Honestly, I'm shocked my harem story is the only one with a kid named Dom who is contractually obligated to say that cheesy line at every family gathering~
“PUSH!” I urgently yelled. “PUSH!” “I… I can’t!” Nairi replied with a strained voice. “You’re almost there!” “Ughhh!” Nairi grunted and groaned until she managed to push a heavy metallic box all the way up a hill. “You’re… so… mean… Forge-master…” Nairi complained as she gasped for air. I shrugged my shoulders as I looked towards Pridwen’s direction. “Sure, I could’ve helped you out with my >, but you needed the workout. Without decent strength, you can’t be a good forge-smith. And you sure as hell can’t be a good soldier with that wiry frame.” “Between the… drop-hammer… and the MG-42s… I don’t need… to be strong….” She argued back between pants. I sighed a bit. “Nairi, it’s fine to appreciate how technology has improved your life. But it’s not good to rely on it like a crutch. We live in a death jungle- it’s never a smart idea to rely on any one thing out here…” “This bloody weapon… better be… worth it…” She panted some more as she began to get her wind back
“PUSH!” I urgently yelled. “PUSH!” “I… I can’t!” Sapphy replied with a strained voice. “Not without Master here…” “Just push! He’s almost here!” “Ughhh!” Sapphy grunted and groaned until she managed to give birth to a baby girl. The room was a mess, and there were stains of fluid… and non-fluid matters… all over the sheets. After I saw the baby girl take her first breath in this world, I began to cast > on the newly minted mother. Sapphy looked gutted and exhausted, but other than that, she seemed fine to me. On top of that, the baby girl gave me a healthy cry. I sighed in relief knowing that the birth went well. Considering my entire experience as a midwife consisted of 2 live births and a couple of books I stole from the Galahad library, I thought I did pretty well. Despite my uncertainties, there was never any question whether or not I would help. After all, Sapphy was there to guide me to safe births when I had Aubrey and Braxton. My pride as a woman and a mother would b
“Next slide please, Nairi.” Nairi dutifully replaced one poster of a figure with another. While I regretted importing Powerpoint into this world, nothing undersold my point about the impending iron crisis better than a giant poster of a figure that had a downtrending line and an uptrending line. “As you can see in this slide, the iron demand is expected to skyrocket with the addition of the M2 mortar in our arsenal. And the town production of iron is expected to gently decline due to the gradual depletion of the black sands on the banks of the Acheron.” “In other words, we’re heading for an iron shortage.” Tali grimly noted. The rest of the room, which consisted of clerks in training and militia team leaders, began to understand the problem at hand. “Correct, my Lady. We could lower the production targets for the Garand or the MG-42, but that seemed foolish considering we only have 3 dozen Garands and 10 MG-42s. And reducing the output for farming equipment is out of the question
“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