While the Unifiers and my own troopers were busy being disgusted and despairing over my handiwork, I made my way back to Fort Kiril. I had made sure to count on the way, and there were no Unifiers left behind, so I made my presence known.

“Milord, is it true that Eastside has been ransacked by orcs?” a worried-looking Delman asked me. Looking around I saw a lot of anxious faces.

“No one breathes a word about my presence here,” I ordered. “And gather everyone with relatives in Eastside for a meeting. I’ll be in the large lecture hall.”

Fort Kiril was our largest military installation and also our primary training facility. There were several lecture halls, where the serfs learned stuff like reading and writing, how to read a map, basic math, how to encode messages and so on. The list went on.

Of course, it took a long time to school over twelve thousand men and women who had basically no education, or very little, but it was important to me that it happened. It was not just about getting more knowledgeable troopers, it was to show them I was different from the other lords they might have served or heard about.

Knowledge was something that was predominantly in the hands of the lords and rich freemen. However, I gave it away for free, to everyone. Because it was not just the troopers that learned basic literacy, it was every serf. I even allowed them to learn other languages as well.

The latter was in an effort to foster understanding and better relation between the serfs of different races. Despite most, if not all, of the humans having been born serfs, there was still a lot of racial tension. Especially between the human and elven serfs.

After twenty minutes, Delman led in between a couple and three hundred troopers and civilians. Including one of the commanders of Caspar’s battalion. Every single one of them had worried looks on their faces. The air was thick with worry and tension.

Without preamble, I said loudly, making sure that everyone could hear me, “Everyone who was in Eastside is fine. It was a ruse for the Unifiers. They’re currently hiding in the shelters.”

The tension immediately dissipated, just to be replaced with a hint of resentment. Taking the initiative to deal with that, I started to apologize, “I would like to apologize to everyone. It was a half-baked plan and I did not take loved ones into consideration. I’m truly sorry that I made you all worry about your loved ones, or even think that they were dead. Losing loved ones to violence is a horrible feeling.

“I’ll not try to justify my poor decision, I’ll simply explain what is happening and why. I feel—no, I know I owe that much at least. Earlier today, the priest Milton arrived with a squadron of Unifiers. The rest of them are riding to the fort as we speak. He hurt one of my children, and I—uhm—lost my head and cut off his.”

“Wait,” Melissa, the commander exclaimed. “How come he was here spouting off something about disarming all of us?”

“That was me using an illusion, this is where I explain myself,” I replied with a wry smile. “Okay, so I was standing there with his head in my hands, looking at a potential shitshow. I needed some way of diverting the blame for his death.

“Thus came about the ruse with him getting killed in an orc raid on Eastside. I sent some of my bodyguards to Eastside and they arranged everything according to my plan. What I failed to think about was informing you here at the fort, and thus causing you grief. For that, I am truly sorry.”

“Why were they even coming with that many Unifiers?” someone asked. With truth magic, it was truly easy to keep a secret, even if tens of thousands of people knew what I was trying to achieve. Of course, those that were not interested in helping me were confined to Sanctuary until the Church was no more. I had made several claims of losing thousands of serfs to orc raids. It was also an excuse to create such a large army.

“One of the summoned lords put the idea of rounding everyone not pure human up and put them in camps,” I answered truthfully. “Something similar was done many cycles ago where I came from. Millions of people were killed in the camps. Don’t worry, the bastard who suggested it is already dead. I had hoped the idea died with him.”

“Are we going to rebel to keep everyone out of the camps?” Melissa asked.

“We’re not quite there yet, with this stunt I hope I can make a case why it shouldn’t happen. At least not for us,” I said. “What I need is for everyone to stay here. Except for Melissa and Delman’s platoon. I want you to go and greet Caspar when they return. Single out those with family in Eastside, bring them into one of the small lecture halls and explain what’s going on. When the Unifiers are gone, I’ll make a proper apology.”

“Yes, Milord,” everyone in the room responded. They were good people, and I had hurt them inadvertently with my plan. I had not been clearheaded when formulating the plan, and it had unintended consequences. That was the nature of plans. This whole mess came because I had killed Lord Erthal, Terud, and Wilbur.

Not that I regretted the latter two. Not at all. Vengeance would be mine, and I would just have to bear the consequences of my action. After I had burned down everything held dear by the fuckers who took away Yathanae and our child.

After the Unifiers had left Fort Kiril I made my way home through a portal. My mana reserves were pretty depleted with all the large scale illusion magic and teleporting I had been doing during the entire day.

I found my family in the family room, all of them fussing about, making a spectacle of how brave Baldur had been. I agreed with them, but I could see he was uncomfortable being in the centre of attention. I observed them for five minutes before they noticed me.

It was Nathalie who looked up and saw me first. My appearance had made her gasp. With fear in her voice, she exclaimed, “What happened to you? Why aren’t you healing?”

The others looked up at me, gasped and cried out. I knew what they saw was not pretty. My left eye was swollen shut, the other barely any better, just enough that I could see a bit. My upper lip was split, five teeth were loose or knocked out, and my nose was flattened, clearly broken.

