Although I am now a prince, but in order to survive...BL

Chapter 27

Jay stood and for some time calmly watched the water flowing from the ceiling and filling the house. At that time, the butler was taking valuables from the living room to the kitchen. His neighbor moved his bedding there as well. The kitchen turned out to be almost the only dry place in the whole house. With the exception of perhaps another room where the butler and cook lived, there was only a small corner leaking. It was not too noticeable, they managed only with a saucepan to escape from the flood. You can say these people are lucky, not like the owner of the house. Jay's room had a sieve instead of a ceiling. It was constantly dripping and dripping, not stopping for a second.- Butler, in your opinion, the roof can still be repaired? – When the butler finished with his things, Jay called him over.- Judging by the condition, it would be better to cover a new one. Too many times, according to my observations, this house has experienced natural disasters. – As soon as Jay heard such an answer, his vision went dark, and he almost fainted.After all, it was worth calculating the amount of the purchase of a new roof, I just wanted to run away to the forest, build a tent there from tree branches and live in it. Although such a dwelling will not be very reliable, but it is completely free. There, even if you need to fix something in the future, just cut down a branch from a nearby tree and you're done. No problems and headaches for you from thinking where to buy cheaper material, where to get money for the same material. Well, or pretend to be dead. Thus, it was also very easy to pretend that this conversation did not exist and still plan to fix the roof. It's a lot cheaper. Two times for sure. Unfortunately, however, Jay was not one of those people who could turn a blind eye to obvious problems due to the lack of the same money. After all, he will continue to live in this place. The roof is obviously going to disappear sooner or later over the years. If not now, then you will have to spend money to completely change everything. With such daily expenses... Jay may never save up enough money to buy the same weapon. Some legendary cool sword. By the way, the guy had a tip on one of these, from his sister. He knew the date and place when he would appear in the world, and he naturally planned to accumulate gold. In five years, he had to have time to collect the necessary amount. Certainly.At least that's what he thought up to this point. Now, if we calculate future expenses... "We will have to do more serious business. On one sale of sauces, I'm afraid I won't go far." Jay decided to revise the schedule of his plans and returned to the conversation with the butler.- A place where materials are cheaper to buy?- I know.- Then calculate how much you need and the amount of gold. Before the onset of heavy rains, you will go and buy everything. You'll get the money... before you leave.- Hire workers?- No need. – While saying this, Jay glanced at a neighbor passing by. Obviously hinting that he would need someone's strength in the future. He, for his part, completely ignored someone else's gaze.Although the two of them have agreed on mutually beneficial assistance, but ... does the fat man really think that he will help him with such menial work? Does he know who he is?! This is simply impossible to do with his status! The minimum that he can offer from his side is to sometimes act as a security guard. And, then only out of the kindness of my heart. No more.- I can kick you out. – Jay was not a fool and guessed that some people did not quite intend to keep their word (they had known each other for several days, after all), and quietly voiced his threat. The neighbor laughed loudly in response, clearly not taking other people's words seriously. Jay, for his part, smiled coldly.For the first time in his new life, he allowed himself to adopt such a facial expression, because the child specifically drove him! Even if he was at heart an adult with experience behind his back "twenty years of life", Jay could no longer afford to tolerate such brazen behavior. Not only did they live and eat at his expense, but they also didn't put him in anything...!- Wait. – Jay threateningly ran his hand over his neck, after which, as if nothing had happened, he discussed some more details with the butler. More specifically, he asked the old man to find straw when the dry weather returned. Until they make a new roof, it was possible to temporarily cover the holes with it. In his previous life, Jay had seen several thatched huts. So I knew about how to do this. As it turned out later, he was not the only one who was such an expert (apparently the old man had gone through hard times in the distant past). Therefore, Jay, with a calm soul, completely entrusted this matter to the butler. And he himself went to take a hot bath. More precisely, to swim in the basin. Because he got wet, he needed to warm up his body before going to bed. Otherwise, he could get sick. And that, excuse me, was an unacceptable luxury for Jay right now.After dipping several times almost into boiling water, the boy quickly changed into dry clothes and climbed into the bed prepared in advance by the butler. At the moment when he was about to fall asleep, it's worth saying, Jay felt fine and was one hundred percent sure that the disease had bypassed him. However, what happened to him next... if Jay had known about it in advance, he would have been happy to lie in bed with a fever, than he would have agreed to go through such a thing.It was dark.