As soon as the first light of the day peeked above the horizon, I did the cowardly thing: I fled my chambers. After throwing on the cloak, the cat meowed softly and took a few steps towards me. Then Lily whimpered behind it, and it looked back. For a few seconds, it looked back and forth between the hood of my cloak and the sleeping Lily. In the end, it meowed pitifully and went back to its former perch on top of Lily.

I slipped out of the door, the first time I had ever retreated and not known what to say to a woman since my prepubescent years. How do you apologize to a woman that you just basically raped? It tore me up inside, even more knowing that it resulted in a child. It reminded me too much of what happened to my mother.

Nina was already waiting outside my door, standing there patiently until I noticed her. I tried to fake some cheeriness, but I failed. “Goodmorning Nina.”

“Goodmorning, Milord, do you wish for a bath?” she asked as if nothing was wrong. However, she had to know what transpired. Normally it would give me no pause that other people knew, but I had never been so ashamed of myself. Even if I had no choice or control in the matter. They had fucking messed with my head again. Fucking priests.

Suddenly I realized a few seconds had passed without me replying, I hurriedly said, “No, but go wake up my advisors, tell them to meet me outside. I’ll go rustle up the soldiers. That reminds me, fetch Nathalie and Alianna as well.”

“Yes, Milord,” she said and hurried down the corridor, meanwhile I stalked the other way, which I knew was the exit. I found a half-sleeping guard leaned up against the wall after taking a few turns and ending up close to the main exit.

“Oy, wake up,” I said.

A spasm went through the guard and he fumbled with his short spear. “Who goes there?”

“Where the fuck are my soldiers quartered?” I asked, ignoring the guard’s question.

“Lord Karth, you’re not allowed to—” he started, but then audibly gulped when I stared him down. I think the promise of violence was clearly visible in my eyes. “They’re in the third barrack on the left, just after the stable, Milord.”

“Thanks, go on sleeping,” I said and walked in the direction he had pointed. It took me a couple of minutes to find the barracks he mentioned, and none of my soldiers were up yet.

“Up you lazy bastards, I want everyone outside within a span. Ten push-ups for everyone, for each soldier not out there, and an extra twenty for each span someone’s not there!” I shouted into the room after opening the door.

Needless to say, no one was ready within three minutes. In fact, it took them more than six minutes to get outside. I looked at them. They looked well-polished. Jackets straight, hair and beard combed. Black boots polished.

I looked at them with disgust. “You’re all dead.”

“Milord?” one of the rankers asked stupidly.

“You took too fucking long. The enemy just barricaded you inside the barracks and burned the whole thing down,” I said loudly while staring down the trooper who had just spoken.

“Milord, there’s no enem—” he started.

“Shut it ranker,” I snarled. “That’s another fifty push-ups for everyone, on top of the one thousand and forty you already owe me for being over a span late. Let’s make it easy to remember, eleven hundred.”

“That’s not fair!” someone complained.

“Twelve hundred, want to go for fifteen hundred?” I asked. “No one? Good. Now I’m going to be nice. I’ll let you pay them off a little at a time.”

“Milord, what’s going on?” Hrothgar called out.

“Shut up and fall in line with your men Commander,” I growled at him. I ignored Linus and walked over shaking hands with Ethan. “Goodmorning Ethan. I need you to pray for these men.”

“Milord?” he asked confused.

“These men are just about to give me five sets of ten push-ups each, including their Commander,” I said.

“Milord!” Hrothgar complained.

“One warning Hrothgar. If you say another thing without me asking you a direct question, every single trooper will do another three hundred push-ups on top of the twelve hundred they owe me. You’re included in that,” I said without turning around.

“As I said, pray for these men, because for each push-up I don’t see performed correctly, I will add another five to the collective pool,” I said loudly enough for the soldiers to hear me. “Does everyone understand me?”

“Yes, Milord,” a half-ragged chorus of replies came back.

“Good, then get off those stupid jackets, you’ll be sweating enough without them,” I ordered and turned my attention to Nathalie and Alianna. “Nat and Ali, I would like for you to get Hope, Saori and Mary and wait outside my chamber. When you hear Lily wake up, I want you to make sure she’s healthy and well pampered. Hope is to be guarding her at all times. Nat, as soon as you ensure that she’s healthy, and Adea’s crone did nothing to harm her, I want you back here. You’ll be using a lot of mana today. Collect all available manacrystals.”

They curtsied and scurried off. I turned to Linus. “You, make yourself useful and produce manacrystal for Nathalie!”

He looked like he was about to protest, but I think my dead-serious look convinced him otherwise. Satisfied, I turned back to the twenty-six soldiers and Hrothgar. I started taking off my cloak and tunic. “To show you that I’m not unreasonable, asking off you something I’m not willing to do myself, I will do the push-ups with you. With one hand behind my back. On your stomachs.”

I had them do the first one, while I did it with one arm behind my back as promised. “You number five from the left, you didn’t do it correctly. That’s another five. Look to either side to see how you do it. And down.”

After they had done ten, I ordered them to rest while still lying on their stomach. I got to my feet and told them, “That was pathetic. You completed ten push-ups, but because someone could not do them right, you earned a total of thirty-five more. Means you still owe me twelve hundred and twenty-five push-ups.”

“Now some might think that unreasonable. I’m sure it is. But it’ll teach you an important lesson,” I said as I walked up and down the line. I stopped in front of one of them, put the tip of my left boot right under his nose, so there was no confusion as to who I was asking. “Why are you being punished?”

“Don’t rightly know, Milord!” he answered with a half-shout.

“Honesty at least. Means you won’t add another ten push-ups for everyone,” I said and walked over to one of the others. “You?”

“We were too slow, Milord!”

“Indeed, but why were you too slow?”

“Milord, I don’t know!”

“Disappointing,” I said and walked down the line. “Does anyone know?”

No answer, just silence. “No one? How about this? If you guess right I take off a hundred push-ups. If you’re wrong I add another fifty. Any takers?”

No one rose to the bait. I chuckled. “At least no one is stupid enough to take a gamble. I guess that’s something. The reason why you were too slow is that you took too long to get in your uniforms. I don’t give a toss if you’re dressed correctly, if your boots are polished, or if your hair is slicked back. When I tell you to be somewhere, you are there.”

“You aren’t parade guards anymore, you’re soldiers. Fighting men. And yes, we need to look correct when marching somewhere. Discipline and all that, however, the enemy doesn’t give a shite if your boots are polished or not, they want to kill you. So you’re being punished for being too slow to react to my orders.”

Lastly, I added while walking back to my place in front of the men, “Is anyone unclear as to why they’re doing push-ups?”

I saw Hrothgar was about to say something, but a withering glare shut him up. I gave them a smile. “Good, now we take another ten push-ups.”

After they had finished all five sets, they still owed me 1235 push-ups, a number that made them groan. Looking around, I saw that Nathalie was not back. “Okay, it seems we got some more time before sparring practice. So we’re going for a run. Linus, get on your feet, you’re joining us.”

“Milord, I’m a mancer, I—”

“Do what I order you to do. Since you signed an agreement for me without my consent which sends me to the front, you’re going to join me. I need you to be able to keep up, so you are going to join us when we’re going for a run or march,” I said and glared at him. He looked like he was about to protest, but Ethan stopped him and whispered something to him.

“Nina, go inside and keep an eye out for Nathalie. If she returns before we’re back, just find somewhere to wait out of the cold,” I said and then turned back to the soldiers. “Two columns, Linus and Hrothgar in front. Those directly behind them, it’s your responsibility to prod them along. If you fall too far behind me, I’ll find another punishment for you. And you won’t like it. Now follow me.”

I set off at a slow pace. I took them for a short run that left them panting and aching, but it was only a five kilometer jog. These people were seriously out of shape. Especially Hrothgar and Linus. It took longer to run the short distance than I had expected, which gave me time to think. Think about what I had done the night before, which made me angrier and angrier. Someone would get hurt before the end of the day.

