CH124 Back to the island and some planning.
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The changes to the castle in just a few days were quite encouraging. What looked like concrete barriers for walls had been worked down to look more like actual walls.  Squares were knocked out for windows.  The steel I-beams sat in place for the second floor.  Motar held them secure.

 

Not wanting to stay in the cold water that the pipe had deposited her in, Alex swam a few feet and climbed up onto the first floor.

 

“Remind me to make a swimsuit just for taking that portal.”  Alex shivered and rung out her hair.

 

“Meru, ru me.” Merumeru splashed up out of the water, grinning happily.

 

“I’m going to go find Aqua.”  Ariel stayed in the water, not bothered by the cold.  “I bet she’s under the lake or in the basement somewhere.  A couple things are in motion and there is a huge load of nereid gossip to pass on.”

 

After bidding farewell to the self elf, Alex picked up the slime girl and did a quick lap around the castle.  “What do you think Merumeru?  It looks somewhat close to the castle for dolls back in the adventurer’s guild all those months ago.”

 

“Ru ru me me.”  Merumeru smugly lifted her chin.

 

“If people don’t mind bunking up, everyone could stay in there fairly easily with just the 3 stories in progress.”  Fufi then flew off, Ariel’s flamingo following her in the sky.

 

The slime and magical girl inspected the progress a bit more.  Around the outside several more foundations had been filled with rocks to create the turrets in the corners of the castle.  Some blocks and tackle platforms hung from the higher places for lifting the blocks.  Also, some wagons had been made to move the large steels.  Alex didn’t think it could be done without at least pack animals but apparently that was not needed in this case.  Used bags of mortar and piles of aggregate alongside piles of sand were strewn about in a mess.  Alex really wanted to clean it up, but a construction site always turned into a huge mess, at least in the short term.

 

“I’m a little worried about what we are going to do for roofing.”  Alex considered the doll castle.  It was made almost completely out of stone.  “We can’t put a stone roof on top of the walls.  That is why people make trusses.  Though we would use up a lot of wood if we wanted to make a wooden roof.  I think that we’d actually have to cut down trees for real if we wanted to do that.  Also, it looks like Cosmos didn’t bring any shingles for the roof.”

 

“I’m sure the craftsmen have some ideas that don’t involve clear cutting.”  Fufi didn’t seem phased.

 

“I hope so.” Alex headed away.  “Let's go check on the Yvne family.”

 

After using the feather duster to dry off, Alex and friends walked through the construction mess back to the cabin.

 

“Greeting Magical girl Alex.”  Casius answered the door and flashed a winning smile.

 

“Um, hello.”  Alex blushed, and waved a hand, reminded by what both Fufi and Professor Copperpot said about charisma.

 

Casius took her hand gingerly and kissed the back of it.

 

Alex’s blush deepened.

 

“You are making her uncomfortable with all that formality.”  Seraphina pushed her brother aside, took Alex’s hand and led her into the living room.

 

Taking off her shoes, Alex stepped inside.  “How are things going here?”

 

“Fine.”  Seraphina beamed.  “Our kinsmen have been setting up their homes, fields and been working on the castle.”

 

“Have you thought of a name for it?”  Casius re-entered the conversation.

 

“Oh no,”  Alex shook her head.  “I’ve just been calling it castle.  Maybe castle Merumeru is a good name?”

 

Casius’s smile stiffened.  “That is not a very creative name.”

 

Alex froze, looked at Casius until it was uncomfortable.

 

Yvne saved the day by changing the subject.  “So how was your trip Magical Girl Alex?”

 

Alex looked at the former-baroness.  “I suppose it was a mixed bag.  We got permission for the shipwright’s guild to build the clipper but I signed a bad contract and lost one of my new dolls.”

 

“You didn’t lose a doll to a demon did you?”  Yvne looked a little worried.

 

“No, I lost a doll to a tax man.”  Alex grumbled about taxes.  “Apparently, the real power of the kingdom is the matron of a brothel or something.”

 

Yvne paled.  “No one really talks about it in polite society, but rumor is that the king’s harem runs the sex trade in the capital of Jass.  It is an unspoken understanding that the king is handled by lust demons who run his harem.”  

 

“How does that work?”  Alex figured the king was just possessed, but didn’t think much about it.

 

“Every time we get a new king the kingdom changes its name.”  She took a breath.  “The current king’s name ‘Hugh Jass’ was decided by the harem.  Before that we were the kingdom of ‘dover’, with a king named Ben.”

 

“Ben Dover.”  Alex giggled.  “The kingdom of dover.  Oh that is so bad.”

 

“Anyway,”  Yvne also tried not to laugh at the joke that the monarchs were.  “When I was at the magic academy, the only magic they taught was demonic magic.  Most of it is rituals.  And we learned love spells, hexes, summoning circles.  But the most important thing is that targeted spells need a focus.  For example, if you wanted to summon an imp, then a crest of the fire clan would get an imp from the fire clan.”

 

“Eww, no wonder the country is crawling with imps.”  Alex scrunched up her nose.

 

“One class we had to turn each other into frogs.”  Yvne shuddered.  “This was accomplished by using the appropriate circle and placing something of meaning from the target in the ritual circle and chanting, lighting candles and speaking and various other things to complete the ritual.”

 

“How did that work?”  Alex wondered.  “You’d think that everyone would be really on guard.”

 

“Yeah, nobody liked that class.”  Yvne got a pained look on her face.  “The teacher made the students try to steal stuff from one another.  If someone could transform another student into a frog and not get transformed themselves then they would get top marks.”

