As the sun rose above the barrier mountains, it provided enough light for me to navigate to the road. Once there the trek into the village was easy, if a bit boring. After about an hour of walking, I heard a familiar sound. I turned and spotted an old man on a cart being pulled by an impressive stag.
I waved to Akira. Noticing me he smiled and waved back.
“You need another ride into town?”
“I certainly wouldn't be opposed”
“ Well then hop on.” As the cart moved past I smoothly hopped onto the bench”
Akira whistled” You're a bit more Nimble than I thought you were.” He seemed to look at me intently for a moment. It was subtle but I was able to notice him peering at my cultivation. I quickly erected a false facade“ Did you always have such a solid cultivation base?”
I hoped that he would have forgotten about my cultivation. But he hadn't so, I decided to tell the old man another white lie.
“Well I have always had a solid base, and you see I didn't necessarily want to flaunt it when I came into the valley, I thought it might ruffle some feathers
Akira nodded, seeming to accept my answer. At this point, I wasn't sure if it was just an act or if he truly accepted it but either way, I could likely do nothing to change his opinion.
“ So why are you heading into town?” I asked
“Well, you see my ax broke. He proffered a stick and a separated ax head.
“That would be quite the reason.”
“Not just that lad, today is the day the merchants come to town?”
I counted back mentally and realized it was the end of the month. It was sooner than I expected. It was already almost Ormond. The turning of a month meant that I would only have the smallest window to get my crops into the ground. On the bright side, maybe the merchants could ship my letter and I wouldn't have to confront Gilbert about it”
“Akira, do you know if the traveling Merchants will take a letter”
“They will but, whatever letter you got to send won't make it there promptly. This group of merchants is much more nomadic than most. They only stop at Whitecrest Once a month to restock, and they're not going to, for at least another two weeks.”
I groaned internally but accepted that I would have to talk to Gilbert about the letter. After around 20 minutes of writing, and quite a bit of pleasant conversation with Akira, we eventually made it to the Village.
The village was cast in the Rays of the morning sun. It seemed as if all the townsfolk were out cleaning and dealing with this or that. I saw a woman holding the hand of her son carrying an oversized bag. A man across the street from the women seemed to be stacking some pieces of Art. I asked Akira about the strange Behavior”
“Well, most of them are preparing for the merchants. This group of merchants will take just about anything, and since the merchants are just about the only way to get most things in this village. People will be, well you know.” He gestured towards the scrambling crowd. "Welp they should be here in an hour or so. I'd recommend you get to them early if you want to get anything good before the Townsfolk clear them out.”
I nodded to the old man and thanked him for the ride, and the advice. “You're welcome lad, if you need a ride back I'll be heading back home, at 3 past noon you can meet me at the blacksmith.
“ Thanks, I appreciate it.”
“Again, don't mention it.”
With a snap of the reins of the cart, Akira vanished into the hubbub of the city square. I turned walking over to go over to the town hall. As I walked I was almost bulldozed over by a woman pushing a cart stacked to the brim with ore. I dodged out of the cart's path.
“Watch where you're going” the woman shouted.
“Sorry” I shouted back
She didn't respond, Man Is it just me, or are the people in this Village all pricks? Well, Akira was quite pleasant, but Gilbert, and now that woman. I shook my head, breathed, and Let It Go.
I opened the doors to the town hall, only to find it bustling with people. I spotted a woman with light umber skin and curly brown hair. Judging by her complexion and choice of clothing I assumed she was a farmer.
“Ma'am, can you tell me what's going on here?”She gave me a look saying who the fuck are you before responding to my question.
“You knew around here”
“Yeah, I'm the new farmer. I bought land up north.”
She snapped her fingers and her demeanor took a 180.”
“ Well, why didn’t you say so? Since the white badger trading company is coming today everybody's knickers are in a twist. So when there's inevitably a problem everybody comes here”
“ I see is there a line to wait for Gilbert”
“ No, When he calls for you just walk up the stairs. Just make sure the people who showed up earlier see him first and there won't be an issue. ”
“That sounds confusing, wouldn't it be better just to make a line”
“It works doesn't it”
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“I suppose so.” I decided that continuing to talk about the management was not the best idea.
I heard Gilbert's voice coming from upstairs. “Next”
“ Well that's me, I think you got four people ahead of you before you can go see him, good luck to you ”
I nodded to the quickly disappearing woman and found a seat to wait. After all the people before had me visited Gilbert I heard him call “Next”. I stood and moved up the stairs heading to Gilbert's office and knocked at the door. “Come in Claire you don't have to knock on the door.”
“ Ahem, Not Claire but thanks anyway” I opened the door and I met Gilbert's sour expression.
“ What do you want”
“Well if it wouldn't be too much of a incon….”
“Alex, drop the niceties. We both damn well know that you're only going to come here if you need something important.”
I coughed” Well I need you to send this to Whitecrest. I placed the letter on his desk. In response, Gilbert raised his eyebrows.
“And why can't you send this with the merchants”
“ Well I need it to get to my final destination quickly”
Gilbert gave me a deadpan look. “Okay say I agree to ship this, directly to Whitecrest that means I have to use a teleportation scroll. Do you know how much that costs?”
I nodded, outwardly wincing at the price.
Although it seemed impossible, Gilbert raised his eyebrows even higher. “And you have the money for that”
I nodded again. I made a show of pudding my hand into one of the pockets of my coat. When in actuality I simply withdrew the pouch of money from my spatial ring. Once I had taken a second to fish around, I pulled out the pouch and plopped it on Gilbert's desk.
