《The Chronicle of Karl: Industrialization of Rohrkadia》


 Chapter 1 - Carl or Karl

    Chapter 1 - Carl or Karl


    Author: J. Arque


    Editor: ¨C


    Proofreader: RagNarok


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    Many Thanks to RagNarok for PR''ing this chapter!


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    My name is Carl Sanders and I lived a life of seventy five years.


    I was an Entrepreneur, Engineer, and Army Veteran.


    I graduated from high school as valedictorian then I applied for ROTC scholarship to obtain My BE in Chemical Engineering and Master¡¯s Degree in Material Science. I also married my first wife, Diane. But when the cold war broke out, I had to be sent to Southeast Asia for a five-year service term and I had to leave Diane with my four year old son, Jason, because of that.


    Because of my bravery and diligence, I quickly rose up the officer ranks and become LTC Carl Sanders during that time period.


    I was fortunate enough that all of my four limbs and every other part of my body was still attached perfectly by the end of my military career. I also got two silver stars and a medal of honor from the government for preventing a massacre of more than a hundred of my fellow soldiers that were ambushed by the enemy.


    The army offered me a chance to continue my service and I would be given a promotion to Colonel. But I was tired with army business and still suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder after literally living through hell. I decided to go back and live with my family then look for a new more peaceful career.


    It was tempting though, to gain a promotion and become Colonel Sanders. It would¡¯ve been fantastic to have a similar name to the founder of a famous fried chicken restaurant franchise.


    After I got out of my service term, I found out the reason why Diane hadn¡¯t replied to my letters for the past two months. It was because she had changed her name and our son¡¯s name then left the country without saying anything to our family and friends. Apparently she was having an affair with some Italian man for the past three years. But three months ago she had found out that she was pregnant with his child while still being married to me. She was afraid that I would¡¯ve found out and decided to run away with him. I knew all that because Jason, my son, secretly contacted me with an email from an internet cafe in Milan. It crushed me when he said it was all my fault that he had to move to Milan and had to be away from his friends in Baltimore.


    It was the worst year of my life since both of my parents died from a car accident, my wife had been cheating on me for the past three years, my son hated me and was raised by another man who I had never even met, and I also suffered from PTSD with no permanent job except a part time teaching job at a nearby college in Baltimore.


    Few years after I filed for divorce with Diane, I married Helen, my former girlfriend from high school who was a General Practitioner in Baltimore at the time. It was her that over time helped me deal with my stress and depression. She motivated me to spend my time enjoying life more and not brood over the past.


    Finally with Helen¡¯s support and my expertise in Material Science, I started my first company with my former classmate, Paul Anderson. This company was later called Anderson-Sanders Steel International or ASSI. But only a year before ASSI went public, Paul decided to sell his share of the company to me to go back and focus in his scientific career. That made me the majority shareholder of ASSI.


    ASSI after only a decade, slowly became a major player in the world¡¯s steel industry because of its low price and high quality metal production. Then years later, as the demand from customers gained a significant increase, ASSI broadened its business into mining and processing other materials like aluminum, copper, tin, cobalt, silicon, and so on. By the end of 1990, ASSI entered the Forbes 500 list.


    Then finally ASSI evolved into Sanders Group when ASSI acquired the license to open our own oil and mining industry in Africa and Asia. We also branched our company in various sectors like agriculture and home appliances.


    I was the CEO of ASSI and Sanders Group for more than thirty years before I passed the chair to Arthur, my oldest son with Helen, who was also my CFO at that time.


    After my retirement, my wife and I moved into my grandfather¡¯s farmland just a few miles outside Baltimore city. There, I transformed my grandfather¡¯s old two-story farmhouse into a large chateau and hired local farmers to rejuvenate the abandoned farm into a fully operational farm. I also took part on the designing and monitoring of the farm¡¯s operations. After all, even after retirement, an entrepreneur would always be an entrepreneur.


    I spent a great deal of my time reading books and monitoring the farm with Helen while occasionally our children would visit us in our chateau with our grandchildren to spent their summer vacation with both of us.


    At the age of seventy five my life as Carl Sanders was over. Just two years after Helen had died from her breast cancer.


    Yes, I had those moments of sadness, angst and despair but nonetheless that was the beauty of life. If you had a live a life where everything goes according to your expectations, you live a pretty bland life. Sometimes people learn the best life lesson when they are at their lowest point in their entire life.


    And Yes, I also lived a happy life. However a part of me wanted the concept of reincarnation to be true. I didn¡¯t want it to be over. I wanted to continue this wonderful adventure called life, I wanted new problems to solve, and new experiences. But I knew my wish was ridiculous, unscientific, and kind of misconceived if you consider that there was no concrete evidence for the existence of a soul to support the concept of reincarnation.


    Anyway, I died while sleeping peacefully on my bed. When I was about to die, I saw an image of my late wife, Helen smiling at me and told me that my journey was not over yet.


    When I was still thinking what she meant about my journey not being over, suddenly I felt a gigantic force pulling my consciousness out of my body then the force sent me into a crack in space-time continuum.


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    ''Why can I see my own body sleeping right there? What is this?'' After a few moments I felt the pull from the crack. In the inside of the crack, I could see that I was floating in nothingness except a large door with unknown letters written on top of it was there.


    ''Am I dead, am I?''


    Yes, Indeed


    The door suddenly opened but I could see nothing in the other side, I knew that somehow I needed to enter that door, so I did.


    Not long after that, I felt a need to inhale some air. When I finally was able to breathe normally, I realized something. Clearly I knew I was died back then, but why could I still breathe? Was this what Helen mean about my journey not being over yet? And why the hell did I feel like I was sleeping on dirt?


    After I opened my eyes I saw I was surrounded by countless pine trees. I was indeed sleeping on dirt. I also heard crickets singing and a green colored moon hanged in the night sky with a myriad of stars.


    ''Green?''


    I had seen moon turned red and blue in my previous lifetime but it would never turned green. When I tried to examine the moon further, I realized even though the size was roughly similar with the one I saw on earth but this moon absolutely not the one I saw back then. There was even a thin dust ring circling around this moon like the one in Saturn. This moon was majestic compared to the bland dusty moon that I saw on earth.


    At that moment, I realized that I didn¡¯t wear my glasses and yet I could see the surface of the green moon in high definition. Then I felt my whole body was electrocuted and thousands of images flashed through my brain.


    That moment, I knew I was not Carl Sanders anymore.


    ''I knew it!''


    ''My wish just became reality!''


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    I was able to not get overly excited, I tried to assess my situation.


    It appeared that after I breathed my final breath on earth, my consciousness traveled through a mysterious black door and enter a new body in this unknown world. A clich¨¦, I know, but it was what had happened to me.


    This body that I now resided in was apparently the corpse of a kid named Karl son of Xander. It is spelled like Carl but with a hard ¡®K¡¯ sound.


    This Karl was an orphan and had lived with his uncle who worked as a self-proclaimed metal worker or blacksmith in his home village, Exton. Because of poverty and hunger, this kid often played in the forest to eat berries.


    Unfortunately for Karl, when he ate a huge raspberry, he was overly excited and because of that he choked and couldn¡¯t breathe. Minutes later Karl died then not long after that I entered his corpse and revived Karl¡¯s lifeless body. I wonder where the berry was gone because when I woke up I remembered I could breathe normally¡­


    Anyway, I also obtained this boy¡¯s memories when my own consciousness merged in his brain. Memories like who he was, where did he come from, why an eight years old boy like him was in the middle of a forest alone and so on.


    I continued to process Karl¡¯s memories until the moment of his death.


    After I Finished examining Karl¡¯s memories, I was dumbfounded that despite this world being different, its biosphere was fairly similar with earth. This world also has humans, deer, rabbits, horses, and even dogs who supposedly are animals that evolved from wolves because of being domesticated by human on earth.


    The plants also almost completely replicated the one I saw on earth or at least the ones that had a natural habitat in the old world since Karl had never seen anything like Corn, Potatoes, tomatoes, peanuts or people walking around smoking tobacco because of the Europeans after the Colombian exchange. Maybe there is another ¡®America¡¯ out there somewhere across the ocean.


    Then the most important question was ¡®where am I?¡¯


    Well, apparently from what I had gathered from Karl¡¯s memories, this kid lived in a small village with population of exactly 100 people, called Exton. It was about a mile from my current location.


    This forest on the other hand was called Ramswood.


    Exton village and the entire Great Extonian Forest which included Ramswood was under Markadia¡¯s City-State jurisdiction. Markadia¡¯s government would collect the taxes from Exton¡¯s villagers for each year. Markadia itself was only one of many city-states that spread all over the Rohrkadian peninsula. Rohrkadia¡¯s size was a bit larger than the Italian peninsula on earth. But the climate was similar with Germany or Northern France.


    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    The language that people used here was called Rohrkish language and pretty much sounded like Scottish to me at first. This Rohrkish was a native language that commonly used by the Rohrken ethnicity.


    People in Exton village or Exton¡¯s mostly were descendants of the Ancient Extonian Forest tribes, but after the Markadia conquered the Great Forest, Exton¡¯s also use Rohrkish language with a thick Markay accent for their daily conversation. There are a lot of similar words with English too, like ¡®Old¡¯ in English in here it was ¡®Olde¡¯. Dog to ¡®Doege¡¯. It was quite complicated since there are various connotation for each word too. They also had this thing called masculine words and feminine words. In a Masculine sense a ¡®dog¡¯ was called ¡®Hounde¡¯ but in a feminine sense they are called ¡®Doege¡¯.


    Another useful piece of information that I got from Karl¡¯s memories was the calendar used in this part of the world. Rohrkadian calendar was a solar based calendar in which a year would be divided into twelve phases. These twelve phases were derived from four seasons that were divided further into 3 phases: Early, Middle, and Late for each season. Originally this calendar was used by Farmers to decide the planting season. For example, Today was the 13th of Late Winter in Markadia¡¯s Calendar. Some traveling merchants and mummers that had visited Exton said that the neighboring city-states like Paloph and Banthage also had a similar calendar but different names for each month.


    When I tried to inquire about a complete world map or any other information about other area in this world from Karl¡¯s memories, I couldn¡¯t find anything. I only knew the name of several larger City-State that Karl¡¯s had known from their coinage since all the Hegemons of Rohrkadia would have their own coin design with their City-State symbol on one side and their ruler¡¯s face on the other side. Like Markadia¡¯s City-State with their Boat of Markay, Paloph State with their Palos tortoise, Iene State with their Three-leaf clover, and Banthage State with their Bull face.


    Sadly, this boy was not an educated kid. He couldn¡¯t read or write. He was just a boy from the ¡®Tanne¡¯ caste, a caste of farmer, second from the bottom of the 7 caste that commonly used in Rohrkadia, only higher than freedman and Slaves or prisoners of war- and would never get any form of education like other kids from the ¡®Dhabir¡¯ caste a caste of Highborn, second caste after Royal Birth in the 7 caste in Markadia and Royal caste did. Because as far as I could recall in Karl¡¯s memories, there were no such thing like schools for lowborn children in this part of the world. There were however things called academies in each large city but like I said before, it was only reserved for them who were born from the first two caste.


    Only those who were able to attain merits in battle or fortune in their venture were able to upgrade their own caste. Since caste was hereditary, they could send their children into that kind of learning institution.


    But thankfully, this boy was quite smart, despite him choking on a raspberry, for his age. He could remember lots of stories and general knowledge that was told by many bards and mummers who visited his village every now and then. Even though it was limited, but it was enough for me to adapt myself into this world.


    Finally, I checked my new body. But what I found later was disappointment. This boy¡¯s body was scrawny and wimpy. My new hands also looked like a pair of twigs. As an army veteran in my previous lifetime, this kind of body was really humiliating. I felt I couldn¡¯t even lift a pound on each arm. This boy must have suffered a severe case of malnutrition to be this ¡®weak¡¯. I almost thought that this boy also suffered from anorexia but apparently that was not the case, since this boy even chocked himself because of a big raspberry.


    It didn¡¯t mean he was stupid or a gluttonous boy or anything, no. It just that in this peninsula, food was really scarce. I mean super scarce. Even the aristocrats could only enjoy a small amount of food each day let alone a lowborn. Most of the deaths in Exton and many other places in Rohrkadia were caused by starvation or hypothermia. If I was in Karl¡¯s position at that time, It was normal for me to be excited when I suddenly saw a large raspberry right in front of me.


    I suspected that the population boom after the end of the long war fifty years ago was one of the reason that might¡¯ve caused the great famine in this part of the world. The production simply couldn¡¯t feed the entire population.


    Banditry was also a common occurrence. Four years ago a forest outlaws group called ¡®The Red Swamps¡¯ plundered Exton and killed so many people who refused to surrender their belongings. Xander, Karl¡¯s father was killed and his mother Tatia was raped then mutilated by those bandits. Fortunately for Karl, his uncle secretly brought Karl into hiding in his secret basement.


    Even though I felt no connection with Karl¡¯s parents, I was furious and disgusted when the image of Karl¡¯s mother was raped and mutilated replayed again and again in my brain.


    Yes, I had seen such terrible things happen during my time in war on earth, but I never got used to it. I couldn¡¯t imagine what sort of trauma this Karl had to bear after he saw his parents killed in such an inhumane way.


    My blood was boiling. I looked up to the sky and said ¡°Don¡¯t worry Karl, as a thanks from me for using your body, I will bring those scum to justice once I have enough power¡±


    With that resolution I stood up and search for food in this forest since I felt so hungry and weak. I had never feel so hungry in my life. Back in my time in the army I had once fasted for a week, I felt unbearable hunger and thirst but now when I think of it, what I felt back then was not so bad compared to what I feel right now. It also didn¡¯t help that it was still winter and the temperature was around 4 or 6 degrees centigrade.


    But after an hour, I only found two strands of wild asparagus and one thumb-sized oyster mushroom. I ate them raw since I didn¡¯t have neither a container nor a fire starter to make a soup out of them. The asparaguses were juicy and the mushroom was quite tasty. It was not able to suppress my hunger, but at least provided me with enough calories to reheat my freezing body to be able to walk back into Exton.


    I noticed it is already midnight and I needed to get home soon before Karl¡¯s uncle became increasingly worried. Thankfully, there was no wild animals here apart from deer and foxes. It would be a disaster if I met a bear or a pack of wolves in this area. This body wasn¡¯t suitable for engaging with those powerful animals and I couldn¡¯t climb a tree to escape with twig like arms.


    Along the way I found some wild strawberries, I decided to collect all of them so that I could put it in a jar later. I used the front side of my linen tunic to carry these strawberries back to Exton.


    After I exited the forest I saw the wooden fence of Exton just in the horizon. It was easy to spot since Exton village was only surrounded by large farmlands and nothing except the Great Extonian Forest which included Ramswood in the east and Blakewood in the west.


    Half way to Exton, I saw a person running towards my direction. Oh, this must be Karl¡¯s uncle, Boban.


    Boban was an older brother of Tatia. He was a short skinny man with a large nose and a goatee. He wore a ragged hood and undyed linen tunic like the one I used to wrap the wild strawberries. It was the standard lowborn attire in this part of the world.


    Boban or Bob, had been taking care of Karl since four years ago. Boban was now 31 but he looked older than his true age. He appeared to be in his early forties. He also was a widower and had no child. His wife died when they lived in Trakken town a long time ago, but I didn¡¯t know the details since Boban refused to tell Karl about his life¡¯s history.


    Based on Karl¡¯s memories Bob worked as a self-proclaimed blacksmith in Exton. It was self-proclaimed since he was not a member of the smith guild after he failed the guild test in Trakken and did not attain a license to open a workshop in a larger town. With his wife died later that year, he move back to his hometown in Exton. However the pay for a blacksmith in Exton was really low because only few villagers wanted to order new tools or fix their old one.


    People in the village after all did not have enough money. They chose to consume their own crops to survive rather than to sell it in the city. This caused the shortage of currency or ¡®strung¡¯ in Exton. If a villager needs something from other villager, they often revert back to the bartering system instead of using their coins.


    Anyway, when Bob arrived in front of me, he grab both of my shoulders with his big hands.


    ¡°Boy! Why in hells ya roam outside the village in the middle of the nite!¡± Bob yelled at me with anger but when I saw his eyes I only saw worries and anxiousness.


    Even though it was not entirely my fault, but I still felt terrible to make this good young man worried.


    But before that I remembered that I need to act and speak like Karl.


