Sarah

Over the next couple months, they spent much of their free time searching for a new place to live. They had initially been looking at houses and potential business locations separately, but were pleasantly surprised to find themselves on the shortlist for properties that contained both.

Because they had proven themselves as talented people by getting their certifications quickly, meaning they were vouched for; and because they would be starting out with four employees, two on the smithing side and two on the alchemy and enchanting side, that meant that despite their short history within the city, people had high hopes for them.

Established craftspeople looking to start their own business would still take priority over them, but unlike other newcomers, they actually had an opportunity to get a place like that.

Through sheer luck, they got one of those homes. A coworker informed them of it. Their relatives who owned the place were retiring. The Woods family still had to convince the retiring people to sell to them instead of just anyone, but they managed it.

They then spent a couple weeks renovating it to both update everything and to change things to their liking. With magic, the reconstruction happened much more quickly.

The house was larger than their apartment had been, and they would even be able to have guests over without people bumping into each other all the time.

It fits into the aesthetic of Efrinteu as well, both inside and out. There were three bedrooms upstairs, as everyone had decided they liked the previous sleeping arrangements. The ground floor contained a large bath which they planned to use frequently, and there was also a conversation pit. It was completely lined with fluffy cushions, and they had already spent a lot of time snuggling in it, as well as some naps.

Between the house and their future business was a yard. It wasn’t massive like what a suburban American home would have, however. They planned to use their roof as a gardening plot for growing vegetables and other foods, as well as a hangout space; and the garden on the ground level would be for growing ingredients that could be used in their work.

None of us have ever owned a yard before because we all hated them, but they're an actual necessity here. We’ll actually be using it regularly, possibly even daily.

The business building on the other end of the rectangular property was divided into three sections; the storefront, the alchemy section, and the smithing section.

The reason for the division was to not disturb each other’s work, but both sides could easily interact with the other. Besides a door, there was also a large window that could be opened when one side needed to talk, and had a soundproofing enchantment on it when it was shut, just as the walls did.

They had debated over what to call their business, but ended up taking the first syllable of each of their names, then combining them into the way that they thought sounded the most interesting.

It seemed nonsensical, but other signs depicting potions, swords, armor, and such would indicate what the place was. Many businesses here actually had unusual names that didn’t say anything about what the business did, because those signs were there as well.

Because the first syllable of Diamond’s name had that spelling—at least in English it did—everyone ended up pronouncing the first part as “dee-ah-loo”. Sarah couldn’t help but stare in awe at the finalized name of their store.

Dialu Ammirosa… I feel like I’m a part of something truly incredible here.

They also needed to finalize their maker’s mark, the symbol that would go onto everything they sold. Logos were more Amber and Michelle’s thing, having been graphic designers back on Earth, but everyone still sat down together to help come up with ideas, and they compared their drawings at the end.

“So let’s see what we’ve got,” Sarah said, organizing everyone’s papers into a stack.

“Among the animal suggestions, there's a tiger, a fox, a wolf, and various monsters,” she said laying them out.

“For plants, we’ve got a couple trees, but I don’t know what kind they are. But as for flowers, there’s a lily and a water lily.”

Sarah looked at Amber and Michelle, who she knew had suggested them. “This is a different world, remember, and flowers won’t mean the same things here. And that’s assuming those flowers even exist here at all. That doesn’t mean we still couldn’t use one of these, though.”

Before either of them could say anything, Roumazi spoke up, “Eternity and prosperity are the most common meanings associated with both of them.”

“Ah. That answers that, then.” Looking through the stack of small papers again, she continued, “We’ve also got all of our weapons; bow, hammer, whip, claw, spear, and sword. Some of these drawings also have a little potion bottle included in them.”

She skipped the next two drawings, keeping as neutral an expression as she possibly could.

“And finally, a diamond.”

“Hm?” the wolf girl tilted her head, as Sarah was looking at her.

Sarah put the drawing in front of her. “It’s a pretty gem, and what you were named after. This doodle doesn’t really do it justice, though.”

Roumazi made a perfect diamond shape out of her ice and placed it in front of her daughter. “It looks like this.” She had learned the meaning of Diamond's name shortly after joining the family.

“Oh! I like it!” Diamond said. “But why didn’t I know what it meant?”

“It’s an English word,” Sarah answered. “You know a lot of languages, but that isn’t one of them.” The ritual that had imparted knowledge of numerous languages only included ones from this world, after all.

“Oh…”

Roumazi wrapped her arm around the wolf. “I don’t know that language, either,” she comforted.

“You don’t?”

“Nope.”

“Oh, okay then,” Diamond said, feeling much better with the knowledge that the actual goddess at the table, one of her moms, also didn’t know that language. Similar conversations had come up in the past, but this was probably the first time they had directly addressed it.

We just speak the local language most of the time, so this wouldn’t have come up before, at least not directly.

“That’s it?” Amber asked. “Are you sure you didn’t miss one?”

“I’m sure,” Sarah replied, directly meeting her gaze.

