I decided to help Duman out because his project of restoring the Fat Lady was going nowhere. While the primary reason for the delay was his lack of motivation, thus resulting in ridiculously slow speed, the man had to do everything on his own. Now, while I couldn’t help him out with sophisticated parts, I could do the simple ones such as the outer planks, which involved sanding, varnishing, and putting them on the skeleton. That much I was able to, thanks to my previous experience as a journeyman carpenter. I also visited Jane’s parents meanwhile, publicly declaring that I wanted to take her in. The news spread like wind within the guild because apparently, while they did know that I was sort of going after her, nobody really gave me a chance due to the fact that she was two years senior. …Fuckers. Anyway, her father initially refused to give her to me, but he was … easily persuaded with just ten silver coins. Jane asked me to hide my true wealth because she did not want to end up supporting her entire family of six. Yes, she had four siblings. In fact, she wanted to cut ties with her family completely soon. Her reason was that they never supported her while she was being trained as a guild receptionist. Her father wanted her to get married as soon as she turned fifteen and get her out of her family so that more food would be available for them. This was common among families, and I could not fault them for it. Essentially, there was probably no love lost between Jane and her family. They’d be glad that she was finally out of their responsibility. Of course, if they were to find out that I was filthy rich, they could very well ask for further support. This reinforced my brief of how awesome my mom was who loved her children. There was also a decent possibility that Jane was being overlooked because of her gender. Anyway, two months flew by.

“Well, the Fat Lady is looking the part!” I exclaimed proudly as I wiped balls of sweat off my forehead. I completed the outershall of the airship, thus she looked the part. Of course, the interior was barely done but it was getting done slowly since Duman was able to focus better.

“Ye, thanks, Faro,” said Duman from inside of the airship. “I will work on the boiler room once you get the flooring done.”

“Leave that to me, sir.”

The boiler room was the heart of an airship. It’s where one would place fire crystals to heat air so that it would rise up. I later found out that it was the king who invented the airship, and Lord Waszak refined the concept. Clearly, I was so far away from my brother’s talents. The gap was so wide that I couldn’t even get jealous. He was the savior of the world after defeating not one but two dragons. He became the founder of the kingdom. He invented the airship which changed how the world would operate. He married the first daughter of the Flissing and then took the crown princess of Estana as his second wife. Compared to him, I was … useless. The reality was, though, I didn’t care. He was my real bro. Why should I get jealous of my own brother? That’s bollocks. Instead, I should be glad that our bloodline is doing well.

“Faro!” It was Jane’s voice. “Lord Sluple!”

Ah, yes. Lord Sluple. That was Duman. After being granted a title just like me, he had to choose a last name. His choice was Sluple, thus Duman Sluple. I was told by him that Sluple was his hometown in the far North. The town was destroyed completely during the Age of Darkness. I didn’t need to choose a last name since my mom was a lady of the Fenchel.

“Yeah?” I replied, looking back toward the guild building.

“Lunch time!”

Of course, as good as that sounded, we were having veggie soup and bread. Jerky was issued only when out on missions. Meat was more expensive due to its scarcity.

“Have you heard? The queen and the second queen gave birth very recently,” Jane told us while we were eating our lunch at a table in the guild hall.

“Both at the same time?” I asked.

“I heard there were four children on the same day.”

What? Four? Really? Huh?

“What? What do you mean four? Shouldn’t that be two?”

Duman grinned meanwhile.

“The first queen gave birth to a prince. The second queen had a triplet, two princes and a princess.”

My eyes widened. “Is that a thing? I thought it was just a baby per pregnancy.”

“It’s very, very, rare, but it does happen. I’ve seen twins but never a triplet,” Duman said. “Did the second queen survive?”

“The town crier didn’t say she died, so I assume she survived,” Jane said.

“I am actually surprised that she made it. Even twin birth is very hard,” he said while biting off a big chunk of his bread. “I have to say that the king is blessed. He is a lucky man.”

“Isn’t that actually messy in reality?” I asked. “That’s three princes born on the same day. Won’t they be competing for his throne in future?”

“No, children born from the second queen will be under Estana succession laws. They won’t have anything to do with our kingdom,” he explained.

