The Archaic System 38 Tailor

As I left the restaurant I patted my stomach. The meal cooked by Travis was truly delicious and abundant. It's no wonder he did so well in my past life the man really had a talent for cooking meat. I was thoroughly satisfied with both the meal and the deal we had struck.

Remembering the deal I looked at the deflated sack on my waist. I couldn't help but sigh. I knew the investment would be worth it, but it still sucks to be almost completely broke. I went from having over 100 gold coins to having 1.

At this point it was well past midday. Judging by the position of the sun I would say I had about two hours left before nightfall.

I headed towards Black Claw Inn. The inn was located almost right at the center of the town and wasn't too far away from were I was. Although most things aren't very far the village is essentially a two kilometer by two kilometer square. The entire village is within walking distance.

There are some facilities outside of the main village. For instance there are an east and west barracks that are on the outside of the village walls. There are gates on the east and west side, but they are for mercenary group members only. Villagers and travelers must enter through the south and north gates. The barracks are strategically located there to protect the Lord's Manor on the east and the production facilities on the west.

For instance, the paper making facility and water processing plant are in the west. The residential areas are located in between the main street in the middle and Lord's Manor on the east as well as the main street and the production facilities on the west. Obviously, residences closer the Lord's Manor are better and are reserved for important figures. That is where my Captain Manor as well as the origin stone are. Residences on the west side are essentially the slums reserved for the poor working folk. This is where Boar's Belly is.

All of these aspects are designed with a purpose and were no doubt prepared ahead of time for Morrow by someone working for his dad. Lower cla.s.s residences are close to the production facilities where they will work. This also separates them from the higher cla.s.s residences on the other side of main street. With the main street in the middle acting as a commerce hub the higher and lower cla.s.s citizens can exchange goods with minimal contact. Expanding in the future won't be difficult as most buildings are made of wood and are only semi-permanent anyways. Even the village walls are constructed of wood.

Other than that there are facilities outside of the village such as granaries, a dock, and even a mining quarry about 20 kilometers to the north. All of this falls under Morrows purview.

While Morrow's way of separating citizens into a caste-like system disgusts me. It is wonderfully designed to achieve it's purpose, making Morrow as powerful as possible as quick as possible.

As I continued walking to the inn I began thinking of ways I would change the system to be more fair and give people a chance to develop themselves. I'm by no means a saint, I will not give handouts to everyone, people need to work for what they have. At the same time I won't give favor to those I want to have power and suppress those that don't benefit me. Nor will I allow a few to get wealthy on the backs of the many. If a person works hard and treats people justly and fairly he can build as much wealth as he wants, but those who are corrupt or cause suffering will face my wrath.

As I neared the Inn I snapped out of my daydream of ruling a city as a just leader and focused back on my environment. In the end I wasn't at that stage yet, nor was that my end goal.

I walked into Black Claw Inn and just as I was about to ascend the stairs towards my room the receptionist stopped me and said, "Sir, a man stopped by the Inn and requested I give this note to a man fitting your description."

Confused I grabbed the note. Who knew I was staying here?

As I read the note I couldn't help chuckling. It was the tailor I befriended at the village entrance, even though it's only been a day if feels like a long time ago and I had almost forgot about him. I didn't even get his name or give him mine so he had to give the receptionist my description. The note was simple and said that he had established a small shop in the west residential district and gave directions on how to get there.

I quickly went up the stairs and gathered what was left of my things. Nothing of Valerian's was left in the room since he had came and collected it before heading to the G'eth Village to warn them. At best he would be back midday in two days. Valerian and I had paid for a weeks stay at the inn when we got the room last night so Valerian would come here when he got back. Just in case he didn't hear the news about me becoming Captain I left a note with details about what happened and that I would meet him here. Before I could come up with a plausible reason to have him stay at the Captain's Manor I couldn't let Morrow know about him.

As I left the Inn I considered heading to the Captain's Manor, but decided to go ahead and visit the tailor instead. At the least I needed to let him know that I would be residing at the Captain's Manor now. From the directions I knew the tailor's shop was on the opposite side of the west residential area as Boar's Belly. The tailor's shop was in the south and Boar's Belly was in the north.

