TBE Chapter 76

TBE Chapter 76

The three brothers woke up early the next day. After a delicious breakfast that he retrieved from his 4th tab space, drinking some cold water bespelled to taste like orange juice, and their vitamins, Ezekiel told his brothers that it was time for them to depart from the area.

Ezekiel saw that for a brief moment, his brothers looked sad since they enjoyed swimming and playing in the stream. He consoled them by saying that they would find some other, possibly much more beautiful streams, rivers, or even lakes along the way to the city. After that conversation, he started cleaning everything after he fed, watered, and cleaned Prince Charming.

They began their journey that day with the three of them looking back at the place where for a moment, they behaved like children and enjoyed their lives. It was a fun time and Ezekiel was hoping that in the future, there would be more places and moments where they enjoy their lives. He was also hoping that he’d find someone to be with by then but he wasn’t truly worrying about that since his body’s age was only fourteen years old.

At least Robert knew their date of birth. Luke just recently had his, turning from age 4 to 5 years old last March 22nd. Robert’s birthday was July 14, so in about four months, he would turn 8 years old. His birthday curiously was the same as his birthday on Earth which was August 13 and his body would only turn 15 years old which was still too young. The main problem that they had, which he kept reiterating in his mind, was they looked two years younger than their actual age due to malnutrition but their health, complexion, and build were improving day by day.

Ezekiel was hoping that by the time they reached the city or the location where they would stay, their bodies would have caught up with their actual age.

Since it was too early, instead of practicing his magic as he was planning to do while they were traveling, Ezekiel thought of the solution to their problem of not having an adult to supervise them since that would truly complicate a lot of things for them. The fact that no one was guarding them would tend to attract greed from low lives, or even just the desperate since Ezekiel did have the capability to earn a lot of gold coins due to his woodworking “talents”.

Even though he wouldn’t hesitate to use his magic to defend their lives, prevention was better than cure especially if that cure could result in a village mob chasing them out of a village.

He thought of hiring a desperate man, possibly who was so sick that he would die without help from any of the villages, and once they were alone somewhere, Ezekiel would then heal the man using his Healing Elixir spell then pay the man some wages to guard them and act as their caretaker until they’re of age. He could then use magic to threaten the man if he betrayed them.

Ezekiel felt like it was a good idea. He then thought of hiring a woman instead since a woman was easier to handle but the problem with that was that a man still commanded more respect compared to a woman, especially on the road.

He then thought of hiring a couple or even a family but that would be more complicated. Of course, before deciding on anything, he would ask his brothers’ opinion.

“Robert, Luke I need to talk to you about something,” Ezekiel said to his brothers who were playing with their toy ship which he awakened using the Tiny Servant spell before they left their campground.

The boys stopped playing, climbed the cart rail, and sat beside him.

“Right now, the problem that we have is we three looked very small. I also earn a lot of gold coins through the items that I’m selling and that is making some people greedy, wanting to rob and kill us. Of course, I can defeat them using my magic but I thought of hiring a man to be our caretaker until we look big enough that people would hesitate to rob us. I’m thinking of hiring someone who is ill and we’ll cure him then once we’re alone on the road, I’ll threaten him with magic so he won’t think of betraying us. What do you think?”

Robert shrugged indicating that it was his decision but surprisingly, Luke said something.

“Hire a lady so she’ll become our new mama.”

“No one can replace our mother!” Robert shouted at Luke and the young boy began crying.

Ezekiel parked the cart on the roadside, went to Luke, and carried and hugged the child. He guessed that his brothers still missed their parents but to be honest, he didn’t know what to do. This was the first time he had dealings with children and he was trying his best but he was an amateur.

He didn’t even need to scold Robert since he looked guilty already.

“I’m sorry that our mother is not here anymore Luke. I wish they were still with us. I’ll try my best to make the three of us happy.”

The boy sobbed for a while and even Robert looked like he was about to cry but after a while, Luke stopped crying.

“I thought of hiring a woman but just like us, she’ll be looked down on by some of the villagers so we will need someone who looks like they could defend us. I then thought of hiring a couple but that might complicate the situation a bit.”

“I understand. Let’s hire a big strong man then,” Luke said while still sobbing a bit.

He hugged both of his brothers then bought a pack of candy from the system store and gave the boys ten candies each. While they were eating candy, Robert said sorry to Luke and at that moment, Ezekiel felt a little proud of his brothers. He was hoping that he would allow them to grow up with strong moral values.

After a while, Ezekiel told Robert that he was assigning the task to him of finding them a suitable guardian in one of the villages that they would stop but he made it clear that it was alright if he didn’t find anyone. He didn’t want to pressure his brother but Robert looked determined to complete the task that Ezekiel gave him.

Soon, Robert and Luke returned to the back of the cart and continued playing with their toy ship. In the meantime, Ezekiel asked Yuki Onna to check if there were any nearby travelers and when he received confirmation that there were none, he began practicing his magic by casting his spells toward the forest one by one, going through the list of spells in the site in one of his system browser tabs where they were listed.

At least the devastation would now be spread out, Ezekiel thought jokingly. During lunchtime, they stopped briefly by the side of the road to eat and after that, they continued with their travel.

Even though the sun was high up in the sky, because of the spring weather, there were mostly clouds that blocked the sun but Ezekiel knew that he had to find an alternative to their cart soon.

While they were moving, instead of going back to casting spells, Ezekiel browsed his system shopping site for a cart that had a roof that would protect them from the sun and rain. He was surprised at the huge collection of carts and carriages that he found since normally, these types of things were not available on the original website where the system shopping site was based.

The carts and carriages were categorized as cosplay and theater props but according to the item description they worked normally and he did purchase the cart that they were currently using from the system site.

They were all surprisingly affordable as well with the most cost ranging from less than a gold coin to 3 gold coins and some cost even more. Those that were extremely expensive were more modern with modern amenities inside which he didn’t need.

Ezekiel browsed some more items and he found something interesting. He found a roof construction kit made of tarpaulin and wood that could easily be assembled and attached to their cart. It was actually an addon that one could purchase together with the original cart that they were using. He missed it when he bought the cart.

He inspected the addon thoroughly and thought that maybe it wasn’t a good idea since it looked flimsy. It looked like a mild wind could blow it off immediately. He then thought of hiring a carpenter in one of the villages to construct a roof for their cart and thought that maybe that was the best thing he could do for now.

Ezekiel was currently content with their tiny cart since it was big enough for the three of them and all their things and small enough for Prince Charming to pull it easily. The roof wasn’t needed immediately since it was Spring going into Summer so rain wasn’t in the future but then he thought of the hot sun during the summer and decided to inquire about the roof when they stopped by in a village.