“Werewolves!”

Several farmers ran into the town, screaming their lungs out.

“Werewolves!”

Other farmers were making their ways toward the town gate where other farmers were pushing its wooden doors to close. They weren’t abandoning them; They’d leave a small gap for men to pass until the last moment.

When the former mayor departed, he took everything, including his few guards. Apparently, they were his own private men. Thus, until this moment, Ewald did not realize that the town had no guards at all. And, because there was no means of communication other than someone informing them in person, it took a while for Martin, Raem, and Lara to form up and deal with the monsters. Cezary vetoed Ewald from partaking in this affair, saying that the situation would be under control without his presence.

When they arrived at the gate, werewolves were bashing the gate from outside. The wooden gates, made of whole logs, held firm with several farmers leaning their bodies against it.

“Paul didn’t make it, damn!” A farmer lamented loudly, tears in his eyes.

“Open the gate!” Martin shouted.

As soon as farmers let go of the gate doors, four werewolves dashed toward whatever was in front of them, which was Martin and Raem who readied their shields in front of them. Filled with sheer rage, the werewolves clawed their shields nonstop. They were so focused on that they failed to see their impending doom. Lara had her spear ready right behind them and thrust her spear powerfully into a werewolf’s neck, killing it instantly. Not caring at all about one of their own being killed, they continued to claw their shields in their berserk state. All she had to do was pick them one after one with her spear. Soon enough, all four werewolves were killed. The farmers cheered loudly although a few were moaning for their friends who failed to make it to the gate in time.

“Two died,” Raem reported curtly in Ewald’s study. “There were four werewolves.” Martin was standing behind him. While he may have had seniority, Raem was considered higher ranked.

“In broad daylight…” He grimaced. Cezary was standing next to him. It was just like how Elias was standing next to Edmund back in Lux.

“So, there were no guards at all at the gate. I should have known,” Cezary remarked.

“Well, the farmers’ swift reactions tell me that they weren’t much of use anyway,” Ewald said.

It looked like farmers were used to acting on their own. They all promptly ran to the gate and closed it themselves. Meanwhile, Ewald and Co had been so busy since their arrival that it didn’t occur to them that the town had no guards until an event like this occurred. Additionally, maintaining a group of guards would cost money as well. It was in fact a long term investment because they would need to be trained before being deployed. They couldn’t just pick random volunteers, clad them in some armor, and make them act like guards.

“We are going to have to train some guards, not too many, perhaps five guards?” Ewald suggested.

“We can’t afford any more than that anyway,” Cezary replied.

Right now, all the budget was going into his invention. The money to hire and train guards was coming out of the invention budget.

“Martin, I am going to leave the task to you unless you have an objection.”

“No, I do not.”

He knew Laufeld far better than anyone in the room. He was also locally known which would make it easier to recruit willing bodies.

“Very well, whatever it costs, report it to Sir Waszak.”

“Understood,” He said with a bow.

Once Raem and Martin left, both men heaved long sighs.

“Equipment is going to cost money…,” Ewald muttered.

“This is going to slow down the progress…,” Cezary complained at the same time.

He had been testing his theory on a small scale. The very first time he demonstrated it in front of Ewald, it was back in Lux. At that time, it was just a linen bag with a fire crystal. Now, he improved the design. It was still on a small scale, but Ewald could see it progressing. The last time Cezary demonstrated an improved design was just a few days ago. The linen bag had a small piece of iron secured by strings at the bottom, which balanced the inflated linen bag to float around in a stable manner. He claimed that the iron piece could easily be replaced with a basket, allowing people to get in. Of course, he was speaking this on a much larger scale. Now, the issue with going for a bigger scale was money. A linen bag was cheap as long as it was an ordinary size. A bigger, unconventional size, would need to be manually tailored. And there were fire crystals; They weren’t cheap, either. He estimated that a larger scale one was 15 silver coins where the majority of the cost was going to be used for fire crystals. The linen bag would be reusable but the fire crystals would not, meaning everytime he conducted a demonstration, quite an amount of money was spent. Either way, Ewald approved the design and handed over the coins out of the money which he borrowed from his parents, leaving 30 silver coins left. It was a large amount of money but it was a part of the progress.

