Chapter 32— Peddler's POV

　The terrible harvest has continued.

　Years of famine have killed many people and devastated the land.

　Humans are stupid.

　Although wars were originally repeated for many different reasons, in recent years more wars have broken out over food.

　Meanwhile, I came across a certain food.

　It's called Hatsuka.

　It is ubiquitous and famous for growing in rough fields.

　However, the taste was very bad.

　It is known as a waste vegetable made by poor farmers because it is not good enough tasting even for an omnivorous livestock to eat it up.

　However, the hatsuka I ate at this time was different.

　The taste is bad.

　It's bad, but it's not so bad that you can't eat it, and it's okay if you just need to fill your stomach.

　The salted Hatsuka was on the table even in winter when the crops did not grow.

　This type of hatsuka was bigger than the previous ones, so it has a crispy texture and a chewy texture.

　There are other differences between this Hatsuka and other Hatsuka.

　It grows faster than others.

　Ordinary Hatsuka can be eaten in about 20 days.

　However, it is said that half of it will grow well.

　This was beginning to spread secretly to a few regions.

　With this, more farmers may overcome poor crops.

　I'm a peddler.

　If there is a battle, things will change and profits will come out if I grasp those changes.

　If I want to make a profit, I can make a profit.

　However, if the world is so rough and filled with people dying of starvation, it will be a problem.

　With this hatsuka, at least the number of people who starve to death will decrease.

　So I decided to do some research on this Hatsuka.

　A remote village near the northern forest.

　That seems to be the roots of this Hatsuka.

　Was it found in a new species of Hatsuka in the forest?

　I decided to go to the village for research.

　I was surprised when I got there.

　Nowadays, every village has a dull and tense atmosphere.

　But I didn't feel that in this village.

　Even if they do some peddling, the villagers are all poor, but not on the verge of starvation.

　Apparently, they were raising the usual Hatsuka in the village, and the villagers seemed to live a life far from being hungry.

　Meanwhile, I met a boy.

　He is still a young boy who has not completed the baptismal ceremony yet.

　The child seemed to want to sell a lot of sandals.

　They were sandals made from the stems of Hatsuka.

　I was also surprised at this.

　The stems seemed to be stronger than the normal ones, and the sandals seemed to be quite strong.

　Normally, sandals are not something I want to buy.

　The unit price is low and it takes up a lot of space, so there is no profit.

　However, the village did not continue peddling by the woods anymore, only on the route back to the city.

　There will be space in the luggage for the items sold and gained in this village.

　I can buy these sandals to fill that hole.

　With that in mind, I bought some sandals from the boy.

　This boy was a mysterious child.

　He was very intelligent.

　Apparently he saw money for the first time.

　However, with the purchase price of sandals, the total amount was calculated immediately, with no hitch at all.

　Usually, many farmers are not good at calculating numbers.

　However, I was surprised that the boy even attacked me with questions.

　He always asks if there is anything that sells well.

　I ended up answering questions with the momentum to talk about all the product information I got from traveling around the country, because of his fast-paced attack.

　I bought a lot of hatsuka with those sandals, and then went to various villages.

　I urged farmers around the world to grow the hatsuka.

　However, every village grows Hatsuka.

　Even if it is a new kind of Hatsuka, there is nothing that they would bother to buy and grow.

　I tried to sell Hatsuka as a set with sandals.

　I don't know if it's because of that, but the number of purchasers was not zero.

　To that extent, there were only a few that were cultivated with interest in half the story.

　I was traveling around like that, but something came to my mind about the village boy.

　After all, the speed of the boy's head rotation does not seem to belong to the farmer.

　Feeling that way, I was motivated to go see the boy again for some reason.

　After that, I regularly visited the northern village for peddling.

　The boy in question brought sandals every time.

　And each time, he’d take a long time asking questions.

　But that wasn't a bad thing.

　At some point in time, I started looking forward to that time of questions.

　The relationship with the boy continued over the years.

　Every time I visit the village, the boy I see grows bigger and bigger.

　The boy began to sell more than sandals from a time ago.

　The new product is magic mushroom.

　Mushrooms that can be obtained in the forest are valuable and are traded at high prices.

　These magic mushrooms are going to help me make profit if I buy them, much more profit than I have ever made so far from this village.

　But why is there such a small child going in the forest?

　It's too dangerous.

　It's too sad that the boy I met might disappear while he’s still small.

　I advised that he should wait a little longer before entering the forest.

