Reborn as the Prince the Witch Stabbed, I Bought Her Off the Pyre novel · Chapter 36 of 64

Chapter 36: Coal

The quay laughed at me all the way back to my boats.

"Wood won't do it," the smith said.

It was June, and we were at the long table in the lodge hall at Velde.

A drawing of the barge lay between the bread and the beer.

The smith from Steinau had been in Velde a month.

He'd stopped flinching every time someone said the word engine, and he'd started eating.

"Wood burns too fast and too cool," he said. "You'd need a forest on deck to keep the pressure up against that current."

"Charcoal?" Gerd asked.

"Not enough of it in the valley, and not by Lammas," I said.

The widow, at the end of the table, cracked a walnut in her bare fingers.

"Buy coal from the far side of the kingdom, boy."

"The league's bought it from here to the sea. Anything I order will come through Hessa, under their chain."

Lotte, on the bench by the fire, put her feet up on Gerd's knees.

"So you need a fire nobody can buy," she said.

Everybody looked at Anke.

She had been sitting with her back to the hearth with her arms folded, and she didn't move.

← Chapter 35 · All chapters · Chapter 37 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend