That Time a Bookworm Got Ascended in Tensura

Ch.53 Before the Storm

Rozemyne's  pov: 

Standing there watching then faun over Hinata was sort of an odd feeling after being such an attention drawer for the past few days. Though it was also assuring me somewhat, that my disguise was not too boisterous. I simply waited for them to turn to me, though it took some time. 

In fact the person who had to do this was Tuuli, drawing there attention by speaking. "Hello, I am Tuuli." She said this while walking over to Hinata, which quickly drew all of Hinata's attention when Hinata saw her face. That seemed sort of odd to me, though it did make the children look to me now that Hinata was no longer humoring them. 

Quickly the boy with orange hair approached me and introduced himself, "I guess you are disguised, so we won't say your name. I am Kenya Misaki."  His eyes were inspecting my mask closely for a moment and he came up with a comment, "That is really similar to the mask Shizu-sensei used to wear. Chloe has that mask now." He seemed to get a bit tense mentioning the name of his old sensei, I wondered why? I still didn't know much about Shizu. 

The next one to speak was the blonde haired girl, she pushed Kenya out of the way and introduced herself just as loudly as the boy had, "I am Alice Rondo, ignore him." She made a small pose while saying her name like she was pretending to be some kind of superhero, granted they all had an amount of magicules comparable to Karstedt before he had evolved. For the black haired girl and Kenya that amount was higher, and I'd go as far to say black haired girl may even compete with Ferdinand before he had evolved. 

Finally the other two boys introduced themselves. The one a bit shorter than Kenya with black hair and ears introduced himself first, "I am Ryota Sekiguchi." He was pretty calm, and somewhat shy about introducing himself, but it was not that odd. Then the taller boy with brown hair and eyes introduced himself, "Sorry about the others being so rumbustious, I am Gale Gibson." He was the oldest and tallest, he honestly looked a bit older than I thought he actually was. His face was really smooth despite him being around as tall as a thirteen year old, so I suspected he was only around eleven or twelve. The others were all closer to my age appearance wise. 

Finally the black haired girl who had glared at me introduced herself, now acting shy for some reason I could not quite tell. "I-I am Chloe Aubert." She was acting shy, and seemed to get a bit of an odd look from Tuuli as she looked over to see Chloe acting this way. I didn't quite understand why Tuuli reacted that way. 

Tuuli quickly turned back to Hinata, and seems to have started a conversation with her that I had missed. I was really curious though, it also seemed odd Hinata had taken such a new interested in Tuuli, but I thought it might be a good thing. 

Once Hinata had finished talking to Tuuli she stood up a bit straighter and addressed the children, "I'll be watching you all today, just make sure to stay near me. More importantly though, make sure to enjoy yourselves." She gave a pretty bright smile to us all after she said this, and honestly it almost completely shocked me. Sure she had been protective of me before, but with all her subordinates she was cold as ice. She even treated Rimuru like a misbehaving dog most of the time. 

Before I could really question Hinata on this, the kids cheered and started picking out places to go from a piece of paper they had seemingly pulled out of nowhere. It was a small map of the city during the festival and it seemed to have most of the major stands and stores marked, along with a few attractions that I had yet to see myself being cooped up so long. 

I made a simply suggestion while looking at the map and this was to go to one of the places I was already most curious of, it was a small store that had been opened by the Gilberta company to sell some of their products. I was curious what Lutz and Benno had decided to sell in my absence, I really should try to call them to visit more, even if I can't just go and be with them whenever I want anymore. Luckily it should be relatively easy to call them with [Thought Communication] now that I had it. 

"I don't really wanna just go to a store, I wanna go see the tournament!" It was Kenya who yelled this, while making a point of puffing his chest out and brandishing the sword he too always had at his side. What was it with people who owned swords and always having them? Well, except Rimuru I suppose. 

I sighed a bit, "Guess I'll see Lutz tomorrow then."

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Tuuli's pov: 

I tried to stand near Hinata primarily as we as a group walked down the streets of Tempest, it was refreshing to get a small break to just calmly walk like this. Gale even offered me a cotton candy from one of the stands while blushing a bit, I noticed it. I accepted the cotton candy, but tried to be a bit resistant to his blush with a small shake of the head. 

