《Lawful Misdeeds Afterstory》 Disclaimer Before you begin¡­ This story is closely connected to its original novel: Lawful Misdeeds. In fact, it begins exactly where the original story ends. Now, it is not absolutely necessary to read the original story to get a grip on it because I will do what I can in order to make this story as standalone as possible. However, it is going to be beneficial to have read the original novel. Therefore, my apologies to readers who¡¯ve already read the precedent story because I will be repeating a lot of it for new readers. This is to ensure that this story can be read standalone. Any world building I¡¯ve done in the original story, it will be repeated.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. The main character of this story is Faro Fenchel, the younger brother of Kamil Fenchel who was the protagonist of the original story. His elder brother, Kamil, will be talked about in a distance only. The focus will be on Faro and his adventure with Duman, Roseline, Jane. Now, the length of this story was planned for about two volumes or 500 pages. It could get a bit longer or shorter. Basically give or take 10%. Of course, that is what I¡¯ve planned. How it will actually pan out, who knows. Character page (Updated 2024 Nov 21) This is the character page, explaining briefly about the main characters you will see in the novel. Right now, as of 2024 Nov 21, Faro, Duman and Roseline are included. Jane will be added on a later date. There could be more character added here. I will update the title whenever a change is made.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Now, these are CG characters. They are NOT AI-generated. I feel like I need to disclose that nowadays. 1. Coming of Age A boy walked out of his room with confident steps. His name was Faro. His most distinctive feature was that he was missing his left arm. He had bright blond short hair reaching down to his hairs and wore a sleeveless white shirt while donning a blue half-cloak that was leaning slightly to the left to cover the stump of his left arm. His parents congratulated him. ¡°Congratulations,¡± said Grent. He was Faro¡¯s father who had short brown hair and brown eyes. He had a tunic and pants, which was a rare choice of attire for him since he was a tea farmer. In fact, under normal circumstances, he''d be out in the field, picking tea leaves at this very moment. ¡°Congratulations,¡± echoed Vilma. She was his mother with the same bright blond hair that reached down to her waist. Her ocean blue eyes were exactly the same color as Faro¡¯s. In fact, it looked as if the boy inherited lots of features from her instead of his father. She was dressed in a simple, but still dignified, garment. His two younger brothers were a short distance away and were waving at him with glee. They, too, were dressed up for the occasion. ¡°I thank you, everyone,¡± I said while leaning slightly forward with a palm on his chest, which was the formal way of greeting in his country, the Kingdom of Filava. It was a newly established kingdom right after the Age of Darkness that tormented the whole world ended. Nothing much was left after the event with Filava being the only nation that came out unscratched. The king of Filava was credited to have ended the Age of Darkness and was given the right to found a new kingdom which he did. The world was still reeling from the wounds, but it was healing slowly. ¡°You are an adult now,¡± Grent said as he approached his son and placed his hand on his left shoulder. ¡°You¡¯ve made it.¡± Growing up wasn¡¯t as easy as it sounded. This was true especially for me, who had attempted to find a spot in society. Having turned fifteen years old a few days ago, it was time to leave his home behind and settle down elsewhere. ¡°Here, take this,¡± Vilma handed him a coin pouch. The way it was burgling downwards, it looked heavy. It had to be since there were twenty five gold coins inside with the coins being made of real gold. It was a reward for my recent deed. I was a part of a grand mission of luring a dragon out. This was the reward. The price I had to pay was my left arm, and three members of the team: Amanda, Ayaan, and Meizei. I knew all three of them very well personally. In a sense, they were like his extended family. I was incredibly saddened that they didn¡¯t make it. I tried to be positive and told myself that at least Dumand Roseline survived. If none survived the journey, I may have become broken indeed. The survivor¡¯s guilt would have been too much for me to bear. ¡°I don¡¯t need it,¡± I replied. ¡°May I entrusted it to you for the time being?¡± ¡°Are you certain?¡± ¡°I am certain, mother. May I ask you for a favor, though?¡± ¡°Go on.¡± ¡°Set aside five gold coins each for Taro and Abel. When they need it, spend it on them.¡± My parents were not poor. In fact, their coffers were brimming with money. In spite of not being a proper noble family, they were allowed to live like one because of my mother¡¯s connection to the king. She was the king¡¯s biological mother. Likewise, my father, Grent, was also the king¡¯s biological father. Yes, the king was my own older brother by two years. My father was a commoner, but my mother, Vilma, was a proper noble. He didn¡¯t have a last name, but she did. The king, Kamil Fenchel, was adopted by his uncle at the tender age of seven due to being already excelling at such an age. Legally, the king was Lord Edmund Fenchel¡¯s legalized bastard son. The biological truth didn¡¯t matter to the nobility. Only the legal papers mattered, and legally Kamil Fenchel was not their son. Thus, my parents were not recognized as royalty. Of course, my brother had ascended to the throne and had powers to rip everything off and recognize his biological parents as his. As the savior of the world, he had the absolute powers to do as he wished. However, he chose not to shake too much. Thus, Vilma Fenchel remained to be a fallen noble married to a commoner, a farmer at that. She has told me that she has no problem with it because he acted so only on the surface. The king cherished his familial ties to utmost importance. The mere fact that Grent and Vilma were allowed to be wealthier than any nobles in the nation was the indisputable proof. No one was able to offend my parents. No one was able to scoff at them. They may have not been allowed to have an official title but, in every other sense, they were allowed freedom and beyond. Yes, freedom which was something nobles were not allowed to have. She understood the king¡¯s intention acutely. In exchange for fancy titles that had no meaning to a tea farmer and his wife, he had granted them freedom to live as they saw fit. The freedom he granted was extended to me as well because I was allowed to live however I saw fit. She beamed a tranquil smile at me who just came of age. She held my hands tightly. ¡°My son,¡± she said softly. ¡°My dear son, Faro. I will say no more. Congratulations.¡± I am really going to miss my mom¡­, I thought. I really loved her. I liked her kindness and her tendency to get me on her laps while affectionately caressing my head. I am going to miss burying my face into her chest¡­ ¡°Let¡¯s have some drinks together as a man to a man one day,¡± dad said with a cheeky smile. ¡°Yes, let¡¯s,¡± I responded. I had yet to taste a single drop of ale, however. The coming of age ceremony was, to put it bluntly, a fancy way of kicking a male child out of his home, and that was exactly what happened. After congratulations and whatnot, I was soon out of his home with just a bag of clothes on my back. My belongings would be moved to a new place of my choice. In my case, my parents knew where I¡¯d be going next, which was the guild. Thus, my belongings would be sent there shortly. ¡°Well¡­,¡± I mumbled while scratching the back of my head. ¡°That¡¯s over.¡± Of course, I had no hard feelings because I knew, for a fact, that my parents loved me. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s go to the guild. My new life awaits!¡± As I followed the only cobblestone road, the city of Ceres came to my view. Dad¡¯s farm was located in a corner of the city. It was the only farm that was allowed within the city walls. ¡°Yeaaaah, it¡¯s a new world for sure,¡± I remarked. Something fundamental had changed ever since the world was saved by the elder brother, Kamil. Elementals were seen virtually everywhere day or night. I was seeing six-ish wind elementals flying about. Wind elementals looked like green translucent butterflies. I was also seeing water elementals which looked like ocean-blue translucent eels. ¡°Woah, watch out!¡± An earth elemental was in his way, and I almost tripped because of it. An earth elemental resembled a blocky doll made of rocks. Their sizes were about the same as a toddler. It glanced at him with two magically glowing eyes on its flat face that was a square-ish rock. Then it went on its way. ¡°Well, they can¡¯t speak anyway¡­¡± I felt foolish for expecting an apology indeed. Nobody knew why elementals started to appear. It was believed that they were always around, and we were unable to see them. ¡°This has got something to do with the dragons, doesn¡¯t it.¡± The Age of Darkness was dictated by two dragons. The Dragon of the North was at Mount Siwen. The Dragon of the South was at the Doom crater in Deltalago. I was a part of the team that was tasked to lure out the Dragon of the North. Both dragons were eventually defeated by the King, stopping the rot that had been eating away the world for years. His kingdom came out mostly unscathed. However, Atra was completely destroyed from what I heard. Estana was on the verge of collapse but managed to survive. ¡°It¡¯s ¡­ interesting, though.¡± Estana was a nation built on desert. However, as the land regenerated, the desert was gone somehow and fertile land emerged. This was considered a huge blessing for them obviously, and they were working day and night to re-establish lost cities. It was fair to say that everyone was busy as of late; It wasn¡¯t just Estanians. That was because, while his kingdom didn¡¯t suffer from the Age of Darkness, there were internal conflicts which devastated two major cities. Additionally, a whole new city was being built, and a new town was in a planning stage. Lots of materials were in demand, and Ceres was the current trade hub of the kingdom due to the abundance of airships. Less wealthier merchants would carry goods by carriages, and they required escorts who were supplied by the guild, which reminded me...Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°Oh, shoot, I should hurry.¡± I dashed into the city and toward the North gate. The guild was right outside of the gate. The guild building was essentially a tavern plus an inn that was dedicated to guild members only. It was a two-story L-shape building with its first floor acting as a tavern slash mission report counter. In spite of the L-shape, the design was asymmetrical with one side having an attic. The second floor was almost exclusively an inn. It had an entrance on each side. The mission counter would be in the middle. ¡°Hey, Jane-¡± I attempted a casual greeting, only to find a long line at the mission counter. The girl who he called Jane was busy taking care of her task at hand along with another receptionist. She was a brunette with cheek length straight hair. It was a bob hairstyle. We weren¡¯t in an official relationship per se. At the moment, we were close friends. Not wanting to bother them since they were already busy enough, I took stairs to meet the guildmaster, Brian. ¡°Oh, welcome back, Lord Fenchel,¡± said Brian whose hairline had rescinded to the top of his head. In his own words, though, he was ¡°not yet bald¡±, which was indeed true. ¡°Come on, sir. Let¡¯s drop the formality.¡± He chuckled back. I was granted a titular title as a part of the reward for the successful mission, meaning I was a noble in a legal sense. In reality, no one around me treated me like a noble. I mean, why should they? I was no one, and it wasn¡¯t as if I was demanding to be treated like one, either. I just couldn¡¯t care less about the nobility. My top priority was getting back to my life. ¡°Where are Duman and Roseline? In their rooms?¡± ¡°Duman is in the backyard, working on the Fat Lady. Roseline is out on a mission.¡± ¡°She¡¯s out on a mission? Is that a good idea?¡± Both of them suffered a lot from the mission. The group of six, including me, were all close friends. Amanda, Ayaan, and Meizei were lost. For me, Amanda¡¯s death was the most impactful since she was like my second mother. For Duman, Meizei was his wife. For Roseline, the mere fact that she wasn¡¯t much of a use as a healer and failed to save anyone was too much for her. Duman drank a lot initially while Roseline confined herself in her room and refused to leave for over a month. Fast forward six months, both of them were back on their feet seemingly. Duman acted normal on the surface although he had distant looks frequently, spacing out as a result. As for Roseline, she lost her smile completely. It really pained me to see them act so aloof. ¡°Nothing I or we can do,¡± Brian said while shaking his head. ¡°Just let them be. Time will heal them.¡± I was lucky to have a family while recovering. They had no one but only themselves. In my room, Duman was the person I was worried about the most because he lost the most in my opinion. ¡°Anyway, I want you to go back to work. You don¡¯t have a problem with that, do you?¡± I had a half year break. I was itching to go back to work. ¡°No, I don¡¯t.¡± ¡°Good, Jane and the others have been hellish days. You being back to work will lighten up the load a bit.¡± ¡°How come it¡¯s so busy? I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve seen the counter being that busy in the morning.¡± In the afternoon, the counter could get somewhat busy occasionally. The current business didn¡¯t seem normal. ¡°Several factors. One, Ceres is the capital now, thus more people are coming in naturally. Two, shitcrap of merchant wagons are coming in, and they need escorts. I am sure there are other factors, but those two are enough to have an impact.¡± ¡°Is it always busy?¡± ¡°Pretty much, and has been so for several months now.¡± ¡°Why haven¡¯t you hired more people?¡± ¡°Can¡¯t even if I want to.¡± ¡°Why not?¡± ¡°Do you think newbies would be able to handle the load down there? They will simply choke and break down.¡± Being a receptionist wasn¡¯t a simple task. First of all, one would need to be able to read and write. Being literate was already a pretty high bar because the majority of commoners were illiterate, meaning it wasn¡¯t easy to find anyone to become receptionists. Secondly, it required a considerable amount of time to get used to the job. A trainee would need to work alongside an experienced one for a while before taking on a busy hour. With everyone so busy, training new receptionists was easier said than done. There was a reason why it took almost two months to get used to the job, and Brian was right. I couldn¡¯t fathom any newbies learning the ropes while being pressured into doing the job. He or she was just going to get depressed and quit. ¡°Having said that,¡± Brian continued. ¡°I want you to train some new ones. I don¡¯t want you to work as a frontline receptionist anymore.¡± ¡°What? Why?¡± ¡°I will be blunt. You have only one arm.¡± I imagined myself working down there. In such a busy and chaotic period, I did see Brian¡¯s point. Having one less arm meant being slower probably. ¡°I can work during quiet periods,¡± I argued. ¡°And there hasn¡¯t been a quiet period for months,¡± Brian replied. ¡°Just train newbies for us, and go on missions if you feel like.¡± Sighing, I rubbed the bridge of my nose. The whole conversation felt like the guildmaster was pushing me away. At the same time, objectively he wasn¡¯t too wrong, either. I did have only one arm. Fortunately, I wasn¡¯t too pissed because I knew thatI was no longer the same useless boy I once was. Ever since I was healed, my physical abilities were far superior to my old self. I was fairly confident that I could make it as a regular guild member. Of course, I would need to learn swordsmanship properly this time as well as learn earth magic, both of which were going to take some time. I might as well train some newbie receptionists meanwhile. ¡°Well, fine, I will train newbies, for now,¡± I conceded. ¡°Attaboy. Thanks. Go greet, Duman, will you? He will be happy to see you.¡± ¡°Yeah, I will.¡± I had mixed feelings about seeing him actually in spite of his positive response. Those who survived the mission all had lost too much to be able to just pretend that everything was fine. Either way, I showed my respect to Brian and left his room and made my way to the attic which was where my room was. ¡°Man.., gotta clean up first,¡± I mumbled as I saw layers of thick dust present on the bed and furniture. When I opened the only windows in the attic and was about to start cleaning, a slender man entered whose age looked to be well past forty. ¡°Hey, Kid.¡± Looking back to the source of the voice, I recognized who it was instantly. ¡°Cvetko, it¡¯s been a while.¡± He looked thin and emaciated with deeply sunken cheeks. If I didn¡¯t know any better, I would have thought that the man was suffering from a terminal illness. But that was just how the man looked. He had looked like a dying man for decades apparently. ¡°Yeah, dusting up?¡± ¡°Yes, sir.¡± ¡°Get off the window. I will help.¡± He was a decent wind mage. If anyone could actually help me, that was him. Without any protest, I moved away from the window and dashed toward the door to get out of his way. Cvetko extended his arm and raised his wrist to make his palm face the window. ¡°Elementals of wind, heed my call. Grant me a breeze that is powerful enough to remove the dust in this room.¡± Several wind elementals appeared in the room, and a gust of wind blew out of nowhere, carrying the dust out of the attic in a blink of an eye. The bed sheet became a bit of a mess as a result, but it would not take much time straightening it out anyway. ¡°Thanks, mister,¡± I told him with a grin. I could tell that he had something in his mind and waited quietly for him to speak. ¡°I don¡¯t believe that my decision to back out was wrong but¡­,¡± he eventually said after taking a deep breath and then he became silent. He clearly had more to say but kept his mouth shut. ¡°If you were there, more of us might have survived,¡± I continued for him because I, too, had similar thoughts while recovering from the wounds. The man was a wind mage. He could fly. His ability was greatly missed. As if I was right, he dropped his head. ¡°You are not wrong, sir,¡± I told him flatly. Was he feeling guilty for what happened? I couldn¡¯t fucking care less. He chose not to go, the end of. ¡°You could have delayed the dragon to earn us time to escape. Amanda may have not needed to cast sacrifice. I may not have lost my arm. You are not wrong. But you opted not to go. That was that. Would-have, should-have, who the fuck cares. You cannot alter the past after all.¡± With his hands placed both on his waist, he sighed deeply. ¡°I will not hold this against you, sir. Rest assured,¡± I continued. ¡°But don¡¯t blame us for feeling a bit resentful about your actions.¡± The group needed someone to distract the dragon long enough for me to pilot his airship down so that others could escape. As a wind mage, he would have been the perfect man for the job, and he would have survived most likely as well. Because there was no one to hold the dragon down, Amanda had to cast sacrifice, and I had to ram the airship into the dragon¡¯s eye. I felt phantom pain from where my arm was supposed to be as such thoughts flew across my mind. I didn¡¯t want to be mad at him because I understood his desire to live on but couldn¡¯t shake off the lingering thoughts that he should have tagged along. Whatever¡­, it¡¯s all in the past, I thought, shaking off my thoughts. Reminding myself again that I shouldn¡¯t blame him. In doing so, I inadvertently ignored him and continued my task of cleaning the room. By the time I realized it was a bit too quiet, I snapped out and looked around. He was gone. Feeling a bit dumbfounded, I stood still. ¡°I guess we weren¡¯t the only ones feeling something,¡± I mumbled. ¡°But, sir, your suffering means nothing to us. We were the ones who had to face the monster and crawl out.¡± When I regained consciousness, I found myself in the bed of my room, staring at the ceiling. It was really a d¨¦j¨¤ vu moment for me because I went through an eerily similar experience when my knee was shattered beyond a full recovery. I really panicked internally when I realized that my left arm was missing. If it wasn¡¯t for the news that my knee healed, I may have fallen into perpetual darkness. It was only then I was able to recall what I had done. It gave me shivers whenever I thought about why I did what I did. That was a suicidal move on my part. ¡°Whatever,¡± I blurted as I jumped onto my bed, sending further dust into the air. 2. Wounds of the past ¡°Keep eyes on us and, when we need to get the fuck out, help us. Sounds simple, right?¡± That was what Duman told me when he decided to leave the airship and make his way to Mount Siwen on foot. I watched the group leave me behind. This was after he blatantly told me that I was ¡°useless¡± which I couldn¡¯t retort. I was indeed useless back then. I knew I was useless, but what choices did I have? Do I give up on life just because I was ¡°useless¡±? No, you fight in a way you can. What I could do at that time was fix up the Fat Lady and do exactly what he asked me to do. Keep my eyes on them from the sky and help them get out when they need to. I did exactly that. He gave me one job, and I wasn¡¯t going to fail no matter what the cost. I watched them from afar. I watched them fight hopelessly against the Dragon of the North. It didn¡¯t take long for me to come to a conclusion that they had no chance. The dragon was far too strong, but that was fine because it wasn¡¯t their job to defeat the dragon. All they had to do was lure it out of its lair. And lured it out, they did albeit at the cost of three lives. I waited patiently for a moment to fly the airship. I was waiting for a gap. I recall biting my nails when I saw Ayaan being sliced into two. I will be honest. I never liked the guy. He was mean. But he never did anything wrong explicitly. When I finally made the decision to ram the airship into the dragon, I didn¡¯t mean to ram into its eye. It just happened. I didn¡¯t have any control over the airship at that time due to its inconceivable speed. I passed out at the moment of the impact. I¡¯d see a flurry of snow when I woke up next with half of my body feeling completely numb. ¡°........ Did I fall asleep?¡± Half of my vision was blurry, which made me realize that there were tears in my eyes. I closed my eyes for a moment and recalled the dream I had just now. Slowly, I moved my arm to caress the thump of my left shoulder where my arm used to be. Not a single day passed without me missing my arm, but I¡¯d be a greedy pig to lament about that. I mean, if I had a choice between a crippled leg and loss of an arm, I would have chosen the latter. I hated, from the bottom of my heart, how people looked at me whenever I limped in public. Some of their eyes displayed sympathy. Some displayed rejection. Some displayed disdain even. I didn¡¯t need their fucking sympathy or whatever. Besides, my crippled knee was a direct result of me being stupid. The loss of my arm was a result of a heroic deed. Of course, I¡¯d choose the loss of my arm over my knee. ¡°I hated it.¡± Not being able to run. Not being able to do basic exercise because I couldn¡¯t bend my leg. Truthfully, the loss of my arm was more bothersome in daily life, but people didn¡¯t seem to mind it unlike limping. In that sense, I was glad that I was no longer perceived as a disabled person. I know I AM disabled but I don¡¯t need to reminded daily for fuck¡¯s sake. ¡°How long was I out for? And why¡­? Ah.., right.¡± Cvetko was the reason. ¡°He said his piece. I said mine. All fair and square.¡± At least, I thought so. The man must have been feeling guilty enough to approach me and tell me. ¡°Did he speak to Duman, though?¡± Then I chuckled. ¡°Probably not.¡± Duman was a big guy. You don¡¯t piss off a man of his stature. A proper punch from him would break a bone or two easily. Heck, if he punched me and meant it, I¡¯d probably die from internal bleeding. He was the man who lost the most probably. Yeah, I lost an arm, but he lost his wife and close friends. Roseline was the one who lost the least, but I felt silly for trying to measure who lost more. ¡°I mean, we all lost something dear.¡± I lost an arm. Yeah¡­, let¡¯s just ¡­ leave it at that. Looking through the window, the sun was still high in the sky. I must have taken an hour nap at the most. ¡°Being lazy doesn¡¯t solve anything. Time to get my butt up and work!¡± It took me a while, but I started to get some of my memories back. I experienced a complete memory loss from when I rammed the airship into the dragon¡¯s eye to waking up in my bed. Duman told me that I acted very brave but wouldn¡¯t tell me details. Roseline told me that the cause of the memory loss was probably the massive blood I lost during the period. True enough, I was able to find ¡­ bits of me from the battered airship. Pieces and fragments of bones, I found. I assumed that those were from my very own ribs. I shook my head repeatedly, not wanting to recall the scary scene. I should have died. Roseline was out of commission at that time, and she was the best water mage in the nation. I was ¡­ very likely crushed into bits when I rammed into the dragon¡­ How I survived¡­ I didn¡¯t want to think about too much for my own sanity. Some things are better left undug. ¡°Jane!¡± I shouted at her as I walked downstairs. It wasn¡¯t as busy as before. There were only a pair of short lines. ¡°Help me out, will you?!¡± She yelped. And here I was, expecting a warm welcome. Of course, you don¡¯t piss off your girl. That never ends well. I learned that from observing my parents. ¡°Get your ass over here!¡± ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am!¡± As soon as I was behind the counter where a pair of young girls, one of whom was Jane, was working, she asked for a log book immediately. ¡°Look into the log, two days before, request ¡­, what was that?¡± She asked the tall and muscular man in front of her. He looked troubled and barely got his words out. ¡°I don¡¯t¡­ remember.¡± Gritting, she cursed. ¡°Are you dumb or something?! How can you forget the request you took?! Do you at least remember what time? Was it morning, noon, afternoon?!¡± It was a funny scene where a little girl was barking at a man who was almost twice size. Anyway, I realized what was happening. The big dude over there accepted a mission and probably had a drinking night. As a result, he had completely forgotten about what he was supposed to do. The other girl was busy already, and she was looking into another log book already. Since she asked for a log book that was two days old, she was probably looking into yesterday¡¯s log book. Scratching the back of his head, he managed to speak slowly, ¡°I think ¡­ afternoon? Because ¡­ I think ¡­ I had a drink shortly after.¡± I knew what to do. Any accepted missions would have been written down, so I looked into the afternoon portion and saw fourteen accepted missions. Two of them were already marked as complete, leaving twelve. Looking at the dude, he was a warrior type. Therefore, I excluded non-combat missions, which left four. ¡°I¡¯ve got four here,¡± I spoke loudly. ¡°One goblin encampment extermination. One merchant escort -¡± The dude interjected with a loud voice, his eyes brimming with light. ¡°AH, THE MERCHANT!¡± Jane and I - our eyes met. Rubbing the bridge of her nose, she shook her head, took a deep breath, then looked at the guy who was just happy to finally realize what he was supposed to do. ¡°YOU IMBECILE!¡± She berated and rightfully so. His job was to escort a merchant wagon, and he was probably two days late. In other words, the dude abandoned his mission inadvertently. There was a penalty for abandoning tasks. You¡¯d get a strike on the back of your guild badge. After three strikes, you¡¯d get kicked out of the guild. ¡°The merchant¡¯s name is Thilo. He was supposed to meet him - two days ago - at the central market.¡± I put a heavy emphasis on ¡°two days ago¡±. In other words, the merchant was long gone. ¡°Strike out the mission,¡± she told me and I duly did so with a pen. ¡°Mister, you will receive a strike. Give me your guild badge.¡± Yep, this was what a guild receptionist¡¯s work was like. On a good day, everything would go smoothly. Adventurers would flock in and take missions. Our job was to record what they took and hand out their rewards once it was done. Occasionally, there were cases like this where a numbskull would completely forget what he was supposed to do after a drunken night. Dudes like him were fine. I mean it was a part of our job. But what we were bothered with was the line getting longer because cases like this would take a considerable amount of time and would hold up the line. Of course, there was another small issue of the merchant not getting the service, but he¡¯d get his fee refunded. He probably found another group and went on his way already in a hurry. ¡°Jane, I will take over. Your shift is done,¡± another girl was walking downstairs. Receptionists were mostly females. Well, I was the only male receptionist in Ceres guild at least. ¡°Thank God! Please, take over. I am dying. Faro, I am famished.¡± ¡°Your usual?¡± ¡°Yes, please.¡± ¡°Got it. Be right back.¡± Her ¡°usual¡± was a loaf of bread and water. I knew that she came from a farming family and she wasn¡¯t that wealthy. She was unable to afford anything fancier than a loaf of bread no matter how hungry. When she didn¡¯t have enough money, she had to satisfy herself with just a bowl of veggie soup which was nothing more than boiled vegetables in slightly salted water. Another fact I knew was that she absolutely adored roasted boars and boiled shrimps, both of which weren¡¯t cheap by ordinary folks¡¯ standards. I giggled widely as I ran out of the guild. ¡°Girl, all I have is money, literally,¡± I said to myself. In spite of leaving the 15 gold coins to my mom, I still had sizable savings, which was about 5 silver coins. The corners of my lips reached my ears. ¡°Whoa¡­?¡± Her eyes went wide when I presented her with a dish of boiled shrimps. It was a large plate as well, which cost me 8 iron coins. I could see her drool almost immediately. She wanted to devour it, I could tell. The unique small of the shrimps grabbed others¡¯ attention nearby also. ¡°All for you, Jane,¡± I said gleefully. However, she quickly wiped her drool and rejected the dish. ¡°I can¡¯t,¡± she said and whispered, ¡°Not while others are watching.¡± Ahh, right¡­ Fuck, stupid me¡­ There were eyes. She couldn¡¯t simply eat what I offered her without repercussions or jealousy from others. Faro, you¡¯ve got a lot more to learn, you silly boy¡­, I told myself. But that wasn¡¯t an issue. I simply offered the plate to the others and dragged her out and took her straight to the Seaside retreat restaurant. Without much ado, she devoured two large plates of boiled shrimps. That was 24 iron coins down the drain in a single day. It was a huge expanse. ¡°I feel ALIVE!¡± She exclaimed with a big smile on her face while caressing her belly. ¡°That brutal morning was all worth it for this meal!¡± Shrimps were from a remote town called Tantan. They were apparently ¡°sea bugs¡± according to them. I ate boiled bugs before, but they tasted nothing like boiled shrimps. Whatever the case, boiled shrimps were a luxury dish in Ceres. But they weren¡¯t extravagantly expensive. Saving up for a few days was enough to be able to afford to eat them. However, for Jane, who was getting by barely, could never afford it. Then how did she know what boiled shrimps tasted like? The guildmaster Brian treated all members of the guild with nearly 20 plates of boiled shrimps not long ago. Only a few knew, but the money was donated by Duman and Roseline. That was when she got a taste of them and fell in love. She was so satisfied that she had tears in her eyes. ¡°Thanks, Faro,¡± she told me, slightly sobbing. I failed to understand why she¡¯d cry for food, but mom explained to me before. When all you eat is veggie soup and bread, anything else is a Godsend, she told me numerous times. Money and quality of food was something I had in abundance. ¡°Anything for my girl,¡± I replied, to which she blushed while looking away. We weren¡¯t officially in a relationship, and she was two years senior. As far as I knew, only one person I knew had wives who were older, and that was the king. The king¡¯s first wife was four years senior. His second wife was, whooping, five years senior. That was simply unheard of. At the same time, if it wasn¡¯t for the king, having a girlfriend who was older than her boyfriend wouldn¡¯t have flown. Heheh, thanks, bro. I couldn¡¯t care less whether my girl was slightly older than me. I mean, what difference does that make? I was 15, and she was 17. So what? That was hardly any difference. I could see the problem if she was like ten years older, however.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. ¡°I heard that it¡¯s been busy lately. Must have been hellish, yeah?¡± ¡°It¡¯s been busy, yes. But the guildmaster shortened our shifts, so it hasn¡¯t been that bad. But, God¡­¡± She rubbed her temples. ¡°When a dumbass like him shows up, it makes my job extra hard¡­ I just can¡¯t stand idiots.¡± We chatted a bit casually until she cast a sympathetic glance at my left shoulder. ¡°How are you?¡± She eventually asked. I knew she wasn¡¯t asking how I was doing daily. She was asking about my arm specifically. ¡°Could have been worse,¡± was my answer. I could have died. I would have died if it wasn¡¯t for the king probably. To be honest, it did come across my mind that she might dump me because of my missing arm. She would have dumped me if I was just an ordinary dude. Those from the guild knew that I returned successfully from a royal mission given by the king. The best of the best and me were sent. Two made it back out of five, and I came back alive as well. I was a hero, sort of. I may have baggage but had a decent amount of incentives as well, the most important thing being money. A single gold coin was enough for me to purchase a decent house for a newly wedded couple. Being a down-to-earth type of girl, she probably did some finger math on me. Like, the dude has got only one arm, but he has money, so that evens out type of math. Mom told me to choose my woman carefully also. For example, she told me not to pick a physically weak woman. Looking back, both of my parents have been healthy as wild boars because I hardly ever saw them getting sick, especially my dad. I¡¯ve never seen him catch a cold or get ill. The guy was the epitome of being healthy. My mom was equally healthy although she did catch a cold occasionally. ¡°Have you talked to Duman and Roseline yet?¡± Then she looked as if she just realized something. ¡°Roseline is out on a mission if I am correct.¡± ¡°I haven¡¯t talked to either of them. I will soon, though.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know what they went through, but the way they¡¯ve been acting, it must have been ¡­,¡± she trailed off, not finishing her sentence. To be honest, I didn¡¯t know what they went through. I wasn¡¯t there. Yes, I did observe from a safe distance, but that didn¡¯t mean I went through their experience. She continued, ¡°Especially Duman¡­, he sometimes just ¡­ spaces off, looking into the distance. It feels like he was seeing ghosts or something, really eerie.¡± I wasn¡¯t sure how or what to talk to him to be honest. He was like 20 years older than me, meaning he was old enough to be my father. ¡°I am going to see him right now,¡± I told her. ¡°See you later, yeah?¡± She yawned delightfully. After a long morning, she was probably going to take a nap after getting back to the guild. She had her own room like I did although females had their own floor. No male was allowed on their floor. If a member of the guild married a fellow guild member, which was quite a common occurrence in my own experience, they were asked to get their own place outside of the guild building. ¡°I will see you tomorrow most likely. I am going to my parents¡¯ house. They said they wanted to talk about something.¡± ¡°Alright then. See you later.¡± I didn¡¯t think too much about her visiting her parents¡¯ house although it made me think that her parents were pushing her to marry. Women between 15 to 20 years old were in most demand, and she was 17 years old, basically in her prime. While walking my way back to the guild, I wondered whether I should propose to her. At the same time, I did also wonder whether I liked her enough to do that. ¡°Or more importantly, does she like me enough?¡± I said to myself. Jane was one of the first people I met when I joined the guild when I was about ten years old. She was training to be a receptionist from getgo, and I was being trained to become an adventurer. Therefore, we didn¡¯t really run into each other frequently. It wasn¡¯t until about a year ago that we treated each other¡¯s existence somewhat seriously. I wasn¡¯t sure how to move forward with the relationship. I mean, what do I do at this point? ¡°Wish I could ask someone¡­¡± Under normal circumstances, I would have asked Duman. I can¡¯t ask dad about something like this¡­ ¡°Well, let¡¯s see how he is doing and maybe I will ask.