“Yeah, I heard that it was the main reason why the king accepted the marriage proposal from the king of Estana. I heard that he did not want to take in a second wife,” Jane added.

“It’s been said that the king and the queen are very affectionate toward each other in spite of their marriage being an arranged one,” he said.

“The queen is four years older!” she added while raising her voice slightly and glancing at me. Yeah, she was two years older than me. We had something in common. “The second queen is five years older!”

Chuckling, he said rather gleefully, “I want to joke that mayhaps the king likes older women. But neither of the marriages was his choice, so that’s that.”

Again, older women marrying younger men wasn’t a thing around here. Therefore, the two queens being much older than the king was often a topic of discussion. Jane being two years older than me was already a reason enough for her dad to outright refuse me although it took only ten silver coins to change his mind. But then we were just commoner folks. Our case and the king’s case were entirely different.

“How did both queens end up being so much older than him, I wonder?” She wondered aloud, not expecting an answer.

“I don’t know much about the first queen. Their marriage was already done by the time I arrived from the North,” he said. “But the arrival of the second queen is well documented.”

He explained that the king of Estana had no choice but to push the marriage at any cost after losing his entire family to the Age of Darkness. With only a daughter left, he desperately looked for a suitor, and our king was the only candidate in time of the chaos that was the Age of Darkness.

“As a crown princess, the king of Estana had very limited choices,” he explained further. “Her being the sole heiress was another issue as well. There was literally only one choice, who was our king or a duke at that time.”

Not all men were fertile, and the same applied for women as well. The king of Estana had to absolutely make sure that the man his daughter would end up marrying had a proven record. Kamil Fenchel, a duke at the time, had already impregnated his wife, thus proving that he was fertile. He was also a young rising star with a bright future. Duman was correct that the king had no other choices at that time.

“In the end, his gamble paid off, didn’t it,” he said with a chuckle. “Two heirs and one heiress in just one birth. I am sure that he can finally sleep with ease.”

“The side effect is that our kingdom and Estana are so close now that we are virtually the same country,” Jane said. “In fact, I can speak a decent amount of their language now.”

Even I was able to speak Estanian language somewhat decently to a level that I could strike a casual conversation. Yes, our languages were different, which had been the primary reason why our kingdom and Estana had rarely traded. As for how I learned their language, it was mom who insisted that I learned at least the basics. Estana was known for their spices, and virtually all spice vendors in Ceres were from Estana, meaning some of us had to learn their language in order to engage and make money. As a direct result of spice being available, veggie soup had gotten a lot better. Before the spices came along, the soup was just vegetable scraps thrown together in a boiling pot after some salts were added. With proper spices thrown in, the taste had improved greatly. Of course, that didn’t change the nutritional values but at least it had become more enjoyable.

“By the way,” Duman said while glancing at the both of us. “Have you chosen a house yet?”

Before I could answer, Jane did. “We’ve decided to live in the guild for now.”

“You do know that you can’t make out in the guild, right?” He said with a smirk. Well, it was against the rules for sure. There were married couples within the guild, but they were asked to reside outside of the guild building. That was because there were a lot of us living here, and the night activities among married couples would … disturb others. The walls were rather thin here.

“We don’t plan sleeping together for the time being,” she said with a stoic face although she was probably flushing inside.

“But you two have slept together, haven’t you?” He pressed.

“Um…, we haven’t,” I answered, looking down. I was actually really curious about a woman’s body. I knew that our bodies were different but had no idea in what way. The only thing I knew about a woman’s body was the breasts. As if knowing the situation, Duman looked at Jane.

“Jane, you are older. You ought to teach him.”

Blushing this time, she stood up from the table at once in panic. “It’s …, it’s not like I know how it works, either!”

Well, both of us were virgins after all. Either way, Duman seemed to be enjoying teasing us.

“Once both of you get naked in front of each other, it will become clear how it works,” he said, giggling widely. God…, just imagining the situation was giving me a boner. I glanced at her, whose face was deep red. I am not going to lie. I did want to sleep with her just to get a feeling of what a real woman was like. But mom has always warned me not to give in to the urge because I’d regret later. She told me repeatedly to wait for my girl to open up before I did. She even told me that, if I did, women would be far more willing to sleep with me in the end. I had no reason to doubt my mom because she always cared for me, always. She would never give ill advice to me.

