The Black Iron Glory
Little Cottage

Chapter 98

Little Cottage

Claude went to school the next day. His friends were waiting for him when he arrived.

Welikro gave him a boost.

"You're finally back" said Welikro, stabbing him with a fist.

Claude's eyes wandered around the room, stopping on each face for a moment, and he realized they were all staring at him in awe. Butwhy? Was it because he skipped school for two weeks?

"Everyone knows the baroness outside the city hired you to be her bodyguard" Borkal chimed in, "Even her instructors were jealous. Your future's been sorted."

"How do you know?" Claude asked, surprised.

"Everyone knew the baroness was back from the capital, but no one had ever gotten a chance to meet her. He's always been a hermit, he didn't even attend the mayor's event. How did you do it?"

Borkal, because of all his ignorance, always knew quite a lot about the city's undercurrents, about the unspoken and the unspoken. It only grew stronger after his father started actively training him as his successor in recent months. He tells Borkal everything that is happening in the city as well as the problems he faces when doing business without reservation.

Claude shrugged his shoulders.

"I'm on a hunt. Wero told me that there was a good hunt in the area, so I went there. I found him on the way there. His horse was struck by something and came filling the path. It was about to fill the path so I stopped him and calmed him down. He took me to the manor to thank me. One of his servants found one wild boar and I took out a few of them, one of which was a wild boar that I brought home. He decided I'd be useful so he hired me to keep an eye on his property while he was gone. "

"Damn it, you're lucky!" Borak cried, "I heard he came here to conduct experiments for herbal medicine research. Really true?"

"I don't know. We didn't interact much, you know. I know he spends most of his time in the lab. He had me put some herbs in the sun to dry a few times, and he taught me a little herbal medicine. But that's all. "

"And I heard he went back to the capital yesterday?" Eriksson asked.

Claude smiled bitterly. The whitestag is too small, and the news spreads too fast. Claude saw no reason to play with his absence, so he nodded. He could hardly deny and was trusted when he went with the coach with a badge and carried it right in the middle of town on the street.

"So you're not going to the forest anymore, are you? We can finally get along again," said Eriksson, his voice getting excited with each word.

Claude's head shook.

"I'm still at his job. I've moved to his estate and I'm still responsible for it."

The shoulders of his three friends slumped.

"So we can't hang out anymore?"

"You can come visit me if you want," Claude offered, "Why don't you come tomorrow?"

"really?" Borkal's smile was awkward, but his voice was excited, "I want to go there, but my father won't let me."

"Mrs is relaxed. He won't have any problems. Anyway, he's not here. When you come, ask the old couple to show you."

The four chatted for a while longer and finally decided to go home after school and pack a few things before heading home together. Everyone was excited to hunt on the noble-owned land. There wasn't enough room on the train for everyone and their belongings, so Claude traveled alone first to bring their luggage and weapons to the estate.

The train stopped at the manor, the four boys behind him, at sunset. Lancy was cooking dinner and almost had a heart attack when she saw three extra mouths arrive. Her husband was somewhat level-headed, and asked if they should make dinner for the three unexpected guests as well.

The three boys gawked at the referential tone the two old men used and finally learned that Claude was in charge of all the servants, few in number.

When the carriage stopped at the main gate, the children almost lost their jaws. The white-and-black house loomed over them like a giant statue, and they gawked like a village person. But Claude had no intention of bringing them inside. He didn't think their egos could handle it, so they headed backwards without stopping.

The three boys gawked shortly at Claude's new residence. It was much more impressive than the house, but the fact that it was their friend's residence was more than made up for it. None of them thought they had such a house for at least the next fifteen years, maybe not even once, but Claude already lived there. Claude immediately started working on dinner and had Welikro take two servings to Sioris to try as well.

"Why didn't they tear it down? It was beautiful and everything, but they could accommodate more people if they replaced it with the same place they had for the servants."

Claude smiled.

"The lady said they kept it around because it was the original villa on the estate. I don't know exactly why, but that's what he said. Besides, you know he doesn't get many guests, and he doesn't have many servants here, so he doesn't need any extra housing. Why knock down a really nice house when you have no reason to? " Claude asked.

