183 Charliye's Past

"So Master Andire, how long do you estimate it will take you to repair the buildings needed and get those walls up?" Jayde asked.

"Well, it depends. Do you want to use enhanced mortarium?"

"Naturally," Jayde answered.

"Then that is going to delay things," Charliye said. "While enhanced mortarium isn't that difficult to make, the problem lies with how quickly our magic is drained."

"Hmm," Jayde said, rubbing her chin. "So if you had Qi replenishing potions, would this speed up the process?"

Charliye snorted. "Of course, but no sane mage would waste Qi replenishing potions on something like this."

"Here these should be enough to last you a few weeks," Jayde said, retrieving ten bottles of basic Qi replenishing potions from her spatial ring. Jayde had no qualms about revealing that she had a spatial ring in front of Elder Terrakeep and Charliye—not with them having blood sworn themselves to her.

"I will bring more next time I visit," Jayde said as she placed the ten bottles on the desk.

Charliye and Elder Terrakeep eyes bulged as Jayde placed the ten porcelain bottles on the desk. They quickly realized that Jayde must have a spatial ring as they hadn't seen her reach into her satchel to retrieve the bottles. The fact that Jayde had such an incredible treasure on her emphasized the fact that the Centauri clan had to be extremely powerful to afford something so precious.

Charliye reached over and picked up one of the porcelain bottles. Removing the small cork, he took a slight sniff. "Th..th-se are Qi replenishing potions," he stammered.

Jayde nodded, while Elder Terrakeep head span around to stare at the young woman.

"By the gods," Charliye whispered, his hands started to tremble as he gingerly picked up the small cork. Placing the cork back into the opening of the porcelain bottle he then gently put the bottle back down of his desk, his eyes dazed as he tried to process that there were ten bottles of Qi replenishing potions sitting in front of him.

Most common citizens in the Lower Realm went their whole lives without ever seeing even one bottle of Qi replenishing potions, never mind ten. Even Elder Terrakeep, who had grown up in a noble family, was struck dumb. While Qi replenishing potions were commonplace in a noble family, he had never seen anyone pull out ten bottles in one go so nonchalantly. Even his grandfather had treated these potions with respect.

"Clan Leader, are you sure it's alright for my sons and me to use all these potions?" Charliye asked his voice trembling.

"Hmm, I can always make more."

"What? You an alchemist!" Elder Terrakeep exclaimed.

Jayde nodded her head.

Gods! Elder Terrakeep yelled in his heart. His clan leader was an alchemist, how utterly unbelievable. Only the royal houses had their own alchemists. Even if a member of one of the noble clans was an alchemist, those members were quickly snapped up by the Alchemist Guild, Royal houses or one of the powerful sects. While most noble families would love nothing better than to keep their own alchemists to themselves, they had no choice but to free these members from their clans so that they could form powerful alliances.

While Charliye's final reluctance about having his family join the Centauri clan died, Elder Terrakeep couldn't help the hope that bloomed in his heart at Jayde's confirmation. With their own alchemists brewing potions and refining pills for the members of the Centauri clan—it wouldn't take long before they would be a power to be reckoned with in the Lower Realm.

By the gods, this girl could do it, Elder Terrakeep thought. She could really free the slaves in the Lower Realm and change their lives.

"Erm, Clan Leader, will you be supplying members of the clan with cultivation resources?" Elder Terrakeep asked hesitantly.

"Of course. All clan members, no matter their class or rank, will be allocated pills and potions to aid their cultivation, as well as have access to healing potions."

Elder Terrakeep's face lit up as a huge smile bloomed on his face. Charliye just gaped at Jayde, his throat and eyes burning. Finally, his sons would have the opportunity to reach their full potential. Charliye and his wife had been blessed with three bronze rank sons. Unfortunately, neither of his sons had been accepted into any of the magic schools; this was mainly due to them growing up without any cultivation resources.

While all three of his sons were bronze ranks, none of them had managed to break through to Knight class yet, and it was primarily due to this that they had been too weak to pass the entry assessments at the magic schools.

Charliye had been resigned to the fact that just like him, his sons would spend their whole lives in mediocrity, never achieving recognition as a mage, never breaking through to becoming a knight. Gods, Charliye thought, just maybe he and the missus can finally breakthrough as well. Pure undulated excitement filled Charliye at that thought.

While Jayde and Elder Terrakeep discussed the cultivation resources that would be allocated to each member of the Centauri clan, Charliye couldn't help thinking about the hard road that had led him to sit here in front of Jayde.

