Chapter 16 - Development

The morning couldn’t come any later than it did. When the first rays of sun entered my room, I immediately woke up. As I started getting up, it seems I also woke Miya up. She sat up in the bed, looking around the room slightly confused, before resting her eyes on me.
-You may rest a little more if you need it.

The wolfgirl opened her mouth to say something but at that point Fiya turned over in the bed, cuddling against her sister’s arm. Seemingly reconsidering, the girl looked back back at me and nodded.

-I have something to discuss with the king first. Don’t wait for me, make sure you two eat something after you wake up.
I said that as I was getting up. I put my shoes on and grabbed my belt and scabbard. As I left the room and was closing the door, I saw the girl lay back down, a faint smile on her face.

I headed to the kitchen and was lucky enough to catch the king as he was just finishing his breakfast. While I was eating, we started discussing potential next steps in our plan of securing and developing the region. We had a general idea of what we wanted to do but there were a lot of things at play, so for now we still only speculated on potential ways to approach it.

After I finished eating, I went looking for Hearyl. After a short and fairly cold discussion I’ve confirmed what Mearyl told me yesterday: there were no spare rooms and I was given “all I deserve” in terms of bedding. I decided not to argue about it, if it was only up to two weeks, I could handle as much… or as little, technically.

It was around noon when I met up with Miya again. Fiya went to the library to read. Apparently the little one loved literature and was missing reading. Well, at least she won’t be bored. I was a little worried that without kids her age, she might struggle a little finding things to do. I also didn’t want her to focus on only helping around the castle, at her age playing was just as important as learning her duties. Well, it seems like I was worrying in vain then.

The older wolfgirl asked where I was heading off to. When I told her I was visiting a dwarf who helped me earlier, she got curious and wanted to accompany me. Glancing over my shoulder at her, as we were walking down the main tract, she seemed a little uncomfortable with people around. She was looking around anxiously but when our gazes met, she gave me a reassuring nod that she was fine. When we were going through the market, people did stare at her quite a bit but it was mostly purely curious stares, with no malicious intent. That was still enough to get the girl to feel anxious. She was already walking so closely behind me that she was almost touching me. However, as she continued to notice that no one really minded her all that much and everyone was just curious, she slowly started feeling a little better. There was one drunk who tried to pick a fight with her at one point but I knocked him out before the wolfgirl could do it herself, ensuring the poor guy's skull remained in one piece. This also indirectly helped send a message to any other potential troublemakers, and all the onlookers too, that I will not take kindly to any ridicule or discrimination towards her. And given how little usually happens in this town, the news will likely spread pretty fast.

After knocking a total of seven times on the door of Krewly’s shop, the sound of a lock could finally be heard and the door slowly opened, with the dwarf cautiously peeking out. Once he saw me, he swung the door wide open and stood in the doorway, arms outstretched as if wanting to hug me. I didn’t take him up on that offer, though.

-Ah, Edward. Ya returned?

-Yeah. Got some praise to pass down onto you. May we come in?

The expression on the dwarf’s face suddenly darkened. He leaned to the side, trying to see behind my back, at who I brought with me. Given his tiny posture, and the fact that Miya was also fairly short and was standing close behind me, he likely couldn’t see anything. Finally he looked back at me, his voice deeper and more cautious:

-'We'? Who's with ya?

-My companion, Miya. We freed her from the bandits. She's from the Red Wolf Pack.

-'Companion', aye?

-Something's amiss?

I stared Krewly down, my voice strong and commanding, reminding him of my stance on the matter. The dwarf looked me in the eyes, frowning and running his fingers through his beard, judging me. The silence between us lasted for a few seconds. At one point Miya leaned from behind me, confused by our exchange. The dwarf turned his gaze to her for a short moment, then back at me and sighed.

-Nah. If it's ya, ah can believe it. Come in.

He stepped aside and let us through. I motioned Miya to follow me as we headed deeper into Krewly's house and into his forge. On his way there, the dwarf procured a small keg of light beer and three mugs, which he filled to the brim. Inviting us to sit down wherever we could find space. As soon as I found some flat, sturdy surface, he ushered me to describe everything that transpired during the expedition. He was mostly interested in how his crossbows performed and seemed extremely pleased with my praises for them. After all, they did perform better than even I anticipated and all the soldiers could say about them were positives too. For him to create weapons this proficient and advanced this quickly with close to no prior experience in the field and no deeper understanding of the technology was truly astonishing.