    ¡°I am sorry Uncle Bob, I fell asleep in the wood¡±


    Oh boy, was it weird to act like a normal eight year old when you were seventy five.


    Bob¡¯s face twitched when he heard my words. I saw a glint of guilt and sadness in his eyes. I knew he often saw Karl search for wild edibles in Ramswood when no food was available in their home.


    He put his hand on top of my head.


    ¡°Sorry Karl, if I have¡­¡±


    ¡°Uncle Bob it is fine, and look! I got tons of strawberries!¡± I said with a proud expression while I showed him a handful of wild strawberries warped in my linen tunic. Hah apparently my acting skill was not so bad. If I wasn¡¯t an entrepreneur back then, I probably could¡¯ve gotten a job or two as a cameo or something in Hollywood!


    ¡°Good job boy, but next time be sure to come home when the sun is down. It¡¯s dangerous out ¡®ere. We don¡¯t know when those bastards could come back¡± Bob said ¡°Well, let us go home, it is cold ¡®ere¡±


    I nodded and walked into Bob¡¯s house. When I didn¡¯t look at Bob, I could hear him whispered something while looking at the sky.


    ¡°Sorry Tatia, I failed yer son¡±


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    Author Note:


    Dear readers,


    This is my first story in Royal Road and English is my third language. So if you find any issue like inconsistencies, grammatical error, punctuation, plot-hole or anything that bothers you about this story, please don''t hesitate to contact me or comment below. I would greatly appreciate any of your input even if they aren''t relevant to the story.


    Cheers!


    <hr />

 Chapter 2 - Rant

    Chapter 2 - Rant


    Author: J. Arque


    Editor: ¨C


    Proofreader: ¨C


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    Note From Author:


    Hi guys, it has been a while since my last update but here is chapter 2 for y''all


    When I started to write this chapter yesterday, I felt kind of unsatisfied by Carl''s personality and honestly, his personality was pretty bland for an MC. So I decided to change Carl''s personality from depressed and calm old man into a grumpy old man. Hope you like this change.


    J. Arque


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    Exton, 14 Late Winter Markadia Calendar


    Kids, I knew some of you fantasized to be transported into a middle ages fantasy world. You dream of exploring the new world, slay some dragon, kill a devil king, or Save a damsel in distress.


    But for me to be transported into this world, was a really dreadful experience!


    For example, because there was no toilet in this era, this old man had to take a dump in a bucket. In a goddam BUCKET!


    I was horrified when later Bob threw the contents of the bucket into the Exton River -which surprisingly flowed right next to Exton village- while there were some kids swimming and some women villagers washing their cookware in the river.


    I really wondered why people in this village didn''t die out because of diarrhea a long time ago. Maybe there was no such thing as diarrhea or even bacteria in this world? Or maybe human''s immune system in this world was a lot stronger than in earth?


    Not to mention that I just spent a dreadful night in a bed made of hay covered with linen blanket that was also a breeding ground of fleas, lice, and thousands of other bug species that ate every part of my skin almost every second. Thankfully it was Late Winter and it was not freezing cold compared in the early winter or middle winter. Bob''s house also had a central hearth so I immediately discarded that devious blanket and move my hay bed closer to the hearth.


    Another problem was food. This was the most essential thing that I need to tackle first. Seriously, my body already suffered from severe case of malnutrition. And despite almost all of Exton population were farmers, the harvests in each year was not enough to support the population for a whole year. It added with the fact that the villagers needed to pay tributes to Markadia Government every year. Almost all the people in Exton or every other place in the Rohrkadia had to put into starvation.


    The reason it was so hard for them to increase the production, was the farmer in the peninsula only cultivate a small chunk of land that available to them, despite after the population booming since fifty years ago. The soil was simply too hard to plow with their standard iron plow and hoes. Also, instead of using seed drills they manually sow the seeds by hands which was going to take a very long time and made the seeds weren¡¯t evenly distributed. They also used the two-year crop rotation system in which they let fallow the land after the use for a year. This made the fields unproductive for half of the time.


    Hunting without a permit in Ramswood also prohibited by Markadia''s law. Surprisingly even in this world, governments are prick. But even when the people from lower caste were permitted to hunt, deer population in Ramswood still wouldn''t enough to supply the whole the food demands because they already hunted by the riches.


    The second thing that I needed to fix was my pathetic physique. We can¡¯t afford to be weak when some dumb-ass bandit running around chopping people¡¯s head. This scrawny body would easily be crushed by a full grown-adult.


    I needed to start an intense training for my body. Strength, endurance, dexterity, flexibility, you name it. But screw with training if I was hungry. Sigh, I really miss Helen¡¯s protein juice.


    I also needed to learn swordsmanship and marksmanship since I didn''t have any immediate plan to introduced gunpowder knowledge into this world. Maybe later if I had enough power to control its distribution. I didn''t want to bring out something that I couldn''t control, let alone it could also potentially become a weapon of mass destruction if it fall into the wrong hands.


    Honestly, I didn¡¯t care if people die because of guns. Even without it, people would still kill each other. Guns only fasten the process. Sigh - I sounded like a republican.


    But, I couldn¡¯t let these people use guns against me, it would be bad for the story if it happened¡­ or was it?


    Anyway, as far as Karl''s memories could tell, I still have numerous advantages in fighting and warfare knowledge over the majority of the people in this part of the world. Hopefully none of them were smart enough to get in my way.


    Next was money. I needed to find a way to gain money in this situation. Why? I simply couldn¡¯t feel safe without it!


    For most of my lifetime, I was rarely in a situation where I had shortage of money. But now, I only had nothing but pair of coarse linen clothes which you would consider as rags in earth and a jar of wild strawberries. This shit was humiliating.


    I ¨Cas some of you might guess- could probably make a lot of money using my knowledge from earth, but in the end the most important thing that people in this part or even the entire world need was food! People don¡¯t care if this world has electricity, gizmos, or internet if there is no food, right?


    I could make paper which was a lot cheaper to make than a parchment that commonly used here, I could also designed a steam power plant for electricity, Chemical factory, steam engine, and lots of other thing. But, it would be a bad business my friend.


    Since there is no demand from the market simply because what people need urgently was food. After they got their food then maybe there would be demand for other thing. However, I did have some knowledge from 21st century earth that might help them -or maybe some of them- survive this great famine. And since the price of food also sky high in here, it would be fabulous business! I could become rich and they would get more foods. Everybody win.


    Then, is that the reason why I was here? If not, then, is there any reason at all?


    Well, maybe l could think that later after I had lots of food in my belly. Now was not the time being philosophical broody old man.


    For now, let the entrepreneur be the entrepreneur.


    After a few hours of thinking and mediating about my problems, I found two plausible option to attain sufficient food that I urgently need.


    First option was to cultivate crops in Karl''s parents¡¯ land using better methods and tools. Thankfully in Rohrkadia there are no such thing as feudalism or manorialism where the land only owned by the nobility. It would be close to impossible for Tanne caste like Karl''s parents to purchase or rent land if the system here was feudalism or manorialism.


    Instead, the system used in Markadia, Banthage, Paloph and many other city-state in Rorhkadia Peninsula was fairly similar like the one used in roman antiquity.


    For example in Markadia State Law, folks who were not from Bidha Caste or Slave caste were able to possess land. So even a former slave or freedman -Ebs Caste- could also purchase a land from someone. However, to cultivate and maintain a land was very hard and daunting process and often it was not worth the effort. Because of that, people often sold their own land to someone that had more wealth and resources to use the land effectively. Especially the one near the city or town where the price of lands were usually relatively high compared to the one in the edge of civilization like Exton.


    Sadly for the past a hundred years people could not claim an unclaimed or abandoned land since they automatically become the property of the government, or in Markadia case, the five Royal families. Again, what a prick. But hey, at least people still could buy the land from Royals if they decided to sell the land.


    It was also permitted by the Law to rent the land over another person for certain amount of time. Usually the small transaction was in verbal only, where the two people were talking to each other until they reach an agreement and use the sacred pact which was some kind of local ritual at the end to finalize the transaction. For medium scale transaction the law require another person who will act as a witness of the transaction. And for the large scale one, they also need to write the agreement into two physical evidence usually in parchments so one of the evidence could be stored in the Markadia government office.


    Because Karl''s memories I knew I still have Karl''s parents¡¯ 30 acres of land at the northern side of the village. And maybe I could persuade Bob to lease other villager''s unused land and open new modernized farm. I could introduce a new plow, seed drills, selective breeding and the use of better fertilizer to the farm. I could also apply the Four-year crop rotation system to increase the efficiency of the land.


    If I could modernized all the unused open land near Exton, I bet you, in 10 years instead of died of starvation people in Exton would die from obesity.


    Other option was maybe I could be a musician or performer for the aristocrats in Markadia, I could make a guitar or other zither type instrument with Bob¡¯s workshop. Seriously, there are so many tunes and lyrics stored in my song database. Beatles, Scorpion, Chuck Berry, and bunch other things.


    But in the end, I asked myself why do I need to entertain these fucker. So I decided to choose option one.


    After I figured things out, I went to Karl''s uncle in his workshop just a few minute walk from his house. I saw Bob with his strange looking hammer. I was disappointed when I found out that his workshop was a simple one. It only had a stone furnace, an anvil, a grindstone, and bunch other thing that you could see in typical blacksmith forge from Hollywood medieval wannabe movie.


    "Uncle Bob!"


    "Oh! Hey Boy, what''s the matter? Ye want to go to Ramswood again?"


    "No Uncle Bob, I just want to check things in your workshop and talk to you about couple of things"


    "Oh, come on in then!"


    I sat on the old wooden crate next to the grindstone. Meanwhile Bob continued his work. He mended the bellows, pump more and more air in order to increase the temperature of the furnace. Apparently he was working with iron ore burned with charcoal fire, a kind of primitive method to produce wrought iron from a perspective of Professional Material Engineer like me.


    "Uncle, what do want to forge?"


    "Ol¡¯ man Wilmot want couples of arrow head for the boys"


    This Old man Wilmot, with age probably around 70 or 80, was the village chief of Exton. He was the one who had the largest land in Exton which probably around 300 acres. The old man originally had handed over the chief position to his son. But when his only son and daughter in law was slaughtered by the Red Swamps like half other population of Exton couple of years ago, he had to stood up into the chief position again. As a fellow old folk, I really felt sorry for this man.


    Chief position in a village and town was semi-hereditary since according to Markadia Law. Chief was the title for the one who control the most land over the surrounding area. Kind of like Plutocracy in earth. But since a Chief could also split his or her land for their descendant into smaller pieces of land, It was a common occurrence in other villages that chiefs position were passed into another person who were not related with the previous Chiefs at all. When the chief hood change, they only need to report it into Markadia¡¯s government.


    Bob income mostly came from Chief Wilmot to arm the ''boys'' ¨Cwhich was a group of six teenager who in truth were just bunch of bullies that consider themselves as militias- with cheap weapons like iron tipped wooden spears and a simple hunting bows.


    But, did they honestly think some six wannabe militias could stop a seasoned bandit group like Red Swamps with some spear and hunting bows? The Red Swamps would probably crush them in seconds. But hey, let¡¯s not judge this people since they were going to be my people in the future. And at least the weapons were good enough to give the villager the illusion to feel safer.


    "Do you know how to make steel uncle bob?" I asked


    "Steel? Nay Boy, only those Guild men know how to make one, me, only a self-proclaimed smith. Why ya ask?"


    "Steel, I know how to make one Uncle Bob"


    Bob laughed and dropped to the ground "Haha, Ye can''t even use this tiny ''ammer, and how could ye know how to make steel¡­ Boy, ye should join those mummers if you want to tell a better joke"


    Fuck you Bob and Fuck your annoying Trakken accent too.


    "I am not Joking Uncle, last night I had a dream about an old man... And he taught me lots of things. One of them is how to make a good steel. Just let me try it"


    When Bob about to say something I used the puppy-eye technique that my granddaughter often used on me.


    And it surprisingly worked.


    "Er¡­ Dream? Very well, Ol'' man Wilmot¡¯s order still three weeks away, I celd play with ye for some time"


    "Okay, but we need to gather this¡­ "


    After I listed the additional ingredient of a crucible furnace construction, I also asked about the unused land surrounding the village to him. He said it is really cheap and would probably cost us about 100 Strung per year to rent an acre of land and we could also purchase the land permanently but probably cost us around 500 to 1,000 Strung per acre depends on the location.


    If my plan worked, an acre of land would yield 10 times more than the normal one. For example an acre could yield 70 bushels of rye instead the normal rate of 4 to 7 bushels per acre in Exton. If the prices still stable until then, the gross income per acre would roughly around 35,000 Strung per year since the price for a bushel of rye was around 500 per bushel. It was a huge sum of money per acre. If some of you still believe this was a bad business you better bang the wall with your head.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    Other operational costs like seeds, manures and couple other things maybe around 100 Strung per acre. So the total cost only 200 tops, per acre in a year. Even in unlikely event somehow the prices drop significantly to 30 Strung per bushels I would still gain a bit profit from it.


    However, a significant price drop might possible if there is competition. But no thanks, I didn¡¯t like competition. I planned to monopoly this business.


    The fertile land around Exton, especially in Great Extonian Forest was huge. Probably millions of acres but most of lands were -well, a forest. The open land around Exton was about 1,000 acres and third of them was owned by Chief Wilmot.


    Karl''s parents have 30 acres themselves. Using the right tool and appropriate condition, each person could work with 15 acres each or even 30 acres each if they were helped by draft animals.


    The only problem was the tools like steel gang plow, cultivator, roller, seed drill, thresher and a reaper would need quite amount of Strung to make, probably around 11,000 to 12,000 Strung. I knew Bob income only about 300 Strung a month and he did not have any savings or anything like that.


    Hmm, Then how?


    Ah, how about a crucible steel sword?


    "Uncle, how much is a sword in the City cost?"


    "Hmm¡­ a long Iron swords created by guild''s smith are about 50,000 each but if they are made o¡¯ steel probably about 150,000 to 200,000 Strung"


    "200,000!" It decided then, I was tempted to abandon my initial plan to cultivate Karl''s ancestor land and become a smith instead.


    "Then how many iron ore do you have now Uncle?"


    "I ¡®ave these and other half ingot from Ol¡¯ man Wilmot, why?" he showed me about a fist of iron ore in a leather pouch.


    Those should be enough to make a long sword


    "Uncle, I want to forge a sword but I need iron ores, charcoal powder, bit of sand, and some pieces of glass"


    "We ''ave iron ores, sand and charcoal but not glass¡­ Only nobles in the city ¡®ave one of ¡®ose"


    Hmm. We could use the silicon from the quartz sand to substitute the glass. It would only help to separate impurities from the metal, so the carbon from charcoal could be absorb nicely by the metal and turned it into crucible steel ingot.


    "It''s okay Uncle, iron ore pellets and a little bit of charcoal powder and sand were enough"


    <hr />


    After I left Bob''s workshop, I went out to search for the clay that suitable for the new furnace. I remember from Karl''s memories there was good clay sources just few miles inside of Ramswood.


    But when I walked further into the woods, I couldn''t find any good clay that suitable for my crucible. Just when I was about to give up, I suddenly decided to use a new route that Karl had never used before.


    But suddenly caught a glimpse of a majestic and extraordinary view.


    When you enter a forest you probably would not expect a gigantic sinkhole appeared out of nowhere in front of you. But that was what had happened to me.


    The diameter of the sinkhole in front of me should be more than a 200 yards wide and was about 400 to 450 yards deep.


    It was practically hidden from the human civilization, right in the middle of the forest and you would only be able to see them if you were close enough.


    At the bottom of the sinkhole, there were a dozen of towering karst, probably made of limestone and gypsum. Those towering karst stacked together by nature as if they were chess pieces in chess board. If you have visited Zhangjiajie national forest Park in China, you could see the similarities between them.


    I really wanted to go down so bad, but that would be a stupid idea. I would likely killed myself when I tried to climb down these cliffs without proper ropes and safety equipment. So I decided to leave the sinkhole for now.


    I was excited when I caught a glimpse of the cliffs. It was white as if they were made out of limestone, but then near the top there are a fine line of grey then slowly became orange then red. It was clay!


    If they were really clay, then the nearby area''s lower soil should also had similar clay layer just below the top soil layer.


    When I used my hand to dig out the top soil, I could find orange-red colored clay that could be used to make bricks and coarse pottery. Then a layer of greyish clay that could be used to make firebricks, then finally I found the layer that had lighter grey and slightly white clay, this was the clay that I need to construct my crucible.


