The Ogre Strength Fairy and the Eldest 'Son'
Chapter 56 - Loving Leather Designs and Keeping Robust Ledgers

Chapter 56: Chapter 56 - Loving Leather Designs and Keeping Robust Ledgers

Elua sat cross-legged on the floor of her cultivation room. She hadn’t used it since she’d been back... and it had been sealed at her request with a key she brought with her to her training. Her personal servant had wanted to hover inside with her again, but now that she was an adult - she could tell her to go find something more productive to do!

The illusionist concentrated on her designing. Floating out before her was the shape of an illusory armguard. She manipulated it with small, unnecessary gestures while adding and removing details. Her Astralism could be entirely manipulated with her spirit... yet it was always good to stay in the habit of doing *unnecessary* things to fool people!

"The material needs to be flexible enough for movement, but sturdy enough to offer protection. Maybe a combination of harder panels and softer joints?"

The brunette mused out loud before adjusting the thickness of the leather in her illusion. She focused on the interior - adding a thin layer that shimmered slightly to help mentally differentiate while she looked at it.

"This is where the fragment of my spirit will go. It needs to be secure, but also in contact with Qat’s skin to make it less obvious to other people."

’I’ll have to make a joke about just wanting to get as close as possible to it being inside of her.’

Elua paused... considering the design - and not that her joke would hold a kernel of truth. She’d shove the fragment inside her if it was safe to do so! The more involved part of her plan was making this an item that wasn’t so suspicious. Making it something other people might also ’be wearing lately’.

Even if the other people were ’questionable people’, she didn’t think Qat would mind. Though she’d wait to tell her that part until she received the complete version and liked it.

"For the toxin filtration..."

She added a series of tiny, intricate sigils along the inside edges of the guard. Her brain already held many kinds of ritual patterns and she’d done this sort of work before in her past life.

Not just using her illusions to plan the geometry of sigils on an item, but specifically on *leather*. An ancient cultivator that liked to find things to relieve her boredom while apart from the person they loved at the time... developed hobbies.

Leatherworking had been one of hers a few thousand years ago.

"These will need to be carved precisely and tiny. Perhaps in another material placed... like this instead?"

A series of ’decorative’ rivets popped up on the blueprint. The once for a hundred years *professional* crafter had leaned towards learning lots of materials to spruce up the saleability of her work. Elua vowed to test different configurations to maximize sigil efficiency without compromising the leather’s integrity... this time.

As she worked on a few possibilities, her mind wandered to Qat and the family drama she was likely facing. Elua shook her head, refocusing on the task at hand.

"Quit it, feelings. I can’t be there with her now. She wants to fight this one herself."

To finalize it all, she added more decorative elements to the exterior. On Qat’s version - the one that would house a specialized spirit fragment - there were some ’old tongue’ words hidden in the decoration. They would be subtle enough to not draw attention, but meaningful to those who knew what to look for.

’Since she would be wearing this a lot, it might be comforting~’

She would make sure to tell her exactly where they were and what they said... or else it wouldn’t have any point! The heiress rose to her feet and stretched. Sitting in place for an hour or two here and there was easy enough... but still made things stiff.

"Now to actually start gathering the real materials and setting up the workspace. This armguard will be my finest work of this kind in ages. The copies... well, they’ll be alright I guess~"

Her personal servant shot up to her feet when she exited the room.

"My lady, is there anything you need?"

Mint eyes studied the woman who... was hiding a book behind her back. Elua’s lips curved into a ’soft’ smile. Their interactions after the small grudge she forgot *at the time* were always enjoyable. Teasing her father in the past mostly required her to be blunt about her feelings for Qat.

Teasing this servant...

"Oh my, what do we have here? Were you reading something for fun while on duty? I do hope it’s not another one of those scandalous romance novels. The last one of yours I picked up..."

Her voice was lilted with ’amusement’ as she shook her head with an ’exasperated’ cast to her features. The woman’s cheeks flushed at being reminded of how the young miss had caught her with such a book before. It hadn’t even been hers! She was just... borrowing it from a friend.

"N-no, of course not, my lady! It’s just... a household ledger."

Elua raised an eyebrow as the answer caused her to slip her control just enough to show her ’disbelief’. Even considering she could sense the fib, it had been excessively unbelievable. She decided it would be best to pretend to ’go along’ with the ruse, and let her eyes widen before giving a nod.

"A ledger? Is that also what the book from last time was? How fascinating! I didn’t know financial accounts were always so... compelling. Do you mind if I look over them with you?"

The servant squirmed under Elua’s ’understanding’ gaze. It was so unashamed of what they were talking about! She clutched the book tighter noting that there was no friend to blame this time. It was something she sought out on her own after hearing a relative talk about it. Worst of all, the content was...

"No, I... that is..."

"Or... you could tell me about how my little sister is doing these days. I’m sure that’s much more interesting to me than any roman-...’ledger’."

"Oh, the other young miss is doing well! She’s been trying to crawl everywhere lately. It won’t be long until she is walking. Then talking is next!"

Extremely relieved at the timely change of subject, the woman latched onto it. She absolutely did not want the young girl to get any *ideas*. Even she didn’t want the ones she was being faced with now!

’Why didn’t it even occur to me that reading a book like this was a bad idea?’

The novel she realized she *sought* was about a rich young lady going from merely kind to fiercely protective of her favorite servant. It was a slow romance with lots of twists and depth... it was actually very good.

She was starting to regret it less and less and ignore the potential comparisons between the young heiress and herself. The woman was almost itching to figure out who left the bouquet on the grave of the young lady’s father! Was it the gardner, or was it-

"Wonderful. I’m glad to hear that and can’t wait to see her running about the house. Now, could you please ready the carriage? I have an errand or two to run."

The servant hurried off after an acknowledgement. The brunette walked more leisurely through the halls, her own memories of trying to pretend to be a regular child playing in her head. Intentionally tripping and crying to be picked up and comforted was a regular occurrence at first.

Elua didn’t think that Onya would do things like that on purpose... which made her frown. If her sister started crying, it would be real. She would be hurt!

’Or at least... she would be upset and surprised.’

The reborn cultivator’s open palm closed back into a fist. It was not yet time to destroy the floor for daring to think of harming her sibling. She knew it wasn’t even thinking such things!

’I’m already being irrational. Wonderful. Actually, I was probably already being that way when... I started carving that ritual into an infant. My disciples would laugh at me.’

She inhaled deeply and exhaled a sigh when she exited the building.

"We’re ready to go, young miss."

"I can manage on my own today. You should take more of a break and finish your ’ledger’ before I return. I’d hate to interrupt your important... calculations."

The personal servant’s blushing was all the confirmation Elua needed that her earlier fluster wasn’t just from bringing up the past event. She chuckled inwardly, enjoying this kind of little game. She felt she would have to teach such things to Onya when the girl grew older!

A sweep of her spiritual sense located the small child in the nursery.

’Though judging by her young spirit, she takes more after our father. Now I’m even more worried. I might have to teach her to recognize and defend against being teased instead.’

The mint-eyed girl boarded the carriage and directed the driver to head towards the part of the city where one of her side-job contacts resided. She’d gone to the merchant, but hadn’t been by to see the link she had to sell things on the black market. She was pretty sure he’d be interested in the beautiful and functional leather product she planned.

If he wasn’t, she could always listen to his suggestions.

From a window of the estate, one of the reborn cultivator’s parents watched her preparing to leave and called a servant to prepare another of their carriages. Both of them had convinced one another this morning to surprise the two children... and the other already should have arrived at the Yecine’s doorfront.