The Wanderer's Rebirth: Other Paths

Now that got his attention. If he could get a bit of money to keep him going for a bit, that would be a huge help…. That said, he had no idea what the monetary system was like here, nor the economy.

Would this be like most eastern manga/manhua/manhwa where the monetary system was as inflated as their countries of origin? Like, a coffee costing a hundred yen, but also costing a hundred coins in the protagonist’s new world?

“So, ah, I have no idea about how… money works here,” he said, not knowing the word for monetary, or economy.

“Oh, then let’s go have a talk,” she said, then gave directions for the wagons to be stored away in a warehouse until they could find him a place to stay.

Which, really, might take a while considering that it was a relatively small village, and the housing market wasn’t likely to be very open.

As he hobbled alongside Celys and Nalun, who’d somehow managed to stay out of sight until they started moving, Celys acted as a tour guide. She pointed out various shops and attractions, though those were few and far between. He continued appreciating the architecture, though, taking in the various design elements and subtle differences between what he was seeing and what he knew of the Edo period’s architecture.

Eventually, they made their way to the northwest side of the city. It was what he’d call a “rich” neighbourhood, with larger houses and huge yards that bordered on being parks. Then he was invited into Celys & Nalun’s home, something he would have described as a manor rather than a simple home.

He idly wondered if being the Chief of Kirkwall paid well enough to have such a ridiculously large house, but then filed that away as he watched his hosts take off their own footwear before slipping into indoor slippers.

He looked down at his own feet-foot, and sighed as his dusty crutches also registered. So, he used a quick [Cleanse], then [Ectoplasmic Creation] to get some slippers of his own, then looked back up at Celys. A… gaping Celys, and Nalun too.

Right, I haven’t done that in front of them… or anyone, yet, he thought, then just shrugged it off.

Joram cleared his throat and looked at them expectantly, which then got the ball rolling, as it were.

He was soon led into their living room and invited to sit… until they remembered his one leg and hurried to get a chair for him. He would have been fine sitting on the incredibly comfortable-looking cushions with them, but they seemed to think that it would be rude or something. So, not wanting to embarrass his hosts, he just went along with it.

After some refreshments were served, and a lovely tea that reminded him of citrus and cinnamon, Celys finally got down to business, as it were.

“Now, we should probably go over the monetary system here,” she said as someone came by with a tray containing more than a few coins and other oddities.

“The basic currency starts with bronze coins,” she said, taking a bronze coin from the tray and showing it to him. It was interesting in the sense that it was a new coin, but also boring in the sense that it was a coin. One side had someone’s profile on it, while the other had a tree.

“Each bronze coin can purchase two loaves of bread, a dozen eggs, or a pound of meat,” she said, making him wonder at just how that worked. Back on Earth, things had gotten pretty… inflated, so something like a pound of meat was certainly more expensive than a couple loaves of bread, or even a dozen eggs. But, hey, he wouldn’t argue with their economy.

“An average inn costs five bronze coins for a night, adding another two if you’d like a meal as well,” she continued as she put the bronze coin down and picked up what looked like a small bar of bronze. “This is a half bronze bar, or just a half bar. It’s worth fifty bronze coins, while this slightly larger one- a full bar, or just a bar- is worth one hundred bronze coins, or one silver coin,” she said, showing him each one as she mentioned them.

“So, there are one hundred bronze coins to a silver coin, and one hundred silver coins to a gold coin,” she said, picking up a gold coin that was smaller than the silver coin, which in turn was smaller than the bronze coin. “Both silver and gold denominations each have their own bars, each worth the same respective amounts, fifty or one hundred coins per bar,” she said, motioning to said bars, making him wonder if the economy was indeed inflated, or if she was just rich.

Given the house he was currently in, he suspected the latter.

“Now, most things you would need to purchase in Kirkwall will cost you bronze. More expensive things, like buying a weapon, or a home, will cost you silver or gold,” she continued, making him raise a hand.

“Where do monster cores come into the… scale?” he asked, pulling out a Grade E core and showing it to her.

Celys raised an eyebrow then asked if she could take a closer look at it. Not really caring, he passed it over and watched as she quickly inspected it before responding.

“This would be a Grade E core, and because of its clarity, it would fetch you about a half bronze bar,” she said, tossing it back to him. “Cores that have clarity like that are considered high-grade cores, and fetch the highest price in their rank, or grade. A Rank D monster would produce a Grade D core, and if it was also a high-grade core, it would fetch a full silver coin.

