Grimgal of Ashes and Illusion - Volume 7 - Chapter 5

5. Difficulties Everywhere

“U naa?” = “How much?”

“Faa noo” = “Hello” / “Zee naa” = “Goodbye.”

A=1 Muu=2 Son=3 Jo=4 Do=5 Kua=6 Shi=7 Zaa=8 Zama=9 Zamu=10 Zan=11 Zaji=12

Yume and Ranta had tried saying various things to the blacksmith and the giant crab grocer, and they were relatively certain about all of those things.

The numbers were a bit complicated. Haruhiro and the others were used to base-10 math, probably because, as humans, they had ten fingers. The residents of Well Village, however, had varying numbers of fingers. So those with eight fingers used base-8, and those who had a total of twelve fingers between their two hands used base-12. That was how it seemed to work. If they pointed at their fingers and asked “U naa?” the shopkeeper would hold up a number of fingers to show them the price. However, if they didn’t know how many fingers the shopkeeper had, it could lead to misunderstandings.

There were three sizes of black coin. The ones Haruhiro and the others had thought were bigger were the medium-sized ones, and the small ones were just slightly smaller than them. The grocer had been kind enough to let them see one the big coins. It was noticeably bigger than the medium-sized coins, thick, and had silver-colored lines running through it.

The big coins were called rou, medium-sized coins were called ruma, and the small coins were called wen. It seemed that rou were fairly valuable, so most trading was done in ruma and wen. So, how many wen were there to a ruma? This was also troublesome, as there didn’t seem to be any set value.

Now, as for how that worked, with the blacksmith and grocer, 8 wen was equal to 1 ruma. However, at the clothing and bag shop, 12 wen was equal to 1 ruma, and at the mask shop, 5 wen was equal to 1 ruma. It varied from store to store, or rather person to person.

That being the case, when the blacksmith said, “Son zaa,” which was three followed by eight, held up three fingers, then held up eight fingers, that meant three times eight, which was 24 wen, or 3 ruma.

If the clothing and bag seller said “Jo zaji,” which was four followed by twelve, held up four fingers, then all twelve of its fingers on both hands, that meant four times twelve, which was 48 wen or 4 ruma.

It was a bizarre situation where the difference between 3 ruma at once place and 4 ruma at the other was almost double the amount in wen. But, this was apparently a completely normal state of affairs in Well Village.

The coin they had found on the body and the one they had found in the riverbed were both medium-sized coins. The giant crab grocer was rather loose about prices, and if they paid it 1 ruma, it would let the six of them eat until they were full. As for well water, after the 1 ruma they’d paid the first time, they hadn’t been asked to pay again. It was probably not a per-use fee, but a one-time payment for the right to have access to the well.

Uh huh, yeah, that’s not plausible at all. There are humans who use base-27 on Earth right now. There have been humans who’ve used base 60 in history, and a whole lot of others. It’s far more plausible that they will have decided on a common mathematical base for the sake of communication, and it won’t have been based necessarily on fingers.

They worked up their courage to ask the blacksmith what it would cost to have a short sword sharpened. It indicated a price of 3 wen. Ranta did everything he could to try to haggle that price down, but it was no good. Having no other choice, they ignored Ranta’s vehement protesting and paid 3 wen to get it done.

At this point, the sum total of the party’s fortune was 1 ruma. It was just enough to get everyone fed. They negotiated with the crab grocer, asking for as much of anything but insect stew that they could get, and then ate until they were full.

The blacksmith finished sharpening the short sword in the meantime. It was excellent work, but night had come and the gate was now closed. With the gate shut, they weren’t getting back outside short of breaking it down.

They didn’t feel like just finding a random place to lie down and sleep, so they decided to take a walk around Well Village. Incidentally, Scarecrow-san hadn’t left the village yet and was lying down near Watchtower A.

In addition to the blacksmith, clothing and bag shop, mask shop, grocery store, and general store that faced onto the central plaza, the village had another nine buildings. They could see the largest of them on the other side of the plaza. It was made of piled stones, and incredibly it had glass windows, even if they were a little cloudy. There was light leaking out through the windows, so it seemed like someone lived there, but they didn’t feel like trying to drop in for a visit.

