---Didn't I pretty much accept her just now, though?
Maybe I was too hasty. The doubts started to swirl inside my heart, and were promptly melted away as soon as I saw Ann's peaceful sleeping face as she used my arm as pillow. A bitter smile formed on my face, and a feeling of resignation mixed in my heart as a small laugh escaped my lips. She was super soft and fluffy in kobold form, but with this form, her hair type changed from fluffy to smooth; not that it stopped me from patting her head like always. I fell asleep as the bittersweet flavor of the herb spread across my mouth.
I managed to sleep together with her and stay sane today thanks to the herb I'd bought from Tundra today after dinner.
Samathi Herb (Dry; 8 pc. set, 15 g) == 1,800DL
Seller : Manager, Labyrinth #201
Rating : ★★★★☆
Reviewer : Manager, Labyrinth #48
- Useful herb for analgesic/pain killer purposes. It's dry, but it comes back to life as soon as you add some water, it's useful since you can put it over scratches or open wounds given they're not too deep. I'm glad it's safe to use for children as well.
Rating : ★★★★★
Reviewer : Manager, Labyrinth #16
- A handy herb for when you need to pull all-nighters. Boil the dry leaves with hot water and you'll get a relaxing bittersweet tea. It has a really calming effect for the nerves when you're staying up all night. I tried analyzing the components and ran some tests, but I didn't find any addictive agents or side effects. The problem it's that its nature changes when you extract its components, so it's not really fit for mass production.
Chapter 3
Milt Village's square was crowded with people on the morning of the market day. For the most part, it looked like a place where people bartered with money. Those that had goods spread them out on a cloth on the ground and lined them up like street vendors, and those who weren't selling visited the stalls and negotiated.
"There really are a lot of races living in Daemon, aren't there?"
There were small kobolds with the same physique as Ann gathered in the square, but there were also minotaurs like the mayor, beast men with tiger heads, and even one-eyed giants with horns coming out of their foreheads.
It was very interesting to see humans and people with pointy ears---that I supposed were elves---living so peacefully among these giants and demon-looking, monster-like creatures. It feels like it was just commonplace around here.
The tiny kobold pups and the ashen-skinned, goblin-like children ran about and played together. The elf running the vegetable stall, and the lizardman dealing with vegetables and pelts, looked at them with smiles on their faces.
"Ann, are there normally this many kinds of races living together in normal villages?"
"Not really. Villages usually have one or two races living together, at most. The only places where there's this many races are pioneering villages like this, or big cities. I think my granny was from a village where kobolds and humans lived together."
That made sense. Races whose body structures were close to each other might be able to have children, but finding a marriage partner which you could even do so with must have been difficult when there were so many races like this.
You might be able to produce offspring even among races that looked totally different in this world, but then there would be a different type of problem. Like, the anatomy of the child might be far too warped to fit in anywhere. If you showed me a picture of one of these cyclops in a swimsuit, I wouldn't really understand the sex appeal, at least. If it was like a town or a village that didn't have much variety of residents, it would be convenient to have multiple races doing business in hard labor or farming work, but it would be kinda difficult in terms of ensuring the perpetuation of one's species.
I was carrying the hoes and sickles made with the
"Mayor Hopper, good morning."
I found the mayor spreading out an old rag right in the center of the square.
Next to him there was a stake sticking out of the ground, with a rope attached. On the other end of that rope was... a six-legged lizard that seemed to be about 50 centimeters long, tied by the head. Maybe he was selling it as a cooking ingredient?
"Oh my, if it isn't Mister Aoi. Well met."
Mayor Hopper's happy bovine countenance couldn't have been more heartwarming as he proceeded to raise the lizard and snap its neck as if it was a pair of chopsticks, to which he handed over to a female goblin, which I assumed was a housewife from her appearance. She handed a corn-like thing in exchange. The whole encounter left me unsure what to feel.
---So it was an ingredient after all...