“—and then you twist the arm while he’s on the ground,” I instructed while using Hrothgar as a training prop. “If the opponent struggles too much, you can break his arm easily, like this.”

As soon as I said it, I broke Hrothgar’s arm for the third time that morning. He was being good about it, only whimpering. I looked at Nathalie. “Please heal his arm. Again.”

“Yes, Milord,” the dark blue-haired woman said.

I turned to the men. “Pair up and train those three basic defences I just showed you. Since Nathalie here is running low on energy, don’t use full force like I just did. Slow it down and simulate the attack and be gentle with the defence. You need to get the movement down before we add more power.”

“Yes, Milord,” the twenty-six soldiers replied in unison and did as I had ordered. I looked up and saw Lily and Hope were taking a stroll nearby. The cat was running around them chasing insects or something.

“Train for three spans, then break for breakfast. Hrothgar after breakfast I want them to run and shoot. Run one kilometer, then shoot five shots. Run another kilometer, five shots and so on. Understood?” I asked the man.

“Yes, Milord,” he answered through gritted teeth.

“Good, I’ll see you at the midday meal. Ethan and Linus, you’ll be there as well. And Linus, you’ll join the men while they run.”

Almost with tears in his eyes, he replied with a sad tone, “Yes, Milord.”

I put my tunic back on and picked up my cloak when I remembered something. To the men, I loudly said, “One last thing, if anyone disparages Nathalie, I’ll have that person flogged and the entire platoon digging trenches all night, is that understood?”

After getting my affirmation I jogged to catch up with the two ladies. They heard me coming and turned their head to see me. Hope looked happy to see me, but I saw Lily winching for just a moment. I stopped at a respectful distance, outside of arms reach.

“Lily, Hope. I’m happy to see both of you,” I said a bit awkwardly. Not how I usually was around women, but how do you apologize to a woman you basically raped?

“Milord,” Hope said with a curtsy. Lily fumbled a bit and did the same.

“Lily, please don’t call me Milord, the name is Karth,” I said with a frown.

She looked up at me for a brief second before her eyes returned to the ground. “If that is your wish, Husband.”

‘Ugh, she’s not making this any easier, but I guess that’s my punishment for what I did,’ I thought before giving a wry smile. “I was hoping I could walk with you. I wish to speak.”

“If that’s your command Husband, I’ll obey,” Lily said.

“Please, don’t do that. Call me Karth, please,” I asked one more time. “I’m sorry about what happened. I don’t know how marriages work here, but where I come from they are about two people loving each other and being equal.”

I took a deep breath. “The loving part is hard to fulfil since they threw this at both of us. And what happened last night will most likely always stain our relationship. That said, I wish to get to know you, and see if we can form a comfortable relationship with each other. One that’s equal if nothing else. And that starts with you calling me Karth. Would you please do that?”

The entire time she had been studying me with her downcast eyes. They were filled with trepidation, confusion and mistrust. After almost a minute, she finally nodded. “We can try. Karth.”

“Thank you, Lily,” I said with a genuine smile. “Now, equal means that you can tell me no if you want to. I’ll ask again. Is it okay if I walk with you, or would you prefer I did not?”

She gulped a few times before whispering, “I prefer to be alone.”

As soon as she said it, she took a step back, looking mightily afraid. I closed my eyes for a second. It felt like a slap to the face, but I could understand it. I gave a short bow, and said, “As you wish, Lily. I hope we can talk at the midday meal. I wish to know more about you and your—our home.”

“Okay,” she said with a trembling voice and turned around to walk away. As I watched Lily and Hope walk away, I felt something butt against my calf. I looked down and saw the cat rubbing against my left leg, purring the whole time. When it saw I was looking, it put a paw on the cloak I was still carrying and gave a questioning meow.

I laughed. “Fine, I’ll put your saddle on.”

As soon as I fastened the cloak around my neck, I felt the tugging of the cat crawling up. As soon as it reached my shoulder it snuggled into my neck, purring happily. I reached up and scratched it behind one ear.

