Chương 79: 78: Weston, Not Part 1, Just Weston

When we arrived at the town gates, Sean and Drew were nowhere to be seen. Sean was a Wall Captain, and Drew was no doubt in charge of a group of militiamen at the moment. Two months after the siege was over, and with no local goblin sightings, people were free to go home if they wanted to. Very few people had left yet. Weston was safer than their homesteads, and they were getting paid to stay on active duty with the militia.

By February at the latest, people would have to make the hard decision on whether they'd be farming this year. It was around 4 p. m. when we arrived in town. Woolsy said he'd go check in with the militia captain and request a meeting with the bishop for us the next day. That worked for us, so Emily and I made our way to the inn. It was still the headquarters of the city's cooking operations for the militia members, so we wouldn't be ordering any custom meals, but we could still have stew and a couple of beers.

They had plenty of open rooms since there weren't many travelers who didn't stay in the barracks most of the time. The bishop and his small staff had installed themselves in the mayor's mansion for this extended duration stay. As soon as I walked in the door, I heard Ben's booming voice.

"John, Emily! Good to see you both!" I walked up and gave the large man a forearm grip and a big smile.

"How's it going?" I asked.

"Still cooking for the militia I see." He shook his head.

"I know! They have facilities to cook in the army barracks, but they asked us to at the start and we're still doing it. Oh well, not too many visitors the last couple of months. This is paying the bills." I chuckled and said, "There is that." He looked at Emily and said, "Janice is in the back if you want to go say hello." Then he asked us both, "You two going to want stew and some beers?" I nodded, but Emily said, "I would like a cider if you still have it." Ben nodded and said, "We sure do.

The brown for you John?"

"Yup," I agreed. Emily patted me on the arm and said, "I am going to go back and say hello to Janice." She gave me a peck on the cheek and went through the door behind the bar. She and Janice had grown to be friends from their time working together during the siege. Emily was a wonderful woman, and seeing her doing so well now made me happy. Ben brought me my beer and sat down with a beer of his own.

"How's the town doing?" I asked.

"I haven't been back since we broke the siege."

"It's holding up," Ben replied.

"It helps that we're not too cooped up. Most people are still here, but more than five hundred have left."

"Mostly just people with close homesteads?" I asked.

"Aye." he said.

"The goblins didn't get too many homesteads on their way out. They did get a couple of the dairies, but none of the three largest, so we're doing fine."

"That's good," I said. I took a sip of the delicious brown ale and thought about how lucky we'd been. The small overall population that was scattered all around a large area helped minimize the damage that had been sustained despite the siege.

"You going to see the bishop tomorrow?" Ben asked.

"That's the plan," I said after finishing my beer.

"I assume you have rooms open?" He nodded, so I said, "We'll take the suite for a couple of nights then I suppose. Woolsy said he wants to leave on Dydd Mercher" (Wednesday). Ben smiled at me then quietly said, "Glad you're using the correct days but no one says dydd before the day." I smiled sheepishly and nodded, then moved on to a touchier subject that I was only going to ask because there was no one else in the common room of the tavern.

"Woolsy said we liberated the northern and middle forts."

"Aye." Ben said.

"I hope we didn't suffer too many casualties." I said, not quite looking him in the face. He shook his head.

"Not too many, no. No homesteaders. Some dockhands unfortunately. One sergeant who owned a wagon team contracted to the Trade Guild, along with his crew too. Unfortunate, but the mayor hired a new team who I hear is outstanding and very trustworthy."

"Well, I'm glad we had minimal casualties." I said quietly.

"Does seem strange the way they attacked though, doesn't it?" Ben shrugged.

"I'm not a goblin tactician, but I do agree it's not how I would've gone about it. But maybe they just didn't expect Weston to be so well defended. It certainly wouldn't have had this level of enchantment if the Grand Quest hadn't demanded it be so."

"Fair enough," I shrugged. At that moment, Emily and Janice came out of the back room, and Ben asked Janice to grab Emily's cider and refills for him and I. Then we had stew and made small talk until Ben and Janice said they needed to get back to work. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. Emily and I went to do some shopping to kill some time.

I picked up the shotguns I'd bought for me and Colin that I hadn't been able to get before we left for the homestead. They were supposed to be ready on Samhain, but there had been some issues getting the firing pins perfected for the new fully contained paper cartridges the beautiful double-barreled shotguns could shoot. The guns were side by side with two separate triggers, one in front of the other. It wasn't my Mossberg 940, but they were beautiful, handcrafted guns. And…

We had exactly forty shells for them since there were only a few people who could afford the new style shotgun shells in all of Weston. I'd ordered more in, but they'd never arrived. Oh well, I was still looking forward to a couple good days of duck hunting with Colin once he was back from his patrol. After that, we purchased a few small items that were available in town. Most pre-made items would need to come in from Riverton and could be bought through the store interface.

That wouldn't be possible again until the river was reopened. After shopping, Emily and I retired back to the inn for a nice bath and some alone time. ————————————————— Dydd Mawrth Ionawr 9th (Tuesday January 9th) My meeting with the bishop was scheduled for 10 a. m. Emily wouldn't be at the meeting, so she decided to help Janice and Ben with the cooking. I told her to relax for a day, but that wasn't her style, so she got right to work helping out.

When I arrived at town hall, the bishop looked as if he was in a decent mood. I didn't know if that meant it was still early enough that he wasn't irritated yet, or if he had news that made him happier. It turned out to be the latter.

