"Tada!"
Ria twirls.
A three-storey-tall building, large enough to house an entire company of soldiers.
The ivory color typical of the spire city.
Made of an inexplicable material that the magical city produces.
An assembly of small rectangular blocks, each roughly the width of Hikari's thigh.
Tiny runes at the seams hold the blocks together.
Hikari could sense their mana.
A doorway that spanned the height of the building, built just for her.
"Your new home, Hikari."
Hikari was at a loss for words.
Ria watched her reaction.
She thought she sensed happiness from her.
Or perhaps excitement.
But the giantess's face was unchanged.
She just can't tell.
"Nice."
She finally spoke.
"I knew you'd like it. Building blocks from the spire city. A tad more expensive than a regular one. You had outgrown your previous home and had to find a cave. This project was paused due to the war in the north. But at last, you have a proper place to stay."
Hikari stares at Ria.
She still couldn't get used to her gaze.
"Umm.. Hikari?"
"Nothing."
"Oh, ok. Come! Let's go inside. I have a lot more to show you."
Ria excitedly runs into the doorway.
Hikari follows her.
The inside was so spacious that it surprised even her.
Furniture scaled up to her size.
A bed, a couch, and shelves.
"Down here, Hikari!"
Ria waves to her.
Sword racks filled up with her throwing daggers.
Her handcannon. The barrel had been cleaned.
A crate filled with just under two dozen of her musket balls.
Pigeon-hole shelves stacked with her wyvern-skin sheets.
Her wyvern-skin boots.
The mud and gore had been scrubbed clean.
Stains from the washing process remained.
"Your armoury. This is where you'll keep those humongous weapons of yours from now on. Oh, and that claymore of yours, I'm afraid you have to fetch that from the forge yourself."
Ria ran to the next area.
Rows upon rows of pigeonhole shelves stacked on top of each other.
Hikari's eyes lit up.
She pressed on the sheets of cloth.
They felt brand new.
Thick, absorbent pieces formed the socks.
The toughest pieces, a rough grey material, formed the bottoms of her socks.
"This is where you keep your clothes. It's not easy to deliver your clothes to your home in the hills with those bears roaming about. But here, expect a fresh change of clothes whenever you return from an intense workout or a long, hard campaign. "
A mirror on the ground beside her wardrobe.
Ria stood beside it.
It was taller than even her.
Her silver hair.
The pinkish skin on her face.
Her loose tops draped over her voluptuous breasts.
Her steeled abdominal muscles.
Her skirt, her muscular thighs, her white knee socks.
"Did anyone ever tell you how beautiful you are? The knights who escorted me struggled to hold their thing in their pants as they looked up your back. They ran their horse into the tree more than once."
"What."
"Never mind."
Ria ran to the next area.
Hikari's bed; Square pieces of bedding arrayed in a large rectangle.
"There! This is where you'll sleep from now on. I hope you don't mind sleeping on the ground. Makes it easy for the maids to replace your bedding."
"It's nice."
Ria jumped on the bed.
She bounced up and down, playfully hopping from tile to tile.
"See, it's really springy. Please don't jump on it like I'm doing, though. It holds my weight easily, but I doubt it'll hold yours."
Ria walked to the giant couch.
The legs were taller than she was.
"There, your couch. You haven't seen a chair big enough for you in a while, have you?"
A luxurious place for Hikari to sit.
Ria climbed up the ladder built into one of the legs.
She jumped up and down on the bedding.
"Try it, Hikari. I promise that it'll hold your weight."
Hikari turned around and landed on the couch.
Her weight flung Ria into the air.
"It's nice, isn't it, having a place to sit and relax after a workout. Just remember to change the bedding from time to time. It's not as easy getting the maids to do it, as they have to climb up and down the couch."
Ria climbed back down the ladder.
"Moving on."
She jogged to the next area.
"Your new shower area. The curtains won't be installed for a while. It's quite a tricky one to do. But you'll have the privacy you need in your room."
Drainage installed on the side.
A pillar with a lever installed.
Hikari cranks it; the mechanism hidden inside rumbles.
A splash of water comes out of the tap at the top of the pillar.
"There's a pump that pushes water up when you crank the lever. Just don't crank too hard and break the handle."
"Yes, my lady."
A square tub on the ground with a head popping out.
Hikari knelt down and examined the curious device.
"Your soap dispenser. Put your hand on the nozzle and push the head down."
A thick, viscous liquid came out.
It was the same cheap soap she had been using for years.
"Unfortunately, I couldn't find any alternative to the cheap soap that you have been using. I think you're quite used to the off smell."
"It's good."
Ria noticed a subtle change in Hikari's expression.
"Come! We haven't even gotten to the good stuff yet."
Ria ran towards the center of the room.
A series of tiles were puzzled together.
Slots and empty sockets.
Leylines carved into the pieces.
"The mana circle shipped from the RazenHeir acarneum in Moradale. That's where our enchanters live and work, producing our imbued weapons. It's not so easy to get you there. Moradale has special rules regarding giants. Now that we have a proper place to house you within the estate, we can bring it to you. It's also a great place to train your mana."
"Nice."
"Come along! We're not done yet."
Ria jogs to the next area.
Her shirt was soaked with sweat.
An area laid with bedding, the same area as her bed.
"Your exercise mattress. Drainage lines below, so you don't have to worry about sweating all over it. Don't worry about abusing the bedding either; it's made of the same rubber that makes your boots."
Hikari walks onto the mattress.
She balances herself on one leg to increase the pressure.
It holds her weight.
She bends her knees and jumps.
Thud.
She lands with both feet on the mattress.
She steps off the mattress.
The mattress absorbed the force of her landing without leaving a dent.
"Nice."
Ria points to some steel gratings with drainage underneath.
"Don't forget to drain your socks over there before leaving them outside for the maids to collect. I'm sure they'd appreciate it."
"Yes, my lady."
"Now for the grand finale of your tour."
Ria jogs to the last area.
She started at the armour on the left of the entrance.
She ends in the kitchen to the right of the door, having completed a full round around Hikari's new living space.
Shelves containing her food supplies.
Grain bags. Wheat grass. Radishes.
"Ivory berries."
"Yeah, berries that grow on the walls of Moradale and the spire city. A plant that feeds on the mana of magical cities. They taste absolutely disgusting, but are essential to building a knight's mana."
Ria knocks her knuckles on a large steel pot several times her size.
"Your cauldron. The stove is below the ground. This one's much more fuel-efficient than the open-air stove you use out there in the forest. The cauldron is bigger too; I hope it's enough to fill you up every single meal without having to cook twice."
Hikari peers inside the cauldron.
Newly cast. The inside surface was smooth.
No signs of old stains sticking after multiple stews.
"Oh, there's one more thing."
Ria walked to the shelf.
She tried to pull out one of the crates that were too big for her.
Hikari pulled it out with one hand.
She looked inside; it was filled with a herb that was familiar to her, but she hadn't seen it in a while.
"Palpferix herbs, a wild plant that is eaten by some of the biggest animals. A popular herb for growing muscle. It's on discount right now, so I bought a bunch in bulk. I thought you might like it."
Hikari stood up, looming over her lady.
The air around her changed.
Her expression grew cold.
"Hikari, what's-?"
"Crawl."