    After I got out the Ramswood, I went back to Bob''s house to get a small wooden bowl. Later I used the bowl to dig out the soil in the periphery of Ramswood. The farther we got from the sinkhole the deeper I had to dig to find the clay layer. The soil was quite hard but water from nearby river also helped me soften the soil.


    After I dug out the soil about three feet down, finally I got my clay.


    I used a wooden barrel and filled them with clay. Unfortunately the barrel became so heavy that it almost around two hundred pounds. Fortunately the road was not rocky and bumpy from there to Exton, so I could just roll the barrel to Exton.


    When I arrived at Bob''s Workshop, I saw Bob currently not in.


    I leave the barrel and went to search for food. Maybe I could find more wild edibles or catch some fish in the nearby river but then I remember the scene that morning and I decided against that and only search for wild edibles.


    <hr />


    Four days later,


    Exton, 18th of Late Winter, Markadia Calendar


    The crucible furnace was finished. It was made mainly from red colored clay and firebrick that made out of grey fireclay. Bob still a bit skeptical about this, but I understand. How could an eight years old have a knowledge to make a steel even if I was taught by someone in my dream it was not like I could easily replicate the method in reality.


    Well, fortunately Bob was not a cynical man so it was not hard to persuade him. You just need to bullshit him a little.


    After the preparation was complete, I mix all the ingredient from the formula that I often use in earth. In my youth, I often experimented with this formula. Even though I failed to recreate the steel at the first eight tries, but later on, even without using a scale I could easily measure the right composition only with using my intuition. The mixture then sealed tightly using the mix of grinded limestone and clay to prevent more charcoal to enter the mixture.


    The furnace was filled with enough charcoal to melt the steel. It designed to contain the heat so that the mixture in the crucible could melt perfectly. It could make the temperature inside of the crucible to more than 3000 degrees Fahrenheit. This achieved by mending the bellows for hours. It was only two of us at first but then a fellow villager named Pateyk who was a friend of Bob also helping mending the bellows.


    We burnt the mixture for couple of hours before we took the steel ingot out. In earth, normally I would not be this excited to be able to produce a crucible steel ingot, but now that was not the case. I smiled throughout the process. Bob also smiled to see the ingot that we produced after such a hard work.


    After we took out the Ingot, I told Bob to hammer the ingot very gently or it would crack since this type of steel was very hard to work with.


    Next, for another 12 hours of reheating and pounding with a gentle force, Bob and I could see the sword started to form. A black line in Bob''s eyes suggesting that he were really tired. I also had not sleep for 24 hours.


    Bob''s friend, Pateyk the carpenter who also helped with mending the bellows earlier continued to help us. Pateyk and Bob followed my direction very closely. I also instructed them to carve a pentagram near the hilt to add the artistic value to the sword.


    Then we arrived at the most crucial part of the process where we reheated the blade and then quenched it into a cold water. It was the riskiest process since it could crack the blade and we need to start all over again. But thankfully the blade did not cracked from the quenching process. After more reheating and pounding, we move to the polishing process.


    <hr />


    Exton, 23rd Late Winter Markadia Calendar


    Finally, after five days of polishing and grinding the blade we added the guard and leather grip into the blade.


    The final sword was very beautiful. It was not as good as the one that I made in earth but it was an excellent sword nonetheless. I could see the wood like pattern in the blade similar like the one we could normally see in Damascus steel.


    When Bob test the strength of the crucible steel sword it could easily split a normal cast iron sword. It would also bent flexibly when Bob tried to thrust it into a tree.


    I could see Bob expression as if as he just saw something magical. I displayed my best smug face to him "Beautiful isn''t it?"


    "She was gorgeous! Gods! It was eight days but it was worth it!"


    "Of course, tomorrow we should go to the Trakken to auction this sword Uncle"


    "What? Auction? We spent days just to forge her!"


    ¡°We should definitely sell it, it is my goal in the first place¡± I continued, ¡°Uncle, Remember what I told you about an old man in my dream?¡±


    "Aye, I remember that"


    "He also taught me how to use father''s land and make it more productive"


    "What do ya mean by this ''more productive'' thingy?"


    "It means we could grow more food that any people in Exton even more than Old man Wilmot!"


    "What? How much more?"


    "10 times!"


    "Gods! 10 times? Why people never heard it before!?"


    "I don''t know uncle, but that''s what the old man taught me, some of them were almost magical! You could see the steel as an example! And most people probably would not believe me if I explain it to them"


    "Gods! Are you sure it was 10 times?"


    "Of course uncle, it is only my worst estimation, in reality it probably would increase the yield up to 20 times"


    It was indeed only my worst estimation. Normally in Exton, farmer with 4 acre of land would only yield 16 to 20 bushels of rye each year. And in 4 year they could only use the land for 2 year with their 2-year crop rotation system (1 year grow, 1 year fallow, repeat). So in totals the farmer with 4 acre of land would yield 32 to 40 bushels of rye every 4 year.


    Using better methods and tools, a farmer with four acre of land would yield 60 to 70 bushels of rye and 3 other crops per year. And with 4-year crop rotation system (1 year crop A, 1 year crop B, 1 year crop C, 1 year Crop D, repeat) it means that we could use the land continuously without letting them fallow for a year. So in total the farmer not only would yield 240 to 280 bushels of rye, they would also yield large amount of other crops for example Turnips, beans, and Wheat in those 4 acres in 4 year.


    If we combine the total production of four crops that grown in those four acres in four years, we could get the approximation of 18 to 20 times increase in production. In the bad case scenario like there are disease or drought, we could still at least yield 10 times better than Exton current production.


    "That old man in your dream must be one of the gods! First he bestow you the way of making magical sword and now this!"


    Magical sword? Well, its ability was certainly out of the world. Maybe we could advertise it as a magic sword in the auction house to increase the price. People in this world loved these superstitious thing.


    "Well¡­ perhaps you are right uncle, He also taught me a lot of things after all" Evil grin displayed on my face, "So don''t freak out if I have a knowledge that seems otherworldly"


    "This is amazing Karl! It must be Tatia in heaven who prayed to the gods to bestow you all those knowledge!"


    ¡°Yes it is Uncle, yes indeed¡±


    <hr />


    Next day,


    Exton, 24th Late Winter Markadia Calendar


    Sadly for me, my worst nightmare had really come to reality. I got sick last night. Thankfully it was not diarrhea but unfortunately I didn''t have any idea what kind of disease it was. I felt ache at every inch of my body. I also got a massive headache since I woke up in the morning and I felt like there is a bulging meat in my throat.


    Bob who already packed for our journey to Trakken, got worried and called the widow next door Yolanda to check on me.


    Despite her skin was covered with dirt and sweat, Yolanda herself was a very exquisite woman, probably the best looking woman I had ever seen since I arrived in this world. The weird thing was she looked like an 18 years old girl despite being a widow.


    Did she married at 9 years old?, I thought.


    However based on Karl''s memories, she looked just like five years ago so that shouldn''t be the case.


    Her appearance reminded me of Sandra Dee back in the late 50s before she got married except Yolanda was a lot thinner than her. Yolanda tied and let her light blonde hair lie on her left shoulder. Her sharp stare showed that this woman probably very intelligent. She had one daughter at the age of seven, only a year younger than Karl.


    When Yolanda arrived at our house, she told me to lie down while she observed my condition.


    After a while, Bob walked into our direction and asked her "Yolanda, how is Karl? Is he okay?"


    She nodded then I heard she said "He is okay, he just got cancer"


    ¡­


    ...


    What the fuck?


    <hr />

 Chapter 3 - Mother and Daughter

    Chapter 3 - Mother and Daughter


    Author: J. Arque


    Editor: ¨C


    Proofreader: ¨C


    <hr />


    Note From Author:


    Hi guys, here is chapter 3 for y''all...


    Yesterday, I re-read chapter 1 and chapter 2. And I realized they were shit. There are lots of grammatical and punctuation errors. I also spotted some paragraphs and sentences that don''t make any sense, even though I wrote it myself. I already fix some of them but I will try to fix another later.


    J. Arque


    <hr />


    Exton, 24th Late Winter, Markadia Calendar


    "Did you just say cancer?"


    Am I going to die soon? And how the hell she could diagnose a cancer just by looking at me! In this ancient world they don''t supposed to know ¡®the cancer'' - right?


    Probably cancer in this world means another disease, I said in my mind repeatedly as I tried to calm myself down.


    Yolanda nodded "Yes, it is a normal disease for a young boy in winter, some of them would grow tumor but they will gone once the spring started"


    What the¡­


    "Tumor!? Will gone once the spring started?"


    This start to get ridiculous, I thought.


    "Of course, you see that bulging meat on your throat? It was the Tumor" she said with a serious look on her face.


    "Are ye sure?" asked Bob to Yolanda.


    She nodded "Yes, even though I am not an educated healer, my late husband was. He once a healer in the Capital¡±


    What kind of logic is that! My late wife was also a doctor but it doesn¡¯t make me qualified as one!


    Yolanda frowned ¡°But one thing lead to another, our family exiled here and until few years ago as you know my husband died and leave me and my baby girl here alone"


    Safe your sad story for yourself little girl! I have a tumor here!


    Wait a minute¡­ It is not a fucking tumor! I am certain of it! I remember yesterday a bee stung me in the neck before I could even react.


    And now, I feel pain all over my body¡­ perhaps also because that goddam bee stung me! It is highly probable that Karl''s body has hypersensitivity to Apitoxin! Oh thank gods!


    "Well, if that''s the case¡± Bob turned his head towards me, ¡°Boy, looks like we must cancel our journey today" said Bob with sad expression.


    Cancel? No way! I can¡¯t live with rye gruel and porridge for another day. I need to eat a real food!


    However, my body seemed to disagree with my brain. I spent a lot of effort just to move my arms a little bit.


    "Sigh -- You should go with Pateyk instead Uncle, he seems like a trustworthy person"


    "Of course he is! He is my best buddy! He may be depressed about his wife and career sometimes, but he celd get the things done. But are ye sure? Ye got cancer ye know?"


    "It is okay Uncle. It is not like I am paralyzed or anything, It is only a¡­ cancer like Yolanda said"


    "Well, if that''s what ye want, then I¡¯ll depart this noon" Then he turned into Yolanda, "Yolanda, celd ye please take care of Karl when I¡¯m gone? After all He is my only relative that still alive. Ye and Natasha celd use my own bed while I¡¯m not ¡®ere¡±


    "Sure thing Bob, I will bring Natasha here then" then Yolanda left the house.


    <hr />


    "Uncle, when you auction the sword, you need to be more convincing!¡± I said excitedly, ¡°And you should tell them, the sword was given to you by Ogar the Littlehand in Arsus Mountain! And¡­ And it has a magical properties! You could demonstrate it by shatter another sword or thrust it like when you thrust it into a tree yesterday"


    It was an excellent back story for our sword by the way. After all, Mt. Arsus was known as the home of some legendary wizards and witches from the mummers¡¯ tale like Ogar the Littlehand and Elsah the Purpletounge. And some bards even said there were dragons too. However those rumors probably just hoaxes, just like in the earth.


    But I still tried to reserve my judgement on this, since I was new to this world and most of my knowledge come from Karl¡¯s previous memories. However a part of me wished the rumor is true.


    "Okay, but are ye sure? If we told ¡®em we are the one who made her, we celd be famous and rich ye know? And the guilds certainly beg us to join ¡®em"


    "Yes, but that could bring unnecessary trouble for us. Just get the money, buy the items and back to Exton immediately. And by the way, both of you should also change your appearance and use another name while in the city¡± I saw Bob slightly disturbed so I continued ¡°Uncle, I know you had lived in Trakken with your late wife for several years in the past, but please don¡¯t contact anyone you know while you are there"


    "Sigh - I understand Karl, Celd you tell me again what I need to buy?"


    I nodded "Um, after you get the money, first, you need to buy¡­¡° I continued to list all the seeds that we require for the next four year¡¯s planting season. I also told him to buy a lot more iron ore and some other metal ores in Trakken¡¯s trading port, since we need to make numerous other tools. And of course the most important thing was foodstuffs.


    I knew it would certainly cost us a fortune to buy foodstuffs directly from the merchants. But I didn¡¯t care, as long as we got real food in the in the near future.


    Bob nodded "Okay, anythin¡¯ else?"


    "Do you know how much we need for an ox or maybe a horse, Uncle?"


    "For an Ox probably around 1,500 to 2,000. However a horse is more expensive, it should be around 3,000 or 4,000. But what do ye need a horse for? If ye want a draft animal, isn¡¯t it better to buy an ox?"


    That might be true for now, since current horse harness ¨Cchariot harness-, used by people in Rohrkadia weren¡¯t efficient for pulling heavy loads like plough. These harness tend to overexert the horse since it also constraint breathing passage of the horse.


    But if we used more developed harnesses with horse collars on the horses, their performance would certainly be better than normal oxen with their yokes. Horses with collars had 50% more power than oxen and they also had greater endurance to pull a heavy loads.


    ¡°Just trust me on this Uncle, horse are better than ox for us¡­ but if we don¡¯t have enough coin -well, as long as you get all the seeds and foods, it is fine¡± I continued, ¡±Or perhaps, if we can''t afford the horse or ox, just get a normal donkey then"


    "It should be enough Karl! I believe the price should not below 200,000! Who knows how much coin those aristocrats ¡®ave, with that we celd get couple of decent horses and still ¡®ave enough strung to start yer plan"


    "Yes, hopefully it is not below 200,000"


    ¡°How about slaves, Karl? Do we need ¡®em? They¡¯re cheaper than ox, ye know¡±


    Oh yeah, how could I forget we could use slave instead of work with the field ourselves. It¡¯s quite convenient actually. It¡¯s like employees in earth but without minimum salary and health care.


    We just had to treat them the way I treated my employees in earth and promised them freedom after certain period of time then we got ourselves some loyal freedmen/employees.


    However purchasing a slave that was a convict, traitors or a prisoners of war was a big no-no.


    Yes, most of them were strong and capable of defend the existence our venture, but they also might kill you while you are asleep. I knew some of them might be a capable worker and willing to be loyal but I don¡¯t want to risk my life on it.


    The one that could be turned into an asset for us, was the one that became a slave because of a debt -debt bondage- or maybe the one who was a slave from their birth ¨Ctheir parents are from Bidha Caste-. If we could make them depend their and their family¡¯s life on us, most of them will surely become loyal even without their chains. Especially the young ones, while not working on the field, I could indoctri¡­ I mean educate them and train them to be obedient soldiers to protect our venture.


    ¡°Hmmm, as long as we still have coins left you could buy some slaves Uncle¡± I said, ¡°But only buy men that younger than twenty and they should be Bidha-debts or Bidha-borns¡±


    ¡°Got it! I will to Pateyk¡¯s now¡±


    As Bob started to walk, I called him again, ¡°Uncle Bob, wait!¡±


    Bob stopped on his step and looked at me with confused stare ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°You should also get yourself a woman while you¡¯re there Uncle, I don¡¯t want you to die because of red balls¡± I said with a huge smirk as I raised my eyebrows three times.


    Yes, you¡¯ve heard it right. Apparently red balls was a slang similar to blue balls in Rohrkadia.


    ¡°Shut up Karl, what do ye know about woman anyway¡±


    Probably more than you do Bob.


    After that, Bob left Exton with Pateyk. They both wore hideous Ebs clothes that fairly similar with a coarse decayed linen. The sword itself was covered with hay so that later if they meet a bandit group, they would just leave the two of them alone since they are look too poor and assume that it doesn''t worth the effort. Both of them would walk 2 days and only stop for sleep before the got into Trakken.


    <hr />


    Few minutes after Bob left, Yolanda and her daughter Natasha enter the house. Natasha was a little girl, seven years of age, who looked like a miniature of Yolanda, except her slightly squinty azure blue eyes that could captivate you for long time when you stare at them and paler blonde hair that shone when it was showered by the sunlight. One didn¡¯t need to be an expert in divination to see Natasha would be a stunning beauty when she grows up. But for now, she just like those tiny doll that my granddaughter used to had in earth.


    This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    "Hey Karl, Where is Bob?" asked Yolanda while she moved her head around trying to spot Bob.


    "He just left a minute ago" I said.


    Yolanda slightly frowned ¡°Oh, Okay then¡±


    She pull Natasha to her side ¡°I also bring Natasha here"


    "Kal¡­¡° Natasha waved her hand and slowly walked towards my hay bed.