- What's the matter, didn't I sleep? Jay rubbed his eyes and looked around. No, there was still nothing to be seen anywhere.He reached for the candle. Empty. Jay checked the right side. Empty. He sat down and felt the pieces of furniture around him. They, like the candle, were missing. "They definitely couldn't have stolen me from the house. There is no money for ransom. It would be easier to kill. Jay remembered all the things that could not be done in a dream, and repeated.He could not pronounce his name. Count how many fingers on the hand, too.- Come out! – Having found out exactly where he was, Jay suddenly shouted loudly into the darkness.Not immediately, but over time, the darkness began to fade. The situation around began to manifest itself. Gray stone walls. The ground is under your feet. Lots of passageways around. Jay showed no opinion about the created place in the dream. This was the least of his worries, unlike the transparent figure floating in the air resembling a man. Despite the fact that the head looked creepy at this something. His eye sockets were empty, his nose was missing, and his mouth silently occasionally closed and opened. The language was apparently absent during the life of the floating figure, but she seemed to have forgotten about it and was trying to say something to the interlocutor opposite her.Jay shuddered. A second passed. Jay felt a growing noise in his chest. One more second. Jay couldn't hold back his fear any longer and got up and ran into the aisle closest to him. Although the boy had seen a ghost for the second time in his double life, he still could not remain calm in such circumstances. It was a ghost! The most that neither is! Not some physical object that can be dealt with by cunning and a couple of visits to boxing classes. An object that was not affected by anything in this world, except that magicians and their spells (probably). But did the latter matter to an ordinary person? Jay, devoid of talent for magical things, did not dare to think at all how to get rid of the ghost and continued to run, even when he stopped seeing the road ahead and occasionally encountered obstacles. All this was nothing, especially when it turned out that there was no pain at all in the dream. Knock that same head twenty times, you won't become a fool at all. So Jay was happy to "suffer" while trying to find a way out of the caves, and most importantly, a place where there would be no ghost around the corner.As soon as you turned right, the darkness parted, and a ghost appeared in the air. To the left. The same problem occurred. Only if he chose a straight road, suddenly no one jumped out. But it was not so easy to make such a right choice. Guided by the same feelings or orientation in space, Jay ran into a wall every time. I simply had to run to the first pass that found my hands. It is quite possible that Jay circled like this several times. A boy like that wouldn't be surprised. It hurts the caves are the same everywhere, they looked. It would not be difficult to run past the same one several times. But even so, Jay wasn't ready to give up, much less be alone with a ghost. The owner, who was his "sworn enemy". Certainly."It's him... exactly he decided to make such a trap for me. Last time a ghost, now another one. I should still have shown at our first meeting that I was not worth dealing with. Well, wait a fan of the theatrical setting... This time I will not postpone my visit to you. You will definitely pay for everything and no vagabonds and beggars will help you." Jay was thinking how he could take revenge on the culprit of his fear and once again crashed into the wall.- Yes, as much as possible! He stood up and rubbed his forehead irritably. He was already getting tired of falling every five meters. Even if he wasn't in pain... hey, it wasn't fun at all. Over time, I began to get more and more tired of this. Not physically, of course. In the dream, as it turned out, the feeling of fatigue was also absent. But mentally it was pretty exhausting. – Is there even a way out here? – While Jay was counting the passages that he could find by touch, and choosing which one to go to this time, he felt a cold in his chest.Slowly lowering his head, in the small illumination that appeared, the boy met the ghost's head sticking out of his body. "I'm a man. I'm not afraid of anything. I..." Jay tried to mentally get rid of the fear spreading through his body. It didn't help. Before he could convince himself that he was brave, Jay closed his eyes and ran, wanting to get as far away from the ghost as possible and forget as soon as possible that something was moving through his body. This event turned out to be too terrible for him. He couldn't stand ghosts anyway, and then... yeah, Jay almost had a heart attack. If it hadn't been a dream, he would undoubtedly have clutched at his heart. And so, he just ran, ran, ran, until a bright, bright light began to dazzle him even with his eyes closed.Jay opened his eyes weakly, fearing to go blind, and stumbled upon the sunrise over the sea. It rose higher