Chapter 41 - CH.40

As Johanna was recovering, Aiko put her ear against the door to listen if any sounds were coming from the room, but once they realised that they were done, Aiko stepped back from the door and took a seat next to Amanda, continuing to chat with her. After waiting a little longer, Johanna came out of the room covered in sweat and semen. She smiled at the two and explained to them that they had a deal with the blacksmiths; they would come again tomorrow and pick up the pickaxes that they were going to craft today. The group decided that it would be best if they just stayed at the inn in town and slept here for the night since travelling back and forth would be a waste of time. 

Because the city is on important trade routes and there are many travellers, the city has quite a few inns, but Johanna was too exhausted for the day, so the group went to the first inn that they could find. And once Johanna noticed the sign with the inn's name on it, she got surprised since she didn't expect that another golden bird would be in this small village. But luckily for her, she got the money to pay for one room with three beds, so she didn't have to find a client who would lock her up in his prison.

Amanda and Aiko wanted to look around the city a little bit more since it was only afternoon, but Johanna decided that she didn't want to come with them since she only wanted to rest for today. Aiko and Amanda strolled through the markets of the city; even though they didn't have any money, they just enjoyed strolling around looking at the products and not having to live in a dark cave with goblins. The two of them also knew that if they wanted, they could also just escape and never return to the goblins, but deep inside of them, they had a feeling that maybe if it weren't the goblins, Johanna would achieve something great, and they definitely wanted to be part of that.

They soon returned to their room, only to find Johanna sleeping in her bed already, and since they didn't want to wake her up again, they decided that they should go to sleep too. 

 

On the next morning, Johanna was the first one to wake up, and since she was very hungry since she wasn't able to eat last night, she went down to the reception and asked the red-haired female receptionist if there were any bakeries nearby where she could buy breakfast for the group. The receptionist told Johanna the direction, and as she was waiting in line at the bakery, she saw how the boss blacksmith from yesterday joined in the line behind her.

Johanna turned around and asked him if the pickaxes were ready. The blacksmith nodded at her and told her that they were all done, so Johanna agreed to come by and pick them up once her group had eaten. They continued chatting as they waited in line, but once she got her order, she left him behind and walked back to the inn. As she arrived back at the inn, she was welcomed by Aiko and Amanda, who had woken up in the meantime. She gave them the food, and they all enjoyed the meal they had. Once they finished eating, they got ready for the day and returned to the forge of the blacksmiths. They finally got the pickaxes, and after talking with them for a while, Johanna, Aiko, and Amanda left to get back to the cave. 

The journey back to the cave was pretty boring and also exhausting since they were basically dragging a large sack full of pickaxes through the whole forest, having to manoeuvre around every obstacle. And after the long journey, they finally arrived back at the cave. Much to their surprise, the goblins haven't returned from their own raids, and as soon as Johanna realised this, she immediately began to panic, worrying about the bad things that might have happened to her son and the rest of the goblins. 

Aiko, who saw how much Johanna was worrying, tried to calm her down by explaining that goblins were greedy creatures and that they probably just decided to raid more and more caves because they forgot their real goal. Johanna knew all of that, but she didn't think that her sons would be so stupid and still do these things, so Johanna decided that she wanted to go look for them, but before that, she still had to store all the pickaxes, and since the women in the dungeon hadn't gotten nearly enough food and water over the last day, she decided that she should just calm her thoughts and emotions down while taking care of the trivial tasks, and after that, she could go look for the goblin army.