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Volume 2 Chapter 12-4: Commercial City Erin

After that I headed for the outskirts of town where a large goat farm was located.

Once I brought up my desire to purchase some goats the farm boss happily guided me to the sales area.

As expected of Erin, the city had a population surpassing 100,000 and so this large farm had thousands of goats to supply their needs.

「If I do say so, you’re a bit strange to be buying goats at this time of year.」
「It’s because of the time of year that I’ve come to purchase them.」

Normally the time of year you bought goats would be after they had finished their pregnancy and were producing a lot of milk, this would raise their prices. However, since it was now just before winter-time the goat-herd needed to be thinned out so the price dropped by quite a bit.

It became more difficult to obtain food for the goats during the winter and there was a limit to how much goat feed they could store. For that reason they had to either sell, or butcher the goats they couldn’t support.

In Erucy’s case the issue of the goats’ food supply could be solved by releasing them into the forest, but there was no such convenient forest near Erin. Furthermore, it would be fine if they only had 100-200 goats let out to graze, but with these thousands any forest they were released into would be decimated, so it was quite impossible.

「I’d like to buy the goats at these prices. For female goats that have completed their pregnancy I’ll pay 1 gold per head, for male goats I will pay 1 gold per 2. I’d like to buy 90 females and 10 males, altogether it should be around 95 gold. How about it?」
「Sounds good. We’d be perfectly happy if you’d buy at those prices.」

The price I listed was around half the usual market price.

However, during this time it was a great proposal for the boss.

Goat meat wasn’t particularly delicious so even if you butchered them you’d only get around 5 copper for 100 grams of meat. A single goat was around 30 kg and the edible parts made up around 15 kg of it, because of that the price would only reach around 20 silver. Even if you included the hair and the pelt the price would only reach 30 silver.

The dismantling of the goat would take time and effort as well. I appeared here paying a higher price and not requesting them to kill and process the goats so I must’ve seemed like a blessing from god.

「At this price I’d like to choose them as I please.」
「Don’t worry and choose as you wish.」

After receiving permission from the boss I touched goats one after another and used 【Analysis】 to check their age, health, and weight.

I separated the young and healthy goats and led them out of the pen in batches of twenty.

「You look like yer some kinda pro. You picked the ones I wasn’t gonna butcher.」
「I’m not any kind of pro, but it’s pretty obvious which ones are energetic and healthy.」

I said making up a random excuse as I continued my work.

「Well then, here’s the payment. Now these goats are mine.」
「Of course, but how’re ya gonna move them?」

The boss said looking at me doubtfully.

「Well, I’ve got a bit of a secret magic. If you watched I’d be a bit troubled so go to sleep for a bit.」

I said and instantly smacked his chin to knock him out.

After confirming the boss was out cold I activated my magic.

「Liberate me my soul. Let a miracle beyond time descend upon me here…」

It’d been a while since I used 【Samsara Recursion】 and my soul burned passionately.

「I desire the Noble and Virtuous Knight from a Vainglorious World, His name is……」

A name from my past, a very nostalgic name which I called out clearly.

「Deet! 【Samsara Recursion】!」

At that instant my body morphed and was covered in heavy knight’s armor.

The reason I had called upon Deet was to use 【Item Box】.

However, the box had two limits. Firstly I could only fit around 4,000kg of stuff inside, and secondly I could not place living things within it.

Naturally, since the goats were alive I was unable to place them inside 【Item Box】.

However, I did have one loophole I could exploit.

「Sorry about this. 【Electrical Signal Enhancement】」

I let my magic flow into the goats through my hands and focused the electrical current on its heart.

「Meeeee~!」

The goat’s eyes rolled up and it fainted. Its heart had stopped.

I immediately stuffed it into my 【Item Box】.

「If they’re in a state of apparent death then they can be placed inside.」

Indeed this was the loophole of 【Item Box】. If the creature’s heart had stopped then it could be placed inside.

Furthermore, once something was placed inside the box it would remain in suspended animation.

If it was quickly treated and its heart was made to beat again immediately upon being removed from the box it could be simply revived. With this one method I could easily transport living things.

I continued this process with each of the goats and stored them all away.

As each goat weighed around 30kg after storing 100 of them I was left with less than 1 ton of storage space.

Unfortunately this left over space would most likely not be enough to carry the food and clothing back to Erucy…so I would have to make a secret trip back home tonight and drop them off.

I undid 【Samsara Recursion】 and turned back into Cyril.

「Oji-san please get up.」

I shook the unconscious boss awake.

「H-huh…what was I?」
「You suddenly collapsed. I was really surprised.」
「Really? Sorry about that.」

The boss blankly looked around.

「The goats…where did the goats you bought go? They disappeared.」
「It’s fine. My friends came and took them away.」
「I see, then that’s fine. Thank you for your patronage.」
「Of course, thanks for the good deal. It was a fruitful transaction.」

After parting with the boss I headed back into the city.

It took a bit more time than I expected so I decided to push the grocery shopping off til tomorrow. Instead I headed off to meet up with the girls.

First I stopped by the clothes shop, but they had already left after choosing some good clothing. As expected of my beloved women.

Upon returning to the inn I approached our room and could hear them moving about inside.

It was Lucy and Kuu. I felt relieved that they were safe.

「Welcome back Cyril.」
「You’re so slow! We’ve been waiting.」

They sounded like they were in a good mood. I wonder if something good happened?

「Sorry I was searching for the best goats I could find so it took a little longer than I thought.」
「Is that so? Thank you for your efforts Cyril-kun.」

Kuu said her thanks and praised me. It brightened my mood a bit.

「Okay then Cyril. After we finished picking clothes, we went out into the town and used that money you gave us.」
「That’s nice. Did you buy something good?」
「We’re not sure.」
「You’re not sure?」
「Yup, not sure.」

Lucy and Kuu exchanged glances and smiled.

「That’s right. If we don’t show it to you then we won’t know if we bought something good.」

I felt quite confused at the moment.

「Cyril accept this present from the both of us.」
「Honestly we were going to buy separate gifts, but when we saw this we thought it would suit you and we didn’t have enough money separately. That’s why we decided to buy it together. We thought this would also be the best way to show you that we were getting along as well.」

Lucy said and pulled out a wrapped up box.

I took it and unwrapped the box to find a pocket watch inside.

It was a rare item in this time period. A silver pocket watch with a nice chain attached to it.

「Thank you for everything Cyril.」
「We’re really grateful for all you do Cyril-kun.」

Their grateful words pierced my chest.

PICTURE

I had truly been uneasy and filled with fear that they secretly disliked me now because I tried to have it both ways in my relationship with them. In the back of my mind I had constantly questioned whether I had ruined their friendship or harmed our relationship. But this helped dispel these horrid thoughts from my mind.

「….even though I said you could buy whatever you wanted…」
「We wanted to make you happy Cyril. So we bought this for you.」
「That’s right. If Cyril-kun likes the present then it was a good purchase, if you don’t then it’s a bad one. How is it?」

I could feel a warmth gathering in my chest.

Tears began to cloud my vision.

「This is the best. I dunno…I’m…I’m really happy. I can’t say how much….I love you both so much!!」

I said passionately and gathered them into my arms and hugged them fiercely as we all fell onto the bed.

「Kya! Cyril what’s this all of a sudden?」
「Umm, uhh, maybe we impassioned him a bit too much.」

They protested a bit but neither of them tried to escape my hug.

I simply hugged them close and enjoyed the warmth overflowing in my heart.