Ryuji jumped out of bed. He had been having a nightmare about all of his friends dying. He couldn’t recall any of the details and he was glad. Happy that it was only a dream he got out of bed and prepared for the day.
After leaving the Sleeping Tree Inn it was off to the moneychanger. Shoan, the teenage moneychanger from before, was available so Ryuji sat at his desk. When he sat down the boy looked very astonished to see him back so soon and had something like a cornered animal look. Ryuji figured that he suspected he was about to be accused of shortchanging so he moved to dispel the boy’s fears. He dropped the same heavy satchel on the desk and asked for the shopping assortment like before. The boy looked visibly relieved and rushed off to get his money changed. As before, Ryuji left him a small silver as a tip before exiting the moneychangers.
As Ryuji approached the magic shop, he could hear Dorn in the kitchen and quickly went to buy some bread from Lizbet for them to share. Dorn eyed Ryuji’s new clothing and especially his new sword suspiciously but didn’t say anything. They enjoyed their breakfast and then it was time for lessons to begin. Dorn went to a shelf behind the counter and pulled out a small stack of books and sat them atop the counter before instructing Ryuji to sit on the stool.
Dorn flipped open the first of the books and sat it in front of Ryuji before continuing. “This’ll be whatch’re gonna be a learnin’ for the next little bit. Thissins a book ta be teachin ye ta read and write tha language round here. It’s got a buncho’ drawin’s o stuff with tha words for ‘em on tha same page.”
“Iffin ya be unsure whatch’re lookin at or what tha word fer it be just ask. In the same time ye can be mindin me store. I know ye cin be a countin, I seen ye checkin yer change fer tha book ye bought. Ye’ll be a learnin ta read an ye’ll be a needin ta practice yer writin. I be thinkin that I could part with another blank book iffin it’ll help ye learn. Just you be mindin yer lessons, Aye?”
“after ye be learnin yer words ye can be readin the rest o those books. Those’ll be the magic glyph ye’ll be needin to be learnin to write yer magic circles with. I could be a teachin ya but I have a feelin ye be pretty good at readin and writin, just not in this language. I been puttin’ off doin a bit o magic research for a while now an I be figurin that since ’e'll be able ta mind tha store it’s as good a time as ever, aye? Now, get ye busy!” With that Dorn left Ryuji to his reading studies.
It was a strange language system and took a bit of time before Ryuji figured the style out. At first, Ryuji was having a really hard time figuring the language system out because it was very different from Japanese. After a bit of study, he finally concluded that the language was written somewhat like a western style language where the sounds were grouped into vowels and consonants but there didn’t appear to be enough of the second group and there was a third group. Finally, he figured out that they were grouped into hard consonants and soft ones. That discovery came just before lunch.
Ryuji asked if he could go give his mind a break and get lunch. Dorn agreed that might be a good idea. Trying to force too much knowledge at once could create a mental block, better to take a quick break every now and then. With that Ryuji was off to the market plaza.
The first place that Ryuji went was Lizbet’s storefront. Ryuji asked her about where she baked her bread and she told him that she had a kiln in her home. He asked her if it wasn’t too much work for her. She told him that she had two daughters who lived with her and they all baked bread together but that the two girls sold bread at different stalls in other parts of the city. Then he asked her whether she had a lot of bread contracts like she did with Teresa.
After the first few questions, she began to get suspicious. “Youngin, why are you asking me all these questions? What’re you after?”
Ryuji became a little sheepish after being directly confronted about his questioning and he realized he had been about as subtle as a sledgehammer. Nothing left to do but press ahead and just be perfectly frank. “I wanted to invest in a few businesses and I’ve been wondering for days why bread as good as yours isn’t coming from a bakery. I was hoping I might be able to invest in your business and make it grow a bit. Of course, I do hope to make a profit from the investment but I really think that your bread is worth investing in.”
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Lizbet seemed bewildered for a moment but after a moment she began to get angry. “Look youngin, I don’t need somebody else to tell me how to run my business and I don’t need anybody coming along and taking all my profits either. Besides, the amount of money you’re talking about would take longer to pay back than I have left to live. Besides, it’s not like you can just put in a new store without getting the approval of the local nobles. Out of all the things wrong with what you said, making the nobility angry is probably the worst idea in the lot!”
The way she said the first two was in a quiet angry tone but the last was so hushed it almost seemed conspiratorial. Ryuji just had to smile about the way she said that part as he considered the consequences of what he was about to do. Finally coming to a decision he reached into his shirt and pulled out the pendant just enough for her to see before quickly dropping it back in place. “Actually, the last one is the only one that I don’t think would cause me any real problems. The first two items you mention are much more important to me.”
Her eyes went wide as Ryuji went on in a mild conversational tone to avoid suspicion. “I have to admit that I’m a little offended that you think I would act that way. I can’t claim to know how anyone else would do things but that just isn’t me. However, I won’t try to force you if you’re suspicious of me or my motives. And as far as the whole paying back thing goes, I never intended to be paid back. I wanted to get a small source of income for several generations. I wouldn’t try to get much from it and I would always be ready to invest more if needed but if that isn’t something you want then please forget I asked and hopefully our relationship can remain the same as before, young lady.”
Before they could conclude their business, another customer came up and interrupted their conversation. After her other business was concluded Lizbet thought about it for a moment and then looked at Ryuji again. “If you’re serious about what you said you’ll give me a little time, let me think about it and ask my daughters about it. I’ll let you know what they said and give you my decision tomorrow. Will that be acceptable?”
Ryuji smiled warmly. “Of course. No need to feel pressured, if you or your daughters don’t want to do it then don’t worry about it. It’s just an offer, not a demand or anything like that. If you still haven’t decided tomorrow let me know and I’ll check back with you on it the next time I come to get bread, okay?”
After that, Ryuji bought a couple butter loaves and went to the skewer vendor from before. The young dog beastfolk boy from before wasn’t there but an older one who somewhat resembled him was. Ryuji asked about the boy and found that they were brothers. It seemed that the younger brother was sick and the older was minding the shop instead of hunting for more meat. He then told Ryuji that he was really worried about his brother but they couldn’t afford to hire a priest much less a mercenary with a blessing.
Ryuji thought it through and asked how much one would cost. It turned out that getting a priest to come to heal someone was usually one large and one small silver. Ryuji whistled at that. While it wasn’t much at all to him, he did a bit of quick calculation in his head and realized that at two small copper per skewer it would take the sale of 288 skewers to make that much money. “how close are you to that?”
The guy just hung his head and shook it. “You don’t even have enough meat for 288 skewers, do you?”
The guy looked very confused by that number for several seconds then he started counting on his fingers and Ryuji nodded at him. “Yeah, that’s how many it would take to make that much. You don’t have that much meat, do you?”
The guy looked really depressed and again hung his head before shaking it negatively. Ryuji smirked a tiny bit before continuing. “What if I just gave you the money and then the two of you work for me for a while?”
Ryuji gave his words a moment to sink in before he went on. “It would be a loan, of course. I would give you a small gold right now and then you would have enough money that the two of you could take a couple days off until he could be treated and still buy the meat you needed to get back to work after. I would then come by each day and collect the day’s earnings and leave you two enough to pay your bills and buy your necessities like food. I will keep a record of exactly how much you two have paid until you pay off one small gold and one small silver. Deal?”