Chapter 94 – Meeting at the Northern Exit
After the man left, Aren checked the contents of the bag. He couldn't help letting a small exclamation of surprise out. There was everything someone like him could have ever dreamed of. Fresh bread, vegetables, and fruits. Butter, jam, honey, and milk. There were even a few pieces of meat, something he hadn't seen for years. At the bottom were staples that lasted longer, like rice, flour, and beans. No wonder it was so heavy.
He now considered his situation carefully. In the back alleys, people would kill for the bag he now possessed. It was enough food for a person to live for several weeks, maybe even a season if they were frugal.
He had to reach the safety of their shelter while attracting as little attention as possible. Fortunately, he knew these streets like the back of his hands. With the sun setting, the alleys were full of shadows and he could make use of that.
He carefully advanced, only going through the places that had as few folks as possible. Taking a break whenever he couldn't lift the bag anymore, it took him a long time and a lot of detours but he eventually managed to get home without any trouble.
His breathing was rough and his arms hurt terribly but it was all worth it. His sister came out of their shelter, looking worried.
"What took you so long? Why do you look so tired? Did something happen?"
She then noticed the bag.
"What's with the bag?"
"Huff, huff, huff. Give me a second."
He panted for a while before lifting the bag again and carrying it to their home.
"Let's hide this first."
After entering, he placed the bag in the middle of the only "room" and sat on the floor, exhausted. His little brother immediately welcomed him before checking the bag, full of curiosity. He caressed his head a little and turned toward Erin.
"Phew. That was hard. I'm so tired."
"So? What happened?"
"The man gave us so much today. It was hard to carry all the way here."
She raised her eyebrows and joined Orun in inspecting the bag. She also let out a whistle of surprise when witnessing its content.
"What's with all that? What's the occasion? Did he ask something of you?"
"No, nothing. He said he was going away for some time and gave us enough to last while he was away."
"Jam, butter, and even meat. Tsk. Rich people."
"Don't say that. We should be grateful to him."
"Ha! Never. He's just another hypocrite."
They already had this conversation many times before and Aren didn't want to start another argument.
"But, isn't it great? What are we going to do with all that food?"
"Eat it, of course. I was worried Orun wasn't eating enough different kinds of food. Dad always told us to not just eat one thing even if it's good."
"Why don't we trade it for something we need?"
"You're crazy. If people know we have that sort of food, they'll raid us and take everything. They might even kill us."
"We can say we stole it from a merchant."
"No. It's better not to take any risk. Plus, there's nothing we need more than food anyway."
"Okay... Ah, the man also said something else."
"What?"
"I don't know why but he said we should stay at home and not leave for some time."
"Hmm…"
Erin stayed silent for a long moment.
"What do you think? Do we ignore it? We can't just stay at home without going out, right?"
"No. We're going to do exactly as he said."
"Huh? Really?"
"Yeah."
"Why?"
"Because we don't lose anything by doing this. Whether there's a reason for it or not, we'll know soon enough. We only go out when we need to."
"Okay… If you say so."
"All right. Let's eat now. I'm hungry."
"Yeah, me too."
"Mee tou!"
The three siblings opened the bag wide and pondered over what to eat first. This was a freedom of choice they hadn't had for so long they had almost forgotten the feeling.
**********
After waking up early and saying my goodbyes to Suuru, I teleported to Geola to prepare the carriage. I gave some water and food to the horses before attaching the trailer to the carriage. I then filled both with the weapons and ingots by making several back and forth and using my storage capacity to the maximum. When this was done, I attached the six horses to the carriage and drove the whole thing out of the rental space.
It was now a bit before 8 and I only had to wait for my mercenary escorts to arrive. However, they still weren't here when it was time to meet. I waited a bit longer and they still didn't come.
Looking at the weather, the sky was slightly cloudy but it didn't look like it would be raining, which was great. I wondered if I should go to the martial center and check if they hadn't forgotten about our deal already.
I decided to wait until half past 8. My patience was rewarded when I saw the two of them coming my way, both holding a bag in hand.
"Master, Selva, good morning. You're late."
"Master wouldn't wake up. She's terrible in the morning."
"Kahahah, sorry, sorry. We're here now, that's the most important."
She didn't look sorry in the least, flying around lightly next to her disciple. Now that she wasn't on top of my head, I got a better view of her. One interesting thing is that bird subspecies looked different from animal birds, just like it was the case for many other species. They had legs and arms made of flesh, with some feathers on them, plus some wings on top of that, contrary to animal birds that only had legs and wings.
Instead of toenails, she possessed claws, forcing her to wear sandals. Her arms had hands and fingers that looked similar to human ones. The width of her wings was quite large, but probably still not enough to support her weight if she were a rank 0 without any sel. She also didn't have a beak but a human-like mouth. Her tail had long white feathers, the same color as the ones on her head.
As I finished my inspection, she flew toward me, threw her bag into the carriage, and put herself on my shoulders, just like the previous day. Selva hopped on the carriage next to me and Wico pointed forward.
"Let's go! Time to adventure!"
Read 30 more chapters here: https://subscribestar.adult/dictatelion or here: https://www.patreon.com/Dictatelion