    "Oh Hello Nat"


    I recalled in Karl¡¯s memories, he often play together with Natasha after her family moved to Exton. They are only a year apart after all. Karl used to call this little girl, Nat. But this girl however, called Karl as Kal. Apparently she couldn''t spell ''r'' really well when she was a little kid. Now she can, but already used to address Karl as Kal.


    "Kal, are you okay?" Natasha said as she gripped my left arm.


    Gods! She is so strong!


    I ashamed with my weak body, even a little girl like her was stronger than me.


    I was startled that this little angel was capable of displaying this much concern and affection for an old man like me. I felt my heart was touched - literally. I never thought that she would greatly concern about my well-being. I could only smile and said "I am fine Nat"


    "Oh okay then, good bye!" Then she left the house humming happily as if nothing ever happened, leaving me and Yolanda alone in the house.


    Well, at least she was worried at first


    "So Karl, do you want me to make you some gruel? I still had the left over rye grains from last summer" Yolanda said to me and showed a small bag of rye grain in her hand.


    No thanks, I am sick of rye gruel!


    "You don''t have to, Yolanda, I just need some sleep"


    "Okay, I will boil some water for now"


    While Yolanda put the bronze cauldron in the hearth to boil water, I started to feel drowsy and then fell asleep again.


    <hr />


    When I woke up, I felt every inch of my body still in pain. But at least it was better than the pain I had this morning.


    I saw the sun already set and I heard both Yolanda and Natasha melodic breathing sound from the other side of the house. I saw both of them sleeping at Bob''s hay bed. When I paid attention to them I realized even though they both really poor ¨Cin fact the poorest in Exton- but their appearance should be someone that descend from aristocratic family.


    How could a healer¡¯s widow from capital could be this stunning? I thought.


    When they moved to Exton few years ago, just after the Red Swamps raid, nobody knew who they really are and where did they come from. Yolanda and her husband only said they are from Markadia City but then exiled to Exton. Few months later, Yolanda¡¯s husband died from unknown disease. Their family didn¡¯t bring any wealth or foods from the city, so practically when the pillar of the family died, Yolanda and Natasha had to live in extreme poverty. Thankfully Chief Wilmot gave them protection and few bags of rye every year. There were also few extra foods given to them every time Yolanda treated some villager that got sick. This helped her and her daughter survive for several years.


    <hr />


    The hearth at the center of the house was also already lighted, probably by Yolanda.


    I stood up and opened the small window next to my hay bed. I could see the green moon shone brightly in the sky. How long had it been when I arrived in this planet? 10 or 11 days? Oh right, 11 days. First couple of days were hard. I never get used to perform my morning ritual in a bucket or even in the street like every other kids in this village.


    I sick of rye porridge every day. Thankfully I still had the dried berries that I had eleven days ago. I also occasionally found other wild edibles like wild cucumbers or asparagus or mushrooms in Ramswood. I still couldn''t train properly since there was not enough proteins and other nutrition to build muscle mass for my body.


    Meanwhile in flexibility training, I progressed really fast. This body was naturally flexible. At first day of my flexibility training a few days ago when Bob was busy polishing the blade, I could easily move each of my limbs and my body in a way that I could not even believe in the first day of training. And since Karl was right handed while me as Carl Sanders had used my left hand as my primary hand, now I became ambidextrous which mean I could use both of my hand pretty well.


    I could write ¨Cusing alphabet, since I didn''t know any letters used in Rohrkadia- with both of my hands. I really tempted to learn swordsmanship and archery with both of my hands but that¡¯s for another time after I finished build a proper muscles in this scrawny body.


    It probably around midnight already, since there were no activity in the village. So I decided to continue my sleep.


    <hr />


    Exton, 28th Late Winter Markadia Calendar


    Four days resting in my hay bed and that devious blanket, I felt somehow refreshed. The pains were gone and I could move normally just like before I had stung by that goddam bee.


    Hmm... Maybe I should take over that bee''s colony and make an apiary


    That would made me another good source of profits. It could also count as vengeance from me to that bee. The honey could be processed further into mead and the beeswax could be used as candles.


    That¡¯s brilliant idea! How could I not think of this before?


    This house¡¯s backyard probably could fit eight or ten hives.


    I was not worried about the availability of the bee''s food and water source if I made apiary in this house backyard. However a problem might arise from our neighbor. In this village, the distance between each house were quite large but still, if they suddenly saw a colony of honeybees lurking around this area searching for food, The people would mostly freaked out.


    I needed to talk with Bob first and maybe Pateyk since he was the only one in this village who are quite skilled like the real carpenter in a town. Bob previously said that Pateyk once live in a Etherton -a relatively small town in Eastern Paloph State- working as a helper of a certified carpenter. He was quite skilled but not good enough to enter the carpenter¡¯s guild.


    After he failed numerous times trying to be the apprentice of that carpenter, he went home to Exton and live here with his wife working as self-proclaimed carpenter. Many people who heard about Pateyk tale in Etherton pitied him and called him Pateyk the Carpenter to cheer the depressed Pateyk.


    Bob who also a man who failed to become member of a guild, felt Pateyk¡¯s fate was similar like him. They become best buddy since then.


    Another thing that concern me the most was this village skilled workers only consisted of two people -Bob and Pateyk- while others were farmers. There was not even a real doctor or healer here. The villager only depend on Yolanda, but she probably didn''t understand a thing about medical knowledge. If someone sick, she just rambling things randomly again. Like she did to me a few days ago.


    However, my late wife, Helen, was a general practitioners for most of her life and I had read a great deals of her medical books. I still could recall some of its contents. I had also been through basic medical training in the army. Even though my knowledge was miniscule and still far away from sufficient to be called a doctor or even a trainee but it was still better than nothing.


    <hr />


    After I washed my face, I went inside the house and saw Natasha already woke up. But I hadn''t seen Yolanda.


    "Good Morning Nat, Where is your mother?"


    "Oh¡­ Good Morning Kal" said Natasha after she yawned and wiped the drool in her cheeks. "She just left a minute ago, to Grandma Ellen¡¯s house, mother said she get paid to feed the babies"


    "You mean the orphans in Ellen¡¯s house?" I asked. It was after all the only baby in this entire village. There were only around thirty household in Exton and every villager know each other fairly well.


    "Yes, the twins are Grandma Ellen¡¯s granddaughters" She nodded but then I saw her expression slightly dejected.


    I didn''t know why she seemed dejected. Tried to change the topic I said, "Well, so what are you going to do today?"


    "I don''t know, just sleep or play near the river I guess" she said as she lower her head.


    "What? NO!" I walked to her and placed both of my hand at her shoulder. I looked at her with a stern face "Nat, you can''t play near that river again, okay?"


    She blinked her eyes a few times and stuttered "Wh... Why?"


    As I kept looking at her "It just¡­ Just promise me okay?"


    She was confused but after I tightened my grip on her shoulder she finally nodded "Okay¡­ But¡­ I am bored!"


    "Why didn''t you go to Ellen¡¯s house with your mother then?"


    She said "Mother forbid me to go there again¡­" then stop.


    It was weird for a mother left her only daughter alone in someone''s house. I felt she must had done something.


    "Because?" I looked at the pair of azure blue eyes that she had.


    Her doll like face turned red and she started to stutter again "It¡­ I¡­ I just¡­ hug¡­ babies one time! Okay! But mother said I almost choked them to death!"


    No wonder¡­


    She should be separated from children and babies from now on since her strength was otherworldly. I mean, come on, she should be only about 30 to 32 lbs. tops! Even I probably around 33 to 35 lbs. myself. But her grip strength alone should be around a hundred lbs. which was the average of normal male adult.


    When I saw her dejected expression in her little face, it reminded me of my granddaughter in earth, I would feel terrible if I left her alone at the house today. "Sigh¡­ Do you want to come with me?"


    Her expression changed immediately as if she just got a jackpot. She nodded "Uh huh, but where to?"


    "To search for bee hives!"


    An hour later.


    "AAAAHHHH! Help Kal! Help!" Natasha run as fast as she could as hundreds of bees buzzing right behind her.


    <hr />

 Chapter 4 Part 1 – The End of winter

    Chapter 4 Part 1 ¨C The End of Winter


    Author: J. Arque


    Editor: ¨C


    Proofreader: ¨C


    <hr />


    Norwood Periphery, 28th Late Winter, Markadia Calendar


    "AAAAHHHH! Help Kal! Help!" Natasha run as fast as she could as hundreds of bees buzzing right behind her. When the buzzing sound became louder and louder, Natasha put both of her hand to cover her ears.


    "Run to the river!" I shouted and pointed at the riverbank just a couple of yards away from her.


    Instead of following my instruction she turned away and ran towards my direction.


    "Oh shit! Don''t come here!" But she kept running as if she didn''t hear anything.


    Natasha and the bees came closer and closer each second.


    Nononono... Shit!


    I remembered I have to spend few days just to recover from a dose of Apitoxin.


    I couldn''t afford to get stung by a goddam bee again not to mention hundreds of them.


    As she came closer, I had to inject every bit of my power into both of my legs. With that, I dashed to the river that I have avoided ever since I arrived in this world.


    Have you ever chased by a dog, then suddenly you could run faster than you thought you can? If yes, then it was similar to what just had happened to me. I felt as if I just broke the world record, a hundred meters in 9.5 seconds ¨CLiterally.


    "KAL! HELP!" Natasha kept shouting at me, but I didn¡¯t bother to look back.


    As I ran towards the river I felt the time flow slower. I could feel each beat of my heart and I heard Natasha¡¯s screeching voice transformed into low pitched voice.


    Time Dilation!


    At the edge of the riverbank, I realized I just confirm the theory of relativity in this world.


    SPLASH! SPLASH!


    We both jumped into the river which was filthy and had yellowish brown color. Just as I moved my body to stay afloat, there was something solid and nasty touched my skin.


    Damn it Natasha!


    I kept cursing in my head as I swam to the other side of the river and submerged to take a breath.


    When I opened both of my eyes, I couldn''t see Natasha anywhere.


    I waited for a couple of seconds, but I still couldn¡¯t see her.


    Natasha and Karl often play together near this river but don''t tell me after all this time, she couldn''t swim?


    As my face grew paler by that thought, I dived into the filthy river again.


    I cursed at the visibility range in these yellowish brown water.


    Then, I saw Natasha struggled to swim to the surface.


    I moved as fast as I could, but when I caught her, she started to lose consciousness.


    Fuck! Did she forget to take a deep breath before jumping?! I cursed inwardly.


    I was taken aback when I tried to swim back to the surface while holding her. Apparently my original assessment that she was lighter than me was inaccurate. Her true weight should be around 80 pounds.


    She should not be this heavy as a four feet tall, right?


    She is only seven for god¡¯s sake! Is she even human?!


    But I had to stop my train thought since I had to use lots of my energy to move my arm and my legs.


    Fortunately, the water helped make Natasha lighter and I could finally bring her to the surface. With the oxygen started to fill my lungs, I moved to check the unconscious Natasha.


    I checked whether she is still breathing.


    But I couldn''t detect any air blew either from her nose or her mouth.


    I also noticed that her chest was not moving at all.


    Thankfully, I was trained for this kind of situation since I was in the Boy Scout and not to mention my training while in the army.


    I moved my finger to her carotid artery to check her pulse for about 10 seconds, but it was not there.


    Fuck! Yolanda is going to kill me


    <hr />


    I immediately performed the CPR for her, but she still not breathing.


    I repositioned her head and closed her nose, then blow air into her mouth until her chest was full of oxygen. Suddenly she opened her eyes and water started coming out of Natasha''s mouth.


    I released my fingers from her nose and she started to breathe normally.


    She also coughed for some time.


    "Are you okay Nat?" I said as I put my hand on top of her wet blond hair.


    She suddenly cried "Kal! Sob¡­ Sob¡­ I thought I am going to die" Tears started to flow from her bright blue eyes. The tears kept flowing as she struggled to weep the tears on her cheeks using the bottom of her palms.


    I let her lean into my shoulder to cry.


    I know it was part of my fault.


    I shouldn''t have told her to jump into the river, hell, I shouldn''t even bring her to search the beehive in Norwood in the first place.


    "I am sorry Nat" I said stroking her head gently but she just kept crying and mumbling something that I couldn''t hear.


    "Let''s back to my house for now" I stood up and held her hand.


    She nodded and started to walk right next to me.


    <hr />


    After we arrived at Bob''s house, we both changed our wet clothes into a dry one. It was pretty much similar to what we had earlier, except now, I also wore my shoulder cape with a liripipes hood. The hood was weird actually since the liripipes was quite long probably two feet long and I had never seen anything like this before I arrived in this world.


    "Huachoo! Hic" Natasha sneezed and hiccupped at the same time.


    When I put my hand on her forehead I felt my palm was burning.


    "You should lie down, I will boil some water and make a soup for you, okay?" I told her as I took my own blanket and cover Natasha with it.


    After she lay down on my hay bed, I started a fire in the hearth to boil the water in the bronze cauldron. Then I took out the jar that contains some wild edibles that I gathered before I got sick. In the Jar, there were some wild asparagus, wild leeks, oyster mushrooms, and wild strawberries.


    I took out the wild asparagus and some oyster mushrooms and put it into the cauldron, I also minced the wild leek to add flavor and aroma to the soup. Sadly there was no salt to improve the taste.


    The absence of salt kept reminding me of its importance in our everyday live.


    But here, salt was a luxury commodity. Only those who came from a relatively well family in a large town could have table salt in their house. Here in this village, however, even if some had heard its existence from mummer and traveler, I really sure none of them had ever taste salt -well perhaps except Bob or Pateyk who previously lived in the large town to search for apprenticeship; or Yolanda and Natasha who were not originally from here.


    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    The only salt mine in Rohrkadia was in Xneth plain and that mine was totally monopolized by Xnethar City-State royal family. This monopoly helped Xnethar to survive and stood strong as major hegemons of Rohrkadia peninsula despite majority of their land were barren and unsuitable for crop cultivations. The unfortunate part of this monopoly however, was the price would always be manipulated by the Xnethar''s royal family to suit their needs since there would always be demand for salt even if the price rise to unreasonable level.


    Because of the price manipulation from Xnethar and added to the fact that salt miner was the job with highest mortality rate in Rohrkadia, the prices of salt were just slightly lower than prices of gold in value to weight ratio. This made Xnethar royal family one of the richest family in Rohrkadia. Karl once heard Mummer said Xnethar citizens are really proud of their salt, they even carved their City-State symbol ¨CA horseman drawing three arrow- in every salt stone they mined.


    The fact that we had to spend so much fortune in order to gain salt really disturbed me. There is simply no other salt mine that could become another source of salt. Even the salt consumed in some Country in Southern Exen continent like Gova, Ybnei and Arbazh mostly imported from Xnethar.


    After all, salt was really important commodities, not only for seasoning but also for food preservation. Not to forget the importance of salt as the main ingredient for Solvay process to mass produce cheaper Sodium Carbonate or soda ash.


    Because soda ash numerous uses, mass producing them was important for my plan. For example in dyeing flax based textile (linen), flux for glassmaking, cleaning agents, pH stabilizer, and so on.


    However, I could use seawater instead of normal salt solution (brine) for the Solvay process. Salt could also be extracted from seawater by constructing saltpans in Exton Delta which is the end of Exton River that connected with South Rohr Sea.


    The Saltpans would be made of metal to fasten the evaporation, and there would be windmills to move the seawater into the saltpans using Archimedean screw. Then the salt could be transported via Exton River directly to the village.


    The only problem was the lack of material, manpower, and coins to build such facility. The saltpans would need lots of metal to make and to build such large windmills we need skilled workers which I had none. I also needed to reevaluate whether building our own Saltpans would be more economical than acquiring salt directly from Xnethar.


    Sigh¡­ I need notebooks to write all these business ideas


    After the asparagus and the oyster mushrooms were cooked, I put out the fire in the hearth and filled the wooden bowl and went to wake Natasha up.


    Previously I also had filled the waterskin with a cold water from outside and put it in Natasha''s forehead.


    When I put the bowl with a soup next to Natasha, she slowly opened her eyes as the aroma from the soup traveled into her nostrils.


    "Hey Nat, How do you feel right now?"


    "My throat¡­ hurt"


    I took a spoon of soup with some sliced asparagus and oyster mushroom and offered it to her "Well, here I made a soup, it would make you feel much better"


    She nodded and opened her mouth.


    I blow the soup a little so that it wasn''t going to burn her tongue then I shove it into her mouth.


