The Wanderer's Rebirth: Other Paths

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Cure: Panacea 1 -> 9

Joram silently cursed as he finished treating his new slaves. He hadn’t been messing around with the slaver when he’d warned him to make sure that his slaves were in better condition the next time he saw the guy.

The last slave treated, a young human girl who couldn’t have been older than her early teens, slumped in relief and nearly fell off the chair that he’d created for them. He quickly stabilized her with one hand to her shoulder as Myra stepped forward to help her stand. Asami was at the side, tailor’s tape in hand and ready to take the last set of measurements he’d need so that he could make them some clothing.

Well, Asami and Ilyana, anyways.

Ilyana was there because of the commotion he’d caused by first purchasing almost fifty slaves, but also with the modified mini-trucks he’d made to haul the wagons. It wasn’t just Ilyana either. No, he’d managed to gather almost as many women from Kirkwall as the slaves he’d purchased. All of whom were still giving him odd looks.

Including Melois. She was staring at him with shock and wonder in her eyes as he’d used his [Cure: Panacea] Skill consecutively for each and every one of the poor girls. He was sure that he’d be getting interrogated by her and the other two [Healer] who’d come along for the “show”. Or whatever they were calling it.

‘I’m pretty sure that they just want to be sure that their village hero isn’t some sort of sex maniac,’ Avi piped in, causing him to nearly fall off his stool as Asami snorted, causing him to wonder if she could also hear what Avi said.

‘Great,’ he replied as he stood up and looked around.

He’d chosen to do all this outside of his house considering how many people were milling about. His front yard, if the mostly untouched wilderness could be called that, was filled with the wagons he now owned, along with the cages and Kirkwallians and slaves.

They’d organized into two main groups. One for the animal-kin, another for the humans. The last “group” were the “demons” who were pretty much ostracized by everyone there. So, they were left to hover around him in their rags. Very distracting rags, he might add. Which, upon reflection, was probably the point, given that they were “wares” on display for the damned slaver.

“All right,” Ilyana said, sounding very business-like. “They’re all measured. But how are you going to get all of the clothing made?” She asked him as she raised one delicate eyebrow.

“I’ve been practicing,” he hedged as he mentally instructed a couple of the astral constructs he’d created shortly after returning home to fetch some bolts of the bamboo cloth he’d made. “It shouldn’t take long, but I’d appreciate you helping with some basic designs,” he said, giving her a hopeful smile.

“I’ll help these poor girls as much as I can,” Ilyana said with a mixed expression as she looked over the gathered slaves once more. “What in Yggdrasil’s name made you want to buy so many slaves?” She asked seriously, fixing him with a firm and questioning stare.

“He’s just a softy,” Asami said as she stepped closer to Joram an punched him in the shoulder, causing him to reflexively flinch a bit.

Ilyana raised her dainty eyebrow again, this time in amusement.

“I couldn’t just let them be sold off to some shady people,” he muttered, looking away from Ilyana in embarrassment.

Unfortunately, that brought his line of sight to the three “demons” who were standing to his eight o’clock and he saw their own reactions to his words.

The three of them had looks of disbelief on their faces. Possibly incredulity, maybe a bit of scorn. He wasn’t sure, mostly because he didn’t know their own cultural body language. The lesser part of that was because he really wasn’t good with reading women. So, he instead tilted his head back to stare up at the canopy high above them and sighed.

“That’s it?” Ilyana pressed, now sounding intrigued. “You paid who knows how much gold just to, what? Save a bunch of damsels in distress?”

He could feel his cheeks heating up at her words but was fortunately saved by the arrival of his constructs.

He managed to avoid talking too much as he pressed to get their new clothing made. Sure, he could have just used [Ectoplasmic Creation] to make them all new clothing, but he’d have had to re-create said clothing every once in a while, which would get annoying over time. Better to just make permanent clothing, especially since he hadn’t quite mastered [True Creation] just yet.

That didn’t say that Ilyana had let him off the hook. No, if anything, she seemed to enjoy ribbing him as they worked to design the clothing for the girls and women. In fact, Myra, Asami, and even Celys joined in on the “fun”, making him wonder if he’d earned the ire of the women of Kirkwall for having purchased so many female slaves.

So, instead of fully concentrating on getting lightly roasted, he started instructing constructs to begin harvesting more bamboo, as he’d need many more materials to work with. For one, he’d need to make more clothing grade bamboo cloth. For another, he’d need to make more sheets, blankets, and even mattresses for everyone, let alone the bed frames for them all.

Sure, he could have just made futons for everyone, but he didn’t want to pack everyone together like sardines, so he decided that bunkbeds would be appropriate for everyone. Well, mostly everyone. He was going to have to make single beds for the three “demons” because of how they were being treated.