“That said, the scale starts to skew a lot once you reach Grade C cores, and the cost of the high-grade ones go up to a silver half bar. When you reach Grade B cores of high-grade, then you’ll be earning around ten gold coins per core.

“The reason is that they’re used in many fields, though all magical. The cores are used in anything ranging from enchanting to ritual magic to powering various magical devices. So, the demand is always high for them, allowing them to keep their value,” she said as he nodded along.

“Then, how much does a house cost here,” he asked, wondering if he’d be able to afford his own home any time soon.

“That depends,” she said, now looking like she’d shifted into professional mode. “If you’d like to just buy a small house on the east side, then those would only run you about ten or so gold,” she said, obviously not enthusiastic about that idea. “If you were to buy one further west, or closer to the centre of Kirkwall, then you could expect to pay around one hundred gold coins. While this neighbourhood would cost you over two hundred gold coins,” she finished, looking slightly smug.

Joram digested that for a bit. With the number of cores on him, he had just over two gold coins, if he cashed them in that is. Given just how crazy the fights had been to get that far, he wasn’t sure that he’d be able to buy his own place any time soon.

“That said,” Celys continued after taking a sip of her tea. “There are several vacant lots around Kirkwall, and they go for considerably less than a pre-built home,” she said, probably having read his expressions and decided to throw him a bone.

“That said, construction costs can also be pricey, so you’ll also have to take that into consideration when deciding what you want to do,” she finished, giving him more to think about.

“Is it possible to build outside of town? Would that cost much?” he asked, wondering if he could avoid some expenses that way.

“You certainly can, and almost all of our farmers, and every one of our ranchers, live outside of the walls. It’s certainly less expensive than living in Kirkwall proper, though taxes still need to be paid. You also have to consider your safety more than you would have to while living inside of the walls.”

Joram nodded at that, but if he could save a lot of money by building outside of Kirkwall proper, then he was more than likely to go that way.

“You would also have to take into account your safety, and your… situation,” Celys continued, glancing briefly at his right leg’s stump. “I would hate for you to have survived such a harrowing experience just to later perish in another attack that we weren’t able to help you with,” she said, not looking very happy at the thought of such an occurrence.

He also tried to parse what the two words she’d used meant, and could guess, but decided to just ask. So, after a couple of minutes of learning a few new words, they continued.

“Well, I think that living closer to Kirkwall would provide enough safety,” he said, trying to look confident. “As for my… leg, I’ll get by,” he finished, trying to brush off his disability.

Celys, and Nalun, were far from convinced, though.

They questioned him on everything from how he’d support himself to how he planned to get his groceries to how he’d be able to defend himself should another attack occur all the way to how he’d take care of himself, all alone out there.

“I can help him,” Myra said from the side, nearly causing him to fall over in shock.

He’d missed her coming in and was suddenly very nervous at her declaration. She looked… pissed.

Her parents, however, seemed to take the news like one would take a lightning bolt to the head. They stared at their daughter, dumbfounded for what was probably longer than strictly necessary, if he were to judge things.

When they’d finally recovered, the conversation quickly veered towards them not-so-subtly trying to convince Myra to reconsider. They tried arguing that her duties as a [Miko] wouldn’t allow for enough time to care for someone outside of town all the way to pointing out just how bad she was with standard household duties.

The more they argued, the more Myra seemed to dig her heels in. Joram suddenly felt great sympathy for both Myra and her parents. On the one side, he could appreciate Myra wanting to live her own life, making her own decisions. On the other side, he could appreciate a parent’s viewpoint of wanting the best for their child. Though, he wasn’t sure where their reticence came from. Was it because he was a human? Or that he was now a cripple?

Well, either one of those weren’t valid. The first, being human, was likely just another way to say, “not a foxkin”. While the second wouldn’t last very long. If he could get a better understanding of the discipline of Psychometabolism. Once that was under his belt, then he could just regrow his bloody leg and be done with it.

But first, he needed a place to stay while he got on his feet… foot. Whatever.

“I appreciate your offer,” he said, breaking into their increasingly heated conversation. “But I’d like to try living by myself for a bit; to get used to… this,” he said, motioning to his missing leg.

Once again, Celys looked uncomfortable for a moment before the emotion was hidden behind her professional face.

What’s that about? He thought, wondering where that was coming from.

‘She was the one to give the order to amputate your leg, citing life-threatening infections,’ Avi said from beside him, once again scaring the crap out of him.

“Are you sure?” Myra asked, looking like she was trying to play it cool, but her actual concern for him showed through.

