TBE Chapter 99

TBE Chapter 99

Ezekiel joined Simon and his brothers, who were listening to the minstrel’s song. He was happy to hear that the song was clean enough since he was expecting something tawdry based on the novels that he had read.

Then he noticed that there were some other children listening too and Ezekiel thought that those kinds of song would probably be sung later when there were no more children listening in.

He ordered food from the waitress, who was blinking her eyes at the minstrel, and the woman even glared at Anton for disturbing her attempts to seduce the minstrel. Ezekiel just laughed and insisted that food be brought to him. Simon helped him by glaring at the woman who went to the kitchen to get Ezekiel’s order.

According to Simon, the three of them had already eaten, and they stayed to listen to the minstrel. Ezekiel had to admit that the minstrel had a good singing voice. He could also understand why the server was making calf eyes at the man since the minstrel was good-looking.

The minstrel took a break, and that was when the conversation in the common room started again.

“When did the minstrel arrive?” Ezekiel asked, and it was Robert who answered.

“He just arrived today! We saw him enter the village a few hours ago!”

The fact that they hadn’t seen the minstrel on the road meant that he came from some other place. While he was eating, he told the three boys that they would be leaving the village the next day. They paid the innkeeper another two coins for their stay that night, and the next day, they left mid-morning.

Simon told Ezekiel while they were on the road that their next stop would be in a fairly large town but with the slow rate of travel that they were doing, they would arrived in that town probably in 4 days. On a fast horseback, a person could reach the said town from the last village in 2 days. Since they were still talking about days, in Ezekiel’s opinion, the town was still very far away.

Ezekiel kept forgetting that in a backwards world like this, without a modern traveling machine, traveling from one place to another would usually take a long amount of time.

They didn’t stop for lunch and only ate some sandwiches that Ezekiel prepared while they continued traveling. They weren’t worried about Prince Charming since they had fed and watered him before they left.

Ezekiel asked Simon to find a location where they could camp at around 5 in the afternoon, and as usual, their guardian just entered the forest from the road and stopped at the next large enough clearing where Ezekiel could conjure his towers.

The moment the Galder’s Towers appeared, Robert and Luke ran inside. Simon led Prince Charming to the stable, and Ezekiel went to the kitchen to start experimenting in creating bread using the Fabricate spell.

He prepared all the ingredients but didn’t prepare an oven, and when he cast the spell, it failed. Ezekiel was correct to assume that for the spell to succeed in creating items that needed expertise to be made, he would need to prepare all the tools that the item required.

When he used the Fabricate spell to create some of his dishes, it was beside the stove with fuel, and because of this experiment, he assumed that if a stove wasn’t present, he would have failed to make them. So he went to the system store and spent 3 silver coins to purchase an oven that could be put on top of a stove, and when he cast the Fabricate spell on the bread ingredients, a smoking hot bread appeared. He sliced it and tasted it, and because the ingredients that he used came from the system store, meaning they were all top grade, the bread tasted delicious, so he kept casting Fabricate until all the ingredients that were brought out for bread making were gone.

The ingredients cost him 1 silver coin, and he managed to create over 50 loaves of bread. That meant that the cost of making the bread was 2 copper coins. The cheapest loaf of bread that he could purchase from the system store, although that one didn’t taste as good, was a copper coin.

That meant that to truly save coin, he would need to purchase the ingredients from the locals, except for those that weren’t available, like some of the spices. He stored the bread in his 4th tab space and called his brothers and Simon to the kitchen so he could start teaching them the local and English language again.

After the lesson, Ezekiel retrieved the food that they were going to eat for that night when they heard a voice from outside.

“Hello, the house! My name is Edward, and I’m a minstrel by trade. Can you let me stay here for the night?” The man shouted from outside.

“It’s the minstrel from the inn!” Robert said, and Ezekiel’s brother ran to the door and opened it to Ezekiel’s exasperation.

He would have to talk to his brothers about that later.

“Minstrel! I know you! You were singing at the inn!” Robert shouted at the man.

Based on the minstrel’s reaction, Ezekiel was amused to see that he didn’t recognize Robert and any of them, for that matter, but was professional enough to say that he recognized all of them and hoped that they were entertained by his singing.

“You’re house is one of the most beautiful I've ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot in my travels!” The minstrel said upon entering.

Ezekiel saw that Simon was glaring at the man, and it was making the minstrel nervous. He would praise Simon later since he was behaving as a proper guardian.

“Come eat with us. We’re about to eat dinner,” Ezekiel invited the minstrel while he went to one of the cupboards to hide the fact that he was retrieving food from his 4th tab space.

When they started eating, the minstrel was nonstop in praising the food.

“Oh my god! This is the most delicious food I have ever eaten!”

The funny thing was, Robert, Luke, and Simon were the ones who looked proud at the praise. Ezekiel wasn’t worried that the minstrel would suddenly attack them or something because all of them were covered in the Mage Armor spell. Not only that, the butcher knives that were awakened by the Tiny Servant spell were in the surroundings, lying surreptitiously, and Yuki Onna was perched by the window. Ezekiel was just glad that he cast all the defensive spells before starting their lessons for that night.

After dinner, Simon led the minstrel to the third floor for bathing. Ezekiel then prepared a sleeping bag that the minstrel could use in the dining room. He wasn’t feeling guilty or anything like that since the sleeping bag was more comfortable than most inn’s beds in this world.

Simon then led the minstrel to the dining room, which was the first floor of the tower, and Ezekiel presented the sleeping bed to the man with a sandwich and a pitcher of water on the table if he wanted to eat later. After that, all of them went to the second floor to rest.

Ezekiel cast Arcane Lock on the second-floor door, and that meant that the minstrel wouldn’t be able to enter their room. The minstrel could exit the house if he wanted, but he would not be able to enter the stable because of the Arcane Lock spell.

He was sure that the minstrel would examine every inch of the house that he could access, but it didn’t have anything valuable that the man could take.

They didn’t let the minstrel bother them too much, and Ezekiel still read the continuation of the One Piece manga to the three boys. While reading the manga to his brothers and Simon, Ezekiel was thinking about the minstrel. He thought that the man was supposed to stay in the last village for a few more days, but he only stayed for a night there. He didn’t know if any circumstances made the man leave the village, but ultimately, Ezekiel didn’t care. They were never going to return to that village anyway, and the minstrel probably couldn’t hurt any of them.

Everyone woke up early the next day, and after their morning ablutions in the washroom, they all went downstairs to eat breakfast. When they opened the door, the minstrel apologized and ran upstairs to the washroom.

Ezekiel felt guilty about that. He left some food and water for the man, and that could make anyone want to use the bathroom. He prepared a lot of breakfast for everyone, including the minstrel as an apology for the man, and when the minstrel returned, he was surprised at the food that was laid down on the table.

“Where did the food come from?” The minstrel asked.

“I conjured it using magic,” Ezekiel said seriously, and then he laughed, causing his brothers and Simon to laugh as well.

The minstrel just shrugged and laughed as well, and then they all started eating. After breakfast, Ezekiel, his brothers, and Simon prepared to leave, and Edward the minstrel watched them curiously.

When the minstrel saw Simon preparing Prince Charming and their cart, the man couldn’t stop himself anymore and asked their guardian if they were going to leave.

“Yes. We’re on a journey to the country of Delantan.” Simon simply answered.

“Are you just going to leave your house?” The minstrel asked.

Ezekiel was the one who answered the man’s question.

“Yes, we’re leaving this house. If you want, you can have it,” Ezekiel said while smiling.