Then Marat, the maid, made a crazy suggestion one day.

“Excuse me?” Ewald, dumbfounded, stared at her.

“A… public library where everyone has access to,” She spoke shyly. What was more surprising to Ewald was that she wasn’t simply making a suggestion. She had apparently sought supporters and had Flora on her side. He was pretty sure that Cezary advised her to do so.

Is there any financial gain in this?

His immediate answer was no. Thus, his answer to her was going to be a no, but he wasn’t going to turn her down completely.

“Our financial situation does not allow the construction of a library. It will have to wait.”

She bowed deeply in response. “I do understand, but please keep it in your mind.”

He had a feeling that she expected rejection. A library of some sort would need to be built either way at one point, and Cezary told her that probably. This event made clear also that Flora was going to continue to write. She probably wanted a place to store and let people read her books. Suffice to say, while Flora and Marat had different goals, they shared a lot of common ground.

Well, I dislike that they are scheming behind me like this, but this is rather harmless. I will let them be, for now.

Flora was simply chasing her dream. Truthfully, a noblewoman chasing a dream was unheard of. Their job was to be a trophy wife and bear a son or two. However, he was willing to grant her some exceptions because she was four years older. Under normal circumstances, she would probably be busy cuddling with her husband right now, trying to get pregnant. Basically, she wasn’t going to have anything to do for several years. One had to have something to occupy his mind.

“Alright, enough being holed up in a study for today. Time for some exercise.”

The manor was quite painfully small. It did have the structure of a manor but everything was so tightly close to each other. Ewald’s study was on the second floor, right by the central stairs in the middle, meaning as soon as he walked out of his study, he was within the reach of the stairs. The adjacent room was his own room and then there was Flora’s room. Because his own study was too small, they could not fit two desks in there, meaning she no longer had her own study. Therefore, a desk was sent to her room.

Additionally, Karla remained as the chef of the manor to save money, and only an additional maid was hired. Essentially, there were only two maids for the whole manor. There was also Avina who was dedicated to Flora and took on tasks that involved her lady only. Therefore, having two maids was just enough since there were only Ewald and Cezary to look after. Raem and Lara had to look after their own with Karla providing them food from the kitchen directly. Overall, this was a hectic setup but necessary for the time being.

image [https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img924/1513/BwtGBc.jpg]

Laufeld was a town with about 5,000 people. It had wooden walls which was quite rare for a settlement of its size. There was only one gate, the North gate, and houses of all farmers were located close to the gate. The main road, if one could call it a road, went into the middle of the town where the local market was. A small tavern was along the road, close to the market. In the Southwest corner, there was Grent’s Macomaco tea field. Normally, farming fields were located outside of the walls. Given the high value of the tea however, Grent’s farm was allowed to exist inside of the walls. In the Southeast corner, there was Ewald’s manor which was technically a manor but just barely. There was nothing at all in its vicinity other than a single well. The Southern part of the town was free of manure smell. Essentially, 99% of its populace was farmers. Overall, it was a very quiet town.

It had been about two months since he had become the lord of Laufeld. There was hardly any improvement for the town. He had lofty plans and whatnot but nothing was getting done due to the lack of funds. If there was any change for the better, it was due to Macomaco tea. Grent had delivered a shipment to the manor so far, and Cezary had been selling them directly to traveling merchants at an extreme markup. He thought the Fenchel house was purchasing the tea at an over-the-odd price. However, it turned out that they were getting it far cheaper. He recalled the Fenchel paying six silver coins per backpack full of the tea. Cezary was selling a fist full amount for three silvers. A fist full would be enough to serve perhaps ten cups. The merchants did complain that the price was in fact absurdly high. Thus, he eventually adjusted the price to two silver coins. Even at that price, a backpack full of the tea would earn about 24 silver coins with 5 silver coins going to Grent with 19 silver coins going directly to the coffer.

