into a section of plateau with a vast white-ridged mountain range in the far distance. 

The way an absolute space case like him could so masterfully control Special Skill: Oscar—Roses Scatter with Beauty was worthy of praise. 

However, Cayna regarded him with neither admiration nor apathy—only the pitying gaze of someone looking upon a most unfortunate individual. 

“…I’m gonna pretend I didn’t see that.” 

Cayna silently closed the High Priest’s office door and hurried out of the church. 

“I need to find somewhere I can soothe this trauma…” 

“In that case, how about visiting the new street stall that recently opened?” 

“Oh, the one that folks at the inn were talking about, right? Sounds good to me.” 

A few days later, rumors rose that a dancing nightmare was sighted at the church, but nobody paid them any mind.