Chương 96: 95: Aftermath Part 2

After checking out the rest of the animals, I helped gather the bodies of the goblins and wargs. The wargs stank of blood and fur, but the goblins looked far more mundane than I had expected. I'd never truly been up close to a goblin, living or dead, before. I'd seen them from a distance, and from the tractor in the dark, but that wasn't the same. They all had an olive-green complexion, no doubt paler in death. They were shorter than most humans, right around five feet tall, and they were wiry and muscular.

Their faces weren't hideous, like a Tolkien goblin. They had angular cheekbones and prominent brow ridges, with pointed ears like what I'd imagine an elf would have. Their noses were a little pointy and longer than an average human, but not comically large. I could confirm the purplish hue to their hair I thought I'd seen from a distance during the siege. Every one of them had dark hair that had either a purple or John Deere green almost iridescent sheen. The two Shaman were only differentiated by their garb.

They had gnarled staves, and their leather armor had fetishes and beads woven into it. The Warg Riders, for that's what their class was, all wore well-cured leather armor with metal patches sewn on in critical places. Their gear certainly wasn't ragged or poorly made. Most of them had spears, and then personal side pieces. Some had swords, others had axes or maces.

Rupert, who still had mana, opened a trench in the Earth once we had all the bodies placed together, then covered them up as if nothing had ever been there. Once that was done, we began rounding up the horses. I found Chessie by calling out to her. She trotted in from the south. She let me saddle her, then I used her to round up the draft horses. After that, I gave up my seat to Colin. He had a tracking skill that would help him find his Char and his mother's Madge. I still hadn't checked on the tractor yet.

I wanted to make sure everything that had a pulse was taken care of first. Now that that was accomplished, I called Rupert over, and we went to see the extent of the damage. Everything was filthy, Ruper had used soil to put the fire out. He used a spell and drew all the dirt off the machine, then we sat in the cab. I turned the key on and used my diagnostic skill. The tracks flashed red, and so did my magical seals. The fire must have damaged them.

I quickly fixed my patches, then mentally clicked on the left track. It flashed at me with a message that said: Damage too great to repair with a magical patch. Please provide material, Rubber, in order to repair. I got out of my diagnostic screen.

"Good news and bad news," I told Rupert.

"The only new damage is the track, but we need rubber."

"Ah, what is rubber made of?" Rupert asked.

"We can throw some in an acid solution, then put it in the alchemy table maybe?"

"Rubber comes from oil," I said.

"Although there's also maybe a tree that it comes from down south in the dwarven lands." Rupert smiled.

"Well then, this is fixable. The mayor and bishop will want it fixed right away." He was correct. Putting something in the still showed new options. I didn't know why rubber hadn't shown already, but it should after we put it in the still. Too bad we didn't have any unrefined oil still. Maybe I could get some skills brought over then too. At noon, I heard the dinner bell ring. I didn't feel like eating, but I knew I needed to. There was too much work to do still today.

When I got to the door Emily was waiting for me. She looked as tired as I felt, but her face showed a stolid resolve that I wasn't sure I was capable of right now. She calmly walked forward, and I wrapped my arms around her while she hugged me around my midsection.

"How are you holding up?" She asked.

"Not wonderful," I replied.

"This is not your fault," she said, pushing back to create enough distance that she could look me in the eye.

"We had people who were supposed to protect us. And in the end, no one died."

"Laeth lost an eye," I choked out, just barely holding back the tears. She nodded.

"He did, but he will live, and we will take care of him. Now go and eat. Laeth is still asleep, so don't go and disturb him. Seamus is asleep in one room, and Lorcan is in the other spare bedroom, so if you want to take a bath, you'll need to use the bathhouse." I nodded.

"There's still too much clean up to do for a bath yet. But we need to go to town tomorrow. You want to come?" She shook her head.

"No. Not this time. I will stay and help sort things out. Now eat." I gave her a quick kiss, then complied. I grabbed a ham sandwich and a bowl of bean soup, then looked for a spot to sit. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. I saw the squad of soldiers eating in a group, and Rupert was with them, but I went and sat next to Stephen and Zack.

"How're you two doing?" I asked. Stephen answered first.

"Tess and I are fine. Neither of us got hurt." Zack, who had a mouth full of sandwich, gave a thumbs-up that I assumed meant he and Anna were similarly unharmed.

"That's great," I said.

"But how're you all doing?" Stephen pursed his lips, but said, "We'll live. This isn't ideal, and we thought this place would be as safe as a place could be, but life on the frontier can be dangerous. It sucks, but that's just the way things are sometimes. We'll rebuild." For as young as he was, that was a practical way to look at life. We finished eating, then we got back to work for the rest of the afternoon. Close to dark, I heard the dinner bell again, and we all went in for dinner.

We were all absolutely filthy. I was covered in ash and blood, and I smelled awful. Ever since I showed up here, my armpits had ceased smelling bad, and I had to work really hard without bathing for at least a couple days before I began to get gamey. I was sure the System had something to do with that. Even if the bacteria that caused the smell wasn't present here, they had been on my body when I showed up. But even the System's help couldn't stop the way we all smelled tonight.

