Morning. I let the girls have the wagon for their exclusive use, and slept under the stars with Zahariel. Shraaizar slept inside my bedroll. How I missed these quiet nights and the feeling of her soft scales. The night was so calm she only bit me once. It was my fault for squeezing the tip of her tail. She even apologized.

I'm so happy. After all the pain and the road, I am going to have a place for me. It will be crowded with friendly monsters and a few trusted people, and it will be awesome.

I woke up early and full of energy. I set up my workshop at one of the half-buried hovels and already crafted and deployed two permanent anchors. By the way, my anchor setup right now is:

Colchester Warehouse (permanent) Syrup Hill? (permanent) Alvus' Clinic (permanent) Syrup Meadow (permanent) Beelzebub's Hive B5 - Bee Level Strawford falls: north Demon Scout Crater Barnsley Alley Beelzebub's Hive Outskirts Backyard of a big house, Mirfield

I run to the side of the wagon where the girls were changing into their adventurer garb. There was a blanket hanged as a curtain. When Helen signals to be ready I take her hand and teleporte to the hill where the first houses will be placed. I have four in the storage. The two biggest ones were left in Mirfield, I'll go there to pick them up soon.

"It was nice to avoid walking all the way up here, but can you please put me down?"

"No. I want to feel you in my arms a little longer." And spin you around. She is so light.

"Fine. But you pick me up all the time. I'm not a little child!" I'd not do this if you were a child. You see, I do this exactly because you are a grown woman. There is some quality on this tactile feeling of holding you on my arms, and the view is awesome.

In the end I just put her down. I can't afford to bother her now. "Here you go, miss. Wait a few minutes here."

I teleport back to the meadow and bring Marcy this time. She is wearing a muffler and a wool turtleneck-ish shirt so the view was obstructed, but these hills are very nice to look at this close.

"Nice hills. Don't you think?" I ask Marcy.

"This gives a whole new dimension to the word elope, do you know?" She seems to be talking about teleporting.

I spin her just like Helen and earn a free lesson on dense fluid dynamics. But she is unfazed, half the fun is gone. "Do you want to get down?"

"Sure. You won't be able to work if I stay here, will you?"

"No." I put her down and announce, "We are going to set the houses I brought here on this hill. But first, we need to flatten the ground and set the foundations."

"Okay, lead the way, Beowulf."

With Helen's combo of druid and earth magic and my elemental summoning, it still took the whole morning to set the foundations for the six houses. I forgot we had to plan for the roads too. Silly me. And now the dreaded moment. I have to take the houses out of the item box with precision.

There was no problem despite my nervousness. All four I had in storage went in their places without a hitch. I'll 'whitewash' their outside in boiled willow syrup later to keep bugs and slimes away and enhance durability.

The monsters climbed the hill, curious of the new dwellings. I'll have to make stone houses for the flame gorillas. Wood is flammable after all.

"I am sorry folks, but there are two big houses that I am bringing. I don't have enough MP to bring passengers to Mirfield, so I'll be back in an hour." I have to work this out. I barely have enough MP to teleport there, and since the cost is based on the logarithm of the distance, I would have to split the trip in three or four legs to be able to take one person. I'll have to grind more max MP.

Fortunately, the way to increase your mana pool is to burn the mana to the ground, exactly what I am doing. A few more trips back and forth and there will be results.

I teleported to the backyard of the almost-mansion house, stored it and also the last house and ran to the merchant association. The girl was there, working at the lobby.

"Welcome! Oh, you again."

"Good profits! Are you feeling better? Is the..." crap. I didn't get the guy's name. This will get me into trouble one day. "Can you please announce Hero Beowulf is here? My business is about the houses I bought yesterday."

"Surely, sir. Please wait."

The girl is a pro. I could tell she was terrified of my presence, but she was professional and courteous, even though a bit cold. She mumbled the 'you again' part, so I wasn't supposed to hear.

The same baldie from before descends the stairs. "Is everything in order?" He asks me.

"Yes, I was just checking on the paperwork. Is everything in order?" I send his question back.

"Sure. I just need to run this by the King's appointed territorial Steward."

"Good. I just came to tell you that the land where the houses stood is up for sale. You can set the price and get the standard commission. I'll drop by regularly to check if there was any sale. I'll be hunting monsters deep in the mountains for a few days. Bye." I need to find the guy's name. Maybe next visit I'll ask the girl. What was her name again?

Next stop is Alvus' clinic. Just to say hello and check on the progress of the cursed people. When I got inside, Mercy was part-timing as a nurse.

"Hey, son-in-law, how is it going? I thought you were going to stay away for quite some time, what brought you guys back?"

"Hello, mother. I'm in town by myself securing some supplies for our forward... camp. The girls are there securing the place."

"Cloude came to see me and he was sulking. I couldn't make anything about the nonsense he was muttering but it involves you. Do you know what that boy wants?"

"I am a boy too, so yes. The same that all boys want but it is not my choice to make. If she decides to ditch me for Cloude, then I'll..."

She stops me from completing my sentence and takes me to a room nobody is using before continuing, "That is no good. My daughter is too whimsical. She puts something in her head and then just go ahead with it. And she goes with the flow too easy. You need to be a strong, safe harbor to give her stability."

"What do you mean?"

She comes really close to me and tells me in a low voice, "I know it doesn't show, but I have had more than my fair share of men. Unfortunately some miscarriages happened and I only had Marcy. But I know men and you are too soft. Some town girls came complaining to me the first time you were around here that you wouldn't give them a glance. That you were some deviant that disliked women."

Those 'let me have your baby' or 'give me your seed' girls that catcalled me on the streets, I am sure of it. Even Helen called me out on my Earthling way of dealing with romance. Twice.

