A Welcome Feast

"67 giant rat carcasses… " Jon picked up the last giant rat himself, and started walking to the exit, staying aware of his back. He was a little surprised at how many he had killed. He hadn't been able to go more than 5 steps into the first room, and he had killed this many. How was he going to use all of this meat before it went bad?

He left the storage tent and other supplies at the entrance to the dungeon. He doubted anyone would steal it, and if they did, it wouldn't be a great loss. By the time Jon and his crew had returned to Four-Leaf village for the last time, the sun was just beginning to set.

Jon went to the butcher's shop first, hearing swears and surly grumblings upon entering. He laughed inside, and went to the back where the butcher was. The man had been working for sometime, and had more blood on him than Jon did.

"Hey, Pat right? Outside is the last cartful of rats. Thanks for your help." Jon greeted cordially.

"Get your damn meat out of here! There's already too much out back. There's no space for another cartful!" Retorted a stressed Pat. Jon had to hand it to him. People skills aside, he and his assistant worked pretty efficiently. In the back was a mountain of meat on a treated skin, and barrels of buckets with rats blood in it. On some hooks were more rat corpses, with slits in their throat to drain away the blood still in their bodies.

"All of you. Take this much meat, and bring it to Sarabella. Tell her to organize a feast for the town. I'll be here helping out Pat." Jon said to his runners. It was about 2/3rds of the meat already in the pile, but there were still plenty of carcasses from their last trip that hadn't even been started on. Pat would be here till morning at this rate.

It was a good thing Jon knew a few things about how to dress various dungeon animals from his years of dungeoneering, and he could see from Pat's work what was usable and what was not.

Pat was surprised, but didn't say anything as he saw Jon get to work. A giant rat was skinned and ready to be cut up on the work table before Pat could find something to complain about. Somehow, they fell into a smooth pattern, as the tasks had naturally divided themselves up between each other.

Questions swirled through the butcher's mind as he considered the boy beside him. Before, Pat had been able to focus wholly on the work. But now, he was acutely aware of this stranger in his shop.

After seeing the mountain of giant rats, he had no doubt about the stories he had been hearing today about how Reek's gang had been exterminated. It had been a wild, unbelievable tale in the beginning, but too many villagers had repeated the same story. Even if none of them were sensible, there had to be some truth to it. And now this happened; corpse after corpse was brought to his business.

A seed of fear grew in Pat's heart. He had killed animals aplenty, but a man was an entirely different thing. And everyone kept saying he was going to be king. Pat's experience with nobility had driven him out of the Tulin Empire to this town. He knew just how little regard they had for the lives of commoners…

This was all getting too complicated for Pat, and he just put his head down and focused on the work.

"Hey Pat." Jon said, while hanging up a rat and slitting its throat. "I realize we haven't discussed your compensation yet."

A shiver of fear went up Pat's spine. "Oh… uhh… You can give me whatever you think is good."

Jon paused to look at him. The change in attitude was pretty obvious. He had preferred the butcher's ornery nature, but it was going to be inevitable people would treat him differently. He had experienced this a lifetime ago, so he was no stranger to it.

"I appreciate your cooperation. I can tell you have a good work ethic, and you've dealt with me fairly. How about you take 6 carcasses? It's about as much as you can keep for yourself before it goes bad."

"Oh… that's a very generous offer." Pat replied with surprise in his voice. His normal cut would have been a twentieth of whatever he worked with.

"It's not. We still need to dry or smoke the excess meat, and I'll be needing you to take on some more apprentices, I think. This village is going to get real busy, real soon."

With that, Jon went back to work. Pat was left feeling unsure about Jon. He just wasn't like anyone he had ever met or could imagine.

----

"Your Majesty, King Horus! It is so good to see you!"

"Mercer Gerald Crimson, a pleasure to see you as well."

King Horus met with an influential merchant of the Crimson House. He came from a rather successful trade company, that spanned multiple countries. Though King Horus was still in a position of power in this relationship, the Crimson House was an entity that he couldn't ignore.

"I've come to pay my condolences. It is truly a dark mark on Ryka's glorious history." Gerald said. He didn't truly care, but niceties must be observed for the sake of business. "I've come to inquire if you'll be needing anything that we can provide. I'm sure that you're itching to right the injustices of the world…"

King Horus knew that the Crimson House were ironmongers, among many things. They'd be happy to deal in weapons to any party, and pick up a tidy profit from it. This trade company was so successful… Horus suspected there might be an Immortalis family behind it. Who knew if they had a secret dungeon somewhere, supplying their necessary ritual fodder?

"Indeed, I would greatly like to smite those Yari bastards to dust. Too long has our war been going on. However, a wise man acts on reason and not emotion. It would not be prudent to begin a new offensive against the Yari without an advantage, so I must respectfully decline."

"Truly! You are a king of great patience! I admire your restraint, surely I would not be capable of it myself. The people must be glad for a monarch that remembers their welfare as well." Gerald gave more useless lip service, tiring the both of them out at the useless theatrics.

"Your Majesty, there is another thing I've been tasked to inquire about. As you know, our House Head has a particular fondness for the Mithril Knight. It is one of his favorite stories to tell about how the Mithril Knight charged in and saved his caravan many years ago from a frightful monster horde. We've heard that he hasn't left the city yet, and would like to ask about his well-being." Gerald looked at the king slyly. Gerald was no naive pup, and he would never discount the evil in the heart of men. What reasons the king might have, Gerald wouldn't know, but it was definitely strange that Jon Everheart, the famous recluse, would stay in the royal circles for longer than necessary.

