B2: Chapter 2 - But I'm Good

Hearth’s Resonance.
That was the name the system gave Willow’s Natural Trait. And she was in fact exactly right that it was because of her that all of the recent Activations had been happening. Had she just been Activated before I got here, I would’ve been able to pull open her full sheet and then would’ve already discovered it. Stupid system limitations.
All that said… it was still a little bit my fault…
To put it simply, Willow’s existence within a community that had a shared goal–as frustratingly vague as that was–and where the vast majority of the community had a positive outlook on the future–once again, frustratingly vague–made it more likely that system mechanics would become unlocked. While you’d think that Trait would’ve made them start Activating the moment they went off on their foolish quest to start their own settlement, most of the crew still had enough doubt based on their overall meager funds and abilities that things had just stayed dormant.
So not only had my sudden arrival lit a new fire under all of them–whether they acknowledged I’d caused it or not–Willow’s Trait kicked into gear and started triggering. And if that wasn’t enough to make it clear I’d had more to do with it than I wanted to admit, her Trait had the handy little sidenote that the chances of events grew higher when another Activated was already present.
“You know… on the plus side, this means we can start charging people more at Quiet’s Hearth,” I said, rubbing my chin as I tried to look on the bright side. “Hearthwardens immediately start increasing the quality of the inn they run and add boosts to their community. Plus, if Lana’s a Chef now, that means the food quality is gonna start having some real benefits…”
“We’re not gouging people just because.”
“Nobody said anything about gouging,” I defended, looking over at her. “I’m just saying, a little extra coin isn’t a bad thing… My funds aren’t exactly as unlimited as they used to be y’know… In case you forgot, I kinda bought a giant forest and a whole bunch of territory.”
“That’s… okay, that’s fair,” she admitted, scrunching her nose. “We’ll increase the prices a little bit… if we start getting people only coming through temporarily, we can charge them more…”
“Yeah, let me know when anyone that comes here leaves again… We got lucky Dartigan was even allowed to come back through with that last supply delivery. Apparently between Dawnmere needing the great oak timber enough and Gwendoline getting the Sanctum built, there was just enough doubt that they can’t just attack us outright.”
“Wow, don’t say it like it’s a victory or anything…”
“It’s because it’s not…” I said, unfortunately feeling my attention get drawn over to the modest Sanctum built far closer to Quiet’s Hearth and the plot with my nearly finished Brewery than I would have preferred. “Has she had any word back from the Council of Dawnmothers?”
“You could just go talk to her yourself you know…” Willow rolled her eyes and shook her head. “But yes… a hawk flew in last night. There’s a delegation on the way to take over for her. The Church managed to steer King Dawnmere away from taking any immediate action, but there was a compromise they reached to make that happen.”
“Dusk take me…” I groaned, reaching up and pinching the bridge of my nose. Willow looked over at me curiously. “They’re sending Veronica… aren’t they?”
Willow’s eyes narrowed as her head tilted to the side.
“You… know her?”
“She’s Frederick’s sister…”
“Well yeah, obviously but… wait… you didn’t…”
“What? Oh… NO!” I said, my eyes widening as I shook my head just a bit too vehemently. “Dusk take me… that would have been a really quick way to get Frederick to kill me…”
Willow seemed to relax just a bit.
“Well then… just don’t do whatever you did to her the last time you met her and we’ll be good, right?”
“Why do you think I’m the one who did something?”
“Were you?”
“Not every time…”
“Okay, I’m going back to Quiet’s Hearth before this gives me any more of a headache…” she said, starting to walk forward before she suddenly perked up and looked back at me. “Oh! I just remembered why I came over here in the first place. You shouldn’t distract me like that!”
“I don’t know how I— you know what, nevermind,” I said, trying my best not to take the bait. “What brought you by, Willow?”
“Thomas would have told you himself but he had to get back to work after lunch. Bram wants you to stop by his shop when you have the chance because the Council approved his land request. Lot of stone needs and they think a small quarry is called for and… well, you know Bram. He wants to get started on it yesterday.”
“You guys are really lucky you don’t buy into the whole ‘leave the rich guy in charge’ thing that all of the Dawnmere lords swear by. At the rate this place is going, Bram’s gonna own more than half the infrastructure in town by the end of the year.”
Willow laughed at that, rolled her eyes and then turned around to head back to the inn. I watched her go for a minute, the slight pep in her step bringing an unexpected smile to my face.
I looked over my shoulder at my cabin before sighing and walking the same way Willow went, planning to just find Bram and get it out of the way. The door to Quiet’s Hearth was open just long enough that I could hear the slight sound of clamoring coming from the main hall and I offered a wave to a few people that pointed my way from the terrace.
“Mr. Corbin!”
The call came from the playground right next to the terrace and I turned just in time to see half a dozen kids running over to me. I stopped, looking down at them a bit warily and then back at the parents. None of them jumped up and warned the kids to stay back from me, though for as cautiously as I’d looked at the mob of children, more than a few of the newer mothers in the village were giving me the same look.
“Hey, uh… how are you kids doing?” I said, feeling rather awkward as all the small faces beamed at me. The playground behind them looked like it was… functional. I mean, it was a couple of swings, two slides, and a see-saw. I’d added the second slide and extra set of swings only a week after Quiet’s Hearth had opened when the kids had complained about having to wait too long and nothing quite looked like it was breaking down. Still, maybe one of the swings was squeaky and they needed it fixed? “Everything good with the playground?”
This elicited a round of murmurs from the kids, and two of the boys that I didn’t know the names of were lightly shoving Joey to push him up towards me. He was Lana’s son, meaning he was already around pretty much every day while she was working. And the fact that he’d been the one to actually ask me to include the playground had left almost all the other kids convinced he was the one that needed to ask me anytime they dreamed up something else they wanted.
