Free Web NovelChapter 136: Harem Breakfast
Before Nadia could launch into another explanation of the tracks, Kane held up a hand to cut her off.
"Sit," Kane instructed, pulling out a carved chair at the strategy table.
"Let’s eat first. Talking strategy on an empty stomach just leads to sloppy plans."
Nadia stared at him like he had lost his mind.
Her district was dealing with a water monster, yet this lord wanted to have breakfast first.
Still, seeing his unyielding expression, she reluctantly pulled out a chair and dropped into it.
What truly bewildered the rebel leader, however, wasn’t the food arriving on silver platters—it was the crowd gathering around the table.
Within minutes, the dining space was filled.
Kessa leaned quietly against the wall, balancing a piece of dried meat on a dagger.
Firlia sat down with freshly braided green hair, meticulously arranging her teacup while avoiding Kane’s direct gaze.
Lyssel arrived seconds later, the blonde elf whispering administrative notes to Firlia.
Across the table, Thora and Sira claimed the bench, grabbing roasted bread with unbothered familiarity.
Griselda sat near the window, her pale fingers hovering over her plate, while Misha sipped hot broth with serene eyes.
Finally, Greta pulled up a seat next to Nadia, smelling faintly of turned soil and agricultural herbs.
’Eight women, all armed, all running different branches of my government,’ Kane observed, leaning back in his chair with a cup of ale.
Nadia blinked, looking around the table in disbelief.
Morvak definitely had flings during his reign, but this wasn’t a court of hidden concubines.
This was a functioning village of lethal women running the capital.
Before she could process the absurdity of the gathering, the doors creaked open again.
"Starting without me?" Sarah asked, strolling into the room with her crimson silk dress sweeping across the floorboards.
Taking the empty chair right at Kane’s right hand, she immediately picked up a silver fork to spear a piece of glazed fruit.
Nadia sat completely dumbfounded.
Nine.
Ignoring the rebel’s shock, Kane turned his head slowly toward the widow.
"You have some explaining to do, Sarah," Kane stated, his tone dropping the casual morning warmth.
Sarah froze, the fork resting halfway to her lips.
She blinked, her sharp features tightening slightly.
"What is it now? Did Firlia find another discrepancy in the tax?"
"Explain it to her, Nadia," Kane commanded.
Clearing her throat nervously under the intense gaze of nine formidable women, Nadia leaned forward.
"There is a creature attacking people in the southern reservoir lake."
Sarah’s eyes narrowed instantly, shifting from Nadia to the tactical map spread beneath the breakfast platters.
"The large lake near the old water temple?"
"Yes," Nadia confirmed.
"How long has this been happening?"
"We don’t know for certain," Nadia admitted, rubbing her palms together.
"When did your people notice it?"
"Two weeks ago," Nadia answered flatly.
"Three fishing vessels vanished first, then the marsh banks started washing up dead cattle."
Kane turned his gaze back to Sarah, letting a cold silence fall over the table.
The casual barbarian lover from earlier that morning vanished, replaced by the warlord who slaughtered armies.
"You didn’t know about this, Sarah," Kane pointed out, his voice quiet enough to make the room drop ten degrees.
"I gave you complete freedom to run the treasury and manage internal affairs however you see fit, but I want my work done properly. How does a monster shut down our primary water supply for two weeks without hitting my desk?"
Sarah’s face hardened, though a flicker of genuine defensive surprise crossed her features.
"I didn’t know about it, obviously. My clerks handle tax collection and merchant disputes, not swamp legends."
She turned and glared fiercely at Nadia.
"Why didn’t your district councils inform anyone at the ministry?"
"We did," Nadia countered sharply, refusing to back down from the aristocrat.
"We sent runners to the old magistrate’s office three separate times last week. Your bureaucrats shrugged it off and told us to stop filing false reports to get out of paying fishing dues."
’I figure Lyssel and Firlia need to execute another administrative purge by noon.’
"I will replace every magistrate in the southern sector before sunset," Sarah promised immediately.
"No warnings. Just terminations."
"Do that," Kane agreed bluntly.
"Right now, let’s talk about the lake. Nadia, describe what your scouts saw."
Nadia reached out, using her finger to trace the outline of the southern reservoir on the map.
"It looks vaguely like a river hippopotamus, but mutated far beyond normal scale. My hunters estimate it weighs roughly three tons. It has thick, hide-like armour covered in swamp moss, webbed forelegs that let it sprint across shallow mud, and jaws wide enough to bite a fishing boat completely in half."
"A corrupted swamp beast," Greta noted, leaning over the map with her green eyes narrowed.
"If it settled near the irrigation intakes, the creature is likely feeding on the mana sediments drifting down from the northern rivers. Those mutations make their hides tough to pierce with regular iron."
"Can we trap it?" Thora asked around a mouthful of roasted meat.
"If we set up steel harpoons along the marsh line, the vanguard can drag that bloated pig onto dry land and butcher it."
"Too risky for common infantry," Kessa spoke up from her corner, flipping her dagger expertly.
"If the mud is deep, heavy soldiers will sink before they even get within spear range. That beast will just drag them underwater one by one."
"She is right," Sira agreed, tapping her tracker’s journal.
"Aquatic combat ruins our advantage. We need someone who can hit hard enough to crack that hide without relying on a shield wall."
Kane drained the rest of his ale and set the cup down firmly.
"I will take it out myself."
Misha paused with her spoon half-raised, looking across at him with mild curiosity.
"You are running solo again, husband?"
"It is the cleanest option," Kane explained, looking around at his council.
"Thora and Kessa need to keep drilling the southern recruits. Greta has twenty acres of farmland to treat with those system seeds today, and Sarah has a ministry to clean out. Besides, fighting a three-ton armoured river beast gives me a chance to test my current damage output before the saintess arrives tonight."
