Steampunk Era: Mad Abield
Chapter 698: Section 484: Knowledge Comes with a Price (Part 2)

Chapter 698: Section 484: Knowledge Comes with a Price (Part 2)

When Malin returned to Rongma’s palace, the sky was already slightly bright, and the Rat-man maids had started their final cleaning tasks in the hall. Seeing Malin, they all paid their respects to their mistress.

The nearest little corner seemed slightly terrified, forcing a smile while subtly stepping back.

Seeing such fear and trepidation, Malin didn’t consider herself to be an evil person, so with a bit of confusion, but thinking it might be due to the pressure of hierarchy, she simply smiled slightly and nodded her head, then proceeded to the interior of the palace.

After carefully pushing the door open, Malin found her girls were already up, combing each other’s hair in front of that huge mirror.

Indeed, girls of varying sizes, some graceful and slim, others plump and charming—truly a delightful sight to behold.

"I’m back," Malin said with a smile as she walked behind Faye, taking the red string handed to her and tying Faye’s hair into a ponytail.

"Today, we need to negotiate with the Gnomes from the Eastern Coast," Nova said with a smile as she looked at Malin who came behind her, "Just like with Faye."

"No problem, I think the Gnomes’ request is reasonable," Malin had heard that the weather indeed had been bad on the Eastern Coast last year and this year, whether it was strong winds or heavy rains, even typhoons could make landfall—this made Malin quite confident that the continent of Africa had truly sunk.

It definitely sank, or else it was pulled into a parallel world in Subspace; anyway, it’s gone for sure, otherwise how could there be a typhoon in the Mediterranean back then.

Either way, their harvests had been terribly damaged, and had it not been for the strong unity of the Gnome clans and Nova opening up the forests for them to harvest freely, there would probably be famine everywhere by now.

"So I’m prepared to agree to their request, but if you could come with me, maybe we’ll see something there that could be turned into money," Malin understood what Nova meant by that. Gnomes were a race unique to the Farol Principality, very small spirit creatures with large feet and human-like appearance, seemingly like the Half-humans from before the Great Destruction.

Malin didn’t mind; Half-humans and Dwarf clans both made a living under her name. She had heard that these Gnomes were excellent at farming and mining, and she was thinking of opening more farms. If the Gnomes were willing to work for her, Malin really wouldn’t mind having them follow her.

After all, for Malin, it was just a matter of feeding more people, providing trade to these Gnomes was just a lift of her hand.

Moreover, the Farol Principality was what Malin considered her stronghold. If her father-in-law could grant her Carterburg and the surrounding areas as Faye’s fiefdom, with both Carterburg and the Farol Principality, Malin was confident she could turn this region into the largest fortress group in the world.

There was still so much to do in the next two years.

After fixing Matilda’s ears, Malin looked at the Big-eared Fox in the mirror and asked, "Matilda, aren’t you curious where I went?"

"You wouldn’t tell me even if I asked, so why bother?" the Big-eared Fox said sulkily.

Malin laughed and pinched her face, kneading it until the Fox Girl’s fur puffed up, then Malin went behind Jessica and started grooming her tail, "Did any of you have dreams last night?"

"No, but I’m still curious, my child seems rather slow, I’m a bit worried, maybe he’ll be dumb to death."

"That shouldn’t be, I think at least the one I pass down shouldn’t have a problem..." Malin pondered for a moment and said, "Let’s set a family rule; our descendants cannot marry those foolish women. It would affect the children."

Then, amidst Jessica’s teasing and laughter, he escaped to Rewo’s back, skillfully coiling her ground-length hair and putting it into a leather pouch before tying it up, "Your hair is really nice, Rewo."

"Everyone says that." Rewo replied with a smile.

Malin kissed her, then moved behind Clovis, took the comb she handed over, and started combing back from her head. Pulling taut, Clovis’s ears hung back, and Malin had to exert some effort to smooth out her hair, "How come it’s like this? I just combed it for you yesterday."

"It’s because someone held me like a blanket last night." Clovis rolled her eyes at Malin through the mirror.

"That’s because Clovis smells so nice," said Malin, biting her on the neck before moving behind Lillim amid the rabbit’s shrieking, and began waxing her horns with the wax block she handed over.

"Speaking of which, Malin, you really should meet that child, my child is super cute. Even though he’s a boy, he has beautifully rounded horns, a very handsome kid," Lillim tirelessly described the child’s appearance to Malin.

With her description, Malin quickly confirmed that it wasn’t the same child from his last possession—it must be a child from another era.

Ah, speaking of which... when will I get to meet that Mars? Hmm, when the time comes, I’ll pass him the Pretender Sequence.

While thinking this, Malin went behind Maya, picked up the comb, and after grooming her fur, asked his sister, "Speaking of which, Maya, do you know the name of the child you met?"

"Yes, his name is Wayne Gaiate. That was the name of the first child I met," Maya mentioned with a touch of nostalgia on her face.

Her sisters turned their heads simultaneously towards her, with Clovis voicing the question on everyone’s mind, "You said, the first time?"

"Yeah, the first time. The second time was another child, named Mars Gaiate," said Maya. "He’s a very pitiful child whose father was killed by bad people; he’s struggling to survive on his own." When saying this, Maya looked at Malin in the mirror.

Malin fell silent for a moment, "Not Mars Haus?"

"Wait a second, the children of Maya and Nova have the surname Gaiate, so why do our children have the surname Haus?" Jessica asked curiously.

"Whoever dreams next time should ask," said Clovis, and everyone agreed.

Malin was also surprised—Damn it, it should be Mars Gaiate, not Mars Haus. He had to sort out this slip of the tongue with Ails next time he saw him.

After taking care of the girls’ hair, Malin began waiting for them to get dressed.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.