But I have to protest. I am not a brute man that would seize women and force his way with them. I'm not even a man anymore ever since I came to this world but that is beyond the point.

"I think I understand what you are saying..." Again she cuts me.

"No, you don't. No white lies. Even with all those fancy kissing techniques of yours, it is still not enough. You need to take my daughter and engrave in her mind, in her heart, in her body that she is your woman. And make sure she likes it or I'll deal with you myself."

Mercy makes a scary gesture. I feel dread for my life here. Even if it grows back, it is still a deadly blow.

This is not Earth. Even back there, the different cultures had another set of values. I should take Mercy's words as 'I acknowledge you as my son-in-law now make my daughter happy'.

I'll ask just to confirm, "Say, mother, those girls that came complaining to you, they were the same that threw themselves on me asking to have my baby or to just give them my seed, right?"

"Yes, having a child born of a hero would be a boon. Imagine how strong that child would be! Even I would want one If I could bear any more children." Danger sense tingling. The Mercy in front of me now makes Marcy look like a child playing in the sandbox when it comes to flirting.

"I understand, mother. I'll make sure to make Marcy happy."

Mercy uses 'limit break' and increases her offensive power by 700%, "And what about me? Will you make me happy?" This innuendo is too much for a teenager boy. But I won't fall for a honeytrap.

"Yes, mother. As soon as it is possible and safe, I'll grant you a grandchild." Emphasis on the 'safe'. What the orc prince told me still resounds in my mind.

She backs off and beams a kind smile, "Now that is what I wanted to hear. Off you go, boy. Make sure to fill her... mind with thoughts of you. Only you."

I turn to leave and she slaps me in the butt. I think I was groped but I am sure that was my imagination. If I ever write my self-biography, I came, said hi and just teleported away. This will be the official version. Yes, sir.

I go inside the store room and cast teleport to the anchor at the hill. I appear at the hill and bask in the sunlight. I need to clear my mind. She is my mother-in-law. Mother. Ommmm...

Max MP Increase level 7. MP Recovery level 8. Meditation level 7. {MP Flux} learned. Meditate for two hours to increase MP recovery by 2% per level for 26 hours.

Helen comes to me and takes my hand, "Are you feeling well? You are red! Do you have a fever? You are with MP exhaustion! Rest a little. Burning this much MP at once is no good!"

"I'll be fine. Can you call Marcy? I'll be waiting for you in that house over there."

Helen leaves in a hurry and I enter the house. It is clear of bugs but not mold. Vegetation and the like are not considered living creatures.

But maybe she is right. Stress was piling up and I had little time to really relax. It was always run there, do that, don't die, save someone. I'll take the rest of the day off. Take some mattresses out of the item box, some blankets, sheets...

The girls barge in with worried faces, "Beowulf, are you sick?" Marcy asks with a troubled voice.

"I'm fine, I think I just need some rest. I will take today and tomorrow as vacation days. Things have been hectic and I never took a single day to get off of my feet and really relax. I want you to join me."

"What is a vacation?" Helen tilts her head.

"Do nothing for a whole day?" Marcy is suspicious. In this world, the very concept of vacation does not exist.

Do nothing like building, crafting, fighting, worrying about monsters, enemies, or your if you will survive. Something like that. We will remain here and eat good food, drink talk, rest, and whatever else we want."

"Just like the nobles in the books, Marcy!"

"If you look at it from this angle, I am the ruler of this place now. It is not enough to be called a kingdom, but yes. Just like nobles. Now come."

I watched a talk on the internet once that said 'When you have an experience you want to repeat, that was when you were happy'. In that day and half of vacation, we were very happy, thank you.

And surprisingly nothing came to disturb us. Thank you nameless world's RNG.

Morning came and our self-proclaimed unpaid vacation ended. Helen and I resumed our work on the foundation for the houses and Marcy volunteered to clean them up. Some of them were abandoned for most of the fall season and needed some minor repairs. I set the second-to-last house on its place and brought everyone to the place for the big one.

"And now the last house for this small village." The foundation for this one is at the very summit of the hill. We raised the foundation by a level with rocks and Helen made grass grow on the packed earth. It is obviously artificial but very tasteful. There will be an unblocked view for miles. We can see the whole syrup meadow from here.

Two people clapped and the monsters gathered quickly picked up the custom. I lined up myself in front of the foundation and carefully brought the house out of the item box with the utmost care to align it with the foundation.

"That is my house!" Helen screamed. Yes. The last house, the special one was the house abandoned by Azelius and his family before Helen made her jailbreak. Most of the furniture and the stuff they left behind is still inside.

She entered and the emotions overflowed. There was never a chance to return home after she left for that beginner expedition. She was hiding her true self, cowering in a foreign land. My dream is to bring her family back here. I pushed Marcy inside to give her support and after they returned I turned to address the crowd.

I clear my throat and tell them. "Today we begin a new era for this land. You were living in the wild alone and were weak. I will show you that together, supporting each other we will become stronger. We will make friends out of enemies and corpses out of the ones that either refuse our friendship or attack us. We will live together with the humans instead of either kill or be killed. We will carve our place in the world!"

I know, I am terrible at speeches. But my audience were monsters they really don't care. Actually, I think one of the words 'conquest' or 'slaughter' were missing. This requires further investigation.

"What will be the name of this place?" Asks Helen.

"Syrup Hill!"

"Rejected. I won't be the queen of syrup anything!" Marcy objects.

"Willow Hill?"

"Passable." C'mon. It is way better than naming a planet 'Bob'. Speaking of which, this planet is nameless. Nevermind, better not mess with it. I am going to craft another mold and cast a permanent anchor. Need to keep the temporary slots flexible.

And like that the village of Willow Hill was founded, in the year of nobody-cares-about-calendar. I'll make one and call this the year 1 of the syrup era... Just to spite Marcy.