Hinata had been willingly spending quite some bit of her pocket money on the children, she had already bought a Rimuru slime plushy for Chloe, along with a fan for Alice. I didn't go to any of the stalls myself, since I was trying to avoid seeming like I was hear because of Rozemyne. I had primarily been doing this just by staying away from her and sticking to Hinata, even if it made it look like I was here for Hinata that was not an issue in my mind. 

Eventually a conversation did start between the two of us, with her prompting. "Why don't you go enjoy yourself? There are plenty of things I think you'd like." She gave a somewhat comforting tone to it while seemingly closing her eyes for a moment, like she was thinking back on something. 

"I don't want anything to give away why I am here." I said it softly and under my breath so it'd be nearly impossible for anyone without a perception ability to hear, though it was also vague enough that I didn't think it'd  tell them much even if they did. 

Hinata seemed to purse her lips for a moment, "You are too much like me. Just spend some time enjoying yourself, you still have a long time before you should be so honor bound." She commented back sort of self-deprecatingly, as if she had some regret in the way she behaved when she was young. 

I tried to ignore it for now and just asked a simple question, "Well, I suppose so. On a matter of honor and duty, though. Why is it you decided to become a defender of humanity?" I didn't think too much on it, but I had some idea it may relate to how she had become a sage, though I could see faintly with [Magic Sense] and [Pattern Recognition] that she may be going even beyond that, she looked somehow different than Arnaud and the others. 

Hinata seemed to purse her lips ever so slightly more before talking again, and seemed to take a turn that led us to a place that was a bit less crowded. Though there were still plenty of people, the other children seemed somewhat disappointed about turning to go to a place with less stalls. "I suppose I could say this is why, to see the people around me get to enjoy themselves. Though it may also just be something about wanting to return the kindness my sensei gave me." She spoke vaguely, and I assumed she had meant something about the Shizue Izawa I had heard about before, the Conqueror of Flames. 

"Could it really be something so simple?" I wondered to myself with a glance over to the small white coat Rozemyne was inside. I supposed I just wanted to see her stay safe, when I thought about it. "Maybe it can be." I commented afterward. 

Hinata kept talking after this, seeming to get lost in her own thoughts. "My sensei took me to the dwelling of spirits once, she had said she was there to ask something of the Queen of Spirits. She never managed to meet her, she did talk to me though. Ramiris-san was not exactly what I was expecting when I heard her title." She trailed off after saying that, then seemed to look at all the kids for a moment. "I noticed it when I saw them, they have her blessing. She is the patron of heroes, you know?" I didn't quite see where she was going with this until she finished off what she had to say. "I heard you wanted to become a sage, at least for myself. It was because I got a heroes egg, shortly after acquiring Ramiris-san's blessing. It was what led me to Granbell and the church, that is when I decided to become the defender of humanity." She had been leading down a set of instructions, I realized once she had finished it off. Answering some of my questions, in a round about way. 

"So I need to talk to Ramiris-san?"  I questioned while leaning closer to her, I was very hopeful that what I assumed so far was right. 

Hinata seemed to smile discretely, then she said something coyly at me "If you promise to go enjoy yourself, I'll say yes." It was a trap, to go get me to do things with the other kids. She was a lot smarter than I had thought, the old witch! 

I sighed out audibly and nodded, before stepping away from her finally and walking over to the group of them, it had seemed where Hinata had been leading us was to the store Rozemyne had been asking for earlier, she had not only played me I suppose. 

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Rozemyne's pov: 

Hinata had seemingly led us all to the Gilberta Company store in Tempest, which I was relieved by. I suppose she had been listening to me before, and had made a note to come here before we ended up getting lost anywhere. The first thing I saw upon coming inside was that Lutz was at the counter frantically trying to package sets of cards, but they were not the cards we had made before. Instead these cards seemed to be made of metal and had their designs pressed into them, I assumed the designer of the machine to do so would be Kaijin. I really needed to talk to him about making a printing press, or maybe I should get someone to do that of my own. I was not yet sure. 

When Lutz saw the group coming in he nodded over to an attendant who seemed to be a type of demi-human, a wolfman I thought. Though it was hard to tell, as all that really seemed wolf like was the tail and ears poking up from the small hat he was wearing. All his hair was grey, and thick, matted almost. That was another clue. 

