203: Visit

Sprinting over to the door, I opened it as wide as I could. When the door was opened, a steady rush of air came past, heading outside as Milo stood by the doorway to the kitchen.

I suspect he was using some wind magic to push the hot air out.

“Thanks,” I muttered as I entered the kitchen.

Milo just chuckled. “I’m sure it’ll take more heat than that to really affect it, but just be careful.”

Not wasting any time in demonstrating the rune, I pulled out several fresh melons and began to carve.

Though perhaps I should have practised on a couple more. In my excitement, I must have messed up the rune, because the instant I pushed mana into it, the melon exploded, absolutely covering all of us.

Liane just let out a laugh immediately, while Milo was shaking his head, while wiping melon off his face.

I didn’t know what to say. I was just embarrassed.

Taking the next melon, I focused on this one, ensuring everything was perfect, imagining the concept of time as a memory of a long journey, just as I did before, specifically remembering the journey since I left Dunhearth the first time until now.

Then, as I pushed my mana into it, it glowed blue, and I couldn’t help but notice Liane stepping behind Milo, with a finger to her lips.

The rune glowed blue as the skin began to shrivel before collapsing in on itself and decaying into a pile of foul-smelling rotten mush.

“Very impressive. How did you conceptualise it?” Milo commented, nodding.

“Uh, as a memory of a journey?” I said, hoping it wouldn’t be stupid.

“But that’s no…” Milo was interrupted by a kick to the side of his leg.

“It doesn’t matter how he’s done it. That certainly looks successful to me!” Liane said happily.

Milo inspected the pile of melon, seemingly unbothered by the smell that felt like it was burning my nostrils with every breath.

“Well done, Trev. You’ve certainly managed to get it aged, but the real question is now how are you going to be able to change the length of time?” Milo asked.

I had not really thought about this. In fact, I wasn’t even sure how much time had passed with this rune. If I were imagining the entire journey so far, was it five months?

Crisplet burnt away the remains of the melon, in a not so dramatic fashion this time, as I took a new one from the floor and carved. This time, rather than the journey since leaving home, I tried to imagine the time spent at the orphanage as my time as I carved the rune.

Everything worked as it should. The rune carving was smooth. The rune glowed as I used my mana. Then something strange happened. Like before, the skin wrinkled, but it all happened so fast as the melon collapsed onto the counter. There was no mush. It turned rapidly into a dried disc that had shrunk in size. There was no smell.

“Uh, I don’t know if that was a success or a failure,” I commented.

I picked up the disc. It was completely dry and snapped in my hands like a dried leaf.

“How long was the journey you pictured, then?” Milo asked, taking a piece of the melon from my hand.

“I pictured my time at the orphanage.”

“So a decade, then, roughly. That makes sense. What you’ve done clearly is working. I suspect the problem is going to appear when you’re trying to get specific times,” Milo explained.

“How do we fix it, then?” I asked curiously.

Milo just let out a laugh. “Trev, I’ve not got my own to work yet, so I really don’t know for this, and I think it’s best we talk to Sylverith about it.”

Knowing that Sylverith was likely still not back yet, I changed the topic.

“I saw you having a meeting. Is everything okay?”

Milo let out a chuckle. “Yes, there are a lot of people who want to speak with you, and even more who just want to work with you. Usually, we send them a message in response, and that’s it, but when the heads of the houses show up, it requires us to actually meet with them properly.”

“And today’s?” I asked.

Milo waved it off. “Just a minor house that wants to move up with all the chaos happening right now, nothing to worry about, but what I needed to discuss with you is the drake scales and the drake head.”

“We should go sit in the living room if you’re going to talk business,” Liane suggested.

Milo, nodding, headed that way, while I told Crisplet what was happening.

As we entered the living room, Milo explained. “So, the scales. House Fellwood will buy every scale that we’re willing to sell. They will also provide the knacker if we’d like, and they will remove the scales from the remaining drake without needing to give them a portion of the materials.”

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

“That’s good, right?”

Milo nodded. “Yes, but I wanted to check with you. If you want to dismantle it first, perhaps if you get experience out of it, the option’s there.”

I shook my head. I didn’t get any experience for cutting the drake, although I was sure that now I could with the new knife.

“We should have them do it here in our butchery room. I don’t trust they wouldn’t try to steal anything if they are in their own shops,” Liane said.

Milo seemed to agree with it, just nodding his head again.

“We can have our guards watching over to make sure nothing goes missing. Lord Fellwood won’t mind. He very much wants this deal to go through,” Milo agreed.

My thoughts went to how many scales we’d need to keep ourselves to better equip the team. Surely having someone like Hari or Jen with drake-scale armour would be beneficial.

I asked. “We should keep some for ourselves, though, right?”

Liane nodded, but Milo seemed to think about it. “Yes, we can, but it’s important to mention that they are very valuable.”

I just shrugged. “What do we need money for right now?”