Sixth Problem: Reality is not easy or kind
Lutz has a lot to think about in the days his brothers gets to know Myne, Tuuli's recently-recovered sister.
She was originally tiny. Smaller than even him and to think they're the same age.
When she left home for the first time, she looked at the world beyond her house in wonder.
But when it came for foraging, she has more food than anyone else combined her basket is full that she ended up struggling under the weight...and threw up on her first day back.
She has a good sense of foraging that her basket is always full. That they who spent a whole day foraging can't even get as much as she did, so thankfully, she alternates. One basket full of food enough to last four days, she uses the rest of the week for firewood to be fair to everyone else.
The catch?
She was too weak to gather firewood by hand and knife that she climbs up trees, and stomps and kicks branches into breaking, and uses her whole body to lift and bend-till-break the rest. And her basket is full...of broken thick branches and smaller parts, since she really DID break branches. Well, at least that's firewood that'll last long...
No wonder she was often pooped by end of the day and nauseous that her dad has to carry her home when she endures long enough to reach the gate.
As a super-weak person who just recovered from illness, the first few days of physical activity is very hard.
It took her four months to be capable of finally using the knife she has to do things normally.
He didn't have much of an opportunity to talk to her much as a result since he had to help out Ralph. Even though he has a lot of questions to ask.
xxx
Spring was...very fruitful to say the least.
The children are very happy in finding a lot to harvest for daily meals and stuff. That they too, can bring home full baskets as a result.
But it's still Myne's job in harvesting food, Tuuli handles getting firewood.
Tuuli had to remind Myne to get things equally, not all mushrooms.
And since they have new cookware, Myne has something to celebrate about.
She can make other things now.
She scoped up seafood and investigated all ingredients other than fish.
Seaweed exists...with a catch. You need absolutely-boiling water instead of letting it simmer in heat. Nobody thought it CAN be edible so nobody wants it. So she plucks some. It doesn't cost her much energy anyway, and it has minerals needed by the human body. Again at a 100% RDI. she can make it in time for her...autumn mana capacity test her dad told her about, though she's worried due to implications of the orphanage situation and High Priest is trying to fix things.
She didn't have a Tokyo University Ph.D over human darkness for nothing.
She steals seaweed at foraging sessions. Time to have a more savory soup! Just a leaf-sized seaweed she cuts into shape is sufficient to get away with concealing this to her family. By dunking it in boiling water, its dashi is released instantly and the seaweed disappears to nothingness afterward, leaving only dashi behind.
There are other types of fish. She wanted some but it'll be weird if she brought home some. And besides fish is not popular to her family. To them, too troublesome to eat and not filling thus a waste of money. So maybe they'll like shellfish and crustaceans more...but she'll have to buy the easy-to-eat ones. Clams are small enough for pots of stews or oysters...hmmm, oysters are preferable. Bigger, a mouthful and filling.
The cheapest is the freaky-looking ones which are ironically the tastiest and are bar favorites. The most expensive ones are the nicer-looking ones. Nobles! 500 lions a kilogram for the cheapest so maybe if she tries asking her mom for money to try things out on an Earth Day...
Shrimp? Would've been nice if only it wasn't expensive despite their small size. Especially its bigger cousins crayfish, the prawn and lobsters. 1 small silver a kilogram. for shrimp, 4 small silver for crayfish, 6 small silver for prawns and 1 large silver for lobster! Really?!
Squid are more liked by nobles as it looks classy when prepped and cooked. They find octopus creepy, so it's cheap. Ink Craftsmen also buy Octopus Ink from fishermen as material so fishermen 'milk' ink off the creatures before removing all organs, leaving only meat behind for sale. Less mess. Octopus so big and yummy, are only 1000 lions per whole animal. She'll plan on cooking seafood come autumn.
Now, time for Kenchinjiru before she can cook eggs, and vegetable curry now that family money can go a bit far now that they have more condiments, ingredients, tools and equipment to work with. But unless they can keep up, meat is still beyond them. They can't eat fresh meat cooked into dishes and still stuck with processed pork.
Considering where they spent their money on, getting to more foodstuff can wait next year.
But for people with an annual budget of 2 large gold, 6 small gold, 5 large silver and 5 small silver lions, maybe they can afford to eat chicken every dinner next year. A whole bird off of Lutz' Family is 1500 lions. 630000 lions in a year. Affordable. Mr. Al's birds are bigger but also pricier.
Their source of protein, is eggs. Eggs cost 200 lions a dozen. Cheap because it's tasteless, but edible, normally mixed in vegetable soups after being boiled and chopped afterward. Normally eaten boiled, its not like people here imagined that they can be fried, or scrambled. But being an uneducated child of this world, she cannot show off her full prowess.
Annoying. Ah well. Soft-Boileds it is. Humph.
Her focus this spring, was also her summer dress for baptism. She was still smaller than Tuuli due to years of malnutrition her body could not catch up in time for Tuuli's dress, so if she wore her dress, it's an inch wider and longer all around. Cannot trim off due to embroidery work so her dress really has to be made from scratch too. Since she has a LOT of free time, she can work on her dress.
And like Tuuli's dress, it's given away for the next user as not all women, can be ideal beauties of their world.
xxx
On the way home from 'Firewood Day'...
'Myne.'
'What is it?'
'Are you nervous about tomorrow? Tomorrow's our Baptismal Day, right?' Lutz asked her.
'Not really...it simply means I can finally earn money like Tuuli does.' said Myne. 'How about you?'
'I want to be a merchant.' said Lutz. 'You guys sell stuff to Gilberta Corp, right?'
'Yeah, but we're Craftsmen not Merchants.' said Myne. 'To be a merchant, it takes a certain mentality.'
'Mentality?'
