Chương 31: Weston Part 1

Most of the journey into Weston was slow and bumpy. We could have walked from the Newtons' to Weston in less time, and probably felt better at the end of the trip, but it was still good bullshitting with Brendan. I understood only about 80% of what he said, but whether it was the System, or I was just getting used to his way of speaking, I felt like there were very few misunderstandings.

He was a veritable fount of knowledge about raising animals, and since he had grown up farming, he had plenty of good advice for how I should set my farm up as I grew. He gave me great advice about which buildings I would need to buy this fall. I was able to confirm that he was ready to buy a second plot this fall to help grow his herd. He even had the money to buy the third plot, but he wanted to wait until after the second lottery round to buy it to save the gold for more buildings.

I wondered if this would have made things simpler at home if there was an established procedure on what needed to be built in order to progress as a farmer. Honestly, probably not, but there were some definite upsides. When we were about five miles from town, we found a hard-packed road that Brendan said had been magically sealed to keep it from getting muddy. There weren't any ruts, and it was blessedly smooth. We also saw more homesteads around that time, even if they weren't packed together.

A slight majority of the homesteads had two-story houses that showed they were ready for a second plot. There was around an eighty/twenty split in favor of farms versus ranches from what I observed. It appeared that many people were doing well for themselves out here. As we got within viewing distance of the city, I was stunned.

When I had been told that the total population of Weston was only around 800 people, I had envisioned a small, dusty, frontier town with a main street plus a few more streets with houses, set up in a haphazard way like in Westerns I'd watched growing up. What lay before us was a large medieval walled city. I pulled up my UI, and I saw a city set up in a grid pattern with military precision. Weston straddled both sides of the Directional River, which was just to the north of us.

I knew that the Directional River flowed in a relatively straight line all the way to Riverton, the capital of the Western Territories, on the east coast. The walls looked like they were at least four stories tall, and wide enough for several wagons side by side. They were also way longer than any walls I'd ever seen, like something straight out of a medieval fantasy. There were ten towers evenly spaced out on each wall. Between the towers were ballistas and catapults.

The northern and southern walls had a single massive gate, as well as some smaller ones that looked like they just let in people. On the east and west walls, the two sides that straddled the river, there were portcullises. The eastern portcullis was raised to allow river traffic in and out. The steel of the raised portcullis bars glinted in the sunlight. I guessed they were magically reinforced somehow to stop rust from forming. Honestly, it was damn impressive and kind of magical.

It looked like a magnificent medieval city! I zoomed in on my mini-map and I could see that the streets were laid out in a perfect grid pattern. There were two bridges inside the walls that ran across the river. The one on the western side was a lot wider and wasn't very steep. It was hard to tell exactly how high it sat above the river from this distance, but it didn't look to be over six feet. Cargo traffic stopped here, so it didn't need to allow room for larger boats to continue westward.

In the center of the city was a smaller bridge that allowed for foot traffic. It had a dozen steps on each side that took it twenty feet up in the air, giving plenty of clearance for any ship with a mast. I could see mostly residential housing on the western side of the city. The more industrial-looking buildings were on the east side. That no doubt helped keep smells away from the residents most of the time, since the wind predominantly blew west to east in this world.

A majority of the streets were empty, showing that there was a lot of room for growth inside the walls as more people came to live in the town. In the central square that straddled both sides of the river, there was a large green area around a three-story building on the northeast side, which my UI said was the mayor's mansion and administration center for the town. There was a three-story building with a peaked roof that was the System temple on the southwest side of the river and two fortified mini-keeps.

One on either side of the river. They were also both three stories tall and only had arrow slits for the first two floors. My UI said the one on the southeast side was the militia barracks, and the other was the provincial army barracks. The entire riverfront area was built up with a stone walkway, with stone piers jutting out half a dozen feet into the river on both sides. There were half a dozen riverboats currently moored to the piers, either loading or unloading cargo.

From what I could see, the only buildings outside the city walls appeared to comprise a tannery. That made sense since they smelled so bad. Brendan had stopped so I could get a good look at the town. When I finally shook my head and looked his way, he was grinning from ear to ear.

"Impressive, innit now," Brendan said.

"Colin here was sayin' you were portaled in from some other colony you wouldn' name, like. An' before you get goin', a man's past is his past — nothin' t'do with me, see." He nodded towards the town." Reckoned you didn' clock the town on your way in. Built big enough t'hold fifty thousand folk inside them city walls, tidy as you like. Terms o' the Grand Quest said the Emperor had t'build a proper capital, an' one more large walled city besides.

Since this is as far west as you can go by river from the capital, he made Weston the spot, he did. If you ever get t'see Riverton, you gotta go, mate — its walls are impressive, they are. Proper massive. As big as Londinium itself they is."

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"It's certainly impressive," I said.

"But why doesn't it look more modern? And I don't see any cannons. That thing won't stand up to modern gunfire." Brendan laughed.

"Course not, see — can't have the peasants rebelling now, can they? They do the job they're meant for, like. Goblins an' orcs ain't got no guns, mind. An' the stone walls hold the rune wards better, they do. You can see the shimmer, can't you?" I looked out, and I could, indeed see spots on the walls that appeared to have a heat shimmer to them. Those must be the wards. From here I couldn't see any details though. He flicked his reins to get his horses moving and continued talking.

"We'll head t'the inn now. It's o'er the river, other side o' the main square, look. We'll stable the horses, get us rooms for the night, an' get you signed up for the militia an' all." I told him that sounded like a good plan to me. As we got closer to the town, I could see that there were very few people actually up on the walls. There weren't that many people in the town after all.

"How many guards does the city have?" I asked Brendan, pointing up to the men on the walls.

"Only twenty proper soldiers, see. Just two on each gate, an' two up on the walls at any time, long as we're not expectin' any trouble, like. The townsmen all gotta do at least one shift on the walls every week, they do. Tha' counts as their militia trainin', 'cept for the big one in the fall, mind." He replied, pointing first to the two men on top of the wall above the gate, and then the two men standing in front of the open gate. When we made it to the gate, the two guards on the ground stepped up and hailed us.

The guards were each wearing leather armor reinforced with metal plates. They had open-faced helmets, and each carried a rifle slung across his back. One also had two pistols stuck in holsters at his hips. The other was carrying a ten-foot-long spear. A quick ID said the one with the pistols was Sean Hawker, and the other was Drew Black. Sean was slender, but taller than most people I'd met so far, at around five foot ten.

I had to admit to myself that my sample size of people I'd met in this world was fairly small, but the non-wealthy people I'd met so far had not been tall people. Drew was built thicker than Sean, but was a couple of inches shorter. Sean spoke first.

"Well met Brendan. Looks like you've got your boy, and is that Colin Lloyd you have with you? And I'm afraid I've never met this gentleman." He pointed at me. I wasn't sure what the proper etiquette was here. Luckily, Brendan spoke up quickly.

"Aye, tha's Colin, it is. He's gonna be workin' for John Jacobson here from now on." Brendan pointed his thumb towards me as he said my name.

"He's been kind enough t'take Colin an' his mam on at his place, fair play." Sean looked at me with a neutral expression on his face.

"I had heard that there was a new man in the area. There have been some…" He stopped talking for a moment as he looked like he was struggling with the correct wording.

"Conflicting reports about, you lets say." Brendan let out a chuckle and said, "I bet there have been, mate. I heard the Bishop came through after meetin' John here, see," he looked at me and said, "Robert Johnstone came through too, righ'?" I nodded.

"Yeah, I met him when my goods were delivered, he seemed like a good enough fellow." The guards, who sounded educated but not upper class, both laughed at my words. Sean smiled.

"After you get over his sounding high and mighty, he isn't a bad fellow at all, surprisingly."

"That was my impression too," I said.

"I thought I was in for more trouble when he first started speaking, but our talk was pleasant enough." Sean nodded.

"Aye, well, I guess you'll be heading to the inn, then signing up for your militia duty then?"

"Yes," I said, "Any advice? And will we see you tomorrow?" Sean nodded, but Drew, who hadn't spoken until now, shook his head.

"Just Sean. Despite this rifle we all have to carry. I am a melee-focused fighter, and they have you militia boys all shooting rifles. Sean and a couple of the other regular guards will be there making sure none of you shoot yourselves." He laughed as he finished, but the tone of his voice wasn't malicious. His words seemed like the usual ribbing guys were wont to give each other.

After some more inconsequential small talk about the weather, the upcoming drill, and Bhealtaine, the guards let us through and we drove under the thick walls. As I looked up, I saw quite a few holes in the ceiling above us, no doubt murder holes so defenders could drop oil or shoot down onto attackers from above.

"Well that went alright," I said to everyone in the wagon. They all nodded. Colin, who had said nothing while we were talking to the guards, said, "I think the guards liked you. They'll talk in the barracks tonight. Hopefully everyone will like you by the end of the weekend. I'm excited to sell these pelts and buy some stuff!" I looked back at him and smiled at his enthusiasm.

"You and Aiden can have fun this weekend, and I'm letting you have that 5 gold to buy your own stuff, but I also expect you to buy the stuff I gave you gold for too. We need some more food and supplies for the farm. You have the list I gave you, right?" He nodded solemnly.

"Don't worry John, I'll get everything bought for us." Then he turned to Aiden and said, "John gave me a real piece of paper with the list written on it for some reason." I blushed a little at his words. I'd played it off that I enjoyed writing things out to keep them clear in my head, but really I just hadn't known you could access a notebook tab that would write anything you wanted, and you could send those lists to other people.

As we made our way towards the larger bridge, I was able to observe the town up close. It was clean and well-kept. There was none of the smell I was expecting. I wasn't sure if that was because there weren't many people yet, or there was a proper sewer system. I decided to ask Brendan about it.

"What keeps the town so clean? It doesn't smell like shit." I said with a smile.

"Nope," Brendan said, looking around.

"It's not even magic, believe it or not. Well… I s'pose a bit o' magic went into makin' the sewer system, mind. Look at them empty lots there." He pointed one out, and I could see a small round hole with a wooden lid on it.

"The mages made a whole sewer system, see. It links into the river at the start o' the city an' runs under every street. Every house has a toilet inside, tidy as you like. All of it joins up an' comes out downstream, other side o' the tannery. Riverton's the same, it is. Both smell way better than most cities back on the home isles, mate." Then he pointed at the pipe sticking up out of the ground. They were all capped off for now, but looked like you could slap a handle on them once they were ready to use.

"There's water for every house an' business an' all. You won't see tha' anywhere else, I promise you. No communal well for Weston, mate." I was pretty impressed with that. Communal wells were the norm in cities on Earth until right around 1900, even in many large cities, and with magical filters on each well, there was no danger of disease spreading through the water system.