For traveling merchants, locating deals was their bread and butter. If something was cheaper at a location, they’d buy them up to sell them at a higher price elsewhere. These people knew when something was cheaper because of their experience and, well, recording prices whenever they were passing by settlements. Most of them acted on impulse when buying up goods because they had no other information to rely on. If they felt something was definitely cheaper, they went for it. Therefore, it came to surprise many when they started hearing gossip that Laufeld was selling Macomaco tea directly to everyone. Julian was among the traveling merchants who had come across such gossip.
“That can’t be true, can it?” He asked another guy who was another traveling merchant at a tavern in Maiava. Recently, pretty much every merchant in the kingdom was gathering at the mining city because of quartz which had been traditionally very expensive due to its rarity. Since the mining city had just joined the kingdom, the price of quartz would eventually come down. For the time being, however, it was a hot commodity to stock up and sell.
“It’s true, aye. I will be heading to Laufeld after stocking up on quartz,” the merchant said and then took a long sip at his ale. “I’ve been even told that Laufeld is looking actively for quartz also. It’s a double-kill, too hard to pass up.”
Julian stroked his chin. He was a 37 year-old merchant with rather long straight brown hair for a man, reaching down to his chin. He certainly looked the part. In fact, he looked more like a scholar than a merchant. He contemplated whether he should also follow the same path. It seemed too good to pass up. At the same time, wisdom taught them that, when something was too good to be true, they should be careful.
“Alright, thanks for the info, big guy.”
The other merchant nodded as he took up a roasted rabbit leg to chew on.
“Oh, God, this place is cold.”
Julian immediately cuddled himself as soon as he exited the tavern. His wagon was waiting outside with Esther on it. A flurry of snow showered him and reminded very clearly that he was in fact far up North.
“I have no idea how people live in the North,” He muttered.
She was on the driver’s seat, munching on bread. She had cut her hair. It was now shoulder length. Having long hair was just too inconvenient to travel around. It was her own choice.
“Did you feed the horse, Esther?”
image [https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img924/9353/1Jkmzy.jpg]
“I did,” She replied curtly.
“Let’s stock up on those quarts and get the hell outta here.”
She generally did not join him to enter a very public place like a tavern. She had been hit on more than once by random men in such places. She eventually realized that she was good-looking which would have made her happy and proud if it was her old-self. She wasn’t anymore. After traveling with Julian for a while, she became wiser and tougher. She also understood why she was kicked out by Ewald, realizing that she was the spoiled one. It took her a while to realize and admit that. People who weren’t pulling their own weight were swiftly discarded and abandoned, she learned the hard way.
There was a long queue at the mine. Everyone was stocking up on quartz and iron bars.
“Man, this is going to take a while isn’t it? Why don’t you go back into the wagon, Esther. It’s way too chilly.”
Nodding, she crawled back into the wagon which had a roof. Its front and back were open however. Still, it provided some protection against elements. Additionally, Julian had arranged crates so that she could technically stay inside. It wasn’t big enough to lie down, but it was fine and blocked most of the harsh wind. She got in and covered herself with a fur sheet which they purchased earlier. She shivered and rolled herself into a literal ball like a cat.
After waiting hours, it was finally Julian’s turn. A man donning a fur coat approached him who was sitting on the driver’s seat.
“What ya want?”
“Two baskets of quartz and ten iron bars.”
“70 silvers for the quartz and 30 silvers for the iron.”
Julian promptly took out a gold coin and tossed it over to him by flinging it with his thumb. The man caught it skillfully.
“Many thanks.”
Turning around, the man walked a short distance and barked out an order to men who were busy with crates in the back near the mine entrance.
“Two crates of quartz and ten iron!”
Several men fulfilled the order in a blink of an eye, and three crates were promptly loaded onto his wagon from its back. Esther checked them out swiftly as soon as they were loaded and gave a thumb up toward Julian who was looking behind for a confirmation.
“Good, off to the guild,” He said casually.
Of course, they just couldn’t leave without guards. That would have been suicidal. The guild was an independent entity regardless of nationality. Well, that was how it was supposed to be. The guild in Maiava was gigantic. It had the appearance of a small keep. Parking the wagon nearby, he told Esther to guard and went inside. It was snowing harder at this point and was starting to get dark.
