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Demesne 508 - A Long-Term Solution For Storing Boats

Despite the incompetence of the newly arrived Whisperers—what was so hard about rolling stone to where you needed to take it—Rian’s succeeding reports informed Lori that things seemed to be progressing well in River’s Fork. New planting terraces had been stacked and filled with soil, although Shanalorre had asked for permission to reassign one of the Whisperers to fuse the stone of the terraces together to give them structural strength. Lori had given her authorization, and once the W...

Homework 3!

So, some answers to some of last week's homework!

• Shana's alignment is Byronic Chuuni.

• The games that heavily influenced this story included, but are not limited to, Oxygen Not Included, the best soulsborne of all Dark Souls 2, the game Arcane Amour by Swamp Software, the original Magical Battle Arena, the portable games Battle of Aces and Gears of Destiny, that game with Gudao in it, Subnautica, Dungeons 2, the Disgaea series, and Lunar 2. Probably others tha...

  2025-07-31 09:11:35 +0000 UTC View Post

Demesne 507 - This Isn’t Foreshadowing Some Future Complication

Lori stayed away from River’s Fork for the next few days, her only contact being verbal reports conveyed by Rian. Shanalore had finally managed to take control of the supplies and she, Rian and Yllian had done a quick inventory, then compared it to the projected food consumption now that the population of the demesne had increased by a factor of five. There had been a column of numbers that she’d glanced over and then added up to double check—no Taniar Demesne-born was going to be intim...

Demesne 506 - First Of Its Kind

“I told you,” Yllian said a few moments after… Binder Shanalorre… stepped out of the room.

“She still shouldn’t be in charge,” Makoi said, looking after her like someone was tearing off his arm. “Great Binder or not, she’s a child. Experienced or not, she shouldn’t have to be doing this at all.”

“You’re still treating the last man who insisted that,” Yllian said mildly. “Don’t be the next one.”

No one glanced at Yhal. No one had to.

�...

26/7/25 Update

Just a minor thing I forgot to announce. Because of the recent... stuff, my schedule is in such a mess that I won't be able to do the Patron Exclusive chapter this month. I'm very sorry for the late announcement, and also for not being able to put up this month's chapter, but that's how things are. Sorry.

Homework 2

Yay for everyone who did the homework! Here are partial answers so you can check your work!

• Taeclas was a medical student training to be a full doctor before she met her now-wife Rybelle. Her parents disapproved because of Rybelle's line of work, so the two of them married and eloped to the new continent. Taeclas therefore has a preference towards living matter over dead matter, which is why she sucks at woodworking. Her familiarity with growing plants it because gardening was c...

  2025-07-24 14:41:33 +0000 UTC View Post

Demesne 505 - Metal Left Out In The Cold

It was, fortunately, a proper briefing: there was a concise plan presented, painstakingly laying out the steps they would follow. There were exact directions on how things were to be done which were very detailed and included those tangled scribble-like diagrams for how one was supposed to make the magic, and had always reminded Yhal of either a tree or a child’s idea of what map directions looked like. The order in which things would be excavated was emphasized—mine passage, foo...

Demesne 504 - A Frozen Lake

Despite her disquieting words, the camp under the dome seemed well enough. The tents were orderly and had plenty of space between them, and no one seemed to be causing trouble. The cleared space turned out to be where several people were digging out the ground, hauling up dirt and rocks as well as cutting through roots with axes. Yhal could see others taking the dirt out of the dome, where they seemed to be tearing up the ground there as well.

“What are they doing over there?” Nansi...

20/7/25 Status

Okay, I should be able to post tomorrow... hopefully.

However, in the meantime, I have some homework for everyone!

1. Please list at least three reasons Shana might be an isekai and why.

2. What do you think Taeclas' occupation was before she come to this continent and why?

3. What do you think is the timeline of the world?

4. Describe what Lori looks like according to the story so far?

5. Except for 'Vov' (too easy), ...

   2025-07-20 09:24:26 +0000 UTC View Post

14/7/25 Update

Okay, have to do a bunch of car and insurance stuff this week, so very high probability that I won't be able to do this week's second update due to lack of time to write.

Hopefully that's the only update I miss this month. Again, sorry guys.

EDIT: I'm told the approval will come within the month (at best) and only then can we get the car fixed, so...

