“Morning Colonel.” Two other men greeted me as I found my way to the morning command meeting.

“Morning, Frank and Tar.” The greetings between us were casual. These were my right and left arm of the fort. Major Frank Sparls and Major Tarnick Smith. At least that’s what the journals I’d found last night detailed.

Frank was a damn good water mage. He kept the fort in working order. All the engineers and support staff reported to him. Thankfully, he also managed all the material logistics. Saving me that headache.

Tar didn’t have a lick of magic in him, but he was the poster child for saying that you didn’t have to be a magic user to be an officer. Though it helped that he could put an arrow through a deer’s eye at a thousand yards. He kept the soldiers in line and an eye on the wall at all times.

That left me doing what I needed to keep everything else working in the fort. I also lead any expedition forces that left the fort’s walls. At least that’s how the previous owner of this body put it in his journals.

Both of them had a snicker teasing at the corner of their mouths as their eyes shifted to the pile of letters. Apparently, every thirty minutes through the entire night, a new letter arrived from Cleopatra.

I pinched my eyes closed at the prospect of reading them all. There might be important information in them, but I’d need to do it somewhere quiet where no one could see my… reaction.

Ignoring that for now, “So today we have the water carts coming. We need to decide what to do with our two prisoners. I don’t want another situation on our hands.”

“Water carts will be here around noon. That’ll keep the men distracted till dinner, we’ll have to keep them to three shifts.” Frank studiously looked at his notes as he reminded Tar. “We have to keep the walls fully manned given… Sam’s recent encouragement.”

Both men gave me a humorous smile.

“Shut it, or I’ll have you both reading those letters for me.” I grumbled. “But Frank is right, keep a tight lease on your men Tar.”

“I’ll crack the whip.” Tar seemed less than pleased with that, but I have confidence he’d get it done.

I still had no idea why the water carts were so exciting for the men. Any mention of them was quickly glossed over in Sam’s journals, and I was left in the dark. Guess today will be revealing.

“Back to the prisoners, the air elemental.” I threw the problem out there, though in Sam’s journals he had another idea for the elemental. I suspected he hadn’t told anymore.

“She’s part of Cleopatra’s court, a pretty solid bargaining chip if we needed a prisoner exchange. But I understand the need to get rid of her, given the recent issue…” Frank nodded.

Bargaining chip, Sam’s journals hadn’t mentioned that. Though he had another reason, he’d kept the air elemental in prison, and it was clear he hadn’t shared it with the two men. “No, we’ll leave her there, but we’ll need to work in the prison in pairs. Now about Charles.”

I’d see if I couldn’t take up the reigns on what Sam had started. That they weren’t in a rush to do anything with the Monster Girl only made it easier.

Both men in front of me sighed.

“I want to just brush it off and say it happens, but we were close to a real issue there. Aiding a prisoner escape is punishable with forty lashes and expulsion from the military to work the mines for five years. We are lucky it was just an air elemental or it would be far worse.” I let that last sentence hang in the air. If it were a monster girl that would leave longer lasting impacts, then we might have had to execute Charles.

“Yeah, that’s the law, but these things happen, Sam. Charles is a good soldier, just pent up from being so close to all the monster girls. I’ll have him take the lashes, publicly, but don’t send him to the mines if you can.” Tar leaned forward, his eyes sincere.

I hadn’t felt any sort of magical pull from the air elemental or the lamia. It seemed more like a superstition or an excuse for a pent up man to fuck a monster girl. After all, at the fort, the closest woman was over fifty miles away at the City of Khopesh.

Those women were all incentivised to have as many children as possible, royal aid programs insured that those with kids never went hungry and were able to raise healthy children. The prettier they were, the more often they migrated towards the capital and left the outskirts of the Kingdom like Khopesh.

Stirring from my thoughts, I addressed the two prisoners. “Forty lashes, be harsh enough to teach him a lesson, but that’ll mostly come from the public spectacle. Make sure his commanding officer doesn’t get whip happy.

“As for the elemental, let’s make sure we are better about monitoring the prisons I don’t want a man in there alone anymore.”

Frank nodded, jotting that down. “It’s been a little over two weeks since the last water carts. Maybe we can see about getting them more frequently from the city?”

The water carts helped the men with their libido? What did it have magical properties in the water?

“Sure, see if we can’t get them down here every week and a half.” I offered. “Anything else?” I looked at my two majors.

“No, Sir. The newest batch of recruits are losing their green. If what you reported in the letters is correct, they should be ready for their first fight tomorrow.”

My eyes wandered back to the pile of letters. I needed to look through them to see if Cleopatra included any updates.

It seemed ridiculous that someone would announce their attack like that, unless they were so confident in their victory.

Or deranged. Yep, that was the more likely answer after having read her previous letters.

Both of them were staring at me, waiting for something. Oh right. “Dismissed.”

I let them leave and shuffled the letters back in front of me. With a heavy breath, I started to open and read them.

They were filled with profane gestures of love and, of course, more assurances that she would come and relieve me of my command as soon as she could.

Worry was growing in my gut that she’d come earlier than tomorrow, but worry wasn’t going to help me. We apparently had whatever the water carts were to deal with first today.

In my searching the books in my quarters, I’d been unable to identify what Cleopatra might be, but I did find plenty of information that would help me settle into my role as the Colonel and learned plenty about his life.

