“How did it go?”

  I was waiting for Duman and Roseline to return from an audience with the hero king right outside of the royal mountain manor in Ceres. Yes, we returned to home pronto after the discovery of the dungeon. We needed to come back home for resupply and other things anyway. For us, I mean me and Jane, we needed to check on the progress of our home. Jane went ahead to check on our home while I was waiting for Duman and Roseline to return.

  “Nothing changed,” I said to myself while looking around. Of course nothing changed. It hadn’t been even that long. The front of the royal mountain manor was usually clear, and it was by intention. It had a dedicated landing platform for airships close by to receive esteemed guests. Therefore, no one was allowed to loiter around. A pair of guards had their eyes fixed at me, but they weren’t on guard. They knew that I was waiting for Duman and Roseline. I would have been asked to leave otherwise. Anyway, after a while, the couple finally exited the front gate.

  “First of all, take this.” He threw a cloth pouch toward me. When I caught it, I heard sounds of metal stuff, and it was heavy. It was coins.

  “50 silver coins, 25 each per,” he added. “We got a gold coin.”

  “Nice,” I responded with a smile. She was going to be very happy to hear that we finally got some income from this journey. Besides, fifty silver coins after roughly a month was not bad at all. Ordinarily, we’d never see this level of income.

  “The inn project will commence,” Roseline said. “We can decide the name of the new place or we can let the royal court decide.”

  “We should decide,” I replied. It was such a rare opportunity to name anything.

  “Obviously,” she replied. “Think of something. We will also think of something. We will decide later.”

  “Okay.”

  I was feeling giddy with the coin pouch in my hand, finally something to show after a month of fruitless work. It should please Jane.

  “We are going to go to the guild to talk to the guildmaster. See you later, Faro,” he said, walking past me.

  “Okay.”

  After waving each other good-bye, I went to check the progress of the house, which I found to be almost the same as before. The foundation was complete and the pillars were installed, but that was it. Given the fact that we had been away for about a month, the progress seemed awfully slow. Additionally, there was no one working on the site as if it was abandoned. Jane wasn’t present, either.

  “What’s going on?” I wondered aloud. Logically, the place I went next to inquire about was the carpentry workshop I visited earlier with Jane, and she was there, who was conversing with a familiar figure. It was Gavi.

  “Jane, what’s going on? Has the construction been halted?”

  Both of them turned around to see me. The workshop seemed rather quiet. I had never seen it this empty before. Something was clearly amiss.

  She told me, “Faro, The owner of the shop has fallen ill. He’s on deathbed.”

  “What?”

  Gavi looked down and explained, “His health has been deteriorating. We knew this, but it took a sharp turn for the worst.”

  “When did it happen?”

  “Some days after you two took off. According to workers who were present at the site, he simply froze and fell sideways like a rock. He’s been bedridden ever since.”

  “Have you called a water mage?”

  His face darkened further. “Of course, we have. He said that his lifespan was at the end. No magic would be able to heal.”

  Water magic could only heal wounds and some diseases. It could not extend the life of those who were at the end of the journey. Or at least, that was what I was told.

  “From what I could tell, half of his entire body is paralyzed. And he has been barely eating. Liquid is all he could take.”

  In other words, it was only a matter of time.

  “My condolences,” I said. There wasn’t much I could say. I didn’t know him well. I did wonder what was going on with the house construction but I would find out eventually anyway. It was time to keep my mouth shut.

  “We were talking about the house,” Jane said. “Gavi here says that the workshop guarantees it to be built, but the deadline has been pushed back.”

  There was one thing I wanted to ask.

  “Is his son going to take over?”

  I really disliked him. She did tell me that the owner was going to hand it to someone else, but I didn’t know whether he really meant it or not.

  “No, there won’t be a sole owner,” he declared.

  “What?” I was confused. “Then what’s going to happen to the workshop? It can’t close, can it?”

