Chapter 31: The Hardship of Interton Village

Yun Que guided Felicia to her dwelling. It was incredibly humble, to the point of being dilapidated.

Inside, the sparse furnishings comprised merely a bed and a table. A wardrobe was conspicuously absent, leading Felicia to gravely suspect that Yun Que owned only the clothes she wore.

The bed itself was devoid of sheets, covered instead with a layer of rough straw.

“…You certainly don’t live an easy life,” Felicia observed.

Her initial impulse had been to blurt out, ‘How can you possibly charge me forty crystals a night for *this* place?’ Yet, after a moment’s consideration, she opted to hold her tongue, refraining from any stinging remarks.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Yun Que said, shrugging her shoulders. She set her back basket aside and settled onto the room’s sole chair to rest. “This village is incredibly poor—so poor that even rats might hesitate to visit.”

“I’m actually doing quite well, comparatively. At least my room is clean.”

“Why is it so impoverished?” Felicia inquired.

“Because it’s so remote,” Yun Que replied. “If you travel forty li directly east from here, you’ll reach a small town called Interton.”

Forty li. It didn’t sound like an insurmountable distance. In the world Felicia had come from, driving that far would take less than half an hour.

However, in this village, the best mode of transport was likely a horse-drawn carriage. Felicia had no idea how long a carriage would take to traverse forty li, but she surmised it wouldn’t be a short journey.

“Being so isolated, many people lived their entire lives from birth without ever leaving the village. That was the situation years ago.”

“Things are slightly better now. Merchants from Interton visit weekly, buying medicinal herbs and firewood from the villagers. It provides them with a meager income, perhaps five thousand crystals a year.”

“…That’s so little.”

Felicia recalled that Yunwu and Yunyu, the sisters who worked as cooks in the castle, each earned fifteen thousand crystals a month. That was their individual salary, meaning together they brought in thirty thousand crystals monthly.

These two sisters earned in a single month what a villager would earn in six years. The sheer disparity stunned Felicia.

Of course, Yunwu and Yunyu’s income was certainly not the average for this world.

Even so, an average income of just over four hundred crystals a month was still far too low.

“If you wish to travel with the merchant caravan into town, it costs one hundred crystals for the fare,” Yun Que continued.

“One hundred crystals? Isn’t that extortion?”

“It is. They’re openly extorting us,” Yun Que nodded. “But we have no recourse against these merchants, as even our survival necessities come from them.”

“Even attempting to walk the forty li to town carries many risks along the way, such as encountering bandits, wild beasts, or even magical creatures.”

“These dangers are often lethal.”

“Your living conditions are truly harsh…” Felicia commented.

“It’s alright. We’ve lived this way for so many years that we’ve grown accustomed to it.”

Yun Que placed the back basket filled with herbs in front of her. She took out a single herb, used a needle to remove something from it, then set the prepared herb on the table.

“What are you doing?” Felicia curiously asked.

“Processing the herbs,” Yun Que answered. “This way, they’ll fetch a better price.”

“With so many herbs, how long will it take you to process them all by yourself?”

“It’s morning now. I’ll likely be done by the afternoon. I can also have dinner before heading into the forest.”

“Into the forest in the afternoon?” Felicia was surprised. “I thought you only went once a day.”

“…I told you, I’ve been a bit short on money lately,” Yun Que stated.

“Why are you short?”

“Are you a walking encyclopedia of ‘whys’? You ask so many questions.” Yun Que rolled her eyes.

She offered no further answers to Felicia’s questions, simply sitting in her chair, silently processing herbs.

Felicia, in turn, asked no more, instead observing Yun Que closely.

Yun Que’s appearance was rather ordinary; her complexion was sallow and her body gaunt. Her clothes were tattered and heavily patched.

Most crucially, Felicia sensed that something was amiss with Yun Que’s condition, though she couldn’t pinpoint what it was.

“Cough, cough.” Yun Que suddenly coughed twice.

“…” Felicia perhaps now understood why Yun Que was short on money. She might be ill.

In this world, to cure an illness, one could seek a priest or nun at a church for healing magic, or visit a clinic for a doctor to prescribe some potions.

However, both seeking divine intervention and medical treatment were quite costly.

Felicia wanted to help Yun Que, but she possessed no healing magic and little money herself.

Two hundred eighty-seven crystals would probably only cover two doses of medicine, making a complete cure impossible.

‘There’s nothing I can do to help.’

With nothing to do, Felicia leaned against the wall and closed her eyes, resting.

****

“Ah… finally finished.” Yun Que stood up, placing all the processed herbs into one back basket, then retrieved an empty one from the corner to fill.

“I’m going to eat now. Are you coming?” Yun Que looked at Felicia, who was on the bed.

“Let’s go.” Felicia instantly appeared before Yun Que.

“Whoa, a ghost!” Yun Que jumped in fright. “I just saw you by the bed, and then in an instant you were in front of me. Do you possess legendary spatial magic?”

“I can’t teleport yet; I’m just very fast.”

“…Then you must not be human. I’ve never seen anyone move that quickly.”

“I don’t have anything extra growing on me, so why would you say I’m not human? Don’t accuse me falsely.”

Felicia had already concealed her non-human characteristics when she moved. Unless someone was significantly stronger than her, they wouldn’t be able to tell she wasn’t human.

“Let’s go.” Yun Que didn’t wish to dwell on the matter.

Yun Que led Felicia out of the room and to the village’s only bakery, where she spent two crystals to buy two loaves of bread.

“Here’s one for you.” Yun Que handed a loaf to Felicia.

“Is this bread a bit hard?” Felicia squeezed the bread, finding it unyielding.

She then crouched down and used the bread in her hand to strike a small pebble. The bread remained perfectly intact, while the pebble shattered.

“Blind student, you’ve discovered the crucial point,” Yun Que uttered, speaking a phrase she didn’t quite understand herself.

“Honestly, I have no idea what their bread is made of; it’s so hard, it could easily be used as a weapon,” Yun Que said, shrugging.

“But it is edible,” Felicia confirmed, biting off a chunk from the other end of the loaf and beginning to chew.

“…” Yun Que was utterly astonished.

“Are your teeth made of steel?”

“Perhaps it’s just that I’m a bit more formidable.”

“Then you have excellent teeth,” Yun Que gave Felicia a thumbs-up. “I could never do that.”

“So, how do you eat this thing?”

“Follow me.”

Yun Que led Felicia to the edge of a small stream. She took out a chipped bowl, filled it with stream water, and then soaked her bread in it.

“So that’s how you solve it,” Felicia remarked.

“I don’t have teeth as good as yours, so I have to find another way, don’t I?”

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