RCJoshua
patreon
Chapter 243: Nieces and Nephews
🕑 Added 2024-10-26 00:54:20 +0000 UTC---
Read "Chapter 244: Euth" on Snowing Pine
---
The three of them walked to a nearby stand and bought the kind of stir-fry-over-noodles dish that was so popular almost everywhere. Nobody ever messed it up, although some people were definitively better at making it than others. This stand was one of the good ones.
“So what does Spiky want this time?” Rhodia asked. “And why am I the only person in the world great enough to do it?”
“He wants glass. Lots of glass.” Arthur reached into his pack and pulled out a small piece of paper, which he unfolded to reveal a drawing of a glass-panel greenhouse. “He wants to convert one of the fields that got poisoned during the last monster wave to permanent cold-season growing capacity.”
“How many of these?” Rhodia asked. “That’s a big field.”
“Hundreds. I think he knows it might not happen all at once. He’s willing to make it a multi-season job, if needs be.”
“Oh, I don’t think so.” Rhodia took a look at the plans again, looking like she was doing some quick mental math. “It will be a little harder without Lily to help, but lots and lots of conventional glass isn’t that much of a challenge anymore. It’s more about set-up, and I have a mechanist and a smelter. I’ll need full access to that field, and it might look weird for a while, but I think I can mass produce glass, yes.”
“Amazing.”
There were other ceramics people who could do much better individual pieces than Rhodia could. They could make cups that were harder to break or more delicate. They could make plates that were more refined. There were even several of them in town. Rhodia didn’t care. Her class path had always been about finding a situation where a whole lot of something was needed, then rising to the challenge of making it. Whether or not they upgraded later, each new resident in Coldbrook tended to start with a building made out of her brick, eating off plates that came out of her kiln, and using her glass for special projects.
The fact that she could, even in the worst of times, create almost limitless amounts of brick meant that the town’s growth had always been more-or-less unrestricted. There was plenty of stone, and plenty of wood. But when either ran short or didn’t fit the bill, Rhodia could make up the gaps.
And Milo did anything she couldn’t, adding his own contribution to the conversation, “I could rig up the buildings so the windows open automatically. By turning a crank or something. Then we could use those in the summer, too.”
“Sounds good. I’ll run it by Spiky, but I’m sure he’ll say yes.”
“Why isn’t he here to say it himself, by the way?” Milo asked. “I haven’t been keeping track of what he’s up to, this week.”
“He ran over to Seaside. To pick up a new resident.”
“You mean that one?” Milo asked. “I thought he was still a few weeks out.”
“I think they got tired of him at the last place. He’s not…” Arthur tried to think of a way to say what he wanted to nicely. He was just a kid, after all. “He’s not like me.”
“Oh, I bet not. Who is?” Rhodia laughed.
After lunch, Arthur walked Milo and Rhodia back to their workshop, where they were able to squeeze in ten minutes or so of drafting up plans to make as much glass as Spiky said he would need. They had just about confirmed that Rhodia’s class could handle everything even before the cold season hit when the sound of shattering glass at the front door cut them short.
“That’ll be Ash.” Rhodia shook her head. “I swear she does it on purpose.”
“It could be Clay,” Arthur offered.
“No, not really. And you know it.”
Ash and Clay suddenly appeared through the door, speeding up to the top velocity their stubby pre-kindergarden legs could handle when they saw Arthur.
“Uncle Arthur!” Ash slammed into Arthur’s legs hard, then bounced off and hit the floor. She dusted her feathers off quickly as she rolled back to her feet and hugged the same leg she just bruised. “Did you hear me break the vase?”
“I heard.”
“Momma says she’ll put me in a kiln if I break more.” Ash sniffed. “She never says that about Clay.”
“I don’t break things. I fix things. With Dad,” Clay protested.
“You sure do, son.” Milo patted his head. “He wants to be a maintainer when he grows up.”
Arthur nodded. “That’s a good job. I’ve had a lot of maintainer friends. It sounds fun, right?”
Clay nodded too. Arthur had learned not to try to pry extra words out of the mouse-boy if he didn’t have to. Ash started tapping his leg, only stopping when Arthur looked down to give his Uncle attention.
“What about you, Ash?” Arthur said. “Did you change what you want your class to be?”
“No!” Ash said, pulling back and swinging an imaginary object with both hands. It was so heavy in her mind that it took her around for a couple of spins before she got control of it. “I’m going to be a Clubber. Then dad can make me a club as big as Aunt Karra.”