As soon as he opened the door, a gust of warm air embraced him. Annoyed glares from numerous adventures came to Julian’s view. As combat-capable personnel, they didn’t take being conquered well. The primary rule of the guild was that it must stand neutral and would not intervene in any national conflict; It didn’t mean they had to like their nation falling apart and being picked apart. As a merchant, he was fully aware of what was going on. Without quick wits and an ability to read a room quickly, a merchant wouldn’t survive anyway. He made himself small as he walked toward a counter where a beautiful woman was standing behind. Glares followed him.
“Ehm, I would like to hire a group of adventurers for an escort job,” He said candidly. “A group of five if possible.”
The woman looked up and down on him. “Your destination?”
To make the most profit, he had to go the furthest possible. His choices were Keviel, Lux, and Altzell. However, he chose Dido.
“Dido please.”
That was because he feared for his safety if he spent too much time with adventurers of Maiava. The distance to Dido was about eight to ten days. He considered choosing Ediva instead, which was just two to three days away. But it wouldn’t change the fact that he would still be dealing with Siwen adventurers. Thus, he was left with no choice. He did wonder if he could get in touch with the adventurers that escorted him to this city, but he had already spent a few days in the city that finding them didn’t really seem possible, not to mention that he didn’t want any attention on him. If adventurers found out that he was deliberately avoiding them, that could cause troubles down the line.
“That will be 35 silvers.”
The price was high, like ridiculously high. Under normal circumstances, it should have been no more than 20 silvers. Realistically, it would have cost 15 silvers. But he was wise enough not to create a fuss. He was not going to start a fight he wouldn’t win.
“Here you go.” He handed over the coins readily after counting them in a leather pouch.
“One, two, three, four - thirty five. Payment received. Let me see who’s available now…” Looking down, she was reading something. Soon, she raised her hand high and clicked her fingers. “Brian!” She exclaimed.
A group of five men who were by a table responded. Among them, a man, presumably Brian, stepped forward who was clad in half-plate armor with a fur helmet and boots. He seemed to be wearing thick clothes underneath which made him look a little awkward with armor on.
“Yeah?”
“A job, to Dido.”
Looking behind, he told his companions.
“Lads, we’ve got a job.”
They were all males with good builds. They looked the part at least. They all seemed to be melee fighters. He would have preferred a female mage among them. Men tended to behave better when a woman was around and vice versa. Alas, he didn’t really have a choice. Julian approached Brian and offered a handshake.
“The name’s Julian. Nice to meet you.”
Brian looked up and down on him with his blue eyes and slowly accepted his hand.
“Likewise,” He replied curtly.
A handshake was a fairly decent way to gauge whether one had any hostility toward another. Brian held his hand firmly and was squeezing it quite hard, indicating that there was some possibility of danger. He had to thread carefully.
“The day is getting dark. We will depart tomorrow as soon as the sun is coming up.”
“Fine, where to meet up?”
“We will be staying by the gate.”
Brian narrowed his eyes. “Are you spending the night out in the open?”
Julian had to. The cargo was just too valuable to leave it out in the open. Besides, his wagon should provide some shelter. If crates inside of it were rearranged creatively, he could probably create a room large enough to lie down and bar chilly wind from getting in, well mostly.
“I am a merchant. This is how we have to endure,” He told Brian bitterly.
Perhaps he was mistaken but felt that Brian’s face eased up a little.
“I will see you in the morning.”
Once he was outside of the guild hall, what welcomed him was a dense flurry of snow. Esther noticed him and signaled him.
“Come on!” She exclaimed. She was already arranging the crates. It wasn’t the first time they did this to get by. Ever since they entered the former Siwen territory, they noticed that the weather was getting increasingly cold. Therefore, they had already purchased a few things to help them get by, one of which was fur sheets which can easily be used as a bed sheet. The reason they didn’t purchase fur coats was that the fur of a fur coat was quite coarse which was just uncomfortable to lay on. In contrast, the fur of a fur sheet was really smooth and fine which was just pure bliss to roll around and sleep on. Once they purchased two fur sheets, their finances were low and they couldn’t afford fur coats. Of course, Julian had money. After all, he did spend a gold coin over two crates of quartz and ten iron bars, but that was his business money. Merchants often drew a hard line between a personal and a business wallet. Julian drew his; His business wallet was a gold piece. Anything more than that became his personal money.
