Chapter 86 - You've Been There This Entire Time?

Gren was part of the first watch. He and one other mercenary were in the watch tower. It was a man named Tokala, the one person that didn't accept any equipment from the guild. Tokala was a large fox beastman with black tattoos on his face that made him look intimidating. He wore thick leather and fur clothing while holding on to a long spear with an odd shape and a round wooden shield that had seen some action.

"That's an interesting spear. Can I see it?" Gren was wondering if the string on the spear could be pulled back like a bowstring.

"No. Not spear. Bow lance. Life of tribe." Gren realized quickly that he wouldn't be able to talk with Tokala. He spoke like Ahk but slower. "Quiet. Listen."

Gren waited for a while to listen for any noises. "I don't hear anything."

"Quiet good. Stay quiet. Listen." Gren finally figured out that Tokala just wanted him to be quiet. Staying quiet was boring but they were on watch right now. It was their responsibility to protect this side of the camp. They would need to wait for four hours so Gren decided to practice his magic control in the meantime.

Gren still had that magic puzzle box that Georgia found in Susan's tent. If he could open it up then he should be skilled enough to start using more second tier spells. He could use the area of effect attack spells like the flame explosion and the icicle storm but anything that required precision was out of the question.

No matter how much Gren tried to guide his magic energy through the path of the puzzle box's lock, he kept tripping the false gates which activated a small device that disrupted his magic. He knew the path towards the first gate because it was shown through the pattern on the side of the box itself but his magic energy didn't follow the path that he wanted it to.

Gren lost track of how long he had been trying to solve the box but, when he got up, he realized that Tokala was no longer there. Instead, Dill was sitting in the watch tower next to him. "What are you doing here? Aren't you on the second watch?"

"Yeah, it's the second watch already. If you're going to sleep then tell Cammie to come up here. I'd rather spend time with a woman than an old man like Zell." Why did he seem a bit weird? Ah, there was a bottle of alcohol sitting next to him. "She's not beautiful but there's something great about a woman that can split a man's head with an axe from fifteen feet away." Gren would need to make sure that he was on Cammie's good side. He preferred that his head stayed in one piece.

Gren only realized that he was tired when he got up from his seat. Getting down the short ladder took longer than it should have but he managed to make it in one piece. He just wanted to get some sleep but Letta and Annie were on the third watch so he didn't want to bother them. There was a storage area on the back of the metal wagon that was meant for luggage but Gren didn't store anything inside of it. The storage area was the perfect size for someone to lay down in so Gren decided to just toss some blankets inside and sleep in it. With the weather being clear, there were no problems with sleeping without a roof above his head. Someone must have put something in it already because it was a bit lumpy but Gren didn't feel like getting up to move it.

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"There you are." Annie's voice woke him up from his sleep. "We're all ready to go but you need to move your little barrier."

"It's morning already?" Gren sat up and saw the sun overhead behind some clouds. The blankets would need to be stored inside since it might rain later. Picking up the blankets, Gren saw what was underneath him. "Hello?" It was a bit awkward; Gren didn't know what to say to Livi since he just spent the night on top of her.

Livi waved as Gren got off of her and climbed off the wagon. She didn't seem bothered by him sleeping on her at all. "Was she in there this entire time? Nobody told me that she was coming with us."

"That's because she didn't need any armor or weapons. You weren't told that Ahk was coming either." Gren didn't think about it that way.

"Was there anybody else that I wasn't told about? Besides the active guild members, anyways." Gren didn't want any other surprises.

"Do you know about the vampire?" Gren nodded, it was his duty to make sure that she was fed every day for the duration of the request. "Then I don't think there's anybody else that you didn't know came along."

Gren stored the camp barrier away and gave the vampire some blood from his pocket dimension before climbing back onto the metal wagon. They would be passing through the village between Adierton and Fort Togo today and by tomorrow night they'd arrive. They would need to walk after Fort Togo but, according to Annie, the temperature in that forest is warm even in the winter and Jasmine should be able to move around without any problems.

