Felicia's Second Life Chapter 4 Part 1

Let's Interrogate (Not Torture) The Bandits!

 

 

Hi everyone, it's your favourite reincarnated Lady Felicia again. 

How are you all doing?

It’s been a year since we’ve last seen each other. I'm 11 years old now and I’m doing my best to survive and prosper in my second life. Many things have changed and there are now serious improvements in Mruna.

The farm is producing more and more stuff each year. Now I have ten strips of 1 mile-long fields producing wheat, barley, sugar beets, soybeans, potatoes, kidney beans, clover, turnips, and rubber bush. Yeap, rubber bush, not rubber tree, those things are tropical plants and won't grow in this climate even if they exist in this world. The only problem is making rubber from the rubber bush is a very involved process and it doesn't produce as much rubber as a rubber tree. You also can’t tap it, you have to uproot the whole tree if you want to get the rubber.

Aside from the farm the other businesses are doing well too. The paper factory is thriving, producing not only rolls of normal paper, but also rolls of waxed paper and tissue paper. That's right, tissue paper! Finally, no more rubbing my cute butt on straws and grass! Soft and smooth toilet paper is here at last!

The steel foundry is functioning as well as it should and producing tons of steel a month. Maybe some of you recall how I was having problem trying to recall the designs of an open hearth furnace. After drawing and throwing away countless designs, I said, "Screw this! I'm gonna do it my way!" And so I designed a kind of closed-system furnace which made use of heat-resistant bricks and small clay cups filled with pig iron, charcoal and broken pieces of glass. The result is a cup full of high quality steel, even superior than what I would've gotten from some obsolete Bessemer process at less than half of the air pollution it would've produced. Of course, I didn't actually 'invent' this process, I got it from watching youtube about 12 years ago. I think they called it crucible steel, the type used in making ulfberht swords.

Each cup of high quality steel would have enough steel to produce three spearheads or ten arrowheads (probably 15 arrowheads if I produce only bodkin heads). I produce ten cups a day, so that makes it possible for me to produce thirty spearheads a day or one hundred and fifty arrowheads a day. I can double production easily, but why would I want to do that? There's only an old lady by the name of Sarusa and I working here. The whole factory is 95% automated. If you walk past my steel factory, you will be able to hear the rhythmic beating of steel hammer on steel anvil, but if you enter, you will not see a single soul doing the work. Everything is mechanized. Even the old lady's job is just to take out the smelted steel, clean it of waste slag and put it on the anvil. The rest of the time she is just the factory guard stopping people from entering. The automated steel factory is a very dangerous place for little kids to play at.

The sons of the village blacksmith, young men of 16 and 15 years old called Olav and Marov also became my apprentices recently. It seems like the steel samples I sent to the blacksmith is very hard to work with and so blacksmith asked me to teach his sons how to turn it into something useful. Apparently the old blacksmith is open minded enough to see potential in this new stuff, but finds that the extra hard work a deterrence to good results. I've seen his work, he could work it well, but he was afraid that there was more to the new metal than what he had been doing. So he pleaded with me on his knees to teach his sons the techniques to forge steel tools. Of course, I accepted. One can never have enough slaves. They are both on the front lines at this time of year, though.

You're wondering about my friends? They're all doing fine. I kind of miss having them around, to tell the truth.

Lemy is 12 now and fully in charge of my farm, only asking my opinion on what to plant. This year, we're focusing on cash crops, such as sugar beets, soybeans, potatoes and flax. Of course, we still produce a lot of food crops and still make a tidy profit from those.

Lili is spending less time with me nowadays. She's currently learning herbalism and poison from her mother, our maid Suin. Apparently, Suin was something of a bandit or assassin in the past, before she met mother. Once I found out about that, I began to have a rising fear of the food she made. Seeing how mother eagerly finished it all every day though, I felt silly about doubting her. As Suin herself said to me one day, “If I wanted to poison you, my lady, I had eleven years to do it.”