“We are going to a stable first,” He said as soon as he climbed onto the driver’s seat. The horse wouldn’t make it like this. It was fine if it was carrying a load. The natural body heat would help to fend off the cold, but staying still the whole night under this kind of weather? It would have been a death sentence.
“I will finish arranging the crates,” Esther said in the wagon. Being only twelve, her tiny body couldn’t move most of the crates in the wagon. But that didn’t mean she didn’t try. Using her entire body, she did move whatever she could to clear out just enough space for them to lie down. It was going to be pretty tight, but that was how it was.
He recalled how spoiled she was for the first several months after she accepted his offer to join him as a traveling merchant. Actually, he didn’t quite find her spoiled per se. It felt more like she didn’t know the outside world and how it worked. He had a hunch that she was from a noble household and was raised like a princess. For whatever reason, she was discarded.
Happens all the time in nobility, he thought.
Indeed, it did happen all the time although being thrown into the street was quite rare. Most discarded noblewomen became maids. In his opinion, being thrown into the streets was a kinder punishment than being maids. Because, by being maids, they’d never leave their prospective manor. They’d never marry and end up forever alone. Being thrown into the streets would seem harsher initially, but she’d at least have a chance at her life and a chance to create a family. This created a concern for him. She was twelve. It was a bit early and there was still plenty of time, but it was wise for a woman to be married before turning twenty. Any older than that, she would have a really hard time finding a partner.
As for Julian, he was single. Being a traveling merchant meant that he couldn’t really settle down. Even if he did somehow, there was a high chance of his wife having an affair due to seldomly spending time with his spouse. Therefore, the majority of traveling merchants were single. Thankfully, being a man meant that he could marry at any age he wanted although ideally a man should be no older than 40. He was approaching the deadline. Truthfully, he had given up taking in a wife because he was fully satisfied with the lifestyle of a traveling merchant. He planned to continue working until he was 50 or so and settle down somewhere quiet alone. He’d have plenty of money to spend for the rest of his life by then. Unexpectedly, Esther came into his life.
Parking their wagon nearby a stable which was located by the main gate, he untied his horse and led it to the stable. Tens of other horses were already present confined to its own cubic space. It wasn’t heated artificially, but a confined space with tens of animals meant the natural body heat warmed the place just enough not to get frostbite. There were also feeders attached to each cubic. A man was present, who was going around the stable to see if anything needed to be done. Noticing Julian’s entry, he ran up to him.
“A single horse? 10 iron coins, sir.” Rubbing his hands, he let him know the price right away.
“Here you go.” Julian paid up without a fuss.
Making a mental note of where the guy was taking his horse to, he came back out and dashed to the wagon. Esther had prepared what she could. She had a lamp turned on and laid down two four sheets to lay down. There was also a loaf of bread for him along with a glass of water. Still, there was some work to do. She couldn’t lift the crates, thus he had to lift them up and block off the rear of the wagon completely. This would stop the wind from blowing right through. It wasn’t airtight obviously. With only the front open, it was far better than camping out in the wilderness without a tent. Shivering, Esther’s knees were against her chest while gluing herself in a corner. The only artificial warmth was coming from the lone lamp which quite frankly nowhere enough to feel any actual warmth.
“So cold…,” She whispered.
“Cover yourself with the fur sheet. It’s probably better that way.”
She quickly dragged the fur sheet from the floor and covered herself up. He was shivering as well but was resisting shivering visually like her.
“Hang in there. As soon as we head south, it will get warmer,” He comforted her.
He did feel the current condition was downright brutal. He underestimated the weather. The fault wasn’t entirely on him. He realized it was getting colder, but it was bearable in Ediva. Since it was just a few days up North, he did not think the weather would be very different. How wrong he was. In the end, they had to cuddle together for warmth. He genuinely believed that they weren’t going to make it otherwise. The night was the first time in his life that he might get killed by something other than monsters. In a desperate attempt, they even put the lamp nearby for any extra warmth and blocked off the entire front opening with everything he had.
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In the end, they didn’t sleep well. Shivering, they were in and out of sleep constantly throughout the whole night. By the time he was seeing light creeping through gaps, he woke up promptly. Waking Esther up, he quickly undid the blockades. Whatever little warmth they had stored up over the night quickly vanished.
“We are getting out of here, Esther.”
“Yeah…” Her voice was weak. “I feel cold…”
“Are you alright?”
