Chapter 780: Fruits Of Labor [I / Bonus - ]

Chapter 780: Fruits Of Labor [I / Bonus Chapter]

The heavy timber steps of the central staircase felt solid under Silas’s leather boots.

He took his time coming down from the upper wing, one hand trailing lightly along the polished banister while his mind ran through the day ahead.

Outside the leaded glass windows, the early afternoon snow had settled into a steady quiet drift, dusting the battlements of the Keep in thick layers of white.

Today was the day he’d promised to help Aki with her territory.

The wilds outside her walls were crawling with monster nests, and she needed them cleared if her territory was going to grow... He’d given her his word, and he meant to keep it.

It was also a good chance to take his people out past Blessed Land’s borders.

As for who to bring along, the answer was obvious.

He wanted the Heroes he hadn’t spent much time with over the past few weeks... Between everything that had been going on, some of the girls had been left holding down the fort while others got most of his attention.

Eluned was resting after the arena, and Tasmin and Brida were tucked into bed nursing broken ribs and bruised pride.

That left the perfect opening to take the rest of them out into the wild.

Silas reached the ground floor and stepped off the bottom stair onto the thick woven rug of the great hall.

A few paces behind him, Aurelia trailed after him with quick delicate steps.

The Saintess was still clutching her silver medallion to her chest, her golden-amber eyes wide, her cheeks still dusted with that lovely stubborn blush that Silas had thoroughly enjoyed teasing out of her on the way down the corridor.

In the middle of the Keep’s living room, warmed by a roaring fire in a big hearth of carved river stone, three figures were waiting.

The room smelled of woodsmoke and the sweetness of the pine boughs someone had hung over the mantel as well as a pot of something spiced was still steaming on a little table beside the hearth.

Lupina was sprawled across a wide velvet settee with her long legs kicked over the padded armrest.

Her silver wolf ears twitched toward the stairwell the second Silas’s boot touched the floor, and her amber eyes snapped up with sharp focus while her bushy silver tail thumped an eager beat against the cushions.

Sitting upright in a carved oak armchair nearby was Rowenna.

The Grand Runemaster was still wearing her long dark wool coat lined with glowing silver runes, her violet-black hair tied back in a loose knot.

She had a leather notebook balanced on her knees, but her shy blue eyes darted straight to Silas, and her fingers tightened on the edges of the pages as a soft pink flush painted her cheeks.

And leaning against the stone mantelpiece, perfectly still, was Morrighan.

The demon wore fitted black leather armor that hugged her athletic curves and broad shoulders.

Her horns swept back from her dark hair, and her molten gold eyes met Silas’s with calm steady stillness though her face showed no change in expression whatsoever.

Down behind her calves, however, her long spade-shaped tail was whipping through the air in sharp happy sweeps that stirred the hem of her short leather skirt.

SWISH!

Silas couldn’t help the warm lopsided grin that broke across his face.

He walked into the middle of the room and came to a stop between the settee and the hearth, resting his hands on his belt.

"Afternoon, girls," Silas called, his deep voice filling the cozy room. "I hope you aren’t too comfortable by that fire, because I’m putting a party together... Today’s the day we head over to Aki’s Wonderland for that raid I promised her. We’re going to clear some monster nests and show her girls how Blessed Land handles things."

He let his dark blue eyes sweep across the three of them, then nodded back toward Aurelia.

"I haven’t had nearly enough time with you lately," Silas said, his tone softening into real affection. "You’ve all been working hard without getting much of my attention... So, would you like to come along with me?"

Lupina didn’t even wait for him to finish.

She vaulted straight off the settee with an excited yip, her ears standing bolt upright as she landed on the balls of her feet.

"Yes! Finally!" Lupina barked, pumping a fist into the air. "Sitting around this living room was driving me crazy! Let’s go rip some beasts apart, Lord Silas!"

Rowenna’s shy blue eyes sparkled with quiet joy.

She set her notebook down on the side table, smoothed the front of her coat as she stood and gave him a small curtsy.

"I-I’d be honored to come with you, my Lord," Rowenna said softly, her bangs falling over her burning cheeks. "My runes are fully charged. I’ll make sure you’re protected."

Morrighan didn’t answer right away. She pushed off the mantelpiece and stepped forward with smooth predatory grace, her molten gold eyes fixed on his face.

"My fists are yours, Lord Silas," Morrighan said, her voice a low smoky purr. "Point me at whatever’s in your way..."

Behind her, her spade-shaped tail gave three hard happy thumps against the floorboards.

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

Silas smiled broadly, a swell of pride and affection settling into his chest.

"Thank you, all of you. Having you with me makes any raid ten times easier."

Across the hearth, short private thoughts ran through the minds of his three companions.

’Finally, some real time with Lord Silas,’ Lupina thought, her fangs flashing behind a grin as her nostrils flared and drank in his scent. ’No more watching Eluned sit on his lap all morning! Out in the wild, I can run right beside him and show him what I can do and getting to sink my claws into prey that actually fights back? Best morning ever!’

’To walk beside him outside the Keep so soon after winning my room...’ Rowenna thought, her heart fluttering against her ribs like a trapped sparrow. ’It’s almost too much... I can show him how far my runes have come, and m-maybe when we stop to rest, he’ll sit beside me and look over my work himself.’

’He asked for me,’ Morrighan thought, her face as still as carved stone while the fire in her chest burned hot. ’Out in those wild dens, I’ll break the skull of the biggest beast there with a single Brimstone Punch, lay its core at his feet and remind him that nobody hits harder than I do.’

Silas let out a slow contented sigh as he looked at the eager dangerous beauties standing in front of him.

"Well, we could head out to the runes right now," Silas said, tapping the fur lining of his collar, "but I need to pick up two more people before we go..."

