That dinner lay a week in the past. In that time, Ioha had to replace his Brigandine once again, since half a year had been enough to grow out of it. He suspected he’d have to do it once or twice more in the coming years, but his body finally showed signs of finding its size. He wasn’t the tallest man in Isekai by any means, but at a hundred and ninety-five and still looking stocky, he towered over most everyone he met one way or another.

  This time he had greaves made for him. There was simply too much junk attacking along the ground in the zone. An order for one left-hand gauntlet and vambraces for his right arm was only accepted because he had his greaves made at the same place. In the end, he skipped the pauldrons. He valued his mobility too much.

  Right now, he sat in a conference room in a building Isjase managed to get erected in just a few months. The exterior might look nineteenth century, but the interior was twenty-first, apart from the absence of materials and functions not available this side of the gate. Across the table, a woman in her fifties sat nursing a mug of spiced water.

  “How?” he asked and swept his arm around him.

  “Magic,” came the laconic answer.

  “And that,” he pointed at the window where a half-built academic complex in wood and stone dominated the other side of a small park, “is your new school?”

  “Course faculty, yes.”

  “And your customers are from Earth side?”

  “Yes. Most of them.” She never looked out the windows, as if she had lived here her entire life and took the surroundings for granted.

  “And they won’t learn the local languages?”

  “We’ll offer those as well for those interested in paying a premium. Focus is Swedish, Japanese, German, Chinese, French and Spanish. One class in English for Japanese-speaking people as well.”

  “How many students did you say?”

  “Initially around two thousand. We’ll expand from there depending on topics and interest. We plan for a university style academic centre with around thirty thousand students in maybe ten or twenty years.”

  Ioha blanched. The concept was as absurd as ingenious. His comment on magically enhanced language learning during the primer gave birth to this monster when someone serious about making business saw the opportunities.

  “And my part?” he wondered.

  “You’ll be one of our primary associates here. While we can develop Isekai into a proper city state in maybe ten years, we still need contacts on the outside. From what I’ve heard, you’re an adventurer.”

  Ioha nodded. He was still a member of Nanami’s company. At least he believed he was. “Yes, that’s correct.”

  “We’re willing to pay a base salary for as long as you deliver valuable reports.”

  “Base salary?”

  The woman slid a piece of paper across the table.

  Ioha looked at it and blanched again. It was a half-and-half contract. The part paid in Euro, Earth side, was very generous. It even included free investment administration. The part concerning the Isekai side was too good to be true. “There’s no way I’ll be able to deliver anything remotely worth this,” he said.

  “To be frank, no, but you already did. We’re paying you not to report to anyone else as well.” She smiled. “Also, you seem to have gained a rather special position. Your reports are, how should I phrase this, from the mouth of god?”

  You arse! But it was a very, very good deal. Too good in fact for him to turn down. “Where do I sign?”

  “I’ll have some other contracts written as well. The most important parts will never be in print at all. This isn’t Earth.” She lifted her mug in mock salute and drank.

  Ioha gave the contract another stare. His old life and old abilities came back to haunt him, even if in a new shape. Maybe there was a message there. He grabbed the quill from its inkstand and signed. Isjase was primarily a Swedish construction. They didn’t use stamps. “And for the other contract?”

  “Starting this summer, we want to permanently book a third of your rooms. We understand how guests not showing up could impact your business negatively, so we plan to offer nights, or at least evenings to our staff, should we have no guests.”

  With a nod, Ioha accepted. It should be enough to limit the number of vacancies. He made a mental note to increase his own staff. “I’ll have another two built within a year, provided the conditions don’t change. They’ll be run as franchises, though. I don’t have the time to travel around and visit small hotels.”

  “Ocean side and mountain pass?”

  “As agreed, yes. The seaside one won’t survive without some heavy marketing. The coastline isn’t too interesting, and you’ll pretty much only have a fishing port to watch.”

  The woman looked up with a glint of interest in her eyes. “You’re saying you’re not worried about the one a week away?”

  Ioha shook his head. “We’ll have a small revenue from border zone parties all year around, and I know some people in Remerrin who should be interested.” He leaned over the table and smirked. “Besides, your branch office will get understaffed if there’s nothing to do up north.”

  “Good thinking. I don’t think you need to worry too much about the seaside location for that last reason as well. We’re building a trading port here,” she pointed in the general direction of the Isekai cave, “and some tourist cruises along the coast will help make the harbour-town more lively.”

