Jessica walked into the Adventurers Guild and headed to the receptionist. In her mind, she remembered when James had first carried her here right after the emergence of the System.
"Hello! How may I help you?"
"Hi, I need to place an order."
"Okay. What are you looking to acquire?" the bunny beastwoman asked.
"As much wood and stone as possible. Also, feathers, ivory, ceramics, clay and dyes. Also, do you have any beasts or beast eggs for sale?"
"I can get you some wood and stone, but for the rest...you might be better off going to another city."
"Okay. Thanks anyway."
"Sorry we couldn't meet your needs."
Jessica walked out and headed around the building. Behind the Guild she found James waiting for her. She pretended not to notice his interest, but couldn't help laughing to herself when he came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, kissing her cheek.
"Why do you wear that beautiful silver evening dress? You know it only makes you look even more gorgeous! It's distracting!"
"You animal. Saying I only look beautiful in this dress!"
"And I think this is the part where I kiss you to shut you up."
She laughed and tilted her mouth up for him to kiss her. As they kissed, James used magic to take them to another city where the process could repeat. In that way, they were able to slowly put in orders for everything they needed. Some guild branches and traders were surprised at their large orders, but their coin was good. And if anyone was enchanted by the beauty of the wife of the Demon Lord...well, she didn't need James to come charging to her rescue, but James could only wince in sympathy when she hurt them in the most painful way. What scared him though was her smile after she finished destroying their little men. NEVER make a woman angry!
After triple checking that they had everything and a bit surprised that there had been no incidents so far, James took his wife back to the Fortress. Somehow, someway, it had not been taken over by anyone else. While he could carry the Orb of Power with him, he could not take it more than about a hundred meters in any direction from the fortress itself. Hiding it under a rock had seemed like the dumbest idea at the time, but evidently it had worked. That, or the place was so remote that no one else had shown up. Which would explain why the only visitor the fortress had seen except them was the earth hippy.
They began pulling out all manner of items. Obsidian, lamp oil, feathers, glass, silk. In quantities enough to open a large store and still have some supplies left over. As items were fed into the Orb of Power, they began to watch as entire sections of the fortress appeared out of nowhere as if emerging from the ground like lazy giants rising up above them. The great hall, the ballroom, even a magnificent courtyard. James was especially impressed by the harbour, as four large ships appeared like leviathans from the deep, their lines still tied to the large docks. When everything was done, the Fortress of Unyielding Night was a proper Demon Lord's castle. It looked something like a mix between the Beauty and the Beast castle and a heavenly Olympus. The stonework was black like charcoal and obsidian, but also smooth. There was a waterfall-an actual waterfall!-coming from higher up in the fortress. Wondering if it was more like a castle now, James stared at the cascading clean water falling from the blackest night fortress, lending credence to its name.
"Shall we?" James asked Jessica, extending his arm.
"Let's, husband."
They headed inside to explore and found that everything was lit by candles. Strangely, the candles did not diminish or go out, and when they tried to blow them out the light stayed. But it was still enough to see by, and there were also many windows done in a gothic style. The whole interior reminded James of some movielike Tudor castle. There were also rich long carpets and mosaic tiling. The entire fortress was done in a defensive but also luxurious way.
They paused at the ballroom, where they saw an enormous chandelier and richly gilded ornamentation as well as depictions of courtly life painted on the ceiling. The black of the walls contrasted with the golden candlesticks and bright painting above their heads. There was also a set of glass doors that led outside to a large terrace.
"This is nice" James commented as they walked out and looked down the fortress walls to the harbour below. One could imagine that when the harbour was fully manned one would be able to hear the shouts of ship captains, see the stars and breathe in the smell of the sea.
"It is nice. But it's not the room I'm looking for."
"Down girl. Rawr. May I have the pleasure of this dance first, my dear?"
He brought his right hand over his chest and bowed to her, causing Jessica to smile and give an awkward curtsy.
And then they danced. It was not the wild troubadour dances with a prince and princess, but a simple dance between husband and wife. And as they danced, they both thought that the moment was better than anything in the storybooks or movies.
"I have a question for you Jessica."
"What?"
"Well, two questions actually. The first is how do you think that waterfall gets the water up here to fall down the waterfall. And the other is...what made you say yes? I still can't believe how lucky I am to have you."
"You're sweet. To your first question, I don't know. Maybe magic. And your second, you may not be the best kisser, but I love it when you hold me and kiss me."
"Just that? Dang, I'll have to do both more often!"
They both laughed, but then James pulled out something and hid it behind his back.
"So I've been holding onto something."
"What is it?"
"It's this" he told her, pulling out the same necklace she had been trapped in. "I know I might not be the most dazzling husband, Jess. But I do love you, think the world of you, and would go through fire and flame for you. So I wanted to give this to you, as a sign of my love and so that you can remember how I always wore it with me as a reminder of my vow to bring you back to me."