Demesne 503 - Meeting Binder Shanalorre Again

Yhal was mostly recovered after a night and a day’s rest, even though he was still being told to stay in his bedroll. Yes, his knee still ached… and his head throbbed from all the times he’d been punched there and probably from being choked unconscious… and he felt like coughing everyone once in a while… and he didn’t want to look anyone in the eye… but other than that, he was completely recovered from the day before yesterday!

Normally, Yhal would force his way t...

Demesne 502 - Karina Is Still Paying Her Taxes

Thankfully, before Lori left River’s Fork she was able to build a means of keeping the demesne’s binding sustained. It had involved making a stone bowl, taking a metal spoon that Yllian had been able to provide, and several of the beads they kept on the Coldhold for imbuing the salt water evaporator and other small bound tools on the boat. A thread of light was anchored to the stone bowl, the spoon was stuck into the stone, and the beads were poured in so that at least one of the...

8/7/25 Update

Due to IRL stuff, I might have problems with updates in the foreseeable future. I don't know how bad this will be, but I might have to skip an update or two because I was too busy walking papers for filling. Will notify in advance when I can and apologize sincerely if I can't. Sorry.

Very short version: Car. Stupid Me. Insurance.

Ah, to clarify, nothing was hurt but my pride, but red tape gonna red. I don't know when in the future those updates will be though, so... yeah....

Demesne 501 - Paperwork Other People Actually Need To Read, Or Else

“Well… that could have gone better,” Rian said quietly as he followed Lori, who was walking away to get back to work.

She frowned as she glanced sideways at her lord, absently continuing to trail a line of lightwisps behind her. Had the thread been material, it would certainly be some kind of hazard, but it wasn’t, so it wasn’t. “I do not see how,” she said. “Though I suppose you will be informing me.”

“As your lord of ‘dealing with people’ matters, that 2025-07-06 16:00:16 +0000 UTC View Post

Demesne 500 - Assigned Housing

Thirty-five of the forty-six children—according to Shanalorre—that were among the new settlers were waiting in a group near the docks outside the dome. A handful were either very tall or could barely be counted as children anymore, and looked either very put upon or full of worry. However, no matter their age they all had thick, oily-looking hair, and their clothes looked worn and stained. There were a handful of adults among them, each of them surrounded by children with similar hair col...

Demesne 499 - The New Responsibilities

On consideration, Lori decided that they would place the shelter in Shanalorre’s fourth proposed site, where it would be most convenient to construct. While not as central or convenient for reaching current work sites as the other proposals, all that mattered to her was how easy it was to build. Getting to work or wherever else was not her problem. Or at least, only getting to her work was the only problem she cared about.

The orientation of the site in question mildly annoye...

Demesne Patron EX SS 43 – Little Lori Goes To The Theater

It had been a grueling week. Between going to the library to get copies of books that were too expensive or too hard to find to buy, clubbing people to get the books from them, avoiding getting clubbed in turn, actually reading the required portions of the book, doing the writing assignments to show she’d read the books… the only thing that would have made the week worse was having to submit a collaborative paper. Why were there so many collaborative papers?

However, the eight days ...

Demesne 498 - A Lightness

Now, Lori had most definitely not forgotten to keep the binding in the ice of the Coldhold imbued. Not at all! Not even a little! However, it was only prudent that she imbue it since she was riding the boat, and it was a chore that needed doing and why not now, and absolutely had nothing to do with the fact that the imbuement on the binding was low. Not at all! Because it wasn’t!

That being said, Rian had told her that the Coldhold would be sent to ...

Demesne 497 - I’ve Been Busy

Lori woke up to the sound of someone knocking on her door, her cheek pressed against the hard stone of her table. The knocking persisted as she raised her head, wincing at the pain in her neck and back from the awkward position she’d fallen asleep in. What? Who would be bothering her in the middle of the night? Grumbling, Lori pushed herself up from her chair, stumbling slightly as she swayed before catching herself. Ugh, someone had better be dead if they were going to bother her before sh...

Demesne 496 - Insufficient Profit To Be Had

Her first instinct was to deny it, to just snap out “I am not afraid”.

“I am not afraid,” Lori said, and immediately realized it was a lie.

Rian tilted his head. “You’re not?”

Yes, she was. “No, I’m not,” Lori lied insistently.

Her lord looked at her skeptically, and she matched his gaze, doing her best to look stern and imposing. He sighed, then shrugged. “Well… if you say, so, your Bindership. But this doesn’t change the fa...

