There is a knock on my door and Kari comes into my study, and the sound of the door locking makes me look up. Kari is leaning against the door she just closed and locked, and I can't make out her face as she saunter over to my chair, and start walking her fingers on my arm and shoulder. Makes me suspicious.
"So, how do the b-room project go?"
"Still work to do."
"Really? So, what are you working on?"
Shit. She knows, and this is a trap. That is a loaded question that can be answered in multiple ways, and some are not good for our relationship. I've basically finished the important parts so we could use the B-room more than two weeks ago, but I never told her, and now she is testing me. I have not considered how often she would check in and track my progress.
"Well, you know. I've been thinking about hiding the door better or camouflage it with something, and improving the soundproofing, and that door between the secret library and the semi-secret room under the mezzanine needs work." Oh, she might like me playing to her fetish, so I grab her butt and drag her towards me. "The whole Olafr and Orusing visit took priority, and there have been so many things to do with manly hunting Elks with thunder and making lightning and so on. There just haven't been a good time for a proper inauguration where I can ravage you without being interrupted." Kari rewards me with a small pleased smile. Yes, I did good! I look at my smart watch. "Though the evening will be long and dark ... "
Kari's tongue invading my mouth stops any more conversation.
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Ima and dark skinned Shakini, the two maids from the B-mansion who are here to help during the wedding have had some adjustment problems, especially Shakini who I doubt will ever become 'normal'. She is probably 23-25 years old, but she doesn't know so I think of her as 23, assuming she want to be younger. Shakini has been a maid, sex slave and assistant for the last 11 or so years, and only for Radgeirrson who took her virginity when she was about 12-13 years old. I avoid pressing for details as I don't want to bring up painful memories, and Shakini seems to have plenty of them and I guess she tries to avoid thinking about the past. Radgeirrson hasn't been interested in her sexually since she became too 'tree like and limp', so he hasn't had sex with her in something like eight or more years, although she occasionally used her mouth. For the past five or six years, she has served as Radgeirrsons assistant in the mansion and been one of those in charge of the B-mansion when Radgeirrson were else where, while still doing menial tasks the others avoided and at the same time being his primary assistant for training others. Shakini has been used as an example of a good well trained maid. I can only imagine what she has experienced, seen and contributed to and she is unfortunately more like a robot than a person.
Shakini honestly is an excellent maid who works quietly and efficiently, finds work that needs doing and is helpful without being a bother. She answers questions but hardly asks any except to ensure that the task is correctly done. She basically works all the time, and when there is nothing to do, she seems to just stand or sit still while waiting for the next job or task. The other staff are enthusiastic about reading-writing, math and music, but Shakini seems to take it more as a job to be done. Unfortunately I had to scold Ida and Jalida after a discreet tip from Gunhild lead me to discover that they were using Shakini to do most of their work as well, because even though Shakini doesn't complain, she is not their slave to use. Shakini is a free woman like them and a colleague, and her background or dark skin doesn't matter. As a small punishment, they are currently banned from the main building, which seems to be extra effective on Jalida, although understandable as Jalida used to be there much more than Ida. Shakini and Ima have take over their better duties and tasks, and help Elvira in the main building.
Ima knows her age is 23 years old, and she is from somewhere in the forested inland, but she was born a slave and have no good idea where as she was moved around as a kid, and she sure don't seem to care. She became Radgeirrson's 9 years ago. Ima is more talkative and tries to socialize with others and participate in music, reading, math and other activities, and she seems to be adjusting to her new life quite well. She got more 'life' in her than Shakini, and is very pleased to be a free woman and getting taught so much. I like to see and hear that the staff get along and help each other with learning to read, write and math, but they have quite a lot of free time.
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Turning forest to pasture takes time and requires work clearing trees and is the first step to convert it to crop land which I need more of, so I'm just happy to hire them when three island residents and three more from nearby islands comes looking for work. I name their labour group 'Bertil' and their task is to cut down trees and clear forest during winter and spring. Beside future pastures, I also get building materials, and they have good well paid work during winter before the farming season begins. Well, farming doesn't really end and there is always task that can be done on a farm, but priorities, weather and all that. I know the islands well and so do the locals, so it is easy to agree on where to make fields and enclosures. Unfortunately these are rocky, mountainous islands, so much of the land isn't suitable, but some can be converted from forest given a few years as pigs, sheep and cows gradually clear the land by eating and fertilize with their excrement. They will use horses to haul timber out of the forest and to the sawmill when the ground is frozen, and Small Ackereks northern road is now a wide path. With the future log wagon, they just have to drag the logs to it road, and the wagon will transport the logs down to the sawmill. The wagon can do all around the year without messing up the road, but then the road must be navigable for that log wagon, which will be more work although that road probably won't be as wide or have the same foundation as the main road. The worst section is about 200 meters just north of mansion where it is narrow, steep and serpentines with a couple of sharp corners due to steep terrain and cliff faces. Making that section into a proper road will be a hassle, but doable.
It feels good to know that I have the income and silver to actually pay for work like this to be done, as it is an investment in my Furstdoms future, and that some of it makes the Furstdoms residents richer. It's not like I've donated the silver, but for now most of the silver is kept fairly local and making the local region rich too, although unevenly distributed. I am not that good in thinking large scale economics, and it is not a fun subject. But I have to think long term, and my long term goal for technological progress requires a strong economy, plenty of people and educated people, with preferably a good production of food or at least a secure food supply and storage, and overall increased wealth and prosperity in the region. I can't rely on others to adopt what I want or start making the stuff I want to spread, and making it also gives me more control.
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I will spend a lot of silver and trade goods on getting the materials I need, like construction supplies, metals, clothes and food, but much of that will not go to locals, and I can't just buy or trade without earning enough. The Auctions will mostly be luxury goods, and lure rich people here that will pay for it with silver and gold. If I start selling salt I will get goods and silver in return, and far more than the Auction will give. Some of those riches will be spent on what I need, but with salt production it's likely that the main cash flow will be very much towards me. Selling stuff to normal people will be hard, and they need to have silver to buy stuff, and me having a pile of silver and gold is nice, but not really that helpful for the region unless I spend it. So paying people for work, lending money to buy land, investing in large scale infrastructure, building factories to produce goods and items and employing free people and so on is good. It will also make me even richer and more influential. Which is good but also annoying. This would be so much easier if I just wanted to get stinking rich and live a luxurious life, while hardly caring about others.
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I just collapse into my sofa. I really hope Iselin won't expect sex tonight. Kari's got way too much energy, but she really really enjoyed our inauguration lit by oil lanterns. Kari also like that I sent Caecilia to give Kari the bag with leather goods and a folded message with instructions on how to get ready and when to meet me down there, and as she have been a good girl, she got to try one of the new sex toys as a reward. Somehow it even feel more strange as we discuss the session while cleaning up after ourselves, and casually talking about how Kari looks forward to inaugurating the wooden cross and so on, because we only used the bed. Kari enjoyed that I limited her experience because now she has something to look forward to. Something to think and dream about. Kari had a wicked playful smile when she said we should wait a few weeks with the cross, and after a while and more hints I understood that she meant Jane's bet. It feels weird considering that Kari very understandably doesn't want more women complicating our relationship, but at the same time she seems to want something to happen with Jane. It was very awkward to ask and Kari didn't want to answer, so the cleaning was interrupted as I 'need' to force the truth out of her.
It's pretty absurd to pretend to force Kari to 'confess the truth', as she was strapped half-lying face down over the bed in our sex dungeon, and she pretty much failed not showing how much she enjoyed being methodically worked towards an orgasm, and then I stopped when she refused to answer and I let her calm down, to start over. I had to fetch her mouth gag, because it was hard to play cool and stop when she asked me to take her, and she presses herself against my hands and mouth until her shackles stopped her. Finally, frustrated as hell she promised to tell me after I let her come, and that was a couple of intense happy minutes for both of us.
