Chapter 7
Ben woke slowly in Mr. Leery’s bed.
The sheets had been laundered, they were soft, clean, and warm.
There hadn’t been anyone bothering him over night, no one prodding at him to to do something, or expecting him to accomplish some goal.
He’d slept and slept deeply.
Rolling out of the bed, Ben groaned, put his feet to the ground, and then sat there. Staring at the spot between his feet.
The bedroom was pretty far from the workshop room that Stacy’s mirror was in, which meant there wouldn’t be a conversation, even if shouted. It’d need to be by tablet, or going to her mirror.
Which was a blessing and a curse in equal measure.
Picking up said tablet, Ben groaned again, sighed, and then forced his eyes open.
“How much food, water, and power do you give me daily, Stacy? Am I constantly feeding you for scraps or… do I just need to look at the currency tab?” Ben asked, and fought down another yawn.
A message box flicked up from the side.
“Three zombie sacrifices a month will take care of all the water, food, and power needs of the building for the entirety of the month.
“This cost is irrelevant to how many people are in the building. Even if you had every apartment filled. It would still be three zombies a month.”
“In other words,” drawled Ben. “Three zombies is a significant profit margin for you and you’ve already set up the costs in advance.
“Great. That’s good. Does that apply to my own meals as well? Are my meals and what not part of that three zombie cost? ”
“Shouldn’t you just click the currencies tab at this point?” came the first message, followed by another. “Food and water for hydration are always available to you regardless of anything else. If you were to die, I would quickly suffer a similar fate. I cannot escape this, so I must insure that you survive.
“I will not provide food, water, or power to others, but you will always have a supply for yourself and no other. Do not try to cheat me on this. It will go badly.”
“Great. So you’re the demon house wife in a way. One who wants to suck my soul out of me while also serving me breakfast,” Ben mumbled, then stood up. “I get it. Sounds like marriage alright. Can you give me a breakfast setup in the dinning room?”
“I am most certainly not a house wife, as I’m not a corporeal being, though I most certainly do wish to take your soul. Breakfast is ready. I prepared a calculated amount of food to match your caloric needs.”
“Great. Anything happen while I was fucking unconscious? Cause I haven’t slept that good in a long while,” confessed Ben as he stumbled off to the dinning room. “Like the dead.”
He found a baked potato, cooked carrots, strawberries, raspberries, a banana, and a bowl full of some type of thick looking soup or stew.
“It’s pottage, before you ask, and it’s made with a number of legumes, oils, and oat. The food is high in protein, fats, and calories. You must finish the bowl. You have no source of good protein or fats until we come to an agreement on meat.”
Ben raised an eyebrow, slumped into the seat, picked up the spoon provided, and dug in immediately. It tasted pretty good he found.
No small part of that taste was due in part to the fact he was ravenously hungry.
“As to the building, many people approached. Numerous people. Easily in the high double-digits that I was able to observe. They came, looked, and left,” read the message on the tablet. Ben had set it down next to the bowl so he could watch it as she replied. “The priestess Saba returned once just after sunrise, prayed at the barrier line, then left.”
Prayed? Prayed.
That’s interesting and different.
I have no idea what to think of that.
“I take it that didn’t do anything to you?” Ben asked as ate.
“No. I’m not part of their religion. Nor am I unholy.”
“Got it. That makes sense. Can we start on the magical engineering later today if possible? That was real, right?” pushed Ben, wanting to make sure that was a real thing.
“Yes, we can begin working on that later today. Most of it will need to be given to you through magical inheritance rites, which would be done while you sleep. It’s too much to teach you and you’d likely forget it if I explained it by word and speech,” was the lengthy reply.
Ben nodded and kept eating. He was deeply interested, but more questions about that could wait for tonight.
“Thanks for breakfast,” he said, then went quiet. Though he did note with a grunt when Stacy replied with ‘You’re welcome’ on the tablet.
***
Walking out on the rooftop, Ben looked outward. Past the walls and the area beyond. Into the open fields, destroyed buildings, and roaming bands of zombies that seemed to be everywhere.
Given that his apartment building was taller than everything nearby, including the walls that weren’t immediately around the castle itself, it wasn’t hard for Ben to get a ‘birds eye view’ of nearly everything.
In every direction, in fact.
“Well shit,” Ben muttered, looking around again. He’d already looked once previously but it’d been somewhat brief, on an empty tank after a full day, and without completely understanding the situation.
Now in the true light of the morning sun, understanding what he was looking at, and that outside of the walls was a no-man’s land, he could see the city was under siege.
Truly so.
In every direction and as far as he could see, there was a large number of zombies moving about in nearly every direction. Spread far and wide and stumbling about, but never going that far.
They were all clearly focused on the ruins that surrounded the walls and the city inside the walls itself. As if drawn there and not being willing to move away.
“Alright. Yeah. ‘Above market price’ is going to be massive, regardless of whatever the market price is,” whispered Ben to himself. “I wonder how long they’ve been at this. I could ask but I wouldn’t really have a frame of reference, either.
