Footsteps rung out across the wooden floor, causing me to look up from the book I had borrowed from the library. I smiled as I saw Freio and Kyrrah. Some say that the clothes make the man. While I’m not fashion critic, I did have to agree with that saying. The two had been led to the guest dining room on the second floor where I had waited for the past hour. Compared to before, the two looked far better than they had originally. Night and day difference many would say. Long gone were the tattered rags that they had worn when they first came to me. Now they wore a white blouse and long, deep blue skirt. The basic uniform that the other female servants wore. Kyrrah’s fur was now its natural medium brown and Freio’s had returned to a light tan. They obviously had been brushed and scrubbed vigorously, as their fur no longer looked tangled and their tails looked nice and fluffy.

I had to keep my hands off though, as I wasn’t sure if there was a taboo about tail touching. Best to play it safe for the moment.

“Master Daen, look! New clothes!” Freio bolted towards me and did a little twirl. Both their tails were flitting about happily.

“Indeed, you both look much better than before.” Though they were still thin beyond belief. I put my book down upon the table. “I hope you two are hungry, food will be served soon.”

“Yes!” Freio exclaimed and jumped into a seat next to me.

“I feel like I’m dreaming…” Kyrrah spoke with a light smile as she sat beside her daughter.

“I know exactly what you mean.” I responded.

We didn’t have to wait long until food was served. For me, I had a plate of cooked pork and boiled vegetables. For them, they had a bowl of what looked like oatmeal. While there’s nothing wrong with oatmeal, these girls desperately needed something more than just that. It didn’t even look like it had any honey added in! The two of them looked pleased with their meal, but before they could dig in I interrupted them.

“Hold up you two. Mind if I try some of that?” I asked Freio. She nodded and I used my spoon to take a scoop of the stuff. “Yep.” I swallowed. “Thats oatmeal. Plain watery oatmeal. Didn’t even have the decency to use milk.” I pushed my plate towards them and got up from my seat. “You two share this, I’ll be back.”

“Is everything alright, Master Daen?” Kyrrah worriedly looked from my meal to me.

“Nothing a little charisma can’t fix.” I grinned as I left the room.

From the dining room I marched to the kitchen. Many people were working all around, from food prep to delivery. I quickly flagged down the head chef, easily identified by how he ordered everyone around. After introducing myself to the man I put in a request for my two new servants to receive the same food as I, with a little extra to build up their fat and muscle. Thankfully, the chef readily agreed and said if I ever needed anything else to talk to him directly. He was a good guy about it, so I passed him a silver coin I had swiped from one of the donation bags during the celebration earlier.

He then winked at me and the coin quickly disappeared into his clothes. From there, we had an unspoken bond between us. The kind of ‘you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours’ deal. I then asked if I could get my oatmeal made with milk and some honey added in. I love me some good oatmeal. I didn’t have to wait long until I had a bowl of the steaming goodness in my hands. After expressing my thanks, I left and returned to the guest dining room. I found both of them leaning forward onto the table with content looks on their faces and their tails swishing back and forth lazily. Their bowls were empty and my plate was clean.

“Good to see you two enjoying yourselves.” I snickered and sat beside them.

“So full…” “So good…” The two of them spoke simultaneously.

“No sleeping on the job you two.” I poked Freio’s forehead. “Today may be a relaxing day for you, but tomorrow your work begins.”

Kyrrah nodded, but Freio cocked her head curiously. “Work?”

“Yup! As my personal servants, the two of you will be responsible for clothing, washing, and feeding me. As well as cleaning my room, making sure that…” I went on and on. Meanwhile, Freio’s eyes got bigger and bigger.

“Yes Master.” Kyrrah bowed her head. “Whatever you may require.”

“Thats a lot!” Freio exclaimed wide-eyed.

I snickered, “I’m sure there are some people who have servants for all that. But I can do most of that myself. Honestly, I’ll most likely only use you two to bring us all food and drinks so we can eat together, or grab books for me from the library. Maybe cleaning my room too.”

“Master, neither of us can read. We wont be of much use gathering books.” Kyrrah stated and Freio nodded.

“I figured that was the case. But don’t worry about it. I’ll be teaching you your letters whenever we have free time. You’ll be able to read and write in no time.”

“You’d really do that for us?” Kyrrah asked disbelieving, “Why?”

“You may as well ask why do I do anything? I like helping people. By helping you being able to read and write I fulfill that sick desire of mine to feel like I’m accomplishing something.”

“Can we learn now?” Freio questioned as she leaned close to me.

“Let me finish my food.” I poked her forehead. “Then I’ll show you two around the mansion some more. We can start after dinner tonight, okay?”

“Yes!” “Thank you Master.”

“Speaking of food, The cook will feed you both the same things that I eat from now on. With a bit bigger portions, you both are far too skinny!”

“Yay!” Freio hugged my arm. “Meat is the best!” Kyrrah however, looked like she was about to cry again.

“You alright Kyrrah?”

“Thank you.” she whispered.

I handed off a handkerchief to her and plowed through the rest of my oatmeal. It was pretty good now that it was made with milk and honey. I then placed my bowl down on the table, picked up the book I had left, and stood.