“You’re far too smart for a cat, at least if this had been back on Earth,” I said after a while of petting it. It gave a happy meow and settled into the hood of my cloak. It was comforting somehow.

Since my plan had been disturbed, I joined the men for their runs, and while they tried to shoot straight, I tried to alter the path of their bullets with my magic. I even tried experimenting on disabling triggers and on, at varying distances. The farther I was from something, the more mana it required.

Lily had yet to arrive for the midday meal, and while there were others around, the same formality of the feast the night before was removed. The high table was still there, but I saw some of the Lords sitting with their men to eat. I reckoned it was a good time to have a quick chat with Hrothgar and Linus.

“Listen, you two, what you two shitheads did is a betrayal. Normally I would just fucking kill you and be done with it,” I said in a low even voice, devoid of emotion. “However, since I need your advice, I’ll give you one other chance. If either of you betrays me again, you better make sure the knife in my back kills me, or I’ll fucking end you. Savvy?”

They nodded, looking afraid to say anything. I looked at Hrothgar. “Good. Hrothgar, after you finish eating you’ll grab the lint-mages and go into town. I want you to buy enough dark green and grey cloth to make uniforms for a squadron of soldiers. I want a lighter, tighter uniform jacket than what they’re wearing, I want shirts for them and a heavy coat.”

“Milord, the King’s colour—” Hrothgar hesitantly said.

I stopped him with a stare. “I don’t give a fuck. I want the jacket, coat and shirts done in dark forest green with black trimming. Dark grey trousers and black boots. Since you seem to think I need to represent the fucking King in the uniform, add a sash in burnished orange that they can wear at formal occasions or something. I guess I need the same.”

“Yes, Milord,” he said with a bowed head.

“Linus, how much coin is left?”

“Milord, you spent three hundred and seventeen marks on acquiring the serfs, clothing and feeding them extra,” Linus said. Then belatedly added the answer to my question, though I had already calculated it. “Six hundred and eighty-three marks.”

“How much do muskets go for?”

“Milord, they sell for around two marks apiece, which is why most leavies are just outfitted with spears,” Hrothgar said. That made me frown.

Linus eagerly supplied me with an answer. “Milord, the musket and black powder are recent inventions. Only started mass production a few cycles ago. Only a tenth of the regular army has muskets.”

“Indeed, Milord,” Hrothgar added. “The elves have only managed to capture a few of our weapons intact, they still fight with bows.”

I thought it over. So the world was in the transition of two different types of warfare. Though only a casual student of history, I knew that black powder changed how wars were fought. It gave some food for thought. I finally said, “Okay, and how much for sabres and spear?”

“You can get two sabres for one mark or ten spears. One mark also gets you three short swords or twelve daggers,” Hrothgar eagerly answered.

I nodded, before asking, “How about horses?”

“Varies, but around two marks.”

“The soldiers each have a horse, correct?”

“Yes, Milord.”

“What about you three?”

“No, Milord,” they answered almost at the same time. All of the information I had gotten gave me a lot to mull over, however, I was not able to get much thinking done because Vernon the Toad waddled up to the table. Another man followed him, not as fat as Vernon, but still pretty large. Looked a bit like him.

“Lord Karth,” Vernon said with a lot of sarcasm and hostility in his voice. “This is Commander Barry, the leader of the Golden Northmen.”

Hrothgar was quick to interject, “You mean Mercenary Chief.”

Vernon frowned. “He leads a squadron that makes him a Commander.”

“He leads a mercenary company, with no official standing in the military,” Hrothgar countered with heat in his voice.

“It’s okay, cousin,” the Mercenary Chief said as he placed a hand on Vernon’s upper arm. He then sat down without a by your leave. “I’m here to offer my continued service to the new Lord of Wolf Ridge. We’ve been guarding the place for nigh on two cycles, ever since the death of the last Lord.”

“Oh, and how much does that cost?”

“Three hundred marks a moon, a steal really,” Barry said with a shrug.

Hrothgar looked like he was about to explode, but a look from me silenced him. I faked a smile. “How many muskets do your company have?”

