As soon as Livia was done working things out with Jane she returned to the main table to let the others know how redundant their entire discussion had been.

Livia had on a smile though, so it was kind of hard to argue with what she told them: “If you have a problem with Jane we will work it out, like we would if you had a problem with anyone else, but for now she’s coming with us; but we’re gonna stop treating her like she’s wounded, okay?”

That earned her some nods–since it was mostly the special treatment they’d had to provide, and the walking on eggshells when she was glaring at everyone–that had started grating over time.

Now Livia made it clear Jane would be tasked with protecting the animals and that was that; they only had the three horses remaining and their two oxen, on top of Hyde and Algernon who did not need taking care of, so Jane would obviously mostly be focusing on her hairy cat, and she’d walk along like everyone else from now on, and pay for rooms when they traveled instead of having a personal sleeping cart.

Things worked out fine in the end, and they had a new member officially come on, even if she was a special case who had specific tasks, and did not feel at all inclined to share personal details of herself. “Just make sure to always ask first before you target her with any Spells. You made your own bed when you threw [Esper’s Balm] at her Kalle, the pain of losing siblings isn’t something you just sooth away with magic an hour after someone wakes up from a coma,”

Kalle looked a bit offended that she thought that needed to be said, but Jane was listening in so it was clearly for her benefit as well. “Yes, Livia. I was tipsy, and didn’t think it through. Me and my nose learned that lesson well, don’t you worry.”

LIvia just smiled at him. “She has not been violent at all besides that, except for a few screaming matches, so give her the benefit of the doubt from now on, even if her levels might be a bit… Yeah, I’ll say it, scary!”

Elin gave a grateful nod at Livia acknowledging she wasn’t the only one who turned nervous around high level people. “It’s just another aspect to consider, but don’t let it keep you from doing whatever you need around her, she’s part of the team now, in her preferred, limited capacity. Alright?”

And that ended that.

Kalle was glad they had settled things with Jane; her mood seemed to be improving already, now that she knew more precisely where she had them all.

Unlike the others he’d never felt very nervous around the enigmatic woman, despite being the one to suffer her wrath first, she was always more confused and sad than angry or even bitter and resentful.

With time it seemed she might deal with all that had happened to her in her own way, but Jane was not a person you pushed. That much was very obvious by this point.

More interesting to Kalle was what Sten told him of the Arena; now that he’d learned what he needed about his own Class from more experienced [Warlock]s, it felt like it was high time to get back into some proper sparring.

And apparently they’d already earned the [Guild] a new addition from how things worked out there. Although they weren’t exactly looking like they were spoiling for a repeat; despite the levels they had gained. Nor were they likely to get underestimated like that again.

But apparently it had been a close call, and that made Kalle look forward to this new recruit more than anything. If someone as new to their Class as Oscar can give him an even fight despite his tricks, then they're likely to be trained very well if nothing else.

Unlike Sten, Kalle was a born Dormatian and had not just been here to visit. Personally Kalle thought it was far more likely that the daughter would actually come to work off her service on her own; and the family not send a replacement. Unless she was a lone heir, or they could easily afford the bribe to have someone else do it, but three years of work was a lot to pay for out of pocket.

More likely was that they had met some middling family on the rise with more kids than they knew what to do with, even if they still rated near the figurative bottom of the Dormata barrel when it came to its fighting factions.

That seemed unlikely with the way she'd been able to push Oscar so far, even if he’d had an hour’s training with Sten to drain him beforehand.

They were used to going hard for three when they were back at Brunner’s farm, and Oscar had a Class now too.

All in all, things were certainly looking up. Although to Kalle’s senses Livia was feeling almost giddy with excitement, and the success of resolving things with Jane and Sten reaching his capstone did not add up to quite enough to justify it; making Kalle conclude something more must have happened.

“Yeah, I got good news Kalle, but nothing that can’t wait until Roldy returns, let’s make plans for our last days here in the meantime, okay?”

And so they did. Day 3 was starting tomorrow, and they were leaving again on the 6th.

