Chương 73: Chapter 74: Epilogue

The next morning, Emily and I went down for breakfast, and Janice gave us an expectant look.

"Well, how was it?" My face immediately turned beet red. But Emily, shockingly, said, "Very well, he performed very adequately."

"Hey!" I said.

"You told me I did some things you'd never experienced before and that you really liked it!" She looked at me and said, "As I said, you performed well. I am sure that if we practice often, things will get even better." As Janice laughed, I smiled but remained beet red. I was almost certain Emily was just teasing me. She'd seemed pretty happy last night. But that comment about practicing often was something I was fully on board with.

I gave Emily a kiss and told her I needed to go get Colin and get our escort organized with Militia Captain Castell. We were planning to leave by 10 a. m. so we could get back to the homestead and get everyone's sleeping quarters situated. I'd also wanted to hire a cook before we left, but Emily insisted she would cook for everyone for a couple of weeks until we were certain it was safe to bring in extra domestic help.

I told her she was now a wealthy homesteader's wife, and it wasn't appropriate for her to be cooking for close to twenty-five people every day, and there was no way she could keep up with their laundry. Plus, she now had the Bookkeeper class, which was only level 4. She needed to be focusing on that. She only had her most recent Homesteader skill focused on homestead management. She said she would make do for now. I told her the only way I would allow it was if she let me help her with the cooking.

She seemed scandalized at first, but I insisted. We had a bunch of extra potatoes, so I was looking forward to making hashbrowns and fried potatoes for breakfast. The soldiers, comprising ten full-time soldiers employed by the Imperial Army and ten trusted Weston residents, would bring their own supplies. So aside from the potatoes that I was looking forward to introducing them to, we wouldn't have to provide any food for them.

When I threatened to just hire a couple of Farm Mistresses right there on the spot, she'd relented on letting me help cook. Our procession began the journey back to the homestead, on time thanks to Captain Castell, and just before dark, we made it home. Our bunkhouses could each sleep up to fifteen people. We had three of them, so Lieutenant Woolsly, who had been put in charge of this new little temporary military outpost, let them choose where they wanted to sleep from among the three.

Woolsly took one of the cabins, and Glenn and Hari were given another cabin, since they were Scouts. They wouldn't be staying, but my place and the Newtons were on their regular patrol route. They were given a cabin ostensibly so they wouldn't wake any of the soldiers up if they got in late at night. Colin took another cabin, so that left us with two empty cabins.

Two of the militiamen who had joined us, Stephen Roarty and Zack Nagle, who were dockhands in town, had approached me about staying on as Farmhands, and having their wives join as Farm Mistresses once this was all settled. Both men were right around twenty years old, and they'd come over despite not getting lottery spots; their help at the docks somehow counted as production for the Grand Quest.

Lieutenant Woolsly had vouched for them, so as soon as it was convenient, their wives would join and they could take the two empty cabins.

The next day, Emily, and I, along with Hari and Glenn, rode over to the Newtons' place while Colin showed the soldiers around the place. I agreed to pay each of the men an extra stipend if they helped out with the farm chores while they were here. Everyone had jumped at it. With twenty of them, it was easy work, and it helped alleviate the boredom. After our talk, we would bring the tractor back. I imagined no one would be bored this afternoon.

When we arrived at the Newton's place, Brendan and Ginny came out to meet us. He said, "Thanks again for waterin' the animals, see. I can't believe none of 'em died, mind though we might have a few o' the cows go dry. Can't be helped, like, an' things've turned out better than I'd any right t'hope for. Now then, what's this big thing you've been hintin' at?" With the help of Emily, Hari, and Glenn, I told them the entire story, from the day I was portaled in, to finding out about the conspiracy.

Hari and Glenn were better there. They'd been given two of the Emperor's spots and had been in the know before they even came over. Ginny and Brendan had both laughed and told me they'd known from the very beginning that I was an outworlder. But they had liked me and how I treated Emily and Colin, so they hadn't been tempted to turn me in. There was no benefit to doing so anyway, so they'd never even considered it.

