Travel back to Landis was uneventful. The carriage that arrived at midday was prompt, and the ride went uninterrupted. When the party of Raed, Leif, Tara, and Yui, arrived at the forestside town, it was still only mid-afternoon and the sun was still bright on that spring day.
"Landis Town!" The carriage driver cried. "Next for Riverholt Town!"
Only one passenger boarded the open carriage for the next stop. He was a young man in a tattered cloak that concealed fine garb underneath.
The young man stepped onto the wooden carriage, and seeing no others board, the driver set the engine to drive forward on its rickety path along the half-paved road.
Yui stretched out her arms.
"Mm! It's great to be in civilization again!" She exclaimed cheerily.
Raed also tried stretching but stopped short when he heard something in his knee click.
"How long has it been?" Raed asked.
"Hm, including before coming here?" Yui calculated the time in her head.
"Almost half a year. And that's way too long to be cut off from people! I used to work in a place where there were hundreds of people a night."
"I don't think Landis has that population," Raed said.
"I'm just happy that I can talk to people again! Normal people who aren't trying to kill me or do unspeakable things to me!" She said the last part with an exaggerated shudder, making it clear she was joking.
The four of them walked toward the town center, where small crowds moved about their daily routine.
A fountain once stood in the middle of town, but after three years of drought and some changes in policies from the local lord, it no longer had running water.
At least two children were having fun climbing in and out of the empty fountain.
"We're here," Raed said once they made it to the fountain. "Now I know Leif has been here with me a few days ago, but we only passed through and briefly stayed at the inn. Tara and Yui, have either of you been here before?"
Yui shook her head, no.
"Yes, before I joined the Independent Honorable Guild of Poran Forest," Tara said.
"Was that a long time ago?" Raed asked.
"Five years."
"Well some things changed since then. The new baron took over four years ago after his father died, for one."
Tara nodded.
"Yes, Baron Second Son Montescue, the Bald Swine." She declared.
"Hold on now," Raed hurriedly said. "You can't just say that in the middle of a public square!"
"Why not? He has a reputation for taxing the best crops at harvest and feasting with other nobles while the people and even his own servants starve in winter."
"It sounds like you have some history with the baron," Raed said.
"Yes, he is top assassination target for the Independent Honorable Guild of Poran Forest." Tara stated it with an expressionless face.
"Ok, was it a mistake to bring you into town?" Raed said aloud to no one in particular.
"Tara, maybe we can wait until we are in a better place to talk about this?" Yui said. "We wouldn't want the townspeople to be too worried about us right?"
Tara shrugged. "I only state what is obvious to everyone." She stated.
Yui smiled. "I'm sure we will have better places to talk about this."
"Is the baron that bad?" Leif asked.
"Let's save this talk for when we're alone somewhere, can we?" Raed said.
"If Master requests discretion then I will comply," Tara said.
"Huh, I didn't know Galesians were so sensitive about this sort of stuff," Leif said.
Yui once more entered in to set a different conversation topic.
"So Raed, what are we here for?" She asked.
"Ah yes, I was going to say that we should restock on our supplies since Leif and I originally only packed for the two of us. Now that the party size doubled overnight, we will need to change our plans."
Raed took out three maps and handed them out.
"These show the locations of useful shops around here. There aren't that many, and this is a small town. It should be easy to find anything we need just by walking around, but I prepared these to save time."
He started by pointing out the fountain in the center of town.
"We are here," he said.
He moved his finger northeast and then pointed at it on the map.
"Here is an armorer, although it's more like a retailer that sells equipment that gets shipped over from Finulid City."
"I can look through the equipment here," Leif offered.
"That sounds like a plan. We don't know if we might run into more bandits along the way, or if there will be monsters that show up now that portals from the Netherworld are active again," Raed said.
Back on the map, Raed moved his finger southeast from the armorer.
"This place has a good selection of food and beverages that won't go bad anytime soon. Most of the drinks are alcoholic, so will that be a problem for anyone here?"
The other three shook their heads no.
