Standing in front of this soldier, Jared obviously a bit at a loss for words, although the other party is only half his height, but the face full of beard and angry eyes is not at all a child's appearance, so Jared awkwardly coughed, and only then looked for the most apt statement.
"This old gentleman ..."
"I'm not old at all!!!"
The Dwarf swung his iron axe, which was even taller and heavier than he was, with a sound so loud that the birds in the nearby trees shrieked and flew away on their wings.
"... this..."
"Master Brician, please don't be hard on Jared."
Kylie approached, a stack of rosters still in her hand, and though she was addressing the dwarf, she didn't even look at him.
"Your request to build a smithy here is completely unfeasible at the moment, and the rooms inside the castle won't be used for such a thing, I think you should do your job properly, you're here to explore the minerals here aren't you? If we don't have any minerals, then how are we going to build the next facility? Now the blacksmith store is not needed, please don't embarrass our lord with this matter again."
The dwarf looked angrily at Kylie, as if to say something to her, but Kylie simply ignored him and walked away as if she had only come here to make an interruption and say something. When the old dwarf turned his attention back to Jared, he too had disappeared. The old dwarf grumbled and turned away.
(Things are bad?)
"I'm just not cut out for this kind of work."
Jared seemed to have nothing better to do than rub his brow as Caroline approached him. After that, Jared made some specific arrangements, leaving the politics to Kelly. Military training was left to Serenity, but no matter what, the final decision had to be made by Jared. Wendy, who lacked the presence to go unnoticed without speaking, was not to be counted on. And Caroline, being unable to speak, had no way of helping Jared with his burdens or delivering his orders.
It was a headache for Jared, who was good at leading and directing battles, but not so good at governing or creating anything. Jared only categorized people into three types, the trustworthy, the indifferent, and the enemy. Because of the extreme conditions under which they have been living, Jared has often faced only the trustworthy and the enemy. In the middle, the indifferent ... don't matter, so they don't need to care.
But now Jared had realized that the number of people he had normally classified as indifferent seemed to have increased. He couldn't trust an old dwarf, of course, but he couldn't kill him with a sword, either. But for Jared, it would be a very troubling thing if he had to choose anything other than those two options. The fifty soldiers sent to them by the Lord of Heaven were all veterans, but they were of all races. There were the "small" ones like the old dwarves, but there were also a few tall and sturdy Orc warriors, even more than two meters long. There are also a few slender elves and centaurs who only look like humans ... In short, they are all unheard of races.
Fortunately, Kylie helped Jared to share this part of the difficulties, according to her idea, in the future she will become the head of the clan, but also may become the Empire's next minister of magical affairs, no matter what she will eventually become, that is a position of power and authority. And Kylie did not have the slightest intention to hide her desire, in her opinion, the management of this place is also a small experiment, of course, it will take away Kylie's magical training time this point makes her very unhappy is.
With the exception of the dozen or so soldiers that Serenity had to lead around every day under the guise of "patrols", the rest of the soldiers were doing their best to build their new home. Jared, being the liar that he was, could not have told the soldiers about the Confederation Prince and his swordsmen lurking in the forest, or even asked them to be more vigilant. Because that's the only way people would relax, and then, if anyone suddenly disappeared, it would be the perfect time for Jared to identify the prince and his party.
Of course, Jared didn't expect much from these soldiers who were just building their homes around the castle every day. Unless the prince was willing to come directly with his men and yell at him, "Yellow mouth, have the guts to come down and fight with my son", otherwise, in order to avoid scaring the snake, Prince Heine would not take action easily. What is more vulnerable to danger is Seirun Niti's patrol, she led those soldiers, although every day is in the name of patrolling around, in fact, is also to act as a bait, to see if you can lure Prince Heine out. Of course, Jared was not worried about their safety. Because Caroline had been accompanying Serenity, if they really met Prince Heine, it would only be his bad luck.