Glenn actually told me that the law had been changed by a past emperor who wanted to discourage people from turning in outworlders in the hope that they would bring about change. Brendan was shocked to learn about the conspiracy and that they were now officially part of it, but Ginny said she'd always believed that the nobles were keeping them down.

They were both shocked the bishop was the center of things on this continent, but I told them he was still an asshole, just that his traditional beliefs were at odds with the System being suppressed artificially. It didn't really matter why he was on my side as long as it kept me alive and free. We also decided that Aiden, Brendan's oldest boy, would stay on our homestead and bunk with Colin so that he could be in charge of the cows who would be pasturing with us.

He would make sure they were fed and watered this winter. None of the Newtons came with us to get the tractor since they were so busy checking on animals. They'd bring their dry cows over to our place in the next week or two. With all the extra hands, the little cattle drive should be easy. The tractor was a hit with everyone at the homestead once Emily and I drove it back. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

I was happy to see that the magical patch I'd put in place was still around seventy percent integrity, even after three days. That meant I should end up with longer than a week. The tractor had fired right up, and all of my screens were green thanks to the patches. I was down to less than a hundred gallons of diesel though. That was bad. I had been putting off doing any real alchemy work, but my new tractor skill had made it possible to bypass the DEF requirements.

The DEF wasn't actually necessary to run the tractor. The problem was that the software on the tractor would put my tractor in limp mode if there was no DEF. Now that I had a skill that gave me access to it, I could magically bypass it. It did take a hundred mana, and it had to be recast every time I started the tractor, but that was a small price to pay to eliminate a pain point in the vehicle. Unfortunately, I couldn't use magic to replace the diesel. The tractor wasn't running on mana anytime soon.

Woolsly's reaction was probably my favorite. The older man, with his aristocratic bearing and grey handlebar moustache, had stood there and twirled one side of his moustache with his left hand, and said, "Yes, I do believe this machine could have done an adequate job of defeating the hill trolls. Of course it is not as romantic, nor anywhere near as brave as a heavy cavalry charge on a horse would have been." After that he had wandered into the main farmhouse where he went up to the study to read and drink whiskey.

Something that he never bothered to ask permission for. That was where he spent any of his free time for the rest of their time on the homestead. He also had a pipe and was the first person I'd seen that regularly smoked tobacco. Emily had forbidden its use indoors after the first time he lit up. I really enjoyed the smell, but she hated it. When Woolsy asked if I was going to allow her to boss me around, I simply told him, "Happy wife, happy life."

I occasionally snuck a smoke with Woolsly, but since Emily disapproved, I made sure it didn't become a regular habit. Glenn and Hari patrolled the entire western side of Weston, but they never saw any signs of the goblins or wargs over the final two months of the year. All reports we had during that time were that no one was ever able to catch the goblins on their fast warg mounts. The weather deteriorated as we got later into November and into December.

The warmer than Earth average temperatures had a real downside when it came to keeping things properly frozen for armies to move around. Cold weather sucked, but for a well-equipped army, they could cope with the cold. The mud was another issue entirely. The goblins raided and pillaged as they made their way inland, but once the armies besieging the northern and central forts were defeated and scattered, the large force strictly avoided battle. I had no idea how such a large force was feeding itself.

They had lost half of their supplies during the rout. Even if they could drink warg milk, like the Mongol raiding armies had with their horses, the wargs needed meat to eat. No one even knew why they had attacked in the first place. But, on the Jacobson homestead, things quickly settled into a happy routine. Emily and I were enjoying our time together. I don't know if it was the lack of things like social media, and all the distractions that modern life on Earth provided.

But I felt like I was able to get closer to Emily, and really focus on our relationship in a way that I hadn't for years with Sarah. Aiden and Colin were feeling like grownups as they now had classes and responsibilities. They both did their chores, and Aiden was taking care of a good number of cattle every day. Colin sometimes helped him, and sometimes went on patrol with Hari and Glenn.

