With a leather saddle and crude stirrup in my hands, I casually walked into a freezing wolf den. 2 beta female wolves glared at me, but did nothing else. Guess they were still warming up to the idea of humans being more than just a happy meal to the pack. Freja, the Champion she-wolf, merely turned her head towards me for a glance before lazily turning it back.All of the female wolves were nursing their pups. All 10 of them. Man, given the reproductive speed of this pack, they could potentially overrun the entire ecosystem, humans included. In the Wilds, most of them would die due to malnutrition or predators. But since Pridwen provided a safe haven for them, not to mention enough fish for the whole pack, those 2 natural population controls no longer applied. Well, based on my shoddy biology knowledge, I knew that the wolves from my old world reproduce once a year via the estrus cycle, and that only the alpha male gets to do the deed. So if the wolves from the pack followed this cyc
A/N: There's a less lemony version of the chapter on RR if that's what you prefer *** “You did it, Rummy. You really did it!” Emma said as tears freely flowed out of her lake-blue eyes. I puffed up my chest and smugly smiled. “Of course, love. When I promise something, you know I’ll deliver on it sooner or later.” “Shameless boasting aside, I do want to thank you for the work you’ve done. Without you, there would be no Pridwen.” Tali joined in as she opened the doors to her office (after enough people have individual houses, we converted one of the longhouses into a City Hall). The 3 of us entered her office. It was a simple office with a depressingly plain table (Cut me some friggin’ slack! Carpentry wasn’t my specialty!) and 3 bookshelves and 2 drawers placed against the walls and corners. Compared to her old office back in Carnwennan, this place was a shabby downgrade. The room itself only had 1 window, so the lighting was pretty bad, especially during noon when the sun was dir
Skera and I were waiting at the door of her office when she opened the door. “Come in! It’s so nice when the three of us can just sit down and enjoy what little tea we have left.” Tali cheerfully said.“My Lady, a simple brute like me has no right to waste your precious tea! I shall stand guard instead!” Skera stiffly replied. Sigh, the tomboy in her was as strong as her sword swings.“Oh come on Skera, there’s nothing wrong with enjoying something feminine once in a while with your friends.” I dismissively said as I gingerly walked the chair in her office. My husband sure gave it to me last night. I could still feel some of his warmth inside of me. Whew, the very memory of my wedding night got me a b
“And this concludes my presentation on the long-term security threats to Pridwen and my plan to neutralize those threats.” I said in my best professional tone. “I imagine you have a lot of questions for me, so please ask away.” Skera raised her hand. “I’ve got one- are you bloody insane!?” Fair enough, I supposed. After all, I did just tell her that on top of our probably-hostile Elven neighbors who could summon hordes of mana-beasts straight to our doorstep, we were in direct conflict with the Imperial Pantheon that she worshiped for most of her life. I wryly smiled. “I wish.” I walked towards her. “They are coming for us, Skera. Dread it. Run from it. Destiny arrives all the same.” I’d always wanted to say that line from that classic movie from my old world. Skera, however, did not share my enthusiasm for the quote. “So what upcoming threat is so terrifying that the Pantheon thought it was necessary to send you memories of a foreign world? And why you? If anything, you’re the wor
As I ended the meeting, I gave Rummy my “please stay after the meeting” look. He raised his eyebrow and nodded.“I’ll catch up with you later, wifey. We’ll do our daily questions then.” Emma gave me a smug look before nodding and departing with Skera. Soon, it was just the two of us in the office. A nervous tensionI fidgeted my hands before speaking. “Thanks for staying, Rummy. I have a question for you.”“OK. Shoot.” He nonchalantly answered. The way he casually assented sure didn’t help my nervousness. But fortunately, I had prepared an important question as a preamble.“These… memories you were given. Did they contai
“Ugh…it was disgusting.” Emma sniffled. “I felt so… soiled, and helpless…” Tears continued to leak out of her eyes as she cried into my chest on our bed. Sigh, I really shouldn’t have asked about her distaste for BJs. I mean, I could’ve guessed why she didn’t like it, but me and my curiosity just couldn’t leave well enough alone. And now my wife was crying while confronting her tragic past in the Galahad household. Stupid Rummy! Stupid! “Wifey, you’re so brave for sharing your past with me.” I kissed her salty cheek. “You didn’t have to go through this pain for me… I’m really sorry for bringing it up.” I said apologetically. “No, it had to be done. These people are all dead and they no longer have any power over me.” I nodded silently. As sorry as I was for triggering her past trauma like that, I was glad we got to have this conversation. After our talk, I felt even closer to her. Maybe true intimacy wasn’t all about baring your bodies and putting the P in the V, or claiming her
