Magical Girl? I’m not sure about this.

A group of maids and townsfolk needed to be dressed in plumber's outfits and transported via portal pipe.

Alex, who had been dunked before, swiftly swam out of the castle's water. She assisted the group of people falling from the pipe, who also ended up submerged. With a few skillful flourishes of the feather duster, the person pulled from the water was dried and ready to move out of the construction area.

Splash splash. Cough cough. Dust dust.

“Kyaaa,” A maid, dressed in a plumbers outfit screamed upon getting dunked.

Another person cleaned and joined the queue, and after 30 people everyone got sorted, though a little shaken from the whole affair.

In a cunning maneuver, Alex stealthily swapped each maid's cursed outfit with an identical, uncursed one. She pretended to collect the cursed uniforms for transport and safekeeping in the carriage, but in reality, she simply hid them in a box while the maids were changing. This reversed application of their own trick felt like fitting justice.

So now, the maids were getting changed in an unfinished room on the castle’s first floor.

“Now that we’ve got everyone dried off,” Alex noticed all eyes on her and Fufi from the gathered crowd. “Let me show you around.”

Everyone had to watch their step around the mass of concrete blocks and steel beams surrounding the castle construction yard.

“Wow, you really are set up to build a castle.” Zeke stepped forward, looking a lot more male than when the maid outfit had half-transformed him.

“Merumeru and Magical girl Cosmos plucked away at it for a month or two now.” Alex led the group toward the cabin. “It has been stalled a bit now that she had to go away on business or something. We could use some help, though everything is way too heavy to lift.”

A middle aged man, after listening in, went to one of the concrete blocks and lifted the corner of it a foot off the ground with little signs of strain. “It is heavy, but not too bad with the help of my laborer class.”

“Right.” Alex gaped, having temporarily forgotten that classes would make people functionally super-human. “Maybe talk with Merumeru and Aqua and see how you can help out?”

“We can do that.” The gruff laborer gave a single nod. “Having a more solid building would be a big help if the winter gets bad. We have tents but if the winter dumps feet of snow they’ll collapse.”

Alex led them to the cabin where the Yvne family was waiting on the porch.

“Greetings.” The former baroness curtseyed. “Welcome to Parker sky island.”

The maid group looked elated while the extended family group looked a bit nervous about seeing their former leader before them. They didn’t know if they should bow, straighten up or run away.

One of the maids gushed. “Mistress, it has been too long!”

The maids swarmed the middle-aged woman.

“None of that.” Yvne held up a hand. “Things are different. I’m not in charge of anyone anymore. The king dissolved the barony and I’m just another unlanded noble. I don’t even have citizenship in any kingdom anymore.”

“This has to be fixed.” The overly enthusiastic maid proclaimed. “Perhaps this land can become your new county?”

Fufi didn’t approve of this kind of talk. “Hey, this is Alex’s land. If any nobles want to start up a county, they should do it elsewhere.”

The maids all looked at this flamingo with contempt, their movements almost in unison.

“Not far below us is the temple of purity.” Alex decided to change the subject. “Ki said that it might be possible to have the demonic curse removed there. But we need to make sure that they won’t just turn everyone into copies of priests and priestesses like they do with the harpies.”

“If that is what mistress wishes.” Another maid spoke. “But there is nothing wrong with any of us.”

Alex cleared her throat. “What’s your name?”

“You may call me maid.” The maid primly answered.

“Exactly.” Alex rolled her eyes.

Alex continued the tour, leaving the maids for Yvne and her children to try to get them to better understand the situation. They visited the workshop, the container camp that professor copperpot set up. And showed the remains of what used to be a road connected to the driveway, some powerlines that didn’t connect to the grid anymore and hung low marked the end of the island.

“If you want to build more permanent housing, along this road and driveway might be a good starting place.” Alex tapped a foot on the pavement. “If we ask nicely, I bet Merumeru would help with the plumbing. I guess a latrine or outhouse could be built temporarily. I’m not sure that the septic tank in the cabin can handle all the people we brought.”

“Is it okay to farm here?” Zeke asked. “The majority of us have a farmer class.”

“Yeah, though, just be careful about killing any trees.” Alex pointed to some of the trees growing. “Obviously some trees, like willows, can be cut back a lot. I’m a little worried that if we deforest the whole place it wouldn’t be good. All of these plants are not native to Terre so it would be nice to try to preserve them.”

“We’ll till some land and get some things planted. I think with all the farmers a couple acres would be enough to keep everyone fed.” Zeke guessed.

“With Yvne’s skills boosting us it could be even less.” One older man added.

Fufi gave him a glare. “That’s not up for negotiation.”

“Maybe something can be worked out later.” Alex added. “But for now, the family are prisoners.”

The group's displeasure was evident. Alex questioned her own stance, but a glance at the Flamingo solidified her conviction. While the nobles toured with the maids, Alex was left with the commoners. She suspected that, even after their losses, they still felt entitled to privileges, a belief exacerbated by the kingdom's ingrained societal norms.

“Prisoners?” The man gaped. “I know you had a bad conflict with lady Yvne, but still… She kept our farms from turning into a waste for years and letting everyone starve.”

Alex couldn’t believe these people. Did they have blinders on? Why were they downplaying the fact that demons terrorized them and took their sons and daughters to be maids.

“Anyway.” Alex ignored the verbal jab, thinking maybe something was mentally wrong with these people. “I’m currently working on building a model boat to show to the shipwrights in the capitol. I’m sure you saw it by the workshop. It is a little top heavy but anyone that has skills that might help with making it better or experience making boats would be a big help.”

