The Wanderer's Rebirth: Other Paths

“We need to talk,” Celys said, pulling him to a corner of the mess hall that was currently devoid of people.

“What’s up?” he asked with a neutral expression, hiding the sudden alarm bells that went off in his head.

“What are your plans?” Celys asked, pinning him with that intense look Myra called ‘Chief Mode’.

“That’s a little vague,” he said, shaking his head. “Anything more specific you’d like to know?”

“For one, the slaves. Two, what you intended when you spooked the bookseller,” Celys said dryly.

“Well, as to the bookseller, and the caravan in general. I’ve been hearing people say that prices have gone up tremendously since the last time they came. They say that it’s product scarcity, but they all seem to be loaded to the brim with stock, so I’m not sure that I believe that,” he said, shaking his head at the claims. “So, I kind of came up with a bit of an impulsive plan.

“Spook them with rumours about how a dungeon suddenly showed up and almost immediately went into Overflow. Seeing as how there are more merchants in the caravan this time than other times, there’s no space for them all inside of Kirkwall. So, I figured that I could offer them space inside my walls… at a premium,” he said with a grin that faded slightly under Celys’ continued glare.

“You know that Kirkwall still charges them to camp in the spot they’re taking up, right?”

“I thought that might be the case,” he said, nodding. “So, here’s the plan. You tell me how much they’re paying to camp there and I’ll, say, double it for the added security provided by my walls. And constructs,” he added, thinking that his walls wouldn’t be quite enough to repel an invasion.

“And why would I allow that?” Celys asked, sounding even more annoyed.

“Because I’ll hand over all of the profits to you,” he said, shrugging. “It’s not like I need the money, and it would go a long way to helping in the recovery efforts, especially if you were to, say, use part of that money to reimburse anyone who’s been ripped off by the merchants this time around,” he finished, finally breaking his neutral expression by giving her a mischievous grin.

Celys blinked at that, then began to chuckle.

“Well, that can work,” she said, shaking her head. “But what about the slaves? You must know that there are many people worrying about the welfare of so many younglings,” she said, giving him a significant look before turning to look out the window at the gathered gaggle of girls.

Joram didn’t bother looking out the window, for he knew what he’d see anyways.

“I’ll be freeing them all,” he said simply.

“Just freeing them?” Celys asked sharply, taking him by surprise.

“Is that wrong?” he asked in confusion.

“In a way, yes,” she said, nodding a bit. “For anyone who would be considered the age of majority, or an adult, that would be fine. But the law states that minors, on the other hand, cannot be set free and just let go. It is the owner’s responsibility to make sure that they’re cared for and educated sufficiently before they’re released as an adult.”

“Huh,” he huh’d, actually impressed with that law.

“Yeah,” Celys said dryly. “So, what are you going to do with roughly half of those girls?”

Joram thought about it a minute before responding.

“Well, then I’ll offer employment to the ones I’ve freed. They can be in charge of the younger ones who can’t ‘legally’ be freed yet. I’ll continue to provide shelter and food for everyone as well as clothing. It’s not like I’m lacking in space,” he said, nodding, then shrugging.

“That can work,” Celys said, giving him a nod. “So, just to be clear. You won’t be using any of them as sex slaves?”

Even having expected the question, it still hit him like a freight train.

“No. I’m not a lolicon,” he said with a great frown, causing Celys to frown in turn.

“A what?”

“A lolicon is someone who likes either looking at the immature or young bodies of girls or women,” he said, frowning.

Sure, if the person in question was a fully grown woman that was fine. Still, he very much preferred a “mature” woman over anything else. But he had absolutely no interest in little kids beyond helping them, caring for them, and educating them.

“Huh, that’s an interesting word,” Celys said, nodding at his explanation. “Then that’ll be fine. If you need help preparing food for so many people in the future, just let me know. Though, after today, you’ll need to pay for both the food and their time,” she said, motioning towards the women of Kirkwall who were still bringing in and organizing the supplies.

“That’s understandable,” he said, nodding. “But I should have enough to feed everyone after I finish up here. As for the help, I’ll see if any of the older girls would be willing to help out with the cooking.”

Celys nodded, seemingly content with his plan.

“But how are you going to provide enough food for everyone?” she asked curiously.

“The same way I got enough wood for the buildings?” he said, tilting his head slightly in confusion because he thought she knew already.

Celys just gave him a flat look, one that was more motherly than chief-ly.

Looking at the electrical panel, he sighed. It would have to wait a bit longer it seemed.

“Follow me,” he said, then made his way over to the greenhouse behind his house.

He was very pleased with its construction. He’d gone and replicated the windows that had been in his apartment, the triple-paned ones used in Canada for insulation. The whole building was reminiscent of those old-time barns you’d see occasionally in the countryside back home.

