Ewald was making funny faces in front of Gabriel Hader in the infirmary. The baby reacted with smiles and giggles. He was the first son of Noah and Greta Harder. She had been recuperating in the infirmary meanwhile. She insisted that she was fine. However, since it was her first birthing experience, maids were being extra careful with her.
“Wow, he’s so cute…,” Flora remarked as she carefully touched the baby’s nose with her index finger. The baby cutely grabbed her finger which made her melt down internally. The baby had blonde hair and blue eyes which was expected, given the fact that both of his parents had the same hair and eye colors.
“How is the new environment treating you, Milady?” Greta asked in bed with the baby in her arms.
“It’s been a new experience after another. I really cannot complain.”
In a sense, Greta was lucky that she married Noah. She didn’t need to move to a whole new environment and abandon her friends and family.
“The baby looks really healthy,” Ewald said.
“He drinks and poops really well,” Greta replied with a smile.
He had been taking Flora everywhere he went because he felt she had a lot to experience and learn. It was clear to him that she lacked general knowledge.
Where he took her next was the decoy house. Raem and Lara were preparing to go hunting when they arrived. The duo no longer required Ewald to tag along anymore although his presence made hunting go a lot smoother.
“Raem, have you’ve gotten taller?” he remarked. It looked like he was having a growth spout.
“Have I?”
He used to be a tad taller than Lara. Now, he was clearly taller. Looking up, Lara compared their heights with her hand.
“Yeah, he’s gotten taller. You are becoming a man!” She declared with a carefree smile on her face.
He wasn’t a noble. Thus, he didn’t really need to think about picking a bride. Still, Ewald felt that it was time for him to think about his future partner since he was going to be fourteen soon. Nobles married at fifteen under normal circumstances. Commoners had no explicit marriage ages although most of them would be married by early 20s. But it wasn’t the right place for them to discuss that.
“Milord, what brings you here today?”
Ewald wanted to tag along, but Flora was with him.
“Do you want to tag along, Flora?”
“Huh? She blurted at a completely unexpected question. “Tag along to where?”
“Well?”
Where they took her was a nearby forest. She was extremely nervous about venturing out this far. She’d keep scanning her vicinity like a scared kitten.
“Don’t worry, we are here with you,” Ewald assured her.
“We’ve been doing this for a long time!” Lara chimed in cheerfully.
“Indeed,” Raem added.
She had absolutely no idea what they were going to do and she was about to be utterly shocked by what they were about to do.
“Elementals of wind, hear my call. Grant me an arrow!”
Ewald chanted as a green translucent magical arrow slotted itself in his bow. He fired a shot, and it pierced through a wild boar’s hind leg.
Raem dashed toward the boar with his shield forward on the cue. He’d stop right before the boar and bashed its head powerfully with his shield. The boar was dazed and wobbling from side to side.
“Hiyaaaa!”
Lara was following closely behind Raem and thrusted her spear into the boar’s throat as he bashed its head with his shield.
Ewald, at this point, fired one more magic arrow to completely disable the boar’s movement. The rest of the fight was easy, for them at least. They were very much used to this at this point.
Meanwhile, Flora stood still with her mouth wide open. She covered her mouth from shrieking.
“What have you done? Why?”
“Huh? Lara tilted her head in confusion. “What do you mean why? We eat the boar!”
“Didn’t you see her catch a rabbit before?” Ewald asked.
She did. She certainly did. At that time, however, she was having a culture shock that she didn’t ask.
“Don’t the nobles own animals in their domain?”
Ewald, Raem, and Lara looked at each other.
“Never heard of that,” Raem replied.
“Me, neither,” Ewald added.
“I wouldn’t know,” Lara said.
Apparently, in the domains Flissing ruled, hunting was illegal unless a permit was acquired. Ewald did not recall being told anything about that from Elias even when getting an approval for hunting. However, it was entirely possible that he didn’t tell him because he was the heir.
“Does that matter? He is the heir to the Fenchel,” Raem said, “And we are with him.”
Flora nodded slowly. He had a point indeed. While watching Ewald and Raem carrying the dead boar between a pole, she remarked.
“I didn’t think a group of children would be able to take down an animal of that size.”
“Wasn’t easy at first,” Raem replied to which Ewald laughed pleasantly.
