“I gather that you aren’t very familiar with who I am, but there you have it. I came to the village several months ago as an outsider. A newcomer. Meaning that I can learn from you, from the experience you all possess. And as your student, I ask only this…”
They waited, uncertain.
“Think of me as the village chief’s messenger, passing along her orders. I plan to work alongside you to build this castle. I hope you see where I’m coming from.”
I dipped into a crisp bow and the discontented group of farmers were now looking at each other. They had fallen silent. Better than loud and angry, I suppose. This would do until the village chief arrived.
Once I started carrying stone again, this time alongside the new farmers, I saw Nishka look over at me from where she stood driving the slaves. I guess she’d heard what I said, proud long-ear that she was. After I unloaded the stone from my yoke and headed back down the hill, I saw Nishka marching straight at me. What, did she want to talk?
“Sorry,” she said, “I’m goin’ for a walk.”
“Hey, hold on! You’re not skipping out on me, are you?”
“Ha ha ha! Of course not!”
I hastily excused myself from my newly won allies, though I still don’t think they exactly liked me, and ran after Nishka.
“How come you didn’t slap those idiots down?” she hissed. “Huh?”
“If I start beating people to get them to listen to me, I’m pretty sure the village would ostracize me and my family. And what would I do then?”
“Ostrich size you? I don’t get what those birds gotta do with this.”
“No, that’s not—I mean that they’d snub us. The villagers would all band together to ignore us and we’d be outcasts.”
“You talkin’ about gettin’ bullied?” Nishka snorted. It was weird how infuriated she seemed.
“Where I came from, it was kind of like a rule that, if you crossed all the wrong lines, everyone would ignore you except at a funeral or a fire. I just got a new wife, so I can’t afford to start picking fights with anyone.”
“I guess you’ve got a point. But those bastards were bein’ so damn rude to you, makes my blood boil!”
“Don’t worry about it. Do you think I’ll ever be able to get rid of this thing, though?” I tugged on my belly-button piercing and sighed. It drew looks from the villagers, and it was getting to the point that even the stares from the enslaved criminals were starting to bother me.
“Sure ya can. If you don’t like it, want me to yank it out for ya?”
“N-no thanks! I like having a belly.”
“Ha ha ha! Just jokin’,” Nishka laughed. “But y’know, it doesn’t have to be a joke. The yanking part, sure, but…”
Her face turned serious. I understood why. Even while the two of us were talking, the enslaved criminals were toiling and—every now and again—glancing in our direction with dagger-eyed looks.
“You can handle the farmers however ya want, but that stuff won’t work on slaves. If one of ’em turns rebellious and you don’t set him straight, they’re gonna start gettin’ violent. And if it happens in the village, stuff’d go south real fast.”
“Ugh. That’s true. I should talk to the village chief.”
“And tell her how the farmers were stirrin’ up trouble.”
“You’re right. Speaking of touchy subjects, someone was watching us on our way here this morning.”
“Watchin’ you? Maybe it was the bull-kin.” Nishka propped her chin on her fingers and thought it over.
I didn’t have any guesses of my own, and I didn’t know if it was wise to speculate.
“Ya might not wanna talk about that here, though. Maybe wait until you get back to the village chief’s place.”
“Good point.”
And back to work we went. There were some pockets of unrest in the air, but no one was going to cause problems, at least not yet…but that still left the question of whoever had been stalking us. Who was that?
When the village chief arrived that afternoon, she climbed up the hill and then sent her bodyguard, the adventurer Electra, back down before she let slip a whisper of admiration. “Looks like work is progressing pretty well here. I thought it would take more time to get the scaffolding set up.”
“We’ve managed to get a lot done thanks to all the serfs you sent to help.”
“You’ll need to finish as much as possible before autumn. Once harvest time comes around, the farmers won’t be available anymore and the hunters will need to focus their energy on hunting,” Alexandricia told me as we walked the outer boundary of the castle. We had managed to finish the foundation and had begun building scaffolding and setting stones.
I followed along behind Alexandricia, bowing at constant intervals. Cassandra and Elpaco walked even farther back. It was kinda dopey-looking.
“As it happens, I have some good news for you, Shooter.”
“Is it about my new house?”
The village chief turned to me, her eyebrows raised. “Who told you that? I was trying to keep it secret.”
“The carpenters were talking about it. They said that’s why we didn’t have as many carpenters here today.”
“Well, I figured you wouldn’t need so many just to lay foundations and erect scaffolding. Those damn chatty dwarves.”
“Please don’t blame them, ma’am. I was the one who asked if they were overworked, given the shortage of manpower.”
“You notice the strangest things. Or perhaps I know better now—perhaps I should say you seem educated? Regardless, it makes you troublesome. Yes, Shooter, the frame of the house is up and everything is done except the mud walls.”
Right now, houses were being built all over the place for the newly arrived settlers and goblin laborers, and it looked like mine was among them. Then I remembered that basic construction had been done for several buildings on what I’d thought was just the empty lot next to my house. Was I wrong? Was one of them mine?
“Did they really get the entire frame up in one day?”
“Ha. I’m sure your new wives are eager to move in. Once the basics are taken care of, it only takes a day or two to get a one-story house up.”
“Man. Earth magic is something else…”
“It will probably take a few days for the walls to fully set, and we can’t put the thatched roof up until after that.”
“Thank you so much, ma’am. Truly, thank you, from the bottom of my heart.”
I groveled, and Cassandra and Elpaco followed my lead.
“You’d prefer to have a separate room for you and your brides, I assume?”
“Ha ha! Yes, yes yes yes, thank you!”
“It’s much nicer than a hunter’s shack, but it’s still just a wood-frame house with mud walls. I hope you can make do until the proper stone houses are built around the castle,” Alexandricia said cheerfully. Then she drew close beside me and whispered, so that only I’d hear, “I’m working hard for you, big brother.” She smiled. “Well, I’d better get started putting those walls up.”
Hot damn, the walls were coming up, my mood was coming up, everything was coming up!