Chapter 471: Souvenirs and Settled Debts
*Bing-Bong*
The following scenes take place after Zhen Liu settled his business with Elsa and proceeded to let Archanidame and Lacerage have their fun in Pearl Scale Harbor for the remaining time he had left.
As to detail what events occured during this period, well…the writer found it more interesting/expedient to just skip to the results.
That is all.
…
You couldn’t have just told them you didn’t want to spend a chapter on a shopping scene?
|If I’m gonna write about commerce, it’s gonna be an auction scene over something dramatic.|
Fair enough.
*Bing-Bong*
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While the core elders and patriarch of the Zhen Clan were dealing with the ever present issues of travel related bureaucracy, things at home were going smoothly…mostly.
…
“Hey, has anyone seen Miss Aranea?,” a young disciple asked her three friends, “I haven’t seen her since breakfast and she was supposed to teach us how to erase our presences today.”
“I thought we were learning how to sew today?”
“I think it was both, actually.”
“Oh, you guys didn’t hear? She said she’d be out for part of the day in order to pick up something she got special order from a merchant, so lesson were cancelled for the day.”
“Awww.”
“Special order?”
“Hey kids,” a young man wearing a leather work apron interrupted, “have you seen where Miss Luccile gone off to? We had a customer bring in an Obsidian Tortoise and the customer wants the beast bisected to make armor out of it.”
“Not since this morning.”
“Tsk, damn.”
As Patriarch Zhen Shi and a majority of the core members were off in Roaring Tide to handle some unfinished matters, the Zhen Clan members left behind at Stampeding Bison were busy keeping things running like usual.
Just because their patriarch had some mysterious past relavent issues, didn’t mean the rest of the world would pause to let them deal with it in peace.
People still needed their beasts trained and/or processed, and the Zhen Clan made sure to keep this need fulfilled.
That said, part of the reason why the Zhen Clan could still function without it’s key elders and patriarch was thanks to none other than Aranea and Lucille, the two mysterious ladies that appeared one day to serve as replacements for one traitorous former head butler and then some.
Aranea proved herself to be a masterful secretary and a hell of an educator to the younger generation members of the clan, albeit the content of her lessons were a tad sketchy at best.
Lucile on the other hand, was a master combat instructor and was arguably the best dismantler after the patriarch. A prestige made even more impressive based on the fact that she did all of this while wearing a lacy dress.
It also didn’t hurt that the both of them were Aether Grandmasters.
With these factors combined, the two of them had become unspoken pillars for the clan, therefore, the fact that they both disappeared at the same time was enough to cause some mild concern, but not enough to cause a full blown panic…yet.
“Alright then…can you guys come and find me when Miss Lucille gets ba-”
“Good afternoon children, sorry for the wait!,” Aranea called out as soon as she saw the disciples under her tutelage. Accompanying her was none other than Lucile, the lady that the young man was looking for.
“Huh? Zeke? The hell you doing out here during chopping hours?”
“Miss Aranea! What’s in the box?”
“Oh thanks gods you’re here! Miss Lucille we have a-what the fuck is that?”
When Aranea and Lucille made their presence known, they did so with carrying items that seemed a touch too big for their respective persons.
Aranea was holding two square shaped sacks, one the smelled sweet and warm while the other appeared to have scrolls in it. Meanwhile, Lucille was holding up what appeared to be a large jug of wine, sealed with a paper slip.
Close inspection on any of the items would reveal that they had Tide script written on them.
“Well,” Aranea began to explain, “I heard some of the younglings grumble about not being able to go to Roaring Tide, so I found a merchant who happened to regularly trade there to bring me back some things on special order. Figured if we can’t go to Roaring Tide, I could at least get some goodies from there. There are some specialities Ocean Almond Cookies in this box, while the other contains some literature, paintings and I think a few art scrolls.”
“Oooh! Thank you, Miss Aranea!”
“You’re welcome, disciples.”