Authors’ notes: This was an excerpt from the journal of Imperial Prince Avalon of House Artorius. ‘Why me?’ I sadly thought to myself as I walked toward the darkness within my mind. This pitch darkness could only mean one thing- I’ve been summoned to meet with the Imperial Pantheon in the Hall of the Round Table. I should feel honored- after all, not just anybody gets a summoning from the Pantheon. But it is likely that they have a quest for me- a quest that’ll probably send me far far away from Caliburn and waste months of my life on some seemingly-pointless errand. For a prince in the middle of jostling for position in the Succession, being absent for that long is disastrous. There are over 42 legitimate Imperial Princes, and I am confident that at least half of them are more competent than a hunting dog. Why choose me, Honored Ancestors? Why? After waiting in the darkness for a while, a light suddenly shone on me and the 15 members of the Pantheon. I knelt down and placed my ri
A/N: Hi people! Hope your summer is going well! After a month-long break, I've build up enough chapters to get back into the rodeo that is Book 2. The new release schedule will be every Monday morning. So July 4th would be the first Lastly, this chapter is a fun discussion amongst Rummy's children. There is some light/minor spoiler in there. So if you're a spoiler purist, just think of this chapter as an announcement chapter and skip it. But if you're not, enjoy! =D *** “Well, I’d learned more about my parents than I ever wanted to know.” I sigh as I put down the giant book on an ornate table. Most of my siblings are still in the family reading room, despite the fact that it was way past midnight. The miracle of electrical light- a miracle that I took for granted all my life- keeps the room well-lit. Gods, what a marvelous city Dad has built for us. My younger siblings have already all retired to bed. So fortunately, my job as the smut censor has ended for now. Only Aubrey, Braxt
The burly Paladin suddenly stopped struggling to get at me and guffawed. “HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! You hear that? The stupid boy wants to duel me” He pushed the restraining hands aside and pointed right at me. “Fine! I accept! I’ll gut you just like I did to your street rats! Maybe that will teach you to respect your superiors.” The Archmage frowned deeply. I guessed he wasn’t a fan of Palusi’s plan to kill me in order to get me to be more pliant. Well, nobody ever confused Paladins with PhD’s… The Prince, after a moment of deliberation, finally spoke. “Paladin Palusi. Bring Ser Rummy to me alive, or you shall never be a Paladin again for the rest of your life.” That took some of the excitement out of the Paladin’s eyes. “Your Grace. I… I hear and obey.” “Should I win, I want the remains of my scouts, along with the wolf.” I calmly declared the stakes. Archmage Schuma weakly smiled in response. “Ser Rummy, is that truly all you want in exchange for risking your life and limb against one of
“You ready buddy?” I gave Loki an affectionate nose pat (Loki is far too tall for me to do head pats by now).“AWOOOO~” An armored Loki replied as he sniffed my neck. He was wearing a leather cap on his head (with 2 holes cut out for his ears), a leather chest piece that covered the front of his neck and down his chest, and a leather armor around the stirrup protecting his spine. “Yeah, you are! You’re my good boy!” I gave his ears a good petting and hopped on. Tali was pulled up shortly after. We sallied out of the gate in a blur. Loki gracefully jumped across the various trenchlines that lined the field and arrived at a stone obelisk with a “700m” carving near the top.Tali and I got off Loki and waited for the other side to arrive. Within a few minutes, a diplomatic party of 4 rode their war horses towards our position. Based on the fancy gear, fancy flag, and fancy horse (those things are twice as large as the horses in Carnwennan), this is the guy I needed to meet. The diploma
Sigh… I supposed it was very on-brand that shit hit the fan on the one day that I was off. After all these months of pulling 12 hour workdays, I figured I deserved a little morning break with the kiddos and their wolf puppies. Loki just had another batch of puppies with members of his impressive harem, so I was letting them mingle and play together outside on a beautiful sunny day. I was able to enjoy the blissful tranquility of puppies and babies for precisely 13 minutes before the castle bells were rung.To our credit, we responded quickly to the impending crisis. Within half an hour after the signal flare was sighted, everyone outside the walls were drawn inside and all militia members were at the battlements manning their posts. The non-combatants were heading to the arms factory for shelter (and to be gang-pressed into emergency ammo workers). The annual drills I made all of us do really paid off in that regard. I arrived at the battlements roughly 10 minutes after I’d heard the
The day started out like any other in these past few months- me waking up buck naked with two beautiful women by my side (equally naked, I may add!). Sure, I was usually exhausted from a jam-packed 10+ hour workday by the time I got back home, but the sight of 2 alluringly half-naked women bent over on my bed invigorated me in ways that even a potent cocaine and methamphetamine cocktail could not. The women of my harem had decided that 2 of them would “service” me at any given night while the other one would rest up and watch the kids. Of course, some part of me wanted to take all 3 of them at once every night. But I think I would drive myself into an early grave if I overworked my poor heart like that, especially if I had to work 10+ hours the day after…Tali had fortunately integrated into the harem with no drama. Of course, since my 1st wife Emma was the one that encouraged her to jump into the degeneracy, she had no problem with handing over the nominal role of the “head wife” to
