About ten years have passed since Dylan and I married, and I definitely don't regret my decision to move out to the Mistwood Region. It's changed a lot since that day, but it's still a calm life for me. A life where I can relax and do what I enjoy while spending time with people I love and care about. No worries, no stresses, no problems.

  Golems do most of the work on the farm so we're all able to spend more time relaxing, playing, researching, and crafting. Dylan no longer goes by that name, having become a proper mage. He chose to rename himself to Clay after only a year of learning magic – prompted by Nolan suddenly announcing he was now Cliff.

  Cliff and Brooks aren't the only children on our farm. Clay and I chose to have another child two years after our marriage, a little bit staggered so that River's birthday wasn't too close to Brooks's. So we now have three boys, ages thirteen, ten, and eight.

  Having already passed the age of thirteen, Cliff has completed his rite of passage and slain a grand stoneseeker wolf – and he didn't need the spirits' assistance to make sure his arrow struck true. Part of that is because he didn't actually use an arrow, he fought it with his hands and feet and ended up choking it out.

  Now old enough to properly hunt, he goes into the forest to do so, and sometimes the mines as well. I've made sure he knows how to tell his limits and how far is far enough, so there's little risk in letting him enter them alone.

  Our sons aren't the only youth in the valley these days, too. Most of the elderly who were here when I arrived have passed on, but our population is still good in comparison as a result of those who were young when I arrived.

  Ash moved into the area and married Elaina shortly after hearing about Cliff and me marrying, and they have four children of their own, ages four to nine. Elaina continues to raise the bees and sell their products, while Ash is the village's smith and carpenter.

  Thomas and Olivia married not long after the Festival of Souls and have three children as well, ages seven to nine. Thomas took over as Chief when the former one passed on, though they still raise cattle for meat and dairy.

  Daniel – the young man who moved out of here sometime before I moved in – returned the spring after I eliminated the ships. I actually knew him from before I left the war, I just didn't know he was from here. He'd joined up as a soldier and was one of my students in magic before I left, but he never talked about where he grew up.

  When he arrived, he did so with Lavender, the daughter of Lily Kenzoltan, the baroness I enchanted a bracelet for. It was for her the bracelet was commissioned, apparently. The two of them married before coming back here, and Lavender was already pregnant with the first of their three children.

  They own a grains farm with some produce and now provide most of the village with its wheat and hay. Also most of our ale, and it's some fine ale.

  Patrick, a fine young man of twenty-three, is now primarily a hunter, though he still sells pickled vegetables he grows and makes with his wife and their three children. He also sells loot he acquires from the mines, and sometimes helps Cliff in his trips into them.

  Cedric, now nineteen, just had his first child, a daughter, with his own wife. They have several fenced-in pastures with over two hundred sheep between them in six different breeds. Not a single one is a nonmagical breed and they're all well-behaved.

  A few years ago, Cedric asked me if I could shapeshift other people. He's now a happy wolfkin with brown hair and golden eyes. The sheep were originally torn between being terrified of the human with a wolf's tail and ears and treating him like they always did. In the end, they decided on both and never run away.

  In addition to that, Cedric's become a Spirit Priest now and can always be seen with a high-level spirit around, usually a fox with plant and earth magics as his primary ones.

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  For all of the married couples at my generation or younger, the armlet has become a tradition for the area, each couple's being unique. Children bear one similar to their parents', a "descendants' armlet", to show the family they belong to. My earcuff is now a common thing for all of us at my generation and younger as well, allowing for much easier communication between us.

  Outside of spouses, no one else has moved into the valley. That's fine, though, as our population is growing again. Everyone living here is happy with their lives and have settled into things comfortably. None of us want to leave for somewhere else and know that the area will only continue to grow – as much as allowed, anyway.

  As for me? I've become an expert charms-maker under the tutelage of my mother and she's helped me grow in the art of alchemy as well. My father's taught me a lot about enchanting and magic crafting, and the wards on everyone's farms and ranches have never been better.

