I had a sneaky suspicion the mayor made his own bank deposits. Now why would a man like him feel it necessary to hide his money by digging holes in the ground? Whatever the reason, like I said before, he was probably up to no good. Well, concerning making deposits, the old man had me there. If I couldn’t trust him, then there was no one else I could trust. I started to hand my gold coins over to him when I realised I still needed some loose change.

“Wait, I’ll make a fifty silver withdraw while I’m at it.”

“Very well. It's worth noting that no one has robbed me yet and one other word of warning.”

He suddenly grew serious.

“Avoid Mr. Marset’s thugs and just in case, be careful how much you carry with you at any one time.”

I could just nod. I didn’t really need the old man’s advice to tell me to avoid thugs, but I appreciated his concern. Grenfell’s words of warning raised a red flag for me after I came across an unfortunate scene on my way back to the inn at the end of the day. In front of the Adventurer Supplier shop a familiar demi human lay curled up in the dirt. A bloodied Tomu lay in front of Mr. Marset’s two henchmen who laid into him with their boots. I recognise the two men as coming from that group of men that received money from Orilay that day we rode into Obon. Not excluded from the thuggery, Mr. Marset stood nearby like a boxing coach, loudly berating his men for not kicking hard enough. I could feel my face and hands heating up as violent thoughts forcefully invaded my mind. It took all my self-discipline not to react aggressively towards them.

Tomu lay curled up on the ground like a cooked shrimp as Mr. Marset, who couldn't hold back anymore, stepped into the fray, and kicked Tomu violently. I recognised one of the two muscular grunts standing next to Mr. Marset as the bodyguard that threatened me during my first run-in with the mayor. He stepped back to give some room and then just looked on as Mr. Marset laughed while kicking Tomu. There were two things in life I disliked, someone who bullied a weaker person and the other, that idiot standing there called Mr. Marset. Getting violent probably wouldn’t work in that situation, so I decided on another approach.

“Good morning, Mr. Marmot.”

I said while I performed a mock bow. I followed the proper protocol Haruhime had taught me while simultaneously developing a regrettable case of selective amnesia regarding the mayor’s name.

“What did you call me boy? I thought I told you I didn’t want to see you again?”

The mayor seemed irritated by my presence. His face waddled in frustration; I was in no doubt cramping his style. Whatever sadistic style that may have been, I felt quite happy cramping it.

“I couldn’t help but notice that you were having some problems on such a fine day, I thought I could see if I could help you?”

“This is a matter between me and this beast. Get lost boy or you will find yourself swapping places with him.”

As if on cue, one of the bodyguard types stepped forward in an intimidating move. Lifting my hands as a sign of submission, I didn’t have any specific plan on what to do with the situation, so I just backed off. I achieved my goal and managed to get their focus off from Tomu and onto me.

“I didn’t intend to interfere with your fun, but I thought I would mention that Haruhime treats Tomu with affection, as she would with a dear brother.”

Naturally, I was laying it on thick and I apologized to Haruhime in my mind for using her name in vain, but it had the intended effect. The mayor seemed to lose his interested in Tomu, but then walked up to me and poked me in the chest.

“I'm warning you again to stay away from my business.”

He mentioned that a few times already. The mayor speedily stomped off down the road with his bodyguards in tow. I looked at the dishevelled Tomu lying spreadeagled on the ground. Contrary to my morbid expectations after seeing Tomu’s severely beaten body on the ground, he seemed quite happy, almost flagrantly buoyant.

“Are you okay?”

Tomu smiled and looked up at me.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks for helping me, but it wasn’t necessary.”

He said while standing up and dusting himself off. Tomu looked far less beaten up than I expected. However, I decided to offer Tomu some free advice I once received from Haruhime, although he already knew what I wanted to say.

“I'd stay away from Mr. Marset if I were you, he is not a nice man.”

“Yeah, I agree. But he has lots of money.”

“Money, in what way?”

Tomu opened his hands and presented a handful of buckles, buttons, coins, and something that looked like a pocket watch.

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“Are those from Mr. Marset?”

Tomu’s smile said it all. I knew then that Tomu was purposefully inciting Mr. Marset to get violent with him so that it gave Tomu the excuse to relentlessly pickpocket him incognito. Even the bodyguards didn’t come off lightly. Looking closer at Tomu, his short fluffy ears made him look cuddly and I especially liked the way his right ear would twitch when he was uncertain about something. Whenever he told a lie, it gave him away like a lie detector and he didn’t even know it. He tended to lisp, which in made him even cuter but the stuff that kept running out of his human looking nose balanced out the cuteness. I had to stop myself from offering him a cloth to wipe his nose.

After that incident, every time I bumped into Tomu he kept trying to convince me to buy pointless things from him. Anything from trinkets he made to small creatures caught from only heaven knew where. I can only suspect that it was out in the bush somewhere. On one occasion, he brought me a small half-dead creature draped over his hand that looked like an ugly fairy without wings. It had webbed feet and small but sharp looking teeth.