    Her eyes widened as she chows the asparagus and the mushroom.


    "How it is?"


    "It is good!" After she swallowed the sliced vegetables, I could see drools started to flow from the edge of her little lips.


    "Suit yourself then, I also need to prepare one for myself" I gave her the wooden bowl and spoon and then took another empty bowl and filled it with the soup.


    When we finished eating, Natasha continued her sleep and I went outside the house to wait for Bob to arrive.


    It had been five days since he and Pateyk left Exton. They should arrive anytime soon.


    I waited for a couple of hours but sadly, they didn''t arrive that day.


    That night, because Natasha was getting cold, Yolanda became totally freaked out. She rambled that Natasha got some disease that I hadn''t heard before. Judging by her reaction, she thought Natasha got a deadly disease. On the other hand, I was quite sure that it was just a common cold since the symptoms were exactly the same as the one on Earth. Natasha should be fine few days later after she had enough meal and rest.


    <hr />


    Exton, 29th Late Winter, Markadia Calendar


    Because Natasha got sick, Yolanda left to Ellen¡¯s a bit later than usual. But before she left, she also made some rye porridge and asparagus soup for us to eat.


    In the morning, I also walked into the village''s northern entrance where there was no house around the area, instead, there were only open fields without crops since it was still winter.


    Once I was bored waiting for Bob and Pateyk, I came back to the house and saw Natasha already moving around energetically despite of her cold.


    It was probably an hour past noon when I got out the house again after I told Natasha some random fairy tale from the earth like Snow White, Cinderella and other kid shits. She was captivated by them. She even asked me to re-tell Snow White ten times before she finally was able to sleep.


    When I arrived at the entrance, on the horizon I could see 8 men and 2 women riding a tall black horse which resembled Destrier and right at their back followed 20 other large horses that really similar to Belgian Draft horse but slightly smaller. Each of the horses had two large sacks surmounted at their backs.


    There were also 12 young men in a large wheeled metal cage that drawn by the Belgian horses. Chains in their necks and feet could also be spotted from afar. Each person''s chain connected to other person''s chain to prevent them running away. These 12 young men were barefooted and their body filled with scars. Their eyes filled with misery and despair.


    As the two older men who rode the black Destrier in the front of the convoy slowly approached Exton, I started to recognize both of them.


    It was Bob and Pateyk!


    I could not hide my excitement.


    A Destrier should cost a fortune to purchase, it was known as the horse that used in cavalry troops. However, the one that staggered me the most was the Belgian horses. They were supposed to be modern draft breed from 20th century, but I could see with my own eyes those horses were indeed resembled Belgian Horses only slightly smaller than the one I saw on Earth.


    Back then, I also had a couple of Belgian Draft Horses. They were strong and had better endurance than most of other breeds. Even in the begining of 21st century Earth, Belgian Horses were still the most largely used as draft horse in the US.


    And how could they afford to buy that much? A mere 200,000 Strung shouldn''t possibly be enough for all that, right? And who were those people riding with them?


    As Bob saw me standing at the village''s gate, he waved at me. I also waved back. I pulled my dagged hood to cover my head and started to run towards them.


    <hr />

 Intermezzo - Political Map & Characters

    <hr />


    Hey, guys!


    In the future chapters, there will be a lot of terms that might create unnecessary confusion like 9 hegemons of Rohrkadia, Aganate, Vajo League, and so on. So in order to prevent that, I created a political map that might help you understand the thought of the Rohrkadians.


    I also include the images of the main protagonists of TCOK after the political map.


    Even though they are a bit different than what I have in mind, but it will do for now.


    Cheers!


    J.Arque A.K.A The Hermit


    P.S. There would be no chapter until Sunday!


    <hr />


    POLITICAL MAP:


    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    <hr />


    BONUS:

 Chapter 4 Part 2 – The End of winter (2)

    Chapter 4 Part 2 ¨C The End of winter (2)


    Author: J. Arque


    Editor: ¨C


    Proofreader: ¨C


    <hr />


    Exton, 29th Late Winter, Markadia Calendar


    "Uncle Bob!"


    As I got closer I could see the faces of the people Bob and Pateyk had brought from their journey. Those six men consisted of one old man about the age of 60, four men were around the age of 30 to 40, and one young man that seemed at his late teen. The other two women who followed these men looked fairly similar to each other which then I guessed they were siblings. These two women wore some kind of straw containers as if they were backpacks. I freaked out when I saw two babies'' head came out of the top of the containers, but thankfully those babies were moving. I also looked at the 12 slaves in the cage and I realized some of them were only a few years older than me. Just when I tried to examine the slaves, I heard Bob shouted, "Karl!" While he sprinted his destrier further in front of the convoy to approach me. I got too excited that I forgot my lungs weren''t trained to run continuously for a mile.


    When I stopped to take a deep breath, Bob already arrived at my side with the large destrier he rode on.


    "Pant*¡­ pant*¡­ Welcome back Uncle" I still found it too difficult to speak while I was trying to fill my lungs with oxygen.


    "Hahaha It''s good to be back" Bob grinned and I could see the strange expression that attached to his face. I had never seen him this happy before. Maybe something good happened in Trakken.


    When the oxygen flowed in my blood, I could finally straighten myself and asked the most important thing that had bothered me the most since I saw the convoy. "By the way, who are those people? I understand about the young slaves, but others? Most of those people are older than twenty! Didn''t we agree not to inform anyone you know at Trakken about our business? Or did you forget that?" I said with a voice that slightly sterner than the one Karl usually had.


    "It is a long story Karl, but don''t ye worry about that. I''m sure except me, Pateyk, and the auction house folks, nobody else know the origin of the Starwood Sword; if that''s what ye wanderin'' about"


    "Starwood Sword?"


    "Yea, our Sword. It''s a long story, though. I will tell ye about that tonight. But now come with me, I''ll introduce ye with my Brothers-in-law"


    "What? Did you get married again while you are there?"


    "No ye idiot, they are Kashia''s brothers"


    I knew I''ve heard this ''Kashia'' name before but I forgot where and when. But then I recalled one night where even though he was sleeping but Bob kept saying things like ''Kashia don''t ye die'' or ''Kashia, I''m home''. I immediately knew this Kashia was Boban''s wife who died few years ago before he got back to Exton.


    Before I got into his body, Karl had tried to inquire about Kashia but Bob always ignored Karl''s question and Karl as a normal kid, wasn''t really interested in his uncle''s personal life so he decided not to push Bob for answers.


    "Hey! Don''t call me an idiot! You never told me a thing about your wife before" I said.


    "Oh, really? I am sorry then. I promise to tell ye about Kashia later" then Bob gave his hand for me to reached, "Hop on, they are waiting for us" With a single pull from Bob I got on the destrier saddle. The saddle itself literally just a blanket. A piece of leather strapped to the horse''s back.


    Based on what Karl had seen and heard over the years, I initially guessed the technological advancements in this part of the world were relatively similar to the one that historians said as the Europe in the early middle ages. It wasn''t a surprise for me that stirrup for horse riding wasn''t even known in Rohrkadia. Yet, the one that surprised me was the saddle. This blanket-type saddle only found in the ancient Greece period. If they really had not invented a better saddle for the horse-riding yet. This should be a big opportunity. Forget Xnethar or Karvali horsemen, I could build a better cavalry troop with proper tactics, better equipment, and better supply line. But let''s not got ahead of ourselves here, maybe they already developed it but only known to the one from the higher caste. I also had never seen one of Xnethar or Karvali horsemen before, they might already have stirrups and better saddle than the rest of the states in the peninsula. If that was true, those horsemen should be as terrifying as the tale Karl''s heard from the travelers. I needed to acquire more information from a reliable source about this matter later on.


    As the horse started to sprint, I felt something really wrong with my balls. "Did you really travel for hours with this kind of saddle?" I asked.


    "Of course, it is great, isn''t it? Ye have never ridden a horse before, right?"


    Great my ass!


    This even worse than the roman saddle replica that I had back on Earth. Fortunately, my balls didn''t have to be smacked by the back of the destrier anymore after we arrived at the front of the convoy.


    I saw Pateyk''s eyes wander around restlessly when Bob and I dismounted the destrier. It was weird to see the usual calm Pateyk became like a chicken who was standing in front of a butcher''s knife. "Pateyk, why are you so restless?" I asked.


    "Ingrid, my wife¡­ Is she okay?" Pateyk asked me.


    Ingrid the infamous grumpy foreigner was Pateyk''s wife. She married with Pateyk when he lived in Etherton to pursue his carpentry career. I remembered I saw her and her 15 years old daughter yesterday while I strolled around the village with Natasha trying to find the bee hive.


    "She is fine, I saw her and Gischa yesterday chopping the firewood," I said.


    "Did she angry?"


    "No¡­ I mean I don''t know" Of course I didn''t know. How could I afford to pay too much attention to Ingrid''s state of mind when my own head filled with vengeance for that goddam honey bee?


    "Oh, gods" Pateyk''s face lost its color. I glanced toward Bob to find out why he was restless but Bob only shrugged and said that Pateyk already like this since they departed from Trakken yesterday.


    Unless¡­


    "Don''t tell me you didn''t tell your family about your trip?" I asked but I only received a nod from him as confirmation.


    Goddam¡­ no wonder he was restless. I rather stay single than to marry a scary woman like Ingrid.


    Few days ago when Pateyk got home from the forge to helped us with the sword, he was whipped and spanked by Ingrid, which was a weird thing for me and Bob to know but sadly I could not erase the images of that spanking and whipping scenes from my head -and I was sure Bob too- when I could clearly see the marks on Pateyk''s skin next day we met him at the forge. However, the strange thing was despite his complain about the pain, Pateyk smile even wider that day as if he just got the best night of his life.


    "Err¡­ I got to go Karl" Pateyk said as he moved to dismount his black destrier.


    "Eh?! Why do ye get down? It is yer horse, ye know?" Bob said.


    "What do you mean? Isn''t it Karl''s?"


    "It is yours. You helped us after all" I said.


    "And take the foodstuffs on yer horse too. I''m sure Ingrid and Gischa will be happy with that" Added Bob.


    "Eh? You are kidding right?" Pateyk couldn''t hide his disbelief.


    "No, of course not," I said.


    "But, this is too much! I only helped a little bit!" Pateyk said tried to be polite but I could see the glint of happiness from his eyes.


    "Oh, ye shut up! Ye know how much money we got on this trip. Just go and take a good spank from yer wife!"


    "Thank you, Bob! Thank you, Karl! Both of you! From now you just have to call me Pat like my late brother and father did! If you need anything just¡­"


    "Just go!" I shouted


    Pateyk nodded, kicked his destrier with the back of his leg and rushed towards his house in the southernmost area of the Exton. I could hear Pateyk''s voice from afar. "Ingrid! Gischa! Daddy''s home"


    <hr />


    "Brother Toni, Lando, Sister Rea, Chaeryn come ''ere! And bring Mikhal, Brother Shoren, and Danzael too" All the men and women who previously followed Bob and Pateyk come forward, except the Oldest one who just ride his horse at the back.


    "Brother Toni, this is my nephew, Karl, the one I told ye earlier, he is the son of my little sister, Tatia," Bob said to a man who now stood next to him. Then he turned his head toward me, "And Karl, this is Kashia''s oldest brother, Antonei, one of the best potter in Trakken"


    Antonei himself was a tall man with a long full beard despite the baldness of his head. His dark auburn beard, however, indicates that his original hair should be auburn too. His eyes displayed a sense of guilt and regret. I could also see the dirty fingernails that Antonei had which was normal for a potter.


    The man who stood next to Bob and Antonei also had dark auburn hair. So I guessed this one should be another brother of Kashia. I turned my attention back to Antonei and said, "Hi Uncle Toni, I''m Karl son of Xander, Welcome to Exton"


    Instead of receiving the normal answer that I expected, Antonei bowed his head towards me and said, "Master Karl, I''m Antonei son of Vyktor, but I''m not exactly a potter anymore¡­ And thank ye for made it possible for me and Shoren left that hell"


    "Master Karl? Left that hell? What does he mean by that?" I asked as I pierced Bob''s eyes with my stare. I really suspected Bob has said or done something that he shouldn''t have.


    Bob avoided my stare and scratched the back of his head, "Er¡­ the truth is¡­ I sort of bought him and Brother Shoren from the slave market few days ago"


    "What the¡­ You bought your brother-in-law from a slave market?" I demanded an answer from Bob.


    But he only answered with his usual ''tell ye later'', "Yes, I will tell ye about it later¡­"


    "Sigh*¡­ Fine" I gave in and turned back to Antonei, "And Uncle Toni, you are family to Uncle Bob so you are my family too. So please don''t call me master again¡­ I don''t like the way it sounds especially if it comes from my own family"


    "But¡­¡± He tried to protest.


    But before he finished his sentence I insisted, "Just call me Karl"


    "¡­"


    Bob who saw the awkwardness of the situation moved to the another auburn haired man next to Antonei, "Ehem, Let''s move on, Lando, this is my nephew, Karl", Bob touched my shoulder, "Karl, this is my best friend when I was living in Trakken, Lando, who also a little brother to Brother Toni. A stingy man but still generous enough to let me marry his little sister. And yeah¡­ He is also a jester"


    Lando was a very thin man, He even thinner than the thinnest man in Exton. I didn''t understand what sort of life, people in Trakken had. At first, I thought the pay for a Jester must have been very low. But when I looked at these Trakken people, almost all of them were in worse condition than we had here in Exton. I couldn''t even imagine the impact of the great famine to the people in Capital -Markadia City- which entirely different scale with Trakken and had a greater demand for food than any other place in this state. Yet despite his pathetic condition, Lando was a very cheerful man, I could sense it in his eyes, the limitless energy, determination, and curiosity.


    He wore this really colorful tunic that rarely seen on a lower caste people which probably his jester uniform. His top hair was covered with a blue and white colored liripiped hat.


    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road."I''m not a jester, ye prick! I am a poet!" Lando smacked Bob''s head.


    I raised my eyebrow but not because Bob''s head was smacked but because Lando voice was really peculiar. I didn''t know how to describe it but it kind of similar to the sound you would produce if you speak in front of an electric fan. It added to the fact that Lando spoke really fast, it became a sound that you would not expect from a man in his thirties. In earth, he could easily be a comedian if he knew how to tell a smart joke but if not he could always be a clown for some kid''s birthday party.


    "Am I right?" Bob laughed while pointed at Lando.


    Since he might be useful for me in the future and I needed him to respect me, I wasn''t trying to antagonize Lando. So instead I ignored Bob''s remark and said politely, "A poet, eh? Nice to see you, Uncle Lando, I''m Karl son of Xander"


    Lando¡¯s jaw was dropped as if he just saw something unbelievable. But when he recovered he reply, "Hi Karl, I''m Lando son of Vyktor and a Jest¡­ I mean a Poet"


    I nodded "I would really like to hear your poems Uncle Lando or maybe you could teach me one or two things about a good prose and poem"


    Suddenly Lando burst into tears "Ye are a very polite boy, ye know Karl!" He continued as he wiped the tears with his hat, "All the kids in Trakken would always laugh at my voice, ye are the only one except Kashia who acknowledge me as a poet¡­ hiks* hiks*"


    Bob was quite disturbed by the scene of his best friend/brother-in-law crying in front of an 8 years old. So he pulled me from Lando and deliver me at the front of a woman who looked like in her late thirties and a young man in his late teen. Bob said, "Ehem¡­ Karl, this is Brother Toni''s wife, Sister Rea and their son, Mikhal"


    "Hi Brother Mikhal, Aunt Rea, I''m Karl son of Xander, welcome to our humble village"


    "Hi Karl, I''m Reandra daughter of Tysot and this is my son, Mikhal"


    Reandra was a woman with short light brown hair and light green eyes which quite similar than the one Karl and Xander had but Reandra and her sister had a different kind of shade of brown and green. Both sisters had this tattoo on their forehead which I could recognize as Azai''s monogram. A symbol of some kind of sect of the major religion in Rohrkadia that followed a particular god instead of all of them. And in this case, it was Azai the god of the sea. I didn''t really interested in this religion business when I arrived on this planet, and I didn''t plan to bother or prevent anybody to follow what they believe as long as they didn''t prevent me gain revenue from my business. Besides, religion also could be another source of revenue and a tool for society control if one had the brain to do it.


