I, a Heroic Soldier from the Last Demon War, Became a Father to a Pair of Demonic Beast Children. Am I Really Fit to be a Dad to These Adorable Kids?

03: Foundations

Kanna was pretty sure she hadn’t felt so good in a very long time. After filling her belly with some of the the Dragon that ate her Daddy, she could feel the strength of it flowing through her, giving her the energy and drive to get up and do something.

Her friend Alicia was still sleeping it off, but she’d been a lot worse off.

When the Dragon came in, the Kitsune and the Lamia were rivals. Not enemies, not friends, but they fought a lot over snacks. But even though they were so willing to fight for tasty food, when the Dragon locked them up in a hole with a big rock, and started eating them one by one, Alicia didn’t steal her snacks. Instead, when Kanna was hungry and had no more yummy bugs to eat, she shared half a salamander so her belly wouldn’t feel funny and she wouldn’t be dizzy.

She was a good friend. And they were the last ones left when the Big Guy came in and beat up the mean Dragon that ate everybody!

Even his fire that burned everything up in the Den was useless against the Big Guy. It just washed right off of him!

And then the Big Guy crushed the Dragon’s neck! The crunch as it tried and failed to throw him off, unable to breathe was kinda satisfying really.

After that, the Big Guy came in, and she passed out. Because he was really big and scary looking. And his Armor made him look like the Boogerman her parents talked about, who was also really scary.

But then he took off his armor, and cooked them some food. And it was the Dragon.

…It was delicious.

…She wanted more.

But Alicia was still sleepy. Maybe she could carry her?

~~~~

Adam watched as the tree fell, and smartly stepped out of its way when it tried to land on him.

He hefted the whole thing over his shoulder with a grunt and made his way back to the camp’s stockpile he’d been setting up. Honestly, the tree wasn’t that heavy compared to some of the ones he’d seen in the dark forest. This one would only take three or four men to form a ring around it. Those? You could hide castles inside some of the behemoths in that forest.

Back at camp, he tossed it with the forty or so other trees he’d felled, as well as the boulders he’d dragged across the landscape.

He needed resources, after all, and given there wasn’t exactly a logistics officer to approach, he needed to get them himself. But, what to make was a bit fuzzier to Adam.

Wizard Tim had told him to make a manor. Problem was, he didn’t quite know what went into a noble’s manor.

Well, except destroyed ones. So he knew they had gold in there sometimes, and wood, and stone, which left him with not a lot to work with.

But he did know they were big. Nobles liked big manors with lots of land, and way more house than they knew what to do with. Why, a minor noble’s land he’d seen after a dragon attack had a foundation big enough to house an entire platoon. And that was a minor noble, not one of the big ones.

So he had an idea. He didn’t know manors, but he knew all the forts Humanity designed, from great stone works made over generations to quick forts on the frontier. Why not make one of those, but about three times bigger, just to cover his bases? Then it would be a proper manor, with a barracks, cookhouse, armory, training ground, stables, smithy, and more.

He scouted good locations and set up four base pillars using the logs. To properly embed them, he took a hovel sized boulder, dug up a hole for each over half an hour, slammed it in there, and then pounded that tree all the way into the boulder to secure it underground. These would make great anchor points for the whole fence he had planned. He’d have to dig trenches and line them with stone too, to anchor the smaller trees for the wall, but the corners were important. Naturally, the trees were cut to sharp pointy bits on the end, just like his drill sergeant had taught him.

He wiped a bit of sweat off his brow. Only 2500 to go. Granted, most of the trees wouldn’t need gargantuan boulders anchoring them in the earth, only smaller ones. He would split some of them too, but still. The wood working would be the most finicky part of the whole thing, really. Never his specialty.

He heard steps some distance behind him. Small steps sneaking up on him.

A sniffing sound was heard as the little fox looked at him from afar.

“What are you doing?” she asked, tilting her head as she entered his field of view, holding the snake girl to her body.

A few things hit Adam in that moment.

One, his chest felt weird and fuzzy, and he almost wanted to make a sound, but he wasn’t sure what. But the sight of the small Kitsune holding the sleepy snake girl wrapped around her was…

Well, he felt as if he wanted to hold them up, for some reason. And smash anything that might harm them. Odd feeling.

Secondly, they were talking to him! But he didn’t want to scare her off, so he kept what he was doing up. “Oh, I’m just making a fort. Getting a stone foundation down bit by bit, and then smacking some sharpened logs up into it, to make a proper wall to keep nasties out,” he said, keeping his tone light as he didn’t look directly at the duo.

“What’s a fort?” the Kitsune asked, looking at his hands. “Is it, like a Den?”

The snake girl hissed a little, and shook her head sleepily, but didn’t say anything.

Right, Kitsune lived in Dens, didn’t they? He’d had to charge into one once and it was the worst experience of his life. Oh, they weren’t that strong. Eight or nine tails were a fight, but the greater demons were worse.

No, it was that he sneezed a lot fighting them. Maybe he was allergic to Kitsune fur? But the one assault he led on a Great Den resulted in him sneezing inside his helmet which was just gross to deal with, and then he accidentally sneezed on an entire vanguard of Kitsune blocking his path. Sure, it knocked them over, but it got snot all over them, too.

It worked, but like, he felt bad winning that way. It got worse when they started running away screaming, “The Boogerman has come to sneeze in our tails! Everybody run!”

The teasing from his fellow soldiers had been horrible.

“Well,” he pursed his lips, hacking off some further branches to prepare another log. “It's kinda like a Den, but it’s generally above ground, so we can have sunlight and space.”

“But…” the Kitsune whined. “How are you going to hide from the Harpies and the Griffons? And how are you going to keep the snacks chilly?”

Adam was about to respond that he’d fight them off or prepare battlements of siege operators, mages, or archers could, but paused.

It wasn’t a bad idea, actually. The Great Den, despite not being the most dangerous place he’d fought, had made the tunnels as much an enemy as the Kitsune themselves, and he’d gotten lost more than once down in it. Human forts usually focused on building up, but…

Why not do both? He’d been given leeway, and so he could build the aboveground fort and a tunnel network below the ground. Supply caches, barracks, food prep stations, and more could make the underground a refuge.

Plus, he was very aware of how even the greatest forts could fall, how fragile people could be. He’d fought far too often with brothers who’d died in battles he survived. Another layer of defense to protect those weaker than him would be enormously helpful and prevent further loss.

“You know what, little Miss? I think we can have both. Build a big fort above ground to keep out bad guys, and build another one underground, too. I’m sure we could fill it with, uh…” Adam trailed off, not sure what Kitsune or Lamia children actually liked.

“Snacks and a biiiiig bed!” the little fox exclaimed, her tail wagging happily.

The Lamia nodded shyly, before grabbing and hiding her face behind the fluffy tail.

Adam smiled. “Sounds good to me. Lots of room for snacks, beds, blankets, and places to hide down there,” he said, already envisioning the dual layers of the fort he was preparing.

By the time he was done with it, they’d be able to repel the fiercest demonic assaults. Although he’d need help, of course. Magic was never his forte, and even he could admit there was a bit more to making buildings than stacking logs and calling it a day.

But point him at a blunt problem requiring lots of work and strength? Oh, he excelled there. He was the hammer to the world’s problems, as Wizard Tim once said.

