The Castle in the middle of nowhere.

I scratched my head in the vain hope that I would get some good idea about what the actual fuck was going on with the Devilkins, but I started to give up. Their society revolved around an insane mix of never-ending civil war waged only between the Devilkin nobility and the horrible fixation about the evil that ran rampant in the world above. I found it kind of funny that small Devilkin were scared by their moms with the idea that evil surface dwellers would come and eat them. If not for Hestia, I would have sentenced Cahrona to death or lifetime imprisonment. Hestia was reforming that Succubus while getting every single piece of intel from her. She even found out that the Succubus was a virgin, which somehow was funny, at least to me. According to my wives, she might be very useful, so better to keep her alive and imprisoned.

"The transition process from the previous legions to the new legions is going nicely, darling." Luna smiled at me and teased me with her tail.

"Mhm..." I responded with a dreamy voice and looked at her happy face. "I would like to have at least five legions I could field. Legio Umbra is still needed for defending Avalon in Shadows."

"What about the City of Wolf Manor?" She asked, worried.

"Pfff... To be honest, they should manage to defend themselves on their own. I am going to make sure the full attention of the Cridians will be on us, so a small detachment of three thousand Archers with Fairies and Lamias should be enough with the help of local inhabitants."

"Fuellar and Tessarion’s reports suggest their defences are lacking, but honestly, I had no time to look into it." Luna sighed and smiled. "Sorry, Theon."

"Don't worry about it. Sigismund inquired about it in his latest letters to Fuellar and he admitted they would like to have a second perimeter wall."

"Oh! That makes sense!" She laughed and returned to her paperwork.

It made sense indeed. However, I didn't really want to expand the Wolf Manor now, because it might alert the Cridians. Admittedly, their concerns were justified, but they had to wait a little longer.

"How about Guardsmen, Luna?" I inquired.

She raised her head from over the documents she was attending to and rubbed her temples. "The transition from Warriors to Guardsmen is proceeding almost flawlessly. The only bottleneck we have is the equipment."

"What do you mean?" I asked suspiciously, because I couldn't recall any problems.

"Since the time Ragnar closed himself in and began working on the secret project, the other craftsmen feel anxious about their works. While we are on schedule and the quality is as impressive as usual, without Ragnar, we can't prepare many reserves." She was not happy about that, but I couldn't blame her.

"Give these reports to a Slime Maid and tell her to bring them to Ragnar. I think we are not in a pinch, so we have the liberty to not panic. He will decide what's more important." Considering everything, I could trust Ragnar with that.

"All right..." Luna was sceptical, but decided not to argue about that.

•••

At the same time I was reviewing the reports about war preparations, Irene was checking the progress on her own. She was sitting in her office while Lanka and Gloria were buzzing around, organising the paperwork. Irene sighed and covered her eyes while leaning back in her extremely comfortable office chair. Who could guess that being a responsible Queen entailed so much paperwork? She looked around at the assistants and saw the dark spots under their eyes while shaking her head. She needed to talk with Theon if his world had some remedy for tiredness and if, by any chance, they could reproduce it.

"Lanka?" she inquired, with a report in her hand.

"Yes, Your Majesty?"

"Have you seen this report?" Irene handed it to her, which she read carefully.

"No! But this is incredible!" Lanka's eyes shone with excitement.

"Send someone to bring them here, Lanka." Irene smiled. "And remind them to bring samples here as well!"

•••

Olivia was humming a happy melody while she was experimenting with some new materials. Her younger brother, Sam, left early in the morning for the guild to see if he managed to be admitted into the Adventurers Academy. She admired his stubbornness, but she was worried about him. She fixed her copper hair and touched her longer, pointy ear of a Half-Elf.

"Olivia! Come quickly!" The worried voice of her mother called her from the main hall.

She put her experiment away with a heavy sigh, thanking herself she had not started yet, and went to check what she wanted. When Olivia got there, her jaw dropped as she saw three Guardsmen and her friend, Mike, who was holding two large bags.

"Miss Olivia?" A tall Elf asked, not allowing her mother to explain anything. "I am Captain Thiule. Lady Lanka sent me to escort you to the Palace. Queen Irene wishes to talk with you."

He bowed to her politely, and she paled. But the wide smile and excitement in the eyes of her friend made her realise it was nothing to be worried about.

"Olivia! The Queen found our invention interesting!"

"I must prepare myself..." Olivia panicked when she realised how poorly she looked at the moment.

