“Chris! Chris!”
Yells Rurika, and Chris opens her eyes slightly.
Rurika breathes a sigh of relief, and Chris looks surprised, as she opens her eyes widely.
I laugh without thinking when she makes that expression, but it’s because I’m relieved.
It looked like she was suffering. She would mumble words from time to time, and her breathing was erratic. And she wouldn’t respond or wake up at all no matter how much Rurika and Sera called out to her.
“Are you all right?”
“What’s wrong, Sera?”
Chris looks at Sera’s worried face, sits up, and looks around. And then, she finally notices everyone looking at her.
“It looked like you were in pain or something, Were you having a nightmare?”
“…Nightmare… The ruins!!”
“Ruins? What about them?”
“I feel like we have to go there.”
Chris doesn’t really know why either.
“The ruins that were discovered near here?”
“Yes. Probably.”
As she answers my question, she grabs the pendant hanging from her neck, and looks at the wall.
I’m pretty sure the ruins are in that direction.
“Let’s just gather information tomorrow while we go shopping. Even if we go to the ruins, we have to buy things for the home and stock up on disposable items first. And how about learning a bit more about the ruins too?
“Yes. There’s still some time until morning, so let’s just rest. I think we’re going to be busy.”
Says Rurika, and Hikari is the first one to go back to bed, followed by everyone else.
◇ ◇ ◇
The next morning, Rurika and Sera head to the adventurer guild, and the rest of us go shopping.
We have a lot to do, so they’ll join us again when we’re done.
That said, we look around for the disposable items we’ll need while traveling, but everything is so expensive that we end up not buying them.
If we went back to the capital and bought things there, we’d get items of better quality for a lower price.
And after I check the Item Box, I see that I’d feel more reassured if I restocked, but there’s still enough that I’m not really all that bothered.
“Should we go buy the sheets?”
“I want to buy things like thread too, if possible.”
“Do you want to sew again?”
“Yes. Not for me exactly, for the children in the home. If we buy more sheets, maybe they can make clothes too. Apparently Filo has also been teaching some of the children how to sew.”
If that’s what she thought while she sewed with them, it has to be right.
Then let’s buy extra sheets.
“What else…”
Suddenly, I remember something.
“Where are stuff like broken weapons disposed of?”
“In blacksmiths, or maybe they’re sold in weapon stores, I guess.”
That said, the ones in weapon stores wouldn’t be broken. They’d be leftovers that can technically still be used.
“…And stuff like iron ore would be in blacksmiths, right?”
“In Nahal, I think so.”
Then should we head to a weapon store first?
And as we check out the prices, we meet up with Rurika and Sera.
I see poor quality stuff gathered in a corner of the weapon store, all being sold for dirt cheap.
I ask why there’s so much, and I’m told people buy new things and leave the old stuff here.
Once I start grabbing them, I see it really is all stuff that wouldn’t even serve as spares. It’s not like they’re completely unusable, but I wouldn’t buy them either.
Assuming I had the money to buy something better, of course.
Anyway, I buy a few, and put them in the Item Box.
“What are you going to do with those?”
Asks Sera as we leave the store, and I say I want to try working on them with Alchemy.
What I want from them is the iron. I want to see if I can use them to make farming tools.
They’re surprised to hear this, but when they realize who the tools are for, they look a little happy too.
We figure we should stop by a blacksmith too, and on the way there, I ask Sera and Rurika if they got any information, but it sounds like they didn’t learn a whole lot.
But I do get cheap iron ore in the blacksmith. I should talk with Olin before doing anything about the farming tools.
Once we get back to the home, we split into two groups.
I put sheets and tools to be used in the home in an item bag, and hand it to Mia. Then I go with Sera to Olin’s home, so I can see the sort of tools they actually use there.
“Are you really sure about this?”
“Yes. I got all the materials for almost nothing anyway.”
Not to mention that he’s a nice enough person to teach the kids in the home how to farm.
This really isn’t that much trouble, if it means helping someone like him.
I separate and take just the iron I need with Alchemy, and change what used to be swords into stuff like hoes and shovels.
Once I’m done I ask Olin to check them, and he says there doesn’t seem to be a problem with them.
“This might really speed up our work!”
“I made some that are smaller, so even kids can use them, but be careful with how they use them.”
“Of course. But really, thanks for all this. We’ll even expand our farm a little with this.”
“Can you do that?”
“It’s not anyone’s usin’ it. I just gotta check with the big shots here in town, but it shouldn’t be a problem.”
This is far from the center of town, so I guess there’s room to spare.
“We have things to do, so we’re going to have to leave town, but I think people from the alchemist guild are going to come here to check the progress of the crops. Please receive them when they come.”
And that concludes our business in Nahal, so we’re leaving for the ruins the next day.
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Thanks for the treat.