Chapter 7 : Vonnear Village (2)

"Dad, what class is Mr. Coachman?" Raymond asked as they went back inside the chief's hall.

Glidal pondered. "I don't know." He shook his head sadly.

"An assassin or thief maybe? I saw them at the Biglodge tavern when they were demonstrating their speed to Maple before, but nowhere near Mr. Coachman." Raymond said while trying to think deeply.

"Probably along those lines. Go upstairs and help care for the boy, while we adults have a talk." He requested to his son to avoid the question.

"Ok!" Raymond beamed a smile as he run upstairs.

"Then please." Elias indicated Glidal towards the main seat. He saw Glidal's hesitation and continued. "You are at a higher rank now, at least act like one."

"Ok." Glidal straightened his back as he walked towards the chair and took a seat. The rest followed after him.

"Drop the honorifics when nobody we know is here. It's suffocating." Glidal complained as he started to loosen his girdle and frilly tie.

Carlin chuckled and said. "Sure Glid. It's been over 10 years, how are you?"

*ahem* "Talk about the situation first. Let's catch up later." Elias cleared his throat as he interjected.

"So, Glidal, what are your plans for this village?" The old chief continued.

Glidal sat straight and expressed his plan.

"I originally just wanted to retire here but is suddenly became a baron, so things have changed. I've consulted Lexia on the way here and we have come up with three initial points." He said while lifting his fingers.

"First, our residence. We don't want to kick you out here so we plan on building our own manor. But until the manor is built, we will impose on you. We will employ the villagers and pay them with proper wages. As for the blueprint, we have one.

Second, you will still be the chief. You will still manage the village like you used to. I will only get involved when I obtain substantial knowledge in territory management.

And lastly, please help me in building this village to an even better place." Glidal seriously emphasized.

At the end of his speech, Lexia, Carlin, and Elias were grinning from ear to ear from what they have heard.

"Simple, and that is more than what we can ask" Elias said.

"That was a short one. So, tell us what happened." Carlin smiled as he leaned forward wanting to satisfy his curiosity.

"Well…" Glidal shared the story on how he became a baron.

These people met each other 12 years ago. In the quaint village of Vonnear, a sudden disaster occurred when an earth dragon descended from the Hayan ranges. The beast wreaked havoc in the deeper parts of the Vonnear forest. This in turn created a beast tide that ran amok towards the village. The village was not ready for this and had terrible casualties.

Carlin, who was 20 at the time was in the front lines with his bow barraging enemies endlessly without sleep for weeks. He fought as much as he until his arms dropped out of fatigue. It was his lucky moment at this time that the emergency dispatch from the Loutherid kingdom came to aid the village.

The beast tide was quelled, however the biggest problem still remained – the earth dragon. The Kingdom's troops led by the first and second prince, the Adventurer's Guild led by the Dawnsteel party, and the villager volunteers that was led by Carlin altogether engaged the earth dragon in battle. It was a grueling war of attrition as the earth dragon fought valiantly and smartly retreated when cornered.

The battle lasted for a month until eventually Glidal pierced a hole on the earth dragon's stomach with his lance. All the participants roared in relief as this happened, since they were tirelessly fighting for weeks. There was a celebration held that night and all contributors partied hard as they wanted to release their exhaustion. The next day was a sight, almost 300 worn-out bodies were laying on the ground sleeping – some even stayed asleep for three days.

In the end, earth dragon's corpse was seized by the Royal family, while everyone else was compensated generously with gold coins.

"His eyes opened!!!" Raymond screamed as he speedily ran down the stairs.

The adults, who were cheerfully sharing their tales, stopped and looked at the young boy.

Lexia immediately stood and went upstairs. The rest followed behind her.

Lexia saw the boy sitting on the bed blankly staring at the wall. He looked malnourished as he didn't ingest anything for so many days. The boy's cheeks were almost nonexistent and he was almost skin and bones!

Lexia's heart sunk as she saw this scene. She slowly walked towards the boy and sat on a chair beside the bed. The boy slowly turned and looked at her with the same blank stare. She couldn't help but feel sorry for the poor boy, and she slowly reached for the boy to pat his head. The boy saw this, and instinctively cowered while trembling furiously.

