Homesteading in a fantasy world

What finally woke me up was the sun getting too high up and my eyes simply didn’t like that. One thing I was still super glad of was that getting up didn’t hurt anymore being young truly is wonderful. And this time I can actually take advantage of it, unlike the last time when I didn’t know what to appreciate before it was too late.

I got myself up, and did a quick check but didn't find anything wrong. Apparently, only a few hours of rest were needed for me to be in a minimum functional condition. This was crazy fast, and I was completely on board with it.

What didn’t look so good anymore was my sword. It now had a lot more grooves in it that were now a lot more visible. If I had to say it would not survive another fight like this.

This was extremely bad news simply because I didn’t know where to get another one but hopefully, I can put an order in with Falyr or try to work on it myself although I was not really that confident in making a big two-handed sword, at least not right now. Eventually, I want to get good enough to at least make any weapon I will be using.

Walking back, I looked over the battlefield. There was a lot to collect here mostly arrows that were peppered everywhere. When I got closer to the camp, I noticed there was a ring of people. I had hoped that the battle report meeting was already over, but I guess I would need to join in as well. When I got closer, and people started to notice me I got a lot of smiles and head nods from everyone.

For a moment I was brought back to a similar situation that happened on earth. After blinking my eyes a few times, I was able to clear my sight from this memory. When I got close enough to the table, I didn’t announce myself but just listened in on what everyone else was saying.

Currently, they were discussing how to clean up the battlefield, but it didn't take them long to notice me. Falyr for some reason looked impressed yet disappointed and I didn’t know why that was, but he quickly helped me overcome my confusion.

He stated out loud that he wished that he had come up with the same plan as Rich and gone to sleep before the meeting happened. Everyone laughed at that, and this helped release some tension everyone had.

I was also given a small run down on what had happened, and I was extremely glad to hear that none of our people died. I also learned the guard commander’s name, Carl. Like I had feared the meeting kept going on and on but now I really didn’t mind it. Others were not as lucky as me as some were swaying on their feet obviously completely exhausted.

Eventually, a well-dressed girl joined and walked close to Carl. She was introduced as Lydian and turned out to be that noble’s sister who I killed. We all were a bit wary of her, but she didn’t seem to hold the grudge against me for killing her brother.

Quite the opposite in fact. I just had to shrug my shoulders and move on and hope that this wasn't going to become a problem later on. The first real problem started when the topic of where the convoy people were going to go came up. I was the first to give a suggestion.

……

“You all have come a long distance but I believe the village has enough room for everyone. There you can rest and wait out the winter.” Rich said that in a confident but still questioning tone as he looked towards Falyr at the end.

Everyone could see that Falyr was not that happy with Rich’s statement, but he didn’t disagree with it. Carl wanted to speak but he was not able to get the word out as Lydian spoke up first. “There is no need for this we will be heading back to our lands, isn't that right guard commander.” She looked at Carl who was silent for a bit but then started to answer but before he could he was interrupted again.

“I am sorry, but I think you misunderstood me, young miss. I was not talking to you when I proposed that everyone stayed in the village, I was talking to Carl. Carl, look at me. You no longer have to take orders from her nor do you have to swear fealty to her again. None of you will have to be under the nobles again if you don't want. But that is up to you just think about it.” At first Rich was just talking to Carl but later he projected his voice so everyone could hear him.

The noble didn't like this, and her face got darker and darker as Rich kept talking. But she wasn't as bad or as cruel as her brother so all she did was glare at Rich and hope that the guard commander would stay at her side.

There was a small break as everyone went their own way as this was not a decision to be made quickly or without input from everyone else. Rich looked as everyone else walked away from the table unhappily. Even Falyr gave me a sidelong look, but he wasn’t really that worried about it.

Rich wanted to go and speak with the person that was controlling the undead but unfortunately, he couldn’t do that yet otherwise everyone would know who was controlling the undead. Hopefully, this person will act like a normal person and not go all I AM THE NECROMANCER BOW BEFORE ME.

With nothing better to do Rich just stayed around the table but unfortunately, there weren’t any chairs around, so he just had to use the table as a chair. It took about half an hour before everyone could hear arguing from the convoy side which was getting louder and louder.

It went on for quite a while before a high-pitched scream ended it and after which, a carriage door was slammed shut. There was silence everywhere as everyone was focused on what was happening with the convoy.

It didn't take a genius to understand what was happening as everyone slowly came back to the table where Carl gave everyone the news that everyone decided to stay but he also asked for a favour from Falyr.

While everyone wanted to stay here at least until the winter ended the nobles didn't. All three girls wanted to go back and were willing to pay for passage if Falyr could make this happen. Falyr didn’t give a definite answer and he was not confident in being able to promise that.

Rich was quite happy to hear this as more people in the village was good news especially if those people were grateful to him. Falyr brought up the problem of there not being enough food, but Carl was quick to reassure Falyr that they had quite a lot of food with them.

This puzzled everyone but Carl quickly explained that few of the carriages had expansion enchantments. This made everyone nod in understanding after that the talks continued. Rich was extremely interested in the carriage and he quickly left the meeting to see the carriage up close.

Rich examined the carriage for quite a while but eventually, an old man came close. “Hello, there young man. It seems that you are quite interested in the expanded carriage. I would have guessed that a person so good at killing stuff wouldn’t be that interested in my father’s work.” When Rich looked at the short old man, he was reminded of himself at that age. The man was old but still capable of working and doing everything, but Rich could see the hurt that old age causes affect everything about the man.

“Your father made this? Well, they are extremely fascinating, and I have a lot of other interests than just killing stuff. What are some of your interests? But before you answer perhaps we should introduce ourselves my name is Rich Dirt it’s a pleasure to meet you.” Rich said that in a casual conversational tone which surprised the old man a bit but in a good way.

“My name is David Everock and it’s a pleasure to meet you as well Rich Dirt. As to the question you asked, I am interested in numbers. I like everything about them. Currently, well not currently but before everything went to shit, I worked as an accountant for the noble’s father that you killed. Thank you for that by the way.”

“No need for thanks, so numbers. Never was good at those but I have always respected them. You can learn quite a lot and control even more if you know numbers. You must have been a very important man.” David was a bit taken aback by how sincere Rich was being but Rich soon continued. “I would be quite honoured if you would tell me your life story, David.” Once again David was taken aback but he only took a few moments to make up his mind and started to tell his story to Rich.

“I guess I must start at the most important part of how I was introduced to the world of numbers. My father was an adventurer in his younger days but eventually, he got sick of the lifestyle. During that time he found his love for enchanting.”

“Fast forward a couple of decades and he was a moderately successful enchanter with a wife and three kids. I was one of those kids. My father always liked enchanting more than us, but he didn’t abandon us for his work. He just did his work around us. A compromise that I now understand a lot better.”

“Enchantments need mathematics, a lot of it when you get to more complex enchantments. So, papers with calculations were always around us. Because of that, I learned to add before I learned how to talk.”

David was quite a good storyteller and Rich quickly understood that David was telling a story that he had told many times. Rich kept interrupting the story with questions until David understood that Rich wanted an unfiltered version. He wanted the truth about his life with the ups and downs and with all the black and white spots.

As the day grew late David become a lot more impressed with Rich and so did Rich with David. They continued their talks the next day as they were cleaning the battlefield with everyone else. They only stopped when it was time to start moving back towards the village and Rich and his apprentices needed to leave before that because they needed to feed their animals.