 

“That sounds horrible.”  Alex gaped.  “It is like they were teaching everyone to backstab each other to advance.”

 

“That is just the way it is in the demonic world as well as the world of nobility.”  Yvne gave Alex a look that thought the magical girl was just being patronizing.  

 

“You think I might get hexed?”  Alex guessed what she was getting at.

 

Yvne nodded.  “They didn’t see Fufi or have any reason to suspect you are a magical girl?”

 

“I don’t think so.”  Alex played back the interaction in her head.  “I was just a sailor doll.  So, I’m assuming that she thinks I was some trader using the doll as a proxy.”

 

“Hopefully nothing happens.”  Yvne looked worried.  “I’d say go get your doll back if possible but it might be best to try to set up some defenses.”

 

“How would one go about that?”  Alex asked.

 

“Well, it depends on what kind of demon it is.”  Yvne poured some tea and offered it to Alex.  “A succubus will often attack through dreams.  Fire demons almost always will come physically.  The demon that Cosmos defeated that possessed me cultivated despair.  After I lost my husband I was an easy target for it.”

 

Alex looked a bit baffled.  “I um….”

 

Yvne shook herself off.  “For a dream attack there are some items.  I learned how to make a dreamcatcher in the capital.  It is a loop that has a weave like a web in it.  I can make you one or show you have to do it if you have a chance.”

Alex nodded.  “Sure, it is better to be safe than sorry.”

 

“Okay, I’ll work on that tomorrow.  There is plenty of yarn around with you coming and going from town.  Clothcraft seems to be a very popular winter craft this year.”  Yvne smiled, though like other times she looked to be putting up a facade.

 

They chatted a bit, had some tea and went their separate ways.   Alex spent the rest of the day in the workshop.  Merumeru plopped her collection of brass pipes down and they sorted through them.

 

“It was always my intention to try to make another toy ship, but to do it with a bunch of clockwork mechanisms in it.”  Alex explained to the slime girl. “But a lot of these pipes, they are big pipes for big ships.  We should make them smaller.” 

 

Alex eyed some oddly shaped pipes.  “I think these might be for a bilge pump.  I think we need to make them about 1/10th the size.  And if we can put a flywheel then it will only need to be spun once every 10 minutes to keep going.”

 

The magical girl drew up a cross section of a ship with a pipe going down into the lowest part.

 

“Meru?”  Merumeru looked at the drawing.

 

“I was thinking we could do water cannons too.”  Alex drew some fire-boat style things on  the deck.  “It could be like when Rose shoots her water gun.  On a boat though, there is so much water on the bottom that she won’t run out.  And if there is more than one water cannon then other dolls can help her out.”

 

Alex drew what looked like a fan on the bottom of the stern.  “We could make a clockwork propeller too.  That is what your little mini sub uses to get around.”

 

Alex drew some gears and wires on the top where the mast raised.  “Also, the sails are really hard to raise and lower.  There are so many lines.  When we were trying to go down river even when dancing it was just too much.  Trying to have 12 dolls dance around, handle the rigging of the sails, raise and lower them, steer the boat, keep an eye out.  Any little simplification would be really helpful.”

 

“Ruuu,”  Merumeru agreed.

 

“I had some ideas for pneumatic weapons too.  I think if we pump up a cylinder with air it could hold extra pressure or run longer than should be possible with my new feat.”  Alex pointed to the air compressor in the shop.  “I’m not sure how that would work on a ship without power though.”

 

Fufi flew in at that moment, interrupting the brainstorming.   “What kind of trouble are you two up to?”

 

Alex turned to face the flamingo.  “Merumeru’s helping me with brainstorming ideas for a toy ship.”

 

“Hopefully it’ll be more cute than your last one.”  Fufi hopped over to look at the chicken scratches Alex was showing Merumeru.

 

“It is just some random ideas.”  Alex glanced down at the sketches.  “And if we really wanted to have all the rigging be operated from the deck I’m going to need a lot more gears, and springs.”

 

“How many?”  Fufi eyed the sketch some more.

 

“A lot,” Alex guessed.  “Hundreds, maybe thousands.   I haven’t really done something so complex from scratch before.  It depends on what all it has to do.”

 

“What do you want it to do?”  Fufi looked at Alex.

 

“To go fast through rough waters should be priority number one.”  Alex pointed out.  “After all, the flying cloud set sailing records.  If we are going to change things, we shouldn’t sacrifice speed.”

 

“Ruu ruu me.”  Merumeru pointed to the water cannons.

 

“I don’t think we can add a whole lot of water cannons but we should be able to add at least two.” Alex tapped a brass pipe.  “We’ll have to try to recast, reforge, or whatever it is called for dealing with brass.”

 

“Um…”  Fufi eyed the pipe.  “Can brass be forged?   I don’t know what the smiths who work with brass would say.  Maybe it is only forging when working with iron?”

 

They mucked around a little bit.  Merumeru helped Alex make a crucible for melting brass.  They stayed up late and made a little doll house that had a couple of dolls on geared wheels that could make charcoal out of wood.  

 

The crucible had a wheel that someone could spin with a couple hand-sized dolls that would stoke the bellows.  Alex sacrificed a cheap thermometer to monitor the temperature.

 

“Boiling brass is bad for breathing.”  Alex instructed the slime girl.  “At least for humans and flamingos.  So if we want to melt brass then we should do it outside.”

 

Merumeru nodded.  She could melt brass quite easily just by digesting it with her slime body. But didn’t point that out.  Learning the human way to make pipes should be fun too.

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