  “It will be under control of the king’s court. The old man sent a letter asking for the hero king’s advice on the matter, and the king decided to take the workshop under his control.”

  “What’s going to happen to his son? I mean, he must be pretty pissed, no?” It was Jane who asked.

  “He will be compensated. Exactly how, I don’t know. It’s none of my business anyway. The bottom line is that the workshop no longer belongs to a single man. It’s the kingdom’s asset now.”

  “Are you satisfied with that?” I asked.

  “I don’t care. To be honest with you, this workshop has become too big to fall into ruin. It’s been here ever since the days of Laufeld. If the old man’s son inherited it, it probably won’t fall but won’t be as good as the old days.” Then his voice became heavy. “This is the old man’s achievement, not his.”

  When he said that, I recalled some phrases my mom used to tell me. It was that a man should try to achieve things on his own instead of relying on his father’s fame and wealth. Only a wimp would rely on his father’s achievements to push forward. I was given nothing when I left home. I chuckled right after. No, I was given things in knowledge. She raised me, taught me things in spare time. Knowledge was more valuable than just money. A fool and his money are easily parted, mom told me. I tried not to be a fool and tried to set up some sort of things for an easy life, but that was perhaps unwise. Well, my wife, Jane, came up with the idea of starting a new settlement along with an inn as its center of attention. Maybe, I will leave my legacy this way.

  “Jane.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Tell him about the inn plan.”

  She tilted her head slightly. “Are you sure?”

  “Who else is there for carpenters?”

  She seemed convinced and presented a map to Gavi. It was a rather small piece of paper rolled up on her belt.

  “What is this?” he wondered aloud curiously as he lowered his upper body to take a better look at the map. He was a tall man, a lot taller than both of us.

  “The map of the frozen North,” I declared.

  “The what?!”

  “We’ve found a place where people could stay for warm hot baths. We plan to start an inn and a small settlement with it.”

  “The frozen North, for real?”

  “For real,” I told him with a smirk.

  “Very, very, interesting…, let me take a look.”

  I let him take the map from her so that he could take a closer look at it.

  “I thought nothing could live up there…,” he mumbled while studying the map.

  “You are not wrong,” I replied. “It’s so fucking cold that my skin was freezing up, but those lakes, they are warm.”

  “No, they are boiling hot,” my wife added.

  “That doesn’t make any sense!” he replied back with an exclamation, to which Jane and I had to shrug. It was what it was. We weren’t lying. “A large lake so hot that you can use the water for warm baths? That makes no sense whatsoever.”

  “Something related to volcanic activities or something,” I added.

  “What’s the distance? It looks like one end to another end…,” he trailed off. He was right. It was literally one end to another.

  “By an airship meant for speed, it takes around 15 days one day, so 30 days for a round trip.”

  “That’s far, too far.”

  Again, he wasn’t wrong. The situation was made worse by the fact that only a very limited amount of building materials could be loaded onto a single airship. One would need a fleet of such airships to make fast progress, which wasn’t an option for us.

  “There are trees around the lakes… but those should be preserved,” Jane said. We were building a luxury inn after all. The beauty mattered.

  “It’s not impossible, but the time and cost will be … off the charts,” Gavi concluded eventually. “By the way, has this been approved by the king’s court?”

  “It has,” I replied firmly.

  “Well, that’s one less obstacle then.”

  “By the way, why is the workshop so quiet?” I meant to ask this earlier.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  “Hmm?” He seemed oblivious for a moment. “Oh, I see. Well…”

  It turned out that the workshop didn’t have a lot of work, and they were taking in students mostly. Gavi said that it was a sad state of affairs where a carpenter workshop was turning into an educational institution. Apparently, the old man was teaching students because his son wasn’t a good teacher.

  “Then I am giving you a real job. Take it,” I said frankly.

  “I would very much like to, but I am not a decision maker anymore. I will pass it along to those responsible. Well, to be frank, the distance is too much of a huddle to overcome. It’s not like we are the only carpenter workshop.”

