Chương 50: Two Families

Joe and Simon rented a courtyard house a little over a month after Joe arrived. The building was modest by Blackwood standards and luxurious by Green Hollow ones. Two small sleeping rooms opened from the central front room. A narrow kitchen sat behind them. There was a covered storage space and, most importantly, a square courtyard enclosed by stone-bottomed timber walls. Joe looked at the open space once.

"We'll take it." Simon looked at the rent.

"You didn't even see the kitchen."

"I saw the courtyard."

"Normal people live inside houses."

"I plan to use both." The courtyard quickly justified the cost. Joe trained before sunrise without fifty guards watching. He could hang herbs beneath the covered edge. A sturdy table became his medicine-processing area. In warm weather they ate outside. Rain struck the roof tiles and ran into a narrow drainage channel along the wall. For the first time in this life, Joe had something close to a private workspace. Mira immediately decided the kitchen was terrible. She brought bowls. Then a better knife. Then a lamp.

Simon objected every time. He kept everything. Her father visited one evening. Edwin Black was not what Joe expected. Mira had apparently inherited her softer features from her mother. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. Edwin was lean and neatly dressed, with the composed manner of someone accustomed to letting other people talk until they accidentally revealed useful information.

He managed one of the larger medicine halls and herb-procurement operations belonging to a Black-family side branch. Not the entire Black medicine trade. That would have made him one of the most powerful businessmen in town. His position was still substantial. He looked at Joe.

"So you're the younger brother." Joe nodded.

"And you're the father who investigated us." Simon nearly inhaled his tea. Edwin smiled faintly.

"Your brother mentioned you were direct."

"Simon complains."

"Frequently." Simon looked between them. Mira covered her smile. Edwin's investigation had been thorough. Village. Parents. Hall. Theodere. Guard record. Debt. Temperament. He even knew the family-owned six strips of farmland. That bothered Joe more than it should have.

"My daughter brought food to a young guard three times in one week," Edwin said.

"I investigated immediately." Mira frowned.

"Father."

"It would have been irresponsible not to." Joe agreed. The Black family had existed in Blackwood since near the beginning of the town. The connection was old enough that family stories claimed the town's name partly came from them, though Edwin admitted the blackstone road and surrounding forest made the argument convenient. The Francis family was new. About a hundred and twenty years in Blackwood. They had risen through smithing, weapons and martial strength. Both families possessed several true Martial Artists.

At the top were old grand elders in Late Internal Organ Tempering. Those people rarely appear in ordinary business. They did not need to. Everyone knew they existed. The magistrate created the third major center of power. He too was a true Martial Artist, though Joe did not learn his exact stage. More importantly, he represented the state. The guardhouse belonged to that institutional structure. Commander Tomas answered through the magistrate's administration, not to either local family.

The Black family could pressure merchants. The Francis family could influence craftsmen and weapon suppliers. Neither could openly order the guard around as if it were family property. Smaller gangs survived in the spaces between those powers. Some paid merchants linked to the Black family. Others sold goods through businesses tied loosely to Francis interests. Connections did not always mean control.

A gang member could have a cousin working for a warehouse whose owner happened to be related to a Francis side branch. Blackwood was large enough for relationships to become messy. Joe preferred that explanation to imagining two families secretly controlled every drunk in town. Edwin also explained Simon's sudden fortune without saying it directly. He had not accepted Simon as a son-in-law. He was evaluating him. Simon had no clan behind him. No gambling debt. No history of cruelty.

No wealthy relatives likely to demand positions. He had achieved respectable martial progress with very little support and had intervened to help Mira before knowing her identity. Worth watching. So, Edwin invested cautiously. Extra medicinal meals. Discounted herbs. Occasional instruction from Black-family martial practitioners. Not main-line treatment. Enough to matter. That support helped Simon reach Late Skin and made his recent promotion easier to justify. Theodere understood immediately.

Instead of continuing to collect Simon's remaining repayment, he waived it deliberately. A former trainee building a relationship with the Black family could become more valuable than a few hundred silverlings over several years. Joe appreciated the logic. Connections were simply another form of capital. Simon had acquired his by punching three idiots.