By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 4 - Chapter 20

Chapter 3 Episode 20: The Magic Item Market 2

“You there, adventurer!” a merchant shouted out, trying to draw people in. “What do you think of this quiver? It may look like any old quiver, but far from it. It’s enchanted with the Item Box spell, allowing it to hold up to three-hundred arrows! With this, you’ll never have to worry about running out of arrows while hunting! What’s that, you say? Wouldn’t you be all out after three-hundred? You don’t need to go hunting for that long, do you? If you can’t catch a single thing with three-hundred arrows, you better give up on archery!”

“How much does it cost?” asked a man who appeared to be an adventurer.

“You can have it for as little as two-hundred-thousand sute!” As soon as the price was announced, customers started to leave.

“That sounds a little too expensive,” I said. “What do you think?”

“I wouldn’t say it’s that excessive,” Serge replied. “Creating magic items requires the craftsman to know both enchanting magic and the spell that they would like to enchant their item with. That is to say that a craftsman can’t enchant items with spells they don’t know. Space magic is among the most difficult types of elemental magic to learn, so few magic item craftsmen can enchant their items with it, and those items go for a high price. But that quiver, much like the farming tools you purchased, will last for months or years. It may feel expensive at first, but if you take good care of your magic items, they’ll prove their worth.”

“I see.”

“Hey, kid, you interested in magic?” a man from another store said. “We’ve got some good stuff.”

“What are these?” I asked. His store had bundles of books tied together with string that were sold as a set with metal sticks. There were tones of them.

“These magic items are for education purposes,” Serge explained. “You can get a feel for a spell by using the magic item and the book that comes with it to help you learn. However, these don’t appear to be published by the magic guild.”

“I swear they’re not illegal,” the man claimed.

“I know that creating and selling your own teaching tools isn’t illegal. But if the guild hasn’t approved your work, then it’s difficult to trust you, I’m afraid. I have no way of knowing whether your books have proper lessons, or if your magic items function as intended. If I could test your items and check your books before buying, of course, that would be different.”

“No, you can’t! Pay first if you want to read.”

“Then this isn’t worth discussing. Let’s go, Master Ryoma.”

“There are certainly a lot of different stores, good and bad,” I said.

“Indeed. That makes it all the more exciting to find quality goods. Oh, Master Ryoma, look over there.” I turned and saw Dinome. He was under a fairly large tent, giving instructions to his daughter and a man who I presumed to be his disciple. “Shall we go say hello and continue yesterday’s discussion?”

“Isn’t he busy?”

“It doesn’t look like it. See?”

“Oh, yeah.” On closer inspection, I saw a small child clinging to his leg. Once he was done giving instructions, he sat on a wooden box and began to stroke the child’s head, an adoring look on his face. “That’s his grandson, Fedele, right? I guess he’s letting his family handle customers for him. Won’t he get mad if we interrupt this too, though?”

“He isn’t that petty. It’s about work, I’m sure it will be fine. He will generally listen to you as long as he’s not in the middle of work. More importantly, Master Ryoma, I believe you can use barrier magic to block out sound. May I ask that you cast that?”

“Of course.” This involved me, so I had no reason to refuse.

When we headed toward the tent, the disciple noticed us and bowed. “Pops! Serge is here!” he said.

“Hm? Well, if it isn’t Serge and Ryoma?!” Dinome greeted us jovially. “Good to see you. Look, this is Fedele, the grandson I told you about yesterday. What do you think of him?”

“Hello, I’m Ryoma,” I said to the small boy.

“Ryoma?” he repeated, unsure of what to make of me.

“He’s adorable.”

“Right?!” Dinome agreed. “But he’s got this sharp look in his eyes.”

“Dinome, we can see that your grandson is cute. You don’t need to tell us,” Serge said. “There is actually something that we’d like to discuss.”

“Oh? You should’ve said so sooner. Come with me.” Dinome led us to some chairs in a corner of the tent. They were probably using it as a rest spot. It wasn’t that spacious, but it seemed good enough for us to chat in.

“Uh, what is it?” I asked Fedele, who was clinging to my clothes for some reason.

“Ryoma, can we play?” he requested sweetly.

“Oh, looks like Fedele likes you,” Dinome said.

“Can we play?”

I turned to Serge for his thoughts. “I suppose I can handle this discussion myself. Go play with the boy,” he said.

“Dinome, you wouldn’t mind?” I asked.

“You’ll probably just be bored here anyway,” he said. When it came to negotiations, leaving everything to Serge would likely turn out fine. I just did as discussed earlier and put up a soundproof barrier.

“You can use barrier magic?” Dinome asked me.

“Yes, and now nobody outside will hear you speak. I’ll be playing with Fedele, so take care of business here, please,” I said. Dinome was a bit shocked as I walked outside the barrier with Fedele. Which was actually still inside the tent. “Now, what do you want to do?”

“Let’s play the word chain game!” Fedele proposed. “I’ll start with ‘item,’ so you need a word that starts with the letter M.” It sounded like the rules were the same as on Earth. I played along until eventually he lost. “Darn! Let’s play again! Starting with the letter M again!”

“All right!”

At some point, I started to wonder how long I’d have to play this game for. I tried to win only one in three matches, but I was on my fifteenth win. I wasn’t keeping track, but we had to have played over forty games total. It had been something like two hours. Most of the words we used now were used in previous games. At least it looked like he was having fun.

