Danmachi: Westward Cloud [Complete]

Interlude- Month 5, March

Over the last few weeks, Cirrus has been working hard on creating a item to hide divinity.

“Alright try it out?” Cirrus hands Artemis a necklace.

“Hmph!”

            Artemis lets out a small amount of her divinity.

            Cr…ack!!

            The necklace shatters.

“Shit! Fuck!! That was 2 weeks’ worth of work!!! Fuuuuck!!!” He said running his fingers through his hair in frustration.

“Maybe next time Cirrus.” She said patting his head.

“Ugh… How are your feet Art?” Cirrus said looking at Artemis’s belly.

“A bit sore. I never felt so constrained in my long life. I have been caught in my own traps a few times and I still have more freedom.”

“Did you ever thought—"

“Kill that thought Cirrus.” She said sharply. “As much as complain about wanting to be able to move as I wish I still love this child, whole heartedly.” She places her hands over her womb. “I would never wish to get rid of our child. They is a miracle beyond belief.”

“I would say so, I mean did you think you of all gods would be the one to have a child?”

“…No. That thought never even came to mind. I have helped women in villages give birth, but never did I think I would be in their shoes. It’s both exciting and scary. Like… What if something is wrong? What if I am unable to give birth to them? Would a C-section be enough to warrant a response of my Arcanum? What would happen to the child? All these worries fill my mind, and they only get more prominent the closer the day will come.”

            Cirrus placed holds Artemis’s hand. He slowly rubs them with his own.

“…I will make sure our child is born.” Cirrus looks her in her eyes. “I will also make sure you are here to help see them grow up.”

“I know you will… Zep-zep!”

“Fucking.” He took his hands back. “I said I didn’t like that name!”

“Fufu well why not go outside for a bit? You have been hold up here for a long time, some fresh air can do you some good. Ai is out walking around town so maybe you should go out and do something?”

“What about you?”

“Me? I’ll just sit in nature. You know I always feel more comfortable when I’m in nature.”

“Alright. Hecton do you mind if you help Art when she needs it?”

            Hecton appeared from his shadows.

“Very well. Lady Artemis.”

“Go on, but I doubt anything will require your help.”

“Even you know something can happen Art.”

“That—ah seems even I’m losing my edge a bit. I know women tend to be a bit more absent minded during pregnancy but hmm… I should know better to underestimate nature.”

“Don’t worry even Ai is like that sometimes. I saw her eating pickles with peanut butter.”

“Ooo… That sounds really good now.” Artemis said salivating a bit. “Maybe some honey would be good?”

            Cirrus takes a walk deep through the woods.

“Haaa… What to do.”

Cirrus walked to the river he found last month.

The river was rather good. He could see fish swimming up it and it was cool enough to put drinks in it to cool them down.

“Mm… Maybe some fishing could help clear my mind a bit.”

            He goes and sits by the river under the shade of the tree. He takes out a fishing rod from his shadow.

“Ahh… Poseidon. It has been forever since I last fished… Geezus fucking Christ I’m really getting old.”

            He takes off his boots and socks, he puts his feet in the cool river and throws the bait into the river.

            He doesn’t think much. He simply focuses on the line. Thirst first came to him.

“Tsk… a cool drink would be nice.”

            He took out some wine from his shadow and tied string to the neck of the bottle and tied the other end to his toe. He dropped it into the river to let it cool it.

            After a hour or so Cirrus pulled the drink up and drank it.

“Ahh~ I can see why dads do this. Peace and quiet.”

            He stayed there for a another hour before Fafnir found him.

“Master.”

“Fafnir. Did something come up?”

“Not exactly. While I was out exploring the area I found several monster lairs and disposed of them.”

“Your getting somewhere.”

“Master. From what Vesta spoke off and from what Lady Artemis said pointing me towards your general location. I believe you should try and improve this village for when you leave.”

“… That is something that popped into my head but why did you just suggest this?”

“The defenses of this village and it’s populace are… well very prone to danger. Both from monsters and their line of work. In this whole village there is a single horse and ox. Merchants come here about once a month. Their water supply is not even reliable. Most of the farms are watered by buckets from the village well for those close to the town square while those far from it have barrels from rain or filled up from the well.”

“I see your point. I did see the look in many of their eyes when they learned my toilet flushes, has warm seats, and cleans your ass.”

“So? What do you say?”

“I guess. I’ll talk with Roth later.”

“Fantastic! Also Lady Ai suggested you first improve the medical knowledge and equipment!”

“… How bad is it?” Cirrus could only imagine what medieval level stuff they had.

            Later in the afternoon at the doctor’s building.

“So…” said Roth. “You think you can improve our living conditions?”

            Cirrus was staring at a birthing stool with several well but not good equipment.

“… Yeah. I think I can.”

“How joyous!” said ‘doctor’ Marvin, a rather older man coming up in years.

            To be fair to Marvin the village was not exactly the wealthiest village out there. Hell Cirrus was sure they were one bad harvest away from starving to death if it wasn’t for Gloria and Joseph’s farms the village will be in dire straits.

“Alright well first I will draw up the plans for the village. From there we will work on the infrastructure followed by amenities—Wait. I just noticed this village doesn’t have a blacksmith. Where do you go to repair your farming tools?”

“Ah that well we go to the nearest village, Varnham.” Said Roth.

“And how far is that? This village is pretty fucking isolated.”

“10 miles over the mountain out our west.”

“… Alright. Who is the best at fixing things around the village? I’ll train them up to do the basics of black smithing. Are there carpenters here?”

“We do, two in fact.”

“Alright… This is gonna take a while.”

            Cirrus returned home and quickly got to work. With Hecton and Fafnir the work was quickly done and three of them left to get the material.

            Come next sun rise the village was met with a large pile of material in the town square with Cirrus going over the plans on his clipboard.

“Hm? Oy!! Johnny!! Daryl!! Fran!! Come along!! I’ll be teaching you three the basics!!”

            Three teenagers came up to Cirrus. Two were boys and one a girl.

            Coming along with them were the other villagers.

“So um… Cirrus what’s all this?” said Dave. “Also how did you get all of this?”

“Oh, yeah I am a adventurer. I saw that the village could make do with some improvements so I thought why not help. So I will be making all of your lives easier after a month of hard work if the prediction is right.” Cirrus goes over the plans and the statistics again.

“S-so will we have working toilets like yours?” asked Jo, wife of Joseph.

“Yup. With actual fucking pluming so.” He looks back to the villagers. “So what say you all? I of course will be doing the heavy lifting.”

“How strong are you?” asked Ned.

            Cirrus walks over to one of the logs behind him and with a single hand he lifted it straight up like a stick.

“Enough to lift a building off its foundations.”

Everyone looked at Cirrus then back amongst themselves.

“So long as your doing the heavy stuff and if you help with the farming we’ll give ya our all.” Said Dave.

“Fine by me. Now let’s get to business.”