Chương 41: Coming Clean

As I watched Roberts ride away, my resolve firmed. I had to actually tell Emily and Colin. They already knew the truth anyway. The lie had worked for both of us as we got to know each other. But the time for 'secrets' was at an end. I'd figured it would last a little longer, but life didn't always go the way we wanted it to. I made my way down to the river and saw Colin sitting on the log, shirtless and in only his long underwear. Emily must have made him bathe. My UI said it was 75 degrees out.

Luckily, it was sunny and the wind was minimal. With the water as cold as it was, 75 degrees was on the cool side to have taken a river bath and then not get dressed right after. Emily also looked cleaned up, and I could see her old dress in a pile with Colin's clothes. I decided I needed to do my own washing up, so I went down to the riverbank where Emily was sitting with the picnic basket and Colin's dirty clothes. She looked up at me but waited for me to speak. I looked at her and sighed heavily.

"I'm sorry. That was unacceptable. I've told him never to come here again." Before Emily could reply, Colin spoke up from his log.

"John, I'm sorry, I was gonna stay in sight with my rifle out, but ma wouldn't let me." Emily frowned at him.

"Son. That would not have helped the situation out."

"Your Ma's right, bud," I said, backing her up.

"That would have just made him even angrier if he'd seen you." I turned to look at Emily.

"I'll explain things, but I'd like to wash up first to get my thoughts in order. That okay?" She nodded and handed me a cloth and a bar of soap. Then she got to her feet.

"I can go grab you fresh clothes from the house."

"Thanks," I said.

"That would be wonderful, and I'd greatly appreciate it." She nodded and started walking the short distance to the cabin. I walked a couple hundred yards upstream, next to an area with just the slightest bend, that was surrounded by willow trees. It gave me some privacy. The soap could disrupt Colin's fishing for a few minutes, but it was what it was. While I was still lathering myself up, I heard Emily's voice on the other side of the thick tree cover.

"John, your clean clothes are hanging on a tree branch right above where your dirty clothes were. I'm going to take all of our stuff back to the cabin. When I get back we can talk." I didn't bother replying. I finished lathering up with the harsh lye soap, then rinsed off and grabbed the towel. I certainly had goosebumps as I dried myself off. I didn't know if the river ever warmed up, but it hadn't so far in the month I'd been here.

Once I was fully clothed again, I stepped out from the tree cover and made my way towards our little beach by the log. Emily wordlessly handed me a bowl of stew that featured beans, as well as some pork and early root veggies she'd taken from her garden.

"Thanks," I told her, then began to eat. Colin got off the log and joined us. Emily handed him a bowl as well. After five minutes of silence, Emily finally said, "Well." It was more of a statement than a question.

"Well indeed," I replied.

"That was an unpleasant bit of business," Emily said quietly, looking back towards the homestead.

"You are sure he will not be an issue moving forward?"

"Eh," I waved my hand from side to side.

"I can't say that for certain. But I don't believe he will be back here anytime soon."

"Well, I suppose that is better than the alternative," Emily said.

"Are you going to tell me why he was here?" My stomach dropped. I knew she knew, and she deserved an answer, but it was so darned hard to actually say the words out loud. Like a coward, I hedged.

"You know why he was here." Emily's laugh was brittle.

"Do I?"

"Damnit, Emily, I'm trying here!" I said, frustration in my voice.

"For System sake!" Colin yelled out.

"We know you're from another world John! It's so damned obvious! We've all just been pretending from the first. Me an' Ma didn't want to get kicked off the land. We had nowhere else to go, so we kept our mouths shut. Now we trust you, so we'd never betray you so long as you don't hurt us neither." In response to Colin's words, Emily said, "Son, that is harsh."

"No, he's right," I said. I set my bowl of food down on the log and gave them my full attention.

"It was pretty clear that turning me in at the beginning would have hurt everyone. The bishop would have locked me up, and he'd have sent you two wherever it was you were going to be sent. There's no reason to sugarcoat it." I sighed and took a deep breath before carrying on.

"You two were in a real hard situation. I get it. But, you've been wonderful so far, and I'm glad things are out in the open. I have zero intentions of ever kicking you two off this land. You're both partners with me in this. There shouldn't be secrets like this between us. Especially ones that everyone knew about, but just wouldn't acknowledge."

"But," I said.

"Do you think anyone else suspects? I can't imagine anyone important can, or they'd have turned me in." The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Emily shook her head.

"I think your secret is safe. Roberts was right though. You haven't been subtle so far. And yeah, we could hear a lot of what he was saying. That man was yelling loud enough that anyone within a couple of miles could have heard him. Once you use your tractor tomorrow, it needs to be hidden away. I know you and Colin grabbed more canvas tarps. You need to cover it and then hide it with brush." I nodded.

"I can assure you we will hide everything away the best we can."

"What does this mean moving forward though? I'm asking both of you." I swept my hand out towards Emily and Colin. Colin didn't say anything right away, instead looking to his mother to answer.

"Well," Emily said.

"It changes nothing. Except maybe for making things safer for all of us. You can finally ask us questions about things that should be obvious to you. You have gotten way better at keeping your thoughts to yourself compared to your first week here. You had several obvious slip ups early." I laughed at that.

"Yeah, I was pretty dumb at the beginning. This world is so much different than mine in a lot of ways. We don't have a System, or any magic." I pointed back to the cabin and surrounding area.

