The dragon's harem

The moment the barbarians arrived, the thugs all fell like flies. Just one raging barbarian was enough to cause a headache even to an entire armed battalion, so a few thugs had no chance against over thirty of them.

While the barbarians were told many times not to kill, there wasn’t much they could do about their own raw power and violent attitude, which resulted in half of the thugs turning into cold corpses. Most of the kills seemed to happen by accident when a throw spear was deflected, when a thug was too squishy to endure a rock, and when some of them fell down from their horses.

“What a waste of manpower.” Arad sighed in the castle, but he wasn’t going to complain. With what those thugs did throughout their entire lives, Arad was certain that even if he sent them to trial, they would end up sent to the rope. Even though death was treated somewhat lightly in this world, there weren’t many crimes that resulted in execution.

While some other kingdoms can have someone executed just for speaking up against nobles or the royal family, here in the empire and in Ruris before it, that wasn’t the case. The death penalty was reserved for grave murder and repeated high offences.

What those thugs got was multiple counts of repeated crimes like assault, slavery, and even murder. How did Arad know? It was quite simple for him. He asked Abel, and apparently, all of the thugs Abel killed at night were now rotting in hell.

The barbarians didn’t do much after all of the thugs were beaten and neutralized. They left the cleanup to the guards and went about their day, which just happened to be taking place in Mira’s Divine Hall. All of them were there, and Nina’s grandmother was just late.

The maid did make a detour with them since the hall wasn’t that far away from the capital’s entrance, and so, she ended up finding herself face-to-face with the greedy demigoddess.

Mira, who was working in the large and new workshop behind the divine hall, put her tools down, gave a few orders to her assistants, and then went to see what the barbarians needed this time.

“So, this is why you suddenly ran away.” She smiled, greeted Nina’s grandmother, and then pointed back at a massive pile of wood and weapons. “What will it be this time?”

“Better… Winter… Wood… home.” The grandmother spoke, and Mira smiled. “I see, new wooden houses instead of your tents, so you can survive the winter more easily. I did expect this since you’ve relocated close to the snowy and cold mountains.”

After Arad destroyed their land in his fight with Shi, the barbarians had relocated to the outskirts of Alina’s domain, right on the opposite side of the mountain range where the Great Capital of Orion was now growing. Unlike their previous land, which was more of a tropical rainforest, this new place was far colder and had less vegetation.

Here in Alina’s region, it snows a lot, and in the winter, it can usually get as bad as several feet of snow, which was the reason Merlin had worked so hard in the past to create a city-wide heating system. As expected, the barbarians were now living in a spot that the system didn’t reach, and expanding it toward them wasn’t possible both financially and physically, as it didn’t have enough power to heat a larger area.

So, the plan was to build them a proper village even if they refused, but she didn’t expect them to come ask her on their own. Nina must’ve convinced them somehow. While the adult barbarians could survive the winter, the young ones and newborns wouldn’t, so the people in the castle were quite worried.

“So, they wanted homes?” Arad appeared behind everyone, and the maid almost screamed her lungs out. She knew that he had multiple incarnations, but she didn’t know that one of his clones was here in the Divine Hall, or did he come to grab her because she was late? Isdis won’t punish her, right?

“Yeah, but we’re strained on wood. The beavers, Loci, and Plum are doing their best, but there isn’t much that we can do about trees and nutrients in the ground.” Mira approached Arad. “We can either import wood or open a new clay mine and make bricks. But we must also balance the costs since… they won’t pay a copper.”

The barbarians didn’t pay taxes and weren’t used to the concept of money, even though they understood and could use it. So, in exchange for services from the guild, they hunt monsters and keep the area in check. Mira was actively working with them because unlike adventurers, they were cheaper and could bring her rare monster materials quickly and without taxing Arad’s precious time.

Just yesterday, Mira had wanted a horned tiger’s pelt, and they hunted and brought it to her on the same day, while the guild would usually take a day to process the request, and then it’s up to luck when an adventurer would take the request.

“How about we do both? I’ll get a mine open immediately and see if Roberta can put a few orders for wood for us. To save time, I’ll go bring the first shipment myself, which should last us until the next one arrives by regular means.” As Arad talked with her, his incarnation in the castle was already talking with Roberta and getting things ready. If he could, he’d get this sorted today.

“Sorry for taking up your time. Winter is still far away, so I’ll start working on their houses after the ceremony. But for now, we can just give them better tarps.” Mira looked back at the maid. “And, so why is she here?”

“She was delivering a letter for us. And, you aren’t taking up my time. The empire is taking your time with me.” He leaned on the bench and looked at what she was working on. She was working on several new carriages and wagons they could use in local transportation, especially between Alina and the capital.

Mira smiled and looked back. “We’re all working together, so it isn’t a problem. And, it’s not like this amount of work would last. We’re only busy because the capital is new and just getting fully built.”

Mira was right, they were only overworked now because they had to balance the capital’s growth, expansion, royal ceremonies, all while still trying to establish forging trade routes with the multiple kingdoms under Arad’s rule.

But Mira wasn’t complaining, and in fact, she loved this life. She wakes up in the morning, works in her workshop all day long, and then sleeps at night. To her, working as a carpenter was fun, and she might’ve gotten bored otherwise. Thanks to her now powerful demigoddess body, she could work harder, for longer, and create better marvels of creative and impossible proportions.

Before, she would’ve needed a crane to move some of the larger wooden beams, but now, she can just carry them with one hand. She used to have several massive and heavy sledgehammers to drive nails with, but now, she could do it with her bare thumb.

That wasn’t the only change, but her vision and precision had improved dramatically, allowing her to create more complex and intricate contraptions with parts so small that anyone else wouldn’t be able to make.

With everything in the Divine Hall settled, Arad grabbed the maid and teleported her back to the office through the void and turned to look at the barbarians. “We will get those houses built for you before winter, don’t worry about it.”

Now, it was time for him to make sure they got the wood delivery from far away, from the free Beastlands.