Chương 110: 109: Merlotus

Month of Merlotus (June) Were it not for the constant, simmering conflict between Emily and Delyth, June would have been the most pleasant month of my entire life, on either Earth or Talamh. I constantly told Emily to come down on Delyth as hard as she needed to, but she had yet to do so for reasons I couldn't quite figure out. The only thing I could think of was that she wasn't confident enough in her new station to tell Delyth to shut up or leave the homestead.

I'd spoken with Baddon about it a single time, and he had once again been apologetic, but Emily had told me she didn't want me interfering with her issues with Delyth again. I'm not the smartest man in the world, but I'm smart enough to know when my involvement would only make the situation worse. So after that, I stayed in my lane. Aside from that, I had a great time with Rupert, Bryce, and Jac.

I'd always liked Rupert, but aside from him, I hadn't had people who I could just be friends with and speak with on equal footing since Woolsy had left in early spring. Sure, I counted Brendan as a good friend, but he and Ginny were incredibly busy. Their herds were doing amazing, and they had to constantly move them around until they could buy a couple more plots this fall. They were truly at the limit of what their current acreage could sustain.

Since they had a third of the herd at my place, they weren't getting cheap extra hay from me this year. Jac had done no distilling yet. He said he'd wait until July when he could have access to fresh berries and fruit. Bryce, on the other hand, made a couple of beers that I loved. He made a Londoninium Brown that kind of reminded me of a Newcastle Ale. It was a little sweeter because everyone loved their sweet beers here for some darned reason, but it was still good.

Bryce could actually control the sweetness level left behind by the yeast as one of his skills. One of my favorite summer beers was a beer by Deschutes Brewing called Twilight Summer Ale. I had zero brewing experience myself, but when I went into a deep-dive about the flavor profile with Bryce, he recreated something that tasted passably close. Everyone on the homestead enjoyed it, so Bryce was working on more crisp beers. I liked Laeth, Zack, Sean and Stephen, but they were younger, and they worked for me.

There were better worker protections here than on Earth thanks to our contracts, but there was always going to be a divide when I still had so much authority over them. Seamus and Baddon had a higher level of equality, thanks to their tradesman classes. Seamus hung out with us when he wasn't busy, but he had a surprising amount of work to do while he helped make metal pieces for all the new cabins. The tension between my wife and Baddon's wife made things a bit awkward between us as well.

But he was a heck of a Craftsman. He and Zack had built all the cabins and outhouses already. They were in the middle of working on the bunkhouses, and they would also start building the new bathhouses in Awst. They waited to build them for last because it took me until the end of Merlotus to hit level 10 in my Wizard class. I took Advanced Runecrafting as my skill and Material Compression as my Perk. Material Compression - You may channel mana into the earth to compress it. (Note: This is not a permanent solution.) Advanced Runecrafting - This ability allows you to create Tier 2 Runes for 900 mana each. It also reduces the cost of Tier 1 Runes to 675 mana. Tier 2 Runes include: Heating Rune. Cooling Rune (Note: Cooling Runes cannot be turned on and off at Tier 2). Mana Absorption Rune (Note: This Rune will absorb offensive magic up to the total amount stored. You may channel as much mana as you can, but it must be in one sitting or the rune will fail to stabilize). Moisture Absorption Rune.

The Moisture Absorption Rune was awesome, and way cheaper on material costs than I expected it to be based on how much I'd been charged when I had them installed in the potato cellars and the cold storage that had seepage issues. Aside from clay and silver, sea sponge and powdered limestone were the extra ingredients.

I hadn't been aware of why a Cooling Rune couldn't be turned on and off, while a Heating Rune could be, but it turned out that it was because you actually infused ice into a Cooling Rune, and the Rune kept it in a stable form. As soon as you turned the rune off, the ice turned to water or just evaporated. The heating rune used a hot piece of coal, and that piece of coal just cooled down when the magic wasn't coursing through it.

Both runes felt like they were using some real gamification rules to work, but it wasn't my place to argue with the System, especially when the System was working to make things a lot easier than they should have been. As for my perk, Soil Compression worked for putting in a foundation and for keeping my ditches in good working order. So far, I was going farther away from the soil specialist Wizard role, and way more into the Runecrafting part.

That was actually the more traditional route anyway, so I had a good idea of where I should go. On the Rupert front, the mayor had actually asked to meet with me when I'd ridden into town with Bryce to pick up brewing supplies right after we finished off the last of the planting. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

He said that Rupert was still on active duty with the army, and the army had asked the mayor to figure out why Rupert had stopped sending any updates about what he was doing on the homestead. He was still supposed to be stationed at the homestead, but once it was deemed safe enough for him to leave, he was supposed to meet back up with Neil and Bruce to reform their elite Wizard fighting squad. I knew for a fact that Rupert didn't plan on leaving anytime soon.