'Yup. Because to be a Merchant, you would have to give up your Citizenship when you first start out.' Myne told him. 'When we sold our wares to Miss Corinna at the first Earth Day of spring, I asked about what's being a Merchant like for your sake and my dad was horrified.' she said. 'Mr. Benno, her old brother said that 'only the truly smart ones survive this career, idiots won't'.'
'Eh? Why'd he say that?!' Lutz croaked out, wide-eyed.
'Even in the Merchant's Guild, there's only 50 Merchants in Ehrenfest. Too too small a number for our country.' Myne told him. 'Because at the beginning stage, Merchants become Travel Merchants, and they thus lose their citizenship.'
'What's citizenship?' Lutz asked Myne.
'It's the right that allows you to live in your hometown or home city where you're born.' said Myne. 'We were allowed to live here as children, raised by our parents until we turn seven as by then on our baptism day, we become official citizens of our homeland. Not only that, how you are treated by everyone or what jobs you get depends on whether you have a citizenship or not. Even renting a house is twice as difficult due to lack of trust, as you do not belong there and you lack an identity.'
'They constantly travel, buying goods they feel will sell well from craftsmen and selling those goods to get their money back plus a profit. Thus Merchants and Craftsmen must pair up, selling their wares to Merchants. Dealing with many different places and cultures, so you might accidentally offend people and get you in trouble. Then there's bandits and monsters so you have to be a skilled swordsman too. Thus information is very important. Its a life of constant life-taking risks as you learn on the go. The goal is earning money as number one priority, but acquiring goods and selling goods to make a profit is not easy. And so is a life of constant travel.'
'But eventually, the life of a Travel Merchant wears you down that in order to trade safely in a town, Merchants will have to buy Citizenship from the Temple. Mr. Benno and his brother-in-law Otto paid ten large gold for their citizenship. Each man.' that was to Lutz' horror.
'T-ten large gold?!' he howled in a high-pitched voice at how expensive citizenship is. He can only DREAM of owning that money!
'Yup.' Myne nodded. 'In among 100 merchants, only 5 or less make it big and be rich. The rest are killed by either bandits, monsters, accidents, or offending the wrong people by accident. If they're lucky to live long but stupid, they'll easily get cheated and be left poorer than before.' she continued her tale. 'So that's why its safer being a craftsman. At least craftsmen live in a town while producing goods. Merchants buy from them first before they can sell the products elsewhere...because of that, Craftsmen and Merchants must register at the Merchants Guild and Craftsmen must also register at the Craftsmen's Guild of their trade, thus Craftsmen carries two licenses. If you're not a registered licensed person, you can't sell anything.'
'Oh...' Lutz drooped gloomily. 'Be honest Myne...will I make it?'
'You don't have an education nor training so not even I can determine whether or not you'll make it. You need both before you can even think of starting.' said Myne diplomatically. 'And education is expensive. We're too poor for that...for now, start slow. Try to be a craftsman first if you're serious about this.'
'Sigh...' Lutz was disappointed. It wasn't as easy as he thought it was! 'Well, what sells well?'
'Well, what is high in demand, will sell well and quick...first and foremost being food.' said Myne. 'Farmers sell food. Tailors and Shoemakers sell clothes and shoes, the rich need paper and ink. Those are the basic, but highly-demanded goods of all people be it poor or rich.'
'Riiight...guess I'll ask mom?' Lutz wondered. 'Clothes are expensive...right?'
'Yeah. Why else do we make our own and inherit hand-me-downs from older siblings?' Myne pointed out. 'Well, when you go home, do what I told you to do before coming to my house.' she said. 'You started cleaning your house up, right?'
'Yeah, I did what you told me to do cuz' everyone's working and dad can't help me while he's on the mend.' said Lutz. 'For one whole month at last month of winter, I cleaned nonstop everyday till first month of spring! The floor, everything I can get my hands on...then the rest of spring I started washing my clothes...its not easy as I had no idea everything I own is so dirty I had to do repeated washings!' he moaned as he looked queasy at past memories of doing laundry on his clothes as water every washing was pitch black, gradually turning gray till it's clean...it was hard labor! 'Then this last week before our baptism day I took a bath every day without fail!'
'It's like that at first.' said Myne wryly. 'But its worth it in the end.' she reassured him. 'Clean people get better treatment in apprenticeships, remember that. Tuuli got a 3 silver pay at her apprenticeship because she's clean!'
'Wait, HOW MUCH?!'
xxx
'Hmmm...so you and Myne had that kind of talk.' Carla mused as after dinner, Lutz expressed himself to his parents. 'She's right Lutz. It's why we're so against you being a Merchant even though we don't know much about them, other than going out to travel...and many people don't come back home well or the gates just hear rumors of deaths.' she said anxiously. 'Its indeed safer to be a craftsman. You sell your work to Merchants while still safe at home. It's a win-win situation.' she said encouragingly. 'Looks like Myne's onto something, so I'll teach you at the Tailor's Guild, alright?'
'Yes mom. How are things priced at the market anyway to make some money?' Lutz asked his mom.
'Well, a bolt of fabric I usually make depends on the thread used to make it.' said Carla. 'Most poor folk are assigned to make cheap fabrics that a bolt can go as high as 4 small silver per bolt but for high-class fabrics can go as high as 1 large silver a bolt. Weavers don't make much but its all you got, if you have terrible sewing skills. Those who make clothes or do embroidery typically make better money.' she explained. 'And clothes are in high demand but it takes time to make a complete outfit. It takes two weeks at most for one men's outfit of a shirt, coat and trousers.' she said. 'And that's if you only stopped to eat and sleep.'
'Oh...'
Unknown to them, their cousins through Gunther's Family can easily spam out outfits, being more skilled...