Hmm, just you and Alms...
　Don't get too close.

　Me and Tetra had come to the Cilician city-state of Resad, a colony of Claris.
　In short, goodness must come first.

　We brought food for the journey, a smorgasbord, and salt to replace the currency.
　Honey for gifts and a letter of introduction given to me by King Rosais.
　And an iron sword for protection.
　I didn't bring much with me, since I only came to meet with some influential Cilician officials.

　If possible, it would be nice if we could buy various things by paying later.
　If that's not possible, we'll have to take a large group of people to carry the Suekies again.

　I'd like to get some lighter trade goods.

　"But why don't they have their own letters? It's a pain in the ass, isn't it?
　I look at a wooden letter written in Cilician.
　To learn the letters, you have to learn the Cilician language first. It's a bit of a hassle.
　It's easy to learn numbers, but when it comes to writing, you have to learn it in earnest.

　After having mastered the language of this region, he had to learn Cilician.

　Why don't you make it then, Almus?
　Good idea. If I get a chance, I'll make one... what a joke.
　You'd be quicker to learn Cilician than to make it.

　
　'Speaking of which. Every time you talk about this area, do you have a place name?
　It's called the Adelian Peninsula, for one thing.
　'What do the Cilician's read about us?'
　'Barbaroi (barbarians who speak in a strange language). Or peninsular. And pure barbarians.

　Well, from the point of view of someone with an advanced culture, we might be barbarians.

　By the way, can I ask you one more question?
　What?
　I see what looks like money over there. I thought you said it didn't exist?
　I think I remember having that conversation.
　When was it.........
　Yes, right after I met the kids.

　As I recall, Ron asked me what money was.　I asked.

　'Only a tiny fraction of people know anything about money.
　I see.

　Does it mean that people who have wealth have it?
　Even in Japan, they went to the trouble of enacting a law of ordination of money, so ordinary farmers don't know about it.

　While we were talking about such things, we arrived at the port.
　It seems that we had walked quite a bit before we knew it.

　''This is the sea........''
　Is this your first time?
　Tetra nodded.

　'It smells like salt, but it's subtly different from the Japanese sea.

　'There are some pretty big ships out there,'
　There were a number of ships moored in the harbor.

　They were around thirty meters long, which would be quite large considering the cultural level of this world.

　'I've heard that the Cilician people have excellent navigation skills.
　That's because they're building a colony city this far away and trading with us.
　Of course, their technology must be far more advanced than ours.

　Now, where do you think we can find Mr. Ains to sell our livestock?
　We don't have a rendezvous, so we need to find it.

　Let's find them as soon as possible.
　'But first, let's find out the value of the merchandise ... the suet, the honey. We could be fooled.

　That's a good idea.
　After all, these are people who think we're savages.
　There's a good chance they'll try to trick us.


　We show a Cilician merchant who specializes in selling pottery a swashbuckling bowl.
　On the rush mat he's spreading out is an earthenware bowl just like ours.

　As far as quality is concerned, they look almost identical.

　What do you think?
　''Well yes. If you're going to sell it in Cilicia, don't buy it for thirty dinars of bronze. If you sell it in this neighborhood you'll get it for thirty diddles of salt.

　By the way, I heard from a passing merchant that one silver coin for one hundred bronze coins. By the way, I heard from a merchant who was passing by that a hundred bronze coins would cost a silver coin, and ten silver coins would cost about a gold coin.
　A kilo of salt would cost around one silver coin.

　In other words, the salt could be sold for one and a half times the price of Cilicia. That's quite a good business, isn't it?

　By the way, it is said that one silver coin is enough to live for a month in Cilicia.

　It depends on the definition of "enough", but one silver coin should be about 100,000 Japanese yen.

　Did you make it?　Who taught me that?
　I thought of it myself.

　I said, and the merchant rolled his eyes.

　'That's great. Don't spread it around too much if you can.'
　We won't be so foolish as to teach you how to make it for free, because we won't be making any money either.

　It's a very important card.

