“Welcome back, Executive,” Dunes greeted, shaking Adam’s forearm as the figures entered the fort, glancing aside to see Vonda adorned in her full plate. ‘…’

“How’s everything?” Adam asked. “No issues with the undead?”

“Little issues with the undead, but there is currently a small matter.”

“What kind of small matter?” Adam asked, glancing aside to see the few businessfolk who had come to greet the Executives. ‘Where are the others?’

Fred’s blade cut through the bear, his blade flashing cold with magic as the blood within the creature froze. As the bear dropped beside him, Fred pivoted on his foot, his eyes darting between the pair of bears before him, his heart thundering within his chest.

‘Are you watching, George?’

Another bear dropped behind him, while the tall, wide form of Nobby cut down the beast with ease, while another slashed across his chest, tearing through his shirt, but not through his skin, which felt more like iron than flesh.

‘Merl is watching,’ Nobby thought, gripping his axe tighter in hand as the red hot rage coursed through his veins, and he swiped his axe, and as though he were an Iyrman signing the deaths of nearby or distant nobles, he brought death to another bear.

“Their abilities are impressive,” Korin admitted from beside the statue known as Jonn, the pair watching from a short distance away, ready to charge in to assist at any moment.

“Yes.”

“Bear meat is no good.”

“Yes.”

“It is good?”

“No.”

“You do not talk much,” Korin said, glancing aside towards the half elf. “The fae from Aswadasad and the nearby lands talk much, when one is worthy.”

“…”

“Am I not worthy?”

“I’m not good at talking to others,” Jonn admitted.

Korin raised his brow towards the half fae. “I will not push you.”

“Thank you.”

Fred raised his magical blade in victory, panting as his entire body suddenly rushed with an ache. ‘I did it!’ He wanted to lean on his knees, but he could still feel the gaze from the villagers and the businessfolk. His thought returned to when he first became an adventurer, and how difficult it was for him and a group to face even one bear, but now he could slaughter three by himself, with some effort.

Nobby lifted a bear, hoping his wife had seen him fight well. The pair turned to leave as Korin and Jonn escorted the villagers to take the bears upon the wagons, pulled by the pair’s magical steeds.

Fred glanced across towards the village, where he spotted many familiar and expected faces, before his eyes fell across another set of familiar faces.

“Greetings, Executives,” Fred called out, unsure if he was meant to be so formal.

“Greetings, Executives,” Nobby said a moment later, following Fred’s leads.

“Well done,” Adam called out, reaching out to shake their forearms and patting their shoulders. “What else can we expect from our great Fred and Nobby! So strong! So strong! Did you see, Chief Merl? Our workers are so strong, aren’t they?”

“Yes?” Merl replied, furrowing her brows towards the half elf.

“Just you wait, in a few years they’ll be Masters, then they’ll be able to fight all kinds of monsters.”

“Of course,” the Chief replied, letting out a defeated sigh. She wasn’t able to handle Adam’s ridiculous yet, though she no longer doubted Adam’s words.

“We’ll leave the bears to you to butcher and part out appropriately.” Adam stared out in the distance where Korin and Jonn were on alert, their eyes towards the woods all about them, circling around the villagers who were in the middle of lifting the dead beasts onto the

“One part to the business, one part to the warriors, and one part to the village?”

“That’s right,” Adam flashed a charming smile towards the older Chief.

“You fought well,” the younger Merl said, reaching out to stroke her husband’s arm gently. “I’ll have your clothes fixed.”

“Okay,” Nobby replied, turning slightly red from her attention, barely able to handle her beautiful gaze.

‘You punk, how can you flirt in front of your boss like this?’ Adam thought, though he allowed Nobby his peace. ‘I should probably bring up him to thirty gold a month, but I probably shouldn’t give him the title of Lead for now?’

Fred settled himself beside George, feeling the gazes of all the villagers and the businessfolk on him. “Did you see?”

George nodded, his eyes firmly glued to Fred, his eyes sparkling.

“Give it a few years, and you’ll be that strong too,” Fred reassured. “The Executives will train you if you want.”

George squirmed awkwardly, glancing towards the Executives who had returned, from the half elf to the trio of Iyrmen who had already revealed what kind of monsters they were. ‘…’ The memory of the boy stabbing Adam filled his mind, and he shuffled closer to Fred.

Fred smiled slightly, reaching out to rub the boy’s head, but he decided against it. He sat there in silence, basking in the attention he was receiving.

As Jonn and Korin returned, Adam threw them a nod.

“I thought you would rest,” Korin said, shaking Adam’s forearm.

“I rested enough in the Iyr, didn’t I?”

“That is not what I heard?”

“Oh yeah? What did you hear?”