I had cleaned up and stopped the bleeding before coming home, but had not healed. Nor had I dulled the pain. It was my penance. At least until the Unifiers made their way back here. I was certain they would come and get me and bring me to at least the high lord, if not the king.

“Got what I deserved,” I grunted as I limped my way to the soft couch where I lay down with a groan of pain. The whole way I nursed my tender ribs. Most of the ribs on my left side bent, a couple of them broken. A couple on the right side was bent as well.

“Let me heal you,” Nathalie said with unshed tears and slowly got to her feet, helped by Nina and Emma.

“No, stay,” I groaned through the pain. “I’ll heal when the Unifiers get here.”

Lily has not heeded my words, and while Nathalie sat back down again, she had come over to me. Maeve had followed, meowing worriedly. Lily stopped and picked her up. She handed Maeve to Nina. “Get the kids out of here. We need a talk with our husband.”

With the links I had with the tiny mana crystals I had implanted in everyone, I could follow what happened in the room around me, even with my eyes closed. As soon as no one was paying attention to him, Baldur made his way to his favourite perch. Nina was gathering up the other kids and getting them out of the room. Baldur must have seen this happening because he immediately changed direction and ran out of the room.

“Okay, what did you do to deserve this?” Lily asked sternly.

Emma asked at the same time, “Why aren’t you fucking healing?”

With a few groans and grunts of pain, I told them about the unattended emotional pain I had inflicted on my soldiers. The wives agreed that I should have warned my people. It was Shenerah who asked, “What does this have to do with you being beaten up?”

“The people left at the Fort took it fairly well, it was the ones that had gone to Eastside and seen the destruction that took exception to my lapse of judgement,” I said. “Some of them were a bit physical in showing their frustration.”

“They attacked their lord?” Mina and Nathalie gasped, shock evident on their faces.

“Nah, I could see they were angry, I gave them the opportunity to vent the anger on me.”

Emma just gaped at me, the others looked a bit confused as if they could not process what I told them. Emma suddenly hissed, “You fucking dumbass, you let them hit you?”

“Yup, multiple times if they needed it,” I replied.

“Why would you do something so stupid?” Lily berated me, tears in her eyes. “They’ll never respect you again.”

“Sure they will, I told them this was the one time they would be given free reins if it was brought up again, I would not be so accommodating,” I gave a painful chuckle. “Some of them were really angry.”

“Why?” Nathalie whispered.

“Yathanae and—” The words caught in my throat, and I started coughing painfully. I could not bring myself to say it. Knowing that I had brought that kind of pain on my own people if just for the moment they believed it, had refreshed the pain I had felt myself. Making it feel rawer.

The wives looked questioning at me, but I did not answer. They looked at each other, seeming almost lost. Eventually, I got my shit together enough to tell them why. They were not happy about it but left me alone until the Unifiers came barging into the house, at which time I quickly healed all the injuries.

It was three days after the “massacre” of Eastside, and I was back in the throne room of King Alfred. His eyes were moist and unfocused, almost as if he was drunk. He probably was. The loss of a child could have a deep effect on you. I almost felt bad for him. Almost. He was one of the bastards behind the murder of Yathanae so he got what he deserved.

The High Hierophant was standing next to him, his brows furrowed with anger. Kneeling in front of them were the Unifier commander that had dragged me all the way here. He had dragged Caspar with them as well.

The commander was telling in horrifying details what had happened to his men and Milton. Every time Alfred looked like his mind started to wander, the Hierophant would touch his shoulder and he would become a bit more aware.

I was playing the role of the fool, as usual, demanding the wenches bring wine or ale, while Caspar tried to keep me sober. The Hierophant was less than amused by constant interruptions and drunken laughter at what happened to Milton.

“Lord Karth, I don’t know what you find so funny, it’s your people and animals,” the Hierophant said with a frown.

“They’re just a bunch of slaves—oops—I mean, serfs. So what, I can get new ones. Of course, it would not have happened if you bunch of idiots hadn’t disarmed my men,” I replied irritatedly, acting distracted, looking in the direction of the servants. Without preamble, I roared, “Bring me some wine or I’m going to start killing people!”

“Karth, that’s enough!” King Alfred said, his voice filled sadness. “How dare you insult the Crown and the Church?!”

“Uhm, I don’t think I did, just calling as I see it, I’ve lost tens of thousands of marks’ worth of livestock, because you morons followed an idiotic plan proposed by a dead man,” I shot back with a sneer.

“I could have you killed for speaking to us like that,” Alfred growled.

“I would like to see you try,” I replied through gritted teeth.

“Enough,” the Hierophant shouted. “Karth, mind your tongue. King Alfred, he’s half-way right. Disarming his forces, splitting up the Unifiers were Milton’s mistakes. He paid the consequences of those mistakes. However, if the orcs are getting restless, and the war with the elves are turning against us, we can’t afford to dismantle Karth’s forces.”

