Chapter 15: The Blue Alopex and the Foundation

“Hey, kiddo,” the merchant rasped, wincing in pain. “Where… where is this place?”

Leo froze, the wooden bucket trembling in his hands. He quickly set it down and rushed to the door, calling out for Kaguya. Within seconds, Kaguya stepped into the room, followed closely by the innkeeper Elara and Balthazar’s young assistant, who had been resting down the hall.

The assistant pushed past Elara and dropped to his knees beside the bed, tears of pure relief streaming down his dirt-streaked face. “Master Balthazar! You are awake! The Gods are merciful!”

Balthazar blinked slowly, his eyes shifting from his weeping assistant to the strange, cold-faced man standing at the foot of his bed, and finally down to the hollow reed protruding from his own bandaged chest. He tried to take a deep breath, but a sharp, localized pain stopped him.

“What… what happened to me?” Balthazar breathed out.

“The ghosts, Master Balthazar!” the assistant cried out. “The camouflaged wolves! They ambushed our cart on the Suebic road. You were torn apart. We barely made it through the gates of Dian Village. This man… he saved your life.”

Balthazar’s cloudy memory slowly caught up. He remembered the sudden impact, the terrifying flash of teeth, and the crushing weight of the cart against his ribs before everything went black. He looked at Kaguya, taking in his strange, pristine composure.

“I am in your debt, healer,” Balthazar said weakly. “But I did not intend to come to Dian Village. We were just passing through.”

Kaguya stepped closer, checking the water-seal jug. The bubbling had completely stopped over the last few hours. “What business drew a man of your wealth so close to the Zephyr Forest without a proper mercenary escort?”

Balthazar coughed weakly. “I am a merchant from the Royal Capital of Cynthia. I came to the frontier looking for a very specific prize.” He gestured slightly with his uninjured hand to his assistant. “Show him.”

The assistant quickly reached into his leather satchel and pulled out a rolled piece of parchment, unfurling it for Kaguya to see. It was a detailed charcoal sketch of an animal. It resembled a large fox, but its fur was exceptionally thick, and it possessed a massive, almost disproportionately large, bushy tail.

“The Blue Alopex,” Balthazar explained, his voice straining. “It is a rare beast. Its fur is renowned for being incredibly soft and naturally resistant to the cold. The Duke of the eastern province made a special, high-paying request. He wants the pelt tailored into a winter mantle as a birthday present for his elder daughter. I frequent Suebic Town for grain trade, and the hunters there often spot these foxes. I planned to hire a local hunting party to track one down, but… the wolves found us first.”

“Your pursuit of luxury nearly cost you your life,” Kaguya stated flatly. He did not care about nobles or pelts, only the physiological state of his patient. “You suffered a class-four hemorrhage in your arm and a tension pneumothorax. A wolf’s claw punctured your lung. The reed in your chest was letting the trapped air escape so your heart would not be crushed.”

Balthazar stared at the reed in horror. “Am I going to die?”

“No,” Kaguya said smoothly. “Look at the water jug. The air bubbles have stopped. This indicates that the torn tissue in your lung has naturally clotted and sealed itself over the night. The internal bleeding has halted. Tomorrow, I will remove the tube.”

Balthazar looked relieved, but Kaguya turned away. “Leo. Run to the river. Find my brothers, Takuya and Inori, and tell them the patient is awake and lucid.”

“Right away, sir!” Leo sprinted out the door.

A mile away, at the edge of the river, Takuya was standing in the center of the largest abandoned grain barn, looking up at the rotting wooden beams. Inori and Head Villager Silas stood beside him, waiting for the architect’s verdict.

“The structural integrity of the frame is adequate,” Takuya announced, his voice echoing in the large, empty space. He turned to Silas with a respectful smile. “But we will need to modify it completely before Inori brings a single cart of raw chemicals inside.”

Takuya pointed down at the packed dirt floor. “Barn One will be our primary warehouse. Silas, we cannot leave raw sulfur, crushed limestone, or gypsum directly on the ground. The earth seeps moisture. If the chemicals absorb the ambient dampness, they will clump, degrade, and ruin our manufacturing yields. Could we have the carpenters build elevated wooden pallets—grates raised at least six inches off the floor? Air must flow beneath them.”

Silas nodded, committing the detail to memory. “Raised wooden floors. We can do that using the scrap timber from the old houses.”

They walked out of the massive warehouse and into the second, slightly smaller barn.

“Barn Two will be the active manufacturing plant,” Takuya explained, walking to the center of the room and looking up. “Inori will be baking gypsum in stone kilns here. This requires two absolute mandates: fireproofing and ventilation.”

Takuya turned to Silas, maintaining a collaborative tone. “Silas, could we assemble a team to dredge thick, wet clay from the riverbed? It would be best if we smeared every inch of these interior wooden walls with a thick layer of that clay. When it dries, it will form a fireproof crust. Secondly, we’ll need the men to cut two large cupolas—chimney vents—directly into the peak of the roof. Sulfur dioxide fumes are heavy, but the rising heat from the kilns will carry the toxic air upward. If we don’t give it an escape route, whoever works in here will suffocate.”

