TBE Chapter 83

TBE Chapter 83

Ezekiel planned to increase the lesson to two hours but before the first hour was done, his two brothers and Simon were nodding off. That meant that it was a mistake for them to do the lessons after their dinner.

He planned to do the lesson the next day before meal and Ezekiel would display a delectable treat for the three of them as incentive so they would be more motivated to learn. When the lesson reached exactly an hour, he told Robert, Luke, and Simon that the lesson was over and the three of them actually cheered, which made him a little exasperated.

“Hey! These lessons are important and not something that you should cheer the moment they’re over! It’s very important that you three learn your letters so that people will respect you!” Ezekiel scolded the three boys.

“People will respect us anyway because you’re a very powerful wizard,” Robert said proudly.

Ezekiel glared at his brother.

“Being a wizard is my achievement, not yours, and besides, we’re hiding the fact that I can do magic since we don’t know the world. What if there are more powerful wizards than me who want to enslave us because of my gifts? Because of our ignorance of the ways of the world, we still need to lie low. That means that for you to have respect, the achievement should be yours, and the first step is for all of you to learn your letters. I will also give a very delicious gift to the three of you tomorrow night if I see that you made an effort to learn. Do you understand?”

Robert and Simon nodded, and when Luke saw that his older brother and their new guardian were nodding, he nodded as well. After the lessons, they prepared to rest but before that, Robert and Luke asked him to continue reading to them the One Piece Manga that he bought from his System Store. Simon, who was sleeping nearby using the bed that Ezekiel conjured using the spell Fabricate, was also listening wide-eyed to the story of Luffy and his gang.

After about an hour of storytelling, Ezekiel decided to stop and asked everyone to rest since they would start their travel early the next day.

When Ezekiel was preparing their breakfast, he was a little alarmed at how fast the food that he stored in his 4th tab space dwindle. The food was supposed to last them for a couple of months before Simon arrived but now it looked like it would not take a couple of weeks before all of the food was gone.

It wasn’t truly a problem since even if all of the stored cooked food were gone, they could become like normal travelers who cook food during mealtimes, but Ezekiel didn’t want to bother with something like that. He knew that it would be fun during the first few times, but ultimately, it would truly be a bothersome thing.

At first, Ezekiel thought that they should behave like regular travelers so he and his brothers would learn how regular travelers behaved, but then again, he was a wizard. He would rather be discovered as a wizard than to pretend to be a regular folk and experience the inconveniences of traveling.

Ezekiel knew that he would still have to learn a little about how regular travelers travel so he could purchase regular travel food as a mask, but for now, it wasn’t that important. As usual for them now, all of them ate a lot of food. He was still giving out vitamins that he purchased to his brothers since it’s available but Ezekiel thought that he wouldn’t buy them again since the food that he was serving probably contained enough nutrients for all of them to become healthy.

All of them even looked good, like a bunch of nobles, having fair and smooth skin because of using the Healing Elixir as lotions, and Ezekiel even thought that it might have been a mistake because now they looked rich and young enough to be vulnerable and that meant that people might be tempted to assault them to either get their coins or enslave them for nefarious purposes.

Ezekiel just sighed while dispelling the Galder’s Towers. When they were all ready to continue their travel, he cast the Mage Armor spell on all of them for extra protection. Yuki Onna flew ahead to scout the road before them and for some reason, the road was still empty of travelers.

“Simon, why is the road so empty?” Ezekiel asked their new pretend guardian.

“Old Thomas told me once that we’re living in a remote place, so there are few people here. It’s also time for planting and harvesting, so most people are busy with that.”

Ezekiel just nodded at Simon’s answer and continued thinking of the things he would need to focus on next. He then thought of the knowledge that he needed about the travel of regular folks, so he asked Simon, but unfortunately, the man-boy didn’t have any knowledge about that topic as expected since Simon had been a serf all his life before running away to become a bandit, and their pretend guardian was really young. He was only seventeen despite looking like he was in his mid-twenties.

During lunchtime, Ezekeil asked Simon to stop beneath a tree that would shade them from the sun. He then gave Simon Prince Charming’s food so he could feed their donkey, and the man also brushed their animal. Ezekiel prepared their lunch and was a little surprised that Simon's appetite began to dwindle to almost become the same as theirs.

He guessed that it was because Simon was beginning to calm down regarding food. The man-boy was beginning to accept that they would eat three times a day.

After lunch, Robert and Luke asked him to awaken their toy ship so Ezekiel did. He also awakened their butcher-knife bodyguards using his Tiny Servant spell. He did it while they were already traveling since Simon was the one driving the cart anyway, and the movement was slow enough.

After that, Ezekiel focused on studying his system browser and inspected each of the spells that he had access to when he reached level 4. Currently, he had only learned three spells under level 4 spells, and they were Fabricate, Hallucinatory Terrain, and Stone Skin. He learned Hallucinatory Terrain for additional protection on their camp ground, but he decided the last few nights that the spell was a bit of an overkill. He thought that he would only use the spell on locations that he thought were particularly dangerous, but the fact that the area they were in was less populous meant that it was relatively peaceful.

Ezekiel was just glad that they started their journey at the beginning of Spring going into Summer and that meant that the season was the finest time to travel. One could see every shade of emerald in the forests that were just beside the road, and all of the forests were teeming with life. Then, when the sun comes down, the forest would wear its mantle filled with every color of gold and magenta. The springs and tiny lakes that they passed by were also abundant with fish that anyone could catch and consume.

The air was pure, free of pollution that Ezekiel hadn’t breathed for a long while and its flow sang lullabies that would put anyone into a restful state. All of them were starting to become healthy, and their bodies were beginning to fill out. They were still far from truly healthy young boys, but at least one wouldn’t be able to think they were war survivors coming from a refugee camp.

Ezekiel continued studying all the level 4 spells that he had access to, but he held off on buying them since they were a little costly and his amount of coins was not big enough for him to keep on spending on spells. He would need to have enough funds for their daily expenses like food and water.

Of course, Ezekiel could spend the time hunting for food in the forest and with Simon there, it would be a lot easier for them to gather enough food for them. The fact that they were not truly on a schedule meant that they could spend the time doing exactly that, and he just kept using ingredients from his system store due to laziness.

Ezekiel sighed and thought of doing exactly that the next few days so they could save on coins. He thought that he should only be spending on ingredients for the food that he would cook and the spices that he would use to flavor their food.

“Simon, do you know how to hunt?” Ezekeil suddenly asked the man.

“Yes, since I hunt for food to add to the ration that was being provided to us by the lords,” Simon answered.

“Later, we will stop earlier and will ask you to practice using my crossbow. I’ll lend you my crossbow so you can use it to hunt. I will also ask Yuki Onna to guard you so you’ll be safe. I’ll even ask some of the magic knives to follow you as your guards.”

Ezekiel saw that Simon became excited and remembered that their guardian was only a boy, so weapons like his crossbow would bring the man endless fascination. Added the fact that he would be safe because of a wizard’s magic, and a wizard’s familiar meant that the hunt would become an enjoyable experience for him.