Chapter 17 - Thanks, Mister!

I was finally getting what I’d wanted: just a little bit of quiet.
It’d been just over three weeks since I’d stood with the crew as they made their decision and life just kept marching forward. Dartigan had taken the deal I’d guided the crew into making and looked admittedly disappointed while doing so. That had made me a little happier than I cared to admit and I did my very best not to touch the subject when I briefly spoke with him on his way out of town ordering a large stock of the various seeds and other things I’d need on the farm that I didn’t already have shoved into my bag.
With how things were going and the constant upticking quality of my land’s soil, I was sure by the time he got back, I’d be ready for the first true planting of my fields.
Almost as soon as he was back on the road, the wagon doing its best to be the lumber version of a clown cart, Daniel and his crew had launched themselves into the various projects that they were now swamped with.
At first, Daniel had needed the entire crew to help clear and flatten a large plot of land, which briefly had gotten derailed as to where they’d do it. After they figured that out, Bram then happily got to work. His increasing Stonemason skills and level–the kid had somehow already passed me and gotten to six–allowed him to actually create a large, thick foundation over the massive plot that had been chosen a hundred paces off from the end of the current road.
With the new foundation down, the crew split up into two teams. The road crew largely stayed the same except Daniel chose to keep two of them–Wulfric and Vincent–back to help him and Garth to start work on the frame that would eventually turn into the primary building for the “Danwood Lumber Consortium.”
Completely unimaginative name, but no one asked me and I was okay with that.
Thomas drove Bram and the road crew like they were workmules, getting out before dawn broke each day and not returning till the sun was long on its downward path for the horizon.
I was starting to think I’d probably never actually get them back to help clear out the rest of my fields, but unfortunately we’d long passed the point where they had free time for my needs. No, it was better to just accept that they had their own work to do and start working around that. Unfortunately… that meant Dartigan was right and I was probably going to need to hire a few people from Gold’s Lodge, even if it was just to finish the clearing job and then build the few extra structures I was going to need.
Even that thought came with a lot of realizations… like the fact that if I hired people to do that, they’d have to stay in my cabin with me since there was nowhere in town for people to stay short term. And I wasn’t having that. My home was not a lodge for others.
All of which had left me standing on the road, looking at a spot right at the edge of my land on the opposite side from my cabin. It was relatively close to the rest of the hamlet and if things kept going the way they were obviously going, that empty space probably wouldn’t stay empty for too long.
Initially, I was going to just build a tavern. A nice big, one-story building. Mostly just open space with enough room for a bar, some tables, maybe even a proper kitchen. But that was shortsighted.
Cause if I just built a tavern, someone was eventually bound to build a tavern and inn combo and then I’d have competition. A couple rooms wouldn’t be the end of the world… though, I’d need to find someone who wanted to run an inn for me.
I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. There was always something else, wasn’t there?
“That seems a bit far from the fields you’ve done so far.”
The question hadn’t come out of nowhere, I’d seen the small group walking this way when I’d started to ponder my options. At this point, I had little expectation of them passing by without trying to talk.
“Yeah, just thinking about a new project that’s feeling more and more inevitable,” I said, trying not to sound curt.
Willow was walking at the front of a group that mainly consisted of the other women in the village. There were a few younger children too, the oldest of which couldn’t have been more than one-and-ten crowded around. A few rode in handcarts that were being pulled. Admittedly, other than Willow, I only knew for sure a few of the other women’s names and next to none of the children’s.
“You should build a playground!” One of the kids said, then hid behind his mother’s skirt when I looked at him.
“Wasn’t exactly on my list of projects,” I said, then noticed the kid frowned when he peeked out from behind her. Kids were quite literally the opposite of quiet… but was I really that much of a curmudgeon? “Then again… I guess it wouldn’t be that hard to put together with the stuff that’s already laying around… Here let me see something really quick.”
I focused back on the project interface I’d opened. I’d been slowly designing the blueprints for the inn, trying to decide just how to lay it out and it had been lingering for most of the morning now. The field at the top of the page meant for the building’s name was still empty, almost mockingly. I’d need something good, otherwise the place would fall victim to the terribly literal names people kept coming up with. The problem was… everything I thought of sounded equally as bad.
Corbin’s Place? Last Stop? Ugh. They were both dumb as dusk and they’d been the best ones I’d thought of so far.
As I navigated the menus for the “Proposed Inn” project, I found a section labeled [Additions]. There were quite a few things listed inside of it that I could choose to add to my blueprints, including balconies for the second floor rooms and even a bathhouse. That last one was tempting, if not a bit resource intensive from what I could tell, but I ignored it and kept scrolling until I found a [Public Green Space - Children’s Playground] option that I added to the design. It really didn’t increase the labor or resource requirements that much and I did have the space.
“That should do it,” I said with a nod and rightfully got nothing but looks of confusion. “Err… sorry, I’m planning the inn and tavern I’m gonna build here. Just added on a little playground.”

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Even though he was still partially hiding, I could see the kid’s eyes go wide, then he turned to a few of the others who looked equally excited. The mother, a woman with dirty blonde hair who must have been in her early thirties, reached back and patted him lightly without looking.
“What do you say to the nice man, Joey?”
“Thanks mister!” Joey said, practically beaming. “I hope there’s a big slide and climbing bars!”
“I want a see-saw!” A little dark-haired girl called. That was all it took before the kids all started to shout out different things. It was only when they settled down that I realized the women had all started talking too.
“It would be nice to have a place to gather that didn’t involve sitting on the ground or crowding into one of our homes,” the first mother said.
“You’re only saying that because we always use your place, Lana,” another woman said, she was slightly older than Lana and looked much more tired… not that I was stupid enough to tell her that.