"Take your time, Miss Olivia, but be swift. Mister Mike and one of my Guardsmen will wait for you while I go for the last member of your team."

Olivia nervously nodded and turned around without waiting for anything. She hoped her mother at least would offer them a cup of water. Olivia ran straight into the shower, recalling all her dresses. Her panic changed into despair when she realised she did not have any dress good enough for the audience.

•••

Olivia was so excited that she barely remembered to breathe. Shirley was as excited as she was, but in her case, she managed to hold it much better. Mike, on the other hand, was happy, but somehow he was not as excited as Olivia thought he was. However, she couldn't calm herself. A meeting with Queen Irene in person was something she had always dreamed of. Her father was a member of the legendary party led by Uvar Knys to Avalon, and she lived happily in Everlight until they were allowed to move to the Middle Castle of Avalon. She dreamed of being an Adventurer like her father, but she was too frail and weak, so with a heavy heart she had decided to be a scholar. Thankfully, her father and mother accepted her choice and not only allowed but encouraged her to pursue her future. Her life before traveling to Avalon was boring, but now each new day brought her fresh change.

"The Queen is waiting for you." A tall and handsome butler bowed to them and opened the door to the Queen's office. Olivia and her friends timidly entered inside and saw the Queen and Ladies Lanka and Gloria sitting at the conference table. The office was large, with exquisite decorations and incredible furniture. Olivia managed to nervously bow to her Queen.

"Your Majesty, Ladies, I present to you Miss Olivia, Miss Shirley and Mister Mike." Captain Thiule announced them and earned a bright and very friendly smile from Lady Lanka.

"Thank you, Captain." The Queen dismissed him with a short nod of her head and Captain Thiule moved away. "Thank you for coming, our young inventors. I would like to discuss one of your works."

"We want to humbly thank you, Your Highness, for the invitation. However, we were not informed which of our inventions earned your interest." Olivia managed to bow without stuttering or, even worse, stumbling. She suddenly saw the panic on Mike's face and she understood he had forgotten to tell them.

"I see. Gloria?" The Queen smiled patiently and Lady Gloria took out a small package.

Olivia looked at it with curiosity, but quickly started to panic since she couldn't recognize the item in question. Fortunately, Mike, who was fully aware of the nature of the summon from Queen Irene, came with help.

"It's the disposable bandage, my Queen. It was one of the first inventions our team developed. But..." Mike looked at her friends with very mixed feelings. He took a few differently sized bandages from his bag and displayed them on the table. Lady Gloria took a few of them and gave them to the Queen.

"But, Your Majesty, that was a failure." Shirley sighed, a little disappointed.

To the surprise of the trio of inventors, the Queen and two Ladies looked at each other and started laughing.

"Miss Shirley, tell us why you think so," Lady Lanka asked them while the Queen investigated the bandages provided by Mike.

"First of all, it's one use only. The enchantment and the rune we managed to squeeze into them allowed just for that. After it is used, you rarely can recover materials. Secondly, it's nothing that can't be done by medium-level healers," Mike explained while Olivia looked down. How, among all of their work, did the Queen find that interesting? She still thought the bandages had some use, but she didn't want to interrupt Mike, who convinced her and Shirley otherwise.

"Miss Olivia? I was informed that you and Miss Shirley were more involved in the creation process. Can you tell us more about it?" Queen Irene stopped Mike by raising her hand and looked straight at her.

"It was more of an exercise in the rune transcribing process than creating the item, Your Highness." Olivia's voice trembled when she lied a bit to not undermine her friend's words from before.

"*sigh* My Queen, Miss Olivia is not telling you the entire truth." The heavy voice of Lady Dahlia, who was sitting unnoticed in the corner of the room, startled her. "Tell us the entire truth."

"Yes, Lady Dahlia." Olivia felt somehow pressured to speak about everything. "It was one of our first serious endeavours our inventor team took, Your Highness. It was a very special project for Shirley and I because we wanted to create something that could help people. While Mike never was against it and helped with processing materials, he always pointed out this item was useless because healers can always do better. It could be useful for people outside of Avalon, but we have the best healers in the world, my Queen. After a long debate, we agreed with him and moved on. This item is our failure, Your Majesty."

"I see..." Queen Irene put away the bandage and looked at Mike and Shirley. "Mister Mike, can you explain to me what exactly you know about healing magic and healing runes?"

