Chapter 754 - One-Handed Sewing

"Would you like to be my fulltime bodyguard?" Eisen asked curiously, and the room became silent for a few moments as everyone processed the question. Particularly Kiron looked at the old man confused, "Bodyguard? But do you really need someone else, with me by your side?" The crystal half-dragon asked, and Eisen smiled at his grandson, "I'm not sure I really need a bodyguard in general. However, even then, you're the Knight Captain of the Dragon Knights. I can't ask you to play bodyguard for me. Normally I'd have Askr, but he can only really be of use in situations where I'm in my giant form, and not when I'm walking around casually in most places, so I would need someone else to come along with me."

Kiron's tail seemed to droop down in response after the old man pointed this out, but he seemed to agree to what he was saying soon enough, "I see, you have a point."

"Right, but how about the two of us? We're with you most of the time anyway." Sky pointed out a little annoyed, since it didn't seem like him and Bree had been considered for the position of bodyguard. Eisen looked at the twins and quickly explained why that was the case, "Neither of you two really conduct yourselves like bodyguards. And of course, that's no issue at all, but in more official situations, having someone that can be more on the orderly side is important." He explained, looking at the Koblin guard, who was still perplexed by the mere idea that he could become Eisen's bodyguard.

"So... you want it to be just for show, basically?" Morgus asked with a scoff, "In that case, you can just make another golem or something, right?"

"I could. But it really isn't all for show. It's a fact that he's skilled, you all saw it yourselves, so having him around would definitely make me feel more safe in general. Especially while I'm working or just generally concentrating on something else. You all know that I can get lost in thought a lot. And with how much things have been escalating lately... well, it's good to have someone around that can help me out, you see?" Eisen explained to them all one more time, and then looked at the Koblin one more time, "What do you think, Rodo? Would you like to become my bodyguard?"

Immediately, the Koblin jumped up from where he was sitting and quickly proceeded to kneel down right in front of the old man, "It would be my honor, your majesty!" He exclaimed loudly, and Eisen grinned lightly. That meant that he could make this Koblin a specialized armor soon as well, one part that for some reason seemed to make Eisen the most excited right this moment. He did enjoy the act of creating special items for specific people far more than creating the cookie-cutter base sets that he often prototyped to be distributed to the people of Asgard.

The old man turned his head and looked at Sky, quickly using his truth seeing eyes. In front of the eight people under the effect of gigantification, a circular wheel was displayed. It was without a specific indication of time, but it was the countdown that showed how long these special 'status effects' lasted. Eisen could see them not only for things like potions, but if someone cast a supportive buff, or even a debuff, on another person, he could see a similar wheel start floating in front of them. And currently, there was only a sliver left in front of Sky, and as Eisen watched the last bit of the wheel disappear, he watched the half-fey's body shrink down back to its normal size.

"Awe man..." Sky's voice could be heard distantly from the bed, while Eisen looked at the others in the group, "It seems like the potion effect is slowly running out for everyone, then. I suggest you all just head to bed as soon as it does, so that you can get some rest. I was planning on doing the same. Since we will stay in the area for a while longer, I wanted to go on a bit of a trip around the area." The old man explained, and nearly everyone seemed to already have a rough understanding of what exactly Eisen had in mind. It wasn't just that he was planning on going sightseeing, after all.

And as such, one by one, each of the participants of today's duels shrunk back down to their normal size, and then made their way to their individual bedrooms within the structure carved into the wall. Eisen as well, laid down on his bed once everyone was gone, and looked up at the ceiling, before closing his eyes.

---

Benjamin opened up the hatch of his capsule, stepping into his room. With a quick stretch, his bones quickly popped and cracked in a satisfying way, before the old man stepped out of the room. He hadn't reached another milestone in regard to his memories yet, so there shouldn't be a particular change to his body right now. He just generally felt a lot fitter, and could practically view his body become healthier the longer he stood right here. His hair that had started thinning out lately had regained a lot of its strength and thickness. At this point, he wouldn't be surprised if his hair simply ceased to be gray when he stepped out of the capsule at some point.

However, while his own body didn't seem to have changed, the same could not be said for everyone else currently residing in the building. As he stepped out of his room, Benjamin bumped into Haruo, who seemed to be covered in more and more hair every time that the old man saw him. And recently, there seemed to be another issue that they hadn't considered that they had to deal with.

"Ah, Eisen. Perfect. Could you help me with something... you know, down there?" He asked, and the old man quickly understood what Haruo was talking about, "Hm, I hadn't thought about how this would become an issue yet. Alright, give me a moment."

"Wait, what are you two talking about?" Benji asked with a wry smile as he walked down the hallway, overhearing the conversation between the two of them, "What do you mean, 'down there'..?"

Haruo and Benjamin looked at each other for a moment, simply letting out respective sighs, "Get your mind out of the gutter, Benji. Jyuuk has a tail now." Benjamin pointed out, while Haruo's monkey-tail unwrapped itself from his waist. The old man continued walking down the hallway, followed by Haruo and Benji who was awkwardly staring at something that he still couldn't believe he was actually seeing. A grown, human man with the tail of a monkey. Although, at this point, he doubted that Haruo would still be considered human.

Benjamin walked over toward one of the shelves in the living room, taking out a small sewing kit. Haruo quickly rushed back and grabbed another pair of shorts, so that he didn't just have to strip down in the middle of the livingroom, and handed them the old man, who had already placed the protective cutting-mat on the table in front of him, before putting the shorts down onto them.

"You sure you don't want me to do it for you...?" Benji asked with a wry smile, watching his one-armed grandfather try to sew a hole into the back of some shorts. The old man scoffed as he pressed the cutting knife into the cloth and cut a small, smooth circle into it, "Even with just one hand, I can do this better than you could with ten, Benji." He said with a quick wink, as he grabbed a needle and some thread out of the sewing kit. While holding the needle between his middle- and ring-finger, he held the end of the thread between his index-finger and thumb, carefully pushing the tip of the thread through the needle's eye.

"...I can't even do that this quickly with both hands..." Benji added with a wry smile, watching his grandfather work at surprising speed. Quickly, Benjamin flipped over the edge of the circle he just cut out to the inside of the shorts, and quickly pushed the needle through from inside, proceeding to sew a supportive edge around it to make it a bit more stable. And a few minutes later, he simply tied the thread and snapped the rest of it off, before giving the shorts to Benji, "If you need anything else changed up like this, just let me know."

"Great, thank you... this is going to make this a lot more comfortable." He pointed out, quickly rushing over to the bathroom to change into the new shorts, while Benji started to clean up before his grandfather could.

"Thank you." The old man said with a soft smile as he sat down on one of the bar-stools in front of the kitchen isle. Benji slowly turned to look at his grandfather, and slowly asked him something that Benjamin didn't expect to face right now, "If... if you had to choose.... would you pick this world, or the other?"