The Chair’s Deal

The rainstorm covered the entire forest. Normally, living things would be eaten alive when exposed to the falling acid; however, they often happened around here, so most of the plants learned to adapt. The trees and grass slowly turned a yellow, sickly color, absorbing the rain as nutrients. The top few layers of the trees’ trunks sloshed off, shedding their skin. Basically, the place had transformed into a yellow swamp.

As more time passed, Ai’s makeshift vine-mobile turned into a raft – the ground reached its capacity to absorb the acid. Rufus was still in pain, but after an hour and a few healing potions, the acid had diluted enough to allow his wound to slowly close. He still couldn’t use his right arm, but it was progress nonetheless. Aster kept watch over our surroundings, furrowing her brow.

“What’s going on?” I asked absentmindedly.

“Mana sense isn’t working right.”

I chose to give an innocuous answer. “Is that so…” Rainstorms were infused with mana, so what did she expect? I only knew a few people that could sense mana in a rainstorm, and they were all B-ranks or higher. Technically, rainstorms occurred when there was an abundance of mana, providing a variety of effects. However, most of the time, it rained acid.

“Well yeah, rainstorms are caused by mana influx. It’s going to be difficult to sense anything until it calms down.” Ai knew the answer too, apparently. But what in the world was mana influx?

“How do you know that?”

“It was one of the many dead ends I traversed trying to improve my plant magic.” So she was a researcher then. I hadn’t heard of her. Actually, that did remind me of something…

“Hey Emma, you said your village specialized in plants right?”

Emma’s shoulders jumped; she hadn’t expected me to strike up a conversation. “F-flora, but yes.”

“Does that mean you know what Ai is?”

“Hey! Don’t treat me like a regular plant! I am clearly human! Just look at me!” I shrugged my shoulders, causing Ai to grow more frustrated, but she didn’t retaliate. It was more like she couldn’t. Those vines were taking a greater toll than I thought. Sure, she snapped back, but it felt more like an instinctual response.

I turned my attention back to Emma. “Sorry about that. So, do you still have the results of your research?”

“Y-yes?”

“Mind if I take a look through it?”

“S-sure.” Emma opened one of the front pouches of the rucksack, pulling out a small notebook. “These are my notes, including the other villagers' notes, on flora growing in the Mixing Point.”

I took the notebook from her hands and flipped it open. Every page had detailed notes about the type of flora, how they grew, what they ate, how they communicated, what they looked like, and other useful information. A single entry was at least a few pages long.

For example, there was a red rose that sang to communicate with other plants and lured in unsuspecting insect beasts. When plucked, the rose would wilt immediately, letting out a noise and smell similar to someone vomiting.

Another example was a symbiotic plant that latched onto trees. To spread their seeds, they grew pods as large as a small child. When punctured, they burst, expelling the seed with some kind of natural barrier.

The notebook contained many more plants that I never encountered or even heard of. This would make it easy to identify almost anything of value or use out here. There would be some differences between the plants here from the Mixing Point, but their general traits were almost exactly the same. I had to get my hands on this book.

“How much are you willing to sell this for? If not the original, for a copy? I’ll buy it.”

“H-huh?! It can’t be that useful.”

“Research from the Mixing Point is always valuable due to its variety, but these notes are highly detailed. It matches up with the information I know about some plants, so I don’t think there’s anything inaccurate. This is definitely something essential for me.”

“O-okay. I can transcribe a copy, but it’ll have to wait until we get back to town.” Emma still seemed doubtful, but that was fine.

“Awesome! How much do I owe you?”

Emma looked around for a bit, unsure how much to charge. I could see it going for a few platinum coins at least. That might be the cost of a small town, but research and development took hundreds if not thousands of years. As such, the results could sometimes be worth even more than the economic output of the capital.

“How about a small gold?” Huh? That’s all she wanted? I was ready to offer a platinum piece – five hundred times that amount. However, I wasn’t going to complain. Kumari would’ve gotten mad at me anyway if I spent a platinum like it was nothing.

“Sounds good to me.”

“I thought it would be too much. How about a little less–huh?!”

“What?”

“What do you mean what?!? You do know how much a small gold is worth, right?!? A person could live off of a small gold for a few years without having to work! And you’re just going to give me that much?!? I thought you would’ve haggled me down to a few bronzes or a small silver!”

“The book is worth a lot more than that, you know?”

“It’s definitely not worth that much!!”

“Really? I would’ve placed it around one or two platinum coins.”

“Wha–” And, her brain shut down.