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Spending My Retirement In A Game-Chapter 869: Addiction
Eisen landed back in prototype, stretching slightly after his long flight. There was much that he still had to prepare before the treaty meeting in a few days, so his first stop was his study in the castle. He landed on the balcony and stepped into the room, where one of the core helpers that Eisen had recently created was already waiting.
They bowed to the old man and spoke, "Welcome back, your majesty. I hope you had a wonderful journey."
The old man smiled and replied with a nod, "I did, thank you very much. I need to ask, how are all the construction sites looking? Will we need to play some tricks or will they be done by the time the envoys come?"
Eisen walked over to his desk and sat down, as the core helper quickly procured some documents from the nearby shelves and handed it to him so that he could check, starting to explain, "At the rate that the work is proceeding at the moment, due to the additional assistance of Lady Xenia's construction drones, it will be possible to complete the general structure in time.
However, the furnishing, decoration, and other finishing touches may take longer depending on the degree you wish to accomplish."
The old man nodded his head as he looked at the documents. All the sites had the materials and workers they needed, and there didn't seem to be any complications on any of the construction sites for the trainstations.
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On one island, there was an incident with some monster attacks before the repellants were set up, but the guards that were sent out for protection managed to take care of it without issue.
"Perfect. Serio?" the old man asked, and without hesitation, the guardian appeared right next to the core helper.
"Yes, your majesty?" Seiro asked as Eisen leaned back in his seat.
"How is Ambriel's condition? Has anything happened since I last checked on them?" Eisen asked, and the guardian quickly started to explain their current condition. After all, Satel had warned Eisen that the angel wasn't doing well now that they were outside of the castle's jail. Of course, Eisen had tried his best to help them, but there was a limit to that.
Eisen and Ambriel had a complicated relationship. While Ambriel did rely on him quite a lot, Eisen was still the one that practically violently tore them from heaven just to imprison them for months. No matter the circumstances, that was still what their relationship started out as.
And even though Ambriel was going around, trying out different things with the Originals while they were in town and available. And while they seemed excited to learn, it was clear that they didn't seem to have found their actual passion.
And that must have felt incredibly damning. Being ripped from your life and everything you know just to be forced to live a new life without knowing where it went and what you were supposed to do was always a horrible prospect; Eisen himself knew it quite well.
As a young man, after his father's death, he contemplated whether or not to quit craftsmanship after all as he travelled around the world. Of course, he realised that there was no way for him to hide his love and passion for it, but it felt terrifying nonetheless.
Eisen took a deep breath as Serio started his explanation, "They have fallen into the habit of abusing not only alcohol but certain psychedelic substances. Since then, we have worked with Satel, whose nature is actually quite similar to Serio's as it turns out, to figure out if this is a physical addiction or a psychological one.
According to Lord Jyuuk, neither Satel nor Ambriel should experience any level of physical addiction from these substances, so we assume that with some psychological help Ambriel's addiction can be counteracted."
"Alright," Eisen replied, thinking about it for a moment. That definitely made things a little easier. It meant that they could concentrate on fully helping Ambriel recover and wouldn't need to help them persist through the physical withdrawals first, "Have they still been keeping to their room? Or have they started interacting with others?"
"It actually does seem as though their habits have led to some improvements in socialisation, though largely out of necessity. Considering their initial socialisation habits, any improvement is a large improvement."
"Where are they right now?"
"They are currently for a walk with Satel on the outskirts of the city. They have started going on one daily walk together for the past week," Serio continued to point out their current location on the map laid out on a nearby table, and Eisen got up and took a look.
"I see. I will go and see if I can go and talk to the two of them," the old man said, looking at the two guardians with a smile, "Thank you two for you work."
Serio excused himself with a nod, fading away in a blue cloud as the core helper slightly bowed to the old man. He looked at them with a curious smile, "How is your journey on finding yourself?"
The helper raised their head, as if surprised by the question, "...I have found a name that I enjoy," they replied, "I would like to be referred to as 'Moss'."
"Then it is a pleasure to meet you, Moss," Eisen smiled, slowly turning toward the balcony again, "Keep up the good work, alright?"
Moss nodded their head as a light smile laid on their lips, and Eisen quickly made his way out of the study. He transformed and spread his wings, quickly lifting off and flying over to the spot that Serio had pointed out. It didn't take long to find Satel and Ambriel either, as they were the only people in the area, which did make the situation a bit easier.
They could have a proper conversation there.
The old man landed in front of the pair, smiling at them as he undid his transformation, "How have you two been?" the old man asked. While Satel greeted him with a smile, Ambriel seemed to be a lot more nervous. They were trying to hide their face behind their hair, as if they were ashamed to face Eisen.
"We're fine, just going for a walk. I hear this 'train' thing is going pretty well? The station is looking rather grand," Satel pointed out, and Eisen replied with a smile.
"Of course, you can feel free to take the train to any part of the country once the full network is completed," the old man explained, and Satel rubbed their chin curiously.
"So, how are you planning on making money with that thing?" Satel inquired, and Eisen simply shrugged. He didn't care too much about that part of it.
"Well, not at all, really? Profit really isn't our focus, at least. People can travel for free within Asgard, but it will probably cost some money in other countries if they choose to adapt the railway system.
Oh, we do plan on charging a fee for merchants to use our trains within our country though, so there might be some profit there, but who knows?" Eisen explained, though frankly, he wasn't here for that. Of course, he didn't mind talking about trains to Satel; telling others about these plans for future development of the world was always something pretty exciting.
But he was here to check on Ambriel and have a proper conversation with them, so if he didn't feel like it might lighten the mood a bit, Eisen would have shot the topic down pretty quickly.
He walked together with Satel and Ambriel for a while, chatting with the devil while the angel kept their sight down. However, Eisen couldn't avoid talking about this next topic forever, so when he found a good moment, he looked at the two next to him.
"The treaty meeting is soon," Eisen started, and Ambriel basically flinched in response. Satel looked a bit solemn, placing their hand on the angel's back for a few moments, "I want you two to be there. You remember that, right?"
Satel quickly nodded, "Of course. I'm definitely ready to go, but Ambriel, they-"
"N-No, I'm alright, I can go! I can help, really!" Ambriel immediately replied, and Eisen noticed something that he didn't really like. He frowned lightly, stepping in front of the angel, who once more averted their gaze.
"Ambriel, do you... do you think we're going to throw you away if you can't help?"