Son of Destruction - Volume 1 Chapter 35

Hopkins is a peddler.
He started with a small niryu and a covered wagon using the funds he amassed during the 10 years he worked as an apprentice in a city’s mercantile house. At first he began with taking merchandise he procured in the city to farm villages and exchanging it for agricultural produce such as wheat.
For his business he deliberately proceeded to farm villages far from the city that apparently don’t get visited by those of the same trade as him. He accepts that the profit is low in comparison to the time it takes. However, thanks to that, it nowadays reached the point that he experiences passable reactions at the villages that have befriended him to a satisfactory extent.
Brimming with self-confidence due to that, he made the proposal of his lifetime to a woman he got to know during the time when he worked at the mercantile house. His cherished family is now staying with him in the back of his covered wagon. Moreover, three years ago, his important family increased by one more, namely a son.
You could call that a successful though modest life.
When Hopkins visited a city of Holmea State, the hot topic of gossip was the army that had gone to exterminate the zoan living in the north of the Solbiant Plains having suffered large casualties due to getting swallowed up in a fire, which they had set to a zoan village, by mistake.
Hopkins believed this to be a business opportunity.
Because the Solbiant Plains were formerly in the zoan’s sphere of influence, it’s common to travel for trading with the fortress and pioneer villages, which are dotting the plains, after forming a larger caravan with fellow peddlers or by accompanying the military.
However, if one links up with a caravan, the profit will be split to all members accordingly. There’s also the difficulty of searching for peddlers that will accompany oneself. Also, it’s unknown when the military will depart to the Solbiant Plains next. It was obvious that they would demand quite a bit of gratuity if one tries to go together with them.
How about if I rather go by myself to sell goods to the fortress in that case? He wondered.
Certainly, the Solbiant Plains used to belong to be zoan territory, but that’s a story from the past.
The zoan have been suppressed by the army and were driven away into the hilly area in the distant north. As such I think there’s almost no possibility to get attacked by zoan in the plains. Speaking about other worries, it would be bandits, but there’s probably no stupid bandit who’s active in the plains where the army and the zoan are prowling about, he judged.
Currently Hopkins wanted to wring the neck of the him who thought that a few days ago.

“Well then, what are we going to do about this guy, Garam?”

“Soma told us to bring along even soldiers without killing them as much as possible. I think there’s no other option but to take him with us.”

A red-furred and a black-furred zoan talked in front of Hopkins. With both of them having muscular bodies, they seem capable of plucking off his head with one twist.
Also, in addition, his covered wagon was surrounded by zoan.

“Zurgu, please have someone run ahead to the fortress to inform them about this.”

“Ayes. Got it.”

Once the red-furred zoan went to his other comrades, the black-furred zoan stepped up to the coachman bench with Hopkins on it.

“And so, I’m sorry, but can I have you come with us?”

Hopkins had no other choice but to desperately nod his head while protecting his wife and child in the back.

◆◇◆◇◆

After he was brought to the fortress with his wagon surrounded by zoan, Hopkins doubted his own eyes.
The vicinity of the fortress is crowded with countless zoan tents. And not only that, the zoan are boldly coming and going through the widely opened gate of the fortress. Let alone the zoan village having been reduced to ashes, on the contrary, it was apparent that the fortress has fallen into the hands of the zoan.
Once the covered wagon drives through the gate into the the fortress’ square, an astonishingly great number of humans became visible. Just like in the rumours, many of them are apparently bearing scalds and injuries.

“Alright, wait here. — You guys, unload the luggage off the wagon.”

The latter half of the black-furred zoan’s words was pointed towards the zoan in the vicinity. They took down the medicinal supplies that were loaded on the wagon on the square’s ground one after the other. Hopkins was afraid that they would inflict harm to his wife and son anytime soon, but the zoan didn’t try to touch them at all.
A short time later a human boy turned up from within a building while bringing a zoan girl along.

“I was told that a peddler came?”

He wondered whether the boy had been caught by the zoan in the same pitiable way as him, but isn’t he calling out to the black-furred zoan in an overly friendly manner? Because of that, the black-furred zoan’s mood is bad, he guessed spot on, but although he was nervous whether the zoan would take it out on him, the zoan replied without paying any attention towards him,

“The wagon’s load are things like ointments and bandages. I suppose he intended to sell these to this fortress to begin with.”

“That’s a big help. As we will buy all of it, how much do you want for it?”

“W-Wh-What a thing to say! You don’t have to pay. Therefore, just the life of my family…!” (Hopkins)

“That means…”

“You really don’t have to pay any money, so can’t you do anything about saving my family!?” (Hopkins)

“… How troublesome. Shyemul, I’m sorry, but can you go and call Marchronis?”

Hearing the boy’s words, the zoan girl, who was next to him, entered the building and returned after a short time while bringing a middle-aged man that had several sword cuts carved onto his face along.

“Just what kind of business do you have with me?”

“I’m sorry for expressly calling you here, Marchronis. A merchant came to sell medicinal supplies, but since I don’t know the market price, I’d like you to help me out here.”

The man called Marchronis checks the numbers and types of the goods lined up on the ground.

“Twenty jars of ointments, two hundred bandage rolls, ten jars of salves and fifty wrappings with laxative medicine. … Hmm, including a bonus for braving the danger to come sell these here, it will be around thirty-seven silver coins, I think.” (Marchronis)

That was mostly the same amount of money Hopkins would have tried to sell it for.

“Will it be alright with that amount of money?”

Irrelevant of whether it’s fine or not, Hopkins had no other option but to agree with the boy here.
Due to him continuing to nod his head in earnest, the boy interprets it as having gained Hopkins’ acknowledgement. He instructs the zoan to carry the medicinal supplies inside the building.

“By the way, you came here from the city, right?”

“Yes. It is as you say!” (Hopkins)

“In that case I will pay you twice the amount, but I have something little I’d like to request from you…”

The sweetly smiling face of the boy reminded Hopkins of the face of a tremendous villain.

◆◇◆◇◆

Several days later Hopkins’ covered wagon travelled south through the plains.
Instead of his family, two strange guests had boarded the cargo area of the wagon that had become empty after unloading the merchandise at the fortress.

“Yes, indeed, I can’t get used to liking this wagon after all, I guess.”

“Endure it. This time our goal is to enter the city.”

“Ah, no, as long as I’m together with you, Soma, I won’t complain. Naturally!”

The ones leisurely chatting in the cargo area are the mysterious human boy called Soma and the zoan girl who can be considered a beauty (beautiful beast?) possessing balanced limbs with pretty fur, even from Hopkins’ point of view.
The condition that the boy proposed in exchange for buying the merchandise, the zoan took away, for twice the price was to lead the boy to the city. Of course the boy also attached the condition that his wife and son will be taken care of in the fortress.
At first the boy intended to go by himself, but the zoan girl resolutely suggested to accompany him which caused a dispute. The black zoan frantically tried to dissuade her, but the zoan girl stubbornly didn’t comply with that and it finally resulted in her tagging along while being treated as the boy’s slave.
When the zoan girl stated that she will pretend to be a slave, the zoan in the surroundings got surprised to a degree of being close to fainting, and there even appeared some who begged her in tears to abstain. Judging from that fact, she’s probably quite the important person among the zoan.
However, what worries me even more is that the zoan girl diligently takes care of the human boy.
After watching these two’s interactions in these last few days, I’m surprised by the zoan girl’s devotion towards the boy.
In the morning she wakes up earlier than the boy, prepares his clothes and meal, and then patiently waits for him to get up. At bed time she tries to never lie down before the boy falls asleep. Also, if the boy’s shoulders shiver slightly due to the northern wind, she gently places woollen material on his shoulders. If the boy takes a nap inside the swaying covered wagon, she places his head on her knees.
She’s completely like a human maiden that experiences her first love.
For there to be a human that gets offered this much dedication by a zoan while the humans and zoan hate each other; if he had heard this story from someone else, Hopkins would have likely laughed it off.
And, the other thing Hopkins considers to be odd is the fact that the boy doesn’t know many things.

“This coin is one dinas? Is what you say?”

The boy asked Hopkins while holding one bronze coin that originated from a pot that he had taken out of the fortress with the war funds in it.

“Correct. It’s one bronze coin and also one dinas.” (Hopkins)

“This is a gold coin?”

Next he pointed at a coin glittering with its dark-gold color.

“No, that one is a brass coin.” (Hopkins)

It’s a coin made out of brass which is an alloy of copper and zinc.
It uses the same material as the Five-Yen coin in Japan.

“Oh, hmm, so what kind of coins are circulating in this world?”

Feeling doubts while thinking this child uses weird expressions such as 「this world」, Hopkins replied,

“The ones circulating in Holmea State are iron, bronze, brass, silver and gold coins. Even in other countries it’s mostly the same.” (Hopkins)

“How much value does each of them posses?”

“An iron coin is 1/20th of a bronze coin. Four bronze coins become one brass coin. Twenty five brass coins are one silver coin. Fifty silver coins can be exchanged into one gold coin.”

“With one gold coin being 5000 bronze coins, it’s also 5000 dinas?”

