Bab 28: Returning to the Village
Riding the horse and pulling the other one, Harley and Nolan headed towards the closest city gate, the south city gate.
Along the way, they stopped at a blacksmith shop.
The blacksmith shop was a two-story building. From what Nolan saw since coming into this world, most of the blacksmith shops were two-story buildings.
On the first floor, the blacksmiths hammered the hot iron, producing items, while on the second floor, a salesman working for the blacksmith shop sold finished products.
Harley tied the horses before the blacksmith entrance for one of the dozens of wooden pillars supporting the blacksmith shop.
Then, he and Nolan entered inside.
Entering inside, they could not but feel the sudden change in temperature.
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
The blacksmiths, completely naked in the upper body, tirelessly hammered the hot iron.
"It's too hot here," Nolan commented.
"Well, it's not a real blacksmith shop if it's not hot. This is what a true blacksmith shop is," Harley said.
On the other end of the first floor of the blacksmith shop, they saw the stairs.
"Let's go to the second floor," Harley said and took the lead forward.
Nolan nodded and followed behind.
They headed to the second floor.
While the floor of the first floor was concrete, the floor of the second floor was wooden.
Just as in the previous blacksmith shop Nolan visited, the second floor had various weapons exhibited on the walls.
An ordinary-looking young man at most in his late twenties sat behind a rectangular table on the other end of the second floor. Behind him was a small bookshelf.
Seeing Nolan and Harley come to the second floor he stood up. "How can I help you?" He asked.
"Amm... I want to buy at least a hundred tools. I also want to buy two carts and also..."
"Wait, wait. Stop!" The young man waved his hands toward Nolan nervously. "Let me write your order down,"
He took out a paper from the bookshelf behind him. Since the table had already inkstone and brush placed on it, he didn't have to look for them, so he immediately started writing down Nolan's order.
"You said you want to buy a hundred tools. Can you be more specific?" He asked.
"Yes," Nolan got closer to the table with Harley following silently behind.
"I want a hundred pickaxes and hundred axes,"
The young man wrote Nolan's order on the paper. "That's a lot of tools you need," He commented, "Well, it's not like I complain,"
"I also want two horse carts," Nolan continued," Also, do you sell rope and water jars?"
"You are lucky," The young man smiled. "There are not a lot of shops selling ceramic jars. And much fewer blacksmith shops selling ceramic jars.
However, while coming, you must have seen a building similar to this next to this one. That building is owned by the boss of this blacksmith shop, and in that building, workers create items made of clay, ceramic, and even porcelain.
Also, while coming, you must have seen that between that pottery shop and this blacksmith shop is another two-story building. That building is the storage. In that storage, we keep both the items made in this blacksmith shop and that pottery shop." The young man explained.
"Ohh!"Harley exclaimed in surprise. "Now that you mention it, there was indeed a similar building like this one and a building between this blacksmith shop and that pottery shop.
But your boss is really a genius. To think he would think of using one storage building for two businesses."
"I know, right?!" The young man shouted, his eyes sparkling in admiration. "He is such a genius even though he Is only a little older than..."
"Umm..." Nolan interrupted him. He felt that if no one interrupted him, he would have continued talking forever. "We are kind of short on time, so..."
"I-I am sorry. I got carried away," The young man came from behind the table with the paper with Nolan's order in hand and an iron key he took from between the books on the bookshelf. "Please follow me."
He led the way down to the first floor and then out of the blacksmith shop.
Again, coming out of the blacksmith shop, Nolan and Harley could not but feel the sudden change in temperature. Especially because while inside the blacksmith shop, they had sweated, which now made them feel even colder.
"Harley, take the horses with us," Nolan said. 'We will attach the carts for the horses and will load the tools and the other items in them."
Harley nodded.
He untied the horses from the wooden pillar.
The young man then led the way to the two-story building next to the blacksmith shop. When entering the blacksmith shop, this building would be from the left.
This building had a large, two-winged wooden door. The door also had two wooden pull handles, each on a wing of the door. The pull handles were wrapped in chains, merged, and locked in the middle with a padlock.
"This is our storage," The young man said, inserting the iron key in the padlock.
Click!
The padlock unlocked.
The young man unwrapped the chains of the pull handles and then pulled the door open.
He and Nolan entered inside while Harley remained outside waiting with the horses.
The storage had no windows, so if not for the many oil lamps hung on the walls, lighting the storage, one would not be able to see a finger before his nose.
The insides of the storage really shocked Nolan. He expected it to be full of items, but not as much as this.
On the first floor, there were dozens of carts. On each cart were pilled dozens of items. On some carts were pilled jars, on others tools.
Also in the upper left corner of the storage, tools like axes, pickaxes, sickles, shovels, etc., were piled up to the ceiling.
Not only that, but there were also many other items like chains, padlocks, and ropes on the ground. And this was only the first floor, the second floor probably had weapons. Hundreds of weapons.
"Is it not troublesome to unlock the chains every time you need to come here?" Nolan asked.
"We don't have orders as big as yours every day. We have most of the items in the blacksmith shop." The young man replied, looking at the paper with Nolan's order.
He walked over to one cart and started unloading the item piled on it.