Lexia's eyes widened as her heart contorted in an unimaginable ache as her tears flowed and hugged the quivering boy.

"It's ok. It's ok. Nobody will hurt you." Lexia soothingly said as she pulled him deeper in her motherly embrace while gently caressing his head. "It's ok. It's ok." She repeated.

Everyone in the room had their heart tightened when they saw this scene.

Glidal signaled everyone else to leave the room.

"Raymond. Make sure that you know everyone is not born lucky." He said to his son while going down the stairs.

"Mmm" Raymond agreed as he realized there were tears in his eyes and wiped them.

"Go back to your discussion first, I'll go prepare lunch. Lilian might come back soon" Jasmine said as she walked towards the kitchen.

The three men went back to their seats with a downcast disposition, while Raymond was sitting at the first step of the stairs wondering why he felts so sad for the beggar boy.

"How could somebody treat a young boy like that?" Carlin said annoyingly.

"The capital, there are still some areas that need to be addressed." Glidal answered.

"At least the current King is trying to fix these matters, unlike the previous kingdom in which you could see deserters, refugees and bandits everywhere." Elias said.

"So I heard." Glidal mumbled as he looked at them.

"We got ale and wine, which one?" Elias read the mood won't get any better without any spice.

"Ale, your wine is bad." Glidal chose as he remembered the wine that he drank at this village was horribly undrinkable.

"Same, and dad, stop offering your wine. Only you drink that repulsive thing." Carlin reprimanded his father.

"Bah! You young are still very, very young boys then! There was a chance meeting in this village with two dwarves that were wandering the lands that said my wine is the BEST they ever had." The old man lectured the two as he stomped towards the kitchen and get the beverage.

"Still the same story?" Glidal asked Carlin.

"Same story, every time" Carlin complained.

The old man brought the bottles while Jasmine got the cups and placed it on the table. Jasmine opened an ale bottle as he poured them into the cups of Carlin and Glidal.

"You know I won't touch that, Father" Jasmine said to Elias as she strode back to the kitchen.

Elias heard this and demoralizingly poured his own glass of wine. "What a good daughter-in-law." He mocked as a tear dropped from his old wrinkly eye.

"See dad!" Carlin laughed as he took a good swing on the wine.

Glidal laughed and did the same.

Upstairs, the crying stopped.

"It's nice to cry right?" Lexia asked as she wiped the remaining tears of the boy's eyes.

"Yes miss." The boy meekly agreed.

"I'm Lexia, and you?"

"Roth."

"Roth, now we will be together as a family." She said as she placed her hand and caressed the young boy's cheek by her thumb.

He looked at her in the eyes and asked. "Family… What is my job?"

She held back her tears and hugged him tighter as she knew that he was waiting for orders. She collected herself and said to him. "Roth, your job is to be happy. Your job is to be happy with us, your family."

"I, I …" Roth stuttered but continued. "I don't know how to be happy."

Lexia's heart sank deeper as her tears flowed again.

"But, I know how to bring people to a happy place." He said with innocence.

Lexia gritted her teeth at the statement.

"No, no, no" Lexia gently clasped his face looked at him. "I will teach you. I will teach you to be happy. I will teach you many things".

There were sudden knocks on the door then it opened. Jasmine went in holding a tray of food and water.

"Sorry little one, I can only give you porridge for now." Jasmine wanted to give him more but she knew the hazard of feeding a starving man bountiful food.

Lexia took the tray from her and placed it on the bedside table. "Thank you Jasmine."

"No worries." She said as she walked out of the room.

"We can talk later, you need to eat first." Lexia said as she slowly handed the bowl of porridge to him.

Roth just stared at the bowl, then at Lexia. "I only know how to eat bread. With hands"

Lexia composed herself as she wanted to bawl her eyes out again.

"I'll feed you this time. I'll teach you this too. Then, we'll start learning much more things when you're better." She said consolingly.

"Now, open your mouth." Lexia smiled as she started to spoon feed the boy.