“I feel cold…”
He checked her forehead just to be sure. She was burning; She had a cold.
“Damn it,” He whispered and told her, “Hang in there. We need to meet up with the adventurers first.”
Once getting his horse back from the stable, he drove the wagon to the city gate where the five men were already waiting for him.
“Yo, big guy,” Brian greeted him casually.
And their journey to Dido began. As soon as they departed, he was busy rearranging the crates to create a small room for Esther to stay. The adventurers noticed the commotion inside the wagon and asked what was going on.
“I’ve got a little girl with me who has fallen ill. I am trying to get her warm,” He replied to Brian. “I think she caught a cold overnight.”
“Are you seriously telling me that you did sleep outside?” Brian must have thought that Julian was acting tough back at the guild.
“We did. We didn’t have a choice.”
“Do you mind if I check up on her?”
“Sure, but make it quick. I am about to close off the compartment.”
Brian got onto the wagon and checked up on her.
“Oh, shit. She is burning up. That’s a nasty cold.”
At this point, she was incoherent and was drifting in and out. Brian looked around to see what Julian was doing.
“I see,” He nodded along. Julian basically created a small room for her to lie down. He also placed a lamp there for warmth and was about to close it off with a crate. There was a fur sheet on the floor and another fur sheet on her. This was possibly the best they could do at the moment.
“We can still go back to the city and get her some treatment,” Brian suggested.
“No, I cannot waste your time on this,” Julian replied sternly. “This is our problem. It has nothing to do with you.”
Folding arms, Brian nodded along. “Indeed,” He eventually agreed. Getting off the wagon, he shouted at his companions.
“Lads, walk faster! We make haste!”
The logic was simple; The faster they went South, the warmer it was going to get, thus better for the girl. Their destination was Edvia which they reached in a record speed of just one day because the adventurers were running, not “walking faster”. Julian was genuinely surprised that the guys managed to run for half a day. That was some awesome stamina they had. Once they reached Edvia, he carried Esther to an inn and let her stay in a room.
“Hmm?” Brian sounded surprised because he had ordered five bowls of veggie soups. What they got was five bowls of meaty stews along with a whole chicken on a dish. “Waitress, we did not order this.”
“A man told me to swap the order,” She replied, tilting her head backward, pointing at Julian who was by a counter, having ale.
“I see. Don’t mind if we do. Lads, let’s eat up!”
“Bring on, Ale!” Another adventurer exclaimed gleefully.
“Sure, sure,” The waitress replied, looking uninterested.
Meanwhile, Esther was drifting in and out on a bed. She was having a nightmare about the lowest of her life which was when she was kicked out by Ewald. Perhaps.., that wasn’t the lowest point. The day she was thrown into a maid’s room at the manor was probably the lowest point of her life. The truth was that she had multiple lowest points of her life that she wasn’t entirely sure which one was truthfully the lowest. She tried to forget; She tried to move on. Alas, she couldn’t because her downfall occurred over a span of her entire life. Her whole childhood was a long horrid movie regarding her own downfall. Even when she tried not to think about her past, it was hard not to think about it. It was slowly but surely eating her from inside out. She earned some positive memories with Julian, but it was too soon for her to just erase everything. With such a swirling pool of thoughts, she continued to drift in and out of consciousness while mumbling incoherent words.
At one point, she opened her eyes. A wooden ceiling came to her view. No, it wasn’t the wooden ceiling she used to see. She realized instantly that she wasn’t in the wagon. A sudden fear of abandonment showered over her.
Not again, she cried in her mind. If she were to be abandoned once more, that would be it for her. Her mental stability was hanging by a thread.
“JULIAN!” She screamed her lungs out as she jumped out of her bed only to slip on her own sweat and fall. She had been sweating all night and her clothes were literally soaking wet. Of course, she couldn’t care less and slammed the door open. Cool air embraced her and made her become a bit more rational. She realized that she was at an inn. Her panting slowed as her logic dictated that she was unlikely abandoned. Truthfully, she had no recollection after falling asleep in the wagon. It was as if she was completely shut down from that point. She looked down and saw her sweat was literally dripping down from the tip of her clothes. She had spare clothes but they were in the wagon. Then she realized that she had grown out of her old clothes. The wardrobe she was wearing was purchased by Julian to fit her new size. She had been reluctant to discard her old clothes because they were the literal memento of her old days. She may have had nightmares about her old days, but some parts of the past were glorious. She was treated like a princess for a period of life after all.