~~~~

AN:

HiddenMaster: I think it should be stressed a little bit here two separate things.

One, the Kitsune and Lamia children here suffered through an absolutely horrific experience. A big part of the story will be them recovering from that and growing up into their own.

Secondly, Adam is a freak of nature. He is unbelievably strong, easily this world’s Hercules. Yes, he was making strong foundations using boulders he planted in the ground and then pounded sharpened logs into with his bare hands.

The first chapter was not kidding when it said he hit the previous Demon Lord hard enough his organs went flying. This is the sort of guy whose strength is talked about in legends.

Which is why the story really won’t be about fighting. He fought his war, and now he has to live with the peace after. Oh, maybe a brawl or two will happen here and there, but the days of splitting the skies are behind him.

Kitsu: I’ll admit, 90% of his feats will be meme feats that actually embarrass him. This is deliberate. It’s not an overly serious story at all.

Sure, there will be serious themes all throughout, and some serious topics, but most of it is going to be about strong, socially awkward Dad doing strong, socially awkward Dad things while learning how to raise two adorable children into becoming strong enough to survive in the world.

This is his therapy, and his little slice of heaven after a long and grueling war. Expect a lot of fun times, and fluffy cute stuff.

HiddenMaster: If you would like to support us so we can keep providing wonderful words to you, it would be greatly appreciated.

Particularly given my car is actively getting shittier and more dangerous by the day. The front doors are both pretty fucked and I had to open up the door panels to interact with the levers the original handle connected to before it broke. Oh, and the power steering is leaking, and I worry for the engine.

Money is appreciated, friends, because holy shit my car is awful and I could really use the funds to get a newer one.

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