After that, I went home to prepare for the journey. A while later, Joey and Jack arrived with the Murghoda and the carriage and knocked on my door.
Knock knock knock.
"Mr. Darcy! We are ready, let's go!" they shouted from the street.
I opened the door.
"Good, I'm ready too– what the ?!? That's– that thing is a Murghoda?!" I asked in shock, why ? Because it was just a giant rooster the size of a horse.
"Yes, Mr. Darcy it is a Murghoda," Joey reassured me.
"...Can it even pull the carriage?" I asked, genuinely worried.
"Don't worry. They can comfortably pull up to 3.2 tonnes of weight," Jack explained.
"If we were to rent horses, we would need at least two, or more for a comfortable ride," Joey added for comparison.
"...Okay, I will trust you. How much did it cost to rent it?"
"It's 12,000 lochu per day," Jack answered.
"That's expensive!!!"
"Actually…we think it's a pretty reasonable market price," Joey said
"..what ? Just ho– did you ask them if they were feeling indebted to me and wanted to pay me back?" I asked.
"No, we didn't," they answered.
"..What? You didn't ask them? Did you tell them you were renting it for me? Darcy? Town's hero?" I asked.
Jack and Joey looked at each other, then looked down at the ground with their hands clasped in front of them"Sorry Mr. Darcy…we forgot that."
I took a long, deep breath. Alright, calm down Darcy. It's fine."Did you pay them anything upfront?"
"No, they said they know us since we are locals,so we can pay the full amount when we return," Jack explained.
"Fine. let's get moving, every minute is costing us money now,"
"Wait, Mr. Darcy, this is for you," Joey said, handing me a leather bag.
"What's this?"
" Mr. Carll gave it to us to give it to you on the day he left for the capital," Jack said.
"You mean yesterday?! Why didn't you give it to me then?" I asked as I opened the bag.
"We forgot about it back then. We are sorry," they said.
..
..
..
These steroid bros…. Their muscles are done,now they need to train their brain.
"Well, as long as you didn't lose anything from the bag."
I looked inside.
There was a locket, a pistol, twelve black stones shaped like.. magazines, and some kind of a scroll.
What the hell ? Why did he give me all of that ? I'm not complaining, though. Who doesn't like a free firearm?
"And Mr. Darcy, there's also a letter he gave us for you," Joey said, handing it to me.
I took the letter and opened it
.
.
.
Unbelievable...
that guy…..that mosquito inbred gave a letter to an illiterate?!?!
Is he dumb? A retard? Or what? He knows I can't read it, and yet he still did this ?
I mean, I already have the pistol he gave me when I recovered, and I'm bringing that one too…
Now this one? Never mind I'm taking both.
"Hehe."
"Alright, let's go to the blacksmith to get your armour and my apron," I declared, putting the bag into the carriage along with the other things I had originally planned to bring.
After that we went to the blacksmith and collected their armour and my apron.
Those fools had forgotten the rodents, so we had to go back to get them. After everything was finally gathered, we were ready to begin our journey.
Thankfully I had to pay almost nothing except for the making of the carriage that the boys did, and they asked for about 5k lochu only ? I know it's so cheap, they must have asked for so little because they were feeling indebted to me.
And then there was my apron.
I knew lead was heavy but holy shit. Just a 0.45 m² apron weight fifty kilograms?! I ordered an apron because I thought it would be lighter.
Turns out, no.
It's still heavy as hell.
And their armour? Each one weighs around 250 kilograms.
The Murghoda can pull upto 3.2 tonnes, and right now the total load it's pulling is nearly 2.45 tonnes.
Finally, at around 11 in the morning, we left the town.
Jack took the coachman's bench outside, the boys had actually designed the carriage pretty well. The carriage had a slick dual-control design allowing steering from inside or out, which would be useful if we needed to remain protected during the journey or once we entered Decayspire.
"Jack, you do know the way to the Decayspire right?" I asked as we passed through the town entrance.
"Don't worry Mr. Darcy. We've already planned the journey. We have five destinations before we reach Decayspire, and every destination should be reached within a single day. For today, our destination is Mungford. It's nearly 40 km from here," Jack said without looking back as he guided the carriage from outside.
"40 kilometres in a day ? That's too little. How about we skip this one and go to your next designated destination?" I asked, for someone like me back on Earth, 40 km was a quick afternoon drive.
"That would be Raymonford, it's nearly 50 kilometres from Mungford, making the total journey for today around 90 kilometers," Jack replied after thinking for a moment.
"So, is it not feasible ?" I asked.
"It is possible, but we need to keep in mind that the Murghoda is pulling nearly 2.45 tonnes. If we push it that hard, we might reach the destination early in the morning, but there would be a high chance that it would die from exhaustion," Joey explained.
"Then we should have rented a few horses"
"Mr. Darcy if we had rented horses, we'd have to stop for every 45 to 60 minutes for around 15 to 20 minutes. We'd also need a large amount of water to keep them hydrated, in comparison, a Murghoda doesn't need to rest or drink mid-journey at all," Joey explained.
"...let's just say we somehow–it died in an accident of some sort. What would happen?" I asked without hesitation.
"A single Murghoda can cost around 900,000
To 1,200,000 lochu. And if they find out we pushed it to exhaustion and it died because of us, we'd be banned from every Beast-renting service. Under the Beast and Animal Welfare Protection Act, we could also be punished accordingly." Joey explained.
..
..
..
"Alright, guys. let's go to Muncford." I Said.
"It's Mungford, Mr. Darcy," Jack corrected me.
"Yea, Mungford, let's go there."
At nearly half past five in the evening, we reached Mungford.
We rented three rooms at an inn and a carriage stop for the Murghoda. After feeding and hydrating it, we went to sleep.
I kept my mask on, not because I'm popular–even though I am, but because people are kind of….i don't want to say it.
Then the next morning, we left early for our second destination, Raymonford.
And Raymonford was a much bigger place.
It was the seat of the Duchy of Raymond, where the Duke of Raymond lived and governed the four Ford towns under his authority.