“If I go with you to deliver these things, and they discover that I was one of the previous goods too, and want to keep me, what should I do?” Meili asked curiously.
“You can cover your face, like me,” Muli replied.
After a while, Meili asked again: “Then if I run away and one of the goods is missing, they won’t be able to match the count. Maybe they’ll detain us. What should we do then?”
Muli pointed at the magical beast armor tied to the back of the cart and some valuable things from the magical beast’s body, “Use that instead.”
Meili had heard the mercenaries talk about magical beasts being able to sell for a lot of money, enough to make up for her, but this magical beast was killed by Muli. If he compensated for her with that, wouldn’t it be using his things to exchange for her?
If so, how should she repay his kindness?
“Muli, even if you complete this escort mission, that Earl’s family and the auction house that hired the Golden Lion Mercenary Corps won’t honestly hand over the commission to you.”
The money for the hire was given in three parts. After completing the mission, they could get a portion at the destination, and the rest had to be obtained at the auction house in the Holy City of Fields. She had heard the mercenaries complain several times that those people were not straightforward with the payment.
“With only you left in the mercenary corps, the auction house will very likely default or deceive you. Sometimes, people don’t talk reason.” Meili worried herself sick over him possibly not getting the commission.
Who knew that Muli still sat there with his arms folded calmly, coolly saying: “Only those who talk reason with me won’t die.”
Meili: “.…” She recalled every corpse along the way.
She shouldn’t always worry that Muli would be bullied just because his voice sounded tender. In fact, as long as he didn’t want it, probably no one could bully him.
Meili no longer worried about this and that. Compared to a few days ago, she relaxed a lot. Even though she wore a hat and cloak, and only a pair of eyes could be seen clearly, Muli could tell she was very happy.
A mercenary once said this woman’s eyes were like green blades of grass, or some kind of emerald, but he thought this pair of eyes was more like the color of a polar glacier, presenting deep green and light green with the change of seasons.
“You’re very happy?”
“Mm, this is all thanks to you, it’s you who made me happy. I feel like I can start a new kind of life.”
Seeing her gaze fixed on him, Muli once again felt his fur bristle slightly, and he subconsciously leaned back a little, ending the topic.
Besides, he felt that he hadn’t done anything. She clearly became happy all of a sudden on her own.
Their monotonous two-person journey changed at noon that day. They encountered a traveling caravan for the first time. It was a not-small caravan, with its own guards. They were resting under a rare patch of shade, avoiding the scorching sun.
Aside from the bandits who suddenly jumped out, Meili hadn’t seen normal people for quite a while. She was a little curious about this caravan, so she hesitated and asked Muli if they should go rest over there.
Muli glanced at her and nodded.
The arrival of the two-person mercenary corps attracted everyone’s attention.
Just two people, bringing two large, fully-loaded carts of goods, even with magical beast armor, swaggering openly on this road known as the “Bandit’s Road,” this was truly a sight never seen before.
What could two people do? They might be robbed and killed by any random bandit they met.
For them to have made it this far—who knew how much luck they had.
The people in the caravan didn’t drive them away and allowed them to take up a patch of shade.
The caravan leader, greedy for the magical beast armor, instructed one of his subordinates to go probe for information.
Meili examined the big carts of the caravan, wondering what they were selling, when she saw a man walking toward them.
He went straight to Muli and asked with a big grin: “We’re a caravan heading to Oak City. I wonder where you two came from?”
Muli didn’t speak. Meili guessed he didn’t want to reveal his very cute voice in front of strangers, so she answered for him simply: “The Holy City of Fields.”
When the man heard the woman’s voice, he finally turned his head to look at her. His polite smile also tightened, only showing surprise, “Oh, that’s not close at all. Just the two of you? You must have run into a lot of trouble along the way. If you’re willing, you can travel with our caravan.”
He saw the fresh bloodstains beside the carts and thought they must have encountered bandits, and the rest of their group had been killed, leaving only these two who escaped. They were probably scared right now, so they clung to the caravan. This was a good time to profit.
Thinking that, his attitude raised a little, “We’re a business caravan, we can’t protect you for free. How about exchanging the magical beast armor on your cart for our protection?”
Meili looked at Muli and saw him shake his head, so she replied: “We won’t trade that.”
Unexpectedly, they were so direct. The man was a bit displeased, “You’d better think this through. Other than us, there’s no other kind caravan willing to accept and protect two people of unknown origin. No matter how precious that magical beast armor is, it’s useless if you can’t make it to the city alive. Better trade it to protect your lives.”
Meili looked at Muli again and noticed that he hadn’t even moved. She thought he was probably impatient listening to this and might have already closed his eyes to rest.
She had no choice but to handle it herself, “We won’t trade the magical beast armor. I wonder what your caravan sells. Can we trade for sugar?”
The man’s expression turned odd, “You want to trade for sugar?”
Catching the word “sugar,” the round ears inside Muli’s hood twitched a little.
But the man didn’t answer immediately. He turned back and walked toward the caravan.