  “And the last part?”

  “We have an informant in Schooltown, but I’m afraid it’s almost impossible to get anyone inside Spellsword Academy. I’m sorry.”

  With a sigh, Ioha accepted the limits of even a large corporation. Still, it had been worth asking. Now he could at least make indirect contact with his friends, and Ai. “I guess we’re done then,” he said and made as if to rise.

  “Yes, thank you, mister Welander. I’ll have the other contracts ready within the week.” She left her chair, and they shook hands.

  A flight of stairs later, Ioha made for the park. Come summer, it would look like it had always been here. Magic didn’t just allow for the impossible in construction without heavy machinery, it apparently had its use in gardening as well. A narrow street led out of the construction area and into a new area of Isekai that hadn’t existed half a year earlier. Two thousand students needed somewhere to live, unless they wanted to gate on a daily basis. There were more than just housing as well. Shops and restaurants sat ready and waiting. A few must already have opened. The area had a distinct touch of mid-nineteenth century air to it, including a canal that made its best to look like a river. Cobblestones added to the ambience, and there were space for at least two outdoor cafés in the future.

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  It all looked very clean and very dead, and it took Ioha a while to realise why. He walked around in something that wasn’t. Without people milling around, it had yet to become part of a town.

  He frowned. Last time he was here, people debated whether to use it as training grounds or accept the lower yield and farm it anyway. Something was wrong with the ground. Now it turned into buildings and streets instead. Isekai truly grew out of its town costume and needed to find the finery of a city. A block away, he found part of it. Someone realised a way to make money out of large but slow carriages and implemented the first bus lines this side of the gate. Taxis, or rather coaches, came alive before he left for Spellsword Academy, and ever since then tourists could hail a cab in the original sense of the expression.

  A few streets later, Ioha reached the adventurers guild and jumped off the horse-drawn bus. He could just as well have walked but gave in to the novelty. He had no business inside and followed the west wall south and strolled along the merchant district main street until he arrived at the caravanserai. Two blocks west, he found what he was looking for. It belonged in the too good to be true part of his contract. As long as he worked for Isjase they paid for his staffed town-house in Isekai, so now he had more rooms than he needed here as well. A lot more. It came with stables for half a dozen horses and a garage large enough for two carriages. It was a garage and not a carriage house, since Isjase skipped the pretence and went for function.

  A butler showed him inside, where the rest of the staff waited with various levels of professionalism. Most of them tried to make some extra money during their primer, but both the butler and the head maid seemed to be Wergaist locals immigrated to Isekai in search for a better house to serve. While Isekai had no formal houses, there were enough money going around for several families to support that kind of lifestyle, and now Ioha found himself saddled with it.

  “Sir, how long do you plan to stay?”

  So he knows I’m knighted. “A week or so. Would you mind showing me around?”

  “Not at all, Sir.”

  Just like his house in Remerrin the living area sported twelve rooms, but here he had a workshop plus one armoury as well. For all practical purposes, it was an urban villa and substantially larger than the one in Remerrin. Some rooms even had Swedish style tiled stoves installed.

  His contract stipulated he couldn’t rent it out but was allowed to have permanent guests living here. If nothing else, he admitted with a silent sigh, he’d save on rent. A part of him said he should be grateful, but another firmly showed him how utterly wasteful this was. For that reason, it was an obvious bribe to keep the golden goose from straying too far.

  He had all his old armour and most of his weapons brought to the armoury. The workshop would come in handy the next day. The wagon he bought in Remerrin made place beside a carriage that came with the estate, and all his four horses found room in the stables. The two in Nanami’s camp he could as well gift her company, or better yet, Hiro’s.

  His newest set of armour, along with shield, partisan and broadsword, he put on and left for the pleasant surprise that came with his new home. It included a small training area with an attached wooden veranda complete with furniture and a heated spa-pool. At least one of the staff had fire abilities or some other way of heating water with magic. It didn’t look fantasy adventure at all, to Ioha’s delight.

  An hour’s hard training was enough for a reward in the pool. To make sure he could make the most of it, he made himself absurdly clean before stripping and immersing himself in gloriously hot water.

  “Sir.” The butler arrived with a tray holding a glass of juice, a piece of dark bread and a small plate with cured meat and sliced vegetables. “You have guests. Should I show them away or inside?”