¡± I had visited the guild a few times during my recovery days. The Fat Lady, the airship we used to reach Mount Siwen, was completely dismantled when I saw her the last time. I was told that several structural damage was found, and it had to be rebuilt literally. Money wasn¡¯t an issue since Duman and Roseline would have been rewarded handsomely with gold coins. When I made it to the guild and went to the backyard, I found the same skeleton as before. It didn¡¯t look like it was being worked on. In front of it, there was Duman, a big-boned giant who towered over everyone. He was like four heads taller than me. It wasn¡¯t just that he was tall. He was wide as well. The dude was just freaking huge. Let¡¯s just leave it at that. He was sitting on a tree stump and was sanding some wooden pranks. Yeah, he was working on it, but the speed he was doing was really slow. No wonder he wasn¡¯t getting anything done. ¡°Hey, Duman.¡± Startling subtly, his head turned to my direction. He looked like he had heard a ghost or something, but his disturbed face soon turned into a weak smile. ¡°Hey, Faro. Back for now?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve come of age. This is my home now.¡± ¡°Fifteen already? Time sure flies, huh.¡± ¡°Working on the Fat Lady?¡± I approached him casually while looking around. The backyard of the guild was usually used for a place of breaks. It did have some training dummies for members to work with as well as a few tables for casual chitchats while drinking water and whatnot. Those were all gone at the moment, replaced with parts of the Fat Lady with the skeleton of the airship sitting in the back. Basically, the entire backyard was being used as Duman¡¯s workshop. I could see him working on various parts, but none of them looked finished. As a former carpenter, I knew what I was looking at. ¡°You¡¯ve got lots to do, yeah?¡± I was telling him in a roundabout way that he wasn¡¯t doing anything. Instead of answering me, he continued to sand a wooden plank. I could see he was spacing out from the way his eyes were. The guy was broken, I could tell. There was nothing for me to do. Even though I was a part of the team and went through my own share of hardships of recovery, my burden wasn¡¯t even remotely close to his. In my mind, the only person who could scold him was Roseline who had to go through very similar hardships, primarily survivor''s guilt. The guildmaster knew this well probably and all he could do was just let them be. At least, I had mom, dad, and brothers. They had no one. Still, I had to do something, anything. ¡°Hey, wanna go on a mission together or something? When Roseline gets back, I mean. Or we could get some more people.¡± ¡°Sure, why not. Not right now though. Maybe some days later,¡± he replied. Uh¡­, that was easy. I figured he¡¯d refuse which may have given me an opportunity to talk some sense into him. With him accepting my suggestion so easily, I was shut down. ¡°Oh, Yeah, Duman, can you teach me swordsmanship?¡± He stopped sanding the wooden prank and looked at me with a very stoic face. ¡°Swordsmanship? You do realize that you don¡¯t have both arms anymore, don¡¯t you?¡± ¡°I am aware, but my body feels different after surviving the journey.¡± ¡°Different? How?¡± From the way he looked, he didn¡¯t believe me one bit. ¡°Um¡­, lighter, faster, stronger? Well, it¡¯s just easier to show you.¡± And I ran in a circle, cartwheeling. He had educated me in swordsmanship before. If anyone could see how different I was, it was him, and he caught on swiftly. I never cartwheeled in my life until six months ago. ¡°Faro, get a pair of wooden swords.¡± I nodded, knowing what his intention was. As soon as I got them and threw one to Duman, we began spurring immediately. Exchanging several practice blows, he looked mildly surprised, and there was light back in his eyes. ¡°Interesting,¡± he said while still spurring. ¡°You are considerably faster and stronger. The only reason I can think of is ¡­ the king.¡± He told me that the king, a duke at that time, healed me after demanding water elementals. ¡°He demanded elementals to heal you. Mages always ask politely to borrow the powers of elementals. And he demanded.¡± Then he let out a chuckle. ¡°He demanded as if they were his pawns. Well, I suppose there is a reason why he is called the elemental king now.¡± Darn¡­, he is good. I was doing my best to win this practice match, but he was clearly better in skills and expertise. As far as raw strength was concerned, however, I believed that I could be on par. Yes, that was how much I have gotten stronger. But physical advantage can get you only so far if you are outmatched in other areas. We spurred a while longer. For the first time in my life, I was not getting beaten by him. Eventually, he put a stop to the spurring. ¡°That¡¯s enough. You now have the raw talents to be able to properly train. Congrats,¡± he said with a grin. He looked like his old self. ¡°Will you teach me then?¡± ¡°Nope.¡± ¡°... What?¡± ¡°Kiddo, have you forgotten? I am a crossbowman. I taught you basic swordsmanship because you sucked. Now that you don¡¯t suck, learn it from a proper swordsman.¡± Did our guild have good swordsmanship? Being good with swords and being able to teach others were two entirely different things. Duman here may not be a swordsman but him being a mechanic made him be able to explain things in a way I could understand easily. Basically, he was a good teacher. ¡°I need a magic teacher also. My earth elemental affinity is two. It was one before the king blessed me.¡± ¡°Roseline is the best magic teacher. Ask her. Anyway, magic is not my area of expertise. I will refer you to a swordsman I know. He doesn¡¯t live in Ceres, though.¡± I figured as much. If there was someone that good, I would have known about him, and he would have been invited to the meeting Brian called to lure out the dragon. ¡°What¡¯s his name?¡± ¡°I won¡¯t tell you. I want to make sure that he¡¯s alive first. If he¡¯s dead, I will find you another. Besides, with your speed and strength, your swordsmanship skill is probably above average at this point. You will get by fine.¡± I wasn¡¯t quite convinced because I wanted to learn fast and become stronger. As if he could read my face, he added. ¡°Look. Most, if not all, swordsmanship is built on a condition that you have both arms. No matter what teacher, you will probably need to master your own style.¡± Swordsmanship had three main styles. The first one was just a single blade wielding. The second was a sword and a shield. The final style was wielding a two-handed sword. A sword and a shield was the most common style because it¡¯d give the wielder both offense and defense. Those wielding just a sword without a shield meant they were agile fighters. Instead of using a shield to block incoming attacks, they¡¯d evade. The two-handed sword style was the least people used because wielding a two-handed sword was not practical in real world fights. Additionally, it required exceptional raw strength. The major downside of this style was the slow swing unless its wielder¡¯s strength was overwhelming. Duman could probably pull off being a two-handed swordsman. As for me, it was obvious that an agile fighter was the only path available to me. ¡°In that case, wouldn¡¯t you be able to work with me?¡± ¡°Mayhaps. But I¡¯ve got my hands full. A good mentor will work with you to finalize your own style. He won¡¯t be able to teach you his own style due to the fact that you have only one arm.¡± The free arm for those who wielded only a sword wasn¡¯t there to look pretty. It was there for balance as well as sneak attacks. In some rare cases, they wielded a dagger in their left hand as well. I wouldn¡¯t have any of those choices. Duman was probably right that I was better off inventing my own style rather than being taught by others. ¡°Now, leave me be. I¡¯ve got things to do,¡± he said, turning his attention away from me and sitting down to sand the pranks. It looked like he was encasing himself in his bubble once more. And, surely enough, he had a distant look in his eyes. When I turned around and went back into the guild, there were four young girls who were grouped together. They looked ten-ish. I knew what they were doing since Brian was with them. They were receptionist trainees. ¡°Faro, these four are to be trained as receptionists,¡± he told me. The girls looked right at me with googly eyes. I had to grin because their eyes brought me old memories. Everything was so new when I entered the guild for the first time. They were feeling the same most likely. ¡°Got it, boss,¡± I told him. ¡°Say no more.¡± While being literate was rare, it wasn¡¯t that uncommon anymore because Marat from the public library taught young children how to read and write if they wanted for free of charge. Brian once told me that usually fallen noble daughters would end up being receptionists. That wasn¡¯t the case in Ceres anymore at least. All receptionists I knew were from farming families, Jane included. ¡°You all know how to read and write, yeah?¡± They nodded in unison. They were so cute. I led them to the behind the counters where only one reception was working at the moment. She paid no mind to our presence. I brought out an empty notebook and sat down on the floor. Their eyes were tracking my movements. Opening the book revealed blank pages. ¡°This is a blank notebook. You write down accepted mission details here. You must categorize them into morning, noon, and afternoon.¡± ¡°Where is your other arm?¡± One of the girls asked innocently. They had probably never seen someone with one arm before. ¡°A monster ate it,¡± I said jokingly, to which the girls shrieked in fear and cuddled together. ¡°Quiet!¡± The receptionist turned back briefly to warn us and went back to talking to someone in front of the counter. ¡°Really? A monster ate it? Really, really?¡± The girl asked me with a half-crying voice. She sounded really scared. They might end up having a nightmare about this. ¡°Yeah, sort of.¡± I didn¡¯t feel that it was a lie. Well, it was a lie but it wasn¡¯t entirely wrong, either. ¡°Did it hurt?¡± Another girl asked with tears in her eyes. ¡°I am not sure¡­¡± This time, I spoke truthfully. I barely remembered any of it anyway. Perhaps, it¡¯s good that I don¡¯t remember. ¡°Come on, girls. Focus on the task at hand.¡± Being a guild receptionist wasn¡¯t a hard job on paper. Indeed, it was a simple job of talking and taking notes when needed. However, it was a job that required experience to be able to perform at an acceptable level. I knew, for a fact, that not all four of them would make it to the end. One or two will make it. That was how it worked when I was under training as well. There were seven of us, and only three made it to the end. Essentially, this ¡°training¡± was an aptitude test. It was my job to pick who¡¯d be able to endure the hardships that came with this job. ¡°Let me show ya.¡± I stood up and approached the empty counter. It was left unmanned on purpose. I raised my voice. ¡°Next person, please!¡± A dude dashed toward me, sidelining a female adventurer who was about to face me. The woman glared at the guy but didn¡¯t raise a fuss and stood behind him. ¡°My group is taking that mission over there, a merchant escort request.¡± I reached down below the counter where a piece of paper had all current missions written down. This was done very early in the morning. The mission board was updated twice a day, and a paper listing all current missions would be placed under the counter. ¡°A merchant escort? Details please.¡± I had to ask him to specify since there were more than a few.¡± ¡°I took the paper here.¡± I reached out for today¡¯s log book and wrote down details of the mission. ¡°Your guild badge please.¡± The guy handed over an iron badge. There were five different badges, and it went like this: Wood ?? Copper ?? Iron ?? Silver ?? Gold. I had a copper badge. So, he was probably stronger than me. Well, against the old me, of course. I inspected the back of the badge just in case the guy had three strikes. It was all good. There were counterfeit guild badges around, but they were rare and were easily identified as long as enough attention was paid. ¡°All good, sir. Please meet up with the merchant at the central market early tomorrow morning.¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah,¡± he replied apathetically as he turned around to leave. The woman behind him glared at him leaving as she moved forward. Glancing backwards, I saw the four girls watching me attentively. 3. Surprises It was a usual day for me. I was training the three girls to become guild receptionists. Yes, three. One had dropped out due to her family circumstances. Apparently, her father didn¡¯t want her working here due to the presence of ¡°too many men¡±. There was nothing we could do, so she dropped out. Out of three, I could tell that only one was going to make it at this point although it was still a bit too early to make the final call. Besides, it wasn¡¯t entirely up to me. I, as an instructor, had a say, but Brian was the one who would make the final calls. He was the boss after all. Even if the other two couldn¡¯t make it as receptionists, there were other roles they could fulfill. I was observing the trainees talking to guild members at the counter until I recognized a very familiar face. ¡°Umm¡­, Roseline? Is that you?¡± What a fool, I was. At one point, I tried to measure who lost the most among us three. What a dumbfuck, I was. ¡°Faro, it¡¯s been a while,¡± she said with a stoic face. Her hair ¡­ was white. She used to have pitch black hair but it all turned white¡­ Just ¡­ what kind of stress had she gone through to turn all of her hair into white? ¡°R, Roseline, just what¡­¡± I wasn¡¯t able to finish what I wanted to say because she turned around and left after reporting her mission. She wasn¡¯t interested in talking. Now, this wasn¡¯t the first time I¡¯ve met her since coming back from the dragon hunt, but she wasn¡¯t like this. It wasn¡¯t that bad. I was afraid of asking others. It just didn¡¯t feel right. Something was terribly amiss, and I needed more information before confronting her. Alas, there weren¡¯t many people I could ask. In fact, Brian and Duman were the only ones. ¡°What happened to her?¡± I asked the guildmaster who took quite a moment to answer after falling into thoughts. He looked troubled. ¡°She used to be somewhat fine until she began writing a chronicle. Her book is titled ¡®the lost heroes¡¯.¡± ¡°A chronicle?¡± I had no idea what it meant actually. ¡°A story of some sort. It¡¯s about the three who perished,¡± he replied as if he read my mind. He probably read my face. ¡°Ever since she started that book of hers, it has become worse for her.¡± I could certainly see why. If the book was about the three, Amanda, Ayaan, and Meizei, she would need to recall her past memories with them. It would have been like reopening wounds. A bigger question was ¡­ ¡°Why? Why would she begin writing such a book?¡± He crossed his fingers on his desk with a long sigh. ¡°It was apparently Amanda¡¯s last wish before ¡­ she cast the spell, sacrifice.¡± My heart sank the moment I heard that. He went on to tell me that Amanda wanted to be remembered as a woman with ¡°the perfect skin¡±. Tears began forming in my eyes inadvertently. She was very kind and warm to me. She was like my second mother who always looked after me at the guild. Her unusual habit was ¡­ resting breasts on the top of my head while hugging me from behind. That was possible because her boobs were at least twice larger than my mom¡¯s. To be honest, I missed her the most. She was the closest to me out of the five. ¡°Damn it¡­¡± I wiped off my tears with my sleeve. ¡°You know¡­,¡± He hesitated before continuing with his eyes downcast. ¡°I sometimes think that I shouldn¡¯t have sent the group. Often I cannot help but feel that this was ultimately my fault.¡± I didn¡¯t deny. Even if he didn¡¯t send us, I do think that the king would have ended up defeating the dragon at one point. It might have taken a bit longer, but he would have done it. In brutal honesty, I did think that Brian sent us to our doom. However, I wasn¡¯t naive enough not to have understood the reason we went. It was to save the world, and it was never, ever, going to be easy. The five of them and me, we all knew what we were walking into. What we weren¡¯t aware of was the price of survival. Death may have been better ¡­ or cleaner. ¡°Perhaps you should talk to her,¡± Brian told me. ¡°I cannot ask Duman, for he is dealing with his own issues. I am sure that you¡¯ve had your own issues as well. Given the fact that tears welled up in your eyes¡­, I am sure that you are carrying the burden. But I fear that Roseline might take her own life if left alone after she is done writing the chronicle of hers. That white hair of hers¡­, I feel it¡¯s a sign that she has given up on life.¡± She cannot die. She just can¡¯t. If she departs this world, Duman would probably follow. Both had little attachments to this world apparently. But what could I possibly do? What am I supposed to do¡­? How could I give her a meaning to live on? What ¡­ I left the guildmaster¡¯s room, feeling numb. Really, what am I supposed to do? I am just a fifteen year-old boy who just came of age. I am not smart, not wise, not even that strong probably. What could I possibly do here? I walked to a corner of the hall and leaned my back against it, looking up with my eyes closed. Taking a deep breath, I fell into thoughts. A reason to live¡­ It was something I was somewhat familiar with¡­ I was ¡°useless¡± after all. Everyone needs to have at least a reason to live on. Without it, life has no meaning. I didn¡¯t realize until very recently but I was desperately looking for a reason to live. Trying to find my place in society was exactly the same as looking for a reason to live. ¡°Having nothing in your life¡­, I know that feeling a little too well¡­,¡± I chuckled while covering my eyes with my hand. It was self-pity. No talent, no real prospect for a career, being called ¡°useless¡± ¡­ I had nothing in my life until I woke up. Perhaps, I didn¡¯t come back alive from the mission. This body was not what I used to have. It was stronger and faster. It was exactly why I¡¯ve been able to shake off the loss of my left arm easily because I¡¯ve been given something I dearly wanted in return. ¡°But for them? What have they gotten?¡± I was sure that they received the gold coins. But, like me, they probably couldn¡¯t care less about the money right now. I am sure that they wanted the money in the beginning, but they¡¯ve lost things that were worth more than money. ¡°What do they need? What do they want?¡± This was something only Duman and Roseline could answer because each of them would have different answers. But it wasn¡¯t hard to imagine what Duman wanted. For him, he would have wanted his wife back. The two talked about starting a family and settling down a lot before departing. I wasn¡¯t entirely sure about what Roseline wanted, however. We weren¡¯t that close, and I perceived her as a rational and silent woman. To make it worse, we rarely talked. I really didn¡¯t know much about her. In reality, I was close to Amanda and Duman only. ¡°Faro, do you have a moment?¡± Jane approached and told me in an almost whispering tone, which dragged me out of my swirling thoughts. ¡°Sure, what¡¯s up?¡± I acted as normally as I could. ¡°Let¡¯s go somewhere quiet. It¡¯s sort of ¡­ sensitive.¡± We went out of the guild and went a short distance away from the building. She took a deep breath and told me with a troubled face. ¡°Father wants me to get married. But I don¡¯t want to, not yet at least. At the same time, I cannot disobey father for too long. The only way out of it is if I tell him that I have someone.¡± I was confused for a moment. Why would she ask such a question? Then my heart sank because I realized that she wasn¡¯t seeing me as a serious boyfriend. Gulping silently, I asked her. ¡°So? Why are you telling me this?¡± Was it because I was two years younger? Was it because of my arm? But she knew the mission I partook in. I am a hero¡­ or am I? ¡°Do me a favor please. Lie about your age and tell my dad that you are my boyfriend. That will delay his decision to marry me off. I will find someon-¡± FUCK! Grabbing her right shoulder, I pushed her into a wall, and she winced in response. ¡°I AM A MAN!¡± I shouted at her. ¡°I¡¯VE COME OF AGE!¡± ¡°What?¡± She sounded very confused but she seemed to have realized what I meant quickly enough. ¡°I do know that, Faro, but you are ¡­¡± ¡°I am two years younger than you, so what?! I am still a man!¡± She didn¡¯t seem to know how to respond to my statement. I mean, I get it. No woman married a man who was younger than her. But the king married two older women ¡­ Then I realized. Of course, he did. I mean the king ¡­, my brother, was an exceptional person, wasn¡¯t he? Mom told me that much. She told me about how exceptional he was with proud eyes. He was so exceptional that women older than him were willing to bow down. That was apparently how good he was. Would she tell my brothers about how exceptional I was? OF COURSE, NOT! I WAS A FAILURE! Tears welled up in my eyes, and I fell onto her. ¡°God damn it¡­,¡± I said to no one. ¡°No one takes me seriously¡­¡± My head eventually slid down to her breasts which felt rather ¡­ lackluster. I could feel her arms wrapping around my head. ¡°I, I am sorry, Faro. I didn¡¯t think you were seeing me as your potential wife because ¡­ I am older than you.¡± Esther, my first crush, was older than me. I didn¡¯t mind the age gap because she was fucking hot. Her flaming hair and refined facial features¡­, she was a beauty. If such a woman would become mine, no one would scoff at me or so I thought. Jane ¡­ was really nothing in comparison but we got along well ¡­ or at least I thought. I¡¯ve come to realize that I want a woman who is compatible with me. I did feel she was the one. ¡°I don¡¯t fucking care about the age! It¡¯s not like you are a decade older than me!¡± At this point, people were coming out to see what the commotion was. Some were opening their windows to look down. I¡¯d be really ashamed under normal circumstances but couldn¡¯t care less. ¡°Are you serious about me then?¡± She asked as she embraced me tighter. ¡°I am,¡± I told her firmly, and she chuckled. ¡°Then tell my dad.¡± ¡°I am not going to lie about my age.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine if you are serious.¡±If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. And I was. ¡°I want you to be my woman,¡± I declared and I meant it. ¡°I may not have an arm but I have money.¡± ¡°How much?¡± She asked, and I could tell that she wasn¡¯t taking it seriously. ¡°I have got 15 gold coins, it was the reward from the mission.¡± She immediately pushed me away from her chest and looked into my eyes. ¡°You are not joking,¡± she said eventually. ¡°Why would I lie about that? I was also given a title, so I am actually a lord. You can confirm from Brian if you want.¡± Her eyes went wide. It probably made her see me as a man from a boy instantly. I didn¡¯t like the fact that it took money and a title for her to see me as a valid candidate for a marriage, but nobody was going to take me seriously unless I declared my wealth. This was partially due to my appearance as well. Mom told me that I was cute, which was certainly not a desirable treat for women who were seeking a husband. I was basically not masculine enough. But, if I was rich enough, that would be a different story. ¡°You¡¯d become a lady,¡± I added. That was true although in name only. Without a land to call home, I wasn¡¯t really going to become a full-fledged lord. Nobody would really respect me as a lord unless I had a stable income and had the wealth to employ servants. ¡°I ¡­ don¡¯t know what to say,¡± she said after blinking her eyes a few times. Taking a deep breath, she let me go and folded her arms. ¡°I feel like ¡­ it¡¯s too much.¡± Fifteen gold coins wasn¡¯t obviously enough to live our lives comfortably, but that didn¡¯t change the fact that it was an inconceivable amount for both of us. Jane never held a gold coin in her hands for absolutely sure. A hundred iron coins made a silver coin, and a hundred silver coins made a gold coin. A silver coin was enough for me to feed myself for a month as long as it was bread and veggie soups, so that meant 12 silver coins a year. I¡¯d end up spending a bit over a gold coin over a decade. With her, I¡¯d be spending two gold coins per a decade. Actually, doing the math, I realized that 15 gold coins was just enough for the both of us to live without ever working as long as we lived frugally. Of course, I or both of us would be working, enabling us to afford a higher level of luxury than just an ordinary commoner couple. I realized that I was pretty much set for life as long as I didn¡¯t waste the gold coins. Jane was thinking similarly also because she had her arms folded and was in deep thoughts. A marriage was rarely about love, mom told me. It was a mutual agreement to live together as long as it was beneficial for both of them. ¡°We ¡­ could move into our own home right away,¡± she said in an almost whisper tone. She probably meant to speak to herself. I found it somewhat amusing that she was thinking so far beyond the marriage itself. It was almost as if it was a done deal. I had to remind her. ¡°You know, we are not yet married.¡± She turned her head toward me. ¡°You said you wanted me. Isn¡¯t that a done deal?¡± ¡°What about your father¡¯s approval?¡± ¡°There is no way he¡¯d refuse at this point. He might even ask you for a handout.¡± I started to wonder whether she was the right woman for me at this point. Her attitude change was so sudden upon hearing my wealth. As if reading my mind, she told me. ¡°Faro, don¡¯t mistake me. I am simply thinking about the future. We are not kids anymore. I didn¡¯t join the guild just to die an old hag. I joined the guild to get away from my family. I hate farming and I do not want to marry a farmer. I was hoping to find someone to marry within the guild and, if possible, go on an adventure.¡± ¡°You? An adventure?¡± Why did you become a guild receptionist then? I wanted to ask. Either way, marrying me would certainly get her far away from farming of any sort. But I was starting to have second thoughts after her sudden change in attitude. I wanted a second opinion and the only person I could ask was my mom because she was literally the only other woman I knew in my life. She beamed a smile at me after listening to what I had to say. ¡°Faro, the difference between a girl and a woman is paper thin,¡± she told me. ¡°A girl exists to attract men and, once she finds one, the girl will switch to be a woman.¡± I had no idea what that meant. ¡°What I am saying is that her behavior is normal. She switched from a girl to a woman. I would like to meet her, though. I assume her background is a farmer.¡± I nodded. ¡°Will you let me see her?¡± I had no reason to refuse mom¡¯s request, so I did. I went back to the guild to bring her home. It was her day off anyway. ¡°W, wait. Hang on a sec,¡± she stopped me by grabbing my wrist. ¡°T, that is your home?! You are the son of the tea farmer?!¡± ¡°Yeah?¡± And I saw her jaw drop. Apparently, my dad was a well-known man among farmers in Ceres. He was essentially the king of all farmers in the city because of how well he was off. He was considered a noble even, which was in fact true. My dad was the king¡¯s father. He was a royalty. His farm was isolated with tall hedges, and there was a pair of guards at the only way in. They recognized me and allowed us in. Jane looked shell-shocked as she was led inside. ¡°You must be Jane,¡± said my mom who greeted her in a magnificent dress. Jane did not know how to react. Yeah, well, my mom doesn¡¯t look like a farmer¡¯s wife for sure. In fact, she had this aura of refinement. She eventually bowed deeply with both of her hands in front. ¡°N, nice to meet you, ma¡¯am!¡± She thought me meeting her dad was going to be an ordeal. She never saw this coming. I had to grin. She and mom talked for a moment. Mom asked her about her childhood and how she came to work at the guild. She gradually loosened up and became more comfortable. ¡°Son, have dinner with us,¡± mom told me, which I duly agreed. Of course, the dinner was luxurious because a roasted boar came out. We weren¡¯t allowed to touch them with bare hands, and a butler was standing by with a knife. He sliced off the boar skillfully and placed them on plates. Father, Taro, and Abel were present as well. Their presences made Jane extra nervous, but it was apparent that her desire to consume the roasted boar was on a higher priority because she couldn¡¯t stop drooling. If no one else was here, she could have grabbed that juicy leg of the boar and would have devoured it. ¡°Bro, who is she?¡± Abel asked gleefully. He looked almost exactly like me while Taro looked more like dad. ¡°She¡¯s my girl,¡± I told him proudly. Meanwhile, the butler placed a juicy file of boar meat onto dad¡¯s plate who casually started eating. Mom never forced too much etiquette onto him although he did teach him basics. Then it was mom¡¯s turn to receive her share. And then it was me and Jane. Tears welled up in her eyes as she looked down on her plate with a big slice of boar meat on it. ¡°Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you,¡± she said. When she placed a small piece into her mouth, a single tear fell through her cheek. ¡°Big sis, it¡¯s so good, right?!¡± Abel said gleefully. ¡°Abel, tone down,¡± Taro said. ¡°Eat.¡± I glanced at him. Taro was becoming more and more like dad while I and Abel took after mom. He was to inherit the farm, so he might as well take after dad. ¡°It¡¯s ¡­ so good,¡± she agreed. I understood where she was coming from. Until she came to the guild, all she had eaten was veggie soup and bread. Even after coming to the guild, until very recently, all she had eaten was bread and very occasionally expired jerky. She was by no means poor but she had to save money if she were to find a husband on her own. She would be defying her father in doing so, meaning she wouldn¡¯t get any support from her family. In the end, she ate more than I did. She ate six big pieces of the boar, which was more than anyone and twice more than I ate. ¡°I feel alive!¡± She exclaimed merrily as we were walking toward the guild. It was starting to get darker, and the sky was drenched with twilight color. ¡°Never have I eaten such a good meal!¡± ¡°I treated you to the shrimps a few days ago, remember?¡± ¡°I do love shrimps but I love juicy meat better to be honest.¡± No argument there. Nothing beats the roasted boar. ¡°Faro.¡± Her face was becoming serious. ¡°You are not someone I thought you were. Are you sure that you want me? I am pretty sure that you can find someone far better.¡± ¡°Why do you downgrade yourself?¡± I retorted. ¡°Isn¡¯t it the truth, though? I am just a farmer¡¯s daughter.¡± ¡°So am I. I am a farmer¡¯s son. Well, a tea farmer¡¯s son if you want to nippick.¡± ¡°You do know what I am saying, don¡¯t you?¡± Well, true. I myself wasn¡¯t impressive, but everything around me was. She didn¡¯t know, but the king was my own brother. He was my full brother, sharing the same parents. My mom was a proud lady of the Fenchel. My dad may not be a true-born noble but the guy was healthy as a wild boar. I¡¯ve never seen him skip a workday. The results were us: The king, me, Taro, and Abel. Then I realized ¡­ Four sons. My mom gave birth to four sons. That was the perfect score for a married woman. Damn¡­, both of my parents are mighty impressive. ¡°I don¡¯t intend to live as a noble in spite of my title,¡± I told her. ¡°We will live as a commoner couple.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t mind that as long as I get to eat better than the crap that we call food.¡± Just like how my parents live. They were essentially nobles but without the actual title. Their living standards were well above average. They had maids and butlers. My goal was to live like them. Jane and I won¡¯t be able to live exactly like them; our living standards will be far lower but it should be somewhat above average. At the least, she will eat better than just bread and water. That much I could guarantee, and it looked like that was all she desired. ¡°Why did you become a guild receptionist when you said you wanted to become an adventurer?¡± Was it because she wanted to find a husband? Was that more important? ¡°I¡¯ve gone adventuring before but as a support member.¡± An adventuring group sometimes had a support member if the group was large enough. I, too, went on adventuring as a support member before. My job was to collect loot and keep them safe. This was when I realized that we were going to need at least one support member if Duman was to depart on an adventuring trip with the Fat Lady. Somebody had to look after the airship as well as do the basic maintenance inside. Duman, Jane, I and ¡­ Roseline. I asked her, ¡°Hey, I have a question.¡± ¡°Yeah? What is it?¡± She was a bit ahead of me. ¡°How would you help someone when she lost everything?¡± It took her a short moment to answer. ¡°Are you talking about Roseline?¡± My eyes went wide. ¡°How¡­?¡± ¡°Easy to figure it out because she has had this ¡®I want to end everything¡¯ aura for a while now.¡± ¡°I ¡­ want to save her. I don¡¯t want to lose her. If she goes¡­, then ¡­¡± ¡°Duman will follow,¡± she finished my sentence for me. ¡°Faro, tell me.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°What was it like to face the dragon?¡± I paused walking, and she turned around to face me. Clenching my fists, I replied, ¡°It was ¡­ an impossible task. We had no chance.¡± ¡°Is that how you lost your arm?¡± ¡­¡­¡­¡­ I had no other choice. ¡°I had no other choice. I made a decision to ram the dragon with the Fat Lady.¡± To earn a moment of reprieve so that they could catch a breath and think things out. I was looking down on the ground and didn¡¯t notice her approaching. The next thing I knew, she was hugging me and caressing the stump of my left shoulder that was covered by my half cloak. ¡°I don¡¯t know how to save Roseline from darkness to be honest with you,¡± she said softly to my ear. "But I do think Duman knows how.¡± ¡°He does¡­?¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t he say he wanted to travel the world with the airship? Won¡¯t Roseline go as well?¡± ¡°I am going, too. You can tag along if you like.¡± ¡°Really? That¡¯s good. I am more than willing.¡± She let go of me and walked around casually, looking up. ¡°Traveling the world casually at your leisure¡­ Who knows? It just might give Roseline the lifeline she desperately needs.¡± Yeah¡­., yeah¡­, it just might¡­ ¡°Heh¡­¡± I looked at her. She was strictly average in appearance but she was cute in her own way and she was very considerate. She was ¡­ a bit too conscious about money and food, but I understood why she was like that, because almost every adventurer I¡¯ve met, they were all crazy about money and food. They¡¯d treat themselves to the best food and drink they could get during their breaks as long as money allowed. That was due to their impoverished backgrounds. Jane was the same. If I grew up eating crap, I would have ended up like her most likely. Looking up at the twilight sky, I said to myself with a sigh and my shoulders sagged. ¡°Everyone and their circumstances¡­¡± It made me realize how important childhood was. If you grew up with something lacking, you¡¯d go after it after you become an adult. By that logic, I could tell how good my parents were because I didn¡¯t desire anything. I had the luxury of trying to find my place in society. I was sure that, for most people out there, trying to find their place wasn¡¯t on their list of to-do. Like Jane, they had to earn money and feed themselves first and foremost. ¡°Nothing ever easy in life, eh,¡± I said to myself as I walked faster to catch up to Jane. I needed to take smaller steps first. The same applied to Roseline probably. She won¡¯t be saved in an instant. We needed to take it slowly and progressively for her. I felt that getting her on the journey with us was the first small step we needed to take. I felt that we needed to take her mind off to something else. We needed to make her realize that there was more than just darkness in this world. 