Demesne 495 - A Very Appealing Image

“—and then we went back to the dome, and Shanalorre, Yllian and I started debating and marking out the expanded boundaries for the dining hall, possible sites for the shelter that will inevitably need to be built first so that everyone has some place to stay in case house building isn’t finished before winter,” Rian completed. He held up a sheet of paper. “I have them here, in case you want to look them over before going to check things out in person. Then we came back home, and her...

12/6/2025 Update/Poll

So, I was planning to rely on what' s left of the April Poll to decide this month's Patron exclusive, but the next result was 'More Karina Cuteness' and we'd done that already in the main story chapters.

The results after THAT were 'Mikon's Harem FFFM QQ NSFW OMGWTFBBQLOL' and 'Young Lori goes to the theater!'

So, I'm asking now. Do I go with one of these two poll results, or do I start a new poll? Now, this is a very rare instance of the poll not allowing you to make multiple cho...

Demesne 494 - At My Leisure

Yhal instinctively flinched back from the blow, retreating to make space from the attack and aborting his grab to maintain his balance. The movement had been a feint, and Shana had immediately pulled back to kick his right knee.

Riz had a very vivid memory of Laven basically kicking the same way, although that woman’s kick had been higher up at… well, the target Shana had missed.

Unfortunately, Shana had been too close, and instead of a knee-breaking kick it had merel...

Demesne 493 - The Feeling Is Intensifying

“Can I talk now?” Yhal said, although his words were directed at Rilianne. She gave him a look that said he was asking far too late, but nodded. Riz supposed as far as she was concerned the negotiating parts were done? “I demand another opponent. This is a farce.”

“It’s essentially trial by combat, of course it’s a farce,” Rian said. “It has nothing to do with how reasoned your arguments are, how morally defensible your position is, or whether it complies with the law....

Demesne Patron EX SS 42 – Trees Are Evil!

Trees are evil. This was just fact. They were wastefully tall for most dungeon farms, and each one took up precious space, soil and sunlight that could be going to valuable, life-giving crops!

Unfortunately—or possibly fortunately—not all trees were created equal. Some did more that just grow wood and make a mess for everyone by dropping leaves all over the place. They could also grow fruit. However, even in this trees revealed their evil by only growing their fruits high up where r...

30/6/25 Update

The Patron Exclusive will be a little delayed, and will likely come out within the next 48 hours. Sorry.

EDIT: Ah, good, all I needed was another hour.

Demesne 492 - Face Me

Rian was right. When Rilianne returned, it was with Yhal in tow, although not simply him. Otin and Xiasam were back, and this time Tafit was with them rather than Madsmif. Riz sighed a little. Couldn’t any of the more sensible Horotracts have come along, like Misdels or Frudo? It wasn’t that the two men weren’t reliable, but they could be so strange! Madsmif kept making strange food and pushing them on people, and Tafit would ask people to do things, say he’d explain later, and never ...

26/5/25 Update

Hey everyone! First, there's going to be a Patron exclusive this week based on the runner-ups of the last poll. As we've had Karina being cute lately, I'm going with Taeclas and her vendetta on trees.

Secondly, I'm going to take a break on the second week of June, 9th to the 13th. This is to prevent burn out, do some errands, try to draw Lori again, whatever. I'm scheduling it on the second week because next week we come to a good end point. The volume isn't done yet, but something in ...

Demesne 491 - The Strength Of Their Convictions

Her man had been right. Throwing Mevt into the river had been a lot of fun, and definitely easier than trying to stick her head-first into a barrel of water. Safer, too, sometimes there are accidents where there’s too much water in the barrel and someone drowns. Mad at her or not, Mevt was still her friend. Just… that really annoying friend that did something to deserve a smack every once in a while.

“What was that for!” Mevt yelled at them once she’d finally been abl...

Demesne 490 - Don’t Do That Thing

“There’s actually a law against loud music?” Wiz Rili said as Karina rubbed at her eyes, blinking as she tried to keep them open.

“Yes, and I’m afraid the phrasing is a bit misleading,” Lord Rian said. “In practice, it means all music, not just loud music.”

She sat up straight as she realized she’d been leaning against Shana, and her friend gave her a reassuring pat on the knee, even as the Dungeon Binder kept her eyes on Wiz Rili.

“Surely you ca...