Homesteading in a fantasy world

POV Rich

I was absolutely mortified. I couldn't believe I was sitting on a fancy chair on a stage, looking over a crowd of people. The snow had already melted, although it was a late winter this year.

Still, the ground was now soft, and tomorrow we would all start preparing the old fields and making new fields for the future. At least one thing was good: no one starved, as we were able to ship all the extra meat we got from the bird attack to the needed places.

So, why was I mortified? Those bastards had kept everything secret from me. That was something unpleasant, but I had promised myself I would not use my abilities to spy on others, especially because my connection to the land and the abilities that supported it notified me without me having to actually look if someone was betraying us.

Yet, I didn’t know if this was a betrayal. It was also my birthday. I was now officially 16 in this world. And no one was going to forget ever again that it was going to be my birthday because they had declared this day a national holiday: Dirt Day.

Those sons of bitches, so clever. Of course, I immediately tried to call them out on it, but no, they were trying to convince me while smiling and trying to hold back laughter that no, it's because it signifies the start of the spring and the work for the coming planting season.

I think I wouldn’t have been so angered if they had tried to hide the real reason a little bit better, even if I could see through it right away, but they were almost like mocking me.

Oh, but I now understood. I see that they want to play games. I mean, I’ve been nice to the army thus far, only training them a little bit for unknown situations. Yet, how could I have forgotten how important it is for government workers who could be targets for assassinations? How could they let their guard down? This needs to be fixed. For the first time since I heard what they were planning, a smile came to my face. Oh, it was on.

POV David

It has been a great few weeks. I don’t even remember who came up with the plan, but everyone was on board almost immediately. I mean, he should have been ruling us from the beginning, but he didn’t want that. But how could a nation not honor its heroes?

Fortunately, I made sure that in the speeches we were going to have today that no one would actually mention that. We will mainly focus on the fact that it would be a day not just to remember rich dirt but also the black dirt that gives us life.

I was a bit saddened to have seen Rich so desperate and I almost called everything off. Rich eventually accepted that this national holiday was going to happen. Hopefully, he will cheer up a little bit.

I saw a council member from the corner of my eye, and for some reason, he had turned white and was shivering a bit. What was wrong? As I continued to turn towards him, I could see the sweat forming on his forehead.

That’s troubling, and then I saw it. Immediately, my head snapped towards Rich. My mouth went completely dry, and I felt like I was going to fall, yet I couldn’t because I was completely frozen.

That smile, and then he looked towards me. Fuck, we shouldn’t have done this. Oh no, we should not have done that. I was shaking now while looking towards the crowd. They didn’t understand, but I saw the guards. Oh, I saw them, and I knew that they understood.

That smile and that look, I’ve only seen it a few times, but never directed towards me. I have seen what he has done to the guards. They called it the brown patrol because if Rich was training you to be alert, at some point you were probably scared enough to soil your own pants.

I did not want that to happen to me. Perhaps I should visit one of our compounds in the larger cities. No, that’s even more dangerous. My mind continued to run through scenarios, yet I couldn’t find any escape.

The worst thing was that I was hoping that he was going to pay me back as soon as possible, yet why did I believe that he would wait 50 years for revenge if he wanted to? Will I ever be able to relax, and if I do, will he be there? But no, that probably wouldn't work either.

I tried to swallow, but I couldn’t; my mouth was still dry. Then I noticed they were signaling me; it was my turn to give a speech. Fortunately, the person who gave the speech before me stumbled and almost fell down when he noticed Rich.

It was like I was underwater, and finally, someone reached their hand out to me and started to pull me out of the water. We were all in trouble, not just me. That should not have helped me, but it did; it made me feel so much better. I almost sighed out of relief, but I couldn’t show it; it had already started. I can’t let him know.

POV Rich

David was a crafty one, thinking I wouldn’t notice how his heartbeat relaxed and continued to go down after he saw the council member stumble. He figured something out that made him less afraid.

Well, good for him, but I had a lot of planning to do. That being said, I haven’t used my stealth skills enough for quite a while, and this would be an interesting challenge. Just scaring them wouldn't be enough; I want them to be as mortified as I used to be just a few minutes ago.

Yet, there was time for all of that let them stew a bit longer before I start. There were some plans that needed to be realized. For one thing, relying too much on just growing food was not going to be safe enough.

What if there was a disease, or more likely, some monster swarm that consumed most of the crops? No, a nation needed variety. For that reason, I was going to have more animals on my farm, and we should really start thinking of national herds as well.

I also think I finally figured out what we should do with that dam. We should make the center area stronger, so it would be a lot harder to break the dam, and then use the hugely flooded area upriver, that was mostly quite shallow, to also start farming underwater crops and different animals as well. Fish was a given, but perhaps shellfish also. It was a huge national resource that we could truly develop.

Fortunately, the ceremony didn’t last too long, after which I went to my office and wrote some request letters for the acquisition department to find me some lambs and goats. Perhaps I should also do some more research on the different animals available in this world because there are a lot more domesticated animals in this world than there were on Earth.

The animals would need to be able to eat lush grass, survive the cold, and be able to traverse rocky, hilly terrain. Didn’t that dwarf homeland have a lot of this kind of terrain?

I could make a few inquiries, but right now I’m quite looking forward to tomorrow because I was going to go and help Francis with making new fields.

I still don’t think it would be a good idea to expand the fields on my own lands. I already needed to transfer quite a lot to the capital's storehouse simply because my own root cellar wouldn't be able to handle the volume we were getting. I suspected the next few months would be quite pleasant.