Prince Troeg was preparing to exit the main hall to continue with his business, when Mike called out to him once more. There were things they had to talk about, but it was hard to get an audience. Elder Yuri had been a hindrance and it was complicated to maneuver around without dangerous politics.
"Your Majesty, I need to speak with you about some matters soon. What should I be doing about the Linnaeus'?" Mike had a brief question before he was ready to leave, He had been delayed and unable to participate in the discussion.
It was approaching the evening, and the Suns would set in less than an hour.
"You should just stand ready at the lab to contain damage if they should come. You're becoming quite the Statesmen, We will talk more in the morning."
Prince Troeg finished speaking and walked around the corner.
Mike held his breath just a moment longer and then heaved a huge sigh of relief. If Mike was somehow stripped of his right to control his own life, he would definitely rebel. Mike couldn't find a reason to rebel, He had become a slave himself to some degree. Even if he didn't have a contract he would never be allowed to change allegiances.
Mike raided the magic section at the castle again. While on his return trip to the Lab, he finally found the Girls. They had all hidden their seed packs in a special place that no one else could find or know about.
"This is our secret. People are already trying to kill me for those seeds. If they somehow manage to destroy or take everything in the Lab, at least we can start over." Mike was still a little out of breath and in some amount of pain.
"Mike? Are you okay?" Cara ran up to support him, she was quickly followed by the others and the helpful thought soon turned into a bickering match over who got to help him into the building.
"Knock it off!" Cara was moody, she could read the situation and acted with authority.
The girls were getting out of hand, Cara had heard enough. Raising her voice to get them to stop was a matter of course.
Mike sat down without anyone's help, like Cara he had little interest in that behavior. It would never be discouraged, who was he to tell them how to act.
Believing in the basics of human rights didn't necessarily mean it should only be applied to humans, Mike wished he could remember any of that document. The best he could do was to picture the paper it was written on. Mike considered writing down some fundamental rights from Earth, but it all became complicated when some species could easily wipe out another. Mike himself was among the squishiest of species that he had seen around.
The Linnaeus', The Poocha, The Bastet.
Mike was sure that a great number of species were walking upright, It was evolution on a monumental level. Behaviors and certain physical traits would carry over into the next generation. Some species had evolved to a point where they had even lost the ability to reproduce, or even age. They would not die from natural causes but were highly frail in some respect.
Otera were a well known species of amphibious ocean tyrants, they had control of much of the waters between the lands. They were particularly nasty about their territory and would fly into a nightmarish rage that robbed them of their higher brain function. Their movements would become frenzied and indirect, even clashing out at their own from time to time. It was hard to find a way for 'rights' to fit in a category with something that behaved like that.
Mike placed his hand on the next book in his stack. The images of equations filled his view, He was seeing things being sucked into another place and occasionally getting stuck near an aperture.
"Suction magic?" Mike spoke lightly then lifted his hand and pulled the spirit sense from the book.
Picking it up, Mike noticed it had a cover that said Slick Magic.
Mike opened the cover and looked at the words printed. He put his hands on the side of the book and watched the watermarks turn to symbols. They were almost the same as the ones for a sticky magic. Grabbing the page to turn it, Mike could feel the pull of gravity crushing down on his hand.
He withdrew it in a hurry and closed the cover again.
Fumbling with the book in his hand for a moment, March came up and asked what was wrong.
"I think I'm seeing things, Look over this book but don't open it. Tell me what you see." Mike said softly.
Handing the book over to March, his hand connected and her inner ears showed a bright shade of red. Placing her hand on the book, March reviewed what she could see and find with Mike. He was right, there were some differences in the text and the spiritual connections to the books.
"I wonder what other spells I've missed out on." Mike had an excited look on his face, he just found another project.
Rissa came up and sat on Mike's lap for a moment. The white lab coat gave her a bit more allure than others because of her petite figure for her species. All the girls were just a bit taller than Mike, he had gotten use to the fact long ago.
"What's in the Box?" Rissa said what everyone had on their minds.
Mike took a drink from his cup, kissed Rissa gently and sat her on the Table. Getting up he brought the box out of storage and opened it up for the girls to see what was inside.
Making sure to speak before confusion set out among the girls, Mike started to explain.