    "Hi Karl, I''m Mikhal son of Antonei, Nice to finally meet ye, yer uncle told us a lot about ye" Mikhal, on the other hand, were the mix of Antonei and Reandra except the strong jaw line that none of his relatives that I had seen so far -Antonei, Reandra or Lando- had. Probably it was from his grandparents.


    "I hope it is not about my embarrassing moments," I said.


    Reandra giggled when she heard my words and said, "He told us one or two things"


    "Shame on you Uncle Bob"


    "Ei! I didn''t tell them about any of that! It''s only about the god in yer dream!"


    "I do not give you the permission to do that either"


    Bob shrugged and took me to the other woman who I already guessed as Reandra''s younger sister, "Well, let''s move on, ''ere is Sister Reandra''s younger sister, Chaeryn"


    Reandra and Chaeryn appearance were pretty similar. But I could see Reandra was older by 5 to 6 years than Chaeryn. If they were in the same age, it would be difficult to differentiate them.


    "Hi Aunt Chaeryn, I''m Karl son of Xander, and who are the little one on your back?" I asked about the baby''s heads that popped out of the straw containers back then.


    "Hi Karl, I''m Chaeryn daughter of Tysot and ''ere is my little twins Gigi and Aura," Chaeryn said. But I didn¡¯t know whether they were girls or boys since their name in this area could be assigned to both genders. And their baby''s faces weren''t reliable enough for me to get an information about their gender. I wanted to ask but decided not to, since I really didn''t have the patience to talk about other people''s kid and I knew how parents sometimes got too excited when they started to talk about their children.


    ''Meh, it doesn''t matter if they are boy or girl, they are only babies'', I thought.


    "Oh, they are your twins? Who is the father?" I quickly changed the subject.


    Chaeryn pulled the man with a short neck on her side, "Shoren say hi to yer master"


    "Master again?" I couldn''t help but ask.


    A thick eyebrowed man next to Shoren, who looked slightly younger than Bob replied to me, "Yes, both of them had their guild membership revoked and sold themselves to slave market before Bob bought them"


    I nodded to this man''s reply and turned my attention back to Shoren, "Hi Uncle Shoren, I''m Karl son of Xander and please don''t call me master like Uncle Toni"


    "Hi¡­ Karl, I am Shoren son of Zabal... I supposed I''m a slave now that my caste dropped to the lowest" said the short-necked Shoren with a depressed expression.


    "Are you a potter like Uncle Toni?"


    Shoren shook his head, "No, I was a mason unlike my failure of a brother here who have never enter the mason guild in the first place," he said while threw a nasty look towards the thick eyebrowed man who apparently was his own brother.


    The thick eyebrowed man ignored his brother words and smiled at me, "Hi Karl, I''m Danzael son of Zabal, and yes I am a self-proclaimed mason but also self-proclaimed sculptor only because I don''t have enough money to enter the sculptor¡¯s guild! And at least I am not a slave like my idiot brother ''ere who got swindled by a stranger"


    "Welcome to Exton, Uncle Danzael," I said calmly, but inside of my mind, I shouted ''Wow! Well done Bob!''


    Just a few days ago I wondered about the shortage of skilled worker in Exton, now, Bob brought these people. Former Potter¡¯s and Mason¡¯s guild members, a Poet -or Jester- and a Sculptor! What next? A dragon tamer?


    However, while I was busy getting excited by the prospect of these people. Antonei, Shoren, and Danzael started to argue with each other.


    "Hey screw ye Danzael, I am not at fault ''ere. Toni was the one who introduce me to that fraud"


    Antonei who heard Shoren''s loud remarks slowly walked to our direction "Hah! Ye want to fight again Shoren?"


    "Bring it on Toni!"


    Reandra hurriedly pulled her husband then smacked both Antonei''s and Shoren''s head, "Shut up both of ye! Ye embarrassed yerself in front of yer master"


    Both Antonei and Shoren immediately bowed their head "I''m sorry master"


    "Fuck it! Just call me anything but master! I am only 8 years old for heaven''s sake!"


    "Young master?"


    "It is the same thing!"


    "¡­"


    "Ei, it is fine with me if both of ye want to call me Master Bob," Bob said tried to break the silence.


    "Fuck ye Bob! We know ye can''t get all yer coins without Karl" Shoren said while Antonei agreed as if nothing had happened between them before.


    "What? Do ye mean I can''t get rich by myself?"


    "Of course, ye can''t!" all seven of them said in unison.


    "Fuck off all of ye"


    Boban turned his head back to me, "Oh yeah, I forgot to introduce ye to Ol'' man Edmene"


    "Ei! Ol'' man Ed! Come ''ere! Meet my nephew" shouted Bob to the man who previously stayed at the back of the convoy.


    I really hoped this one was a dragon tamer, but unfortunately, he wasn''t.


    "Karl, this is Ol'' man Edmene who is a horse tamer and also the one who sold us all these excellent horses. But, I don''t know why he wanted to follow us back to Exton"


    Well, horse tamer could also be useful to take care all these horses rather than let amateur handled it.


    "Hi, Uncle Edmene, I am Karl son of Xander and I really like your horses by the way"


    By looking at the way Edmene handle the horses, I could conclude that he knew what he was doing. Even the hair of the horses was cleaner than Edmene''s white long beard. It showed how much love he gave to the horses.


    "Hi Karl, I''m Edmene son of Rahus but just call me Ol'' man Ed like everybody else. And thank ye. These horses are my family''s proudest creation. My late father was the one who first started a method to create these fine horses, but I''m the one who personally breed these boys and girls"


    "Oh, your family already started controlled selective breeding! That is impressive!"


    "Controlled Selective breeding?"


    "Yes, by carefully selecting the one you breed to enhance some characteristics of the Horse. For example, those large strong horses," I pointed to the Belgian draft horse, "should come from the same type of this black great horse, right?" then patted the black destrier.


    "How can ye¡­ Did the god in yer dream also tell ye about my family secrets?"


    "Oh! Did you hear it from my Uncle too?"


    "Yes"


    "Well, I''m not really sure about your family secret but I know one or two things to breed animals like horses, cattle or sheep or even crops to make them better over the generations"


    "Now I understand why Bob said ye are special"


    "I''m glad to hear that, but you should not believe everything you''ve heard Old man Ed, especially from a shady guy like my uncle. I might be a fraud, you know?"


    Reandra smiled at me "A fraud would never admit themselves as fraud, my boy"


    "But why do you believe my uncle''s claim so much? I mean you''ve never even seen me before today"


    This time, Chaeryn was the one who answered my question, "Hehe, one thing we know about Bob when he lived near us for a couple of years, he would never tell lie to his friends and family, ye should''ve known that Karl"


    I nodded "You are right, I should''ve known that"


    "Well, that''s that, now let''s get all of ye some place to sleep in the meantime," Bob announced.


    "That should be easy, there are a lot of empty houses in the village after the raid. Some of you could live in my former house or the house of my late uncle Karling" I suggested.


    While Bob''s backyard was quite large, but for 20 people and 29 horses it would not be enough. Fortunately after the Red Swamps'' raid, half of the house in Exton either empty or destroyed by nature after several years. Xander''s house which was only several yards next to Bob''s in the northeast area were still used by Bob to store some of his tools and foods, so it was still maintained. I didn''t exactly know that house current condition since Karl himself never visit that house again after he saw his mother raped and killed inside that house.


    Xander''s older brother, Karling, however, built his house entirely with stone so it was still stood strong even after it was empty for several years. It could also be a good place for some of these people to live since it had several rooms and large backyard with abundant grass to let the horses graze on them.


    Since Karl was the only one from his line of family that still survive, automatically the house was Karl''s.


    I probably would have to begin some construction projects in this village sooner than I expected to accommodate these people. Proper stable for the horses and a dorm for the slaves would be my priority for the spring next year. Hopefully, it would be finished before the planting period.


    <hr />

 Chapter 5 - Acquiring Land

    Chapter 5 ¨C Acquiring Land


    Author: J. Arque


    Editor: ¨C


    Proofreader: ¨C


    <hr />


    Exton, 29th Late Winter, Markadia Calendar


    After we settled some of those People and Horses in Karling''s empty house, both Reandra and Chaeryn started to clean up the dust, spider webs and dead rats that could be discovered inside the house. The house itself were unfurnished since lots of Karling''s stuff was sold to some traveling peddlers by Bob a few years back. Meanwhile, Danzael, Lando, and Edmene would stay at Xander''s house with the slaves.


    Since Bob and Pateyk had bought some foodstuffs from Trakken, Bob and I had to share a bit of it with them. It wasn''t much but at least it was enough to keep them alive until the next harvest. It was necessary but still it was expenditure from my own personal coins nonetheless.


    When Bob and I rode back to our house, I inquired about how much coins we had left.


    "I don''t know, ''ere is the pouch, keep it, all the coins left in there," he said as he threw a leather pouch to me who sat at his back without even turned his own head.


    I took the leather pouch and looked at the coins left in there, there are 3 gold coins with a boat of Markay and the younger face of the current Old King of Markadia, Horath, stamped on each side, this denomination was called a Krabel which valued as 100,000 Strung. There are other 12 thumb-sized coins made of silver but instead, this one had Iene''s clover and a face that I couldn''t recognize on the other side. This one was called a Tran which valued as 500 Strung.


    "3 Krabels and 12 Trans, so 306,000 Strung" I concluded. I strapped the pouch with a string and attached it to my leather belt.


    "Did you just threw 306,000 Strung to me like it was nothing?" I couldn''t help but ask.


    "Hahaha, I know right? I am like those aristocrats"


    "Yeah, just a few days ago, you could only get around 300 Strung worth of food in a month  from Chief Wilmot"


    "Hahaha, we are rich Karl! With all those coins ye could free ol'' man Wilmot from his position and become the chief yerself. He has tried to sell his land for years but nobody wants it"


    I surely had a plan to become the chief of Exton in the future since it would be easier to expand my business here if I also became the authority of this place.


    But it didn''t sit well with me that an 8 years old suddenly replaced a 70 years old man from the chief position. I knew my mental age was more or less same as Wilmot, but other people would only see me as an 8 years old.


    "How about you, Uncle Bob? Do you want to be the chief?" I proposed since it was acceptable as long as the one I could control was the one that in power.


    "Me? Chief? Hahaha no Boy, now that we ''ave all those ores, I will be forging happily all the time! I don''t have time to be a chief"


    His reply wasn''t a surprise considering the fact that I had never seen a man with more passion in smithery than Boban in my two lifetimes. He literally could get high by sniffing the iron dust. The way he worked with the crucible steel a few days ago showed me that he was a quite decent smith and could be regarded as a pro in the modern time Earth. Sadly, it wasn''t enough for him to acquire the membership of the blacksmith''s guild.


    I guessed it was not because he wasn''t talented enough but rather he didn''t have enough resource to train his craft. While Blacksmith profession was not an expensive career compared to a sculptor or an alchemist, but it wasn''t cheap either. Especially for a man whose parents only a farmer from a small village like Exton. Karl''s late grandfather from his mother side, Bregel, even sold half of his land to paid Bob''s expense while in Trakken.


    Now that he had more ores than he could ever dream of having, he should be drowned in ecstasy. No wonder he wore that smug since I saw him arrived in Exton. It was a good thing since I was getting tired with his broody and dark mood after a few days living with him.


    "But I am too young!" I stated.


    "Hells with that! Ye should know that a lot of villages out there had a child, a woman, or even a paralyzed man as a chief, nobody would bother as long as ye have the largest land"


    "How about the royals in the capital?"


    "Hah! They wouldn''t care¡­ last time when ye wasn''t even born from Tatia, Janna''s husband, Wilson, became a chief at nine when Ol'' man Wilmot suddenly fell ill. But nobody seemed to care about it"


    I recalled in Karl''s memories, his aunt Janna''s husband, Wilson, was quite young when he was killed by Red Swamps after several years being the chief of Exton. He was even younger than Xander. So it was possible that Wilson was very young when he succeeded his father, Wilmot.


    But the problem was, Wilson himself was quite popular in the village while Karl wasn''t. Karl could be considered as a loner and only played with a foreign girl, Natasha, which wasn''t a weird thing since all the children in Exton either a lot older or a lot younger than Karl.


    It added to the fact that Karl never greeted or showed respect to the older person while he was alive was really concerning to me. I wasn''t sure whether they would accept me as a new chief. But I knew they couldn''t do anything to prevent me being a chief as long as I have the largest land in Exton. And besides, I should have known that respect was not given but had to be earned. I couldn''t expect them to suddenly accept me as a chief.


    While getting accepted was important to my plan, but the importance of being in power preceded it. With Chief position, I could easily turn this village into a proper operation base of my future company.


    Exton, especially millions of acres of the Great Extonian Forest had tons of resources that I could turn into money making machine. The location of Exton was right in the heart of the dense Great Extonian Forest also made it difficult to attack, but only if this village had equipped with proper wall and troops.


    "Okay, then why don''t we go to Old man Wilmot now to talk?" I said.


    It was still afternoon after we settled Antonei and co. and even though the village already  seemed empty but I knew most of the villager stayed at their house to prepare the night. In Exton, it was a normal custom in winter to sleep as soon as the sun had set. Since it was still bright, I was sure Chief Wilmot still awake.


    "Eh? Now? Sure" Bob turned the horse towards Chief Wilmot''s house near the river.


    <hr />


    As soon as we arrived at Wilmot''s house, we saw two young men sitting in the front of a large hearth fire at the hall of the house. These two young men were Kante and Jamey who were both orphans that raised by Wilmot when all their family wiped out by the Red Swamps. Both of them worked at Wilmot''s land with two other men -Weldan and Storn- since the 70-year-old Wilmot would certainly find it difficult to cultivate his land by himself now that he was old and all his direct relatives were gone.


    When Kante and Jamey heard us enter the house, Kante said "Oh, Bob! Karl! It is rare for you to come here"


    "Ei, Kante, Jamey, is Ol'' man ''ere?" Bob asked.


    Jamey nodded "Yea, Chief just got back from outside, sit here while I got him, he must be in his room right now"


    "Thank you, Jamey," I said.


    "Nah, just sit here with the fire and don''t let Kante take my good seat"


    "No problem!" I immediately sat at Jamey''s previous position. The heat from the large hearth was really effective to shield me from a chilling winter breeze. I should probably build a large hearth like this one in my own place later until I could have a proper heating system that more economical.


    Wanted to break the silence, Kante asked: "So Bob, I heard you left the village few days ago?"


    "Yea, I left to Trakken to do some business"


    "Oh! what kind of business?"


    I interjected, "That''s what we are going to talk to Old man Wilmot. Does Old man Wilmot still intend to sell his lands?"


    "Of course, four of us could only work 30 hekas each, the other 480 hekas, left fallow since Brother Wilson and others died"


    I still found it difficult to used the Rohrkadian measurement units. But I knew at least that a Heka was about half an acre. So 480 hekas was more or less 240 acres.


    There was no exact value to a heka because it depends on the speaker approximation. And it would be thousands of years if I had to wait for someone to standardized the whole measurement system. So it was all down to me to standardized all this mess. Whether I would introduce the same standard units that used on Earth or standardized the whole current system, was still a conundrum for me. It was not easy as you might think to introduce the Earth''s SI units here since I couldn''t measure a meter or a gram in a really precise manner when I didn''t have a calibrated scale or a ruler. I remembered lots of constants like the speed of light, a weight of a hydrogen atom, Planck constant, Avogadro constant, and so on. But it would be meaningless if I had to invent a whole measurement system from scratch. I could probably get a meter if I could measure the length of a light traveled in a vacuum for 1/299,792,458 second, but how in hells could I do that? I couldn''t even get an exact second in this place since I wasn''t sure whether a day here would be equal to 86,400 seconds. The only possible way I could think of to get a second and a meter was to measure the atomic resonance of the cesium-133.


    I didn''t know the other way to get a meter or a gram on this planet. Maybe some of my friends on earth could find a way to solve my problems but sadly I couldn''t contact any of them now.


    Just when Kante finished his words and I finished my thoughts; Chief Wilmot and Jamey appeared from the back entrance.


    Chief Wilmot looked old, I mean really old. I also lived through my seventy back on Earth but I didn''t look as old as him. Not that frail at least. Wilmot was short and his back bend to an angle that I couldn''t believe it was possible.


    "Oh! Bob! Karl! What a pleasant surprise" Chief Wilmot said with a smile.


    "Hi Ol'' man"


    "Hi Chief," I said.


    "I am sorry if I look really tired since I just got back from Wilson and your aunt Janna''s grave," said Chief Wilmot to me.