He had already spoken with me about how he'd work on fortifying the homestead next spring, after I went to 1, 000 acres if the potatoes did well. I didn't want to rat Rupert out, but I couldn't exactly lie to the mayor, so I simply told him that Rupert really enjoyed being on the homestead and that I felt like he made us much safer being there. I'd spoken with Rupert after that trip, and he simply said not to worry about things. Tieg and his squad spent their time training Colin and patrolling.

Lorcan was still the only one who regularly talked with the rest of us, but Tieg had deep respect for Jac. They'd fought together several times over the decades of the reconquest of the Western Territories. Colin and Emily had spoken about things. They hadn't come to any agreement, but Colin had promised that he had made no decisions already, and that he would discuss things again with his mom before he made a final decision. That had alleviated a lot of the tension between the two.

As for farm chores, we had to do some weeding, but I made Zack and Sean help us with that until the corn got tall enough that it smothered any opposition, so it wasn't an overwhelming chore. The speed bonuses certainly didn't hurt! I watered the corn and beans right after we planted, and watered the other crops a second time, but otherwise June was always the easiest month of the farming season both here and on Earth. As far as the animals went.

Buck and Spot finally brought their babies out of their burrows for quick trips right at the end of the month. They were so darned adorable it was disgusting. The Dwarven Rabbit breed matured much slower than their wild herbivore cousins. Of the four babies, we could see that two were male and two were female. Once they were finally weaned, we would sell the two males. The two females would stay with us. One female was snow white, and the other was fully brown. I wanted to name them Snow White and Brownie.

Colin and Emily disagreed with my names, so I had Zack build two suggestion boxes and told everyone they could put in names for each rabbit. Once everyone had done so, we would vote on the names. The winning names ended up being Pearl and Brownie. Of course I was magnanimous when Brownie was chosen, and didn't rub it in Emily's face, not even once… We were getting super close to finding out if any of our goats would have the Herd Leader trait. Sean and Aiden both said it was only a matter of time.

This breed of goat reached sexual maturity between six and nine months, so it could happen from here through around Hydref(October). The remaining three sows were pregnant again, and our duck and chicken flocks had grown large enough that we were back to butchering several birds per week to supplement the game the squad and Colin brought to us. As for the real kicker that made the month so incredibly fun. BBQ's! One of the unfortunate things from the attack on the homestead had been the deaths of six heifers.

I'd paid the Newtons for the cost of all six heifers despite their vigorous attempts at refusing payment. We'd butchered the cows and put them in cold storage to dry age. Now that we weren't exceptionally busy, and I had been kicked out of the kitchen for normal meals, I had Seamus build a large outdoor grill that I placed down on the beach by the river. I made Zack build a bunch of Adirondack style lounge chairs to place around the beach.

The first time I barbecued, there was a little grumbling from Emily and Cara, but I put my foot down hard and told them that on Earth, grilling was smack dab in the purview of the man of the house. They were welcome to make all the sides they wanted, but I was cooking the beef. I put together an amazing dry rub, and even made a couple of barbecue sauces that most people really liked.

I'd always been a bigger fan of barbecue sauces that were heavier on mustard and vinegar over the really sweet ones, and I had all the ingredients I needed. Anyone who wanted to could fish, and the fast-moving water kept the beach area much cooler than the surrounding land. It was only in the mid to high 80s, not where it would be in Awst, but it was more like 72-75 right on the beach. We spent several hours a night hanging out on the beach at least three days a week.

Jac, Rupert, Bryce, and I spent more like six hours a day drinking beer and slow-cooking ribs on barbecue days. Emily and Cara grumbled about that on occasion, but the four of us were at such high levels that even if we got drunk, we were fine by morning. Once it became clear that the barbecues were going to be a regular thing, the squad asked for a schedule so that they could range extra far on barbecue days to make sure the surrounding area was clear, then they began attending the barbecues as well.

The Newtons even made it out a few times to join us. I felt like we were becoming a real community. Then, at the last barbecue of the month, I had a bombshell dropped on me. The Newtons were over, and they'd brought a couple gallons of a decently smooth whiskey, and a small cask of a red wine that I knew Emily enjoyed.

Myself, Brendan, Rupert, and Bryce and Jac proceeded to do our best to take down a gallon of whiskey while we barbecued, and Ginny was liberally sampling from the cask of wine, but Emily was only sipping her glass. I was more than a little tipsy when I sauntered over to Emily, and in a voice that I thought was smooth, said, "Why don't you enjoy another glass or three, and we can get frisky a little later." She playfully pushed me away and said, "You are getting a little too drunk already.

I had better stay sober so I can make sure you lot avoid falling into the river." At that moment, Ginny looked at Emily with her head cocked to the side.

"Wait, Emily…" Emily's face went white, and she made a shushing motion to Ginny, who was also more than a little tipsy. Ginny couldn't help herself and blurted out, "Emily, you're pregnant, aren't you? You are, mind! An' don't you go tryin' t'tell me you're not, see." I barely avoided dropping my glass of whiskey. I looked at Emily and said, "Wait, what?"