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Chapter 29 – Shopping Trip
It was December. Snow fell slowly from the sky. There were no more Albaherons in the sky, they had all already flown north.
Allen had continued hunting Albaherons, and managed to defeat a total of 16 of them. All the Albaherons were processed and taxed with the potatoes.
The taxes were collected by villagers, not the mayor. As per his agreement with the mayor, Allen only gave them the magic stones and the feathers. The rumors finally caught up with him, and people were asking him if he really caught them all by himself.
Currently, he had around 330 pounds of meat drying in the yard. The meat from the earlier hunts were nearly done.
“Allen, you ready?”
“Yes, sir.”
Today, he was going to the residential area of the village to buy firewood and salt.
The winter was cold, and required a lot of firewood. Up until now, their family had always had firewood because Rodan would have Boar meat to trade, usually starting in October. But Rodan was seriously injured, and hadn’t been able to get any firewood these past two months. They were about to run out.
It was the same for salt. They bought firewood from people who cut it from trees around the village, but salt had to be bought from merchants. The salt might be expensive, because the merchant didn’t come often, and they needed to stockpile a bunch.
Today, Gerda was going to teach Allen how to buy things. They didn’t have a wagon or anything, so they carried their luggage on their backs. Allen was carrying 10 two-pound chunks of Albaheron meat, which he was going to trade for firewood and salt.
Theresia waved goodbye to Allen, who left with Gerda. Rodan was beside her.
Rodan had gotten a lot better in the six weeks since his injury. He could stand and walk around now, but, for shopping, the round trip took 2 hours. And, on the way back, they had to carry all the luggage. Allen was going because Rodan hadn’t yet recovered to that point. Rodan was no longer saying things like “Allen shouldn’t go shopping,” and let him go with Gerda.
Gerda had heard about Allen’s confession, but he didn’t treat Allen any differently. Somehow, he always knew that Allen was special, and accepted it like it was nothing.
“Have the commoners joined a Boar hunt since then?”
Allen was more polite to Gerda than his parents because Gerda had taught him how to do field work.
“Ah? Where’s this coming from?”
“I was just wondering what had happened since then.”
It took about an hour to get to the village square, so they talked while they walked. Gerda was rough and straightforward, so he would tell Allen anything.
“Well, the commoners have stopped going since then. The mayor hasn’t said anything, so it was just serfs this year.”
“Ah, is that so.”
“Yeah.”
(Hmmm, so they were so scared that they stopped participating?)
“So there weren’t any commoners. What’s the difference between a commoner and a serf? And how can a serf become a commoner?”
This is what Allen actually wanted to ask.
“What? This is out of nowhere. Why don’t you ask Rodan?”
“Because, it is a bit awkward to ask my parents about something like that….”
Asking his parents how to become a commoner would be like telling them that he didn’t like being a serf. His parents would be shocked. He wanted to know how to get his family out of serfdom, but he didn’t have anybody to ask.
Gerda taught him while they walked. His tone was matter-of-fact.
The difference between a serf and commoner was that they were taxed differently. Serfs paid 60% of their crops and hunted monsters. Commoners, however, didn’t pay the 60% tax. Instead, each year, they paid a per capita tax: 3 gold coins per adult, and 1 gold coin per child.
(I see. So if we had to pay that tax for my parents, Mash and I… in total, it would be 8 coins each year. And since we’ll have a new family member soon, it’d go up even more starting next year.)
“I see. So is there a way to become a commoner?”
“I heard that if you pay 10 gold coins, the lord might reward you by making you a commoner. I don’t know if that’s true though.”
(Hmm, So if it’s 10 gold coins, regardless of age, then it would be 50 gold coins for our family.)
“Thank you. Please don’t tell anyone that I asked you about this.”
“I won’t.”
Gerda ruffled Allen’s hair.
In the meantime, they had reached the part of the village with a line of shops, the commercial district.
“First, salt. Firewood comes last because it’s heavy.”
“Yes sir.”
They entered the store through a western-style door. Salt and spices were on display behind the counter. None of them were put out on the storefront, so they were probably expensive.
“I want to trade for salt.”
There was no negotiation, he simply stated his business. The owner of the store responded bluntly, and asked them to show them how much meat they had.
Gerda wasn’t only here to guide Allen, he was also doing some shopping. He put meat on the counter, saying that it was Great Boar meat. The shopkeep weighed it on a scale.
“12 scoops.”
“Sounds good.”
After realizing that the frank conversation had ended, Allen simply watched. The shopkeeper took a wooden spoon, about the size of a tablespoon, and took 12 scoops out of a jar of salt, putting it in a wooden box.
“This good?”
Gerda shook the box of salt lightly, checking the contents. Then, using his pinky, he tasted a bit.
“Yup.”
He closed the lid on the box, tied it with a string, and put it in his pocket.
Now that Gerda was done, Allen did the same.
“It’s Albaheron meat.”
He put 5 chunks of Albaheron meat, around 10 pounds, on the counter. The owner reacted a little. It wasn’t a type of meat he often came across. But the owner weighed it, silently, while Allen waited, wondering if he would refuse it.
“10 scoops.”
“Eh? It’s worth less than the Boar meat?”
“Ah? In total.”
There was less salt in total because Allen had given him less meat than Gerda had. The shopkeep gave Allen a wooden box of salt, and Allen checked it the same way Gerda did. He secured it shut with a string and tied it to his belt, because it was too big for his pocket.
Next, they went to the grocery store. They mostly sold fruits. For wheat, beans, potatoes, etc., the serfs would just trade amongst themselves. However, there weren’t any serfs that grew fruit. Apparently, merchants brought them from other cities and villages.
Gerda traded one chunk of dried meat for four mormos. The aunty who ran the shop here was quite friendly. Allen wondered if the previous shopkeep was so briny because he ran a salt shop.
(Hm? Is the meat of the C-rank Boar and the D-rank Albaheron worth the same?)
He had thought that the higher the rank, the more valuable the meat would be, so he had brought a lot. But it seemed that they were of equal value.
He had never seen pigs or chickens in the village. He guessed that there wasn’t really any animal husbandry. There were only horses pulling the wagons. While Allen was wondering if the meat was valued purely by the fact that it was meat, they arrived at their final destination, the firewood shop.
Allen didn’t forget to take notes in the grimoire – stuff like the locations of the stores, the attitudes of the clerks, how much meat for 10 spoons of salt and 4 mormos. He had enough information to go alone next time. Winter would last 3 more months, and he needed to buy enough firewood to last the whole time, but he couldn’t carry it all in one trip.
The firewood store looked like it was just a man standing in front of a warehouse. Allen could see all the way to the back of the warehouse. It was filled with piles of firewood.
After Gerda gave the clerk a chunk of Boar meat, he handed him four bundles of firewood. Each bundle was a night’s worth of firewood, which weighed about 30 pounds. If you kept the fire going the entire day, then one bundle wouldn’t last a whole day. It was necessary to save as much as possible during the daytime.
Allen tied four bundles of firewood, a stack 3 feet tall, to his backpack. The owner was blunt, but he was also concerned. Allen heard him say “Oi, four bundles is 120 pounds.”
Without a care in the world, Allen finished tying it up, and hoisted it onto his back. He went back with Gerda, and returned home to his family. Thus, Allen learned how to purchase things in the village.
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Thanks for reading! 🙂
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