Closing the door and coming back inside, she took off her clothes and dried them on the floor. Looking at the window, it looked like it was in the middle of the night. She had no idea where she was. Surveying the outside through the window, she could barely see anything, but it didn’t appear that there were tall mountains, leading her to believe that they had left Maiava. She concluded that she caught a bad cold at night back in Maiava, and Julian had probably placed her at an inn after arriving at the nearest settlement. There was still the fear of being abandoned, but she was rational enough to know that Julian wouldn’t abandon her. If he was going to abandon her, there were plenty of opportunities. She felt insecure still and wanted to find him but it was in the middle of night. Having slept for God knows how long, she could no longer sleep and simply idled through the night where she tormented herself with dark thoughts.
As soon as the sun was coming up, Julian knocked the door which she replied to. As soon as he opened the door, she ran into him, hugging him tightly.
“I missed you,” She cried in his arms. “I thought you threw me away.”
He seemed struck back for a moment before beaming a smile and patting her head.
“You know I’d never abandon you, silly girl.”
“I know! I know! It’s just …” She began to sub.
“Say no more.” He continued to pat her head.
After she calmed down, he informed her that they were in Ediva. He proudly told her that the adventurers ran literally all day long until they made it to the city in a record time.
“And there is a change of the plan,” He told her, “We are going to Keviel instead of Dido.”
“How come?”
“I think we can trust these guys. So, there is no need to go around. We will hit Keviel and sell what we can before probably heading to Lux. Ultimately, we are going to Laufeld.”
“Laufeld? Isn’t it a small town south of Lux? Why are we going there?”
As far as she knew, the town sold nothing significant.
“I’ve been told that they are selling Macomaco tea there. It’s even hotter than quartz.”
Additionally, tea was a lightweight commodity. Stocking them up as much as possible wasn’t probably going to be an issue unlike quartz and iron bars. She widened her eyes. She used to drink Macomaco tea all the time back in the manor. It was her favorite drink of all time. Only happy memories were associated with the tea.
“I didn’t know that the town cultured the tea,” She said.
“There is a Macomaco farmer in Laufeld. It’s been known, but he sold exclusively to nobles. For some reason, it looks like he is selling it to everyone. The bottom line is that the tea is being sold to everyone as long as they’ve got the coins. We can’t miss an opportunity like this one. We can make a huge profit off this. Who knows how long this might last.”
“Let’s go there then.” It wasn’t as if she had a voice in the matter. Julian was the merchant and he made the calls. He did tell her the reasons behind his decisions regardless as if teaching her the ways of merchants.
As they exited the inn, the adventurers, who were waiting by the wagon, greeted her cheerfully.
“Lass, you are looking fine,” Brian said with a laugh. She still had a residual fever but she was in a recovery phase. With the weather becoming warmer, it should no longer pose any issues from here on. Although Julian didn’t tell her, she was one of the reasons he chose to backtrack and go to Keviel. He wasn’t lying about wanting to head toward Laufeld and go to Keviel as an intermediate stop. Another reason was that the further they went South, the warmer it became. It wasn’t going to get significantly warmer at Dido which was the northernmost city before the war. By heading to Keviel, it was going to get warmer real quick within a day or so. The adventurers agreed with Julian’s reasoning as well, thus they would not charge for a breach of a contract.
The adventurers turned out to be very decent folks. Esther exchanged jokes with them casually from the back of the wagon. Being a traveling merchant, she never had a chance to have friends, let alone have some decent conversation with other fellow human beings other than Julian himself. He felt that she was just happy to talk to someone. At the same time, he felt that taking her along as a traveling merchant may be too harsh for her and her growth. He became a traveling merchant when he was about twenty five. He was a local merchant back then. He was already a grown up when he started this. But Esther? She was just a twelve year-old child. Besides, a woman could never become a traveling merchant. The risk of being raped was too high, especially for someone like her who was starting to become quite a beauty. Already at just twelve, she was being hit on by guys from local taverns. Thus, he thought about retiring and returning back to being a local merchant. The earning would be so much less but it’d provide stability. At 37 years old, he was a bit too young to retire from being a traveling merchant but he did save up quite a bit with his net worth of more than 1.5 gold coins. He felt that perhaps the timing was right. If he wanted to get married, he was right on the edge of crossing the line. It would still be possible to find a widow or a woman who just missed out her marriage age, both of whom would be willing to overlook his age.