“It’s okay, Jane. We can take our time,” I told her, looking up, with a sweetest grin I could possibly conjure. It was a lie of course. If she was willing, I’d sleep with her tonight.

“R…,right,” she replied while clearing her throat and sat back down. “Let’s … talk about that in private later.”

“Attagirl,” said Duman, looking all giddy. He was all smiles.

“Lord Sluple, can we talk about the upcoming mission?” she said, trying to change the subject. Yes, we’ve taken a goblin encampment extermination mission. The Age of Darkness introduced a lot of monsters throughout the continent. Most of them were controlled by the dragons or so I was told. After they were defeated, they became sentient and so I was told. There were a lot of monsters out there at the moment although they were far from organized to pose any threats to established settlements.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“The paper said a ‘goblin’ encampment, but the detail lists more than just goblins,” she continued on. “I assume the remnants of the monsters from the Age of Darkness have joined them.”

“That’s most likely,” Duman replied with a nod.

“I am just concerned whether just the four of us could handle this,” she voiced her concerns. “I assume Faro is going to act as our frontline fighter. Lord Sluple will use his crossbow. Lady Vrnojka will be our healer.”

Ah, yes, Lady Vrnojka was Roseline. Like Duman, she also used the name of her hometown as her last name. This worked because Vrnojka was also completely destroyed during the Age of Darkness.

“Our group composition is poor. We are lacking in manpower,” she pressed. “We need at least two more members: a fighter and a mage.”

“You ain’t wrong,” Duman agreed with a slow nod with folded arms. “Besides, Faro isn’t quite yet used to having just one arm. His balance is quite off when fighting on the move.”

He wasn’t wrong. When fighting while not moving, I did pretty well. But, as soon as I started fighting while moving, I sucked. Like he pointed out, my balance was awfully off. I didn’t think not having my left arm would affect me like this. I did need proper training from a proper swordsman, which reminded me …

“Duman, what happened to the mentor you were going to get me?”

“Ah, him.” He responded as if he had completely forgotten. “I did contact the guy. He was alive. He’s from the North, you see, so I wasn’t sure whether he made it.”

The North used to be where the Siwen dynasty used to be. At least, that’s what the history lesson from mom taught me. Then it fell, at which point most of its former territories were absorbed by two other nations. It looked like Ayaan, Amanda, Duman, Meizei, and Roseline were all from the North.

image [https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img922/7024/7OtX8h.png]

The Kingdom of Egra was what the Kingdom of Filava used to be. Egra collapsed during the Age of Darkness and the current king, my brother, rose to retake control of all of its former territory. Meanwhile, the Age of Darkness destroyed all other nations, bar Estana and Rem, essentially leaving our kingdom the sole superpower of the continent. I didn’t know anything about Rem, but Estana was on extremely friendly terms with our kingdom since our second queen was from there.

“I sent a letter to him to come here. He was staying in Maiava.”

“That’s quite far away.”

“Yep, told him to take an airship, so it shouldn’t be too long before he gets here.”

“Is he good? He is a swordsman, yes?” Jane asked, to which Duman nodded back. “Then can we add him to our roster?”

“Oh, that’s a good idea,” I agreed.

“If he is willing. The dude is a little bit older than me, so he may no longer want to get involved.”

Adventurers retired early due to the nature of their jobs. Getting hurt frequently, eating inadequately, and sleeping in wilderness while out on missions took a toll on the body. While younger people might be able to take the punishment, it’d become harder and harder for older people. Therefore, the general retirement age for frontline warriors was 40. Mages and others may be able to work longer.

“He’s that old, huh.”

“Experience makes a master swordsman after all,” he said. “He should be here in a few days, I reckon.”

“Can we wait that long?” Jane asked. She had a point. Monster encampments relocated routinely. There was a chance that, if we delayed our departure, the camp would be gone by the time of our arrival.

