Chapter 87 – Preparations Start

The very first step was to get a carriage to transport the goods. I headed toward the city's northern exit and stopped at the wagon & carriage shop. Logically, there were stables and carriage shops near the main exits of the city in the four cardinal directions. It wasn't the same one I bought my current small cart from, though. It didn't matter which shop I used but since I would depart toward the north, it was slightly more convenient to buy close to the northern exit.

The wagon shop and the stables were two different businesses, one on each side of the streets, but it was obvious they were often working together. I decided to talk to them together to save time and trouble.

"Hello, sirs. I need to buy a large, covered wagon with a trailer for a trading caravan. Together with enough horses to pull everything."

Now, this was something I learned in the past week I had been here, but the term horse applied to two different things. The first one was the sentient horse species, who were no different from any other species that went around the streets of Geola. The second one was the animal horses, which all had limited intelligence, no sentience, couldn't talk, and behaved like, well, normal animals.

I was bewildered by the naming choice but then learned that it applied to almost every species. Most of them had their non-sentient animal counterpart. When I asked for an explanation about this strange reality, the responses I received were all over the place. No one knew why it was like this but that didn't stop people from coming up with the most incredible theories.

Some said it was because the animals were degraded versions of the species while others argued it was the other way around, with the species being evolved animals. There were hypotheses that animals were being cursed by sel, but then again, more people said the species were the ones blessed by sel instead. Part of the population spoke about dark experiments leading to these results, while the others blabbered about a group of legendary transcendents creating a miracle. And that was only a small snippet of all the theories that existed. The conjectures were so diverse and varied that it was impossible to determine the truth.

"I have the carriages that you need. It all depends on what you're planning to transport."

"That'll be mainly weapons and iron ingots. Maybe a few other miscellaneous items too."

The stable owner spoke next.

"So, very heavy goods. If you're planning to pull a large carriage together with a trailer full of that, you'll need at least six horses."

"I understand. Let's check the carriages first and buy the horses next."

After some discussions and haggling, I bought what I needed. The carriage and trailer were both protected by something similar to a tarpaulin, which had been oiled to be waterproof. The wagon itself could sit two people in the driver's seat. I bought six solid horses, all with brown manes and hair to keep a uniform feeling. I didn't know anything about horses but I still faked inspecting them to see if they didn't look sick or something.

My current budget was quite large since I had sold stuff for a full week. Speaking of which, a week was made of ten days in this world. A hundred days made a season and four seasons made a year. There were no other subdivisions in the calendar. A year had 383 days, which made the autumn season only have 83 days as an exception.

Back to my budget, I had around 450 golds to use in the outer world. It was a small fortune for a normal person and a good start toward my trading career. The carriage cost me 8 golds and the trailer another 5 gold. Each horse was 1 gold, making for a total of 19 golds. I also bought a few replacement pieces for the carriage and trailer in case they broke, together with some food and brushes for the horses, increasing my expenses to 21 golds.

There was only one remaining issue I had to address.

"To tell you the truth, I've never driven a horse-pulled carriage before. Could any of you teach me how to do it? I'll pay for your time, of course."

They didn't look very interested in my offer but this was essential for me.

"10 silvers per hour."

When they didn't react, I tried again.

"20 silvers per hour. 30."

"I'll do it for 30."

The stable owner was the one who accepted in the end. 30 silvers per hour was a lot and it was a good opportunity to fill his pockets with easy money.

We created a small setup with only the carriage plus two horses and he taught me how to drive it. Frankly, it was nothing special. The horses just needed basic instructions with the reins to understand when to start going, when to stop, and when to turn. Turning probably was the trickiest part since the horses might not feel it when pulling the line in one direction or the other, especially when there were more than two of them.

It took me less than an hour to have a basic mastery of carriage driving. I gave the full hour amount to the stable owner, who looked satisfied with his earnings.

Now, I couldn't take the horses and carriage back with me yet so I rented some space created for travelers and merchants in the stables for a day.

My next step was to fill my newly acquired wagons with the goods. There were two places I needed to visit: a blacksmith for the weapons and a merchant who sold iron ingots. Fortunately, there were plenty of both in Geola and I made my way to the first blacksmith I came across. I was immediately hit by the high temperature inside the place, due to many workers forging weapons, tools, and armors in the back of the store.

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