“Gah, I can’t believe you! I’m going to sell these somewhere else!”
The girl grabbed the handle of her pushcart, a large bag still inside it, and made her way toward the exit in a huff. Lahki picked up a sweet, familiar scent as she walked past.
“Yer not gonna find a buyer all on your own, li’l lady! Come back here and sell it at the offered price!” The man yelled after the girl as she left, but she ignored him, not even glancing back on her way out.
Lahki, who had watched the entire exchange, chased after the girl. It didn’t take him long to find her. She looked utterly dejected.
“Hey, girl. Do you have a moment?”
She turned a suspicious eye toward Lahki, hiding the large bag behind her back. “Who? Me?”
“Ah, excuse my manners. I’m Lahki, a merchant. And you are…?”
“My name’s Marca. Do you need something?”
Lahki spoke to the girl in a soft voice, despite her rather curt response. “That item you’ve got there… Is that kobumi by chance?”
Marca’s eyes went wide. “You know about kobumi?”
“Well, it has a pretty unique scent. Would you mind letting me look in the bag? I’d be interested in buying it if the quality’s right.”
After letting Lahki’s words soak in, Marca opened the bag and showed it to him. Lahki thanked her, picked up the bag, and looked inside. As soon as the bag’s flap opened, his nose was filled with the familiar scent. Inside, the flowers were half dried. He plucked one out to check its quality; it seemed good. Satisfied, Lahki nodded and hefted the bag again to check its weight.
“Considering the quality and weight…how does thirty gold coins sound?”
“Th-thirty gold coins? Whoooa!” the girl yelled out, before she even knew what she was saying. Lahki quickly put his hand over her mouth.
Her surprise was only natural. As a girl living out in one of the villages, her household expenses probably didn’t exceed even three gold coins a month.
Lahki took his hand off her mouth and put a finger to his lips.
Marca nodded, speaking just above a whisper. “Is that really okay? That’s so much money.”
Lahki replied nonchalantly. “Of course. If I take this down to the capital, I’ll turn quite a profit.”
“If you’re a merchant, do you know what type of illness the kobumi heals? No one back in the village will tell me, though they say they don’t need it there.”
“It’s not exactly used for an illness. More like a…preventative measure? But yeah, I imagine you don’t really need it in a village.” Lahki wasn’t quite sure how to answer. That was the best he could do.
Marca stuck out her lower lip and pouted. “You adults are all the same! Fine, I’ll sell it to you for thirty. Now hurry up before I change my mind!”
Lahki smiled as he counted out thirty gold coins, put them in a small bag, and handed them to the girl. After checking to make sure they were all there and sliding the bag into her clothes, she looked much more cheerful.
“Thanks, mister! Good luck selling it all!”
Marca waved excitedly before dashing off. Lahki threw the bag of kobumi over his shoulder and headed back to the cart.
Behl and Rea were lying in the bed of the cart, bored out of their minds. Rea caught sight of Lahki first and called out to him.
“Welcome back! That was faster than I… Hey, what’s that sweet smell?”
“Oh, that’s kobumi. It’s used for medicines.”
He showed them the bag he’d bought from Marca, recounting the exchange.
“That merchant guild guy was a real jerk. But still, I can’t believe you spent that much… Just what type of medicine does it make?” Behl took the bag and looked inside, tilting his head in confusion.
“The kobumi blossom is used to make contraceptives. It can also be used to induce abortions.”
“Contraceptives… Really? Wow, I never knew that. But I guess it makes sense that villages would have no need for them.”
“Haha, yup! Having a bunch of kids is pretty much part and parcel of village life.”
The three of them had all come from the same small village, making this type of medicine all the more interesting to them.
“Contraceptives… Now those have gotta fetch a ton of money.”
“Yup. Brothels use them, and I hear even some nobles do, too. We’d make an absolute killing if we could sell them in the empire.”
Rea looked confused by this. “Do kobumi blossoms not grow in the empire?”
Lahki shook his head. “They don’t grow at all up north, but that’s not why you can sell them for so much. Have you ever heard of the Hilk?”
Behl puffed out his chest. “Nope!”
Rea looked at him through half-lidded eyes, wracking her mind for all of the information she could remember about the Hilk.
“They’re the ones proselytizing across the entire northern continent, right? I’ve never been there before, but I know they’ve got shrines—churches?—dedicated to fire gods, water gods, and more all across Rhoden.”
“That’s right. The Hilk religion teaches that there is an all-knowing, all-powerful god that created all people. Beyond the port of Bulgoh, it’s been spreading out to the west of the Hilk Kingdom.”
“Must be lonely to be a god without any friends.” Behl looked sympathetic. Of course, if a Hilk practitioner had heard him, there’d be no end to the lecture he’d receive.
“The Hilk teachings forbid abortions, and since Hilk is the state religion of the entire empire… Well, you know. It’s forbidden even to have kobumi out in public. But there’s a huge demand for it, so you can sell it at exorbitant prices.”
Lahki’s friends listened intently to his story, though Behl didn’t really catch most of what he was saying. Behl nodded along all the same. “So, we’re going to the empire to sell the kobumi?”
“Gah, are you stupid or something? Lahki was just talking about how it’s forbidden. If they caught him, they’d take off his head for sure!”
Lahki laughed at the all-too-familiar interaction. “I figure we’ll head to the capital, where we can still sell it for a ton of money. I need more information about the route, so I want you two to stay with the cart.”
He left the sack of kobumi with Rea and made his way back to the merchant guild office, his mind already focused on how they were going to get to the capital.