“We literally wrestled it to death at our first attempt,” He added.
“Why would you go that far to kill it?”
“To feed Raem and his family,” Ewald replied. “They are my people, but I don’t have any money.”
“But you are the heir.”
“That doesn’t mean I can use the Fenchel treasury at will. I am given an allowance, but it’s not much. Besides, isn’t it better to teach them to catch their own food instead of just giving them money?”
“That… is true,” Flora agreed, then she realized. “Wait, you taught them?”
Raem replied promptly, “He did. I was starving like fu…” He corrected himself. “I was barely getting by before he came along.”
“I ate only one meal a day before he bought me,” Lara replied.
Flora’s eyes widened. “Huh? He bought you? What does that mean?”
“Lara! Don’t say it like that! It will cause a huge misunderstanding!” Ewald barked.
“How should I say it then? She asked with a bemused face. “You took me?”
Ewald facepalmed. “That’s not any better…” After having said so, he explained Lara’s circumstances to Flora.
“I, I see… My apologies. I thought…,” She didn’t finish her sentence.
I am only NINE! I haven’t gotten morning wood yet even!
He replied with a calm voice in spite of his internal anger.
“Of course not, lady Flora. I am not a barbarian.”
“Oi, kid! Hunter kids!” A farmer called Raem while they were on their way back to the decoy house.
“Caught another boar, eh? Sell me a leg, will you? The usual payment.”
It seemed like Raem and Lara were being known as “hunter kids”. Ewald looked at his field. It was a wheat field. His payment would be either a flour of wheat or bread.
“Sure thing. I will have Lara deliver it to you. Don’t cheat on me, mister.”
The farmer laughed nervously; he tried before apparently.
Flora seemed to have realized something watching the trade.
“No coin is being exchanged,” She said to herself.
“No, because we barely have any,” Ewald caught on and replied.
“But wouldn’t you get more value for your goods if you deal in coins?”
“Perhaps. The thing is that farmers don’t really want to deal with coins.”
“That’s true. I’ve rarely seen a farmer wanting to shell out coins,” Raem added.
“I wonder why…,” Flora trailed off.
Ewald knew exactly why. As a former hunter in a small village, he never used coins. It was always direct trades. The reason was really simple. It was math or the lack of. A lot of commoners had troubles with even simple math. 1+1 was okay. Perhaps 1+2 is okay as well. Alas, anything more complex than that, they struggled. Therefore, when dealing with coins, thus math, farmers were often cheated by merchants. A direct trade was the most simple form of math. You give one and you take one back. Anyone could do it.
He hesitated to tell this Flora the reason because he felt, as a nine year-old, he was already pushing the boundaries of his age group. He thought of a roundabout way of explaining it in a more simpler way.
“Perhaps they find it simpler this way. They are just farmers after all.”
She nodded along slowly.
Once they were back at the decoy house, Raem and Lara went to the backyard to skin and smoke the meat. Lara would soon leave the house with a boar hind leg covered in thick brown papers. Karla was preparing for dinner. The whole house was quite busy.
“Everyone is doing something…,” Flora said to herself.
“What’s so shocking about that?”
She glanced at him and dropped her head.
“In my whole life, all I’ve done is … take some walks and sit around in my room, reading books and whatnot. Compared to that, this is …”
“You are a noble lady though. That is what’s expected of you, no?”
Acting like a pretty doll, Emily once told him about noble ladies.
She was in for a far more surprising moment when they arrived back at the corner of the Fenchel manor. They were supposed to go back into the manor, but he started to harvest the tea leaves right in front of her while a couple of maids were guarding the field in its vicinity.
“... What?” She uttered. “You…?”
“Yes?”
“You are the farmer? But you are …”
“Why does the heir do farming?”
She nodded weakly. He had to come up with a lie obviously.
“My uncle lives in Laufeld. He is a Macomaco farmer. I was taught by him.”
The method to harvest the tea was a closely guarded secret, or she was told.
She looked at the maids, silently asking for confirmation.
“It is true, Milady. His aunt, Lady Vilma, was married to a Macomaco tea farmer in Laufeld,” One of them went along with his lie.
“She was married down to a commoner?”
He replied promptly, “It was to secure this secret as well as the tea trade. It is quite lucrative.”