　However, there is no problem, he told me.

　The boy has confident eyes that say that he is absolutely safe.

　But this is dangerous.

　I've seen such eyes many times.

　This is because there have been many young people with delusional confidence.

　’I can handle it’.

　Many talented young people died saying that.

　I want to make sure that the boy doesn’t share the same fate.

　With that in mind, I wondered if there was anything else I could buy from the boy.

　And the product was found immediately.

　It's bricks.

　Behind the boy's house is a brick building used as a storeroom.

　At first, this storeroom was such a solidly built building that it made me think it was the boy's house.

　I took a look at the bricks.

　These bricks were made with amazing precision.

　Those bricks made me wonder if each one was exactly the same brick, for there were no differences among one another.

　What's more, all the sides are terrifyingly smooth and there are no misshapes.

　I even wondered if it would be enough to build a solid building just by stacking it.

　Such bricks were piled up like garbage on the ground near the storeroom.

　Why did you do that to such bricks?

　According to a glimpse of the story, other villagers take some with them and use them when needed.

　Then I could buy it.

　After all, there are places where you can sell bricks as building materials now.

　With that in mind, I approached the boy to try to buy the bricks.

　However, the boy gave a surprising response to me.

　He offered a certain tableware to buy this one rather than bricks.

　It seems that he must be, after all ...

　I saw the tableware and found out who the boy really was.

　The things he brought out were beautiful pieces of silverware, the likes of which I have never seen. Some were even created out of glass.

　Farmers cannot have such a thing in their possession.

　This boy was unusually smart to be called the son of a farmer.

　The boy is probably from an aristocrat family.

　Perhaps those pieces of tableware must be an ancestral heirloom.

　If I look at how he lives in the village while wearing tattered clothes, then his aristocratic family must have fallen at one point in time.

　Even so, why are you showing such precious things to other people?

　There’s a chance that if word gets around about you having these things in your possession, it is very likely that bandits will come to steal from you.

　I wanted to tell the boy that he shouldn't show these heirloom-like tableware to others.

　However, I remember the time when he was advised not to enter the forest before.

　He will probably not even listen to me.

　Thinking so, I tried to persuade him from another direction.

　I said that buying it was impossible because I didn't have the connections to sell this tableware.

　The boy who heard it obediently nodded, and after that, he stopped talking about the tableware.

　Well, I was greedy and bought only one set at a bargained price.

　That's how my interaction with the boy continued.

　A bit of time ago, the boy became old enough to do the baptismal ceremony.

　After the baptismal ceremony, every household would have a hard time with the magical mischief of children, but there was no sign of that in this family.

　Such a boy, Motoi Ars, surprised me once more.

　That's because the Familiar Egg that Ars brought was born as a Knight-type Familiar.

　The great thing about Ars is that he always has aspirations.

　Despite selling things like bricks and mushrooms, he’s always looking for new things to sell.

　I've heard the reason before.

　He wants to buy a weapon in case he has to go to war.

　That was the reason Ars talked to me about.

　Is that so?

　Ars must want to revive his aristocratic family who had been decimated in a war.

　I thought Ars's “parents” might not be his true parents.

　For some reason, the Motoi family may be taking care of the aristocratic child who escaped with the heirloom.

　That thought turned into conviction when I saw Ars riding Valkyrie, a Familiar.

　This guy will definitely grow up to become something great.

　I had a premonition in me.

　It may be necessary to build a stronger relationship here.

　I thought so and offered a deal.

　It is a transaction to monopolize the Familiars raised by Ars.

　I'm sure I've bought sandals that don't make a lot of money.

　It seems that I was considered to be a credible person by Ars.

　The terms and conditions of the agreement were almost equal.

　This relationship must be maintained at all costs.

　By the time he grows big and returns to his aristocratic state, he must gain more credibility.

　In this way, my life began to revolve around a boy in the remote northern area.

TLN: So basically, the peddler thinks that Ars is an aristocrat’s child whose aristocratic house had fallen…. XD. Also, I don’t know with certainty, but Motoi may be Ars’ last name. You know, when the peddler addressed Ars for the first time, he said that? 

One more thing… I want a petition for the peddler getting a name! He hasn’t gotten one yet!

⅔ for today.

The next few will come later because of the stockpile I’m trying to create for both of my translations. I will also be continuing writing my novel! One more thing! This chapter was almost 2ice as long as a normal chap for this web novel!