The side walls were tall, a good twenty metres in fact. The roof, however, wasn’t flat, nor was it peaked. It did have a peak, but wasn’t just two planes meeting at a sharp angle. Instead, it had two sections per side, looking a bit like the top half of an octagon. That way, he had more room for the trees to grow in the middle. The entire roof was made of glass panels held together by a frame of psionically hardened wood to support the weight. The walls were also made of glass panels, though the base of those walls were made of stone.

As they approached, Celys’ mouth dropped open at the sight and her eyes opened wide in shock.

“How?” was all she could choke out as she stared at the greenhouse.

“I’m a crafter, after all,” he said, shrugging.

The look she gave him told him quite plainly that she didn’t believe any word of what he’d just said.

“Anyways, as you can see, I’ve got many plants already growing inside,” he said as he opened the door for them and ushered her through. “To the left, you’ll notice the grain section. I only have a few different types of grains that I had access to, so I may have to acquire more in the future if people start getting tired of what I have,” he said, motioning to the large walled sections of growing grains.

“To the right, I’ve organized those plots between fruits and vegetables. Again, I only planted what I had on hand, so I’ll definitely need to get some more from town at some point, but it should still be a good start. Now, in the middle are my fruit and nut trees,” he said, motioning to the tall trees that took up the centre aisle of the massive greenhouse.

“I’ll need to make sure that everyone is good with the nuts, though, as I know that some people aren’t good with certain nuts,” he said, remembering the veritable pandemic of allergies that had shown up on Earth over the past half-century.

Celys had been nodding along up to that point, looking a bit lost. But then she seemed to collect herself when he finished his explanation.

“What? Why wouldn’t people be good with nuts? Do you think that they won’t like how they taste?” she asked, confusion plain in her tone and on her face.

“What? No. Sometimes people have a bad reaction to certain foods. So bad, in fact, that it can kill them,” he said, not quite sure how to explain allergies, anaphylaxis, and the immune system in a world that really didn’t have words for those things yet.

Celys just shook her head at him.

“I’ve never heard of anyone having a reaction like that to anything except poisons,” she said, giving him a weird look. “Are you saying that some of this might be poisonous to people?” she asked, giving him a sharp look at the end.

“What? No,” he said, shaking his head as he wondered if allergies weren’t a thing here for some reason. “I…” he started, then paused, not sure if he wanted to let that cat out of the bag.

Sure, he liked Celys, and even trusted her for the most part. But did he want to tell her that he wasn’t from her world? Was he unique in transversing to her world? Or was it a relatively common occurrence? Or somewhere in between? He didn’t know. Nor did he know how the news would be taken.

Then Celys looked as though she understood something and blew him away with her next words.

“The only stories I’ve heard of someone reacting like that to food, are stories of the summoned [Heroes],” she said musingly. “So, you really aren’t from around here, are you?” she asked, giving him a searching look that managed to be sharper than a papercut.

Well, that answers that question, he thought wryly. But still, did he really want to confirm her suspicions? Between what that could get him in trust and what problems sharing that information might bring to his door, and to everyone else who now lived with him, he couldn’t be sure.

Yes, Celys had acted with remarkable trust towards him, even going so far as to inviting him into her home to live with her and her family. Even the citizens of Kirkwall had been wonderful, inviting, and even caring. Up to this point, the only people he’d gotten bad vibes from were the slavers and a few of the merchants in the caravan.

“Please don’t tell anyone, though,” he said with a sigh.

“I’m sure that more than a few people have figured it out,” Celys said wryly, causing him more than a little bit of a shock.

‘Oh, come on Joram! You’ve consistently blown everyone out of the water with your ridiculous displays that breaks their common sense,’ Avi finally piped in, seemingly frustrated with his naïveté. ‘They’ve been calling you a [Hero] for a while now. It is highly likely that they’re the summoned variety.’

Joram just about sighed again.

“Do people really [Summon] [Heroes] to this world?” he asked curiously, hoping to distract her a bit from him.

“Well, I wouldn’t say that just anyone could [Summon] a [Hero], but yes. Usually the kingdoms, countries, and empires closest to the demon continent do that when the war isn’t going in their favour,” Celys said, dropping the cliché’d isekai bomb on him.

“That’s a thing here? So, what, is their goal to go and defeat the [Demon Lord] so that peace and prosperity can once again be had the world over?” he asked sarcastically, really hating that particular trope.

“Well, yes,” Celys replied blankly. “Why else would you [Summon] a [Hero]?”

Joram just about facepalmed in frustration.

He was very much of the opinion that you shouldn’t drag others into conflicts that you, yourself, started through your own stupidity. Yes, it was entirely possible that the “demons” of this world were the evil and murderous variety that yearned for world domination through might and slaughter. He’d even read more than a few light novels, manga, and such with that very theme.

He’d, however, read many more that depicted humanity as the aggressors though. And given just how messed up humans tended to be to just one another, Earth being a prime example of that, then the likelihood of humans being in the wrong was much higher. Well, that is if the “demons” weren’t as naturally aggressive as humans were.