Jessica pushed her hair out of the way and allowed James to attach it around her neck. As he did he leaned into her ear.
"My love for you grows."
She grabbed him around his neck and hoisted herself into his arms, her feet transforming like a rippling current into her mermaid tail.
"Tell me more."
James walked with his wife through the rest of the fortress, stopping before the one room that he felt awkward to step into.
"I never understood harems. I mean, great in the sense if it's the place where the family grew up in, but if we're thinking the wild and crazed harem...pssh."
"Would you have a harem?"
"With you? Yes. With anyone else? No. Why would I give my affections to another woman when you are all that I want?"
"Prove it."
They spent the night as newlyweds in the harem. But with the fortress complete, they needed a new goal. And as James walked through the long hallways and felt the emptiness of the massively large rooms, he began to get an idea. The first thing he wanted to do was make sure that no space magic, perhaps no magic entirely, could be used in the fortress. He didn't want to be forced to witness another massacre. And since the fortress was massive, they would need help keeping it clean.
With all of this in mind, the first thing he did was visit the treasury. It was an impressive thing, with two massive doors built like an airlock with inch thick impenetrable metal doors of a black metal that appeared to give forth glimmers of light. A quick use of analysis revealed the doors to be made of Lazulite. Entering by placing his hand on the keyless door and using his mana so the door could register his mana signature, James walked through the first door and then the second, finding himself in an octagram shaped room. He quickly dumped all the money and jewelry he had right there on the floor, minus a few thousand gold for any expenses he and Jessica might have. Before his eyes the treasure arranged itself neatly, floating the jewelry onto the walls where they hung, and under them appeared glass display cases for various gems of different shapes. Looking at their vast wealth, he felt himself start to fight a hoarding greed and quickly left. Next he went to the armoury, which was similar to the treasury which made sense since no one would want any random person to have access to weapons. This room however was more like a long rectagular space with empty racks. Dumping out most of the weapons, the process repeated itself as halberds and spears lined up in racks along the wall to his left and swords and maces to his right, and bows and other ranged weapons went down the middle. There were also other weapons like a mace and chain, a morningstar and more. Armour pieces and shields divided up these three sections. It was the medieval equivalent of an ICBM, as there were enough weapons and armour to equip a small army. Many of the shields and armour chestpieces still had family crests on them, but James especially liked the symbol of Tol-Namith, that of a golden hawk with stretched out wings flying above a flag.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
After that, he went to the library. This time when he took out the books and scrolls he was treated to an amusing sight of books flying everywhere as if they had wings. No pages or parchment was torn, but it was like every book was in a speed race to get somewhere, often zipping past his head. Thousands of pieces of reading material, and he knew as the final scroll fitted into a neat stack on a shelf that he would need to clone himself to read all of them.
"That was funny."
James turned and looked at his wife.
"How long have you been standing there?"
"Only a few minutes. But hey, I need some money."
"What for?"
"I'm going to go hire some servants to decorate this place."
James' mouth opened and closed twice. Then he spoke his thoughts, something he was pretty sure was unwise.
"Gender equality, my ass! You and I both know that if I said those same words you would ask why I didn't talk about it with you first!"
"As long as you know that" she told him, coming and patting his cheek before melting into his arms for a passionate embrace as she kissed him. James wasn't a fool; he knew she was manipulating him. The problem was, he liked her methods.
"Can I ask you to please at least talk about it with me first next time?"
"We are. I'm telling you what I'm going to do. Have you seen how tacky and drab this place looks?"
"I'm impressed. I thought it would take at least a few months before you controlled my finances and everything else in my life."
"Why wait, love?"
"Yeah, right...I was considering trying to make some golems with space magic that could defend this place and also do the cleaning and cooking and anything else needed."
"No love; we need people."
"Why? Isn't it more economical to do it this way rather than pay people to do those things?"
"Baby, I love you, but I love your money more."
The moment the words escaped her mouth James backed up. He hated admitting it, but he was sensitive and her casual comment deeply hurt him. But he didn't want to insult or hurt his wife either.
"Please excuse me."
"James, wait!"
James ran out of the library and through the fortress to the harbour. Jogging across the dock, he released the mooring lines and jumped onto the ship, releasing the sails and edging out of the small harbour towards the ocean.
"James, wait!"
He didn't look back, only kept sailing. As the ship picked up speed, he felt the wind begin to blow across the deck and saw small white crests as tiny waves were picked up by the wind, causing the sea to gently lap along the ship's hull. He didn't go far, just out of the harbour before he dropped a small anchor and sat on the side of the boat with his feet hanging over the edge. He stayed there for several minutes in silence, not thinking, just reflecting. Eventually he stood up and pulled up the anchor, heading back to the harbour. Once he had tied up the boat to the dock, he wasted no more time and teleported to the terrace. There he found his wife sitting on a couch.
