TBE Chapter 108

TBE Chapter 108

Edward and Simon returned, with Simon looking triumphant, saying that they were able to drive the bandits away. Ezekiel didn’t know if their pretend guardian got a good look at the supposed bandit, since if he did, he wouldn’t look so proud. The bandits were just hungry serfs, just like him before, driven to desperation and hunger.

Ezekiel was beginning to hate the concept of serfdom. It felt to him that it was just slavery using another name, but then again, he knew that if he saw slaves, his reaction was probably going to be the same. Which was to save them all. He knew he wouldn’t be able to do anything about this world’s system, but it was fun to imagine having enough power to effect a change like disposing of the system of serfdom or slavery.

He saw that Robert was about to argue with Simon regarding the bandits, but he whispered to his brother that feeding the hungry serfs would be their secret.

They returned to their journey with Edward leading them to where the haunted place was supposed to be located. To be honest, Ezekiel was excited about that encounter as well since he thought that if he managed to conquer that place, the experience that he would earn would push him to the next level of his Wizard profession. He was thankful that the first few levels were extremely easy for him to level because the power that the spells brought by his higher-level wizardry ranking was making their travel quite comfortable.

While they were traveling, Robert and Luke kept playing with their new Lego sets, and thankfully, their cart was moving extremely slowly, allowing them to play with their toys without any issues. The journey was pleasant because Edward would sometimes suddenly start singing, and Ezekiel had to admit that the minstrel sounded like a Disney prince. For a moment, he wished that he could sing as good as the minstrel, but then again, it was absurd to ask for more talent when he already had the talent of magic. Edward mentioned that he did the spontaneous singing for vocal practice, but in Ezekiel’s opinion, the minstrel was just really in love with his own voice.

Ezekiel also practiced his spell casting, but he chose to cast spells that wouldn’t be noticed by other people. He knew that Edward noticed, though, since whenever he started casting spells, the minstrel would focus on him.

The next three days were the same. They would start the day traveling after eating a bountiful breakfast, with Ezekiel making sure that there were no traces of magic left in the campground they chose. The boys would be playing while they were traveling, and he would interrupt them once in a while to converse with them in English for practice.

The minstrel would entertain them with his singing during their journey. They would always stop for lunch, eating a lot of the food that Ezekiel prepared, with everyone praising the taste. Ezekiel did make sure to rotate the dishes so that the boys wouldn’t complain that their food was the same all the time, and not only that, he interspersed their eating with desserts that he purchased from the system store, like donuts, cakes, ice cream, and more.

Whenever they stopped for the night, Edward would teach Simon swordplay. After that, Ezekiel would teach everyone how to read and write English and the common language. Then they would eat a generous amount of food for dinner then they would rest.

After a few days, they finally reached the area where the haunted place was supposed to be located. When Ezekiel finally saw the place that Edward was referring to, he was flabbergasted that it was a huge, terrifying-looking castle.

“That’s a castle, Edward!” Ezekiel exclaimed to the minstrel.

“Yes, it is! That’s why I’m sure that there’s a huge amount of treasure inside!” Edward excitedly said.

It was still early, around 9 in the morning, but Ezekiel asked Simon to stop. He needed to ponder his next step. Should he leave Robert and Luke with Simon, looking after them while he explores the castle? Of course, he would leave all the gold that he had accumulated to them if he did so if he fell; they would have the means to live as a well-off family, but then again, he doubted that they would do so without him.

Ezekiel remembered his reasoning why he brought his two brothers with him when he explored the haunted mansion in that village that they had passed through, and the reason then would be the same reason now why he would have to bring Robert and Luke with him, but he asked them.

Before he uttered a few words, Robert and Luke suddenly hugged him fiercely while saying that they wouldn’t allow him to go inside that “monster” castle without them. Ezekiel kept thinking and thought that to hell with it. He would just make use all of his powers to make sure that his brothers were safe beside him.

“Okay then. Every one of us will go inside unless anyone doesn’t want to come?” Ezekiel asked, but Edward and Simon, though looking afraid, said that they would go inside the castle as well.

The first thing they did was to create a plan. First, Ezekiel asked Edward to tell them all he knew about the castle, which was mostly hearsay and legends, so that meant that they knew absolutely nothing about it but one thing they did know, several adventurer groups perished inside.

Ezekiel then thought, why should they risk their lives inside? With his current power, they could live in any country or kingdom well. To be honest, he thought that the best thing he could do was wait until they had grown up before they tackled truly dangerous things like the castle before them.

“Edward, why should we conquer this place?” Edward suddenly asked the minstrel after a few minutes of silence.

While Ezekiel was thinking, no one interrupted him, so when he suddenly asked the minstrel a question, Edward and Simon were startled.

“What do you mean? For the treasure inside, of course!”

“You told me earlier that adventurers died inside, and I assume that those adventurers were powerful or at least more powerful than normal people, but then they died. That means that the castle was truly dangerous. I’m powerful and I’m a little confident that I can conquer this place, but then there’s no 100 percent guarantee on anything in this world. My brothers and I are extremely young, and my potential because of my magic is through the roof. Coins will never be a problem with me since I can conjure truly unimaginable things, and if you stick with us as our agent to sell those things, you will earn tons of gold coins. To be honest with you, for my power to increase, I need to kill a lot of monsters, but I decided that I will face dangerous things once my brothers and I have grown up. The best thing for me to do was to continue with my plan to live inside a city and wait till I’m all grown up before I tackle these types of things,” Ezekiel said almost ponderously.

“You are correct. Sticking with you will allow me to earn coins, but I have a wandering blood and will not be able to stay in one place for long. I’ll stay with you till we reach Delantan then I’ll probably leave you there. I wish I could learn a little magic from you,” Edward the minstrel said.

“Don’t worry too much, Edward. Once I’m an adult, I’ll return here and you can join me,” Ezekiel said to the minstrel while smiling.

After that decision was reached, they left the ominous-looking castle and continued their journey to the kingdom of Delantan.

They passed two villages in the 3 days that followed, and they always only stayed for a day. The only reason Ezekiel stayed in those villages was for Robert and Luke to play with the villagers' children. The good thing about Robert and Luke, both kids were extroverted and would only take a few minutes to get close to other children. Ezekiel didn’t sell any more knick-knacks to the villagers since he and Edward decided that they would just sell high-valued items in larger towns, and they would arrive in one after a couple of days, which passed by in no time.

They arrived at the town of Morcio. It was as large as the town of Cleaveland. There, Edward sold two kilograms of salt, two kilograms of pepper, and two kilograms of sugar, and the minstrel gave Ezekiel 240 gold coins. Ezekiel gave 10 gold coins to the minstrel, but he knew that Edward sold the spices for more, so he probably earned a lot more. Ezekiel’s general funds climbed to 378 Gold, 7 Silver, and 2 Copper Coins. A few more towns, and by the time they reached the kingdom of Delantan, their family would be extremely wealthy.

Ezekiel asked Edward if they would be targeted because of the coins they had earned, and the only thing that the minstrel said was that it was possible, but with Ezekiel’s magic, Edward wasn’t worried about any danger.