“So… what are we doing?”

“Going to village to village, finding talent.” I explain, Sara walking next to me, to the meeting place. She’s packed up, and in her ranger gear, so she looks every bit the stealthy protector of the forest. I somehow knew she was going to say yes. Maybe because she’s going to be a member of the harem, so, the default, and eventual answer, is going to be a yes.

“Huh. Why?”

“There’s a big bad guy coming. Might be a demon or some kind.”

“Oh. Okay. How long have you been running around like this?”

“Maybe a few weeks.”

“You knocked your head or something?” Sara seems to somehow actually hit the nail on the head.

Anne chimes it, “Yes. He fell, and woke up, and starts telling me he had a vision. Or something like that.”

“Uh…” Sara seems a bit disappointed, but no matter, we arrive at the meeting place. The men are ready, for the journey to the next village.

“Hey Adam.”

“Morning, Prince.”

And we set out, on the journey to the next village. Sara quickly takes the opportunity to demonstrate her ability as a ranger. She’s got some kind of [forest-walk] ability, which allows her to almost run in the forests, incredibly quietly, but also very fast.

She’s also good with both a longbow and a small hunting dagger, but, she’s inexperienced, as her level is still quite low.

Oh well, she’s new to the team, maybe she just wants to impress me.

“I got a skill last night.” Adam walks next to me. We’re not exactly running, only Sara is. ‘It’s cool, it’s called [Grand Slash].”

“Nice!”

“Yeah. You got anything to do with it?”

“Uh… No?” I mean, should I tell him, or no? I suspect if such an ability is known, it’ll be really… disturbing. And I’ll look really manipulative, no?

“Haha I’m kidding. Don’t look so nervous, Prince Carlos.”

“...ah.”

Anne smiles, “But I think you do probably have an influence, somehow. Maybe just being around you makes us learn new skills.”

I laugh. Awkwardly. This isn’t exactly the conversation I thought of having, but I guess they somehow pick up on such things.

Sara finally realises we’re still walking at our own speed, and she turns back to rejoin our group.

“Did you see how fast I was?”

“Uh…”

All three of us look at her and shake our heads. “...no.”

The next village is smaller, probably about 300 in population, and unlike the earlier village, it’s located right outside a mine. An iron mine, so this area has smelters, blacksmiths, and quite a bit of merchants importing in coal.

Even on the day of my visit, the elder says about 30 of the men are in the mines, working. Ah, of well. I’ll meet them separately at night, where we will have a smaller dinner arrangement. The daytime lunch even we went through the usual flow, speech, and the food. No performance from this group, and food was rather interesting. More collected herbs and some algae which apparently lives in the mines.

The elders, the blacksmiths are fascinated to meet me though, apparently it’s the first visit by a prince in their entire village’s history. Even the mines itself was officiated by a town mayor, without much fanfare. Some of the young men and women think I’m like some kind of imaginary beasts, having never met a royal.

Of them all, sadly, no one in particular was above rank 3, so I didn’t pursue anyone in particular. I did however, end up purchasing a fair bit of a small sparkly gem, that is also harvested from the mines.

Because they are gift materials that transcend colors.

Sparkly clear crystals - All colors + 3% affection. Usable once a month per person. Can be set into jewelry or other gifts

I bought all they had, which is like, 16 pieces of them, and dumped them into my hammerspace.

Later that night, we had another dinner, this time just the elder, and the men who returned from a hard day’s work in the mines. They are all muscular, strong men, and are amused when a young prince comes to meet them.

Still, though they may have personal reservations, they didn’t try or say anything too offensive.

The miners, one of them is rank 3, but his job class is miner, so… I felt it’s probably not worth the effort to pursue this, since I’m actually looking for combat roles. Perhaps I’ll come back and meet him again one day, but, since my time is limited, I need to be laser focused.

I do, only have about 10 weeks left.