Chapter 30: Market Research

Two days after my first visit to the market, I was heading to the market area of the village once again today. Kurena would be coming in the afternoon, so I was thinking of going shopping in the morning every two or three days.

As for the use of the meat of the sixteen Albaherons I caught, Rodan and Theresia have left it completely up to me. The last time I exchanged them for Mormo nuts, they didn’t say anything. Mash was happy to eat them. I want Theresia to get a variety of nutrition for her baby as much as possible.

I put 10 kilograms of Albaheron meat on my bag and wore shoes made of thick wheat straw. In winter, it is very cold with sandals. Even with shoes, the melted snow gets inside it. As with the tattered linen I was wearing, it was quite cold.

It took an hour to reach the commercial district of the village.

(Gerda’s not here today, so I guess I’ll do a little research.)

This is my second time here, and I’m here by myself today.

I entered the salt shop. I bought some last time, but that wasn’t enough. I need a certain amount of salt in my stock.

I hand over about five kilograms of meat to the blunt owner. As before, he weighed the meat on a scale without saying a word. As I watch him in silence, he gives me the same answer as the last time.

“Ten cups.”

“I’ll take that please.”

I handed him a wooden box and he used a large spoon to add salt.

“Thank you very much. How much would this cost to buy?”

“What? This would cost Five Silver coins.”

(Oh, I see.)

Next, I went to the grocery shop. As usual, I will go to the firewood shop at last.

“Please trade this meat for some fruits.”

“Sure, which one?”

(There are several kinds of fruits.)

I point to a yellow peach-like fruit that I don’t usually eat.

“What about this one?”

“It’s expensive. It’s a Popo fruit. You’ll get only one for this amount of meat.”

(Wow! Popo is too expensive. I’ll just use Mormo nuts as usual then.)

Allen has a sweet tooth, even though he says it’s for Mash. He buys Mormo nuts again this time.

“I see. How much does it cost to buy it?”

The grocery shop owner is very friendly, she tells me a lot.

The following items have the same value:

-A chunk of Albaheron meat (about 1 kilogram)

-Two cups of salt (about 30 grams)

-Four Mormo nuts

-One Popo fruit.

-Four days worth of firewood (about 60 kilograms)

Salt and fruits are imported through merchants, so they are quite expensive. She, the shop owner who is very friendly, also told me about the exchange rate of coins.

The following are of equal value:

-1 Gold coin

-100 Silver coins

-1,000 Copper coins

-10,000 Iron coins.

Allen is trying to find out the market and monetary values. He wants to turn his entire family into commoners. Gerda told him that he needs about 50 Gold coins to do so.

According to the salt dealer, about a kilogram of meat from Albaheron is worth one Silver coin. Since he could get 10 kilograms of meat from one Albaheron, he started calculating the number of Albaherons he had to kill for 50 Gold coins.

(I will only need to kill 500 Albaherons. Next year, if I start hunting from October, I’ll be able to get 50 Gold coins in a few years of time.)

When Allen was Kenichi, he was constantly hunting magical beasts in the game. For Kenichi, who likes to do things the hard way, he thinks that he can kill 500 magical beasts in no time. In some games, the number of magical beasts he has killed per hour exceeds 10,000.

Now that I had a good idea of the market price, I went to the firewood shop and saw an herb shop and a weapon shop.

From outside what appeared to be a herb shop, I could see medicinal herbs. I had seen it the other day, but I couldn’t stop by because Gerda was also there. I went inside.

“Excuse me.”

“Welcome.”

The shop was decorated with a variety of plants and other things. There was an elderly woman in the back of the shop.

“Do you have any potions to restore mana?”

“What? We don’t have anything that expensive.”

“We only have herbs for wounds and fevers,” she said.

(I see.)

There seems to be potions to restore mana, but they are expensive and I can’t buy them until I earn some money.