I seriously undervalued the tea.

Because he grew up in an environment where he could get it at any time he wanted, he failed to grasp the true value of it. And, once word spread that Laufeld was selling Macomaco tea directly to commoners, there was a noticeable increase in merchant traffic. It turned out that the other tea farmers in the Kingdom were in a similar situation as Grent where they sold directly to nobles.

In about two months, demand soared, and Cezary naturally increased the price to three silvers again. At this point, merchants couldn’t complain because there was always someone else who was willing to pay for the extravagant price.

It was worth noting that Grent did try to sell the tea on his own before marrying Vilma, but he was just a commoner trying to sell it in a local market. It was different in this case because a local governor was advertising to sell it. Basically, traveling merchants couldn’t banter and cheat like they used to. They wouldn’t dare pulling tricks against the nobility.

“It’s not extravagant if people are lining up to pay for it,” was Cezary’s stance. And he’d be correct. The massive profit from tea sales was what saved them. Like Cezary once said, taxes from wheat was indeed a passive income, which was something you could live without but nice to have. Of course, the “massive” income from the tea sales was nothing according to Cezary. Besides, he warned.

“The profit will wane. It’s only high right now because this is a first. We must squeeze whatever you can get out of this initial wave and invest properly.”

“What are you planning then?”

“We must have a reason for people to come here. Right now, it's tea which won’t last long.”

Laufeld was a farming community where you could smell manure from everywhere which made traveling merchants depart as soon as they conducted their businesses. He felt that the first step would be creating a new place where there was no smell of manure. Then he realized something.

“Is that another reason why you advised me to expand the town westward?”

What Cezary told him back in the carriage was that he wanted the town to be closer to the mountain for stones and other materials. He was not wrong. However, in doing so, the center of the town would progressively move away from the farming fields.

Cezary grinned. “There is no need to relocate farmers. Their fields are their assets. They spent decades shaping their lands, therefore they won’t move anyway. So, we will develop away from them, leaving them alone. Later on, we will designate the farming area as an agriculture district.”

He noted that Lux was developed the same way. It started as a farming community and developed itself away from the fields, eventually building walls away from the farming fields.

“Laufeld has it better since we already have walls for farmers,” He noted.

“What is our next step?”

Ewald figured that money was no longer an issue. Apparently, he was wrong.

“A barrack,” Cezary said. “I estimate the total cost for this to be about a gold piece. We also need to contact the local blacksmith as well as a mason because we need to improve the roads within the town as well as the one outside. It is also for the future, but we are going to build a new manor. The one we are living in isn’t exactly a manor.”

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

Ewald frowned. “That’s a lot of money you are talking about there.”

“Indeed, sir. We need money, lots of it. What we are earning right now is just a drop in a bucket.”

Stone was simply impossible to purchase from Laufeld. No sane merchant would carry giant rocks on their wagons. Therefore, the only way was to source them from the mountain nearby. The mountain was about two hours away from the town. Therefore, sourcing stones from there was a logistical nightmare. However, it was better than being outright impossible.

The local blacksmith and the carpenter were summoned to discuss what the plans were. Apparently, there was no mason in the town. Suffice to say, they had their jaws dropped. The scale of the project Cezary was explaining was over their heads. For their entire lives, they had worked on only small projects. For the local blacksmith, all he had been making were farming tools. What he was being asked was sophisticated trinkets as well as supply of swords and shields. As a result, he was completely lost in what to do. Additionally, he did not have sufficient iron to work with. He did have some in his storage, but it was nowhere enough. Traveling merchants rarely carried iron because of its weight. He’d need to place special orders which would take time.

Meanwhile, the carpenter, realizing that he’d have an endless amount of work for years, chose to hire another man and an apprentice because his son was no longer enough. While Cezary said with a smile that they could take their time, the craftsmen knew that they needed to hurry due to the sheer amount of tasks ahead.

