TBE Chapter 109

TBE Chapter 109

Ezekiel and his family’s travel continued without any large trouble. They encountered bandits, but Edward the minstrel and guardian Simon were enough to drive them away since most of them were hungry, runaway serfs without strength. He didn’t like seeing those serfs because it only made Ezekiel melancholic and angry at the same time.

The bandit serf’s appearance and desperation kept reminding Ezekiel why the owner of his body died. The boy was so desperate to feed himself and his brothers that he went into the dangerous forest, and it caused his death. If Ezekiel hadn’t transmigrated to this world directly into Boy’s body, Robert and Luke would have followed their elder brother in the afterlife soon after, due to the fact that not one of the villagers cared about them.

At least, if their family died, they would have died as free men, unlike these malnourished serfs, but to be honest, what was dignity compared to living? He knew that if Boy was still alive, and he was offered a choice to die as a free man or continue living as one of those miserable serfs, the kid would have chosen serfdom.

Ezekiel was coming into power, and once he achieved the Legend status, he would have the power to effect a change, but that would probably take a long time, so in the meantime, the only thing he could do was to rage impotently at this world’s serfdom and slavery system.

The villages that they had passed through were normal, and they hadn’t encountered any supernatural things anymore. Whenever they passed a village, they still stayed for a few hours so his brothers could play with the local children. He wanted to make sure that Robert and Luke remained lively and extroverted.

The next few weeks that passed caused major changes in Ezekiel, Robert, and Luke’s physiques. They finally got rid of their malnourished look and appeared extremely healthy. Because of their smooth and fair skin and their lustrous hair that was the result of using the Healing Elixir as lotion and shampoo one time, and their high-end clothing, for locals, they looked like rich noble kids that was traveling and that it was one of the reason why they attracted bandits and not all of them were serfs. There were actual dangerous bandits, but because Edward the minstrel learned that Ezekiel had a spell that would allow him to be healed of any wounds, however grievous they were, the minstrel, copied by Simon, became dangerously courageous confronting those bandits and normally, if one or two were killed, the rest would run off soon.

Because of the expertise of Edward and the growing skills of Simon, Ezekiel didn’t need to use magic to join in the fight against the bandits. Ezekiel knew that if he joined in, he would have earned a little experience that would allow him to level, but he preferred that his experience points came from animals or possibly monsters once he was old enough to adventure.

Whenever they passed through towns, Ezekiel would give Edward 2 kilos of salt, 2 kilos of pepper, and 2 kilos of sugar to sell. That caused Ezekiel’s funds to grow enormously, and based on Edward’s expression after every business transaction, the minstrel managed to acquire a tremendous amount of gold coins as well.

Ezekiel’s coins grew to 1,985 gold, 7 silver, and 2 copper coins, and his woodworking funds remained at 6 gold and 30 silver coins. He didn’t sell any more wooden knick-knacks, since the earnings from the spices were enough for them. He went back to crafting wooden arts and crafts, but it was solely as a hobby, and his expertise as a crafter still grew.

Ezekiel also kept on practicing cooking food so they could have a variety in their food. The good thing about his magic was, once he mastered a specific dish, he could use the spell Fabricate to replicated the dishes, as long as he had the ingredients, and was beside a stove or an oven that was needed for the dish.

After several weeks of teaching his brothers and Simon how to read, write, and speak English as well as the common language, Ezekiel could believe that all of them were starting to master the languages, and soon, the lessons would not be needed anymore. They hadn’t watch any more movies after Disney’s Beauty and the Beast since Ezekiel decided that they would do so once they settled at the place that they were going to live since watching a movie took a lot of time that was supposed to be spent traveling as well as teaching them their language lessons and thankfully, everyone accepted it.

Ezekiel assumed that it was so because the family had only seen one movie, and after that, the boys got busy playing with the toys he had bought them. He had to purchase several more Lego Classic sets at the request of the boys so they could build larger things. He also started purchasing the One Piece manga translated into English for Robert and Luke to read since they were now able to read English fluently.

Robert and Luke even started using the manga as an icebreaker so they could join the group of children in the villages that they passed through.

During the travel, Ezekiel asked how many gold coins he would need to spend to purchase a property in  Lonmere, the capital city of Delantan, and the minstrel said that he didn’t know exactly, but it would probably cost him around 200 to 500 gold coins, depending on the location in the city.

After several weeks, they finally reached the Kingdom of Delantan, and the first city that they had entered was the capital city, which was Lonmere. In the distance, the city was huge. They could see the castle where the monarch lived at the center of the city. They could also see several huge mansions that Ezekiel thought could be government offices or properties of noble houses.

Ezekiel saw, when they got nearer, that the city was densely populated. He could see from where they were coming from, which was, for some reason, above the city, that there was a mix of towering structures that could either be guilds or churches, bustling marketplaces, roads of different sizes, some were wide highways and some were narrow, winding streets.

The city was fortified by thick walls with towers, and Ezekiel wondered if raids or wars were still common enough that there was a need for those walls, but they did look old, so maybe it was a legacy from a time when there was a need for the walls. He hoped.

After about an hour, they finally reached the gate, and they had to queue to enter the city. When they reached the guards, Ezekiel learned that they had to pay a silver coin per person so they could get a paper that would allow them to stay in the city as temporary residents. The temporary resident paper was valid for one month. Before that month expired, and if they wanted to stay permanently, they would have to go to the government offices so they could get a permanent resident paper for each member of the family. The guards didn’t say, but the permanent paper would probably cost them a pretty penny.

Upon entering the city, Robert and Luke’s eyes were very wide as if trying their best to take in the sights all at once. It was vibrant and chaotic, filled with different noises like the shouts of merchants, the clattering of horses, and the bustle of daily life.

The streets were clean enough, but that was because they entered the part of the city called Merchant Street. The streets were made of cobblestones, and they were well-made. Ezekiel saw that several repairmen were repairing a damaged street corner, so based on that, any damage on the street would be repaired immediately, and that told him that the city was fairly wealthy.

The smell was filled with the smell of spices from cooking and from crafting. The air was also filled with the smell of livestock. It was a pleasant smell, but there was still an underlying smell of manure. Ezekiel knew that if he went to the poorer section of the city, the smell of manure would probably increase exponentially.

Ezekiel was honestly expecting much worse since he had read the state of medieval cities on Earth, but was pleasantly surprised at the place.

“Edward, can you help us purchase a house? It should be located in a fairly good neighborhood and at least three stories with several bedrooms. Also, can you help us purchase a shop? I know that you’re not planning to stay, but we need help settling down in this city. We also need to hire a maid and a cook,” Ezekiel said to Edward.

“I don’t know how long it would take me to do all that, so the best thing we can do right now is to stay at an inn,” Edward replied, so they headed to the inn that the minstrel knew. Edward rented three rooms for them for two days, and together with stabling Prince Charming and Cinderella, everything cost Ezekiel 8 silver coins.

One of the inn’s maids led them to their rooms, and when they entered, the boys jumped onto the bed.