Spending My Retirement In A Game

Eisen leaned back in his chair, letting out a deep sigh. He stretched his fingers out and then clenched them into a fist, repeating this multiple times before finally standing up. With a glance at Girland, he asked, "That's all for now, right?"

The guardian quickly nodded her head, "Yes, that is all that you had to take care of. For the time being, there is nothing more for you to attend to. However, to make the process a lot easier and not require for you to do so much all at once, I suggest setting up some plans to streamline the process, or hire some further assistants.

Or even better, create some Core Helpers that can assist me in my tasks."

Eisen raised a brow and nodded his head, "I'll think about it. And you did all of that on your own in the past?"

Girland slowly nodded her head, "As I explained previously, but the state of this country was vastly different in the past than it is now. Rather, it was only under your control in name, as you let the islands be unless there were specific materials you needed from them. Prototype was truthfully the only proper 'city' that had to be taken care of.

And there certainly wasn't any trade with foreign powers, so I was able to handle these matters on my own."

The old man sighed lightly. To an extent, in the back of his head, he sort of wished that he had made that same choice again, instead of trying to turn this country into a safe haven for the numerous different beings roaming this world.

Though of course, at the end of the day, just because he was a bit busier than he liked, with matters that he didn't particularly have an eye for, that didn't mean that he was going to make any other choices at this point im time.

"Alright, I'm going to be heading out for now. You can find me in the workshop in the gardens," Eisen explained, and Girland slowly nodded her head. She glanced toward one of the walls, though Eisen roughly knew that it was in the direction of the actual workshop.

Quickly, Girland spoke up, "You do seem to have a visitor there, your Majesty," Girland pointed out, and Eisen raised his brow surprised. Though, after a bit of thinking, he already had a rough idea who it was. They had come here to talk to Eisen a few times over the past couple of days, which he had asked them to do.

He wanted to check on them at least once daily, and since he was busy with work, he didn't have the time to go search for them.

Before long, Eisen made his way to the gardens, stepping through the hedgemaze toward his workshop. Once there, at the small table outside, he saw the individual he expected, taking a seat and drinking some juice that Constant had taken out for them.

"I told you that you didn't have to come today, right?" the old man asked, with a slight expression of concern, "Is something wrong?"

"...I didn't know where else to go..." Ambriel replied, averting their gaze from the old man.

"Did something happen? Is there some emergency?" Eisen asked surprised. That shouldn't be the case, or else Serio would have told him about it. But Ambriel quickly shook their head.

"No, no, it's nothing like that, I just... I didn't want to stay alone in that place..."

"...Do you feel unsafe living with Satel?"

Once more, Ambriel shook their head, "It's not Satel... actually, they're shockingly pleasant to live with, it's more... being alone there just makes me..."

Eisen slowly understood, "You're scared? There's no need for that, you know? There's not really a lot of crime here, and frankly, you're a lot more powerful than any petty criminal that wanders around."

Ambriel looked down at the ground. Eisen realized that that wasn't really the issue. The old man starting running his fingers through his beard, "You did what I asked you to, right? Walking here, instead of flying," the old man asked. Ambriel's wings were currently tucked away into their back, but being an angel, they of course had the ability to fly.

But in order to make sure they would get used to being around people, Eisen asked them to walk instead of flying to avoid others.

The angel started scratching their arm nervously. Eisen knew that they did, he was getting regular reports from Serio about Ambriel to make sure they weren't causing any trouble. But Eisen wasn't left guessing for all too much longer, since Ambriel soon started to speak up, "I realize that the truth of the world is different than what I had been taught, but... Being around these... these..."

"Well, the fact you're not just saying it is already a great start," Eisen pointed out with a smile, "Listen, I know this isn't going to happen overnight. I'm not asking you for that either. You've spent your whole life, thousands of years, being taught this. That can't be overturned in just a few months. Rather, coming this far, apparently mostly through talking to a Devil of all things...

is rather ridiculous by itself."

Ambriel once more grew silent, and the air was filled with that tense awkwardness that made Constant quickly try to sneak away unheard. It took what seemed like minutes for Ambriel to finally speak again, "Can I just... keep coming here for now?"

"Of course," Eisen replied. Seeing how hard Ambriel was actually trying was truly shocking to him, so he was more than happy to support their endeavors of fighting against Samuel's teachings of 'Divine Superiority'.

While it was true that the gods were more powerful beings that were able to step past certain rules of this world that tied others down, that didn't mean that they were actually better than others. They were just different beings with a whole other set of rules, made to govern over certain aspects of this world.

And if you've spent that long being brainwashed into thinking otherwise, then Ambriel's change was really something to be happy about. Maybe supporting them further and more actively would make that process go a lot smoother.

Not to mention, like this, Eisen didn't have to worry at all about receiving Ambriel's support in the future, especially in regard to dealing with the Holy Empire, who were the biggest thorn in Eisen's side. Being spoken to by a literal angel was something that should make them at least slightly easier to deal with, since Eisen was sure they were going to try some weird things once they arrived.

The old man slowly walked into his workshop, starting to get some things ready to work on a few small projects that he still had to continue. For one, the first materials that Xenia had ordered arrived, so he had to try and creating that actually rather complex metal. It was something that was created in with some alchemical techniques, the molten metal being treated like some base liquids.

And the process was one of the most complex ones that Eisen knew of, so he wanted to give it a try before accidentally wasting the materials.

As he was moving some things around, he noticed that Ambriel was actually watching quite curiously. They had seen him work a few times before, especially during his short time in heaven as he worked alongside the gods of craftsmanship, but back then they were probably dismissing him a lot more actively.

To Ambriel, Eisen had only been tangentially better than one of those other 'lesser beings', after all.

"You want to give this a try?" Eisen asked, tapping his hand onto one of his workbenches. Ambriel seemed taken aback and shook their head, "No, no, I wouldn't... I don't even..."

The old man smiled lightly as he looked at the angel. They were acting just like a child would. He figured it made some sense. As sheltered as they were before with their original worldview, all these new things and opportunities must really be making them curious.

"You can give it a try whenever you want. My apprentices are coming over later today as well, so it's a good enough opportunity," Eisen pointed out, and Ambriel just kept looking at the workbench next to the old man with slightly glimmering eyes.