Lord of Rot

But she didn’t mind this life of freedom. ’No matter how hard it was, it had to be better than being a slave... right?’

Blacksmiths, tailors, carpenters, Alchemists, and so on.

Further in was the vegetable market.

Guards patrolled the area.

But as dusk approached, most people were packing up to go home. Few remained.

”How much is this?” Little Antelope walked up to the stall of a very frail-looking young man. He didn’t sound like one of the Porcupine People; he spoke with an accent from somewhere else.

Not that Little Antelope didn’t have an accent of her own.

The young man looked where she was pointing—at a sea fish. ”Three copper stars. It took me a lot of effort to catch this one.”

Little Antelope shook her head. As much as she wanted to eat some meat, spending three copper stars on a single fish was out of the question.

”Two copper stars!” the young man said.

”I’ll... look around a bit more,” she said, gesturing to the other stalls.

It was a common polite refusal, and the young man didn’t press the sale.

She browsed a few more stalls, realizing that many of the vendors had simply heard that merchants made good money and decided to try their hand at it, despite having no real experience in trade.

The goods they sold were a motley collection: sour wild fruits, fish scavenged from the seashore, and home-grown vegetables like radishes and cabbages.

Life in Porcupine Territory was just starting to improve. People were happy to spend a little money on good food, but no one was willing to pay a high price.

This created a situation where sellers wanted to earn more, and buyers wanted to pay less.

After looking around, a vague idea began to form in Little Antelope’s mind. She finished her bread on the walk home, gave herself a quick wash to rinse off the summer heat, and went to bed.

「The next morning」

She still went to help move the hay, but instead of going to work at the brick kiln afterward, she headed straight to the vegetable market.

By the time the sun was up, the market was already bustling with people.

People wanted to buy fresh vegetables. Even a dead fish seemed fresh if it was brought to market in the morning. In contrast, by evening, even if a fish’s gills were still moving, customers would assume it had been out of the water for too long and was no longer fresh.

Morning was the best time for business.

The vegetable market was divided into several sections.

Other than the butcher shops, which were managed directly by the castle, the other areas weren’t clearly defined.

She spent the entire morning observing.

Meat was the most popular item. Now that life was better, everyone could afford meat. Even buying just a tiny piece to put in their porridge could add a savory, meaty flavor.

Besides that, the fruit sellers were also doing well. In the hot summer, one could spend a copper star on two large fruits, which could serve as a meal and also satisfy a craving for something sweet.

The vegetable business was much slower. It wasn’t that the vegetables weren’t selling, but the customers were sporadic. People just weren’t that enthusiastic about them.

She noticed an old farmer with a worried expression, sitting by a basket of cabbages.

”Are you not feeling well?” Little Antelope asked as she approached.

”Sigh.”

The old farmer shook his head. ”It’s my wife. She’s sick and needs money for medicine. Selling this basket of cabbages should be enough, but they’re selling too slowly.”

”How much do you expect to make from these cabbages?” she asked curiously.

”About ten copper stars,” the old farmer said, a bit uncertain. ”They were all freshly picked today.”

”Seven copper stars,” Little Antelope said. ”If you agree, I can give you the money right now. You won’t have to sit here worrying.”

”You want to buy all of them?” the old farmer asked, surprised.

Little Antelope replied, ”You’re the only one selling cabbages in the market, but you’ll have to spend the whole day here. If you let me sell them, you can go home to tend your garden, and you’ll get the money for your wife’s medicine much faster.”

’It wasn’t that she wanted to lowball him; she only had seven copper stars. If that was below the old farmer’s bottom line, there was nothing she could do.’

”Alright!”

The old farmer nodded. ”These cabbages are yours!”

The deal was done. The old farmer took his basket, and Little Antelope took his place at the stall.

’This was an opportunity,’ she thought. ’If I sell them for at least one copper star each, thirteen cabbages will earn me thirteen copper stars. That’s a profit of six copper stars, which is more than I make in a day at the brick kiln.’

Customers trickled by. Some would ask a question or two, and a few would actually stop and buy a cabbage. By the time dusk settled, she still had nine cabbages left.

’I can’t possibly take these four home,’ she thought, then copied the other vendors, shouting, ”One copper star for two cabbages! Last four left!”