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The only incident on the way to the village was Dill trying to flirt with Ahk before he got thrown into the forest. Gren healed him up and changed the wagon's seating. Now most of the men were on one wagon with the exception of the three men accompanying women--Kreiger, Rory, and Gren--and the centaur, Troels. Since Osmond was no longer controlling the metal wagon, Annie had to control it in his stead.

When the villagers saw their caravan, they hid indoors. An armored group like theirs that wasn't flying the Duchy's colors would be viewed as a threat. In order to make sure that the people knew that they were peaceful so that the village didn't report them to the army, Annie sent Gren in to inform the village leader what their goal was. Gren was young enough to not seem like a threat and he had a silly personality that would prevent people from thinking that he was scary, even with his armor on.

{Which building is the leader's building though? It's supposed to be the largest one, right?}

There were two buildings that had multiple floors to them. The larger of the two was fenced off and the gate was locked; Gren tried to push and pull it but it didn't budge at all. That was probably the place he had to visit but he wanted to make sure that he wasn't mistaken. After getting a good view of the front of the other large building, Gren noticed that it was a general store. They looked open and they should know where he should go, right?

There was nobody in the shop so he decided to look around to see what they were selling. They had a section just for pickled vegetables and fruit jams but there were no fresh produce. "Pickled cucumbers? Aren't all pickles cucumbers?"

"Who told you that load of hogwash?" Gren was startled at the sudden voice and dropped the jar, only catching it when it was close to the ground.

Gren gave a sigh of relief and put the jar back on the shelf. "You scared me."

"So, who told you that all pickles were cucumber pickles?" This young woman seemed a bit angry at Gren's comment. They were just pickles.

"It's just that every time I see pickles it's always cucumbers. I've never seen any of the others in a store." He hadn't seen pickled cucumbers at all in this world until now but he wasn't lying.

"Hmph! Just because you haven't seen it doesn't mean that you're right. You're looking at other pickles, aren't you?" Seriously, they were just pickles. Why was she so angry about it? "You've got the cauliflower, radishes, carrots, them spicy peppers, lemon slices pickled in honey--a bit expensive but worth it--and I don't have them on display but there are pickled eggs in the back. If you've only had pickled cucumbers then you're missing out."

"I guess I'll have to try some of the others some time." Gren was left wondering how he got into this conversation.

"Why wait? You're on a journey, aren't you? All pickled foods are great when you're on the road." She was really trying to sell those pickles.

"Fine, I'll take one jar of each." The woman was happy to hear it and ran off to get some jars from the back. That was a lot of jars. Just how many trips did she need to bring out? "Why so many jars?"

"Just because you've got the same type of vegetable being pickled, it doesn't mean that it'll taste the same. There are sweeter pickles, salty pickles, and spicy pickles. I got one of each type I had back there for you." Why did this become more complicated?

Gren noticed three jars of pickled carrots that looked the same; even the label was the same. "What's the difference between these?"

"Ummm, there is none? Those ones are all the same type but the people around here won't buy them and it's hard to sell pickled carrots to travelers. I personally think they're great but my dad won't stock any more of them unless I sell those three jars." What happened to only one jar each?

"What's wrong with them if nobody's buying them?" They didn't cause weird side effects, did they?

"There's nothing wrong with them. It's the person that makes them that people have a problem with." It seemed like a rough story since she was sighing. "It used to be that people would buy the carrots from her farm every now and then but then a few months ago some of the village boys went missing. It wasn't even her doing but the other villagers think that it involved the beastman kids that she helped shortly before the boys disappeared."

"If it wasn't her fault then why punish her for it?" There were unreasonable people everywhere but a whole village being unreasonable was strange.

"She's a beastman herself. Has nice floppy ears, too. The older generation still doesn't like demihumans even though the wars were before their time." It was ridiculous. The people in the villages were mostly poor so why care what species someone was?

Gren was thinking about checking out the beastman woman's farm but he currently had more important business to tend to. "Can you tell me where the village leader is and how I can talk to them?" The woman was calculating his total on a white stone slab with a piece of charcoal.

