TBE Chapter 51
The three siblings woke up early at the same time the next day. After breakfast, Ezekiel fed and watered Prince Charming then the three of them took a bath and Ezekiel cleaned their clothes using his Prestidigitation spell. After that, he made sure that no traces of them would be left in the clearing.
Ezekiel cast the Mage Armor spell on the three of them and their donkey as well then they left to continue their journey.
“I wish we find a village today! I want to show the other kids my toys,” Robert said while Luke said, “Play toys!” repeatedly.
Ezekiel was getting worried about Luke’s speech. The only thing that he could do was to talk to his youngest brother in full sentences so the kid would adapt to speaking in full sentences as well. He didn’t know anything about rearing children and was hoping that Luke was not special, I.Q. wise, and just a bit traumatized since he knew, which was admittedly too little and mostly based on shows and movies, trauma could be cured by love and caring and he was doing that part the best he could.
He decided that he would start creating a lesson plan for Robert and Luke after he truly mastered the language which was at most a couple of weeks from then.
While they were traveling Ezekiel continued learning his letters by relying on the book that came from his old traitor tutor. He wanted to learn as soon as possible since he wanted to start teaching his young brothers. He was just glad that Prince Charming was very docile and moved sedately enough that the three brothers could focus on doing their thing while they were moving on the road.
Ezekiel’s brothers even sometimes got off the cart and walked or ran beside it without any problem. He could see that Robert and Luke even commanded the wooden block Tiny Servants to join in on their play of tag. At first, he thought of adding features to the wooden blocks but he was wary of the boys getting too attached to those toys so he just kept them as simple blocks.
They did see some stand-alone farmhouses in the distance but they did not bother to approach those since Ezekiel thought that the population of those farmhouses would be too little to bother setting up shop just for a family or two to view his wares.
When lunchtime was approaching they saw a fairly huge village along the road. Ezekiel looked at his wares in the cart and thought that maybe it was too few, so he decided to spend another ten silver coins and purchase tiny wooden crafts from the system shopping site that someone like a small expert wooden crafter like him could create like wooden cups, spoons, storage items, small boxes, shelves, breadboards, wooden vase and more costing about a copper and a bit more.
Again, his rule of thumb was to sell them for at least ten times the price he paid for each of the items from the system store site.
Before they entered the village, Ezekiel decided to stop at the roadside so they could eat lunch. He didn’t want to bother eating while they were inside the village. After lunch, he inspected their clothes and they looked well, like some rich young people from a good town. He wanted to make sure that the villagers would not mistake them as beggars. He also made sure that the crossbow was loaded and visible in an easy-to-reach place. Its function was just a deterrent even if he practiced shooting it since Ezekiel knew that if something dangerous happened, he would unhesitatingly use magic for their safety.
When they reached the village, there wasn’t even a gate or anything like that so he flagged a villager and asked where the market was.
“Since it’s noon, the market is closed but if you still want to go there just head directly on that road. In a few hours it should open,” The villager said while looking at the three of them which wasn’t unusual since they were truly too young to be travelers.
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“Mistress, do we need to pay to set up a stall here? We’re not staying long and we’ll leave the village before evening,” Ezekiel asked the woman who was setting up her stall.
“Where are your parents?” The woman asked.
“We’re traveling alone. I’m already sixteen. It’s just my father and mother were small so that’s why we’re all small,” Ezekiel told the woman.
“What are you selling?” The woman asked.
“I’m a wood crafter so I’m selling wooden arts and small wooden knick-knacks and small furniture,” Ezekiel answered.
“Then you can set up beside me since I’m selling chicken and other fowl meat and since you’ll only be staying for today, it’s free,” The villager seller told him.
Ezekiel then tied Prince Charming to one of the cart’s sides then set up a stall using the cart. He put all the other things that they were not selling on one side of the cart and covered it with a tarpaulin that he purchased before then he set up the rest of the cart’s area as a makeshift table and shelves and displayed all the wooden thingamabobs that he purchased from the system shopping site. His two brothers were trying to help him but they were messing up instead so he decided to tell them that they could play in the village if they wanted to and they could bring their toys with them.
“Are you not worried about your brothers being taken or something?” The woman asked when she overheard what Ezekiel had said to his brothers.
Ezekiel then made a gesture and Yuki Onna hooted loudly sounding like almost a dog barking and it startled the villager merchant.
“This is Yuki Onna, our tamed snowy owl. Its talons are very sharp and it is strong enough to defend my brothers if some malicious people target them.”
The woman then laughed and assured Ezekiel that his brother would be safe in their village. Yuki Onna flew up into the trees until it was not visible and the two boys ran off somewhere in the village.
Ezekiel wasn’t worried since Yuki Onna would notify him if something happened with his brothers and not only that, in his map in the system browser's first tab, the icons that showed the location of his brothers were highly visible. They were also protected by the Mage Armor spell.
He checked where his brothers were running off to but was grateful to see that they didn’t run far since they did find some children playing inside the market and since they visibly showed their toys to the other children, the villager kids welcomed them.
“I must say, you’re an excellent crafter! Your things are extremely beautiful,” The woman merchant said after she inspected his products.
The woman then asked Ezekiel the prices of the items and to his relief, the merchant was not outraged or anything like that meaning that his items’ prices were fair even possibly underpriced. Every one of his items did look good since he was sure that all of them were crafted by machines instead of handcrafted and the designs were truly gorgeous. If a master crafter saw his items, they would probably question where they came from.
The villager merchant even bought a couple of pieces from him and looking at the woman’s smile, she was satisfied with the items and could not take her eyes away from them. She even looked covetously at the other items but based on her disappointed expression, her budget only allowed her to purchase a couple of items.
Every few minutes, he bothered Yuki Onna about his brothers and his familiar would only respond that they were safe. Soon the market was filling out with people. What surprises Ezekiel is that the villager merchant was selling his items on his behalf as if the items were her wares.
At around five in the afternoon, a third of his wares were gone and he earned a whopping 100 silver coins for spending just ten silver coins worth of wares. He put the coins in the box he was planning to use dedicated to his wood crafting business.
Ezekiel then separated the thirty silver coins that he used as his initial seed money for the wood crafting business and added it back to his original funds in his 4th space tab. His total coins were 7 Gold 10 Silver and a few Copper Coins and the total coins in what he tagged as wood crafter funds was 80 Silver Coins. He planned to only use the wood crafter funds that he put in a separate box to purchase small wooden items from his system shopping site and all the earnings from the business would go to that fund as well.
He then started cleaning up his stall.
“Why are you closing already?” The villager merchant asked when she noticed that Ezekiel was cleaning up his stall.
“It’s late already and we’re planning to continue our journey. Our family is waiting for us in the next country,” He answered then he gave a small wooden decorative vase to the lady.
“What’s this?” The woman asked.
“It’s a gift from me since you helped me with my business a lot,”
The woman kept saying that she wasn’t expecting any reward and that he should not have given the item to her but Ezekiel saw that the woman kept the vase and looked at it admiringly.
