The Reincarnated Vampire Just Wants to Enjoy Her New Life

Chapter 156: More Meetings Over Dolls

The feeling regarding Goddess's Realm during its public release ended up ringing true.

The tables were basically in constant use during the day and people had even set up seats and a simple tent roof in front of the spectating screen mounted to the wall of public building.

And for that matter, the building hadn't been used for any other purpose ever since the initial reveal, and any attempt to put the tables away for any other event had come with too much resistance from the populace to ever consider using it for its intended purpose.

Either we'd have to build a new public building, or build a new building dedicated to Goddess's Ream tables.

Most likely the latter is what was going to happen, as the building was originally made for the intent of being used as a multi-purpose space for all sorts of events. Goddess's Realm didn't need the high ceiling this building provided.

In fact, it would be beneficial to make the building multi-storied and wouldn't be too hard to build it like that. Though we would have to take into consideration that the Titans still needed a certain degree of height for the ceiling.

But that was for the future.

For now, we were still doing our best cranking out golems, projection screens, and miniature playing tables.

In the end, we decided to hold off making any new full sized tables and rely on making smaller ones one by two meters. It was barely big enough to have a match on flat, unfeatured terrain, but it was much easier to produce than the full-sized tables we had in the public building.

The projection screens were smaller than the ones we first introduced as well, but that also meant that they could be dedicated to showing a single table and easily be placed in more confined areas.

Almost all of them had been placed in various eateries and bars.

The last time I visited one of the largest bars in the city that had somehow managed to get six of these screens installed, one for each playing table, with all the additional decorations that were added all around, I couldn't help but think that it looked a lot like a sports bar on Earth.

It was only missing team emblems.

But depending on how things go, that might actually change in the future.

Either way, it looked like business had been booming on this side as well. With the addition of entertainment being streamed directly to places that people already liked to gather and spend money, the various pubs and eateries had exploded in popularity.

Not like they weren't already popular before, but the number of help wanted signs on the doors had increased drastically.

Well, they didn't get any sympathy from me. I could only imagine how much money they were making, even if they were being worked to the bone.

Speaking of, Peitho's been getting more and more difficult to deal with lately.

Of course, the reason was entirely my fault, though it wasn't like I could predict that things would get as bad as it did.

*Knock knock!*

There was no response, but I could hear the sound of furious scratching from past the door I was at.

Since this had kinda become the norm these last few weeks, I entered despite not getting permission.

"Catering."

I called out some nonsense as I sat down on the seat on the opposite side of the overcrowded desk from the room's sole occupant.

"Don't tease me like that."

Stopping momentarily, the elf across the desk glared at me.

"I'm not teasing. Here."

As I placed a large plate with various finger foods onto the only clear spot on her desk, the colour of her eyes shifted to a remarkable degree. In an instant, she grabbed the closest one and started to stuff her face with it.

"Oh, 'ow! Yew ou'id yewsel' agai'!"

"I can wait. Just eat with your mouth closed."

I erected a wall of hardened air between the two of us the moment I realized she was about to give her opinion while simultaneously devouring a buffalo chicken wrap. Once I was certain that she wasn't going to assail me with food particles again, the shield was let go of.

I picked up one of the sheets of paper which was demanding Peitho's attention, yet was left unattended. The sheet was a form for requesting certain materials from the dungeon.

It looked like thanks to Goddess's Realm, the requests for various foodstuff had gone up quite a bit, especially those that were used at various bars. I might not have actively been a part of the Hunter's Guild for a while now, but that didn't mean that I had lost touch of what was needed. Just looking at the atmosphere of the nation was more than enough, so I quickly signed off on a bunch of forms, only discarding a couple when seeing some problems with them.

"Oh, you're doing the paperwork? I feel bad having you not only bring me food, but even do my work."

"I was originally the one to do this anyways, so it's not a big deal as long as it's on occasion. And it's my fault that your work's exploded all of the sudden as well."

Not only was there a sudden surge in demand for foodstuff, but also various other materials, from making the little golems and playing tables for Goddess's Realm, but also thread, hides, and metals to make equipment for them.

The supporting community for the game had also exploded and an entirely new industry had started. Blacksmiths making miniature weapons and armour for the golems, tailors and leatherworkers making armour. Even carpenters have been getting in on it, making spear shafts, bows, and arrows.