4. From a boy to a man I decided to help Duman out because his project of restoring the Fat Lady was going nowhere. While the primary reason for the delay was his lack of motivation, thus resulting in ridiculously slow speed, the man had to do everything on his own. Now, while I couldn¡¯t help him out with sophisticated parts, I could do the simple ones such as the outer planks, which involved sanding, varnishing, and putting them on the skeleton. That much I was able to, thanks to my previous experience as a journeyman carpenter. I also visited Jane¡¯s parents meanwhile, publicly declaring that I wanted to take her in. The news spread like wind within the guild because apparently, while they did know that I was sort of going after her, nobody really gave me a chance due to the fact that she was two years senior. ¡­Fuckers. Anyway, her father initially refused to give her to me, but he was ¡­ easily persuaded with just ten silver coins. Jane asked me to hide my true wealth because she did not want to end up supporting her entire family of six. Yes, she had four siblings. In fact, she wanted to cut ties with her family completely soon. Her reason was that they never supported her while she was being trained as a guild receptionist. Her father wanted her to get married as soon as she turned fifteen and get her out of her family so that more food would be available for them. This was common among families, and I could not fault them for it. Essentially, there was probably no love lost between Jane and her family. They¡¯d be glad that she was finally out of their responsibility. Of course, if they were to find out that I was filthy rich, they could very well ask for further support. This reinforced my brief of how awesome my mom was who loved her children. There was also a decent possibility that Jane was being overlooked because of her gender. Anyway, two months flew by. ¡°Well, the Fat Lady is looking the part!¡± I exclaimed proudly as I wiped balls of sweat off my forehead. I completed the outershall of the airship, thus she looked the part. Of course, the interior was barely done but it was getting done slowly since Duman was able to focus better. ¡°Ye, thanks, Faro,¡± said Duman from inside of the airship. ¡°I will work on the boiler room once you get the flooring done.¡± ¡°Leave that to me, sir.¡± The boiler room was the heart of an airship. It¡¯s where one would place fire crystals to heat air so that it would rise up. I later found out that it was the king who invented the airship, and Lord Waszak refined the concept. Clearly, I was so far away from my brother¡¯s talents. The gap was so wide that I couldn¡¯t even get jealous. He was the savior of the world after defeating not one but two dragons. He became the founder of the kingdom. He invented the airship which changed how the world would operate. He married the first daughter of the Flissing and then took the crown princess of Estana as his second wife. Compared to him, I was ¡­ useless. The reality was, though, I didn¡¯t care. He was my real bro. Why should I get jealous of my own brother? That¡¯s bollocks. Instead, I should be glad that our bloodline is doing well. ¡°Faro!¡± It was Jane¡¯s voice. ¡°Lord Sluple!¡± Ah, yes. Lord Sluple. That was Duman. After being granted a title just like me, he had to choose a last name. His choice was Sluple, thus Duman Sluple. I was told by him that Sluple was his hometown in the far North. The town was destroyed completely during the Age of Darkness. I didn¡¯t need to choose a last name since my mom was a lady of the Fenchel. ¡°Yeah?¡± I replied, looking back toward the guild building. ¡°Lunch time!¡± Of course, as good as that sounded, we were having veggie soup and bread. Jerky was issued only when out on missions. Meat was more expensive due to its scarcity. ¡°Have you heard? The queen and the second queen gave birth very recently,¡± Jane told us while we were eating our lunch at a table in the guild hall. ¡°Both at the same time?¡± I asked. ¡°I heard there were four children on the same day.¡± What? Four? Really? Huh? ¡°What? What do you mean four? Shouldn¡¯t that be two?¡± Duman grinned meanwhile. ¡°The first queen gave birth to a prince. The second queen had a triplet, two princes and a princess.¡± My eyes widened. ¡°Is that a thing? I thought it was just a baby per pregnancy.¡± ¡°It¡¯s very, very, rare, but it does happen. I¡¯ve seen twins but never a triplet,¡± Duman said. ¡°Did the second queen survive?¡± ¡°The town crier didn¡¯t say she died, so I assume she survived,¡± Jane said. ¡°I am actually surprised that she made it. Even twin birth is very hard,¡± he said while biting off a big chunk of his bread. ¡°I have to say that the king is blessed. He is a lucky man.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t that actually messy in reality?¡± I asked. ¡°That¡¯s three princes born on the same day. Won¡¯t they be competing for his throne in future?¡± ¡°No, children born from the second queen will be under Estana succession laws. They won¡¯t have anything to do with our kingdom,¡± he explained. ¡°Yeah, I heard that it was the main reason why the king accepted the marriage proposal from the king of Estana. I heard that he did not want to take in a second wife,¡± Jane added. ¡°It¡¯s been said that the king and the queen are very affectionate toward each other in spite of their marriage being an arranged one,¡± he said. ¡°The queen is four years older!¡± she added while raising her voice slightly and glancing at me. Yeah, she was two years older than me. We had something in common. ¡°The second queen is five years older!¡± Chuckling, he said rather gleefully, ¡°I want to joke that mayhaps the king likes older women. But neither of the marriages was his choice, so that¡¯s that.¡± Again, older women marrying younger men wasn¡¯t a thing around here. Therefore, the two queens being much older than the king was often a topic of discussion. Jane being two years older than me was already a reason enough for her dad to outright refuse me although it took only ten silver coins to change his mind. But then we were just commoner folks. Our case and the king¡¯s case were entirely different. ¡°How did both queens end up being so much older than him, I wonder?¡± She wondered aloud, not expecting an answer. ¡°I don¡¯t know much about the first queen. Their marriage was already done by the time I arrived from the North,¡± he said. ¡°But the arrival of the second queen is well documented.¡± He explained that the king of Estana had no choice but to push the marriage at any cost after losing his entire family to the Age of Darkness. With only a daughter left, he desperately looked for a suitor, and our king was the only candidate in time of the chaos that was the Age of Darkness. ¡°As a crown princess, the king of Estana had very limited choices,¡± he explained further. ¡°Her being the sole heiress was another issue as well. There was literally only one choice, who was our king or a duke at that time.¡± Not all men were fertile, and the same applied for women as well. The king of Estana had to absolutely make sure that the man his daughter would end up marrying had a proven record. Kamil Fenchel, a duke at the time, had already impregnated his wife, thus proving that he was fertile. He was also a young rising star with a bright future. Duman was correct that the king had no other choices at that time. ¡°In the end, his gamble paid off, didn¡¯t it,¡± he said with a chuckle. ¡°Two heirs and one heiress in just one birth. I am sure that he can finally sleep with ease.¡± ¡°The side effect is that our kingdom and Estana are so close now that we are virtually the same country,¡± Jane said. ¡°In fact, I can speak a decent amount of their language now.¡± Even I was able to speak Estanian language somewhat decently to a level that I could strike a casual conversation. Yes, our languages were different, which had been the primary reason why our kingdom and Estana had rarely traded. As for how I learned their language, it was mom who insisted that I learned at least the basics. Estana was known for their spices, and virtually all spice vendors in Ceres were from Estana, meaning some of us had to learn their language in order to engage and make money. As a direct result of spice being available, veggie soup had gotten a lot better. Before the spices came along, the soup was just vegetable scraps thrown together in a boiling pot after some salts were added. With proper spices thrown in, the taste had improved greatly. Of course, that didn¡¯t change the nutritional values but at least it had become more enjoyable. ¡°By the way,¡± Duman said while glancing at the both of us. ¡°Have you chosen a house yet?¡± Before I could answer, Jane did. ¡°We¡¯ve decided to live in the guild for now.¡± ¡°You do know that you can¡¯t make out in the guild, right?¡± He said with a smirk. Well, it was against the rules for sure. There were married couples within the guild, but they were asked to reside outside of the guild building. That was because there were a lot of us living here, and the night activities among married couples would ¡­ disturb others. The walls were rather thin here. ¡°We don¡¯t plan sleeping together for the time being,¡± she said with a stoic face although she was probably flushing inside. ¡°But you two have slept together, haven¡¯t you?¡± He pressed. ¡°Um¡­, we haven¡¯t,¡± I answered, looking down. I was actually really curious about a woman¡¯s body. I knew that our bodies were different but had no idea in what way. The only thing I knew about a woman¡¯s body was the breasts. As if knowing the situation, Duman looked at Jane. ¡°Jane, you are older. You ought to teach him.¡± Blushing this time, she stood up from the table at once in panic. ¡°It¡¯s ¡­, it¡¯s not like I know how it works, either!¡± Well, both of us were virgins after all. Either way, Duman seemed to be enjoying teasing us. ¡°Once both of you get naked in front of each other, it will become clear how it works,¡± he said, giggling widely. God¡­, just imagining the situation was giving me a boner. I glanced at her, whose face was deep red. I am not going to lie. I did want to sleep with her just to get a feeling of what a real woman was like. But mom has always warned me not to give in to the urge because I¡¯d regret later. She told me repeatedly to wait for my girl to open up before I did. She even told me that, if I did, women would be far more willing to sleep with me in the end. I had no reason to doubt my mom because she always cared for me, always. She would never give ill advice to me. ¡°It¡¯s okay, Jane. We can take our time,¡± I told her, looking up, with a sweetest grin I could possibly conjure. It was a lie of course. If she was willing, I¡¯d sleep with her tonight. ¡°R¡­,right,¡± she replied while clearing her throat and sat back down. ¡°Let¡¯s ¡­ talk about that in private later.¡± ¡°Attagirl,¡± said Duman, looking all giddy. He was all smiles. ¡°Lord Sluple, can we talk about the upcoming mission?¡± she said, trying to change the subject. Yes, we¡¯ve taken a goblin encampment extermination mission. The Age of Darkness introduced a lot of monsters throughout the continent. Most of them were controlled by the dragons or so I was told. After they were defeated, they became sentient and so I was told. There were a lot of monsters out there at the moment although they were far from organized to pose any threats to established settlements.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°The paper said a ¡®goblin¡¯ encampment, but the detail lists more than just goblins,¡± she continued on. ¡°I assume the remnants of the monsters from the Age of Darkness have joined them.¡± ¡°That¡¯s most likely,¡± Duman replied with a nod. ¡°I am just concerned whether just the four of us could handle this,¡± she voiced her concerns. ¡°I assume Faro is going to act as our frontline fighter. Lord Sluple will use his crossbow. Lady Vrnojka will be our healer.¡± Ah, yes, Lady Vrnojka was Roseline. Like Duman, she also used the name of her hometown as her last name. This worked because Vrnojka was also completely destroyed during the Age of Darkness. ¡°Our group composition is poor. We are lacking in manpower,¡± she pressed. ¡°We need at least two more members: a fighter and a mage.¡± ¡°You ain¡¯t wrong,¡± Duman agreed with a slow nod with folded arms. ¡°Besides, Faro isn¡¯t quite yet used to having just one arm. His balance is quite off when fighting on the move.¡± He wasn¡¯t wrong. When fighting while not moving, I did pretty well. But, as soon as I started fighting while moving, I sucked. Like he pointed out, my balance was awfully off. I didn¡¯t think not having my left arm would affect me like this. I did need proper training from a proper swordsman, which reminded me ¡­ ¡°Duman, what happened to the mentor you were going to get me?¡± ¡°Ah, him.¡± He responded as if he had completely forgotten. ¡°I did contact the guy. He was alive. He¡¯s from the North, you see, so I wasn¡¯t sure whether he made it.¡± The North used to be where the Siwen dynasty used to be. At least, that¡¯s what the history lesson from mom taught me. Then it fell, at which point most of its former territories were absorbed by two other nations. It looked like Ayaan, Amanda, Duman, Meizei, and Roseline were all from the North. The Kingdom of Egra was what the Kingdom of Filava used to be. Egra collapsed during the Age of Darkness and the current king, my brother, rose to retake control of all of its former territory. Meanwhile, the Age of Darkness destroyed all other nations, bar Estana and Rem, essentially leaving our kingdom the sole superpower of the continent. I didn¡¯t know anything about Rem, but Estana was on extremely friendly terms with our kingdom since our second queen was from there. ¡°I sent a letter to him to come here. He was staying in Maiava.¡± ¡°That¡¯s quite far away.¡± ¡°Yep, told him to take an airship, so it shouldn¡¯t be too long before he gets here.¡± ¡°Is he good? He is a swordsman, yes?¡± Jane asked, to which Duman nodded back. ¡°Then can we add him to our roster?¡± ¡°Oh, that¡¯s a good idea,¡± I agreed. ¡°If he is willing. The dude is a little bit older than me, so he may no longer want to get involved.¡± Adventurers retired early due to the nature of their jobs. Getting hurt frequently, eating inadequately, and sleeping in wilderness while out on missions took a toll on the body. While younger people might be able to take the punishment, it¡¯d become harder and harder for older people. Therefore, the general retirement age for frontline warriors was 40. Mages and others may be able to work longer. ¡°He¡¯s that old, huh.¡± ¡°Experience makes a master swordsman after all,¡± he said. ¡°He should be here in a few days, I reckon.¡± ¡°Can we wait that long?¡± Jane asked. She had a point. Monster encampments relocated routinely. There was a chance that, if we delayed our departure, the camp would be gone by the time of our arrival. ¡°We can always do another one and cancel this one. We are not short on time and we are not short on money, either,¡± he said. Well, perhaps it was true for him and partially to me. It probably wasn''t true for Jane. She wasn¡¯t paid while not performing her work as a guild receptionist. A guild receptionist was paid three iron coins per shift. There were three shifts a day, morning, noon, and afternoon. For Jane, on working days, she did two shifts, thus earning six iron coins per day. She normally took a day off and then would work the next day, doing two shifts. Because the guild provided basic meals as well as a room for free for guild members, the job was pretty lucrative for someone like her in spite of the low wage. She told me that she had saved up 15 silver coins so far. That was a two-year worth of savings while spending absolutely minimum. She also told me that she was unwilling to spend it except for a few occasions. She would spend it on our house or she would rather save up in case of emergency. Speaking of houses, I really didn¡¯t know how much one would cost. There was the option of getting an underground apartment which was cheaper, but she was quite against the idea. She told me that she wanted to sleep under the sky. ¡°Duman, how can we buy a house?¡± I asked him. ¡°Oh, right. You wouldn¡¯t know. How big of a house do you guys want?¡± This was where something called a family plan came in. He was indirectly asking how many kids we planned to have. While pretty embarrassing to talk about, this was an important aspect in choosing a house. You wouldn¡¯t want to purchase a three-room house to end up having three kids or something. ¡°Uh¡­, we are not sure yet.¡± I glanced at her and she evaded my eyes. It was just too early for us. ¡°Well, I am sure you will get to decide that later. Anyway, once you guys¡¯ minds are made up, talk to the carpenter. He will either build a new one or direct you to a vacant house for sale. If you are looking for a cheaper option, you can choose one of the underground apartments.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to live underground,¡± she replied firmly. ¡°Yeah, I can see why,¡± he replied with a smile. ¡°You do?!¡± I blurted because I didn¡¯t know. ¡°She is a farmer¡¯s daughter. A farmer can¡¯t sleep well underground because they can never tell time by looking at the sky, meaning they tend to end up oversleeping in underground places.¡± Ohhhhhh! I bumped my fist into my other palm. Then I looked at her who evaded my eyes, again, with a slight pout. I didn¡¯t know what she was mad about. ¡°Anyway,¡± he continued. ¡°Let¡¯s wait for the guy to arrive before going on a mission. If he is willing to join, we have more than enough. We are all highly experienced.¡± ¡°Duman seems to be getting much better,¡± Jane said. We were having a short walk after lunch. ¡°Yeah, he¡¯s much livelier.¡± We wanted to involve Roseline, but she said she was busy writing her chronicle of hers. She did agree to go on a mission as well as the journey with the Fat Lady, so we felt that it was good enough. Then we ran out of topics to talk about soon enough. I mean we were together most of the time at the guild. ¡°Um, so ¡­, how big of a house do we need¡­?¡± I asked, very carefully and somewhat slowly. She looked away from me at once while slowly scratching the side of her head with her index finger. ¡°.... No more than two¡­,¡± she eventually whispered. ¡°So¡­, that¡¯s a house with four bedrooms then.¡± ¡°..... Yeah.¡± The mood was really awkward. ¡°I¡­, ehm, don¡¯t want a big family. I mean my own family was big, and it was a mess especially during meal times,¡± she said. ¡°And, because I am the oldest, I was sometimes asked to forfeit my own share for my four brothers.¡± I looked down. It was something I never experienced because my family was wealthy. I wouldn¡¯t be able to understand what she went through because the lack of food was never a problem for me in my childhood. Still, asking to go hungry was asking too much in my opinion. Well, either way, I had no issue whatsoever with just two kids. Truthfully, I couldn¡¯t care less. ¡°That¡¯s fine. I don¡¯t mind. Whatever you want,¡± I told her while slowly getting closer to her and grabbed her shoulder, pushing her onto me sideways. Our height was about the same; she was a tad taller. I was short for a guy, but mom said the king had a growth sprout at about my age, so I assume I¡¯d end up taller, hopefully. I really, really, hope so. I don¡¯t want to end up being shorter than my girl. I really don¡¯t. ¡°Um¡­.,¡± She tried to say something but a long period of silence was what I got instead. She did eventually manage to speak. ¡°Do you wanna do it?¡± Oh, hell, yes. I knew what she meant. Of course, I had to act cool. ¡°If you want,¡± I said calmly, I think. ¡°Well, we¡¯ve spoken to both of our parents¡­ Everything is set, isn¡¯t it.¡± True, we had blessings from both of our parents. We were effectively married. The only part left was the consummation of marriage. ¡°Gotta do it at one point anyway,¡± I replied, feeling giddy. With her face bright red, she nodded without saying anything. And we did it in the evening after renting a nice inn room that costs 5 iron coins per night, which was a luxurious room. I finally got to see what a woman¡¯s body looked like and was quite astonished how different it was. The only differences I noticed before this event was their higher pitched voices and breasts. There were a lot more differences, especially down there, not to mention the smoothness of the body. We acted as if nothing occurred between us the next morning. She went back to work, and I decided to help out Duman as usual. When I went to the backyard of the guild, he looked at me with a smirk. ¡°Didn¡¯t see you guys at all in the evening. You guys done it?¡± I gave him a nod. ¡°Attaboy. You are a man now.¡± ¡°I suppose I am.¡± He had a faint smile as he resumed sanding a plank in his hand. ¡°I miss Mei,¡± he said with vacant eyes. ¡°She was the woman for me.¡± I downcast my eyes and sat down nearby. ¡°Will you be okay?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t know. This pain ¡­ is very weird. It aches in a way that I cannot resist. If it¡¯s just regular good old pain, I would have gotten over it already.¡± This was the first time he ever talked about Meizei since we returned from the dragon mission. I did feel that it was an improvement of his condition. He was opening up at least. Roseline on the other hand ¡­ ¡°You know, Cvetko visited me on the day I came back to the guild.¡± He snickered. ¡°He did?¡± ¡°Has he visited you?¡± ¡°Nope, he¡¯s been avoiding me as far as I can tell.¡± I figured as much. You don¡¯t want to piss a big dude like Duman. ¡°What did he say?¡± ¡°Not much. He simply said that he was sorry that he didn¡¯t tag long.¡± ¡°As if that¡¯s gonna help. Too late for that.¡± Agreed. His apology was bullshit. If anything, it made me angry. ¡°Don¡¯t hurt him, though.¡± ¡°Come on, I ain¡¯t that kind of person.¡± He chuckled, and it became silent. I decided to change the subject. ¡°Duman, I may have become a man but ¡­¡± ¡°But?¡± ¡°I have yet to drink.¡± It took a moment for him to get my point, and a broad smile emerged on his face. He slapped his knee once and stood up. ¡°Of course, you ain¡¯t a man until you had your first drunken night. Let¡¯s have a drink, my threat!¡± ¡°Ehm, right now?¡± I looked up. The sun was still high in the sky. In fact, it was morning. ¡°As if that matters! Bring Jane! She is a part of the team now, yeah?¡± I suppose he has a point. Jane was a non-combatant although she did know how to defend herself with a dagger or a short sword. We needed a support person, and she fit the bill perfectly. She had already been doing the job by getting missions for us and preparing supplies in advance. I knew that she worked the morning shift today even though she was feeling a bit of pain down there. She might have opted to take the rest of the day off. Given the fact that it was going to be a feast however, there was no way she¡¯d decline. Of course, we didn¡¯t end up going to the tavern in the morning. That was just wrong, so we went there in the evening. After the feast and somewhat excessive drinking, Jane and I slept together once more. We were swiftly getting used to each other¡¯s bodies. The man Duman mentioned, who was to be my mentor, arrived in Ceres about five days later. He arrived at the guild, looking for Duman. I was there when he entered the guild hall for the first time. He actually looked like a knight or some sort. He had straight blond hair reaching down to his chin and had stubble. His eyes looked very sharp, and his chin was wide, making his overall face look square-ish. My first impression of him was that he really did look the part. He looked menacing even with overly thick arms. ¡°The name¡¯s Vojmir,¡± Duman said as he introduced him to me in the backyard. ¡°Vojmir, this is Faro, the kid I talked about.¡± I lowered my upper body with a palm on my chest to show respect. Likewise, he did the same. ¡°My name is Vojmir. I pride myself as a decent swordsman. However, I am unsure whether I am able to educate you.¡± His way of speech was quite formal. ¡°May I ask why?¡± ¡°You lack an arm. Believe it or not, it¡¯s quite important for a proper swordsman to have both arms. It¡¯s required for balance.¡± ¡°I am already aware, sir.¡± Then I looked at Duman to intervene. ¡°Vojmir, he lost his arm during the mission.¡± He narrowed his eyes immediately and asked, ¡°The dragon mission?¡± Duman nodded. ¡°I see. I see.¡± Then he looked up and down on me. ¡°Under normal circumstances, I wouldn¡¯t teach you because I honestly don¡¯t know how. However, you¡¯ve done mankind a great service. It would be disgraceful of me to dismiss you. I will teach you.¡± My face brightened up at hearing that. ¡°However, I need to teach myself what it is like to fight one-armed. From there, I will research a new way to fight with one arm. I will also observe you in how you fight.¡± Quite frankly, I had no idea what he was planning to do. Was he going to chop off his arm? Probably not? Well, I will find out soon, I suppose. 5. Those who live ¡°Alright, I see the encampment,¡± Jane said. All of us were down on the grass to conceal ourselves. If there was anything odd about us, it was Vojma who had his left arm tied up so that he couldn¡¯t use it and he had iron weights attached to his right arm. This was his idea of having one arm by handicapping and off-balancing himself. I was very doubtful, but what would I know? ¡°I¡¯ve never seen goblins, orcs, and werewolves hanging out together,¡± Duman said after making an observation. That was true. As far as I knew, different monster races didn¡¯t coexist together. There seemed to be hierarchy as well. The goblins were acting like servants by tending campfires and cooking. The orcs were like soldiers by guarding, and werewolves were acting like higher ups and were slacking off. ¡°Does that mean they have a unified language?¡± Roseline remarked. She has always been a scholar type, asking weird stuff. ¡°Woman, you are not going there to attempt to strike a conversation,¡± Duman quarreled as if he had seen her doing such before. She only pouted and didn¡¯t talk back as if he hit bullseye. She was always an oddball. Now with her white hair, she looked the part as well. At least, she was opening up a bit. Until this moment, she had barely spoken a sentence. But then that was her. Even before the event, she was hardly talkative. She talked only when she had to or something to talk about. ¡°There are about twenty seven of them,¡± Vojmir said, looking awfully awkward with his setup. I mean, I get that. He is trying to help me, but ¡­ it was a bit too much. He looked awkward as hell. I almost laughed out loudly when I saw his tied arm and iron weights for the first time. But then I had to appreciate him going this far for me. ¡°You go first, Faro. I will follow. Show me what you¡¯ve got,¡± he said to me, to which I nodded back. ¡°You guys do know that I can wipe them out in one spell, don¡¯t you?¡± Roseline pointed out. Ever since the elementals started to become visible, magic in general became much more powerful. So, she wasn¡¯t joking when she said that. With a water element affinity of nine, she was capable of wiping them out in one spell, probably. Now, she wouldn¡¯t be able to wipe them out completely, but her big spell would probably cripple them to a point that it would be easy pickings for whatever was going to be left of them. ¡°He needs to train, and Vojmir needs to get used to fighting one-armed,¡± Duman pointed out. ¡°You sit this one out, Roseline.¡± ¡°Why did I even tag along then?¡± She said with a pout. She had a point, I felt. But ¡­ hang on. Is it just me or Duman and Roseline get along pretty well? She had been pretty gloomy but she was acting pretty normally with Duman. Did they get along this well before? I couldn¡¯t recall exactly because they rarely interacted. Yes, they rarely talked to each other. I wonder ¡­ ¡°Sir Vojmir, shall we go?¡± I spoke, shaking off the thought. This wasn¡¯t the time to have such thoughts. ¡°Are you confident? Duman told me that your balance is quite off.¡± ¡°That¡¯s only when I fight on the move. I will try to fight standing still.¡± He gave me a firm nod. ¡°Very well, good luck.¡± I did fight Vojmir before embarking on this mission, and he did acknowledge that my strength and reflex was above average. He also told me that I should be able to get used to not having an arm in a fight. But getting used to and having deep knowledge in how to counter the off-balance was another thing, he said. ¡°You can count me, sir,¡± I replied gleefully, standing up and dashing toward the encampment. ¡°Elementals of Earth, heed my call! Grant me armor to pend off my enemies: Stone skin!¡± I cast stoneskin which Roseline taught me not long ago. I did feel my skin harden. Glancing at my arm, I could see that my skin turned dark brown for a moment before turning back to its normal color. Stoneskin was a basic spell for Earth mages but it was an important spell for melee fighters because it provided the same strength as plate armor. I wouldn¡¯t have been able to cast this, but my brother, the King, cast bless on me, increasing my affinity to Earth element a bit, ultimately allowing me to cast stoneskin twice a day. ¡°Thanks, bro,¡± I whispered to myself. Drawing out my short sword, I ran as fast as I could. A pair of orc guards noticed my presence and barked loudly to alert others. I couldn¡¯t care less and ran up to one and shoved my short sword right through its chin to the top of its head. I knew I had gotten stronger because I wouldn¡¯t have been able to do this before. Not wasting time, I dashed toward the second orc and shoved my sword right into its side and twisted it, potentially dealing internal bleeding. The orc was as good as dead at this point although it could stay alive for days potentially. Of course, it wasn¡¯t going to live for that long before my mentor sliced off its neck shortly after. He was a big man although not as big as Duman but still he was fast, probably as fast as me in terms of raw speed. When every monster in the encampment turned their attention to us, crossbow bolts started to hit their heads. Duman was doing his bit. At this point, werewolves howled and got their claws out, ready to strike. Goblins, meanwhile, were looking left and right in fear. Orcs were growling and changing at us already. If this was the old days, I may have panicked and may have sought a way out. This time, however, I was fairly confident of my abilities. Besides, I had stoneskin on me. Several hits would pose no issue whatsoever. In addition, Vojmir was really good. In spite of the handicaps he placed on himself, he was literally flying around the battlefield and cutting down one after another. If he was this good with just one arm, he might be able to take all of the encampment alone with both arms. I wasn¡¯t going to let him have all the glory, though, and proceeded to cut down as many as possible. I did try to avoid fighting on the move because I stumbled somewhat frequently if I did so. ¡°Woah!¡± A werewolf¡¯s powerful claw just barely scratched my chest as I attempted to dodge during which I tripped but I rolled away swiftly enough not to pose any issue. I retaliated immediately by dashing forward low and slashing its lower hind leg. Then I felt a heavy strike on my back. An orc apparently smashed my back with a crude wooden club. If it wasn¡¯t for my stoneskin spell, I would have been hurt pretty badly. ¡°Damn you!¡± My mentor exclaimed as he put an end to the offending orc. ¡°Get up!¡± Grunting, I got up as far as I could and rammed at the werewolf in front of me, allowing my mentor to slash twice at his chest as it was pushed backwards. ¡°It¡¯s not down yet!¡± I shouted and was going to deal the final blow. But a crossbow belt struck at its forehead, and it was truly a goner this time. With its eyes rolling up, it fell backwards. Its death signalled a defeat, and goblins were the first ones to flee. Duman¡¯s crossbow got the most of them that tried to flee. Orcs tried to resist but ultimately they went down as well. That left just one more werewolf, but I was nearing my limit. My body was covered in sweat, and I had taken several hits. Taking down twenty-something monsters with just the three of us wasn¡¯t an easy task. Besides, I wasn¡¯t quite used to one-arm swordplay, thus I was draining more stamina due to higher concentration. Thankfully, Vojmir was there to finish things up. Once the encampment was cleared, Duman, Jane, and Roseline approached at once. ¡°Oh my, you look beat,¡± Jane said to me with a worried face. ¡°Water!¡± Roseline exclaimed, and several baskets of water dropped right on me from thin air. It was sudden but did feel refreshing. Mages with a high affinity to an elemental did not need a fancy spell incantation. ¡°Uh¡­, thanks,¡± I told her while wiping water off my face. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s loot up,¡± Duman said while kicking a crudely constructed camp. His kick was enough to completely turn it over, revealing a mess of stuff. Gemstones were what we were looking for. Jane was our designated looter and support. While carrying and selling orc equipment was an option, there was only so much she could carry. Goblins had a knack for hoarding gemstones or stealing jewelry from nearby human settlements. They adored anything shiny. It was safe to say that adventurers did not assault monster encampments if there weren¡¯t any goblins unless the reward was large enough to compensate for the lack of loot. ¡°Don¡¯t mind if I do ~,¡± she said gleefully while picking up gemstones from the destroyed tent site. Meanwhile, Roseline was walking around and taking notes. I had no idea what she was writing about. Vojmir walked around and made sure that every monster was indeed dead. After having done that, he approached me after untying his left arm. ¡°I see the main problem. As suspected, it¡¯s the balance,¡± he told me. ¡°I know that much,¡± I replied. ¡°A partial solution to the imbalance is improving your left leg and changing how you use it.¡± I blinked a few times. He came up with a solution already? That was fast. ¡°We will get into the details once we get back.¡± ¡°Thank you, sir.¡± I gave him a firm nod. It didn¡¯t take long for Duman to wipe out whatever tents there were and it didn¡¯t take long for Jane to pick up gemstones, either. We were two days away from Ceres, and it was morning when the encampment was cleared. We decided to head back to Ceres right away to reduce the need to camp twice because camping outside was always a dangerous affair. Someone had to stand guard all night as well. It was just better to avoid camping if possible, so that was what we were doing. Instead of camping twice to get back home, we were trying to camp only once. It would burden us more, but we were heading back home anyway. ¡°I think we¡¯ve got around 20 silvers in gemstones,¡± Jane declared while weighing a small pouch in her hands. She was a guild receptionist. Therefore, she was able to make a rough, but accurate, estimate on our earnings. There were five of us, thus we¡¯d get four silver coins each. It was a lot of money for Jane who saved up just 15 silver coins over two years. It was the first big income for me in a while as well. I spent quite a bit lately, so I had to save up also. I wasn¡¯t a kid anymore. I had a wife and a house to save up for. We weren¡¯t going to have kids yet. Jane wanted a house first, so we were saving up for a house together. Yes, I had the gold coins, but she advised me not to use it unless necessary. We agreed that it was our emergency funds essentially. ¡°When will you be able to complete the airship, Lord Sluple?¡± She asked. ¡°It¡¯s about half way done. I¡¯d say two months, give or take a bit.¡± She seemed to be in thoughts for a moment before speaking. ¡°I wonder how many encampment missions we could take on until then.¡± ¡°Do you want to do more of these?¡± Duman seemed a bit surprised. ¡°Of course, this is nice money.¡± ¡°What do you need money for? Faro should have enough money.¡± ¡°I have 14 golds and 96 silvers,¡± I answered. Ten silver coins were spent to persuade Jane¡¯s father, and I had spent some on shrimps and whatnot. ¡°Fourteen??¡± He seemed confused. ¡°Wait, how much were you paid?¡± ¡°The Duke¡­, well, the king has granted me 25 gold coins. I entrusted 10 golds to my mother for my brothers.¡± ¡°Twenty five?¡± He seemed to have come to an understanding. ¡°I see. We were paid 50 gold coins each, Roseline and I.¡±This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. Jane¡¯s and Vojmir¡¯s eyes went wide. I, too, was surprised although not much. ¡°It¡¯s understandable that you were paid twice more,¡± I said. ¡°I was just a pilot, you know.¡± ¡°Well, twenty five gold coins is still a lot to be fair. I feel like you shouldn¡¯t have spent the ten golds for your brothers, though¡­¡± Perhaps he was right. But ¡­ the reason I left five gold coins each for Taro and Abel was that it was the only thing I could ever do for them. I wanted them to remember me by something and hopefully the gold coins will leave some impression of me. ¡°That is a lot of money we are talking about here¡­,¡± Vojmir mumbled. Yeah, it was an inconceivable amount of money for most. Talking about money did make me wonder how much my mentor was being paid for all this. I decided not to ask anything about that in front of everyone, however. ¡°The risk versus the reward, Vojmir,¡± Duman said. ¡°I do wonder whether it was worth it¡­,¡± Roseline mumbled with vacant eyes. I was certain that only those who experienced this would know what it really felt like. For example, my mentor would probably go for it due to the money involved. In contrast, both Duman and Roseline would refuse such a mission at this point. As for me, I wouldn¡¯t accept it anymore, either. Really¡­, once was enough. The nightmares and pains¡­, yeah, once was more than enough. ¡°Ok, let¡¯s camp here,¡± Duman declared. The twilight-colored sky was a good indication that we should indeed camp. Jane was quick to start by setting up a campfire after setting down her large backpack. Only she was carrying a large one. The rest of us were carrying either medium or small bags. Roseline and I were carrying small bags. None of us was helping her, but we weren¡¯t being inconsiderate. We generally let each other do their assigned roles without disturbing them. For Jane, this was her role. ¡°I will stand guard tonight,¡± I volunteered. ¡°Thanks, let¡¯s eat,¡± Duman said. By the time everyone sat down around the campfire, the ground was already pitch black. Cracking from the campfire was the only sound for a brief moment before Jane handed out boar jerky to everyone. ¡°Mentor, if you don¡¯t mind me asking.