Homesteading in a fantasy world

Francis looked quite worried as we were waiting for the portal to open in the capital. While pulling complicated devices and even being a part of the war helped him adjust to more human-made structures, he never really enjoyed being in the barn and spent most of his time outside. I kept my hand on his head and scratched it to keep him calm.

When the portal opened, it did scare him a bit, but it seemed that his desire to pull heavy things was bigger than his fright of unfamiliar things. I still remember how excited he was when I told him what I wanted him to do, but when I tested him while Arabella was getting her citizenship, it turned out that he wasn’t strong enough for what I wanted him to do.

Communicating with him was always a long process as we didn’t have the same connection as I did with Goose. When he finally understood that he wasn't strong enough, he was quite upset. At first, I changed my plans so I would just get an animal that could pull a more modern wagon for transportation and that he should just train some more, and later I would bring him with me.

He was more upset about that than actually not being able to pull the old wagon. So now, he was coming with me and Arabella as we headed back to the Connection. As we stepped through the portal and entered the busy market, I found that Francis wasn’t scared, instead, he seemed more determined than anything else. That was a weird change in mood.

"Arabella, go to the company compound, tell them that we will be planning an expedition, and if any of them were planning on leaving for a quest, tell them to put it on hold until I make it there."

She immediately left, only giving a crisp nod. That puzzled me for a moment before I realized where we were. Of course, maintaining a proper image would be important to her around so many people.

"Let's go, Francis?" I said, starting to guide him through the market. Although he seemed determined, I still saw his body relax when we got out of the busy market. I noticed more eyes linger on Francis, but no one seemed to have hostile intentions.

As we were closing in on our destination, the number of people walking on the streets started to increase. There seemed to always be a lot of people around this part of the city.

When the wagon shop came into sight, I remembered how many people were around it, but last time I didn’t really focus on them. This time, I was paying a lot more attention to the people around me simply because I had someone to protect. It was because of this that I noticed a curious line of people.

It seems that they were offering their services as wagon drivers. That was indeed curious. I hoped that the old man was also selling today, as I believed I would get the best information about these drivers from him.

Of course, I could ask the drivers themselves, but if they were anything like merchants, they would immediately sense that I didn’t know anything about their business and that they could probably take advantage of me simply because of my ignorance.

While Francis did have harnesses purposely made for him that would allow him to pull heavy things without hurting him, he didn't actually have anything that would allow me to guide him. That was not necessary, as he was very smart, but all of a sudden, he started to veer towards the drivers we were currently passing.

This surprised me so much that Francis had been able to take multiple steps and get really close to one of the younger-looking drivers, who had first looked happy to see Francis but when he started to scratch his head he immediately pulled away, his face going white.

"No, I can’t," he spoke out loud, with sadness and fright in his voice, but I saw hope in his eyes. To my surprise, Francis pushed his nose into his chest, pushing the boy against the wooden wall in what looked like frustration.

This was getting out of hand. "Francis, what’s the meaning of this? Stop bothering this young man." Francis looked towards me, but what I hadn’t expected were pleading eyes. Why did I just get the feeling that things were going to get really complicated, really fast?

Then I looked towards the young man, who couldn’t have been more than 17, but he was in first rank, which was impressive. It seems that I might have looked at him a bit too menacingly, as somehow he got even smaller and managed to get even further away from Francis. "I am sorry, Mr., but your animal, he's trying to bond with me, and it's really hard to resist."

Immediately, I took hold of Francis's harness and started to pull him away, which was a lot harder than it seemed because he was kind of resisting me. "Stop it for now, you need to explain yourself, but we will not be doing it here." That made him stop resisting, and when I got him far enough away, the boy relaxed. "What's your name?" I asked the boy, who quickly answered. "It's Luke."

"Follow me, and Francis, stop trying to bond with him for a bit." I started to walk away with Francis, but it seemed that Luke wasn’t following. "Why are you still standing there?" I said over my shoulder, which finally made him start to move. I could already feel a headache. I didn’t take us far away, just a bit away from the crowd of people, and then we entered a side street.