“We can always do another one and cancel this one. We are not short on time and we are not short on money, either,” he said. Well, perhaps it was true for him and partially to me. It probably wasn't true for Jane. She wasn’t paid while not performing her work as a guild receptionist. A guild receptionist was paid three iron coins per shift. There were three shifts a day, morning, noon, and afternoon. For Jane, on working days, she did two shifts, thus earning six iron coins per day. She normally took a day off and then would work the next day, doing two shifts. Because the guild provided basic meals as well as a room for free for guild members, the job was pretty lucrative for someone like her in spite of the low wage. She told me that she had saved up 15 silver coins so far. That was a two-year worth of savings while spending absolutely minimum. She also told me that she was unwilling to spend it except for a few occasions. She would spend it on our house or she would rather save up in case of emergency. Speaking of houses, I really didn’t know how much one would cost. There was the option of getting an underground apartment which was cheaper, but she was quite against the idea. She told me that she wanted to sleep under the sky.

“Duman, how can we buy a house?” I asked him.

“Oh, right. You wouldn’t know. How big of a house do you guys want?”

This was where something called a family plan came in. He was indirectly asking how many kids we planned to have. While pretty embarrassing to talk about, this was an important aspect in choosing a house. You wouldn’t want to purchase a three-room house to end up having three kids or something.

“Uh…, we are not sure yet.” I glanced at her and she evaded my eyes. It was just too early for us.

“Well, I am sure you will get to decide that later. Anyway, once you guys’ minds are made up, talk to the carpenter. He will either build a new one or direct you to a vacant house for sale. If you are looking for a cheaper option, you can choose one of the underground apartments.”

“I don’t want to live underground,” she replied firmly.

“Yeah, I can see why,” he replied with a smile.

“You do?!” I blurted because I didn’t know.

“She is a farmer’s daughter. A farmer can’t sleep well underground because they can never tell time by looking at the sky, meaning they tend to end up oversleeping in underground places.”

Ohhhhhh! I bumped my fist into my other palm. Then I looked at her who evaded my eyes, again, with a slight pout. I didn’t know what she was mad about.

“Anyway,” he continued. “Let’s wait for the guy to arrive before going on a mission. If he is willing to join, we have more than enough. We are all highly experienced.”

“Duman seems to be getting much better,” Jane said. We were having a short walk after lunch.

“Yeah, he’s much livelier.”

We wanted to involve Roseline, but she said she was busy writing her chronicle of hers. She did agree to go on a mission as well as the journey with the Fat Lady, so we felt that it was good enough. Then we ran out of topics to talk about soon enough. I mean we were together most of the time at the guild.

“Um, so …, how big of a house do we need…?” I asked, very carefully and somewhat slowly. She looked away from me at once while slowly scratching the side of her head with her index finger.

“.... No more than two…,” she eventually whispered.

“So…, that’s a house with four bedrooms then.”

“..... Yeah.”

The mood was really awkward.

“I…, ehm, don’t want a big family. I mean my own family was big, and it was a mess especially during meal times,” she said. “And, because I am the oldest, I was sometimes asked to forfeit my own share for my four brothers.”

I looked down. It was something I never experienced because my family was wealthy. I wouldn’t be able to understand what she went through because the lack of food was never a problem for me in my childhood. Still, asking to go hungry was asking too much in my opinion. Well, either way, I had no issue whatsoever with just two kids. Truthfully, I couldn’t care less.

“That’s fine. I don’t mind. Whatever you want,” I told her while slowly getting closer to her and grabbed her shoulder, pushing her onto me sideways. Our height was about the same; she was a tad taller. I was short for a guy, but mom said the king had a growth sprout at about my age, so I assume I’d end up taller, hopefully. I really, really, hope so. I don’t want to end up being shorter than my girl. I really don’t.

“Um….,” She tried to say something but a long period of silence was what I got instead. She did eventually manage to speak. “Do you wanna do it?”

Oh, hell, yes. I knew what she meant. Of course, I had to act cool.

“If you want,” I said calmly, I think.

“Well, we’ve spoken to both of our parents… Everything is set, isn’t it.”

True, we had blessings from both of our parents. We were effectively married. The only part left was the consummation of marriage.

“Gotta do it at one point anyway,” I replied, feeling giddy.

