Chapter 30
Two days after securing four days' worth of firewood, Allen was heading to the village's residential district to shop again. Since Krena would be coming in the afternoon, he planned to go shopping in the morning every two or three days.
Rodan and Telesia had left it entirely up to Allen to decide what to do with the meat from the sixteen Alba Herons he'd caught. He'd traded some for Mormo fruits last time, and they hadn't said a word about it. Mash had been delighted to eat them. Allen wanted Telesia to get as many different nutrients as possible for the baby, too.
He loaded ten chunks of Alba Heron meat, weighing ten kilograms in all, onto his wooden-frame carrier and set off in shoes woven from slightly thicker wheat straw. Straw sandals were much too cold for winter. Even so, melted snow seeped into his shoes. His ragged hemp clothes didn't help, either. It was pretty cold.
After an hour, he reached the commercial district. It was called a commercial district, but it was really just a few shops clustered together in the village.
(Gerda-san isn't with me today, so maybe I can do a little research.)
Since this was his second trip, he'd come alone today.
He went into the salt shop. He'd bought salt last time, but it still wasn't enough. He needed to keep a decent supply on hand.
He handed the brusque shopkeeper about five kilograms of meat. Just like last time, the man silently weighed it. Allen waited without a word, and got the same answer as before.
“Ten scoops.”
“That works for me.”
Allen handed him a wooden box, and the shopkeeper filled it with salt using a large spoon.
“Thank you. How much would this cost if I bought it?”
“Huh? Five silver coins.”
(Oh, I see.)
Next, he went to the greengrocer. As before, he left the firewood shop for last, since it would be a burden to carry.
“I'd like to trade this meat for some fruit.”
“Sure. Which ones do you want?”
(There are a few different kinds of fruit.)
Allen pointed to a yellow fruit that looked like a peach, one he didn't usually eat.
“What about this one?”
“That's expensive. One chunk of meat gets you one Popo fruit.”
(Whoa! Popo fruits are way too expensive. I guess I'll stick with Mormo fruits.)
Allen was a sweet tooth who claimed he was buying fruit for Mash. He bought some again this time.
“I see. How much would they cost if I bought them?”
The friendly shopkeeper told him all sorts of things. Combining this information with what he'd learned on his last shopping trip, he was beginning to understand the relative value of things.
The following items were all worth the same:
・One chunk of Alba Heron meat (about one kilogram)
・Two scoops of salt (about thirty grams)
・Four Mormo fruits
・One Popo fruit
・Four days' worth of firewood (about sixty kilograms)
Salt and fruit seemed quite expensive, since they came through peddlers. The greengrocer also told Allen about the different coins.
The following amounts were all worth the same:
・One gold coin
・One hundred silver coins
・One thousand copper coins
・Ten thousand iron coins
Allen was trying to learn the going rates and the value of money. He wanted to make his whole family commoners. According to Gerda, it would take fifty gold coins.
The salt shopkeeper's answer had made it clear that about one kilogram of Alba Heron meat was worth one silver coin. Since one Alba Heron yielded ten kilograms of meat, he calculated how many he'd need to hunt to earn fifty gold coins.
(So I only need to hunt five hundred Alba Herons? If I start hunting like crazy next October, I might be able to make fifty gold coins in a few years.)
Back when he was Kenichi, Allen had spent all his time hunting magic beasts in games. As a dedicated gamer, he thought he could take down five hundred in no time. In some games, the number of magic beasts defeated in an hour could exceed ten thousand.
Once he had a general idea of the going rates, he headed toward the firewood shop. On the way, he spotted a drugstore and a weapon shop.
He could see what looked like medicinal herbs inside the drugstore. He'd noticed the place the other day, too, but he hadn't been able to stop with Gerda there. Remembering that, he went inside.
“Excuse me.”
“Yes? Welcome.”
Various plants and other things decorated the shop. An extremely elderly woman stood at the back.
“Do you have any potions that restore Magic?”
