Filo touched the filolial egg and channeled her magic into it.

“Now it won’t turn out like me unless I order it to.”

“Oh, umm . . . thanks.”

I couldn’t help but feel a bit like we had just snipped away at the potential of this soon-to-be-born life, but this place would never be quiet with more than one Filo around, so I guess it had to be done. Depending on how this little experiment went, I might be able to put Filo in charge of raising the filolial.

A few moments later, the eggs began to hatch.

“Peep!”

The first was a filolial chick. It looked kind of purplish. Next were two caterpillars. So these would be able to pull carriages when they got bigger, huh? They were called caterpillands. I tried absorbing a piece of the shell into my shield, but nothing happened. After that came three earthworm-looking monsters called dunes. Were these the ones that would work the land?

I set some basic restrictions for the monsters.

“There you have it. Now, all of you, take these things out and level them up!”

“Okay!”

They put the monsters in a big box and all carried it out to the carriage together, like a bunch of kids that had just gotten their parents to buy them pets. The filolial chick was sitting on top of Filo’s head and happily chirping away, despite having just been hatched.

How did I end up in another world playing daddy to a bunch of kids? I couldn’t let it get to me. I just had to keep telling myself that this was all an investment that would pay off when the waves came.

“Oh, another thing . . .”

“What?”

“I’ll be forming divisions to take care of cooking and other small tasks soon, so if any of you are interested in learning how to cook, speak up. Preferably, anyone that isn’t comfortable fighting and would rather avoid it.”

Raphtalia had started helping out with the cooking lately, but it was still just too much.

“I’d like to.”

“Me too.”

One of the girls and the therianthrope named Imiya got out of the carriage.

“You sure?”

I was pretty sure the girl was one of the slaves that Raphtalia had brought to ask for a midnight snack. As for Imiya, he was a therianthrope covered in fur from head to toe. I could just imagine someone complaining that his fur would get in the food. I couldn’t put him in the cooking division, but maybe I could assign him to some other task. He was supposed to be good with his hands. Maybe he had already figured out something else he wanted to do.

“Yeah. I . . . I like cooking. Fighting isn’t really . . . isn’t for me . . .”

“Okay then. It’ll be tough, but do your best.”

I looked at Imiya.

“Umm . . . Those small tasks . . . I . . . I want to do those . . .”