The Joys and Sorrows of Merchants

On our way to the royal capital, we were hit by a torrential downpour like a localized rainstorm, and the bridge over the highway collapsed.

We planned to cross by rubber boat once the water receded, so we set up our house by the roadside and spent the night—but

The customers at the stall Primula had opened in front of the house started drinking, and apparently kept at it until well into the night.

Nyamena had been drinking with them too, so I thought she would eventually come back and sleep in the bed, but no matter how long I waited, she never came.

――Then morning came. I stored the log barricade I had set up as an extra precaution in my Item Box.

Men who appeared to have drunk themselves unconscious were lying by the roadside.

"What the heck is this...?"

When I went looking for Nyamena, I found her naked in the grass, sleeping with her legs spread wide. Naturally, her private parts were plainly visible.

"Hey, Nyamena. Wake up."

"Mmm... Boss――I can't eat anymore..."

What was she sleep-talking about? While I was dealing with her, the men sleeping by the road began to wake up as well.

"Were you all really okay sleeping in a place like this?"

At my words, the men seemed to come to their senses and began patting themselves all over.

They were checking whether they had lost anything, such as money. Fortunately, it seemed none of them had lost anything.

In this world, if you sleep defenselessly by the roadside, you never know what might happen to you.

It was an unbelievably careless thing to do.

I woke Nyamena, who was the very embodiment of carelessness.

"Hey, Nyamena!"

I buried my fingers in Nyamena's fur and shook her body until she woke up.

"...Yeah..."

"You were sleeping like this――don't tell me you were gang-raped?"

At my words, Nyamena sat up cross-legged and began scratching herself all over.

She looked as though she had no idea what I was talking about, but she gradually seemed to wake up.

"Even if all the men around here joined forces, they couldn't push me down――yaaawn!"

She let out a huge yawn.

"Well, that's good..."

"Were you worried about me?"

"Of course I was."

Hearing that, Nyamena threw her arms around me. She was naked, so her fluffy fur felt wonderfully soft against me.

"Hey, Nyamena."

"What is it, Boss?"

"What would happen if I fiddled with the base of your tail and your front at the same time?"

"If you did that, I might just fly away..."

While we were fooling around like idiots, Myaree came out of the house.

"Yaaah! What are you doing, nya?!"

"What's the big deal, Blackie? Go back to sleep for a little longer."

"As if I could, nya!"

Anemone and Primula woke up too, so we stopped fooling around and had breakfast.

Breakfast was the leftover soup we had sold yesterday and bread bought from Shangri-La.

When I asked Nyamena, she said that the merchants who seemed to run large shops had had their assistants come to fetch them and had returned to their carriages.

The ones who had stayed until the end and slept by the roadside seemed to be independent merchants.

Were their carriages and cargo really safe if they just left them sitting there?

But when they saw us eating, some of them came over asking us to sell them soup and bread.

That was something Primula could never ignore.

I gave her instant soup and bread, and she began selling them in front of the house after barely eating her own breakfast. She knew that I had powdered soup mix.

It seemed she simply couldn't resist when there were customers right in front of her.

But Primula looked genuinely happy when she was doing business.

"Primula really comes alive when she's selling things, doesn't she?"

"She's just like us when we're hunting, nya."

"Yeah, she is."

I was probably making the same face when I was building things or mining ore.

We left the business to Primula and decided to go check on the river.

The current was still swift, but the water had cleared, and its level had dropped considerably. It looked like we could cross by rubber boat.

We could go a little upstream and then drift diagonally down. The rubber boat was for five people, if I remembered correctly――four adults, one child, and Forest Cat. That should probably be fine.

We returned to the house and began preparing to leave.

When we got back, Primula was working up a sweat as she did business.

"You don't have to work that hard first thing in the morning."

"No. A merchant works up a sweat whenever there are customers and goods to sell."

Hearing that made me feel a little guilty, as a fraudulent merchant myself.

But we couldn't keep going forever, so I made her slow down and began preparing to leave.

"Kenichi, I've worked up a sweat, so I'd like to wipe myself down..."

