Homesteading in a fantasy world

After the lake discovery, I felt that my exploration needs were filled for quite a while. I settled into a more relaxed living after that and focused on my apprentices, my teachings, and improving my own skills. Time flew by, mainly because I was having so much fun, and even before I realized it, I could smell spring in the air.

Now, I always liked that smell, but compared to my apprentices, I might have just been a stone statue with how much emotion I showed. They always needed to do something, and I could see constant smiles on their faces as they all knew that it was about time they claimed their own land and became true homesteaders.

All of them had levelled up enough that they could now start their own journeys, but they still needed a little bit of help. For that, Francis and I were going to help transport their border stones, especially for the two who accepted the special offer of taking care of the rabbit areas in the grasslands. They needed more stones than all my other apprentices combined, but I didn’t mind the extra work, especially because the nation was going to pay me credits as this was something they requested.

My older apprentices had already marked the places they were going to build their homes and were just waiting until the ground was a little softer before they started to dig. I did tell them that it would be good training to start digging now, but I'm not sure if they agreed or not. Whatever the case was, I still liked the look on their faces when I suggested that.

I will still help my current apprentices as well, but all of them have hired help so they could build their houses a bit faster and have people who know what they're doing constantly there. Some of them moved quite far away, so it's not realistic for me to be able to constantly monitor them and help them when they run into trouble.

I was incredibly proud that no one asked me for that, but they came up with the solutions themselves. I was even more proud that none of them just hired someone to build a house for them; they only hired help.

That meant that my teaching was taken to heart. What I did tell everyone was to have me around whenever they claimed their land because they would need help with the trait of true nature connection, as it can be overwhelming and needs time to get used to.

One by one, my apprentices left, setting up near their construction sites, except for one. Tim was still here. "So, I guess you are going to stay?" He grunted back an affirmative, and I nodded back as we stood and looked over the land where life was returning quite fast. "If you think you won't have to build a house, you are incorrect," I said with a broad smile on my face. "What?" he said, looking at me a bit shocked.

"Yep, find a place on my land and build yourself your own home. After that, I will make you officially a part of my clan, agreed?" It didn't take long for him to smile widely as well and give me his hand to shake. "Agreed." After the handshake, he walked off with purpose in his steps.

He would have been a great homesteader if he just had the passion to start over again, but I could completely understand someone who simply didn't have the desire left to do everything over once again. I wonder if something happened to this place, would I be willing to once again start over? I didn’t know the answer but hoped that I never had to find out.

About a week later, after I returned from helping one of my apprentices, I felt a stick break that indicated trouble and that I should immediately return to the capital. I immediately rushed out, saying a quick few words about what had happened to Tim.

The run to the capital was quite fast, as with the new roads, I could push myself a lot more. The trouble was coming from a portal station where Roger was with a group of three people who were surrounded by our guards but who didn't seem very concerned. I could understand why because two of them were rank two and one was rank three.

As soon as they noticed me, the rank 3 one turned to me. "Rich Dirt, you are under arrest by the order of the world council." The two rank two people moved towards me with purpose, and I could see that they were ready to pull their weapons.

My people were about to try to stop them. "Stand down and clear the way," I gave out the command, which actually made the two rank two people stop their advance. "What am I accused of?" I asked in a firm tone, and I could see the rank three person contemplate on what to do, but it seems that he decided to be civil.

"You are accused of purposely trying to evolve monsters to be more similar to the enlightened races. And before you can ask, you have been accused of this by Queen Amellean the Third," I was informed.

I looked towards Roger with my eyebrow raised, and he quickly understood what I was trying to ask. "She's the queen of the large nation down south, the one that was formed from the last remnants of the fallen kingdom. She is the last surviving member of that royal line." Well, that explains it. I remembered the annoying bodyguard that fought with us against the dragon. Yeah, they didn't like us, especially me.

"You aren't denying the charges? Are you confessing your crime?" one of the rank two persons asked. Honestly, everyone around, including his own comrades, looked at him like he was an idiot.

"I won’t even dignify that with an answer, but I will come quietly." Two rank two people approached me once again, but when one of them pulled out handcuffs, I took a step back. "No need for handcuffs. I won’t cause any trouble, and I especially don’t want people thinking that I’m guilty because they see me in cuffs."

The rank two people looked at their commander, who continued to study me for quite a few moments. "Very well, follow us. But if you cause any trouble, I will find an even worse pair of cuffs that would make anyone think that you are a dangerous individual who need to be locked up or killed."

I gave a nod to that, as that was probably the best I could get out of this situation. Thankfully, it took a bit of time for our low-end portal gateway to be charged up enough, so I had enough time to give instructions and learn a bit more about the time frame we were working with.

While this was a worrying development, I was pretty sure that helping out fallen races wasn't actually illegal. But from my current understanding, most think that goblins are monsters, so hopefully there are more informed people in whatever court I find myself in.

What also helped me stay optimistic was the attitude of the people who came to take me away, especially their leader. It was good that the hearing was in 6 days, so this shouldn't take too long to figure out what will happen.

That was both good and bad news because the longer it takes, I'm pretty sure the more I could have gotten out of the queen when they lose this case. However, there were still a lot of unknowns, and I really didn't like to put myself at the mercy of some people I didn't know who thought that they ran the world. But in the long run, this will be the best option, and I just have to hope that if I play by their rules, I will be able to get ahead.

Now, as for the queen and that bodyguard, they are beginning to become a pain in my ass, and even if they lose, I'm pretty sure that they would find other ways to mess with us. Unfortunately, they're a bit too far away to do anything direct, and even if I wanted to, their population was way too large for us to do anything militarily. This will require some thought. But whatever the case was, they had angered me quite a lot, and I was planning on taking them for everything they had.