Reborn in another world as a Hermaphrodite

"How about this sword and the two shovels?" Katherine offered as she reached her hand into her pocket.

"Sure. But the shovel needs some time for the protective layer to dry up first."

"No problem. I'll come back later to take it."

As Katherine handed the bag of coins over and took the sword from the wall, the look on the dwarf's face changed for a second.

"This is too much——"

"Then how about I take this shield and this set of armor as well? Is that enough?"

Katherine quickly made a counteroffer as she grabbed onto a knight's armor that was clearly meant for dwarfs.

After a short silence, the dwarf finally accepted the bag of coins and put it into his pocket.

"Thank you for the purchase."

"No problem... Come on, let's go check out the next experience."

After Katherine teleported all the gear and equipment into her pocket dimensions, they finally left the shop.

As the six of them walked down the street, Meiya suddenly had a question in her mind.

"Katherine, what are you going to do with all that stuff?"

"We're going to a dungeon tomorrow. So, I might as well let Alex over here fulfill his dream of being a knight."

"Wait, really? Mom, you aren't joking?"

Alex's face immediately turned into excitement. He thought Katherine had only brought those things as a kind gesture.

"Do I look like someone who's just burning money for fun? I'm going to use the stuff that I brought no matter what."

After hearing Katherine's answer, Alex's smile got even bigger as they continued walking down the street.

"Mom, where are we going now?" Sophia curiously asked as the sun indicated it was now the evening.

"To be honest, I don't know... Actually, let's go tour the dwarf's castle."

"Dwarf's castle? Aren't we already in the castle?" Mary pointed out as she thought back to the wall earlier.

"That's just the outer layer. There's one more layer meant for the king of the dwarfs."

"We're allowed to visit that?" Meiya raised her concern as it sounded a little ridiculous.

"Yep. Just wait and see."

---

After walking for almost twenty minutes with constant twists and turns that confused all five of them, Katherine finally led them to the castle.

As soon as they saw it in the distance, they were in awe of its sheer design.

Unlike the castles they had seen in Regina or the capital, it was completely white and had no signs of being made of stone.

Looking closer, they soon realized the creamy whiteness was due to the fact it was made out of marble.

However, it wasn't just any marble. It was a whole solid chunk that ran continuously to the edge of their sight.

"This castle is so beautiful," Luqing commented, feeling a sense of purity as they approached the entrance.

"This has to be some sort of quartz, right?" Meiya questioned, refusing to believe it was made of marble.

"Nope. This is all real marble. Not even your emperor can afford this... Ahem, what business do you all have here?"

A dwarf suddenly emerged from the side booth as he stopped the six of them right before the entrance.

"We're travelers who just want to tour the castle——"

"Do you have an appointment or permission with our king?" The dwarf interrupted as he ignored Katherine's answer.

"No, but as Duchess of Regina, can I meet with your king as an informal visit?"

The dwarf fell into silence for a second before heading back into the booth, with a few more dwarfs running towards the inside of the castle.

"Please wait here. We'll report this to our king for him to consider."

As the six of them waited at the entrance, Mary got a little bored standing as she tried to touch the wall.

However, an invisible barrier appeared, preventing her from touching it directly onto the wall.

"Please do not touch the wall."

Mary nodded as she took a few steps back to Katherine, waiting in silence along with the other five.

After a few minutes, the few dwarfs that ran into the castle finally came back with a dwarf.

All six of them beside Katherine looked a little shocked, as the dwarf before them looked almost completely different.

Unlike the usual messy beard and bulky body, the dwarf in front of them had a shaved beard with a body closer to that of humans.

However, the height and the orange hair still indicated it was a dwarf, and his panting voice indicated it was a male dwarf, to be exact.

"Ahem, sorry, I need to catch my breath for a second."

After panting for a bit, the other dwarfs headed back into the booth, leaving the unique dwarf alone with them.

"I'm the king's head minister, Nordak Flamebeard. You're Duchess of Regina?"

The draw asked as he began guiding them into the castle, looking back to Katherine with a curious look.

"Yes... Here, this should prove it."

The moment Katherine took out a staff from her pocket dimension, Nordak immediately nodded several times to have her put it away.

"Sorry for questioning your identity, Duchess Reid. I just haven't seen you for so long since your father last visited here."

Nordak apologized as he guided them further into the castle, his voice changing to a much warmer tone.

"I should be the one apologizing to the king for showing up without a heads-up.

Ahem, Mr.Flamebeard, can you have someone show my kids and friends around the castle?"

"Sure... Drogun!"

As Nordak yelled, a dwarf guard quickly ran over to them before stopped saluted with his hand at his heart.

"Is there something I can help with, commander?"

"Can you give them a tour of the castle? I need to bring an important guest to meet with the king."

"Yes sir! This way, madam."

Meiya and the three kids hesitated for a second, but after seeing Katherine's eyes signal, they accepted the offer.

---

As the knight walked down the paved path, the three kids were even more in awe, as all the surrounding buildings were made of marble.

From the garden fountain, they walked towards the giant statue in the distance.

There was so much wealth and luxury everywhere, yet it was elegant in the artistic design.

"Who's this person?" Mary curiously asked as they stopped right before the giant marble statue.

"He's the hero of all dwarfs. He led the counter-attack that freed all dwarfs from being under the control of orcs."

Hearing the knight's answer, the five of them could feel the respect in his voice.

"How long was that?" Alex curiously asked, as he couldn't remember that ever happening in the history book.

"Almost hundreds of thousands of years ago. Way before your empire ever came in place."

Alex slowly nodded as he quickly realized the event that the knight was describing was extremely ancient history.

"Who made all these statues and buildings?" Sophia curiously asked as they continued walking down the garden.

"The grand architect back a few thousand years ago."

"Sorry to ask this, but how long can your kind live for?" Meiya suddenly asked.

"We usually can live up to one hundred fifty years old. But we have elders that are up to two hundred."

As they reached the end of the garden, the knight began guiding them toward what appeared to be a church.

Unlike the other buildings, this one wasn't made of marble.

However, it wasn't any less fancy, as the entire wall seemed to reflect the sunlight with its silver-like look.

At the very top, the golden dorm almost appeared to be made out of real gold from the distance.

Right at the very front, various silver pillars had what appeared to be another language carved into the wall.

The moment the knight opened the church's door, they could hear the door creaking, echoing as the sound bounced back to them.

"Wow..."

The inside stunned all three of the kids and the two adults as soon as they saw what was past the door.

Various colored glass was on both sides, covering almost half of the wall as sunlight illuminated the inside.

Pictures were painted all over the ceiling, with all kinds of dwarfs in different gears and weapons fighting some sort of monster.

At the center of the church itself was a simple wooden podium, seemingly out of place at first glance with all the fancy appearance on the inside.

However, it oddly looked perfectly in place the more they looked at it, as the color matched well with the red carpets.

Meanwhile, on the side, hundreds of rows of church seats ran down on both sides, enough to seat at least a few thousand people at once.

"This is our Church... Usually, it has a lot of people inside, but today was an off day, so it's empty."

As the six of them followed the knight down the red carpet, their mind was still blown by all the elegant elements in the room.

"What's this church called?" Luqing curiously asked as they walked down the aisles of seats.

"Cathedral of the Tharngrim, in respect to our Grand Architect's wish." The knight responded as they stopped right before the alter.