“And then what?”
“I’ll club stuff!” Ash shouted, then ran around a bit pretending to club things until her twin got the business end of her non-existent blunt weapon, and they began chasing each other around the yard.
“Thanks for bringing them home, Mom.” Rhodia leaned over and gave Ella a quick hug. “That piece was too touchy to have them around for, but it came out fine. I shouldn’t need them out of the house much in the next few months. I promise.”
“Don’t promise I can’t see my grandchildren,” Ella huffed. “I may or may not have taken them to a few cookie stands. You might want to go easy on the sweets after dinner.”
“That explains why they’re so fast today.” Arthur watched as the kids zoomed around the yard, pretending to either repair things or break them, depending on the personality involved. “Too much sugar.”
“Nope. They are like that all the time, now.” Milo smiled. “Mom says it just gets faster and louder until they move out.”
“And sometimes they bring stray children home. Watch out for that,” Ella added.
All in all, the time from looking at his own garden to when Arthur finally shook loose from the dual embrace of his niece and nephew was a little less than three hours. Arthur didn’t mind spending the day like that at all. Nieces and nephews were fun, it turned out. He got to get all the cute little kid moments and fun trips around the city without any of the work, and his friends got alone time out of the bargain. It was a win-win-win for everyone involved, as far as Arthur was concerned.
But Arthur still had hours and hours of time to burn before his next responsibilities hit. Which meant he could do whatever he wanted in the meantime. There wasn’t much question of how that would pan out, as far as he was concerned.
“Oh, hey, there.” Arthur saw a skunk demon leaning on the wall of his shop as he walked up. “Did you bring me more leaves?”
“Yup.” Tryce reached into his pouch and grabbed a roll of leather, which he carefully waved at Arthur. “You get the shop open, and I’ll get these unpacked. I took notes this time.”
Arthur smiled, then took his key, unlocked the lock on his front door that was entirely for show, and walked into the best building he had ever seen.
Arthur had two tea shops before this, and he had thought both of them were perfect. Now he knew that past-him was wrong. Those shops had both been great, of course, but they had only been as great as his imagination and knowledge would allow him at those times. As he got older and older, he came to understand what he needed more and more. He learned more about what he liked. And, eventually, enough of those little pieces of knowledge piled up that he decided to act on them.
The first thing he changed had to do with alleys. Arthur wanted to be in one. Not a dingy alley, or a dirty one, but the kind of small-side street he had seen back on Earth in pictures of Tokyo. He was after the kind of place that made it just a little harder for customers to find your shop, but also made it feel more secluded, less busy, and more cozy as a result.
The second thing Arthur wanted was less room. That had come as a bit of a shock even to him. He still needed quite a bit of space behind the counter to do his own work, but the space he ended up moving to was quite a bit smaller than his shop at the plaza had been. He had a few large tables, and a bench on the wall that could accommodate a few customers besides.
The way the shop was set up now, anything more than three or four customers gave it a full feeling, and anything more than ten was noticeably packed. But at the same time, people seemed to talk a bit more when there wasn’t as much room between them and the other people. It was more social. Anyone who just wanted tea tended to linger at the walk-by window outside the shop to do their ordering, and would limit their time with Arthur to a minute or so of chit-chat.
He still served plenty of people, of course, but nowhere near the capacity he really could have. The amount he did serve felt right. Living in a world where he could follow that feeling, even if it meant less business, was a wonderful thing.
And it wasn’t like Arthur needed the money.
“I still have to get shoes like that.” Tryce, the skunk demon, looked down in envy as Arthur came back outside the shop to open the ordering window on the big glass storefront. “Next monster wave, maybe. When everything’s cheap.”
“Totally worth it. Trust me,” Arthur said. “Once you have shoes, a house, and a family, the rest of everything is just sort of extra.”
“What about class growth?” the skunk asked. “You gotta get those levels.”
“Maybe. I never noticed a higher level really making anyone happier, here. It might happen. But I’ve never seen good shoes fail. They are a perfect, true thing.”
“Be that as it may,” Tryce grunted. Arthur watched his wisdom go partially to waste on the younger person. That was fine. They’d get it eventually. “I have leaves. Lots of them, today.”
“Then let’s get started.”
---
Read "Chapter 244: Euth" on Snowing Pine
---
Comments
Trevor Mergen
Thanks!
Daniel
Thank you for the chapter!
