488 – Sunstar Orchard
After using [possess] on Narikin, I came to the orchard in Sunstar. The location of the orchard was already surveyed by Naana(Toy) beforehand.
I came here on foot, so I was accompanied by Rokufa (Rokuko), who linked her arm to mine, along with Naana (Toy) behind us.
In the orchard, a farmer was tending to his orange trees. I called out to him over the fence.
“Oii, you, the energetic one, come here!”
“Hmm? …What is it, sir?
The man answered while looking somewhat suspicious while keeping his manners. He replied in a tone more suited to merchants than a farmer.
“I bought some rare fruit from the Commercial Guild the other day, is that fruit grown in this orchard?”
“Is that so? What did you buy?”
“Melons and bananas, I think? The fruit I bought was said to be the local product, and there’s only one orchard in town, so I a.s.sume it’s grown here?”
“Oh, that’s definitely our fruit, sir.”
The farmer simply admitted. I already told Soto to prepare a duplicate of the original, but it seems that I don’t need it.
“I’d like to buy it directly from you.”
“I’m sorry, sir, but we have an exclusive contract with a commercial guild, so I’m afraid you’ll have to go through them.”
“Even just a little for my wife here?”
“I’m sorry, but that’s the contract.”
The lowly man, who looked more like a merchant than a farmer, readily admitted that the orchard was the fruit source, but he also stated that he could not sell it here.
Since he’s bound by a contract, we can’t help but do it here. The contract in this world involves magic and difficult to break. If you just want to buy something, you can just buy it through a commercial guild, and I’m wasn’t really planned to buy it here either.
“Okay. Then, please show me how they are actually growing beside the oranges here; what else do you grow? I think it’s important to check the quality of the products we buy. Besides, my wife seems to like the fruit here. I want to see how much we can get at most.”
I flashed the bag full of gold coins to show him that we could buy in large quant.i.ties.
It’s full of real gold coins. No, it’s not just the gold coin I ripped off from Wataru.
…Now that you mention it, Wataru is really amazing. He can make the equivalent of 100 million yen a month. It seems that you can make a lot of money being a hero in this world. I have no intention to become one, though.
“It’s a rule that transactions must be done through a commercial guild…”
“I’m just sightseeing. We’re not going to make a deal. There should be no problem with that?”
“Mm-hmm.”
It seems that he needs one more push. I gently pull out one silver coin.
“…Well, if you just want to see, that should be fine. But only the section I’m working on.”
“Is it divided into sections and a.s.signed to different people?”
“Yes, you can come in from here. Oh, and please be careful not to touch the fruit trees. And don’t let those birds go either, because there are magical tools to keep them away.”
“Okay.”
The man received the silver coin stealthily led us to the entrance by the fence.
…as usual, the power of money is amazing.
“…Hey, does our inn properly antic.i.p.ated this kind of thing?”
“Of course. Why did you think I keep a close connection to our ‘family’ for?”
People who are hired by money may betray you with money. That’s why we use slaves and monsters as employees. If you are a slave, you have no choice but to work diligently, even if you are like Ichika, a debt slave who is forced to sell herself because of gambling.
…The person most likely to inadvertently reveal our secret now is Soto, followed by me.
And the farmer went on and gave us an explanation, “This is an orange tree …”, Rokufa tried to answer so it wouldn’t be too unnatural “Oh, this is where the oranges came from.” With Naana still following us while holding Trans and s.h.i.+ba in the cage.
Speaking of which, he mentioned earlier that there was a “magic tool for avoiding harmful birds”… Maybe there is also a magic tool for mice and insects. In that case, it may be difficult to send a spider to investigate.
“hmm, I’m also interested in your magic tool to repel the bird. I’d like to see how it looks like.”
“Well, I’m afraid it’s not my area of expertise.”
Is it managed by a different person?
“Do you have it in a separate section?”
“Yes. I think it’s over there. Though it was useful, thanks to it, the insects also can’t get to the flower. We have to pollinate them by hand, which is a pain, but we do it to keep the quality.”
“Oh, so it keeps the birds away as well as the insects?”
“Yes, of course. If there are no birds to eat the insects, the insects will multiply all over the place.”
As expected, it seems to have an effect on insects as well. But looking at Trans and s.h.i.+ba’s condition, it seems to have no effect on the bird in a cage.
“What kind of magic tool is it? Does it seal their ability to fly?
“I think it designed simply to keep small creatures at bay.”
“Oh. So it’s a bad idea to be walking around with a pet bird.”
“… It’s pretty docile, isn’t it? Is it really alive?”
They really didn’t move at all…, I stared at it, oi, are you alive? Then Trans send me a message.
“Master. Actually, my head has been hurting since I crossed the fence. It’s not unbearable, but it’s…”
“Well, that’s not good.”
It seems that the two little birds have received some damage. It’s good to be patient, but it would be more helpful if you could tell me about such things earlier.
“This is bad. Naana, why don’t you go back outside the orchard? I’ll join you later.”
“Very well, sir.”
Naana bowed and headed out.
“I’m sorry, sir. I was not considerate enough.”
“It’s all right. Now, where do you get all your other fruits?”
“Oh, I’m sorry about that, too. I’m in charge of oranges. The other fruit is further back here, but as you may expect, I can’t show you, sorry.
I see. So there is another person in charge from here on out?
“Can you introduce me to the person in charge…?”
I took out three silver coins and tried to negotiate with him. The farmer smiled.
“Yes, well, if you just want to look around, I guess he won’t mind it that much.”
…Hmmm. The power of money is amazing.