"These are magic crystals I got from the Prince, pour power into them and they direct beams out. I have a toy I've been having the blacksmith make. It will be a little bit longer before he gets back, but I guess there isn't much harm in telling you." Mike pulled out some more drawings he had made and laid them out.
"This is called a Rifle." Mike went through the mechanics of how they worked and what they did.
The discussion about 'Bows VS Rifles' was of particular interest to the girls, they had used bows before and retrieving arrows was never a fun task. Sometimes climbing would result in falls and people would vanish. Rifles were different on earth, except for perhaps the shells, retrieval of bullets was not even considered in most cases. Just the change in battle preparedness would revolutionize their approach to hunting.
"I want a Rifle." Mona spoke up, she had been pretty quite since she had instigated an argument in front of him.
"I think its better If I work on the first one and if its doable I'll make more." Mike needed a tool that he was familiar with, but bullets and black powder were not in the books he had read.
He could find nothing that came close.
When Mike came to that conclusion, he started to think about learning archery or advancing his magical power somehow to help give him a fighting chance if he found himself with a problem.
The Aerial Cavalry had swords, and Mike had considered learning from this worlds armies as well. The issue that came up with that thought, was that if he trained with the Military of the kingdom directly, his swordsmanship would probably push him into battles and Military service; Assuming he didn't die.
"Careful, don't let someone from California hearing that you want one." Mike slipped and let his personal feelings leave into the world.
"Why?" Jodi asked.
After hearing about how Rifles didn't need to be reloaded as often, she was deeply interested in hearing more. Mike, in all his frustration came up with a way to make it easier to understand.
"Too many people had them, and the Poor were worried that the rich would use them against the people. So the people of California set out to take them from everyone in the kingdom. They called them weapons of war and started to put people in jail for wanting to defend themselves. It was awful, Texans hate Californians.. because they won't allow different opinions about safety."
"Eventually, none of them could defend themselves and they became a population of peggers and trolls. If they couldn't have something, No one could."
Mike finished his rhetoric that didn't even matter in this world and looked back down at his book.
"What's a Pegger? We have trolls here, but its easier if you just set them on fire." Rissa stuck her nose into the conversation and asked.
'HAHAHAHAHA' Mike was laughing inside at Rissa's comment and question.
Leaning over to whisper it into her ear, he told her what the definition of Pegger was. Rissa blushed, then felt confused. They were mostly unaware of words that had multiple sayings and meanings.
The word 'Fuck' for instance had a myriad of uses.
Kissing Mike gently on the cheek she whispered back,
"[OMITTED]" A gentle aroma of her body lingered nearby and Mike felt like he could take her right then and there.
He looked over the rifle plans that he had drawn up. Mike had seven kinds of crystal, each one was roughly the same size and none of them were easily replaced.
"Fire, Sunlight, Ice, Water, Mud, Sap, Poison." Mike read the list of crystals to the girls.
Mona decided to ask the question no one had asked, "Exactly how did you know the kingdom had these?"
Mike saw the opportunity to show off, so he spoke clearly. "It was in the first book they handed me, Prince Troeg wanted to get me to work for them. So when they saw the chance to gloat about treasure they readily put the list in my hands. I suspect they never imagined that I would have a use for them, these crystals have been in the Royal Collection for Decades. I wasn't sure what was going on at the time, So I just read whatever they threw at me earnestly. I won't be able to recreate a Rifle from my homeland, but I think that I can make it work with these."
Mike picked up a the Fire crystal and pointed it toward the sky. "I read that If i focus my energy into the crystal it will begin forming the element and then fire off when I stop."
Pushing his power into the crystal he could see a circular buildup of the Fire element, the Heat was intense and when it got nearly too hot for Mike to even hold the crystal in his hand, he released the energy. A wild and uncontrolled flame burst out and toward the sky. The rising conflagration was quickly burned off and the sky over the Lab was clear again.
"This might just work!" Mike was thrilled at the outcome of the test, but It would take a lot more to make him feel like it could be used in combat.
"I'm going to go talk to the Blacksmith and then I'm going to the Herb Market. If anyone's brought herbs back to sell, I want to snag them up. I can't be working with Cannabis alone if I'm going to be considered an Alchemist." Mike sighed.
Alchemists did a lot more than just one thing.