  Guests? “Find me a robe and show them here. Bring some refreshments as well.”

  “As you wish, Sir.”

  A little later, a servant arrived with a robe. Ioha left the pool and burned some aura to dry up and got into the robe. With the timing of a professional stalker, the butler showed his guests to the veranda at the very moment Ioha was dressed.

  “Hiro!”

  “It’s good to see you, Sir Questingtank.”

  So they weren’t told. Thank you, Meneki! “Been a while. I thought you dropped the materials at Halfpoint.”

  Hiro sat down on a lounge chair offered to him. He was sensibly clad for a visit to town, with just his arming sword hinting about his profession. “You left quite a bit of your belongings with us. Captain Nanami told me to bring it back.”

  Economically ill-advised. Ioha guessed it was her way of showing him some kind of misguided respect. He hadn’t deserved it. Still, it warmed, and he sent her a grateful thought. “Including my horses?”

  “Including your horses.”

  “I don’t have room for them. Do you want to keep them?”

  Hiro frowned. “I’m grateful, and we could use the packhorse. Don’t know about the…”

  “I’ll take it!”

  Ioha looked over his shoulder. In the door opening to the veranda, the only one he knew who’d want something of his without questioning its usefulness stood almost hidden behind the door. “Get out here, Hikari!”

  “Can I?” She entered the veranda.

  Damn! Oh well, she doesn’t mean any harm. “Sure. It’s a riding horse, just so you know.”

  “I’ll learn to ride.”

  Of course, you will. “Be my guest.” He turned to Hiro again. “Brought any more here?”

  Hiro nodded. “The rest are in our guild house.”

  “Guild house?”

  “I bought a farm for cheap outside of town. Sold most of the land to the rezoning project and had the main building renovated for the money.” He grinned. “I still have money left so that was a very good deal for me.”

  I’m happy. We both made good deals then. “Is it really large enough to house the comp… guild?”

  “I’m not stupid, you know. Of course not. There’s sleeping room for one party if they share three rooms. We’re a guild. Supposed to go adventuring.”

  So a guild resort then. “I can give you a free night for a party once a month in a ryokan.” He didn’t have to be that generous, but Hiro’s gang had become dear to him.

  “I’ll gratefully accept. The one by the north road?”

  Ioha nodded. “Set it up last summer.” He couldn’t recall exactly why any longer. Too much had happened since. Making money must have been the main reason. “It’s a nice place.” The nice place part had become the most important part before it was even fully constructed. Funny how you start for one reason and finish for another. Ioha couldn’t help chuckling.

  “Memories?”

  Ioha stared into the air. He once suspected Hiro was a good leader. Now he knew. “Yeah, memories.” He reached and grabbed his bread. “Hikari, take a seat! You’re making me nervous standing over there.”

  The refreshments arrived and both Viking girl and Hiro helped themselves to something to eat and drink.

  “If you want to take a dip, feel welcome. I’ll ask for towels and some bathing clothes.”

  “We’re Japanese, you know,” Hiro said and smiled.

  “Mixed bath?”

  “Nanami’s holding the western camp. BFD garrisons the east.”

  “BFD?”

  “Ah, Black Flaming Dragon guild. Just takes too long to say. Anyway, we built a bath in camp. One. If you don’t like mixed baths, don’t use it.”

  Ioha winced at first. Then he heard the new hardness from Hiro. He’s changed even more. Border zone is harsh on the people there. While Ioha pondered personal growth, Viking girl suddenly stripped, and he barely had time to clean her, absurdly clean, before she slid into the pool. Shit, that’s intentional. Well, he was the idiot for inviting her. And yes, she looked absolutely fantastic in the water, but it still felt more like looking at a painting of a girl than the girl herself.

  From the other side of the small coffee table Hiro gave, first Viking girl, and then him a glance each filled with a mild sadness. “What a pity,” he said after a while. He downed his drink. “Still think you’d be good for each other. Well, not my business.”

  “Joining me?” Viking girl asked from the water.

  Hiro frowned and shot Ioha an understanding look. “I won’t interfere.” Then he turned to Viking girl. “Sure, make room.”

  She looked after Ioha, but he shook his head at her. “Already been in enough for today,” he lied. Sorry, you’re cute, but I’m taken. He sighed and closed his eyes. Yes, he had nurtured those thoughts a couple of times. He wasn’t a eunuch, but he really was taken.