“Shall we go exploring?” I spoke with a smile and led the way out of the dining room. We headed down to the first floor and I showed them to the kitchen, the servant dining area. Since they were my personal servants, they could dine with me. Which I considered for the best, they’d probably be ostracized for being free Beastfolk. Next up was the privy, as Freio was on the cusp of having an accident. I pushed them in, told them the ropes and wished them well before I closed the door and walked away.

Best not to eavesdrop on others in the facilities. Once they were finished I brought them outside to wash their hands in a bucket of water. I may have emphasized the need for proper hygiene a bit much, but one’s hands can never be too clean. Once that was finished I showed them around the servant’s quarters, and we found their new room. It was a small one, with two beds and a single dresser to share between them. Freio dove onto her bed in the blink of an eye and made some pleased growling noises. Kyrrah merely sat on hers and smiled.

Once they had a basic rundown of the first floor, we moved to the second. Guest rooms, the dining room, and most important, the library. Then we moved onto the third floor. I wasn’t sure how much I was allowed to show them, so I took them right my room.

“And this is my humble room.” I opened the door and the two of them had eyes as wide as they could go.

“Wow!”

“Amazing…” They scanned the room looking at everything.

“Oh!” Freio caught sight of my bed and darted off faster than she had for her own bed. “Bouncy!” she mercilessly jumped atop it. “And soft too!”

“My love, please stop jumping on the Master’s bed.” Kyrrah attempted to calm her daughter, but to no avail.

“Its alright Kyrrah, I did the same thing when I first saw it. Wanna try it?”

“May I?” I nodded, “If you’ll excuse me.” She bowed and sat at the edge and did a small bounce. “Amazing…Its so soft…like a cloud.”

“And you haven’t even seen the best part yet!”

“What could be better than this?” Freio growled happily as she rolled around, ruining my sheets.

I opened the door to the balcony. “How about a view of the gardens?” They both stood up and rushed over to the railing to look down upon the gardens blooming with flowers.

“How beautiful.”

“Pretty!”

“Blessed One, are you in? Oh! Thank goodness.” I turned to see Gollard enter my room. Followed by a bunch of other lower ranked priests carrying bags. “Would you like us to store your gifts in our storage room or…”

“Hmm. Put them in the closet, I doubt I’ll ever have enough clothes for it. It can become my personal storage.”

“As you wish.” He then directed them to my closet, coins and jewelry jingling the whole while. Once the priests had finished making deposits in the first national closet of Daen, Gollard stood next to me and began to whisper.

“You shouldn’t have offended all those people at your ceremony, Daen. A few of them were rather wealthy, and others friends of even wealthier citizens.”

“Gollard, let me say this loud and clear, I don’t care about them. They were the cause of the disruption at my ceremony, not these two.”

“But still…” I raised my hand to stop him.

“Whats done is done. If they give us any trouble I will see them dealt with. As soon as I accepted them in my ceremony, Freio and Kyrrah were put under my protection. Should anything happen to them, I will come down upon the offender as if all five gods had descended from the heavens themselves to dispense justice. No matter who they are. Are we clear?”

“Yes Blessed One.” He bowed. I nodded,

“Good. Now, from what Kyrrah tells me, you used to go to the slums to hand out bread to the needy, correct?”

“I still do, Blessed One.”

“Would you appreciate a few extra hands?” I stroked my chin in thought. “Hmm, we could even make the bread ourselves the day before…”

“Ah, I’m sure those we assist would be beyond grateful!”

“We’ll help too!”

“Yes, us too!” Freio and Kyrrah jumped into the conversation.

“I’m sure more would join us once you started coming Blessed One.” Gollard stated.

“Yup, but we’ll need more than just bread.”

“We could take some meat and vegetables from the kitchens as well.” The High Priest offered, but I shook my head.

“They’ll need something more than handouts to improve their situation.” I showed Gollard the book that I held.

“You’re reading about agriculture?” I nodded,

“We’re going to need some land Gollard. And people who know how to work it to teach the Beastmen how to farm. From what I’ve seen and heard, they’ve only ever been used for manual labor inside the city. Unfortunately, the area around here isn’t the best for hunting, which they should be naturally good at. So we’ll teach them to farm, pay them fairly on their produce, and build them some homes on the farm. Then we’ll see if we can change the slums from the ground up.”

“Master Daen…”

“We could keep giving them lots of bread!” Freio suggested, but I shook my head.

“Sorry Freio, but those that are given things for free don’t learn anything. Its better for them in the long run to learn something that they can use in life.

“I’ll see what I can do.” Gollard began, “But even if we obtain enough land, we wont have our first harvest for awhile.”

“That’s why we’ll give them bread in the meantime and put out the call for any who wish to work.”

“It would be a drain on our coffers.” A new voice spoke from the doorway. I turned to see Rolst approach. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop.”

“Yes you did.” I retorted, to which he chuckled.

“Tell me Daen, what would you have us do while this project drained the country’s treasury?”