King Horus grit his teeth. Damn dogs, sniffing around his house! Internally, he resolved to task his Unseen to look more into the Crimson House. However, he showed no concern or surprise at the question, having expected it to come from somewhere. The Mithril Knight was just far too famous, beyond what the Ryka Kingdom could contain.

"Well, as you know, Prince Caiphus was meant to be the Mithril Knight's successor. Though we are still mourning his loss, the matter of Ser Everheart's legacy had to be handled. So currently, Jon has entered the Royal Sanctum, in order to train a new successor from among the young princes."

"The Royal Sanctum? Does that mean that the Mithril Knight will not leave?" Gerald asked with concern.

"Ser Everheart is old now. For his kingdom he has decided to spend his remaining years doing what service he can for the people." King Horus said, in a tone that brooked no more discussion.

"Thank you for your indulgence, your Majesty. I will remember your kindness." Gerald thought that what the King had said was reasonable and sensible. But something in his gut said something wasn't right. He would report the situation in full to the Crimson House Head, and hopefully his informants would be able to dig out a little more.

----

By the time Jon and Pat had finished the immediate work, the feast was fully underway. Everyone had brought out their own pots and whatever firewood they had, and a bunch of cooking fires had been started in the village centre. Most had opted to barbecue the rat meat, with fats and oils dripping and sizzling in the cooking fires below. Some had started up a stew, adding their own vegetables and seasonings. Good smells filled the air, along with laughter and a few raudy tavern songs.

For a poor village like this, just having an abundance of food was plenty enough to create a festive mood. But Davius had opened up some of his wine barrels, and the villages were really going at it. It was generous of Davius, but he had also needed to make some space in his storage cellar for all the extra meat.

In total, they had probably gotten a little over 2 tonnes of usable meat from today's haul. It was a ludicrous amount, and barely a fifth of it was put toward today's feast. Everyone was going to be able to take extra meat home as well, though it would still need to be smoked and dried. As Jon entered the village centre, everyone started cheering.

"King! King! King! King!"

After waving at the crowd to settle them down, he began to mingle amongst the village folk. Mostly, Jon had to figure out what he was working with, and what he would need.

He met a few hunters that he took note of. He would need them later to train some soldiers, so the soldiers would have some active task in the surrounding area. This would keep them familiar with the land, and hopefully help clear more land to make it safer to do more agriculture. This would be hard though. Apparently, there were Chamelossus, fierce giant lizards in the deep part of the forests that had prevented people from clearing out more land in previous years. The biggest problem was that their skin would change colour, to help them blend in, make them hard to find and hard to kill. If Jon could find a way to hunt them though, their hide would be worth quite a bit.

He met a woodcutter, who normally sold wood to the villagers in town. Jon needed a lot of wood, and he made a quick deal since he had more meat than he knew what to do with. He needed a lot of everything, actually, but this was a start. The woodcutter knew where to get the specific kinds of hardwood that Jon wanted too. The problem was that he wouldn't be able to process them in this town, and would need to go to the lumber mill in Goodwood village.

Some of the villagers were enthusiastic to hear about the repairs to the village wall. Normally, every winter the forest beasts and monsters would go berserk and rush out of the forests. So everyone would stay within the village walls at that time. The whole place would be crowded with, but still the forest beasts would attack without fear.

Jon worried more about monster hordes coming through here, with these settlements being so near the unexplored wild frontier. Right now, the populace was too small to be noticed by monster lords, but as it grew it would become a regular headache. Then again, victory in those situations had always brought Jon some sort of boon in the past.

He began to realize these villages near the Searing Mountains presented a lot of unique challenges, but they also had some unique opportunities…

As the night wore on, Jon talked with more and more people. He put on a friendly face, showing a down-to-earth attitude that put a lot of people at ease. Some of the villagers had been wondering what kind of changes would be happening, but Jon downplayed the prophecies and showed he wasn't the type to put on airs. Through these conversations, Jon was able to convey how much was still undecided, and that things were going to stay as normal until he learned more about how to change things in a natural way.

He also found some willing housewives who would help Jon process the rat pelts into leather and assist Pat with smoking the excess meat. After all the business was done, he started to get real chummy with some of the drunken folk and hearing stories about the region. People began to share legends around the cooking fires after they were all cheerful from a full stomach and deep into their cups.

"To the east of here, if you climb the Crackling Peak, they say there's a great burning tree on the horizon! It's called the Blazing Oak, though it's bigger and more magical than any oak tree out there! Deep in the Searing Mountains, the fires burn all day and all night, never ending! Some men find the sight so entrancing, they go mad and travel deeper into the mountains. None ever return. If they weren't eaten by the monsters of the Searing Mountains, then they were surely destroyed by the Phoenix! A massive bird of fire that lives in the Blazing Oak, regal and dignified, looking down on all creation!

Sometimes, if something is happening in the forest, the Phoenix will fly out and spit fire all over! Burning large parts of the Smoldering Forest to ash!" An enthusiastic young man narrated.

"It's true. It's happened twice in my life. Once when you were all wee little lads and lasses. Just a big ball of fire flying in the distance, burning everything. Thank the gods it's never come close to our little village though." An old lady chimed in. Her eyes glazed over a bit as she recalled the magnificent sight.

"My mom told me it's a nice bird! It protects us and makes sure nothing bad from the forest comes out!" A little girl, who was hiding behind her dad, couldn't help but speak up. Her dad quickly shooed her off, as it was way past her bedtime.

"Well, I'm not sure about that. There were some strange noises coming from the forest last time we saw it though. Who knows, maybe it is." The old lady speculated.

A friendly monster? Jon had never come upon one. At most, there were some monsters that ignored humans, but he had never seen one protect them. At this moment, he felt that driving curiosity flare up in his mind, just like they had in his youth. He was beginning to feel like the Jon Everheart that had created legends.