"Hey."
She looked at him angrily.
He abruptly took charge of the conversation.
"Please go and put on your best outfit, your best jewels and your favourite cosmetics. Meet me in the ballroom in an hour."
He turned and left, leaving Jessica standing there with her hands on her hips.
An hour later, pouting, she entered the ballroom and saw James standing by a small table big enough for two. A single rose was in a vase on the table, along with their lunch. As for her husband, he was dressed in a slick suit and held out a chair for her.
"What's all this?" she asked, coming to stand by the table in a green sequined gown.
James looked at her with her hair over one shoulder and thought that she was breathtaking.
"I would like to ask to have lunch with my wife."
She sat down in the chair James offered, and her husband sat down across from her. For the next few minutes they ate in silence.
"I'm sorry for leaving to clear my head" James finally began. "I admit that I was hurt by what you said, as it sounded like you value money and dresses over me."
"James..."
She brought her hand over his, giving him a look at the wedding ring on her finger.
"Do you trust me?"
"Of course."
"Then trust me to do this. You're my husband; trust me as your wife."
He took her hand in his and gave it a gentle squeeze. Then he smiled at her.
"Okay."
James began using space magic to take his wife to all the cities they had previously visited. It helped that he knew where they were and it was getting easier for him to use space magic. Having seen the treatment of nonhumans in the Azkar Empire, James was inspired to have Jessica leave notices offering employment exclusively to nonhumans. He made sure to sign them with his full title as a demon lord, telling everyone who was interested to meet him outside their cities in one week. During this time he used the library to study enchantment magic. To him it was a fascinating new field in their new world, and a lot like he imagined programming to be. He was also interested to learn that enchanting a golem core could only give skills from a person who made the core, and only skills one level lower than the creator's own level could be transferred to the core. Knowing this, he practiced his magic like crazy while studying the mechanism to understand how to make proper golems. At last he felt ready to try.
Going to the crafting hall, he happily looked at the different stations for crafting. Blacksmithing, weaving, glassmaking, pottery, carpentry and more were all there with plenty of space between them. Going to the magic essence station, he brought out a three centimetre tiger eye gemstone and placed it in a mana gathering formation. Next, he pulled out a brush and with great care began to engrave the tiger eye with his mana pattern. Feeling a strange connection with the gem, he willed two of his skills into it. He failed multiple times, but at last he got it right and paused his work to analyze the gem.
Golem Core
Contains skills Drain (Level 9), Space Magic (Level 3)
So far so good. Focusing next on the construct to house the core, he considered his options. He didn't want to use just regular dirt or stone that could be easily chipped away. He wanted something durable, something that could be used in battle and at home to both take a beating and walk normally without much need for maintenance. So what material had both tensile strength, compressive strength, yield strength, and impact strength? Tungsten metal was a strong metal, but also brittle and easy to shatter. Diamond was hardest, but getting supplies of diamonds might be difficult and just because diamond was hard didn't mean it had impact resistance. In the end, despite his lack of knowledge, he chose to use some black zirconium. The colour went well with the Fortress, and it was apparently not as brittle as some other metals.
Pulling out the material, he infused it with more mana and drew the connecting mana to the core. Infusing both with his will for what the golem would look like, James watched as his mana plummeted and the core and metals slowly rose into the air, spinning in the air as the metal twisted and took shape. At last a rather round golem appeared, one that was smaller but also had two arms and two wide legs that could curl up. James hoped that this golem could perhaps accompany him on the battlefield and use its round body to roll at tremendous speeds. Or maybe it could act as a bowling ball on the pathway leading to the fortress.
Satisfied with his work, he spent a few more minutes experimenting with the new golem. He learned that it could not talk, but it could understand his commands. Naming it Yao after his favourite Mulan character, James told it to act as a guard over the fortress while they were away and keep any intruders out. With that done, he had one last thing to do.
Going to the throne room, he found a magnificent golden throne. With a cushioned seat and thick carpeting and surrounded by columns of alabaster stone, it was the most magnificent throne room he had ever seen. However, behind the throne was a tiny room behind a closed door. There was no lock on the door, and the only thing in the room was a small pedestal on which rested the Orb of Power. The meaning was clear: if anyone got this far, they could claim the fortress for themselves. For this reason, James wanted to collect everything and keep it safe in his inventory again. But he learned that the amount of gold in the treasury very slowly increased over time the more he left there. He wondered if it was the same for the books and other items. With this knowledge, he decided to accept the risk of leaving the fortress unattended and the risk of inviting strangers into the fortress. To him it seemed crazy, but he also wanted to show support for his wife's plans. So with that resolve in his heart, James dumped most of his remaining materials and items in the warehouse before he went to go join his wife and begin recruiting.