A noble woman marrying a commoner was simply unheard of. Flora couldn’t even imagine the sheer horror Lady Vilma had to embrace.
“Were you forced to learn the secret?”
“What? No. I volunteered on a condition that I’d teach no one else. I had nothing to do anyway. Better than sitting around and doing nothing.”
He indeed had no plan to pass the knowledge to his children. He intended to keep Grent’s family the sole Macomaco tea farmer in the region.
“Ever since I’ve come here, it feels like I came to a completely different world…,” She remarked while placing her hand on her waist and rubbing her face with her other hand.
“For the better or worse?” He asked while focusing on harvesting.
“For the better, I feel, although not a hundred percent sure.”
She understood that she came from another end of the Kingdom, but the culture shock was beyond what she had possibly imagined. Everything was so different that she felt lost. One thing was a hundred percent certain however: She wasn’t bored.
The next day, Ewald visited Elias and asked about the hunting permit.
“We don’t have such,” He replied. “I do believe the Flissing does, yes. I can see why she freaked out. The punishment for stealing the Flissing’s animal is chopping off both of one’s hands.”
Ouch.
He figured he’d ask another question.
“How do you collect taxes?”
“Interested in finance already? Impressive.”
According to Elias, there were different rates for different items. For example, wheat had a 65% tax. General vegetables had a 40% tax and …
“Stop, Sir Hunt. I can see that working on merchants and other educated people, but you do that to farmers?”
Elias seemed to be confused.
“I don’t understand? Tax has been collecting fine.”
“Of course because you aren’t the one collecting taxes, correct? I assume you leave that to tax collectors.”
“True, yes.”
He recalled the tax collection days as Tom in Bronn. For hunters who had to learn who to count properly, it was okay. While Bronn was mostly a hunting community, there were a few full time farmers who always had issues with tax collectors.
“If it’s not too much to ask, would you call one of our tax collectors and ask how hard it is to collect taxes from farmers?”
Elias was clearly reluctant to make the call.
“Sir Hunt, I assure you that it will be worth your time,” He pressed.
Elias called for a guard and sent him to patch one of Fenchel tax collectors. Soon, a man in a brown robe entered.
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“Sir Hunt, I’ve answered your summon,” he said as he bowed.
Elias introduced Ewald to him.
“This is Ewald Fenchel, the Lord’s son. He’d like to ask some questions.”
“Of course, I am at your service.”
“Sir, it is a simple question. How easy is it for you to collect taxes from farmers?”
The man grimaced at once.
“Not easy, Milord. They always argue against us, telling us that we are stealing from them. I do not know who reported us, but I assure you that we do not cheat on the percentage.”
“Has it ever occurred to you that they argue because they don’t know how to do math?”
Both Elias and the tax collector froze immediately. The tax collector’s eyes were opening wide in addition.
Ewald explained, “When you put like 65% tax on wheat, the farmers do not know what that means. It’s just better to state that the Fenchel will take half instead of 60% or even 50%. I would suggest unifying all farming related taxes to half. Don’t even say 50%. Just say we will take half.”
“That…,” The man trailed off but soon continued, “That has never occurred to me, Milord. But… it does make sense.”
Elias folded his arms and fell into thoughts. He looked troubled initially, but his face soon smoothed out.
“Ewald, how did you come up with this idea?”
He explained the encounter with a farmer asking for a trade with Raem over a boar’s hind leg with Flora commenting that no coin seemed to be exchanging.
“They don’t know how to count unless it’s really simple math,” he explained further, “That’s why they prefer direct trades over using coins. Asking them to understand the percentage is like asking a fool to count stars.”
Elias and the tax man looked at each other with bemused expressions on their faces.
The tax man asked, “Sir Hunt, with your permission, I’d like to give this a try.”
“Altering tax requires the Lord’s permission,” Elias said, “I am going to have to take this to the Lord.”
Thus, the three men visited Edmund in his study. On their behalf, Elias explained their discussion.
“Interesting… Very interesting… Is it that much of a trouble to collect taxes from farmers?”
The tax man lowered his head as he explained.