After two weeks, Emily agreed she couldn't keep up with more than twenty full-time farm residents while she was alone, even with me doing most of the breakfast cooking now that I didn't have farm chores. She brought on Zak's wife, Anna, and Stephen's wife, Tess. The two men and their wives were more than happy to risk any danger they might have out on the homestead in order to be reunited. We would need to bring on even more people by springtime.

I ordered an extra cabin and a fourth bunkhouse that would be for women only. I also had that bunkhouse specially built with extra windows, and the possibility to open up an entire section of shutters to bring in sunlight. In addition to the heater, I also had a couple of heating runes thrown in that should keep the temperature up even with a bunch of it open to air. I planned on using this building to help sprout the potatoes in the spring.

With everything I was planning, this place could end up as a village of its own one day. Everyone who would be employed here had to be vetted by the mayor to ensure secrecy. They would also mostly be required to stay here once they did see the tractor. I needed to make sure we had accommodations and infrastructure for them all. The potatoes were an obvious hit. The soldiers felt like they were big shots because they got to eat potatoes every day.

Woolsly had given several of the men a proper tongue-lashing when he'd overheard one of the men talk about how jealous some of his friends would be once they heard he got potatoes on the regular. Even with our best attempts at secrecy and keeping things quiet, at some point the secret would get out. I just hoped it would be far enough out that we would be safe here in our corner of the world. As for Emperor Harold's wider intentions regarding the potatoes.

I was told that they were going to be grown on an island off the coast of what I would call Africa, that had a similar climate to the colony. He would take credit for having modified them next year. He'd say they made a breakthrough after a secret project that he'd kept quiet in order to avoid angering the dwarves. Within another couple of years they'd be everywhere. I would still get a ton of gold and XP this coming year if my crops did well.

The emperor had a huge discretionary black budget from which he would pay me. He'd buy the potatoes again this year. I'd probably only produce slightly more than last year now that I didn't have the big bonuses, but that was still enough to really expand this homestead. I had a great time as the year came to a close. I no longer had to worry about taking things one day at a time most days. We had people around who we could trust, and I was enjoying the extra company.

I was waiting on the special oil shipments to make it here from the emperor before I worked too much more on my alchemy. I just hadn't enjoyed the class very much. I was hoping something good would come in during the spring, maybe that beekeeper class. It wasn't exactly a good full time support class, but I thought it would be fun to get honey flowing here on the homestead. Now that the tractor had performed so well, the priority level of getting me my fuel had jumped up about eighteen notches.

With the war keeping everything tied down, my secret was mostly safe from the nobles in the home isles. Even if Woolsly could be an ass, he did see Emily and I as the masters of this homestead, so he treated us almost as equals even if we weren't nobles. Hari and Glenn made regular visits, and they often took Colin out with them. That was beginning to be a sore spot for Emily, and we'd have to address it some point soon.

But that boy wanted an official Scout military class, and we all knew that there was only one place he could be guaranteed to get it, the army. Newtons finally did see the tractor after we brought their extra cows to our place. They were suitably impressed. And of course, our most important animals, Spot and Buck, couldn't have been happier. The soldiers spoiled them, and they got all the scritches they could handle.

They also seemed to want to show off, so they went off the homestead a time or two and found coyotes that were unfortunate enough to be in the area. The geese and ducks still feuded, but geese were just assholes so that was to be expected. I had a warm home, a wife I loved, and an adopted son whom I also loved, and who loved me and was happy I was married to his mother. Sure there might be a looming goblin threat out there, and who knew what had happened to the orcs, but for the moment things were good.

I was a farmer, and I didn't intend to ever let anyone take that away from me again. Soon enough, I'd be living by my motto, Take things one day at a time, but the winter was allowing me to relax and enjoy myself a little. Luckily, spring was only a short time away, I wouldn't get too fat and complacent in the meantime.