The skills required to make these miniature equipment was surprisingly similar to what was needed to make full sized versions, especially from the perspective of skill ranks. Though a lot of these crafters had gotten in conflict with each other due to the idea of skilled crafters making equipment for little golems rather than for actual hunters and guards rubbed some of them the wrong way.

But any time any sort of change happened, there were bound to be people who weren't happy with that change and resisted it with all their strength, so I wasn't too worried about it. There wasn't any violence over it yet after all.

"So yea. The least I can do is bring you some food on occasion and help ease your work a...bit...?"

My eyes drifted towards the plate I had put down as I talked, only to notice that the thing was almost empty. There should have been enough food there for three meals. I intended it to cover her dinner that day, her breakfast in the morning, and maybe a snack somewhere along the way.

Now there was hardly enough left to make a satisfying midnight snack.

The plate was filled with sandwiches, wraps, and other finger foods that would still be tasty served cold, but considering how much she ate, maybe it would just be better to make a large bowl of stew or something else easy to make in such quantity instead of something that would be easy to eat while working.

Or rather, I was sure I had made enough in the first place to satisfy her...unless...

"Have you been skipping meals again?"

"No, no. I didn't. I made sure to go eat dinner before coming back to work. Though I didn't realize that it was already time for breakfast."

"...It's time for dinner, not breakfast."

"...Oh."

I wanted to bury my face in my palm so desperately, but held back.

Only then did I notice just how deep the circles under the elf's eyes were. It was easy to forget that it wasn't some sort of birthmark of hers or something as she always had some sort of dark circles, but today's was especially deep.

"You know what?"

I stood up, shifting my little twins to support them in one arm, then walked over to where Peitho was. Grabbing the neck of her dress, I effortlessly lifted her up.

"Huh? Wait, Scarlet?!"

Bending space and tearing a hole in it, I dragged the overworked guild master through after me, easily overpowering the weak passive magical resistance she had.

Once through, I threw the weakened elf onto the bed in front of me and secured down the blanket around her body with rope made from condensed air.

"Stay there. The magic'll undo itself in the morning."

"Wait! What about the work?"

"What about it you workaholic? Go and sleep before you drop dead and isekai somewhere."

"What in the world's an isekai?!"

Ignoring her protests, I left her room.

"Ah, Elder Scarlet!"

A young looking dokkalfar woman in a black dress and a white apron greeted me as I went down the stairs to the ground floor.

"Ah hey."

"I'm sorry for how much master makes you work."

"Nah, it's no problem. She's a friend anyways, so I don't mind."

And half the time her overworking was my fault anyways.

"Make sure she actually sleeps through the night, alright?"

"Of course. Leave it to me."

The young woman crisply responded, though I worried what she was meaning to do with that blackjack she pulled out of her pocket, I decided not to think about it for the sake of my sanity.

Leaving the maid who was the sole reason why Peitho's house didn't look like some sort of dilapidated haunted house, I exited the building.

After Peitho, I headed over to a small, but well built structure.

The sun was starting to set, but the windows were all well lit, and I could hear voices from inside.

Without bothering to knock or anything, I entered through the front. There were a few people who noticed me entering, but they either lowered heir heads or gave me one salute or another as I walked past them.

Past the short hallway, I opened the far door and was greeted with a wide room. There were pedestals lining the circular walls, but nobody was standing by them. Rather, everyone was surrounding the small round table in the middle of the room.

"Sorry I'm late."

"It is no bother. We merely started first."

"Sit dear Scarlet! We even brought some of your favourite!"

"That's right! Drink! Drink!"

"Did you bring any desserts? Tell us you brought come cake!"

"""Cake!"""

"Not cake! Candy! Say you brought some candy!"

"..."

Each of the elders and chieftains greeted me in their own ways. Even Harja, who merely looked up at me from her glass for a moment.

(That woman's as cold looking as always.)

Though I knew at this point that was just how she was. The fact that she didn't glare or just plain ignore me was telling enough, now that I got to know her.

Sitting down at the last empty spot deep within the council room, I pulled out a whole black forest cake from my pocket space.

"Oh, that is quite the feast for the eyes."

"Tis art which is a shame to be consumed."

"Yay! Cake!"

"""Cake!"""

The fairy elders rushed the treat, ignoring the others who were admiring the decorations I had put in a good hour doing.