  “There is another?”

  I never heard of another carpenter workshop in Ceres.

  “Well, there is only one here, but Ceres is not the only city, you know.”

  Right…, why didn’t I think about that before?

  If we shipped construction materials from, let’s say…, Elsos, it would cut down the transport down dramatically. I looked at Jane who was already looking back at me.

  “What’s the city closest to the frozen North?” she asked. She was a guild receptionist and probably knew the immediate area well but she wouldn’t know the world map unless she specifically studied. It looked like she didn’t.

  “Elsos,” I answered. I knew that only because of the dragon hunt. We had to study the map a bit. “But I have my doubts about that city.”

  “How come?” she innocently asked.

  “As far as I know, it’s been devastated by the recent war. I heard that only its keep stood when the monster horde invasion was stopped there. Nothing else was left.”

  When I was told that, I thought that it was just some idle gossip. Then I saw it first hand when I was piloting the airship although it was a good distance away. Even at a great distance, I could see the sheer devastation. There was no way that they could have recovered in just a year or so. Therefore, logically, another city was preferred.

  “Tonga and Maiava are your likely choices,” Gavi said, to which I agreed. “The latter has an iron mine, so it’s a better choice.”

  While he was right, there was a small issue. I could pull some strings here in Ceres, striking deals. But in Maiava? I knew no one there. Hell, it would be my first time visiting the city. Besides, I had only one arm and was somewhat small for a man. I would be looked down upon. Someone like Duman would be better at negotiating, the dude was a towering giant. After bidding a good-bye to him, we were returning to the guild. I used this moment to show her the money pouch, shaking it slightly.

  “What’s that? Sounds like a bunch of coins,” she guessed.

  “That’d be right. It’s 50 silver coins, 25 silvers per each. It’s a payment for the exploration of the North.”

  “Nice,” she beamed a smile. “The journey was worth the trouble then.”

  Twenty five silver coins for about a month of work was not bad indeed. As a guild receptionist, she wouldn’t earn a silver coin in a month. I’d take her about a year for a silver coin. Therefore, it was more than nice.

  “All yours, wife,” I tried to hand it over to her, but she refused.

  “You keep it safe. I don’t have the means to keep such a large amount safe in my room at the guild.”

  She had a point. The most she ever had was a few silver coins, which was arguably more easier to keep hidden than forty silver coins. The place I kept my money was my parents’ home since they had actual guards and then there was the royal bank which was something I found out only recently.

  “Okay, sure thing.” I placed it back on my belt.

  It was almost noon, thus the guild was rather low. It was generally slow at this time of the day. The busiest part of the day was early morning and afternoon.

  “Oh, you are back,” a guild receptionist recognized us and welcomed us. She was one of the trainees I looked after not long ago. She was a bit too short, so she was standing on a small stool. She was probably given a shift at noon since it’d be slow.

  “How are you holding?” I asked casually.

  “It’s okay. Well, nobody came by since I started my shift.” She sounded disappointed, almost.

  “You sound disappointed,” I replied with a chuckle. “Trust me. They are easing you in.”

  “Yeah, you told me.”

  “Faro, I am going upstairs to my room. See you later, yeah?” Jane told me as she proceeded to walk upstairs. I nodded at her as she went and I was

  Duman was walking down stairs at the same time, and they exchanged a nod at each other.

  “Faro,” he called me. “Got a moment to talk?”

  I had a hunch on what he was going to talk about. “Talked to the guildmaster?”

  “I have, and we have several things to talk about.”

  “Alright, let’s sit down at a table.”

  The first floor of the guild acted very much like a tavern with round tables for its members to sit down and have meals. But, because of the timing, which was noon, no waitress came by. The tavern part worked only in the morning and afternoon.

  “You guys want a drink?” The young receptionist asked. She probably wanted to do something since she was very much bored.