10 year old Gani is currently the overseer for the building of our latest ship, a large ocean-going fishing vessel, which is nearing completion. I say overseer, but actually he’s just the liaison who goes around the shipyard asking the shipwrights what they need and communicates it to me. Previously, he had assisted in the building of the fishing cogs, 50 foot-long single-masted ships that could also be used for trading purposes. I had them build six of these before they started work on the large 165 foot (50 meter) long and 40 foot (12 meter) wide ship for use in ocean fishing. Imagining myself feasting on tuna is making my mouth drool. So far, only two of the cogs are in use to provide training for non-fishermen before they're given their own ships.

Well, not given exactly, more like leased. These things are expensive to build in the first place. It's possible that I will also sell some of the cogs to merchants if they express the wish to buy it. From what I've seen, these cogs have larger storage area, sturdier and sail faster than the barges and longships these merchants are using.

Ah, it may be a bit late to say this, but we have a shipyard and a working port with four docks for large ships now. The same docks can also be used by several smaller ships and boats. I may build a drydock in the future, but it is too early for that right now.

Somme is here as my personal escort, mostly because of his large build and skill in swordplay. Despite being the best swordsman of the new generation, he still practiced swords with me and his younger brother Gonne as much as he could. Apparently he regretted his lack of contribution last year when we were ambushed two miles from the border and took it upon himself to practice in case such event comes to pass again. Somme may not have much in the brains department, but his devotion and loyalty is commendable. No, I'm not insulting him, just saying it the way I see it.

Gonne on the other hand, is all brains and no muscle. He's still learning maths, linguistics and bookkeeping from me. He's also learning cooking, because I'm planning on making him manage my fast food chain restaurant. You know, the one I mentioned last year, Felicious, if Mruna ever become a popular port city. Imagine french fries, fried chicken, hamburger, pizza and hot dog all within just a few gallops of a horse. Oh, that makes me drool.

Serin also spends less time with me nowadays. She's currently learning medicine from the village medicus and midwife at my request. Living in the middle ages is dangerous after all, so I'm going to carry with me a portable doctor. I'll 'invent' dissolving sutures and other surgery equipment once she's ready for it. I've already ordered some silver surgical knives and forceps from the blacksmith before he left with the army. No, it is pure silver, not silver plated alloy. I have forgotten how to do electroplating from my high school days.

Thankfully, the medicus here already knows about hygiene, even if they don't really understand why. I have to thank a medicus by the name of Marlus who lived until 40 years ago. I was told that he found a correlation between unclean practices and higher death rate in recovering patients but couldn't explain why it was so. Since it worked, people just did as he told them to.

I have also started work on a small scale canning plant, employing a small pressure cooker to pasteurize the food before being sealed shut by water-powered mechanical pressure and tin solder. It was small scale because I ran out of space on my land. Imagine that, hectares of land and I'm still running out of space. Maybe it's time to use my sparkly eyes to persuade father into giving me more land again. It's good being the only daughter of a noble family.

Oh, speaking of that, there's another piece of good news. I'm getting a little brother or sister! No, mother's not pregnant. It's Fariha, our maid and father's mistress. It seems like father finally managed to put a bread in her oven. I can't wait to see my new little brother or sister, even mother looks excited. Because Fariha's close to delivering her baby, she's been excused from work and spends most of her days in the servant's quarters behind our mansion.

As for father and our army, they did fine last year. They participated in minor skirmishes, so most of them managed to come home safely. When they returned home, we had a week-long celebration where I was 'persuaded' to sponsor the food and foot the bill. I was relieved to have father take over control of the barony again after what happened at the trial, though.