I could only shrug as they shredded the large cake apart with the forks that looked more like tridents in their hands. I had only decorated it to that degree for my own personal validation, not because I was hoping that people would appreciate it.

"Ah, here's something for you Elder Geirskogul."

"Ah, thanks a ton! And don't be so stiff!"

"He is right dear Scarlet. We are not here for such a meeting today."

Handing over a bowl of candied fruit, the little imp admonished me.

"Hrmph!"

Suddenly, a bottle was thrust into my face, almost bumping my nose.

"Ah, thank you Harja."

Accepting the bottle, I uncorked it and took a whiff of the scent that rose out.

(Ah, this is nice. Minotaur blood?)

Pouring some of the contents into a glass provided for me, I took a sip. Rolling the crimson liquid around my tongue, a decadent smile rose up onto my lips against my will.

"What's this? Harja can actually do something nice?"

"Shove it."

The dragonkin chieftain gave her titan counterpart a sharp glare before chugging the remainder of her drink and refilling her glass.

(Doesn't it burn if you drink so much so quickly?)

I wasn't exactly the most experienced when it came to drinking vodka, but the few times I had it, it had always went down hot. I couldn't understand people who were able to drink it like it was just water, but there was one person doing just so in front of me.

"Ah, right. I thought this might be more appropriate for everyone else."

While the fairies and Geirskogul would be happy with getting sweets, I figured the rest would prefer some proper snacks to go with the drinks we were having this day.

I pulled out a set of bowls, one for each of my compatriots.

"Just from the smell you can tell this is equally as decadent as those sweets."

"Heh! Just what you want when you're knocking back drinks!"

Obviously Alvaldi, the titan elder, got a larger portion along with an equally large fork to go with his larger body.

Each of them poked nervously at the strongly scented food. Not because of unease or caution, but because of excitement that was visible even to my eyes.

The first to take the plunge, was Alvaldi. Lifting up the large fork that had skewed the strips of deep fried potatoes, dripping in brown gravy and melted cheese curds, topped with sliced bacon, diced sausage, chopped stewed mushrooms, and scrambled eggs, he took an enormous bite that would fill a small bowl for the rest of us.

He chewed the concoction before emptying his oversized tankard, finally letting out a heaving sigh.

"Kaaaa! This thing's great! And it goes so well with my ale!"

No longer able to hold back, everyone else started to dig in, alternating between chewing and chugging.

"Scarlet dear, you never cease to amaze!"

Elli complimented as she refilled her glass.

"Tis very nice. A pity I cannot return to salted beans no more."

Frigg commented in between bites.

"I need more drink."

Harja got up to retrieve another bottle to fill her cup. The fact that her bowl was already empty wasn't lost to me, so I quickly refilled it while she was away from the table.

I sat back to sip my own drink while warmly simmering in the sight of everyone enjoying themselves.

It felt like I was enjoying the food and drink right through everyone through osmosis or something. Another reminder of why I did these sorts of things.

"Hey, you're not drinking enough! C'mon! Since you can't eat, you gotta drink more to make up for it!"

All of the sudden while I was enjoying the rowdy atmosphere, Alvaldi suddenly pulled out a bottle from some magic bag he was hiding somewhere. Of course, since he was a titan, his bottle was titan sized. And when he poured its contents into my glass, his drunkenly unsteady hand caused the red fluids to splash around, almost as much of it spilling out as it did spilling in.

He slammed his oversized bottle onto the table, causing everything on it to bounce, but thankfully nothing spilled. Much.

"C'mon! Drink! Drink!"

The scent of blood had overpowered everything as so much of it had spilled, so I did as Alvaldi told me, raising my glass as my belly demanded, draining the whole thing in one go.

"Hahaha! Good! Good!"

It really was good.

The scent was confusing, and the taste more so. But it tasted good.

(It's like wyvern blood, but...different? No, rather than different...)

It took me a moment, but I realized that the strange flavour came from the fact that it was from multiple different types of wyverns. So far, I've always went for pure blood, but blends like this wasn't bad at all.

Whether it was by accident or deliberate, it was a nice discovery.

(I need to experiment with this.)

If I could create interesting new flavours simply by mixing different types of blood, I could create a vampire-centric form of cooking. It sounded strange to think about, but it wasn't completely absurd. I knew of a few blood related foods on Earth after all, though I didn't know the recipes.

