[Hanako] Chapter 12: Idyllic Days

[Throndir]

"Amarille helped once you gave us the design. We got to gathering the materials, measuring, and testing on the dress form with some simple mockups. We were supposed to finish it today... But I couldn't sleep thinking about it. Amarille told me to head to sleep, but once I set my sights on something, it has to be done!"

"That looks wonderful on you Hanako."

"Oh... I'd love to wrap my arms around you while you wore that..."

"Tis a splendid look, hero."

"You look better than I imagined!"

"Truly fitting of a warrior Okita-san."

Lastly, Elyse Dietriche nodded approvingly.

[Asta]

Hanako tested her range of motion in the new outfit, it fit perfectly, probably more than any other article of clothing she had ever worn before.

"Outstanding work, really. Thank you for working so hard on it." Hanako said with a smile. "Should look pretty presentable when we head overseas, not to mention having a more dignified looking leader should inspire confidence and boost morale among people here."

The last bit was an assumption, she had read something somewhere about needing to look the part to lead people but it might have actually been from a fiction novel.

[Throndir]

"You are correct. Even with the ability to lead, to take command of soldiers, and being a hero, appearance itself can play a lasting role on your men. Stand resolutely in your decisions, inspire confidence in your men around you, being the part of a hero is looking like one as well. And in this you are succeeding." Elyse commented.

It was then that Minette spoke, who by now had finished her small breakfast. As usual, she spoke in her calm, steady, and relaxed pace. "I'll be reviewing with Aldric one more time... He... has been very quick about catching up to what Klein knew... Today... is an important day."

Elyse nodded. "We have a meeting with the Flensberg Construction Company in a few hours. One of their representatives will be here. I'll be sure to let every inhabitant know to stick to their rooms, except for the individuals who will be maintaining the 'facade'. Also, Frau Hero, I'd like to have this time to remind you of the armored carriage we have. One of the contacts from the Birkensen Trading Company had told me that they're finished with preparing everything, and can either bring it to our estate here, or have it setup somewhere else. We can attempt to disguise it if we are moving it around in a finished form, though, it won't hold well to scrutiny. Apart from that, we have a few more from the Birkensen Trading Company arriving later today. Gardeners, and a few more soldiers. They've all been briefed, and are trusted employees of Frau Sofia's company."

[Asta]

"If you think he's ready, today might be a good day to let him operate without me in the room. The basic guidelines have already been discussed so it's probably about time to see how things go. Regarding the armored carriage, if it's not too difficult to move disassembled, it might be a good idea to move it here that way, and transport it to the boats in the same fashion. Out of curiosity, how is it moved when assembled? Is it drawn by horses or some kind of steam or combustion engine?"

By the time she finished the question, she had already assumed the answer would actually be "magic" but it was worth knowing anyway for future reference, the level of technology in Refedora was still somewhat of a puzzle to her. They dressed like, and lived in early 20th century style pseudo Germanic clothing and homes but handheld firearms were quite literally just invented. Hanako wondered idly if the existence of magic hampered the need for technological progression, it was a concept that wasn't frequently addressed in the fiction of Earth.

[Throndir]

"I will let the company know to move it to our estate here then. Whenever we plan to head to the boat, that should be when we bring it with us as well. It would ensure less chances of being stolen if moved by itself to the docks. As for how it's moved when assembled, it is drawn by two horses due to the weight. As I recall, I remember seeing a prototype design making use of an engine powered by fire magic, and another using wind magic to propel it. There are likely some prototypes of these as well. However due to the drain of mana from the user, along with requiring a mage well-practiced in their craft for maintenance, the more conventional horse-drawn version had won out. However, with the discovery of the 'mana crystals' that now power some of these guns from the trading company, it is being re-visited again. If unskilled soldiers or even commoners can operate a magic-armored carriage without knowledge of magic, that in itself would be a great boon. Unfortunately for that project... the creation and testing of a more advanced rifle had been in development too, where I believe most of the effort is being placed in. I am to tell you that they've been testing a couple of prototypes, and all are promising. Hopefully in another few days they'll be ready, and Frau Leiningen would send us a few."

[Asta]

"Mmm. Interesting. I imagine the horses tire out fairly quickly pulling it. In my world we use engines that burn a refined form of oil to move vehicles like this. Terrible for the environment though, I imagine magic is probably cleaner. Anyway, that sounds like a good plan so we'll proceed with that."

She took a second to pick up a piece of bread from her plate and chewed it thoughtfully. "Alright, so Aldric is on his own today, Minette if you could attend the meeting as usual to make sure things are ironed out correctly that would be nice. I'll be up in my room planning out my trip to one of the mines during the meeting. I'll probably go there three days from now. If we have anything resembling a map of the tunnels or additional info about the site I'd like that taken up to my room. Other than that, its business as usual and you can send someone up to tell me when its okay to move around the estate again."

[Throndir]

"Of course Hanako..." Minette said. "I'll drop the map off along with details of the site before I work with Aldric..."

"You have time Frau Hero, I believe the meeting will take place over lunch."

You have a bit over 4 hours until the meeting when you need to hide. You could declare some Training time if you'd like before then, and state any other prep.

[Asta]

Training Light Armor Proficiency:

Rolled 1d20+7 : 20 + 7, total 27

When Hanako goes off to her room to hang out until the meeting is over, she'll bring Jitsuko with her and some food since she'll be hiding out during lunch. She'll probably take along some stuff to take notes as well.

