Nearly a week had passed since the unexpected visit from the Bents. Tomorrow, I would see if the decrease in tea consumption would have any noticeable effect, but I doubted it as the change would amount to less than a sip and I didn’t always finish my tea. Yesterday, Kine had declared himself caught up on his studies, which I felt to be a surprisingly quick time spent. We spent the entire day with me questioning him on his learning and him answering to the best of his ability. There were weak points, small gaps in his knowledge, but even considering those, I was impressed with how quickly he took to it.

Meathead and the servant’s son Rolf became friends as well, playing games such as tossing a stick or hide and seek. I had to stop them once when one suggested they try to jump into the moat from the top of the tower. Immediately afterward, I added an additional command to the wind elementals there to prevent falls. Chelsea became more talkative, much to my chagrin, but for some reason, Tond always seemed interested in her nonsensical vomit of words. I considered confining her to only having day-to-day conversations in the kitchen, but by the way they were looking at each other, I’d prefer them not to be alone together in the kitchen.

Today also marked a new first, as it was the first time that adventurers arrived to collect some of the frozen corpses. They arrived escorting a merchant that had come from Lark and a wagonload of copper under a well-bundled bronze gate. There were ten adventurers in total, a large number for the task, and not one of them looked Walker’s age. Most could only be a couple of years older than Lilly, likely in their first tier.

I welcomed them at the opening in my wall where the gate would go, a spot directly connecting the bridge to the road. Walker, Kine, and Mena all stood beside me. While I planned to have Chelsea be the contact person for ordering sundries, Mena had done so last time and seemed to thoroughly enjoy the experience. But before we could even greet the merchant, an adventurer ran forwards with three scrolls in hand, offering them to me, the young woman bowing and holding them out in one hand as if I were royalty.

So close I could have just taken them, instead, I gestured for Walker to do so. My assistants needed to get in the habit of this. They also needed to get in the habit of warding themselves against spells and poisons before touching things, so this would be a good way for me to bring the matter up later on. Walker looked surprised and a touch uncomfortable, but took the scrolls for me, holding them as if uncertain how to. First tightly with two hands, then tucked under an arm like a tome, and finally resting them on his shoulder.

I watched him patiently until he was done, and then instructed him, “Go place those on the table in my study and fetch the other guards to unload this copper. Chelsea too.”

He hopped to it, and I was satisfied with the look of minor embarrassment he gave. When I turned back to the adventurers before me, the deliverer of the scrolls was still awkwardly bowed with her head held down.

“What are you doing?” I asked, and watched as she promptly answered me with a barely contained scared noise before jumping back among the other adventurers. The young men and women were the sons and daughters of Lark, and their complexion and features showed it. I was, I admit, a little surprised at the fearful glances they were giving me. I also wasn’t one to let that kind of thing go, not with these young people standing around like they were nervously waiting for something. I simply raised an eyebrow and watched as several took a step backward.

“Well…” One young man started but shut his mouth when I glanced at him. A little taller and broader of the chest than the others. He likely fashioned himself some kind of leader. I forgot how much fun this was! I was about to swiftly move a finger in the air, just to see if the sudden movement would cause any to startle and run when my fun was ruined.

“Oh, will you stop scaring the children!” Chelsea’s annoying voice came from behind me. She came to stand beside me and huffed as if I were the source of her exasperation and not the other way around.

“You boys and girls are here for the dead dogs, right?” She continued this time in a stern manner with her hands on her hips.

“Yes, ma’am!” Their pseudo-leader answered.

I looked at him after he answered, and he nervously met my eyes this time. I can only surmise that his courage might be dependent upon the number of servants around.

“Very well. Kine, if you would show them where to go?” I gave a smile and waved at my other assistant.

“Yes, master,” he said with a small bow, the perfect response to the circumstances. He began leading them away, calmly answering whispered questions that we could all still hear.

“Wow, that was scary. You work for him? How do you do it?”

“You’re a real adventurer? What tier are you?”

“How long have you been an adventurer? Are you silver grade?”

Beside me, Chelsea sighed and shook her head, “I swear, you do that on purpose, don’t you?”