The first time I fought an Albaheron, almost all of my F-rank beasts were defeated. The blessing also disappeared when the summoned beasts got defeated. As a summoner, the more powerful the enemy appears and the more I’m in a pinch, the more my summoned beast gets killed, the worse my situation gets. I came to check if there was any mana potion if possible.

I’m a six-year-old boy in rags who doesn’t seem to have any money. She didn’t kick me out even though I was rummaging around.

(She doesn’t kick me out. Neither do the salt shop, nor the grocery shop or the firewood shop.)

The people who run the shop are probably commoners, but they sell to serfs as well.

“Which one is the wound medicine?”

“Oh, it’s that one over there.”

She tells me bluntly. I look at the dried herb-like grass in the place where she told me to while thinking if all the people in this world are this blunt.

I’ve never tried using the copy function of my Grimoire and I think now is the time to try one.

I try to memorize the shape of the dried herb and sketch down the image of the herb. The image is transferred to the Grimoire like a drawing with a pencil.

(Oh! It’s done! I guess I can sketch anything.)

The Grimoire’s memo function is divided into several uses: for verification results, hypothesis, daily diary, and real-world memories, but there is a copy function here as well. I’m going to record the descriptions of the herbs one by one, just in case. ( TN: My guess is copy sketches whatever Allen wants in the memo just like a scanner. If you have a better name, please let me know in the comments.) 

Right now, I can’t leave the village because of my limited mobility as a serf, but when I can move freely, I will go looking for medicinal herbs.

When I was thinking that I could look up the herbs by looking at my notes, I suddenly remembered the herb that saved Rodan’s life.

“Oh, by the way, is there such a thing as a Mullerse flower?”

‘No! There is no such thing. Even if there were, you wouldn’t be able to buy it!”

The owner of the herb shop suddenly showed a bad attitude. What? Why? I was surprised.

“I’m sorry.”

“Oh, no, I’m sorry. I have had a bad experience with serfs buying Mullerse flowers.” The woman replied.

“Oh, really?”

(It may have been a month and a half ago. She told me about the time when Gerda came in her shop asking for Mullerse flowers.)

“What? Gerda said that my dad was saved by the Mullerse flower. What’s going on?”

Gerda only told me that he had bought Mullerse flowers at a herb shop for Rodan.

The owner of the herb shop told me the story from a month and a half ago.

The story goes that a man named Gerda came running into the shop just before dusk. He wanted the most effective medicine for wounds. He came in with a fierce sword.

She told him that she had some Mullerse flowers, but she wanted five Gold coins in exchange for it. He said he would pay for it with three Gold coins, and that he would pay it later.

“I told him that I couldn’t trade with three Gold coins. He said he would pay me later, but he did not look like he had three Gold coins.”

“If you don’t bring three Gold coins tomorrow, you’ll pay for them even if you’re sold for slaves.” The old woman said to Gerda soon after agreeing to give him Mullerse flowers for 3 Gold coins.

The story goes that he got down on his knees in the shop and kept begging to save his best friend’s life. She gave in and agreed to let him pay her later after the first payment of three Gold coins. In fact, the next day, he did indeed bring three Gold coins.

“I can sell five Gold coins in my lord’s town,” she said. “I was going to sell them the next time a merchant came by, but now I’ve lost a lot of money.”

The owner of the shop swears that she has lost money. She reminds me that the item (Mullerse flower) has been sold and is no longer available, but even if it were, it would cost five Gold coins to buy it.

“That’s all.”, she tells me.

I put down my bag, take a chunk of Albaheron meat, and put it on the counter.

“Hmm? What herb are you trading for?”

“No, I am giving it to you.”

“What do you mean?”

The owner of the herb shop looked as if she didn’t know what I was talking about. The wrinkled old woman’s brow wrinkled even more.

“It was my father who was saved, thanks to your generosity. This is my way of thanking you. Thank you very much.”

I bowed my head and thanked the shop owner, who looked at me like “What?”.

After that, every time I came to the market to buy something, I brought her a chunk of meat, and after the third time, she said enough was enough.