God Of Crafting

"So this is what they meant by… lodging…"

It would be perfectly normal if this was my reaction to what would be our house for the night.

After all, I came from a middle-income family at best, only learning about the world of luxury once my cooperation and later marriage-bound alliance with Chihiro's family started.

Claire, on the other hand, as a daughter of a prominent cultivator, never really had to worry about the money or the cost of living in relative luxury.

Sure, she didn't appear to be all that interested in living her life as a lazy daughter of a filthy rich potentate, more inclined to actively spend her time either with her small business or by cultivating…

But still.

While she might not be the one to seek luxury and indulgence, when faced with an estate… Yes, an estate that became our nightly abode, she couldn't help but let her mouth open up a bit in shock.

"This is where my guide duty ends," the servant that did an excellent job at making her invisible now turned to face us, only to bow and then turn and walk away, keeping her eyes locked on the ground at all times.

"…" I looked after the girl for a moment, only to then squint my eyes a bit. "Weird, isn't it?"

There wasn't much more to it.

I just couldn't get used to this uncanny way people existed on this side of the world.

Those with means and power would flaunt it all over while focusing their efforts on getting even more of it at all costs.

One's standing in the clan, the prestige of the clan itself, personal wealth, personal power… Those were the points of importance to the cultivators, and it shone through their actions, be it Leila's desire to find out the limits of our power or that annoying young master's attempts to get us in trouble.

In this world, it was all about power.

'Maybe that's why interacting with those without power feels so weird? So… primitive.'

"What are you thinking so hard about?" Long over her shock, Claire turned her eyes away from the massive mansion surrounded by elaborate gardens the size of a public park and moved closer to my side, only to grab my arm and look with curiosity up at my face.

"I'm not trying to be demeaning, but when I look at the servants here…"

I hesitated for a second, fully aware that my outsider's view on the matters of cultivation and all the morals and taboos that came with it would never be complete. As such, when breaching this topic around Claire, someone far more involved in this side of the world, I couldn't be too careful.

"It just feels weird," I finally admitted to the very thing I felt before, "just… weird. And no matter how hard I try, I just can't find better words to call it."

Following my glance, Claire looked over in the direction of the retreating servant.

"Makes you feel like they are more like serfs than actual servants, doesn't it?"

"Hmm?"

Even now, after everything that happened between us, I couldn't be awed enough by just how much Claire could attune to my feelings or to the general vibe I've got.

Because right as I was desperately trying not to say something that might be considered rude, she didn't care about such things in the slightest, opting to do her best to understand my intentions instead. Explore stories on My Virtual Library Empire

"I really am no match for you, am I?" I laughed out a little, only to use my free hand to scratch the side of my head.@@novelbin@@

"Oh," Claire first smiled, only to then take on a sassy smirk as she soon developed it into a full-on smug. "You know nothing, Tim Snow," she grinned as she intentionally misquoted the popular series. "Just wait till we get inside!"

"A surprise?" I raised my eyebrow, genuinely not seeing such a thing coming. "Come on," I whined a little, "now you are just rubbing it in!"

Pretending to cry out, I allowed Claire to reaffirm her grasp on my hand and then pull me ahead, through the front garden, and towards the mansion's main door.

There, we've encountered what one could expect from the place - a whole crowd of servants, all dressed in one of several kinds of uniforms, and a robe-bearing majordomo standing at the ready to introduce all of the mansion staff to its new residents.

"Welcome to the Weeping Gardens," the robed butler of the mansion bowed down. "It is my pleasure to introduce you to our servant guild. During your stay, your word will be our absolute order while we will do our utmost to satisfy all of your wants and needs."

'Then…'

Now that a whole crowd of those servants gathered, the off-feeling from before now exploded right in my face.

The beautiful mansion on the outside turned out to be just as rotten as the rest of this cultivation world, with over a hundred people ready to clean, cook, or wash, not to speak about the company of ten girls and boys of barely adult age standing in little to no clothing with a mix of embarrassment and determination written on their faces.

Put against such a crowd and asked for an order, I could think only of one thing to request from them all.

'Then, scram!'

Before I could say what I wanted, Claire tightened her hand over my wrist before taking a step forward.

"We appreciate the gesture. Our one order is for all of you to make yourselves scarce."

"As is your desire, my lady," the butler lowered his head only to then swipe his hand… and have the full crowd of servants hurry out of our way.

'Disgusting…'

It was one thing to pay others for their services. The service industry was the biggest sector out of all the developed economies, after all!

But the level of servitude represented by those people?

It just felt unsavory to even interact with.

"We wish you a pleasant stay," bowing down again as the last of the servants vanished deeper into the mansion, the butler then followed their example and left.

"I really hope that wasn't the surprise you had in mind," I joked, fully aware of the empty, exhausted smile on Claire's face revealing just how much we shared our opinion on how it felt to deal with those people.

"Who do you take me for?" Claire whined, only to roll her eyes and then pull me deeper into the mansion again.

After crossing a few corridors and doors, she then brought us to what appeared like a relatively huge, detached part of the mansion, hidden within one of the flowery parts of the estate's gardens.

Yet, as she brought us through the doors for the very last time…

"Woah…"

I couldn't stop a moan of awe from escaping from my lips as I entered what could only be called a divine workshop.

The entry part of the place looked like a carbon copy of the workshop I had back in Chihiro's mansion, with some of the tools still left in their wrapping foil, indicating the level of commitment and expense it took to gather all of it up in this technology-devoid place.

Next, there was a utility shed, with all the cables drawing to it to indicate the location of a local generator. What was on the other side of the workshop, however, really made it worth its divine status.

It wasn't the resources.

It wasn't even a library of blueprints.

Not even the wide array of the cultivation tools that made that happen.

No.

It was all three parts, ranging from full crates of varying cultivation materials, through several bookshelves on crafting and studies on some ancient crafts… All the way to a full set of huge tools I've never seen before and could - at most - try to guess the purpose of.

"But… but…" speechless, I struggled to form a single proper sentence.

"Great, isn't it?" Claire grinned, relishing in the results of her surprise, a wide smile of pure happiness and amusement glistening on her face with its own, affectionate shine. "But wait, there's more!"

Once again, Claire's smile transformed into its sassy counterpart as she reached out her arm and pointed at a huge, green crystal mounted on some sort of device, an item I initially took for another tool of cultivator craftsmen.

"That's a sub-dimension stone, allowing you to lock this place out of time," Claire stated, her eyes filling with more pride than I've ever seen in them before, hinting at just how hard it was to get this entire place together. "In other words, while we will be likely leaving tomorrow, it's only up to the two of you as to when this tomorrow will come."

At this point, I felt like a certain unfulfilled chemist walking down the hidden stairs to an underground meth lab for the very first time, struggling to fathom the scope of effort it took to have such a place built up and then equipped with all of its goodies.

"What does it take to keep the time stopped, though?" I asked, shaking my head to put the shock and amazement aside, as I turned my eyes back to Claire's face.

"Oh," her smile grew even wider as her hand moved up… only to then slip the cloth off her robe off her left arm. Then, with her affectionate smile still growing wider and wider, she leaned her back against the green crystal before reaching out with her left hand.

"Do I really need to say more?"