"I know that most of the Guardsmen's equipment is grafted with the powerful healing runes, Your Highness. However, I know very little about the process. I know almost nothing about healing magic, but I was assured by a few healers that moderate healing magic is a trifle for the experienced healers of Avalon."

"Miss Shirley?" the Queen smiled at her as well.

"I know that healing runes are one of the most complicated runes to implement. However, I am still learning about them and my Runesmith level is still very low..."

"Let me enlighten you, then. What you have created is a breakthrough much more important than recreating a high-grade healing potion." The Queen looked deeply into their eyes to ensure they understood her words.

"But...!" Mike tried to protest, but she just raised her hand.

"So far, we believed this was impossible." She pointed at the rolled bandages lying in front of her. "You have no idea what you have created." She sighed and laughed, confusing them. "Your bandages defy all the logic we thought was applied to the enchanting and grafting processes. First of all, your bandages are much lighter than any equivalent potion, and they are far smaller. This means they can be carried in far larger quantities, but they don't replace the potions. As you know, using two or more potions at the same time only extends the time duration of the potion effect. Using your bandage and potion greatly improves the healing rate. Secondly, you just admitted that healing runes are hard to implement, but it seems you have no idea why. Captain Thiule?"

"This is standard issue armour." The young Elf put a spare backplate of the Guardsmen's armour, with padding removed, on the table so everyone could see it. The eyes of Olivia and Shirley went wide from shock when they saw the rune. "This is the most expensive and most precious part for any of us. This rune can make a difference between life and death on the battlefield."

A big rune, hidden on the inside part of the armour, was made of pure gold. It was unblemished and made of unmistakably warm yellow metal, without a doubt forged by one of the highest-level runesmiths as it was brimming with power. It was big and complicated, taking up almost the entire upper part, where the armour was the thickest.

"You managed to create a new magic technology and never realized what you have achieved. Instead, you call it a failure and pursue some stupid weapon development, which might be an interesting hobby, Mister Mike, but it's not worth the talents of Miss Olivia and Miss Shirley. The most powerful weapon you created is nothing, not even a toy, compared to what King Theon can bring to life if the situation makes him." Queen Irene once again took the bandage and shook her head in disbelief. "To think we might never have learned about its existence..."

"But... A new technology?" Olivia was confused and looked around, but Mike was so ashamed and Shirley was so angry at him that they stopped paying attention.

"Yes. So far we had a similar single-use item technology- scrolls. A powerful magic caster could write down a spell and seal their mana inside, allowing anyone to use it, even people without the magic skills. But depending on the spell, high-quality paper and ink were required to write it down and, once activated, the scroll would burn up. It is a slow process because the caster writing the scroll has to have enough mana for every spell they enclosed in the scroll. Runes, on the other hand, are activated by the flow of mana. The flow might be an intentional build-up as in the case of offensive or other active rune forms, which also correspond with similar spells known by spell casters. The flow might be passive as well, and the rune itself might tap the available mana of its owner, or mana stored in other items equipped by the rune owner, as in the case of passive shields or healing runes. All types of runes are multi-use items or parts of items that will work as long as they are not physically destroyed. These runes are much more complicated than you can imagine." The Queen waited patiently for the others to process her explanation.

After a few moments, the Queen pointed at the rune grafted on the Guardsmen's backplate. "What you have accomplished is mixing these two technologies. You managed to use runes for the scroll transcription process, which allowed you to use far inferior materials for both! If I understand correctly, you used leftover silver and gold threads from Wendy's workshop along with the medium-quality soft materials you bought from her as well. Once the rune is activated, it casts the Healing Wounds spell, instantly healing even a severe wound. After that, the rune fades away, while the bandage is still preventing the wound from reopening, which might happen in case of heavy or lethal wounds. If this is used with a potion, it's almost as effective as the help of a real healer. This is groundbreaking! Who helped you with the healing effect?"

"No one, my Queen. I studied the books in the library and one of the Fairies that works there explained some really basic knowledge to me." Olivia was in shock after hearing the Queen.

"Girls... Your bandages will be one of the most important assets the army of Avalon will have in the incoming war. This item might change the course of history. I assure you- this is not a failure." The Queen put together her hands and proclaimed with a soft smile. "Misses Olivia and Shirley, I want you to join the Royal University of Avalon and learn even more so you can enrich us with your next inventions. Mister Mike, I was also informed that the Royal Military Academy is interested in your line of work as well."