They’re also participating in the war this year. Confidence was high as they marched off to war again. The reason was the new 8 foot-long steel spears instead of the much shorter wrought iron spears they had last year, making them a lot safer from cavalry charges. Plus, they can now have delicious meals consisting of corned beef, mixed vegetables and fish in tomato puree on the field thanks to the completed canning plant. I bet they're now comparing it to the hard tacks and beans diet they consumed last year.

******

It was late evening. I returned home after a day’s worth of toiling in my lab finishing the second double-barrelled pistol. As I opened the front door of our mansion, the figure of three men on horseback riding on the roman road approached. One of them, who was wearing the uniform of the ducal messenger climbed down from his horse and approached me. He bowed a little with his right fist on his chest and asked if I am Lady Felicia Belphere Metrune, as if he hadn’t met me before. He was also the one who delivered this year's war summons.

Telling him yes, I watched as he took out a letter from his leather bag, confirmed the name of the receiver and handed it to me with both hands. I received it with both hands too and thanked him for his trouble. He respectfully refused when I asked if he’d like to step in for a drink, as he said they were in a hurry.

Watching them ride away, I raised the envelope to eye level. It was addressed to both mother and I. It’s strange, because grandfather never sent us any letters, even casual ones. It was always father who received official letters from the duke. Curious, I tore open the letter as soon as I enter the house.

To The Honourable Baroness Latreia Tullenaris Melstad and Lady Felicia Belphere Metrune,

It is with great sadness that I, Duke Reginald Aubray Melstad, hereby inform you that your family members Baron Alphonse Lartes Metrune and Sir Yox Leffen Metrune were captured during the battle at Harrow's Passing. We are currently negotiating their release, but the ransom amount requested has been very unreasonable. We will try our best, but we can't be sure of when this problem will be resolved.

To expedite the release of the prisoners, I will be introducing an additional temporary tax soon, please stand by for further details.

Signed,
Duke Reginald Aubray Melstad

With the letter in hand, I stormed up to the second floor.

"Mother, help!" I yelled as I kicked the door open.

My mother rubbed her sleepy eyes and said, "Unn? With what?"

"Father was captured!"

"Father become captain? Isn't that redundant?"

"Not 'become captain'! He's captured, as in taken, grabbed, imprisoned, by the enemy!"

Her sleepy eyes opened wide. "What? To think that honorable father has been captured, let's just have your grandfather deal with the ransom." Her eyes started to close again as her body swayed on the bed.

"But grandfather said he doesn't know when he'll be able to ransom them!"

Her eyes opened wide again. "This is bad! Quick, call Sir Mosro and tell him to rescue father!"

"Sir Mosro went with father, remember?"

"Call your brother?"

"Brother was also captured."

"Send the soldiers?"

"Mother, they all went with father!"

"We need a hero!"

"We don’t have a hero!"

"Hm, then you be the hero!"

(ED: LOL! I remember something like this in “Death Should Have Not Taken Thee!”)

"Ehh?!!!"

"Yes, let's go with that."

"Mother, I'm a little girl!"

"Then who else would we send?"

"Well, you're the adult."

"You want your weak mother to rescue your father from the clutches of the evil enemy?" mother fell to the floor in an exaggerated manner, moaning in despair against the dirty carpet with fake tears in her eyes, "Even my beloved daughter wants to send me to my death."

"So it's completely alright to send me to my death?" I asked with a frown.

Mother raised thumbs up with a wink as she said, "It's fine, all their princes like young girls."

"How is THAT fine?!!!"

"Oh don't be such a stick in the mud. Here, take the contents of this chest, this dagger I swiped from my sister's kitchen, and this voucher for some mercenaries that grandfather so kindly gave us. Leave the chest behind."

"Mother... why do I feel like you're strangely prep-"

"It's just in your head. Now go and rescue your father."

I opened the chest. "Mother, there's only 10 gold in this chest!"

"Not enough?"

"Hell no!"

"Tch!"

Mother?

"Go into villagers' homes and look for spare change in pots, under rugs or behind barrels or something then."

"Am I in Dragon Quest?!!!"