As for the lack of a mason, it was a simple matter of asking traveling merchants to spread a word that Laufeld was looking for a mason who’d have a job for life. While traveling to other settlements wasn’t an easy task, the constant traffic from merchants meant that it was quite easy to hitchhike a ride to the town. If anyone wanted the job, it’d be theirs. Cezary went on even further that many jobs were available at the town. He even paid merchants to spread the word.

And the day arrived finally; Cezary would perform a demonstration of a larger scale floating linen bag. He even came up with a new name: The flying-basket.

Everyone was gathered in front of the manor: Ewald, Flora, Avina, Raem, Martin, and Lara. Marat was assisting Cezary in preparing the thing. There was a large basket made of hay, and Marat herself was getting in. There were four iron bars from each corner, reaching the top of the basket in a triangle shape. On the top of it, there was a placeholder for a fire crystal. The large deflated linen bag was attached a short distance away from the crystal with more iron bars.

“Behold my new invention!” Cezary declared loudly with his arms open wide in front of the contraption with his face full of confidence. “The flying-basket!”

Well, there was no reaction from the small crowd.

“Just get on with it, Sir Waszak,” Ewald said stoically with a hand on his waist.

Clearing his throat, Cezary told Marat to gently hammer the fire crystal located on top of the basket. She was apparently carrying a small pick hammer and hit the crystal with it from below. The fire crystal, that was the size of a fist, began to shine, heating air around it and pushing it into the deflated linen bag which was too big to be called a bag but they had no other word for it. The vocabulary “Balloon” did not exist.

Slowly but surely, heated air started to inflate the linen balloon progressively. It took a while, but the basket Marat was in started to move around as the progressively inflating linen balloon floated. At one point, the basket was hovering above the ground, which made everyone gasp. Marat seemed to be more scared than excited unlike Cezary who had tears in his eyes watching the scene. Slowly, it was taking off higher and was fully airborne. The local populace noticed something was flying and started following it from the ground. The flying-basket was pretty high in the air.

“How is she going to get down?” Ewald asked casually while looking up, thinking that Cezary had surely thought about a way to get down.

“Huh?” He looked shocked as if he didn’t know what Ewald was talking about.

“Sir Waszak, how is she going to get down?”

His face slowly turned pale. She would get down eventually once the crystal ran out of its power and the heated air cooled down. But that’d take a long time. There was another problem. The flying-basket was veering off somewhere. At the very moment, the flying-basket was getting smaller pretty fast. It had no means to control its direction.

“I …, ehm, haven’t thought about it.”

“Well, it's a good thing that I am a wind mage then.”

This situation could have been quite serious if Ewald wasn’t a wind mage. They had no way of getting her down otherwise. If it got darker and it landed in the wilderness, she would have been devoured by monsters. Casting levitation, Ewald ascended swiftly and flew toward Marat.

“...Chantless magic?” Cezary whispered to himself.

It didn’t take long for him to reach the flying-basket.

“Milord!” She cried, looking scared with tears in her eyes.

“Hang in there. I am going to push this thing toward Laufeld.”

She nodded repeatedly.

“You should also pop out the crystal.”

She did just that with her pick hammer. Since the heat source was gone, it was only a matter of time before it’d descend. He pushed the basket with his body in the air, slowly pushing it back to Laufeld.

Well, I think the concept is sound. It just needs more refinement.

The biggest take was it was possible to fly without magic. Cezary would need to come up with ways to propel the thing and a way to get down to the ground. If those were taken care of, he could certainly see it being used as a means of transportation.

In the end, Ewald had to carry Marat down in his arms because the balloon didn’t look like it was coming down anytime soon. She let out a long sigh of relief once her feet touched the ground. It must have been scary for her. Regardless, Cezary was full of smiles.

“It worked!” He exclaimed joyfully while looking up at the thing. He didn’t seem to be concerned at all about the maid. At this point, they were surrounded by the local populace.

“What’s that thing up there?” A farmer wondered aloud.

“Who was that child who flew up?” Another asked.

They murmured loudly. Events were extremely rare in the town. Therefore, pretty much everyone was captivated by whatever was happening in front of them. Martin and Raem ended up forcing them to disperse in the end.