“There’s magical races and shit. For all I know they can grow beans in the yards and pots anywhere. Make water out of nothing with a spell.”
Nodding his head with a soft grunt, Ben decided he’d go wait in the front of his building. He imagined someone from the king’s court would come talk to him soon enough.
Heading down the stairs, Ben sighed as he noted the messed up halls and debris strewn about. Things needed to get done and some of those things included cleaning the place up.
With thoughts of going floor by floor and cleaning the apartments up, Ben made it to the front of the building and stepped out into the small fenced in green area.
It was actually a significant amount of green space all things considered since it ran the entire front of the building.
Though it was a shame there was no side yards or a back yard to the building.
Stopping in his tracks, Ben raised his eyebrows as he thought about that.
He pulled out the tablet from his armpit and held it up in front of himself.
Looking to the display he didn’t see the front of the building here.
“Stacy, did the parking lot on the side of the building come with us? Is that why the footprint looked odd to me?” Ben asked quietly. “It wasn’t that we didn’t fit perfectly, it was that the parking lot came with us and I just… didn’t realize it.”
“Correct,” came the text boss response.
“Neither the parking lot or the front of the building show up on the tablet?” Ben asked.
“That’s accurate. They’re not technically part of the building, which means the control is less, but they’re still included as our footprint. They are outside of your immediate control through the tablet, but can be controlled by your will. Your safety isn’t as perfectly ensured there, either.”
Nodding his head at that, Ben wasn’t exactly pleased with it, but it made sense. The parking lot and front garden would need to be an area he was wary of.
Looking about he saw there was a young woman standing at the fence line not far off. She appeared to be in her early twenties and lifted her chin up the moment Ben looked her way.
Her shoulders were squared and she had a presence to her that set her aside.
Other than that presence though, she was quite ordinary.
A face that was neither fair nor ugly, a figure that was there, but also nothing extraordinary. Her clothes fit her but there was some give in them as if she’d lost a bit of weight but not much.
Her brown hair was pulled back in a strict braid that hung behind her head and an odd little cap was wound into her hair. A pair of firm brown eyes stared at him and met his gaze.
“Are you a wizard, then?” she asked after a single beat passed. Her jaw flexing after the words left her mouth.
“Not likely in the sense of the way you’re thinking of the word, no,” Ben answered. He didn’t want to lie to her, just in case something came out of this, but he also didn’t want her to think he was something normal.
Because despite the way things had gone down so far, he still had the Magical Engineering education to look forward to. From the way it’d been described so far, it really sounded like being a magical electrician of sorts.
Or an electrical engineer?
Something like that.
Ben walked over to where the woman stood at the fence and nodded his head at her.
“Why? Something you need from a wizard?” he asked, wondering what exactly she was looking for. She wouldn’t have approached if she didn’t have a goal in mind.
“If you’re a wizard, and this is your tower, I figure it’s probably safer in your tower than not,” the woman reasoned aloud. There was a slight lilt to her words that Ben couldn’t place.
In fact, now that he was truly considering it, he was somewhat surprised he could even speak her language. Or that she perhaps spoke his.
He’d have to question Stacy later because his first thought was she’d somehow gotten herself involved. That some type of magic was interceding and providing him with the translation rather than them just happening to have the same language.
“I mean, that’s a fair assessment. People who are bitten are cured of the zombie plague if they’re brought inside my tower,” Ben began, deciding to roll with the tower assumption for now. That and letting it leak that his place heals bites. That’d spread round rather quickly he imagined. “Nothing spoils or goes rotten in it either. It provides water all on it’s own and it doesn’t need purification. It can boil water without needing wood and heat or cool the tower as well. Food is easily attainable as well with almost no effort.
“No one can enter without my permission, nor can zombies for that matter. Nor can anyone harm me inside of it. It’s more or less what you’re thinking in the end I guess.”
“Then aye, I want to be in your tower,” she said with a firm nod of her head. “I’m not pretty or good looking enough to think I could barter my way in by promising your bed so I won’t try.
“What I can do is tell you my brother is the single best carpenter in this whole damn city. He’s got two little ones and no mother to tend to them if he’s working.
“Sounds like he wouldn’t have to tend to worry over them at all if you invited me and his family into your tower. I’d tend to his kids for the time being until he finds a new woman.
“If I’m not tending the wee ones, then I’d be minding the tower. I’m sure I could be a right and proper cook or maidservant. Or if it really did suit your needs I could warm a bed as well.”
That’s probably the most direct way I’ve ever heard that kind of a pitch before.
Everyone always kind of talked around it on my own world. Without ever getting to it.
Or they oversold or hedged.
She’s just… brave as hell.
“A carpenter,” Ben murmured. “How old is he? How many years of experience does he have?”
“He’s a master carpenter and a master in his guild,” said the woman with a nod of her head to punctuate her statement.
Yet she didn’t answer the other questions, which meant to Ben that her answer had some relationship with years of work or quality.
“Alright… well… is there a reason he isn’t here in person?” asked Ben. “Oh, and since you’re being forthcoming. What’s the name of the king here? The kingdom? The city?”