As I walked I paid attention to the people pa.s.sing by in the streets, every human race was present. By the 26th century on Earth most cultural lines were already blurred and the universal human language was adopted in the 23rd century so almost no one spoke a different language. There were still separate countries and militaries still existed but a war hadn't happened for a hundred years. After coming to Agartha cultural lines basically disappeared, humans were scattered and couldn't easily separate into culture based communities. Also the threat of other sentient races and beasts forced humans to unite as one race. They couldn't afford to have cultural biases anymore, survival was more important than anything.

Sometimes, however, you could still pick out the differences. Humans have different skin tones and behaviors. For instance, Travis Miller was clearly from a western society based off his appearance and how he acted. Even though some differences were still there people just didn't care about them like they did before.

I observed all the people I walked by till I arrived in front of the place the note directed me to, but I didn't see a sign so I walked up and knocked on the door. I heard quick footsteps rush to the door and it swung open. The young tailor was standing at the door and a big grin broke out when he saw me standing there.

"Such perfect timing! Come in! Come in!"

He practically dragged me into the building. Inside was a small open area which is where I a.s.sumed he would put the items on display in the future. However, we pa.s.sed through here to a room in the back. As I entered I noticed many machines and apparatuses all around the room. They must be used for making clothes, however, I have no idea what they were.

Since we had stopped I said, "I noticed you don't have a sign out front."

He responded as he was gathering things in a corner of the room, "Yeah we aren't really ready to open yet. Also we haven't thought of a good name."

When he turned back around he presented me with a package, pride practically beaming from his eyes, "This is yours."

In the package was a pair of leather pants, a s.h.i.+rt, a leather jacket, a pair of boots, a pair of wool socks, a leather belt, and two sheathes. I was stunned.

I looked at him and said, "I thought you said it would take a few days? How could you have made all this so soon?"

His grin was so big I thought his face would rip, "I'll admit I had some help. The supplies for my shop were prepared by a friend beforehand so I didn't have to gather the materials. The money you gave me helped move things along and my wife and I stayed up all night to work on it. I told you I was a talented tailor. On Earth I worked for the military so I was used to rushed orders and staying up all night. Even though a war hadn't happened in a long time those guys were always strict and demanded perfection.

I was genuinely stunned, the clothes were top notch even by Earths standards. It's impressive he was even able to make these on Agartha, much less in one day.

"I don't think we ever exchanged names. I'm Troy Hargrave. What's your's?"

He grinned, "Connor O'Dell, my wife is named Anna. I can't thank you enough for what you did yesterday. If you'd like to see how everything fits you can change in there."

He was energetic and talked like he would run out of time. He pointed to a nearby door.

After changing into the new clothes I stepped back out into the workshop room. The clothes fit like silk. Everything was form fitting yet it didn't hamper my movement at all. I performed a few of the poses from the Quicksilver Blade Manual. It felt like I might as well be doing them naked. Even the sheathes had special connectors to my belt that allowed me to quickly access them and didn't interfere with my movements.

Connor looked me over seeming satisfied with his work.

"I noticed the inner armor you were wearing before so I made adjustments to accustom it. I also figured you were the dexterity type based on your build so I focused on maximum maneuverability. However, that means I had to sacrifice defense, hard leather would be able to block some blades, but this leather is a lot softer and is easily sliced open. At most it can slow down rusty or dull blades. However, If you look closely there are inserts for arm guards and s.h.i.+nguard's. If you decide to equip any in the future this can increase your defense, but might impact your maneuverability. It might not properly adjust to all kinds so come back and I can make the changes for you. Same goes for if you put on a lot of muscle and need it refitted."

His attention to detail is remarkable, "Thank you. This is worth way more than the money I gave you."

"Nonsense," He responded waving his hands around as if it was no big deal.

I stayed and talked with him about his future plans and even his wife came out and chatted for a while. She had been napping after working all night and most of the day. Eventually, it was time to leave and I waved goodbye to the tailor and his wife and began heading towards the Captains Manor. I had already decided I would send as much business his way as possible and my personal force will be outfitted by him alone in the future.