“I was informed you worked so much your daughter almost beat you.”

“How did you hear that?”

“Your granduncle, Kamrot.”

“My granduncle?” Adam thought, trying to recall the name.

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“He arrived at the fort last night.”

“Oh?”

Korin paused for a moment. ‘Was I allowed to mention that?’ For a moment he could feel a chill within him. ‘No. If I know of it through casual conversation, it should be fine? Adam, Dunes, and Sara will protect me if something happens.’

Adam returned back to the fort to speak with Dunes, his eyes darting around to the Iyrmen before noting a familiar face. ‘Ooooh! Kamrot!’ His eyes fell across the older Iyrman, whose hair was thinning, though it fell down to his shoulders. ‘I should probably go say hello…’

The old Iyrman stared at the darkening sky, before hearing a set of footsteps. He glanced towards the half elf. “The stars will come through soon.”

“Yeah,” Adam replied,

“I am not as good as Jirot or Jarot when it comes to seeing the stars.”

Adam furrowed his brows. ‘You haven’t even spent that much time with them but you know that much?’ “My children are geniuses, after all.”

Kamrot’s lips formed a small smile. “You really are cousin’s grandson.”

“Whose grandson?” Adam replied, almost reflexively.

Kamrot smiled warmly towards the half elf, reaching out to rub his head. “I have been tasked with security of the fort.”

“Thank you.”

“You do not need to thank me. You pay the Iyr enough for such little security.”

‘Little security?’ Adam glanced around, noting the handful of Iyrmen about. “I mean, Marmak’s not around, but you’re all still pretty cheap considering how strong you all are.”

“It is a fair price,” Kamrot assured.

“I guess securing the frontier is pretty good for the Iyr too?”

Kamrot’s lips formed a wider smile. “You are too smart to be cousin’s grandson.”

“Exactly, exactly,” Adam said, nodding his head, a small smile approaching his lips too. “If anyone in the business causes trouble you should remind them who your cousin is, that’ll set them right.”

“They will not cause trouble. You and Jurot have struck fear within their hearts already.”

“Well, some of them don’t really know the full extent of it, so you might need to tell them anyway. If they do cause you some trouble, I please let Manager Dunes or Manager Amira know, and they can deal with it.”

Kamrot nodded, closing his eyes for a long moment, before opening them once more towards the darkening sky.

“Alright, I’ll leave you to your stargazing,” Adam said, unsure of how to broach Rirot’s death. He quickly retreated away from the old man. ‘I’ll tell everyone to behave so they don’t trouble the old man. I can’t believe he’s working so quickly after his wife’s death…’

The children all swarmed Lord Morkarai, who sat around the fire, with Jaygak beside him. The Prince of the Fire Giants regaled them of a tale from his homeland. Adam couldn’t spend much time hearing it, catching Dunes’ eyes, and motioning his head to the side.

The inner section was roughly half of the size of the other two sections, and instead of the estates one could find within the Iyr, there were six buildings total, one following each of the shorter walls, and two along the longer walls. Adam nodded towards the Iyrman tasked with watching over the private section of the fort, who returned a nod, before he led Dunes to his own private building, noting the lack of dust.

“Is someone cleaning this place?”

“I clean it now and again,” Dunes admitted.

“Oh,” Adam replied, blinking. “Thank you.” He poured the Manager water, before using his magic to cool both cups, and flavouring them to taste like the mango juice in his first life.

After informing Dunes of a few matters, Adam moved on to what mattered most in most worlds.

“The Enchanter…” Adam raised his brows towards Dunes, smirking slightly, “has created quite some weapons to be auctioned off in Red Oak. We’ve taken one with us for last month, but this month, the Iyrmen should bring another blade to auction off. Considering that Basic Enhanced weapons usually go for about three to five thousand, the business should be fine for a while.”

Dunes bowed his head, checking the paper Adam slid over to him. His brows raised in alarm, noting all the expenses the business had gone through the first month alone. “There are five Executives.”

“We have an enchanter who will continue to enchant while within the Iyr.”

Dunes tilted his head. “They will continue to enchant within the Iyr?”

“Yes.” Adam smiled innocently.

Dunes furrowed his brows. ‘Are you not the Enchanter?’

“Manager Dunes. An enchanter is going to keep working in the Iyr to provide additional weapons to be auctioned off within Red Oak, for additional income, should it be required.”

‘There’s another enchanter?’ Dunes slowly nodded his head, deciding against asking any more. If Adam was being this vague, and he wasn’t going to reveal more, it was probably something to do with the Iyr.