¡± ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°What was it like in the North during the Age of Darkness?¡± The North was completely devastated, and there was still nothing left at all. ¡°Endless of waves of monsters,¡± he replied while chewing his strip of boar jerky. ¡°Most people couldn¡¯t flee even if they wanted to. They would never make it to another settlement.¡± It¡¯d take days, if not tens of days. Surviving in the wilderness was entirely another level of danger. It was true that they¡¯d never survive unless they had an army with them. ¡°You made out, though?¡± Duman asked casually. ¡°Yeah, I had to flee alone. It was far easier to hide and move undetected that way.¡± ¡°Yeah, that makes sense.¡± ¡°If I had a family, I would have probably never made out.¡± The mood darkened immediately. Well, fuck, I didn¡¯t mean to do this. In an attempt to lighten up the mood, I ended up doing something stupid. ¡°Um, Roseline, since when did you get along with Duman so well?¡± ¡°Excuse me?¡± She sounded surprised. From Duman¡¯s quick glare at me, it was something I shouldn¡¯t have asked. It was time to come up with a way to change the topic. ¡°Nevermind. You know, Jane and I are house-hunting right now. We are looking for a four bedroom home. How much do you think it will cost?¡± I said hurriedly while scratching the back of my head. I was sweating here a bit. To my dismay, nobody answered. Of course, nobody did. The others weren¡¯t looking to settle down and would have no idea about real estate. How silly of me. ¡°Just ask the carpenter like I told you before,¡± was Duman¡¯s brief answer. ¡°R, right¡­¡± It became really awkward right after, and we eventually laid down to get some sleep. The others were sleeping apart from each other. I was sitting down right next to Jane who laid down. She was already soundly asleep. Well, everyone was tired after fighting and walking all day long. Besides, unlike the others, Jane wasn¡¯t used to this kind of workload. Looking down at her, I caressed her well combed brown hair slowly and gently. I slept with this woman two times now. I must admit that I started to see women in a different light after sleeping with her. Women were ¡­ different and delightful to be with. I really didn¡¯t see why guys were itching to end up with girls until I got to sleep with one of them. My seemingly goal-less life had a clear path now. I was going to look after her, raise kids with her, and see them grow up. The first step to that was buying a house. I looked up at the dark sky with many glistering stars. You generally don¡¯t get to look at the night sky unless you are out adventuring. It was beautiful scenery which not many get to enjoy actually. Those living underground would never see this for example. ¡°...........¡± Hours passed while contemplating this and that. It was still pitch dark, but I could see faint silhouettes approaching very stealthily. I have yet to tell anyone but I have been able to see in pitch darkness ever since I was healed by the water elementals. It wasn¡¯t as if I could see clearly, though. I was barely making out the shapes. ¡°Wolves!¡± I shouted which woke up the others while drawing out my sword. ¡°Where?! Can¡¯t see a damned thing!¡± Duman grumbled. I could see eight of them, and they had surrounded us. Dashing to one of them, the wolf seemed shocked that I was coming right at him. With a loud whimper, the wolf was dispatched with a well-aimed thrust into its throat. A nearby wolf jumped at me, but I was able to evade with ease and didn¡¯t miss a chance to slash at its belly as it flew over me. With its blood and intestines pouring out, it fell onto the grass. ¡°You can see in this darkness?!¡± Duman exclaimed. ¡°Just barely!¡± ¡°Well, that¡¯s better than not seeing anything at all! Keep up!¡± ¡°Jane, get the campfire back up!¡± Vojmir demanded. ¡°Y, yes!¡± Another wolf had a go at me which I fended off by shoving my sword right into its mouth. It started to bleed hard from its pierced jaw. In fact, I believed that I cut off half of its tongue. Jumping backwards, it started to run, leaving five wolves to deal with. With the campfire back on, Duman and the others were finally able to see the wolves. Their momentum was completely gone at this point. The final nail in the coffin was Duman¡¯s crossbow taking down yet another wolf in the head. The last remaining four wolves dispersed at once into darkness. ¡°Well, thanks to you, that was easy,¡± Duman said. ¡°You can see in the darkness?¡± Vojmir questioned. ¡°I can¡¯t exactly see. I could barely make out its shape.¡± ¡°That¡¯s better than anyone could hope for really,¡± he replied. Duman approached one of the downed wolves. ¡°You guys wanna eat meat? We have plenty here.¡± Jane¡¯s eyes lit up instantly. ¡°Of course!¡± Taking out a knife, he began to skin a wolf in front of him. I did the same, skinning and cutting off good bits with a knife. Generally, the thighs of hind legs were the good parts and easy to exact quickly. I was sure that there were better bits, but we didn¡¯t have the time to properly skin and exact the meat. Its fur could also be sold, but then Jane wouldn¡¯t be able to carry them. Truthfully, some opportunities for further earnings were wasted. But then we weren¡¯t that hungry for money, so it was okay for us. ¡°Oh my, this is good!¡± Jane exclaimed joyfully as she bit into a juicy piece of roasted wolf leg meat that was skewered by a stick. ¡°This is as good as the roasted boar!¡± ¡°Yeah, wolf meat is not bad. It¡¯s just not as readily available,¡± I replied. ¡°It beats the boar jerky for sure,¡± Duman said. ¡°I wonder if werewolf meat is edible,¡± Roseline said suddenly. ¡°Wolf and werewolves are closely related afterall.¡± I wasn¡¯t sure I agreed. Yes, the names were certainly related, but a werewolf was more of a humanoid than a four-legged animal. ¡°As far as I know, those two are the same. Cursed werewolves have an ability to transform into werewolves,¡± Vojmir said. I did not know that. How do they become cursed in the first place anyway? ¡°I am aware,¡± Roseline replied while taking a bite on her share of the wolf meat. ¡°I¡¯ve researched on the curse a bit and came up with nothing but superstitions.¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± There was a fire elemental nearby the campfire. It resembled a translucent orange salamander that was the size of the forearm. It was staring at the cracking fire. It was near Jane, and she poked at it cautiously. Her finger went into it without resistance. ¡°It¡¯s not hot,¡± she remarked. The fire elemental turned its head to her and then looked back at the fire. What was it thinking, I wondered. ¡°Why do you think elementals suddenly decided to show up?¡± I asked. ¡°No clue, but our king has something to do with it for sure,¡± Duman said. Roseline frowned meanwhile. ¡°Too many mysterious unanswered¡­,¡± she mumbled, again, with a frown. It looked like she was displeased about not having answers to many things. ¡°We don¡¯t even know what elementals are exactly,¡± I said. That was true. As far as I knew, elementals were like spirits that were bound to specific elements. We knew virtually nothing about them. ¡°The king probably knows more than anyone else. He is called ¡®the elemental king¡¯ for a reason,¡± Duman pointed out. ¡°I should have asked when we were given titles¡­,¡± Roseline whispered. I heard that. Well, no, that wouldn¡¯t have been appropriate. To be honest, I felt that her interests were everywhere as if she was constantly looking to set her mind on something. As someone who went through what she had gone through, I realized what was going through her mind exactly. She was trying to keep her mind distracted so that she would not be haunted by the past. I understood her reasoning but felt that her method was not very effective and healthy. Was there anything I could do to help her? ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­.. In the end, it all came down to one aspect: reasons to live on. People had to have a reason to go on even if it was insignificant. If grief outweighed reasons to live and such situation would go on for a prolonged time, then one might commit suicide. Then the next question was ¡­ how I would help her to find reasons to live. Quite frankly, I had no methods to help her except¡­ ¡°Do you want an audience with the king?¡± I said to her, to which she responded with wide eyes. ¡°What?¡± She blurted. She didn¡¯t see that coming clearly. Hell, even I didn¡¯t know. ¡°I could make it happen. You could meet up with the king.¡± I could ask my mom and make it happen. ¡°How? How would you make it happen?¡± That was because the king was my brother. If I asked my mom, she could easily arrange an audience. I wasn¡¯t ashamed to use my connections for something like this. I really, truly, wanted her to reocver on from the bottom of my heart. This was when an earth elemental emerged from the ground and patted my back as if it knew exactly what was going on in my mind. I really don¡¯t know what my brother did to the world, but it had become a bit weird to be honest. Thankfully, because it appeared behind me, only I noticed its presence. ¡°Trust me, Roseline. I can make it happen. Only once, though.¡± I tried to downplay what I was doing. From a side glance, I could tell that Duman knew what I was talking about. He must have known that I was the king¡¯s brother. ¡°So, make it count.¡± After a moment of silence, she beamed a subtle smile at me. ¡°Sure, I will take it. I am going to make a list of questions for him and ask away.¡± Jane, too, looked at me with curiosity but she didn¡¯t ask. The secret of my true lineage was going down with me; I wasn¡¯t going to tell anyone, not even Jane. It was my mother¡¯s wish to keep it that way. Nothing good would come out of revealing the truth, she said. ¡°Duman.¡± ¡°Yeah?¡± ¡°Is my mentor going, too? I mean with the airship.¡± ¡°Oh, I didn¡¯t actually ask him.¡± ¡°What are you two talking about?¡± Vojmir asked. He explained his plan of traveling the world with the airship, the Fat Lady. His reaction was unexpectedly lukewarm. ¡°Is there money in it?¡± ¡°Uncertain. There could be since we will be helping people in need.¡± ¡°Unlike you, I need to keep on making money. I am close to retirement,¡± he said, sounding a bit passive aggressive. To me, it looked like he was turning a bit sore after finding out that Duman had 50 gold coins. Regardless, we needed at least one more person. Duman, Jane, Roseline, and I were not quite enough to operate the airship adequately. Jane would be staying behind in the ship most of the time, and we needed someone else to be with her so that the airship could be guarded. To be honest, Vojmir was too good just to stay behind in the ship. Perhaps, it was better to let him go after my training was over. Thus, I gave a subtle nod over to Duman who noticed my intention. ¡°You will be paid well for training Faro,¡± Duman said. ¡°After that, I guess that¡¯s it.¡± Realistically, I should have been the one who paid him, but my expenses as of late were spiraling out of control. So, if Duman wanted to be the gentleman, I wasn¡¯t going out of my way to pay. ¡°I will think about what to do after,¡± Vojmir replied. He was absolutely considering his options. Sticking with rich people like Duman and Roseline may be an option for him. Whatever the case, he was expandable for us. Putting the matter aside in my mind, I glanced at Jane who was busy devouring the cooked thighs. Food was always one of the top priorities for her. She told me that she always starved during her childhood and admitted that she was addicted to good food, so I never bothered her when she was eating, especially when she was eating something good. By the time we were done with our meal, the sun was slowly creeping out of the horizon. It was time to get a move on and return to Ceres. It was going to be another day of full walking. We should be able to reach our destination just barely in time before the night. 6. House hunt ¡°Excuse us¡­¡± Jane and I entered a carpentry workshop. This was a place I knew fairly well since I used to work here as a journeyman carpenter about seven years ago. It was basically an open place with a bunch of worktables, tools, and lots of sawdust. There was a series of private rooms in the back. I recognized some faces as well. Whether they would recognize me, I was unsure, because I was a forgettable existence back then. I hoped that they wouldn¡¯t since I didn¡¯t want to tell Jane about my past. I mean, I wanted to be cool in front of her. ¡°What can we do for you?¡± A man in his late 20s or early 30s greeted us. I knew the guy. He was the son of the head carpenter. He was in line to take over the shop once his father retired. I was fairly sure that he¡¯d recognize me since he was the one who decided that I wouldn¡¯t advance past journeyman class. I didn¡¯t have any grudge against him because I knew that I wasn¡¯t good enough. Blinking his eyes a few times, he looked at me funny. ¡°Faro? Is that you?¡± I put on a fake smile and replied, ¡°Hello, sir. It¡¯s been a while.¡± ¡°It has been!¡± He looked glad to see me. I didn¡¯t, but whatever. ¡°How have you been ¡­¡± He didn¡¯t finish his sentence because he noticed that I was missing an arm. ¡°It¡¯s a long story,¡± I replied with a sad grin. Jane was standing by my left side and she immediately embraced my torso with her arm. ¡°I, I see. Ehm¡­¡± The air was awkward for a moment before he finally noticed Jane. ¡°Who¡¯s the girl with you?¡± ¡°She is my wife,¡± I declared. The head carpenter¡¯s son, whose name was Galdin by the way, looked shocked and took a step back. He looked at me and her repeatedly as if he was in doubt. ¡°I am his wife,¡± she followed, ensuring that I wasn¡¯t joking for the sake of keeping a face. He had always looked down on me. While he didn¡¯t bully me actively, he tried to get in my way more often than he should have. And there was something else; Jane was a cute girl. Her appearance was above average for women around here. I mean, there was a reason I pursued her over other girls. My gut feeling was that Galdin got immediately jealous over her because his wife was a thug. He tried to brag to others that the woman was a beauty, but nobody was falling for that. I heard that it was an arranged marriage, meaning he had little choice in the matter. His dad wanted to expand his business influence, and Galdin needed to marry a certain woman to achieve that easily. You know what? I chose Jane, and she chose me. She had options, yet she chose me. There was something oddly satisfying in that fact. I started to understand what my mom said about men seeing their women as some sort of trophy. Jane was my achievement for others to see, and she was above average. Anyway, Galdin cleared his throat. ¡°I, I see,¡± he said, finally snapping out of his internal defeat. Clearing his throat once again, he fixed his buttoned shirt. ¡°So, what can I do for you?¡± ¡°We are looking for a house,¡± I told him. ¡°I see. What kind? A shed with two rooms?¡± I snickered internally. The dude was totally looking down on me. Fucker. ¡°We are looking for a proper house with at least four bedrooms,¡± I declared, and Galdin took a step back once more, looking mildly shocked. ¡°I am sorry, but do you have any idea how much that would cost? Are you looking for a house inside the walls or outside?¡± Houses outside the walls would be obviously much cheaper. It was time to nuke him once again. ¡°Inside the walls.¡± ¡°Do you even have the money?!¡± he exclaimed back. ¡°How much does one usually cost?¡± He fixed his shirt once again. He wasn¡¯t good at hiding his internal emotions. ¡°At least over a gold coin. More if you pick a prime spot.¡± ¡°We can afford that.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t lie!¡± he barked, having had enough seemingly. ¡°You must be playing me! And she is not your wife, is she?!¡± His voice started to attract other carpenters in the workshop. I was about to talk back, but it was Jane who spoke up as if she had enough of this bullshit. ¡°HOW DARE YOU!¡± Taking a step forward, she puffed her chest and exclaimed. ¡°We¡¯ve come to inquire about purchasing a house, and this is how you treat your customers?! What kind of nonsense is this?!¡± Others in the workshop exchanged hurried whispers. ¡°Are you the head of this workshop?!¡± she demanded, to which Galdin stammered in response. ¡°W, well¡­, I, I, am actually not ¡­¡± ¡°Bring out whoever is in charge! I am filing a formal complaint!¡± ¡°I¡­, no¡­, wait ¡­¡± ¡°What is going on here?¡± A heavily wrinkled man in his 50s was walking slowly from inside. He had a walking stick and was limping a bit. I recognized him. He was Galdin¡¯s father and was the owner of the workshop. I worked under him technically although I barely saw him. I was mostly under Galdin¡¯s supervision. ¡°Who are you?¡± she demanded. ¡°Derdin, the owner of this place. Who are you and what is going on?¡± ¡°We¡¯ve come to purchase a house, and this man here thinks we are joking. What kind of nonsense is this?!¡± Jane was an experienced guild receptionist, thus she was pretty good at exercising authority in verbal arguments. She was especially effective against idiots. ¡°Lad, is she speaking the truth?¡± I was sure that Galdin wanted to deny but he kept on stammering, unable to mount a coherent sentence. I also didn¡¯t know why he was reacting really badly against her. Either way, Derdin shook his head slowly while sighing. ¡°I¡¯ve heard enough. Galdin, go back inside.¡± Reluctantly, he headed back with sagged shoulders. His face was red with embarrassment. ¡°My apologies, miss.¡± Folding her arms, she scoffed without saying anything. Looking around, Derdin lifted his walking stick slightly and smashed it down, creating a knocking sound. ¡°Get back to work, all of you!¡± he berated, then he addressed us with a much softer voice. ¡°A house, you said? Are you a newlywed couple?¡± ¡°Yes, we are,¡± I replied with a nod. ¡°A house with at least four bedrooms.¡± ¡°Inside or outside walls?¡± ¡°Inside.¡± He nodded along. ¡°You must realize that it¡¯s going to cost you?¡± ¡°Yes, we are aware. We are shopping around.¡± ¡°Young man, it¡¯s not as simple as that. Right now, Ceres is almost full to the brim inside the walls. As the new capital of the new kingdom, many nobles are looking to settle down here and somehow earn the young king¡¯s favor.¡± ¡°How bad is it then?¡± ¡°I am afraid that all the prime spots are already taken. Some less desirable lots could be available.¡± ¡°What do you mean by less desirable?¡± It was Jane who asked. ¡°Closer to the walls, a house will get less sunlight per day. That is one of the major downsides of the less desirable lots. Another is neighborhoods. Quite frankly, money alone won¡¯t do it. You need to be more than a commoner.¡± ¡°I am a lord,¡± I declared. The old man furrowed his eyebrows. ¡°You are? Which house do you belong to?¡± He must have doubted my claim. ¡°The Fenchel.¡± The old man¡¯s eyes went wide and stared at me for a good ten seconds. ¡°Just so we are clear, it¡¯s a different branch from the king¡¯s.¡± ¡°Lad, you cannot lie about things like this.¡± He was having a hard time believing me, I got that. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t lie. You can check with the palace if you like. I am a fully registered noble as the Fenchel.¡± The Fenchel, regardless what branch it was, held a significant influence. There were two main branches. The Lux Fenchel was the original branch. Our king, Kamil Fenchel, was originally from this branch. He ended up establishing a new branch as the Ceres Fenchel because he ascended to the throne. The bottom line was that no matter how small, nobody was going to be granted the name ¡°Fenchel¡± unless he or she was somehow related to the Fenchel bloodline. ¡°Well, in that case, you wouldn¡¯t have any issue at all being able to purchase a lot within the walls as long as your wallet permits.¡± ¡°Give us a price range,¡± Jane asked. ¡°You have two choices. Buy an empty lot and build a house or purchase an existing house from someone. The price of a lot varies greatly, but you will also need permission from the king¡¯s court to proceed. Now, if you are purchasing a house from someone, you can skip the permission part.¡± Jane and I looked at each other. ¡°Just so you know, purchasing a house from someone else is going to cost a lot more than buying a lot and building a new house. Houses in Ceres are in very high demand.¡± He looked around. ¡°Gavi, come here.¡± A young man rushed toward him at once, abandoning whatever he was doing at his work table from a short distance. ¡°Boss.¡± ¡°Walking around is a bit too hard for me. Guide this couple around the city and show them houses and lots.¡± ¡°Got it, sir.¡± ¡°They are esteemed guests. Treat them with respect.¡± Then he turned to Jane. ¡°I apologize again for my idiotic son¡¯s behavior. That lad still hasn¡¯t grasped the fact that he is just a mere carpenter in the end.¡± ¡°I¡¯d change who inherits your workshop if I were you,¡± she said. She wasn¡¯t really backing down. Damn, girl. ¡°Noted,¡± the old man replied with a sad grin. ¡°Now excuse me.¡± The young man, Gavi, replaced the old man with glee. He was much taller than me and had short brown hair and eyes. He had a dark green shirt with a leather vest on. He didn¡¯t look like a carpenter.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. ¡°Are you a carpenter?¡± I asked because he didn¡¯t dress up like one. ¡°Not exactly. I am a real estate agent.¡± ¡°Real e, what?¡± I blurted. I had no idea what he meant. ¡°I am basically a shopping assistant when people are looking for lands and houses.¡± ¡°What does that have to do with this carpenter workshop?¡± ¡°The days of just building structures are over. It has slowed down greatly. Instead, people are now mostly purchasing existing homes. That is where I enter.¡± The three of us were walking casually toward a gate. The carpentry workshop was located outside of the wall. And, since we were looking to buy a house inside the walls, there was some walking to do. ¡°It took us about only a decade to build a whole new goddamn city!¡± Gavi declared proudly. ¡°The boss worked his bones off. He deserves his retirement.¡± I didn¡¯t have many memories about how the city was built up. I was simply too young and I stayed mostly within my father''s tea farm. I did recall doing some work for the merchant whose name was ¡­ Julian or something? It¡¯s where I met Esther as well. Those were certainly awkward times¡­ ¡°What¡¯s the price range we are looking for?¡± Jane asked. ¡°You are looking for a medium-sized house. On a premium lot, it isn¡¯t really about money but connections. But there are only manors on premium lots. So, that¡¯s out of your options. I will show you the available lots. Whether you will get permission for it is an entirely different matter.¡± ¡°Does a lot cost money? She asked. ¡°It depends. If a noble house like the Flissing asks for it, then I reckon it won¡¯t cost money.¡± The Flissing was another very prestigious house within the kingdom. In fact, the queen was from the Flissing, thus it was safe to assume that they were the most powerful noble house in the kingdom. As far as I knew, the Flissing did have a manor near the palace. ¡°Again, it¡¯s all about connections,¡± he added. ¡°Faro, perhaps we should search a lot outside the walls. I am getting a bit scared.¡± She was a commoner. Trying to settle among the wealthy and nobles must have touched her nerve. We would be looked down upon. It was probably a better idea to find a neighborhood that suited our standard of living. ¡°I want to settle down inside the walls,¡± I insisted. ¡°We can find a lot closer to the walls. We won¡¯t get harassed by rich neighbors that way probably.¡± There was a significant difference in security living inside and outside the walls. Obviously, those living inside of the walls would be much better protected. Additionally, the central market would be much closer, making shopping much easier. ¡°Mr Gavi, lead us to a neighborhood where wealthy merchants or minor nobles reside.¡± ¡°Got it. Follow me.¡± As soon as we passed through the western gate, I could clearly see that houses were grouped in a way that it was easy to see wealth class between them. This was something I never noticed as a child. The closer houses were to the mountain palace, the grandeur they were. By following that pattern, the house we were going to end up with was probably going to be closer to the walls. There seemed to be no way around this. And, as expected, where Mr Gavi led us was closer to the walls. ¡°Can we go to the Northern part?¡± I asked. The closer to the guild, it was probably better. ¡°Alright, follow me. I believe some lots are available there in fact.¡± The closer to the walls, the less organized houses were. The houses closest to the walls were very much clustered together without any rules seemingly. But the quality of houses were better than those found outside. They had stone foundations and properly plastered walls with proper roofs. Its inner adjacent block fared much better with each house having small, but clear, boundaries next to each other. Then we saw manors with low stone walls further in. We weren¡¯t going to be able to afford a manor. Well, I could afford to buy it. It was just that I wouldn¡¯t be able to maintain it for the rest of my life with just 15 gold coins and I didn¡¯t have a stable income at the moment. Jane did have a stable income as a guild receptionist, but her wage was nowhere enough to be able to maintain a manor because she was paid 3 iron coins per shift. It was a level of income as a peasant to be honest. Even if we worked together as guild receptionists, it wouldn¡¯t be nowhere enough. Adventuring was a temporary option to boost income, but it was never going to be stable. I mean, look at Vojmir. He was in his 40s and was already looking for retirement. It made me think about what I should do for a living because I was pretty much unemployed at the moment. While having such thoughts, Gavi showed us numerous empty lots. ¡°Oh, I like that one,¡± Jane said while pointing at an empty lot with overgrown grass and weeds. It was within the second block from the Northern wall. She clearly chose not to bother with the closest block because it was only slightly better than living in poverty. ¡°You are looking at a corner lot,¡± he said, casually walking toward the empty lot overgrown with weeds and wildflowers. ¡°Corner lots are always in demand.¡± ¡°This one¡¯s not taken, yes?¡± she asked. All three of us were standing by the lot. There was a house next to it, a two-story building with a stone foundation and wooden walls. A proper house always had a stone foundation because it did two most important things for a house. One, it helped to drain water into the ground from rain and would help to keep the house out of water at the same time. Two, it would level a house. Any self-respecting carpenters would know how important that would be. No ground was perfectly level, and building a structure on a slope without leveling it properly would spell a disaster in future. ¡°Not taken for sure. If it was, I would have known about it.¡± Looking around, I found that half of the corner lots on this specific block weren''t taken. I assumed that corner lots cost far more. ¡°How do we apply for the lot?¡± she asked. ¡°It¡¯s my job to apply. Come visit the workshop tomorrow morning. We will know by then. Just so we are clear, please don¡¯t have expectations. No lot has been approved recently inside the walls.¡± ¡°Do you need permission when building outside the walls as well?¡± I asked. ¡°Ehm, sort of. When we are building closer to the walls, we will ask. If further out, we generally don¡¯t. I need your full name by the way.¡± ¡°It¡¯s Faro Fenchel.¡± He froze momentarily. ¡°Fenchel?¡± he blurted. ¡°It¡¯s a different branch,¡± I added hurriedly. My name was somewhat troublesome to let others know. He looked really skeptical. It was the truth, though. I had nothing to do with the king. Well¡­, that¡¯d be a lie, but I had nothing to do with him really. I know I am contradicting myself, but oh well. Gavi took my name and headed straight toward the mountain palace. Yes, the king¡¯s palace was built inside a mountain. It was probably the first ever for a palace to be built inside. I had no idea why exactly. People called the palace the fairy castle sometimes because the place was always crawling with elementals ever since the Age of Darkness ended. Anyone with any slightest bit of dark intentions toward the royal family were shut down by elementals, or so I heard. The place didn¡¯t even need guards therefore. ¡°... Do you think we will get the permission? He said no permission was given in recent times,¡± she said with a worried voice while watching him go. I placed my arm around her shoulder, dragging her closer to me. ¡°Well, we can always purchase a house. It will cost more, but the option is there for us.¡± ¡°I¡¯d rather save as much as possible¡­¡± I didn¡¯t disagree. Until I had a stable job with a solid income level, even the middle tier house we were going after was going to be hard to maintain. A bigger question was what kind of job I could have. In the short term, I assumed that the journey with Duman was going to earn my keep. And then what? I needed a decent job, and being an adventurer wasn¡¯t one. ¡°Faro, I want to continue working,¡± she told me softly. ¡°I will eventually be a housewife but I want to work for now.¡± ¡°Fine by me. Until we have a baby, why not enjoy working. Do you want to eat something nice?¡± It took her a few seconds to answer. ¡°No, let¡¯s just go back to the guild. I am going to do a shift.¡± Our reality was that we needed money. My savings of 15 gold coins wasn¡¯t going to last long at the current rate of spending. The house was going to cost at least a gold coin, and then there was furniture. Honestly, if it wasn¡¯t for the reward from the dragon hunt, I did feel that Jane may have not chosen me because I¡¯d be flat broke without the money. We would have been in poverty, unable to afford even a shed. I would have continued living in the guild to save up. Her savings of 15 silver coins wouldn¡¯t have been able to get anything done. I took a deep breath at such thoughts and had second thoughts about having given 10 gold coins to my brothers. Perhaps, I should have kept the money to myself. My parents were rich after all. Trying to act cool made my situation only worse, it looked like. I never imagined money to be an issue when I had a sizable savings. ¡°I am going to run to the guild now. I want to do noon and afternoon shifts, so I will see you later or tomorrow,¡± she said, leaving me behind. ¡°Yeah, I will see you soon.¡± I waved at her. Vojmir had been training me in spare time, so I couldn¡¯t quite work a shift. The method he came up with to rebalance me was that I had to move my left leg far wider, essentially shifting my center of balance so that I don¡¯t tumble as easily. He also recommended adding a small pouch of iron weights on the left side of my belt. Then I would need to get used to it by fighting aerobically. I looked up at the sky to determine time. It was early morning when Jane and I visited the workshop. At least a few hours must have passed by, meaning it was likely late morning or noon at the most. ¡°Hmm, maybe I should¡­¡± I had the stamina to be able to run for hours without tiring. I had this grand idea of catching a wild animal, a boar or a wolf, and giving Jane meat she always craved. And so I ran like the wind. My destination was a long distance away from Ceres into the woods. It didn¡¯t take long for me to come afar to a point that all I was seeing was occasional patches of forests and flat wilderness. It was the forests I was after since monsters and wild animals made their home in such spots. This was where local hunters would get their prey predominantly. It normally didn¡¯t make much sense that animals and monsters could continue to spawn from such small spots that were only the size of perhaps several large manors grouped together. But nobody really gave it deep thoughts since their food source was seemingly inextinguishable. ¡°Roseline would love to get to the bottom of it, though,¡± I whispered as I walked into a nearby patch of a forest stealthily. The whole area dimmed immediately as if I was entering a whole different world, and cries from bugs felt amplified. I positioned myself inside of a large bushes and waited for something to show up, and it did soon enough. It was a boar, squealing around to find food or whatever. When it smelled something weird, which was probably my scent, it froze up for a brief moment, and I didn¡¯t miss that chance to jump out of my hiding spot and shove my sword into its throat from below. I was fast enough to do this before the boar could react, and it was down on the ground even before it could do anything, bleeding profusely. It struggled by wiggling his legs for a moment before going silent. ¡°Well, that was easy enough.¡± If you knew how to hunt, going after animals wasn¡¯t a hard task. I learned the tricks mostly from Duman who taught me a lot of things while I trained at the guild from the age of ten. After making sure that it was indeed dead, I tied its hind legs together and lifted it by the legs, carrying it on my back upside down. It would continue to drain its blood that way, making it easier to skin later. It was as large as my entire upper body, but it didn¡¯t feel that heavy. My next destination was the central market, not the guild. I just wanted its hind legs. I was going to sell the rest straight to a butcher. I wasn¡¯t sure how much I¡¯d get but I¡¯d soon find out. ¡°You want just the hind legs?¡± A butcher responded as I handed over the dead boar to him over a counter. The man was shirtless although he did have an apron. ¡°I can do that. Selling the rest?¡± ¡°Yeah, how much would I get?¡± He inspected the wound on its throat. The blood wasn¡¯t even dry, implying that the meat was as fresh as it could possibly get. ¡°This is very fresh. I will give you five iron coins.¡± ¡°That is after I get the hind legs, right?¡± ¡°Correct.¡± ¡°Deal.¡± The man carried the dead boar to the back and hung it upside down. Then he skillfully sliced off its hind legs. It wasn¡¯t skinned yet, so it came with its fur. Fur wasn¡¯t in demand in Ceres because it hardly got cold. Boar fur was especially not in demand for sure. He wrapped the hind legs with thick papers and handed them over to me along with the five iron coins. ¡°How much would I have gotten if I sold the whole thing?¡± ¡°Six or seven iron coins. Always bring it with fur intact because the fur protects the flesh from bugs.¡± He recalled a whole boar costing around 10 iron coins before. Did the price go up? ¡°How much do you sell a whole boar for now?¡± ¡°To roast?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°It¡¯s 12 iron coins now. The demand is high.¡± Not bad, not bad at all, he thought. ¡°Are you planning to hunt more?¡± ¡°Maybe.¡± ¡°If you are, bring them in as early as possible. The wealthy tend to purchase them at noon to prepare for dinner. I can sell them for more if they are really fresh.¡± ¡°I will keep that in my mind.¡± While taking the hind legs in my arms to the guild, I did think about doing this regularly. I¡¯d get seven iron coins in the morning and have my meal at the guild, which was free. For the amount of time spent, the earning was excellent. When I entered the guild, Jane was working at the counter, and there was a small line. Therefore, I ignored her and went straight to the kitchen and handed the hind legs over to the guild chef. ¡°For Jane,¡± I added. ¡°And for me.¡± ¡°Damn, dude, you are making me jealous,¡± he replied with a chuckle. ¡°I wanna get married, too.¡± ¡°Then get married, dude.¡± ¡°Easier said than done, my guy.¡± I chuckled this time. That was true. The chef was in his late teens. He entered the guild to specifically become a cook. Of course, being a chef meant his opportunity to meet women was rather scarce. Then I went to the backyard to find Duman and Vojmir. ¡°Yo, you are a bit late,¡± Vojmir said. ¡°Get ready for training.¡± ¡°Yes, sir.¡± I looked at the airship. It was getting done. The exterior was already complete. A month or so was probably all Duman was going to need. Anyway, I drew out my sword and faced Vojmir. It was time to train and get used to my imbalance. When Jane and I visited the workshop the next day, the owner, Derdin, was standing in the middle of the shop, looking dazed. Gavi was also with him with excitement on his face. There were other carpenters scattered about, minding their own businesses. ¡°Oh, you are here!¡± Gavi was the first one to greet him. His greeting snapped Derdin out of his daze. The old man looked at me weirdly. ¡°Lad, who are you?