Chapter 27: Chapter 23: The Price of Man

My attempt to interact with our captive was, so far, quite unfruitful.

 

Our biggest, most substantial achievement was sharing food with him, which we both ate. 

 

Once we convinced the merchant we would not poison him, he proved to be the most cooperative human we met so far, at least comparatively to his extremely aggressive countrymen. 

 

Unlike them, he actually tried to communicate with us.

 

Sadly, it didn’t account for much. 

 

After the two or three hours of intensive, and increasingly desperate, attempts, I wasn’t any closer to understanding the basics of their language any more than I was yesterday. 

 

The method with the pointing and gestures felt easy and straight-forward in theory. It didn’t work nearly as well when applied in practice. At the very least, it didn’t work as fast as the movies lead one to believe. It was slow, irksome, and almost felt like running in circles, with no tangible benefit to it in the short term. It became increasingly clear that I wouldn’t be able to communicate any complex concepts at this pace, further sealing my fate of being trapped in this world. 

 

I won’t be able to say a simple “hello” it seems. 

 

Even the basics like “me” or “you” or “here” or “there” eluded me. Either there were several ways to say something, each time with a slightly different meaning, or I was so horrible with the pronunciation, which confused the other side of the conversation greatly, or the mix of both. 

 

The words like “sky”, “fire” or “tree” were even worse. It was possible we shocked the man, or confused him with the ‘improvements’ Mai did to our surroundings. There was the possibility that several expressions for what I thought would be the same thing existed with the speech, which depended on circumstances and rules I didn’t know. 

 

I planned to not use my monsters’ abilities as the reference to avoid scaring the man. 

 

Tama, however, couldn’t help herself and showed her magic when I tried to figure out the word for “fire”. We learned nothing from that. I guessed he understood it as the threat.  

 

Then the most popular word ever, and probably the only one I truly learned through this tedious endeavour, the “ah-ma”, whatever it meant, I assumed to be the equivalent to “monster”, still seemed to have unknown variations, making me feel quite helpless. 

 

Maybe there was some obscure rule about how they combined words, or their speech was indeed that rich and colourful in descriptions, or I made a terrible linguist. 

 

Either way, I still didn’t know how to say anything.

 

It was possible that we left at least some impression, as all my monsters played along, even if it was mostly for my sake rather than for the human they despised. Perhaps the trader understood there was hierarchy, and thought the titles were in order, but it just muddled an already non-existing conversation. 

 

My patience was running thin, and so was that of my monsters. They were all quite misanthropic in their nature and this was, specifically, an interaction they didn’t like. 

 

We were back in the hut that now made the merchant’s prison. Though he was noticeably wary of us, he seemed to understand the whole situation with armed guards and with him being taken prisoner on fairly human terms. I had no way of knowing if handling captives was traditionally worse or better than we did it. 

 

Language barrier was still insurmountable, it seemed.

 

However, before I was going to decide to call it a day, being forced to rethink the strategy, I was going to try one more thing I already thought of, and didn’t try yet. 

 

“Narita,” I briefly turned to one of my ‘Alphas’ and added: “Would you bring me the money we got from the shrine? If nothing else helps, we can still play at trade.” 

 

“Yes-yes, Master.” The rodent-monster replied enthusiastically, although I assumed it rather came from a willingness to follow my orders than having any liking in humankind.

 

Her smaller kin, though the weakest of my monsters, were soon back with one of the smaller chests I originally wanted to be left behind, but was eventually brought to our current camp. 

 

The two ‘Defilers’, one of the first of her kind after Narita herself, judging from the fact they had outfits, positioned the treasury case so I could see the content. It was full of coins, predominantly silver ones, though some gold was also included. 

 

I wasn’t sure if the trader could guess what I wanted to say, but I had to try - I took the cloak we had from his very stash, placed it in the ground, then pulled it toward myself while placing the ten silver coins in front of the man. 

 

“Ten silver,” I said. While I wasn’t certain all coins had the same denomination, they had some writing on it along with having the hole in the centre, I could at very least guess they were made from the same precious metal and assume it was what really made the basis of their value. Even if they used silver instead of gold, it was still precious metal, and made the logical sense. 

 

He reached for the cloak, though he stopped mid movement, looking somewhere behind me, either at Tama or Miwah, and withdrew his hand. 

 

“Ten silver.” I pointed at the coins. “Ten.”

 

Money seemed to spark his interest. 