He was, in my honest opinion, a stick in the mud, though now in his body, I wasn’t even that old. Early thirties, I’d guess, with sandy brown hair brightened by too many hours in the sun. There certainly wasn’t any sagging skin. I was in better shape that I’d been in my previous life.

Anyway, back to the letters. There was one passage that caught my attention.

I’ll give you the pleasure men can only dream of as I curse you with the virility of a thousand men with nothing but a kiss and drive you into my slick depths till you want nothing but to spend your days claiming me in our bed.

She was actually pretty poetic in how she described what really sounded more like wild rutting than sex. But that she’d curse me with a kiss tickled the back of my mine. Obviously she was part succubus, like the rest, but after reading some of the books in my quarters they were all different in just how they seduced men.

Those like the lamia, save for a rare few, had no magic. Instead, they had adapted to physical means of seduction. Lust venom, or just lust, was a general term thrown about to account for the dozens of venomous monster girls that could drive men into a delirious state of arousal.

Others had more subtle things like low grade charming, pheromones or even addictive secretions. Cursing sounded specific, but I hadn’t read one that had such a method besides a hag, which wouldn’t be in the middle of a desert.

Either way, the idea that they could so manipulate me pushed away my growing desire to fuck a monster girl. While that air elemental and the lamia had been tens in my book, there were a growing number of consequences between the potential ramifications in the military and kingdom laws along with the potential loss of my faculties.

For no matter how hot a monster girl was, I’d like not to be a slobbering sex toy for the rest of my life.

There were hoots and shouts outside that brought me from my thoughts. It sounded like the men were celebrating.

I pushed down the immediate frown, destroying the letters before leaving the meeting room.

What on earth was happening?

Grown men were just a hair away from frolicking as they hurried towards the northern gate of the fort. Maybe something had come down from Khopesh.

Right, water carts. That must be what it was. They were a few hours early, but it seemed a welcome distraction for the men.

My curiosity peeked I decided to delay my other project with the elemental and headed towards the north gate to see just what these water carts were all about.

The pale stone walls ended with an arch at the northern and lowest point for the fort, far larger than the southern gates, and they were currently wide open, allowing a procession of a dozen vehicles. Each one of them was a wagon pulled by a team of massive draft horses.

Even then, the horses looked like they were about to collapse as they pulled into the fort and sagged against each other for support.

However, despite my expectations, all the soldiers ignored the wagons full of water barrels.

No. Their sights were on one lone wagon that pulled two dozen women into the fort.

Catcalls from the men echoed against the stone walls. The women only encouraged it, waiving handkerchiefs and pressing their tits together and shaking them for the crowd.

Wait a second…

“They are always so lively with the water carts.” Tar nearly made me jump out of my own skin as he spoke.

I hadn’t heard him sneak up on me. I was on standing on a hill watching the livelihood, but trying to be discreet.

“It’s good for moral.” I bullshitted as the men got so excited they lifted a woman from the cart.

Already drawing on my magic to intervene, I stopped when the woman let out an excited squeal as she rode the crowd of men, only to be sucked in and her clothing shot into the air.

“Even better for them to release their pent up energy so they are less susceptible to the monster girl’s influence. Good, that they have this opportunity and hopefully these women bear healthy children.” Tar watched from my side, not making a move to join in. He made it sound so routine.

Right, women are heavily incentivised to bear children in the Kingdom. They could life a comfortable life if they popped them out and lived on the royal program. It was only through this that we could keep our population up high enough to man the walls.

I got a good look at a few of them as they were pulled unceremoniously from the cart. I’d give them a five out of ten if I was being generous.

My suspicion was they came down here with nothing but the goal of getting pregnant when they were having trouble finding a suitor in Khopesh.

The crowd shifted into groups as the cart emptied out, one particular group the woman was lifted up on her back like she was on a sexual spit.

Her head tilted back while one pantsless soldier drove himself into her throat. Another two were hoisting up her hips, thrusting into her lower holes, only for her hands to be working the cocks of two other men. All while others dropped their pants for the turn to be next.

It was wanton lust embodied as an orgy of men fucked the women that had come along with the water carts.

I’d heard of a devil’s threesome, but this was something else… a devils spider?

While highly erotic, I decidedly looked away to speak to Tar, and not think about that this was going to go on for three shifts.

“Tar, I’m concerned that the attack may come sooner than tomorrow. Make sure the men keep to their rotations.”

“That’s why I’m here.” Tar grinned.

“Not tempted to join them?” I teased.

“No, Mary would kill me when I returned to Khopesh, not to mention she’s ten times the lady these are. I’ll hold myself back.” Tar almost sounded like it really was a force of will to hold back.

Well, now I understood the water carts. Let the men enjoy their time. I had another project to look into.

The journals I’d read had a number of recent entries that seemed to be an experiment of sorts. Reading through it, it all made sense, if outside the current theories of magic.

Sorcery was barely understood by magic users. It was more of an art than the science of wizardry. Sam had written theories about his sorcery of air and what he could do to an air elemental. Mainly, bind them to his will.

While, ‘Stick in the mud’ Sam may have been interested in gaining a perfect scout, I had… other interests.

That was something I was supremely interested in, at least more so than the orgy down below.