  “Some tea would be nice,” I replied.

  “Tea? We carry tea?” she tilted her head.

  “We do actually. Rarely anyone orders that, though.”

  Adventurers rarely drank tea. It was usually beer or water. I drank tea only because I was used to it. It was better than plain water anyway.

  “Bring me a mug of beer,” Duman told her. It was broad daylight, but I wasn’t going to say anything to him. He was an adult after all.

  “Yes, sir,” she replied cheerfully and merrily skipped into the kitchen.

  “So, what did he say?” I asked.

  “He cannot spare his fleet.”

  He had two airships if I remember correctly.

  “Understandable,” I replied with a nod. His restaurant business was very successful. I could see why his fleet was busy enough. Again, one round trip to the frozen North would occupy an airship for a full month at least. Therefore, I knew that Brian would refuse to help. In fact he couldn’t afford to help us even if he wanted to.

  “So,” he continued. “I am going to visit the king’s court and rent or outright purchase two passenger airships. Those are pretty cheap right now.”

  “How much are they each?”

  “Two gold pieces per.”

  I raised my voice a bit. “And that’s cheap?”

  “In comparison, yes. The Fat Lady costs around five gold pieces.”

  I raised my eyebrows.

  “Either way, two airships ought to be enough to start. Have you been to the workshop?”

  I didn’t feel like a pair would be enough, but it was certainly better than one or having none. Either way, I told him about how the workshop was in a stasis due to the owner being on his deathbed and that the control of the workshop was being transferred to the king’s court.

  “Huh, the old man’s going to meet the Gods, eh.”

  The common brief was that, when someone dies, he is going to meet the judgement where the God of Life and the God of Death would judge the person. Whether one is going to be born in a better or worse environment would be based on karma. Of course, there was no evidence to back it up. How could there be evidence anyway? No one would be coming back with their memories intact in their next lives.

  “Everyone goes,” he added with a bitter smile. “No exceptions.”

  Yeah, well, no one escapes from death.

  “So, does that mean Ceres workshop isn’t in a position to help us?”

  “There is someone I know from the workshop, named Gavi, who seemed to have a high enough position. He said that the distance alone is a bit too much. He suggested working with a city that is closer.”

  “He is not wrong,” he replied. “So, we are talking about Maiava then since Elsos is in no condition to help.”

  He was quick in the uptake or he thought about it before.

  “Yes, Maiava. I was hoping that you’d know someone from there? You are from the North after all.”

  At that moment, the receptionist girl brought a mug of beer and a cup of tea. “Here you go, folks.”

  “Thanks,” we said in unison, and she skipped her way to the counter. She was in a good mood for sure. Well, children are generally happy anyway.

  “I was originally an adventurer at Maiava guild, and so was Brian the guildmaster.”

  “How did you end up in the South?”

  He chuckled in response and replied, “Brian took a merchant escort job to the South and somehow ended up permanently settling down in the old Laufeld. He set up his own guild and called for his close friends. I was one of them.”

  Laufeld was the old name of Ceres. Well, they weren’t exactly the same. Laufeld was a good distance away from it to the West. I don’t know the exact reason, but the now-king decided to relocate the entire settlement. My early childhood was in Laufeld, and I had some memories of the town. What I remembered mostly was the log walls and, of course, I did meet Esher there, the flaming red haired beauty. Jane will never find out about this old crush of mine.

  “Good, I was hoping that you’d know someone there to make a deal.”

  “Well, I am not sure whether I can be of actual help because, while it is true that I’ve come from there, my circle of friends there is very much adventurers.”

  “It’s going to be better than me trying,” I replied bitterly. I did not yet have the proper stature as a man. I was just a kid who looked androgynous. I knew this because mom told me that I could pass as a girl if dressed up that way.

  “Fine by me, I suppose. When do you plan to leave?”

  “It’s down to the women, I guess? Two or three days?”