“The big question is where…,” He mumbled while driving the wagon. He was originally from Altzell, a third son of a merchant. Seeing no prospect of inheriting his father’s existing business, he left after asking his father to grant him a small starting capital which was 10 silver coins. At that time, he was a 16 years old boy and had learned from his father from the age of 12. Due to the small capital, he started out as a local merchant. He needed a bigger sum to start as a traveling merchant. He achieved his goal in his mid 20s, and that’s how he began his life as a traveling merchant. He didn’t have a plan to start a family from an early age since he had two elder brothers with the oldest son having already had children of his own. His family’s future was secured, and thus he didn’t feel the need to start his own. In his original plan, he was to retire at around 50 years old. He told himself that, if he was to settle down early, it would be due to a calling from a noble house. He knew he had a talent with numbers and wanted to put a use to it instead of just rotting in a country side.
“A toll?” Julian was amused to be told by a gate guard to Keviel that a toll of a silver coin was required to enter the city. The adventurers looked amused as well. Esther poked her head out from the front of the wagon to see the commotion.
“Yes, a silver coin for merchants. Ten iron coins for civilian travelers,” The gate guard explained. The man was clad in full plate armor. There was another guard flanking him with sharp eyes locked on the adventurers, probably recognizing that they were from the former Siwen territory due to their fur helmets and boots.
“You’ve got to be kidding me here…”
“I am afraid not. It is the king’s decree.”
In his whole life, he never paid a toll to enter a settlement. Therefore, he was unwilling to pay the price. The reason was simple; Whatever profit he could earn at Keviel, he could earn it elsewhere. He was stopping by only because of the convenient location. Besides, the capital was never known for its economy. It was more of a large military installation.
“What are you gonna do?” Brian asked with his arms folded.
“I am not paying. I am sorry, but we are going elsewhere.”
He had three choices at the moment: Fadin, Lux, and Rokk. Rokk was the closest settlement, but Julian saw no value in going there. It was a small town that had nothing of value.
He looked down at Brian from the driver’s seat of the wagon.
“Could we go to Laufeld?”
It was about the same distance as Fadin and Lux. His final destination was there anyway. However, the ultimate decision power was with Brian because Julian wouldn’t be able to go anywhere without the escorts. If he refused, Julian would be forced to pay the toll and enter to seek another adventuring group.
“I am willing to pay extra for your time,” Julian added.
Clicking his tongue, Brian let out a sigh. “That’s fine. I know you paid over the odds at the guild. I guess this makes us really even.” Turning around, he informed his companions. “Lads! We head south, to Laufeld!”
“Thank you, Brian.”
“It’s fine. Don’t mind it. Truthfully, we’ve never really ventured into the land of Egra. The weather is really fucking nice here. Kinda want to settle down in the south.”
Thus, they turned around from the gate of Keviel and headed toward Laufeld. Esther crawled back to the rear of the wagon to see another traveling merchant turning around from the gate. It looked like he, too, was unwilling to pay the toll. She crawled back to Julian and asked why he chose not to pay.
“The capital is not very well developed when it comes to commerce,” He explained. “And there are a lot of small but strict rules here and there. It’s quite hard for local merchants to really thrive. You can bypass those little shenanigans by bribing officials but I feel for them. As for us, we have options. No need to waste a silver coin if possible.”
She nodded along.
“I really don’t know what Laufeld has in store for us, but let’s go there anyway.”
With rapidly warming weather, the adventurers were forced to take off their fur helmets, boots, and any underclothes they were wearing. Since they needed boots but didn't have replacements, Julian came to their rescue who just happened to be carrying regular boots in his old stock. With their journey being smooth, they casually made their way toward their final destination, Laufeld.
“What… in the world is that?!” Brian uttered, his eyes widely open. Cezary’s invention, the flying-basket, was floating above the town. This was an improved version from the last time. It now could propel itself and could alter its altitude. Julian, too, was gobsmacked. He had never, ever, seen anything like that.
“It’s… flying?!” Esther exclaimed as well.
“It is flying indeed…,” Julian trailed off, unsure what to think at the very moment.
A pair of guards, clad in simple leather armor, welcomed them as they slowly went through the gate, their eyes fixed at the flying contraption.
