373 – Market and Clues

Well, my chapters are taking a long time to be posted in NU and it is not letting me post them myself anymore, and they are being posted with a wrong date somehow. So, suscribe to the blog for a quick heads up 😛

Anyway, here’s the second one today. I doubt i’ll have time for a third since I was without internet for around 4 hours today and I could only translate 2. But, I also started an “additional info” page, which is still WIP, that will contain general info about witches, magic, armies and a glossary. I’ll work on it over time, so check it out when you have a chance.

 

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Ferlin stood behind his wife, who was carefully appraising and picking up goods from the stall.

Whenever she was shopping, Irene’s eyes always had this serious look.

“You know… the price of every piece of meat is calculated according to its weight, they are all basically the same.”

“Obviously they are not the same!” she said emphasizing her words, “You like to eat lean meat, right? But if the piece does not have fat, it won’t be savory enough after boiling it. A rib with a thin layer of fat is the best, slicing it and frying it in oil is also appropriate, that’s why I need to choose carefully.”

Ferlin couldn’t help but to laugh, “Ok, you take your time choosing, I’ll go ahead and buy a bag of wheat, since the queue is long, come and find me after you finish buying the meat.”

“Ok,” Irene replied without moving her eyes from the stall.

He just shook his head, and after turning around, he walked towards the food stalls of the market.

Since the moment the snow started to fall, the feudal lord erected a wooden shed to protect the market from the wind, a bulletin was also posted on the board, declaring that even during winter, the sales in the market would not be suspended.

This meant that, even during the long and harsh Months of Demons, this small town would still provide a stable supply of food.

For the town’s citizens, this was undoubtedly an incredible reassurance.

Compared with the less frequented meat stalls, the agency in charge of selling grains had far more people. A long line of people was extending from the front of the counter, and there were also two uniformed patrol men maintaining the order. But in this town, they had a completely different name: Police.

With all sorts of amazing innovations that the lord had brought about, Morning Light no longer felt alarmed by such sights, and just changing the name of the patrol guard was not all that strange. He was also aware that the patrol guard’s impression on most citizens was that of troublemakers, borderline criminals, but changing its name really made the people feel different about them.

“Mr. Eltek, good afternoon,” said someone from the queue who recognized him, “You also came to buy wheat, huh?”

“You can stand with me.”

“I’ll give you my place.”

“No, no,” Ferlin waved his hand, and went to stand at the end of the line, “Thank you though.”

“You are really popular,” the middle-aged man in front of him laughed, “As expected of the one once known as the first knight of the western region, Morning Light.”

Ferlin stared blankly at the man, “You know who I used to…”

“Hahaha, of course, everyone knows of this in Border Town,” the man touched his chin while grinning and said, “Even my son and daughter are very fond of you, and ever since he inquired about your origins, their oldest son, Nate, has been shouting that he will become a knight.”

“It is all in the past now,” Ferlin shook his head, “and besides, His Highness no longer needs a knight.”

“We do have the First Army now,” the middle-aged man said while thinking about something else, “Before you became an ordinary citizen, I would probably be afraid to speak to you like this.”

Indeed, when he was a knight under the duke, most civilians would not even dare to cross eyes with him, the words they spoke about him were truly filled with envy and admiration, but behind them there was still fear. The only one who dared to stare at his eyes, and speak without regards of social status, was Irene—at that first encounter at the theater, he felt his heart finally found a place to call home.

Being captured after the crushing defeat and coming to Border Town, Ferlin thought he would only be changing lords, but he never expected to find himself as a teacher, spreading the knowledge and gaining the respect of everyone.

This sort of respect was completely different from the one he received as a knight, the crowd did not avoid him, but would come closer instead—comparing it with being respected from a distance, this feeling made Ferlin feel happy and satisfied.

Perhaps, he was not fit to be a knight.

♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢

After waiting for fifteen minutes, it finally came the turn of Ferlin Eltek.

“Identification card.” said the clerk, but after turning towards him, she was surprised, “Mr. Ferlin?”