“It’s never easy to collect taxes, Milord. However, farmers are an especially hard bunch. We have to bring guards just in case they start to pick a fight with us. It has never been easy, Milord. The young master’s explanation has opened my eyes. I feel like I now know why they are always angry at us. They are angry at us because they don’t understand why we are taking a certain amount. As he said, they don’t know math. They don’t understand what percentile means.”
Ewald added, “If we just say we are taking half, they might still get angry but they won’t argue about the amount at least.”
“Precisely, Milord,” The tax man agreed fully.
“Elias?” Edmund looked at him.
“We will be lowering tax on wheat but gaining more on other items. I suppose it evens out in the end,” He said.
The tax man quickly chimed in.
“It’s not just the amount, Sir Hunt. Tax collecting might get done so much faster. For wheat, taking time doesn’t really matter. However, for other produces, like carrots, delay means possible spoilage of a portion of what we collect.”
“How do you keep things like carrots fresh for a prolonged period?” Ewald asked out of curiosity.
“We don’t. We have no means to keep them fresh for long. We sell them as much as we can and just store them in cooler storage houses.”
Ewald grimaced. “So, do we lose a lot to spoilage?”
“For vegetables, I’d say we lose out around 60%.”
“What a waste, and selling them at once won’t get you a fair price, either.”
The tax man looked troubled as he agreed. Wheat wasn’t generally sold unless a house required cash desperately. It was the staple food for everyone after all. Additionally, it was easy to keep it fresh in flour form. Vegetables, however, posed difficulty to keep them fresh. For the time being, Ewald had no clue how to solve this issue.
Edmund cleared his throat, bringing them back to the topic.
“The only issue I see from this is that we are altering taxes,” he said, “People never like to see taxes being altered unless it clearly benefits them.”
“Don’t announce it then,” Ewald replied.
Everyone went, “huh?”
“I bet they don’t even know the rates anyway. Just take half without telling them. They probably won’t notice. This will work only on farmers though.”
Majority, if not all, farmers were illiterate. Even Grent, his biological father, was illiterate in spite of being one of wealthier farmers. He did know how to count, however, due to the nature of his job. But then, Macomaco tea was a tax-exempt commodity.
Edmund stroked his chin in consideration. Soon, he looked at Elias and the tax man.
“Your thoughts?”
“It shouldn’t be a problem. Farmers can’t even read to begin with,” The tax man replied, and Elias decided to go with his opinion since he was never involved in collecting taxes.
“I see. Very well then. Go ahead with my son’s idea.”
“I thank you, Milord! The painful days might just be over!” He exclaimed with excitement in his voice. He even had some tears in his eyes. It must have been brutal. Their meeting concluded soon after.
“A way to keep vegetables fresh?”
Ewald brought the topic to Flora. They were having lunch together in a dining room. There were three maids among them, Emily, Avina, and Noelle. Their meal was just bread and butter. That was it. He generally skipped lunch all together since breakfast and dinner were hearty meals.
He explained the tax collection of vegetables to elaborate further.
“I see. I am probably the worst person to ask about it. All I have done is read books in my room.”
“Well, I assume you’ve read a lot of books. Have you come across any literature that had some wild ideas?”
“I …,” She trailed off, “only read romance novels…”
“Come again?”
“N, no, I don’t think I’ve come across anything useful.”
Avina smiled. “If I may.”
“You may.” He granted permission.
“Dido is cooler than here. We store perishables in basements of storage houses. Basement tends to be cooler. However, another issue with the basement is higher humidity which causes molds..”
“So, there is not a good solution to store such…”
After lunch, he visited the library and looked for fantasy novels in search of some wild ideas that could be implemented in the real world. The library was usually empty with an occasional cleaning maid. That day, however, he saw a figure who sat down at a table and was reading a book.
Who’s that? I rarely see anyone sitting down and reading an actual book.
Although curious, he avoided making contact with the person and went on with his task. He gathered tens of fantasy novels on a cart and dragged them to a table in the middle.
The layout of the library was such that there were individual tables in the middle, and bookshelves were spread out around those tables. The tables would provide a place for people to read. Or at least that was the plan. He had rarely seen people using it.
After stalking the books into two files, he began to go through the content. He was looking for some kind of inspiration; he wasn’t expecting a solution. At one point, however, he realized some of these novels were erotic fantasy novels.