-In fact, the king was so pleased with the results, that he not only ordered a first batch of fifty of them to be manufactured and distributed to both the army and the City Guard, he was also invested in the idea of upscaling the crossbow for wall-mounted defence systems.
-The “ballista”, aye? Ya mentioned it once.

-Aye. But it’s not going to be as easy as scaling it all up. We wouldn't have a way to draw it back in that case. With a proper mechanism and a couple of gears, however...

-Ha, ha, ha, this will be fun! I can already visualise it...

-Probably with, like, twenty unnecessary parts and complications I’m gonna have to tear down first for it to even start working.

-Ey! Bastard.

I laughed at Krewly’s reaction as I finished my mug. Krewy offered me a refill but I refused. I could hold my liquor but I'd rather not risk it. I didn’t know how strong the alcohol in this world is or if I won’t have any adverse reactions to it later. And I didn’t even like the taste of alcohol that much either. I also had to set a good example for Miya. I can't lose face in front of her so soon after gaining her trust.

-So, what's the lass's story? It's unusual for beastfolk to walk confidently like that, with their heads up. Especially yar kind...
-Ah, about that...

I explained to Krewly how we found Miya and Fiya and how I decided to take them in for their safety. Krewy listened intently, nodding to himself.

-That old king really is kind to all his subjects, eh? Ah knew he always wanted to make the lives of us, non-humans, easier but ah guess with ya, ya weirdo, he may finally have a chance to do it.

-Yeah. I hope we can gradually improve everyone's standard of living and eliminate injustice step by step. At least the racial kind of it.

-That would be nice. Anyway, what's the short goal? Now that the bandits are gone?

-Right. First, it's establishing an outpost by the main tract. We need to secure and control the area we just cleared off. Once we can ensure the safety of the travellers, establishing good trade relations with neighbours will help greatly improve our situation. With spare food, money and plenty of materials and land for development, the town can gradually expand, inviting more and more people and improving production even more. More people will also mean more soldiers, so that we can start clearing more land and securing additional routes and sectors. With that, we should snowball into a quite prosperous fiefdom and gain some much needed influence.

-The more we grow, the more resources for growth we'll be able to acquire, ay?

-Yes, it's called exponential growth. Or a snowball effect. This will take quite some time, however, potentially even years, and that's assuming things will really go our way.

-And in the meantime?

-Improving everyone's standard of living. Food is one thing we need to constantly worry about but as the population grows, hygiene, entertainment and other amenities, or lack thereof, will become an issue too. I have a few ideas from my place we can try to recreate or work from but first we need those crossbows and a few ballistas. There's no point in expanding if we can't defend ourselves properly.

-True, that. Ah'll try to finish all the small things today and tomorrow and then ah'll sit down to plan out the beauties, working exclusively for ya from that point. In the meantime, ah'll persuade that old fool Markus to procure those metal bows for regular crossbows.

-Mind that we don't need a solid, one-piece bow for the ballista. It should be possible to make it work despite being segmented. I'll leave the process to you, though.

-Ay. Tho ah think ah should start charging ya up for yar ideas of “improvements”, too.

The dwarf laughed sincerely. We chatted a little more and even started discussing the schematic for the ballista, while Miya was shyly finishing her mug of beer. It was clear she got lost in our discussion a long time ago. I couldn’t really blame her, Krewly was the only person who I could discuss things like that normally. There were a few other people who liked to listen to my ramblings but all they did was nod their heads. The dwarf actually understood most of what I was saying.

Once the girl was done drinking, I quickly cut the topic with Krewly so as to not give him time to spin it into yet another discussion, left the down payment for the crossbows with him and left. As we were walking down the road towards the market, I noticed that the wolfgirl was somewhat awkwardly stumbling behind me. She was sluggish and was swaying slightly from side to side. Who would have thought that, for being such a ferocious girl, she had such a low tolerance towards alcohol. The beer we had wasn’t particularly strong, it was like water to the dwarf and even I didn’t really feel its effect but it seems to work quite strongly on her. Could it be something species-related, perhaps? I’ll have to be more careful in the future with her.

-Was that beer too much for you?

-I... No... It's...

I decided not to wait for her to finish putting together a reply and walked up to her, grabbing her hand and throwing it over my shoulder, using my own arm to support her from the other side. She glanced at me as if she was about to protest but quickly turned her face the other direction, mumbling a quiet "thanks" as I turned down a different alley. I'd rather not have people get too many wrong ideas too quickly, so I wanted to avoid the more crowded sectors of the town. Eventually, we arrived at the small castle park, where I helped Miya lie down and then sat next to her.