“Clay walls and roof holes,” Silas confirmed, completely trusting Takuya’s precise vision.

They moved to the third and final building. It was a small, isolated shed nestled tightly against the riverbank.

“This is Barn Three. The research and paper lab,” Takuya said, tapping the outer wall. “Inori needs to pulp wood to make paper. That requires a constant, heavy flow of water. Silas, do you think your builders could construct a small wooden aqueduct—a raised trough—that diverts a stream of water from the river directly through the wall of this shed? And we should widen the window shutters. Inori needs maximum sunlight for precise measurements.”

Takuya stopped and offered Silas an appreciative look. “This industrial compound must be completed before we begin digging the moat and building the Rammed Earth walls. Without the paper to draft the blueprints, and the plaster to strengthen the earth, the walls will fail. Do you think we could assign laborers to these barns today?”

“It will be done, Takuya,” Silas agreed firmly. “The village emergency fund will pay for the barn conversions first.”

“Sirs!” a voice yelled out.

Takuya, Inori, and Silas turned to see Leo running toward them along the dirt path, panting heavily. The boy stopped, resting his hands on his knees to catch his breath.

“The… the merchant,” Leo gasped. “Master Kaguya says he is awake!”

Takuya and Inori exchanged a sharp, triumphant look. The golden goose had opened its eyes.

“Thank you, Leo. Good work,” Takuya said. The three men immediately turned and began a fast walk back toward the center of the village.

When they arrived at the inn and stepped into the second-floor room, Kaguya was in the middle of unwrapping the blood-soaked linen from Balthazar’s arm. The merchant gritted his teeth, his pale face sweating, but he remained quiet.

“The swelling is within acceptable parameters,” Kaguya noted, inspecting the neatly tied artery and the sutured muscle. He began wrapping a fresh, sterilized linen bandage around the arm.

“Takuya, Inori,” Kaguya acknowledged them without looking up. “The patient is stable. His lung has self-sealed. Tomorrow morning, I will extract the chest tube.”

Kaguya finally looked up, his eyes locking onto Inori. “Inori, when I pull that reed out, atmospheric pressure will immediately attempt to rush into the open wound and collapse his lung again. I need an occlusive dressing. An absolute airtight seal.”

Inori’s mind processed the chemical requirement instantly. “You need a hydrophobic, impermeable barrier.”

“Exactly,” Kaguya nodded. “Find beeswax. Melt it down, purify it, and mix it with rendered animal fat to keep it pliable. Smear it thickly over a square of sterilized linen. Tomorrow, the moment the tube leaves his chest, I will slap that patch over the hole. It will prevent air from entering, while allowing any trapped fluids to drain out from the bottom edge.”

“I will manufacture the seal tonight,” Inori confirmed.

Kaguya then turned his piercing gaze to Elara, who was standing nervously by the door. “Innkeeper. The patient’s digestive tract has been in shock for twenty-four hours. He is not to eat solid meat, and he is absolutely not to drink ale. You will boil beef or deer bones in water for five hours. Serve him only the warm bone broth. It will restore his lost fluids and provide collagen for tissue repair. You may also give him a very thin, over-boiled wheat porridge. Nothing else.”

“B-bone broth and thin porridge. Understood, sir,” Elara nodded quickly, terrified of angering the cold healer.

With the medical situation completely under control, Takuya stepped up to the edge of the bed. He offered Balthazar a warm, deeply polite smile.

“Rest well, Balthazar,” Takuya said smoothly. “Focus on healing today. Tomorrow, once you are breathing easily, you and I are going to have a very profitable conversation about the future.”

Balthazar, despite his exhaustion, recognized the look in Takuya’s eyes. It was the look of a predator who had cornered the market. He nodded weakly.

Takuya, Inori, and Silas quietly exited the room, stepping out into the bright afternoon sun in front of the inn.

Takuya folded his arms, looking at Silas. “Here is the strategy. Tomorrow, after Kaguya removes the tube, I will negotiate with Balthazar. We are going to make him the exclusive distributor of the Dian Recurve Bow and our Clear-Water medicine to Suebic Town and the Royal Capital. He will owe us a debt of life, which means we dictate the prices.”

Silas listened intently, awe returning to his weathered face.

“Once Balthazar agrees,” Takuya continued, “we will hold a gathering in the village square. I want every man, woman, and child present. We will officially announce the new manufacturing jobs, and Vane will publicly demonstrate the power of the new bow. We will show them that Dian Village is no longer a place of poverty.”

“I will spread the word,” Silas agreed, his posture straightening with newfound pride. “The whole village will be there tomorrow.”

“Excellent. I’ll leave the labor rosters for the barns in your capable hands, Silas,” Takuya said with a respectful smile.

Silas hurried off toward his home to begin organizing the workforce. Takuya turned to Inori.

“The architecture is drafted, and the diplomat is awake,” Takuya smiled. “Go back to the river, Inori. Keep digging. We need that plaster.”

Inori adjusted his glasses, pushing them up the bridge of his nose. “The digging will continue, but the plaster must wait for the kilns to be built. Tonight, I play apothecary. I need to render animal fat and purify beeswax. I’ll have Kaguya’s airtight seal synthesized and ready before dawn.”