“Wait a minute,” I complained. “I already have Hrothgar’s battalion at the front, it sounds like you want me to take one of my other battalions and hunt down these orcs?”

“Yes,” was the simple response from the Hierophant.

“Nope, not going to do it,” I said obstinately. “It was just a bunch of livestock and a shitty priest. Not going to strip another battalion from my defence forces!”

Alfred, clearly tired of my antics, growled, “You’ll not only send your battalion after them, but you’ll also personally be leading the expedition to wipe out these orcs. Shouldn’t be a problem for the fucking Hero of the Bastion, now should it?”

“I’m not going to do it, there’s nothing in it for me,” I grumbled petulantly, despite having gotten exactly what I wanted.

“Enough of your childish and boorish behaviour,” Alfred screamed in frustration. “You’ll do it or I’ll have you executed for treason!”

“Fine, I’ll do it,” I said with a bow, and under my breath added, “You fucking twat.”

If he heard it, he did not respond. Alfred turned to the Hierophant. “Send some Unifiers with him, make sure that things go smoothly.”

I cursed silently. It would seem I had been going overboard with my rejection of carrying out his order before being forced to do it. That would put a serious crimp in my plans. At least until I figured out how to deal with them. My mind was already churning with ways to turn the situation into something positive.

“Leave before I find an excuse to have you executed,” King Alfred said with a dismissive wave. Knowing I had overstayed my limited welcome, so I beat a hasty retreat.

Caspar and I managed to get back in time for Nathalie’s birth of our daughter. Despite having been through it three times already, I was a nervous wreck. The worst part was that I could do very little to ease the birth. I could dull the pain a bit, but not all the way. She needed to be able to feel the contractions to know when to push.

Neither could I apply the healing magic until after the birth, or I would just prolong the birth. I felt utterly useless. All I could do was stand there, getting my hand crushed as Nathalie brought our child into the world. I decided against dulling the pain from her surprisingly strong grip because I felt I was responsible for her being in pain, and I should share that pain. Completely irrational, but such was often the case when it came to feelings.

My greatest worry was about whether the child would be born healthy. I worried that something would be wrong that I would not know how to fix. Over the last couple of years, I had learned a lot about healing magic. It would seem that just flooding a body with healing magic would not cure disease and deformities that you were born with.

The way Nathalie and Ethan had explained it to me was that the soul was the template, the default factory settings I would almost call it. If someone was born with a club foot, no matter how much healing magic you poured into the person, the club foot would remain.

However, if a healer knew what they were doing, they could make changes to the default settings, to the soul. It required the person to know exactly what to change to heal the malady the patient was born with. Something like a club foot was easy, but something like my tone-deafness that I was born with, would be much harder. The healer needed to know exactly which part of the brain was “damaged” and what a healthy one should look like.

It was one of the reasons why I had started a medical college so to speak in Sanctuary. Here all the healers would come and share their knowledge about the body, which would be written down for others to peruse at a later time. I had actually done that with all forms of magic, but instead of them being separated, they were all gathered in one place. Including healing magic, but the medical college was a separate entity from that.

The medical college was not only for the magical healers, but it was also for the mundane healers. Despite having close to five hundred healers, a majority of them were attached to the army and were not available for ordinary healing most of the time. That meant that with a population approaching a hundred thousand people, we needed trained people to take care of the minor stuff. Which meant that we needed the medical college to take care of that.

At the medical college, they also did research, dissecting people and so on. Heck, they were even authorized to do human experimentation. All the experimentation, whether alive or dead, were done on bandits we caught. I also had my people attend the auction for serfs of criminals. Murderers and the like were purchased for the purpose of experimentation.

It was something I kept secret from the wives. Some of them would not approve. Speaking of wives, an extra hard squeeze and a painful scream, brought my mind back to the matter at hand. The birth of my child.

A joyful exclamation from Tilly, the old healer that had been the sole mancer left at the Hold when I married Lily, let out a small joyful cry. “I can see the head, just push some more and soon it’s done.”

“You heard her, honey,” I said soothingly. “I know—”

“Karth shut the fuck uuuuuuuup—” Nathalie started to tell me, but the “up” turned into a drawn-out shout of exertion as another contraction hit and she pushed with all her might.

“There you go,” Tilly said. “Just one more.”

Nathalie complied and soon the room was filled with the wails of a newborn. Quickly I healed Nathalie’s body, making her sigh with relief. Tilly brought the little bundle up to Nathalie who was already moving about to be able to better breastfeed our child.

“Congratulations, it’s a girl,” Tilly said as she handed her to Nathalie. I just stood staring at the scene with a goofy grin.

Nathalie took our daughter into her arms and placed her against her breast. I had seen this so many times before. Nathalie looked down lovingly at our daughter. “Hello Nysa, it’s good to finally meet you.”

She had never been more pretty than at that moment. Even if her hair were matted with sweat, her face red from exertion and exhaustion. There was just something magical about a woman and her newborn baby. Carefully, I reached down and stroked Nysa’s cheek with a finger. A single thought repeated itself over and over in my head, ‘My daughter.’