Before then plenty remained to be done; but first of all she needed to discuss the new developments with her inner circle. Then she needed to really make sure of Redd and Ronia, now that they’d gotten a day to spend with their family here; they may well end up deciding to stay.

But the money from their market sale was starting to come in, and the auction was in another two days. If Redd was indeed all in then they needed to know before then.

They had already filled their coffers to an excess of twenty thousand silver, minus expenses, but they would be tallying it all when the full expedition was reformed and all was said and done.

For now they raised a cheer to not facing further complications; however futile, it helped to keep the mood up, and they all felt like even if something were to come up; So long as they worked together they’d be ready to deal with it.

Redd had missed his sons a great deal. He had taken them on when they were a mere three and five years old.

Now he’d gotten to see the splendid farms they had built over the course of years, all on their own. Grown men with families that would make any grandfather proud. He had only been to visit once before since they got real houses of their own, and before that when they got married. But it was evident how hard they'd worked.

It was very good to see. And it made him feel good about not needing to worry in the future, so he could keep going about things on his own end for now.

Ronia had not been able to stop teasing them about their shock at him losing the old leg. Hah, suppose they’re still innocent enough to believe in their hearts I will live forever. Hm, maybe they’ve got a shot at me dying to age now at least, if they all manage to stay out of danger.

Now that hardly seemed likely.

A farm outside Dormata was quite a different matter to one in Salcret. For one you hired on permanent staff, and there was a lot more room for grazing, so the few people who actually had Classes specifically for the work would usually have [Rancher] as opposed to [Farmer] around these parts, but that was only the owner in most cases. The other workers would all be more common Classes that had a versatile streak; even [Soldier] was considered a decent one, for improving your durability and long term workrate

Which also meant a large part of the work on a Dormata farmstead was security; even if they had roads and towns on most of the land; Doc Forrest was still just around the corner. You couldn’t put out thousands of tasty meals and expect for the nearby predators not to notice, even when you put up different enchanted fields it would take either exorbitant sums to cover every part of your acreage or else you would leave openings that the predators would soon communicate to each other. The hungry denizens of Doc Forrest were just too smart for anything but active guarding to work.

They had resolved these issues in part by use of another one of the many animals that Humanity had somehow brought from home; at least that’s what Livia had apparently told young Harold was most likely, since there were too many familiar species for it to be coincidence.

What they used to protect their herds of cattle and sheep here, were in fact bona fide ostriches, ones that looked so nearly alike the same kind which Livia would have expected to see coming straight out of Arabia–that it was bound to catch her off guard if she visited. In fact all the similarities were there, so long as you discounted the gleaming rooster spurs they had growing along their legs.

And Redd’s sons had become the best suppliers of the creatures in the area; focusing on cultivating premier ostrich feed, and raising the largest specimens, trained to guard the other animal flocks in the local area. The surprisingly swift animals had become their specialty.

Ronia and Harold had not been prepared to stay long; but Redd made sure they spent their day as guests riding, around on the giant birds who did not weigh a gram below 350kg once they were fully grown, and with Redd being given a proper alpha to ride, weighing in at 479kg of feathered, kicking doom.

Harold had been in heaven, and he even ended up buying his brother a gift.

They’d come there on horses, and now they left the farm behind to gallop back through the late evening, after their goodbye dinner had delayed things until they promised to be back again for another visit before leaving on the final stage of their expedition's journey; Ronia even ended up staying behind for another night, since she remembered she still had things to discuss with them for some future plans. It seemed it was important that they all support each other, especially now that the whole family had moved to Dormata and were together again.

Redd knew what to tell Livia about it already though, they had discussed everything thoroughly before ever arriving here, and nothing had happened so far to change a single thing as far as the two were concerned.

Redd was going to live with the [Guild] and help them prosper, mostly to have something to keep him busy while he remained here to help his kids out whenever they needed; Ronia was going to get back to investigating what her contacts in the city knew of any murky business that occurred the past summer in Salcret; while continuing to help out the [Guild] by providing a direct agent to work through in the city, with the bonus of having it be someone from Salcret who they could trust.

Of course it was best to set things up with family first though, so she remained behind now while him and Harold went back to see what else needed doing for the [Guild]. Things are selling well, should be only recruiting and the buying provisions left now, but maybe Livia will find a way to complicate things, hah.

He had been enjoying the [Guilds] way of doing things so far; but he had to admit it was unorthodox. And now that they would end up butting heads with the people here in Dormata… Well, it would be interesting to see what gave way first.

For now they rode back to see about any new developments.

The city looked a bit shoddier from this south side, but maybe that was only natural with most of the traffic coming from the east and the west.

The ways out to Salcret had never been a major priority, there was one other town and a few villages a day’s travel away when you headed south, but besides that there were not many of the old Folkung settlements remaining. Most of the people had simply assimilated into the Dormata region with their more populous city centres.

Only the north was equally neglected, but at least they had one major hub there in Sandall, which had long served to protect the road to the Cloven realms.

Redd knew little of those areas, since all the conflict he’d been part of had been concentrated on the eastern border, but it was about time to start asking around among the old vets, since Livia seemed adamant that that’s where they were headed.

At least that should help Harold out with his issues; he was clearly bothered by the lack of high level [Druid]s to be found working outside the army here in Dormata. He would have expected the populous city to be more varied, supposedly. Instead of this strange set of affairs he'd found where every Caster capable of teaching seemed to be tied up in one organisation or another.

Redd figured that maybe the battlefield they had witnessed had given them the wrong impression; Casters had been a central part of the forces that had fought back the Mantis, but that was a force pulled from the entire province, and Casters travelled fast and were always hungry for levels; so naturally they would show up from far greater distances compared to regular troops.

The young [Druid] would have to look elsewhere for teachers who dared act more casual about such matters as setting others on their path; but luckily they were now headed right to where such things were more likely to be found: to the north and west.

Although he should only head directly west–towards the sea–if he aimed to learn from the more aquatically minded [Druids].

It was not out of the question, but so far the boy had collected a wolf and a bird among his companions; he did not make it seem at all like the sea was his personal Class’ domain.

But then he was not like any of the other [Druids] that Redd had met over the years either. Outside of maybe Bertrud, and she was only free-spirited with magic like that until her heart was broken, and the drinking stole her mind. But maybe I judged her a bit harshly for that in my youth, thinking back.

Harold was a prime young man, built like a wrestler, as a [Druid] should be. And already growing to catch up to his ganglier friend; it was only natural, even now at the farm he had spent an hour training when they were done riding, merely in order to not get left too far behind.

But he was also generous; as evidenced by how he spent his savings on a Class- and birthday-gift for his brother, simply on account of finding something so perfect.

Redd had mades sure to quitly explain why the [Druid] deserved a discount, and after he made their most productive ostrich lay even more eggs was when it clicked to his sons how maybe this guy might be worth knowing in the future.

Harold had left there with the best battle steed ostrich that money could buy, likely in all of Doc Forrest.

It just remained to find out what Livia would think. I've never met anyone with such strong views on [Knights], that old warrior's tale.

They had gotten a lot of things done that evening, both in terms of planning and of getting everybody on the same page.

It was almost time for bed; they just needed for Harold and Redd to show up so they could all get started out fully briefed tomorrow.

Of course that was when they heard a commotion outside–and went out to find Redd and Roldy riding in on their usual mounts–with the one new addition in tow: A heavyweight ostrich–which the [Druid] went right over and handed to his brother, before looking at the onlookers in the street and proclaiming: “You won't be a [Squire] forever. So, it is best you start practicing riding this guy as much as possible, aye? Redd had a hook-up, so it was too perfect for your new Class to not just do it; and now you've got yourself a proper heavyweight bird instead of that other cocky featherweight!”

Oscar was overwhelmed, he had been so sure his luck could not keep going like this, but in the end he managed some heartfelt words. "Thank you Harold, it's great, you're too nice to me, too nice, I'll give you a ride anytime!"

Livia wanted to tear her hair out, just to be dramatic and ruin the moment. What have they done to my beloved knights...

Instead she decided to channel her best Margaret. "What a lovely gift. Congratulations Oscar."

There was no accounting for taste.