“My Lady? My Lady?” Skera said with a concerned look on her sunkissed freckled face. Wait, was it my imagination, or has Skera gotten pretty lately? Her hair was no longer wild and unkempt. It looked like some minimum effort was taken to look presentable. Good for her!“Oh, right. Sorry, Skera. What did you say?” Gods, I had trouble focusing on anything after that morning meeting. The way Rummy tenderly cared for his daughter stirred some very deep emotions within me. I felt a powerful torrent of envy towards that adorable child for having such a loving father, and an equally potent torrent of lust towards the man who could make me the mother of a blessed child. As long as these torrents of sinful thoughts raged in my mind, I doubted I could do anything productive today. “Forge-master Rummy asked me to inform you that his caravan to the city will depart tomorrow at noon. So you should be ready to depart by then.” Skera intoned. “Right, excellent. Than… thank you for letting me know.
“OK Nairi, that should be the list of ongoing projects I have. Is there any particular one you’d like to work on in my absence?” I gave her the illusion of free choice- this was actually a test. I’d be a crappy teacher if I didn’t occasionally torment gift my students with the opportunity to prove themselves, right?After tilting her cute head sideways as she read the list, she absent-mindedly replied. “Either finish the drop-hammer forge project or get started on the steel boat project…”“Why?” I asked with a smirk. It was then Nairi knew this was no casual conversation. She started to really think in earnest. Nairi stammered a bit. “Because we… we can immediately increase our food yield by hunting the mana-beasts in the river.” She then collected herself. “But at the end of the day, improving the quality of our steel output would be the most important.”“Correct. In fact, the quality of the steel we’re outputting would be insufficient against those aquatic mana-beasts. Sending peop
I hated this.The very idea of me leaving the fate of Lady Natalia up to that scoundrel irritated my soul, but I had no choice. She asked me to protect her city. And since the militia I had raised wasn’t quite ready to shoulder the burden without me, I must be present to ensure the full security of Pridwen.If anything, this was my fault. I’d been too soft on these recruits. If I wanted somebody like me to lead the militia in my absence, then it made perfect sense that I should train the militia like how I was trained- through hell and back. I swear to the Gods I’d crush their souls by lunchtime tom-“Skera, can you please not furiously scowl and radiate killing intent in front of my babies?” Emma asked with an exasperated tone.“How could I not? I’m stuck here while Lady Natalia is out there!”“That’s your fault for not trusting the soldiers you trained these past few years.” Emma singsonged as she gently rocked Braxton back and forth in her humbly decorated living room. “I’ve seen t
I grunted blissfully and gradually relaxed as Sapphy thoroughly cleaned me up. Her personal method of waking me up will never fail to wake me up with a smile on my face. Sadly, we couldn’t go further than morning BJs since that was all the time we had. A new day had dawned, and we were still quite far from Carwennan’s south gate. Since the gate closed at sundown, we were once again racing against the sun on the last leg of the journey. Fortunately for us, the wildlife had begun to learn that charging towards loud noises tended to result in death, so only the dumb ones would even bother charging at the caravan. Because of that, I was confident we’d make it in time.With pigeons cooing in the background, I casually drove my almost-empty wagon as Sapphy slept peacefully next to me with my seeds still in her mouth (whatever makes her happy, I guess). I gently stroked her brunette hair with black highlights as I schemed up a way to harvest iron and steel from the noble brats in this city.
Back when I was a naive little girl, I too dreamed of marrying an Imperial Prince, or some future Duke. In those innocent fantasies, the nobleman of my dreams would be my ideal partner in life- kind, thoughtful, and bold. Those fantasies didn’t last past my first bleed. I must've met hundreds of noblemen since then, and I had been disappointed by every single one of them. Every single one of them was lacking in some way- arrogant, abusive, indolent, dim-witted, weak, or some dreadful combination of vices. Perhaps the princelings and the dukelings would prove to be less disappointing, but I doubt any of them would travel to the edge of civilization just for an upstart daughter of a Count. When the topic of arranged marriage came up right around my 14th moon, I was naturally distraught. Given the odds, I would be matched with yet another disappointment. And Father’s lack of wisdom proved the odds to be right as he matched me with that arrogant toerag. Fortunately, my fate was overturne
Back when I was a naive little girl, I too dreamed of marrying an Imperial Prince, or some future Duke. In those innocent fantasies, the nobleman of my dreams would be my ideal partner in life- kind, thoughtful, and bold. Those fantasies didn’t last past my first bleed. I must've met hundreds of noblemen since then, and I had been disappointed by every single one of them. Every single one of them was lacking in some way- arrogant, abusive, indolent, dim-witted, weak, or some dreadful combination of vices. Perhaps the princelings and the dukelings would prove to be less disappointing, but I doubt any of them would travel to the edge of civilization just for an upstart daughter of a Count.When the topic of arranged marriage came up right around my 14th moon, I was naturally distraught. Given the odds, I would be matched with yet another disappointment. And Father’s lack of wi
Well shit. I was gonna torch the red light district on fire tonight in order to thin out the guards (I was a sucker for the classics), but that plan went to hell the moment Tali discovered her inner mass-shooter. The decimation of that no-name Baron Household this afternoon really riled up the metaphorical hornet’s nest. Guards at key installations, like the forge-smithies, had doubled or even tripled. Tension in the city turned up to 11, and the only saving grace was that the Rangers refused to step into this dumpster fire. Either way, subtlety was no longer a viable option. Which leaves dumb brute force or clever misdirection. Unlike last time, I couldn’t play the long game and hide my handiwork in the shadows of suspicions between rival factions. So clever misdirection wouldn’t have the time to develop. So I guess I had to go with brute force. According to Mike, none of the competing noble bottom-feeders had the brains to engineer a grand alliance. So all I could work with wer
I stood on the roof of an abandoned store (one of many abandoned buildings in the dying city) about roughly 300-400 meters away from the South Gate. As one would expect, a free-for-all battle broke out right in front of the gate as minor nobles hoped to take advantage of the sudden extermination of House Essex. Like vultures to a rotting carrion, the pitiful fools fought with ferocity and determination, each thinking that it was their destiny to rise above their stations. I had a feeling if we gave them a few more days, they’d do us all a favor and kill themselves. But we hadn’t the luxury of time. Aside from the troubles in the city, we simply didn’t have the supplies. Hell, I planned for 2 dozen children on this trip; not 70 kids crammed into 7 wagons with 6 adolescents and grannies walking besides the convoy. This was a rough trip back home. The convoy crawled to the gate, some 50 meters from the melee. I watched as Sapphy unleashed her Expert-level spell > on the rab