“What’s that?”

“A water sprite.”

“It looks dead.”

“Nah, it just needs water.”

“Water?”

“Yep. Let me show you.”

He plopped the small body into a nearby horse water trough. Soon the water sprite seemed to slowly animate and suddenly it zipped around in the water in a panic.

“Now what?”

I asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Are you going to get that thing out of the water again?”

He shrugged his shoulders while looking over the edge of the trough at it.

“I’m not going to catch it now. It bites.”

Just brilliant. The water sprite moved so quickly it was virtually impossible to catch. I guess someone else would have to figure that one out because I certainly wasn’t going to.

Going back to Tomu’s incident with the mayor, and while thinking of Orilay and Alma, I decided to help Tomu find better sources of income than toughing it out with the mayor’s bodyguards. It wouldn’t be long before the mayor took things a step too far with Tomu. He lacked a source of cash, and I dearly lacked information in that world. Asking adults for information placed me at a disadvantage. When I had to ask about something I became a potential target because I didn’t know any better. What I intended to do was to bring the two issues together so that we both benefited from it.

Also, in the back of my mind was the financial situation of Alma and Orilay, who spent every copper on those orphan kids like Tomu. They even took me in without question and shared their meagre meal with me. After that they even found work for me and because of that, I found work with Grenfell. I owed them a lot, even if it cost me far less than I expected, every copper they spent on me equivalated to a fortune for them. Alma and Orilay would never accept handouts from me, they wouldn’t want to inconvenience me. There was a way to surreptitiously contribute to them them, and it involved Tomu. I decided to bargain with Tomu. I asked him any question I wanted, and he answer me for ten coppers an answer. Easy money for him. If he didn’t know the answer to my question, then he had to find out. That way I didn’t have to keep asking adults dumb questions. From Tomu’s point of view, the questions were nothing but an easy source of revenue. To coin a sappy phrase, it was a win-win solution where everyone benefitted. Even after his recent beating and my gracious proposition, the little bugger didn’t just accept my offer, he managed to bargain his way to twenty coppers per question. Forced to limit the total cost per session to one silver, I capped the number of questions otherwise my funding would quickly run dry. He gave me a sulked look, as if I had defrauded him of great wealth. I completely underestimated his ability to bargain, but he could sulk all he liked, I also had to survive. I could see his future where one day he would make an excellent merchant. I already had a few questions lined up for him.

“First question. Name me the countries of this land and where they are.”

He nodded. I could see that he was taking mental notes as his eyes looked upwards in thought. A few days later he stopped me on my way to the inn and drew a map in the sand for me. He drew an oblong shape and divided into nine equal squares. He pointed first to the middle square.

“This is home. Aryonne.”

He then pointed to the square east of it.

This is Entwine, they fight with us.”

Then he pointed to the square above the eastern Entwine.

“This is Kusia, they fight with us a lot.”

Below the fighting Entwine he pointed out another seemingly hostile nation.

“This is Thanacia, I think they also fight with us.”

Flipping heck, was there anyone who didn’t fight with our kingdom? Did we just look for trouble, or were we just being bullied I wondered? To the west of our kingdom, Arania. The rest he couldn’t remember. He didn’t do too badly but I only gave him half the amount, 10 coppers, and said I’d pay the balance when he provided the rest of the information.

“Next. Where can I find books?”

He thought harder, those questions may have been slightly above his pay grade but it was no loss to me if he couldn’t answer the question. If his reply didn’t stack up and I thought he put little effort into it, I would refuse to pay him. I left him standing there looking puzzled about my questions, but I would meet up with him another time and he could give me his reply then.

After dinner I spent another hour showering outside in the misty evening which by then became my usual routine. I finally managed to buy some course soap from Haruhime. It didn’t smell pretty, but it certainly worked better than cold fireplace ashes, which is what I used up to then. Somewhere along the line I figured out that the inn also supplied items for ablutions which including a suitable towel. It cost me two silvers for the soap and five silvers for the towel, which was originally second-hand bed linen, but it looked clean and seemed worth it. Haruhime smiled as she said she would give me a five-copper discount.

As convenient as it was healing my face after every shaving escapade, it was a waste of my EE that I would far rather spend experimenting on my next idea, like the safety razor I recently made. I had never used anything else but a safety razor in my life but everyone in that world used a flat razor. There were no doubts in my mind whether a flat razor was effective, the number of cuts on my face in the mornings were evidence of it.

Unplanned circumstances were about to change the direction of my life once again. A few days later we the sound of a horse racing up towards the Dryad shop drew our attention. As we watched through the door, a military messenger dismounted his horse and approached us. We knew he heralded from the military because he wore a distinctive short red coat and a short, stiff, colour matching hat particular to the military communications services. The layer of dust on him hinted of his long journey. His face reflected the seriousness of the military.

“I have a message for Grenfell, the owner of the Dryad.”