Mike wondered if he could be like King Midas and forge a Philosophers stone to change lead to gold, but with his state funded pocketbook he didn't have to worry all that much about money.
The Girls all loved walking around with Mike, they would get presents when they saw it and he was always praising their ability to help in out when he didn't understand something. Feeling useful and part of the team was extremely important in both worlds, Mike led them out the doors and dropped them at the market on his way into the blacksmith.
"You're back. I was wondering if you would return for these." The Blacksmith walked over to a box on the table and spoke.
The blacksmith handed a bunch of rough pieces that resembled handgun and a rifle parts. Barrels, a trigger, a hammer several levers and a main body that had space inside.
"These aren't exactly what I needed, I'll bring back what I need adjusted. You can expect me to return in about a week, if its longer I'll have one of my assistants bring by the details." Mike was a little disappointed that it wasn't put together and he would have to modify them significantly.
Mike put another 10 gold coins on the Blacksmith's table and wished him a good day.
The girls were busy picking up trinkets and materials that Mike had spoke of before they left. When they finally met up with Mike, Mona and Cara showed him the baskets of Herbs and he was quickly overpowered by their fragrance.
"What are all of these?" Mike hadn't had a whole lot of time to go over indigenous plants.
Mona took out a book she was carrying for reference before showing it to Mike.
"These are the plants you asked for right? Medicinal Herbs and materials that we didn't have?" Cara picked up a Rosemary looking herb, its tiny leaves were full of different effects.
Cara continued by passing the herb from her hand and the book from Mona's hand to Mike.
"You always make us read, You read this while we go get herbs." Cara kissed Mike on the lips and went onto the next stall with some of the girls.
Mike didn't know what to say to Cara, He put his hand onto the book and drove his spirit into it. The pages came to life and he spent the rest of the time they were in the market to review it. A lot of recipes came up and Mike understood the desired outcome, but the processing for the herbs was basically non-existent.
Questioning what they could be used for, Mike opened the book directly and started to read aloud in his head while the images played. "I get it, somewhat. This herb increases the active temperature of a mixture or adds the fire attribute."
"What herb is this?" Mike was about to grab a particularly pretty looking herb when he was stopped very quickly by March.
"That one is poisonous, pick it up with something else and don't let it touch your skin. You'll vomit for hours." March saved Mike from a long annoying time later on and he thanked her from the bottom of his heart.
The herb was beautiful looking, It was true in both worlds... beautiful things were often times poisonous.
Mike and the girls made it home before the night sky was in full view. Mike intended to look into the best way to manipulate the discharge from the stones. He figured that If he modeled the designs behind its assembly from what he could remember from the army, that he would have a greater rate of success.
Parts were easy enough to get made, they just took lots of time. Mike only had the one blacksmith making the parts for the Handgun and Rifle. Even before Mike knew about controlling magic he was looking over his options of defense. Mike still had a 5.56 round that he had made from a bullet that hit his friend. He had intended to fire it back at the enemy during his next rotation into combat but ended up getting hurt.
Mike had watched his friend pass away, one by one people disappeared. When Mike got injured in the army, he didn't have an easy time. When he got out, he even went through a few horrible relationships. It was never easy to pick up the pieces of your life after you've fulfilled your usefulness to someone or something; Mike loved and idolized the military, but if you went to individuals it was just like the public. Some people were good, and some people were just outright contemptuous.
To fight oppression, One must have the right to bare arms. The wrongful concept of denying defenders weapons that equal the oppressors means that the public is left unarmed, while those that hold the law in contempt would be the only ones with better weapons.
A War, if nothing else, is a fight against forces. The stronger the weapon, the greater the chances of victory in all battles. The Rifle was one of the greatest weapons of the modern world, If Mike could make an enhanced version of it he might have an easier time fighting off his enemies.
"The test of power is how it is wielded, those who believe in caste systems and micromanagement of the population have no problem taking our lives." Mike was creating a diagram on a paper that looked like the parts he had.
When he was done, he took a knife and carved them out. Like a cardboard cutout he started fiddling with design options.
"Mike." Jodi brought over some food to the table and the girls sat down around him to eat.
Speaking softly, Jodi asked a few questions about why he was so defensive and postured like he was about to be attacked.
She was always stuck in the system, and the system believed that ignorance was bliss. The less the public knows, the better off they are. Without knowledge, they depend on the governing body to take command of their lives if they weren't already enslaved by it.