　'One more thing. How much does honey cost?　I want to buy it on the local market.
　Don't do it. It's not the kind of thing you can buy at home. I'll give you three gold pieces for a bowl like this.

　The man held the jar in his hand and said.

　Isn't it absurdly expensive? Excellent.

　I'll have to go with honey as my staple.

　What do you guys get, by the way?
　Trade is not over when you sell.
　You sell and use the money you get to buy something else and sell it elsewhere.

　It's trade that repeats itself.
　It would be a shame if the ship was all gone when we returned.

　Of course, these guys are getting something from around here, but....
　I have no idea.

　Grains are probably not there because of the recent crop failure.
　Or rather, it's not a good place to grow wheat around here in the first place.

　There are no minerals such as iron.
　And there are no arts and crafts.

　That's true. A typical example is salt. You can get good quality rock salt around here. The demand for salt is high in Cilicia because of its large population.
　I didn't know this place was famous for its salt.
　I didn't know that.

　It's a good idea to look for it in the woods, though.
　I'll look for it.

　All that's left is, well, slaves.
　I knew it.

　There's a constant war going on around here because the small countries are divided up.
　You can get a lot of slaves cheaply, I guess.

　Thank you for everything.
　Yeah. Bye.
　Then the guy stuck out his hand.
　You want me to give you an information fee.

　I put the salt I had divided into a small bag on the man's hand.

________________________________________________.


　So this is where Mr. Ains is based.
　There is a rather magnificent building standing in front of me.

　King Rosais' house it's smaller than the castle, but it's not inferior to the castle.
　Rather, King Rosais' castle is made of wood and this building is made of stone, so this one seems to be more durable.

　''Sorry, sir.''
　I knocked on the door and rang the bell.

　After a few moments, a brown-skinned man comes out.
　He wears a collar around his neck.

　'What can I do for you?'
　I'd like to have a meeting with Mr. Ains.
　I'm afraid the master is busy.
　Now go and show me this.

　I hand him the wooden letter that King Rosais gave me.
　With a questioning look on his face, the man takes the letter and disappears into the building.

　After a while, he returns.
　'Please come in.

　As expected, a letter of introduction written by a king.
　Even a small country seems to have a certain amount of influence.

　The guy in Julia had a lot of salt, and perhaps King Rosais' country is surprisingly rich in salt.

　'Hello, I'm Ains. And you are?
　The young man who appeared in front of me said this in Cilician.

　You're young. I heard you were a big-time merchant, so I thought you were more of an old man.

　'I'm Alms. This is Tetra.'
　Nice to meet you.

　We return in Cilician.
　I have perfect Cilician thanks to the 'language blessing' and Tetra can speak it from the beginning.
　Apparently, Tetra's mother was Cilician.
　I envy you for being bilingual.

　Ains gave me a surprised look when we returned it in fluent Cilician.

　'You're very good at it,'
　Ha-ha, well, you know, this much.

　I can't say that it's a blessing - I can't say that it's a blessing.

　'Do you want to buy some livestock or something?'
　Yes. I was told you carry them here.

　I reply, and Ains looks at me like I'm priced out.
　I'm a young man of fifteen, you know. I am. A guy like that brings a letter of introduction for the king, even though it's a small country. You'll be interested to know.

　"At the risk of being rude, let me ask you, what position are you in?
　'Well how can I describe it? Well, the king hasn't told me his name yet.

　To put it bluntly, we're like an independent country.
　Territory, people, sovereignty. It's all here.

　Well.....
　Ains looks like he's thinking about something.
　If possible, I want a grand misunderstanding.

　'Three gold coins for an ox and four gold coins for a horse. If you pay in kind, you'll pay more.
　'I see. Actually I didn't have any money this time I just came to check the price. Can I come back in two weeks?
　That's fine. How much would you like to purchase, by the way?
　'Yes. One horse and two cows, please.

　That's ten gold pieces in total.
　We'll need three to fill a jar with honey.

　Just barely enough to pay for it.

　It's hard to get enough honey, after all.
　We may need to make another batch.

　'All right. I'll make some more. I'll see you in two weeks.

　This is how we got our newly acquired labor force.