The princess’ eyes were locked into her savior’s eyes. They slowly moved toward each other at which point he started to strip her violently -
“Woah, woah,” He blurted as he closed the book in haste. “Wait, I am old enough.”
“No, you are not.”
He jumped up and down from the foreign voice. The person he saw earlier was looking down at him. It was a man, probably in 20s. He wore a brown robe and had messy black hair with light brown eyes.
“Milord, I apologize for the intrusion, but you should not be reading adult novels.”
With a palm on his chest, Ewald was breathing hard while completely out of position in his chair.
“Y, you scared me!” Panting, he continued, “You are…?”
He bowed lightly with a palm on his chest as he announced himself.
“My name is Cezary Waszak, a scholar employed by your house. I am a word keeper.”
He was similar to Greta except for the fact that she was a historian and he was a word keeper.
“What is a word keeper?”
“I keep words safe. Essentially, I look after this library and keep books safe from harm’s way. Now, having said that, more than half of the books you’ve picked are for adults. Some of them are erotic even.
“I did not have any dirty intentions, Sir Waszak. I was looking for something.”
“Oh, really.” His eyes were full of doubts.
“I was looking for inspiration,” Ewald retorted.
“I do recall that lady Flissing has arrived. Making a move on her already?” Cezary looked up and down on him. “Aren’t you a bit too young?” Disdain was clear in his glare.
He was clearly not going to believe a word out of his mouth. Therefore, he did the next best thing. He put the books back on the cart calmly, put them back on calmly, and just left with his shoulders sagged like a defeated man.
The next day, he visited the library again right after breakfast. He intended to continue his research, only to find Cezary present in the library again. It wasn’t only that also. Flora was there as well, conversing with him at a table.
There is no way that he told her about me reading adult novels, right?
He became a little nervous. It was not his intention to have read it, but the reality was that he was caught reading it.
“Lady Flissing,” Ewald called out for her as he approached the duo.
Cezary bowed lightly toward him in response, and so did Flora. She had stopped wearing a dress ever since she wore pants for the first time. It didn’t bother him. It wasn’t like he could have seen anything with such a long skirt anyway.
“What brings you to the library, Milady?”
“I believe I told you that I used to read a lot of books. I believe I shall resume that activity albeit differently.”
“Differently?”
“She’d like to learn how to write novels, Milord,” Cezary explained.
Well, people have to have something to do after all. I can’t blame her for wanting to do something.
“Intriguing. What kind of novels?”
She blushed as she replied weakly, “Ehm…, romance novels…?”
“I see. Good for you.”
Then a familiar voice joined.
“Oh, my. It’s rare to see three people in the library.”
It was Greta who was back in her usual attire.
“Lady Harder!” Cezary raised his voice. He seemed to be really glad to see her. He walked toward her at once and bowed toward her with a palm on his chest, showing respect. “It is good to see you back. I shall be alone no longer.”
“Are you two acquainted?” She asked after looking back and forth.
“Not really,” Ewald replied. “We’ve just met.”
“This is Cezary Waszak, a word keeper,” She introduced him. “Despite his last name, he is not a noble.”
Cezary was granted the title of a scholar like Greta. Thus, he was a temporary noble. His nobility was not hereditary however. It was like Noah’s case where he was granted the title of a knight. His family, the Harder, was a permanent noble. Thus, he kept his nobility. Cezary was different because he originated from a commoner household.
Ewald wondered what accomplishment he had achieved to earn his title. It was an inappropriate question to ask on this occasion regrettably.
Cezary looked extremely pleased and walked around in rhythm as if he was dancing.
“Four people in the library! Four people! This is a record!” He exclaimed ecstatically. “Maids don’t count,” He added quickly with a low voice that was devoid of emotions.
“What about maids who genuinely wish to read?” Ewald asked.
“Ha, ha, ha,” Cezary laughed drily. “Maids who have spare time? There is none.”
“I’ve been to the library sometimes,” Ewald fought on, “And I’ve never seen you, sir.”
“There is a small staff-only room back there,” Cezary pointed his thumb backwards. “I am usually holed up there. Sadly, without Lady Harder, it’s been so quiet and so lonely…”
“Sir Waszak, I did tell you to get a wife…,” Greta told him.
“I have no intention to marry, Milady,” He replied nonchalantly. “I will think about a marriage ONLY if I get to become a landed noble.”
