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Chapter 37: Something to Take in Place of Money…

「No money, so we’ll take items instead!」

Uncle Athos and I explained the situation to the chieftains of the Barbar Mercenary Force, but immediately, voices of discontent rose.

「What the hell! That’s not what we were told!」

「Hey! Athos! You said we’d be rolling in profits!」

「Damn it! Let’s just burn this damn castle down!」

Some were already saying dangerous things.

Uncle Athos raised both hands and tried to calm the chieftains.

「Come now, wait! Remember, this happened before, didn’t it? Just like last time, we’ll find something worth money and take it!」

Elders like Uncle Athos had gone on many mercenary campaigns.

It wasn’t unheard of for an employer to not have cash.

Even then, we managed to avoid working for free by collecting 「valuable items.」

One of the older chieftains sighed and spoke in reluctant acceptance.

「Well, guess it can’t be helped. Let’s just find the loot and get it over with.」

The rest of the chieftains followed suit.

「Yeah, guess so…」

「Maybe there’s something…」

「Let’s search!」

We began our search of the castle with Butler Sebastian leading the way.

After a while, Rosso of the Giant Lizard tribe seemed to find something.

「Gaia! Isn’t this gold!?」

Rosso pointed at a golden doorknob.

The chieftains buzzed with excitement at Rosso’s discovery.

「Nice one, Rosso!」

「We finally found something!」

「Woo! We’re rich!」

A doorknob, huh…

Yeah, I mean… it’s gold-colored…

I stared off into the distance, expression blank.

But the truth had to be told to Rosso.

「Rosso! That’s not gold. That’s brass!」

「Huh!? It’s not!?」

「Nope. It’s not gold. It’s a metal called brass, an alloy of copper and zinc. It’s also called ‘yellow copper.’「

「N-No way…!」

Don’t cry, Rosso…

The truth always tastes like bittersweet youth.

Brass is actually a great material, easy to shape, and in Japan, it was even used for five-yen coins.

It also has antibacterial properties, so it’s perfect for doorknobs.

But it’s not a precious metal.

It doesn’t have the same value as gold or silver.

The other chieftains stood with their mouths agape.

「What!? That’s not gold!?」

「Brass… you say!?」

「Yellow copper? But it’s all shiny and gold-looking!」

Ughh!

You bunch of blockheads!

「When you mix copper and zinc, you get this color! That’s why it’s called yellow copper! It’s not worth anything, got it!?」

「「「「「GAAAHHH!」」」」」

「Don’t just shout ‘gahhh’! Move on! Next!」

Rosso, dejected, trudged along behind us, only to perk up and dash ahead again after spotting something.

「Gaia! What about this statue? It’s white, so isn’t it that marble stuff?」

Rosso came back hugging a white statue that looked like a knockoff of Rodin’s The Thinker.

More like The Struggler.

「That’s plaster! It’s worthless!」

「Seriously!?」

Plaster is the stuff used for casts when you break a bone.

If it were marble, it would be a valuable stone, but even then, it’d be too heavy to haul all the way to Barbar territory.

We kept striking out over and over.

Eventually, butler Sebastian started bringing us weird paintings, thinking we Barbar folks were into art.

「This is a painting by the great Anpontan Lawrence!」

「Rejected!」

I shot it down instantly.

No way we’re taking something that incomprehensible.

As the failures piled up and chieftains began to grumble again, Uncle Athos and I decided to take over the search ourselves.

The chieftains, still sleepy, obediently exited the castle.

I turned a sharper tone on Sebastian.

「Sebastian! Is there really nothing else of value?」

「Let me see… How about weapons or armor?」

「Hmmm…」

I made a doubtful noise.

We already had tons of iron weapons.

Plus, the weapons and armor used here in the Ring Kingdom weren’t all that different from our own.

And we’d also looted plenty from Bartlett’s defeated soldiers during last night’s raid.

Weapons and armor just weren’t suitable as payment.

I switched to Barbar tongue and translated Sebastian’s offer to Uncle Athos.

「Uncle Athos, what do you think? Weapons and armor might not be worth it…」

「Indeed… If possible, we’d prefer something else…」

「What about clothing? Lady Margaret’s dresses, maybe? We could have her hand over some of her fancier outfits?」

In this world, clothing has decent value.

There are no factories, so everything is made by hand in limited quantities.

「Not a bad idea… But taking a woman’s clothes would make us Barbar look like savages.」

「Ahh—」

Yeah, that’s true.

If rumors spread that we stripped a mother in front of her child, even exaggerated ones, it’d be a PR nightmare.

As Uncle Athos and I fretted about the lack of options, a voice called from down the hall.

「Sir Gaia! Lord Athos!」

It was our guide, approaching with a man in tow.

The guide continued in Ring Kingdom language.

「This is the Lord of the manor, Viscount Norman.」

「Oh! He’s feeling better now?」

Viscount Norman, supported by the guide, was walking on his own.