While I waited for the girl to sober up a little, I started to think about what to do next. Now that I have a competent bodyguard and the troops are at the level where they can continue effectively training by themselves, Gurthan shouldn't be too opposed to the idea of me exploring the surrounding landscape a little. Especially if I brand it as expeditions to explore the land for suitable outpost locations or such. We needed at least two in decent locations, one along the main tract and another on the supply road to the mines. I had some maps of the local sector but I already learned they're not completely reliable, as you should probably expect from mediaeval-era cartography. A lot of distances were wrong and based on perspective, there's a lot of guesswork in elevation and filling out some areas the cartographers didn't dare to explore and so on. The two roads I need to explore around should be a relatively safe space and the monsters we encounter should be limited to mostly just stronger variants of wild animals and some minor mutations. That said, while I'm confident in my skills, I'd still rather avoid solo fighting a wolf or a boar. Let alone a whole bunch of them at once. There's also the matter of provisions, information keeping and other things to worry about, so taking a few soldiers doesn't sound like a bad idea at all. They should also know a little more about the terrain, which could prove useful when deciding on camp spots and optimal routes. I expect those expeditions to take a couple days each at least, since just going to the mine takes a caravan almost two whole days. Going by the main tract towards the border is only just above half a day since the town is located quite near it but the closest city is still around four days away. Ideally I'd put the outpost around the middle-way of both of those roads but the latter poses a difficulty, since it's not within our borders. Perhaps sending an envoy to their ruler might convince them to help on their part. I discussed all that with Gurthan already but he wanted to think on it a little more. We’ll have to sit down some other time again and go through all of it one more time, this time without rushing it, like we did this morning.

-What are you thinking about?

The sudden sound of Miya’s voice, right next to my ear, startled me quite a bit but I managed to maintain most of my composure. I glanced over at her. She was leaning towards me on all four, her tail slowly swinging behind her. Her cheeks were still slightly red, meaning the alcohol didn't wear off completely just yet. I was so lost in thoughts that I didn’t notice her standing up and getting close at all. I should pay closer attention to my surroundings at all times.

-Are you feeling better?

-A bit, yes. I'm sorry for the shameful display...

Even if I were to be angry or annoyed at her for it, seeing her hang her head down like this, her ears and tail drop, I would melt down immediately.

-Not at all. You haven't done anything weird while drunk, so there's no need to worry. If anything, it's good we’ve learned you're not good with drinks now, in a safe environment.

-If you say so...

My words managed to cheer her up a little but she still seemed fairly concerned about it. Well, I didn’t know if there are any ways to increase one’s alcohol tolerance, other than to just drink more, be constantly drunk or to gain weight. Neither of those options appealed to me and I doubt they would to her too. It’s not like we have time for things like that too, this would likely take months before we see any real results and I needed her sober and prepared for tasks at hand. That’s why I decided it would be best to just ignore the problem altogether. If she can be responsible with her drinking, it won’t become an issue either, so there was really no point.

-Regarding your question earlier, I was thinking about how to proceed.

-How to... proceed?

Miya got a little closer to me again, prompting me to involuntarily move away even more. At this close I could smell the alcohol in her breath. Was she really that bad with it or did Krewly feed her something much stronger than me? Still, seeing her curious gaze, I tried to focus on answering her questions and try not to think about this whole ordeal any longer.

-Yeah. Now that the biggest threat to this town has been eradicated, my task is likely going to be figuring out the best approach going forward.

-And what are you planning on doing?

-We probably still have a few days where we can relax and train up, so I don't have anything concrete yet. But I guess I'll leave the main tract for Gurthan to handle. If he can convince the neighbouring lord to help us in the endeavour to protect the road... Well, it's not going to be ideal but it will work for the time being.

-It will save manpower and resources, right? It sounds pretty good to me.

-If we let them handle the construction and manning of the outpost, we are basically ceding them exclusive control over the route. This, in turn, means they can freely impose taxes and tariffs on people and merchants however they please. We should still have some influence over it, so it shouldn't be crashing for the economy, but it might seriously limit our potential revenue and prove too expensive to keep up in the long run.

-I had no idea...

Her ears dropped again. Seems like the alcohol made it hard for her to hide her emotions and helped reveal her more true, and surprisingly self-conscious, nature. She looked so innocent right now that I had a hard time believing in the fighting spirit she showed towards me earlier. To cheer her up, I instinctively placed my hand on top of her head and stroked it, making sure my voice also sounded as gentle as I could get it to.