"All right. I'll get you a change of clothes too."

When I offered to help her, she blushed and fled inside the house. Even though we were married, was she still embarrassed?

Once Primula was ready, I stored the house, tables, and everything else in my Item Box.

"Whoa!"

The onlookers gasped, though some of the merchants among them wore sour expressions.

Perhaps they were jealous. An Item Box would be a merchant's ultimate advantage.

Apparently, Marrow-san's Item Box had the capacity of a single four-and-a-half-tatami room. Even so, it could hold an entire carriage.

And weight didn't matter, so it could transport heavy goods that couldn't be loaded onto a carriage. It was incredibly useful.

Even so, Marrow-san apparently didn't depend on his Item Box. He limited its use to things that absolutely couldn't be carried by carriage, valuables, and perishable goods.

When we all went to the river, we descended to the bank and took the rubber boat out of my Item Box.

We put half the boat into the river and had Anemone and Primula board first. Then came Bell.

"All right, Bell! Get in! And don't dig your claws in."

At my call, Bell sprang into the boat.

I got in next, and finally had the two strong beastfolk push us off. Once the boat began drifting with the current, the beastfolk hopped aboard.

"All right! Row, row!"

We all churned the water with our hands, while the beastfolk used oars. We got a little wet from the spray, but there was nothing we could do about that.

I thought it would take about a minute to reach the opposite bank, but it felt incredibly long. Was this the phenomenon of one's life flashing before one's eyes?

When we reached the opposite bank, we had the beastfolk get out first and pull on the rope attached to the rubber boat.

"Phew! We made it!"

"That was scary!"

"I've never crossed a river like that before."

Still, we had somehow made it across. Now we just had to bring the car out of my Item Box and set off for the royal capital again.

My clothes were a little wet, so I had Anemone dry them with magic.

"Mmm—Dry!"

The royal capital was apparently about 100 kilometers from here, so we should arrive in two hours. The ground was drying too, so we ought to make it there today.

――But.

"Take us across too! Please, we'll pay!" "Me too!"

We received the same requests from the opposite bank. There were more merchants on that side――the ones heading toward the royal capital――and they looked more desperate.

"Phew. I don't care either way, but... Nyamena, want to run a ferry and make some pocket money?"

"Huh? Is that all right, Boss?"

Nyamena's face lit up.

"Sure, but I'm not helping you. Primula, how much should we charge for the ferry?"

"Let's see――perhaps two small square silver coins (10,000 yen)."

"All right! I'll pay two small square silver coins to cross."

Nyamena shouted the price to the merchants around us.

"Damn... It can't be helped." "I have no choice..."

Some of them were grumbling, but if they didn't like it, they could stop. We had no obligation to ferry them across.

"What about you, Myaree?"

"I've got money, so I'm not doing it, nya~"

"Damn it! I'll make money too, then!"

Nyamena looked frustrated at Myaree's relaxed expression.

For the time being, we agreed to operate the ferry only during the morning and got started. I wondered whether there would really be many customers――but there were surprisingly many.

The merchants had cargo with them, so we could only ferry two people at a time. Since Nyamena was the only one rowing, we made the passengers row as well.

She repeatedly took the boat upstream and then drifted diagonally down. It was a feat possible only because the rubber boat was so light.

That would have been difficult with an ordinary boat. We set out chairs, a table, and a parasol on top of the embankment and waited for Nyamena.

She was a beastwoman who prided herself on her stamina, so she should have been fine physically.

Some merchants asked us to sell them the rubber boat, but of course it wasn't for sale. There was no way we could sell it.

Anemone sat at the table reading. It was a Japanese book, but she had become able to read quite a bit as long as the kanji weren't too difficult.

She really was extraordinary. Bell sat beneath the table with her paws tucked beneath her, staring intently at the people gathered around the collapsed bridge. I wondered whether something had caught her attention.

As for Primula――she was riding the draisine I had taken out of my Item Box, making the rounds among the stopped carriages and apparently looking for bargains.

This draisine was something Marrow-san had given me in Astrantia. It must have come into his Item Box along with him.