I didn’t lower myself to answer her, though I did try to keep my smile contained. The three guards arrived with Walker shortly after and carefully moving the gates from the wagon, leaning them against the wall from the outside but not unwrapping their cloth cover. I directed them to take the chunks of copper ore from the back and leave them around the fireplace on the first floor, and then turned the negotiations for supplies over to Chelsea and Mena, but without the opening I gave last time. If this were to be my normal supplier of goods, I didn’t want him to feel threatened by me every time he came.

Instead, I asked Walker to bring me a scroll I had already written, for the Paladin Adam. Quests for adventurers to bring me the lilies and beasts I wanted for my moat. I never did decide between the eels or the fish. Instead, I would try them both. I could easily remove one or the other if they didn’t suit my needs. This way, if one of the beasts couldn’t be caught, then I would at least have the other. But I absolutely wanted the lilies, and the reward reflected that.

It didn’t take long, maybe half an hour before the trading was done, the wagon was unloaded, and the adventurers returned lugging six corpses sealed inside ice. The merchant had a huge smile on his face which I judged to mean he was happy enough with his profits to return. The frowns and looks of disgust the adventurers had for their delivery goods likewise meant that several would not be seeking a life of adventure, especially with the way Kine was needling them.

“What are you making that face for? This has got to be the easiest quest I’ve ever heard of! Delivery of a body frozen in ice? No killing it first, no capturing it alive. No blood or guts. No damaged equipment or wounds. I would have jumped for joy to see a quest like this when I was tier one,” He kept going even as they were walking down the road, the smirk on his face evidence of his enjoyment.

The guards helped to hold the gates in place as I directed Kine and Walker how to sink the parts of the hinges into the stone to allow them to work correctly. This was followed by a brief lesson on locking wards and reinforcing spells. Which then led to me asking for demonstrations on their casting of the common earth magic spells Stone Spike and Stone Wall. It was only when I heard the gate close for the fifth time that I stopped my impromptu training session and looked over.

Meathead was standing there with Rolf, both demonstrating the pleading looks that one would normally find on a puppy.

“Yes?” I asked.

“Mom said to ask you if we can play in the water. If it was safe,” Rolf stated his request while digging the toe of one of his feet into the ground. I sighed. Was it safe? The elementals wouldn’t attack. Was it clean? Not really. I had the water elementals removing things from the water but not purifying it. That could be changed in a moment, though. Can they even swim? I wanted to tell them no, but those looks they gave me were just too powerful.

“Fine. Give me a moment,” I said, more snarl than words. And really, it only took a moment. The waters bubbled shortly when the elementals purified them, and then I added an extra command to ensure that they assisted anyone who might be drowning. This didn’t take the first few times I tried, and eventually became a command to lift any of the residents of the tower out of the water if they stayed under for more than a few minutes.

I waved the two over and watched as they jumped in, to ensure it would work. Chelsea was also outside the door, watching for her son as any good mother would. When it was clear the command worked, I was satisfied. Then, I noticed that the earlier orders I gave the tier one water elementals to play also had an effect. Meathead and Rolf simply needed to point and an arch of water would leap from one to softly splash the other.

With some reluctance, I returned to training Kine and Walker, teaching them how to use [Earth Manipulation] to replicate the spells. It was a degree harder to do and cost more mana without the [Geomancer] class, but it was a good exercise for budding mages. We trained until supper, a more rounded meal of fried goat, rice with chopped vegetables, and thick gravy that was perfect when dipped into with the dinner rolls.

That night, while I watched the sunset from the top of my tower, I noticed wisps floating over the walls. The small lights, little different than soft candles of green. Nature wisps then. The creatures were simple things, really. The equivalent to elementals what animals were to beasts. Likely attracted to the mana used earlier during training, as they tended to fly in groups seeking out sources of mana to feed and grow strong on. I was a little surprised I hadn’t seen them earlier, but perhaps there was something in the bog that preyed on the things.

When I went to investigate closer, I noticed they darted over the waters of the moat, chasing after my first-tier water elementals who played with them.

My first instinct was to destroy the creatures, as I had just made the moat safe to swim in, but the way they glowed under the mists gave an enchanting ethereal quality I liked. I didn’t personally have a skill to capture them, lacking the type of rock that could seal a nature elemental, but I did have another means that might work. Using the tower crystal. And it worked perfectly. Soon, I’d ordered the wisps to follow in the trail of mists created by my second-tier elementals, and only when the waters were covered completely in mists could they play.

I stayed and watched the lights move until midnight before turning in, smiling to myself even as I lay down.