As for the rest, to the left of the plaza, the north, there were four buildings. And to the opposite side of it, the south, there were also four buildings. These were all shacks made of wood or mud, with straw thatched or wooden shingle roofs. If they had the materials, the party could probably imitate them and build a simple shack like one of these.

They passed a number of residents. Some were humanoids and some were non-humanoids, but all of them hid their faces. The party tried greeting them with a “Faa noo,” to see what would happen, but they were ignored.

There was a wharf set up on the riverbed inside the moat. However, it was badly aged, and rotting in places. There was no sign of any boats.

Maybe they could bathe safely if they used the riverbed inside Well Village. It was an idea that came to mind, but they weren’t sure they’d be allowed to just start digging. Haruhiro and the others were newcomers and outsiders, after all. They didn’t want to do anything stupid and offend the residents. If they were going to try it, they agreed it should be after they had a better sense of the situation.

They decided to camp out in an empty lot where there were no buildings so as not to disturb any of the residents. It was cold, but if they wrapped themselves in their cloaks, they could still manage to get to sleep.

The girls huddled close together to share warmth. Honestly, the guys were jealous, but there was no way they were going to snuggle like that. It was better to tough it out. For as long as they were able to keep thinking that way, they’d somehow manage to do it.

It wasn’t long before Ranta started snoring loudly. The girls were whispering among themselves, too. Looking at the way Kuzaku was tossing and turning, he couldn’t sleep either. Well, of course he couldn’t. Ranta was the weird one here.

Haruhiro came close to striking up a conversation with Kuzaku several times, but every time, he stopped short. Eventually the girls grew quiet, and Kuzaku stopped tossing and turning.

I should sleep, I’m gonna sleep, come on, sleep. Haruhiro tried to will himself to sleep, but the more he did, the less sleepy he felt. He could only think about all sorts of meaningless nonsense, and lie there discouraged by the utter hopelessness of their situation.

This is no good, he thought. I need to make choices. There are things I can think about, and things I can’t. Review what we did today. Take note of what I’ve learned. Then, tomorrow. Just think about what we’ll do tomorrow. Until tomorrow comes. It’s better to just forget everything beyond then. I mean, even if I think about it, I have no idea what’s gonna happen. No, I guess I do know some of it. We’re all going to die some day. That’s the one certainty. Yep, we sure are gonna die. No matter what. Well, doesn’t that make it all kind of meaningless? Sooner or later, I’ll die. My comrades will die. I wonder how. Will it hurt? Will it be scary?

Manato. Moguzo. What was it like when you guys died? Did you think, “No, I don’t want to die,” or something like that, maybe? Will I be able to die at least reasonably satisfied? If I were to die right now, I know I’d have regrets. I don’t want to die yet. I don’t want to see any more dead faces. It’s best not to think about this stuff. It’s too horrifying. What did we do yesterday and today? What will we be doing tomorrow? If I focus on just that, eventually the time will go by, and...

“Boweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh!”

“Whuh...?!” Haruhiro jumped to his feet and looked around.

It looked like his comrades had woken up, too.

Yume rubbed her eyes. “That’s gonna give someone a heart attack,” she said.

“Was it a rooster... you think?” Shihoru was holding her chest.

“That surprised me...” Merry whispered.

“Nngh...!” Ranta stretched. “Well, that’s a refreshing sound to wake up to!”

“How?” Kuzaku grumbled.

You can say that again, thought Haruhiro.

Looking around, they saw that up on top of the bar that the well bucket hung from, there was a brown-ish chicken-like creature—but it probably wasn’t a chicken. It was awfully big for that, after all.

“Boweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh!”

The ominous bellowing was apparently coming from that creature. What a terrible way to wake up.

“My whole body aches...” Kuzaku rolled his shoulders and hit himself on his lower back.

“Well, let’s give it our all again today.” Haruhiro tried to encourage them out of a sense of duty, but his voice sounded incredibly weak.

“We’re still going without breakfast, though!” Ranta said, then let out a cackling laugh.

“That’s fine,” Yume said, puffing her cheeks up under her mask. “Just think of it as goin’ on a diet.”

“If you lose any more of the boobflesh of those tiny tits of yours, what’re you gonna do?” Ranta asked.

“Yume’s boobs haven’t changed that much!”

