*** Another rough unedited chapter. Feel free to point out any mistakes. I'll go through and fix them later~ This chapter contains a POV switch. It's clearly marked. If you can give me an opinion on switching mid chapter that'd be great. It's my first time trying something like this.
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Before I knew it, I found myself sitting at the table in a small farmhouse with a glass of juice in front of me. To my side was Tenia, refusing to take a seat for some strange reason as she glanced around the room, and across from me was the farmer, his wife, and his son.
The house itself was small, more akin to a hut really, and it only had two rooms. There was a bedroom and a kitchen. The kitchen had the aforementioned table in it where the family ate meals together. They were, arguably, one of the poorest families in the village it seems… And they were clearly worried about being in debt to some foreign noble.
The son, now that I got a better look at him, resembled a younger version of his dad. Cheap hemp-like overalls with a sack-like brown shirt. His hair was brown too. The only notable difference between the two, aside from the lines of age on the father, was the missing arm. The child didn’t inherit anything from his mother, it seems. She was blonde haired with blue eyes. She was also horribly freckled, too.
“Hello, as I said before my name is Abraham. This is my wife Mary, and our son Robert.”
I cringed at the familiar name. Of course, I didn’t physically show it to the family here. It was odd, meeting someone with the same name I had before… It just served to remind me of home, a bit. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t jealous of this Robert. While his family wasn’t well off, they certainly cared a great deal about him.
“Yes yes, introductions,” I replied as I snapped back to the matter at hand. “My name is November Jackson. My father owns quite a bit of land far to the North of here. This,” I pointed to my former NPC, “Is Tenia. She’s a powerful mage in my employ.”
At the word mage the family’s eyes seemed to glow with a combination of both awe and fear. Perhaps a bit of respect was mixed in that cocktail too.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss November,” said Abraham, “and thank you again for saving my son.”
“I didn’t save him,” I replied, “that honor goes to the white robed mage.”
“In my eyes you saved him all the same. My family doesn’t make much, but we’ll all work hard to repay the money you loaned us. I was hoping we could discuss a payment method…”
“Stop,” I interrupted, “I am not short for money. Repayment doesn’t need to be in a monetary form.”
“T-then what would you wish for?” Asked the wife, clearly fearing I’d ask for something ridiculous.
My reply was succinct: “Seeds.”
“Seeds?” Repeated Abraham.
“Yes. I wish to grow vegetables at my new home and I need seeds. You need not buy them yourselves either, just tell me where to get them.”
“We’d also like some information about the local area if possible too,” said Tenia with a smile.
The family seemed a bit flabbergasted.
“Th-that’s not nearly enough to pay back three High Marks! Surely you’d want more…”
“Nope,” I said, cutting off the father. “I just want to find out where I can buy seeds, and Tenia wants to ask some questions of her own. Getting a chance to see healing magic for the first time was quite useful too.”
“That was your first time seeing healing magic?” Asked the son incredulously. His father replied by smacking the back of his head.
“Most nobles don’t do anything dangerous enough to ever need healing magic,” said his mother quietly.
“I was surprised,” I said with a smile, “that it was only capable of healing the stub of your arm and not fixing it entirely.”
“Surely you jest, Ma’am,” said the woman with a happy expression, “healing magic capable of regenerating limbs could only be done by a High Priest of Terran, and even they’d be hard pressed to succeed at it.”
“Oh?”
“You were quite sheltered weren’t you,” said the son in a rude fashion, earning himself another smack on the head from his father.
“Yes, yes I was.” I replied cooly while finally taking a sip from the cup of juice they provided. An explosion of flavor filled my mouth and my eyes widened in shock. “What is this juice?”
“Ah, it’s pulp from the Boolian Grass. It’s the only thing we have besides water. Sorry we couldn’t prepare something more suiting of a noble palette,” said the mother as she started to grow worried again.
“No, you misunderstand. This is delicious. It tastes just like Pineapple Juice.”
“What’s Pineapple Juice?” Asked the father as all three family members tilted their heads in confusion…
It seems this world doesn’t have pineapples… Or if it does they’re called something else. I never knew the Boolian Grass had this kind of flavor to it. What other unique things exist in this world I wonder? The magic itself I saw earlier had already piqued my interest, for sure. The Heal spell the white robed man had used was one I had never seen before. Then he used a second spell I didn’t recognize either to bring back the boy’s vitality.
This world certainly wasn’t based on Xternity. Even if it had monsters and magic, it seemed to be vastly different in most regards… Does that mean this world has its own blacksmithing and enchanting techniques too? I knew my magic and enchanting techniques worked here… But if this world developed magic differently from Xternity, then there could be amazing abilities and runes I’ve never seen before lurking just around the corner. The mere thought of it was exciting!
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I merely waved away the family’s questions and found out I could purchase seeds from the larger farms cheaply. They were basically giving them away outside of the normal planting season and a lot of the people in town bought them to tend gardens and the like.
Tenia also asked a few questions about common sense things, disguising them as something an out of touch noble would wonder about. Her skills in this manner were outstanding, even. I never knew she had such abilities. She was intended to be smart, but I always envisioned her with more of a bookish intelligence rather than this crafty persona.
After getting thanked several times over by the family, and drinking most of their Boolian Grass Juice, Tenia and I left. Our next destination was a large farm on the Southern end of town. We arrived within five minutes and quickly found the woman in charge of the homestead. She sold us numerous seeds. They only came out to four Low Marks, but I gave her a High Mark and told her to keep the change. That made her happy.
There was no point being known as an ungracious penny pincher, after all. The more I got the locals in the area to like me, the better off my future using this town as a home base would be… At least until I figured out a way to move the house from where it was. Knowing my luck I’d just have to wait the thirty or so years it’ll take for the reinforcement runes to wear off.
With our main objectives accomplished, Tenia gave me a simple tour around the town and we stopped in the nicest restaurant for a quick lunch. Everywhere we went I felt eyes watching me, so I made sure to keep up the act as a precocious spoiled noble’s daughter, albeit a particularly generous one. Tenia continued to exude this irritable aura, though. I wasn’t sure why she was in such a bad mood, but I was also a bit afraid to ask.
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POV change. I’m not good enough at writing POV changes mid-chapter without making some kind of divider
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It all began yesterday. A strange woman dressed in mage clothes wandered into town around the midday bell. She seemed to be scouting it out, almost. The first time I laid eyes on her I knew she was trouble. Her aura, as hard as she tried to hide it, screamed of danger. That woman was powerful.
I had some of the Thieves Guild members scan her with [Analyze] but not a single one could see through her. The only information their spells could glean was her title: ‘Tenia of the War Song’. I was getting goosebumps just thinking about that. Our scouts are top class in this town since my Lord Sevian Cerble hires them directly from Farrier. Sevian’s always been careful about his hold on this frontier town. It’s earned him quite a bit of profit and he doesn’t take kindly to competition of any kind…
Then the unthinkable happened. That Tenia woman came into our Town Hall to exchange currency. She was either a powerful noble herself, considering her talent, or her boss was someone we needed to be wary of.
I did the weighing and analysis myself and found that their coin would be worth about 4 High Marks if the gold was directly converted. Taking in the conversion process, though, it was only 3 High Marks. I told her this and offered a rate of 2.5. She gladly accepted. I was hoping she didn’t notice the sweat on my brow just from being near her. I could feel her aura clearly, then. It spoke of death.
Today that woman came back. This time she had someone with her. The second woman was wearing incredibly fine clothing and the mage seemed to be treating her with utmost respect. My scouts analyzed the second woman and the results were terribly surprising. We could see through some of her power, but it was almost unbelievable. Her title, ‘November the Artisan Supreme’, was the first surprise. The second was her classes. She was a potioneer, a smith, and an enchanter. We couldn’t see through her skill in any of these classes either, meaning she was top tiered in those regards! Her aura wasn’t as death-filled as her guard, but that was a bit to be expected.
When the two women came into my office to exchange more coin and buy land, I could barely keep myself under control. The woman, November, was introduced as Tenia’s mistress. That part I had already guessed, but the confirmation was good. Then the conversation took a downturn. They wanted to buy land in the forest. I had no idea what it was for so I tried to discourage her in an attempt to probe. It wouldn’t be possible to farm it with the monster presence, even with a mage as strong as Tenia. The monsters of The Thrush are more like pests, incredibly powerful pests; no matter how many you kill they’ll just come back in stronger force.
It became clear that the girl wasn’t going to tell me why and I wasn’t about to outright ask her. I didn’t want to offend this child… No, perhaps child is a bad term to think of her with. Considering her skills and her financial backing, it’s best to think of her as a monster. A wolf in sheep’s clothing… I’d need to keep them under surveillance. Monster infested land was almost always useless to anyone unless they were looking to do something vile like experiment with forbidden magics. The mistress November doesn’t have an evil aura about her like her subordinate, but I can’t take too many chances. I’ll have them watched. We’ll find out where their camp is and then find out what their purpose in coming here is too. I’ll also dig into their backstory. I need to find out who November’s backer is before I continue. It wouldn’t be good to offend someone who shouldn’t be offended, after all. Sevian Cerble may be powerful here, but in the world at large he’s a very small fish.
“Mr. Kelding,” spoke one of my clerks, “Lord Sevian has sent you a letter asking for a meeting.”
“Ah,” I replied, “tell the messenger I’m on my way.”