“No, I’m pretty sure you missed one,” Michelle joined.

Sarah sighed. “Fine.” She laid out the two drawings she had skipped over.

Michelle and Amber both began laughing. Sarah was the only other person at the table who understood what was going on, while others just looked confused.

She desperately maintained a straight face. I can’t laugh. It’s too stupid. If I laugh, they win.

“I can’t believe you would draw Wario of all things in a place like this, Amber,” Michelle said.

“Says the woman who drew Garfield,” Amber retorted.

“Garfield is the superior being of the two!”

“Wario literally uses a motorcycle! How are you not on his side?”

“My cat has his own kart racer! What does Wario have? No one cares! No one cares.”

“That’s a lie and you know it! Stop defending a character you don’t care about! You don’t even like lasagna! That’s Garfield’s defining character trait!”

“When’s the last time you played a Wario game, huh? Even in Smash, you never chose him!”

The two elves would occasionally bicker about something incredibly stupid just for fun, and everyone was used to it already. They obviously didn't even agree with the points they were making.

Sarah looked at Roumazi, “We married these idiots.”

The foxkin chuckled, “We did.”

Interrupting their “argument” before she accidentally laughed at their humor, Sarah spoke, “Moving on, I like the flowers and the diamond.”

“Me too,” Michelle replied, instantly rejoining the regular conversation as if nothing had happened. “As tempting as the diamond design is, I prefer the flowers. I drew the lily, but I think I like the water lily more.”

“That one was mine,” Amber said, also responding completely normally. “And I think the water lily will be more interesting for the holographic logo idea we have. We can animate it so that it blooms. And it’s a more interesting shape in my opinion.”

The idea she was talking about was that on their regular products, they would just put a stamp of their logo; and on their custom products, the logo would have an enchantment that would show a hologram when activated, similar to their pendants.

“I like the water lily, too,” Luna said.

“Yeah,” Diamond agreed.

With everyone in agreement, they now had the name and logo of their store.

Now we have to make our first batch of standard weapons and armors.

They still need to sell regular items just to make sure they had something people would actually buy.

The four of them had been saving up these past few years for this day, and had even taken extra work here and there. Michelle even took some delivery jobs to nearby cities because her Gift allowed for rapid transport. Even though moving that fast meant it was unlikely for anything to catch her, she still always went with at least one other person.

It also allowed her to practice something else she had been working on regarding her motorcycle, which was to create a road entirely of ice beneath her. She had recently achieved something even more ridiculous than just that, however.

Thinking of how snowmobiles could drive across water, she began making her ice road higher and higher, and eventually, her road wasn’t touching the ground at all.

The day she came home after driving in the sky for the first time, she had been incredibly giddy and needed to show everyone.

That really was a fun day. H er mana pool really has increased by a ridiculous amount to be able to pull that off casually.

Sarah was certainly excited about finally opening their own store, just like all the others were, but she had a much more personal reason for feeling that way.

She had managed to write two books so far during her time in this world, but because fiction here was all about heroic tales and grand adventures, every publisher she spoke to had turned her away.

Her first story was about a baker just trying to become better at baking and his various interactions with customers and the people around him.

Her second story was about a girl who had no idea what she wanted to do with her life and struggled to figure things out.

Both stories were incredibly different from what people were familiar with here, and as a result, she was left with the only option of self-publishing.

She even had to include a disclaimer at the beginning of both books, saying, “This story and all its characters are entirely fictional.”

Every publisher she met had been confused when they began reading, and thought Sarah had just written about some random person’s life.

It was disheartening, but she wasn’t going to stop writing. And her family had all helped to print and put together the copies for sale.

That had been a tedious task, and the printers here required someone with earth magic to create plates with all the text and images on them, which Amber did.

While there were public printers available for use, printing several copies of an entire book would’ve been astronomically expensive, so it was either do things this way or write everything by hand. Because this world's printing technology was lacking, the cost went up for all the plates that would have to be made.

As Sarah had done bookbinding in the past, she led the family in putting them all together. None of the others had ever done it before, so it was new and fun for each of them.

They looked entirely like ordinary books by the time they were done. The only magical thing about them was that they were printed paper that glows slightly in a gentle blue color when someone puts their mana into it, which was common here. It came from an ingredient mixed into the paper itself during its production.

Expensive versions of books often have glowing paper that changes to different colors depending on the mood of the scene, and maybe even a few other small enchantments within the book, but those are unnecessary and difficult to pull off without a proper printing setup. Only the most popular of books get that kind of treatment.

I suppose it’s kind of sad that I have to start my writing career all over again under these circumstances, but I do quite like alchemy, so it’s not as if I’m suffering by doing that instead.

givemeyourbones

You have no idea how many completely stupid arguments I’ve cut out of this story. But I couldn’t resist leaving one in. I still had to trim it down, though.

Also, bookbinding is so fun. I did it several years ago, and to this day it’s still probably one of my favorite art projects I’ve worked on.