[STATISTICS]
[AUTHORITY LEVEL: Commoners (480/1500 XP)]
[STRENGTH: D (80/1500 XP)]
[COUNTRY: Small Village (Money: 100/10,000, Villagers: 9/25)]
[SUPPORT: (Public: 95/100(%), Politics: 0/100(%))]
[UPDATE: Money: +100, Strength: +10 XP, Villagers: +4]
Evan controlled the horse and drove the horse-drawn carriage to the house in the middle of the grape plantation. This plantation was a big plantation that Darren had ever seen. In his world, he had never seen a plantation like this.
Every side of the city is full of residential and commercial buildings. He guessed the city he lived in didn't have any place to build again. Maybe this was one of the reasons why Darren chose to live in a slum after going bankrupt.
His nose made friends with stink and gutter rats. Everything's gonna happen because he's still too young to handle his family business. Or maybe, he's not clever enough to handle everyone's trust.
But today was different for him. Trapped in the game made him realize that he must be responsible for everything. Make sure he achieves his goal to return to his world. Darren also had several tasks, like finding a man who brought him right here.
"Are you taking care of these grapes, guys?" Evan asked both Thalia and Mia.
"People helped my parents take care of this plantation. Thalia and I only do some chores like washing clothes and cooking." Mia explained to Darren and Evan, who sat in front of her.
They were slowly getting closer to the house. Evan pulled the rope until finally the horses stopped. Their finally arrived at Everglow's house. Darren was the first to get down from the horse-drawn carriage. Then, Mia dan Thalia followed him and stood up beside him.
"Is Uncle John maybe coming to this house when we're in the camp?" Thalia whispered to Mia, but Darren still heard her voice. He saw the condition of the house since the day Mia and Thalia left. He caught a lot of dry fallen leaves, the plantation looked not maintained, and the house was abandoned.
"I don't know, after he comes back to Mierre-Park. He should go to this house to check on us." Mia said to her twin.
"Uh, um..." Darren cleared his throat, trying to get Mia and Thalia's attention. Darren turned around his body and stared at them. "Is Luna already telling you about your duty, guys?"
Both of them nodded, of course, Mia and Thalia knew what they needed to do. Evan stretched his body before he got down and walked closer to Darren. "This is the best solution to stay in this house until morning. I missed sleep in bed."
"Come inside, we have ten bedrooms." Mia led their way to the door, she opened that door and walked toward the stairs, while Darren was still in her living room. "Thalia, let's prepare rooms for our guests."
Darren observed the interior design of this house. Darren expected that Luna's house was just a weed house. But he knew if he underestimated her. It was a big house, more than the house that he planned to build. Darren guessed that this house could help more than fifty people, or maybe more than that number.
"This is such a beautiful house!" Darren caught Evan, who also observed this house like him. This house was made of red bricks without much design, so the owner wanted to show off their house like industrial design. They intentionally did not add finishing like cat or smooth plastering. "Do you agree with me?"
"Of course, yes. I'm curious, is my last home similar to this? I mean, the palace." He said to Evan, who frowned, that he was confused by what he said. "Forget it, Evan. I will assume that the palace may be bigger and more luxurious than this house."
"Boss, I've been watching you these past few days. Until I know something about you. Hopefully, my guess was wrong. Don't you remember anything about your life?"
Darren froze in the middle of Everglow's living room. Evan was right, he didn't remember anything because this was not Prince Darren whom he knew. He was Darren, who came from the real world and transmigrated to the game world. Of course, he didn't remember everything, including Evan.
"Guys, we have already prepared your rooms. Do you want to shower? We can borrow you my dad's clothes." Mia appeared on the second floor and talked to them. The silence between Darren and Evan was automatically lost, and both of them walked to the second floor to go to their room.
After Darren knew Luna wasn't part of this game, he didn't know why he felt afraid that someone knew he wasn't from this world. Darren just needed to know if he's not the only one right here. He felt enough when Luna was the same as him. His ambition to finish this game increased. He was sure he could go back to his world.
"This was Darren's room, and this was Evan's room." Mia pointed out one of the rooms for Darren before she pointed to another room for Evan in the next Darren's room. Then, Thalia came out of the corner room with a pile of her dad's clothes. "You can choose the best outfit for you, guys. Tomorrow, we will meet a lot of people in the market. So, our outfit needs to be presentable. We will pack lots of my family's clothes, so everyone in camp can use them."
"Is Luna telling you to do this?" Darren asked, he's uncomfortably if Luna did everything for camp.
"It's okay, Darren," Thalia said. She gave that pile of clothes to Darren before she went down to the first floor. "I will make dinner for us, guys. Maybe I can still find something to eat."
"I will give a hand to Thalia in the kitchen, see you guys!" Before Mia went down to Thalia in the kitchen, Darren's voice was heard.
"Can you give me some papers and a set of brushes for writing? I need that to write something." Darren asked.
"Okay, I will drop your paper right here, above this table." She pointed to a table in front of his room, which had a vase with artificial red roses.
****
"So, we need to plan for the day after we arrive at Mierre-Park. So, on the first day, we need to prepare our store. Maybe we can find the right place to sell bows, then also a place for us to sleep at night in Mierre-Park." After they finished their dinner, Darren started to discuss what they needed to do in Mierre-Park.
Thalia, who sat beside Darren, wrote everything Darren said.
1. Find a place in the market to sell bows and sleep at night.
Thalia made sure the ink from the charcoal did not make her dress dirty. Thalia knew that a stain from ink would never be missing from her dress.
"The second day, we will buy some goods for our friends at camp. Maybe like horses, carriage, and bread."
2. Buy some goods we need.
"The third day, I will go to the place that offers workers. We need ten people to help us in camp." Darren said.
3. Go to the place which offers workers for the camp.
"Boss, can we go to Mierre-Park Palace to collaborate on the palace? If our camp grows, they also get a lot of benefit, right?" Darren listened to Evan before he sighed. He also thought about people who could make every merchant safe. But, he knew the king of Mierre-Park Palace would not help them easily.
"That's a good idea. I knew that we could reduce our expenses if we collaborated with them. But I'm not sure if they will help us. We also need to know if every help is not free. We never know what he wants, just to help us." Darren explained.
"Maybe Uncle John will help us, right?" Mia gave an idea.
"After we bumped him?" Evan asked.
"Don't worry, Uncle John isn't that brave. He will help us if we give him a threat." Darren laughed, hearing what Mia said.
"Okay, Uncle John will be our other option if we fail to go to King Finn. But I optimist if we can still survive with one hundred gold coins. If we go back to our camp, we will prepare our journey to Narima Beach." Darren decided on his way to grow this place.
"Are you sure if we will go to Narima Beach? How about your brother, Boss?" Evan worried.
"We don't have any option, right? Like I said before, I will go to Narima with or without you, Evan." Darren said before he closed their night discussion.
BRAKKK!
They heard that loud noise, of course they caught that noise from the second floor of this house. Instantly, everything was silent, Darren and Evan immediately stood up and ran to the stair. Both of them needed to know who made the commotion in this empty house.
Darren caught someone with a face covered by black fabric. His clothes were black, he knew how to go anywhere without taking attention from people. His gazed on the vase which broke in the floor. Darren knew if this man who make this problem.
"Hei! Asshole!" Darren ran, he wanted to make that man stop. Unfortunately, he ran to the windows on the second floor. Darren saw that man fell to the ground before he continued running again.
Darren knew, someone was trying to watch them. Or, the terror would start from now.