As evidenced by Jared's strategy, so far, he's still focused on luring the rats out and killing them all in one fell swoop. Scouting and counter-scouting, tracking and counter-tracking is what Jared does best. So he's not going to say anything about town building, after all, Jared can't be reminded of that.
"How's it going on your end?"
(There's nothing out of the ordinary, but it bothers me that Miss Serenity keeps asking me to compete with her in sword fights.)
Caroline put away her umbrella and sat down against Jared. The two nominal masters had no sense of dominance and continued to do what they were supposed to do. Kelly had wisely given up after complaining a few times, but Serenity didn't seem to give up. I don't know what's gotten into her, but she's been pestering Caroline for a sword fight every day. Luckily, Caroline couldn't speak, and since people with congenital deficiencies are always easy to sympathize with, Serenity didn't press her any harder after Caroline politely declined. But she asked almost every day, and if patience were a stone that dripped through water, Serenity's efforts would have dripped through an entire fault zone of rock.
(And, I find it boring.)
Caroline leaned her head on Jared's shoulder and complained a little. For her, every day to go out to patrol with Serenity, Jared and Kylie who could communicate with her stayed in the castle, so Caroline felt very lonely. Even if Serenity sometimes because of the same time women to ask her about something concerned, she could not talk to each other in depth. But even so, Caroline would never use her powers to communicate with others, it was also her principle. Both Tawana and Kylie had a strong relationship of trust, so Caroline felt comfortable talking to them, and they didn't disappoint Caroline's expectations. Neither of them had ever told anyone else about Caroline's abilities, which was quite reassuring to Caroline.
But loneliness is loneliness, and it's even more pronounced when you're in the middle of a group of people and you can't communicate with them.
（By the way, what did that old man want to see you about?)
"He said he wanted to build a blacksmith store, build some weapons or armor or something, and Kelly didn't agree."
(I've heard that dwarves have a very good natural talent for manufacturing?)
"That's what Kelly said, but it's not much use to us."
Jared smoothly picked up Caroline's blonde hair and played with it, as was his habit, and Caroline just gave him a soft glare.
(Don't mess with a lady's hair. It's not polite.)
"Well, well, it's not the first time, you should be used to it."
Jared did not reflect at all, but merely shrugged his shoulders, and then continued to ask curiously.
"Why do you ask? Don't suppose you want a new weapon?"
(That's not ... I was just wondering if he could help me make something for fun.)
Caroline rolled her beautiful bi-colored pupils and said to Jared with a slightly smug smile.
Still feeling a bit depressed as he stood before the dwarf again, Jared nevertheless quickly recalled what Kylie had said, and then spoke.
"Master Brisian."
"What are you calling me for?! I'm not going to dig a hole!!!! I'm not a rat!!!"
"Not to tell you to go digging, I hear you're very good at making props?"
"Dwarves are very good at manufacturing!!!"
The old dwarf jumped up, pointing his finger at Jared's nose and shouting at him, but it made Jared much calmer.
"I don't know about that, but if you're good at making things, I to would like you to make one thing for Caroline, and of course, I'll consider proposing to Kylie about the blacksmith store if you can make Caroline happy."
"Oh ...?"
Sensing some relief in Jared's tone, the old dwarf grunted and put up his giant axe, looking up at Jared triumphantly.
"So tell me, you white, bad boy! What do you want me to do!!!"
"This."
Jared handed over a drawing of patterns and shapes drawn by Caroline, along with some strange symbols. The old dwarf took it and turned it from side to side, even back and forth for half a day, before raising his head and muttering strangely." What is this? A weapon? A bow? What is this?"
Jared shrugged his shoulders, and although Caroline had labeled the drawing with exactly what it was, even the old dwarf hadn't read it because she'd used German.
But he doesn't need to read it.
Jared smiled softly, then turned away, he was certain that this thing, would take the old Dwarf quite some time.
Jared was not interested in the problems that might arise.
As long as Caroline's happy.