"I'd like to participate in the village's market. I was wondering if you would allow me. Also, where would the peddlers happen to be?"
"Oh, goodness. It's not that big of a deal. You're very welcome here. The peddler's festival is a little ways from the square. Just head for the village's northern exit."
"Thank you very much. Ann, what are you looking at?"
Ann, who turned into her kobold form as soon as we left the ravine, was now looking intently at the mayor's lizards.
"Ah, it's nothing. It's been so long since the last time I saw normal meat."
That was because we've been eating nothing but pumpkin and beef jerky... I wanted to do my best selling this stuff so I could get Ann's favorite foods as well.
I thanked the mayor once again for giving me permission to participate, and proceeded to set up my stall in a corner of the square.
"Alright, Ann. I don't know the prices of things in the village, so I'll leave things to you. Exchange the hoes and sickles for vegetables and meat we can eat, and don't forget to mention they have durability and can only be used for half a year."
I lined up the hoes and sickles on top of the cloth and delegated the pricing and negotiations to Ann.
"Huh? You want me to do that all by myself?"
Her fur visibly stood on end due to the surprise of me dumping the work on her all of a sudden.
"Listen now, Ann. It's true I may be more of an adult, but I don't know anything about this world outside of the labyrinth. Which means you---hell, even the kids of the village know way more than me. I don't know how much tools and food are worth in the village. Rather than listing the price too high or too low, I'd rather rely on you."
I may have been able to sell items to Tundra and get their assessment, but in a fantasy world where a normalized distribution system wouldn't get developed without trading in person, I couldn't really use Tundra's price assessments and references for commodities in relation to localized farming villages and urban areas. That's why I decided to leave it all in Ann's hands.
Since it was a countryside village, chances were most of them knew Ann, so they wouldn't be wary of her. And the adults would keep their prices accordingly if Ann was the one running the business as well. Quite the bulletproof plan. I might have a bit of a weakness by just acting as figurehead, but I could bear with that...
"I got it, Aoi! I'll do my best. I'll do business so we can have meat and vegetables for dinner tonight!"
Ann clenched her paw and accepted the challenge.
I hoped she could get ingredients that could get cooked up later. If she was given a live lizard as an ingredient, well... yeah. Let's ask Jenny for help if that happens. If I was in a realistic survival game where we had to deal with securing food in a solitary island or in an extremely cold region, I'd know a little about it. But here, I didn't have even the slightest idea about food making or ingredients. It'd be fine if wasn't tasty, but we'd have a problem on our hands if I came around something poisonous because of my ignorance.
"Mister Gald, I have good stuff. Take a look!"
The man Ann called was like a mountain of muscl
e roughly two meters high and covered in clothes that were patched up all over. A pair of big tusks extruded from his mouth. He must be what people called an ogre. He looked capable of pulling off a pretty mean face, but he really seemed gentle when he was in a good mood. I could tell that the opposite expression of his face wouldn't be for the faint of heart.
"Oho, well if it isn't Ann. I was worried ever since I heard you got employed, but you look quite well. Your complexion looks pretty nice. Have you gotten fatter?"
"Hey! You have to tell a girl that her fur looks glossy, and her figure looks better!"
Although the exchange between him and Ann was as pleasant as the weather, I couldn't help but feel a chill down my spine as his tusks moved around as he spoke..
"You're her employer, mate? How's this little cute thing behaving? She's a good 'ittle working girl, ain't she?"
"Yeah, she's smart and works hard. Are all the children of this village the same?"
"Gwahaha, not a chance! Ann's a pretty special lass, y'see. My kids have been so lonely since their cute and smart big sister has left."
"Now that's a problem, I don't want all the children mad at me because I stole their beloved big sister away from them."
The talkative ogre named Gald gave me a hearty laugh. While he certainly looked rather rough around the edges, he was still a nice guy, nonetheless.
"Geez! You have to go behind me and just look, Aoi. You too, Mister! Rather than talking, how about looking at the wares? We have hoes with iron blades here. You told me you needed some before, right?"
