When David, Tomoe, and Mio arrived in front of the small old man, David noted the pointed ears and goggles on his head. Even if he didn't already know who the old man was, just these features and his small stature would be a dead giveaway.
"A dwarf?" David asked.
Tomoe stood next to the dwarf and explained, "You are truly well-informed, Master. But, this is no ordinary dwarf."
The dwarf cupped his right hand and bowed his head slightly.
"He comes from an ancient subrace of dwarves who produced famous sacred and noble artifacts. The type of dwarf is distinguished by the term 'elder' in its name."
Still bowed with his fist cupped, the dwarf politely said, "It's a pleasure to meet you. I am Beren the Elder Dwarf."
David smiled, "Nice to meet you as well. My name is David Star."
Beren lifted his head. "Because you defeated the Black Spider, you have saved my village from catastrophe. The fact that you made a contract with her and got her on your side brings me much relief."
'Ah, right. He saw the contract happen this time so he wasn't told she was cursed... Pffft, hahaha! Oh well, doesn't seem like it bothers him one bit.'
"I actually have a request for you, David-sama."
"Ask away, Beren-san," David said.
Beren kneeled with his fist cupped once more. "Could you allow us to move onto your land? We were stuck in the Wasteland for fear of raiders--"
"Sure!" David said.
Beren looked up, shocked. "That was quick!"
David just waved his hand, "Eh, it's fine. My dimension is rather large and it'll just keep getting larger. Having people to help around the place doesn't sound that bad. As long as you can get along with the other--"
Tomoe covered David's mouth with her hand and said, "But we have some conditions!"
She stuck out her hand like a magistrate giving a command with a fierce look on her face.
"You must help plan the town, provide armaments, and in the future, pay taxes on your land!"
She put her hands on her hips, "And you must recognize my master as your lord!"
Beren bowed his head once more. "I have no objections. It'll take me a little time to convince my people and bring them here."
Tomoe threw a tied satchel to Beren and said, "Take this gift with you."
Beren opened the satchel and saw two greater dragon scales.
"Greater dragon scales!"
He then lost the shocked expression on his face and looked at Tomoe with a sneaky expression before muttering, "With these, I'll have no trouble convincing the craftsmen now~."
Tomoe wore an equally shady expression before whispering back, "Don't forget the armaments and all the rest~."
'If Makoto were here, he'd definitely say that they look like an immoral magistrate and a trade broker.'
Tomoe and Beren chuckled as they walked out of a Mist Gate that the former created, leading close to where Beren's people were.
'Alright, now that Mio is already here, I can reactivate the Cradle's defenses.'
David pulled up the CMI and tapped on the "Law Management" section, then went to the "Defenses" section, and finally activated the "Dimensional Interference Shield" and "Dimensional Existence Concealment".
'Easy as pie.'
David turned to Mio who was still hanging onto David's right arm and was lost in her own thoughts.
"Mio, I'm heading out for a bit. I'm going to find the closest human settlement and take care of some things. Do you want to follow me or explore the Cradle?"
Mio gripped his arm tighter and said, "No! I'll go with you!"
David expected as much so he just nodded and teleported himself out, bringing Mio with him.
When they were back in the Wasteland, they started walking to the southeast since David was able to detect lifeforms a few tens of kilometers away.
It was still rather early in the morning, around 8:00 am from what David's internal clock could tell, so he didn't really want to move fast.
David didn't start a conversation or anything while they were walking, but it wasn't because he didn't want to talk to Mio. He just didn't know what to say.
Mio was humming happily with a pep in her step, leaning her head on David's shoulder the entire time they walked.
David decided to just enjoy the comfort that Mio brought him.
⟪ While I don't like the idea of master/servant contracts, I can't help but feel more comfortable with them. I won't get betrayed by Mio and Tomoe and I can fully trust them immediately. It's a nice feeling. While I fully trust Marin, that's only because she has the Sovereign's Seal placed on her. I only hope nobody living in the Cradle ever has thoughts of betrayal. I'd hate to kill good workers... ⟫
Mio was curious as to why David was so hung up on betrayal and could hear from the tone of his voice that there was something deeper behind it, but since she couldn't say anything about it, she decided to wait until he told her.
They walked in silence for five hours. David continued practicing his magic and Mio continued happily holding David's arm.
In front of them was a large town surrounded by a tall stone wall with sharpened logs on top.
"Alright, we've found it. Let's head back for now and grab some lunch."
"As you wish, dearest husband~!"
David chuckled and teleported them both back to the Cradle.
When they came back, David headed toward his tent while Mio instead went off on her own somewhere.
