Chapter 183: My Hands Are Tied

Abby and Katie both screamed and punched the air in excitement as soon as the merchants left. The demand for board games was high after selling out in the first city they hit on their way out of the mountains.

Al, who was in the middle of feeding Aza some pureed carrots, found it amusing. "I guess you're getting your piano after all. You better get to work on those engraving plates. They'll be back in three weeks."

That sobered them instantly. Abby hastily bid everyone goodbye as she rushed out to the printing office.

Tahvo was at his training session with two other office workers so she had to start making the plates with Janna's help. It was a bit more difficult with less people, especially since most of the remaining workers were in the middle of coloring illustrations.

"We need more people," she muttered under her breath, fervently wishing that this village was larger or that some of the younger children could grow up faster and join the workforce.

"This won't last forever," Janna reassured her. "It is only until the Warriors go to Raisha. Then everything will resume as normal."

Oh. She had nearly forgotten they would be leaving at the beginning of the summer. They had already been here a few months and the remaining time was ticking away.

Raisha wasn't nearly as far as Shibatsu had been…it was still possible to visit…but it would be much more difficult during the winter months. Even Al made it out there much less often when the snow was high.

At the very least Abby and Blaise would be able to exchange letters when Al did his usual visits. That was better than nothing but the prospect still made her heart sink. Seeing him had become an integral part of her day.

===

It was a hectic scramble to meet the deadline but the printing office managed to produce over a hundred copies total of Monopoly, Yahtzee, Sorry, and checkers. Instruction sheets on how to play were included with each one.

Each one sold for seven to ten copper pieces. All of them together would be enough to buy a piano and a few violins and tambourines.

Abby was ready to drop dead afterward because they had to continue production of children's books at the same time despite their terrible understaffing problem. As soon as they were finished she headed to the bakery to buy herself a treat.

Eyeing the wares in the display case, she debated between a chocolate cupcake and a powdered doughnut. In the end Sia laughed and told her to take both for the price of one. She was in an excellent mood because her oldest daughter had just been proposed to by the blacksmith's son.

"Congratulations! Canaria will make a beautiful bride," Abby said with a wide smile.

Sia hummed contentedly. "She will, won't she? Yuno is a good looking boy as well so I'll have the most adorable grandchildren."

Weddings weren't a terribly common occurrence here due to the population being so small so they were worth getting excited about. The last one had happened before Abby moved here over in Raisha.

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Only a select few villagers from Ilmir had been able to attend, including Al and Katie because the clan leader had to officiate any marriages for them to be considered valid here. The thought of her goofy brother-in-law presiding over any serious ceremony like that made her want to laugh.

They planned to hold the wedding before the first snow hit. Abby was excited at the thought of being able to include music in the celebration. Kanta weddings used to include a traditional song played on the fiddle and a dance with tambourines but the custom had been lost along with the instruments.

Canaria's wedding would be the first to have that again in more than twenty years. Abby couldn't spoil the surprise yet though. They needed to acquire the instruments first, then get someone who knew how to play and remembered the old songs and dances to help teach people.

She was excited at the prospect but none of that would be able to happen until after the harvest was over. Her kind of music would have to be played first at the end-of-harvest party.

The piano parts should arrive right before the harvest began so she would be able to put her plan into action. She already had the perfect person in mind to build it. Arno, one of the best craftsmen in the village. He would be able to follow the instructions in that book without difficulty.

Hopefully he could build it quickly because every available hand was needed for the harvest. During that time of year everyone abandoned their other jobs to get it all done.

Grains were harvested in the spring (which seemed backward to Abby but apparently they liked the cold) but vegetables had to be harvested in the fall to be divided up and saved in everyone's cellars to last the winter.

Katie had a greenhouse built that yielded crops that didn't grow so well in the cooler mountain climate such as tomatoes and squash but it wasn't big enough to fit all of the other crops necessary to keep a village this size alive. Hence the need for everyone getting involved in the harvest.

Since this was a holistic, communal society Al was in charge of dividing up the crops according to family size and need so everyone got their fair share. She had been skeptical of the system but had seen how well it worked last harvest.

It showed how important Al's role was. Everyone here trusted him and counted on him because he was the one with the most blessings from the mountain spirits due to his bloodline.

Most kingdoms yielded at least a few tyrants because of bloodlines inheriting the throne but that had never been a problem in all of Kanta's history. The clan leaders took their roles seriously and spent their entire lives devoted to helping their people.

Adam was still too young but in a few years he would begin accompanying his father to learn how things worked for when he took over the clan someday. It was kind of concerning to think about her little nephew having a destiny he couldn't escape instead of being able to choose his career.

When she expressed that to Katie, her sister sighed. "That isn't how the people think here. Most of them inherit their family's businesses instead of choosing things for themselves. Of course I want my son to have the kind of life he wants but my hands are tied.

"At the very least whatever he is interested in doing will probably be part of his job description. The clan leader does a little bit of everything around here. At least he's the only one who will have to deal with this. The rest of my kids will be able to choose."

It was a sad way of looking at things but Abby decided not to press the issue further. She could tell it bothered Katie more than she let on.

She loved the life she had built here with her husband but she had a little more choice in the matter than her son did. She chose to stay and help rather than run away and avoid responsibility and had done an excellent job.

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