Chapter 180. More Than One Warehouse [BONUS]

Chapter 180: 180. More Than One Warehouse [BONUS]

Kaia had stayed outside to walk the wall with the older Lizardman. When Carlos and Cosmic came back, she was checking the far end of the bridge.

"Your watch positions can remain," she told Cosmic. "I want one person able to see the crossing from this side. Ironroot will cover its own end. If the alarm sounds, people come through together, with somebody checking the rear."

Cosmic called the shield carrier closer and explained the route. Kaia watched it repeat the positions, then asked one question about how long it could leave its current watch before the other Lizardman reached it.

Carlos left them to work that out. His own guards remained posted at Ironroot; nobody had emptied the walls to welcome a new neighbour.

Mira came over carrying her board later. She walked slowly across the bridge, looking down at the gap before looking at Carlos with an expression he knew very well.

"How many?"

"Six," Cosmic answered before Carlos could. "Here are their food requirements."

He showed her the troop record. Three Basic Cooked Meals each day for each Lizardman. Eighteen in total.

Mira wrote the amount beneath the new Guardian’s meals, then asked Cosmic what he had already prepared for today.

"I bought their food this morning. Tomorrow’s supply is still a market request. I can cancel it if we agree something here."

"Wait until I tell you," she said. "My kitchen still has its limits. I can cover eighteen more normal meals with today’s count carried forward, but I want you to bring your grain and ordinary cooking stock into the calculation too."

"It is in the small kitchen in my Lord’s Hut. I will show you."

They went there together. Carlos listened while Cosmic showed the sealed grain bags and Mira checked their condition. He liked how quickly the two began discussing what could be used. This was better than him promising food first and finding out what it meant afterward.

Rowan arrived while they were inside. Blue floated beside him until Carlos pointed back toward Ironroot’s fields. It turned and went across again, leaving the Dryad to examine the small strip of soil near Cosmic’s residence.

"Can you do what you did over there here too?" Cosmic asked him.

Rowan checked his own record before answering.

"The Root Network is still connected to Ironroot’s main land," he said. "Your ground was preserved separately. The growth benefit has not spread here."

"I thought that might happen," Carlos said. "We can look at it later. There is enough to do on our side already."

Cosmic nodded. A connection was useful, but it had not quietly given him a Rare farm.

Rowan touched the soil once before straightening. "It can still be worked. Keep heavy stock away from this strip if you decide to plant it."

"I will."

By the time they returned to the Lord building, Mira had agreed on tomorrow’s eighteen meals.

Cosmic would keep his existing food for today and bring the checked ordinary ingredients for the next day’s cooking. The kitchen’s total remained within its two hundred and fifty meal limit.

Cosmic opened the hut’s main room to put the food record away, and Carlos followed him inside. He had expected a table and a place to sleep, much like his own.

There were goods here too.

Packets sat in shallow trays across the table. Carlos recognised ordinary vegetable seeds from the markings.

Beside them were wrapped pieces of soap, rolls of sewing thread, folded bandages and leather pouches sorted into a wooden box. Two bundles of plain cloth occupied one end of the bed, and more little containers had been fitted beneath it.

"You filled your hut too?"

"The warehouse gets crowded when the larger orders arrive. I keep the smaller things here so they don’t get buried behind a pile of wood."

Cosmic moved the cloth onto a shelf and sat on the cleared end of the bed. Carlos picked up one of the empty pouches. It was ordinary leather, with uneven stitching along the bottom, but the drawstring worked properly.

"People buy these too?"

"People who have seeds, small tools, loose coins. A Lord asked for six yesterday. I had four, so I found someone making them and bought more."

Carlos put it back carefully. Even the small objects had a buyer Cosmic could remember. His friend had been doing all of this while dealing with Ironroot’s requests too.

"I knew you were trading on your own," he said. "I didn’t know you had this much going through here."

"You mostly ask about the thing you need. I send it, you go back to whatever you were doing. There wasn’t much reason to explain where I kept the spoons."

Carlos looked around the hut again. He could see why Cosmic wanted more time for this. The man had already made a business out of ordinary things Carlos barely looked at until someone asked him for them.

Having him beside Ironroot would be useful in more ways than Carlos had thought. He wanted to give him enough room to see how far he could take it.

Carlos stood near the entrance and looked toward the bridge. Beyond it, a Farmer pushed a cart along Ironroot’s path and stopped for two workers carrying a seed tray.

Cosmic followed his gaze.

"I used to tell buyers you were busy in the fields and wait until you answered," he said. "Now I can come and ask. That’s a lot better."

"You will still need to wait sometimes."

"I know. But I can wait here and finish something else."

Carlos looked at the clear ground between Cosmic’s warehouse and bridge approach. Goods could be received here without visitors walking past his kitchen or the marked crop beds.

"What would you put there?" he asked, pointing.

Cosmic took a few steps to see it properly. He looked at the warehouse door, then at the width of the approach.

"A receiving place," he said. "A table, cover, enough room to check a delivery. Maybe one day we will have traders over here, so it’s preparation for that."

Carlos smiled. The land had been connected for less than a day and Cosmic knew what he wanted to do with it.

"Then show me how you want it arranged."