Chapter 30: Chapter 30

Anders arrived back in the inn’s room after about an hour and Anton only managed to pen the two stories, The Little Match Girl, and The Ugly Duckling in Anna’s notebook. Their father was carrying two huge baggage.

“Anton put this in your magic space and there are two more in the cart.”

“What are those father?” Anna asked.

“Those are new clothes and soaps. Anton requested a lot of soap and baking soda for some reason. The other supplies like the spices, bread, and more are in the other two sacks in the cart. I’m also happy that the inn folks cleaned our dirty clothes last night.”

Anna checked the clothes briefly.

“Father these are just regular farm clothes. Why didn’t you buy something nicer?”

“We don’t have the time and you will not find anything nice here. We’ll buy nice clothes in the city. Even if we receive a lot of coins we still need to take care and not spend it all without thinking.” Anders admonished her daughter.

“We don’t need to worry too much about our finances Father. Once we’re far enough away from here, we’ll go back to hunting and we’ll sell a lot of skin and meat to other people.” Anton said to save his sister from further scolding.

Anders paid the fat innkeeper what they owed and left. It was still early but Anton’s father acted as if they were very late and he could understand Ander’s anxiety.

While their cart was leaving, Anton saw the minstrel coming out from the inn and running towards them.

“Boy! It was mentioned by your father that you wanted to know where you can buy an instrument here. I can sell this lute to you. It’s my second one and is every bit as good as my primary instrument.” The minstrel said to Anton.

He looked at his father and Anders understood that Anton wanted the lute but he would be the one handling the negotiations since Anton had no idea about the prices of things. Anders talked to the minstrel away from the cart and the siblings could see them arguing. After several minutes, the minstrel parted with them with a disgruntled face and Anders carrying the lute.

“You did it Father thank you.”

“That minstrel won that negotiation because we’re in a hurry.”

“But he looked like he was being taken advantage of,” Anna protested.

Anders looked at his daughter disappointingly.

“I thought I taught you that a major part of haggling is acting.”

“But it was done. You’ve already purchased the lute.”

“No, we're not done yet. He’s coming back with the case that he intentionally left. I’m sure that he would sell us something else once he returned.”

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Anton was fascinated by the convoluted rules of business in this world. Where he was from, he purchased things with a price tag and had never been to somewhere where he needed to haggle. He’d seen on famous streaming sites that vacationers to exotic lands did need to learn how to haggle with the locals but since he was sure that it would take a miracle for him to ever have an opportunity to vacation, he just watched those videos for entertainment purposes and never learned anything.

The minstrel came back with the lute case and Anders was correct that he was bringing something else for them to purchase. When Anton saw what it was, he was greatly interested in it. It was a violin and since he had access to streaming sites, meaning lessons in playing the said instrument, he whispered to his father that he wanted the violin as well.

Anders looked at his son exasperated but still haggled with the minstrel to get the violin. In the end, Anton’s father came back with the lute’s case and the violin and its case as well. The minstrel now left with a huge smile on his face while Anders looked disgruntled.

“I’m sorry Father,” Anton told his father while he kept the instrument in his private stash and the other baggage as well.

“You don’t have to apologize son. The coins came from the monster you defeated so you’re entitled to it,’ Anders laughed then he started the cart to begin their travel again.

Anton kept the newly purchased things in his private stash and joined his father in front of the cart while Anna sat inside.

“We will need to camp on the road tonight since we will arrive in the next village tomorrow night if my memory serves me. I don’t even remember the name of that village.” Anders told his children.

As per his father’s instructions, Anton didn’t enter the game or surf the internet but concentrated on the surroundings. It would probably take a while before Anders was comfortable enough of the distance from where they killed the vampire before he allowed his son his meditations.

“Father, do you think that wand will be enough to kill something like a vampire?” Anna asked.

“I have seen someone use this type of item before and it was powerful enough to kill a zombie and maybe a ghoul but more than two are still reaching and vampires wouldn’t be killed by something like this. They’re just simply too fast.”

After a couple of hours from the village, Anton got bored and since he was not allowed to enter the game he took the lute from his private stash. It was a welcome surprise that the lute was in tune and expressed his respect for the minstrel by telling his family that the minstrel was a good man for taking care of his secondary instrument.

Anton tested some of the songs that he knew on the lute and he found that the lute had a higher pitch than the guitar and the guitar was louder. He had to practice his scales to get the hang of playing the lute and it took him a better part of an hour.

“Brother you keep playing that sound. It’s so weird, it’s climbing up and then going down. Is it a song?”

“No, it’s not a song. It's what we call a scale. It’s a form of practice for those who play any instruments. It allows the player to keep his dexterity and to make sure that he can play any song. Usually, a player will need to spend at least an hour every day practicing scales and that’s what I’m doing now. It also would allow me to familiarize myself with this instrument because the actual instrument that I know how to play is called a guitar which is larger and louder than the lute.”

Anton was happy playing the lute. He remembered the times he spent learning and practicing the guitar and his parents were very tolerant of his strumming and after a couple of years, he became very proficient. He even thought of making covers of playing and singing and then posting them on the internet sites then life bludgeoned him saying “You can’t do anything that will make you happy” and life did it over and over again.

After a while, he started playing Pachelbel Canon in D which was his mother’s favorite guitar piece. When his parents were alive and his mother saw him playing or practicing the guitar, she would always ask him to play the piece at least once every session.

He thought that with what happened in his life it would sour him from playing the piece but the only thing that he remembered while playing the beautiful song was all the good times he shared with his parents.