The Liberomancer [Isekai Progression LitRPG]

For lunch, we stopped for a while by the riverbank, started a quick fire using [Create Flame], and smoked some salmon. I guess my [Poissonnier] skill worked because it actually ended up tasting pretty good.

I couldn't really work on a grimoire while the carriage was still in motion. The road was reasonably well-paved in most areas, but there was still the occasional bump along the way.

I might've been able to make it work if I had a working ballpoint pen like back home and a notebook, but with the writing instruments I had, I knew there was no point in being greedy. The uneven locomotion of the cart would make any attempt at writing give fruit to nothing more than a blotch of ink on a page.

Instead, I tried to see if maybe inspiration might strike so I would have an idea regarding what I'd write once we got there and I had a breather. Several new ideas did come to mind, but nothing concrete enough to make something of the length required for a Rank Two grimoire.

As we got closer to her village, the road became less well-paved and turned from stone to dirt. Moving was harder, and it was now occasionally somewhat of a struggle to prevent us from being driven off to the side of the road, or getting a wheel stuck.

I had no way to increase my strength and [Fireball] would do nothing for a stuck wheel, but thankfully nothing like that happened.

When Granny Qi had mentioned the word 'village' two things had come to mind. The first was a collection of haphazard mud huts and maybe a few farm animals. The second was of something more orderly, with well-built houses and buildings like taverns and the like.

Turns out that her village was something between the two. There was definitely some organization to the layout of the main body of the village - though there were also some mud huts scattered haphazardly around. The main body of the village, if it could be called that, was cordoned from the rest of the world by a flimsy brick fence (to call it a 'wall' was far too generous) with some gaps in it that were covered up with planks of wood. Most of the houses were made of wood, though there were practically none higher than a single story.

"Granny Qi, here, let me handle the reins," I told her as the sun was setting and visibility was low. Back in Arconia, there were something akin to streetlights at night maintained in some of the wealthier districts, but there was nothing of the sort here save for the occasional person cooking with a fire outside.

The road was basically just mud now that we were at her village and as such was a bit hard to distinguish from the surroundings. "I can see well even now in the dark."

It was all thanks to the secondary effect of [Unobstructed Sight].

I had initially thought that night vision would be the same as seeing things in full brightness all the time as if the sun was eternally shining even on the darkest and cloudiest of nights, but it was different in several aspects.

Colors were faded out, but things gained a strange glowing purple hue around themselves, which varied and was strongest around living creatures and moving objects. Textures and gradients also appeared very odd, and took some getting used to, but it was far better than trying to navigate without the use of it.

If I had to describe it in simple terms, it was as if someone had placed a purplish filter over the world, decreased the color and brightness, and increased the contrast.

I wasn't used to handling the reins, but it was not exactly hard to keep the horses going in a straight line to where we were going.

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Even at this relatively late hour, there were people milling outside, tending to their animals, cooking, or just walking to places. I noticed they had a lot more mud on their hands, and their clothes were older, more torn, and dirtier than those of people back in Arconia - much like the manual laborers I had seen, though not to the extent of the mendicant we had run into on the way here.

The animals were mainly cattle and the occasional pig here and there. As I understood it, the main crop grown around this place was rice, and I could see the paddy fields scattered about in the distance.

The entrance to the place was blocked by a wrought iron gate. It was rusty and the hinges screamed whenever it moved - it didn't look like it, or the wall, could block out any kind of invading force, but that was likely not why it had been made. It existed mainly to dissuade most wild animals from coming in, and also so that the farm animals kept in the village didn't wander off.

The lone guardsman gave us a nod upon seeing and recognizing Granny Qi. He carried a lantern in his hand and gave me a funny look when he saw me, but did not comment otherwise.

I was used to funny looks by now, given my odd features for the region even within a city like Arconia, it was only to be expected that I would get more of them within a rural area like this.

Inside the confines of the village; it was much harder to navigate the cart as the roads were smaller and tighter. Many of them were so narrow that the cart could just barely go through, and some were so narrow that it could not pass through at all.

This ended up delaying things by about twenty minutes as we finally made our way to our destination.

It was one of the few houses in the village made of brick and stone and not wood, though I could make out points where it was missing a few bricks. Overall it seemed like a solid structure, but at the same time, as if it was in its last legs before it would need major renovations. It was a three story structure that towered above the rest of the village, and at least in terms of square footage, outdid Granny Qi's house back in Arconia.

There was a lady waiting for us near the entrance who was as old as Granny Qi and better dressed than most of the other villagers.

"Welcome back," she said upon seeing Granny Qi, who disembarked and gave her a hug. I figured that this was the sister she had told me about.

"Hello again," Granny Qi said.

They exchanged a few words that I couldn't hear, and then Granny Qi seemed to remember that I was still there. "Ah, this is Stefan he is…" she seemed to have some struggle describing exactly what I was. Her tenant? Yes, but then why was I accompanying her all this way to her village? "...my apprentice. He is already a Rank Two Liberomancer."

Suki Teng gave me a strange look, likely because of my features and because of Granny Qi's comments, but didn't comment any further.

Two of her daughters lived with her in the house, one of whom was married with two grandchildren. Other than that were the family servants, and given the late hour, introductions were cut short as we had a quick dinner (rice with fish, much like back in Arconia) before we went to hit the hay.

Thankfully that was only metaphorical - I had been wondering if I might have had to stay in a literal barn, but the inside of the house was marginally better than the outside. The paint was still chipping in some places and annoyingly enough the doorways were made for people a head shorter than I was so I had to duck or else risk hitting my head on their frames, but this was still a major step up from having to sleep on a literal haystack.

I felt sore even from just a day's worth of riding, and had to use healing magic to soothe myself before I drifted off to sleep.

As I expected, people here woke up earlier and started the day sooner than back in Arconia.

Suki Tang's family owned much of the surrounding land, and though Chipker didn't really work under a feudal system like in medieval Europe, they were the closest thing to a manor lord you could find in the village. As such, they didn't tend to their own fields or their own animals themselves, instead hiring help for the same.

Given this, everyone was present for breakfast, which took place in a room which had been set up so that it was well-lit in the morning.

They were talking about setting up festivities for the upcoming Spirit Festival, which was going to take place two days later and the festivities themselves would last for two days.

Meanwhile, it didn't look like there was anything for me to do or help out with - so I figured I might as well spend time exploring the surrounding area and see if I couldn't make a grimoire or two.

I told Granny Qi as much, to which she replied, "Alright. Just stay safe - misfortune can befall even the most talented Liberomancer." She then added, "And don't get anyone pregnant."

I almost choked on my soup. "W-what?"