Ryuji quickly went back to the small market he was in before because it was close and he couldn’t get lost going there. The whole way there he was busily fishing out coins, a task made all the harder because he had to do it one-handed so he could hold the extra coins in his left hand. He spotted the old bread seller named Lizbet and relayed the message from Teresa. “Hello again young maiden, I found your beautiful young friend Teresa and made arrangements for the evening. She even gave me a discount because you sent me! Well anyway, I wanted to thank you kindly for your help, without it I would without a doubt be lost and would have been a vagabond on the streets tonight. Oh yes, Teresa wanted to place another order of bread for the inn, I hope you don’t mind but it’s all in small copper coins.”
With that claim, he unloaded the handful of copper to the old woman. He had carefully counted sixty-four small copper coins. He figured that if it was eight small copper to the large copper then he hoped it would be eight large copper to whatever the next denomination was. He couldn’t be sure but he suspected that the next highest denomination would be silver, perhaps broken into large and small like the copper was.
His assumption was correct but his calculations were off by a bit. Lizbet looked at the pile of money in confusion. “She does sometimes pay me in small copper but this is a bit much. She usually only pays two large copper at a time. There has to be a lot more than that here!”
Caught off guard in his bungled act of kindness Ryuji stammered for a bit. “Well, um… I um. I don’t know, I guess you’ll just have to ask her about it when you see her to deliver the bread. Maybe just take her usual order and ask what to do with the rest of the money? Oh but anyway, I needed to ask you if there happened to be a place in this market or nearby where I could buy a coin pouch.”
Lizbet looked at him blankly for a second and then glanced at his belt and spotted the pouch he had hung there. Ryuji didn’t miss the glance. “Oh yes, I do have one but it’s a bit too fancy and seems to draw attention, the wrong kind. I was hoping to replace it with a plainer one.”
She got a sagely knowing look on her face and nodded her head a couple times before directing Ryuji to a stall at the far corner of the pavilion. This lean-to was blocked by a bigger one on each side and not terribly visible. Without her help, he never would have found it.
By the time he got over to it the man, an older-looking dark grey feline beastfolk with tufts of fur turning white, he was just starting to break his store down. He paused in his work when he spotted Ryuji headed straight for him. He got a worried look on his face and looked like he was thinking about bolting. Ryuji tried putting on his best, disarming smile and it seemed that the old cat got a little calmer. In truth, the old man just realized that he didn’t have any chance of escape if it turned out the noble-looking elf coming toward him was there for something bad.
Ryuji came up to him and was a little surprised that the man was so much shorter than he was but he bowed slightly before continuing. When the old man’s eyes grew wider, he made a note to stop bowing to people in this world. He had been pulling out coins on the way over and had twenty-four in his hand now. “Sir, I hope I didn’t come too late. Miss Lizbet at the bread stand said I might be able to get what I’m after from you. I was hoping to have a look, I promise I’ll be quick. I’m only here for one thing, a coin pouch.
The old Feline seemed to deflate with relief then he remembered himself and pitched the corner of the awning back up. “Oh, so old Lizy sent you? She’s a fine lady and I’d be happy to help anybody she sent my way. If it’s a pouch you need… But you do seem to have a rather nice one already? Well anyway, all of my pouches are in the crate in the middle of the back row on top. I normally get one large copper and four small per pouch but if Lizbet sent you…”
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Before he could finish the sentence, Ryuji had found two pouches he liked. One of them was a small red one the other was a small blue one. He turned to the proprietor and shoved the coins in his hand. “There’s the three large copper. I have to hurry now but I’ll probably be back soon to see what else you have. Bye now, and thank you for waiting up for me.”
As Ryuji ran off the bewildered old feline looked after him. At first, the old guy was going to object and say that he needed to count it. Then he realized that the elf had paid him in full rather than waiting for a price reduction. He just shrugged and counted his last sale of the day before continuing to take down his stand.
Ryuji smirked to himself as he walked briskly back to the inn. He was constantly transferring coins from one pouch to another the whole time. When he got back, he went upstairs and opened his door and tossed the extra pouch on his bed before heading down to eat.
When he got back down to the dining hall, he realized that Teresa had been right, that there were a lot more people in it than when he left a few minutes before. As he scanned the room, he realized that there were no tables without anybody at them. Then he spotted Karen waving to him from behind the bar counter and there were open stools at the bar.
Ryuji walked over to her and she smiled at him. “I saved you this seat. Well, not really but it sounds better than me saying that you’re lucky you found a seat, right? Anyway, I scooped you a bowl of stew when I saw you come in. This is one of the really good ones, it’s Teresa’s original bean and carrot stew with venison. Oh and Lizbet just brought us a fresh batch of bread. It was weird, I caught her saying something about us paying for several batches but I didn’t remember us buying any.”
Ryuji just smiled at her knowingly and thanked her for the stew. It was remarkably good for such a strange combination. The bread wasn’t the buttery bread he had tried earlier but it was very good nonetheless. After the meal, he asked Karen about sweet-rolls and she looked at him in astonishment. “How did you know about those? Normally Teresa doesn’t buy any sweets but Lizbet brought some by this time. I haven’t even told the regulars about them yet!”
Ryuji smiled at her reaction and filed that info away for later. If he was going to be staying here then he would make sure that Lizbet brought plenty of good types of bread since those were his favorite part of most meals. “Oh, is that so? Then have you had one? *She shook her head no* Oh, okay then. I guess I’ll buy two. How much are they?”
Karen seemed a little skeptical. “Two? Are you sure, we would have to sell them at two small copper each? Are you sure you even have room for two?”
As Ryuji sat four small copper on the counter he replied with a grin. “Nope! I just hope I have room for one. The owner makes a wonderful stew but I really do like to end a meal with something sweet.” He then winked at her.
Karen looked at the money and then back at Ryuji as she pulled out two of the glazed sweet bread rolls. “Then if you can’t eat them, why are you buying them?”
He picked one up and took a small bite savoring the flavor of the honey-sweetened dough. He then stood and started walking back to his room shooting a reply over his shoulder. “It’s simple. The other one’s for you. Goodnight!”
Teresa had watched a bit of this interplay and as Ryuji walked away Karen picked up the sweet roll and just held it while watching him walk slowly up the stairs. Teresa didn’t miss the misty expression in the young girl’s eyes. It was a scene that reminded her of when she had met her husband way back before the war claimed him. She caught herself just before her eyes could tear up. “None of that you, you’ve got an inn to run so leave the tears to those young children.” She then went back to getting drinks for her paying customers.
When Ryuji got upstairs, he found it was already fairly dark. He left the door open to the lighted hallway and went in to check the oil lamp. There was a small bundle of thin wood strips lying next to the lamp and a small basin full of oil on the floor beneath the table. He took the basin and poured some oil into the larger hole in the lamp then took one of the thin wood strips out to the closest hallway lamp and lit it. Holding his hand in front of the strip he hurried back into his room and lit the exposed fiber sticking out of the smaller side hole in the small clay lamp.
He then went to the door and closed and locked it. Once Ryuji was safely behind locked doors, he began to unload a stream of coins into his dresser drawer. He just kept counting them out until he felt his eyes drooping closed. He almost dozed off a few times before he decided to call it a night, he’d had a long day after all. After blowing out the lamp he crawled into bed and was almost immediately asleep.