"Plus we're a lot further ahead technology-wise. My tractor should make that pretty obvious. Your world feels like what I've read about mine being like a hundred and fifty years ago. I am convinced it's the same planet, but with way different geography. If I'm right, the Barrier Mountains would be the Appalachian mountains in my world, but in my world, they're all worn down from time." I smiled, then said, "Oh, and we don't have any other races besides humans.

We have legends about them, maybe they came over at one point, but with how connected my world is, it would be a pretty big secret if there were any other races still out there."

"I see," Emily said.

"That is not unusual from what I have heard. I believe there used to be much more information on other worlds, but that has all been suppressed. There are still legends though." Colin spoke up and pointed at his rifle.

"Our guns came from a group of people who actually tried to take over the empire a couple hundred years ago. Well, our older guns, before Harold made these. But when they were defeated, that's when the empire made it so people who were portaled over were supposed to be turned in."

"That makes sense." I agreed.

"People like me could be dangerous to the established order. I'm not here trying to disrupt the world though." Emily barked out a laugh.

"You still will with those potatoes of yours. But, hopefully we can manage that as well. Play up your mysterious backers for a while longer. Once you evolve, and are level 21, you will be much harder to deal with. I am interested to see what your class evolves into."

"What do you mean?" I asked. Emily elaborated.

"Once you evolve, most people follow a known path. Like an Earth Mage who specializes in building walls might evolve to Stonebinder, or Earthbinder. But since it takes doing something special, you might end up with Tractor Homesteader, or Potato Farmer." With that, she laughed at her own words.

"Dear god, I hope I don't have either of those classes," I groaned. Colin piped up.

"Don't worry, the System usually gives out cool names in all the legends. I've only ever met a couple of people who are over level 20 that I know of."

"Who?" I asked him.

"Well, everybody says the bishop is over level 20. And then Captain Blackstone said he was level 24 when I asked. I don't know what either of their actual classes are though. Do you ma?" Emily frowned.

"I think the Bishop's title is actually System Bishop. You can be a bishop without the actual title, but having it gives more authority and autonomy. That is why he has so much authority over the Territories. The governor is much lower level than the bishop, I think he is scared of him because of that. I have no idea what the captain's class is though." She looked at me seriously.

"I would like you to come up with a list of questions you have about how this world works. Then, we can go over some of them so you do not make mistakes in front of others. I doubt the Newtons would turn you in either, but we should keep the information between the three of us."

"What about Roberts?" Colin asked.

"Well, obviously Roberts is also from another world." I told him.

"Maybe even mine. If not his world was close enough to mine with the way it works. He certainly won't tell on me. He also seems to think this world helped him out of a bad situation." Emily looked at me with a frown.

"Did you also have a bad situation in your world? I cannot imagine a situation where someone without a great deal of wealth could afford a machine like yours." I laughed.

"Well, without trying to throw a pity party for myself, since you're basically right about the wealth thing. I came from a family who had farmed in one place for more than a hundred and fifty years, and we were doing very well. We had thousands of acres of farmland. But, they were going to kick me out of the farming operations. Mostly because I didn't have a wife and kids of my own. My ex-wife and I weren't able to have kids."

"Then why did they give you that tractor? Was your world so advanced that it was not impressive?" Emily asked.

"No, it was about as advanced and fancy as a tractor could be in my world. My dad and brothers, well mostly my dad, basically gave it to me as an apology. That and a little bit of land. It would have been enough to either work for others, or sell back to my brothers, and then live a pretty decent life after. But I am a farmer, it's in my blood." I swept my arm out and pointed at everything on the homestead.

"I don't regret being portaled here at all. I see this as a new chance at life. The System and the strength it gives me is amazing. I love farming, and I've loved building the cabin, and the animals, and honestly, I've really enjoyed spending time with you two as well. I'm not lying when I say there's nowhere else I'd rather be right now." Colin was looking at the ground, his hair covering his face like usual. Emily was staring at me intently.

"What?" I said, uncomfortable under her intense gaze.

"John, I am going to reiterate what I've said before. You are a strange man. But, I think you are a good man. I believe Colin and I have been blessed by the System to have you here. We can make this work. Get that list put together, and once we're done planting corn tomorrow we can go over some things."

"Works for me." I said.

"Should we enjoy the time in the sun? Or should we go work on something? You've probably heard my motto." She shook her head.

"I have heard it. Take things one day at a time is not exactly an earth-shatteringly wise motto, but it works." I grinned.

"I'm clearly not an exceptionally wise man so it'll do." We spent a couple more hours just relaxing on the beach. Colin eventually caught a fat trout. After that, we made our way back to the cabin. Emily took the fish inside to prepare for dinner while Colin helped me put together the bed that had come in my Homestead Package. It wasn't anything fancy, but it was sturdy, and came with a down mattress, along with a pillow and blankets. They looked heavy enough to keep me warm while the nights were still cool.

Aside from that, we drilled out some holes to put wooden pegs in to hang my clothes and rifle. It was nothing fancy, but it was a place where I could sleep and store my stuff without cluttering up their cabin. We ate a dinner of breaded trout and another salad, then I retired early for the evening. I took a lantern and tried to do some reading in my almanac. Just like the night before, I was too tired and distracted to really pay attention to what I was reading.

This time, it was because of emotional fatigue instead of physical exhaustion. Today had been scary, and showed that I'd been a bit reckless and headstrong since I got here, but it was better that we got our baggage out of the way early.