 

After trying a few expressions in their language, he tried to speak “Ten.”

 

Since it wasn't hard to pronounce, he managed it without issue, followed by the gesture with the swinging motion of the palm, with one finger raised, which I could only guess stood for “No.” followed by the three fingers raised. 

 

Either it was worth three coins, or he understood multiplications and wanted three times the sum. 

 

I nodded. 

 

Coins I had were essentially worthless if I couldn’t spend them while surrounded by the violent and hostile natives, which made the prize acceptable even if massively overshoot. At this moment, it wasn’t about what the money would buy, but more about the chance to turn the tide of bad luck. 

 

I added ten more same looking coins.

 

“Twenty!” I gestured towards the coins with the open palm. 

 

“Tee-wan-tee” The man couldn’t pronounce it, but he tried, and unlike in the previous situations, he seems to understand the situation. 

 

He gestured with the fist. I blinked in surprise, but figured out this wasn’t a threat. 

 

“Ten,” the merchant insisted, with a few finger gestures: “Ten tee-wen-tee” 

 

I got it. They had hand expressions for numerals. 

 

He understands both summation and multiplication then. If he is indeed a merchant, it was to be expected that he understood basic maths even in situations where the commoners might struggle. He just didn’t know how to say “thirty” and wanted to insist on the full price, I guessed.

 

I added ten more. 

 

“Thirty”

 

“Tee-tee.” The merchant agreed, once again unable to pronounce the word, but evidently trying to use the English expressions instead of his native ones, which signalled the massive progress compared to the pointless exchanges we had just several minutes ago.

 

Undoubtedly satisfied with the transaction, the merchant gathered the money and tried to weigh every single piece in his hand, examine it against the light seeping in through the shoddy walls of the hut, polish it with the cloth he produced from his sleeve. With every single one, he seemed meticulous and visibly had some experience in that regard.

 

“Human-thing doesn’t trust the money isn’t counterfeit, Master.” Narita said, with notable scorn in her voice. She considered it offensive, I guessed. I considered it progress. 

 

“Fairy gold.” I remarked, “Let him. If greed works, we have to use it.”

 

“Yes-yes, Master.” She nodded. Despite everything, she was the one of mine that was the most open to having any ceremony at all, with others getting more restless or bored. Human merchant, however, looked satisfied - he determined the coins were real.

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I considered delegating the learning of communication to Narita later.

 

Mai had to be excused. Her disposition towards humans was so far the most extreme, and I was too used to keeping Miwah and Tama on my side. 

 

Miwah came over, took the cloak I bought, sort of, and put it over my shoulders. It was surprising, but this didn’t alarm the guy as much. She was the large werewolf, after all. I assumed the merchant had some hierarchy or custom in mind, and we did it right by pure accident. 

 

Pleased with the fact I was making progress, I proceeded to ‘buy’ the new clothes we, in fact, looted from the merchant wagon for forty more coins. 

 

While seemingly pointless, since I technically could have the goods for free, it taught an important lesson. It was how I thought of the entire thing after this, as very expensive tutoring. 

 

I confirmed the man could count, and actively try to learn English much easier than I could learn their own tongue, at least when properly motivated, likely by greed. 

 

Even if we didn’t get too far in the whole endeavour, I think we both got a grasp of numerals, which came with some basic expressions. 

 

It was an unusual approach, however, there were results. Shame we didn’t have any writing supplies, no paper, no chalk to write, no suitable surfaces to write on with ash. The merchant in our custody seemed educated, which would have helped, but there was no guarantee that their script was any easier to figure out than their speech. It may also have limited use - in ancient times, very few people could read and write.

 

Still, we have to stop eventually, not to strain the humans too much. At this point, I was more trying to teach him English than learning their tongue myself, hoping I would train the translator, but there was a limit to how far this could go. 

 

I ordered my monsters to carry away the chest, and leave the man alone with the coins he earned. He couldn’t spend them anywhere, being confined to the single hut we designated to be a prison of sorts. 

 

Looking around, my monsters didn’t take the security lightly, several equipped, and probably named monsters played at guards, while ‘Corruptors’ brought the briars from the forest, likely intending to encase the building to prevent the prisoner slipping away. 

 

Question was, could I assign other tasks to them?

 

“Do you think you can handle communication with humans?” I asked my ‘Alphas’. 

