Chapter 29
The walk to my brother’s, or I should say Kate’s, house took no longer than two minutes. The place looked like a small shop with a living floor built on top.
“Here we are, home” Tom said as he opened the door.
“We have to organize our supplies. They will have been delivered by the time we get there” Alana said.
“Yeah we’ll meet you here tonight” Judy followed as the two headed off.
“This is a pretty big place. You’ve got more room here than we do at the house in the village” I commented.
“Well the ground floor is for Kate’s healing business, she makes quite a bit on the side now that has has levelled up a bit and has some extra mana, it’s how we could afford this place” he followed me in.
“We are closed right now” I heard Kate as she was coming down the stairs. “Oh, Tom, who were you talking to?”
She entered the room as she finished speaking and looked at me surprised. “Ajax!”
“Yeah , he came with Judy and Alana on their trip to the city and I said he can stay with us in the spare room”
“Might as well, we’re not using it for anything yet” she grinned back at him.
“I have to go wash a bit from training then I have to go on patrol, you mind helping Ajax settle in?” He quickly got out while making for the stairs. “Oh, and Judy and Alana are coming over for dinner to catch us up on what’s happening in the village.”
“Yeah that will be no problem, come upstairs Ajax” she smiled at me “Boy, have you grown since I last saw you” UppTodated from nô/v/e/lb(i)n.c(o)/m
That was quite something seeing how I was now taller than my brother by two inches, as I followed Kate up the stairs. Their guest room was plain, having nothing more than a bed and and a small cupboard where I could put my clothes and weapons, not that I needed much else since I only brought my plants and those were with my sister’s merchandise as she offered to have them appraised along with everything else she planned to sell.
“Feel free to make yourself at home, I have a few supplies I need to make sure are stocked” Kate said after I got into the room and then left me to it.
“Nope, since I have my shifts in such a way that I have three days in a row free I always finish on a day like today when I just recuperate my mana.”
With my curiosity satisfied I went and crashed for the rest of the time until dinner, the last two weeks of sleeping in a cart having caught up with me so I took a nap until dinner. Sleeping in a real bed felt a lot better than I remembered and I was out like a light.
“So, what is it that you all coming here this time?” my brother asked as the five of us sat down to eat.
“I’m sure you noticed the four platoons that left the city today” My sisters got out through bites of food. “They are all heading towards the village, apparently a group of kobolds have exited the mountain caves so mom and dad thought it best to not risk Ajax going hunting in the woods with them there before he got his stats unlocked”
“Kobolds near the village?” A bit of panic seeped into my brother's voice.
“They are a few months away from actually making it to the village, they move slowly outside their tunnels apparently, so the soldiers will reach the village and clear them out long before anything can happen.”
This seemed to relax my brother, so he turned to me “Well that’s ok then. I have tomorrow off, so while I suspect you and Alana will be in meetings, as you usually are the first day after you get here, is there anything you want to do Ajax?” My sister and Alana nodded at his statement.
“I’d like to try and go hunting here near the city, to see what that is like, I remember you saying guards sometimes went with a hunting party. Any chance you can show me where?” excitement filled my voice at the prospect of seeing a different hunting ground.
“I did get a letter saying that you actually managed to find something you were good at, so hunting, yeah I think I can manage that but aren’t you getting your stats in two days? Are you sure you don’t want to wait until my next day off in 6 days and go then?.” His question was quite an obvious one so I debated it a bit.
“I haven’t hunted here before so I want to have a go once before my stats change so drastically I can compare the difference, after all I’ll be here for a month at least, until the soldiers return.” I made my case while hoping I wasn’t a bother to my brother. “Especially after that run in with the bandits”
“What bandits?” Kate asked, Tom frowning at the first remark he heard all day about said bandits.
“Half an hour out from the city we had a run in with a group of bandits but they all got picked up by a regiment of guards before anything came of it” Judy waved off the questioning stares.
That rest of dinner was quiet, as we all finished our food and before Judy and Alana headed back to their accommodations. I went to bed so tired that I skipped out on my usual mana exercises before sleep.