“It works. The concept works on a larger scale,” Cezary confirmed in his study. “It just needs a little more adjustment.”

It needed a way to change its direction and a way to alter its altitude. Additionally, it needed to be even larger. The basket Marat was in was just enough for one person.

That one cost 15 silvers. I wonder how much this one is going to cost…

“How much is this going to cost?”

The money from tea sales prevented them going into the red. Given that the fact that borrowing money was not possible, they could not afford going under.

Cezary stroked his chin with his left hand while doing rough calculations on a piece of paper with his right hand on his desk.

“The main cost is the crystals…,” He mumbled. Since the method of activating one was cracking it, the quartz was not reusable.

“Is there a way to reuse the quartz? That would cut down the cost by a lot.”

“There may be a way, but I haven’t really had the money to test that…”

Quartz being expensive as is, no one must have allowed him to experiment on them back in Lux.

“Meanwhile, I think I’ve already come up with a way to change direction.” Then he looked up at Ewald who was standing a short distance away from his desk. “It’s you, Milord.”

“Me?”

“You are a wind mage. You could charge small crystals. Those will create a breeze spell. It should, in theory, propel the flying-basket to a direction.”

So, it all comes back to quartz.

Cezary handed over several tiny quarts to him, telling him to enchant it.

“Just cast breeze spells on them. If they turn green-ish, you will know it worked.”

He had brought quite a bit of quartz with him when they were moving to Laufeld. Even so. his supply was slowly running out. He had already placed an order for a basket full through a traveling merchant, but that was going to take months before he’d get them.

Once he was back in his own study, he felt that finding a way to make reusable crystals should be a priority. Quartz themselves were valuable to begin with because they were considered gemstones. Enchanting it would make it even more valuable, and Cezary was using them like no tomorrow. But then, the crystals were the essential part of the project. There were no alternatives.

Sighing, he placed the tiny crystals on his desk and cast a breeze spell.

Elementals, grant me breeze.

A gentle wind blew in the room, and all of the crystals turned greenish at once.

“Huh? Is this it? That was … surprisingly easy?”

Not giving it much thought, he headed back to Cezary’s study to hand them over. His eyes displayed a clear shock upon seeing all the tiny crystals were already enchanted.

“It was easy? I could have done it right here,” Ewald said casually.

“No, it’s not easy…,” Cezary trailed off while rubbing his temple. “I’ve seen mages do this. It took them over ten spells to enchant just one. Did you cast something big?”

“No, just a breeze spell.”

Cezary’s face soon became stiff. He picked a crystal up and inspected it closely.

“The color is so vibrant…,” He mumbled. “What is your affinity to wind?”

“I was told that it’s five.”

“That cannot be.” Pulling out a drawer, he took out a green crystal. “Please touch this. I need to confirm it.”

Upon touching it, the green crystal gave off a bright illumination. Cezary folded his arms soon after.

“It does appear to be five, but it doesn’t make sense…”

“What doesn’t?”

“You cast levitation without chanting. Chantless magic is enabled for a mage with an affinity of 7 and higher. Your affinity is 5. It does not make sense.”

Ewald wasn’t going to inform him that he could communicate with elementals. Cezary contemplated for a while without reaching any conclusion.

“Oh, well,” Muttering, he grabbed the crystal and put it back in his drawer. At this point, he tilted his head a bit and would stare at the content of the drawer for a bit.

“You know what, why don’t you touch these crystals for the heck of it.”

What he brought out were a red, a yellow, and a blue crystal.

“I am a wind mage though? What’s the point?”

“I am fully aware. It’s just … for the heck of it.”

Shrugging, Ewald touched each of them. There was no reaction from the crystals but the red one.

“Huh?” Cezary blurted as he jolted from his chair.

It was very weak but it looked like the red crystal gave off light.

“You have an affinity for fire? I think it’s just one but you have an affinity? You have an affinity for fire and wind?!” Slamming the desk with both of his hands, he stood up at once. “What a discovery!!!”

Ewald swore that he had an affinity to wind only when he was tested by Elias back in Laufeld years ago when he was seven years old. Something happened after coming to Lux.