"Hmm ..." ponder Borkal, "I remember dad telling me about the villa. Afess Normanley used to be a city cobbler, everybody knows that. But it seemed like everyone had forgotten that his father was hired by the former villa nobles to supervise the Estate and was allowed to stay in the villa when they were not there. Afess wanted to inherit her father's position, but the old man didn't want her to have anything to do with nobles, either, because he saw how unruly things had happened and knew something like a civil war was inevitable.

"He apprenticed for a few years and became a cobbler, but he never liked his job, so he jumped at the chance to join a small group of kings when he was offered the option. He returns as a baron, now a plantation owner, to find his father's grave.

"She may have kept the villa as it was long ago in honor of her father."

At least it sounds reasonable. The baroness had told him that she did not care much about the villa. If not for all the trouble it caused, he would have torn it down years ago. It didn't match the aesthetics of the other nobles, but he wasn't here often enough and long enough to be distracted enough to be completely torn down.

Welikro returns, empty plates in hand, while Borkal recounts old town rumors. He slammed the two in the sink in the bathroom and took out two pieces of black bread wrapped in cloth.

"Remember to say thank you for the food," he said simply as he dropped them on the table.

The timing couldn't be better, Claude simply put the dishes on the table, so the four of them ate right away. Borkal took out one of the bottles of beer he was carrying. He graduated from expensive wine to cheap, but quite tasty, beer as long as Claude wasn't around.

Dinner disappeared in an instant and the four of them cleaned the table and washed the dishes, then went to the roof arbor to relax before heading to the bed. Two weeks is a lifetime for boys their age, so they have to pursue a lot of things.

Autumn begins to wane towards winter, so the evenings are cool, with little bites beginning to crawl in. The four of them dared to barge through the night air for about an hour before they started spinning one by one. Borkal was the first to succumb to his exhaustion.

Welikro and Eriksson have no intention of following him any time soon. Welikro was fine in finishing the beer, while Eriksson pondered that only teenage boys in the middle of puberty could do it.

The three sat quietly for a while before Eriksson sighed and started spilling the beans that everyone was waiting for. It turned out that he had been having recurring nightmares since the beginning of Claude's absence for two weeks. He kept dreaming he was floating in the middle of the ocean, alone, just a big wooden barrel to keep him afloat and accompany. He never knew how long he had been hovering there in his dreams, but he was certain every time for at least a few days, despite never seeing the sun. The sky was always covered in ominous black clouds, only dashed by lightning. The ocean usually starts out relatively calm, but it quickly becomes a storm and he will be left holding on to the barrel for all he deserves as the waves throw him around like flying in a strong wind.

He had dreamed five times in two weeks since he first had it, and every time he woke up drenched in cold sweat. He knows more happens to him in a dream than just floating there, even though he doesn't remember anything. It made him very worried for his father and robbed him of his peace.

Her father had promised to return for her graduation. Her birthday was not long after, and since she was about to turn eighteen, she would be taxed and had to find work. His father promised to help him.

"He'll be fine" Claude said as close as possible, "He'll be back before you know it. He left with a large fleet, and a good escort. He's not in any danger. Where was it I read that you always dream about the opposite of what is actually going to happen? You should be worried if you do not have this dream. "

Claude's words were shocking, even to himself, but he only had a little else he could do.

If everything goes according to plan, Eriksson's father should be docked at Tyrrsim port by now. He had to be there for another month before returning home. If there was nothing wrong on the way back, he would have docked at Whitestag again somewhere in the middle of the 11th month.

It has not left him with much room for error since the graduation ceremony on the 26th of the 11th. He has to get everything right in order to be on time. However, there was still a month and a half for him to return, but there was also a month and a half for something to go wrong. Claude doubts Eriksson is the only one praying for the captain to return safely. At least two-thirds of the city had someone in the family on one of the ships, and all the major figures in the city invested in traveling one way or another, even if many do not know the true purpose of it. His father was most prominent among the luminaries with investments in this venture. If everything goes well, he can have news in the capital in the new year.

Despite the shallowness of his consolation, Eriksson's face lost some of its shadows and Welikro humped as he gulped down the final beer.

The three gave up that night, satisfied.

The four spent the entire next day hunting, and returned with a decent haul, though none scored large prey. Most of their catches are rabbits, squirrels, and some turkeys.