and higher above the horizon, and the waves beat noiselessly against the rocks below. Jay was absorbed in this view for a while. And then, realizing that something was wrong with his height, he looked at his hands. They were large and clearly did not belong to a five-year-old child. One of the fingers was wearing an extremely familiar ring. Jay automatically put his hand in his pocket out of old habit and took out a small mirror covered with sequins and small red stones. At the sight of this thing, he did not notice how tears ran down his cheeks and with a trembling hand he brought the mirror to his face. As soon as a reflection appeared in it, Jay abruptly opened his eyes and woke up. He was still lying in the kitchen, dawn was coming outside the window.Everything that had happened earlier was simply foreseen by him. Jay gripped the blanket tightly with his knuckles and took a couple of deep breaths. He needed to calm down otherwise, he would definitely rush immediately to look for the culprit of his dreams with a ghost. What did he arrange...! Played to the fullest on his fears! Not only used the ghost, but also somehow got to the most intimate."Will I really never see them again? Am I stuck here forever? Why? Did I ask for rebirth? Having such a family behind me, I had no regrets. I was willing to die completely. And now... what now? All hope for the old man from the tower. It's unfortunate." A bitter laugh escaped Jay's mouth.For the first time, he was so angry on the one hand, and so offended on the other. Or maybe it was all in him before, just now, finally, it found a way out. The moment he saw the thing that reminded him of his family, he could no longer restrain his emotions. Deep down, Jay had been missing his family madly all this time. She was wonderful! Not a single scumbag has ever been there! Everyone always covered each other's backs and helped when help was needed. We quarreled sometimes, of course, but it was a family. Show me which one of them has no quarrels?"Stop crying, fat man. You're disturbing my sleep. – When Jay started to get more and more immersed in emotions, a pillow suddenly flew into his face.- And I didn't ask you to live here. Jay rubbed his sore cheek and returned the pillow to its owner. He immediately caught him and put him under his head.- One more. - Jay looked at his pillow, then at the painfully arrogant man and decisively gave him the middle finger. Some kind of special sign?Jay ignored other people's questions, and soon got up and went to his morning workout. On the way, he naturally checked to see if he had any tears. His face was dry, as were his eyes.- Well, wait at my place! I will definitely deal with you. And no matter how strong you are ... - Jay whispered threateningly and, leaving the house, ran along the familiar path.His neighbor tried to use his middle finger a couple of times."It's probably some kind of special sign they have here in the kingdom. Maybe even a military one. – He soon came to the conclusion that such a gesture is used in the army. Do not consider him a fool for this right away. In this world, knights often used gestures on their fingers when everything needed to be done quietly and quickly. – However, no, it certainly didn't seem to me. – Having finished "playing", the boy looked in the direction where Jay had gone. – The surge of magic was quite noticeable. He was talking to someone in a dream. It looks like the request will have to wait. I can't take that risk. Do not forget what he is a son of. There was hatred in the boy's eyes when he remembered this man. But as soon as he blinked, his gaze became clear again, and the past emotion seemed to be foreseen. Even his subsequent behavior did not betray anything of the kind. After lying for a while, looking at one point, the boy got up, took a pillow from someone else's bed and threw it next to his, continued to sleep.If Jay had known, of course, that someone suspected him of something, he would have been very happy to show another indecent gesture. Why the hell are they trying to accuse him of something when he didn't do anything? Is this person mentally okay at all? And then another, and another. Until someone went blind from it. Because he wasn't in the best mood right now. As it turned out, even the morning workout could not bring him calmness back.- Damn... I don't have time to look for the culprits right now. Let alone grieve for the family! Let's! Once! Two... - Jay began to do push-ups, trying to vent his anger and accumulated pain in this way. – Three. Chet... four! I said four!! – The body could not get up, and he fell to the ground. - OK. One more time. One..." Jay gritted his teeth and started doing push-ups again. I ignore how dirty his "training ground" was now, including himself.He looked more like an earth spirit mud golem at this time than a human. His hair, face, clothes, shoes... everything was completely soaked in dirt.- A golem? What is he doing here? Why did my brother need him to twist his ass? - And it probably won't be surprising that the wind spirit, when he saw Jay, mistook him for a golem.- Are you blind? – Jay once again fell and, collecting a lump from the mud, threw it at the spirit. – It's a push-up. Who's shaking their ass here?! – He was deeply outraged by the words of the spirit. Does it really look like this from the outside? Jay didn't believe it!