Ann looked more peppy than usual. I wondered if it was because she was around so many familiar faces.
"A hoe with an iron blade, you say? I certainly need one, that's for sure. Must be pricey, though..."
He lifted the tool and checked the handle and the blade to make sure.
"Now this is quality. The handle is solid and pretty well done. The blade is as pretty nice piece of art as well. But... the price must be steep, eh? I don't think someone as poor as me could afford it."
"It's not that expensive since it's a little different from a normal tool. It'll break after half a year, so it's cheaper than the ones the blacksmith sells!"
"It'll break after half a year? So this here's a magical tool? How much are you asking for, then?"
So things like this could be accepted as magical items in villages like these? The popularity of magic here seemed way higher than back on Earth.
"You're cultivating demi corn back at your place, right?"
"Yeah, I somehow managed to haul a harvest big enough to fill 20 sacks, so I won't have to worry about food for now. The taste is a bit iffy, but I want my kids to sleep with their bellies full."
"Hmm... Demi corn is easy to make, but the harvest is over if it dries up. In that case... let's see. Yes, how about one hoe for two sacks?
Ann extended her soft paw towards the ogre with a speed that denoted her enthusiasm.
When she changed to girl form, her hands became like those of a human's, but it was kind of a shame those cute soft paws were lost in the process.
"Hmmmm. I do want the hoe, but 2 whole bags is..."
The ogre folded his arms, perhaps in thought as to whether Ann's price was appropriate or not. Those gigantic and burly arms seemed as big as Ann's waist.
Leaving it to Ann was the right choice. She might have be negotiating on a bag-to-bag basis instead of weight, but I didn't know the first thing about how much any of it was worth. Raw currency really was great. I wanted to know how big those sacks were when we headed back to the cabin. I'd be more of a pushover if I didn't know that much by the next time we traded.
"Then how... about a normal sack and two little ones. It's a special offer just for you!"
"Y-You're on! I'll get it in that case. Can I bring the sacks in later?"
"Yes! But please do it early, okay?"
Seemed like the deal was sealed. And so, the ogre man took one of the ten hoes I'd prepared for today.
"Aoi, I sold a hoe. And I got some sacks of dry demi corn for it, too! Even if we only eat that every day from now on, it'll last us a whole month!"
"You did your best, Ann. Good girl."
"Awoo! I'll keep at it, okay!?"
I patted her head, as a cold sweat ran down my spine. I had to do a market and price investigation as soon as possible. I'd also have to rely on Jenny to teach me about the ingredients and food recipes.
The intuition I'd built after spending so many years playing spoke to me. If I stopped putting in any effort here, then my future of depending on Ann for everything, like a gigolo, was almost certain. Although I did have some kind of admiration for that kind of life, what kind of example would I be setting for her? I couldn't do something like that...!
"Phew. They're all sold, huh?"
"Are farming tools really this profitable?"
It had been barely two hours since Ann took over the negotiations and the bartering, and we already sold all of the 15 sickles and 10 hoes we'd brought with us this morning. There was a jute bag filled with dry corn, with grains so big they looked like little potatoes, which sat on top of the cloth where the tools were lined up not so long ago. There was also a big bacon-like salted block of meat that weighed about 20 kilograms. And also, one of the lizards from the mayor's stall, which was already dead. It had just finished dripping blood out of its head, thankfully.
Apparently the poor lizard was unable to escape its fate. The ones from the mayor's stall seemed particularly big, but I saw plenty of other villagers selling them as well. I thought they might be somewhat of a parallel to chickens on Earth.
"Yes, everyone uses tools nonstop around here, so everyone working out in the fields wants good tools. The one you make turn into light and disappear when you use them too much, but they rarely get chipped or rust, so I wonder if they'll get really popular."
While I looked at Ann's radiant smile, an uncomfortable feeling started swirling inside of me as I surveyed the mountain of goods the sales had reaped.