Greta smiled and didn’t talk back. Ewald figured that it was about finance. Noah and Greta were living in a literal hut. Perhaps, Cezary did not want his wife to go through such an underwhelming experience.
“Thankfully, men can marry at any age unlike women,” He added.
Ewald felt that Cezary was awkward. He felt like he was missing a gear or two in his head. However, his remark on his marriage told him that his head was screwed properly into his body.
Then the sound of a horn was heard from afar. Ewald recognized the sound. It was the horn guards used when monsters were spotted nearby the city. Even Flora appeared to know the meaning of the horn; her face stiffened.
He and Greta ran out of the manor to find Noah gathering troops in front of the front entrance.
“What’s the situation?” He asked.
Glancing back, Noah replied, “We don’t know. Horn has been blown is all we know. Greta, scout.”
Nodding, she cast levitation and flew away. Ewald did the same but cast the spirit version.
“A horde of goblins!” He uttered as he saw dark green creatures storming a farmhouse in outskirts. Greta was far ahead of him. There were so many that he couldn’t count. He flew back to the manor, to Noah, and informed him.
“A horde of goblins, I couldn’t count how many but there are a lot!”
“I see. No problem then. Greta alone should be able to handle them,” Noah said nonchalantly.
“Are you sure?”
“Young master, wind magic specializes in area effect spells. It will eat goblins like breakfast.” He, then, turned to his men. Theo Ros was among them. “We will be doing cleanup!”
Ewald flew back to go after Greta who, at this point, was flying directly above the goblins. Soon, an enormous whirlwind appeared on top of them, sucking most of the goblins into the air.
An equivalent spell for fire mages was firestorm, but the two spells worked very differently. Firestorm was a direct damage spell where a ball of fire would explode, causing heat and burn. If equipped correctly, it wasn’t hard to avoid being hurt by the spell. This spell was similar to fireball but larger in scale.
Whirlwind did no direct damage. Instead, it’d launch targets into the air and would make them swirl around, making them dizzy and lose any sense of direction. By time the spell expires, targets would directly fall to the ground, usually breaking bones on impact or outright death due to falling awkwardly. Even if managed to land unharmed, dizziness would render targets disarmed.
At the moment, the spell was literally holding the majority of goblins in the air. A few managed to avoid being sucked into the air, but he managed to take care of them with his arrows.
Meanwhile, Greta orbited around the whirlwind and started casting a chantless version of wind blades at the goblins in the air, mercilessly slicing off their flesh. It was a quite bloody scene where goblins’ arms and legs would fall off like a clay figure losing its limbs.
He looked around, looking for anyone in need of assistance from the air and found a farmer collapsed. He landed nearby.
“Are you alright, sir?”
He was unresponsive. From what he could tell, he was beaten badly by the goblins. As he took a closer look, he found that the farmer was dead.
“Rest in peace,” He said to him.
The cause of death appeared to be a broken skull as he was bleeding badly from his head. In fact, he saw bits of his brain spilling out of his head.
“His family?” Whispering to himself, he scanned the area. The whirlwind was slowing down, and whatever left of the goblins crashed into the ground. Deeming the area to be safe at this point, he approached the racksacked farmhouse. Greta landed near him.
“Awesome job, Lady Harder.”
She beamed a Goddess-tier smile in return. For a moment, he felt like there was a backlight behind her.
“I didn’t know goblins would attack the city like this,” He said.
“Goblins are basically idiots. When they grow in a size like this though, there tends to be a leader of some sort who organizes them. Their goal tends to be young women and gemstones.”
“Come again?”
She shrugged. “Goblins love young human women.”
“How come?”
“I read from a book that they like touching women’s breasts.”
The farmer’s wife…!
He dashed toward the farmer’s house and opened the door. The house was a mess with almost everything broken inside.
“Hello? Anyone here?”
Then he heard crying from underneath a bed in a room. There was a toddler hiding.
“Mommy got taken! They took mommy!” He shouted while crying.
Damn it!
Noah and his men arrived at the scene soon; Greta and Ewald informed them of the situation.
“The goblins kidnapped the farmer’s wife,” Ewald said, “Are we going to search for her?”
The toddler was clinging onto Greta’s leg like his life depended on him, and she was patting his head gently.
