As I previously mentioned, horses and carriages are the main methods of transport in this world. As such, long distance travel takes long periods of time. Currently, I resided in a small farming town. If I wanted to join the military, I would have to make the two week trek to the nearest large city. This city happened to be the capital of Vosnan, known by the amazingly creative name of Vos'ai.
Like come on royal family, what is up with y'all? Did you ask someone with dementia to name everything? They just kept repeating the name of the continent, so you just changed it a bit every time so as to not anger them?
Anyways, I already had the transportation bit down. Using the money from selling the family business, I bought myself a horse last year.
I'd never rode a horse before, and I didn't have anyone to teach me how to ride.
You'd think it wouldn't be hard to ride a horse, right?
In all the fantasy books I read back on earth, it never seemed difficult.
But for me…
"Stand still you damn thing!"
The day I bought my horse, and now I had to figure out how to ride it.
The spotted horse dashed away from me nervously, its eyes glaring into mine.
'That appaloosa does not appear to be well trained.'
"The hell is a- never mind! Just tell me how to ride this thing!"
Sil could identify the breed of horse, but that was about it. After struggling with my new companion for two hours, I finally gave up.
Heading back to the house of the rancher who previously owned the horse, I handed over a few more coins.
A grin overcame the rancher's face as he counted the money. Twenty sil. It was a lot of money for this small town, enough to feed a small family for two weeks.
The currencies in Vosnan went as such: Sil, col, ron. Every country had their own currencies, and Vosnan wasn't a large country. This currency wouldn't be accepted by anyone outside the country, so spending it now didn't hurt too much.
The rancher left for a moment, then returned with an object in his hands.
"You bastard! Why didn't you give me a saddle the first time!"
I completely forgot about getting a saddle earlier, and spent the last two hours trying to mount the horse bareback.
Now I had the proper equipment, as well as a teacher. My horse, who I named Appa, was still rather rowdy. She loved pulling pranks, and rarely listened. The only time she seemed to listen was when she was bribed with apples, so I ended up wasting much of my remaining funds on food for her.
Now, a year after purchasing Appa, we were leaving the small town for the first time.
I packed up everything I would need for the journey- a crude iron axe, extra cloths, and rations.
I had run out of funds just this morning, so I sold off my house for cheap. Selling at a low price, I was able to get the money immediately.
I double and triple checked my supplies before departing. It would be too embarrassing for the future legendary hero to forget something and have to turn back, right?
Horse, check! Clothes, check! Food, check!
Looks like I've got everything!
Only the old rancher came to say farewell to me, and he didn't look sad at our parting. I hadn't put much effort into making relationships here, so it was pretty understandable.
I hopped onto Appa, urging her forwards.
The horse stood still, her gaze looking back at the town with sadness.
"Fck off Appa, you aren't sad."
I reached into the bag at my side, pulling an apple from within. The moment the juicy red fruit came out into the sunlight, Appa's eyes lit up. All the previous 'sadness' was gone from her eyes as she munched on the fruit happily, and the horse finally started walking forward.
"Uugh… When did I piss off that old rancher so much that he gave me you. Surely any other horse would've been better."
The horse, proud with her extortion abilities, ignored his comment and continued walking.
Onward! On to adventure and fun!
Onward to war and glory!
Onwards to- ah dammit!
I… I forgot to get water.
I glanced back at the town, fading away behind me.
Do I just keep going, and save myself the embarrassment? Surely I would be able to make it without water, right?
'You will die.'
Sighing, I turned back around.
"As long as the old rancher isn't there, no one will know this ever happened, It's ok. It's all ok, no one will know."
A few minutes later, Appa clopped back into town, walking right up to the person I wanted to see least.
The old rancher was standing right where he was when I left, a self-satisfied smirk on his face.
"Dammit. I should've just kept going."
Reaching behind him, the rancher grabbed a large water pouch. It wasn't something one could find anywhere. The water pouch was well made, and wouldn't leak any water at all. A pouch like this would cost much more than I could afford, and I knew that the rancher was a greedy man. After spending much of this last year with him, I knew that what he valued most was money. He wasn't all that different from Appa, but with his obsession being money instead of apples.
Maybe this is who Appa learned her obsessiveness from…
The rancher walked up, tossing the water pouch onto Appa's back.
"For you, kid. Be careful out there."
And with those words, the rancher left.
"Wow… I really wasn't expecting that."
The money obsessed rancher, known to be cold and harsh, gave him this as a present?
There was a word to describe people like him.
"I guess the rancher's a tsundere."
I turned Appa around for the last time, heading back away from town. I looked back at the town I was born in for the last time.
"Farewell, starter town. Looks like the tutorial is over now, time for the fun stuff!"
'Drav, I think your mental illness is flaring up again. I believe we have some lavender packed in the supplies. Please try sniffing it for a bit, it might help you regain some sanity.'
"Fck off Sil."