Nora
Sean casted an elongated shadow at the doorway while overseeing his men load their luggage in the wagon along with precious bronzewares and fine pieces of porcelain. "CAREFUL! I'll have your peasant arse flogged if you broke any of those!" He yelled at the manservant. His face darkened by oblique morning shadows couldn't be sterner after learning the lesson the hard way.
During the night, he learned of Julius' exploits over a drinking session. In excitement, he dropped his cup, breaking it into fragments. Although he was more than capable of paying the damage, he was nervous because porcelain wasn't just valuable, but rare and probably harder to find than metal artifacts.
"Old Sean, you needn't worry. These are but samples. For a man of your stature, we can get you a replacement. We'll craft ourselves new ones." Julius assured the man, but Sean learned his lesson well, perhaps too well.
Sean said his goodbyes to the Stannous family, promising to fulfill his obligation. In a month he would return with labor, tons of grain, cartloads and cartloads of copper ore, and most importantly, some salt.
Putting salt in one's food is an expression of wealth. It was something that common people normally did not fancy during this age due to its rarity, but Linus needed some for his chemical experiments. He couldn't waste what little Lina had in the kitchen or he would get chewed.
It isn't that Linus never thought of making salt himself, but it's true what he told Sean that he didn't have enough hands to expand his operation. It's also true that Sean's salt is expensive to acquire, and at some point, he had to introduce the ability to manufacture salt, but he had another problem, Solus had no access to saltwater.
Linus waved at Sean as he sank at the horizon, gesturing goodbye. He sighed, thinking of all the troubles he had to go through to get gold and silver refined from the rocks. Thanks to the porcelain, some progress was made and a little pressure was lifted off his shoulder – at least Julius quit nagging him about the precious coinage metals.
"Brother… are you sad?" Helena tugged at Linus' hand, her hazel eyes revealed an expression of yearning. After a few months, she slowly found her voice back. Linus, Nina, and the other kids at Gordon's took a good care of her. She listened stories and studied maths and letters with them.
"Not really, just disappointed. Salt, I need them, lots of them, but they're expensive." Linus said, sighing.
Helena tilted her head, curious. Recalling something, she slowly opened her mouth, "Brother… my father… he kept them in his shed. hic!" tears slowly pooled in her eyes and ran down her cheeks.
"Calm down, brother's here for you." Linus hugged the girl, offering his chest for her to cry on.
Ding! [You have a new notification.]
[Quest: Rebuild Stoneaxe]
[Since the pirate attack, Stoneaxe Town had been abandoned. Being close to the sea, the town has potential for manufacturing sea salt.]
[Reward: (Skill) Sea salt making]
Linus accepted the quest, thinking how handy it was to have the process of making salt ready. Although he roughly had an idea how salt was made from sea water, a lot has to be left for experimentation to get things right. It will save him time and precious resources to get the skill.
"Pops, if you'd allow me some men, I'd like to investigate Stoneaxe town and the areas around it." Linus asked Julius.
"Stoneaxe is in ruins, for what boy?" Julius inquired.
"Sean's salt is expensive. If we can build a salt making facility in Stoneaxe, we can profit more from our deal with Sean and potentially sell salt ourselves." Linus explained.
"I thought of that before, but boiled salt not only tastes bad, there's so little you can get for the firewood spent." Julius replied.
"There are more ways than boiling to get salt from seawater. I happen to know of a method, but we need seawater." Linus said.
"Really, you must have had another revelation. I'll allow exploration, so tell your Uncle Rock to help you." Julius finally permitted him to explore the ruins.
"Brother!" Helena stood by the door. "Let me come." she said clenching her fists, her nails dug into her palm.
"It's too dangerous, Helena. The pirates might still be there. Be a good girl and stay home." Linus kissed the girl on the forehead. Once more, the girl started crying.
Linus journeyed with Rock and his brothers, crossing the river and passing the mountain fortress. At night, they camped in the wilderness, cooked wild game and slept. And the next day, they came closer to their destination, Stoneaxe.
With the bandits gone, the group didn't have any trouble, until they heard a woman scream at the edge of the forest. "EEYYYAAAAAAAAAHH!"
"Brothers! Let's go!" Rock signaled to his brothers. The group ran to the origin of the scream and saw behind the cover of trees bodies lying on the ground, all bloodied and beaten up. They found the woman seated on the ground surrounded by her fallen companions, her fancy clothes now soiled with blood and dirt.
"My lady, thank you very much for these fanciful gifts." said by a man wearing a black bandana, picking up one of the metal blades. In his hand, the blade gleamed, weakly reflecting the sunlight as he inspected it. The rest of the belligerent fellows followed suit and picked up their share of the spoils.
"Lady, don't mind our company. We'll treat you well." The fellow in black bandana licked the blade, his face blackened by the shadow casted by the surrounding sea of trees.
"My nephew, they haven't spotted us yet. What do you think should be done?" Rock looked at Linus.
"Do you have to ask that question? I'll provide you with cover." Linus took out his bow, opened the system window and used the skill
[Select Skill to Possess]
A window popped out, populated with the list of skills his followers have. What stood out to him was a skill Julius possessed,
[Herculean Strength]
[Class Skill]
[Level: -]
[Type: Active Skill]
[Duration: 5 minutes]
[Champions are renowned for incredible feats of strength. When this skill is activated, the user is granted 300% strength.]
Linus thought it was timely to acquire the skill, so he used
Wash, rinse, and repeat, Linus fired shots in quick succession until he ran out of arrows. Only then he became aware of his unusual speed, as Rock and his brothers haven't even made contact with the rogues. While only a single shot fatally wounded one of the rogues, the rest of them cowered and scrambled for cover after being rained on by arrows.
"Like father, like son. Nice assist, nephew!" Rock smelled blood seeing his enemies with their backs turned. He was quick to take advantage of the opportunity and called, "CHARGE!" The brothers sprinted at them full speed, swinging their clubs and knocking them all out.
As if the battle never happened, Linus and his group of fighting men had not received any injury from the clash. Rock reached out to the woman, asking "Are you alright my lady?"
"Thanks to you, brave warrior." She took the hand, pulling herself up.
"My lady, it appears that you do not belong to these parts. I'm Linus, the son of Julius of Solus." Linus bowed, addressing the woman.
"Solus? You're the one I'm looking for!" the woman pointed at Linus. "Apologies, I'm Nora, daughter of the Shepherd clan, one of the nobles belonging to the City of Nexus. Your bronzewares have reached the port of Nexus, causing a riot among my chief's subjects. Thus, I decided to see with my own eyes the source of the trouble itself. I wanted to know what your town looks like and how you make bronzewares." Nora narrated.
"My lady, making bronzewares is a trade secret our town is unwilling to divulge. But surely, we produce the best bronzewares in town and we're more than willing to give you good prices for them. I don't wish to keep you here for a conversation, so please come with us to Solus. My father, the chief, would be more than happy to receive someone of noble birth like you." Linus invited Nora.
"Agreed. But please, give my men a decent burial even if they are not of noble birth. They gave their lives to protect me." Nora pleaded.
"Alright." Linus agreed. "Uncle Rock, please take Nora's men and give them a decent burial."
"Right, nephew." Rock replied.
"Warrior, you can keep their belongings as fee for the burial." Nora told Rock.
After the burial, Linus, Nora, Rock and company went back to the town of Solus. Since they have spotted rogues inhabiting the area, Linus decided that it wasn't the right time for them to visit Stoneaxe. He wished to inform Julius of the events first.