"Dearest husband, I will return soon. I just remembered I have something I must do so unfortunately, I will not be able to join you for lunch."
David didn't think too much of it and just nodded before going inside his tent to cook some food.
They had a lot of meat from various creatures around the Wasteland so David's diet has mostly consisted of meat these days.
It only took him about thirty minutes to eat and when he was done, he decided to take a short nap while he waited for Tomoe and Mio to come back.
...
David woke up to Tomoe and Mio arguing in his tent sometime in the late afternoon.
"Don't wake him up! He clearly wants to sleep!"
"What are you saying? We have a surprise for him so it's best to wake him up now and then if he wants to, he can just go back to sleep later!"
David sat up and stretched.
"I'm awake now anyway so it doesn't matter. What's going on?"
Tomoe smirked at Mio and then ran up to David, pulling him up by the arm.
"Master, we have a surprise for you! Come quickly!"
David just nodded and followed them out.
They led him up on a big wooden stage with a cloth backdrop where Tomoe's fragment was waiting with her hands on her hips, looking as adorable as ever.
To the side of the stage stood Makoto who was interested to see what would happen next.
In front of the stage were four groups of various races.
From left to right, there were spider-like people, Highland Orcs, Elder Dwarves, and blue lizard people.
Tomoe was the first to speak up when all the attention was on them.
"Listen up, citizens! For those of you that don't know, I am Tomoe!"
Mio followed suit and said, "I am Mio!"
The four groups all cheered their names and gave praises.
Tomoe said, "You will now refer to our master as 'Milord', 'Young Master', or 'Your Grace!'"
They held up three banners with those names on them, then Tomoe and her fragment simultaneously said, "We'll let the majority decide!"
"Cheer now if you prefer 'Milord!'"
There were a few cheers.
"Cheer now if you prefer 'Young Master!'"
There was an explosive reaction from the audience at that name.
"Cheer now if you prefer 'Your Grace!'"
The reaction was almost non-existent to that one...
The three bowed to David and said, "We'll be calling you 'Young Master.'"
"Hahaha, you all can call me whatever you want. If you want to call me 'Young Master' then I won't refuse. I only ask that everyone living in my Cradle get along well with each other."
The audience all cheered, shouting "Young Master!" or "David-sama!" fervently. Either way, the reaction was good and the original Demiplane inhabitants from the original work were now all gathered together.
Once the cheering died down, Mio said, "As you can see, new species have settled in the Cradle. You should greet them."
Beren stepped forward and cupped his fist again.
"I-In that case, allow our village chief to offer you a greeting."
An Elder Dwarf that looked even older than Beren walked up in front of the stage with a cane in hand and rings on his fingers.
"I lead the Elder Dwarves. My name is Eld. It's a pleasure to meet you."
David nodded his head and said, "It's nice to meet you, too, Eld. I hope we get along well in the future."
Eld narrowed his eyes. "I have to ask, Young Master. Were you perhaps charged with a mission from the goddess who rules over this world?"
"Hahaha, no."
David raised his voice so that everyone could hear.
"Listen up! That shitty and narcissistic goddess probably has no idea I'm even in this world right now! If she ever finds out and summons me like she's prone to doing, I can promise you all that she's absolutely no match for me! I dare that conceited bitch to summon me because the moment she does, that's the moment I'll break her mind so badly that she won't even think about behaving how she normally does!"
As soon as David's promise was made, the crowd was silent for a few seconds trying to process everything David said, but when they did...
"WAHHHH!!!"
"LONG LIVE THE YOUNG MASTER!!!"
"WHO NEEDS THAT GODDESS!!!"
"BREAK THE GODDESS' MIND, YOUNG MASTER!!!"
⟪ I've said it before, but the thought of brainwashing a woman makes me extremely uncomfortable. But if it's the goddess of this world, then it's totally fine. Now that I know our worlds are connected and she can easily snatch people from my world, I'll have to take the initiative to break her mind completely. ⟫
When the cheering died down, Tomoe stepped forward and said, "Alright then, I'm next!"
She extended her arm out and showcased the blue lizard people.
"These are my followers, the Mistio Lizards. They're a powerful species with both the water and air attributes. Their greatest feature is their beautiful blue-green scales. We look forward to serving you, Young Master."
The Mistio Lizards all placed their right hand over their chest and bowed.
Mio stepped forward next and showcased the spider-like people.
"Young Master, these are my followers, the Alke. They couldn't escape their hunger, but after receiving your essence, they have regained their senses."
'Eh? I never gave them any blood or mana so what the hell is Mio talking about?'