Wanting to help and save some time, Nolan walked to a cart, and started unloading the items piled on it.
After unloading the carts, they started piling the items Nolan ordered.
It took them half an hour to put everything on the carts.
Then after loading the carts, they brought them outside and attached them to the horses.
"How much does everything cost?" Nolan asked.
"A tool costs thirty copper coins, and a cart costs three taels of silver, with the jars..." The young man started calculating.
"Thirteen taels of silver," He said after a few minutes.
'Fu.ck!' A realization fell on Nolan. 'I forgot to take out the money from the inventory,'
"Ahh. Before you close the storage, can you bring me ten swords?" Nolan asked. This was the first solution that came to his mind. To get the young man to leave for a moment.
"I will bring them to you right now," The young man immediately entered the storage again and headed to the second floor.
"Why do you need the swords?" Harley asked.
"I don't need them," Nolan replied. "I just wanted him to leave so I could take the money out,"
Nolan stood between the horses and the carts.
"System, give me the box with money," Nolan muttered, and the box with silver taels instantly appeared in his hands.
The reason he stood between the horses and the carts was to hide from the eyes of the people passing on the street.
"So what are you going to do with the swords? It's not like you can tell him you changed your mind and return them," Harley said.
"We will find some use for them too,"
A few minutes later, the young man came out of the storage carrying ten swords in his hands.
"Here," He placed them in one of the carts. "With the swords, it would cost you fourteen taels of silver."
Nolan opened the box and took one silver tael out. "Here are fourteen taels of silver. Count them." Nolan passed him the wooden box.
The young man took the box. It took him only a few seconds to count the money. "Thank you," He bowed. "Please come again." After he said this, he headed to the storage and closed the door.
While he was locking the two-winged wooden door of the storage, Harley jumped on one horse.
He then helped Nolan climb onto the horse and sit behind him.
Clang!
He took the reins of the other horse and started his horse.
The horse started moving, controlled by Harley, it headed towards the south city gate.
...
After half an hour, Nolan and Harley arrived before the city gate. Of course, they arrived so quickly because they traveled by horse. If not, by foot, they would have needed to travel for at least an hour and a half.
Nolan and Harley got off the horse and lined in the line of people waiting to leave the city.
After waiting in line for about fifteen minutes, their turn finally came.
"What do you need so many tools for?" The inspection guard holding several wanted posters asked. "Where are you bringing them?"
"We are merchants, we bought those tools and will re-sell them outside the city," Nolan spoke with a faked kind smile.
"Where are you going to sell them? The other cities do not lack blacksmith shops!" The inspection guard shouted. "And why do you have swords? Are you going to sell them too?" The guard became even more suspicious of them after seeing the sword.
"Sir, the other cities do not lack blacksmith shops, but the villages do." Nolan continued saying lies he thought of on the spot. "We will go to several villages and sell those tools. As for the swords, when we previously sold tools in one village, some villagers requested swords for self-defense from wild animals."
"You are suspicious!" The inspection guard was persistent.
"Aghh!" Nolan shook his hand. "Sir, we are just honest merchants trying to make a little profit," Nolan took out one of the silver taels he previously put in the belt of his hanfu. "Please understand our sincerity." He secretly put the silver tael into the guard's palm.
The guard glanced at the silver tael and smiled. He then clenched it and placed both of his hands behind his back.
"There are a lot of people waiting in line!" He shouted. "This time, I will let you go. But there won't be a second time!"
"Yes, yes, yes." Nolan pushed Harley towards the horse while bowing thankfully to the inspection guard.
Harley got on the horse and helped Nolan up.
They then left the city.
Leaving the city under Nolan's instruction, Harley turned left, and they continued heading east.
...
After two hours of traveling, Nolan and Harley arrived at the foot of the mountain.
They arrived twice, no thrice faster than they would have if they traveled by foot. However, even though they arrived faster, there were still only two to three hours before the end of the day.
Nolan knew it was impossible to cross the mountain with the horses. The only way to get to the other side of the mountain with the horses and the carts was to find the way around the mountain.
Nolan told Harley the situation, and about the way around the mountain, so they immediately started searching around the mountain. After searching for half an hour, they found a small narrow path between the mountain and a small hill next to the mountain.
Without any other option, Nolan and Harley decided to follow the narrow path.
But since the path was very narrow, the horses could go only one behind the other, so Nolan and Harley got off the horse and continued walking forward while leading the horses.
'This is probably the only way around the mountain," Nolan thought. 'Well, it's not that bad. We could probably widen it by digging the ground of the mountain and the hill that surrounds the path.'
After walking for a half-hour on the path, the path started becoming wider. And now the two horses could walk one beside the other.
"By the looks of it, someone had dug the ground surrounding the path," Harley commented after seeing the freshly dug ground around.
"Yes," Nolan smiled. He already knew who dug the ground and cleared the path. It was definitely the shovel group led by Kelton. "Let's hurry up," Nolan added.
Harley got on the horse. Nolan followed him and sat behind him.
...
After fifteen minutes, the village with its temporary houses was already in sight.
After another five minutes, they arrived at the village.
The sun started setting, and they finally arrived in the village.
Hadiah
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