Meili saw from afar that he stood beside one of the most exquisite and sturdy carriages, speaking to someone inside. After a while, a woman wrapped in a red veil stepped down from that carriage and gracefully walked over.
Meili covered her face with cloth to make herself inconspicuous, but this beautiful woman, wrapped in a veil with her features faintly visible, looked even more alluring.
She also went straight toward Muli, “You want to trade for sugar? Sugar isn’t cheap. Look, a single piece costs one silver coin plus sixty copper coins. This is the finest White Snow Sugar.”
Looking at the sugar cube she took from a small pouch, Meili asked: “Is there cheaper sugar?” She was used to managing a household, calculating carefully to make ends meet. She must ask clearly before buying anything.
The woman gave her eyes a picky glance, and her tone immediately changed, “Only this kind. Take it or leave it.”
Muli had already taken out a pouch of gold coins — those he had taken earlier from the corpses, mostly thanks to the bandits’ contribution.
Seeing that, the woman smiled, “You’re generous. You want the whole pouch? Let me count. Mm, there are thirty-six pieces of sugar. Since you’re buying a lot, I’ll charge a little less. Let’s say six gold coins total.”
Seeing the man nod slightly, she smiled and quickly took six gold coins from the pouch to leave.
But Meili stopped her: “Wait. One piece of sugar costs one silver coin plus sixty copper coins. Thirty-six pieces should be fifty-seven silver coins plus sixty copper coins. You should only take five gold coins, seven silver coins, and sixty copper coins. You took six gold coins, so you should give us back two silver coins and forty copper coins.”
The woman hadn’t expected her to calculate so clearly. She stared in astonishment for a moment, cursed lightly, but still took silver and copper coins from her pocket and tossed them to her, leaving with a sour face.
Meili put the coins back into Muli’s money pouch. Making money wasn’t easy, of course everything must be counted clearly.
She looked at Muli, “You do have quite a bit of money and probably don’t care about this small amount, but I think it’s better not to let people take advantage of you. Once others know they can benefit from you, they’ll keep coming to take advantage.”
This was her experience speaking.
Just looking at how Muli bought things, she could guess that he had probably been taken advantage of many times before.
She couldn’t see the little bear face hidden beneath Muli’s hood. He was staring at her now, his eyes full of awe and surprise. Ever since she casually said exactly how much they should pay, Muli had been stunned.
He had bought things before too, and since he never spoke, only using hand gestures, he couldn’t calculate when told a price, so he always let the other person take however much they wanted… The money always disappeared very quickly.
“I… don’t know how to calculate.” The little bear’s voice was muffled.
Meili took a moment to react before she understood — it wasn’t that he was generous with money, he just couldn’t calculate.
She should have realized. He probably hadn’t been taught these things, and it seemed like he had only recently come out from some desolate place.
She couldn’t help but feel that this tall, big little brother was pitiful. She leaned a bit closer, raised her head and smiled at him, saying: “Then how about I teach you?”
She explained to him: “One gold coin equals ten silver coins, one silver coin equals one hundred copper coins. One piece of candy is one silver coin plus sixty copper coins. Two pieces of candy would be three silver coins and twenty copper coins. You can calculate that, right?”
After a long moment, Muli gently shook his head under the skull-like helmet, then lowered it.
Meili also saw his large palm resting on his knee, unconsciously flexing and curling, grabbing at the fabric of his clothes.
She understood — he couldn’t calculate it.
“It’s okay, we can make it simpler.”
Meili recalled what the mercenaries had said about prices, and gave Muli examples: “Look, a cup of ale is twenty copper coins. Two cups of ale would be how many copper coins?”
Muli still looked at her without making a sound. Although she couldn’t see his eyes, Meili somehow felt that his gaze must be very helpless.
She could only pat his arm comfortingly, “It’s okay, it’s okay. This is too hard. We’ll learn slowly. Let’s start with something easier.”
She raised both her hands, “Look, if one finger is one copper coin, a piece of meat is five copper coins. Two pieces of meat would be how many copper coins?”
With this kind of low-level teaching, Muli finally learned how to calculate within the number of four hands. Because the two of them together only had four hands — more than that, and he wouldn’t have anything left to count with.
Lending both hands to let him learn to count, watching him sit there, using his big fingers to tap her slender fingers while counting back and forth — Meili really wanted to laugh. Afraid that he would get upset if she laughed, she could only hold it in. She needed to think of a way to help him learn properly; otherwise, what if he got cheated again? It was too worrying.
Calculating these things was too difficult. Muli spread his palms and wrinkled his nose.
He had lost his grandfather when he was still a cub who couldn’t even hunt. Later, when he was starving and went out to find food, he was hurt many times and naturally learned to hunt. But counting this… it was far more difficult than hunting.
He wanted to say that he didn’t want to learn, but seeing Meili’s eyes full of expectation and gentleness, he immediately felt his back go numb. He turned his head away and continued staring at his own fingers.