“Only if we can locate the goblins fast enough. Once she’s taken to their camp, it’s pretty much over for her,” Noah responded.
“She’d be mentally broken,” Greta added.
“Then we need to search for her now.”
However, Greta shook her head and explained.
“I cannot assist you on that. I reckon I am low on my stamina at this point. I cast two big spells and numerous wind blades. I do believe I can cast levitation but won’t be much help taking down the goblins.”
Noah added, “And searching on foot is futile. It takes too much time.”
“Then I will go search for the goblins.”
“I respect your courage but I advise you not to do that,” Noah said, “Don’t put yourself under too much danger. You are an important person.”
While he could take down several goblins with ease, there was a hard limit on how many he could take on alone. He needed a partner here, but there was none. He had to be realistic; he had his own goal which was far more important than a woman’s life.
Sagging his shoulders, he agreed, “Very well.”
“We will take care of the child at the manor. The maids will look after him. He will inherit his father’s land once he reaches twelve.”
Ewald nodded along. To be painfully honest, he would be treated a lot better at the manor. He’d be educated also, probably.
Noah turned to face his soldiers.
“Men! The job is done. Well, we did nothing! Lady Greta did everything today!”
The men cheered.
“We're going home after cleaning up goblin pieces!” Noah exclaimed.
Ewald and Greta returned to the manor by foot. The toddler was asleep soundly in her arms. One would think that the child might be sad at losing his parents, but he seemed peaceful in her arms. Whether the child didn’t fully understand the loss, he wasn’t sure.
She’s really good with kids…
Fionara, his former wife, also adored her children. They were her literal beacons of hope after all. After going through a miserable life, her two sons were the most important things in her life. Of course, it didn’t end well for her. Well, nothing ended up well for her anyway.
The poor woman.
A maid welcomed the toddler with open arms.
“He’s so cute!” A maid exclaimed with absolute joy in her voice while taking him carefully from Greta.
“I don’t know his name,” She said.
“Worry not, Lady Harder. We will take well care of him.”
Two other maids approached at once. One of them poked the child’s cheek gently.
“Oh, by the way, Milord. Sir Hunt was looking for you.”
“I see. I will see you later, Lady Harder.”
“Likewise.”
The reason Elias called him was due to the snake blade. It had arrived in a fancy wooden case. It was a quite narrow case which looked like the blade could barely fit inside.
“All yours, the contraption you asked for.”
“May I open it here?”
“Of course. Just so you know, I’ve personally inspected it, so it’s been opened already.”
Nodding, he tried to open it.
“Hmm?”
It looked to be a solid piece of wood.
“How do you open this thing?”
“It’s two pieces of wood on top of each other, so you hold it like this…”
Elias held the wooden box on its sides and gently pulled. Initially, he was lifting the whole thing up, but the bottom half soon gave out.
“Oh, so it doesn’t exactly open in a traditional sense.”
The blade, when in assembled state, looked exactly like a sword. There was a discreet button on top of its handle which released locks on its blade, disjointing it into ten or so pieces. Each piece had a hollow core, and they were connected by metal wires. It wasn’t long enough for the blade pieces to go haywire; it was just long enough for the blade pieces to be flexible. Additionally, each piece had jagged edges where it connected to each other, forming a solid connection when the wire was tightened.
Pushing the button a second time would tighten the wires, assembling the blade. That was one way to activate the blade. It could also be activated by just swinging it powerfully; each piece would click and lock into each other.
All in all, it was a complicated contraption.
He rolled it around his waist and made it look like a belt. The blade was shiny, thus it was easy to tell that it was a weapon.
“Thank you, Sir Hunt.”
“Don’t go around killing people with it, yes?”
“Just what do you think I am, Sir Hunt?”
“I am not sure. I don’t feel like I am dealing with a nine year-old. I am sure that you get what I mean.”
“I AM a nine year-old boy, Sir Hunt.”
That was an indisputable fact. What was inside of him was a different story of course. Would anyone believe him if he told the truth? Perhaps, Elias might. Even then, he could tell no one for one simple reason: His goal was to kill the king.
“Yes, yes, of course. Off you go.” He waved him away, looking tired.
Smiling bitterly in his mind, Ewald walked out of his study.