TBE Chapter 107

TBE Chapter 107

Edward and Simon spent a couple of hours outside the towers for their swordplay practice, and after that, they immediately headed to the washroom to bathe. Ezekiel prepared a lot of meat sandwiches and soda for the two since he promised them some snacks after the minstrel taught Simon sword craft.

Robert and Luke were still playing with their new Lego toy, and Ezekiel felt a little worried about how focused the two boys were on their new toy. They even ignored him when he told them there were some meat sandwiches in the kitchen.

The minstrel and Simon joined Ezekiel in the kitchen after they cleaned themselves, and when they saw the food on the dinner table, they attacked the sandwiches as if they were zombies suddenly seeing fresh new live people.

After several minutes of eating, Edward tasted the soda.

“Is this alcohol?” The minstrel asked.

“No. It’s called a pop soda.” Ezekiel answered.

“It’s delicious, but I prefer alcohol. Don’t you have wine or ale?”

“No. None of us is of age to drink alcohol.”

The answer seemed to stupefy the minstrel, but after a few seconds, he returned to devouring the sandwiches that Ezekiel prepared.

It appeared to Ezekiel that Edward and Simon were in some sort of competition over who could devour more sandwiches. He even needed to retrieve more from his 4th tab space.

After that, everyone prepared to sleep. Ezekiel had to scold his two brothers because they kept insisting that they were not yet sleepy and wanted to play more with their new Lego toy, but as expected, after a few minutes of lying down on the bed, the boys were immediately asleep. He didn’t even have to tell them their bedtime story.

The next day, they left their campground early. Ezekiel could tell that Edward was excited for them to reach the haunted place, since if they did manage to conquer it, they might find some truly valuable treasure.

The rest of the day was uneventful. They stopped during lunchtime to eat, and every time they encountered travelers, Edward was the one who talked to them. Ezekiel spent his time reviewing his newly purchased spells and after he was done with that, he studied his system store to check which items that could help him earn gold coins and to help ease their lives although to be honest, their lives were already easy since because of his magic, they had plenty of food and comfortable place to day when night arrived. He did join his brothers in playing with the Lego set, providing them some inspiration on what things they could build using the pieces.

Whenever he concentrated on his system panel, Ezekiel made sure that he had a book opened with him so he wouldn’t look like some witless boy staring into nothing.

They stopped when the sun started to set, and Simon searched for a clearing where Ezekiel could set up the Galder’s Towers. After their nightly houses were conjured, everyone finished their chores, and the boys went directly to the bedroom to continue playing with their new toy. Since they liked it so much, Ezekiel spent three silver coins to purchase a classic set of Lego so they could build whatever they wanted. The added Lego bricks delighted Robert and Luke, and they wasted no time in trying to come up with things they wanted to build while they were traveling earlier.

The first thing they did was the language lessons because aside from learning, it was also a form of rest, and after that, Edward and Simon went outside so the minstrel could continue teaching Simon how to use the sword.

Ezekiel also went outside and cast the Fly spell and started searching for a clearing in the forest where he could practice casting his spells. He saw that Edward and Simon noticed him and were surprised when he flew out. He just shouted at them that he needed to practice his spells and let them be.

He wasn’t worried that he would get lost since he still had the mini map, and not only that, he left Yuki Onna to look after his brothers. He also planned not to go too far.

When Ezekiel found a clearing, he started casting his 4th-level spells. He spent several minutes casting a single spell, making sure that he studied the minutiae of every single spell. He knew that it would take several more practice casting before he could say that he was familiar with every single 4th-level spell, but he quit his practice after a couple of hours and returned home.

Everyone had already bathed and was waiting for him. Robert and Simon were pouting, and when he appeared, they rushed at him and hugged him.

“I thought you left us!” Robert said.

“I’m sorry. I just went somewhere to practice my spells, and I don’t want to do it near here because some of the spells would cause quite a commotion. Yuki Onna is my familiar, and you can see it by the window. If my familiar is near, that means that I’m near as well, so you didn’t have to worry, but I guess it’s my fault for not telling you that I will go into the forest to practice spellcasting. Next time I’ll tell you both, even if you’re busy with your new toy. You know what, I’ll give you an ice cream cake later, okay?”

The boys cheered when they heard what he said because they were fascinated by what Ezekiel would give them later, which was a combination of their two favorite things. Ice cream and cake.

Ezekiel told everyone that there would be an Ice cream cake after dinner; they needed to make sure that they would leave space in their stomach for the dessert. After dinner, he purchased the promised ice cream cake and presented it to everyone, which caused everyone’s eyes to widen and drool to flow, although it was only Luke who did that.

The moment the dessert entered everyone’s mouth, everyone kept saying that it was the most delicious thing they had ever eaten. Ezekiel had to admit that the dessert that he chose for that night was truly delicious.

After dinner, Ezekiel made sure that their houses were protected by casting all the defensive spells that he usually cast, then he joined his brothers in playing with the Lego sets, and even Edward and Simon joined them.

All of them enjoyed playing with Lego sets, and each one of them showed their creativity. Soon, Ezekiel told everyone that it was time to sleep when Edward suddenly laughed.

“What are you laughing about?” Ezekiel asked.

“It’s just that if others see that the head of the family is a kid, they would be weirded out,” The minstrel said with a smile remaining on his face.

Ezekiel just shrugged, and the others just ignored Edward. That night, Ezekiel read a bedtime story to them from the fairy tale stories that he purchased from his system store, but this time, he read it in English instead of translating the words to the common language. After a few paragraphs, though, Robert, Luke, and Simon were asleep.

At first, Edward wanted to speak to Ezekiel, but since he was sleepy, he told the minstrel that he would talk to him the next day.

Tomorrow arrived fast enough, and everyone woke up almost at the same time. Ezekiel retrieved their breakfast from his inventory and, after cleaning up everything, their journey started again.

Surprisingly, that day was eventful because they encountered their first bandit group. There were only five of them, and they looked like hungry and malnourished runaway serfs. Ezekiel pitied them and told Edward and Simon to just drive them away, which they easily did because the bandit serfs were only armed with farm tools while Edward and Simon were armed with swords, and Simon even had a crossbow.

“Brother, can we give them food? They look so thin and hungry, just like we were before,” Luke said while almost crying, and based on Robert’s expressions, he felt the same way.

Ezekiel took an empty sack and filled it with 20 loaves of bread, then a makeshift purse that he put in 20 silver coins and put the purse inside.

He then called Yuki Onna and commanded it to give the sack to the bandits who were already in their camp in the forest. His familiar dropped the sack in the middle of the serf bandits’ camp and flew away immediately, but Ezekiel guided the owl to remain hidden inside the foliage so he could watch the serfs’ reactions.

The serfs were startled but Ezekiel thought that they might not have even seen who dropped the sack since Yuki Onna was fast. When the bandits opened the sack, all of them were startled at the bread and they all started eating. The men started crying and that almost made Ezekiel cried as well.

After each one of the serf bandits had eaten around half a loaf of bread, one of them noticed the purse, and surprisingly, the one who saw the purse showed it to everyone. Ezekiel was half expecting that the one who saw the purse would keep it to himself.

When the serfs saw the 20 silver coins, they cheered. Ezekiel finally commanded Yuki Onna to leave the camp and return to them.

“You don’t need to worry. Yuki dropped the sack filled with bread and a purse of coins in their middle, and they’re now eating, and the bread should last them several days. If they’re frugal, the coins should last them a while as well,” Ezekiel told his brothers, who suddenly hugged him fiercely.