“Betty,” he was surprised too, the girl behind the counter was part of his first group of graduated students. After he somewhat understood the situation, he said with a happy expression, “Did you join the city hall?”

“Yes,” she replied with a cheerful look on her face, and nodded just like she did back in the school, “I am now working as an apprentice for this office, under the Ministry of Agriculture.”

Ferlin didn’t want to make the people still in the line wait, so he handed over his ID card and six silver royals, “I’ll take a medium bag of wheat.”

“Yes!” she registered the name in the book, then she went to the back and called out for a porter to bring a bag of wheat and place it in the counter. In here, he cannot inspect the goods, and choosing from among the bags was also not accepted. All the bags are packed the same way, and according to their weight, they are divided into three categories, large, medium, and small. The medium bag he bought was almost enough for two people to eat for a month.

The grain prices were fixed, hardly showing any fluctuation, also you must show your identity card at the moment of your purchase, and the amount allowed to be purchased is limited. But Ferlin understood the reason, this measure was obviously taken in order to avoid people from buying food in large quantities, causing the people who were genuinely in need of food, to have nothing to buy.

“Teacher, when you have time, pay me a visit at my home.” Betty handed over the ID card back to him.

“Sure,” Ferlin answered with a smile and took the wheat bag, then while he walked away, he searched for a place to rest. Up until now, Irene still hadn’t joined him yet, so it was likely that she was still looking for other goods. So he simply tried to find an obvious and dry position, and after putting the bag on the ground, he sat down to rest for a moment.

Just at that moment, a blue figure passed in front of his eyes.

Morning Light was startled, and as he looked over his shoulder, his whole body trembled—a beautiful woman with fine facial features, and that unusual deep blue hair, a type he would never forget. Ferlin felt his whole body stiffened and his blood froze, but not because of the outstanding appearance of the woman, but… he had seen this honorable person in his household’s main hall.

As a child, he had always asked about the identity of the person whose portrait was hanging on the wall of the hall, but his father never spoke about it. She was undoubtedly a woman, and her portrait was apparently more important than all the other portraits of all his grandfathers, it was only after his father was dead-drunk, that he heard him mention something about her.

If he remembered correctly, the person in the painting was the founder of the Eltek household.

How… How can this be possible?

“Sorry, did you wait long?” Irene’s voice pulled him back from his chaotic thoughts, “I went to pick up some eggs afterwards, oh, and I also bought a small bag of butter. Did you get the wheat?”

“Yeah…” Ferlin said absentmindedly.

After returning home, that image was still fresh in his eyes, the figure of that blue haired woman… Why would she be in Border Town? What is an ancestor of the Eltek family doing here?

After hesitating for a long time, he decided to return to Longsong Stronghold.

When he told Irene his plan to return to the stronghold city, she just raised a brow and asked, “Didn’t you already cut ties with your family? Why are you returning over there?”

“Uhh… because…” he showed hesitation in his voice, “because of something.”

“Inheritance?” Irene tilted her head while guessing, “No, it’s something else, is it because of… a woman?”

Cough, cough, Ferlin almost choked, “I’ll never do something like that!”

“But your eyes tell me you’re lying,” she motioned Morning Light to sit on a chair, and with an imposing gaze she spoke, “You promised me that you would always be my knight, and I also believe that you’d never break that promise, but that’s also the reason I feel particularly curious… Why can’t you tell me? Do you remember our old farm house on the outskirts of Longsong Stronghold? In front of it, we agreed that we would never keep any secret from each other.”

She had such an honest look on her face that expressed, not matter what, she would always want to share everything with him, whether it was good or bad—and even after going through all the problems that arose from the Duke’s defeat, Irene had not changed at all.

Ferlin took a deep breath, and after pulling her into her arms, in a whispering voice he told her his worries.

“So, it was that,” after hearing this, Irene nodded, “Then you really need to go.”

“You… do you believe me?” Even to him, this strange story about an ancestor that was apparently living in the town sounded like nothing more than a delusion.

“Of course I believe you,” she responded with a wink, “This time, you didn’t look away.”

 

 

 

 

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