“Evidently, I had the same idea as Miss Spider over here,” Lucille added, “I ordered this bad boy from a merchant too. Figured it’d be a nice change of pace from the wine and beer we normally drink. Apparently Roaring Tide wine goes down smoother, or so they say. Zeke, mind helping me find some cups and I think a ladle?”
“Oh yeah, sure thing Miss Lucille.”
As Lucille and Aranea went their separate ways to fulfillment their respective duties in clan compound, some of the passing clansmen couldn’t help but to think about just how generous the two of them had to be.
Imports from Roaring Tide were expensive as hell, so the fact that the both of them went out of their to do so was absurd in a good way.
The freshness of those cookies alone must’ve costed a fortune, otherwise, the only way they could do that was if they went to Roaring Tide themselves!
But unfortunately, instantaneous intercontinental travel was a secret only the Saints knew.
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“Hey guys, sorry for disappearing like that.”
“Zhen Liu! There you are cousin, where the hell you’ve been?,” Zhen Hai asked.
“And what’s that tasty smell coming from that pouch? It smells sweet but nothing like anything I’ve smelled before,” Zhen Guo followed up when he noticed the bags in Zhen Liu’s hand.
In this moment in time, the scions of the Zhen Clan had decided to forego their tour of the foreign port town in its totality, opting to instead check out the local market stalls instead.
That and they were very tired of the subtle yet dirty looks they were getting outside of the market stalls, but that was unimportant…for now.
Regardless, Zhen Liu had returned to his cousins’ side, bearing a pair of matching silk bags with matching emblems emblazoned on them and a half-truth prepared for such an occasion.
“Oh these? Yeah, these are actually related to Zhen Hai’s question. I had disappeared earlier because I thought I saw someone I recognized from a while back and I had chased after them. By the time I had realized my mistake, I was embarrassingly far from the group, so I decided to swing by this candy shop I found in the area to buy something to make me feel better,” Zhen Liu lied.
“The bag in my right hand is full of saltwater taffy, while the left is full of salted caramels.”
“So you bought two bags?,” Zhen Yue asked as she stared at the sacks of sweetness in Zhen Liu’s hands. While being a fellow Aether Master meant most mundane health issues were no longer a thing to worry about, she had heard of a strange illness that occured when one ate too many sweets in a short amount of time.
This amount varied ranking to ranking, but she didn’t want to risk it.
“Oh nah,” Zhen Liu answered, “I only bought the taffy. I got the bag of caramels because of grandfather, weirdly enough.”
“Really? He was at the candy shop too?”
“Oh no, not like that,” Zhen Liu quickly explained(lied), “whilst buying the taffy I ended up talking to the shopkeeper for a bit and she apparently knew grandfather from like years back when he was a no-name disciple of the main branch. The caramels are apparently a token of gratitude for a favor he did for her or something like that.”
“Huh…neat.”
“Wait, what’s taffy?”
“Oh, right. Here.”
“Oooh, looks colorful.”
With his explaination given, Zhen Liu proceeded to rejoin his cousins for the remainder of their shopping trip until it was finally time to leave for the caravan.
‘Wonder what grandfather’s reaction going to be when he sees this bag?,’ Zhen Liu thought to himself as he stared at the bag of caramels.
‘Hopefully it’s not too extreme.’
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‘Why am I not surprised that it’s that particular grandson of mine that delivers this bag of sweets to me?,’ Zhen Shi thought to himself as he stared at the newly acquired bag of salted caramels.
Zhen Shi didn’t know whether to chalk it up to coincidence or fate that mere hours after regaling his sons about the strange candy shop that had helped to facilitate his escape all those years ago would finally send the sign that his debt had been paid.
Granted, he probably should have expected that his anomalous grandson would be the one to deliver it to him.
“Seriously though, what exactly was used to render payment? A puppet or…maybe whatever a kaijin is?”
Zhen Shi kept staring at the bag in silence for a solid thirty seconds before taking a breath and gingerly opening it ever so slightly in order to pull out a single piece.
He admired the candy for a bit before popping it into this mouth.
“Huh…still taste the same after all these years…no…seems to taste sweeter? I wonder why.”
