229: On the Road
Riding along the road trailing after the caravans ahead of us, we used a similar formation to what we started with, with Hari, Luis and Milo all up front, while Liane, Jen and myself were trailing behind.
I think the only person more excited about this than me was Crisplet, who was currently dashing around exploring and having absolutely no trouble keeping up with the caravan as we rode.
I couldn’t help but notice one of the merchants kept trying to sneak a glance at me, but would look away any time I caught him doing so. After the events in the city, I felt a bit paranoid, feeling uneasy about it.
I shuffled Sable closer to Liane, who had been chewing on some jerky, interrupting her with a whisper.
“It might be nothing, but the merchant there keeps trying to sneak glances at me.”
Liane nodded. She then rode to the front, with Jen moving over next to me.
“Everything okay?” Jen asked.
I explained the same thing to Jen, who just gave a nod. “It’s possible he’s just trying to work out who you are, or maybe caught a glimpse of Lily in your scarf for a second and is trying to double-check.”
“I’m probably just being paranoid,” I laughed.
Jen shook her head. “No, it’s a good thing. You’re being observant. Keep that up.”
When Liane made her way back, she came up next to both of us. “Hari will stop for lunch soon.”
Just as she said that, the merchant’s head appeared at the back, then quickly moved out of sight. Liane just let out a sigh.
“You know what, let’s handle it now,” Liane said, moving towards the wagon.
There was a cloth cover over it, but she moved forward, coming right up to the back. I kept my distance just in case, as Liane took the lead.
“Paro, was it?” she said loudly.
The head showed up at the back again. He was a skinny man who seemed unusually tall, even sitting down, with his thinning brown hair, very different from most other merchants I’ve encountered.
“Uh, yes?” he said.
“We notice you keep sneaking glances at us. Could you tell us why?” Liane asked bluntly.
He looked nervous as he scratched the back of his head. “Sorry, I was just trying to work out… no, I’m sorry.”
“Spit it out,” Liane said bluntly.
“Well, I heard the new noble in the capital had a fire elemental, and well, he has a fire elemental, so I was trying to work out if he was the new noble,” Paro blurted out.
Liane softened slightly, looking behind her to Jen, who simply gave a nod. We had discussed this before. We would not be hiding, although Luis would be, going by the name of Lewie on the road, which I felt was too close to his real name, but with his drastic change in appearance, it likely wouldn’t raise suspicions.
“Yes, that’s Lord Ashmoon. As we said, we’re the Polite Company, and Lord Ashmoon is our support member. I’m his sister, Liane Ashmoon, and the big guy up front is Hari Lindberg,” Liane rattled off. I winced at being called Lord, and on the road I had no intention of having someone treat me as such, but I wasn’t going to hide my name.
“Why… Sorry, if I could be so rude, why did such an esteemed party take this job? It’s just a caravan guard,” Paro said with a slight tremor in his voice.
“That’s our business. I will say though, out here we’re just adventurers, so no formality, please. I just wanted to set the record straight, so you’d stop creeping us out,” she laughed before falling back with her horse.
I kind of dreaded their reaction when Lily inevitably showed up, but so far she had vanished and I likely wouldn’t see her until dinnertime.
Something that took a moment to get used to was the foraging ability. Now that it was passive, everywhere I looked there seemed to be a faint blue glow. Passing farmland that was still mostly covered in snow, there wasn’t anything really growing there, but below the surface I saw bulbs or some kind of root. The side of the road however, seemed clear; no lemon tea grass at all.
When we stopped for lunch that day, we simply moved the carriage off to the side of the road, Milo using his air magic to clear us a spot.
“Why are the groups sitting so far apart?” I asked, as the merchants and their drivers had their own small camp set up near the wagons, while we sat in the clearing on our own.
“This is fairly normal at the start of the journey. They don’t know us, and likely don’t fully trust us either, so they always start cautious unless you’ve worked with them before,” Hari said.
“Is that why you guys were so close with Troy and Saddie?” I asked.
Hari shook his head. “No, not at all. We’d already been on the road for a few weeks when we picked you up, so we’d already been through the awkward stage.”
I pulled out the brazier, into which Crisplet quickly dived in, giving us a burning fire.
“We told them who we are already. Well, the back one,” Jen explained.
“That was fast, but not unexpected when you said he was acting suspicious,” Hari looked over at them.
“What are we going to do when Lily arrives?” I asked curiously.
Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!
Hari smiled. “Dealing with it now sounds like a good idea.”
Hari got up from his chair. “Trev, if you’d like to join me for a moment.”
Nodding, I got up after pulling out a small pot of stew I had prepared already, just so we’d have food already made for short lunch breaks like this.
Approaching the group, I couldn’t help but notice that Paro stiffened, as if he’d been caught in something, but Hari didn’t care or see it and continued.
“I believe you’ve already been told who we are, and I trust by now you’ve discussed among yourselves and all know it,” Hari began.
All of them nodded, even the drivers.