An older man spoke. “Name’s Cid. I have a carpenter class and spent some time working in the shipyards back when I was younger before the work dried up.”

“What kind of stuff did you do there?” Alex asked.

“Repairs mostly.” Cid didn’t sound confident. “Finding wood kept getting harder and harder. The demons wanting flammable materials in tribute didn’t help with the scarcity either. It might not even be running anymore.”

“How did they even keep people on staff if that was the case?” Ales thought that the shipyard would have closed down completely considering how unfriendly the seas were to demons.

“It got to the point that ships would have to provide their own resources in most cases.” Cid continued. “Non-humans would stop and use the drydock if something really bad happened. A master shipwright could throw something together with the stuff they had on hand so that they could have a good chance of making it back to their home port.”

“What kind of races?” Alex wondered if there was some way to do this without blowing up the plan.

“Races that don’t enchant well.” Cid didn’t sound sure. “We got some ships with undead crews. There was this one that was basically a giant golem that sailed itself and relied on longshoremen to load and unload it.”

Alex nodded. “That’s interesting.” Perhaps the plan to have a boat sail into harbor crewed by one foot high dolls wouldn’t be something too suspicious.

After summoning the carriage, Alex distributed the dozens of tents they'd acquired in town. The carriage's remaining space was primarily filled with produce. The two extended families agreed to provide tents for the maids as well. While not having nymphs to grow treehouses was a step down in comfort, the former kingdom residents appreciated the added security of being removed from the slow pressure cooker created by two very different cultures living together.

They spent the remainder of the day and part of the next getting settled. Fortunately, someone with a mason class set up his tent near the castle, stating he might as well set up nearby to reduce his walk if he was going to spend his days doing stonework. Cid, the carpenter, pitched a tent near the workshop. Most of the farmers chose a spot near the stream, as being next to a fresh water source was apparently paramount. Hopefully, Merumeru would establish some kind of plumbing system for them before they resorted to making buckets for water.

Cid inspected the toy clipper ship. “Did you seal the planks in the hull with anything?”

Alex shook her head. “I didn’t really think about that. When we made the little sail boats the nymphs helped a lot with the woodwork, and those didn’t leak.”

Cid hmmed. “It is too bad we don’t have any nymphs around here to help make the boards watertight. I think they would put strips of cotton dipped in resin in between the planks to give them a better seal.”

Alex thought that was a good idea. “We have access to cotton. Would tree resin work?”

The old man shrugged. “It might? Twas a long time ago last I was working with a shipwright.”

“What about making the boat less likely to flip over?” Alex went to the biggest problem.

“The cheapest way I remember was just throwing rocks in the bilge.” The man pondered. “Some of the fancier boats would put strips of lead on the keel and use brass rivets to attach them. Towards the end, it was almost cheaper to get metal than wood.”

Alex pondered this. Apparently at least some time in the past the kingdom had access to the metals to make brass. “Well maybe one day we can find a good spot to start a mine or salvage an old one.”

Cid shrugged yet again. He did that a lot. “Mining is something humans never were great at. The old timers used to say that we should leave the mining to the gnomes. It is stupid to try to compete with them.”

Over the following week, with collaborative effort, the lower floors of the doll clipper were completed. Plant magic simplified resin extraction from pine trees, allowing all gaps to be filled. A single laborer effortlessly transported the trailer to the lake, launching the boat. Merumeru, accompanied by wooden dolls in sailor-school-girl attire, remained on deck for the journey. This time, with stones in the bilge, the boat maintained significantly better stability upon launch.

Everyone cheered, celebrating the successful launch.

Alex, possessing one of the wooden sailor dolls, practiced operating the rigging to manipulate the sails. She quickly realized that a single doll would make raising or lowering all the sails an incredibly time-consuming task.

Ariel, impatient with the slow progress, dove into the water and swam to the 1/10th scale ship to assist. Like a giant sea monster, she pulled ropes to move the sails or lower the anchor, not to destroy, but to help.

Eventually, the boat was pulled from the water and placed back on the trailer for inspection. Alex's small doll, hand-in-hand with Merumeru, descended into the hold to inspect the bilge for any water intrusion. Fortunately, no water was found. The slime girl was about three times the size of the smaller sailor dolls so she looked like a giant on the ship.

Alex expressed gratitude to everyone who contributed to the hard work.

The molds and fittings were used again. While the first toy ship was being completed, Cid and any available helpers used a chainsaw to harvest more branches to form another keel and begin planking a hull.

Alex explained that the first toy would be presented to the king’s shipyard. The second, however, could be a more elaborate, clockwork-driven vessel, showcasing Alex’s toymaking skills and the new magical girl feat more effectively.

“Okay, now that we have this thing working good enough to sail down to the capitol we just need to get it back to town.” Alex looked at Merumeru

“Meru?” She tilted her head.

“Merumeru, can you make a portal pipe that we could send a boat through?” Alex figured this would be the easiest way.

Merumeru made an ‘X’ with her hands, shaking her head.

“Ru ru ru ru ru.” Merumeru protested.

“She can’t make them any size bigger than they already are.” Aqua translated. “Looks like you’ll have to find another way. She’d have to be a higher level plumber to make it work.”

Alex grumbled. “There is a blizzard going below us last we went through the pipe by the temple. There is no way we could drag it that far. It takes weeks to travel by carriage.”

The success instantly souring, Alex facepalmed. “I should have seen this coming.”