Lin says “I don’t think she was offended or anything. In fact, she asked me to wear a couple of them for her.”

  “It sounds like she and I have similar tastes. We at least have the same taste in women. Maybe that is why she was so embarrassed. You didn’t give any details about my body, did you?”

  Lin says “Well…I may have mentioned something about you being able to completely control your shapeshift. Speaking of, could you shapeshift into a woman?”

  “Um, yes, I probably could. Why?”

  Lin says “Oh, no reason. Just curious!”

  “I don’t believe that for a second, but I am afraid of the answer so I am going to let it go. Wait, was that something you asked, or something Bella asked?!”

  Lin says “Do you really want to know? Or would you prefer to be surprised?”

  “Um. You can go ahead and go back to your reading. I have some crafting to do.”

  Lin says “Coward.”

  I can hear her laughing as I deactivate the medallion and head to my workshop. Our conversation brought up some very tantalizing possibilities, but I don’t want to think about them right now. I am really not sure if I am ready to take the form of a woman and engage in adult activities.

  That brings up way too many questions and I am going to need to think about it for a while. For now, I distract myself by going back to making and enchanting more weapons and armor. I do both at once instead of working on the plans for the city because that will distract me better.

  It isn’t that it stops me from thinking about it, it just pushes it to the back of my mind instead of focusing on it. I focus so hard on not thinking about it that hours pass without me noticing. I only notice when I go to grab more alloy and can’t find any, that wakes me up.

  It turns out that I concentrated so much on not thinking about anything else that I entered a state similar to meditation. Time lost all meaning and I went ahead and finished using all of the alloy to craft things. I still have a few left to enchant since crafting them is a little easier, but not too many.

  I quickly finish enchanting the remaining pieces and then after gathering them up I gate to the fort. I find Leonarr working in an office and dump all the weapons and armor onto a table. There are too many for the table and they soon overflow onto the floor, but I don’t stop until my ring is empty.

  Leonarr says “Welcome, My King. What are all of these?”

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  “Weapons and armor that I crafted. I want you to select the best fighters from among the troops, form a new elite unit from them, and equip them with these.”

  Leonarr says “Understood! Do you want to limit it to a specific group or tribe?”

  “No. The new unit will be open to all, well to anyone who proves themselves good enough to be a member. That includes humans if any of them are strong enough.”

  Leonarr says “So, joining the new unit should be seen as a reward?”

  “Of course. Who doesn’t want to be the best of the best? That is what this elite unit will be and they will be wherever the fighting is the thickest.”

  Leonarr says “Understood, I will get on it right away!”

  I check to make sure there isn’t anything going on and then I gate back to the castle. It is really quiet without the kids around, but as long as they are having fun I am content. I have some food and then head back to my workshop to work on the design of the city’s enchantments.

  This time I keep at it until I have finished the layout for the entire city, but then I go back to the beginning. I go back over it several times looking for problems that I missed or bad interactions. When I can’t find anything else that needs connecting, I rewrite everything so it makes sense.

  Then I draw out a rough map of the elven city and mark where the enchantments need to go. Although, as I do I realize there is going to be a problem with making the system work the way I want. I want it to extend outside the city, but the mountain is going to block the signal.

  I take a new sheet of paper, sketch out the mountain, and try to think of a solution. It’s not like I can get rid of the mountain, so I need to figure out a way to make it work for me. If I can figure out how to turn the mountain into an antenna, then the problem becomes a benefit.

  The problem is how to do it and do it in such a way that it won’t affect the tower. The tower is at the top of the mountain, but it draws mana from a large area around it. Whatever I do, it can’t interfere with that since I don’t want Yui to get mad at me.

  So, I need a way to get the signal out of the mountain that doesn’t disrupt the mountain’s mana. The mountain is mostly composed of stone, so something using stone is my best bet. As I stare at my sketch I start to get an idea, but I am interrupted by noise coming from upstairs.

  When I head up to check, I find that all of the kids are back and are currently eating. Bella and Sarah are with them and are also eating, so I go ahead and join all of them. The kids eagerly tell me about trying out the various crafts and how things are going so far.

  Once the others run out of steam, Mulan and Asuna talk about learning tattooing. From the way they are talking, they are all enjoying the new experiences, which makes me happy. Other than Asuna and Mulan, it is too soon to see if the others found a craft they want to pursue.

  Sarah will let them all try the available crafts and only once they have tried them all will she ask who wants to continue learning. We haven’t discussed it, but I know Sarah well enough to know how thorough she is in planning things. Before I forget, I pass along Aaron’s message and she doesn’t seem surprised at all.

  Bella doesn’t look at me at all during the meal and I don’t have any idea what to say to her. Anything I do say will need to be said when we are in private, I don’t want the kids to hear it. Mainly because I would be embarrassed trying to answer the questions that they would have.

  I also think that it is probably better to give Bella some time before we have that conversation. I am not sure what Lin said to her, but I have a few guesses that are probably close. However, all of this just brings me back to exactly what I was trying so hard not to think about.