“Fourteen, me and the senior squad leaders,” he said as if it was impressive. Hrothgar looked madder and madder.

I nodded and acted as if I was buying that. “Okay, sounds good. I expect you to accompany us back to the estate the day after tomorrow. We can finalize the arrangement there.”

“Ah, it would be better to do it—” Vernon started.

“Nonsense, I wish to inspect what I pay for,” I said with a dismissive wave.

“Sounds good. Pleasure doing business with you,” Barry said and offered me his hand. I shook it.

“I’m waiting for my wife to join us,” I said, clearly dismissing them.

“Of course, Milord,” the rotund soldier tried to bow but failed to do so with any grace.

When they were out of earshot, Hrothgar hissed, “He’s ripping you off, a squadron of top-trained mercenary would only be a hundred marks a moon. Milord.”

The Milord was added a bit belatedly. I shook my head. “I can recognize a scam when I see one. I’m going to throw that bastard out on his ass, but I need to ensure he can’t cause ravage on the way out. Also, we need to keep a close eye on Vernon. I think he has been swindling the estate in the time he was a steward.”

“You can’t touch him if that’s the case, Milord,” Linus offered a bit fearfully. “It falls under high justice, especially since it was the high lord that gave him the position.”

“I’ll find a way,” I said. We had not been served yet, because I was waiting for Lily to arrive. She did that five minutes later. She was followed by Hope as I had ordered. Lily took a seat next to me, though she tried to be as far as possible away from me as possible.

Hope remained standing behind Lily. I gave her a scowl and pointed to the bench. She shook her head, and I countered with a hard glare. After a few seconds, she relented and sat down on the other side of Lily, forcing Lily to move a little closer to me. To ease her discomfort, I moved farther down the bench.

I flagged down one of the servers and asked her to bring food. I emphasized that Hope would be eating the same as us, not what they served serfs normally. The server looked like she was about to protest, but my status as a lord, even if a visiting one, was enough to make her comply.

“Thank you for joining me. I’d like to introduce you to my three advisors,” I said and introduced my new wife to my three “trusted” advisors. Of whom two of them had not yet paid fully for their action.

“Pleasure,” she mumbled and looked down.

“Lily, while we wait for the food, could you please tell me about our holding?” I asked.

She thought for a moment, before saying anything, “Your hold is—”

“Our,” I corrected, which made her frown. At the same time, the server returned with a few others carrying our food.

“Milord, it’s yours, women cannot own anything,” she said.

“I call that bullshit. I meant what I said earlier. Equal. This land belonged to your family, I might be the new lord, but you’ll be a part of the decision making,” I said a bit more forcefully than I intended. I could see Ethan chewing on his tongue, looking like he wanted to object. “Please go on, Lily.”

“Our land,” she stressed the word, showing she did have a little spunk at least. “Is the same size as the other holdings, however, most of it lies in the mountains and are not suited for farming. There’s a lot of wild apple and pear trees, but the High Lord has monopoly on those fruits. So our holding is the smallest in population. We only have close to two hundred serfs and less than thirty freemen living on the land. We’re little more than a large farm in one of the other holdings.”

“How the fuck do they want me to field a squadron of levies if there’s not even enough people in the whole hold for that,” I grouched. Lily looked a little scared at the anger in my voice.

“It seems they want you to hire the Golden Northmen,” Ethan suggested.

“Fuck that.” My frown turned to a smile when an idea struck me. I needed to know more though, so I asked Hrothgar, “Are we to supply food for the levy as well?”

“Only until you get to the assembly point. From there it’s the duty of the high holder or king, depending on who called for the levy, to feed us all. We only need to provide for their weekly pay, uniforms, and weapons.”

“Good.” My next question was very important, “Is there any law against arming serfs?”

“Milord, you cannot!” Hrothgar protested.

Linus was shaking his head. “No, it has been done in the past, Milord.”

Ethan was with Hrothgar in this. “Milord, it would be very unseemly.”