“Here is a new draft of the report on the iron shortage, Forge-master Rummy.” Nairi helpfully handed me the finalized draft of the report cobbled together from a series of disorganized notes and illegible calculations from yours truly. “Shall we go over the report together now so I could finalize it?” She asked in her typical angel-sweet voice. “Correction: I will go over and finalize the draft. You still need your rest.” I pointedly replied. Apparently, my overworked apprentice had a fainting episode while I was out in the Elven territory. She was teaching some of the newbies how to press the ammo cartridges at the forge-smithy around noon-time when she fainted for a moment. It was probably heat exhaustion or heat stroke from the ever-burning forge fires, but this is unacceptable. Considering his stance on work-life balance, Ronnie Lee would be rolling in his grave if he saw this. Nairi’s sunny enthusiasm for forge-smithy sometimes distracted from the fact that she was still a matur
*BOOM* The last Ranger fell upon his knees and slumped down, clutching his chest under the mid-day sun. Soon he would join his comrades (and my former comrades) and depart the mortal plane. After I slinged the Garand over my shoulder, I cautiously approached the 4 fallen Rangers. As messed up as it is to loot them, my growing militia has equipment needs and military-grade body armor doesn’t grow on trees.As I turned one of the bodies over to strip it of the leather armor, the not-dead-yet Ranger grabbed my hand with what little strength he had left. Unlike the movies and books, people usually don’t immediately die after getting shot. The blood loss takes time. “It’ll be your day soon, traitor!” He croaked with all the malice and bitterness he could still muster. “Until then, mind if I borrow your stuff?.” I nonchalantly brushed aside his arm and continued looting. My former comrade gradually lost his consciousness as he bled out. By the time I was done looting him, he had expired.
In an austere meeting room of the City Hall with ornate furnishing, I begin my speech in front of all the relevant factions- my Legion’s general staff, the nobles of Carnwennan, and the general staff of the 626th Legion. Every one of them are in full military or noble dress, sparing no expenses. “Gentlemen, it has been a challenging moon and a half, but we have finally saved Carnwennan from the brink.” After waiting for the polite applause to die down, I continue. “Now, I will announce the reason why I came to Carnwennan. I was called here to accomplish the Quest that the Pantheon had bestowed upon me- the capture of Adept Rummy and his associates.” A wave of confused murmurs and “who?” erupts at my announcement. Fully understandable, I admit. But it is not the duty of mortals to publicly question the will of the Gods. Nor is it the duty of subjects to publicly question the will of their prince. That is the natural order of the world we live in. In response to this chatter, my Palad
“Kneel, peasant! For you stand in the presence of Prince Avalon of House Artorius!” My shifty Scoutmaster announced.The prisoner, who is in chains and manacles, slowly and hesitantly kneels in front of me. He seems to be a portly fellow of 40 or so winters.His hair is disheveled, and the state of his dress suggests that he was in the middle of an afternoon nap when the intrepid Turt apprehended him. “You may stand.” I cordially invited my new prisoner. The man looks wary of my invitation until Turt nudges him from behind. He tentatively rises up and stands before me. His face is understandably tense, as if he’s deciding between betraying his longtime friend and saving his family from certain imprisonment. A difficult choice, I must admit and sympathize. But unfortunately for him, I intend on making this a really easy decision.“I am going to be honest with you, peasant. I will sentence you to hang as a spy no matter what you say to me today. The only difference you can make today is
Authors’ note: This chapter is taken from the journal of Prince Avalon of House Artorius. Well, this Rummy character sure had made a proper mess in his wake. The city of Carnwennan was in shambles, dozens of noble Houses extinguished or ruined, and Gods know how many lives- highborn or otherwise- were reaped as a result of this madness. I would wager that it would take a generation or two for Carnwennan to recover, if it ever recovers.I am still piecing together what had happened based on what the scouts and knights had found, but this much is clear- he is no common commoner. It takes a certain arrogance and competence to plan and execute destruction of this scale.The decisive (and irreversible) nature of his action implies that he was never content living his lot and will never be content living his lot as the Gods intended. This man was prepared from the very beginning to defy the Pantheon and the natural order of this world, collateral damage be damned.In a way, both factions w