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Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 33
🕑 Added 2023-12-07 12:20:41 +0000 UTCIt took me a few weeks of night practice before bed, but I managed to get the timing to deactivate my aura without feeling the lethargic side effects of cutting off my stamina energy.
In those weeks, my days were busy. I had to spread my time between Mum’s and my personal magic studies, sword practice with Dad when he does his training, and playing with Charlotte, Emma, and her little brother Otto.
All this so I could finally see the outside world, so I am sure my parents would understand why I was excited when I finally managed to turn on and off my aura 10 times in a row without the side effect of feeling lethargic. I was so excited that I did not wait for the coming morning to announce my success and barged into my parents’ room as they were about to get frisky.
I ignored their awkward fidgeting as they straightened out their night attire, ran to Dad’s side, and said “Dad! Dad! I managed to on and off my aura without getting tired in between 10 times in a row! I think I mastered it!”
Dad’s eyes widened in surprise as he grabbed my shoulders “Truly? Show me.”
So I demonstrated turning my aura on and off repeatedly until he told me to stop.
Dad was silent for a while until I saw tears well up in his and Mum’s eyes, then he scooped me up in a hug while saying “My Boy! My son will finally get to live a normal life!” and before I knew it, I was sandwiched when mum joined the hug.
After a while of hugging, my muffled voice sounded out, “So does this mean I can see the town like you promised?”
“Of course! We will make it a family outing.” Dad said as he tugged at a string next to his bed to summon a servant.
A few minutes later as I was questioning Dad on the finer points of aura control, there was a knock on the door, followed by Ironcrest’s head butler Humphrey stepping through the already opened door, “Good evening my lord. You called?”
“Yes, Humphrey, cancel all my appointments for tomorrow and ready the carriage for tomorrow morning after breakfast, it is going to be Luke’s first time going into town, and we are going to make it into a family outing.” Dad said.
Quickly picking up on the implications of me going out of the estate’s walls for the first time, Humphrey asked, “My lord… Does this mean Young Master Luke has finally…”
Dad gave Humphrey a nod to answer his unspoken inquiry. Humphrey just nodded and replied, “It will be done, my lord. I will ask the chef to make something special for breakfast. If that is all, I bid you good night my Lord, my Lady, Young Master.” Humphrey said as he bowed out.
The next morning, my success was announced at the dining table and my grandparents were invited to come along with us in this family outing.
***
As we rode into town, I was pleasantly surprised. I was expecting the town’s sanitary conditions to be more in line with medieval Europe, where it was overcrowded and people were throwing waste in the street.
I was only partially correct.
While the town was densely populated, it was a lot cleaner than I expected it would be. When I asked about it, it turned out that when a sizable number of citizens had access to 0th-circle spells to do simple chores, it was a simple matter of having some people who wanted to earn some pocket change do a quick cleaning in every district.
But that was just for cleaning litter and using a bit of wind and water magic to keep the place pristine. As for the more gross stuff like excrement and the large amounts of trash generated by the other districts, the town had dedicated and highly paid people for that.
A few times a day, a bunch of large horse-drawn carts which are the equivalent of my previous world’s garbage trucks would go through the town to do what garbage trucks do, the only difference is that they double up as sewage disposal. It is a dirty job but someone got to do it.
When I asked about a sewage system, they told me that building a sewage system was very, very, very expensive. Especially if it is to be built after the town has already been built.
Apparently, only the capital and bigger, richer cities have sewage systems, which is kind of sad, but I still have not given up on my dream of proper plumbing and one day sitting on a porcelain throne to do my business while contemplating the mysteries of the universe.
As we go along, we soon come by the commercial district. On both sides of the road, there are shops, restaurants, bakeries, and food stands. Being the hungry and growing boy that I am, I ask for some pocket change from my parents to go buy some savory-smelling meat skewers.
Mum was about to ask the butler accompanying us to buy it on my behalf, but I stopped Mum and gave her the biggest puppy eyes I could manage, “Mum… I want to experience buying things.”
Why did I insist on making the purchase on my own? That is because I genuinely wanted to experience the local culture like I did in my previous world when my family moved to different countries.
Mum was not able to withstand my Kawaī no Jutsu and relented, she stopped the carriage, passed me a small coin pouch, and signaled the butler to accompany me.
When I walked up to the meat skewer stand with a butler in tow, the man behind the stand revealed a wide smile and said, “Welcome m'lord, what can I get you?”
“Good morning mister, can I get a meat skewer?” I said as I gave the man a copper piece as per the price stated in the man’s signage.
“Of course m’lord.” the man said with an upbeat tone, but instead of passing me only 1 skewer, he passed me a 2nd skewer while saying, “Here's another for the little lady, it's on the house.”
I turned back to see Charlotte looking at me out of the carriage window, I thanked the man and made my way back to the carriage.
When I got back in, I handed Charlotte a meat skewer and said, “Here, this one is for you. The nice mister gave us an extra.”
Charlotte took the skewer and nibbled on it like a small cute animal would. Upon her first taste of the meat whose scent seduced my nose, Charlotte’s eyes lit up as she made her way to the window of the already moving carriage and stuck her head out.
“Thank you, mister, the food is very yummy.” Charlotte shouted to the meat skewer vendor while waving, and then she sat back down and started nibbling again.
Seeing her nibble food in her hands instead of using cutlery like we were taught is way cuter.
As I enjoy my own meat skewer while watching my sister enjoy hers, the outing through the town continues.