    I could easily see peace in his eyes, even though there was a bit of sadness and despair in it.


    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    This had struck me to the core.


    This old man literally had buried all his family, his hope, his future in a grave that should have been his own. However, there were no vengeance, hate, or even contempt that I could sense from his solitary gaze. I asked myself ''how could he endure all that misery?''.


    Wise was the perfect word to describe this old man. I immediately felt inferior even though I had lived with a similar duration like him but I didn''t know why couldn''t I be like him.


    At that moment, I didn''t know that question would haunt me for dozens of years in the future.


    Meanwhile, Boban started to talk "Ol'' man, we come ''ere to buy yer land"


    Wilmot''s eyes widened, but he replied with his usual calmness, "Oh really? that is wonderful Bob, how much do you want to buy?"


    "All of them if possible Chief," I said.


    "All? You mean all 600 hekas?" He couldn''t hide his disbelief.


    "Of course, only if you give us appropriate price Chief" I nodded.


    Jamey said, "Gods! I heard from the others you left the village for several days, Bob! Did you get yourself some relics or magical artifacts in your journey?"


    "Well, sort of, but not me, it is all Karl''s doing"


    "Hey, you are in it too, Uncle!" I shot a glance toward Bob then turned my attention back to Jamey, "Yes, but I can''t speak about the detail now. The important thing is now that we have some little coins on us, we want to buy more land to grow more food"


    Wilmot still couldn''t believe what he just heard but he started to back to his calmness, "But are you sure Karl? With enough coins, you could buy more fertile lands far north near the capital rather than here"


    I knew he was partly right but the closer we were to the capital the more the nobles and royals gave unnecessary attention toward us. And more attentions often meant more troubles. But what Wilmot didn''t know was that the lower soil in Exton or even the entire Great Forest were more fertile than the one in the northern Markadia. If that wasn''t the case then how could the entire area filled with deep-rooted trees such as pines, spruces, and firs?


    What people in Exton used until now to cultivate crops was the topmost and less fertile layer of the soil so it was natural for them to yield fewer bushels per acreage compared to the northern land.


    The lower more fertile soil would only need to be lifted to the surface using a steel mouldboard in a plow. I hadn''t decided on what type of plow should I make before the planting season but at least I already got the gist of it.


    I nodded at Wilmot question, "I am sure Chief, now it is up to you how much heka you want to sell"


    Wilmot thought for a while as he kept stroking his white beard, "How about 500 hekas for 100,000? I have a plan to give Kante and his brothers, 25 hekas each when I died"


    So I would pay 400 Strung per acre. It was not a bad deal actually, but now that I had more manpower with our 12 freshly bought slaves, I would need around 320 acres or 720 hekas if each slave cultivates 60 hekas.


    "If you worried about Kante and his brothers, what if I bought all of your 600 Hekas for 100,000 but I will pay Kante and his brothers to work for me from now on. I will pay them 10,000 Strung each year regardless of the harvest yield that year"


    Both Kante and Jamey jaw-dropped as soon as I said 10,000 each year. It meant that they would get more than 800 a month. Only someone from Ramphil caste in a town or a city would have an income more than 500 a month. As orphans from Tanne caste that had depended on Wilmot''s kindness for most of their life, they would never even dream of receiving that kind of money.


    "Swear to Gods you are not joking Karl!" demanded Kante.


    I put my right hand on top of my heart as I said, "I swear to Gods! Mandhala, Safera, and Azai that I am not joking"


    Wilmot smiled when he saw his adopted sons'' reaction "Well, it is fine with me if these kids agree to it"


    Jamey nodded and stood up, "Let me get Weldan and Storn"


    When Jamey left the room, Kante asked Bob, "So you are going to be the next Chief huh?"


    Bob shook his head, "Nah, I can''t but Karl will"


    Kante nodded, "Well, that should not be a problem right, Chief? I remembered Brother Wilson took the chief hood when he was nine"


    Wilmot only replied Kante with a huge smile as he stroked his long white beard.


    <hr />


    When Weldan and Storn heard about my proposal, they immediately agreed. All of these four brothers were quite strong if I used Exton''s villager as a standard. Especially Kante, the 22-year-old had large built despite the lack of nutrition on their daily food intake.


    I already had a plan for these four people to mentor the 12 young slaves while working on the field. Even if the tools and method that I would introduce to them would require a new set of skill, these four brothers'' knowledge and experience on how to cultivate the land in this area would be really useful for us.


    Bob and I finalized the land purchase with a handshake and oaths from both parties. I gave Wilmot a Krabel from the pouch and he gave us an old parchment; The proof of the land ownership. This old parchment probably made a couple of hundred years ago when Markadia first claimed the Great Forest.


    When the four brothers discuss their future employment with me, Wilmot went to his room then back to the hall with a single parchment, a quail pen, and an ink. I saw him writing something on the parchment but I couldn''t recognize the characters he used.


    "What is that chief?" I asked.


    "This one will be the proof of your land ownership so King and Royals can be informed about my retirement and you become Wilson''s successor"


    "So, you really don''t mind if I become Uncle Wilson''s successor, Chief?" I asked.


    "Of course not, you would be a great Chief, Karl," Wilmot said as if it was nothing.


    I still couldn''t believe how easy these people accept me as their new Chief, especially Wilmot whose family had become the ruler of Exton for generations. I already expected some opposition or disagreement toward my ascension to the chief hood. I even prepared some plots and underhanded tricks for those who tried to oppose me but so far these five people, no one even question my credibility. I had this restlessness in my head when everything was going too easy according to my plan.


    I couldn''t take it anymore so I asked "Why Chief? I know even though your daughter-in-law is my late aunt Janna, but you don''t know me really well. And I am not a well-liked child in the village, Why do you think I would make a great chief?"


    He smiled to me, "You might not know, but I have seen you since you are little Karl and I know something has changed inside your heart when I saw you today"


    "Change?" Bob and the four brothers also curious about that matter.


    Wilmot slowly nodded and looked straight into my eyes "I could sense it in your eyes when you tried to probe me a while ago"


    I was shaken. Nobody ever caught me probing them like this before.


    "I''ve never seen a gaze like that again since forty-five years ago," he continued, "I was really young when I traveled to Capital for the new king election. But I remembered clearly the scene in the throne room. I was fully clothed but I have never felt so naked before. The eyes that could detect person''s deepest emotion and ambition, the eyes of his highness King Darsus"


    My eyes widened when I heard Wilmot mentioned King Darsus, uncle to the current King of Markadia, Horath. Darsus'' name was legendary in the entire peninsula. He and King Tarlagh of Banthage were the heroes of Vajo-Rohrkadia War. Especially Darsus who was known to be invincible at naval battle with his battle fleets. Some people in Markadia even believed Darsus was an avatar of Markay which was the ancient deity of southern people.


    After Wilmot finished his words, no one in the room said anything. Kante and his brothers'' eyes looked straight at my direction while Bob only dropped his jaw.


    Wilmot said, "I believe you have what it takes to be a great Chief, Karl. And I know you know it too"


    I could only nod to his remarks.


    Bob and I stayed to talk with them until the sun had set. Wilmot told me that I really need to learn how to read and write in order to write a yearly report and tax letter to the capital. He also told me about the responsibilities and privileges of being a Village''s Chief in Markadia.


    Some of the responsibilities were being a state law enforcer, a provider for militias, and tax collector for the state. While some of the privileges were being able to elect a new king from 5 large factions of Royals, ability to open a new land, and I didn''t have to get permission to built new buildings inside of the village.


    The ability to open new land and build a new building without permission were the things that made Chief position really desirable in my opinion. Exton would surely expand in the future and such expansion would require me to open new lands in Ramswood, Norwood, and Blakewood. While in the village, I could build various facilities and factories for my enterprise.


    "In each village and towns, there is a tradition to have a Ring of Chief to symbolize the status of a chief" Wilmot took out a ring from a small wooden box, "This Chief''s Ring was made by my grandfather. Usually, it made of Gold but we don''t have enough coins to forge a Gold ring, so he made it using a green stone he found while he was strolling in the riverbed"


    When I looked at the ring, I recognized the green stone was called Jade stone on Earth. It was a simple jade ring with Rohrkish characters engraved on it -probably Exton- yet I felt something peculiar about this ring.


    I took the ring from Wilmot and tried it in each of my fingers but none of them fit. So I just put it in my leather pouch with the rest of the coins. I would wear the ring as a necklace when I had a string to tied it to my neck.


    "Tomorrow afternoon we will gather all the villagers here to announce your ascension and also to let them hear your oath as a new chief" Wilmot reminded me.


    I nodded and then looked at Bob, "Uncle Bob, we probably need to get home now, Yolanda and Natasha should be waiting for us"


    <hr />

 Chapter 6 - Thats what family is for

    Chapter 6 - That''s what family is for


    Author: J. Arque


    Editor: ¨C


    Proofreader: ¨C


    <hr />


    Hi, guys! Sorry for the late chapter.


    I just got a new job a few days ago and that prevent me from writing a chapter every two days. Instead, I will try to write a chapter on the weekend so I can post it every Monday or Tuesday.


    And thank you so much for the reviews


    <hr />


    Exton, 29th Late Winter, Markadia Calendar


    We left Wilmot''s house, and with the destrier, in a solitary night fused with the chilling air, we stride along the edge of Exton River. The green moon shone and gave her blurry reflection on top of the yellowness of the river.


    No sound and light aside the one from nature


    In that quite of a night, Bob and I talked about his journey to Trakken, constant worry over outlaws, the commotion in the auction house, meeting with Antonei, shopping for ores, and so on.


    "So you dressed as a mute magician while Pateyk dressed as your apprentice?" I said.


    "Ye should see his face when he saw us Karl"


    "It should be hilarious" I chuckled, "then?"


    "And then when he asked the price I raised two of my fingers" Bob paused then grinned, "But he thought I meant two million so he begged me to reduce the price to half million"


    "I wish I was there to see it"


    "Yea, but then Pateyk smacked my head when I nodded to the man, I didn''t know why he did that but he told me later I should let him handle the business from now on"


    Of course you Idiot, the price could be raised at least to one million if you had better negotiation skill


    "Yes Uncle, you should learn how to haggle"


    "Yea, yea, whatever," He said, "so it turned out the sword was auctioned that afternoon and then¡­ "


    He went on to how the auction house named the sword as Starwood Sword because of the Star engraving and wood pattern on the blade. However, the surprise part was that the sword was bought by the Twentieth Prince Glathan, grandson of King Horath. I didn''t know much about him but I knew that he only a few years older than Karl and because of his status as Horath''s most beloved grandson, he was insanely rich. Glathan tale of a pampered prince was told by the bards and mummers throughout the entire state for some couple of years now.


    Bob continued, "Next day, we went to the market"


    "With your wizard costume?"


    "Eh? No, of course not"


    "So that was when you met Uncle Toni and Old man Ed, right?"


    "Yea, I met Ol'' man Ed first, but he fainted when Pateyk said we want to buy all his horses" Bob laughed, "He said he won''t sell his horses if we don''t hire him too, I still couldn''t understand why he did that, he could live a good life in capital with that kind of coins"


    "Sometimes life isn''t about coins Uncle, maybe he loves his horse too much"


    "Maybe ye right"


    "So what happened after that?"


    "We bought the youngsters, but then, I heard someone calling my name"


    "Is it Uncle Toni?"


    "No, it was brother Shoren, he always been the one who have good eyes," Bob said, "Heavens, I still couldn¡¯t believe they spent days in that cage"


    I nodded, "Then, how much they sold for?"


    "6,000 Strung each not 1,500 like the youngsters"


    "Because they were guild members?"


    "I don''t know," Bob said, "Pateyk was the one who talked, but probably yes"


    "I understand about their wives and kids but what about their brothers? Why they followed you? They should know about those bandits, right?"


    "They know, but Lando hates Trakken"


    "Oh, do you know why?"


    "Nay, he never talks about it," Bob said, "maybe because his girl and Kashia died there"


    "What about Uncle Danzael?"


    "I don''t know, he didn''t tell us why... he just said he want to follow us ''ere"


    "Hmm"


    "Do ye mind if they live ''ere? Because ye know¡­ ye are the chief now" Bob asked.


    "No, I''ll be even happier if you brought more people here Uncle," I said, "Look at this place, she looked like a haunted village"


    "But it would be difficult Karl, nobody wants to live ''ere" Bob said, "I lived ''ere because I was born and raised ''ere, and I love this village, but most people do not have that sorta thing"


    "I agree, uncle, but people need food, and if we have lots of them, people would come here like ants to a mountain of sugar"


    "Sugar? Ye mean that sweet thing from Exen? What is it have to do with ants?"


    I was surprised that Bob recognized the word sugar since I unconsciously said the word in English pronunciation.


    Karl never heard such thing that resembled sugar and it was natural that he didn''t know the Rorhkish word for sugar was also ''Sugar''.


    The similarities between this world and Earth always baffles me


    "Have you seen it?" I asked, "The Sugar"


    "Nay, but I heard it from some sailor in Trakken, they said it taste sweeter than honey and it came from some plants they had in Gova"


    Well. It made sense considering that Gova was known for its vast territory. I could only guess Gova size was about the Persian Empire territory during Cyrus or Xerces reign. In fact, I could find some similarities between those two, like their obsession towards the sun and the moon, their chariots, even their religion were both based on their reverence towards the fire.


    With that large amount of conquered territory, Gova probably had invaded or at least had access to the tropical area of this planet which was the place where sugar cane could be cultivated. But I couldn¡¯t be sure about that.


    In the future, maybe I could explore this world and see it myself


    I felt a hand touching my shoulder, "Karl? Hey, Karl? Why are ye daydreaming?"


    "Oh sorry, what I meant is that ant¡­" But then I realized we already near the house, "Sigh* Never mind"


    When we arrived, the house already illuminated, probably from the hearth fire.


    I entered the house first while Bob busied himself with the two sacks full of foodstuffs on the Destrier''s back into the house, but I only saw both blondes -Yolanda and Natasha- already entered their dormant state in Bob''s hay bed.


    So I went outside to Bob and said, "They are sleeping"


    "Let''s not bother them then"


    I nodded.


    That night, I shared my hay bed with Bob. It was weird since I never share a bed with a man before, even in the college and the army. But the worst thing was that I had to keep up with Bob sleep-talking habit. Especially when He strangled me and whispered countless "Kashia" into my delicate earlobe.


    Shut up! I am a chief goddamit!


    I wanted to shout but afraid to wake the two beautiful things at the other side of the room.


    I will never share a bed with a man again, I pledged.


    <hr />


    Exton, 30th Late Winter, Markadia Calendar


    Despite the lack of sleep, I was the one who woke up first.


    I opened the small window and realized that it was still dark


    I guessed it was probably an hour before dawn, so I went to check out the two large sacks that Bob brought into our house.


    I found wheat grains, oat grains, broad beans, smoked Rohr fish, smoked goat meat, venison, Xnethar''s rock salt, ginger, and some wild vegetables. I was satisfied with Bob''s shopping selections since they were Protein, mineral, vitamin, calcium and carbs sources for us. However, this amount only capable of supporting us for a month. Thankfully, we still have 10 other food sacks at Xander''s house so at least we could live a relatively luxury life until the next harvest.


    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    This 2 sacks should cost 3,500... almost a year pay for Bob


    Even someone from Tarog caste (Soldier Caste -3rd Caste-) could only afford to buy this much after four months of work. This really showed me how severe the food crisis that also happened outside Exton.


    I could make my mom''s porridge specialty with all these ingredients, I thought.


    So I did, it took about three-quarter of an hour before Bob and Yolanda woke up when they smelt the ginger and venison fat evaporated from the bronze cauldron.


    "Good morning Uncle Bob, Good morning Yolanda"


    "Good morning Karl," Yolanda said as she yawned, "Eh¡­ Bob? Welcome home, how was your trip?"


    "It was great and yea, thank ye for taking care of Karl"


    "You could ask me anytime Bob"


    "Ehem¡­ I''ve cooked some porridge for us" I said.


    "Eh? Ye can cook?" Bob said and then paused, "Because the ol'' man god?"


    I nodded.


    "What old man god?" Yolanda asked,


    "Don''t worry about it" I said then I glanced toward Natasha, "Is she still sick?"


    "No," Yolanda said, "she was healthy again after her nap yesterday. Thanks to gods"


    "What happened?" Bob asked.