"I can help with getting us ingredients for meals," Yui said.
"Great," Raed said. "If it's anything like what you managed this morning with the plants I had growing outside, then maybe you can work a miracle and make those preserved foods not taste bad."
"I'll try what I can," she said.
Tara stood quietly.
"Tara?" Raed asked.
She turned her head up to look at him.
"Is there anything in particular you might want to get?" Raed asked.
She shook her head.
"Fine, then Leif can acquire weapons or armor that might help us. Yui, we'll leave the food and drinks to you. Tara and I will get potions and other supplies."
The four split up to their various destinations. Leif went to the northeast, Yui southeast, and Raed and Tara walked west to the apothecary.
The one and only apothecary of Landis Town was a shack next door to its inn. It was a convenient location to provide hangover remedies for the people who partook of the inn's drink too much.
The interior was dimly lit, with mostly empty shelves. What was stocked gave off various aromas and stenches, and the contents of some jars looked questionable to Raed.
"Can I help you?" The one shopkeeper asked.
She was a wizened woman who looked at Raed with sunken eyes in her wrinkled face.
"Yes, a few health recovery potions, and if you have them, magic recovery as well?"
"Health, sure, got a lot of them over in the corner. Magic? That's a tough one, son. Had you been here even a week ago I'd still have some left for you."
"Did something happen to your magic recovery potions?"
"Happen? Ha! Someone placed an order for more than I had! Took me a whole two weeks to make them all the magic recovery potions they requested."
"You must have made a lot from that one order," Raed said.
The old woman snorted.
"If only it came from a typical customer paying regular price!"
She suddenly clammed up.
"But enough about that! I'm sorry to tell you sir, but I don't have any magic recovery potions and my assistant is gathering herbs today and I have a large backlog of orders. Maybe I could add you to the list, and give me a few days, maybe a week or more, or maybe the month, and I can get to you?"
"That's fine, I'll manage without them," Raed said.
He made his way to the shelf with the red-colored health potions.
It's rather typical to have actual red liquid in those bottles, Raed thought.
He years ago he asked a guild representative about the color of potions. Why did apothecaries and potion shops mix carmine into health potions that otherwise would be clear liquid? Why did they add indigo to mana potions that otherwise would be clear liquid?
The answer he got was somewhat practical: Without those colors adventurers would get confused during the heat of battle and drink the wrong potion.
Besides, the colors didn't affect the potions' effects, and people became used to the color coding after centuries of using the same potions.
Raed placed a rack of bottles holding red fluid in his satchel and handed it to Tara, who had up to that point been silently shadowing him.
"Can you take these potions to the counter? I'm going to take a look at their glassware," Raed said.
"Yes, Master," Tara said.
In their secluded area of the shop, and with the old shopkeeper busy in her supply closet, Raed finally spoke up about something on his mind.
"Hold on, this has been going on since yesterday, but I'm not your master," Raed said.
Tara blinked. "Are you not? Guild leader Tom gave me to you. Therefore, you are now my master, until you decide you no longer have use for me. Then you may discard me as you please. Is that your wish now, Master?"
"No, that's not what I was going for!" Raed said.
This girl is even more serious than Leif! Raed thought.
"Look, I think you'd be a great benefit to our party, but you don't have to be so formal. You can just call me Raed."
Tara nodded, just like Leif would nod. A short, quick tilt of the head down and an immediate bounce back up.
"Understood, Raed." Tara confirmed.
"Let's get back to what we were doing. You, take potions to counter."
"Yes, Raed."
Tara walked behind an elderly man who was making a purchase at the counter. He was slightly hunched, and held a cane in his left hand to support him. The clothes he wore appeared to be that of a typical retired small town merchant. They were in good shape, but not extravagant. White and brown cloth were the main colors of his garb.
As he stood patiently at the counter, he rubbed his palm over the cane, and in doing so, his jacket shifted, and revealed a bejeweled dagger at his hip.
Silver, with a triangular hilt. Three rubies were arranged in each corner of that hilt.