Chapter 82 : To Alina City
Selina’s decided we’re going to sell the leftover timber from last winter in the Kingdom of Sarine.
We used a lot of the spring and summer wood for the cabin renovations and the new livestock shed, but there are still several wagonloads left over.
I already did all the hard work, too. Trimming the branches, peeling the bark, letting it dry, and cutting it all to the same size.
“Zoe, you need to keep up with the fertilizer,” Selina says.
She’s not wrong. It’s better to turn all the leftover roots and bark into compost than just let them rot.
But hearing it from her makes my teeth itch. I dunno know why.
I just bite my tongue. I really want to go to Alina City.
“Should I start loading the wagon?” I ask, ready to go.
But of course, just when I think we’re set, Selina has a new idea.
“Let’s take the two-person carriage,” she says. “It’s a long trip from our little corner of the forest, you know.”
Except we don’t have one.
“Are we borrowing one?” I ask, my stomach twisting a little.
She just laughs. “Zoe, you can build one of those, can’t you?”
She is an expert at taking advantage of me.
I gotta admit, though, when I went to Lang Village with Matthew, I remember thinking his two-person carriage was pretty cool.
I want to make ours look way better than our clunky old wagon. And for wood with a perfect, beautiful sheen, there’s only one choice: a Treant.
I’ve already fought plenty of Treants for the cabin floors and furniture, and they’re easy to find in the summer, always wandering around.
I hunt down one down and get to work. I even get the blacksmith in Lang Village to make the axle for me again.
I’m starting to wish I had a bigger alchemy pot.
Then again, maybe I should save up for instruments and sheet music first. Or get my harp fixed?
It’s impossible to decide.
The money I got from selling pelts and magic stones from my Storage is almost gone after paying the blacksmith for all the nails and metal fittings for the cabin.
“Oh, well,” Selina says brightly. “Once we sell the lumber, we’ll be rolling in money!”
Besides, if we can just get to Alina City, it’s only a few teleports to the Royal Capital from there.
Full of hope, I hum a little as I finish the carriage.
There’s just one problem. The carriage, made from gleaming Treant wood, looks incredibly fancy. It doesn’t suit Pat and Patty at all.
“Noah, feel like pulling it?” I ask.
He gives me a look that says he would absolutely not feel like pulling it.
Ugh, spoiled horsey.
“A two-person carriage is nothing for Noah,” Selina scolds. “Zoe, you really need to train him properly.”
“But he’s not a carriage horse…”
Selina taps her chin, then disappears into the library and comes back with three books.
“Zoe, I believe one of these has a magic circle for reducing an object’s weight. Just draw it on the bottom of the carriage.”
She’s totally forgotten which book it’s in, hasn’t she?
Fine. I’ll look for it myself. It would probably be easier on Pat and Patty if I lightened the main wagon, too.
All three books are full of useful-looking magic circles.
But the one for reducing weight Selina mentioned isn’t there. I check every single page, twice.
“Selina, it’s not in here,” I say, giving her my best death glare.
She just lies there on the sofa, not even looking up from her book. “Then it must be in a different one.”
How can she be so infuriating?
Still, I really do want to lighten the load, so I head back to the library to try again.
Weren’t those all of our books on magic circles, though?
Selina’s a master of magic, so our shelves are overflowing with books on spells.
But we have way fewer on magic circles, and for alchemy, there’s only one textbook. That’s one area where I’ve got her beat.
And there it is, tucked inside a book on general magic: the weight-reduction circle.
“It was in a book on applied Spatial Magic!” I complain to Selina, who just gives me a cool look.
“This just proves how much you’ve been slacking on your studies,” she says. “Spatial Magic is supposed to be your specialty, yet you haven’t even read the basics.”
Okay, that was just mean.
Still, I hurry and draw the magic circle on the bottom of the carriage.
“Well, well. It seems the preparations are finally complete,” Selina remarks, as if she did any of the work.
She didn’t lift a finger. My hands clench at my sides.
“Let’s just hope we can find that merchant friend of yours.”
That’s our first mission: find a merchant in Alina City who’ll buy our lumber.
The only problem is, Selina says she met him twenty years ago. There’s no guarantee he’s even still in business.
Selina changes into her finest black robe, the one she wears for trips to the Royal Capital.
I’m stuck in my usual one. I’d much rather wear normal clothes, but Selina gets all particular about it. “It’s the formal attire for a witch,” she insists.
We hitch Noah to the two-person carriage, and we’re off.
“To Alina City!”
Yeah, in moments like this, I have to admit I’m no match for her.
Noah is trembling from the teleport, so I lean close and soothe him.
“There, there, it’s all right…” I sing in a quiet little melody, and he instantly calms down.
Selina said we’d arrive in a forest near Alina City, but this is more like a grove.
“I’m sure there were more trees here before,” she muses.
They were probably all cut down.
“Oh, I have a great idea! We should plant some trees from the Great Forest here.”
Selina gives me a completely exasperated look. “Zoe, did you forget we came here to sell wood? Still… transplanting trees isn’t a bad idea. Maybe wood is in short supply in Alina City. We might get a high price for ours.”
It does seem a little weird to come all the way here to sell lumber, only to immediately start growing more.
“Anything that helps stop Schwarzwald from expanding is worth a try,” Selina says. “Besides, a thin little grove like this is hardly a proper place for a teleportation point.”
She’s right. Anyone from a nearby town could wander in looking for firewood.
“And another thing,” Selina adds, “you need to learn to sense if people are nearby before you teleport.”
I don’t think I can do that. I can’t even teleport this far by myself.
Selina clicks her tongue. “Something to work on in your training, I suppose. For now, let’s get to Alina City.”
Easy for her to say.
The woods are too thick to guide the carriage through, so I have to hop out and lead Noah by the reins.
“Are you sure this is the right way?” I ask.
I have a terrible sense of direction… probably because I teleport everywhere and have never had to learn. Selina’s just as bad.
“Probably that way,” she says, pointing vaguely. “I believe the city was to the southeast of this forest.”
Southeast? It feels more like we’re heading due east… but whatever. I’m sure we’ll figure it out when we get out of the woods.
Alina City has to be huge. We can’t miss it.