Both Charliye and his wife Doren had been born as bronze ranked mages, but they had, unfortunately, both been born to poor families. But fate had been kind to both of them, and they had been blessed with loving families. Most families would have sold off their bronze ranked children to one of the noble families. If this had happened, and if Charliye had been fortunate, he would have ended up as a guard, but in all likelihood like Doren, he would have been used as a breeder.

Since both families had refused to allow their children to lead such miserable lives, they had hidden their ranks. Since Charliye and Doren had grown up in the same village, and both had shared the burden of protecting such a dangerous secret, they had grown close together and before long had fallen deeply in love with each other.

Both families had blessed their union, and once Doren was old enough, the two had wed, much to the joy of both families. The elders of both families knew that the children born to the two would be bronze rank mages, and worried about their grandchildren being discovered; they had advised the newlywed couple to leave their small village and find a secluded place to live.

For years Doren and Charliye had moved around the Lower Realm, finding work where they could. They finally settled in Windermere a large city in the Kiton Kingdom. The Kiton Kingdom was west of the Ayon Kingdom. Windermere was located a few hours away from the capital city Ilragorn and as Windermere was the main stop on the way to the trading city of Tuenport it was the second largest city in the Kiton Kingdom.

Doren and Charliye had settled down quietly in Windermere, as the city was expanding quickly due to the increase in trade in Tuenport, Charliye's small stonemasonry business grew quite rapidly. While the young couple wasn't wealthy, they were able to live a comfortable life—that was until the young Lord Pemont contracted Charliye to build him a mansion in Windermere.

The Pemont's were a large noble family in Ilragorn. Besides being a large aristocratic family, the Pemont's were also one of the most powerful families in the Kiton Kingdom, and Charliye had been excited when he had been contracted to build the young heir's new mansion in Windermere. Charliye had been sure that once he had finished the opulent palace, his small business would boom and with him having been awarded a contract from such a high ranked noble family many of the lesser noble families would be knocking on his door to have him build their own houses.

Charliye and his small team had worked every day, starting before the sun rose and leaving long after the sunset, trying to finish the mansion as soon as possible. Doren had worked just as hard as her husband. Since Doren was a talented artist, she had spent weeks engraving delicate motifs into the plaster cornices. Four months later, the small team had finished the mansion; it was indeed a work of art.

The young Lord Pemont had been quite complimentary about Charliye's work. Charliye could still remember how proud he had felt as he stood there in front of Lord Pemont, listening to the arrogant young man complimenting him, but how quickly the man's attitude had changed when Charliye had handed over his bill.

Lord Pemont had looked at the bill and snorted before tearing it up. He had informed Charliye that Charliye should have been grateful that he had allowed such an unknown stonemason to work for him. Lord Pemont had then gone on to berate Charliye saying how dare Charliye seek to bill him for the work.

Charliye could still remember how the young Lord Pemont had sneered that Charliye should have been honored for being chosen, if anything as far as Lord Pemont was concerned, he had already done Charliye a huge favor by not charging Charliye for the privilege of building his new home.

The condescending man had then stated that he was changing his mind about not charging Charliye, and demanded that Charliye pay him a thousand gold pieces. Charliye recalled how he had burst out laughing at the young man, thinking the young lord was joking. The naive Charliye had believed that the law would be on his side. He had threatened to sue Lord Pemont.

Lord Pemont had lost his temper then and had informed Charliye who would the law believe—some insignificant ant like Charliye or himself. That was when Lord Pemont had made a fatal error. He had demanded that either Charliye hand over the thousand gold pieces or Doren. It wasn't that Lord Pemont was interested in the pretty Doren, but he had wanted to humiliate Charliye, by having him watch him take his wife in front of him.

While Lord Pemont had smiled condescendingly at Charliye, Charliye had just stood there, staring at the arrogant young man blankly. Charliye had bankrupted himself raising funds to build this house. For months he and Doren had been surviving on thin gruel. Already Doren was sick at home in bed as her health had taken a knock from having too little to eat and working long hours.

Charliye doesn't remember what happened next, all he remembers is the proud young man laughing at him, and the next thing he was being hauled off the man. The haughty lord was lying on ground unconscious—his face bloody. Charliye had fought off the steward of Lord Pemont. Looking down at the two unconscious men lying at his feet, Charliye had realized his life was over.

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📌 Quote of the day

"What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?"-- Vincent Van Gogh

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