“Dual elemental affinity is unheard of!” Cezary exclaimed.

What is happening here? Why do I have an affinity for fire? What happened?

He racked his brains, trying to pinpoint what happened. His immediate hunch was fire mages. He knew just two fire mages. One was Theo Ros. The other was Esther. And nothing happened with either of them. Well, he did kick the latter out which might have earned ire from fire elementals. Would that event have given him the affinity? Highly unlikely, he thought. It didn’t even make sense.

Wait…, there is a third one, Sir Ludwig.

He did recall seeing a lone elemental salamander looking at his direction back at the royal castle. Could that be it?

But why though? Could I just ask them?

He knew he could communicate with elementals, but there was never an instance where he could hear their voices. So far, it had been one-way traffic.

“What does this mean, Sir Waszak?”

“Well, other than being dual elemental is unheard of, nothing much? I mean it’s an affinity of just one.” He stopped at once and went silent for a second. “Although… this does mean you could enchant the crystals with a fire element… That could save a lot of money right there.”

I am the Lord, you know. You are starting to treat me like a crystal charger…

But Cezary did have a point. If he was able to charge crystals with fire and wind, that would save money. Just how much, he did not know.

“How much do we save if I charge crystals?”

“A basket of quartz costs about 50 silvers. And those are unenchanted.”

@$%@$#^$#&(^W

“And I’ve generally paid three silvers to a mage to enchant several.”

“Okay, I get the picture now.”

Cezary took out more quartz on the table. “Enchant those with fire please, Milord. I was going to entrust this to a traveling merchant. If you do it, we will be saving 10 silvers.”

There were five fist-sized quartz with white hue and translucent.

“Fine.”

Ewald was back in his own study and placed the quartz on his desk.

“Uh…”

There was an issue. He did not know what the basic fire spell was. He had to go back to Cezary to find out. It turned out that the most basic fire spell was, well, fire. He was told that this spell was frequently used to create campfires.

Well, it cannot be good to cast fire on wooden things, can it?

Thus, he went out to cast fire on the five quartz crystals.

How do I even begin… Can they read my mind like wind elementals do?

Placing the crystals on one spot on the ground, he contemplated how he’d cost the spell.

Elementals of fire, if you can hear my thoughts, grant me a fire spell.

There was nothing.

I see. I guess I should speak aloud then.

“Elementals of fire, hear my call. Lit those crystals in front of me on fire.”

Because the affinity level was just one, he felt a substantial amount of stamina being drained. But the incantation worked, and a thin layer of fire was on the crystals for about ten seconds before vanishing as if nothing happened. Some strands of grass were charred; That was the only evidence that there was fire before.

“So, I can indeed cast fire magic. Oh, wow…”

Slowly, two crystals turned red. Apparently and perhaps logically, his fire magic wasn’t as potent as his wind magic. Just as Cezary claimed, there was little to no benefit of having an affinity for dual elements due to the extremely low level of affinity for fire. Even the most basic spell felt like it took over half of his total stamina.

“Well, I don’t think I can cast another, so I will do that tomorrow.”

As he grabbed the crystals, he noticed that the carpenter was working from afar. Cezary ordered him to begin the construction of a barrack, and the carpenter was leveling the ground before starting the construction.

“What…?”

The carpenter had three people working with him, and one of them was just a child. That wasn’t an issue because he did say he was taking an apprentice. It was just that he recognized the child.

“Faro…?”

It was Faro, his younger brother by two years.

An apprenticeship for crafting began at an early age. In fact, at nine years old, Faro was at the perfect age to begin a career into carpentry. He had no problem with his brother taking the path of the carpenter. It was just that he was told that Faro wanted to become a knight eventually. If so, he wondered why he was taking such a path. But it wasn’t his business to meddle in, at least not yet. He was willing to help his brother only when he needed a hand. Until then, he was going to keep a distance from him and watch him from afar.

Good luck, big guy.

Turning around, he went back into the manor to hand over the two crystals that were successfully enchanted.