As the day wore on, he was surprised to see that more women from Kirkwall were showing up, while others were leaving. During that time, he was pleased to see that the villagers had organized a sort of potluck meal for everyone. The animal-kin were the first to let their guards down around the villagers, more readily accepting their meals and kindness.

The humans, however, were a bit more withdrawn, only reluctantly accepting their food and kindness. Which had him wondering if there was some racism going on, or if they were just more afraid of them for some reason.

Whatever the reasons behind their reluctance, he hoped that they’d be able to relax soon. Which was helped by having scores of foxes milling about as they inspected the new additions to Joram’s residence. It seemed as though their curiosity and incredibly soft and fluffy fur was helping quite a few of the girls to come out of their shells. But.

He couldn’t imagine living his life as a slave. Not knowing what to expect, or even who he’d be sold off to. He just hoped that he could help them recover through whatever traumas they’d been subjected to.

Which, unfortunately for him, probably involved males.

Shaking his head, he returned to the work at hand as he let Ilyana take a break to eat; a break that he had declined in favour of getting everyone at least properly clothed.

* * *

Celys just couldn’t believe it.

When she’d heard that Joram had purchased all of the premium slaves from al’Maim, she’d been rightly infuriated. It hadn’t even been Myra who’d told him. No, she’d heard it from Melois, who had been heading off to Joram’s new house to see if she could help any of those poor girls.

On her way, she’d spread the word to get as many of the villagers who were willing to come “help”. Again, she wasn’t sure why Joram needed so many premium slaves when he had both her daughter and Asami Miki. She very much hoped that he wasn’t actually some sort of sexual deviant with insatiable lust.

Shaking her head, she left Kirkwall’s western gate and again wondered at just how industrious Joram was.

In the past, the gate had served as a convenient entrance for any loggers to get into town, barely having a dirt path to use. Now? It was a paved road. In fact, it was even of a higher quality than the roads inside of Kirkwall itself!

Shaking her head again, she hurried along the remarkably straight and level road with the other women of Kirkwall and soon arrived at the gates of Joram’s… estate. That was all she could think to call it, even after having a month to mull it over.

His “house”, as he called it, was bigger than their town hall! Even the walls around his estates were almost as large as those around Kirkwall! Had he been hiding what he could do this entire time? Or had his ridiculous escapades with the goblin dungeon given him enough levels to become so powerful?

She’d had Kal [Identify] him several times over the past month, but each time Kal had reported that he’d just gotten Joram’s name and age. Nothing else. Which meant that Joram now had a Skill to hide information from others. Which also got her questioning his motives.

Discarding those thoughts, she led the group of women with her past the open gates. She then saw Joram, Myra, and Asami Miki going from cage to cage, opening them up so that the slaves could come out.

From there, Celys called upon the women with her to start helping get the slaves out of their cages and organized.

Joram, though, just nodded at her as he conjured up several tables and many chairs, shocking not a few of the women present, both free and slave.

“I’ll start seeing to the girls,” Melois said, taking Gwen and Lory, two of the other [Healers] in Kirkwall, with her.

Celys nodded, then continued with what she’d been doing as she watched Joram from the corner of her eye.

Just minutes later, she just about fell over when she saw the light of [Cure] blossom over a wolf-kin girl that Joram was seeing to.

“Where the hell did he learn that?” Celys muttered as she stepped around one of the ever-present foxes that seemed to be wherever Joram happened to be.

After that, she watched as he went from slave to slave using [Cure] on each of them, stunning not only her, but also Melois, Gwen, and Lory, not to mention the other Kirkwallian women.

Shaking off yet another surprise, she instructed several women to head back to Kirkwall and start preparing meals for the many slaves. She wasn’t sure if Joram had planned that far, as most men wouldn’t have, so organizing meals for them was a priority.

She was also glad that Ilyana had come along to help with clothing the slaves. For was warm as winters were here, it was still cold enough that a person could catch a cold, or even die because of it. Looking at his “house”, she was sure that there would at least be enough room for all of them, but clothing was a must.

She tolerated slaves in Kirkwall, if the owners treated them well. She wouldn’t abide mistreatment of a person, be they bond or free. Though, she did wonder why he’d bought three demons along with the others.

She’d been watching the three of them hover close to Joram as he worked. She wasn’t sure if they were trying to ingratiate themselves upon him, or if they were there because of the many mistrustful looks they’d been getting the entire time. Either way, if your inclinations went that way, all three of them were undoubtedly beauties, and Joram was definitely handsome… for a “human”.

She still hadn’t heard what race he came from, but given that he very much looked like a human, she suspected that he was basically the equivalent of a High Elf for humans. At any rate, she wondered if he was one of those humans who preferred the more “exotic” races than his own given how much he seemed to enjoy having her daughter and Asami Miki with him.

She shook her head yet again, ridding herself of those thoughts as she worked to hand out food. But remembering how he’d popped into Kirkwall as naked as a newborn, she couldn’t quite rid herself of those thoughts as easily as she would have liked. And, it seemed, the other women couldn’t either.