“He’s working right now. He’s… he’s digging another pit for the next set of corpses. And as a woman I can offer more to a male wizard, obviously,” the woman countered. “You’re in the kingdom of Waint. The king is named Roland and the city is that of Waint, the capital.
“As for me, my name is Alasa, I’m nineteen, unmarried, and have only laid with a single man, but he had been my fiance at the time. He died to the… this.”
The word ‘this’ had been stated while waving at everything around them.
Ben sighed at that, blinked, looked to the side, and contemplated what that all meant to him. He didn’t need a bed warmer at the moment.
He did however need a carpenter.
Because regardless of the world he ended up on, whatever phase they might shift to, someone who worked with wood, would be needed.
Wood was a resource they could even try to cultivate if they broke up the parking lot and started planting fast growing trees.
“Alright,” Ben began and looked to Alasa. “I’m Ben. Have your brother come around when he can. We’ll work out details. I don’t need a carpenter at this exact moment, but honestly I’m sure that’ll change quickly. Wouldn’t be surprised at all if I suddenly needed one tomorrow.”
“Wonderful,” Alasa replied with a smile, turned, and left without saying anything else. Passing right by Narin as she came from the opposite direction.
“Oh, the magician,” Ben said aloud as the woman met his eyes. “You’re back. By yourself no less. Saba and Morgan occupied or something else?”
“Yes. Morgan is currently handling a pile and Saba is carrying out morning blessings for the populace,” answered Narin with a sour look on her face as she came towards him.
“Mm, I see,” Ben said as he walked up to the fence line. He leaned up against the low wall and looked to the magician.
Narin, still sporting the sour grimace, walked up to the other side of the wall he was leaning on. Then she reached out and prodded at the area directly in front of him with a fingertip.
Her finger couldn’t move past the exact point that the property began and pushed up against an invisible barrier.
“The king is more than willing to purchase a great deal of food from you,” Narin murmured, pushing at the barrier for a few more moments. Only to then press the entirety of her palm against it and then shove.
Her shoulder flexing as she did it.
“Great,” Ben answered. He’d thought on this a bit last night as he drifted off. “Were we thinking barter? I’m not sure how good coinage is right now since… well… can’t eat it and it has no actual value. Not really. Other than the melt weight I guess.”
Narin’s face went stiff and her mouth flattened into a straight line. She was clearly fighting a natural response to his statement.
“Barter,” she said after a long pause. Moving her hand across the barrier back and forth even as she stood there trying to control her facial reactions. “I assume you wouldn’t want coin, or people to work at a task. Anyone we would send to you, you would likely view as an outsider.”
Ben nodded his head at that. It sounded about right when he considered it.
“We’ll be happy to trade in magical or mundane,” Narin began. “We’ve got resources we can certainly be rid of that’s honestly just… taking up space in warehouses. Warehouses that would be much better used storing food.
“Providing you can actually get us as much food as we’re talking about. We’d need something akin to three-hundred wagon loads a month. We’d need to break it out to ten or so a day so that we don’t alert the masses but… ten going back and forth all day every day wouldn’t be terrible to handle.
“Especially if we the populace believes we’re negotiating with a foreign wizard that is open to trading to individuals as well. Not just the king. That should be enough appeasement that they won’t trouble the wagons overly much, though you might find yourself in need of a clerk.
“And yes, his highness doesn’t mind if you make your own deals with his subjects. He would only ask that you do nothing that would endanger his rule, or his family.
“If a noble or someone from the military, attempts to offer you something for your direct assistance, we’d be willing to double whatever the price was they offered so that you tell us about it.”
Huh.
So if someone wants to bribe me to do something against the king, I tell Miss Golden-Eyes and she gives me double?
Nice.
“Alright,” Ben murmured, pulled up the tablet, which he was now beginning to think of as the ‘Gateway to Hell’ or just ‘Gateway’, and looked to the expected message from Stacy. Since she was his Demonic Spirit and the tablet was the gateway to her.
Sure enough, once he got into the communications, he saw there was a message from her.
“Not an issue. We can do ten wagonloads a day assuming the price is right. Though I do think we’ll need a clerk. Maybe we should ask Narin to send people looking for work our way. We could put hands to use cleaning up all the apartments as well.
“And no, we wouldn’t trust them. You’ll need to make sure they’re not hiding anything on their person when they leave through the tablet with.”
“Done. Ten wagonloads are ready for pickup today. Though… we should speak of the price and what it’s worth,” Ben stated and looked to Narin. Then he smiled at her. He felt like the man in charge for once.
And he liked it.
“Also, you’re right. I could use a clerk and some laborers. Would you mind telling people that I’m hiring and I’m paying in food?” Ben finished, smiling at her.
It was a gift in a way.
He was allowing her the ability to send those who she wanted to him first, before word spread, and he was inundated with applicants.
“I can certainly do that,” Narin stated, her mouth still a flat line.
She seemed entirely unimpressed the entirety of the situation, but was doing her duty.
Or so Ben guessed.
“Now,” he started. “Let’s talk price.”