Seeing the confused expression on David's face, Mio took the liberty to answer his unspoken questions.
"When you fed me that small sphere of blood previously and fired all of those spells at me, I was able to feed it directly to them."
She walked up to one of the female Alke and said, "And then we do this with it," before she stabbed her hand into the Alke's chest.
The Alke looked satisfied and ignored the steaming hole in her chest.
Mio clapped her hands and said, "I'm glad you enjoyed your meal!"
The Alke regenerated instantly and there was no indication that she was ever stabbed.
Mio smiled a beautiful smile as she looked out at all of the Alke.
"Children, you must offer your bodies and souls in service to the young master."
The Alke all blushed, male and female alike, and nodded nervously.
"Mouuu~, you're all so quiet. If you dare disrespect the young master..."
She brought her bloodied hand up to her face and looked at the Alke with an extremely cold and hostile expression.
"I'll eat you..."
The female Alke that got stabbed earlier hurriedly rushed up to David.
"W-We are Alke. It's nice to meet you."
David smiled at how cute the Alke was, despite the spider legs and multiple eyes on her.
Mio glared and gave the Alke a side eye.
"You forgot the 'very.' Do you want to be eaten?"
David reached over and pat Mio on the head.
"Calm down, Mio. They're being respectful enough as it is, okay?"
Mio turned into a bubbly girl again and said, "Yes, young master! I understand~!"
⟪ Hmm, I don't know if I prefer Mio calling me 'Young Master' or 'dearest husband.' Meh, I'll just go with the flow. ⟫
David cleared his throat and stood at the front and center of the stage.
"Ahem! Like I said before, the only rule I have for everyone is that they all get along. If someone is in need of help and you can offer your support, do so. If there are any conflicts someone has with another person, I will construct an arena in the future where you can hash it out there."
David pointed to Emma.
"Emma is my administrative assistant so if you need something from me and can't find me, talk to Emma about it. The hierarchy in the Cradle is simple. Me and my women hold the highest authority, Emma is right below us, then the leaders of various tribes or species are below her. Everything else is up to your specific tribes to decide."
"In the future, this dimension will be linked to various worlds, including my home world. We will eventually allow others to visit different worlds in the future, but that is still some time away and there will be a separate office that will take care of travel visas and information."
"Although there isn't much here yet, it will grow into a massive empire and I'm looking forward to being able to bring my Empresses here to meet everyone. For now, I just want everyone here to be happy."
"It doesn't matter to me whether you're productive here or not, but Emma and Tomoe may think differently. I own this dimension, but that doesn't mean I'm good at management so don't hold too high of hopes for me in that regard. If you're unsure of what to do and want to be helpful, find Emma or Tomoe to get started."
David raised his arms and smiled warmly at everyone.
"With all of that said, welcome, my citizens, to the Sovereign's Cradle!"
Everyone exploded into uproarious cheers once again. They all had expressions ranging from happiness, relief, hope, joy, excitement, and impatience.
They all clearly wanted to get started on building a wonderful new life for themselves and grow the Cradle to match David's expectations.
While David was basking in the cheers, Chaos-chan whispered in his head.
[Um... I didn't want to interrupt your speech, but you finished a growth quest for the Sovereign's Cradle. Do you want to check the details now or later?]
'Let's do it later. I still need to talk to Makoto and the girls first.'
[Got it.]
Before David left the stage, he walked up to Tomoe's fragment and bent down to pick her up.
"Wah!" the little girl said, startled at being picked up so abruptly.
"Hahaha! Sorry for startling you, but I'd like to give you a name if that's alright with you."
The little girl looked at Tomoe in confusion.
Tomoe said, "Young Master, I'm not sure what would happen if you did. She's just a clone of myself and doesn't have much of her own autonomy so if you named her, she might either disappear back into me or she would become her own person."
David nodded and thought seriously before activating his Heaven's Eye and examining the little girl.
He could only see mana swirling around inside her, but a thick strand was connected to Tomoe.
"Hmm..."
Thinking back to when he created the clay doll, David put his index finger on the little girl's forehead and injected some of his Reiryoku into her.
After he had injected enough to fill a normal person her size, he said, "Your name is now Komoe. Is that fine with you?"
The little girl hesitated for a moment before she said, "Yes! I'm Komoe!"
Komoe floated out of David's arms and started glowing brightly before the light settled down.
Her overall physical appearance stayed mostly the same except for her hair that went from blue to green with white streaks that matched David. Her left eye also turned from red to emerald green like David, but it still had a slit-like reptilian pupil.
'The hell? That was definitely not within my expectations... And what's with all this heterochromia? It looks pretty cool though, I won't lie.'