¡± he asked me all of a sudden. ¡°I beg your pardon?¡± ¡°It was approved!¡± Gavi exclaimed with glee, jumping up and down. ¡°We haven¡¯t built inside the walls for over a year!¡± ¡°I will personally oversee the construction,¡± said the old man with resoluteness in his eyes. ¡°This will be my last one before full retirement.¡± Apparently, he wanted to take on a project inside the walls before entering his full retirement and, because no lot was approved for a considerable amount of time, he had been delaying his retirement to a point that he was almost forced to retire. ¡°How much is it going to cost?¡± ¡°Just give me a gold coin. Do you have that much?¡± asked the old man. ¡°I do.¡± ¡°That''s a bargain,¡± Gavi added with a smile. I had a ¡­ bad feeling. 7. Money ¡°Here you go,¡± I told the butcher as I hung a dead boar upside down on a rack. I became a regular supplier, so I didn¡¯t go to the front counter anymore. I simply went to the back of his shop and did the business. Additionally, he prepared hind legs separately so that he wouldn¡¯t need to chop up a perfectly fine boar. He could make more coins that way. Grabbing a pair of hind legs wrapped in paper, he handed it over to me along with six iron coins. ¡°Here is the payment,¡± he told me with a grin. ¡°I wish you could catch more. Your catch is sold as soon as I skin it and prepare. It cannot get any more fresh than this.¡± ¡°Is it the same person?¡± I couldn¡¯t imagine eating roasted boar every single day. No matter how good something was, you wouldn¡¯t want it every single day. ¡°It¡¯s mostly the same maid who purchases it. But I don¡¯t care. It¡¯s first come and first serve. She just happens to be the first one most of the time.¡± ¡°Just so you are aware, I won¡¯t be doing this for much longer.¡± The butcher looked shocked and froze for a bit. ¡°What? For real?¡± I nodded. The Fat Lady was almost complete. In fact, Duman had flown her to test it, and it was a successful flight. We were almost ready to depart. ¡°Maybe for some more days, and that¡¯s it. I¡¯ve got a job now.¡± ¡°Man, that is just too bad,¡± he muttered with a sigh. ¡°Don¡¯t hunters sell you enough boars?¡± ¡°Well, they do and they don¡¯t.¡± What does that even mean? I wondered. He explained, ¡°They bring skinned games and they are always a day old at least. Your catch is extremely fresh, and the rich want fresh meat.¡± For hunters, every bit mattered, so it was understandable that they would skin their catches to get extra out of fur and whatnot. In doing so, their meat would not be as fresh as my catches which I was selling almost immediately after it was caught. ¡°Does freshness make that big of a difference? I mean a day old doesn¡¯t sound that significant?¡± ¡°To us common folks, it won¡¯t matter. But I¡¯ve been hearing that it matters to the nobles. I guess their taste buds are different? Or delicate? Who the fuck knows. The bottom line is that they could tell apparently.¡± ¡°I see. Sorry about that.¡± Honestly, I wasn¡¯t sorry. I wasn¡¯t going to do this for the rest of my life. The dude was just displeased that his earning was going down somewhat. Hm, yes, I did earn quite a bit over about a month. Seven iron coins day was decent. I wasn¡¯t spending on food and a room, so I was saving everything I earned. A month of this would have earned two silver coins and ten iron coins. A whole year would earn me 25 silver coins. If I took a second job or could take on guild receptionist shifts, I would have earned far more. Jane earned about 15 silver coins over two years as a guild receptionist. Yes, the earning was more than decent, but I didn¡¯t feel that this was what I was going to do for the rest of my life. ¡°Anyhow, I will do this as long as I can, but no more guarantees, sir.¡± Looking clearly disappointed, he slashed his chopping knife hard on a wooden board, slicing off some chunk of meat he was preparing for sale. Perhaps, worst of all, he didn¡¯t give me a reply. Whatever. Leaving him behind and holding my hind legs wrapped in thick paper, I gleefully walked toward the guild. It was a husband¡¯s job to feed his woman well, and I was proud that I was feeding Jane well. She finally no longer devoured the roasted hind legs and ate properly with manners. She probably had enough of it to be honest. You can¡¯t have the same thing over and over every single day and end up enjoying it. I should probably get her boiled shrimp now with the earnings. It would be far more expansive, though. She wouldn¡¯t be able to consume it every single day, maybe once a week perhaps. ¡°Hello, good sirs!¡± I exclaimed to a small group of carpenters who were working on building a new house on the corner lot I was approved of about a month ago. I could also spot Derdin who was wearing very lightly, revealing his overly skinny and heavy wrinkled body. I had a feeling that the man wasn¡¯t doing well health-wise because he looked horribly underweight. My house was to be his last project, and he would retire completely afterwards. I heard that he may send his son away after handing him some money so that someone else could inherit the workshop but I doubt that gossip was true. Who¡¯d send his own son away? ¡°Good to see you, lad,¡± Derdin responded after some coughs. At the moment, they were done with the foundation work. This was the most crucial part of any structure construction. The foundation had to be done as perfectly as possible. As long as the foundation was done right, a house could be rebuilt swiftly even if it was burned down. It was done by digging out some earth to create a rectangular hole that was about knee deep in general, and then they would gather sizable rocks and throw them in there to fill the void. As they placed the rocks, they would use gravel to fill gaps. This would accomplish several things that were very important to any wooden construction. One, the foundation would raise the whole building a bit above the soils, giving it a safety net in case of heavy rain and such. This would prevent rotting of load bearing wooden pillars as well as a direct side effect. Two, it would level the ground to build upon. Three, a properly done stone foundation gave a house a nice, fancier, look. Looking around, I saw some houses without a proper foundation. They must have done it to save some money. I could understand that. But, for a house to last for generations, a foundation had to be done and done right. There was no doubt that Derdin was doing the foundation right, which was why it took almost a whole month just for the foundation to complete. ¡°I see that you are doing a masterful job, sir,¡± I told him. ¡°Of course! This is my last project. I must do this right with all my knowledge I gathered over the years.¡± Then his hard coughs followed. Yeah, the guy wasn¡¯t doing well. He could well be dying. ¡°I will see you later, sir.¡± ¡°Have a good day, lad.¡± Then I continued on and shook off my lingering thoughts about Derdin. I had nothing to do with him. His probable impending demise wasn¡¯t my concern. The guild lobby looked fairly tame today when I entered the guild. There were two guild receptionists with Jane being one of them. She had no one to serve, so I was free to interact with her. ¡°Hey, Jane,¡± I said to her with a smile. ¡°Hey,¡± she replied back, again with a smile. Her eyes caught the package I was holding. ¡°The legs?¡± ¡°Yeppers. Will hand¡¯em over to the cook.¡± ¡°Thank you, Faro.¡± ¡°Not a problem.¡± The female receptionist who was standing a short distance from her pouted after being done with an adventurer. ¡°Man, I wish I had a guy,¡± she muttered half-jokingly with a visible pout. Surprisingly, despite a lot of young men and women being together, the guild didn¡¯t actually have that many couples. Married ones were even rarer. In fact, as far as I knew, there were only three married couples within the guild, and we were one of the three. It ¡­ It ¡­ would have been four if Meizei survived ¡­ God¡­, damn it ¡­ Tears formed in my eyes immediately. I looked away to avoid being seen and proceeded to the kitchen, handing over the hind legs in a rush. I really should avoid thinking of them¡­ It wasn¡¯t good for my mental health. Getting over it wasn¡¯t possible, I realized. This was going to be with me until I drew my last breath. ¡°Amanda¡­, Meizei¡­, Ayaan¡­,¡± I mumbled in a whispering tone as I walked away from the kitchen with my eyes downcast. ¡°I won¡¯t forget you three.¡± Then I scoffed. ¡°More like I cannot forget the three of you. You lot will linger in my head forever until I die, probably.¡± This was especially true for Amanda¡­ I really, truly, wished her to be here from the very bottom of my heart. I wanted her to bless my marriage with Jane. I really wanted to cry. I walked up to Jane, placed my hand on her shoulder and made her forcefully turn toward me. ¡°What¡­?¡± She was surprised, it sounded like. ¡°I am sorry. I just want to borrow your chest.¡± Then I plunged my face into her chest, sobbing very subtly. ¡°Let, let¡¯s go outside,¡± she said hurriedly. Truthfully speaking, this wasn¡¯t the first time I broke down like this. She must have known why I was acting like this. Case in point, she embraced my head warmly as she rushed out. ¡°It¡¯s alright,¡± she whispered to me as she rushed out of the building. For others, we must have looked like we were having a romantic moment because some of them whistled excitedly. Fuckers! Not everything was about boobs and pussies¡­ Not everything was about ¡­ ¡°I feel like your breasts have grown larger,¡± I remarked. My wave of sadness was already over. And I wasn¡¯t joking. It did feel like her boobs became bigger. ¡°Maybe because you¡¯ve played them?¡± I had no idea that playing with them would make them bigger. What do you know, I learned something new. ¡°Anyway, sorry, it was a momentary burst,¡± I said while taking my face out of the valley. ¡°I can''t get mad at you really.¡± ¡°By the way, have you seen the house? They are finally done with the foundation.¡± ¡°Have they? They were taking a really long time just for the foundation. By the way¡­¡± She hesitated to continue for some reason. ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°Haven¡¯t you felt that the foundation is a little too big?¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°We asked for a house with four bedrooms, but the foundation looked quite big for a house of that size.¡± I never actually paid any attention to the size of the thing. Recalling what I saw a moment earlier¡­, it did look like she had a point. The foundation ¡­ did look quite large. ¡°Let¡¯s go check right now.¡± ¡°I am sorry, but my shift hasn¡¯t ended. I can¡¯t abandon my post.¡± ¡°Then I will go right now and check on it.¡± She nodded. ¡°Yes, please.¡± Having a little bigger house wasn¡¯t an issue by itself. But, if Derdin was building a house much bigger than we asked for¡­, then there would be an issue. Thankfully, only the foundation was completed. It wouldn¡¯t be too late to revert if the plan was for a bigger house. Leaving the guild behind, I made my way to the foundation swiftly. ¡°Oh? You are back?¡± one of the workers said to me. Looking around, I didn¡¯t find Derdin. ¡°Excuse me, but do you have the floor plan of the house?¡± ¡°The floor plan? No, we are just following the boss¡¯ orders.¡± ¡°Then do you, by any chance, know how big the house is going to be?¡± The worker laid his eyes on the foundation and took a moment to calculate. ¡°I¡¯d wager this is for a house with six bedrooms. Four rooms on the second floor and two on the first.¡± That was two more bedrooms than we asked for ¡­ Wait. ¡°Why just two rooms on the first floor?¡± ¡°The kitchen and living room take up a considerable amount of space. A house of four bedrooms is probably better to be a bungalow.¡± ¡°How come?¡± ¡°Like I said, the kitchen and the living room take up a good amount of space. If it¡¯s a two-story, the space taken up by those will be enough for four small bedrooms on the second floor. But it¡¯s better to have at least a room on the first floor for a maid or whatnot. In the end, having two rooms on the first floor enables four good-sized bedrooms upstairs. This is a logical choice.¡± ¡°What if I want a bungalow?¡± He shook his head. ¡°The lot is too small for a bungalow with four bedrooms. It has to include the kitchen and the living room also. A two-story is the logical choice.¡± ¡°And, if it¡¯s a two-story, six rooms are ideal for the lot size?¡± ¡°That¡¯s correct.¡± Folding my arms, I let out a short sigh. This wasn¡¯t a huge issue but wasn¡¯t ideal, either. Six rooms! The house was going to be almost empty when we moved in. It would feel weird to live in such a big house with just two people. Am I going to need a maid? How much is a maid? That was such an unneeded expanse I didn¡¯t want to think about. ¡°What a headache,¡± I whispered to myself as I bid good-bye to the carpenter who was readying polished lumber for load bearing posts. There were two other men with him who were taking a short break sitting on top of the lumbers. The reality was that we were probably getting more than we paid for, so it wasn¡¯t something I wanted to complain out loud. At the same time, selling the house wasn¡¯t an option, either, because getting permission to build a house was nigh impossible at the moment. We were basically stuck with a home that was too big for the two of us for the time being. ¡°Maybe rent out some rooms?¡± I wondered aloud on my way back to the guild to inform Jane. When I informed Jane about the state of the house, she also had a look of concern. ¡°A house of that size¡­, we might actually need a maid,¡± she mumbled. Employing maids wasn¡¯t exclusively done by nobles. Anyone wealthy hired them. The ¡°wealthy¡± part was a troublesome one for us because we weren¡¯t. I had the money in gold coins but had no regular income that was high enough to keep a maid hired probably. To be fair, our current earning level was enough for us to be able to live pretty comfortably without ever going hungry. The issue was that we were trying to become a level above just being commoners. ¡°Would it be possible ¡­ to have some sort of a passive income?¡± I wondered aloud, feeling somewhat desperate. I mean, I had 14 gold coins sitting pretty. It wasn¡¯t a stretch of an imagination that I was thinking of making money with money. ¡°Is that even possible?¡± She, too, was skeptical. She hailed from a farming family. The way of the merchant was lost on her, and it went the same for me. ¡°I have, eh¡­, a merchant friend who might be able to help me out.¡± That merchant friend was Esther. We hadn¡¯t talked for years since we were forced to break up, and she might not even meet me. Hell, she might not even remember me anymore. It¡¯s been like seven years or so. We were just kids back then. Having made up my mind to see her, I made my way to a specific market stall she used to work at in the central market. She no longer worked in the market anymore. Nowadays, she worked mostly in the background, especially after her marriage to the young lord Flissing. In fact, I heard that she and Julian set up something called a company. Its name was JnE Co. I could easily guess what JnE stood for: Julian and Esther. ¡°Hey, is Esther at the company?¡± I asked the guys working at the stall, who were mostly selling breads, waterskins, and boar jerky to miners. It was getting closer to noon, so they were starting to gather for lunch. ¡°What? Who are you?¡± One of them responded rather aggressively. ¡°I am just asking.¡± ¡°It¡¯s none of your biz. Bugger off.¡± I tossed an iron coin over to him. ¡°She¡¯s there,¡± he said with a change of his tone. I had to make sure because she wasn¡¯t always present in Ceres. She made frequent visits to Dido where the main house of the Flissing was located. I could have just asked their butler at the company house but I doubted that I¡¯d get an honest answer. At least, if I knew that she was there, I could insist on meeting her and get a better chance. ¡°Thanks.¡± And I headed toward the Southern part of the city where JnE Co was. The company house wasn¡¯t actually that far away from my parents¡¯ farm. It wasn¡¯t even a house; it was a large unconventional manor. It¡¯s not even really a manor, though. It was just a giant warehouse with a house attached to its side. The giant structure was where they were storing all the goods. This place was always busy as far as I knew with carts going in and out until evening. Sometimes even evenings would get busy. When I got there, it was busy with over ten carts present around the warehouse which had a giant set of doors in front that was wide open at the moment, allowing carts to enter and leave as needed. Armed guards were present also, who became immediately alert due to my presence. I was unknown to them after all. I raised my hands midway at once.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. ¡°I am no threat.¡± ¡°State your business,¡± said a guard with his hands on the grip of his sword on his belt. ¡°I¡¯ve come to see Lady Flissing.¡± The guard scoffed. ¡°She is busy. Bugger off.¡± ¡°Just give her a message, will you?¡± I wanted to toss a coin at him, but my hands were up at the moment. The guard glanced back where there were two more guards. They exchanged looks, and he turned his attention back to me. ¡°Bugger off,¡± he demanded. ¡°Well, I tried,¡± I said while lowering my arms, and the guards took it as a sign that I was giving up. Hell, no. I wasn¡¯t. I dashed toward the trio of guards as soon as my hands were down, grabbed his collar, and threw him down. ¡°H, Hey!¡± The other two shouted while drawing their swords out. I kind of wanted to draw my sword, but that would only escalate the situation further. Therefore, I punched his abdomen hard with my fist after making a swift dash at him. He threw up whatever was in his stomach right after and fell to his knees. The last remaining guard looked shocked by the sudden defeat of his two comrades. My training paid off. I felt that my balance was good. ¡°I mean no harm!¡± I exclaimed. ¡°Just relay my message to her. That¡¯s all I ask!¡± At this point, the commotion had attracted everyone¡¯s attention in the vicinity, and uneasy silence befell. ¡°Well, this has gotten awkward,¡± I said to myself. The two defeated guards were back on their feet already. The one who I punched was in no condition to fight, however. His face was pale, and orange goo was around his mouth. ¡°That¡¯s enough!¡± A familiar voice was heard. I was pretty sure it was Esther¡¯s. Yeah, I expected her but I didn¡¯t expect her to be dressed in such an attire. She wore a pair of light gray pants with a leather vest and white blouse. She certainly didn''t give off an image of a lady. Her flaming red hair had been cut to her shoulder level. Regardless, nothing changed the fact that she was a smoking hot woman to my eyes. ¡°Lady Flissing, it¡¯s been a while,¡± I said rather gleefully. I could never call her by her name because she was sort of married and I, too, was married. I was in no position to be friendly with a married woman. She was the official mistress of Daniel Flissing, the only son of the Flissing. Even though she was only a mistress, young Lord Flissing made it clear that she was to be treated as if she was his official wife. Being a mistress wasn¡¯t exactly the same as a marriage, though. ¡°Lord Fenchel,¡± she said, leaning ever so slightly forward. She knew that I was titled, meaning she was well-versed in politics. ¡°Lady Flissing, it¡¯s been a while,¡± I repeated. ¡°Please come in. You are here for a talk, I presume.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Clapping twice, she exclaimed, ¡°Get back to work!¡± She was displaying authority clearly, and the workers seemed to respect her. ¡°I would normally bring out a cup of Macomaco tea, but you wouldn¡¯t appreciate that,¡± she said after leading me to a guest room which had a square table with a sofa on each side. The room was clearly meant for negotiations of some sort. There was a large window with a folded set of curtains, letting sunlight in. ¡°Anything but that is fine,¡± I said. In all my life at home, I drank that tea. I know people loved it but, for me, I¡¯d rather drink water. Speaking of the tea¡­, ehm¡­, crap. I¡¯ve never given Jane that tea, have I. She¡¯d love it. Making a mental note to drop by at my parents¡¯ house to get a bag of the tea, I waited for her to sit down. A maid soon came over, and she gave her some orders outside of the room and she came back in, sitting down on the opposite side of me at last. Crossing her legs, she leaned her back into it. ¡°It has been many years,¡± she said. ¡°It has.¡± Seven or so years. I could sense that her eyes lingered on my left shoulder for a moment. ¡°I thank you for your service,¡± she said. She must have known the story of how I lost my arm. ¡°It¡¯s nothing,¡± I replied with a smile. ¡°And I had to go.¡± ¡°Why would you say that?¡± ¡°I was a useless boy. I had to accomplish something and I did at a small cost.¡± I was someone now. I was quite positive that Jane would have rejected me if it wasn¡¯t for the mission. I would still have my left arm but wouldn¡¯t have the gold coins. More importantly, I would still be limping. I was even younger than her by two years. She would have rejected me for sure. My left arm was a small price to pay to be brutally honest. I could be mistaken, but she looked sad for a brief moment. ¡°Don¡¯t undervalue yourself too much. You have tried, have you not?¡± That was true¡­ I did try¡­ a lot. She added, ¡°I¡¯ve seen many men who didn¡¯t even try and complained that their lives sucked. You¡¯ve tried. You are better than most.¡± I simply smiled. Then she said something that¡¯d shock me. ¡°If we weren¡¯t cousins, I would have ended up with you.¡± I wasn¡¯t sure whether she really meant it or was simply trying to comfort me. Either way, she had ways with words. When I was just about to make a reply, a maid knocked and entered, carrying a silvery plate of two cups of tea. It was probably time to change the subject. ¡°I¡¯ve come here to ask for your advice,¡± I told her after taking a sip of green tea. ¡°Ask away. I shall assist if I am able.¡± She, too, took a sip of her tea. I explained to her about my financial situation along with the upcoming house. ¡°I¡¯ve been trying to earn money, and it has been successful. But the level of income I am seeing won¡¯t be able to support the level of our lives once we move in. It¡¯s kind of a big house. So, that got me thinking¡­ I have these gold coins -¡± ¡°How many?¡± She interjected. ¡°Ten gold coins.¡± ¡°Ten, huh¡­¡± Folding arms, she leaned back into her sofa. ¡°So, ehm, I was thinking if there were any ways to make money with money? Does that make sense to you?¡± ¡°Of course, that¡¯s what we, merchants, do. We make money with money. What you are describing is something called an investment.¡± ¡°An investment?¡± ¡°Some nobles do this as well. They invest a certain amount of money and then live off interest.¡± ¡°Interest? What?¡± I was completely clueless as to what she was even talking about. ¡°Yeah, I guess this is something you wouldn¡¯t know.¡± She sighed. Unfolding her arms, she leaned forward a bit. ¡°Allow me to explain thoroughly. This may take a bit -¡± According to her, wealthy people could easily live off by investing a sizable amount of their own wealth and they¡¯d live off ¡°interest¡±. This was predominantly for landless nobles who didn¡¯t have a regular income via taxes. Generally, it wasn¡¯t enough to live lavishly entirely on interest only, but having any form of passive income was God-send for them. ¡°Ten gold coins is a lot,¡± she added. ¡°Normally, we get one or two gold coins as an investment. And we pay out 1% of interest bi-annually.¡± ¡°One percent?¡± ¡°If you invested a gold coin, you¡¯d get a single silver coin twice in a year. If a noble family invested two gold coins, they¡¯d get a total of four silver coins a year. If you invested ten gold coins, you¡¯d get twenty silver coins a year.¡± ¡°Twenty silver coins¡­,¡± I mumbled. Jane, earning 6 iron coins a day, managed to save up 15 silver coins in 2 years. Twenty silver coins a year wasn¡¯t bad at all. ¡°But do remember the meaning of an investment. You won¡¯t have your ten gold coins with you. We will have it. We will draft a contract accordingly and so forth. People have to be able to trust their merchants because there is always a chance that merchants might flee one night, leaving you in limbo.¡± I was pretty positive that JnE Co could be trusted. Julian had been with the city pretty much since the very beginning. Esther was his heiress because he refused to marry. I heard that this was the reason why she refused to become an official wife for the Flissing. She wanted to remain here and carry on doing merchant thingy. ¡°So¡­, I hand you the money, and you use it to earn money while you give me a share of your profit twice a year?¡± She beamed a smile. ¡°You¡¯ve got it. Just so you know, if you do invest ten gold coins, that would be the largest investment I¡¯ve ever seen. People generally invest one or two gold coins. Not many actually have that many gold coins in hand.¡± ¡°The money ¡­ will be safe, right?¡± ¡°There is a risk,¡± she said earnestly. ¡°We may lose some of it. That¡¯s why there is a term of ten years before you can withdraw your investment.¡± ¡°What happens if you do lose some of it?¡± ¡°Your investment itself is protected as long as you withdraw it after ten years. Even if we did lose all of it, we will be forced to pay you out of our own pockets. But that¡¯s unlikely to happen as long as I am in charge.¡± I rubbed the bridge of my nose. ¡°I can see why people invest a gold coin or two, so there are some risks.¡± ¡°Of course. Like I said earlier, merchants can flee. Business ventures may fail. There are risks. You have to trust us.¡± I wanted to trust JnE Co. I wanted to trust Esther as well as Julian. Even so, investing ten gold coins sounded risky. At the same time, ten silver coins every 6 months would allow us to have an upper class living standard. I was swayed but I needed to talk to Jane before making the final decision. ¡°Can I come back tomorrow morning? I am going to need to talk to Jane.¡± ¡°Are you married now? Is Jane her name?¡± ¡°I am, and yes.¡± ¡°Congratulations.¡± ¡°Thanks. It is ¡­ nice seeing you as well.¡± I noticed that she glanced at my left shoulder once again. What was I supposed to tell her about that? Finishing up my cup of tea, I stood up and told her. ¡°I will see you tomorrow morning.¡± ¡°Of course, please do come with your wife.¡± Did she want to see Jane? Well, why not? When I went back to her and explained about the investment, she became as pale as a ghost. ¡°WHAT?! Why would you give your money away?!¡± I was a bit worried that she might not understand the concept of investment and she didn¡¯t. ¡°It¡¯s called an investment,¡± I tried to explain. ¡°I lend them money, and they use my money to generate profit.¡± ¡°What if they run away with the money?!¡± A valid concern. ¡°Jane, it¡¯s JnE Co. They are backed by the royal court. Why would they run away?¡± She began to bite her thumbnail with a very nervous expression on her face. ¡°Still¡­¡± ¡°The co-owner is going to meet us again tomorrow morning. I am sure she can explain better than me.¡± ¡°She?¡± She raised an eyebrow. ¡°Her name is Esther, the mistress of the Flissing.¡± ¡°Ah, I¡¯ve heard of her.¡± It took her a moment to calm down. Taking a deep breath with both of her hands on her waist, she breathed a sigh of relief. We were in her quarters at the guild which was a small room with just a single bed, a small closet, and a small desk. Her bed was just barely large enough for her with very little wiggle room. We couldn¡¯t make out on there even if we wanted to. ¡°Yeah, I sort of see why you want to do that,¡± she concluded. ¡°Better than having the money just sitting in dust.¡± I was trying hard to make our new lives work. She had to see that. ¡°We will meet her in the morning.¡± She nodded along. ¡°Alright. Ten silver coins every six months doesn¡¯t sound too bad actually. Me being out of commission during pregnancy won¡¯t impact us much.¡± With a smirk, I tried to hug her, but she refused and backed out. ¡°Not here. You know the rule.¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah.¡± I just wanted to hug her, though. Well, I guess I¡¯ve been asking her to do it with me a bit too frequently. In my defense, I couldn¡¯t resist the urge sometimes. Women are ¡­ nice. ¡°Hello, it¡¯s nice to meet you.¡± ¡°Likewise.¡± The two women shook their hands in the same guest room I had been a day prior. Both of them were wearing pants, which made me realize that it was becoming rarer to see women in dresses. ¡°My name is Esther, and I am the co-owner of JnE Co.¡± ¡°My name is Jane. I work as a guild receptionist.¡± ¡°Have a seat, both of you,¡± she said while beckoning over a maid. ¡°Just some tea.¡± After we sat down, Jane immediately started asking a barrage of questions which Esther answered promptly without any hesitation. Then it was Esther who brought out a scrolled parchment. ¡°This is the contract,¡± she declared. ¡°Please read it through.¡± The tea cups the maid brought over, none of us was drinking it. The air was intense in the room with Jane hell bent on trying to find some sort of flaw. The key aspect of the contract was that the investment had a ten-year term, meaning I wouldn¡¯t be able to withdraw my investment for at least ten years. And I¡¯d receive ten silver coins every six months. If demanded, JnE Co had to give me a report on how the money was being utilized but only once a year. Interestingly, the interest after ten years increased to twelve silver coins per six months. Esther explained that it was due to inflation. Whatever that was, I had no clue. ¡°I want to add a clause,¡± Jane said after reading up the contract. ¡°What would it be?¡± ¡°Should my husband perish, I want his eldest child to be able to inherit the investment.¡± We were a very young couple, me being 15 year-old and Jane being 17, so I didn¡¯t think about the inheritance. But she had a point. Given my line of work, it was entirely possible that I could get killed by monsters. I also liked that she didn¡¯t put herself in the line of inheritance. She placed our future child. ¡°That is a reasonable request,¡± Esther admitted. ¡°I shall add that.¡± ¡°Please do.¡± ¡°Anything else?¡± ¡°How can we guard against you altering the contract unilaterally?¡± Beaming a smile, Esther replied, ¡°Simple, we can entrust the original copy to the royal palace. Each of us will keep a copy. Now, we don¡¯t normally do this. Given the size of the investment, however, I suppose it does deserve royal protection.¡± Jane nodded along, looking more confident as the conversation went on. She was becoming convinced that we weren¡¯t going to get scammed. Well, Esther would never pull such a thing on me. Though I agree that being cautious wouldn¡¯t hurt. The amount was huge after all. Esther had the contract amended to add the clause and came back to us for my signature. Jane¡¯s was not needed. Once I put down my name on the bottom of the parchment, Esther put down hers. Then she called over three more scholars to put down their names in a corner after going through the contract. Once everything was in the clear, she rolled it up and offered to walk with us to the palace to entrust the original contract. The royal palace would make copies for us in a few days. ¡°How long have you two been married?¡± Esther asked. ¡°Several months,¡± Jane replied. ¡°Are you fifteen as well?¡± ¡°No, I am seventeen.¡± Esther¡¯s eyes narrowed. She was older than me also. ¡°I guess ¡­ that it must run in the family?¡± she said with a crooked grin. Jane had no idea what she was talking about, but I knew. My brother had two wives who were older than him, and so did I. Of course, I kept my mouth shut on this. ¡°Do you have any children, Lady Flissing?¡± I asked. As far as I knew, she had been married for some years now. ¡°Not yet, but I am pregnant.¡± My eyes went wide. ¡°Oh, congratulations.¡± Jane congratulated her as well. I couldn¡¯t see any baby bumps, so it must have been early. Looking up, she sighed deeply. ¡°I¡¯ve surely come a looong way¡­,¡± she whispered. Even I, who grew up in Ceres, didn¡¯t know how she ended up here. It was very probable that she had a story just like me. But It would be something I¡¯d never find out since our paths were too far apart. If there was anything common between us, it was the fact that we both were awkwardly nobles. I had a titular title which meant nothing other than loosely granting me nobility. She was a mistress of a high noble, also making her sort of a noble but not really. It didn¡¯t take us long to reach the royal palace which was crawling with visible elementals. Earth, fire, water, and wind elementals were all over the large gate of the palace. A pair of guards standing by the gate seemed to have gotten used to them and were showing no emotions. They recognized Esther as soon as we were into their visual range. ¡°Lady Flissing.¡± They both gave her a firm nod and acknowledged her. ¡°Those are¡­?¡± ¡°My clients, allow us an entry please.¡± The guards glanced at elementals which approached me and Jane and looked as if they were sniffing us. A brief moment later, they withdraw. ¡°All clear,¡± the guard declared. ¡°Enter.¡± The gate opened slowly, revealing a well-lit stone passageway. ¡°Our destination is not far. See that door over there? It¡¯s the scribe¡¯s chamber. That¡¯s it,¡± she said, pointing at a reddish door. It was only like twenty steps into the palace. ¡°Is it going to take long? If not, we shall keep the gate open,¡± the guard asked. ¡°It won¡¯t take long. In fact, we are just dropping this off.¡± She showed off the scrolled parchment. Nodding affirmatively, the guard kept the gate open. ¡°We just drop it off?¡± Jane wondered. ¡°This is not the first time I am doing this. We drop this off, and they will copy it. It will take a few days for them to copy properly. The copies we get won¡¯t be just ordinary copies. They will be certified copies signed by court scholars.¡± ¡°It sounds like it¡¯s going to cost.¡± ¡°It does, but no worries. It¡¯s on me. I mean, your husband is investing ten gold coins. The cost of certified copies is really a drop in a bucket.¡± Although Jane didn¡¯t know, I wasn¡¯t keeping my gold coins around me. In fact, I was keeping it in the royal bank. Duman and Roseline did probably the same. There was no way physically keeping the gold coins would be safe. It would be stolen eventually. I wasn¡¯t aware of banks until mom told me. She specifically told me to keep the money in the royal bank for safety. ¡°Well, I am going to visit the bank and withdraw the investment,¡± I told Esther. ¡°Very well, I will go with you.¡± ¡°You will?¡± ¡°I am not going to carry ten gold coins with me. That would be too dangerous. I am going to deposit them straight away.¡± That made sense actually. She was pregnant even. There was no point in risking anything. ¡°Jane, would you wait at the scribe¡¯s chamber? We will be back shortly.¡± ¡°Okay, I want to ask them a few questions anyway.¡± The bank wasn¡¯t even far away. It was just another twenty steps or so. It was behind a blue door. ¡°She seems shrewd enough,¡± she remarked with a grin. What was she playing at? She was in no position to judge my wife. We were inside of the bank by the way which was a spacious room divided in half. The room was divided with a stone wall that has a large rectangle hole in the middle. There was a chair on each side with the other side having a desk in addition to a chair. The other half was initially empty. However, as soon as Esther rang a bell attached to a wall, a woman in a robe dashed in along with three guards and a mage. ¡°You are in no position to say that,¡± I rebutted. ¡°Come on. We are both married to different partners.¡± ¡°You aren¡¯t wrong, but I do miss the old days. Do you not?¡± I was ¡­ struggling to make a name for myself when I was hanging out with her. But I did feel she wasn¡¯t wrong. If I could go back seven years ago¡­, I would have definitely made far wiser choices. ¡°Let the past be past,¡± I said firmly. ¡°Esther, you have a different path now.¡± She smiled brightly. ¡°You¡¯ve grown.¡± ¡°I am not a kid anymore. I have a wife and soon a family to look after. I am a man now.¡± Our conversation was soon interrupted. ¡°Miss Esther, welcome back. A withdrawal perhaps?¡± The woman behind the wall divider spoke after sitting down. ¡°I am going to withdraw,¡± I told her. ¡°Please have a seat. Your name please?¡± ¡°Faro Fenchel.¡± The banker¡¯s eyes went wide for a moment but she acted normally. She stood up and went out of a door, coming back a moment later with a file. Once back in her seat, she handed over a blank piece of paper to me. ¡°Please write your signature please.¡± I complied and handed it over. She compared the signature with the one on the file. Then she looked at me as if confirming my appearance with the one written on the file. ¡°Very well, Lord Fenchel. What is your business?¡± ¡°I¡¯d like to withdraw ten gold coins and give it to her.¡± ¡°I see. What is the purpose of the withdrawal?¡± ¡°An investment.¡± It was at this moment Esther approached me. She told her, ¡°You don¡¯t need to bring out the coins. Just directly deposit it to my account.¡± The banker nodded along. ¡°Understood.