“I ‘spose we’ll see,” Orien held onto a saudade smile. “It was a big enough reward for us to never delve again if we don’t wanna, though me and Trotto were planning on investing back into the Frontier. You never know when the colonies start booming like with the Gravelands. And when they boom, the loot you find in dungeons will be coppers compared to the money that comes with growth.”
“True, true.” Lidarein blew steam off of a spoon before sampling the soup. It was delicious, as always. Mixed in was a new flavor she did not recognize, a poignant tangy taste of a meat she had not tasted before.
Trotto chuckled. “It goes great with soup, doesn’t it?”
“What is that?” Lidarein picked up a dark-purple strip of broth sticked meat.
“The taste of victory against the deep-sea,” one of the fauns snickered.
Orien elbowed him in the ribs.
“What?”
She put a finger to her dark blue lips, glowing at him with accusation. “Deep sea?”
“I can’t say deep sea? Who is going to make the connection—”
“Someone might.” Orien interjected. “Whatever you decide to do from here on is for you to decide, but don’t forget who we owe it to.”
“No…” The faun lowered his horns in disgrace, scratching his neck. “You’re right. Sorry, ‘bout that.”
“It’s fine, but be careful. There’s enough trouble on their tail already. Let’s not add more to it.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll keep the deep-sea mystery meat a secret.” Lidarein snickered. She could guess who they were talking about.
All of a sudden, after weeks of silence, news bubbled from Nastall. Lidarein pondered whether or not it was okay to ask about William and Ember, considering Orien’s Band seemed to have sworn to secrecy over something. Although, that made her increasingly curious.
“Right, while I still remember, they asked us to deliver this. Apparently he spent the entire budget of Nastall already and couldn’t afford more stamps.” Trotto pulled out a small envelope of browned paper from his bag, inadvertently showing Lidarein a glimpse of countless echording crystals and several treasures, which were no doubt magic items.
“Thanks.” She received the envelope.
On it read, “To Lidarein, from Ember and William.” An adorable caricature of a faun, man, and a strange tailed humanoid decorated the cover in Ember’s soft sketching style.
You sneaky little faun, you. Lucky you.
He owed Lidarein a night, and yet Ember had snatched him up casually without any effort. Lidarein was not bitter at all. Not really. She was happy for her friend. She had only pined after a certain human a few times in the last weeks, in her private hours of the night.
“A letter, does this mean they’re staying in Nastall?” Sure, William was a Ranger, but technically he would not need to keep working anymore, given he’d failed Letter King. “Why would he stay in the middle of nowhere?”
Orien’s Band exchanged knowing chuckles. Trotto pointed his tankard at the letter. “Read.”
Lidarein folded it open and read.
And then, read it again. The table waited for her, in the relative quiet of Ain chopping meat and bone.
Lidarein licked her lips, tilting her head as she folded the paper back up. A sense of awed trepidation swelled in her trembling breath. Those two held all the keys to changing the Frontier, either into a war riddled ruin or into something great. And they offered her one of the keys.
You poor fools. How desperate you have to be to ask this of me. I’m only a Chief Ranger.
Lidarein took a deep breath, setting down her spoon. After a moment of thought she stood, leaving a silver clinker by the unfinished bowl. “Thank you guys. I need to go send some letters.” And pray to the gods the Frontier doesn’t become one of a war between empires.
Afterword
Thank you very much for reading my book. I hope the journey entertained you and was worth your time. If you did enjoy it, I would humbly ask you to leave a review to help others know what you thought of it. For newbie indies like myself, reviews are really everything.
If you’d like to stay up to date on when the installment of the series comes out, follow me on Amazon, subscribe to my newsletter and/or join my facebook page. I update those two with writing and publishing related updates once or twice a month. My twitter, which you can also follow if you want, is mostly retweet spam of monster girl artwork.
I also want to acknowledge some groups HaremLit and HaremGamelit facebook group as a collective of connoisseurs with great recommendations on the genre and discussion related to it. If you’re hungering for more books with harem themes, I would strongly recommend visiting them.
About the Author
I’m your regular washed out academic from Finland — cynical and addicted to wholesome stories of struggling heroes.
I’ve been writing for my own enjoyment for a long time, but beginning to write for others has really been the best thing ever. When I started, the stories quickly gravitated towards my interests: Fantasy, monster girls, wacky action, and spicy adventures. Blame it on over consumption of anime, manga, and artwork by the great butt connoisseurs of our time. Fantasy classics, video games, and tabletop RPGs have also been a big influence on my writing.
Surprisingly, it took me a long time to discover that the pulpy haremlit was a thing in the west and the perfect place to smash as many of my favorite tropes into one book as possible. Hopefully, someone will find enjoyment in my stories as I’ve found in so many works of the other authors of this genre.