  There's no village as protected as ours anywhere in the world I know, nor ones as secure against pests as ours.

  I'm also the unofficial teacher of the village. All of the youth come to my place four mornings a week to learn magic, math, history, the basics of weapons-based combat, alchemy, enchanting, and more. That fades out around the age of ten, but some continue to visit to learn more about magic, alchemy, and enchanting.

  Daniel spoke with Thomas shortly after arriving in the village and talked up the Archmage Rowan, most powerful mage known to anyone around. How there was an absolute silence order on trying to locate him after he vanished so it was theorized he'd either been the target of a successful assassination attempt or had been moved somewhere for a secret project to end the war.

  Then once the Goldelm Kingdom suddenly requested a peace, the rumors of the latter were fueled even more. No one really knew what had happened but they were confident Magus Rowan was behind it. Rumors that he'd simply destroyed the capital of the Goldelm Kingdom spread like crazy.

  Unaware of this, I went to Thomas's place to ask about something and noticed Daniel present via [Empathy] at the same time he noticed me.

  Which resulted in him greeting me with "Magus Rowan". Right in front of Thomas, his wife, his parents, Chief, Cedric, and Cedric's parents, who were all there as well.

  Even after realizing I had lied about my past on such a deep level, no one thought ill of me. Cedric just wanted to hear war stories while the adults were only mildly uncomfortable but understanding. Thomas snorted when I revealed that I'd actually deserted, but still ended up ending the war because I took issue with the Goldelm Kingdom sending a fleet here.

  With the knowledge that I'm a former soldier and an extremely powerful Archmage, I get asked to put on shows for the kids a lot. I don't mind, though, but I make sure things aren't destructive. Mostly tricks with water, stone, and illusions of light.

  Something all of the other parents have learned is really difficult to do. Clay figured out a long time ago that my "spell to detect curses" was actually just an illusion of light. It's a feat he's tried to replicate many times and can't replicate at all. Making even a single butterfly is still beyond him.

  Which River likes to tease him about by making a small swarm of them to flutter around his papa. Our youngest son's also figured out how to manipulate his body and likes growing his own wings to fly around with. The number of times Cedric has called us to let us know that River's taken one of his sheep for a flight is a few too many.

  At least they return mostly unbothered.

  My waystones have improved in quality and number, allowing for easier access across the region. There's the party venue across from the chief's house, the mines, the docks, the smithy, my place, the festival grounds, and a few other locations. My parents even allowed me to set ones up at their workshops and home, though only I, my husband, and my children have been given permission to use those.

  While having a large number of children living in it is the biggest change to Mistwood since my arrival, it's not the only major one. Even when excluding the fact that nearly all of the elders have passed on and the current elders are mostly just the still-living parents of my generation.

  After a couple of years, I decided to tackle the issue of the southern sea. The powerful monsters that inhabited it had formed from the monster energy corrupting the area. I slayed them and cleansed the waters, and now everyone can go fishing again.

  We now have a boat with its own dock that some of us take out fishing. Or to the islands only twenty miles south of the shore, trading for goods they have there. Cedric's wife actually comes from there. They met the first time he went there to see about selling wool from his frost sheep. To those living in a warmer climate, having wool which can keep them cool can be quite useful.

  Freeing up that path makes me happy as well. The number of new foods I've learned about thanks to that is high. I haven't quite gotten cocoa trees to grow here, but I definitely enjoy the chocolate we buy from them.

  All in all, I enjoy the life I have here. And when it's time for me to finally pass on, I know I'll have no regrets about the decision to move out here. I could not have asked for a better life than this.

  Mistwood concluded the major plots of the story - Rowan adjusting to the area and finding himself a relationship and husband. There were smaller plans for future events, to cover another 1-2 years of time in the story, but Mistwood hasn't received much of a following and I wouldn't want to drag things on even if it had. So rather than dragging it on, I decided to end things after achieving the main goals of the story. The end of it is probably a little bit rushed with the timeskim, but as I said, I didn't want to drag things out. Not much really happened in those three months, either.