“Yes, Mary. Much to Hugh’s displeasure as he often reminds me,” Lana said with a bit of a wry laugh. “Now, we really should get a move on if we want to be back before dark.”
“Need to convince the men we can finally spare the coin for a wagon. These lists are getting longer every trip,” Mary complained a bit, which was understandable given she had two kids sitting in a cart she was pulling along behind her.
The group, except for Willow, started to move again. It was still well before midday and if they were going to Gold’s Lodge for supplies, it was certainly going to be an all day activity for them. Lana and Joey were the last to follow along, with Lana only briefly smiling at Willow before nudging her.
“I’m sure you’ll catch up in no time, won’t you,” she said, then added something low enough that I couldn’t hear, only for Willow to go slightly red and immediately start shaking her head.
“It’s not ready yet!” she snapped back, only for Lana to giggle before pulling Joey along to follow the group.
I waited a moment for them to walk away before I turned back to Willow. She seemed to be looking at me like I was about to pry. I chose not to.
“What do you think about a big wrap-around porch? Maybe a larger terrace off to the side there?” I asked, pointing at the general area I was planning to use.
“A couple outdoor picnic tables would be nice,” Willow agreed, crossing her arms and staring at the area. Her nose scrunched slightly as she thought for a moment with the sun shining through her hair in a way that showed dark brown highlights through it. “If you had the terrace next to the playground, you could even add a little staircase. Make it so the kids could come and go while the parents relax a little bit.”
“Hmm, not a bad idea,” I said, mentally adjusting the layout a bit. “Gonna probably eat through a lot of the lumber I have in my stockpile to build this, but it’ll take care of more than a few problems at once.”
“Oh? That’s why you’re building it?” she asked with a curious sound. “You’re quite the problem solver, aren’t you.”
“Not really good at leaving them alone if they affect me,” I explained.
“Mhmmm,” was all she said. Clasping her hands behind her back, she walked forward just a bit into the field. “How are you going to run an inn… a farm… and all the other stuff you’ve got your fingers in? Don’t you want to brew stuff too?”
“That is the plan,” I said, redrawing the main floor in my interface again. “Already realizing I need to hire some folks from Gold’s Lodge. I can build some stuff that will make harvesting some crops easy… but the hops are gonna be labor intensive and that’s not even starting on all the little steps that come with brewing. Even with them doing the final seal on the road here today, I’m coming to terms with the fact that Daniel’s crew is no longer available to be my personal work force. You should let your brother know his success is very inconvenient for me.”
“Uh huh, I’ll pass it on to him,” she said, turning around and wandering back. “What about the inn? Building it and taking care of it after are two very different things.”
She wasn’t quite looking at me, though she also wasn’t… not looking at me? It was very confusing and I raised a brow at her.
“Are you… trying to ask me for a job?”
“Oh good, I thought I wasn’t making it obvious enough,” she said, a toothy grin splitting her face. “I’m pretty good at keeping things organized, I have some friends in Gold’s Lodge already so I could probably get some supply deals and-”
“Sure, why not,” I said, cutting her off with a shrug. While I could have dithered and come up with any number of excuses, was I really going to turn down someone who I could tolerate that wanted to take a problem off my hands? “Really was gonna need someone to run the place eventually and vetting people I don’t know for something more than ‘go build this’ is more of a hassle than I want to deal with. Not to mention… Well, I think I have some narrow views of design.”
The blueprint I was seeing in front of me felt familiar in a way that made me… uncomfortable. Even though it was largely just an open room, the layout looked like any number of rooms where I’d ended many foolish upstarts. Regardless of how straightforward the prophecy was, there was almost always at least one other person who thought they were the “real” Hero of Legend. As if they had the same hardheaded, relentless determination as Frederick. It was laughable.
I shook the thought away, then selected a small icon in my property interface right next to the unfilled box left for the name. It opened a new window, then I found the section I needed and mentally highlighted Willow, updating the information.
[Business Management] (This is for a proposed business. Please finalize by submitting this information to your local Steward.) Name: Unavailable Owner: Corbin Manager: Willow Danwood
I stared at it for a second, then looked over to Willow who was practically vibrating with excitement.
“Your… your last name is Danwood?” I asked and she visibly deflated, her lips turning downward.
“Stupid system… Danny filled out some of the initial Settlement Registration wrong and because I’m his sister, it updated for me too. Not that we had a family name to begin with, but still,” she trailed off with a scowl.
While I’m sure others would laugh, mostly because it was kind of funny, I’d made my own fair share of mistakes with the interface and wasn’t about to judge them too hard.
“You can get that corrected pretty easily… if you don’t mind a little extra paperwork that is,” I said, selecting another option that appeared once I’d assigned a manager. The option shared interface controls for the blueprint and her scowl vanished. “I should head into Gold’s Lodge too. It’s probably a good idea to hire some labor to start getting this built… That said, I think I got the layout all wrong. What would you do?”
“Oh, you might regret this,” Willow said, her smile growing even wider. We turned and started to walk toward the others, and she briefly stumbled, apparently having still had the interface open. “Stars… how do you walk and use this at the same time?”
“Practice mostly,” I replied and she scowled again.
I was just about to offer a magic solution that would let us catch up to the others walking for Gold’s Lodge before I held my tongue. Sure, Flight counted as a utility spell and thus I was able to use it for as far as my mana would take me with it… but did I really want to open myself up to carrying people around while I used it? If one of those kids saw flying, I’d almost definitely never hear the end of it from them hoping for rides. That meant I had to go with the less conspicuous option… and the thing I should have just done before letting Dartigan interrupt me.
“How ‘bout you just think about it for now… I’ll buy a wagon for the way back and you can fiddle with it then.”