“Well, let me touch ’em then! I’ll check for you!”

“Being a little too direct there, aren’t you?” Kuzaku looked creeped out. “With your demands, and your desires...”

“I’m starving here!” Ranta yelled at Kuzaku. “I’ll take tiny tits, or whatever I can get! I just wanna squeeze something! With all the danger we’re in, my sex drive is running high! Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! I wanna procreate!”

“You’re way too dangerous, man...” Haruhiro was getting worried about Ranta.

“If only he’d die...” Shihoru said. She was probably at least half-serious.

“Because it’s morning...?” Merry’s response was a mystery. She might have been half-asleep still.

“Ranta.” Yume backed away while still sitting. “You’re super unpleasant.”

The way she said it was so serious that even a (crappy) piece of trash like Ranta might have felt a little hurt.

Ranta mimed putting something off to the side in mid-air. “Okay, putting that joke out of the way, let’s move on.”

“You think you can play it off like that?” Shihoru wasn’t having it.

“Yeah, I think I can! Do me a favor, and let me!”

“Why should we do you any favors?” Haruhiro sighed. “Anyway, going without breakfast is gonna be tough. We’ll need to earn at least 3 ruma today so that this doesn’t happen again.”

“Okay, Parupiro, give us a detailed explanation of how we’re gonna earn enough to avoid a repeat of this. I’ll hear you out. You’d better be grateful.”

It wasn’t like Haruhiro had some incredible plan. “Search Corpse Swamp for black coins and other things of value. Remain alert for the four-eyed beast and other such creatures.” That was it.

Ranta cried out, “Booooring!” and was vehemently against it, but the rest of the party was in favor. They left Well Village and headed for Corpse Swamp.

It was good to try and stay on guard, but what, practically, could they do if a four-eyed beast showed up? There could be other, still unknown threats, too. Could they deal with them? There was plenty of reason for concern, but this was the most reliable way they had to earn money at the moment. They had to do it.

That day they found 1 ruma, 5 wen, a rusted sword, and a spear tip. Fortunately, the four-eyed beast never showed up.

When they returned to Well Village, they brought the blacksmith the sword, the spear tip, and their loot from the day before, Yume’s short sword and Kuzaku’s sword. The blacksmith raised four fingers. That apparently meant it would pay 4 wen for all of them together. Most likely, it was going to use them as scrap metal, so it was probably valuing them at 1 wen apiece, for a total of 4 wen.

They agonized over it for a bit, but the blacksmith wasn’t the type to let them negotiate, and carrying around weapons they weren’t going to use was just extra weight. They sold them off, and with the 4 wen that got them their cash on hand came to a total of 1 ruma and 9 wen. They could feed everyone at the grocery store for 8 wen or 1 ruma, so they had more than enough for two meals. They could eat before going to sleep, then again when they woke up in the morning!

It felt good going out to work on a full stomach. Hunger always put them on edge.

Let’s make more today than we did yesterday, Haruhiro thought. Our target’s 3 ruma.

The four-eyed beast was scary, but he didn’t sense it anywhere nearby. Yume, Merry, and Haruhiro found 1 medium sized coin, 2 small coins, and two swords in quick succession. Things were going smoothly.

“Hm?” Ranta pulled some long thing up out of the pool of water. “What’s this?”

“Myeeeek!” Yume jumped backwards. “It’s slitherin’ around!”

“Ohh?! Y-You’re right! It’s moving, huh?!” Ranta went to throw it away. However, the thing wrapped itself around Ranta’s right arm and wouldn’t let go. “Wh-Wh-Wh-What?! I-I-I-Is it a snake?!”

“Ah...” Kuzaku looked down. “Th-There’s one on my leg, too...”

When they looked over, there was indeed a long thing coiling around Kuzaku’s left leg.

A snake? Was that what it was? Was it dangerous? Poisonous? How would they know?

“D-Don’t move, Kuzaku,” Haruhiro stammered. “No, maybe you should move...?”

“Which is it?”

“Gwahhhhhhhhhhhh!” Ranta desperately tried to shake the snake-like thing off of him, but he couldn’t manage it. “What the hell, what the hell, what the hell is this thing?! It’s scary, scary, scary!”

