While a toddler-sized slime girl watched a family of disgraced nobility on a floating isnd, A certain magical girl sewed balloons in a basement. Alex brought the toy airboat back down and tried to make a balloon-shaped bubble to fill with hot air but didn’t have much success. At first, the balloon wouldn’t infte because the linen fabric weighed too much. Alex used the spinning wheel to create a tighter, thinner thread and the loom to weave it smaller with less gaps. This too wasn’t enough. The balloon sat limp when holding a candle under it. Next, Alex tried to make a bigger fire, thinking that would blow the balloon up better but discovered that fx is fmmable. A bunch of annoyed maids came down and helped stop the fire from spreading with a bucket brigade.

  In her ambitious endeavor to conquer the skies, Alex felt the weight of self-doubt and the disapproving gazes of seasoned craftspeople. The challenge before her seemed insurmountable. The idea of using a mere cloth balloon to lift a toy boat into the heavens appeared far-fetched. While skeptical of its efficacy, she clung to the determination to at least make the balloon taut against the weighty vessel. However, even this seemingly elementary task proved elusive, leaving her perplexed and frustrated. The fact that some craftspeople looked down upon her for daring to venture into uncharted territory without formal training in a shipwright css gnawed at her. If shipwrights were tasked with building boats, what css of artisans would possess the knowledge to construct airships? The answer to this question remained shrouded in mystery, further fueling Alex's curiosity and determination to unravel the secrets of airborne travel.

  “How many more times do you have to start fires before you learn to be careful, Miss Alice?” One of the very-alike maids chided.

  “This is the first time.” Alex retorted. “When did I start a fire before?”

  “The whole courtyard got charred thanks to you.” The maid curtly replied.

  “That wasn’t me. That was the fire cn.” Alex didn’t accept the bme.

  “Yes it was the fire cn who started the fire.” The creepy maid paused. “But if it wasn’t for someone bringing magical combustibles in the manor then they wouldn’t have been so tempted.”

  “Mistakes were made.” Alex defted. “I just wanted to come and see what life was like in the kingdom. If I had known the imps were so greedy I would have done things differently.”

  “Of course, miss Alice.” The maid formally replied, returning to formality with a hint of scorn.

  “How are things going with the evacuation?” Alex took the opportunity to change the subject.

  “Over the past few weeks we have gotten most of the residents and their belongings out.” The maid reported. “Though some people have a lot of junk and your particur abilities have been adding to the demand for cargo transportation.”

  This was true. Every few days when the barge came by people would take rusted tools or hopefully tarnished and corroded items and present them to Alex to clean. Things that should be thrown away or smelted down became like-new with a generous application of feather-dusting.

  “Is that a bad thing?” Alex tilted her head. “Having more tools and materials can only help people with their professions.”

  “It deys things.” The maid intoned in her unfeeling voice. “The other day some adventurers came into town. They were annoyed from losing some of their party trying to find the 100 year old ginger. They came into the guild and got belligerent when the guild leader was out and there were no imps in town. Like normal, they figured they could be as abusive to any humans that were not cimed by other demons.”

  “Oh no, why wasn’t I notified? Did anyone get hurt?” Alex had apparently been too engrossed in making a toy airship for Lily and missed something important.

  “There was no reason to disturb you, miss Alice. Cecil, the vice guild leader, took care of them.” The woman coldly reported, standing perfectly straight.

  “Silly hundred year old ginger.” Alex shook her head. “You’d think there was a fortune of gold hidden in the forest. Those imps can’t even verify its existence.”

  “Certain aged pnts can greatly increase their cultivation.” The maid expined, like Alex was stupid. “The imps have short lifespans if they cannot tier up. So they tend to take huge risks for potentially great rewards.”

  Fufi nodded in agreement. “She’s right. Imps will go crazy for cultivation resources. Higher tiered demons also will but they are less likely to rush headlong into danger because they don’t have a lifespan somewhere in between a dog or a cat.”

  Alex considered the information. “It makes sense when you put it like that. It seemed wasteful to have bonfires going all around the outskirts of town to me. But maybe those fire cn imps don’t see it the same way. Though considering how bare the ndscape is outside of town, why do they even come here? You’d think after a point they’d rather avoid coming to this world because there is not much to help with their cultivation.”