Then I started to communicate with Francis. It was a bit hard to understand, but in the end, I think I got it. "So let me get this straight, you want to bond with him because then you won’t disappoint me. Francis, you have never disappointed me." He gave me a huff of frustration. But then the boy spoke up.

"I’m pretty sure what he meant was that you wanted him to do something, but he couldn’t, but I can somehow help him achieve it?" That made me look at him for a few seconds because I needed this time to evaluate him and think. Did Francis sense something in this boy that would allow him to be stronger?

"Why does Francis think you can help him be stronger?" Luke looked at me as if I had just asked the dumbest question.

"Because I can. Every driver waiting in that line can make almost any animal that can pull a wagon stronger, me included. I’m not the strongest; I’m still quite young, but I have a lot of experience as I have been doing this well before I got my achievement page. Of course, not here but in the neighbouring town east of connection."

"Do you need to be bonded with animals to make your abilities work?" I asked, but he immediately shook his head no. "No, most of the others don't even have any bonding capability. It would be bad for business because you can only bond with one or maybe a few animals, but owning an animal strong enough to pull wagons would be way too expensive."

"Are you a part of any guild or company?" I asked. He started to chuckle at that, yet immediately stopped and straightened his back. He looked like he was expecting something, but I didn’t respond, so he started speaking.

"Only the biggest guilds and companies hire drivers permanently; most don't have the need for our services for extended periods of time. Most of us, including me, aren’t a part of any organization because of that."

I asked him some more questions, but it was quite clear that he was a talented young man who seemed to like to deal with animals and was quite passionate about being a driver. I looked towards Francis, who was looking at me with pleading eyes. It was also quite clear from the explanation Luke gave me that with his abilities, Francis would be able to pull the old wagon.

"It seems that Francis likes you enough that he wants to bond with you. However, I can’t allow this to happen without you being a part of my company. So, I’m offering you a permanent membership. In exchange, you would be a wagon driver for my company and be able to bond with Francis. Would you want to do this?"

"Yes," the answer came even before I could properly finish my proposition. "Very well then," I pulled out a standard contract from my tattoo storage. I had 10 of them stored just in case, and after Luke read the contract, he immediately signed. "You know, this is way too good. Most other guilds would not offer a tenth of what you're offering."

I just shrugged my shoulders. Most people are too greedy and power-hungry to realize that they are limiting their own potential by being too overbearing.

What followed was Luke approaching Francis, who was now a lot calmer. For some reason, Luke started to unlatch the harness Francis was in. He did it without any problems without having to ask me anything about this custom-made harness. That was quite impressive.

Then the bonding started. It was a lot simpler than what Arabella had gone through, but it was still quite fascinating to watch. Perhaps I had moved a bit too fast, but that contract Luke signed had some important points that made it a lot harder for someone to take advantage of the company.

Now I understood why he had taken the harness off. Francis grew a bit, about one foot, and he seemed to become even more muscular, but it was a bit hard to tell under all that fur.

"Well, that’s going to be troublesome. It will take me a while to make that harness workable again." To my surprise, Luke spoke up. "There is no need for now. I have an ability that should work, but it is only a temporary measure."

I then watched as he put the harness back, and somehow it still fit. Well, that was convenient, as was this whole situation. I could feel happiness coming from Francis and Luke. Perhaps this was even better than I expected.

The old merchant was incredibly happy to see me again, but he was even more so when I pulled out 10 medium Mythryl coins and, while handing them to him, pointed at the old wagon.

"Most excellent! I knew I liked you. And you have also brought with you a most wonderful animal. But will he be able to handle such weight?"

Luke was the one who answered, "Oh, he's more incredible than even I expected him to be, and you should really not underestimate him. This one, in the future, will be able to pull mountains, I’m sure of it."

Somehow, the merchant's smile became even bigger. It didn’t feel like a fake smile like most salesmen have, but if it was a fake smile, he must have at least 10 abilities to make it look so genuine.

We hooked Francis up, and with Luke driving, it seemed that Francis didn’t have any problems pulling the large and heavy wagon. We will have some work to do before we can take the wagon out into the wilderness, but it seems that everything was coming together perfectly.