Hearing that one copper star could buy two cabbages, a farmer’s wife immediately walked over.

”How about three for one copper star?” Before Little Antelope could answer, the woman pointed at the cabbages. ”Look, this spot here has been eaten by bugs. And they’ve been sitting out all day, so they’re wilted. You’ll definitely have to peel off the outer layer at home.”

”Fine!” Little Antelope agreed through gritted teeth. The market was emptying out fast.

She had spent seven copper stars on the cabbages and earned ten, with one cabbage left over.

Little Antelope carried the last cabbage home. Although her profit was only half of the six copper stars she’d hoped for, this taste of business gave her hope—the hope of earning even more money!

For dinner, she traded her cabbage for more than half a loaf of bread from another serf.

After chugging some water, she went to bed.

「At dawn the next day」

Little Antelope was out early again. She moved the hay, collected her breakfast, and then went straight to the market.

She spotted a pregnant farmer woman selling beets. A boy of about ten was beside her, helping unload them.

Little Antelope walked over.

”How much are the beets?”

”One copper star for two.”

A quick glance told her there were over twenty beets, freshly pulled and still dotted with dew and dirt.

”I’ll take all of them, but at a rate of five for two copper stars.”

She used the same line of reasoning: a person who wasn’t feeling well might sit here all day and not sell everything, so it was better to take the money now and go home to rest. Her luck held, and she successfully persuaded the woman.

”Will you be buying beets again in the future?” the pregnant farmer woman asked.

”I’ll have to see how well they sell,” Little Antelope answered.

The pregnant farmer woman said, ”Everyone loves the soup made from our beets, but I’m just not feeling well enough to stay out here.”

She’d earn two or three fewer copper stars on the twenty-odd beets, but when she thought about the subsidy the lord gave to pregnant families, the small loss didn’t seem like a big deal.

Little Antelope, however, didn’t rashly agree. She just said she would be back tomorrow. Business was good that day; after deducting the cost of the beets, she had earned five copper stars. The woman who’d gotten a bargain from her the day before came back, but Little Antelope refused her offer to buy the last four or five beets for a single copper star.

She would rather eat them herself.

In the end, the woman had to pay two copper stars.

Her total earnings for the day: seven copper stars!

「The third day.」

She bought the beets and also the old farmer’s cabbages. With produce from two suppliers, her stall was now one of the larger ones in the market.

Before long, a customer came to her stall.

”How much for the beets?”

Little Antelope replied, ”One copper star for two.”

”They’re not all the same size,” the customer grumbled.

”The smaller and blemished ones are cheaper,” Little Antelope said. ”Three for one copper star.”

’She didn’t know what the farmer woman had been thinking, but she had indeed received a few blemished beets in the batch—only three, but still.’

”I’ll take them all,” the customer said, happily taking out his money. ”And the cabbages?”

”One copper star each.”

”Actually, my family can’t eat that many beets,” the customer said.

Little Antelope pretended not to hear. ’Can’t eat them but you still bought three?’

Selling two types of vegetables together, she sold out much faster than the day before. Some of yesterday’s customers even came back looking for her.

’The cabbages are good, but some of the beets are blemished,’ she noted to herself. ’Tomorrow, I can push for a lower price, or just stop buying from her altogether.’

That day, Little Antelope earned nine copper stars.

「Another day.」

Little Antelope didn’t pay immediately. Instead, she sorted through the beets and picked out the blemished ones.

The pregnant farmer woman wasn’t embarrassed at all. ”Oh, I didn’t notice. My son must have accidentally packed those in.”

”You can either take the blemished ones with you,” Little Antelope said, ”or sell them to me at a rate of five for one copper star.”

The farmer woman was used to selling her vegetables quickly and heading home to rest. Since they were just the blemished ones that she wouldn’t be able to sell anyway, she readily agreed to the price.

’Even blemished vegetables could be sold, as long as the price was low enough.’

She earned thirteen copper stars that day.

Once she had some savings, Little Antelope immediately sought out the wild fruit sellers and used the same method to buy up their entire stock.

She discovered that the more variety she offered, the longer people liked to linger at her stall.

Some who finished buying one type of vegetable would then hesitate before buying another.

She started earning more and more money. She even arranged fixed prices with many of the farmers, and her business continued to grow.