Void Lord: My Revenge Is My Harem-Chapter 224 : Opening Shop and Increasing Harem Members VII

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The silence broke with a neat pop. Gael read without moving his feet, the way men read when the ground is still part of the sentence.

"From John," he said at last, voice like a good beam — straight and meant to hold. "Plain words, no perfume."

He lifted the paper so Ruel could see the strokes and Orna could see the lack of flourishes. Bren watched Gael’s shoulders more than the ink; shoulders tell truth earlier than mouths.

Gael read the heart of it aloud, because that was the village way when decisions touched more than one back.

Gael,

If this reaches you, it means Edda found you and the mist agreed. She is mine and loyal. Trust her like the hook you have tested three times.

I have a shop and a small smithy in the capital. It will fly our name —Fizz Holdings— and sell honest work to a place that forgets honest work exists until a hinge breaks.

I need three to come with her to set it on its feet. You must be one of them. Take the girl who flips iron better than a man lies, and take the funniest one — whichever of ours keeps the day from rusting.

The rest keep the bowl warm and the orders true. I will make the city end of the ledger match your side.

Proceed only with purpose.

—John

Silence held for a beat in which a dozen small thoughts found chairs.

Ruel cleared his throat like gravel agreeing to be a path. "The girl," he said without looking. "Orna."

Orna’s mouth twitched. "That is what the letters say," she agreed. "And the funniest? We could start a fight with that one word."

A murmur from the lane — Kel and Doff had drifted up with a bucket and a pair of opinions. Kel’s face already wore its usual dry apology to the world. Doff’s wore a complaint he had not yet had the pleasure to deliver.

"Not it," Doff said instantly. "I am hilarious but needed here to translate Kel’s silence. Also, someone must keep the foam honest."

Kel lifted a palm. "I am objectively not funny," he said deadpan, which made three apprentices snort at once.

"Jem laughs at his own pours," Jerr observed, which, coming from Jerr, counted as a cruel joke.

"I do not," Jem protested, then laughed at protesting.

Pekk leaned on his bad leg like a man leaning on a story. "The funniest is not the one who laughs," he said. "Funniest is the one who keeps other men from biting their own tongues during a long day."

"Kel," Orna said immediately.

"Kel," Ruel echoed, with the satisfaction of a tally finding a straight mark.

Kel blinked as if ambushed by a nap. "I accept the accusation," he said. "Also, I pour in straight lines and I fit through doors without knocking signs off walls. The capital sounds like it has many signs."

Gael folded the letter and slid it into the breast pocket of his leather. "Decided," he said. "Three, then. Me. Orna. Kel." He lifted chin toward the bowl. "The seven stay. Ruel, the ledger and the gate are yours. Bren, you hold flame sense for them and trust your nose before any clever boy’s theory. Pekk, you mind safety and the youngsters’ fingers. Harn, you set the rhythm on the pours and you do not chase speed. Jem and Jerr—" he fixed both with the look that turns twins into separate men "—you do not invent perfection when good will do. Doff, you keep the foam honest and the jokes inside the fence."

Doff saluted with the bucket. "Foam will not escape on my watch."

"Ludo?" Gael called. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

The ambidextrous heat-reader inclined his head from the far mouth of the hearth. "Fires will behave," he said simply. It was more of a promise than most men could safely make. From Ludo, it was just a fact.

Palt shifted his spear, suddenly proud to have run for a real reason. "I run to the gate and tell the mist the names?" he asked.

"Run to the gate," Gael said, "and ask it politely to remember them."

"Supplies," Orna added, already in motion. "We are not visiting, we are building. We carry more than shirts."

She began a list on the door slate with a fast, square hand: bar stock, shoeing kit, rivets, nails by the keg, hinge blanks, drawknives, cold chisels, three vices if the cart will stand it, two good hammers that have already learned obedience, oil, pitch, resin, cordage, spare leather for bellows, one bellows if Kel swears on his mother he will not drop it.

Kel swore on his mother. Doff chimed, "He has two — pick one," and earned Orna’s raised brow.

Edda watched the shop turn the letter into a plan. She did not interrupt, which is a thing very few people can do when they are excited and afraid at the same time. The tug under her ribs —the tether to John that the world did not have a word for— sat quiet and pleased. The mist let the three chosen names pass through it like a polite crowd making a lane for a man carrying something hot.

Gael nodded to Edda. "We leave at first bell," he said. "We do not boast about the road. We do not tell it secrets before it earns them."

"We go light," Edda replied. "But we go with enough to look like we meant to arrive."

She flicked two fingers. Myr and Kobb were already counting straps and bar-binders in their heads. Myr, all sapling-speed and quick hands, sketched a cart-bed in the air. Kobb, limp and all, paced the yard to feel what his leg would allow and what it would curse.

"Night settles early in the bowl," Bren said, looking up at the sky you could not see. "Pack now. Sleep honestly. Wake early."

Ruel planted both fists on his hips and looked from face to face. "I will not pretend to enjoy losing three pairs of good hands," he said. "But I will pretend to enjoy the quiet while you are gone."