“Ah...!” Shihoru froze solid. “Th-Th-There... could be l-l-l-l-lots of them... right beneath us...”

“Huh...?” Merry lifted up her short staff as if it was heavy. Why would she do that?

There was one of the snake-like things wrapped around it, too.

“C-C-C-C-Calm down.” Haruhiro took a deep breath. “I-I-It’s not like they’re attacking us. It doesn’t look like they’re gonna, either. It’s fine. I’m sure. Just saying. P-Probably.”

“Kehe...” Zodiac-kun had been right next to Ranta only moment ago, but was now far away from them for some reason. “To believe without proof... is folly... Kehehe...”

“Zodiac-kun’s trying to bail on me?! That’s a seriously bad sign!” Ranta tried to pull the snake-like thing off of him using his left hand. However, there was no sign he was going to get it off. “Nnnngh! H-H-Help me! Someone, help me! Save me, you idiots!”

“Noooooooooo!” Merry was swinging her short staff around wildly. Even with all that, the snake-like thing was still holding on tight.

“Uwahhhhhhhhhhhh.” Kuzaku was stumbling.

What, what, what? It wasn’t just his left leg? There was a snake-like thing on his right leg, too? No, there were two, three more of them, crawling up Kuzaku’s legs and trying to ensnare him?

“O-Ohm, rel, ect, del, brem, darsh...” Shihoru cast Armor Shadow to wrap a shadow elemental around herself. It might have been the calm and rational thing to do. However, to be honest, Haruhiro wasn’t entirely okay with her doing it.

“H-Haru-kun?!” Yume looked hurriedly to Haruhiro.

No, don’t ask me was a thing he couldn’t say. Haruhiro was the leader, after all.

Right. I’m the leader. But, leader or not, there are things I can’t do, and things I don’t know, you know? Still, if I don’t do something, it’s blatantly obvious that things are going to get bad, yeah?

“L-Let’s get out of the water!” Haruhiro called. “That’s the first thing! I-It’d be kind of awkward trying to deal with them here!”

Yume and Shihoru took off running. Ranta and Merry followed suit, one waving his arm and the other her staff around as they did. Haruhiro pulled Kuzaku by the arm as he ran.

While they were going, Ranta screamed out. It sounded like he’d been bitten somewhere.

“Y-You okay, Ranta?!” Haruhiro shouted.

“You moron! There’s no way I’m okay! Go die! Dammit, it hurts!”

He’s screaming, and he’s still moving, so he looks pretty okay, thought Haruhiro.

In a spot of good luck, once they got out of Corpse Swamp, the snake-like things naturally backed off. They were only relieved for a moment, though, because Ranta collapsed and started convulsing.

“Gweh... guhguhguhguhguhguhguhguhguh, oughhhhhhhh, gurbbbbbbbb...”

“Ranta?!” Yume pulled Ranta’s helmet off. “Yikes?!”

Even at a glance, it was clearly bad. Ranta was foaming at the mouth. Poison. The snake-like things must have been poisonous.

Merry immediately cast Purify to eliminate the poison, but Ranta was still lying there limply.

“Urgh... I can’t believe myself. I nearly got killed there. Damn it all...”

“Ehehe... Why didn’t you... just get embraced by Skullhell... Ehe... Ehehe...”

“C’mon, Zodiac-kun, if you bully him at a time like this, then bam! You’re gonna get a smackin’!” Yume was being unusually nice to Ranta.

Actually, Haruhiro wasn’t sure when or how it happened, but Yume was letting him rest his head in her lap. That was so incredibly unusual, he doubted his eyes.

“Hold on... Is the poison even gone? I feel like I’m gonna die... Sorry, Yume... Let me rest like this a little longer...” Ranta moaned.

“Huh? Well, sure, Yume doesn’t mind.”

“For another hour...”

“Isn’t that a little long?”

“Fine, just thirty minutes then...”

“Meow...”

“Geh heh... You fell for it... Ranta tricked you... Geh heh heh...”

“Huh? Did he?”

“I-I did not!” Ranta shouted. “What’re you talking about, Zodiac-kun? I-I’m seriously, seriously feeling awful! L-Like, I’ve got nausea, a headache, and a stomachache, okay? I’m not making this stuff up!”

“That’s soundin’ super fake! You’re actin’ pretty energetic, too!” Yume cried.