His complexion didn’t look bad.

It seemed the costly treatments had paid off.

When he reached us, the Viscount bowed deeply.

「Thank you for your aid in this matter. It seems my wife and son were terribly rude. I apologize. As head of House Norman, I promise you will be paid.」

Uncle Athos and I both breathed a sigh of relief to see a capable person finally step in.

I explained to the Viscount that we’d searched the castle but found nothing of real value.

「I see… My deepest apologies. It appears all funds were indeed used for my medical expenses… Hmm… What to do…」

Even the Viscount had no immediate solution.

At this rate, we were at a standstill.

So I made a new suggestion.

「Do you perhaps have any family heirlooms, ancestral treasure blades, things like that? If you can provide such items as collateral, we would be willing to accept deferred payment.」

「Embarrassing as it is… we have no heirlooms… No, that’s not quite true, we do, but I’m unsure if they would have value to the Barbar.」

「May I see them?」

「Yes. Please, come to my study.」

We followed the Viscount into his study.

He sat in a leather chair behind his desk.

「So, what’s this valuable item?」

「Books.」

The Viscount pointed to a large bookshelf.

It held a massive number of leather-bound books and scrolls.

I hadn’t seen this many books since arriving in this world!

From the perspective of modern Japan, it was about the size of a private home’s library, but here, it was extraordinary.

I could see why he’d call them heirlooms.

I was thrilled, but Uncle Athos made a sour face.

When the Viscount pointed at the bookshelf, Athos seemed to understand, even without knowing the language, that these books were the heirlooms.

「Gaia! Books don’t fill bellies! You can’t even use them as firewood!」

「Wait! Let me check what’s in them!」

Hmm… even Uncle Athos, who’s one of the more intellectual Barbars, doesn’t seem to grasp the value of information.

I approached the shelves and picked books at random, flipping through them one after another.

Some were written in Ring Kingdom language, others in languages I didn’t recognize.

Just when I wished I could understand them, a sudden data download hit, and I nearly fainted.

Thanks to that, even the unknown languages became readable.

「Whew… There’s quite a variety.」

「My great-great-grandfather was a bibliophile. He collected books from across the kingdom and even from abroad, or so I’ve heard.」

「I can believe that.」

The genres were all over the place, some were about mythology, others mathematics.

「Hmm! What’s this…!」

I stopped at one book.

It was a travel journal, a record of trips, gossip, and regional specialties.

What stood out most was the folded map tucked inside.

I unfolded the map onto the table.

It was large, spreading across the entire surface.

While not as accurate as modern Japanese maps, the rough outlines of coastlines, mountains, and forests were drawn clearly.

All hand-drawn, of course.

「Viscount Norman. Please look at this map. Can you tell what’s what?」

I spread the map across his desk.

「Let’s see… This is our Norman Castle.」

He pointed to the base of a peninsula in the center.

He continued explaining.

The entire peninsula was the Norman domain, with ports and fishing villages along the coast.

「This blue area is the Ring Kingdom, and this red is the Vaffancrow Empire. It’s an old map, so the borders are slightly off… The Barbar live around here, yes?」

It was a map centered on the Ring Kingdom.

It showed the shape of our continent, long and horizontal, much like Europe in my previous life.

Our Barbar territory was marked only with forest illustrations.

But it was just north of the Vaffancrow Empire, and this gave me a grasp of how all the nations were situated.

Which means…

It can help us plan our future expansions!

I want this map and the book!

Viscount Norman must’ve seen the look on my face.

He made an offer.

「If you’re interested in those books, I can give them to you as payment. Though not all of them.」

Honestly, I didn’t want the mythology ones.

Nor did I need math books, since I had knowledge from my past life.

For now, the ones I wanted were: the travel journal with the map, a book on magic, and a plant encyclopedia with illustrations.

There were likely other useful books too.

I turned to Uncle Athos for his opinion.

His expression remained doubtful.

「Gaia…」

「Uncle Athos. Information has immense value! If we obtain some of these books, the Barbar will prosper even more!」

「Really?」

I explained my intentions while showing him the map.

At first, he looked skeptical, but gradually, his eyes lit with interest.

「I see… We already have rock salt and bran wood. Now we’ll use these books and the map to rise even further…」

「Yes. If this map is trustworthy…」

I traced my finger across it.

From our Barbar territory, if we headed northeast, we’d reach a large bay.

It might even be an inland sea.

From there, we could reach the open ocean.

「Uncle Athos. If we move northeast through the forests, we’ll reach the sea! The Barbar will gain the ocean!」

「Oooh! Brilliant!」

In the war under the Vaffancrow Empire, we’d ridden on galleys.

If we had ships, we could trade, move troops, and engage on a whole new scale.

Uncle Athos agreed to accept the books as payment.

I turned back to Viscount Norman and gave my decision.

「Then we’ll accept several of these books as our mercenary fee.」

「Very well!」

We smiled and shook hands.