"No, I'm not asking you to kill a dragon. They're just a myth anyway."

"But mother!"

"Hero, you ask too many questions."

"Mother, people will complain if I steal their spare change!"

"No problem, you're the hero," mother said before she went back to sleep.

I could only frown.

******

"200 gold?!!!" I felt despair at the amount requested.

"That's right," my fiance, Feral, confirmed. His name was actually Master Feras Meruin Melstad, but I liked to call him 'Feral', because he was stupid and single minded like a feral dog. A horny feral dog to be more accurate.

"But father and brother are just low ranked nobles, why would they be valued so highly?"

"It's likely because they are the only men of Metrune and the enemy thought that we'd pay any price to avoid the extinction of one of the oldest pure blood families."

"What are you talking about? There's still big brother Terrens to carry the family name." I shivered a little as I mentioned the name of my big brother Terrens who left home at the age of 12 and never returned since then. It has probably been 6 years since I last saw him.

"That's what grandfather told me, and let's be honest here. How many years had it been since Terrens showed his face outside the walls of Forlen?"

"That reminds me, why can't I see grandfather?"

"He's busy meeting up with the other nobles and the city's moneylenders. He's under a lot of pressure right now."

"But I'm his granddaughter!"

"I'm his grandson too, but even I can't see him anytime I want. Your father and brother aren't the only one captured. My father and about thirty other nobles and ranking officers were captured too. That prince messed everything up."

"Prince?"

"Our crown prince, I mean. He was given command over the entire army for just one battle. And what did he do? He sent the whole army to rush the enemy lines, without taking into mind that it rained heavily the previous day. He turned an easy win into a crushing defeat in just one battle. We had to give up Harlow's Pass and the 2nd Renus Heavy Cavalry was utterly annihilated. It had to be disbanded and the survivors were combined with the 1st Heavy Cavalry."

"What's the name of your unit again?"

"5th Light Cavalry."

"Ah, I was hoping it was your unit that got disbanded."

He frowned. "Well, let's not think about that. How about we spend some time in the city? Just you, me, my guards and yours, of-"

"Let me guess, you ran away from the battlefield."

"I DID NOT RUN AWAY! MY UNIT GOT MIRED IN THE MUDDY FIELD!"

"Okay! Chill!"

The next morning, my mood became worse as my repeated requests to meet grandfather was denied. Even at the dinner table, grandfather was deep in thought and only replied to questions in short sentences. The day after that was the same too. It was in the morning of the third day during breakfast that I finally lost my temper.

Throwing the silver fork in my hand on the table, I yelled, "How much longer do I have to wait?! It has been two days and grandfather still hasn't granted me an audience!"

My aunts looked at me disapprovingly while admonishing me for being impatient. They further told me to wait for the men to be done with their work.

"I don't have time for this. There are plenty more things I can do in the time I spent here!"

"Now now, cute Felicia," Feral coaxed, offering me a rose he took from the vase on the dining table, "Won't you spend some time with me in the city? Let's forget everything and let grandpa do his stuff."

I took the flower from Feral's hand, watching his expectant face, then gained a sadistic pleasure watching his face fell when I crushed the flower in my gloved right hand.

"No need," I said as I threw the crushed flower at his chest, "I don't need your dates and apparently I can't count on the duke's help either. Tell grandfather I will settle this myself!"

I got up from my seat amidst the disapproving glances of my aunts and the wives of the other barons and counts. I placed both hands on the handle of the large wooden double door of the dining hall and pulled on it with all my might, as if releasing all my anger on the large, heavy door. A loud crashing sound of the bronze handles hitting stone walls rang behind me. As I was leaving the dining hall, Lili approached me from the shadow of a nearby pillar, the rustling of her dress was the only thing indicating her presence.

"What are your orders, my lady?" she asks as she keeps pace behind me..