Of course, Ranta was forcefully evicted from Yume’s lap. That didn’t matter, but still, they were in a bind now. Their reliable, guaranteed method for acquiring black coins in the Corpse Swamp came with not just the threat of the four-eyed beast, but a second threat now: those snake-like things, the poisonous swamp snakes. It could hardly be called a reliable method anymore.

“So? What’re you gonna do now, Parupiro?”

When Ranta asked him that in a grumpy tone, Haruhiro nearly snapped.

What do you mean, “What am I gonna do?” You’re pushing this off on me? At least ask, “What are we gonna do?” We’ve got to start by talking it over first, obviously!

While Haruhiro was thoroughly chewing Ranta out in his head, it helped calm him down. Even if he snapped at that (scummy) (crappy) (stupid) piece of trash and made it clear he was wrong, the guy was trash, so it wasn’t like he was going to have a change of heart. If Haruhiro snapped at him, it would only tire him out. It was a waste of perfectly good anger.

“Maybe we could try going into the forest...” Haruhiro began.

When he proposed the idea, the rest of them accepted it with surprising ease.

Is that okay? he wondered. Isn’t everyone else not thinking enough about all this? He couldn’t help but feel that way, but maybe it was just that they couldn’t find the energy to. The truth was, Haruhiro felt the same way sometimes. It was a bad trend. That said, he couldn’t just do nothing. If they didn’t do something, anything, they couldn’t keep living.

For now, they decided to go into the forest somewhere close to Well Village’s bridge. It was harder than they expected. The twisted, whitish trees grew so densely that even finding a gap big enough for a single person to pass through was hard. Were they going to have to cut them down as they went?

Kuzaku said something hopeful. “If it’s like this, there’re probably no large beasts, or anything like that.”

Shihoru pointed out something unpleasant. “There could be snakes or something like them, though...”

“Shihoru—” Haruhiro started to say, then shook his head.

“Huh? What is it?”

“N-No, nothing. You’re right... There could be snakes, huh... Poisonous ones...”

“H-How about we turn back?” Ranta was scared.

Serves you right, thought Haruhiro. But he wasn’t any more keen about dealing with snakes himself. He wouldn’t want to get bitten like Ranta had.

“Be careful,” Merry cautioned them. “I can only cast Purify as many times as I can cast Heal.”

Yume said, “Hey, hey,” pointing off to the west. “Waaaaay over there, y’see, it’s far off, but there’s somethin’ shinin’ over there, maybe?”

“Shining...” Haruhiro squinted his eyes and looked in that direction. “Hey, you’re right.”

What it was, he couldn’t say for certain, but there was definitely something like a light beyond the trees. Or at least it looked like it.

“Think we can get there?” Kuzaku asked in a whisper. “Make it all that way, before night comes?”

“Hard to tell how far it is, after all...” Ranta was being uncharacteristically timid.

Incidentally, Zodiac-kun hadn’t even come into the woods with them. It seemed like the demon might get caught on branches and stuff, so maybe it had declined for that reason. If he didn’t have Zodiac-kun with him, Ranta was just a piece of trash, worth less than crap.

Shihoru hesitantly suggested, “Should we go back?”

Haruhiro looked to Kuzaku, Yume, and Merry. Not only did none of them say anything, they didn’t do anything that would express an opinion.

“Yeah...” Ranta said, being the only one to agree with Shihoru.

This wasn’t good. This atmosphere was no good at all. He wanted to change it, but how? Haruhiro had no idea.

For now, at least, he wanted time to think... maybe? But even if he did think about it, would he find an answer? He wanted time... No, that wasn’t it, he just wanted to run away from this situation for now, didn’t he? It might not just have been Haruhiro; maybe they all felt that way.

Yeah, this is no good, huh, Haruhiro thought. It’s not gonna work out like this. It’s not. No two ways about it, this is no good... but still.

“How about we go back, for now?” Haruhiro proposed.

He’d gone ahead and said it. Even though, as leader, he needed to straighten them out. It was a time when he needed to chastise his comrades, or encourage them, and he knew that more than well enough, but he couldn’t do it. He was beyond hopeless. His strength had left him.

Are we gonna be able to go on like this, from here on out...?