56 Balls
1584 Words
"Is this all your highness?" the merchant asked.
"That is all Roban, but if you could acquire several other books for me. I would gladly trade for them."
There was a surplus of new vegetables from the initial spring harvest. Onions, garlic, and ginger were growing in abundance as well as large red and green bell peppers. Other new additions included cinnamon, black pepper seeds, and large bulbs of lettuce. These crops were not as frequently used in Gaddi, but Janus instructed Master Rufus to accompany the merchant to show them how to prepare and add these in dishes. They will be setting up a food stall in Gaddi for a few days before leaving the kingdom with free cookbooks. That would hopefully get their crops more demand in the next few visits.
Despite having a virtually unlimited supply of books from the Golden Library, Janus still had to order some from trade supply runs. His assistants have been curious as to how the Library's volumes were growing in number when they weren't acquiring that many books aside from the ones they brought from Galedon. He had to keep up appearances.
"Of course, as always." The merchant checked his lists with the aid of Dessa, her daughter.
She had been working really well lately, but she seemed to avoid Janus for the past two days. What could be her deal? Surely Janus hadn't done anything to offend her, right? His other assistants didn't seem to notice, but Janus could feel that the Dessa wasn't consulting him as often anymore. Whenever he would come by and ask her questions about prices and trades she would almost exclusively respond in one-word replies before returning quickly to whatever it was she was doing.
She didn't even serve him tea anymore. Pazua, the I'reen scribe has since taken up the task.
Even after escaping through a lot of death-defying situations and basically building his own village from the ground up in this foreign world full of monsters and power-hungry siblings, there was still something the Janus in this world and the in the previous one had in common.
He couldn't figure out women.
"Excuse me sir." the merchant whispered, so as not to be heard by the others. "But how does the Gaddi princess fare? Has she been acting out of the ordinary lately?"
"I'm glad you asked. No, she hasn't been acting out of the ordinary lately. In fact, none of her actions seem ordinary at all. I don't think that she's spying on us or anything. I just can't seem to figure her out. " Janus replied.
"What do you mean?"
"First of all, she stares out into the distance all too often. When Yvaine took her for out a tour on the vegetable fields, she would just sit there looking at nothing for a few minutes. As if she's seeing something that no one else sees. It's absurd."
"Ah yes, she may have mentioned how she was sensing arcane anomalies in the area during our trip. Perhaps she's seeing more of the same. Magical hogwash as far as I'm concerned, but I admit she's really nifty in a fight. Those fireballs she conjured were really effective in driving away monsters."
"Do you know anything more about her?" Janus asked.
"Well, aside from the fact that she's a skilled magician and studied in one of the largest Universities in Kalesia, there's not much else. This is the first time I've chanced upon her since I started trading with Gaddi."
"Hmm, that's not much to go on, very well then."
"Well, she'll be leaving with us in the next week anyway. I doubt she'll find anything out of the ordinary if she really is spying on us. Children going into school and people working to build homes and farms wouldn't be much of a talking point."
"I suppose you're right. So let's talk about the roadwork..."
Now that Roban and his crew have established the initial paths and roadways to other countries and territories, the next thing left for them to do was to improve and solidify these roads for faster trade cycles. Thankfully, the goblins have fabricated another invention to ease the burden of such a monumental task.
The snow sleds which were used to clear the snow during winter could now be rigged to plow the fields and flatten the roads.
The goblins designed the sleds to be completely modular. The winter sleds were attached with rakes that could carve out the snow in front and on the sides. Now that winter was over, these attachments were replaced with spiky machines that could cultivate the fields and pull out weeds at the same time. Their biggest sled was attached with large stone wheels took and smoothed from the mountain. These wheels were designed to level the ground, and hopefully make each trip that much easier.
With Lady Haruna accompanying them, security wouldn't be much of an issue. But they couldn't risk the safety of the goblin and dwarf workers who will oversee the construction of the roads. A couple of the Knights from the Mystic Flames and a few adventurers from the Merriman were assigned as a security escort.
After a few hours of administrative work, Janus hurriedly went on to the school for his classes. Leaving behind one message still left unopened in his desk.
#
It was the second period of the day. Janus had a great session teaching children the basics in mathematics. Although it took some time to explain to a little dwarf why the lady in his examples kept losing track of how man apples and oranges she had.
"Your Highness, sir. Why does this Alice person have too many problems with her fruit stall? Can't we just go there and help her out?" he said.
"Is she from the village? My mother always wanted to have oranges. I haven't tasted one yet. She says they can be sour." Said another.
"Again, it's just an example. I'm only using it to further illustrate the lesson. The important thing is for you to learn the basics of subtraction and addition." Janus said.
"I say we find this nice lady and buy all of her fruit after class." Said an I'reen kitten.
"Huzzah!" yelled a goblin child. That was the very first thing he said in class.
"Huzzah!" the whole class yelled.
"No, wait... I said it's just--" but his voice was drowned out by the crowd of buzzing children. It was nearly impossible to stop the chain of cheers whenever someone said that word.
A few faces peeked in from the doorway.
"What's all the commotion?" Yvaine came leaning in with someone beside her.
"Prince Janus says we can all get three apples and two oranges after lunch. But a few are missing, was it 1 apple and 1 orange? I forgot."
"No, I heard it was no apples and seven oranges."
"We're still getting all the fruit right? He told us right?"
"Yeah, he did."
Yvaine looked at him.
Help. Janus mouthed.
"He did now, did he? And where do you suppose you can have all the fruit to feed these hungry children dear brother?" she came in and ruffled the head of a kitten, which smiled and gaped at her.
"I don't think our orchards are ready yet. And if they were, these fruits wouldn't be in season yet." She said.
"Aw..." an audible groan roused amongst the students. Several of them had a real look of dismay.
"Wait, we have something better. What if... Lady Haruna over here conjure every one an apple and orange each?"
Haruna, who was hiding behind Yvaine was startled.
"What me? Hmm... Yes, it should be a simple trick, but I don't see how that could---"
The class was now staring at her. Mouths agape and eyes all wide at the visitor. The only mage in the kingdom, and a highly skilled one at that. When the children got to such an excited state, they would never let up.
Haruna smiled and straightened up.
"Very well then."
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, as she exhaled there came a faint glow emanating from her body, coalescing from head to toe. Little balls of light appeared in front of each student, one orange and one red. These conjurations were made up of arcane energy. Janus knew the basics from one of the books he had read. Marcus had done something similar before, but this was his first time seeing the process up close.
The children applauded and reached at their newly conjured toys. They looked weightless but would move like bubbles when touched, they didn't seem entirely solid but they retained their shape and color.
Two figures emerged in front of Janus, apparently Haruna included him as well.
It hovered and bobbed in the air in front of his eyes.
Curious by its properties, Janus reached out to touch it.
He felt a strong shock from his index finger during contact.
A burst of light filled the room.
His ball fractured into a thousand pieces, scattering like fireworks in the room. Little glowing orbs filled the class in a spiral, the orbs consisted of a wide spectrum of colors, like a sea of stars. It swiveled and swirled before winking out of existence.
A wave of oohs and ahhs filled the room again.
The children tried to do the same with their balls. Poking them incessantly, but nothing happened. The balls only moved away from their touch. No explosion of starlight. They all looked confused and started asking Janus how he did it.
Yvaine looked puzzled, but Haruna was utterly shocked. She looked at Janus questioningly before getting lost in thought again. The one she tends to do every time he's around.
- Writer
