Chapter 418 Helga's Family
Helga then invited us to her home, as we were allowed to walk into her living room. We moved to her backyard first though, as we put the dragoons and all the ores they mined in there. The dwarves with her quickly assessed everything with her, calculating everything, the weight of what they mined and their efforts, and quickly divided their profits, because some of them simply needed the money to maintain their families and were to crafters, most got money directly from her as she bought what they mined at a good price, while some got fifty percent of what they mined and the rest in money. After that, they decided to go back to their homes, Blackard included. We didn't knew if we'll ever see him again but he said he'll come here tomorrow. We might see him in here maybe.
Because of the friendliness of Helga and everything else, we decided to sell her half of our potions while keeping the rest for us to see how the prices varied from place to place. She was happy to have made profits, as she said she was going to sell them at an even higher price to some wealthy guys she knew. It seems she got her contacts alright… I had thought about asking her for their contact too, but I decided to not do it for now. I didn't wanted to see opportunistic and cocky after earning her trust. She was grinning greedily and happily after our sale.
"Thanks for your patronage, if you need any help around this place just ask me! Let's become friends from now on too!" She said, quickly trying to make a connection with us.
"Sure thing!" I said. "After lunch, could it be possible to help us go to the Guild you talked about? We kind of want to investigate what Lucifer had said. After that, we are interested in going mining, and buying ores in bulks too. And quite possibly explore the dungeons in here…"
"Oh, you've got a big backlog of stuff to do then, alright, we'll get through a bit of it today, I can't go out all day because I got my kids in here." Said Helga. "If you don't find anywhere to stay, there's a nearby Inn just some meters from here, the stay is cheap so you can stay there, the breakfast they serve is also tasty." Helga said.
"It is run by my sister, so we can get you some discounts as well." Said Myriad.
"Wow, thank you guys!" I said.
"Your sister runs an Inn? Is the work tiring?" Wondered Lucifer. "I had once thought about opening an inn."
"Oh, yeah, it has some work to do but she got her husband and her two little daughters to help. It is run by the entire family." Said Myriad. "It is a peaceful job and they generate enough income, there's people always coming in and out so they got a lot of clients. However to set an Inn you need to pay a license shop. We simply decided different jobs at the end, I always wanted to dedicate myself to crafting things and selling them."
Myriad began to open up a bit more with us, as he started to speak and show the gentleness Helga had spoken about.
"I see, it seems interesting. Well, we got our town to maintain so I guess we can't really make an inn if we got everything to take care of." Sighed Lucifer.
"You got a whole town?" Wondered Helga.
"Yeah, I inherited it from… A deceased family member, I am the chief." I said. "It is super cold outside, so we have to take a lot of precautions."
"Yeah, but it's a nice place, it is cozy too, I've grown used to that place." Said Lucifer.
"Me too!" Partner said.
"It is very cold! But I think I've already developed a Cold Resistance Skill…" Sighed Emeraldine, as everybody burst into laughter over her unintentionally funny comment.
"Hahaha! You guys are fun! Sorry for being so harsh back then, I am not too trustworthy of people. you see, as a shop keeper you gotta have two eyes in the back of your head sometimes, people sometimes will try to play you as a fool or even steal from you, I am often said to be overly cautious by my wife." Sighed Myriad.
"Ah no, it is only natural to be that way, don't worry." I said.
"Now… about you three." Said Myriad, quickly shifting the topic of conversation to the three dwarves wondering the living room while inspecting the large wooden box filled with ores. They were obsessed with seeing fresh raw ores extracted directly from the mountain.
"Oh, yeah, those guys…" I said. "Well, Darfu's the youngest and nicest, the other two old men are Baldur and Balladur, they're old artisans from here, right? The three used to be slaves and we freed them some time ago, welcoming them in our town."
"Y-You freed them?" Asked Myriad. "You've fought the Beardcutters?" Asked Myriad, he was an Oni with a rather prominent white beard, he took the traditions of the dwarf family of his wife very seriously.
"Yeeah. We usually free slaves and beat the criminals holding them." I said. "We are mercenaries and adventurers."
"Wow, that's amazing… you guys must be plenty strong!" Helga said.
"We are, and I don't fear admitting it, haha." I laughed rather cheekily.
"We had been freeing many slaves for a while now, we were happy to know that slaves are completely illegal here and that slaves don't exist." Said Lucifer.
"Oh yeah, sometimes slaves run away into the mountains and become citizens after working for the country after a while. There's a lot of former slaves around here. My own family descends from former slave refugees." Said Myriad. "It is truly wonderful that this country and the nearby ones are able to accept all kinds of people… In this continent filled with discrimination, my family once didn't knew where they could even fit simply by being how they were born."
"I see, so your family is a family of strong warriors." Said Lucifer. "I am sure you're honoring your ancestors, Myriad."
"Haha, thanks, Lucifer." Said Myriad with a bit of embarrassment.