Mike put down his work and swept it aside.
"I didn't mean to lose focus on where I was and what was going on. This world is much more different than I could have ever imagined, But. But, On my world, in my homeland, We fight against slavery and what others around us claim as injustice. Its important that others know the benefits of peace, but the measure of a governing body cannot be claimed by how it appears. The measure of a governing body is decided on how it treats its people, its young, its old, and its prisoners. Slavery... feudalism... royalty, these are things that are rare on my world. Whenever reports about them come into the public view, outrage contributes to action whenever atrocity happens. I might not be able to change this world, but I can choose not to be a part of that shit. That's why I ripped up your contracts. I know we've all been.. well, getting along. But I wanted to clear it up, I don't want you just because I freed you, You don't have to be with me, and you don't have to do anything I say."
Mike picked up a large piece of meat and placed it on his plate.
"These look tasty, Who cooked them this time?" Mike sliced the meat and it was rather rare.
"Me, me, me, me, ME!" One by one the girls all had a piece of meat ready to hand over.
Mike couldn't understand at first and then he just decided to take them all. The pile of steaks was ridiculous, Mike would never eat them all.
"Thank you girls so much for your hard work. Tomorrow we have to be on alert still, but with the herb's y'all found, we can try a few things.
Mike tore a piece from each stake and put the rest in front of the girls with a smile and a grin.
"This way we all have something to share." Mike's expression seemed genuinely happy.
Dividing the meat was a good idea, it help to build the bond they had. The first to start crying was Rissa, then it spread to the others like wildfire.
Mike looked over at the girls and noticed their sad faces, he couldn't explain it so he just asked.
"What did I do? Please don't cry, Look.. I'll try to eat it all." Mike motioned to get the meat back but all the girls covered their plates and turned their nose away.
With a completely confused expression on his face, Me asked again.
"Come on, I'm not abandoning you and my stomach can only hold so much meat... what do I need to do to make it better?" It was not in the books on the culture, Mike couldn't put his finger on it.
Mona spoke up, it was clear she was baffled at Mike's replies.
"Pick one!" Mona sounded upset and continued.
"Pick which one was better!" Stamping her foot, Mona and all the girls looked back at Mike.
Mike instantly got the point. "Oh." he smirked and continued speaking.
"Well, Let me talk about them." Mike cut a piece off the first steak.
Biting into it he could taste what reminded of him of hickory, sweet and smoked. The exterior was cooked and the center had a ring of red, it had been cooked rather well and retained a lot of its flavor from the meat.
Explaining the details as he was eating wasn't all the hard, he just had to praise them all. When mike had finished eating off all the different meats, He was curious as to why the girls were still tapping their foot.
"No chance I can get out of this huh?" Mike smiled,
The girls all shouted in unison, "NO!"
... ... ...
Morning approached
[Omitted]
The girls all slept in a pile with Mike on the bed, It was the new normal. He was aroused every time he thought about it for a while, was laying in bed with them, or had their tails brush up against him.
Mike got dressed alongside the girls, getting ready was a time for foreplay to them. Mike had to fight off Mona with a nibble on the neck and a promise of later.
Getting into their lab they set up another 16 plants in a square formation, Prince Troeg had noticed the success of the planter grown plant prior to its extraction and had the floor below the grow site to be excavated and tilled according to Mike's instruction.
Planting was easy, they just had to account for how large the plants were going to get without aide and measure an appropriate distance between them.
"The Magistrate location gave us an idea of how wide these might get in this area, So..." Mike measured the distance that was approximately the length of the base of the plant and placed it between each planter.
When he had enough space between them so that the plants wouldn't grow into each other or steal all the light, Mike felt better about the conditions he was trying to grow in. Winter would be coming, so he would have to find a light source to offset the hours and keep it in a grow cycle. He sat at his book shelf, it was mostly full now that he had raided the Magistrates' Library twice.
Wondering if more were present, he paid a quick visit to the castle. Mike swooped in and took the few books that had been returned. Mike put a few of the books he had finished back on the shelf, it helped ease the tension the librarian and his attendants kept giving him.
"I'm not stealing them, I'll be back with them once I've gone over what I need." Mike clamored out a defense and rushed back to his lab.
