Three days had passed, and Alden was walking to the courtyard in the late morning, after making the final checks of the blueprint he had just finished. He had stayed awake most of the night to complete it, and after working on it for so long, the lathe’s design was finally ready. With the first snowfall likely just two months away now, everyone needed to give their best. Now he just had to wait for the majordomo to bring the craftsmen here. But until they came here, he decided to take a walk to the courtyard.

  As he walked down the stairs and toward the exit of the main hall, he waved and nodded at the servants and maids who were also hard at work. The other new projects in the village had been proceeding smoothly as well, and the loggers had already cleared a fire break in the north, and now they were working in the west, with half of the work there done already. 200 men working together certainly did get things done fast. At this rate, it should take around a week more to cut out all the fire breaks on all sides, then they could put Daelus to work on burning it once he returns today or tomorrow.

  Orvik, the foreman, had been overseeing the cutting of the forest and had assured him that he would make sure everything was done as fast as possible. The higher wages he got as a foreman now was certainly motivating him well. The logs the villagers were cutting were being dragged with horses and stocked up just outside the northern wall of the village. The nearly 80 meters of already cleared ground right outside the walls was a good place for that.

  The clay diggers had also been working hard. All the wagons previously being used for iron mining were now transporting clay in small caravans escorted by guards from the river to the village, and they were stocking up all the clay just outside the southern walls of the village. A small group of women had been tasked with shaping it into bricks and leaving it in the sun to dry using simple molds made by carpenters. There were already a few tall heaps of clay gathered there, and new stockpiles were being made every day from the brick-shaped clay the women were making.

  He had also ordered another group of workers to make a series of small to medium sized kilns in the south where they would fire the bricks. They would also be made from clay, and would have a small chimney on the top to let the hot fumes escape away from the workers. Once the fire break clearing was done, he planned to put more villagers to dig clay so they could start making bricks and begin the wall construction as soon as possible.

  He exited the door of the main hall and reached the courtyard. He stretched his hands and looked up. Today, it was a clear sky, and the sun was shining brightly, though it didn't hold that much warmth in it. He saw Lira sitting on one side of the courtyard on a chair, with her maid next to her, and she was looking at the new recruits undergoing training with Roderic. Caelan had just been holed up in his father’s study room—no, his study room now—and was reading a book until Alden got time to teach him further.

  He walked to Lira and ruffled her pale orange hair, getting an annoyed look in return. He just chuckled and looked at the new recruits, which also included four women, where Roderic and a few other experienced guards were telling one group how to use a sword and another how to hold a spear. For now, the women were also being included in this training, so they could get some basic idea of how to fight.

  Even though a few dozen guards were standing in front of him, he knew that every single one of them was going to be needed, at the way things were going, and it still might not be enough. A couple of days ago, there had been another attack of the wolf-type monsters where the villagers were cutting trees, but thankfully the guards were alert and had taken care of the five monsters who had attacked without any fatalities. It had still led to some wounds and injuries on the guards, which meant they had to be given a few days of rest so they could heal properly. Without any kind of modern medicine available, healing from any wound or sickness was just based on prayers and hopes—unless they had a healing mage available in the village, but that was just wishful thinking on his part.

  The new recruits had started joining the other off-duty guards in a long run in the morning to start building their stamina. None of the recruits had lasted too long, but the other manor guards who had joined them had completed a full 10 rounds of the whole village before they had returned. That was around 5 kilometers at an estimate, and it was the first part of making sure every guard was as fit as possible. Alden was usually present for that run too, but these days he was skipping that and the usual mock sword-fighting sessions to get more time for designing the blueprint and manually making all the calculations required for it. That was far more important right now. This body was already quite fit because of all the sword-fighting training the original Alden went through, so he could afford to take it easy on that front to focus on the other tasks he needed to complete.

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  Soon, Roderic gave some final instructions to the guards and walked to Alden.

  “Why are you here?” the captain asked.

  Alden yawned. “Wanted to get some air. I’d been working for most of the night.”

  Roderic glanced at the recruits. “I’ve got to say, getting all 27 male recruits we wanted immediately was something I already expected. But I never thought we’d get even a single woman to volunteer, and we already have four of them. The fact is, none of them have any other family, so there was no one to stop them from getting a higher-paying job here, even if it's riskier. I'm not sure if we can get any women who already have a family.”

  Alden grinned. “I know that with your past as a Ranger you consider all races to be equal—whether it’s an orc or a dwarf—but you still underestimate women, whether human or from other races. Anyway, keep making more announcements in the market street every evening. We really need to get more women to join up.”

  “I will,” Roderic agreed, before he grinned. “Actually, now that you’re here, should we have a bout? With Kirol going out to protect the loggers every day, I don’t get anyone who can give me a real challenge. It gets boring training these newbies. So what do you say? Should we show the guards who's a better swordsman?”

  Alden snorted. “Everyone here knows exactly who's the better one amongst us. You just want to gloat.”

  Roderic smirked. “Ah, come on! You can’t give up that easily!”

  “Yes, Alden,” Lira grinned. “Show ’em! I want to see you fall right on your butt. There’s nothing else funny happening these days, you know?”

  Alden gave a mock glare to her, ruffling her hair well enough to annoy her again. Truthfully, he hadn’t even lifted a sword in his life on Earth, but his muscle memories from this new life had allowed him to take on any guard in a sword fight except Roderic and Kirol in a practice match a week ago. More importantly, it allowed him to get some frustration out of not getting any basic amenities here which were commonplace on Earth—a smartphone, an air conditioner or an electric heater, a good cup of coffee, watching football matches in the evening, and even a simple damned toilet which flushed!

  He tilted his head, thinking about it. “You know what, fuck it. Let’s do it!”

  “Alden, language!” Lira chided with a mock-outraged expression.

  “Oh, you brat!” Alden chuckled and pinched her cheeks until she looked like a chipmunk, and only left her when she began to give him a death stare.

  He looked at the captain. “Bring up the swords!”

  Roderic immediately told the guards to make some space in the middle, until the new recruits and the old ones were standing in a loose ring around them. Lira had been helped by her maid to move back to a safe distance as well. Then the captain took a pair of wooden swords from the guards, before he tossed one of them to Alden.

  Alden looked at the sword from all sides, testing its balance.

  Roderic rolled his shoulders once, then lifted the wooden sword into a relaxed guard, like this was just another drill. Alden stepped into the ring and felt every eye on him. The courtyard had gone quiet in that way it did when people were waiting for someone to get embarrassed. He won't let that happen.

  He adjusted his grip, let the weight settle in his hand, and tried to ignore the dull ache behind his eyes from the sleepless night.

  “All right,” Roderic said, voice calm. “First blood. Clean touches. No jabs at the face or groin.”

  Alden gave a short nod. “Yeah... I’m not trying to get killed by my own guard captain.”

  Roderic’s mouth twitched. “Then keep up.”

  Thank you for all the love and support you all showed. For everyone who took the time to give a rating, thank you so much. It made my day.

  Of course, sadly I got a couple of 0.5 stars as well right after posting the previous chapter, but the love from the rest of you more than made up for it!

  Apart from that, I have some more news. Now that the initial rush of chapters for rising stars is over, this story will have a more reasonable update schedule, since I am also writing my older story simultaneously with four chapters a week for that one.

  For this story, I am thinking I should be able to give three chapters a week on Mon-Wed-Fri for now. The update timing should usually be 12:30pm UTC.

  That's nearly 100 pages ahead!