“Thank you for looking after him for me. Here’s something for you,” Dinome’s daughter said and handed me a drink. I thanked her and gulped some down. The cold fruit juice quenched my thirst.

“Ryoma, say a word that starts with M.”

“That’s enough, Fedele. Ryoma needs a break,” the daughter said, chiding her child.

“I’m fine,” I said. After having that drink, I felt like I could keep going for a while.

“Really? You’re not bored? My dad would be delighted, but you don’t have to keep playing along.”

I couldn’t hear Serge or Dinome due to the barrier, but they looked over at us sometimes. I wondered if the negotiations were difficult. I didn’t want to interrupt them with anything.

“Ryoma, M!” Fedele screamed.

“Right. ‘Mischief.’”

“’Fedele.’” Apparently you were allowed to use your own name. This went on for another three matches. “Next! Start with M again!”

“You really love this game, huh?”

“Not really.”

“What? You don’t like it?”

“I don’t not like it, but I don’t love it.”

“Uh, is there something you’d rather do, then?”

“I wanna go outside! But they say I’m not allowed to go by myself. And I don’t have any toys, so what else can I do?!” He was enjoying it so much that I just assumed he loved the game, but evidently not. I should have asked sooner.

“Want to play a different game?”

“Yeah!” That was a great response, considering I hadn’t even described the game yet.

“Excuse me, do you mind if I borrow this trash can?” I asked his mother.

“This? Go ahead.”

“Thank you.”

I took a cloth out of my Item Box and stretched it over the top of the cylindrical trash can, then set it in place with string.

“What’s this for?” Fedele asked.

“This is the playing field. Have you ever heard of a game called beigoma?” Beigoma is a game where both players spin a top on a playing field like this and try to knock the other player’s top out. Most people in Japan would at least know the name, but I didn’t know if the children in this world were aware of the game. Some children in Japan nowadays wouldn’t know about it either, but back when I was a kid, it was still popular. The actual tops were supposed to be made of lead, but I made mine while I was creating magic items yesterday, so I used the iron I had on hand. I had two tops, and two strings to spin them with. When I took them out of my Item Box and set them on the playing field, Fedele stared at them closely. He didn’t seem to know what they were, but he was interested. “Here’s how it works. Watch this!”

“Oh!” Fedele cried. It had been a while since I played, but I still remembered how to spin the tops thanks to muscle memory. My top traveled in circles over the playing field as it slowly approached the center. “It spun!”

“Do you want to try, Fedele? I can teach you how to do it.”

“Yeah! I wanna learn!”

“Then first, you need to learn how to wrap the string around the top properly.” I taught him the most basic method of doing it, but it was still too hard for a four-year-old. He kept messing it up, so I handed him one with the string wrapped around it already before he got bored. “Here’s how you unleash it!”

“Lemme try! Oops.”

“You need to pull a little harder.” I stood between him and the store so he wouldn’t accidentally send a top flying into something. Then we practiced until Serge and Dinome exited the barrier and approached us.

“I’m sorry we took so long,” Serge said.

“Fedele! Grandpa’s done with work!” Dinome proclaimed.

“Serge, how did it go?” I asked.

“It went fine,” he said. “Dinome accepted the conditions we discussed last night.”

“I see. Thank you, Serge. You too, Dinome.”

“No problem,” Dinome said. “We’ll make some money, and you won’t have quite so much work to do. Seems fair to me, but we won’t know who’s getting the better deal until we know how this thing sells. If you ever want to ask about magic items, I’m available unless I’m busy with work. Come stop by my store when you need to.”

“Grampa, spin this!” Fedele demanded.

“Oh? What the heck is this? You know, Serge?”

“It looks like a tornero, but I’m not certain,” Serge said.

“It’s called a beigoma,” I corrected him. “What’s a tornero?”

“It’s a similar toy but bigger, made of wood, and with a stick sticking out of the middle. To play with it, you hold the stick with both hands and spin it like this.” Serge gestured like he was spinning a bamboo-copter.

“The way you use this is you wrap a string around this part, then let it rip! Like this.”

“It does seem like a type of tornero to me. Some regions have vastly different types. Is this from your homeland?”

“Yes.”

“I suppose this is how they are in the Sea of Trees, then.”

“Spin it!” Fedele cried.

“Sure thing,” Dinome said. “Ryoma, is this what you’re supposed to do with the string?”

“Looks good,” I said.

“And this is how you spin it?!”

“Oh, yes.”

“It spun!” Fedele shouted. The top spun around on the playing field.

“Did you already know about beigoma, Dinome?” I asked.

“Nah, I just watched you do this a minute ago. That’s all I need to figure out a simple toy like this!”

“Grampa, you’re so awesome!”

“Oh yeah? Thanks!”

I thought it was impressive too, but his grandson’s praise immediately made him bashful. I decided I might as well let them have the tops.

“You sure we can take these?” Dinome asked.

“Yes, you can teach Fedele how to play with them. Once you’re both able to do it, you can play together by unleashing both your tops at once and letting them clash. You want to play with your grandpa, don’t you, Fedele?”

“Yeah!”

“I gotcha!” Dinome said. “Then I’ll take them, thanks. Don’t know if this’ll be enough to repay you, but do you have plans tonight?”

“Not really.”

“Well, we’re celebrating after the market closes today. You two can come on over if you feel like it.”

We were going to be working with each other for a while, so I decided it would be best to take his offer. Thus, I gained a connection with a magic item craftsman.