“Do you suppose he bought them to be that kind of slave?” she heard someone ask quietly nearby, causing one of the nearby dog-kin to wilt slightly as she ate.

“Hush you,” another said, obviously annoyed with the first speaker. “Our hero wouldn’t do such a thing! Besides, it was a [Teleport] accident, nothing more,” she sniffed, obviously ending the conversation on her end.

Celys nodded, appreciating the second speaker, Tammy. She didn’t want any sort of contention to pop up, especially when transitioning so many new slaves… and younglings at that.

One good thing came of that conversation, though. That same dog-kin girl seemed to perk up at Tammy’s words, as well as a couple others who were with her. So, Celys went about chatting with the girls, telling them about how she’d met Joram, and what he’d been up to for the past couple of months.

She very much left out her daughter’s close relationship with Joram, as well as Asami Miki’s involvement with him. She still wasn’t sure if she’d become a grandmother any time soon, which both annoyed and frustrated her more than a little bit. Even Nalun was more on edge these days, which wouldn’t likely bode well for Joram….

Then they all stopped as a half-dozen stone golems approached Joram, all loaded up with massive stacks of what he called “bamboo”. Then the magic started.

Well, that’s all she could think to call it, as what happened couldn’t have been anything else.

Suddenly, the many stacks of bamboo began to… sweat, then all of the water was pulled away in an instant. While the water was still flowing away, the long stalks suddenly split, then continued splitting over and over again, leaving only long strands of fibres that looked finer than hair. Then those fibres were pulled straight, then began twining about so quickly that she couldn’t properly see what was happening.

Once the blurred movement stopped, several more bolts of cloths were left behind. But it didn’t stop there.

Those bolts then unfurled, then fell into pieces that landed in neat stacks on the empty tables nearby. While that was happening, more bamboo was brought. Except, this time the end result wasn’t more bolts of cloth, but large piles of… fluff.

While she was distracted with the fluffy stacks of bamboo, the other piles of cloth had begun assembling themselves into clothing. She only caught the last few garments being made, but was astonished to see that no thread was used to sew the pieces together. Instead, they all seemed to just… meld together to create the final product.

All told, the entire process was done in less than a minute. Much less.

Shocked, she stared as the piles of clothing were sorted, then folded, by invisible hands. Having seen such a thing in the past, she very much suspected that Joram was using [Telekinesis], but was astonished at just how well, and how many things, he was working.

Feeling a bit shell-shocked, Celys turned to see what everyone else might be thinking. Her eyes were greeted with the sight of stunned, flabbergasted, and astonished women for as far as her eyes could see. Even Ilyana seemed to be in a daze, her mouth opened slightly in shock.

She turned back to Joram as yet another series of golems brought more bamboo and stacked it all nearby. Then more astonishing things happened.

The bamboo began to dance before her eyes, lifting, shifting, falling into oddly shaped pieces, then assembling into bed frames that looked to have been made from one continuous piece of bamboo. Two kinds of beds were made, though both were exactly the same size.

One bed seemed to have much longer posts that extended a couple of feet above where the mattress would lay, while the other had much longer feet, also about two feet. The second type of bed seemed to be designed to have something under it, possibly clothing chests or something.

Then yet more bamboo arrived, which was then turned into cloth that seemed to glisten in the afternoon light. Those bolts of cloth were then turned into sheets and pillowcases. Then more cloth was made, this stuff thicker than the rest had been. Which was then turned into mattresses that were stuffed with the fluffy-looking bamboo.

She was astonished to see the golems taking away the beds and mattresses. Just how smart were they? That said, how was he controlling all of those golems without speaking to them?

Celys shook her head. She wasn’t entirely sure of just how powerful Joram had become after having cleared the goblin dungeon almost entirely by himself. But she suddenly felt that it had been the blessing of a lifetime that she’d chosen to take in the young “not human”. For, if he could do something as ridiculous as producing beds, mattresses, bedding, and clothing for almost fifty people in the span of a few minutes, what else could he do?

She, and the rest of Kirkwall, had already been impressed with his feat of creating the dry moat around the village in just one day. Of how he’d worked harder than anyone else to repel the goblin attack. And now he seemed to be giving a home to slaves.

Sure, she still didn’t quite know if he was on the up-and-up buying so many younglings. But, if Asami Miki wasn’t saying anything, or doing anything to stop him, then maybe he wasn’t the sex-crazed fiend that some people were fearfully speculating about.

Celys turned her attention back to Joram and found that he was now getting the younglings to line up. From there, he handed each of them a stack of bedding, then a set of clothing before they moved on to stand a bit closer to the ridiculous building he called a house as the golems continued bringing the beds inside.

Let’s just see how things go for now, she thought, tapping her lip.