  “That is easy to answer. They do it because it is safer.” The maid answered. “Their home pne is very cutthroat. While there are cultivation resources there, for the vast majority of the lowest tiered cultivators the only way to tier up is through proving themselves by killing the other demons.”

  “How can a society not kill itself out if they have to live like that?” Alex thought the demon pne was a living hell if it meant kill or maybe die of old age in a single decade.

  “I don’t know the details, but many different demons come into this world all the time. Whatever is going on there, popution decline likely isn’t one of the things.” The maid expined. “You’d have to go to the demon queen’s pace to get concrete answers but the demons that come here get dismissed by failing their contract more than anything else.”

  “Their contract?” Alex spoke aloud. “One of them said something about that.”

  “Yeah, it is very simple. The demon queen lets them stay in this world in exchange for making humanity suffer for whatever reason.” The maid waved a hand, like this was a boring subject.

  “What about higher tiered demons?” Alex pressed the maid anyway. “I’ve seen three tier two demons so far. One was an ice user, and two were from here. One was a fire user and the other… I’m not sure but they were non physical.”

  “The majority of tier two demons are former imps that were able to cultivate enough to break through to the next level of cultivation.” The maid gave the best answer she could.

  “And higher?” Alex pressed.

  “Tier 3? I’m not sure. Though I think that the kaiju in the capital is a tier 4 demon.” The maid sounded more like she was guessing. “You’d really have to talk to someone more directly connected to the demon queen to get reliable information. This is just information that we’d all get by keeping an ear open to stories travelers tell.”

  Fufi changed the subject. “I think that is enough about this. Did you see the maid outfit Alex created?”

  The fmingo headed over and pecked at a maid outfit hanging on a workstation.

  “Oh yeah, it wasn’t too hard to do. There are patterns for making maid outfits.” Alex picked up the outfit and held it to the maid’s chest. “It has the added benefit of not being cursed as well.”

  “I’ll have to respectfully decline. Mistress gave us these uniforms and we’ll continue wearing them until otherwise ordered.” The maid curtly replied.

  “But this bck and white dress gives a better bonus to cooking and cleaning.” She smiled sweetly. “Look at all the frills. If you wear this you’ll be so cute. Fufi helped me design it.”

  “What happens if you never see mistress Yves again?” Alex pressed.

  “We are to await one of her heirs to cim the title.” The maid said.

  “And if her children don’t come and seek you out?” Alex asked.

  “We’ll default to the orders of local aristocracy.” The maid replied, sounding like a robot.

  “Hmm, so would a baroness in a neighboring province do?” Alex was forming an idea.

  “Yes, though they would have to have a css recognized by the system.” The maid emotionally intoned.

  “Well, it should only take a couple more weeks to get everyone cleared out.” Alex told the maid. “Perhaps mistress Ki might make use of your services.”

  “This is acceptable.” The maid confirmed.

  The next couple of weeks passed quickly. The people of town and the tribesmen who came down got into a system of how to do things. The trips progressed faster, and the loads on the barge increased when they figured out how much draft was too much. Alex proposed the idea of putting one of the fans on the barge but was shot down. The fan would have to be gigantic, several times bigger than the one of the airboat. They scolded her about the dangers of modifying existing designs on the fly.

  Instead of messing with boats more, she kept trying out different balloon designs. Towards the end of the evacuation she eventually got a really big balloon that could carry a small basket that held a single stuffed animal. The clockwork dolls weighed too much to make a big enough balloon with the tools they had on hand. Perhaps Charlotte could create the cloth needed.

  The spider doll, er, wooden spider–wasn’t here. Apparently, that project, like others, would have to wait.

  When the st of the people left to relocate Alex and Fufi took starlight drift. She wanted to swing by Aqua’s pce. Alex didn’t doubt that other nereids were involved in keeping the river operation running smoothly as well as spying on everyone from their invisible hiding spots in the water.

