CH77 Arrived at the swamp
A small boat carried a magical girl, a flamingo, and a slime south along a river. Their destination was the bog situated between Lady Yvne's barony and the Baroness of Beauty's lands. It was autumn, and the weather was somewhat dreary and crisp. Reduced daylight softened the landscape, and the sun was often obscured by clouds, making rain a frequent occurrence.
After their quaint waterway merged with a larger river, they continued their journey on what appeared to be a significant shipping route.
Alex observed the riverbank, which was bare on the side away from the woods. "This looks like it could have been a good location for a trading post.”
Fufi nodded. “Indeed. Many of Terre's rural areas were essentially one-town fiefdoms. A non-landed noble could establish themselves there, building a dock and structures. Their status would elevate to landed noble upon receiving a quest from a higher-ranked noble to bring prosperity to the land.”
“Can’t they just start a town and get it going? Why do they need peer approval?” Alex thought it was silly that someone couldn’t just build in an unclaimed spot.
“Peerage has rules and expectations. These classes are powerful but the obligations that they come with really tie people down. Unless the kingdom is very nomatic building a permanent settlement someplace is a very strong statement. Aristocracy live or die by their reputation. In some cases having a bad reputation can ruin their ability to level. Only a king or queen can confidently say that any place I want can be part of our new kingdom.” Fufi entered full teacher mode.
“I feel bad for Ki. It is only going to get tougher being here.” Alex adjusted the sail, trying to stay in the deeper part of the river. “How many other demon vassal fiefs are going to bug her? And she has to be polite?”
“Just to make things more confusing, fey culture is its own thing. The courts are all arranged alongside the seasons. So depending on what season it is, how things work can be completely different. There are two courts, a winter court and a summer court.” Fufi explained yet another confusing concept. “As for demon vassals, I don’t think they will go out of their way to get her if they know she’s not human. That is why Sakura’s plan, while incredibly cold, was quite sound. If there are no humans then the demon queen doesn’t care. If their leader doesn’t care then it makes sense to only expect local demon controlled forces to try anything. Demons are always probing everything for weaknesses. Also, Sakura doesn’t have a nobility class, so the two fey are not going to be perceived the same by nobility.”
As they continued their journey, the river grew wider and shallower, flowing through a landscape that gradually flattened. The terrain was now a humid swamp, marking the southwestern edge of Ki's barony. Small, water-saturated islands, each with unique plant life, dotted the expansive swampland to the west. To the east, beyond the riverbank, the land quickly gave way to lifeless wastelands, while the autumn air, warmer at this lower elevation, hinted at their changed surroundings.
“Well, what should we do now? It looks like we are almost to the neighboring barony.” Alex looked at Fufi and Merumeru.
“Meru!” Merumeru ran a hand through the muddy water.
Alex gave her a stern look from getting her white gloves dirty. “Merumeru, stay out of the water. It is really dirty.” Alex grabbed the slime girl’s wrist with one hand and dusted the glove clean with her feather duster.
The slime girl smiled and admired her now-spotless white glove.
Alex steered the rudder into the shallows. And after a few feet the boat scraped against the bottom.
“Hmm, it looks like we are stuck.” Fufi unhelpfully commented.
“Yes, we are a little bit too deep. I can pull the dagger board and the rudder but we’ll have to lower the sail and row. We probably shouldn’t keep going south past the border without meeting with the nereids first.” Alex transformed the sailboat into a rowboat by lowering the sail and removing the rudder and daggerboard. With both oars in hand, she began to row into the muck.
Alex rowed for half an hour until needing a break. Meanwhile, keeping the slime girl from jumping into the mud proved challenging.
“What’s wrong?” Fufi asked when they stopped.
“I’m just tired, I’m not as strong as I used to be.” Alex brought the boat to rest up against a rocky outcropping and tied a line to it. “Let’s take a break. I think there is enough space here to summon the carriage. Is anyone thirsty?” A couple tugs on the line confirmed that the small boat wouldn’t drift off on its own.
After throwing the card onto a flat spot on the rock, everyone gathered inside for some tea.
“I’m surprised no one has come to greet us. When we came back from the icelands there were some nymphs that noticed us right away. I guess trees are a bit sparser here so maybe treestride isn’t an option.” Fufi sipped some tea with her beak.
“Can nereids treestride? Or whatever the water themed equivalent is?” Alex asked no one in particular.
“Meru!” Merumeru knew the answer and didn’t hesitate to share it. However, no one seemed to pay her any mind.
“That’s nice Merumeru.” Fufi patted the slime girl on the head with a wing.
“I guess we can just wait for a while?” Alex sipped some tea and started fidgeting. “I will go check on the plushies I guess while we wait. I’m not sure how much further we can go into the swamp without getting stuck. Slopping through the muck on foot doesn’t sound like fun.”
“It is also bad for your stats. Getting dirty lowers your cuteness.” Fufi added.
“I know. Fighting in a sewer would be the worst battlefield for me. I came out of that alive though. I’m not sure if a swamp is better or worse. Anyway, let's go check on the plushies.” Alex opened the carriage's small workshop area. On top of a cabinet sat the animals from the first dungeon, while the three clockwork dolls were positioned at table height. A naughty hero plushy occupied the corner.
“What are we going to do with you?”Alex fiddled with her phone, idly plucking at it as she glanced at the hero doll. She noticed a slightly altered Bluetooth symbol while browsing through the submenus and clicked on it.
