I thought I could just get out of bed and walk around without issue, I was wrong.
I had to spend a week in the clock tower, getting used to my body and exercising the muscle pain away while ending the day training up my internal mana supply. Enda was adamant I practiced so the relic would not be the cause of another death, although she was happy with my current total mana pool, she also knew that I didn't know how to use other forms of energy yet.
In that week I got to wander up and down the tower and learnt how truly massive it was. Enda used the bottom floor as a museum of sorts of otherworldly objects and history, it was her 'rainy day passion' to organise and present those object to anyone who wished to visit the tower.
I was shocking how busy it got, while not exactly freezing, may people paid a visit to the place. Of course the free entry, indoor heating and Eyebore cooking up a storm with her new prosthetic may of played a roll, but that was one massive area with several floors out of many.
Above that, several storage rooms and a study I had no doubt could pass as the world's biggest library. A collection so vast it boggled the mind, in her own words however 'Yeah it's a lot of books, however this is really just my personal collection. Besides, the 'Great Nala Megalopolis' has one five times the size'.
She still calls it a study for some reason though, names really aren't her strong suit.
The place might as well be the centrepiece of Dragons Mort, just from two fifths of the tower.
Both those sections are open to the public and often always had a visitor or many. I had expected her to just use her copies throughout the place as well, but she hired staff, the kind I was very happy to see.
While I was in a mana coma, Warren or 'Red' had returned alongside Ru and everyone from the Orphanage. Enda assigned the old abandoned Cathedral to be their new home.
The land had been unused for ten years now, as that church played a major part in the riots that almost destroyed Dragons Mort from the inside.
As a result the Council, a board of representatives who govern the city, voted kicked that religion out of completely.
Enda was not in the city at that time and called it a conspiracy but didn't elaborate on it further as it was an 'adult problem'.
Regardless, through quite a bit of 'remodelling' and maintenance, plus clean-up over the course of a few weeks, they all had a new future proof home.
The idea to run the tower came from Arisu, who'd apparently been thinking about it for a while. Turns out she'd been running patrols and messages all the way to Tyrants Rest and back on occasion.
An idea that came from her original world it seemed, she also mentioned something about 'child labour laws don't exist here, though only the willing should work' and the sisters could give the kids an education within the towers vast study.
It looked like everyone enjoyed it, the smiles I only saw on the rare times we had food to spare now flourished without a worry in the world.
I couldn't claim any of it as my own doing, but one thing was certain, that day I set out wasn't unlucky at all.
I'd never been so fortunate in my life, I'm glad everything worked out.
. ... .
"Hey Ota, aren't you embarrassed?"
At the end of each day for the past week I relaxed and unwound by looking towards the stars from Enda's strangely placed hot spring.
Through the use of an artifact, a powerful magical item not as restricted to who can wield it like a Relic and often not a weapon either, this extremely questionable location for a natural warm bath was possible.
For some reason however, Ota stuck to me like glue. I forgave her and in turn she took care of me, but that really didn't seem fair and I knew she wanted to talk about something, but neither did she take that initiative to start that conversation.
"What do you mean?"
Kind of astonishing she can relax in a situation like this, we are both naked in the same hot spring with only the steam providing any sort of visual obstacle.
The only towel in sight was a small one on her broken horn for Pete's sake!
Well, at least I don't need to imagine how many scars are beneath her clothes anymore, well more than just scars but you get the point. When I first met her at Broken Blade Fort she was already in a state of undress, and from that I glanced at both her incredible muscular feat on par with the General along with what looked like more scars than him.
I see now that has far more then I saw before.
"Enda wouldn't even try join us, hell she stopped Arisu! I'm convinced something is wrong with her own sense of shame but do you just not care your naked Infront of a guy?"
"I- ah, when I was young and lost everything, the only place that took me in was Rose. She runs the brothel in the canopy district called 'The Garden Of Thorns'. I guess that's just her type of humour? Ah whatever-
-For ten years I've had to deal with all sorts of people in, various, uh, states of clothing. Nobody was interested in a girl like me, especially after the riots. So I had to use my body in other ways to earn my keep working with the best thing I have, my muscle"
"Do you really think nobody will look at you like that? There are plenty of people out there that would think you are the most beautiful thing in the world you know?"
"No, that isn't it. How often do you run into an Oni with a broken horn? I'm probably the first for you, because most Oni would kill themselves after being so disgraced"
Oh.
"I would of done the same, and I did try it, but if I'm dead then who will avenge my family, my clan... The riots ten years ago is something I don't know enough about, that much is clear now thanks to you-"
Thanks to me? Hold on.
"-I... I wasn't the only one who lost everything. Everyone who didn't look human at a glance was targeted thanks to the fucking religion! And that bitch who calls herself a Goddess is responsible for that. I'm not the smartest Oni by far, and I'm just as stubborn as the rest, but Enda showed me what she'd been doing and all she knew"
"I thought you didn't trust her"
"I didn't, but I trust the little white fox I like to talk too every now and then when I feel down or angry. I should of known it'd be a person, I'd never seen an animal like that before either..."
I guess she gets around more than I thought, well, in a non-humanoid form that is.
"I can't see myself as even an Oni anymore, let alone a woman... I just... don't care about it, even if I wish I did"
Her voice trailed off and got quieter as she leaned back to stare at the stars above.
I think I understood, at least a little. I'm not exactly shy myself and I don't consider her a stranger either. My Orphanage upbringing with zero privacy just got me used to it, desensitized I guess. Mother Zoe once told a story about a remote tribe of giants that wore very little clothing, if any.
She got used to it herself when she was younger, now I understood that too.
*Fwa-ting*
A coin toss? Don't tell me.
"I told you there would be nothing to worry about hehe!"
I let my guard down, Eyebore and Arisu where on the opposite side of the hot spring.
At least both of them wore towels, even in the water, but now I wish I had mine on. Although-
"It's hard to take you seriously when you're wearing a blindfold, Ali"
"Well this sucks! You give me a nickname while I wear the blindfold of shame! Hey that rhymes.."
"Then take it off? Why do you even have it on Arisu?"
"Because unlike you three dullards, my sex drive isn't so weak I can control it! Stupid body!"
"Why do you act like your age at the dumbest times. Just transform you idiot"
"No! Hot springs are scared places and not for animals, End! Of! Story!"
Well. I don't know how to respond to this, I think I'll just relax and stare back at the stars.
It was a clear sky tonight, barely a cloud in sight.
Both moons shined brightly in the sky, it'd eventually be the middle of winter, I wonder if the 'reverse snow globe like effect' works with blizzards too?