Komoe landed on the ground and looked at her hands and arms, rotating them around as if she was unfamiliar with her body.
"I feel super strong!" Komoe said as she playfully kicked the air to her left side, causing the air to make a whip-cracking sound.
David used his Heaven's Eye to examine Komoe once more and this time, he saw that the connection between her and Tomoe was gone.
The mana circulating in her body was stronger and she actually had her own spiritual energy now, as well as a faint soul.
"You're definitely your own person now, Komoe. I can see your soul and while it's faint, I'm sure it will grow stronger. You now have Tomoe's mana inside you as well as my spiritual energy."
Tomoe, who was shocked by what she just witnessed, stepped forward and picked up Komoe, hugging her tight.
"So does this mean that Komoe is our child, Young Master?!"
Mio's mouth gaped open and her body started to tremble.
"Come on, Komoe~! Say it! Call the young master your Papa!"
'Tomoe, that's a really bad idea.'
Komoe, who thought it was a good idea, said, "Papa! Thank you for separating me from Mama!"
A dark energy erupted from Mio and her yellow eyes turned to look similar to sheep eyes.
"Insolent! The young master will have a child with me first and it will be born naturally from love and labor!"
Mio raised a fist to hit Tomoe, but David flashed behind her and grabbed her arm.
"Mio, calm down."
She didn't hear David and was only focused on hurting the woman who was shameless enough to try and pass herself off as the mother of David's child.
David, remembering a similar scene, created a sharp ball of ice and crushed it in his hand, causing him to bleed before he shoved his bloody hand in Mio's mouth.
"Calm down, okay?"
Mio involuntarily drank David's blood before she snapped out of it and started actively drinking it from his hand.
David looked over and stared at Tomoe flatly.
"Don't antagonize Mio, okay?"
Tomoe just chuckled and gave Mio a gloating look before she continued squeezing Komoe.
David cleared his throat and looked out at the stunned audience.
"Ahem! Anyway, that's all for the day. You're all dismissed!"
He waved everyone off and brought Mio, Tomoe, and Komoe off the stage before arriving in front of Makoto.
"Sorry about that, Makoto. Anyway, I'm about to go into town and I want you to come with me. There's someone I think you'll want to meet, but we have to rescue her first."
Makoto tilted his head in confusion. "Her? I don't know anybody here though, are you sure I'd want to meet her?"
David used his free hand to pat Makoto on the shoulder. "Yes, I can sometimes see the future and I saw you getting close to a woman that's being held captive by some perverted bastards. I'm going to go kill them all and rescue her. Should be fun, right?"
Makoto seemed to be thinking hard about it.
"Are they humans?"
"Meh, technically they're humans, but their actions are no better than wild animals."
Makoto nodded in understanding, "Got it. It would be interesting to see the humans of this world anyway so I'm not against it."
"Sounds good!"
David then put his free hand on Makoto's chest and configured a Concealment rune on him.
"Your mana is leaking like crazy so I put a concealment spell on you. Now, you won't make people shit their pants when they see you coming."
Makoto's eyes widened. "What? What would they see if they saw me?"
"Hmm, several vicious looking demon kings ready to kill everyone in front of them. I have a few ideas on how to make an artifact that will help you. Your mana is different from mine so mine is naturally concealed unless I'm trying to show it off, but yours is always on full display."
"How does yours work?" Makoto asked, curious about anything related to magic.
"Mine is stored in an almost infinitely large mana core. Think of it like a water tank with a valve. It's connected to every part of my body and I can choose to open the valve and let the mana flow outside of my body or not. Yours is like an ocean. It holds a ton of mana, but it has no way to completely stop itself from being shown. Well, that's the best analogy I can think of, haha... Anyway, I'll craft you an artifact with the help of the Elder Dwarves later so that you won't have to rely on my concealment spell in the future."
Makoto smiled and nodded, "Thanks, David. I appreciate your help."
David just waved his hand, "Bah, don't sweat it. I already consider you as a friend and I don't want people attacking you because they think you're a demon or something."
After chatting about their plans for a bit longer, David, Tomoe, Mio, and Makoto left the Cradle after informing Emma of where they'd be going.
Since Komoe technically now has a connection to David, she can communicate with him or the other two women through telepathy so she stayed behind as a point of contact.
When they came out, they saw a guard standing in front of tall opened wooden gates.
"Alright, let's first head to the Adventurer's Guild and get registered so we have a bit more freedom."
David took out a few gold coins from his inventory and started shuffling them around in his left hand, putting his apparent wealth on full display.
'Let's lure them out first just to make things easier, heheh~.'