 

“We can’t trust them. They have already tried to harm you several times. We must protect you, Master.” Miwah said, hugging me protectively from behind. I was getting used to it. What I was not getting used to was expecting them to sacrifice themselves. I didn’t want them to, even if they came back from the dead. 

 

“Another reason I should rely on you. We speak the same language, anyway.” I answered, “Theirs is gibberish to me, and we might need someone like this guy as the translator.” 

 

“Human-thing will run away with money once he can, Master.” Narita pointed out.

 

I had to agree with that assessment.

 

“It’s still better than nothing.” I replied and hesitantly admitted: “I overestimated my ability to learn the local language. I have to rely on others. I need to rely on you…” 

 

“You can rely on us, always, Master.” Tama added, stepping closer to me, leaning on my side. I was, once again, between her and Miwah, another thing I should probably get used to. 

 

A look at Tama, an almost automatic reaction to the closeness of my vulpine monster. I wanted to reach for her. Or for Miwah. It was bringing my thoughts to something else than the whole language barrier problem. 

 

I was tense. Somewhere inside, I thought I longed for attention from my monsters. I was, however, quite unprepared to accept it. Not now. I shouldn’t, it was...

 

Focus, I reminded myself. There were other, more important issues to address.

 

It inadvertently made me think about the other items we would need, the plants, the tools, and many others, all being something we needed sooner than the communication with the locals could be reliably established with a translator capable of speaking the local tongue, be it the human, or one of my monsters.

 

My experience with the merchant still led me to believe it would take us several days, or rather a few weeks, before we could express what we needed and wanted, leaving us stranded here for the entire time. 

 

There was the risk that the only ‘translator’ we had would run away the moment we got closer to any local settlement. 

 

“Miwah?” I said, still thinking.

 

“Yes, Master?” The female werewolf purred into my ear. I thought I liked her. It still didn’t feel quite right.

 

“Do we have any of the Eviscerators close to human settlement?” 

 

“Yes, Brave, along with the group of ten, is in that pagoda. They will warn us if anyone approaches or deals with attackers. We will keep you safe, Master.” She said, I almost forgot about the little ‘Eviscerator’ named Brave.

 

“Brave, I name thee the protector of the eastern mark!” I said jokingly. It wasn’t, in fact, funny. At least, the system that previously reacted to naming monsters didn’t consider this a valid command. 

 

“It’s southwest, Master.” Narita corrected me, pointing towards the place on the horizon: “Sun sets in this direction.” 

 

“Sorry…” I said, “Still, could you send some Eviscerators to the human settlement, snatching the plants or seeds Mia wants? Perhaps take some metal tools too?” 

 

“Yes, Master!” was the immediate answer. 

 

“Don’t attack anyone. You can go invisible.You can sneak in with no one noticing you.” I instructed. Aware that it was, in the way, the raid I opted against earlier, I quickly added: “Take some coins from here, and leave them behind for humans to find as compensation” 

 

“Yes, Master. It may take less than a day.” 

 

“Excellent.” I said, almost automatically. We weren’t that far away from where the humans lived. After all, we would inevitably run into each other, I said to myself, justifying my decision to poke the natives just a mere day later after we had a rundown with their soldiers. 

 

Perhaps they would abandon their feud with us with the prospect of money, if our captive behaviour was any indicator, but it may be as well that our relationships were forever stained with blood. It would never end.

 

The thought made me shiver. 

 

“At least we will find out if humans sent more soldiers.” I murmured, then realised that the same trader that became so interested in the silver came to this area from a different side of the mountains than the others came from, including the soldiers. 

 

Even the ones we released went in the direction the armed men came from.

 

We were sitting on the road, so important that they even paved it, despite the scarcity of resources in pre-modern societies, and around us was, in fact, a natural border. Dense forests, mountain slopes, a stream feeding into the river.

 

Maybe I was trying to talk to the wrong natives! The people on the other side of that mountain didn’t know we were here. 

 

“What is in that direction?” I pointed in the ravine's direction, toward the stream. 

 

“Wilderness, Master. Runners haven't run into humans yet. But they smelled the fire, so it isn’t entirely devoid of habitation.” Miwah explained. ‘Alphas’ ability to sense their smaller kin over enormous distances was extremely useful, even if it made me doubt my usefulness in the whole arrangement. 

 

“Helmy and the small group went that way, too. They may catch up with the runners.” Tama added.  

 

“They will want to show their love for you too, Master.” The vixen teased. 

 

“Perhaps they can bring you something from the humans there, too?” 

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