“Well, I might need to find somewhere to stay until I can get used to things. You know, adjusting to only having one leg will be pretty hard,” he said, trailing off at the end as though it was hard for him to say.

Well, even though he knew that he’d eventually get his leg back, it actually was hard to say. It was still a shock to him every time he remembered that his leg was no longer there.

Celys and Nalun exchanged a look, the former looking more than a little guilty. Myra stared at her parents, her desire for them to invite him to stay with them plain to see on her face. At the same time, he could clearly see Nalun’s reluctance to have any young man living under the same roof as his daughter.

Deciding to both throw them a bone and tease Myra a bit, he spoke up again.

“I could maybe see if Theril or Reldan have an extra room I would borrow,” he said, sounding hopeful.

Nalun practically pounced on that idea while Celys looked thoughtful. Myra, on the other hand, wasn’t looking like she was going to have any of it. But before any of them could speak, Kalduin spoke up from the other side of the room, the side where they’d entered from.

“The man’s lost a leg,” he said, giving his parents a scornful look. “It’s the least we can do to put him up for a while as he adjusts to his new circumstances.”

If he were inclined to swing that way, he could have kissed the guy. As it was, Kalduin earned a few brownie points from him.

From there, Myra’s parents crumbled soon after and had one of the… servants? Staff? They had someone ready one of the guest rooms for him, then invited him to sup with them.

Not wanting to seem to be an ungracious guest, he accepted their invitation to dinner, much to Myra’s obvious delight. He noticed that her tails were out, which made him wonder if she’d just been hiding them from him at first, or if she was just more comfortable having them out at home. Either way, it was hard not to stare at the fluffy tails.

His inner fluffy-lover screamed at him to tackle those tails and cuddle them close. His more practical side that he had needed to develop, said to reign in his fluffy-loving ways due to him having developed allergies to basically everything with fur as he’d gotten into adulthood. Which then helped him from making a complete fool of himself. As it was, keeping his eyes off her gently swaying tails was about as easy as it was for a cat to ignore a laser pointer.

He’d eventually needed to resort to using [Concentration] to keep his attention on dinner. Which proved to be even harder than he’d anticipated.

For as well as the meal had been prepared and presented, it was… bland. Sure, the individual flavours of the ingredients were there, and fairly prominent in a few cases, but it all lacked… embellishment. Additions to compliment the natural flavours of the food.

The roast had been well prepared, though only cooked to medium-rare. That said, the outside was crispy while the inside was full of juicy goodness. But aside from a bit of salt, there were no other seasonings that he could detect. The veggies were prepared in a similar way, though from the compliments of the addition of butter to them made him think that it wasn’t normally done.

Is butter that expensive here? He silently wondered as he ate. Not that the meal was bad or anything, but it more reminded him of traditional British cooking than anything else. Not to knock their cooking, as he had grown up eating a lot of it. That said, British cooking was famous for not being very… flavourful.

Heck, he remembered how his mother hated adding even garlic to food! Even the chili that she’d made for them growing up had been even below the level of “mild”. After he’d had a taste of spice, really well seasoned food, he’d never gone back.

He could now see why Reldan, Theril, and Myra had been so enthusiastic about his cooking if this was considered “good” here.

While he ate the tiny portions that he served himself, he also took note of the various veggies and anything else he could. If he was going to have to live in Kirkwall, or close enough, he’d likely have to get used to the local ingredients. Perhaps he could even come up with new recipes…?

He brushed those thoughts aside, not wanting to get into the cooking scene. What he really wanted to do was lock himself away and study. Study and practice everything that had been crammed into his head. Practice until he could manifest [Restore Extremity] and get his leg back. Practice until he could use [Psychic Reformation] so that he could learn and use more blade skills and class features of a Soulknife and Soulbolt.

Practice until he was confident that he could raid that damn goblin dungeon and wipe the off the face of the earth… planet.

When dinner was done, he asked to be shown to his room, claiming to be tired from the day. Celys and Nalun whished him a good night while Myra offered, then proceeded to escort him to his room, ignoring her parents’ objections.

Given his condition, he was pleased to find that his room was on the main floor. Once there, Myra paused outside, looking like she wanted to say something. But given how bad he was with people, and probably something heavy if her expression was anything to go by, he quickly thanked her for showing him the way, then retreated into the room as fast as he could hop.

Once inside, he closed the door and heaved a sigh of relief. He didn’t know what she had wanted to say, but he was also reasonably sure that he didn’t want to know what she’d been trying to say. His “social avoidance” senses had been screaming at him, so he’d done what he thought was best for both his comfort zone and his sanity.