“So not against the law. Well then fuck them and their sensibility,” I said vehemently. “Hrothgar, I’m guessing that there are places you can buy serfs, so I want you to go and buy five hundred unskilled serfs, offer the traders at most twenty-five marks, so at most five thalers per serf.”

“Milord, I must protest, I can’t lead a squadron of tainted serfs.”

“That’s fine Hrothgar, you can get the fuck out of my sight then,” I said, looking him straight in the eyes. He looked away. “Are you staying?”

“Yes, Milord.”

“Then do what I tell you. You’ll get me ten horses as quickly as possible. I’ll take half the soldiers and ride to the holding on the morrow. You’ll follow when you’ve all the serfs and weapons gathered that I want,” I said. “I’ll give you a list later.”

When I was done speaking, Ethan softly said, “Milord, it’ll not help your standing if you employ such tactics, it’s the sign of a desperate man. Serfs make bad soldiers.”

“That’s because you only give them the stick, not the carrot,” I said dismissively.

“Milord, you cannot pay serfs, it’s against the law,” Linus added.

“Then I just have to get creative. Now find somewhere else to sit, I’d like a moment with my wife.”

Hope started to rise as well, which made Lily stiffen up, so I asked Hope to stay which relaxed Lily a bit. After a few minutes of silence, while we ate the unremarkable stew that we were served, I finally asked Lily, “As you know, I’m not from around here, so I’m curious what you usually spend your day doing?”

“I’m not allowed to do much,” Lily said. “I was raised to be married off and raise a family.”

Hearing that made me feel a bit sad. “I know that’s how things are done around here, but it seems wrong. Anyway, how do you spend your time?”

“Mostly tending a small flower garden my mother created. Unfortunately, it’s been harder getting new flowers to grow.”

“How come? Bad weather?”

She shook her head. “No, the steward is allergic to bees, so he had all our beehives burned. Instead of exporting honey, we now import it.”

I leaned forward, but was reminded of what I had done to her when she leaned back. I learned back quickly and held up a hand apologetically. “Sorry, I’ll keep out of your personal space.”

“Milord, you’re permitted to do whatever you want, I’m your wife,” she said. She had withdrawn into her shell again. Any progress I had managed to coax out of her, ruined.

‘Damnation!’ I swore silently. Well, I had made a little progress. I knew that she kept up a garden, so it might be a good idea to introduce her to the three herbomancers. Or at least the human one, because I did not know how she would react to the two elves.

I hurried to finish my meal and then excused myself. Giving her some space before I tried to draw her out of her shell again. Since my afternoon was suddenly clear, with my plan of getting to know my wife better ruined for the day, I would go with Hrothgar to pick up some of all the weapons we would need. I needed some personal armaments as well.

However, first I had to deal with a newcomer, who intercepted me outside the hall. I immediately pegged the man as a young priest. “Lord Karth, the Cardinal sends his regards and a message.”

“What’s the message?”

The priest cleared his throat. “The benevolent and wise Bertram, Cardinal of the Northern Holds, wishes to extend an offer to Lord Karth.”

“Get on with it already,” I said before the officious man could further brownnose a man who was not even there.

“The merciful—”

“Put it plainly, or I’m walking,” I told the guy and started walking away.

“Wait,” the priest said flustered. “Please, I’ve to deliver the message.”

“Then state it plainly.”

“Fine,” the man actually pouted. “The Cardinal wishes to extend a helping hand to you. He knows that you’ll not be able to afford mercenaries or field a levy of the required. The Cardinal has graciously offered to hire a squadron of mercenaries in your name.”

“And what will that cost me?”

“Nothing much, just a few favours.”

“Right, and I got a bridge I’d like to sell you,” I scoffed.

“Excuse me?”

“So what would these favours be, and how many?”

“That’s for the Cardinal to decide,” the man said reverently.

“Okay.”

“You accept? The Cardinal will be so happy,” the messenger exclaimed.

“No, I said okay I received the offer. Here’s the counter-offer,” I said and stepped up to the priest, forcing him to look upwards. “Tell him to stick his offer up his Gods’ asses.”

The man gasped and was still standing there gaping after me when I rounded the corner.