-Don't worry, politics isn't for everybody. Besides, your points are still very valid when we look at the problem from a different perspective. Right now, resources and manpower are our biggest bottlenecks, with money coming closely behind them in that regard. However, we can't get much income without the people and supplies to spare either. So it is, indeed, wiser to focus on preserving those where we can. The outpost situation can always be renegotiated, or we can just place our own and do to them what they did to us later down the line. So you were still wise in your judgement. In the end, it comes down to analyzing where we’re willing to compromise the most or what perspective brings us best profit, whether we want to focus on long-term or short-term success, et cetera, et cetera. Honestly, and I know I might sound stupid and stereotypical, but I wasn’t expecting a warrior like you to be able to have such good insight. You really impressed me there.

This monologue seemed to help Miya regain some spirit in herself. She let out a short laugh, enjoying the praise. Right now, she looked like a completely different person from the Miya I knew from the two days. A gentle, friendly character, who wanted to be useful to others and recognised by them. A complete opposite from her fiery and independent normal self. It was like looking between a faithful puppy and a fierce, battle-scarred wolf.

…I shook my head, getting the mental image of her with dog ears instead of her normal wolf ones out of my head. Well, I wouldn't mind getting close with her but I'd rather do it on a far more human-to-human level. And without the interference of alcohol in our relationship, if possible. I wonder how she’ll be acting towards me once the effect is gone. Or if she’ll even remember what transpired today.

I stood up and stretched my back, mainly to break this awkward situation and to clear my thoughts. I loitered around for a few more minutes, letting Miya sober up a bit more, before returning to the castle. There, we located Fiya and Mearyl and, after confirming that they're both free, we headed downtown. While the two wolfgirls received some basic clothes from the supplies we got from the hideout, and an extra spare set from the maids later, I also wanted them to choose something to their own liking. Miya also needed some armour and weapons for herself if she was to properly join my entourage. She visited the castle’s armoury earlier today and couldn’t find anything that would fit her. The swords there also felt too heavy for her, limiting her speed in battle. And I needed Meryl to provide her opinions and help the girls when needed.

-Don't worry about the costs, I have a bit of money saved up. But don't go overboard, either. I’m talking to you here, Mearyl.

-Oh, you’re no fun.

The maid pouted scenically, causing Fiya to giggle, apparently finding this whole scene rather funny. Miya didn’t share her mood, though, giving me a concerned look.

-Is it alright to spend so much on us?

-Don't worry about it. Consider it a welcome gift from me. And if it really bothers you that much, you'll be earning your own salary, you can just buy me a gift in return later.

The girl nodded, seemingly content with the deal. They were already told that they'll be receiving money for their service to the kingdom, since we're treating them as simply employed by the castle, and not as slaves, but they both still seemed to not really believe it yet.

-Fiya will also be paid, right, right?

-Yes, Fiya also. A little less but that will be your money and yours alone.

The little wolfgirl almost jumped in place from happiness. This caused her sister's expression to soften a little bit more too. Seeing them both smiling really eased my heart as well. I was afraid they would need a lot of time to come to trust us, however they seemed to not only already come to terms with their current situation, they didn’t appear to find it all that bad either. That made me surprisingly happy. Hopefully the time spent in slavery won’t leave too many scars on them, especially on Fiya. Both of them still had their whole lives in front of them, after all, and I really wanted them to live them to their fullest.

I spent a few hours waiting, since Mearyl wanted the girls to try each and every outfit the clothing store had to offer. I had to admit, some looked pretty good on them. Miya looked surprisingly pretty and proper lady-like in some sets but she refused to take any of them. She felt much more comfortable in more regular travelling clothes and tunics, to Mearyl's great dissatisfaction. Fiya got herself quite a few outfits, which wasn't exactly an issue since most were fairly cheap due to their small size but it made me make a mental note that I cannot spoil her this much in the future. This was a welcome gift and she still didn't have her own money, so it was okay for now, I guess. I also had a feeling Miya will take it upon herself to pay me back every single coin I spent on both her and her sister and there was likely nothing I could do about it. They also bought some nightgowns. Last night, they slept in their clothes, which wasn't either healthy nor hygienic, but since we're forced to sleep in the same room for now and they didn’t have clothes for change, it was the only way. I do hope the construction team doesn’t take too long to bring the new quarters online, I barely got any decent sleep last night and I didn’t know how long I can manage like this before the sleep deprivation and tiredness start to show too much and impact my work.