So now when I sit here, still thinking on Kari words. That Jane, who has become a good friend to her, often seems so sad, especially if I am cuddling and being intimate with one of them. Kari has noticed that Jane has sometimes been red-eyed after crying in her room, and apparently she's not the only one who's noticed. Kari knows that Jane really misses a more intimate connection and relationship, but she is not looking at other men, and Jane rightly has high standards.
Then there is the problem with Jane being human and thus have body hair, which many men will have a really hard time with. If she gets a good reputation as an artist, it will of course help, but Jane doesn't want to live like even better off women here do, and Jane really hates the fact that according to the Law, with marriage she becomes the property of some man. So while Kari doesn't want Jane to become a concubine or wife, she also feels sorry for her friend and her possible future. That's why Kari talked to Iselin so we could have sex as long as it didn't become anything more, but that neither of us has acted on it surprised them, as we both clearly react to each other.
Kari knows about Jane's bet, and believe it was a way for Jane to set a future goal, without guaranteeing the outcome, so it would be easier to hold off until then but at the same time have a goal if she wanted it. Now, Kari is worried that once sex happens, at least Jane will have a hard time just keeping it to sex without feelings. She doesn't seem like that type, and Kari doesn't like that I already have a special connection with Jane just because she is a modern person like me, which is a connection that Kari can never have.
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There is no internet och TV here, and I don't want to waste movies, so I don't mind that Caecilia has another Saga telling evening, where she tells us Sagas, myths and fairy tales, occasionally with some music thrown in. Caecilia is a good story teller, and me and Jane really need to learn important Sagas and mythology in the world we now live in. There is a lot of it, but it's hard to even try to take it seriously because a lot of it is so very absurd from my critical and reality connected point of view. Sometimes I just drift off as I figure out there probably are some truths behind a Saga or myth, and it wouldn't surprise me if way back there was two folks with different religions that went to war, where the side that worshipped the Aesir Gods declared war on the worshippers of the Vanir Gods, but there was no clear win where one religion wiped the other out, so instead their mythology blended into one. Considering me and Jane are here, it's entirely possible that it was a clash between Humans and Elves, and that along with travellers from far away, also lead to their whole world view. If there is more worlds than Midgård and Alfheimr, it's not unreasonable that there are large humanoid Giants or such in another world, and all those prehistoric groups battled as large groups got sent to another world. There had to be very few people in each world, so even a small group would have a bigger impact, and better weapon or armour would mean a lot. A few times back and forth over centuries with Sagas told by descendants off the defeated or victors makes that more likely.
Then there are just very 'imaginative' Sagas, like how the Aesir Gods treasures came about because Loki was drunk and thought it was funny to caused Thor's wife Siv to lose her hair and become bald. Thor assumed Loki is behind it, simply because that assumption saves time, and Thor forces Loki to fix it by threatening to crush all the bones in his body. Every day. So Loki being Loki tricks the dwarves into making growing golden hair as part of a contest to see who is the best blacksmith. Which, among other treasures, also got Freyr his ship Skidbladner, which folds down to fit in a pocket, and Thor got his hammer Mjölner, whose handle is a little too short because Loki tried to make the blacksmith Brock lose his concentration, because Loki had bet his head, and of course tried to cheat. Loki ends up having to cheat more and get away on a technicality because he loose that bet. Jane enjoys the story and is drawn in by Caecilia's story telling skill, but I just can't take it seriously, and thoughts of Jane grind in my mind.
My life was so much simpler six months ago before I set out on that hike, but it's hard not to be happy with how my life has become as I lie in my bed to sleep with my arm around Iselin. My cuddly and amazing fiancee who I in just two weeks will have the honour of calling my wife. This is another one of those moments I try to burn into my memory and enjoy every minute of it. I don't want to fall asleep, but just continue to smell her and feel how her body slowly breathes in and out while she makes small half-snoring noises, and one of the last thoughts before sleep takes me, is the resemblance to how 'Anna' sleeps in the movie Frozen. Iselin even has a dress that is quite similar to Anna's, if I remember that movie correctly. Did Jane design it inspired by Frozen or is it a coincidence?