“ He opened it, nodded, and closed the pouch.” he looked back up at me as if deciding what to do. Eventually, he seemed to come to a decision.
“**sigh** Alex or should I call you Alexander? Whatever reason you have to ship this can't be small, therefore I must ask Again. Is the problem that you are running from coming to my Village.
I pondered. “Not exactly”
Gilbert's look could kill.
“ Let me explain, I found something I can't say what, and if that letter doesn't get to who I need it to, that Thing I found will become a major problem.”
Gilbert nodded, seeming to accept my answer. “Well, then I'll send this off. You provided the needed funds so we're all good. Gilbert looked down at the letter on his desk. Looks like you also correctly addressed it. It shouldn't be an issue but will you be expecting a letter back”
I nodded. “ There should be one coming back within 3 or 4 weeks. I'll come back into town then. Gilbert nodded before tucking the letter in a bag in the pouch of smolders into one of his drawers. “ I'll get it shipped by the end of the day. Now then if you would please leave my office Mr. Alexander.”
Not needing to be told twice I left. I heard a “ next” come out from behind me. By the time it had taken me to deal with the letter, it appeared as if the merchants had arrived. Luckily for me, only a few villagers were crowded around them. I quickly joined the crowd and looked at their wares.
The merchants had an assortment of items ranging from simple mundane houseware to fine jewelry. I picked out a hoe, a nice cast iron pan, and some extra utensils. I only had two pairs and frankly, I was getting annoyed with having to wash them almost every night.
With my purchases complete, I walked up to one of the men.
“ How much for the lot”
“Let's see a hoe of decent quality, a cast iron pot, and two pairs of cutlery. He seemed to do some mental calculations before getting a number. That's going to be seven embers and Sixty-two Sparks.”
To my surprise the prices were Fair. I was half expecting highway robbery. I smiled handing over the money. As I did, the man who accepted seemed to truly look.
He squinted at my face, particularly focused on my eyes. I realized he might be able to figure something out. To my chagrin no matter what I tried the color of my eyes wouldn't change, their Orange fucking glory would always show through. Most people didn't know what their strange color actually meant but still, occasionally I came across someone who did.
As he looked at me I felt him send out a tendril of his Mana. It was sloppy. He was trying to gauge my cultivation. I pretended to crumble to his inspection. At such a low level most people didn't even realize when they were scanned. So most cultivators never learned to be subtle with their Mana control, but I was not like most cultivators.
As he investigated my cultivation, he seemed to realize nothing strange about it. After all, I wouldn't let a Novice Realm look upon my actual cultivation. But what I had shown was certainly normal enough to put off any suspicion. Hopefully, all he would remember was a man with strange orange eyes.
A small bell chimed as I walked into a small garden shop across the street. A young girl sat at the counter. She couldn't have been more than 12 years old. She had blue hair tied up into a ponytail and was dressed in overalls. She sat behind the counter, her attention pulled downwards.
I coughed.
She tilted her head up and smiled.
“How can I help you?”
“I was hoping to purchase some seeds, and was wondering what you had in stock”
“You must be the farmer, most just reuse their seats from last year but we got some in the back.”
She stood up from her stool and walked over to a back door, I followed. On the other side was a dark room stacked high with pallets of seeds. “ Unfortunately we don't have that much variety.”
I realized at that moment I had no idea how much land each bag would cover. I certainly didn't want to ask the 12-year-old girl next to me, but she certainly had far more experience than I did. Crushing my Pride, I asked.
“ Ao how much land roughly does each Bank cover”
“Wow mister you really are new to this I'm guessing you've never farmed”
I nodded, ensuring that my embarrassment wasn't showing.
“Well, you're going to need about 18 bags per acre give or take a few depending on the crop.”
It meant that I would need 36 bags for my 2 acres of land. If my estimates were correct and each bag waited around 10 lb then it would be a problem to get the seeds back to my house. I would need to buy a cart. Not only for getting them back but also for the Harvest.
“Okay, I'll take 18 bags of wheat. I will also take six bags of carrots, tomatoes, and lettuce. The girl raised her eyebrows.
I realized I might have overdone it on the amount of land to cultivate but again I couldn't change that decision now.
“All right anything else”
“Yeah I think that's everything”
She winced” I don't want to intrude but, I recommend buying a book. It outlines the basics of planting, watering, and harvesting as well as some helpful tips on how to plan your farm.”
“That would be great” I should have thought of that, reading anything would have been a smart decision but in my haste to escape and get here, I wasn't thinking rationally.
With the purchase of the seeds and the book complete the total came out to one smolder and Eleven embers. I was now faced with the problem of carrying the bags.
It was as if the girl could read my mind “Don't worry about handling the bags, we'll get them out to you by the end of the day. Just put some directions on this piece of paper and will handle the rest”
After finishing my payment I walked over to the north end of town, where I could easily hear the clangs of the blacksmith. I knew Akira would be somewhere around, and I decided I would pop in and get my pendant fixed real quick.
As I approached I was better able to make out the figure at the forge. The figure caught me off guard. It was a woman. She was of average height being around five six. She was wearing a sleeveless shirt. She had long dark purple hair tied into a low ponytail. As she worked Sweat dribbled from her onto the anvil.
It wasn't her appearance that was startling, nor was it the fact that I realized she was the one who had almost run me over early that morning. No, it was for a different reason.
In my seconds of being frozen, the woman seemed to have noticed my presence and looked up. As she spotted me she dropped her hammer. We both simultaneously spoke
“Why the hell are you Here!”