Homesteading in a fantasy world

POV Ben

A final look over the document convinced me that nothing was wrong, so I signed my name and reached for the stamp. I once again hesitated, like I always did, to pick it up. That stamp represented the authority of the high general, Rich Dirt.

It was something I had been using much since it was announced that we were going to start preparing for war once again. I had just been a paper pusher for the legion since I lost my leg in the first battle of the United Freehold against the Slave King.

After we got a few decent healers, it didn't take long for my turn. They regrew my leg in 6 days. I still continued the work I had done for the legion, but with both legs, I did get a bit more training, which helped me get promoted a bit higher.

Unfortunately, it meant that I was qualified to be the high general's assistant. It wasn't the most pleasant job, but I did it with all that I had. Rich deserved at least that. Still, I regret that I didn’t take the opportunity to join the legion fighters. Now, a large portion of my day consisted of reading reports and compiling responses.

The stamp was heavy when I used it, as I knew the meaning of it. He was someone I still didn’t understand. Sometimes he acted like I expect, other times it takes my brain a stupid amount of time to understand what I need to do next because of how crazy the things he says are.

After the ink was dry, I put the paper into a special bag and grabbed another bundle of papers. When I made it near the door that led outside, I put everything on the table beside it so I could dress up properly for the weather.

The weather outside was cold, and I needed to walk through quite a thick layer of snow to make it to my first destination. Opening the door of a weird-looking building, I was greeted with bird noises that I still didn’t understand, but I was pretty sure that particular pattern was a greeting.

“Good day to you as well, Goose. I have another bundle to take to the capital.” The answer I got in return, I was quite certain, was annoyance or possibly even a curse word. I understood his feelings, as such a magnificent eagle shouldn’t be carrying mail.

I attached the bag and left, knowing that he will go when he wants to go. Goose was a weird name for such a dangerous creature. Yet, my next destination was to bring the latest report to an even more dangerous creature.

Starting my walk towards the dam meant that I needed to pass a lot of empty buildings, as basically everyone had left, and the only ones still here were us and a long-term observation team, who would also be responsible for destroying the dam if needed.

It was so loud here because of the falling water, but hopefully, we will be leaving soon as there should be enough water collected that the high general should no longer need to protect this place.

He was sitting near the centre of the dam, as he always does. Sometimes he doesn’t move from there for an entire week, which is quite miserable as I need to stay constantly next to him while he reads the reports since I need to know what to write back.

When I first started this job, everything was so much simpler as I basically had to do nothing as he took care of most of the paperwork, but very slowly, I have needed to do more and more of it. I haven’t decided yet if he is teaching me or just doesn't want to do the paperwork.

Honestly, I wish he did the paperwork himself because he’s way too good at it, and basically, what takes me 4 hours, he's able to do in less than one. For some reason, he knows so much about war.

The current theory is that he used to be a general in whatever place he comes from, and if that's the case, I don’t know whether to be happy or sad to know that he has gone through so much. Fortunately, seeing him no longer makes me feel small as I have gotten used to the height difference. What also helps is that he's sitting, which makes him seem like a normal man.

Wordlessly, I handed him the report, as I have learned that he doesn't care about formalities that much and actually prefers efficiency over it. I continued to stand beside him while he read and, like always, I looked down the river as he always did.

I don’t know what he was looking at, as to me, nothing ever changes, but I’m certain that he’s looking at something, as I sometimes see him looking thoughtfully at a certain point while his eyes seemed to change how they look.

"I guess it’s time for us to leave. Let's head back and start packing up," his words jolted me, and it took me a little bit to understand them fully. As I looked at him, I already saw that smile that meant he was messing with me.

Not that his words weren’t truthful, but he seemed to get pleasure out of shocking people. Fortunately, I have never been on watch whenever he decided to start testing if everyone was paying attention while they were on guard. Fortunately, we were going to be able to get out of here and back to civilization.

It didn't take us long to pack everything and load it up onto one of the newer carts that had a sled instead of wheels. I saw Rich scratching Goose, and then he went flying off at incredible speeds. "Of course, I’m not going to win," Rich yelled after Goose.

I saw him shaking his head. "Get on to the sled and hold on tight." My mind once again stopped for a moment. "Why do I need to hold on tight?" I asked, but I wasn’t able to keep the shakiness out of my voice. He didn't answer me; instead, he took the ropes in front of the cart and then started to pull faster and faster.

"You can't be serious! How can you even think... No, please stop!" I continued to beg, but nothing helped as we continued to move faster and faster. There was no way he could win. I have no idea how long it took, but eventually, Rich slowed down enough that my mind seemed to start working again.

Why was I seeing the capital? What happened? "So you are awake, that’s good. You screamed so much that you passed out, but that was an impressive amount of screaming," he said.

"Did you win?" was all that I could ask, as I really didn’t want to think about what had happened. He laughed and shook his head. "Of course not, but we got faster than we should have, and it was good to stretch my legs."

Stretch his legs? That was quite literally the most ridiculous thing I have heard, yet I didn’t mention anything and just gave him a weak smile because that was all that I could manage. Why did I have a feeling that this wasn’t going to be the most ridiculous thing I will see while working for him?

Fortunately, things got back to a more normal state of affairs, but my day was still spent mostly doing paperwork. I also needed to go to quite a lot of meetings that I had no business being at, but since I was the high general's assistant, no one questioned me being there.

It was often because of Rich that I needed to join these meetings. He would just be walking by and say to me, "That meeting today at 11 with the other nation's generals, join me," or "The 6:00 meeting, go instead of me and then write me a summary of what was decided."

It was honestly madness, but fortunately, I wasn’t the only one he treated like this. As time went on, seemingly more and more random people became his victims, and we were constantly being pushed beyond what our original job descriptions said.

None of us had the balls to ask for an explanation, and I didn’t even know how much someone would need to invest in willpower to be actually able to say no to him. I also think the reason why no one has said no is because he somehow gradually starts pushing you, and when you realize it, you are in way too deep to get out.

Some of his victims were currently working with other nations to help organize things there, but things continued to get more and more efficient as time went on, which I learned from David is something that should go the opposite way, especially in war preparations.

At the beginning, when this all started, I remembered how it took a while to work through a mistake, but now with so many people working and after Rich got to them, we can almost anticipate a mistake before it happens.

I still haven’t seen anything crazier than the sled incident, but I think I might consider the way he runs things a bit more insane. He must have his mentoring skills at a crazy level because how else would he have taught a simple paper pusher to be so good at his job that I basically have nothing to do anymore? Everything is just so easy now; sometimes, I even wish that we had a lot more soldiers so things would be more complicated.

There was still one thing I wasn’t ready for or knew how to handle properly: actual war. All this hard work distracted me quite sufficiently, but the temperature was now getting warmer. In another month, the temperature will be near 0, and a month after that, armies can march, or at least that's what the druids are saying.

Thinking over everything, I honestly don’t think we could do anything more to boost our chances of victory. Soon, it will be time for the soldiers to take over. I just hope the preparations we have done will be good enough to keep as many of them alive as possible and bring us victory.