“Huh? Don't come here just to browse. I don't stock anything that expensive.”
She said the shop only had herbal remedies such as wound salves and fever medicine.
“I see.”
(So there are potions that restore Magic, but they're expensive. I won't be able to afford one until I start earning a decent amount.)
During his first fight with an Alba Heron, his Beast Fs had been defeated over and over. The Blessing disappeared when a Summon was defeated, too. When a powerful enemy appeared and things got desperate, his Summons were more likely to be taken out, putting him in even greater danger. He'd come to check if there were any potions that restored Magic, just in case.
The shopkeeper didn't chase him out, even though he was a six-year-old boy in shabby clothes who didn't look like he had any money.
(She isn't trying to kick me out. The salt shop, greengrocer, and firewood shop were the same way, too.)
The shops were probably run by commoners, but they weren't hostile toward serfs.
“Which ones are the wound salves?”
“Huh? Over there.”
She told him brusquely. As he wondered if everyone in this other world was so blunt, he looked at the dried plants in the place she'd indicated. They seemed to be medicinal herbs.
(Oh, right. I can use the memo function to draw pictures, can't I?)
He'd never tried it with the Grimoire before. He tried to record an image of a dried medicinal herb, and the plant was transferred onto the page like a drawing made with a pencil.
(Whoa! It worked! You never know until you try.)
He'd divided the Grimoire's memo function into several uses: recording test results, hypotheses, diary entries, and memories of the real world. He decided to add a section for realistic illustrations, too. Just in case, he recorded each medicinal herb one by one.
As a serf, he wasn't allowed to leave the village. But once he was free to travel, he'd be able to go looking for medicinal herbs, too.
As he thought about how he could use his notes to identify the herbs, he suddenly remembered the plant that had saved Rodan's life.
“By the way, do you have any Mülleraze flowers?”
“What?! We don't have any! And even if we did, I wouldn't give you a discount!”
The drugstore owner's attitude suddenly turned sour. Allen was startled. Why?
“S-Sorry.”
“Ah, no, I'm sorry. I had a pretty rough time over that.”
“I see. Was that about a month and a half ago?”
(Huh? Father was saved by a Mülleraze flower. Did something happen?)
Gerda had only told him that he'd bought a Mülleraze flower at the drugstore and used it to save Rodan.
The drugstore owner told him what had happened about a month and a half earlier.
She said a man named Gerda had rushed into the shop in the late afternoon. He'd asked for the most effective wound medicine, and he'd been in a terrible state.
She'd had a Mülleraze flower, but had quoted him a price of five gold coins. He'd offered three gold coins and said he'd pay later.
She said she couldn't lower the price to three gold coins. And though he'd promised to pay later, he didn't look like he had even three gold coins to his name.
“He told me that if he didn't bring me three gold coins the next day, he'd pay even if he had to be sold into slavery.”
Gerda had prostrated himself on the shop floor, pleading over and over for her to save his best friend's life. Eventually, the shopkeeper gave in and agreed to accept three gold coins as payment later. And apparently, he really did bring the three gold coins the next day.
“In the lord's city, I could've sold it for five gold coins without any trouble. I was planning to sell it to a peddler the next time one came, but I took a real loss.”
The shopkeeper grumbled about how much she'd lost. Allen replied that he understood. The flower had already been sold, but she made sure to tell him that if she had one, it would cost five gold coins.
She said that was all there was to the story.
Allen took off his wooden-frame carrier, took out a chunk of Alba Heron meat, and placed it on the counter.
“Huh? Which herbs are you trading for?”
“No, this is for you.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
The shopkeeper looked like she didn't understand what he was saying. She was a deeply wrinkled old woman, and now the furrow between her brows deepened even further.
“Thanks to your discount, my father was saved. This is a thank-you gift. Thank you so much.”
The shopkeeper looked confused. Allen bowed deeply and thanked her.
After that, whenever he came shopping, he brought her a chunk of meat. By the third time, she told him that was enough.