¡± It was essentially a fund transfer. The banker verified Esther¡¯s signature as well. Overall, it took some time for everything to be completed because they were being really meticulous about identifications, which was a good thing probably. When we were out of the banking room, Jane was already waiting by the red door of the scribe¡¯s room. ¡°All done?¡± She asked. ¡°Yep, the money has been transferred,¡± I answered. Suddenly, she walked toward me, grabbed me by my arm and forcefully dragged me away from Esther. ¡°Let¡¯s go home,¡± she told me. ¡°Uh, sure. Lady Flissing, it¡¯s been a pleasure doing the business with you,¡± I hurriedly turned my upper body around and told her. ¡°Likewise,¡± she replied while waving subtly with a bright smile on her face. It kind of felt like she was enjoying this scenario. ¡°By the way, the ten silver coins every six months, the payment will be directly deposited into your bank account.¡± By the time she was done talking, we were already pretty far away. In fact, we were just out of the gate. ¡°I¡¯VE GOT IT!¡± I had to shout. I got a feeling that Jane was being a bit jealous. Why, though? Esther was a married woman. There was nothing to fear, and it wasn¡¯t as if I was going to cheat on her. Oh, well, what do I know about women? I will just let her be. 8. Tantan ¡°We ready?¡± I glanced back at Duman, Jane, and Roseline. I was in the cockpit of the Fat Lady. The room was in an isosceles trapezoid shape with a podium in the middle with a wheel to control the airship. The outer walls had a wide but quite narrow rectangular window that allowed me to see forward. Right next to the wheel, there were three levers. One was used to control an air valve. The other was an emergency lever that¡¯d let air out of the balloon rapidly, creating a swift descent. The third one that was a bit further away was the landing gear lever. Nothing was labelled, so only those who were familiar with the controls would be able to handle it. ¡°Yeah, ready as we''ll ever be,¡± said Duman while Roseline looked mostly uninterested. I did help her with an audience with the king. I didn¡¯t know what kind of outcome she had, and she didn¡¯t say anything about it. And I wasn¡¯t certainly going to pry. Meanwhile, Vojmir decided to stay behind because he was hired as a bodyguard by a noble. He made it clear that he needed money for retirement, which we understood. Duman paid him ten silver coins for his service. It was about two months of training for me. That wasn¡¯t a bad price at all in my opinion. Although he wasn¡¯t going with us, he decided to settle down in Ceres, so I would be able to visit him. Jane was concerned that the four of us wouldn¡¯t be enough. But Duman and Roseline disagreed, especially the latter. She sounded very confident in her magic and claimed that the four of us were enough. Whatever the case, we eventually decided to just depart with the four of us. ¡°Off we go!¡± I pulled a lever up, opening the air valve and letting heated air enter the balloon. It took mayhaps about a minute before the interior jolted a bit, which was a sign that it was about to get airborne. Only Jane was acting odd as the Fat Lady lifted itself up. The three of us were already very used to the weird sensation. ¡°This feels really weird!¡± she exclaimed while trying to balance herself awkwardly. She eventually had to lean against a wall for support. ¡°You will get used to it,¡± said Duman. ¡°I will be in the back,¡± said Roseline, looking uninterested. Soon enough, the ship stabilized in the air, and I asked probably the most important question which we should have discussed earlier. ¡°Where do we want to go first?¡± ¡°Well? Where do you want to go?¡± Duman replied promptly. I gave it a thought. I left Ceres before. It was when I was just starting out as an adventurer. I did want to see the scenery again because it was breathtaking the first time. ¡°Tantan,¡± I said. ¡°Tantan?¡± ¡°The first port town I¡¯ve ever been to ¡­,¡± I mumbled and then looked at Jane. ¡°Jane, you will be shocked. The view is breathtaking!¡± Duman beamed a remorseful smile. ¡°Ah, Tantan¡­, indeed. It¡¯s where shrimps originate, Jane.¡± ¡°It is?¡± ¡°Yep, shrimp, fishes, and oysters. All kinds of seafood are the norm there.¡± There were sparkles in her eyes. To her credit, she did not drool. I was quite positive that she would have if it wasn¡¯t me who had been feeding her goodies nonstop. ¡°What are we waiting for? Let¡¯s go there then!¡± ¡°Well, that¡¯s that, Faro. Your wife made the call.¡± Nodding gleefully and letting out a chuckle, I turned the wheel in the direction of Tantan. There was no reliable way to tell directions yet, and it had to be done by experience and following landmarks. Thankfully, since it was an airborne travel, it was easy to correct midway. To reach Tantan from Ceres, all I would need to follow was the shoreline after heading to the West while slightly veering to the South. I would pilot the airship until I could spot the river and then would follow it downward until it would reach the sea. Then I would simply follow the shoreline to the West until a settlement came into view. This method meant that we couldn¡¯t travel at night unless we were close to our destination. Once the initial excitement was over, Duman had retreated into the back while Jane remained by my side, watching me curiously pilot the airship. ¡°This has been your job, right? I mean during adventuring,¡± she asked. ¡°Yep, I am the designated airship pilot.¡± ¡°Do you have to stay here the whole time?¡± ¡°The wheel can be locked, but it¡¯s always a good idea to have someone watching the front.¡± Due to how narrow the pair of the windows were, it had a rather limited viewing angle. It provided a good enough angle horizontally but had an awful vertical angle. Unfortunately, making it big enough would pose a structural weakness in combat, so there was no helping it. ¡°Even at night?¡± ¡°At night, I generally descend the ship close to the ground and I can drop a few sandbags attached by ropes. This will secure the airship from moving around and prevent monsters from reaching us. It¡¯s also when I go back into the boiler room and check the core mechanisms of the ship to keep it running smoothly.¡± ¡°Wow, you do know your stuff, don¡¯t you?¡± I chuckled. This was one of few things I did know. So, yeah, I did know what I was talking about. Hell, I could even make repairs to the ship if required. Having been a carpenter for a few years, I did have the expertise. Never in a million years had I thought that my youth experience would pay off like that. ¡°There are rooms downstairs. I think Duman put our names on the doors. Go down there and get some rest.¡± ¡°There are rooms?!¡± ¡°Six of them in fact. They are tiny, though. It¡¯s got a bed and a small table. That¡¯s it. No windows.¡± ¡°This is a literal flying motel!¡± It sort of was. As far as I know, the original intent of airships was to transport people. ¡°Oh, right, before I forget, we¡¯ve got boar jerky, bread, and waterskins inside a barrel in a corner downstairs. We also have a toilet.¡± Because of Duman, who was a big guy, the toilet was a bit bigger than it should normally be. Of course, I didn¡¯t let her know that little secret. Jane¡¯s physical stature was about the same as mine, so it was going to be a bit too large for her to use. I am sure she will figure out how to use it on her own. As for where urine and feces would go, it was temporarily stored inside a water-tight compartment. It was my job, as a pilot slash engineer, to dump it somewhere remote with a lever that¡¯d open a small opening at the bottom of the tank. I generally did it when I was taking her off in the morning when we were in the wilderness. ¡°Go on. Have a look. We will be staying in the airship a lot, so get used to it.¡± Nodding along, she approached one of the windows and soon took a step back. ¡°Oh, my. It¡¯s kinda scary.¡± ¡°It¡¯s doozy for sure,¡± I replied with a chuckle. Was she afraid of heights? It was too early to tell. ¡°Alright, I am heading back. Keep up the good work, Faro.¡± Once left alone, I locked the wheel and took a step back from the podium. Taking a deep breath, I had a good look around the pilot¡¯s chamber. It wasn¡¯t the same as before and that should have been expected. Duman improved the overall design essentially. It was safe to say that it wasn¡¯t the same airship anymore because everything was swapped out. Even parts of its core frame were cracked, so it had to be done. How this ship did not fall apart in midair was a mystery itself basically. Leaning my back to a wall, I casually said - ¡°Thanks, girl.¡± There wasn¡¯t going to be anything for me to do for a while. Therefore, I exited the pilot¡¯s room and entered the main deck where Duman was working with one of his crossbows. Roseline was nowhere to be seen. Jane was probably in the lower deck. ¡°Hey, Faro, I forgot to tell you this, but we¡¯ve received a royal mission from the king,¡± he told me once he looked up to see me exit the pilot¡¯s room. ¡°We have? What is it?¡± ¡°Your highness wants us to explore the North, the frozen tundra when our time permits.¡± ¡°What is even there?¡± I had absolutely no clue. ¡°I am from pretty far up the North and even I have no clue. Nobody ventured further up North than where I was.¡± There were some stools around, so I grabbed one and sat down nearby him, picking up what looked like a trigger mechanism of some sort for his crossbow. His crossbows weren¡¯t ordinary ones; they were rather complex to allow him to load up bolts in advance so that he wouldn¡¯t need to load up every time he fired. The one he was working on could load up to three bolts. He was dismantling it to oil up its parts. He did this routinely, and it was a time consuming job, which meant this was the perfect time to do this. It was going to take about three days to reach Tantan after all. ¡°Just how cold is it up there?¡± Again, I had absolutely no clue. Yeah, I did go to Siwen mountain during the mission but I was in the airship most of the time, not to mention that the volcano was spewing lava at that time. The volcano had gone dormant ever since. I doubt it wouldn¡¯t be as warm now. ¡°You would have no idea,¡± he replied with a chuckle. ¡°During the peak of winter, I could feel my lungs freeze whenever I drew my breath outside. You can get used to it a bit but it won¡¯t change the fact that being outside unshielded for less than half an hour is cold enough to kill you.¡± ¡°Yeah, I cannot even imagine.¡± ¡°I am sure some tribes could have lived up there, but the Age of Darkness would have finished them off.¡± He, then, paused for a moment. ¡°There is still a possibility that some could be alive, though. You never know when it comes to humans.¡± ¡°So, when are we heading to the North?¡± ¡°There is absolutely no rush or so I was told. He simply wanted a more detailed world map.¡± ¡°No rush then.¡± ¡°Nope, not at all.¡± I lowered my voice after looking around to make sure that the main deck was clear. ¡°How is Roseline doing?¡± He lowered his voice equally as well. ¡°She is acting normally.¡± ¡°Where should we go after Tantan? Is there somewhere she¡¯d like to visit?¡± He shrugged. ¡°Visiting her hometown might do good, but it¡¯s been wiped out.¡± Ah, yeah, right. Fuck, silly me. His hometown was gone as well. In fact, the whole Northern part was gone although I¡¯ve been hearing from merchants that the land was recovering fast. ¡°Don¡¯t worry too much about us, Faro,¡± he said with a grin. ¡°Just be happy with Jane. We are adults, and I am sure that you have your own things to occupy yourself with.¡± He wasn¡¯t wrong. I had a lot of things going on. My house was being built, and my money was down to about five gold coins. Money was starting to get tight although he didn¡¯t know that I invested ten gold coins into JnE Co. He didn¡¯t need to know, either. They were my own problems. ¡°True, but you two are like my extended family members. I just want you two to be happy.¡± ¡°I will get over, eventually,¡± he said while continuing to work with his crossbow parts. ¡°Roseline isn¡¯t a kid, either. Let us be.¡± There wasn¡¯t much for me to argue further with him shutting me down firmly like that, so I eventually stood back up, went back into the pilot¡¯s room to check the area just in case. I did spot an airship heading to Ceres. Given the fact that it was one of the old models, it was probably carrying passengers. As far as I knew, the city had two dedicated passenger-carrying airships. ¡°Hang on¡­, it¡¯s heading to the city? Does that mean they flew the ship through the night?¡± It wasn¡¯t impossible. As long as the pilot knew the path well enough, it was certainly doable. It was also possible that they stayed still overnight. They did probably fly overnight due to a simple reason: food and water. Passenger ships carried as many people as possible and had no space to carry food and water required for them. It was in their best interest to reach their destination as fast as possible. Therefore, passengers were asked to carry their own food and water. It didn¡¯t mean they did, however. I used such passenger ships two times during the exploration of the Labyrinth of Ceres. I saw some not having their food and water on them, who ended up begging for water. It was a really early era of airship travel, though, and the situation could have improved. ¡°They really should carry at least a barrel of water, though. I feel like that is essential.¡± We were carrying two barrels of water, but that was only possible because we had only four people aboard and that this was a modern airship that had a better carrying capacity. We were able to carry two more people since we had two spare rooms. Of course, we could take on more but had no reason to. Supply wise, without ever landing, we could easily last well over a month with the current level of food and water. The lack of veggies was an issue. Mom told me that Macomaco tea can substitute for vegetables, though. ¡°Well, it looks clear enough.¡± And I walked away from the window, exited the pilot room, and went to the lower deck to check on things. Although I kept on forgetting, I did manage to get a bag of Macomaco tea for Jane to taste. It was still hanging on my belt. Standing in front of a door with ¡°Jane¡± written on it, I carefully knocked on the door. ¡°Yes?¡± It was her voice behind it. She sounded startled. ¡°Jane, it¡¯s me. Come to the upper deck. I¡¯ve got something for you to taste.¡± ¡°Taste?¡± ¡°Just come on up.¡± Boiling water was easy in an airship. After all, there was the boiler room. The door to the boiler room was generally closed because it got hot in there. I¡¯ve prepared Macomaco tea before, so I knew exactly what I was doing. After pouring boiling water into a cup, I dropped mayhaps six leaves into it. The curled up, dried, leaves came to life immediately, releasing waves of dark colored substance which became orange-ish once diluted enough. I quickly got the leaves out with a spoon. It was crucial to keep the tea to a certain color, which I was very well educated about. What I was aiming for was bright orange. Anything darker than that, I risked the tea tasting over too sweet or even bitter. ¡°Perfect.¡± Once I got back to the main deck, there was Jane sitting by a round table. She looked in my direction, mildly curious about what I was making her taste. Duman was minding his own business meanwhile, paying absolutely no attention to us. ¡°Here you go.¡± I placed the cup down on the table like a waiter.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. ¡°What is this?¡± She was clueless. She took a sniff and said, ¡°It smells kind of sweet.¡± ¡°It¡¯s Macomaco tea.¡± There was a brief pause before her eyes went wide. ¡°The Macomaco tea?¡± ¡°Yep, have you forgotten who my parents are? I actually forgot to give you the tea.¡± ¡°T, This is my first time ever tasting such luxurious tea¡­,¡± she mumbled. Blinking her eyes a few times, she carefully took the cup and had a sip. ¡°It¡¯s ¡­ sweet.¡± The last time I checked, which was fairly recently, a pouch of Macomaco tea cost more than ten silver coins. It was mind bogglingly expensive. How anyone could drink this on a regular basis, I had no fucking clue. My five gold coins would run out in half a year. That was how expensive it was. ¡°Should be. That¡¯s why it¡¯s popular.¡± After taking several sips, it looked like she wanted to take bigger sips but it was a bit too hot for that. ¡°Thank you, Faro.¡± Leaving her be so that she could enjoy her tea in peace, I went back to the pilot¡¯s room and checked on surroundings. It was very much clear. Our journey to Tantan was smooth. Well, it was expected to be smooth. Airborne monsters were found only in the North anyway. It was on our third day when I could see the town from afar. ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s the town,¡± I said to myself from the podium. Locking the wheel, I stepped into the main deck to find Duman and Roseline having a casual conversation at the round table. They were having Macomaco tea. ¡°Guys, we will be in Tantan shortly.¡± ¡°Oh, that was quick,¡± Duman remarked as he took a sip. ¡°What are we doing in Tantan?¡± Roseline asked. ¡°Are we going to visit The labyrinth?¡± ¡°The labyrinth?¡± I repeated after her. I had completely forgotten about that place. ¡°Oh, the dungeon.¡± ¡°It might be too much for just the three of us,¡± Duman replied. ¡°I still want to visit the labyrinth,¡± she insisted. ¡°That¡¯s fine as long as we don¡¯t enter the place.¡± ¡°The first floor should be fine, right?¡± I didn¡¯t have time to listen to their conversation because I needed to make preparations to land. Having gone back to the podium, I pulled the airvalue lever up, shutting down the heated air supply. And then I briefly lowered the emergency lever to release some of the heated air. This made the airship lose its attitude. ¡°Hmm, the landing platforms seem quite busy¡­¡± There were two landing platforms in the outskirts of the town and there were four airships circling around them, waiting for their turn to land. The two platforms already had an airship each. It was at this point that I realized that we had an issue. Airships were meant to land and then get back up right away. Our airship was going to land and then stay landed for days probably. That would occupy one of its landing platforms. ¡°Duman! We have an issue! Come here!¡± I exclaimed. I explained the situation to him when he came into the pilot¡¯s room. ¡°Hmm, you are right. We can¡¯t occupy one of their two landing platforms. Don¡¯t land and let me down somewhere close to the town. I will go speak to Lord Weber and make an arrangement to land somewhere for several days.¡± ¡°Got it.¡± We got pretty close to the town, and Duman went down with a rope ladder. I saw him running into the town when Jane¡¯s voice hit my ear drums. ¡°Are we there? It felt like the ship was descending.¡± ¡°Yeah, almost. We can¡¯t land yet. Duman is out there to talk to someone.¡± ¡°How come?¡± I explained our current situation to her briefly. ¡°They¡¯ve got two airship landing platforms, and it looks like it¡¯s busy. We can¡¯t occupy one of them. It will cause a traffic jam.¡± She approached one of the windows to look ahead. ¡°Do we have to land on those platforms?¡± As far as I knew, I didn¡¯t think it was a rule. At the same time, as far as I knew, all airships landed on those platforms. As for why, I had no idea. ¡°I don¡¯t think we have to? I have no clue.¡± ¡°Wasn¡¯t this ship parked in the guild backyard?¡± Well, it was because it was essentially rebuilt, and Duman had the ownership. Come to think of it, he was probably the first person to own an airship privately. How much is an airship anyway? He returned a while later. ¡°I was told to land this airship west of the city where there is some flat ground,¡± he told us. The two landing platforms were located on the east side because the majority of air traffic was coming from the east. ¡°Got it.¡± Tantan was a very ¡­ green town. All roofs in the town were green for some reason. Green was a pretty rare color for a roof, I¡¯d say. Of course, I have been here previously. It was Brian the guildmaster who brought me here the first time as well. Back then I was a looter whose job was to collect loot and keep it safe. And then I visited this place a few more times before ¡­ I ruined my knee. I almost died at that time after running into dire orcs. Man, it feels like it has been eons ever since. I had mixed feelings about this town to be honest. ¡°Plenty of flat spots by the bamboo forest,¡± I said, to which Jane replied. ¡°Bamboo?¡± She wouldn¡¯t know what that was. ¡°You will see them soon enough. It¡¯s some weird tree.¡± After landing the ship, I locked the wheel and shut it down by closing the airvalue. I also had to turn off the boiler. We needed to have at least one person remain on the ship ideally because of a possibility of an intruder. ¡°I will stay aboard,¡± Roseline volunteered. ¡°I need to work on some things anyway.¡± ¡°Okay, I will bring some food to you later,¡± Duman said. ¡°Faro and Jane, you two go out and take some time off.¡± ¡°I have a few things to do before leaving, like turning off the boiler. We are not staying at an inn, are we?¡± ¡°No, well, you two may,¡± he replied with a smirk, indirectly telling me that we were free to have sex. ¡°No, it¡¯s fine,¡± Jane said. ¡°We will come back to the ship later.¡± Well, that¡¯s that. She made the decision. I would have liked to, but whatever. After turning off the boiler by removing active fire crystals with tongs, I destroyed the crystals with a hammer. Leaving them inside was never a good idea with its air valve shut off. I had to be careful with how I was destroying them as well since doing it violently would simply make it explode. It¡¯d release heat rapidly, so I threw them into an iron pot with four long legs. We had boxes of spare fire and wind crystals in the storage. ¡°Okay, done.¡± Jane was waiting for me at the exit and grabbed my arm as we headed for the town. ¡°Wow, that¡¯s ¡­ a huge lake!¡± she exclaimed with flapping hair. Tantan always had strong winds. Thankfully, she knew what a lake was at least. Ceres had Lake Laufeld. I am not sure whether it¡¯s true, but I was told that the king created the lake. How, I don¡¯t have a clue. It¡¯s probably false that he created it. ¡°Eh, that¡¯s called sea actually.¡± A breathtaking scenery unfolded before our eyes. Sparkling sea with its iconic sound of waves came to our view. When I saw this for the first time, I think I had my jaw dropped for a good while. Her reaction wasn¡¯t as overblown as mine was, but she did look positively taken away needless to say. The town was built on a slope, and where we were was pretty much the top of a large hill, thus we had a very good view of the sea. ¡°Wow¡­, the view is ¡­ something.¡± That I agreed wholeheartedly. ¡°Seafood is really dirt cheap here. In fact, it¡¯s their staple food.¡± It had to be because the land here wasn¡¯t ideal for growing crops. In fact, there was no farm at all in the town as far as I knew. ¡°Shrimps¡­,¡± she whispered. ¡°Not just shrimps. Oysters, fishes, and ¡­ oh! They consume fish raw sometimes.¡± She frowned immediately. ¡°What? Raw?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve eaten it. Amusingly nice.¡± They cherished fish skins especially for some reason and ate it raw. I did wonder what they tasted like and asked for it, but they refused, telling me that it was only for the locals. I didn¡¯t press to know why but did wonder. Maybe, I will ask this time. ¡°Anyway, let¡¯s go eat some seafood!¡± ¡°Yeah!¡± She duly agreed with excitement. She was mildly surprised to see that the locals looked a bit different. For one, their skin was fairly brown although a lot of them had pale skin like us. The real locals had brown skin, pitch black hair and darker eyes, like black or brown. She looked a bit unsettled by them initially. But, since I was showing no sign of disdain, she eased up soon enough. Additionally, the houses were completely different. In Ceres, houses were made of wood. In Tantan, houses were made entirely of stone with their distinctive green roof. It was easy to understand why they used stones. They had no forests nearby, and the bamboo trees must have not been adequate as a building material to them. I didn¡¯t know what their roof was made of, though. ¡°Welcome! Welcome! A table for two?¡± A waitress asked us gleefully when we entered an eatery. ¡°Yes,¡± I answered. ¡°Come this way please!¡± The place was half full, and something that was immediately noticeable was - ¡°They are sitting down?¡± Jane wondered aloud. She had been sticking very close to me ever since we got off the airship as if she was afraid, afraid of the unknown perhaps. Anyway, even their tables were made of stones but the cushions to sit down on were made of thinly cut bamboo, woven into a square mat. I couldn¡¯t do that with ordinary wood, so this was one of the characteristics of the bamboo tree. I sat down with my legs crossed once the waitress pointed at a small table for two. But Jane looked confused. ¡°How do I sit down?¡± It was actually a valid question. Before visiting Tantan, I couldn¡¯t remember sitting down like this because we always used chairs or something to sit on. We never really sat down on the ground, and I knew that men and women sat down differently here. ¡°Jane, look around and copy,¡± I whispered to her. Her eyes darted around to see a woman in a seated position. When she did find one, she awkwardly copied her sitting position. She kneeled down hesitantly, folding her legs underneath her thighs, and eventually resting her butt on her heels. ¡°Aw, this is uncomfortable,¡± she remarked at once. ¡°You can probably sit like me? I mean, who cares?¡± Meanwhile, the waitress placed a rectangle piece of paper. ¡°Here is the menu,¡± she said. ¡°Should I wait here or give you some time?¡± ¡°Give us some time, please.¡± ¡°Got it.¡± ¡°No, I am a woman. I will not sit like a man,¡± she said while trying to adjust her position a bit to make herself more comfortable. While giving her a moment to find herself comfortable, I took the menu and looked over. Boiled shrimp was on the menu. We probably shouldn''t pick that since it was available in Ceres. Others were raw fish, cooked fish with spices, oysters, and then there was bread which was way overpriced in my eyes. A while bread was about an iron coin back in Ceres. Here, though, it was three iron coins. I told her as I handed over the menu to her who was still trying to find the most comfortable position. ¡°You choose.¡± ¡°Oh? Okay.¡± She ended up sitting with her legs a bit sideways. Her eyes went wide soon enough. ¡°A big plate of boiled shrimp is only two iron coins?! Doesn¡¯t it cost like 10 iron coins in Ceres?!¡± ¡°Well, look at the price of bread. I think moving stuff adds to the overall cost.¡± ¡°Damn¡­ Fish?¡­ What is a fish?¡± ¡°They are creatures that live exclusively in the sea. They cannot live on the surface.¡± ¡°So¡­, they breathe water?¡± I ¡­ actually didn¡¯t think about that. ¡°I guess so, yeah.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s try spiced fish first. I want to try the others later.¡± ¡°Okie, dokie.¡± Raising my hand, I called a waitress over and ordered two plates of spiced fish.¡± ¡°Do you have any preference on which fish you want? And spices?¡± Blinking eyes, Jane looked at me cluelessly. I didn¡¯t know much, either. ¡°Nothing too hot for spices, and ¡­ I don¡¯t know about fishes. We aren¡¯t from around here.¡± ¡°Mackerel is the most commonly consumed one. It¡¯s a medium-sized fish. Generally, two of them are perfect for a person. It has a rather unique taste.¡± We nodded along, neither of us having a clue. ¡°Then there is sardine. It¡¯s a bit smaller but a lot more oily in taste. Five of them are about enough for an adult.¡± She continued on. ¡°There is tuna which is a giant fish. It¡¯s like five times larger than us. It should only be eaten raw due to its very unique texture when consumed raw. When cooked, it sucks.¡± And¡­ ¡°There is salmon which should be eaten raw also. And then there is tout¡­¡± We had no fucking clue as to what she was talking about. ¡°W, We will take sardines. Give us five of them each,¡± I hurriedly interjected. ¡°Okay, it shouldn¡¯t take long.¡± By the way, the waitress was wearing a somewhat short dress that exposed her lower legs. My eyes inadvertently noticed her lower bare legs and apparently tracked them. I knew this because - ¡°Faro!¡± Jumping up and down subtly, I was startled by Jane¡¯s high-pitched voice. ¡°Yeah?¡± I answered innocently. ¡°Don¡¯t look at other women now,¡± she warned with a glare. ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to. My eyes just moved.¡± I spoke truthfully. ¡°I know. I know that. I haven¡¯t worked as a guild receptionist for years and learned nothing. Men always look at women. But you have me. At least, try not to look.¡± Well, she did have a point, and we were newly wed. ¡°I am sorry. I will try.¡± ¡°Good.¡± Really, I was at fault, so I wasn¡¯t even going to make a case out of it. It did kill a bit of the mood between us while we waited for our meal to arrive, and we didn¡¯t talk much. Very fortunately, the bad blood didn¡¯t last long. When we wasted those sardines, we were flabbergasted in a very positive way. ¡°Wow, very ¡®oily¡¯ indeed,¡± I remarked. It was quite hard to describe the taste. But it felt like the fish was kind of melting in my mouth with lots of sticky substance coming out of it. It tasted very ¡­ meaty? Its texture in my mouth felt like heavily stewed meat, like it was literally falling apart in my mouth without having to actually chew. ¡°I don¡¯t even know how to describe the taste,¡± she agreed with a nod. ¡°It¡¯s good, though. What are somewhat solid things in this?¡± I knew what she was talking about. There were some solid bits of stuff inside, and these were something I had to actually chew. Using a fork, I picked apart an uneaten one. ¡°It¡¯s bones, I think,¡± I concluded. ¡°Bones?¡± You¡¯d never think about being able to chew bones of a wild boar. ¡°Well, these fishes are small enough, and I think these have been heavily boiled.¡± One thing was clear soon enough. Five wasn¡¯t enough. I was eating a whole thing at a time, and Jane was eating it in two bites. In the blink of an eye, they were gone. However, we were reluctant to order another plate because it didn¡¯t sit well in our stomach. ¡°It tasted good, but something isn¡¯t feeling right,¡± she remarked with a subtle frown. I was feeling exactly the same. Maybe too much spice or oil? ¡°Let¡¯s eat bread,¡± I suggested. ¡°It¡¯s three iron coins, though¡­!¡± ¡°We are going to earn some money soon.¡± I sort of lied because I didn¡¯t know what Duman¡¯s plans were. She conceded because she was increasingly not feeling well. When we ordered bread while not looking well, the waitress explained the reason to us. ¡°You are outsiders, right? Spiced sardines never sit well with first timers. It¡¯s an oily fish, and the spice doesn¡¯t help. You should have eaten Mackerel. We will give you some loaves of bread for free.¡± Should have told us earlier¡­ Anyway, when she came back with a plate, there was a roasted fish along with some loaves of bread. ¡°What is this fish?¡± ¡°That is a roasted Mackerel. Have a bite. You will like it much more than sardines.¡± So I did, and indeed it was much, MUCH, better. It felt almost like a roasted piece of meat but drier. ¡°Jane, have a bite, This is so much better.¡± Reluctantly, she took a bite as well, and her eyes lit up at once. ¡°It tastes very much like meat but drier,¡± she remarked. ¡°Exactly.¡± ¡°We should have eaten this earlier.¡± ¡°Do you have veggie soup by any chance?¡± Jane asked the waitress who was about to leave. ¡°Veggie? Vegetables? Those are delicacies around here.¡± ¡°Seriously?¡± ¡°We can¡¯t grow them. We¡¯ve been importing them from Ceres, but I don¡¯t think you are willing to pay the odds.¡± Given the fact that they were charging more than three times for bread, I was inclined to agree. Jane looked to have thought the same. ¡°Thank you for your help and generosity,¡± she said, sending the waitress away. After eating some bread and the roasted fish, she said, ¡°This town is very different.¡± ¡°No vegetables around here, yet so much seafood,¡± I added. ¡°I still think roasted boar hind legs are the best.¡± I didn¡¯t disagree although the raw tuna I had some years ago was amazing. I wanted to suggest that she try, but it looked like we were done with meals for today. We ended up spending four iron coins in the end. Considering how much a large plate of boiled shrimps back in Ceres, this wasn¡¯t much. ¡°Phew, I am full,¡± I declared. ¡°Where do you wanna go?¡± ¡°The sea,¡± she replied, looking in the direction of the sea. ¡°Oh, yeah, of course.¡± The reason I chose this place as our first destination was the sea after all. We walked casually and slowly while taking in the new environment. Tantan was very different from Ceres after all. How people behaved was even different. Everyone in Ceres was almost always busy. They were either working or sleeping. In contrast, folks in this town were much more laid back. The only busier part of the town was the dock which we needed to take long and somewhat scary stairs along a cliff to reach. Jane was quite scared walking down the stairs. I couldn¡¯t blame her because the height was doozy, and there were no rails. If you slip, you¡¯d be a goner. There were over ten people at the dock along with two fishing boats. I had seen boats before while sailing the airship although this would be my first time seeing one up close. They were apparently unloading their catches. ¡°I am sorry, but you must be outsiders, correct?¡± A man clad in studded leather armor approached us at once. There were two more of them with him. All of them were armed. ¡°Yes, we are.¡± ¡°Outsiders aren¡¯t allowed here. This is our livelihood. We cannot allow anyone to disturb us while we are working.¡± Well, duh, they should have told us at the top of the stairs. It took a while to get down here. But I wasn¡¯t going to say that out loud. ¡°Fine, we will go back.¡± ¡°Thank you for your understanding.¡± Giving us a nod, he turned around and went back to his group while still maintaining vigilant eyes on us. I wasn¡¯t going to pull anything. ¡°Let¡¯s go back, Jane.¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± Before leaving, I had just one question to ask the guard. ¡°Have there been many outsiders in the town?¡± ¡°Yes, it¡¯s both good and bad for us. The outsiders want to explore every part of the town but they also enrich us.¡± ¡°We had to draw a line eventually,¡± another guard added with the third one nodding along. ¡°I see, thank you.¡± After we made a good distance away from them, I told Jane. ¡°We can still look at the sea from the top.¡± ¡°Yeah, no worries. Let¡¯s go back to the airship.¡± While walking our way back, I wondered how we could make some money. There was no guild in the town as far as I knew. There was no need for a guild since there were no merchant wagons coming in and out. And, because there were no farms, they had no need to venture out and hunt down monsters, either. The town guards protecting the close proximity was all they needed. ¡°The labyrinth¡­,¡± I mumbled. Yeah, that was the only place I could think of to make some money. I wasn¡¯t sure what was left of that place. The dungeon might not even be there anymore, but it was close enough to check it out. 9. The labyrinth of Ceres We stayed in Tantan for about three days, during which Jane and I frequented the eatery every single day. We tried out various dishes, including raw fish. She was really hesitant eating raw tuna at first but absolutely adored it once she put one in her mouth. She told me that she expected the texture of raw red meat, which I had no idea how she knew what that tasted like. I had never eaten raw red meat. Of course, consuming any flesh raw was unsettling. To ease emotions up, they were using some sort of black sauce that was really salty with a strange flavor. The thing was that the black sauce went really, really, well with the fish flesh. It went so well that the black sauce was being used to consume raw fish almost exclusively. I managed to purchase a jar of it to bring it back home. Jane was really saddened to leave Tantan behind. She was becoming a gourmet of some sort. It was she who wanted the black sauce to study because the locals wouldn¡¯t tell us how it was made. I wasn¡¯t sure how she was going to figure out the ingredients, but whatever. Anyway, I suggested going over to the labyrinth of Ceres. Winning over Duman and Roseline was easy since the latter wanted to go there anyway. We weren¡¯t really sure what to expect from the site. The Ceres guild had constructed a makeshift tavern by the dungeon. Originally, I believe a settlement was supposed to be built around to support adventurers exploring the dungeon. Unfortunately, it never really worked out due to the Age of Darkness, and the tavern was abandoned. I heard that some random adventurers continued to live there regardless. The thing about the place was that its surrounding land was not suitable for farming just like Tantan. With no trees around, either, it was just a nearly impossible place to start a settlement. Tantan had the sea at least to get food from. It would need to import virtually everything to make it work, and nobody was willing to invest the vast amount of money required to support growth of a settlement without a reward. The only reason Brian the guildmaster started this with his own money was that he had a long-term vision which he eventually abandoned due to the Age of Darkness. Besides, the dungeon was swiftly cleared by the Duke, now the king. All in all, no one had any reason to stick around - or so I thought. ¡°The hell?¡± I blurted. The makeshift tavern was crudely constructed. It wasn¡¯t meant to last long and should have collapsed or at least partially did. I mean, it¡¯s been years since. It shouldn¡¯t have survived the weather. But it did and there was something else. ¡°Are those people I see?¡± There were quite a lot of people around it. It was ¡­ as if people were living there. ¡°How, though?¡± I wondered aloud. ¡°Duman! Duman! We¡¯ve got something!¡± He dashed in to check out what was going on because my voice carried some urgency. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± he demanded. ¡°Wasn¡¯t the makeshift tavern supposed to be abandoned?¡± ¡°It was abandoned.¡± ¡°I think not. Look.¡± I pointed forward, and he walked toward the wide, but narrow, window to look down. The makeshift tavern was still standing. In addition to that, I could see numerous huts around it. ¡°The fuck?¡± he blurted. ¡°What¡¯s going on down there?¡± He had no idea as well. ¡°It was not abandoned. That¡¯s for sure,¡± I said. ¡°Could they be ¡­ from Atra?¡± he wondered aloud. ¡°Atra? Wasn¡¯t that kingdom wiped out during the Age of Darkness?¡± ¡°Yes, but some could have made out and settled down there. The dungeon was technically within their territory. If they are indeed from Atra, they do have the right to be there.¡± It sounded very plausible. ¡°Should we even land down there?¡± I asked because it could be dangerous. They could forcefully take our airship. Having an airship would be a Godsend to them right now because it¡¯d make importing stuff much easier. ¡°No, no way in hell. We ain¡¯t gonna do that.¡± ¡°What now then?¡± ¡°Circle around a bit. Let¡¯s take a closer look.¡± So, I did just that. Lowering the altitude a bit, we took a closer look at the developing settlement. The makeshift tavern had been reinforced with whatever wooden scrap they could find, and the huts were really crudely constructed. I could tell, as a carpenter, that they lacked the material to make anything properly. They still somehow managed to bring in some lumbers. ¡°I will get down and see what the hell is going on.¡± ¡°I wish we had a wind mage. It would have been very convenient.¡± ¡°No kidding.¡± A wind mage could fly around. It would have made this much easier indeed. Duman eventually climbed down a rope ladder. People had noticed us and gathered around already at that point. From what I could tell, they surrounded him at once and looked to have bombarded him with questions. It was too far for me to be able to listen. At least, they didn¡¯t attack him. I wouldn¡¯t be able to get him out if they did. He eventually climbed back up. ¡°They are indeed from Atra. In fact, they are led by an Atra noble.¡± ¡°So, some did survive.¡± ¡°Hard to wipe out an entire country anyway. Perhaps we should have expected this outcome.¡± ¡°How did they manage to end up here?¡± ¡°It looks like a deal was in place for Atra to start a settlement here. Obviously, it didn¡¯t start due to you-know-what. But some preparations were made. Those who knew about the plan chose to hasten it and departed here along with whatever supplies they could carry.¡± I nodded along. It made sense now. They had to flee and the only place they could think of was here without being refused. Tantan would have not accepted them. Food was a very limited resource. Because storing food wasn¡¯t an easy task, we didn¡¯t produce more than we consumed. Wheat was probably the only exception where it could be stored for years in the form of flour. Meat jerky lasted a long time as well, but those were meats, a precious resource on its own. ¡°So, can we land the airship?¡± He looked down, looking concerned. ¡°No, I don¡¯t feel it¡¯s safe. They told me it¡¯d be alright, but would you trust them?¡± ¡°Hell, no.¡± ¡°Precisely.¡± Roseline, who was listening to us quietly in a corner with Jane, looked utterly disappointed in the fact that we might not stay at the site but she did not voice her displeasure. She probably knew that it was for the best. Duman glanced back at her. ¡°Roseline, don¡¯t worry. We will check out the labyrinth,¡± he said. She blinked her eyes a few times as if she didn¡¯t expect that. ¡°What?¡± She eventually said. ¡°We will park the airship back in Tantan and walk.¡± I narrowed my eyes. That wasn¡¯t a bad idea. Someone should still stay in the airship, though¡­ Jane? ¡°Jane will stay,¡± Duman declared as if he read my mind. She was the only person who wasn¡¯t a combatant, so it made sense. She was aware of this as well, thus she didn¡¯t make a fuss. ¡°Okay,¡± she replied softly. Once settled, I was back in the pilot¡¯s room and was driving the ship away from the site. Some people down there seemed surprised that we were leaving and looked to urge us to come back. It didn¡¯t take a genius to figure that they were probably short on everything, especially food and water. ¡°Water¡­,¡± I mumbled. There was something we could do about that. Stopping the airship, I told Roseline my idea. Water mages were able to create water out of thin air with the most basic spell available to them, called simply ¡°water¡±. If she were to cast the spell and aim at a barrel or something, they¡¯d get water. Given her high affinity to water elemental, she¡¯d be able to conjure a lot with little effort. ¡°Yeah, that will work,¡± she replied nonchalantly. I had a feeling that she couldn¡¯t care less about the people down there. The woman was weird in many ways, one of it being selective empathy. She cared greatly for those she cared for but was apathetic to strangers. ¡°So.., could you do that?¡± ¡°Well, if you ask me, I will.¡± I sighed internally. She should be volunteering to do it. ¡°Yes, please.¡± Opening the door, I descended the airship close enough to the ground so that they could hear my voice. ¡°BRING EMPTY BARRELS OF SOME SORT! ANYTHING TO KEEP WATER!¡± Duman was watching me from a distance, letting me do what I wanted. He also couldn¡¯t care less about the people here. I am sure that they had their reasons. The people down there looked confused for a moment before realizing what I was trying to accomplish. A man who looked to be in charge barked out orders. Soon enough, they had brought five empty barrels. ¡°Roseline, please.¡± She lazily moved toward the exit and merely said, ¡°Water.¡± The moment she said that, numerous water elementals that resembled eels appeared midair. The people wowed as they saw the magical moment. Unfortunately for them, they were about to get showered. A huge chunk of water appeared out of thin air and dropped down. The amount she summoned was rather unbelievable. It felt like it was enough to fill a large pond. Some people were swept away by the free flowing water, but the barrels did get full. ¡°Well, you do what you want to do. In my opinion, though, they were getting by okayish. They may not have needed the water,¡± Duman commented at last. Ignoring his remark, I wondered aloud. ¡°I wonder whether they have contacted Tantan?¡± Folding arms, he leaned his back against a wall. ¡°They have. They have been selling crude iron weapons they acquired from the dungeon. It has been the only source of income for them. In exchange, they have purchased food and water at a premium.¡±Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. ¡°Their lives couldn¡¯t have been easy,¡± Jane said, indirectly backing me up for what I did. ¡°Of course, it wouldn¡¯t have been easy, but they have been getting by. I would agree with helping them if they were outright dying, but they have learned their way of survival. In my book, there is no need to help those who are getting by.¡± Well, agree to disagree, I guess. I felt that I did the right thing. I decided to change the subject, not wanting to argue with him. ¡°You said they were led by an Atra noble. Does that mean they want to seek sovereignty?¡± ¡°They may want to. Do they have the power to do so? I highly doubt it. The population over there is a few hundreds at the best. You don¡¯t create a nation with a few hundred, especially when you have to depend on others¡¯ help to survive.¡± ¡°Their best chance of survival is begging to be accepted into our kingdom,¡± Roseline chimed in. ¡°Can¡¯t they move into our kingdom?¡± Jane asked. ¡°They are being led by a noble. He would want to keep his sphere of influence,¡± Roseline replied with a subtle sneer. ¡°In his mind, it¡¯s probably better to be a leader of beggars than becoming nobody,¡± Duman said with a snicker. ¡°Do they have a future here?¡± I asked. ¡°They do,¡± Roseline replied. ¡°Iron is a precious source. Acquiring monster¡¯s weapons and armors and melting them back to usable iron is a way to get it. The labyrinth is acting like a minor source of iron here.¡± ¡°It¡¯s far more dangerous, but that¡¯s the only way for survival for them,¡± Duman added. ¡°Can you eat monsters?¡± I froze at the question. It was Jane who popped the question. ¡°What?¡± I blurted. ¡°What¡¯s in the dungeon?¡± she asked. ¡°Werewolves, orcs, goblins, and such.¡± ¡°Couldn¡¯t they consume them?¡± That was ¡­ a distant possibility. ¡°I am asking because we didn¡¯t see anyone approaching from the west while we were staying in Tantan.¡± True, we stayed there for four days and never saw anyone visiting the town from the west. Additionally, I didn¡¯t see any group making their journey to the town in the air. ¡°Are you saying that they are somehow surviving on their own¡­?¡± I mumbled while rubbing the bridge of my nose. Duman and Roseline also looked at each other, looking amused. ¡°The land is healing from what I¡¯ve been told,¡± he said eventually, breaking the awkward silence. ¡°I suppose they could relocate to the North and restart the kingdom.¡± ¡°This is none of our business,¡± Roseline said. ¡°Are we hitting the dungeon or not?¡± She was correct. This was none of our business although I felt a bit offended that she didn¡¯t take this seriously at all. Well, she never showed much, if any, interests other than her own affairs anyway. I knew that. I knew that¡­ I glanced at Duman. He was the leader after all. ¡°We will try at least. Like I said, we will go by foot.¡± Was that a good idea? What if they attack us? No matter how strong we were, we wouldn¡¯t be able to defeat hundreds of people. In the war of attrition, numbers mattered. Besides, I was being a bit petty because Roseline pissed me off a bit. ¡°I disagree,¡± I declared. ¡°I feel it¡¯s too dangerous. What if they attack us? We won¡¯t be able to escape.¡± Besides, my concern was perfectly justified. Duman was silent for a moment, probably thinking about what to do next. ¡°He is not wrong,¡± he agreed. ¡°First of all, let¡¯s go back to Tantan. I am going to ask around to see whether they¡¯ve been in contact with them. If they don¡¯t know about the Atrian refugees, then they have been surviving alone. In that case, we should avoid them.¡± I nodded while Roseline walked downstairs at once. Duman said they had been selling iron to Tantan. It was time to find out whether they were telling truthfully. Jane seemed to have noticed some bad air and approached me while I was piloting the airship toward the town. ¡°You were being a bit petty,¡± she told me. I wasn¡¯t going to deny it. ¡°She¡¯s too heartless.¡± She stood right next to me, leaning against my armless side. ¡°I thought that the whole purpose of this journey was to help her out.¡± I froze; she was right. The reason we set out for this was to help her find reasons to live. Coming back to focus, I sighed while sagging my shoulders a bit. ¡°You are right. I guess I was being a bit headstrong.¡± ¡°In a twisted way, she was a part of the reasons the refugees survived. I guess the weight of deeds sort of evens out for her by not wanting to help.¡± I didn¡¯t want to think further on the matter and simply reminded myself that I wouldn¡¯t get in the way and agreed to visit the labyrinth. When we arrived back in Tantan, Duman swiftly asked around whether folks from the labyrinth visited by. ¡°It looks like what they told us is true. Folks in Tantan have seen them coming here and selling iron bars. Now, the folks here don¡¯t seem to realize that they are currently living by the labyrinth, though.¡± ¡°What? Where do they think that they are living then? There is virtually nothing around here as far as I know,¡± I retorted. ¡°Or why are they hiding that?¡± Jane chimed in. Roseline wasn¡¯t present on the main deck. ¡°Whatever the case, what now? If we are not visiting the labyrinth -¡± I interjected, ¡°I think we should visit.¡± Blinking his eyes, Duman looked at me a bit surprised. ¡°You had a change of heart?¡± I nodded. ¡°You sure?¡± ¡°I am.¡± ¡°Okay then. Jane, you are staying put, yeah?¡± ¡°Yes. I won¡¯t leave the airship.¡± ¡°Just take it easy. I am going down and getting prepared as well as letting Roseline know,¡± he said as he went down, leaving me and Jane alone on the main deck. ¡°How long will you be gone for, do you know?¡± she asked with a bit of concerns in her eyes. Come to think of this, this would be the first time for us to be significantly apart for a prolonged period. ¡°It¡¯s five days by foot, so ten days at least. I think we will be back in twelve days or so.¡± I couldn¡¯t fathom staying for too long at the labyrinth. ¡°That¡¯s half a month by me alone. It¡¯s going to get a bit quiet for sure,¡± she said with her eyes downcast. In her whole life, a busy environment was something she had always been in. It was probably going to be her first time being all alone. I embraced her warmly in response. ¡°Hang in there. You could visit the eatery also.¡± ¡°Nah, it won¡¯t be fun eating alone.¡± She had a point, I felt. ¡°You said you wanted to study the black sauce. You could spend time on that.¡± ¡°That¡¯s probably what I will do. Be back safely, hubby.¡± It didn¡¯t take long for Duman to finish the preparation. He brought me a small backpack. He had a medium backpack on him and gave Roseline another small one. Interestingly, we didn''t carry much water. He explained to me that we could refill water whenever we needed from Roseline¡¯s magic. Water was the heaviest item, thus being able to exclude it made our load much lighter. Within an hour, I was waving my hand to Jane who was waving back at me from the airship. We were off already. When we were quite a bit away from the town, I told Duman. ¡°I need to make some money.¡± He was walking in the front, I was in the middle, and Roseline was in the rear. ¡°Don¡¯t you have enough?¡± Perhaps, I did. I mean, objectively, I did have the money. But Jane and I were mostly worried that our income wasn¡¯t keeping up with our expenses. We were spending especially a lot on food, which wasn¡¯t something I wanted to come forth cleanly. ¡°Yours was fifty coins. Mine was twenty five with ten having been given to my brothers.¡± ¡°You do know that your parents are filthy rich, right?¡± Roseline chimed in. ¡°Your brothers will be well-off even without your aid.¡± It was a bit painful to admit that she was indeed correct. In hindsight, perhaps I should have kept all the reward money to myself. ¡°Anyway, Duman, are we expecting to earn something from the labyrinth?¡± ¡°No, we are going there because Roseline wanted to go.¡± He glanced back at her. ¡°Why do you want to go there?¡± ¡°To see how much it changed. I made some notes when we explored the place the last time. The Age of Darkness is over, so I want to see whether there has been any change.¡± In other words, this journey had nothing to do with money. Sighing internally, I spoke no more. I knew that chances would come eventually but I couldn¡¯t help but feel frustrated. As we continued our journey toward the labyrinth, I had the chance to see how bad the environment was around here. The grasses were too short to be of any use and half of them were yellow. With no patches of forests like the ones I¡¯ve seen around Ceres, there was no place to hunt wild animals, either. There was absolutely nothing to do for food around here. I could see some trees by the mountains on the East and West, but it felt like it could take days to reach. Trying to settle down on a land like this would be brutal to put it mildly. I didn¡¯t know how the folks over there were surviving to be honest. ¡°Well, this place hasn¡¯t changed much,¡± I remarked upon seeing the place from afar. We were closing in after about four days of walking. We expected five days but apparently we were walking fast enough to have saved a day. ¡°Desolate as ever,¡± Roseline added. And that was an understatement because I actually saw some women trying to forage something from the grasses. They looked like they were trying to dig out roots of some sort. Grass root soup ¡­ Fuck, veggie scrap soup would be better, and here I thought that nothing would be worse than that¡­ Several people noticed us approaching and were watching us with sharp eyes. They would have recognized Duman for sure. The dude was huge and his appearance wasn¡¯t easy to forget. ¡°Directly to the labyrinth?¡± I asked. ¡°Yeah, but someone will approach us, for sure,¡± Duman replied. True, a man flanked by about four armed guards approached us as we made our way into the crater. ¡°Halt!¡± He exclaimed, stopping us. ¡°What is your business here?¡± ¡°Let me do the talking,¡± Duman whispered to us. Clearing throat, he responded, ¡°We are from the Ceres guild. The labyrinth is a property of the guild. We are here to check on it. We do this every year.¡± The man and his guards looked at each other, exchanging glances. ¡°The labyrinth is ours,¡± he claimed, to which Duman let out a laugh. ¡°Surely, you jest. The guild found it and conquered it. We defeated several boss monsters within.¡± ¡°But you abandoned it.¡± ¡°We did not. We had to withdraw due to you-know-what.¡± The matter wasn¡¯t straightforward. The land we were on was technically within Atra¡¯s territory. At the same time, it was true that the labyrinth was discovered and conquered by the Ceres guild. The men exchanged glances again, trying to come up with a good argument to turn us away. ¡°We aren¡¯t going to stay for long. We are simply checking the labyrinth for any changes. We will be gone in two days at the most,¡± Duman said. ¡°What are you going to tell your boss?¡± ¡°My only concern is the labyrinth. I don¡¯t care about the folks who are living here.¡± ¡°We¡­,¡± he hesitated. ¡°We are really struggling. At least one person has been dying per day for a while now.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not our problem,¡± Duman said with a firm voice. ¡°It¡¯s not as if you guys don¡¯t have choices.¡± Yeah, they could go to Tantan. From there, the people would be diverted to numerous places. They are staying together here because they wanted to restart their kingdom or whatever. They once glanced at each other and drew out their swords this time. ¡°Drop your backpacks,¡± he demanded. I drew out my sword, and Duman pulled out his crossbow. Then I heard Roseline scoff. ¡°Seiche!¡± she exclaimed. A high water wave, well over ten meters, hit the men before they knew what hit them. The water wave violently carried them away from where they were into the bottom of the crater where they were carried into the labyrinth. It was like watching water exit a bathtub. Her magic inadvertently attracted attention, and people were looking right at us. They saw what happened probably but none of them was making a move against us. Instead, they stood still as if they weren¡¯t sure what to do. ¡°Well, time to get the fuck out,¡± Duman remarked as he turned around and walked away from the little village. Roseline and I followed him promptly. Since it was her who ruined the opportunity, I suppose she couldn¡¯t complain. I sighed a breath of relief as we distanced ourselves from the place. ¡°They aren¡¯t following,¡± I said. ¡°Better not. I can cast Seiche all day long. I can wipe out the entire place,¡± she claimed boldly. To be honest, this was a total taste of about ten days. We shouldn¡¯t have even made the trip here if it was going to turn out like this. There was no point in bringing that up, however. ¡°Where are we going next?¡± I asked, changing the subject. ¡°Well, lots of places to be¡­ Roseline, you choose.¡± ¡°Me? Well, if I was down to me, let¡¯s explore the North, and I have some experiments to do in the sky.¡± ¡°Faro? Got a place you wanna go?¡± ¡°Not exactly.¡± ¡°Then off to the North we go, I guess.¡± While I didn¡¯t have any place I wanted to go, I did want a fifth member. To be honest, just the three of us venturing to the labyrinth was a bit of madness. In fact, I felt like we needed two more members. It didn¡¯t feel secure enough to leave Jane alone with the airship for example. But where could we find more people who we could trust? It was certainly easier said than done. Oh, yeah - ¡°Duman, are we being paid for the exploration job?¡± ¡°I am unsure,¡± he replied. Dang it, dude. I need money! Sighing deeply, I glanced back for the last time. How they were going to survive was really none of my concern, but they were in for some great pains, I was absolutely certain. 10. The broken people ¡°The frozen North¡± was what Duman said when referring to the North. We were tasked by the king to explore the North. This would have been nigh impossible for anyone to undertake under normal circumstances. In Duman¡¯s own words, lungs would feel like freezing by just taking air in. Venturing past Siwen mountain had been impossible until airships came along. Even so ¡­ ¡°Holy shit, this IS cold!¡± I exclaimed while covered in a blanket. I was in the pilot¡¯s room, and the air coming in from the front was simply unbearable. In the end, I shut down shutters to block the wind, and we stopped in the air. In order to increase the temperature, I had brought out fire crystal lamps as well as opening the boiler room wide so that its warmth could circulate. That was just barely enough for me not to freeze to death. ¡°Told you that it wasn¡¯t going to be easy,¡± said Duman on the main deck. He didn¡¯t seem to be suffering as bad as I did. Roseline and Jane were present as well with each of them having a fire crystal lamp in their hands. It provided decent warmth in its immediate vicinity. Everyone had a blanket around their shoulders, acting like an extra layer of robe in order to provide further warmth. ¡°We can¡¯t go on like this, surely?¡± The airship didn¡¯t have any moving parts thankfully. If it did, we might have been in real danger of something going horribly wrong in mid air. ¡°We can. We are going to install a door to the pilot¡¯s room. You will put on how many blankets you need to keep warm and continue sailing the airship,¡± he said. ¡°We should have done that earlier¡­,¡± I lamented with a pout. ¡°Nah, this is better. Now, you know why we must,¡± he replied with a chuckle. It took us over a day; we installed a door after taking out a door from below deck from an unoccupied room. And then we installed more than five fire crystal lamps in the pilot¡¯s room in order to boost its temperature. Finally, Jane had spent several days creating a robe for me made from blankets. It was a hooded robe to cover as much skin as possible. All in all, it took us about five days before we could proceed exploring the frozen North. Even so, we took it slowly because I could not handle the fierce and freezing gust. ¡°Man, there is nothing here at all,¡± I remarked after taking a good look ahead. There was a literal wall of mountains ahead of us. ¡°I cannot see past that wall of mountains,¡± I muttered. We¡¯d need to go deeper which was a bit risky. ¡°It¡¯s a risk we will undertake,¡± Duman said firmly as he entered the pilot¡¯s room. Roseline was right behind him, who closed the door as soon as she entered to conserve the heat. Both of them took a good look outside as well. ¡°There has got to be something beyond that wall,¡± she said. ¡°There looks to be a narrow path you could traverse across,¡± he added. Yeah, it did look like you could walk past the wall of mountains by foot - if you were prepared against the brutal cold. It would take God knows how many days to reach that passageway. Most, if not all, would freeze to death before reaching that point to be brutally honest. I will be honest. I wasn¡¯t taking the cold temperature seriously when Duman warned me about the frozen North. I mean, how cold could it possibly get? How wrong I was. I was just a boy born and raised in a tropical climate, which probably made me less resistant to cold. ¡°So¡­, we are going past the mountain wall?¡± I had to ask, just in case. ¡°Actually, could we stop by the volcano?¡± Roseline asked. ¡°It should be quite warm over there. I want to check something.¡± Check something, huh¡­ It wasn¡¯t exactly a place I was happy to revisit¡­ I didn¡¯t exactly have a say in this, though. She wanted to go, and we were going. I was just a pilot. ¡°Alright, let me see¡­¡± I eyeballed the distance to the volcano. ¡°Half a day, and we will get there.¡± ¡°Good,¡± she said curtly as she left, leaving me and Duman in the room. I sighed discreetly. I don¡¯t think I was getting along with her. In fact, I was getting pissed at her. Thankfully, we stayed out of each other¡¯s way most of the time. If not, we would have had verbal fights already, probably. If there was such a thing as human compatibility, we didn¡¯t have such for each other. ¡°Keep up the good work,¡± he said and left the room as well. Then Jane entered shortly after. ¡°How is the robe?¡± ¡°Ah? Oh, it¡¯s okay.¡± Actually, I didn¡¯t feel it was much help, especially when the freezing wind was bashing me non-stop. It was better than nothing, though, that was for sure. It was the fire crystal lamps that were actually keeping me alive. I had also closed one of the frontal windows. I was essentially piloting the airship with one eye closed but, since there was no fast reaction involved, it was fine. I wouldn¡¯t do this in combat or something like that. She closed the door after making sure that the main deck was empty. Both Duman and Roseline had gone downstairs. ¡°You don¡¯t get along with Roseline, do you?¡± She asked me softly as she approached me. Her voice was low as if she was afraid of someone overhearing her. I had no reason to lie to her. She was my wife after all. ¡°No, I don¡¯t,¡± I replied promptly although I did keep my voice low also. ¡°You may not be noticing it, but your voice goes up a bit whenever you are talking to her.¡± ¡°Am I being passive aggressive?¡± That was news to me. I never noticed, I swear. ¡°I think you are. Whether she has noticed, I can¡¯t say.¡± The half of my face frowned. I felt that she probably noticed. ¡°What should I do?¡± ¡°Well¡­,¡± she trailed off for a moment before continuing. ¡°Do you know how old she is by the way?¡± ¡°What?¡± I was thrown off by the sudden change of the topic. ¡°Well¡­, I am unsure how old she exactly is¡­¡± I knew that Duman was 35 years old. He was old enough to be my father. Actually¡­, I didn¡¯t know how old my father was exactly. The same applied to my mom. Logic and simple math told me that they¡¯d be around 30 years old at the least. Anyway, Roseline was younger than Duman for sure. How much younger, I had no clue. ¡°My point is that she is probably old enough to be your mother or at least close to. You don¡¯t need to keep a friendly relationship with such a person. Just keep it professional.¡± After some thoughts, I did agree that she had a point. They were almost old enough to be my parents. They weren¡¯t exactly my friends, which was what she was trying to tell me, which also made me realize that I didn¡¯t really have friends from my own age group. Well, Jane was a friend and then became a wife, so¡­ she wasn¡¯t a friend? ¡°I will try.¡± I gave her a non-committal answer because quite frankly I wasn¡¯t sure how to go about it. ¡°Well, I guess I will finally see the battleground, huh.¡± She changed the subject also. ¡°Ehm¡­¡± I actually never thought about that. I was so preoccupied by Roseline¡¯s demand to see the place that it never crossed my mind that we were going to revisit where we had the battle. I had mixed feelings about it because it wasn¡¯t exactly a happy place to revisit. ¡°It¡¯s cold here. Go back in,¡± I told her, wanting to be left alone as dark clouds started to swarm my head. ¡°Okay, see you later.¡± She gave me a gentle pat on my back and left the pilot¡¯s room. Once making sure that it was indeed alone, I took a deep breath. ¡°I am gonna have a nightmare¡­,¡± I mumbled. I wasn¡¯t sure how to feel about it. I was actually never involved in the battle. All I did was ram the airship into the dragon¡¯s eye, and that was all there was. I was so far away that I could barely see the group. They were just dots from where I was. ¡°Would ¡­ something have been left?¡± I wondered. ¡°How many months has it been?¡± A year? No, a bit less than that, I think¡­ In my mind, there was a chance that something would have been left behind. I was told that Amanda cast a sacrifice spell ¡­ Her body would have blown into smithereens. Her flesh would be gone most likely. Pieces of her clothes, however, might still remain¡­ ¡°Come to think of it, she was never given a proper burial¡­¡± Although I wasn¡¯t there, Duman told me that he gathered her belongings from her room, put them in a box, and buried it. He did the same for Ayaan. However, it wasn¡¯t the same for Meizei because he made the call of not doing anything. He was her husband after all. I didn¡¯t know what he did exactly for her; he never told me and I wasn¡¯t going to press for an answer. ¡°Amanda¡­¡± I found it rather shocking that I had yet to get over her death. I mean, strictly speaking, she was a stranger to me. She treated me well, perhaps too well, but that didn¡¯t warrant my current reaction to her death, probably. ¡°Did I ¡­ have feelings for her?¡± I wondered aloud. I didn¡¯t want to admit it because she was ¡­ like 10 years older than me? But the fact that I was yet to get over her passing¡­ felt like she was more than a stranger to me. Then I realized something¡­ ¡°My brother is ¡­ married to older women. They are four and five years older than him¡­ I myself am married to a woman who is two years older than me ¡­¡± It looked like it wasn¡¯t entirely impossible that men in this family tend to get married to older women. Speaking of which¡­ ¡°Is my mom older than my dad?¡± They looked to be of similar ages, but I didn¡¯t know their exact ages. ¡°Well, does age matter?¡± I suppose it mattered if the gap was too big. Speaking of which, the five year old gap was a bit too much even in my mind. Two years, which Jane and I had, was perfectly acceptable. ¡°Well, whatever¡­¡± I gave up thinking too hard about the age gap as well as Amanda. There was no use in thinking too much in either of that. I simply decided to look for her remains once we arrived at the top of the mountain.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. The sky was starting to turn orange-ish when a familiar view came to my eyes. We made it just in time. It should be warm down there, and we will have a decent night. Too bad that I can¡¯t sleep with Jane with walls so thin and rooms so close to each other. I reached out a rope attached to a small bell and pulled it a few times, letting the others know that I needed their attention. Once done, I approached the window and looked down to see whether anything had changed significantly. As far as I could tell, it was very much unchanged. I was told that the volcano had become dormant, but red hot lava was still flowing down albeit slowly. ¡°Are we there?¡± Duman was the first one to arrive and asked. ¡°Yeah, do you think it¡¯s safe to go down there?¡± ¡°Should be safe. It is a bit hot down there, though. Why don¡¯t we stay afloat and use a rope ladder to get down?¡± That made perfect sense actually. ¡°Jane should stay, right?¡± ¡°No reason for her to go down. Yeah, let her stay.¡± It didn¡¯t take long for me to park the airship in the air. Now, parking an airship midway didn¡¯t exactly work because it should slowly drift away. Lowering an anchor didn¡¯t really help, either, due to the sheer weight of the airship, and we weren¡¯t going to carry a heavy enough anchor, either. Therefore, I taught Jane the basics of control. When the three of us went down, she¡¯d stay at the helm and would make sure that the airship would not drift away. All she would need to do was control the wheel ever so slightly, thus it didn¡¯t require much training. ¡°Have I told you that I hate going down a ladder?¡± Duman said as the three of us stood at the opened door. ¡°Yeah, you did say.¡± That was probably because of how awkward it looked when he climbed down a ladder. The guy was a giant and, when he climbed down a narrow ladder like a rope ladder, it looked quite ridiculous. ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± Roseline volunteered to go down first. In fact, she rushed to go down even before either of us could say anything to her. ¡°Oh, well.¡± Shrugging, I was the second one to go down. Duman followed us down shortly afterwards. The first thing Roseline did once she touched down was grab a handful of soils and put them in a small leather pouch. And then she walked around, looking as if she was searching for something. I, too, walked around, looking for Amanda¡¯s remains. It didn¡¯t take long for me to find something. There was a large boulder that was either black or covered in soot. It looked like there was a piece of fabric on it. Approaching the large rock carefully, I took a closer look at the dangling fabric. ¡°This is Amanda¡¯s¡­¡± Or to be more precise, it looked to be a part of her robe. I knew for a fact that she wore a dark purple-ish robe. The fabric had a similar color although most of it was covered in soot. My hand was shaking a bit when I carefully picked it up. I tried to remove some of the soot to find a more vivid purple color underneath. There was no doubt about it. It was indeed a part of her robe. Looking fanatically around, I ran around looking for more pieces of her robe. I ended up finding three more pieces of her robes scattered around. Because I was so preoccupied with what I was doing, I was completely oblivious of what Duman and Roseline were up to. In fact, at one point, I felt like my head was spinning. ¡°Amanda¡­¡± I felt like my voice was shaking and felt like fire was surging from below to my face. I looked at my left hand that was holding several pieces of her robe. All of a sudden, I fell to my knees with my eyes still fixed on the robe pieces and ¡­ simply dropped tears. I never understood the expression, tears falling like a waterfall. I understand now, literally. I wasn¡¯t crying or sobbing, but my tears wouldn¡¯t stop falling out of my eye balls. It was a strange sensation. ¡°Faro¡­, is that ¡­¡± It was Roseline¡¯s voice. I looked up to face her, and she must have seen my tear soaked face. I couldn¡¯t see well due to tears obstructing my view but I could still see that she got down on her knees after approaching me. She grabbed my hands or rather she grabbed the fabric pieces I was holding onto. ¡°These are Amanda¡¯s¡­, right?¡± Her voice was shaking. ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Amanda¡­¡± She placed her forehead on my hands and I could feel water drops falling onto my hands. At that point, I understood. I see. I see now. I see why she wanted to come here. She was after the same thing. Both of us sulked for a while with Duman watching us from a short distance. Interestingly, neither of us cried. It was just tears falling out of our eyeballs. It was a very interesting experience. We ended up with about ten pieces of Amanda¡¯s robe. Roseline got half and I got the other half. I didn¡¯t ask what she was going to do with those, and she didn¡¯t ask me, either. When we were finally done, I spotted Duman looking down on a seemingly random spot on the ground with a vacant look in his eyes. ¡°We ¡­ have to get out of here,¡± I told myself. This was not a good place for us to be, mentally speaking. I assumed that he was looking at where Meizei perished. Granted, I thought it was a good idea to collect Amanda¡¯s remains ¡­, but it was clear to me that none of us had gotten over the death of our comrades. It was likely that this wound of ours was never going to heal. Moving on and not thinking about it was probably the best course of action. ¡°Why are your eyes red?¡± was what Jane asked of me when I got back. While I wanted to avoid talking about it, lying wouldn¡¯t have worked on her. She knew me a bit too well after all. I showed her the pieces of fabric and told her that it belonged to Amanda. ¡°Oh, my God,¡± she uttered as she covered her mouth. ¡°So, the reason we came here was ¡­¡± I replied with a nod, ¡°Yeah, to seek her remains.¡± Ayaan was killed here as well but nobody cared for him apparently. He was a little mean to me although he never actually bullied me. ¡°Actually¡­, I am going to get down there and look for something.¡± ¡°It¡¯s dark out there.¡± ¡°Well, thanks to the lava, the area is well lit.¡± She nodded in agreement. ¡°I see your point.