Surprisingly he immediately guessed the value of the currency correctly.
The ones capable of calculating in this era are people, who have a job related to counting money, such as merchants and government officials, or humans born into prospering noble and knight families, I think.
However, as far as Hopkins can assess, neither of those applied to Souma. Considering merchants and government officials, there are too many things he doesn’t know. A human born into a prospering family shouldn’t stay together with zoan either.

“Well, that’s right, but usually a brass coin is called demeranis, one silver coin is called agnis and one gold coin is called gulkonis.” (Hopkins)

“Wow! Are the names different for each currency? That’s something troublesome.”

The one wanting to be surprised is me, Hopkins retorted in his mind.
He cannot help but being curious what’s so astonishing about this very common knowledge.

“One dinas, how much worth does that have?”

“Let’s see. If you go to a bar in the city, mostly one jar containing alcohol costs one dinas. And—.” (Hopkins)

Hopkins stretched out his hand from the coachman bench, opened a food box and took out one round bread from within.

“This bread costs two dinas.” (Hopkins)

“One bread costs two dinas; that’s always true?”

“Yes. Otherwise everyone would be troubled, right?” (Hopkins)

In this era the staple food bread is something indispensable for life. Most of the countries’ leaders strictly regulated the price of this bread. If there was a sudden price jump for bread, many people wouldn’t be able to buy bread anymore and thus starve. And, if the starving populace started to plunder and rebel in their wish for bread, that would cause damage to a country.
But then again, it does happen that wheat gets mixed with barley and similar or that the weight of the used wheat gets lowered in years with poor crop harvest, but if the perpetrators go too far with that, it will also result in them receiving punishments.
In addition, the fixed bread price also served to stabilize the value of the currency.
Currency also becomes an intermediary for barter. Let’s assume there are two humans, A who wants to sell fish and B who wants to sell meat. In case A wants meat and B wants fish, it will be feasible for both to barter for the goods. However, in case either party or both don’t want the goods possessed by the other party, they won’t be able to barter. With this business transactions would stagnate all over.
But, if there exists a currency at that time, A and B will be able to change the goods both possess into currency temporarily. If either desires something the other party possesses, it will be fine to exchange the money into fish or meat. If the other party doesn’t have what the interested party wants, the interested party can just keep the money on hand and buy what they want from someone else. By doing it this way, it becomes possible to trade far more smoothly than by bartering.
However, for this the currency has to be something that had its value acknowledged by both, A and B.
Accordingly, with the country’s leaders deciding one bread to be worth two dinas, the value of the money has been guaranteed. It also means that it’s easy to understand and use for the populace as the bread price is directly related to their lives.

“Why has this bread been baked with dividing lines on its surface?”

“That’s because it’s easy divide it at the times when you eat in the morning, noon and evening, if you separate it like this.” (Hopkins)

“This one bread is one day’s share. In addition, there are three meals per day in this world as well.”

In the modern era it has become normal to have three meals per day, but it’s not unusual for there to also be two meals per day depending on the place and times. Ancient Rome in Europe saw three meals per day, but after it collapsed, it became two meals per day up until the medieval times. Also, even in Japan it was two meals per day until close to the middle of the Edo period. (T/N: 1603-1868 CE)

“It’s originating from the fact that The Seven held three banquets per day to bless the sun which is the beginning of this world.”

Being able to explain it to the boy, the zoan girl talks in a manner that could be called tremendously happy.

“Morning when the sun revives, noon when its life is the most energetic and evening when the sun dies; praying for the sun’s rebirth tomorrow, we also take our meals alongside a blessing towards the sun.”

“I see.”

If you consider him to be intelligent to a surprising degree, that’s about correct. But he doesn’t know things that even younger children are aware of.
He’s a truly odd boy.

“It’s quite the hard bread, isn’t it?”

“Really? I think that’s how bread is though.”

The zoan girl tilted her head to the side due to the boy who hits the bread’s surface with the back of a finger.
The boy, who ate the dumplings and meat prepared by the zoan girl during the journey in these last few days, had a look as if he was very interested in the bread.
The reason why the boy didn’t have the chance to eat the bread during the journey until now is because when Hopkins tried to prepare food for the two of them on the first day of their travel, the zoan girl stubbornly declined it while declaring that they will prepare their own shares by themselves.

“Both of you, the city has come into sight.” (Hopkins)

Once he informed the two in the back that the city’s outline has become visible in the far distance along the road, the boy bent himself forward to the coachman bench from within the covered wagon with a bright expression.

“Holy smokes… so that’s the city.”

“Yeah. Over there you can see the city Bolnis which is the furthest-western city of Holmea State.” (Hopkins)

Chapter end