Blutwurst and blood pudding were two examples that came to mind.

It really made me wonder, whether the limits were simply mixing different bloods, or maybe there were ways to further process the blood to create new and interesting flavours. Boiling? Maybe chilling or even aging?

Blood normally coagulates once it was out of the body, but maybe that in itself could be taken advantage of? Maybe solid foods was actually possible for us vampires?

Just thinking about it for a short while made me realize just how huge of a blind spot this was.

Even blood which I had stored away, I had always put any extracted blood into individual containers and put it away immediately since I've always wanted to keep the blood as fresh as possible.

This was something I had to look into properly.

Not just for myself, but for Alicia and Fate.

The more I figure out about cooking blood, the brighter their culinary future would become.

As a smile spread across my face as I thought about the future, I raised my refilled glass. Everyone else met my motion without question and cheered before chugging their drinks.

"Oh right. So I've been talking to one of my buddies..."

We all turned to the towering titan. His face was almost as red as Frigg's, and she had red skin to start with.

"He was complaining about being only allowed to make steel equipment for that game you made."

"Goddess's Realm?"

"Right, right! It's been so fun and even our smiths love the challenge of making such tiny weapons and armour. But they're getting annoyed that they're only allowed to to use common metals."

A problem which I had foreseen and thought I headed off had reared its ugly head again.

"I wanna arm my celestial with an adamantium weapon!"

For some reason, people had started to call the golems used to play Goddess's Realm as celestials. I had no idea who started it, but it had gotten popular before I had even noticed it. It was already far too late to change the name.

I could only hope that people remembered that I wasn't the one who gave the golems such a name, but it was doubtful, as embarrassing as it was.

"I'm pretty sure that they won't be able to lift an adamantium weapon."

"Then, then mithril!"

"No."

"C'mon!"

"You can't. If we allow the use of rare metals like that, it'll be nothing but a competition of who can get the most expensive equipment."

"Grrr...but you're right. Fine."

"Hmmhmm. You ought to practice instead. Tis skill which drives the celestials."

"That's not skill! The celestials put our kind at a disadvantage!"

"Oh? Tis naught but the cry of a loser."

Maybe it was because everyone was drunk, but even Frigg had started to act a bit childish. Though hearing such honest complaints from Harja was surprising as well.

"You! You call it fairness, but how is your game fair when we must fight like amputees?!"

The dragonkin chieftain splashed her drink around as she pointed a finger at me. It was a little annoying that she rarely called me by my name, but I knew it wasn't due to a lack of respect, but the need to elevate her self to at least appear as grand as she could.

It was probably related to how she gained and maintained her position.

(My how difficult it must be to be a chieftain.)

Though Geirskogul didn't seem to feel any stress from being a chieftain as well.

Maybe the imps were just too laid back to care much about details?

"I get where you're coming from, but letting just the dragonkin celestials have wings would be unfair as well."

"Then just let anyone be able to use winged celestials!"

"It's easy to just say that..."

But when I thought about it, there was an even more fundamental problem rather than people being forced to learn to use limbs they didn't even have on their own bodies just to be competitive.

"There's a limit to the mana output of the entire system. To drive additional limbs would push the Goddess's Realm tables past their limits."

"Just work it within the limit then! We'll handle the rest!"

"That's just absurd. Think about how difficult it would be to balance everything while trying to have a match...huh?"

If the mana was further divided, then the strength of each limb would be lower, making the celestials overall weaker, even if they were using the same amount of mana. Alternatively, the mana could be redirected with a different set of proportions, depending on the player's needs.

If that could be preset, then it would further increase customization and might even open up some really interesting matches.

The dragonkin must not be the only race unsatisfied with the current status quo as well. The fairies are also people with wings, and while they were too busy enjoying this new game to complain about the lack of wings, it was possible that they weren't entirely satisfied either due to it.

"Let me try something out Harja."

"Hmph. Good."

Taking another swig from her cup, the dragonkin chieftain picked up he fork again, only to stop.

"Give me more of this as well."

"Yes, yes."

Giving her a small smile, I filled Harja's bowl once again.

(I think she's eating the most of my poutine after Alvaldi who's several times her size.)

It seemed like I would have to make this dish more next time as well.

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