“Anyway, the Iyrmen are going to go to Red Oak every month or so. It’ll take a week to get there, they’ll spend a few days there, and then they’ll come back. I was thinking, it’s probably a good way of training some of the newbies, and those who want to become guards. We’ll send a few of our own over with the Iyrmen, and cycle them like the Iyrmen.”

“Cycle?”

“Yeah, like…” Adam spun a circle with his finger. “Cycle.” Upon seeing Dunes’ confusion, Adam blinked. ‘Oh. They don’t have cycles in this world, I guess?’ “Basically, split the trainees and the farmers into multiple groups, more than one for sure, two to five, in whatever way it’ll split cleanly for you. Then as the Iyrmen go out, the first group will go and come back. The month after that, the second group, then the month after that, the third. Once a full rotation is done, start with the first group again. That way every month a group goes out, but not twice in a row, and hopefully, they’ll all go the same amount, or we’ll send the group we want to become most experienced multiple times.”

“Ah,” Dunes said. “I understand.”

Adam snapped his fingers and pointed towards Dunes. “This is why you’re our Manager, Dunes.”

“When the workers take their holidays, should we send them with a group, and have them return with the next group?”

“That’s a great idea.” Adam nodded his head, flashing a wide smile. “Are you trying to earn a raise?”

“If you give any more money, I will be unable to meet Lady Arya when I pass, I will be held down by the weight of all that gold.”

“Make sure you take the holiday too.”

“The holiday I wish to take will require more than a month.”

“Oh yeah? Where do you want to go?”

“I would like to return to the order to visit.”

“Well…” Adam thought. “I guess that is difficult if you only have a month off? I’ll try and figure out a way so that you can take more days off, and… I mean, if you want to go, I’m not going to stop you.”

“I’ve already committed to your business. If I return now, the Priest Commander will beat me. He has already sent word to me in the beginning of the year.”

“He did? What did he say?”

“He congratulated me for the marriage once more, and says he will expect word back every season with news. He will not berate me since I have married so recently.”

“Didn’t Korin and Sara say they wanted to go back soon?”

“They have decided to stay for some time, since the Priest Commander will be sure to beat Korin if he returns.”

“Not Sara?”

“She is still the daughter of Peysh.”

“Peysh?”

“Lords.”

“Oh, right.”

Dunes paused for a moment.

“I guess that makes sense.”

Dunes continued to wait for him to complain about nobles, but after a long enough moment, he returned back to checking the paper, his eyes scanning across the estimates Adam had made for the business. ‘Did he underestimate the costs?’ Dunes made some quick calculations for how much it would cost to feed the figures within the business. ‘If we procure the cheapest food from the village, it should suffice.’ His eyes then fell down to the next section. ‘Did he double the savings for the children?’

“I decided against adding my own children in since they’re being taken care of within the Iyr. Once I move them into the business, then I’ll add them in.”

“You wish to move them to the business?”

“I should, right?”

“Is there a need?”

“Well, you know… it’s a bit weird to impose so much onto the Iyr.”

“Will their greatfather allow it?”

“Exactly! If I leave them in the Iyr, he’ll steal them away from me! I can’t allow that, you know?”

Dunes smiled, sipping the rest of his flavoured water, trying to pace himself. “What is misc?”

“Well, misc is misc. Basically, if you want to spend more money, as long as you write it down, you can go ahead and spend up to the full amount every month. I don’t really mind if you want to spend the full budget every month, that’s up to you. If Korin feels like he needs more spices, that’s part of that budget. We should probably use the coin for those to head out too…” ‘Damn, that means the budget’s going to disappear real quick. Though, it’s not like it’ll cost a hundred gold for a couple of weeks away, so it should be fine.’

Dunes glanced down towards the paper. He presumed misc would be used for items Adam hadn’t thought of.

“Anyway, really, you can spend more than that, just write it down. I haven’t figured out an entertainment budget, so I’d like for you to deal with that, and to think about what kind of entertainment would be fun for them. Once we’re in Red Oak, I’ll be spending some coin on dragonchess and stuff, but I’m not really sure what I should buy. Vonda said books and paints, but we need items which aren’t consumed, or which won’t wear down too quickly?”

“Balls are always fun, but there are many things children can busy themselves with. The most fun a child has, is with others. Warriors and Wanderers will keep them busy too.”

Adam blinked. “Dunes, you’re a genius!” ‘It’ll help them with their letters and numbers, and to figure out what kind of fighting style they’d like too.’ “This is why you’re a Manager, Dunes.”

Dunes wasn’t sure if he should take credit since almost everything was Adam’s idea, most of which he expected Adam to implement anyway. “Perhaps I should ask for a raise.”

Adam smiled, stifling his chuckle for a moment. “How can you ask for a raise after how many magical weapons you’ve received?”