  I could leave tomorrow if needed. But it was an entirely different story for Jane and maybe Roseline. Women always needed more time. I honestly didn’t know what took them more time and I wasn’t going to risk their fiery ire by asking. He chuckled in response after taking a long shot at his mug.

  “You ain’t wrong,” he responded with his eyes looking vacantly into the air. “Down to Jane, I guess. Roseline isn’t the type who drags it.”

  “How is she by the way?”

  “She is trying to keep herself occupied all the time. And, when she is occupied, she looks happier.”

  There was one thing I wanted to ask for some time.

  “Will her hair color ever revert back?”

  He downcast his eyes when he heard my question. “Probably, not,” he replied eventually. “She blames herself for not being a good healer and she is not entirely wrong. She couldn’t heal anyone because she was already exhausted by the time we reached the top. If she could cast some heals, the outcome may have been different.”

  No, the outcome would have been the same. They would have not been able to defeat the dragon either way. The battle would have prolonged for certain, however. Perhaps, he was talking about a different kind of outcome where they could have escaped.

  “Either way,” he continued with a sigh. “It’s probably best to let her be.”

  If there was anything I learned from the recent journey, it was that she and I did not get along, and it was probably better for me to step out of her ways. I sort of wanted Duman and Roseline get together simply because those two had something in common and could understand, but the reality was probably that neither was in the mood for romance.

  “Alright, I trust you on that.” I finally took a sip of my tea, and it was awful. I had no idea what it even was. It was just bitter. Frowning, I placed my cup back on the table and never drank another sip again until the talk was over.

  “By the way, shouldn’t we get at least one more member?” I asked. “Is Vojmir still around?”

  “I haven’t seen him around. He should still be here, though.”

  “I do feel that we need at least one more combatant,” I stressed.

  “Fair enough. I will see if I can find Vojmir. If not, I can always find someone within the guild.”

  We had three combatants, Duman, Roseline, and me. Duman was a crossbowman, Roseline was a healer, and I was a fighter. The group composition was alright on paper, but I was an agile fighter who couldn't hold a line. We needed someone like Vojmir who was a traditional shield fighter who could hold his line for others to work their magic. He was in fact the ideal guy for the job although I understood his reluctance to join us with his age and desire for quiet times. We chatted a bit before I stood up to leave. I was going to visit my parents’ house to get another bag of Macomaco tea since mine had run out. On my way back home, I noticed a bunch of golden airships in the sky. There were like five or six of them. Seeing that many airships at once was rare enough, and all of them were covered in golden painting or whatever they had it on them. They were literally sparkling under the sunlight. Rightfully so, a large crowd gathered in front of the royal mountain manor. A wall of guards was preventing civilians from approaching. My height was a bit too short to see what was going on, so I had to ask someone around me.

  “What’s going on? What’s happening?”

  “The king of Estana is visiting to see his daughter and grandchildren,” one of them around me replied.

  “The man has to be happy. To see his entire family bounce back from the blink of extinction,” another added.

  As far as I knew, the king of Estana was a very elderly man in 70s. He had several sons and daughters. All of them perished during the dragon attack except for his youngest daughter who married as the second wife of my brother. She was five years older than him. The age gap was unheard of. Either way, what was even more unheard of was that she gave birth to a triplet, two sons and a daughter. The king must have been more than overjoyed because his royal bloodline just bounced back.

  “What’s with the gold painting? That’s so … tacky,” someone said, to which I agreed. I didn’t like it. It must be their cultural thing. Since I couldn’t see anything at all, I moved away from the crowd and headed toward home.

  “Dang it. If I was taller…,” I mumbled. I wanted a growth spout like my brother did. If mom was correct, he had his right around my age, so I am due for some rapid height increase. I didn’t want much as long as I could grow taller than Jane.

  “God, please…, just make me a tad taller, please…” I whispered to myself as I walked toward my parents’ home.