  On the trip there, Alex got another surprise that almost got Fufi hurt. When they were skimming through the swampnd, a bump knocked the boat upward. Being light, and tall the bird was knocked backward towards the spinning propellers. Luckily, the boat didn’t go anywhere near as fast as engine powered air boats from back on earth so they were able to avoid the worst.

  “Sorry Fufi, I guess I didn’t give safety enough thought when we were making this. I should have built a cage around the propellers. When we get back. Make sure to stay in the front so you’ll get knocked into me if something like that happens again.”

  One of the other differences that Alex apparently had overlooked was that unlike the ‘X’ shaped cws she had in harpy form, Fufi’s feet were more like duck feet. She wasn’t a bird that could cmp down on something with her talons.

  Eventually they made it to the grotto where the gnome that didn’t want to leave his room resided and the base for the nereids keeping an eye on this part of the kingdom.

  “How are things going Aqua?” Alex greeted the water nymph with a curtsy.

  Aqua grinned and curtseyed as well though she didn’t have a fancy magical girl outfit on like Alex did. “They are going well. Ki gave us some new seeds to pnt. We’ve been trying them out and have caught some imps. The is one that can fit a whole imp in its petals. Professor Copperpot has been turning them into pigs.”

  “So um, yeah. I’m guessing you know that we have got everyone cleared out from Yves’s barony. I just wanted to know why none of the other nereids said much or gave me some warnings. It was a bit of a near thing. I almost got turned into a maid.” Alex crossed her arms.

  “Ah, well I didn’t want to discourage you.” Aqua giggled. “Sure your pn to bait the demons into breaking the accords was a bold one with a lot of risks but it worked out in the end. As for my cousins, well they are shy.”

  Alex gred at the fey. “It wasn’t my pn to do that at all. I just wanted to check out the town and head back the same day.”

  “But why did you make the enchanted armor to sneak Fufi into the kingdom then?” Aqua tilted her head to the side.

  “Hmm, it sounds like there might have been a bit of a misunderstanding.” Aqua shrugged, but the corners of her lips tilted upward.

  Alex got the impression that Nereids liked drama. She didn’t take the bait. “Is there anything else I should know?”

  Aqua looked serious and stated. “Winter is coming.”

  “Yeah? It has been fall for over a month now. Does this region have particurly harsh winters?” Alex didn’t get why she was sounding so serious, or if she was just pulling her leg.

  “I guess Ki hasn’t told you.” Aqua frowned. “The tree nymphs are part of the summer court.”

  “I’m not sure what that means. Is there going to be trouble?” Alex ran a hand through her hair.

  “You see, trees lose their leaves and go to sleep, and so do wood nymphs.” Aqua made a gesture. “And when the summer court sleeps the winter court awakens.”

  Alex gave her a look. “Are you trying to be obtuse?”

  “Let me finish.” Aqua pouted. “You have no patience for drama. I’ll just say it straight then. The summer before this one, Sakura was in charge of the summer court. This year that changed. Arguably, Ki is in charge of the summer court in this area now.” She paused, but not too long this time. “A dryad is a very respected creature in fey culture. They are the human equivalent of clergy. Their trees are waypoints for souls passing to the afterlife.”

  “I still don’t follow.” Alex wasn’t sure where this was going.

  “The point is that a dryad made a decision not to have humans in the forest.” She eyed Alex. “But a nymph who is going to be going into hibernation made a different decision. But the winter court is not bound by the summer court. However, they respect a dryad much more than a nymph. Maybe Ki is a baroness now but it is not nearly as prestigious as being a dryad.”

  “Do you think they’ll turn everyone into shrubbery?” Alex paled.

  “Maybe, but probably they will do nothing if the wilds are not at risk.” The blue skinned woman continued. “But if harboring humans looks like it is going to cost the forest, don’t expect them to pay that price.”

  Alex looked to Fufi who nodded gravely.

  Aqua ughed pyfully. “Oh, that reminds me. Merumeru wanted me to come visit but said I had to dress like her if I wanted to. Do you think you could make me a matching outfit?”

  Alex felt whipsh from the rapid change of tone from the Nereid. “Um sure. I should have the materials to do that in the cart. Well maybe not the boots. You’ll have to find your own cobbler.”