Next, Mearyl and Fiya went back to the castle to put away the clothes and start preparing dinner, while Miya and I went to look at some armour pieces for her. This one went over way smoother as Miya already knew her preferences and ended up buying a simple reinforced tunic. After a short discussion, she agreed to take a more expensive but vastly superior version with some mail layered within. It wasn't much heavier and she felt she could still move freely in it, so there was no point in skimping on protection. She also picked up a pair of cloth gauntlets that had some small pieces of thick leather sewn into them and a similarly looking pair of pants. I was sceptical about the protection the leather offered, especially in comparison to mail, but I had to agree that it was cheaper and lighter, although not by much. Additionally, the armoursmith convinced me about the durability and strength of the leather, claiming it's from a particularly tough to kill monster. It was true that some monster leather was vastly superior to the type of leather I was used to seeing, which usually wasn't a great add-on to armour. In this world, leather armour could truly offer some proper defensive properties, though, since it could come from magical creatures naturally tougher than what existed in our world. And let’s not forget about magical enhancements that could potentially make cloth as protective as mail or even more. Additionally, the wolfgirl chose some high boots from light leather with a steel toe. Sadly, they had no helmets that could accommodate her wolf ears and putting on a regular helmet was providing her with a great deal of discomfort, as well as limiting her ability to hear and sense her surroundings. So we ended up not buying one.

Next we hit a blacksmith that provided us with four well-crafted and very similar in weight and length daggers. Miya gave them a couple of test swings and confirmed that they feel good in her hands. This ended up costing me a lot more than I expected and Miya almost immediately protested to only buy one pair of weapons, however I wanted her to have a spare set in case she damages or loses them. Having spares on her also opened up new tactics, like the ability to throw a dagger at the enemy. She finally gave in but repeated that she will certainly repay me for those. I might have spent a lot on her today but it was to ensure her safety in battle. Her life was worth a lot more than this equipment and I was simply happy we managed to find some good gear for her.

The next few days passed on me mainly training the army. Miya and Liyanne started training by themselves, mainly through sparring. Since both of them are using strengthening, they're a good match for one another. At first the princess was getting easily overwhelmed but at some point the wolfgirl asked why she wasn't using the shield like she saw me do it. Reluctantly, Liyanne started to cover herself more and, while it took her a couple tries to figure out how to properly strike from behind it, how to create and maintain momentum while keeping the guard up and how to block and even ripost, she soon became a much tougher opponent for Miya. Still, in just a few days I saw both of them grow enough that, right now, I probably no longer had a chance of beating either of them in a fair fight, let alone with them using their abilities. It seems I have to get a few new techniques and aces up my sleeves too if I want to keep up with them. Still, being their de facto teacher, I felt proud that they advanced this far and even surpassed me. There's nothing truly more pleasing than seeing your students thrive. I couldn't say the same about the City Guards, who were much more stubborn than the soldiers were and were advancing at a painfully slow, albeit steady, pace.

Whenever I wasn’t busy with training, I was usually either discussing plans with Gurthan or assisting Krewly with either the manufacturing process of the crossbow or plans for the ballista.

And then, roughly a week later, the day arrived when the king summoned Liyanne, Miya and me to the throne room. Together with us, three other knights came, one young boy, one older veteran male and a young girl. All were accomplished soldiers who contributed during the bandit extermination, they were good in a fight, had some basic survival skills and knew the lay of the land. They'll definitely be useful during this expedition.

-I summoned all of you to give you a new order. You are to explore the road leading to the mines and the surrounding forests, gather as much information about the land and the concentration of monsters and find a suitable location for an outpost that will serve to provide protection to the mines, the roads and the caravans travelling through them. Edward, I am appointing you the leader of this expedition. Do you understand your mission?

-Yes, my liege!

-You have a month to find and secure a suitable location. Once you gather the information needed, you will lead the people there and help establish and manage the outpost until a permanent position is established.

-Yes, my liege! I will not disappoint!

-Then go. I will be awaiting the good news.

I saluted and turned around, leaving the throne room. Liyanne and Miya followed closely behind me on both of my sides, with the other three soldiers closing the rear. Most of the gear and supplies have already been arranged and I already had a rough idea on where we should head to. All that was needed to be done now was to get on our horses and start the expedition proper. With that, a new adventure has just begun.