“Excellent, that makes this next part easier. Once we stepped outside those city gates, we are acting in the capacity of adventurers and not as nobles. We don’t want you treading on eggshells around us. We have over a month together on this road,” Hari said.
“He’s a Lord though,” Paro pointed.
“And a couple of months ago I was an orphan,” I laughed.
“How?” one of the drivers asked.
“I’m glad you asked. That leads us to the next topic we need to discuss. Trevor here has some companions, or protectors let’s say, that are incredibly powerful,” Hari said.
From the five of them, I heard one whisper dragon, while the other whispered cat.
“Yes, exactly, and it’s likely that Lily, the shadow cat, will appear and travel with us. I want to make this perfectly clear to you all, and do not mistake my words. They are not under the control of Trevor. They are not bonded companions and have no tie, and are completely of their own free will. If you insult them, Trevor cannot stop any repercussions,” Hari said very sternly.
Paro nodded furiously. “We understand.”
“In brighter news, I watched Lily kill a fully grown galvonson that attacked our last caravan in a single blow, so you’re likely the most defended caravan in the kingdom right now.” Hari actually laughed at that.
“Really?” one of the drivers asked.
“It was a big one too.” Hari pulled out a claw I never knew he had and threw it to the driver who asked.
“One hit,” Hari repeated.
This seemed to have broken the ice a little, as they appeared to be more relaxed while inspecting the claw in reverence almost.
“One other thing. When we make it to Farnox, if I could recommend we spend the night at the Pour House. We’re going to be making a delivery there, and I think you’ll want to see it. Also, the attention it will bring should drive a lot of business,” Hari grinned.
I saw the merchant’s eyes light up, but Hari had already started to walk off. I was just impressed by how he had managed to bond with them and break the ice so quickly. They were still holding the galvonson claw.
Approaching the others, there was a smile on Milo’s face. “Got them to relax a little, I see.”
“Yeah, hopefully they’ll not be so jumpy. I’d hate to have to end the job early. Looks bad on our reputation,” Hari frowned.
“That claw is coming out of your money, by the way,” Jen laughed.
“So when are you going to tell them that Trevor technically owns all the dark forest now?” Liane said, clearly trying to stir up trouble.
“We won’t, and we won’t talk to any of those towns in an official capacity until we have finished the job,” Hari said firmly.
For the first time, Luis joined in. “Well, about that. I doubt it will happen, but there may be occasions I’d need you to pull rank, if you wouldn’t mind.”
“Pull rank?” I asked, confused.
“Yeah, we’ll discuss it later. I’m not ready to discuss it here in the open,” Luis shook his head.
“Tonight then. I’ll make us a soundproof area,” Milo said.
The afternoon passed without incident. The caravan already felt a lot more relaxed. I didn’t feel like I had someone watching me constantly, and one of the merchants, Nero, was actively chatting to Milo.
The roads were still smooth cobble, but I could tell that the care to clean up the snow this far out was already starting to waver, as the snow just appeared to be swept off the road, likely with magic, and was piled on the side, and despite the day being kind of warm, it didn’t look like it was melting very fast.
It worked in our favour, however, when we could make camp on a field without it being a giant mud pit like I had feared. The house that Milo built was interesting. It was a design I had not seen before, as it looked like two houses connected to a single entrance, which I had to assume would separate the two groups and give some privacy.
Milo then started to create the stable, while I was brushing down Sable. I still needed to get her some really good food as a treat.
Once inside, I was right. It looked like there was a small room which split into two doorways. There was no door, but the way it was angled, you couldn’t see into the other one easily. In the middle of both, I saw a campfire ring, with bedding alcoves I had grown accustomed to on the outer ring.
While Nero came into the doorway behind us, “Now this is luxury you don’t get on all the jobs,” he said admiring the building as he walked in.
Crisplet wasted no time, diving right into the fire, which exploded into flames.
I pulled out my dinner, which I had already mostly prepared for this occasion, to celebrate us being on the road again, getting my slow-cooked pulled buvul, along with the round flat breads, and some diced vegetables and cheese.
I just needed to give the flat breads a very slight toast to heat them up and it was good to go.
Looking at my notifications, I was happy that I was getting a fairly consistent flow of experience now, already nearly hitting level 32, practically skipping straight past 31.
But just as important were the quests. Unfortunately, due to most of the food I prepared in the lead-up I did not infuse, just in case. I didn’t get to complete them all, but I was getting very close.
Active evolution quest: 9
Culinary Transformation:
- Purify 50 ingredients of poison or toxins. - 42/50
- Consume 5 unique toxic ingredients. - 3/5
- Purify 5 unique ingredients of their magical toxins. - 5/5 Complete
- Infused 10 food items with a buff time of 4 or more hours: 7/10
- Infused 3 food items with a total stat total over 14: 1/3
- Create 10 dishes where the crust seals the moisture inside the food: 6/10
- Use a previously cooked dish as a base ingredient in five separate new dishes: 2/5
- Create 3 different stocks, then successfully use each in a unique dish: 0/3
- Infuse 25 dishes in a row: 8/25
But first, pulled buvul tacos!