"That'll be twelve silvers and five coppers. If you want the other two jars of pickled carrots, they're three coppers each." That wasn't much at all for the amount of food that he bought.

Gren gave her thirteen silvers. "I'll take the extra jars. Keep the change. So, can you tell me about how to contact the village leader now?"

"The front gate to his house up on that hill is stuck shut. You've got to go around the side where the fence is broken; it's on the right when you're looking at the gate. As long as you follow the inside of the fence up to the gate and walk up to his house then he won't treat you like an intruder." That was pretty useful information but that just made him wonder why they didn't just fix the gate. "You bought quite a bit, do you need me to get a few crates from the back?"

"No, that's okay. I've got it." Gren stored away the jars and waved goodbye before heading over to the spot that the clerk was talking about.

"Ehhhhh!?" A loud voice could be heard from the general store when Gren was just going through the hole in the fence. He had basically given up on hiding that ability. The mercenaries had already seen it along with the merchant and their family. It's not like he'll be able to keep it a secret for long.

The house was around the same size as Jessica's store if you took away the underground area. The second floor was only two thirds the size of the first floor. There were large double doors in the front so Gren walked up and knocked on them.

It took a while but a man opened the door and walked back inside. He was a complete mess; his hair and beard were unkempt, his pajamas were stained, and he smelled like he didn't take a bath in weeks unless it was filled with alcohol. "Whadaya want." Definitely drunk still, he couldn't speak properly.

It didn't seem like this man was coherent enough to speak with but Gren had a job to do. "My caravan is heading through your village so I was sent to inform you that we're on our way to fulfill a request. We have the signed document from the officials in Adierton, if you need to see it."

"What are you telling me that for? Just go through." Why were drunk people so difficult to work with? "Nobody cares about what happens around here."

The guy seemed to have his share of problems. Gren was going to regret asking about this... "What do you mean 'nobody cares'? Did something happen?"

"What doesn't happen around here? Our crops get stolen, our livestock were all killed or stolen, and my own son went missing. He's dead, I just know it. It's all because of that damn beastman but I can't even do anything about it." Yup, Gren was already regretting it. "You're a mercenary or something, right? Do you think you could take care of the beastman for me?"

"I'm not an assassin. I don't kill innocent people. If you can't convince the guards that it's the beastman woman then you clearly don't have enough evidence." Gren was tempted to dump water on his head to help sober him up.

"Bah! Evidence! Whatever happened to following your gut? Everybody in the village knows that they're responsible!" Okay, this guy was too far out of his mind.

Gren raised his hand and formed a ball of water over the guy's head. "Cool your head." After dropping the water on him, Gren tossed a bar of soap next to him. "Sober up and take a bath. Maybe then you'll be able to think straight." The guy didn't know what happened while Gren walked away. Gren didn't feel like going through the side of the fence again so he removed the gate from the fence and released it on the guy's lawn. "And fix your fence!"

He knew that the guy was going through a tough time with his lost son but doing nothing except getting drunk and blaming others wasn't healthy. Of course nobody is going to help if you've given up on yourself. "Wait!" Oh, great, the drunkard got himself a dagger. "What right do you have to come in my house and tell me what to do?"

"You've got people relying on you and you're busy getting drunk. What are you doing to fix your problems right now?" Gren didn't expect any decent answer. "Have you even bothered to look into the problems before you blamed it on somebody?"

"I've tried! Nothing works. The fences just get destroyed. The barriers don't work." Barriers, huh?

"What are you willing to give up for a proper barrier?" If the man gave him a good offer then he could always do something to help.

"It doesn't matter. That's not possible." It didn't look like he'd be taking the deal.

"If you change your mind I'll be back this way in the next few weeks. Try to think of something I'd be interested in during that time." Now to go check out the carrot farm.

"Wait!" Not this again. "Can you really make a barrier to protect the village?"

"Oh ye of little faith." Gren wanted to try saying that at least once. "Does this look strong enough?" He released the metal barrier from earlier. "I can give you a wooden wall around the village with metal panels like this. You just need to give me the right price."