¡± Duman and Roseline were back in the airship as well. Both of them had gone down to rest or whatever. I quickly got down to the ground once again and searched for Ayaan¡¯s remains. If Amanda¡¯s robe pieces made it, then it was very possible that Ayaan¡¯s remains were present as well. I did see how he died from a distance. He was sliced in half by the dragon¡¯s fang. His upper body fell into the lava. His lower body should have remained on the ground. Therefore, it should be possible to spot his armor or ¡­ ¡°His sword and shield,¡± I said to myself as I reached the ground via the rope ladder. The top of the mountain was essentially several isles in the sea of lava, but one of the isles was much larger than the others. That was where the fight took its place. It was also connected to a path that led all the way down. He was killed on the edge of the isle. Therefore, I searched alongside the edge and it didn¡¯t take long for me to spot a pair of soot-covered chainmail pants. Not wanting to carry the armor since it was quite heavy, I continued on with my search and found his also soot-covered sword that had half of its blade molten. ¡°Bingo.¡± I looked around a bit more to find his shield, but it was nowhere to be found. I assumed that it fell into the lava just like the sword. Luckily, the sword survived since only its blade went into the lava. With his sword, I returned to the airship. Ayaan was buried just like how Amanda¡¯s tomb was made with his belongings found in his room. Neither actually had tombstones however since the guildmaster feared that gravediggers might get their hands on their belongings. Only a few of us knew its exact location, and I was one of them. I was going to shove his sword into his grave. Yeah, I disliked him, but he still died a hero and should be treated as such. Knowing him, if he survived, he would have spent his time enjoying women and liquor. He would have wasted his life away eventually. Perhaps, death was the correct path for him. I veered the ship away from the top and found a spot to land. The further we were away from the top, the temperature sharply dropped. The spot I chose was still warm, relatively speaking. I landed the ship and made preparations to spend the night. ¡°It¡¯s been a long day.¡± It was indeed a long day, mentally. What am I going to do with the fabric now? There was an option to bury them properly, but I didn¡¯t feel like doing so. After making sure that everything was properly done, I laid down on my bed under the deck and fell asleep pretty much as soon as I hit the bed cover. I was ¡­ confronting something. Everything was blurry, and it took me a moment to figure out what I was exactly looking at. ¡°What is going on?!¡± I tried to speak, but nothing came out of my mouth. I mean, my mouth and tongue were moving but no sound was coming out. Fanatically, I looked around. Again, everything was blurry but it looked like I was on the top of Siwen mountain because I could see orange stuff slowly flowing from a distance. ¡°Then¡­¡± I looked at whatever I was facing. Its shape was vaguely of a dragon or the dragon. Then I looked at myself; it looked like I was holding a sword and a shield. My whole body was blacked, however. I wasn¡¯t even sure it was my own body to begin with. Taking a deep breath, I glared at the blurry shape that was the dragon. Not quite knowing what was going on, I dashed forward anyway to strike at the foe only to be stopped by a hand that grabbed my left shoulder and pushed me backwards. There were several people who passed me. They were all shouting at me with, of course, no sound. I tried to read their mouths therefore. I wasn¡¯t a hundred percent sure, but it felt like they were telling me to save myself. But why? Why save myself while the others are charging toward the dragon? Fighting the dragon would be a useless endeavor. No mortal was capable of defeating it. It took Amanda her life just to inflict some visible damage to it. Anyway, I attempted to run forth and join them. However, countless arms appeared out of nowhere from the back and grabbed me, dragging me backwards. They were pitch black with an eerie purpleish glow. ¡°Let me go!¡± Of course, my voice wouldn¡¯t come out. ¡°Let go!!!¡± Whatever behind felt warm and viscous, like water. The hands kept dragging me into whatever it was, and I was eventually submerged into it. I was actually afraid of not being able to breathe, but that didn¡¯t appear to be an issue. I didn¡¯t know whatever the hell was going on until I started to hear a faint voice from afar. ¡°.... Faro¡­.¡± I recognized the voice. ¡°.......Faro!¡± It was ¡­ Jane¡¯s? ¡°FARO!¡± Opening my eyes at once, I saw her face looking right on me. I was panting, and my body felt hot. I could also feel that my back felt quite yet. ¡°You have a high fever,¡± she told me after having checked my forehead. ¡°I am not surprised. You¡¯ve been working in the cold for days.¡± ¡°Jane¡­?¡± My head felt heavy and murky although it was clearing up fast. ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s me, your wife. You do remember me, right?¡± ¡°Oh, Jane¡­, can I touch your boobs?¡± I wasn¡¯t making a joke. I did want to touch her breasts. Looking around, she found Duman standing by the door. Clearing throat, he walked away. She even closed the door. Her attire was such that she had her shirt tucked underneath her pants. She pulled her shirt out of her pants, allowing my hand to reach her breasts from below. ¡°There,¡± she said curtly. She didn¡¯t sound too pleased but still let me. ¡°Come on, lay down next to me please.¡± The bed wasn¡¯t actually large enough for a couple to lay down without squeezing one other. Therefore, instead, she sat down and leaned her upper body toward me. I squeezed one of her boobs after getting my hands into her shirt from below, eventually pushing her clothes upwards. She clearly didn¡¯t look happy. ¡°I had a nightmare,¡± I told her. ¡°I don¡¯t want to be here.¡± Upon listening to me, her face eased. ¡°Roseline¡¯s eyes were red, too,¡± she said. ¡°I guess I will never be able to understand your emotions, huh.¡± ¡°No, you won¡¯t be able to. I don''t even understand it. The sadness is passive and it lurks. You don¡¯t feel it until it strikes you down. When it does, though, it hurts like this.¡± I retracted my hand from her and apologized to her. ¡°I am sorry. I just ¡­ needed something comfy.¡± Sighing discreetly, she replied, ¡°That¡¯s fine. I guess this is a part of my job after all.¡± ¡°I feel fine now. Did I oversleep?¡± ¡°You feel fine? No, you have a cold, a nasty one.¡± She checked my forehead once more and tilted her head in confusion. ¡°What? The fever¡¯s gone?¡± She wouldn¡¯t lie., and the bed was wet with sweat. I did have a high fever but somehow recovered in a surprisingly short span of time. Or perhaps it wasn¡¯t a cold at all to begin with. ¡°I feel fine,¡± I repeated, slowly getting up from the bed. ¡°I do need to change, though.¡± My clothes were soaking wet. ¡°I overslept, didn¡¯t I?¡± ¡°Not by much. We should rest up -¡± ¡°No,¡± I interjected. ¡°We need to leave here.¡± The sooner, the better. This place was bad for the three of us. In fact, this place, this mountain, was cursed, at least to the three of us. ¡°Help me change quickly. We are leaving right now.¡± She looked like she wanted to object but agreed. After changing up, I dashed into the pilot¡¯s room and prepared to take off. Jane did her part to speed things up. ¡°We are leaving?¡± Duman asked after entering the pilot¡¯s room. ¡°Yeah, how is Roseline?¡± ¡°She hasn¡¯t shown herself since last night.¡± ¡°Leave her be.¡± I didn¡¯t want to get up today, either. There was a decent chance that she was going through what I was going through. Wait, hang on¡­ ¡°Duman, check on her. She might have a high fever.¡± ¡°What?¡± He sounded confused. ¡°Just check on her.¡± ¡°Alright.¡± It turned out that she did, in fact, have a high fever. While he was tending her, I hurried and got the airship airborne. ¡°I am never coming back here now,¡± I said to myself as I veered the airship away from Siwen mountain. ¡°I¡¯ve got what I needed anyway.¡± Amanda¡¯s robe pieces¡­, what to do with them¡­ 11. The frozen North ¡°We are about to cross the wall,¡± I declared with the rest of us in the pilot room. We were flying deep into the frozen North. Because we were unable to see much further due to a rather tall wall that was mountains, we were somewhat excited by the prospect of finally being able to see the North. Certainly, there were some fears involved venturing into the unknown. Therefore, we were all gathered up here for the moment for both excitement as well as being ready for anything unfortunate that may befall upon us. ¡°The mountain wall doesn¡¯t look natural,¡± Roseline remarked. It took her several days to recover. When Duman found her in her room, she was completely unconscious and wouldn¡¯t wake up at all. Since she was the only healer among us, she couldn¡¯t cast a healing spell to help herself out. Therefore, we ended up staying at the volcano for some more days since the temperature was far warmer there, during which we spent some proper time to gather up remains of those who perished during the battle. Thankfully, there was nothing to rot since flesh was all charred up. It was mostly their equipment and ashes. ¡°Meaning?¡± Duman asked. ¡°Not sure. Maybe I will have more explanation once we explore the frozen North.¡± The mountain wall did look suspiciously tall. While I had little experience with mountains, it was quite clear even to me that those mountains that formed the wall did look rather artificial compared to other mountains around here. For me, what was more suspicious was the passpage way that went right through the wall. It was as if people were meant to use that path if they wanted to pass the wall. How was that path formed in the first place? Like Roseline said, ¡°not sure¡± was probably the best answer. ¡°We are crossing,¡± I said. I had to increase the ship¡¯s attitude much more than usual. In fact, we were going above the clouds if there was any. Yeah, this was way taller. Speaking of clouds, Roseline conducted numerous tests with it and concluded that clouds were water. I know that it sounds ludicrous, but even I had to admit when a piece of cloth became dripping wet after passing through a chunk of cloud. Logically, the next question was why it was in the sky in the first place. She claimed that rain was very much likely originating from the clouds. Then the next question was how water got up there in the first place. She wouldn¡¯t tell me but claimed that she was writing up a thesis. ¡°Oh, wow,¡± Jane blurted. Oh, wow, indeed. But what are we looking at? The scene revealed in front of us was ¡­ awkward at best. There were sharp and deep trenches on the snow. They were gigantic and very deep with no bottom in sight and just pitch blackness. Among trenches, there were very tall rocks? They looked very sharp and looked artificial like the wall. They looked like ¡­ claws? ¡°I see trees and lakes?¡± Duman said. Yeah, there were three lakes with some trees around it on both East and West. There were two of them in the East with the furthest one having a volcano in it. ¡°It looks as if there was a fight here,¡± Roseline said with her fingers on her chin. ¡°Is it possible that the dragon had a fight here? Against what, though?¡± I had goosebumps all over my body. It felt right that the dragon had a fight because it was probably the only creature large enough and powerful enough to inflict such damages. But - ¡°And the king fought against such a thing?!¡± My bro won against such a monster?! Just how?! And he did it alone?! None of it made sense, really. ¡°Did the king fight the dragon here in the North?¡± Jane wondered aloud with her arms folded. It was possible since both of them could fly. Either way, I guess we are married for a reason. We shared the same thought. I was oddly happy about that. ¡°As far as I know, where they battled was southwest of Siwen mountain,¡± Duman said. ¡°I am positive that this scenery before us has nothing to do with the king¡¯s battle with the dragon of the North.¡± ¡°Besides, those look eroded,¡± Roseline added. ¡°Those are old scars.¡± Old scars, huh. It was clear that there were some secrets buried in this frozen land. Whether we could find any clues¡­, probably not? ¡°What do we do from here? I mean, where to?¡± ¡°That lake is the closest,¡± he pointed at a lake in the west. ¡°Let¡¯s investigate there first.¡± That made sense. Besides, those lakes were the most curious ones to boot. I could see some green color around the lakes as well as if vegetation was there, which shouldn¡¯t be possible due to the extremely low temperature. ¡°Alright, heading there right now. I think we will get there well before the end of the day. How is the supply by the way? We¡¯ve been out for a while now.¡± I think it¡¯s been around a month. ¡°Food is fine,¡± Jane replied since she was in charge of supplies and whatnot. ¡°But the water is kinda low.¡± ¡°All the more reason to visit the lake then,¡± I said. ¡°Yeah, it makes sense.¡± Duman and Roseline eventually left the pilot¡¯s room, leaving just me and Jane. ¡°What do you think about our journey so far?¡± My question was probably out of the blue, but I meant to ask her this for some time now. ¡°Well¡­¡± She refused to answer right away. Instead, she approached the door, opened it a bit to check whether anyone was around and then closed the door gently so as not to make any creaking noise. ¡°Kinda underwhelming, isn¡¯t it? We haven¡¯t earned any money, either.¡± That was something I had to agree with. I was hoping to earn some decent pay but, so far, there was nothing. I wasn¡¯t going to voice my complaints, though, since this journey was planned long before anything else. Besides, money wasn¡¯t the goal. Speaking of which¡­, I didn¡¯t think I did a good job trying to rejuvenate Roseline. ¡°Yeah, I get what you are saying.¡± But I said something else to her. I understood that she had little to do with the whole affair. Besides, there was little point in trying to argue with her. It was just better to agree with her and then try to meet her half way or something similar. ¡°After exploring the North, I am going to suggest going elsewhere for some money.¡± ¡°Good because we really need to get something out of this journey.¡± Her goal was obviously different, and I understood why. There was no point in trying to convince her. It was just what it was. ¡°Go back inside. It¡¯s freezing cold here,¡± I told her. ¡°Okay, keep up the good work.¡± Once finally left alone, I let out a long sigh while massaging my left shoulder. Massaging my right arm was no longer possible, so Jane sometimes massaged it for me. ¡°Not easy, this,¡± I whispered. The reason I got married was because everyone got married as soon as possible. Especially for men, it was seen as important for them to get married. This was especially true for someone like me who wasn¡¯t exactly an adventurer but a noble. Adventurers defied the norm. It was one of the benefits of being one of them. But it wasn¡¯t all sunshines. Outside of the adventuring circle, they weren¡¯t perceived well. Adventurers who somehow earned nobility were usually isolated. How would I know this? Mom told me once I received my title. Nobles preferred pure nobles who were nobles from their birth. It wasn¡¯t about earning titles but earning prestige and respect as a result. Anyway, I would be lying if I got married purely for the love of the woman. Sleeping with one was a part of the pull if I was being completely honest. I didn¡¯t dislike her but I didn¡¯t think I loved her, either. Like or not, she was my only choice within my reach. What I learned from my short marriage was that relationships aren''t easy. Like mom told me, money guaranteed the basic level of happiness. But, since the basic needs were guaranteed, we or she was trying to step a level above. I preferred living just as is, however. ¡°Well, we will see how it goes. It¡¯s too late to go back now.¡± I once asked Duman why he remained single, and his answer was that marriages were very much about enduring headaches with a duty to produce children. I had to agree with him at this point. With such thoughts in my mind, we were there pretty soon. ¡°We are closing in ¡­ What am I looking at?¡± The lake or whatever it was was releasing what looked like steam. I wasn¡¯t sure whether it was a lake to begin with since it was so huge. The Laufeld lake in Ceres was tiny in comparison. The boundary of the lake appeared to be green, so some vegetation was definitely there. There were also trees, which couldn¡¯t be seen anywhere else in the frozen North. ¡°And what is this smell? It¡¯s disgusting.¡± A strong stench hammered my nose. I never smelled anything disgusting like so previously in my whole life. Driven by the stench, the others rushed into the pilot room. ¡°Faro, what¡¯s going on? What is this smell? I feel like puking,¡± Jane said as she came in first, followed by Duman and Roseline. ¡°It¡¯s not me if you are wondering!¡± I raised my voice a little in my defense. If my fart smelled like that, I was probably dying. ¡°I think it¡¯s from the lake?¡± ¡°The lake? We are there?¡± ¡°Well, almost. I am bringing the ship down.¡± I pointed ahead. ¡°Look.¡± ¡°I¡¯d rather not.¡± She refused while covering her nose. Roseline showed a similar reaction while Duman walked forward undeterred and looked down through the open spot. ¡°Hell, yeah, it must be from that steam. It¡¯s worse here,¡± he remarked with a frown. Thankfully, the smell was getting less as the airship was closer to the ground, or we were getting used to the stench. Roseline was about to leave the room but froze for a second or two. ¡°Duman,¡± she called out all of a sudden. ¡°Yeah?¡± ¡°I recall this smell although it was much less potent.¡± ¡°You do?¡± His eyes rolled upwards, trying to dig into his memories. Both were from Siwen, and he lived very much at the bottom of Siwen mountain. ¡°Fuck, yeah, I do. I do recall now. I¡¯ve forgotten since it was decades ago.¡± ¡°Duman, you experienced this smell before?¡± I asked. He nodded. ¡°Yeah, this smell is from a volcano or at least whenever it releases smokes when I was living in my hometown.¡± ¡°As far as I know, inhaling too much of this has long term health consequences,¡± she added, which made me and Jane look right at each other with urgency. ¡°Should we be even landing here?¡± I blurted. ¡°It should be fine as long as we leave soon,¡± he said. ¡°The smell is so much more prevalent, though,¡± she added. ¡°That¡¯s true¡­¡± ¡°What¡¯s going on, Duman. What¡¯s the smell about?¡± I asked, with Jane giving me an approval nod. ¡°Nobody knows what it exactly is, but it is from volcanic activities,¡± Roseline explained. ¡°But there is no volcano here,¡± Jane chimed in. Duman and Roseline looked at each other with puzzling faces. The latter eventually came up with a hypnosis. ¡°I am assuming here that there is volcanic activity underneath the lake, thus it is heating up the lake.¡± ¡°Wouldn''t the water have been boiled off then?¡± I asked. ¡°I am thinking that it¡¯s not directly touching each other. Think of it as a pot on a campfire,¡± she explained. ¡°So, the earth soil is acting as a pot¡­,¡± Jane mumbled with fingers on her chin. ¡°Makes sense.¡± ¡°I am not seeing any animals, which makes sense since the stench would be driving them away,¡± Duman remarked. ¡°I am not sure whether there is enough vegetation for them to eat,¡± Roseline said. Around the probably-warm lake, there were grasses growing around it. However, it wasn¡¯t much. If any herbivores were to survive, there would need to be at least ten times more green lands in my book. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. ¡°Let¡¯s not land,¡± Duman made the call. ¡°We saw two other lakes, right?¡± I nodded. ¡°Let¡¯s check them out instead.¡± ¡°It¡¯s very likely that they are the same,¡± Roseline said. ¡°We still need to check them out. This was a request from the king, remember?¡± She reluctantly nodded. ¡°True,¡± she admitted. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I will draw a map.¡± ¡°Good, we are being paid for this, you know.¡± His statement piqued Jane¡¯s interest at once, but she didn¡¯t say anything. Her relationship with Duman was strictly professional. They were, in fact, not in casual talking terms. It would be weird for a married woman who was so much younger than a man to be on friendly terms indeed. In such a perspective, the relationship between the three of us was an interesting dynamic. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn¡¯t be talking to them like close friends. Guild members, in general, had far looser social codes as well. But Jane knew where she stood probably. She was married and was technically a noble by marriage. ¡°How much?¡± I asked casually. ¡°Don¡¯t know the exact amount, but the king wouldn¡¯t pay us cheap,¡± he replied, and I noticed that vigor was returning to Jane¡¯s eyes. ¡°Let us proceed to the new destination, then,¡± she said at last. The Eastern part of the frozen North had two more lakes. One was much smaller while the other looked to have a volcano along with a lake. We didn¡¯t expect much from the smaller lake because it was far too small. The other one, however, appeared to have a volcano right next or in it. That one was what we were hoping to have some positive news from. Besides, that particular lake looked quite different from afar. ¡°Alright, we are going up and setting course to the East,¡± I declared. After our airship ascended to the sky, close to the clouds, Roseline left the pilot¡¯s room while Duman remained. ¡°You know,¡± he said while looking out through the frontal navigation window. ¡°As a kid, I¡¯ve always dreamed that some sort of civilization would thrive in the frozen North. As a kid, I¡¯ve always dreamed of making first contact.¡± He let out a weak laughter. ¡°My village was boring as fuck, and it was how I survived day to day.¡± ¡°So far, I don¡¯t think any creature lives here,¡± I said. There were some possibilities of insects and maybe small creatures surviving near the hot lakes, but I didn¡¯t expect anything substantial. ¡°Yeah, I agree,¡± he said, grinning. ¡°What a shame. There was nothing in the frozen North after all.¡± Turning away, he asked me or us, then asked. ¡°What would you do if we found a lake that is warm but doesn¡¯t stink?¡± I had no clue. What good is a warm lake for? ¡°I would set up an inn,¡± said Jane, taking a step forward with a clenched fist on her chest, looking mighty determined. ¡°Do you know how hard it is to get a warm bath? I¡¯d advertise that and bring customers in!¡± He beamed a grin at her. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯d do that as well. Having grown in a cold climate, getting any sort of bath was an ordeal on its own. Even in the South, getting a warm bath is not easy.¡± I had no clue since I didn¡¯t really care. I did recall maids preparing warm baths for me from time to time back at home. I realized, at that point, that it wouldn¡¯t be the same for commoners and less fortunate people. ¡°Would people really pay for that, though?¡± I argued. I was really convinced that people would not bother traveling so far for a hot bath. Then, she shot a hot glare at me. ¡°In my whole life, I¡¯ve never had a warm bath!¡± she barked, to which I raised my eyebrows inadvertently. ¡°No fucking way!¡± I blurted, finding it hard to believe. Duman let out a pleasant laugh at us. ¡°Faro, you were raised by wealthy farmers. Jane was a typical farmer.¡± ¡°Faro! I¡¯ve never had a bath to begin with!¡± She pressed. ¡°No way¡­,¡± I trailed off. Her skin was so smooth when we were making out, though¡­ ¡°For someone who never had a bath, I can assure you that people WILL pay for a warm bath!¡± she pressed, this time taking a step toward me. ¡°I bet even noble women would pay a visit if we claim some mysterious benefits!¡± ¡°Wouldn¡¯t that be false advertising?¡± ¡°Who can say?¡± she smirked. ¡°No one can prove anything anyway.¡± ¡°Sneaky,¡± Duman whistled. But we were pretty much set for our lives. I wondered why she was volunteering to work when we could live our lives in peace. I could not ask her this directly with Duman present. Therefore, instead, I asked her a roundabout way. ¡°Are you serious?¡± ¡°I am,¡± she replied promptly. ¡°I¡¯d rather have a busy life than a boring one.¡± ¡°You should have become an adventurer, Jane,¡± he said with a grin. ¡°I don¡¯t have the talent to be one,¡± she replied with a remorseful smile. ¡°The best I could do was being a receptionist. Any profession beats being a farmer anyway.¡± Did I have any talents to become an adventurer? I was fairly certain that I did not, at least not until I lost my arm. At least, she was mature enough to know her limits because I did not. And such a woman said she had something she wanted to do. It would be foolish for her husband to deny, especially when I could support her. I still had five gold coins. The ten gold coins that were invested weren¡¯t going to move because the interest money was going to guarantee us a certain level of luxury in our lives. Besides, five gold coins should be enough to start. Of course, we would need to find a lake that doesn¡¯t stink of course. ¡°If you really want it, then so be it,¡± I told her which made her react a bit odd as if she realized something. She looked like she wanted to say something to me but was keeping my mouth shut for the time being. A private talk was probably in order. As if noticing the air, Duman left the pilot¡¯s room after tapping my shoulder a few times. ¡°Look, I got a little carried away,¡± she said pretty much as soon as he left. ¡°I meant it, though,¡± I replied. ¡°If you really want to operate an inn, I can help. I will ask; do you really mean it?¡± It took a moment for her to answer. ¡°Yes, a hot bath is time-consuming and expensive. With an already hot lake, it will take neither money nor labor. We will just need to set up an inn.¡± I wasn¡¯t sure if it was going to be that easy, but her point was true. In my memories, maids took a long time to prepare for a hot bath. ¡°Say that we set up an inn, won¡¯t that be like starting a new settlement?¡± As far as I knew, an inn employed a good amount of people. They would need places to stay. Given the vast distance, they would basically need to live there. ¡°You are a lord, aren¡¯t you?¡± She said, and I blinked, not really understanding her point. ¡°Can you not start a new settlement and become the lord of the new place?¡± I ¡­ wasn¡¯t sure? I mean, I didn¡¯t even think about such a possibility. Not in a million years, nope. ¡°Are you saying what I think you are saying?¡± And she nodded. I was initially weirded out by the sudden turn of topic. But I was indeed a lord although it was strictly titular. I wasn¡¯t given a land to govern and I was never going to get that ¡­ unless I start my own place? But all of this was a bit premature to think about because we would need to find a lake that didn¡¯t stink. ¡°Let¡¯s find a lake first,¡± I said, pushing my thoughts back into a corner of my mind. ¡°Yeah, I agree. No point in getting ahead of ourselves,¡± she echoed my thoughts. Anyway, the journey to the Eastern side of the frozen North was actually easier said than done due to strong wind blowing against us. It was always blowing westwards. This slowed us down to a point that we were pretty much at running speed which was very slow for an airship. Eventually we made it, but it took us like more than ten days. On a flip side, we¡¯d save time going west, so it was going to even out in the end. We reached the smaller lake. ¡°The smell isn¡¯t too bad this time,¡± Jane remarked. Duman and Roseline were present as well. ¡°The lake isn¡¯t releasing steam, so I don¡¯t think it¡¯s hot. Well, it¡¯s hot enough for some trees to survive,¡± Duman said. We decided to skip this one and head straight to the biggest lake with a volcano. ¡°Do you think there is a correlation between the stench and the steam?¡± I asked. ¡°So far, yes,¡± Roseline answered. ¡°Let¡¯s check out the final lake, and we will have a more firm answer.¡± As I headed the airship toward the final lake, it was close enough that the others didn¡¯t need to leave the pilot¡¯s room. ¡°It looks like a crater with a trench at the bottom. In a way, it looks eerily similar to one that we saw from the labyrinth of Ceres,¡± Roseline deduced. ¡°Perhaps a dungeon underneath?!¡± I replied. That was certainly possible. If there was indeed a dungeon, setting up a settlement would make a lot of sense. ¡°It¡¯s releasing smoke. It¡¯s likely a volcano. It¡¯d be way too hot down there,¡± Duman added. ¡°It¡¯s interesting that it¡¯s not really a mountain. It doesn¡¯t look tall. But the frozen North has volcanic activities close to the ground in general. It¡¯s overall interesting,¡± she said, nodding along as if she understood something we didn¡¯t. Anyway, as we got closer to the final lake, which didn¡¯t take long by the way, it was becoming clearer. It was indeed a crater with a crack on its deepest point. It was very much similar to the labyrinth of Ceres. The only major difference was that the crater was somewhat above the ground which allowed it not to be submerged by the lake. ¡°No smell so far,¡± Jane remarked. Yeah, I wasn¡¯t smelling anything. ¡°It looks like whatever a volcano releases, it goes up and disperse quickly. And it appears that whatever it is, it gets mixed up easily with water,¡± Roseline deduced. ¡°The lake is spared from direct volcanic activities, but it still seems to be hot enough, given the grass and trees around it.¡± ¡°Are we going to land on this one?¡± I asked. ¡°Yeah, this one should be safe, and this is the most interesting one,¡± Duman replied. ¡°Where should I land? On what spot exactly?¡± ¡°Near the lake but also near the crater,¡± he replied. ¡°Got it.¡± As I prepared to land the airship, there was no animal around like before. The immediate vicinity of the lake had green with trees here and there. So far, aside from the lack of the stench, everything else was the same. Well, of course, there was a crater right next to the lake. ¡°Landing legs down. Brace for impact!¡± No matter how many times I landed the airship, there was always a hard impact whenever I landed her down. This was no exception where I felt like I fell down from a second story with my feet first onto the ground. I was probably exaggerating a bit, but the impact always felt substantial. After a thud, we landed down. ¡°Alright, I am going to get ready,¡± Duman said, exiting the pilot¡¯s room. Roseline followed him, leaving Jane and me. ¡°I should get ready also. Jane, you have the helm.¡± ¡°Got it.¡± I¡¯ve taught her the basics of airship controls. She should be able to pilot the airship in case of my absence although she was yet to have enough experience. Anyway, once the three of us were ready, we pushed down the exit and carefully took our steps out. Jane was at the door as well, looking out with curious eyes. ¡°I think I smell something, but it¡¯s not the stench,¡± she remarked, and we sniffed loudly as well. ¡°I do think it¡¯s the stench, but it¡¯s very weak,¡± Duman said. ¡°Far weaker than what I smelled growing up at the bottom of Siwen mountain.¡± It was mysterious why this place was mostly clear of the stench. Even Roseline had no answer for this, yet. Either way, we explored the area a bit to find that, while the air was freezing cold, the ground was radiating a good amount of heat. It would be entirely possible to build structures and contain the heat without needing fuel. Jane¡¯s desire of establishing an inn was a sound idea from that aspect alone. I also inspected the grass to find bugs and whatnot. They were there, a sign that perhaps the air was clean enough. ¡°This place is very interesting,¡± I said to myself as I walked down the crater to check out the source of the smoke. Duman was already there with Roseline. The slope was only mild. ¡°How goes there?¡± I exclaimed as I approached them. ¡°Faro, there is a fucking dungeon down there.¡± My eyebrows rose up. ¡°What? For real?¡± ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s too hot to go down there, but there is a dungeon underneath.¡± ¡°This is a major discovery,¡± Roseline added. ¡°If it¡¯s too hot, how can we even explore it?¡± When I got there, I looked down into the giant crack that was releasing light gray smoke nonstop. Duman had apparently thrown down a fire crystal which was illuminating the area. I could clearly see a wall. Indeed, that was a mark of a dungeon. An artificial object like a wall shouldn¡¯t even be there. ¡°Oh, wow. What a find.¡± Even though it was nigh impossible to investigate, creative ways to explore it could be eventually found. And, for that, a base of operation was going to be required. With Jane¡¯s idea of the hot bath inn, everything clicked in my head. This was a golden opportunity, I felt. At the same time, I realized that mayhaps five gold coins wasn¡¯t going to be enough. Therefore, I told Duman and Roseline immediately what Jane and I had talked about and asked for investments. ¡°I kind of saw that coming when Jane talked about it rather passionately,¡± he said with a grin. ¡°The girl rarely talked about anything she wanted.¡± ¡°A hot bath, huh,¡± Roseline said while looking in the direction of the lake that was faintly releasing steam. ¡°That¡¯s a logical choice perhaps. If you are going to build an inn here, you will give me a room for free, right?¡± ¡°Eh¡­, sure?¡± She was actually asking for a freebie? The woman was rich beyond imagination. She added, ¡°There is a lot to be studied here.¡± ¡°Your first order of business would be to find a way to explore the dungeon without getting heat stroke,¡± he told her. ¡°Consider it done.¡± She, then, turned toward me. ¡°Before I could conduct any sort of research, you need to build your inn or whatever.¡± ¡°That is easier said than done, isn¡¯t it?¡± The logistics of hauling things here¡­ ¡°Isn¡¯t that why you asked for our investments?¡± He asked. While we conversed, we made our way toward the lake that was slightly releasing white steam. When we touched the surface, it was almost too hot for a warm bath. In other words, it was the perfect temperature. ¡°Well, shit, this water is made for baths,¡± I blurted while smelling my wet hand. It had a unique smell which I didn¡¯t recognize at all. It wasn¡¯t disgusting, though. And whatever doubts I had were progressively disappearing. It was worth investing, I felt. This place was similar to the labyrinth of Ceres in many ways with the inability to grow food and being desolate by being in the middle of nowhere. But the scenery had a strange charm with it being pure white as far as eyes could see along with the strange rock formations. ¡°I guess using trees here to build structures is out of the question, right?¡± ¡°Of course not, you want to preserve the natural beauty. Besides, there aren¡¯t even that many to chop,¡± he replied. ¡°I get a feeling that they¡¯d be gone if you chop them,¡± she added. ¡°It¡¯s best to leave them be.¡± The trees themselves were quite different as well. Their leaves were like needles. Duman told me that those were called pine trees and they were predominantly seen in cold climates. ¡°Ugh¡­,¡± I grumbled. Lumber and stone were the two primary materials to build structures and both of them were hard to move around. Given the vast distance between here and Ceres, airships were the only way to transport them. With our Fat Lady, it wasn¡¯t impossible to move them around but probably at a very slow pace. Even if we hired more airships, it was going to be both costly and time consuming. I looked around for stones. They were mostly pitch black, and I wasn¡¯t sure whether they were suited for buildings. I would need to talk to the carpenters first as soon as we get back. Speaking of which¡­ ¡°Uh!¡± I exclaimed. I was building my home in Ceres. What¡¯s going to happen to that house? A home in Ceres and a workplace here in the middle of nowhere where it took like 20 days coming back and forth? I can¡¯t cancel that house, can I? Nope, no, after all those troubles to get the permit and whatnot, not to mention the fact that the old man was really pleased to have his final work before retiring, cancelling the house was not even remotely possible. How am I going to navigate through this now? ¡°Faro? Are you listening?¡± Duman¡¯s voice snapped me out of my thoughts. Startling, I replied at once. ¡°Sorry, I was thinking something. You were saying?¡± ¡°I can tell that this is going to be a nightmare, logistics wise, and our Fat Lady is meant for speed and personnel transportation. It¡¯s not meant for hauling people and goods.¡± ¡°Yeah¡­¡± ¡°Thankfully, airships meant for hauling are a lot cheaper than those meant for speed. I know this from the guildmaster.¡± Yeah, I did hear about Brian purchasing an outdated airship model because he needed one fast. The original purpose of the airship was to transport people. Roseline added, ¡°At least one airship dedicated to this project is going to be minimum.¡± ¡°Well, we will talk and plan once we get back to Ceres. I am going to talk to the king as well since this is about the establishment of a new settlement.¡± ¡°Well, he is a lord. There shouldn¡¯t be a problem,¡± she added. ¡°He should still get his blessing.¡± ¡°Point taken.¡± Everything was moving really fast. With Jane looking at us from the airship with a curious look, I scratched the back of my head, feeling dumbfounded and weird. I wasn¡¯t sure how to explain all this to her. I knew one thing for sure, though. It was going to get busy, perhaps too busy.