With her face bright red, she nodded without saying anything. And we did it in the evening after renting a nice inn room that costs 5 iron coins per night, which was a luxurious room. I finally got to see what a woman’s body looked like and was quite astonished how different it was. The only differences I noticed before this event was their higher pitched voices and breasts. There were a lot more differences, especially down there, not to mention the smoothness of the body. We acted as if nothing occurred between us the next morning. She went back to work, and I decided to help out Duman as usual. When I went to the backyard of the guild, he looked at me with a smirk.

“Didn’t see you guys at all in the evening. You guys done it?”

I gave him a nod.

“Attaboy. You are a man now.”

“I suppose I am.”

He had a faint smile as he resumed sanding a plank in his hand. “I miss Mei,” he said with vacant eyes. “She was the woman for me.”

I downcast my eyes and sat down nearby.

“Will you be okay?”

“Don’t know. This pain … is very weird. It aches in a way that I cannot resist. If it’s just regular good old pain, I would have gotten over it already.”

This was the first time he ever talked about Meizei since we returned from the dragon mission. I did feel that it was an improvement of his condition. He was opening up at least. Roseline on the other hand …

“You know, Cvetko visited me on the day I came back to the guild.”

He snickered. “He did?”

“Has he visited you?”

“Nope, he’s been avoiding me as far as I can tell.”

I figured as much. You don’t want to piss a big dude like Duman.

“What did he say?”

“Not much. He simply said that he was sorry that he didn’t tag long.”

“As if that’s gonna help. Too late for that.”

Agreed. His apology was bullshit. If anything, it made me angry.

“Don’t hurt him, though.”

“Come on, I ain’t that kind of person.”

He chuckled, and it became silent. I decided to change the subject.

“Duman, I may have become a man but …”

“But?”

“I have yet to drink.”

It took a moment for him to get my point, and a broad smile emerged on his face. He slapped his knee once and stood up.

“Of course, you ain’t a man until you had your first drunken night. Let’s have a drink, my threat!”

“Ehm, right now?” I looked up. The sun was still high in the sky. In fact, it was morning.

“As if that matters! Bring Jane! She is a part of the team now, yeah?”

I suppose he has a point. Jane was a non-combatant although she did know how to defend herself with a dagger or a short sword. We needed a support person, and she fit the bill perfectly. She had already been doing the job by getting missions for us and preparing supplies in advance. I knew that she worked the morning shift today even though she was feeling a bit of pain down there. She might have opted to take the rest of the day off. Given the fact that it was going to be a feast however, there was no way she’d decline. Of course, we didn’t end up going to the tavern in the morning. That was just wrong, so we went there in the evening. After the feast and somewhat excessive drinking, Jane and I slept together once more. We were swiftly getting used to each other’s bodies.

The man Duman mentioned, who was to be my mentor, arrived in Ceres about five days later. He arrived at the guild, looking for Duman. I was there when he entered the guild hall for the first time. He actually looked like a knight or some sort. He had straight blond hair reaching down to his chin and had stubble. His eyes looked very sharp, and his chin was wide, making his overall face look square-ish. My first impression of him was that he really did look the part. He looked menacing even with overly thick arms.

image [https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img922/5554/iMbvvQ.png]

“The name’s Vojmir,” Duman said as he introduced him to me in the backyard. “Vojmir, this is Faro, the kid I talked about.”

I lowered my upper body with a palm on my chest to show respect. Likewise, he did the same.

“My name is Vojmir. I pride myself as a decent swordsman. However, I am unsure whether I am able to educate you.”

His way of speech was quite formal.

“May I ask why?”

“You lack an arm. Believe it or not, it’s quite important for a proper swordsman to have both arms. It’s required for balance.”

“I am already aware, sir.” Then I looked at Duman to intervene.

“Vojmir, he lost his arm during the mission.”

He narrowed his eyes immediately and asked, “The dragon mission?” Duman nodded. “I see. I see.” Then he looked up and down on me. “Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t teach you because I honestly don’t know how. However, you’ve done mankind a great service. It would be disgraceful of me to dismiss you. I will teach you.”

My face brightened up at hearing that.

“However, I need to teach myself what it is like to fight one-armed. From there, I will research a new way to fight with one arm. I will also observe you in how you fight.”

Quite frankly, I had no idea what he was planning to do. Was he going to chop off his arm? Probably not? Well, I will find out soon, I suppose.