The girls had deconstructed a sample of each of the herbs and Mike grabbed the lenses from his telescope and the lenses from his collection. He held them in place with a bunch of thick paper molded to resemble a mounted microscope.
Mike wasn't sure he would find anything other than basic oils in the separated extracts, but What he did find shocked him and made him feel like he didn't even know the smallest thing about life anymore.
"What is it??" Rissa rushed up and asked with a worried look.
Mike had a very different look on his face. Looking into the makeshift microscope Rissa gasped and jumped away.
Explaining what they were looking at, one by one the girls came up and took a loot.
Mike was hesitant because of the sensitive nature of the information, but still convinced them all to promise to keep it a secret.
"What herb did this come from?" Mike asked Cara, she had done the extraction.
"Bone Growing Powder... it comes from powerful skeletons, this is what happens when we break it down before its mixed with whatever the Ornia Pill House uses to fuse it into the Bone Growing Powder." Cara had gone over the alchemy books primarily. She wanted to be right beside Mike when advanced and pave the way for something different.
"I see, so that's what the problem is. They give out the books, but leave out crucial points or ingredients. People gather the majority of the herbs but no one's successful except for the Ornians, and so they sell the unrefined herbs to pay for pills. That is just... wrong." Mike shook his head.
Mike pulled out a book and showed the girls what he was talking about, he had a recipe in his hand that he read out of the book and then he had all the girls read the same passage. None of the note in his hand appeared on the books' projected images or instructions.
The girls were literate, somewhat in part thanks to Mike's repeated verbal lashings when they were idle and fussing among themselves. Each of them took a book and started to write down everything that they could find on paper. A lot of lengthy explanations were eliminated for a better data source on a variety of the subjects and they passed them to Mike.
Mike opened each book and held each paper. He found 25 things missing from 14 books as he read them aloud to the girls.
"Why can you see something different that us?" March was just as curious as Mike on the matter.
"I think I can see a different spectrum with my eyes." Mike remembered a huge 'old wives tale' of how Dogs were color blind, Mike held up something red, and something bright green placing them together.
Mike grabbed some reddish paint and splashed it on one side of each of the items.
"Which one of these is Red?" Mike just went with analog diagnosis. It was unlikely they understood the concept of colorblind.
"They are both red." All the girls nodded after Cara spoke.
Mike nodded as well. "You're not right, but you're not wrong either. This one is green, and this one is red. I splashed both of their lower halves with red paint."
The girls all ran up and looked at the Items. They could see a variation on the shade, but it didn't look like it was much different from the other colors.
"Okay, lets try this again." Mike pulled out a Huge Fan leaf he had saved from the first plant. He had it pressed so it was flat and dry.
"What color is this." Mike held it up in front of them all.
"Red." "Green?" "Red" Rissa asked if it was green while the others all claimed red.
Stopping to think about how best to explain this Mike just ripped off the band-aid.
"You're All Colorblind. Its a green leaf. Sometimes they get purple and there are even some red leaf plants in my world. But this one was definitely green."
Mike pointed at tree leaves and then cut his finger to produce blood.
"This is red." Smearing it on a light surface Mike marked the difference for them.
Mike pulled out his stash and pipe. Using his fingers as a torch, Mike pushed spirit power into his fingertip in the form of expressed heat. The glowing end of the Nectar collector ran red, waiting for just a moment for it to cool down Mike took a large hit and held his breath.
Exhaling he said with a calm voice. "It doesn't matter if you're colorblind, you've lived your whole lives thinking it was normal. Just go with it. The only difference in knowing your colorblind, is that I now know Poocha are colorblind."
Mike put his pipe away with the Dabs and pulled out his rifle papers.
Lunch was fantastic and there wasn't any word about the Linnaeus' from the Castle so it was likely past the point of danger. The miniature sandwiches that appeared in front of him made him feel like another competition was taking place. Mike could only laugh at what was going on.
'Momma always said the key to a man's happiness is his stomach, maybe that's how dad got fat.' Thinking to himself Mike looked at the girls who had lowered their tops to reveal more cleavage.
"Umm... " Mike placed his book down, took a bite of the first sandwich and rushed towards the girls to tackle them all.
He didn't care who made the sandwiches, If they wanted more of him.. they could have it.
[Omitted]