Painted red and decorated with gold-colored carvings, it was Primula's personal vehicle. Naturally, it didn't move at triple speed――though it would have been nice if it did.

Of course, she wasn't merely riding it around. She was also advertising the draisine, a product of her family's Marrow Trading Company.

Besides, this was a new model. The first draisines had fixed handlebars and could only travel straight, but this one had steering.

They had probably improved it after seeing the bicycle I had described in the letter I sent later.

As we relaxed on the embankment, Nyamena seemed to finish her business. Primula returned at about the same time.

By my count, she had made fifteen round trips, carrying two or three passengers each time, which meant she had transported sixty to eighty people. At two small square silver coins per person, she had earned more than 120 small square silver coins.

"Boss! Come look at this mountain of silver coins! Ha-ha-ha!"

When we counted them all, there were 132 small square silver coins. At 5,000 yen apiece, she had earned 660,000 yen.

But she had been ferrying people the whole time and was soaking wet. Since using Dry magic directly on her body would be dangerous, I brought out a jet heater.

While Nyamena dried her fur in front of the roaring stream of hot air, I converted the money into gold coins.

"That comes to three gold coins."

"Woohoo! Three gold coins just for ferrying people before noon! How about that, Blackie?"

"Not bad, nya."

Myaree said that, but she looked a little frustrated. She must have thought it was a lucrative job.

"Miss, how much should I pay Boss as his share?"

"Would approximately thirty percent be appropriate?"

"Thirty percent is one gold coin, right? Is that all right?"

"Without Boss's light boat, we couldn't have run this business at all, so of course it is. Half would be reasonable too."

"That's right."

Apparently, when one did business like this, it wasn't unusual for someone else to take seventy or eighty percent.

In any case, Nyamena seemed satisfied, so I received one gold coin's worth of small square silver coins as my cut.

I put Nyamena's share into the Nyamena folder in my Item Box.

Then we had a light lunch. But Nyamena said she was hungry because she had done such hard work.

We decided to settle for some square pasta and canned pasta sauce.

"Sorry I'm the only one eating."

"Don't worry about it."

She shoveled the finished pasta into her mouth in huge bites and washed it down with wine.

"Gulp, gulp――ahh! There's nothing like a drink after making money!"

After the meal――while we were putting away the tables and parasol and preparing to leave, a merchant came over.

He was a man around thirty, with brown hair and a blue-indigo outfit fastened with gold buttons.

A large leather bag sat at his feet.

"Hey, you've got an Item Box, right?"

"...Yeah."

"Please! Transport my cargo to the royal capital!"

Myaree said he had been one of the customers we ferried across. Apparently, since his cargo couldn't cross, he had intended to head to the royal capital by himself.

"No. There's nothing in it for me."

"I'll pay you!"

"How much cargo?"

"Urgent cargo, about half a carriage-load..."

"Then that'll be three gold coins."

"That's outrageous!"

Whether it was outrageous or not, I was the one who set my transportation fees.

Then he started saying that if the cargo didn't arrive by the deadline, his bills would bounce――or something along those lines. That had nothing to do with me.

"I see――if your bills bounce, your shop will go under too, then."

"Y-yes."

"Then the transportation fee is five gold coins."

"Why did it go up?!"

"If I transport your cargo, your shop will be saved, right? That makes me your lifesaver. Five gold coins seems cheap for having your life saved, if you ask me――"

"I-I don't have that kind of money..."

The merchant stood frozen, staring at the ground.

"If you don't have the money, you can write me an IOU. Do you have a wife and children?"

"They're in the royal capital..."

"Then if you can't pay, you can send your wife and children into slavery――"

"Th-that's absurd!"

"Then we have nothing more to discuss. Either way, if your shop goes under with debts left behind, you'll end up in slavery, won't you?"

"..."

Anemone, standing beside me, was silent. I had been worried she would launch her usual "Aren't you going to help him?" attack, but

"Anemone――aren't you going to ask me, 'Aren't you going to help him?' today?"

"I think this is a little different..."

