Gradually opening his eyes to greet a new day, Valyr stared off into nothingness for a couple minutes before getting out of bed, giving his consciousness time to become fully awake, remembering that he was in Clossbay City. Scratching his back, he then went through his usual daily routine before heading down to the inn’s dining area located at the ground floor of the inn.
Since he now had a building for himself in the city, he carried along with him all of the things he had stowed away in the room he rented for the past few days, paying all of the fees that had racked up during his stay before proceeding to eat the hearty meal he ordered.𝑶𝑽𝐿xt.𝚌𝞸𝕞
Thanking the people that helped him during his stay in the inn, Valyr then left the premises, leisurely making his way to where his future smithy was, arriving at the storefront around 15 minutes later.
Just as he had dropped all of the things he had brought with him to the side, thinking of cleaning the living quarters before moving all of his things in, an elderly woman lightly tugged on the back of his clothes, prompting him to shift his attention towards her. “Is there something I can help you with, ma’am?”
“I was just wondering if this smithy would become open again, young man.” The elderly woman looked back at him with an amiable smile. “It’s been closed for about half a year already.”
“Eventually, ma’am.” Hearing the woman’s question, Valyr gave her a light grin. “I’ll still have to clean up the storefront, but once everything is nice and ready, this smithy in front of you will be back in business.”
“Is that so?” The smile on the woman’s face grew wider before nodding. “Are you perhaps the new owner of the smithy, young man?”
“That I am.” Valyr nodded. “I’ll let you be the first to know when the smithy opens, ma’am.”
At those words, the elderly woman let out a light chuckle before nodding once more. “I see, I see. Well, keep it up, young man. If you want to inform me of its opening, or just accompany this old woman for a cup of tea, I live a few houses away in that direction.”
Keeping the location of the elderly woman’s house in mind, Valyr eventually bade farewell to her as he headed to the living quarters of the building with cleaning supplies in tow, pleasantly surprised by how clean it was compared to the building’s storefront.
Nevertheless, a faint layer of dust still enveloped a great portion of the living quarters, thus Valyr swiftly got into work, being mindful of the time since he had to hold a session today at the combat training hall. Fortunately, it did not take long for him to remove all of the dust and dirt that had built-up since it was last occupied, proceeding to bring in all of the items he had brought with him to the living quarters.
After that, he made his way to the area of the building where the bathroom was, taking note of the fact that there was running water as he took a quick shower. Whether the fact the water hadn’t been cut even though the previous owners abandoned the building, or whether it was only returned just as he had gained ownership of it, Valyr didn’t know. All he knew was that he had running water.
Changing into a set of clean clothes, Valyr kept a mental note to tidy up everything in the living quarters once he got back before leaving the building, swiftly making his way to the combat training hall as he headed to the room that was allocated for him to teach combat.
Upon entering the room, he was instantly greeted by the sight of a great number of people sitting on the floor, with some of them making small talk with one another, discussing about their learnings from a few days ago.
It went without saying that he was left somewhat aghast by the sight, expecting to teach around the same number of people during this second session. Then again, it did not take too long for him to adjust and understand how the current scene in front of him came to be, taking in a deep breath before letting his presence be known.
‘The word of mouth is truly a scary thing.’
With everyone’s attention now focused on him, Valyr proceeded with the session, teaching those that had attended the previous session the continuation of his lessons from a couple days ago, while he taught the basics to those that had just arrived in this current situation.
Whether it was the former or the latter, all of the people Valyr taught seemed to have gained a greater understanding regarding the nuances of combat, with most of them being eager to test out their learnings in actual combat.
Thinking that there was a chance the number of people during the next session might grow larger, he decided to advertise the opening of his smithy by the end of the session, causing a few of them to look at him with shock in their eyes, not expecting their combat instructor to also be a successful blacksmith.
Eventually, all of those that attended the session left the room, leaving Valyr alone on his own as Gabriel entered the room sometime later.
“Because of you and your teaching sessions, more and more people are entering the combat training hall.” Gabriel gave him a satchel of money, which Valyr swiftly noticed was significantly heavier than the one he got a few days ago. “I don’t know how you’re exactly teaching them, but keep it up, Valyr.”
Joking that Gabriel should attend one of his sessions sometime in the future, Valyr then thanked the man before leaving the combat training hall, only to open the satchel of money given to him to find out that he had been given 80 gold coins instead of 40. Gaining a burst of motivation from the amount of money he got, he then headed to a nearby restaurant and ate a light lunch before waiting near the entrance of the combat training hall by the time it was past noon.
“Have you been waiting for a while?” Around a few minutes into his waiting, Tryndall appeared in front of Valyr, waving at the latter with a light smile.
“I just finished eating lunch a few minutes ago, so I didn’t wait that long.” In response, Valyr waved back and smiled before proceeding to head in the direction opposite of where Tryndall arrived from.
“So, are you ready, Tryndall?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be. How about you?”
“Slightly nervous, but that’s normal. Anyways, let’s not waste time any further.”
“It’s time for us to meet the mayor.”