Fufi craned her head over her shoulder and glanced at the phone. “What are you looking for?”
Alex said, “Oh just pushing random things while I come up with an idea. The plushy hero is not only extremely violent but also incredibly annoying when anyone pulls the string to make it talk.”
Merumeru took this as an invite to pull the string.
“You can run, but you can’t hide from justice.” The hero doll let out another eye rolling line.
Both Alex and Fufi cringed.
Merumeru pulled the string again.
The doll let out a recorded noise. “I don’t need a weapon. I am the weapon.”
Merumeru tugged the string once more, despite Alex and Fufi's hand-waving pleas for her to stop.
“You can’t escape me, I’m everywhere.” The hero confidently stated. “You may have hurt my friends, but you’ll never break our bond. We’re more than just a team. We are family.”
And another pull, “You’re a fool to underestimate me. I have a secret weapon that you’ll never see coming: my hidden potential!”
“Merumeru, please stop, we can't take anymore!” Alex pleaded with the slime girl.
“When the world turns to darkness, my light will shine the brightest!” Another pull, another cringy line.
The blue girl in overalls chuckled and stopped pulling the string.
Alex and Fufi let out a sigh of relief in unison.
“What is this here?” Alex noticed that there was a pairable device showing up in the settings menu, listed as hero_plush_01.
“How does your phone normally work for such things?” Fufi asked. Of course she didn’t know much about wireless communication.
“Normally, this would allow the two things to send and receive data. Like you could play music on the phone but the sound would come out somewhere else. Or you could talk into a microphone instead of a phone on a phone call.” Alex pressed the button for the hero_plush_01
[Connect to hero_plush_01?] (yes / no)
Alex pressed yes.
[Connected]
A directory popped up. The root directory had two files [setup] and [play] with another subfolder called [sounds]. Alex pressed the folder and numerous files that were called [voice01] [voice02] filled the screen. There were a lot of them. Whoever made this plushy really wanted it to have a lot of different things to say.
“What are you doing?” Fufi asked.
“I’m just looking at what is here. This looks like the recordings that will play whenever someone pulls the string.” Alex scrolled through the many pages of files. Going back a directory she pressed the setup file and it showed the list of things it would play. “Hmm, I wonder if I can change what it’ll play. Let's see if we can upload some music from my phone to the doll.”
Alex backed out to the home screen and opened the folder that had the music in it. Alex scrolled down and selected the file that played in the demon fight, the one about ripping and tearing. After fiddling around a bit the file started uploading to the doll.
[File transfer progress 0% rip_and_tear.mp3]
“I wonder if there is enough space.” Alex watched a progress bar fill for a couple seconds.
[File transfer progress 100% rip_and_tear.mp3 successfully uploaded]
“What did you just do?” Fufi blinked, looking a bit confused.
“If I did this right. I copied a song from my phone to the doll.” Alex pulled open the folder with the sound files and gestured to the new one there. “Now lets see, maybe in setup I can change what it plays instead of those cheesy one liners.”
Alex pressed the setup executable and a menu popped up. It had a list of checkboxes for all the sounds. Currently, everything from the folder was selected. Alex didn’t see the uploaded file as a possibility. “Hmm, maybe the wrong directory?” Technology was finicky sometimes. Alex moved the file over to the directory with a copy / paste and went back to the setup. Rip and tear showed up but without the check mark selected. Alex unselected all of the other files and only had rip and tear with the checkbox marked. There was a little play button next to the file. “I wonder what will happen if this song plays.”
“Um, Alex I’m not sure that is such a good idea. You remember what happened last time.” Fufi looked around nervously.
“There are not any demons around I don’t think.” Alex looked outside to make sure no demons were around then pressed the test sound button on the track.
The sound of a distorted bass guitar with synth rhythm filled the small room. But this time it came from the doll instead of Alex’s phone. After a few seconds the plushy twitched a bit on its own.
“You are not dancing. That’s not you?” Fufi half-asked, half-stated.
Alex shook her head. Whatever powered this doll it wasn’t the animate doll magic this time. “Okay, this is creepy. I was just trying to kill some time while we figured out how to contact the nereids but I can almost see why the purity worshipers don’t want anything to do with the hero around them.”
The hero doll narrowed his button eyes and tilted his head back. It raised a fist towards the heavens. An intense killing intent could be felt through the room like the doll cursed heaven, hell, the world everything it had a grudge against.
Alex quickly pressed the stop button before anything escalated it. “I think this is enough of that.”
The hero plush slumped back down on the table when the music stopped.
At the mention of contacting the water nymphs, Merumeru perked up and darted out towards the muddy water.
"Hold on there, young lady! Where do you think you're going?" Alex interjected, stopping her before she could plunge into the murky water. "You'll get absolutely filthy if you jump in."
Merumeru, restrained from leaping into the swamp, squirmed and protested. "Merumeru me me ru meme ru," she insisted, a cross expression on her face, as if they were being utterly unfair. She was merely trying to do what was necessary.
“We'll just have to wait a bit longer. I can create some doll-armor for that Hiroshi plush. I think he’d look good in green armor and a helmet with a vizor. Maybe we can make some weapons later.” Alex hauled the slime girl back to the carriage, immediately beginning to craft armor from the materials within. Scraps of wood, green paint, and a glazed piece of glass for a visor were readily available. This task would be simpler than outfitting the three dolls, because the hero plush was considerably larger.