“So… is there a war going on right now?” he asked, trying very hard to keep his tone level.

“Well, I wouldn’t say that we’re in active engagement right now,” Celys said, sounding oddly defensive. “But relations certainly aren’t amicable, that’s for sure.”

“Any idea when the last [Hero] [Summon]’ing happened?” he asked, getting a weird feeling about it all.

“Well, any kingdom that [Summon]s a [Hero] usually declares it so that they’ll both get recognition from their subjects for doing something to help end the war as well as to get the prestige of having done so,” she said while giving him another odd look.

“No, I’m not an escaped [Hero],” he said flatly, crushing that line of thought in her. “Through reasons I’m not going to talk about now, I arrived where Reldan found me. I wasn’t brought here by a kingdom, nor am I a [Hero],” he said, shaking his head.

Celys gave him a dubious look, but seemed to accept his words… partially.

“Well, anyone [Summon]’d is called a [Hero] because the Great Protector gives each of them a unique ability when they arrive,” she said, giving him a significant look.

“What I can do isn’t anything that the ‘Great Protector’ gave me,” he said, using their term for the System that he’d learned while speaking with Myra, Asami, and now Celys. “I didn’t even have a Path until a month ago.”

“Yeah…” Celys said, still giving him a dubious look. “So, what’s up with that? How’d you suddenly become level seventeen?”

“It seems as though the Great Protector saved up the ‘experience’ I’d gathered from killing all those goblins and such,” he said with a shrug, though inwardly shuddering at the intense pain he’d felt just before blacking out after having taken his Path.

Celys gave him another weird look.

“I’ve not heard of that happening before,” she said carefully, still eyeing him.

“Have you heard of someone killing so many monsters before gaining their first Path?” Joram rebutted.

“No…” she replied, shaking her head. “No one would let their child near a monster if they had anything to do with it.”

“There you go,” Joram said with a shrug. “Just because you don’t know about something, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist, or can’t happen.”

“Are you telling me that children can get a head start in life by starting to kill monsters before they get their first Path?” Celys asked with keen interest, but also with no small measure of sharpness in her tone.

“Sure?” he said, shrugging yet again. “I don’t recommend it by any stretch of the imagination, though. I nearly died a few times, even before I took that spear to the chest,” he said, causing her to blanche slightly at the memory.

“Good point,” she said faintly, then quickly firmed up again. “Anyways, we’ve gotten quite off topic, haven’t we?” she said, forcing a smile.

“That we have,” he said, chuckling a bit at how she looked. “Anyways. As you can see, I’ve got enough food for everyone, and I can [Grow] more as I need to,” he said, once more motioning at the crops.

“What, are you part [Druid] now?” she asked lightly, probably still trying to lighten the mood.

“What? No. It’s just one of the things I can do. Before getting my Path, I might add.”

Celys gave him that weird look again but ultimately didn’t pursue what was obviously on her mind.

“And what about meat? Even though us animal-kin don’t need as much meat as our distant cousins do, we still need some in our diet to be healthy.”

“I’ve also got that covered,” he said, shrugging off her worries. “Either through hunting or just making it, I’ll have enough for everyone.”

“Wait. You can just make meat?” she asked incredulously.

“Yes?”

“…”

“…”

“You just get more and more ridiculous the longer I’m around you,” Celys said, pinching the bridge of her nose as though she was trying to stave off an incoming headache.

“Ouch.”

“Ouch, indeed,” she said, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment before looking at him again. “Please don’t ruin the economy of Kirkwall,” she pleaded in all earnestness.

“How would I do that?” he asked before his brain caught up to the implications.

“You can make cloth from sticks. You can apparently make meat. You build things faster than weeds grow. And I’m sure that’s only the tip of the horn when it comes to the ridiculous things you can produce,” she said, obviously leaving out how he could slaughter monsters wholesale.

“So, for now I’ll let the caravan know that there’s room over here for them, for a fee. In the meantime, you just make sure that those girls are well taken care of,” she said seriously. “Especially make sure that none of those slavers get anywhere near them, especially the freed ones. They’re a slimy bunch, those slavers, and I wouldn’t put it past them trying to pull something if they think that they can get away with it,” she finished, her tone ominous.

“I’d worry more about what might happen to them if they tired,” Joram said grimly as he scowled.

“Actually, I’ll have to worry about that,” she said, also scowling. “Please don’t kill anyone; the paperwork is beyond tedious,” she finished with a sigh.

Joram was about to comment on that before Avi spoke.

‘Don’t bother. She’s just basically given you a carte-blanche to deal with anyone trying to mess with those girls. Just take it for the olive branch of trust that it was extended as.’

Reviewing what Celys had said, he didn’t quite understand where Avi was coming from, but wisely chose to remain silent.