Emily met us at the door and said, "Bathhouse, the lot of you. Once you've bathed, you may all come in for food. None of the ladies will be bathing this afternoon, so take both bathhouses. We already heated the tubs. Grab more clothes and leave yours outside. Once everyone is inside we will come out and grab your soiled laundry." The entire lot of us nodded, then Emily handed me and Colin, who had returned with the other horses a couple hours ago, a new set of clothes.

Aiden was here now, so I told him to pick the women's bathhouse so I could talk to him about his cows while we soaked. I got to the bathhouse door, then stripped down. I certainly wasn't used to being naked around a bunch of other people, but everyone else regularly bathed together, and there wasn't a taboo about people of the same sex seeing you naked. The soldier squad, plus Rupert, took the bathhouse that was normally for the men and my work crew.

I stepped inside the bathhouse and pulled the cord on the ingenious shower that had been rigged up with a tank that was set up on the roof. The water supply wasn't unlimited, and it was necessary to pump it up to the tank when it was empty, so I quickly let go of the cord once I was wet. I lathered up with the bar of soap set against the wall, then pulled the cord long enough to rinse off.

The water all drained below the false floor and into a pipe that had been set low enough underground that it wouldn't freeze during the winter. The pipe led back towards the river, emptying directly into it. That way, we didn't have a soapy, marshy spot near the house. Once I was clean, I walked over to the round, ceramic basin that made up the tub. It was large enough for eight men to fit comfortably, and in a pinch ten or eleven could squeeze in without getting too touchy feely on accident.

Emily was correct, and the water was plenty hot. I gave it a few minutes until everyone was in before speaking to Aiden.

"Aiden, son, I'm sorry about your cows. How's the rest of your herd?" He looked at me and shrugged. The exhaustion was evident on his face, but he didn't seem distraught.

"The rest are alright, sir. The six they killed, they cut their throats, they did. I reckon they were plannin' t'butcher 'em an' take 'em for food. The Druid said the meat's still alright, mind. The soldiers even helped butcher 'em. We put it all in your potato cellar." That was news to me.

"I'll buy them all, fair market price for a heifer and calf." I told him.

"John," he protested.

"They're not worth that in this shape, mind. An' my ma an' pa'll take one." I held up my hand.

"If they want one, I'll pay for the calf on that one still. Otherwise I'm paying for the lot. This happened on my place and I'll hear no arguing." He clearly still wanted to argue, but he simply nodded his head. Colin spoke up then, "I stopped and talked to them. They weren't hit by the goblins. Brendan's coming over tomorrow." Holy hell! I hadn't even thought about sending someone!

"Thanks for checking on them. I'm ashamed to admit, but I didn't even think of sending someone over." I told them all. I looked at Stephen and Zack and said, "We'll have a feast the day after tomorrow, and we can talk about everything. You guys can tell me what you want to do, whether it's stay here or go back to town where it's safer." They both immediately began talking, both of them saying they had no intention of leaving. That steeled my resolve, they'd both be getting classes as soon as I could.

Zack would get a Craftsman class. And Stephen a Farmhand, then Homesteader class if he didn't get one in the lottery. After we bathed, we ate, then Emily and I went up to the study to talk about our new crop plans.

"We need to replace three plots, correct?" Emily asked.

"Correct," I said.

"Let me pull up the store interface, we can talk about our options." I pulled up the store and was greeted with the following crop options 1, 500 gold - Tobacco(t3)(note, this plant must be started indoors before being transplanted outside in your growing zone.) 1, 000 gold – Almonds(t2), Apples, Cherries(u), Grapes(t2)(u), Peaches(u), Pears(u), Plums(u) 500 gold – Potatoes (U) 400 gold – Hops(t2) 300 gold- Barley(u) Oats(u), Yellow Onions(u), Black Beans, White Beans, Red Beans 200 gold – Alfalfa, Corn(u), Flax(t2) 100 gold – Clover, Turnips, Wheat(u)"Alright, Emily, you have access to the interface now too." I said, glad we could look at things together.

"What do you think?"

"Well," she said.

"A lot of unavailable items.

"You're not kidding." I mumbled back.

"Not great. I have zero idea how to plant tobacco. It looks like it's more involved than just planting a seed. Almonds and apples will take years to produce, but I wouldn't be opposed to planting one apple field as an orchard." She just said "mhm," at first.

"Did you ever grow hops?" She asked after a few moments. I shook my head, then remembered she couldn't see me right now.

"No, back home they're a specialized crop that a few big farms grew. They cost like 10, 000$ per acre to put in the first year. I'm pretty sure this price we're seeing can't include the cost of the poles we'd need." Emily answered me after another silence.

"Ah, you are correct. If you click on the crop, you can see that it is seed cost only. They are actually more expensive per plot than tobacco for the first year."

"Yup, I said.

"Well, maybe two more fields of beans, then an apple orchard? Since beans are planted later, we aren't late on them. I can use my skill to analyze the pieces of ground before I go to town tomorrow just to make sure that works."

"I think you have to plant the grafted apple trees either early spring, or late fall," Emily said.

"Oh, shoot, that's good to know. Another field of beans it is then." I said with a chuckle.

"We can still look at some orchard ground after harvest."