“Well its simple isn’t it? We’ll be in the red in the short term. But once the ball gets rolling and more Beastmen obtain jobs, we’ll be able to tax them whereas now they’re paying nothing. A small investment here would yield large dividends in the future.”

“In the red?” “What ball? Where!?” “Divi-what?” My audience questioned. I sighed.

“Spend money now, make more money later.”

“I see.” Rolst nodded. “A decent solution to the slum problem. But even that plan has a problem of its own. The land to the south and north is filled with rocks and far too hilly for decent farming. And all the flatland to the east of the city has already been claimed.” He gave a pitying smile towards me. “So as you see, your idea has merit, but it may prove fruitless. Though I’d love to meet your tutors that have taught you as much as you know.”

“They’re a long way from here.” I smiled, “But regardless, I may have a solution to our problem.”

“Oh? Do share.” Rolst held rapt attention now.

“Tell me Rolst, this country has its own Enchanters correct?”

“Of course, we’d be at a grave disadvantage militarily if we didn’t!” He responded with a curious look.

“And Enchanters strong in the earth element can shift landscapes, correct?”

“Theoretically, yes. But their powers are imprecise on the large scale.” He smiled. “Though I see what you were getting at!”

“Huh? What do you see?” Freio asked the man who scrunched his brows in thought.

“Daen thinks we could use our Enchanters to flatten out the land to make way for more farmland. Its not the first time anyone has thought of the idea, but the lands he wants to use have too many rocks in the soil.”

I shrugged. “We could also hire the people living in the slums to remove the rocks from the area and flatten out the land further than the Enchanters could. After that work is done, we could use those that wish to remain in our employment to build better roads.”

“Hmm…your ideas have merit. The flattening and removing of rock would be a big project itself, not even to mention better roads. But it would grant us additional produce or crops such as cotton.”

“I wouldn’t dream of planting anything like cotton for the time being. These farms would be use to revitalize the slums, and the first step to that is food.”

“Agreed. I shall inform the other High Priests, other than Gollard here, that we’ll meet tonight.”

“Lets make it two hours after dinner.” Gollard spoke as the two High Priests left my room, speaking excitedly.

“Will this truly help my people?” Kyrrah asked as her ears twitched excitedly.

“It should. It’ll get them out of the slums and get them working. Then they’ll have a bit of money to spend which flows back into the country. Which then we can use to improve conditions in the slums. But I’m getting ahead of myself here, first things first.” I pulled out the chair to my desk and motioned for Freio to sit and Kyrrah to join me. Once my students were ready I took out my ink, quill, and a piece of parchment. With a quick scribble I had the first letter of this land’s alphabet on the page.

“This here is the first letter of the alphabet. It makes an ‘Ar’ sound when spoken and written.”

“Ar!” Freio spoke excitedly. “Ar?” Kyrrah asked. I nodded,

“Good. Now for the writing part, I’d like you both to attempt to copy that letter below it. Don’t go too big, we’ve still got a lot more to learn.”

The lesson continued on until the call for dinner went out. By then they had learned how each letter of the alphabet sounded, but only had a good handle on writing half of them. They did pretty well in my mind, those accents on the other letters are a pain in the ass. Together, we had eaten in the second floor dining room once more. Steamed vegetables and lightly charred deer meat was what we ate. I had to hand it to the head chef, he knew what he was doing around that kitchen.

Once dinner was over we returned to my room for another hour of practice. Once that time was up, I gave them the piece of paper with our work on it for them to practice speaking the letters on their own, and assured them we’d do the rest tomorrow. Once they had a grasp on the basics, we’d move on to words, reading, and writing. I’m no professional teacher, but they were making steady progress so I was happy. Once they were on their way, I picked up my book on agriculture and went to the council room early. This way, I could kill time until they showed up.

Not long before the turn of the hour the first High Priest arrived. Jalholm.

“Ah, I’ve been expecting you.” I spoke as I tapped my fingers together. Initially unaware of my presence, he jumped at my voice and assumed a fighting pose. But upon realizing that is was me, he relaxed and sat beside me.

“Don’t frighten an old soul like that, Daen.” He chuckled.

“I don’t give out promises I can’t keep.” I spoke with as menacing a voice I could manage. Which, for someone who was five, isn’t very menacing.

Shortly after Jalholm had showed up the rest began to trickle in. With Utelle being last, clearly still mad at me for putting her in her place. Rolst quickly outlined my plan once we had all gathered and I threw in my two cents once the discussion started. Counter points were brought up; such as how much it would theoretically cost the treasury to hire such a workforce and supply them with the items required. But overall the meeting was very positive. Even Utelle agreed to the plan in the end, which I found surprising.

Though her reason for accepting the plan was to ‘get those Beasts out of the city and working’. Shes quite the pragmatic racist.

Another point brought up however, was the lack of available water to the land in the north. I suggested that we use Enchanters and the workers to create a lake sized hole and fill it with water from Enchanters as well. Once the initial plans were made, we decided to call it a night. Which was good as I was about to pass out from being up since the crack of dawn.

But first I’d try for a few minutes to see if I could ‘feel’ my magic core.