[Throndir]

Training
Light Armor Proficiency: 5/8

Soon enough you made it back to your room. Minette had dropped off a detailed map, along with notes of the site as well. Together with that, and the blank sheets of paper and pen, you had more than enough material to work with. Jitsuko stood silently and impassively at the room, waiting for instructions.

[Asta]

"You can go ahead and take a seat on the bed if you want." Hanako said to Jitsuko, knowing full well that what her double wanted currently didn't factor into the equation. She sent the mental command to have her sit, presumably in a comfortable position and then turned her attention to the map and the notes regarding the mining site.

[Throndir]

It'll take sometime to go through all the reading. Also feel free to do any testing with Jitsuko, or attempting some kind of self-study training. I have a map of the mines, though, not super presentable atm.

Mining Site #2 Operations
The mining site was large enough for 3 companies to share mining operations on. Both Blueland Processing and Busch Metall along with the Klein company had workers at the sites. Mining Site #2, the one with the red 'X' that caught your attention had the Busch Metall company handle the oversight of it. That said, all three companies had a stake in its operations.

Klein Company at Mining Site #2
Slave Workers: 300
Slave Soldiers: 50

Blueland Processing
Slave Workers: 50
Slave Soldiers: 8
Hired Soldiers: 2

Busch Metall
Slave Workers: 150
Slave Soldiers: 40
Hired Soldiers: 10

Mining Site #2 Layout
There were multiple levels of the mines, but it looked like Klein Company had sole rights for the deeper levels. There would have been more petition from the rest of the companies for access, but apparently the site itself was rich in various ores, and actually had mithril veins through it, which more than made the deal lucrative. There was around 1400 ft. of tracks just on the first level of the mines, this was where both Blueland Processing and Busch Metall had most of their operations. Klein Company held a small section on the first level, but had a lift that went further down to 4 more levels. There looked to be a mention of a 5th level, however, not much information was provided about the area. There were records of the 5th level being created, and tracks laid out, however, there was not much information. It felt to you as if the information was left out, or was simply never written and included.

[Asta]

Hanako flipped through the pages detailing the second mine site and made a few notes on a separate paper about things she found interesting. Particularly she was intrigued by the "missing" fifth level.

"That's probably where I'm going to want to go looking..." she said aloud to no-one in particular.

After a while, there was nothing new to be gleaned from the information she had and stacked the papers in a neat pile. She was unsure how long she had been looking them over and figured that since nobody had come by the meeting downstairs was still going on. Getting up from her seat she moved over to where Jitsuko had been sitting obediently on the bed.

"I wish you could just tell me how exactly it is you work..." Hanako commented to her silent copy and ran her fingers though the girl's dark hair.

"Status." she said after a minute, since she hadn't checked the window recently.

[Throndir]

As expected, Jitsuko continued to stare straight ahead, not being given any sort of instructions.

Hanako Okita
Homunculus Master
Level 15

Condition: Uninjured, Refreshed

HP: 34/34
MP: 46/46
STR: 18
DEX: 22
CON: 22
INT: 22
WIS: 12
CHA: 16
MAG: 31

Blessings: Quick Learner, Mana Sensitivity, Translate All, Personal Status, Item Speaker, Slavemancer, Create Golem

[Asta]

"Well, nothing new there I guess. Though it's good to know that my mana isn't being constantly drained by Jitsuko or something."

Hanako was unsure what to do with Jitsuko. There were so many questions and she couldn't come up with a way to find any answers. "You seem to be capable of learning, I guess. Given that it gets 'easier' for you to do things if I've already made you do them once before. Maybe tonight I'll just bite the bullet and see if I can make you more independent some way..."

She decided to do some experiments anyway, considering she had the time. She made a few simple flash cards, writing her own name and Jitsuko's as well as a few other simple words that might be useful to at least express a person's needs. Then she attempted to teach her how to read the cards and say what was on them through commands. Finally she tested the "lessons" by holding up the cards at random and asking the girl to read them back.

[Throndir]

It took some trying, along with trial and error, but you eventually managed to get her to do what you wanted. It was a variety of steps that could indeed be considered learning, though, with it being so manual, it almost felt like programming it into her. At the very least you didn't have to say things vocally. For example, you wrote words on each of the flash cards, showed it to her, then told her to say it. At first she didn't know what the word was, so she remained silent. However, you then had her speak the word on the flash card, and that indeed worked fine. You later found a problem as it seemed like she had literally tied her new knowledge to the flash card itself, rather than the symbols of the characters, but you eventually managed to get around that as well by stating a command similar to "Repeat this word, when you see this character."

On one side, she managed to absorb each lesson fast. But on the flip side, it really did feel as if you were attempting to teach a computer how to do things. It was fairly manual and specific, and Jitsuko didn't necessarily link old learnings with new one until you specified what that link was.

By the end of it though. You could show Jitsuko a random flash card, and Jitsuko would respond and speak outloud the word. You eventually managed to get her to understand the characters as well. As you could write them on a new piece of paper, and Jitsuko would proceed on repeating the word.

I'll have you roll INT, a Training check, or any applicable Knowledge skill you might think would apply for this kind of teaching. It'll affect how long this process is.