The wolf man walked over and greeted us with a small bow, and began to speak. "Welcome to the Gilberta Company Tempest location, please feel free to look around. However do not touch any merchandise, and please do be courteous to other customers." The voice was deep and refined, as someone might expect of someone trained for service in Tempest. 

It was Hinata who responded, stepping in front of every one else and speaking for me immediately, her face giving the wolfman a moment of shock seemingly. "Hello, I heard you'd be selling those metal cards? I also heard you have an employee named Lutz, someone in my group wishes to speak with him." She seemed to already have an easy and clean idea of what to say, and do. 

"O-of course, Lady Hinata. Please this way." He led over to the counter Lutz had been frantically packing behind and quickly leaned down to whisper something into his ear.

It was shortly after this that Lutz handed over the wrapping to the other employee, and quickly walked over to greet Hinata. "Good afternoon, Lady Hinata. Sorry to keep you waiting, you said you wanted to see the metal cards, yes?" He pulled out a small box and presented the metal cards to us, they were just like normal cards but their designs were pressed into them and then painted in with either black or white ink depending on the shade of the metal. Some however had different colors of ink that I had yet to see, it seemed like one had a golden ink color. 

I was to say the least mildly impressed, and commented on it. "Those are really good cards, I am sort of surprised you guys came up with something like that without me." I really wanted to buy a pack of them already to play around with and test them, some of them had little character designs it looked like, these were the trading cards that Lutz liked so much back in Ehrenfest. I supposed he was insistent to have them made here as well. Though there were some new trading cards with big faces in Tempest, and a golden one with Rimuru himself engraved on it. 

Lutz seemed to jerk back in surprise for a moment before looking over to me, and in a surprised tone said. "Roz-" he was cut off by Tuuli having her hand to his mouth, before she whispered something to him. At this he quickly nodded and led both me and Tuuli over to the door at the back of the main store-room. 

Once inside I realized this was an office, and to add to that. It had a magic circle engraved into the ceiling with what seemed to produce a weaker version of Rimuru's anti-perception barrier. 

Sitting at the desk was Benno, busily looking over some paper, though he looked up when he saw us. He seemed focused on Tuuli before I had taken off my mask, at which point his focus was squarely on me. "Finally, the recluse shows herself. Have they really been keeping you cooped up all this time, or did you just find a library somewhere in Tempest?" 

"I wish I found a library!" I immediately responded to the library part first, while smiling a bit. 

Benno sighed a bit and responded shortly after, "Well I suppose that answers the question, now. Have you come up with any new ideas for products?" He insistently commented at me, while staring me down. 

"Oh, uh. Well, yes, one. I need to make the machine first, it will be a machine to quickly print lots of books." I stated while thinking about it a bit further, I suppose I'd need to consider how I'd get the printing press made sooner rather than later. When I thought about it, it may be better to make it in Ehrenfest to boost the economy there. Tempest already had too many advantages, and I needed to think of the people back home. 

"We already sell plenty of books now, but if you say you could make them faster and cheaper I am all ears. Tell me immediately when you have something ready." He brushed it aside after that, seemingly needing to get back to work already. Though he had one thing to say before he did so, "Get the boy to give you a deck of the metal cards. They were his idea, you know?" He seemed almost proud for a slightest moment before staring back down at his papers. 

I turned to Lutz and tilted my head a bit, I had not expected something like that out of him, but it did leave my impressed myself. "Good job, Lutz."  

He smiled proudly at me and began to speak, seemingly just happy to have me actually look at him for once. "You are not the only one who can come up with things to sell!" He seemed very proud of himself, and promptly handed me a small box with a set of the metal cards, along with a few of the trading cards. One had me on it, which was kind of funny to see. 

"Thank you." I thought about playing cards with my family again with the new deck, or perhaps teaching Wilfried and Charlotte to play with this new deck of metal cards. It seemed like a nice thing to do, and like something to at least be able to bond over. 

Though it was not long before I heard something come into my ears over the loud speakers Tempest had, "The first official matches of the tournament will be starting in fifteen minutes, if you have a seat reserved please make your way to the colosseum." Which was my que to leave. I was quick to make my way out of the room and back to the group, while putting on my mask quickly before leaving the room. I simply gave a nod to Hinata and it seems she had understood what I had meant immediately. 

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--2932 words--

(AN: YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, it starts next chapter. Prepare for some Ferdinand)