"Oh? How is it different?"

"Merchants make profits and losses, right? When they make a profit, they don't share it with everyone, but when they're about to take a loss, they ask people to save them. I think that's a little different..."

"That's right. Even a child could understand that logic."

"Damn it!"

The merchant stood up, slung the leather bag over his shoulder, and ran toward the royal capital.

"Anemone, you're smart."

"I don't like the way you put that."

The beastfolk, who had been silently watching, came over.

"I thought you were going to help him again, Boss."

"Nyaa."

"Don't be stupid. I'm not as softhearted as everyone says. If he can't get back to the royal capital, his bills will bounce, which means he took a desperate gamble. Asking me to save him because he was about to lose a bet would be far too convenient."

"Exactly. The merchants who had room to spare were still buying goods even in this situation, weren't they?"

"Yeah, that's right. Like the ones who bought barrels from Boss."

It would have been a different story if the merchant had been a beautiful woman.

"But Kenichi helped those people from Santanka, so I thought he'd help this merchant too, nya."

"The Croton family first handed over all their money and asked me to help them."

"Come to think of it, Blackie told me something like that... The merchant from earlier only mentioned money afterward, and he complained that the price was too high."

"Exactly."

The Croton family had Marie, who had played with Anemone, after all. If I knew someone, I was willing to show a little favoritism.

If Primula had had no connection whatsoever to the Marrow Trading Company, I probably wouldn't have gone to help them either.

"In that state, even if he gets through this crisis, sooner or later..."

"Yeah, you're right."

If a small or midsize company borrowed from high-interest lenders for operating funds or kept rolling over bills, it would eventually go bankrupt.

It was only a matter of when, not if. They tried desperately to keep going and ended up saddled with massive debts right before bankruptcy.

If they'd closed up shop earlier, they could have gotten away with only a small loss.

Once we finished preparing, we all climbed into the La○d Cruiser P○ado and set off.

The onlookers gathered on the embankment were astonished when a car appeared from nowhere, then cried out in amazement again when the iron mass began moving without a horse.

"Let's gooo!"

The car had barely set off when, after traveling about three kilometers according to the odometer, we found the merchant from earlier staggering along by the roadside.

"Oh, man. Just like Run, Melos."

I drove a little past him and stopped, then spoke to the man who had collapsed by the roadside.

"Are you heading to the royal capital?"

"Haa... haa..."

"If you ride in this, you'll reach the royal capital today. The fare is one silver coin. You have at least that much, right?"

"...Will we really arrive today?"

"Of course."

I opened the rear hatch and had the man sit in the cargo area. It would have been illegal in Japan, but this was another world.

"What's this, Boss? So you're helping him after all?"

"I'm only taking him to the royal capital. What happens after that is none of my business."

I wondered whether he would have to wait for his cargo to arrive or arrange a replacement carriage and somehow manage.

But as soon as the car started moving, the man began making a fuss.

"What is this?! I-it moves without a horse?"

"I told you we'd arrive today."

I increased our speed. The road had already dried, with only puddles here and there, so I drove while avoiding them.

Traffic in this world also kept to the left. Since people wore their swords on their left sides, it was to keep them from bumping into one another.

Well, even if their scabbards did bump, it didn't automatically turn into a "Duel!"

Over the next two hours, the man told us about himself.

As expected, he had taken a desperate gamble. Of course, businesses like that usually ended in failure.

While we were talking, the city of the royal capital gradually came into view in the distance.

"H-have we really already reached the royal capital?"

"Look ahead. It's true, isn't it?"

The city seemed to have a castle built on a hill, surrounded by roughly three layers of fortified walls.

According to Primula, the structure was even more complicated because it had been expanded again and again.

And small houses that couldn't fit within the fortified walls spilled outside them, covering an area far larger than what lay within the walls.

Apparently, the population was over a million, making it about the size of Sapporo, if you were comparing it to Hokkaido.

To use Sapporo as an example, the area from Odori Park to Sapporo Station and Susukino would be inside the fortified walls, while everything else would be outside them.

――That comparison might be a little too local.