"Mr Jacobsen." The bishop said imperiously as I stood before him. His robes were still immaculate. I didn't know if they had some enchantments to keep them so white or not, but I did make a mental note to ask the mayor about it. He also still smelled wonderful. I'd asked his Coachman what he used, but the Coachman had told me I couldn't afford it, and that the bishop was very proud that he was the only one with that particular cologne in the colonies. That had been a disappointment, but it was what it was.

Bishop Smythe was seated in the mayor's chair. The mayor was to his right, also immaculately dressed. He was in a green and gold gentleman's outfit with plenty of ruffles. To the bishop's left was Wall Captain Hawker, who was in overall command of the city walls, and Militia Captain Castell to Hawker's left. Woolsy was not present.

"Your eminence," I replied.

"Thank you for seeing me."

"Indeed," the bishop said.

"I have news for you. Just yesterday a boat arrived and said that two days ago, the main army caught out a medium sized force of goblin riders just south of the Middle Divide River. They wiped out more than three hundred of them. They also killed three Shaman." He took a heavy breath, then continued.

"They believe this is the only force capable of reaching the river for at least a five day ride. That means I am going back to Riverton tomorrow. Leaving my coach is an unfortunate bit of business, but we all must make sacrifices." I thought to myself, maybe it's a sacrifice you need to make to improve your health…

"Very good, your eminence," I said.

"I assume you'll have an escort from Weston take you there, then they'll come back with what I need?"

"Indeed," the bishop said. Wall Captain Hawker spoke up, a malicious glint in his eye.

"We're also getting a full complement of cannons. Twenty of them. It's been a nightmare trying to push through. The noble counsel, and their lackies in Parliament have kept them from us this whole time. They were worried we'd use them to rebel. But the emperor pushed through fifty for Riverton and twenty for us. Parliament and the nobles couldn't rightly object after how close things had come to disaster last fall. Your oil will come in with the barrels of gunpowder."

"How many barrels?" I asked.

"Twenty-five of the forty gallon barrels. It was all we could do," Hawker said.

"Is that enough?"

"It'll depend on how the alchemy table lets me refine it." I said.

"So far the table has been pretty good. But I think even when they refine oil back home they can only get about half of the oil to become diesel, which is what I need. Unless the alchemy table lets me do better, that should be enough to do my ground work and plant the potatoes. I can't guarantee it'll do everything, but I have plenty of bonuses that should help." The bishop seemed irritated by my response.

"Well it will have to do. You need enough left over to ensure it can be available for the defense of Weston as well. Do not forget this."

"I won't," I told him. The mayor spoke next.

"How many more people do you want on the homestead for the year? I know you have at least one more man you are interested in, but most of the militia men who are staying will need to leave in about a month." That was mildly alarming, so I asked him.

"Will there be anyone replacing them?" The mayor nodded.

"Yes, in fact you've met one of them before. You need to begin practicing as a Wizard, and we have the perfect man who can protect you, and help you learn. Earth Wizard Rupert." I laughed. I liked the eccentric wizard.

"That sounds great. Will the other Wizards he was traveling with be there too?" The mayor shook his head.

"Afraid not. But we felt like he could be spared. You'll probably gravitate towards earth magic as a farmer. He's an expert there. He will be accompanied by a special forces Imperial army squad. They cannot be asked to help with farming though, so how many more men would you like?" I thought about it for a moment. If I had three farmhands and two domestic laborers already, I'd probably want at least one more Farm Mistress and two more Farmhands.

That was a small group for a farm my size, so it shouldn't be any trouble. Without the tractor, it would need at least twenty people. I told the mayor, and he said he'd get me two more Farmhands, a third Farm Mistress, and finally, an apprentice blacksmith. I'd forgotten all about that. We had a forge after all.

"Will the blacksmith need his own cabin? Or can he use a bunk house."

"He is a specialist, but once we remove the troops he can take Woolsy's cabin," Castell said.

"All farmers who wish to leave for their homesteads will be released in a month's time. Your Wizard and his team will be at your homestead around then." Hawker broke in, "The five men'll share a bunkhouse, but Wizard Rupert will need his own cabin." Looked like Glenn and Hari were out a cabin if they stayed with us moving forward. I might need to look into building more cabins for when important people visited. After that, I was dismissed.

It wasn't even noon yet, but I didn't have anything else to do, so I went back to the inn and helped until dinnertime. The trip had been just the right amount of eventful to be fun. The news was good, and I was gonna become a Wizard soon!

The Order of Merlotus has existed since the time of Merlotus himself. Archwizard Cynan, Merlotus' first disciple and the first Wizard on Talamh to reach level 80, was the man who convinced him of the necessity. He first attempted to convince Merlotus to close the source code of the System to outside interference. When Merlotus refused, Cynan convinced Merlotus of the need for a secret group, closed off from the open-source material that anyone who was not already in the Order could change.

Because of Arthur's general lack of care about the functions of the System, Merlotus was skeptical of the need to restrict access to it. Only his failure to block off many of the essential functions that would be necessary to allow for new classes to form and evolve, convinced him that bad actors could act in a way that would prove detrimental to the masses. Note from Archwizard Mat Matholdi, 1st apprentice to Archwizard Cynan. This message is only available in the Order of Merlotus tab on your UI.

Any attempt to copy or speak of this note in the presence of anyone not in the Order will result in your expulsion and will trigger a notification to all members of the Order.