Core says "Exactly!"

"And how many of these rituals can you make?"

Yui says "With my current stockpile of materials, a couple of dozen."

"Awesome! I will find out how many people the church has tomorrow. How long will it take for construction?"

Yui says "With Core's help, one a day."

"Will it still require a mage to start the ritual?"

Core says "Unfortunately, yes."

Yui says "The guards here have progressed enough in their training to start learning mana control. Give them a couple more days and they will be capable of starting the ritual."

"That's good! That solves all my problems! Thank you! You two are life savers!"

Core says "I'm glad we can finally do something to help you out!"

Yui says "Until the guards are ready, Nived can easily activate multiple rituals."

"That's right! I didn't think of that, thanks, Yui!"

Yui says "We will begin construction right away, you should get some sleep."

"Thank you, that really takes a load off my mind! Goodnight!"

By the time I reach my bedroom the kids are all asleep, making finding room for myself difficult. After I squeeze in and curl around the kids I fall asleep instantly. Unfortunately, I sleep well, meaning the kids wake up first, so I get woken up fairly rudely.

Ekard and Haku are the main culprits, with Asuna and Kechara just watching and laughing. Only when I get the upper hand and start tickling Ekard and Haku do their big sisters join in. Even for me, trying to go against the four of them is a losing battle, but it is a lot of fun.

Our play only stops when Yui interrupts us to announce that breakfast is ready. As the kids all rush off, I end up getting trampled, and am the last one to reach the dining room. When I enter the dining room everyone is laughing, Yui is playing back my morning.

The kids are the only ones not laughing, they experienced it and are more interested in breakfast. During breakfast I have to suffer through a little teasing, but it isn't too bad. It is mainly Myria, and she has plenty of reasons to tease me, it is only fair.

"Nived, I may be needing some help from you over the next couple of days."

Nived says "Sure, anything you need!"

Myria says "Anything I can do?"

"Just focus on your training. Once you can control your mana I will have things for you to do."

Myria says "Okay, I will hold you to that."

After breakfast I explain what is going on to Nived and about the rituals. He immediately agrees to help out as soon as I need him, he even seems eager. Even though I made it clear that this will be simple, he still seems excited to be able to do something to help out.

This is getting to be a recurring theme, am I that bad at dealing with people? Or is it just that in an attempt to protect them I leave them sitting around bored? It would seem that I need to rethink my methods, people this eager are likely to do something stupid.

My desire to protect everyone and take all the risks myself seems to be the cause of the problems. The only way to solve it is going to be to allow them to take some risks. I am going to have to eventually anyway, there is just too much going on for me to do everything myself.

It is only going to get worse as time passes, more and more things are going to need my attention. There are going to be more and more things that I can't handle alone. It is going to take a lot of effort on my part to allow my people to put themselves in danger.

After passing through the teleporter and arriving in the inn I send word to Belliza. Then I head over to talk to White, who agrees to loan me five clerics who can manipulate life force. I take them with me to Pol's place so that they can watch me perform the procedure.

For the rest of the day I focus on teaching the clerics how to manipulate the life force to create the beast core. Towards the end of the day I let them each take a turn with me guiding them. With that all of Pol's people have been through the procedure, except those out on missions.

Around dinner time I send the clerics back to the cathedral and head over to the building the military is using. It only takes a single word to have them prepare a room for tomorrow for the clerics. Since Pol's people are pretty much done, it makes more sense to move to the military building.

When I head to the inn, planning to return to the tower, I find a surprise waiting. Borrik is at the counter drinking, which isn't surprising, what is surprising is he is filthy. Not only dirty, but covered in blood, it even looks like he is injured.

"Borrik, are you okay? You look like you've been through a war."

Borrik says "I pretty much have. All thanks to you!"

"What did I do now?"

Before he can answer Sarah appears with another drink, which distracts him. Stepping up next to him I use the cleaning stone on him and at the same time cast a healing spell. The smell vanishes making it much easier for me to stand next to him.

Borrik says "Thank you for that!"

"Sure. Now, want to tell me what happened?"

Borrik says "You were right about the sewers, my men found a hidden base. There was a cavern with a tunnel leading outside the city, they broke through into the sewers. We invaded it and ran into over a hundred assassins and even more mercenaries."

"I take it that it was quite a battle?"

Borrik says "Yes, and I lost a lot of good men. But I am fairly sure that the city is safe now. We demolished the tunnel and cavern so they can't use it again."

"I am sorry for your lost men."

Borrik says "It is part of the job. I would have lost more if we fought them on the streets."

"Were there any demons among them?"

Borrik says "No, even after they were all dead none of the bodies changed."

"That's something at least. Sarah will be happy to be able to go outside again."

Sarah says "Yes! Shopping trip tomorrow!"

"You still need to take a couple of guards with you. Just to be safe."

Sarah says "Just a couple, right? Not an entire squad?"

"Yes, two should be fine. Especially during the day."

Sarah says "Yay! I can live with just two!"

Borrik says "More importantly, the city is safe, I can get bribes again, right?"

"Yes, you can get bribes again."

Borrik says "Yay!!"

Sarah says "You threatened to take away his bribes?"

"It was to motivate him to make the city safe for you."

Sarah says "In that case, Borrik, I will send over an entire box as thanks."

Borrik says "I've died and gone to heaven!!"