The journey went rather well.
By the time that Locus arrived at the inn he decided to spend the night in, he had already finished the loaf of bread that Mr. Andersson had baked for him.
The inn that he had chosen was rather small, with only a handful of rooms for guests to stay in and as good as no customers. The rooms were accordingly poorly furnished, or at least that was Locus' guess concerning the other rooms after seeing his own.
Luckily, these circumstances were appreciated by Locus, who, first, didn't want to spend a lot of money, and second, was still wary of the possible theft of the goods he was carrying. Maybe someone was in dire need of firewood?
Just as expected of an accommodation just by the side of the road, there was a stable for the horses, where Locus left them to recover from the ride's fatigue.
Without further ado, Locus promptly set to sleep, figuring he could just as well eat tomorrow morning since he had already eaten the whole bread he took with him for supper.
The next day was all about travelling.
After eating and preparing the carriage, he set out, heading towards Unipolar City.
In Locus' eyes, this way of travelling was rather boring. He neither had someone to talk to nor did he see anything worthy of mentioning.
The most interesting thing he saw was a herd of cows passing the road, requiring him to stop the carriage and wait for a few seconds.
By the time he arrived at an inn to settle down and rest, he was so agitated and longing for human interaction that he decided to chat with the owner while eating dinner.
Locus mentioned his delivery to Unipolar City, of course, leaving out the part about the ores turned into wood, which led to the owner showing him around the inn.
Compared to the one where he stayed the night before, this one was rather lively. About ten of the tables were occupied by groups of people, and Locus' room felt twice as big as the other one.
At an appropriate price, of course...
After taking care of the carriage, the middle-aged owner wished Locus a good night and went back inside to take care of the other guests, while Locus paused for a moment to look at the night sky, now covered with all the different stars.
It was a sight that he wished to see every night for the rest of his life. But to manage that, he first needed to take care of himself and make money.
The next morning, after breakfast and, subsequently, departure, Locus counted his money.
Of the approximately 200 silver that he took with him, he still had about 120 silver left.
"That should suffice for the rest of the journey."
Since the weather played along and the horses were refreshed from the night at the inn, Locus managed to arrive in Unipolar City by the time it got dark.
He could already see the lights from afar, and when he passed the city gate, he was surprised and amazed by the city once more.
Big cities had something about them that just attracted people, Locus figured.
The streets were filled with humans; the merchants were still selling their goods, and all throughout the city, Locus could hear laughter and chatter.
"I might as well visit Mr. Orvis when I'm already here."
Locus led the horses down the alley leading to Mr. Orvis shop. It wasn't hard to find, since almost all of the signposts led to it. After all, it was the biggest blacksmith shop in the whole guild territory.
By the time Locus arrived, Mr. Orvis was already tidying up the shop and putting everything back where it belonged. The swords went to the swords, the helmets went to the helmets, and likewise.
Locus went inside.
"Excuse me, Mr. Orvis? The ores you ordered have arrived."
He turned around. His figure was comically large, and he looked like he had more muscles than Hercules himself. When Locus first laid eyes on him, he was so scared that he jumped and let out a startled scream.
Regardless, Mr. Orvis had now put on a bright smile through his brown-haired full beard and welcomed Locus.
"Thank you, young man. I didn't expect you to be here so early."
"It's my pleasure."
"Would you mind waiting just a minute while I get this all tidied up so that we can unload the stuff?"
"Sure thing!"
This situation was very convenient for Locus, since he still had to revert the ores back to their original form. Fortunately, that didn't take as long as turning them into something else, since there were no other possibilities with his ability.
Right after finishing the last ore, Mr. Orvis came walking towards the wagon. With him, he brought a wooden wheelbarrow to carry the ores back to his storage room. With Locus' help, the two of them were done in just about two hours.
Mr. Orvis handed Locus a bag. It felt quite heavy and made a jingling sound.
"100 gold" is what Mr. Orvis said and pointed at the bag.
"Don't lose it."
Mr. Orvis laughed.
"See you!"
"Goodbye, Mr. Orvis!"
Locus smiled and spurred the horse on.
He and Mr. Orvis had worked into the night, and it must have been about 2am when Locus finally found an inn to stay the night.
The next morning, Locus felt quite hungry. He figured it must have been because of the hard work, but since he didn't want to spend a lot of money on food, he got himself some bread and set out back to Condre Village.
The route he took to get back was the same one that he took to get to Unipolar City.
The way back home was as boring as expected. That was, until on the morning of the second day, he had an encounter that he did not expect to happen in the slightest.
Just a few miles away from Condre Village, he saw a whole company of armed men walking in his direction. Locus immediately went into high alert. The reason wasn't the company in general, but rather what they were wearing.
All of them wore black uniforms with epaulettes each displaying a golden star, while one of the men wore a black coat with the epaulettes showing three white, shining stars.
That man was a High Commander of the Mastermind Guild with his company.
Whenever a guild shows up in another guild's territory without prior notice, it usually means trouble. But not Locus' trouble, or at least he hoped so when pretending like they weren't there to prevent any kind of confrontation.
They had five carriages with them. After they were out of sight, Locus wondered what they might have been carrying. While he was asking himself that question, he looked up at the sky. Behind the hill between him and Condre village, Locus caught sight of a dark, grey column of smoke.
Without really thinking about it, from one moment to another, he got a really bad feeling, scaring him so badly that for a second, he forgot how to breathe. One thought that crossed his mind made his heart skip a beat.
His thoughts were racing. That column of smoke was way to big to just be a campfire.
When he reached the top of the hill, it was as if time stopped for a moment, in which he laid eyes on his village as it burned down to ashes.