"Gather everyone. We're leaving." I said as I went to the room I was provided and packed up all my stuff, which wasn't much, considering that most of my luggage consisted of only gowns.

Half an hour later, my group was already outside the city walls and travelling home.

******

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" I beat myself on the bed when my anger subsided.

"Is something wrong, my lady?" Lili asked while Serin looked at me in worry.

"Why did I say that? That's so stupid!"

Lili and Serin looked at me helplessly as I banged my head against the wooden wall of the inn repeatedly. We were currently staying in an inn called the Laughing Fox, owned by Fariha's relatives in the Barony of Halston's capital town. Fariha herself was in Mruna, though. It would be too much to ask her to travel with us in the state she was.

Right now, I'm seriously regretting and reflecting on my actions during breakfast. But of course, there is nothing more I can do. What was spoken can't be taken back. This is why I’m punishing myself right now, because now I don’t have anyone to turn to.

"Would you like to take a bath, my lady?" Serin suddenly asked.

"Eh? Why are you suddenly suggesting a bath?"

"You said yourself a few years ago that bathing relaxes the body and clears the mind, my lady. Maybe you can find some idea once your mind clears up, my lady."

"... That's not a bad idea. Tell them to deliver hot bath for three."

"Three, my lady?" Lili asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Both of you are taking a bath with me. I want to see naked bodies other than mine, right now!"

Lili's face coloured up real red in seconds at my remark.

Ahhh... bliss!

I closed my eyes as I soaked under the warm water of the bath. It was a little tight. After all, I was bathing inside a barrel with the other two with our smooth, naked legs tangling together. It wasn't the kind of barrel you'd use at a bar, though. This barrel was a lot wider and shorter than the normal barrel, as it was meant for bathing. Lili and Serin were both naked with their bottoms under the water as well. I could clearly see how luscious their bodies had become.

"Uuu, you're only 11 but how come you already have boobs?" I asked as I rubbed and squeezed her breasts from the front.

"Hyauu! My lady!" Serin moaned.

"Oh, is it sensitive? Does it hurt? Maybe I should kiss it to make it better," I said as I kissed and licked the nipples.

"Hyaa!!!" Serin screamed before she fainted.

Wow, did I just make Serin orgasm? Can she even orgasm at her age?

"My lady, such acts are unbecoming..." Lili remarked.

So I turned my eyes towards her. With hands raised and a grin on my face, I made a posture of a pouncing cat. "I guess you're next, then. Do make sure you last longer, Lili."

I scooted a little closer to Lili with my hands raised and my fingers wiggling.

Unexpectedly, Lili fidgeted and with her face downward, she said, "Please be gentle with me, my lady."

For some reason, seeing such a shy Lili even made me embarrassed. My face felt hot as I imagined a lewd and titillating moment with Lili on the bed. Embarrassed, I quickly lowered myself, putting my head under water and counting to 100 in my new tongue.

It took about ten minutes before Serin regained consciousness.

"A hot spring's bathhouse!" I exclaimed while being wiped dry by both Lili and Serin.

"You still want to take a bath, my lady?"

"No no, I'm saying I'm going to build a hot spring's bathhouse."

Lili and Serin looked at each other. "How will that help the baron's situation, my lady?"

"It has nothing to do my father's situation. I just want to build it. Now I remember what I've been missing all this time. I miss having a bath whenever I feel like it."

"I see, but that's not going to help our present predicament, my lady."

"Of course not. I'm just filing it away for future references... Lili, has Suin taught you about interrogation yet?"

"In-te-ro-ge-shun?"

"Questioning prisoners."

"Ah, my mother hasn't taught me about torture yet."

"No, not torture! Does questioning prisoners always include torture in this world?!"

"They're not the same?"

I palmed my own face with both hands. "No wonder I've never found a written word for 'interrogation' in the dictionary. Let's just have dinner with the boys and head home first thing tomorrow. I need to ask Suin some stuff."

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