“Um, hi Mr. Corbin. Um… could you maybe build a big jungle gym for us please? Georgie said they had one in Gold’s Lodge and it sounds really fun,” Joey said. His mom had been hammering him about manners recently and the request came just a bit more subdued than the more… fervent requests he’d made before.
I looked from him over to the parents who were clearly paying attention.
“How uh… how tall do you guys want this thing to be… are your parents okay with something like that that you can fall off of?” While I was ostensibly asking this to the kids, I was making it clear that I wasn’t about to just give them what they wanted if one of the parents did have a problem. The Sanctum being here meant a broken leg wasn’t exactly the end of the world, but I still wasn’t about to give the moms a reason to think I was going to let their kids get hurt.
“Bigger than the Great Oaks!” one of the kids called out, followed by a clamor of approval. A few more kids had come down from the terrace, joining the group as they buzzed with excitement.
“That’s… probably a bit too big…” I said with an awkward laugh.
“Might stop Louis from trying to climb one of them!” one of the parents called out, which actually managed to garner a laugh from the other parents. I wasn’t sure which of the kids was Louis and it probably didn’t matter.
“How’s uh… How’s a single story? I could add an extra slide or two off the top of–”
“YOU CAN?!?” Sawyer, another one of the original kids from Danwood, practically screamed, his eyes bulging out dangerously. There was a round of murmurs from the gathering of parents before Sawyer’s mother, Mary, stepped closer to the balcony railing.
“One story is fine, Corbin. Thanks for asking,” she said, the others nodding around her.
The kids all cheered, got a few steps away before one of the parents barked, “Manners!” and then they all turned around. Joey took a few steps forward, bowed his head lightly and then said “Thanks, Mr. Corbin.”
“No problem,” I said, shaking my head, then waving at the terrace again before turning to walk back up the road, pulling open my interface as I went.
[Business Management] Name: Quiet’s Hearth Owner: Corbin Manager/Co-Owner: Willow Danwood [Activated Hearthwarden] Features: Inn with Bedrooms (x8), Kitchen and Tavern, Terrace with bar, Stable (12 stalls), Community Playground Employees: Lana [Activated Chef], Wendy Note: Stock of [Quincy’s Bitter Ale] is down to three casks. Order more soon.
I sneered at the note for just a moment, already eager to start testing my own brews once we had the first harvest completed. Before I could let myself get too annoyed that we were having to serve subpar ale, I selected the Community Playground. I tapped through the options to the features and drew the large jungle gym–complete with two more slides as promised–into a small section of free space on the backside of the current plot.
Willow would probably complain that I gave in to a bunch of children–again–before I let her build more rooms, but I was relatively sure even she could see the difference.
With that out of the way, I waved the interface away and turned up one of the many new roads that had branched off of what used to be a single path. There were a few other new foundations going in, presumably other businesses if I was just going off of how Daniel had explained the Council’s idea for this section of Danwood, and I tried not to act like I was physically cringing away from Gwendoline’s Sanctum.
It’s not like the presence of Dawn actually repulsed or repelled me… it was just the principle of it all. Or maybe somehow I was starting to get some sort of sense for when someone was going to interrupt me… I hoped not.
“Wait! Corbin, can I have a word?”
Okay… I was definitely getting that sense… I’d have to figure out if there was a way I could make it stronger and avoid these situations entirely.
“If it’s about the delegation, Willow already filled me in,” I said, though I did choose to actually stop when Gwendoline noticed me from inside the Sanctum through a window. She walked over to it, her expression carrying the same caution it had since the moment the system assigned me the Lord of Dusk title. “Or… was it something else? I haven’t done anything else… err… okay, I just approved a new playground and Bram wants to talk about his quarry. But I’ve done nothing Dusk related.”
She blinked a few times at my sudden defense, then actually seemed to suppress a smile.
“There’s no need to be so defensive, Corbin. Other than the tai– um… the traces of Dusk coming from you, I haven’t sensed any new sources appearing,” she explained and I relaxed just a bit. “I wanted to ask you something and it is partially related to the delegation coming, though.”
“I promise I won’t hurt them or insult Frederick’s sister,” I said, causing Gwendoline to blink in surprise again. She shook her head lightly.
“Um… that is good to know of course, but not actually what I was going to ask…” she said with far more hesitation than I was used to. “You see… When I asked them to send the delegation, I also requested leave from my duties.”
“Please tell me you didn’t tell them I convinced you to do that… That’s just going to make Frederick angry if he thinks I turned the Royal Dawnmother from her role,” I groaned and she stared at me in confusion again. Maybe I should have just kept my mouth shut until she got through with what she was saying… that was probably the better idea. I gestured for her to continue and she gave me another unsure look.
“You see… I asked leave to travel to Dawn’s Peak to–”
“Pass,” I said, already aware of exactly where this was going. “There’s nothing they can tell me that I care to hear, even if they would deem me worthy enough to hear their stupid voices. Not to mention, you can’t even fly on Dawn’s Path with all the wind. That trip is a nightmare and, as I’ve been trying to say, I’m done with adventures.”
“That’s… are you sure?” Gwendoline asked, making it clear I’d actually guessed correctly this time. “If we went together, do you not think it would be peculiar for them? Maybe they could have some insight for us?”
“Trust me, I’d rather deal with Veronica than them,” I said, then waved backwards at nothing in particular. “Besides, I have far too much going on here to just leave again. So thanks for the offer, but I’m good.”
“Okay… if that’s how you feel, I can respect your decision. Even if I do think you’re being a bit shortsighted,” she said with clear disappointment. “There are a few weeks until the delegation arrives, perhaps you’ll change your mind.”
“I wouldn’t count on it.”