“Mister, what is that?!” Esther demanded an answer from a gate guard as they passed through.
“It is Sir Waszak’s invention called the flying-basket,” He replied.
“Sir Waszak?” Julian mused aloud. As far as he knew, there was no noble in Laufeld. It was purely a farming community. He immediately understood that something had changed fundamentally in the town, which explained why Macomaco tea was open for sale to everyone.
Stopping the wagon, he inquired the guard for more information. He was told that a new lord was appointed and that he was bringing wholesale changes to the town.
“What is the name of the new lord?”
“His name is Lord Ewald Fenchel.”
“Huh?” Esther froze at once.
“What’s wrong?” Julian glanced back to see her completely frozen still. He quickly narrowed his eyes. “Do you know him?”
From her reaction, it didn’t take long for him to draw the picture. Esther was from the Fenchel, one of the most prestigious houses in the kingdom. This also explained why she was in Lux to begin with. She was abandoned by them.
“Thanks.” He resumed his wagon toward the marketplace while Esther slowly withdrew herself into the wagon. She had her knees close to her chest and was biting her nails in a corner. A mix of fear as well as anger appeared on her face.
The local market was really small with just several market stalls. It wasn’t very active, either, with just about ten people casually browsing. It was clear that he wouldn’t be able to sell most of his goods here, and he didn’t see anyone selling the tea. However, he did sell all of his iron bars to a local blacksmith who was willing to pay even extra to get all of them off his hands.
“We are in dire need of more iron bars,” The blacksmith said.
“How many are we talking about here?”
“Like hundreds of them.”
Julian’s eyes widened. “Surely, you jest?”
“I kid you not. We need that much.”
“What is even going on here? That thing in the sky, what is that?”
The blacksmith looked up to the sky at the flying-basket. A maid could be seen in it.
“The lord calls it the flying-basket. He claims that people will be able to travel from settlements to settlements without fear of being eaten alive by monsters.”
“Be able to travel without fear…,” He repeated some of the blacksmith’s words. He looked up at the flying contraption once more. The mere concept of humans being able to stay in the air was hard to believe unless one was a wind mage. But he had to believe it because he was seeing it with his very own eyes. It wasn’t hard to imagine what might occur once those contraptions became normal. People from the north would want to migrate to the south. Laufeld, as the pioneer of this new technology, would develop rapidly with a fast-growing population.
“.............”
Julian looked around. The market was bare, and it did not look like a merchant was present. Well, merchants were present, but they weren’t professional merchants per se; They were simply selling their products, nothing more. In every big city, there was always one or two merchant families that were dominant. Any new merchant who tried to take some market shares, they’d be crushed. There didn’t appear to be such a merchant in Laufeld because there didn’t need to be one; The community was too small. If he was going to settle down, he realized that Laufeld should be the place to be. He was basically banking on its future growth. If he settled down here before it became a bigger settlement, he would have a head start and would become the dominant merchant, earning more money than what being a traveling merchant would grant him. However, he knew that Esther wouldn’t take this well because it was clear that she hadn’t still gotten over being abandoned by the Fenchel. At the same time, if he were to become the merchant of Laufeld, she had a future because a woman could become a local merchant. He had been teaching her in and out of how it worked. At this point, all she needed was real world experience.
“Mister, do you know if anyone is looking for quartz in this town? And where could I purchase Macomaco tea?”
“Oh, Sir Waszak is looking for them all the time. Go to the manor. They also sell tea there.” The blacksmith pointed southeast.
“Tea is being sold at the manor??”
The blacksmith nodded. He had never seen a noble house selling anything directly to commoners. Meanwhile, he earned 50 silver coins from the iron bars. If he could unload the two crates of quartz at a decent price, this journey would be a complete success. Then he could buy as much tea as possible and sell them elsewhere for a good profit. And if there was enough surplus, he could plan a future in this town as well.
Brian approached and told him, “Yo, it doesn’t look like there is a guild here. We are going to stay at the local tavern and will leave tomorrow morning. If you want to hire us to get outta here, we will be here until tomorrow morning.”
“Got it, thanks.”
Nodding, Brian turned around and left with his companions. While he drove the wagon toward the manor, he observed the flying contraption. It was slowly circling around the town. It looked like they were testing various things with it.
“The world I used to know may be changing…,” He whispered to himself.