    "We played in the river too long and she got sick because of it"


    "Ye mean she got dizzy and chilly?" Bob asked, "I remember I got sick like that too back then when Tatia and I played there"


    "You and mother used to swim on that disgu¡­ I mean on that river?"


    "Of course, like everybody in the village," Bob said, "Ol'' man Wilmot said it make us stronger and protect us from sickness"


    No wonder lots of people here had stronger immune system, I thought, they got a lot of training


    "Anyway, let''s eat before it gets cold," I said, "and we should wake Natasha too"


    <hr />


    When Natasha woke up, I could see her big blue eyes stared at the cauldron with an intention to devour all its contents.


    "Kal, is that meat?" Natasha asked.


    "Yup, deer meat," I said as I poured the porridge into the bowl and showed it to her.


    "Waah, Deer"


    "Have you taste it?" I said, "Deer meat?"


    She shook her head. "But, I''ve seen them in Norwood, they are beautiful"


    Then she looked at her mother "Mom, Is it okay to eat deer?"


    "What do you think?" Yolanda said with a smile.


    "I don''t know"


    "Then you won''t get one" I took the bowl and gestured it towards Bob.


    I could see tears started to form at those two blue orbs of her.


    "I''m just kidding Nat, don''t cry, here," I said, "Eat as much as you want"


    "I hate you Kal," she said.


    As soon as they took the first spoon-full of the porridge, all three of them took their second bowl in almost no time until there was no porridge left in the cauldron.


    "Umm, yummy" Natasha said as she licked the wooden spoon.


    Yolanda nodded, "Thank you, Karl, this is really delicious, I forgot a food could also be tasty after all these years"


    "Karl, ye should be the one who cook from now on," Bob said


    "Sure, but you need to get a wife soon, I can''t cook for you forever" I teased.


    Bob raised his eyebrow and glance toward Yolanda. I could saw both of them stare at each other for some time before ended it with a blush on their face.


    "Nay, I am rather old and a failure, no woman would want to be with me anymore," Bob said.


    I saw Yolanda wanted to protest but she decided to keep her mouth shut.


    I only smirked at that.


    It seems like I really do know more about woman than you Bob


    "Oh, I need to go to Ellen¡¯s house now," Yolanda said then pat her daughter''s pale blond hair, "Tasha, we go home"


    Natasha frowned but nodded nonetheless.


    "Do you really have to leave? You could stay, you know? Live here with us" I said.


    After all, I could just ask Pateyk or Shoren to build us new rooms and a proper wooden bed for each of us.


    "I¡­" Yolanda looked at her daughter who smiled then looked at Bob who blushed.


    "I¡­ We can''t Karl," She said, "it would be bad if villagers saw unmarried man and woman lived in the same house for a long time"


    She was right, even if I was the chief, I still couldn''t protect her from villager''s scrutiny since people here still had a conservative idea about the sacrality of marriage.


    When I thought about Natasha, as 75-year-old, I couldn''t help but feel that she was one of my granddaughters, as much as I felt Yolanda as one of my daughters. Even if they were quite eccentric, they were, after all, good people. They were like another family members to Karl who lost almost all of his. Yet, like I said a few days ago they were the poorest family in Exton.


    After Yolanda''s husband died, she had to raise Natasha alone and survived without sufficient amount of coins. I didn''t know whether she was deliberately spreading lie or she just basically clueless about her shitty diagnosis. But I understand why she did that.


    Sigh* maybe I could find a better job for Yolanda later, I thought.


    <hr />


    Just before they left, my uncle gave me a large hide bag and pushed my back towards the mother and daughter.


    What?


    I raised my eyebrow towards him, but he kept staring at me, so I looked at the content of the bag.


    Oh...


    "Umm¡­ Yolanda," I said "as you probably already guessed, my uncle and I made quite a fortune in Trakken"


    Yolanda only stared at us with a confused expression.


    "So we decide to give you this" I gave Yolanda a large hide bag full of wheat grains, smoked fish and meats, broad beans and rock salt. "It''s not much but we really hope both of you would accept it"


    "This¡­ Bob, Karl¡­ I can''t¡­" Yolanda raised both of her hand and waved it.


    I pushed the bag into her hand "It''s okay, just take it, please"


    Bob nodded "Yea, ye also had taken care of Karl and even me all this time, but we never gave anything to you"


    "I don''t... I..."


    "Please" I said, "Just take it"


    She closed her mouth with her hand and tears started to flow from her dazzling eyes. She hugged the bag then suddenly dropped to her knees and continued to cry.


    Natasha who saw her mother cried, understand what just happened. She also had tears flowed into her cheeks but she just stood there without a sound and didn''t bother to wipe her tears.


    "Thank you¡­ Thank you"


    "It''s fine Yolanda, please stand up" Bob walked to Yolanda and put both of his hand on her shoulders.


    "But¡­"


    "Yolanda, I always thought you and Nat as my family and this is what family is for," I said.


    Yolanda nodded and stood up. She put her right palm on top of Natasha''s head. "Tasha, hurry up say thanks to Boban and Karl"


    "Sob¡­ Sob¡­ Thank you, Uncle Bob¡­ Thank you, Kal"


    <hr />

 Chapter 7 - Oath

    Chapter 7 - Oath


    Author: J. Arque


    Editor: ¨C


    Proofreader: ¨C


    <hr />


    Hi, guys!


    At first, I planned to write this chapter on Saturday. But I just couldn''t stop. :D


    So I hope you like this chapter since I had a lot of fun writing it.


    Cheers,


    <hr />


    Exton, 30th Late Winter, Markadia Calendar


    Two hours past noon; about a hundred villagers, young and old, men and women, all gathered in front of Wilmot''s house. Nobody seemed to know what''s going on and why they were told to gather there.


    Pateyk, Ingrid, and Gischa chatted with other villagers, as well as Yolanda and Natasha who stood next to an elderly woman, who I recognized as Ellen.


    There were some travelers, though, that had stayed in this village for several days. Most of them traveled far away to this village because they wanted to search for magical artifacts and relics on Arsus Mountain or Great Forest, like every other traveler who came before them.


    "Kal, come here!" Natasha said and waved as soon as she located us in which I returned the gesture back at her before I turned towards Antonei and Shoren who followed right behind me. "Uncle, stay here with your family," I said, "later, I will introduce you to the villagers", Both of them nodded to this.


    Other villagers who also caught a glimpse of Bob, called him and asked about his trip. And of course, he replied with his usual Bob-style enthusiasm. Some even asked about the people we brought there with us, but we evaded the detail and only said they are family and will live in Exton from now on.


    We kept on walking until we arrived in front of Pateyk''s family and others.


    "Hey, Pat, how''s yer night? got a nice whip¡­" Bob said but interrupted by Pateyk''s punch that landed on his stomach, "Ouch! Hey, what''s that for?"


    "Pshhh¡­ Shut up Bob"


    "What are you both talking about?" Ingrid asked.


    "Nothing honey," Pateyk said. "please ignore him"


    "Hmph"


    "Hello Grandma Ellen, where''s the twins?" I said.


    "Hello Little Karl" Ellen replied with her grandmotherly smile. "They are with Sacha back there"


    With ease, I spotted Ellen''s oldest granddaughter, Sacha, a mute girl, and only a few years older than Gischa. She stood outside the crowd carrying her infant cousins. Her unique freckles and that glowing red hair were so easy to spot.


    "Why they¡­ Oh, Nevermind" I wanted to ask why but then I looked at the fidgety Natasha who kept staring at the twins in a way that reminded me of how she lust over the deer meat this morning.


    "Do you know what''s going on?" Yolanda asked.


    "I don''t know," Ingrid said.


    "Hmph, we''ve been standing here for a long time," The fifteen-year-old Gischa said, "but Gods, that Old man still hasn''t come out¡­ Daddy, let''s go home"


    "Eh" Pateyk panicked, he looked at his wife for help.


    "Gischa, behave or else?"


    "I am sorry mom," Gischa said then she threw a dirty look to his father, "Hmph, traitor"


    As I watched Pateyk''s family dynamics unveiled, I thought, ''Damn, these Paloph chicks are scary''


    "Maybe something about the spring festival?" a widow named Yvenca said.


    "But we never had a festival since Young Wilson died" Ellen replied.


    "Perhaps he wanted to step down," Ingrid said, "He is too old to be a chief anymore"


    A farmer named Konnor who also heard our conversation said, "But that''s impossible, who''s gonna take the chief''s place? He doesn''t have any relative left"


    "Maybe his adopted sons?" Ingrid said, "like Weldan or Jamey"


    "I doubt it, I once heard He needs coins to build a sun tomb for Wilson, Janna, and Little Wilan," Yvenca said, "Chief even offered his land to some of his friends in the capital but nobody interested"


    "Yeah, I''ve heard that one too" Konnor nodded.


    "A sun tomb?! Gods," Ingrid said, "does he finally go mad?"


    Ellen said with a sad expression, "No, He just love three of them so much"


    ''So that''s why that old man insisted on 100,000'', I thought.


    Sun tomb itself was the best tomb that you could possibly order from a tomb builder. It consisted of three altars for each major god to ensure the soul of the dead directly entered the pantheon of gods. However, the price was about 100,000 Strung which was not a price that lower caste could afford.


    At that moment, Wilmot, Kante, and Storn came out of the house; Wilmot brought a piece of sealed parchment while Kante and Storn lifted a four-feet tall engraved pole right behind Wilmot.


    "Oh," Konnor said, "It''s been a while since I''ve seen that thing"


    "Ellen, what is that?" Yolanda asked. Ingrid and Gischa also seemed curious about that engraved pole.


    "That is Oak Totem," Ellen said, "been here even before this very village was built; My grandmother told me it was made by the old tribe"


    "Old tribe?" Yolanda surprised, "you mean Ancient Exton Tribe?"


    "Ohoo¡­ you know about that?" Ellen said, "It''s rare for a foreigner to know about the Old tribe, you know?"


    "Er, I mean¡­ " Yolanda hesitated, "I''ve read a tale about them once in the Capital"


    "Oh, I never thought they would write something about the old tribe," Ellen said. "Back then a man named Wilsar, first chief of our village, and a Markadian; married an old tribe girl and rally the support of the scattered tribesmen using the lost totem that he found next to that tree over there" she pointed towards a-thousand-year-old oak tree that stood just a few yards from the riverbank, "and it was used to take chief''s oath since then"


    "I thought they were wiped out and their city was destroyed by the invasion"


    "No, most of the villagers here are the descendant of the Old tribe," Ellen said, "But I''m not sure about old tribe''s city, if there''s such city as they claimed, perhaps it just vanished since no one ever see a city ruins around here"


    ''Well, that''s new'' I thought, ''Karl doesn''t know a thing about this old tribe thing''


    When Yolanda and Ellen continued their talk about the Old tribe, Kante and Storn put the totem right next to the oak tree that Ellen pointed earlier.


    Everyone stopped their conversation and waited for Chief Wilmot to talk.


    Wilmot raised his head and looked at the countless thin strands of cloud that scattered across the clear blue sky.


    Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    "It''s a very fine weather, isn''t it?" he said.


    "By the Gods, Chief," said Engler, one of the militia boys who stood at the very front of the crowd, "Why are we gathered here?"


    Many of the villagers also started to demand an explanation from him.


    "Hohoho, calm down," Wilmot said, "calm down everyone"


    "As you can see here the oak totem" Wilmot put his hand on the totem, "some of you already know what it means, and some of you don''t; for you who don''t understand, it means we will hear an oath from our new chief"


    The crowd erupted. Most of them congratulated Wilmot, but some were anxious about the new chief.


    "Finally," Ellen said, "Wilmot really deserved a good rest after all these years"


    "Yeah, it pains me to see him some time" Yvenka added.


    "Hmph, Good for him," Ingrid said.


    "I just hope our new chief is not a greedy person," Konnor said. (:D)


    As the crowd''s uproar resided, Wilmot continued, "Yesterday, a fellow villager bought all my ancestor''s land"


    "Fellow villager?" Yvenka and many other villagers couldn''t hide their disbelief.


    "Impossible," Engler said, "You can''t be serious Chief? Nobody here is that rich"


    "Hohoho¡­ I am quite serious," Wilmot replied with his calm smile, "and as you know, according to our state law, a villager who own most land has the right to become the chief of the village and its vicinity" Then, he raised up the sealed parchment that he brought with him, "This letter is about Exton''s leadership succession and I will send this to his majesty King Horath tomorrow. So," Wilmot walked to front of the crowd and said loudly, "Wilson''s successor, please come forward"


    The crowd once again were left puzzled by Wilmot, but no one tried to let out a sound since they were busy turning their head, left and right, tried to catch a glimpse of the presumed person.


    Meanwhile, Pateyk stared at Bob then whispered, "Bob you didn''t..."


    Yolanda also laid her eyes on Bob suspiciously.


    Bob shook his head and directed his gaze toward me.


    Pateyk confused by Bob''s gesture but then said, "Oh, you mean¡­ Oh"


    At that time, I saw Wilmot looked at me and then winked.


    ''Yap, that''s my cue'' I thought.


    I looked at Bob beckoned him to come with me, but he shook his head and grinned as if telling me to face my own problem myself.


    I sighed, ''Well, let''s get this over with''


    "Kal, where are you going?" Natasha whispered and grabbed my left arm.


    "Don''t worry Nat," I said, "stay here"


    "But¡­ But, don''t leave"


    Bob put his hand on her shoulder "It''s all right"


    She looked at Bob then looked at me again.


    Finally, she nodded and let go my arm.


    I pat her pale blond hair and then tried to break through the crowds.


    "Ehem..." Clearing my throat as I raised my voice slightly "Excuse me"


    However, with the silence, everybody could hear my voice with ease which made a hundred people at once shifted their attention upon me.


    "Erm¡­ Excuse me" I said again.


    The silenced crowd, and still without a sound, gradually moved both ways, creating a straight path for me to Wilmot.


    Nobody let out a sound.


    I could literally listen to the hymn of the upcoming spring breezes from the woods.


    The crowd only stood there watching me took every step towards Wilmot.


    I gulped but kept on walking.


    When I arrived in front of Wilmot, I heard him said, "Karl son of Xander, 44th Chief of Exton, put your right hand and state your oath to the Oak Totem"


    I nodded, put my right hand on the Oak Totem, and started to close my eyes as I recited loudly the oath that I personally prepared this morning.


    "Dear gods, ancestors, and the people of Exton.


    I, Karl son of Xander, 44th Chief of Exton, hereby declare, on oath, that I will bear true allegiance to Exton, and defend to the utmost of my power against all of her enemies. I will administer justice to her people no matter how rich or poor they are, no matter what their caste, religion, age, ethnic, and race; And that I will try to the utmost of my power to bring prosperity to her, her land, and her people. So please bless us Mandhala, Safera, Azai, and ancestors in the pantheon of Gods"


    When I opened my eyes, I felt something different about my body.


    ''Why is it so hot all of the sudden?'' I thought.


    I looked at Wilmot, but he just stood there, slack-jawed, blinked a couple of times as he kept staring at me.


    ''Shit, did I just messed up my oath?''


    I shifted my gaze towards the crowds who more or less gave me the same kind of expression Wilmot gave me earlier. Some even drop to their knees and shaken.


    ''I know it was rip-off version of Presidential Oath that I heard on Earth, but why they keep staring at me like that''


    It was then I saw my right hand was glowing, glowing with a bright white light.


    ''Holy shit!''


    In fact, my entire body was glowing, but I was so busy inspecting the weird light from my right hand and I totally forgot there were a hundred people witnessed a glowing 8 years old who just begged for a blessing of gods.


    *Thank me later Carl*, I heard a familiar voice in my head.


    ''He.. Helen?''


    Just as Helen''s voice faded away, the white light that previously wrapped around my body dissipated into the air.


    "Praise the Gods!" Wilmot raised his hands and pointed to the sky, "New chief is blessed! We are blessed!"


    Kante ran towards me and lifted me into the air, "Praise the Gods, Praise the Chief!"


    "Hey Kante, put me down," I said, but he ignored me as if he didn''t hear anything because, at that moment, a hundred people cheered. Some people like Bob and Pateyk were laughing and yelled fanatically ''Praise the Gods, Praise the Chief'', some people like Konnor and Engler were crying while they tried to recite the same oath that I said earlier.


    ''No, this is madness''


    Storn added to the chaos by roaring, "Chief! Chief! Chief! Chief!", Which everybody soon followed, even the travelers.


    "Chief! Chief! Chief! Chief!"


    ''Oh Helen, what mess did you just get me into?''


    <hr />