"Ann, is Mister Gald an ogre? Is he as strong as he looks?"
"Yes, people from the ogre race like him are really strong!"
"Then why does he need farm tools? With that much force he could... use a stone hoe or something, or uproot a tree out of the ground and till the soil with it."
"Huh...? Yes, I guess he could."
She tilted her head to the side in confusion, and looked at me with a curious face.
"Then why are there so many people that want an iron hoe? I might understand if it was a weak elf or a kobold, but we had some people from the giant race buy some, too."
"U-Umm. Well, that's because it's easier with an iron tool?"
I understood that it was easier, but the odd feeling still didn't subside.
"Ann, you think Mister Gald will be done with his work faster thanks to that hoe, right? What do you think he'll do with his free time?"
"Let's see. He really loves children, so I think he would play with them... Or teach them to fish in the river that's a bit far away from the village... Maybe?"
Using your free time to do the things you liked, I could understand that as well. That was the same reason why this village's position seemed odd to me.
"Ann, we got a lot of corn and vegetables from selling the tools, right?"
"Yes, we wouldn't have trouble eating for around half a year with all this!"
"I don't want to say it too loud, but this village isn't that rich, huh? Then why did they give you this much?"
"Well... these sell for very cheap if you go to a town; they're not really popular."
"That's odd. How come?"
"You can make a whole lot in a village... but it isn't tasty at all. It's not very nutritious, either."
Ann said sorrowfully as she looked at the mountain of produce in front of us. I see, cultivating in the wastelands could yield a good amount of harvest, thus they didn't starve. However, they wouldn't gain weight since the nutritional value
was so low, and since they sold for so low, you wouldn't get rich anytime soon trying to cash it in.
"You know a lot, huh, Ann? Is it difficult to raise crops that'll sell for much in the city?"
"Yes, to grow those, the soil needs to be better. We'd also need a lot of water, and it seems the field upkeep costs would rise as well."
"You're quite the bundle of knowledge, aren't you?"
"Awoo. You said you were 'ignorant', so I just want to help you."
While I praised Ann and patted her head, I came to the realization of the weird feeling I had. That being... living in this pioneering village, filled with countless types of people and races, yet still managed to be peaceful. No, if I took into account that this was also a countryside village, then they were too peaceful...
Even though the villagers only wore patched up rags and had no hope of living any better in the near future, they weren't desperate or bitter---they just lived peacefully. They only bartered and exchanged between each other for goods at good rates. I had yet to hear about an unfair trade even once around here. Even though they were basically living in poverty, they could avoid the danger of starvation due to the amount of variety of produce they could get cultivating the wasteland, and accepted their status of poverty because of it.
I didn't see any desire to break free from poverty anywhere around. But I also didn't feel like there was something sinister behind it. They might be living in poverty, but it seemed that they led peaceful and fulfilling lives in spite of being impoverished. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say this was some kind of paradise. It was a scene so moving that it'd put a religious person, who said that a modest and honorable life of poverty was the way to live, into tears. However, for someone like me who took pride in their gaming abilities, this was far from paradise.
If I used my beloved games as a metaphor, it would be like if you kept playing, the difficulty curve would drop off to stupefying levels. Playing the game was like a double-edged sword.
That was the very same reason I felt annoyed by this paradise, while at the same time I thought it was charming. It was distasteful to try and force someone to change their playstyle, but when you saw players that weren't taking the game seriously, you'd feel the need to set them straight. Because of my life with Ann, I knew that the villagers---including Ann---all accepted poverty with open arms. But I was sure they also still had dreams and aspirations, too. I gave the villagers tools to make their livelihoods easier, just like I gave Ann a job and some income. Giving them something to aim for could change the village's outlook on things. However, I didn't have enough time to really make an impactful change for them. I had less than a month left. Before I even noticed, the sense of loss and frustration overcame the relief, as I recalled that my time left here was almost up.
Strongest Gamer; Let's Play in Another World Volume 1 Page 13