Lupina tilted her head, her ears swiveling. "Who else are we grabbing, Lord Silas?"

"Kaelia and Solenne," Silas answered with a wry smirk.

He had very specific reasons for picking both of them.

First, he wanted Kaelia.

Blessed Land’s S-Rank Chef was a miracle in the kitchen, but she rarely got the chance to leave her Culinary Haven.

Bringing her to Aki’s Wonderland meant she could pass some of her cooking on to Ther’Abella, Elowynn and the rest of the girls in Aki’s barracks, or maybe even give them a proper lesson... The girls over there could use it.

And second, he wanted Solenne.

The nine-tailed artificer had spent weeks cooped up in her workshop, breathing forge fumes and tinkering with gears... She needed some fresh air.

’Though, honestly...’ Silas thought, a thoroughly wicked grin tugging at the corners of his mouth. ’I mostly just want to see how she reacts to the plants.’

The wilds outside Aki’s walls were full of strange plant monsters. There were snapping vines, spitting ferns and squirming tendrils that lunged at anything that walked past.

’I want to see her get startled by a snapping vine and jump straight into my arms,’ Silas chuckled to himself, his fingers twitching. ’I want to watch all nine of those fluffy silver tails puff out like balls of fur, and then I’m going to bury both hands in them until she’s purring... And Kaelia too. That little chef squeaking and clinging to my robes every time a bush rustles? Those two together are the pinnacle of cute... I need to see it for myself.’

Silas turned toward the heavy front doors and waved them along.

"Come on, girls. Let’s go grab our chef and our artificer and—"

Before his fingers could touch the iron ring of the latch, the double doors of the Keep were wrenched open from the outside.

BANG!

A blast of freezing mountain wind and swirling snow billowed into the warm hall and fluttered the hem of Silas’s robes.

Standing in the middle of the doorway with her hands planted on her wide hips was Thora.

The dwarf looked like she’d just climbed out of a volcano.

Her thick leather apron was scorched nearly black across the front and smelled strongly of burnt flux, quenching brine and coal dust.

Her hair was tied up in a messy knot with a pair of steel tongs shoved through it like a hairpin, and her soot-streaked brow was beaded with sweat despite the freezing cold outside.

Her sharp eyes locked onto Silas with the fury of a craftsman on a mission.

"There you are, you slippery human!" Thora bellowed, stepping across the threshold in heavy iron-toed boots that cracked against the floor.

STOMP!

Before Silas could say hello or ask what had set her off, the short muscular dwarf lunged forward, and her thick soot-blackened hands clamped around the fur of his collar like a vise.

"Whoa, hold on, Thora—" Silas protested, laughing as the force of her pull threw him half a step off balance.

"Shut your mouth and move your legs!" Thora roared, completely ignoring the fact that she was manhandling the Lord of the territory in front of his girls.

She turned and marched out into the snowy courtyard, dragging Silas behind her by his collar like a sack of grain.

YANK!

"I didn’t spend all that time breathing star iron fumes and burning off my eyebrows just so you could wander around the Keep playing grab-ass with the Saintess!" Thora shouted over the howling wind, her boots churning the fresh snow into slush. "Me and Solenne finished the new cannons! Everything’s set, and the test came back perfect! You’re coming down to the forge right now to look at what my hammers built, or I swear I’ll melt your favorite tankard down into horseshoes!"

Silas stumbled through the snow, grinning helplessly as he let the furious dwarf tow him down the stone path.

"Alright, alright! I’m moving, I’m moving! Let go of the fur before you choke me!"

Back in the doorway of the Keep, the four girls stood frozen as their cloaks fluttered in the wind.

Lupina’s ears flattened against her hair while her amber eyes darted between Silas and the dwarf hauling him off.

Morrighan’s face didn’t change at all, but her tail gave an amused flick, and Rowenna as well as Aurelia exchanged helpless wide-eyed glances.

"Well," Lupina barked with a fanged grin, "looks like we’re taking a detour to the forge!"

The four Heroes hitched up their cloaks and ran down the snowy stairs after their kidnapped Lord.

The trip down the winding stone path was quick and noisy.

The Titan’s Anvil Forgeworks, newly raised to Tier 4, sat on the slope ahead like a mountain of dark brick and smoking iron.

Tall stone smokestacks pumped thick plumes of gray smoke into the winter sky, and the deep pounding of the big hammers rolled through the ground long before they reached the gates.

CLANG! CLANG!

Thora finally let go of Silas’s collar as they crossed the courtyard, and he smoothed down his crumpled fur with an amused shake of his head.

"You really don’t care about rank at all, do you?" Silas chuckled, brushing a snowflake off his shoulder.

"Rank doesn’t cast cannon barrels, my lord," Thora grunted, spitting into the snow with a satisfied smirk. "The only thing that matters in my shop is good work. Keep up!"

They went in through the wide iron doors of the main foundry.

A blast of dry heat hit them like a wall, carrying the rich smell of hot metal, coal oil and melted slag.

All along the catwalks and around the roaring smelting vats, dozens of dwarves were working with fast disciplined efficiency.

Big crucibles of glowing orange steel swung from overhead chains, and steam vents hissed as hot slag was dumped into the quenching troughs.

As Silas and the girls walked down the central aisle, the dwarves paused and raised their hammers, tongs and ladles in loud salutes.

"Hail to the Lord!" a burly dwarf woman hollered from the slag line, wiping the sweat off her brow with her sleeve.

"Afternoon, Lord Silas!" a young apprentice called from the bellows platform, waving a pair of goggles.

Silas raised his hand in an easy wave and returned their greetings with a smile as they made their way toward the private workshop at the back.

Thora kicked open the reinforced doors of the inner workshop.

BAM!