- what? It's you? The wind spirit dodged the dirt flying at him in surprise, and then grumbled. - I also found the time when to do push-ups. The weather is just disgusting. – At the same time, his tone was full of complaints. He turned out to be so dissatisfied with the climate that he did not get angry at all because they wanted to dirty him a second ago.- Am I deaf? Don't you want to kill me? - On the other hand, this in turn surprised Jay.- Am I a fool? Do you know how difficult it is to summon the wind in such weather? The dirt is... no harmony. I hope the weather will be fine tomorrow. – The spirit of the earth did not stay long and flew away as soon as he finished speaking.- So much for the spirit of nature. – Jay caught his breath and, wiping the dirt from his face so that he could breathe, continued training. – One. Come on... come on. Two. Two! Okay, let's start again.Did Jay manage to do enough push-ups in the end? How should I put it... the only thing he definitely managed to do was to roll out in the mud enough. Otherwise, things were bad. But the boy was not upset at all because of this. Just think, one day I did sports unsuccessfully. That's another problem for me. He's going to go to the beds now and make up for everything. Definitely. There is so much work there now: it was necessary to release excess water, and cover the eroded roots with earth, and harvest the ripe crop so that it would not rot. The clouds haven't completely dispersed in the sky yet, which means it could rain again at any moment.While working, Jay slowly regained his former spirit. And by the end of the harvest, there was no trace of his former anger. However, instead he was a little upset. Without the growth potion, the harvest did not ripen so quickly. Due to the fact that the harvest was quite recently, only a little more than two baskets were able to collect vegetables: a little tomatoes, a little hot pepper, a little carrot, a little onion. The harvest of melons, of course, could please on the other hand. There were enough of them already ripe on the field. But they could not be used anywhere else, except for direct sale to magicians. A melon is still a melon. If you use it, then only in fresh form. This is not the same cabbage or pumpkin. By the way, Jay left them on the beds to ripen. They could easily survive the bad weather.- It was better to screw up the carrots. I wouldn't have to bother right now. Jay rubbed his sore fingers as he put the last big carrot in the basket. And taking the vegetables to the well, he threw off his dirty clothes and began to wash the dirt off his body using soap and water in a basin prepared in advance. After that, he quickly dried himself with a towel and changed into dry prepared clothes.Before training, Jay usually stored the one near the well. Do not walk in smelling of sweat all day in the future. Before leaving, he did not forget to soak his dirty clothes and only then go to breakfast. However, perhaps someone would say that all these actions of his were unnecessary. After all, then he still had to return to the beds. It was necessary to create a new site. Jay had some unknown seeds left in stock, purchased from a merchant. Last time he did not manage to find out their name. Thanks to the spirit from the magic tower, who decided to visit. Therefore, this time, fearing that he might be hindered again, Jay decided to prepare the ground for a start before checking. After all, if the seeds turned out to be useful in the cave, he wasn't going to grow them. At least if only seventy percent. So that the potion of growth in the ground does not use up everything. And then you never know, suddenly in the future he urgently needs to grow something? Some expensive fruit? He doesn't have that right now, of course, but that's just for now.- What are you doing? – And when he was quietly digging for himself, a neighbor became next to him and also began to dig. For the first thirty seconds, Jay honestly thought he was hallucinating. His neighbor decided to help him? Really? He would never believe that. However, the facts did not lie. The man in front of him was made of flesh and blood. – Do you happen to have a fever because of the rain?- I'm in my right mind, unlike some... Have you forgotten about our contract?- I remember you promised to be a labor force in one of the conditions in case of residence. But it's been a long time since that moment."I keep my word, and so do you, I hope, too. There was a threat in the boy's voice.But Jay, instead of being scared, felt only pity for himself. Because although, by agreement, they each had three conditions put forward... he was not ready now to fulfill at least one of them. All the tasks were not simple. Just asking to find the locations of his prodigal dad was worth something. For the sake of its implementation, he will have to risk his own skin. After all, he is still being searched for in the city, most likely.- I'm not one of those who throw words around. Jay finally answered through gritted teeth. Despite the fact that he was now very sorry about this word, but ... he could not take it back. They didn't teach him that. The man gave his word, the man did. And nothing else.- Then I expect results from you in the near future. – This time Jay didn't answer anything, just started digging faster.