A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

Chapter 130: The Fruit of Struggle - Part 8

"Make sure she's doing okay if you see her, won't you? Since she's been inside so little, I'm worried that she's been skipping meals. Ah, if I give you some food, will you be able to get it to her?" Nila's mother asked, clasping her hands together as she came up with the idea, only for her brow to furrow immediately after.

"Ah… but I shouldn't be asking you to go out of your way – you're probably busy too, right?"

"Naw, it's okay," Beam reassured her. "I've got the rest of the day off, so I'm in no rush to do anything, really. If you want me to deliver her some food, I can make sure it gets to her."

"Really? You're such a sweetie. Okay! I'll be back in a flash," she said, before rushing back into the house, with David and Stephanie trailing after her. Beam heard the clang of pots, and then, a few moments later, just as she said, she was back, handing a wooden lunchbox out to Beam. "There you go – thank you so much!"

"No worries. I'll be going now then," Beam said.

"Bye! Take care, Beam!" Miss Felder waved after him.

"Bye bye!" David and Stephanie said, copying her.

Beam waved back, before turning on his heel, carrying the weighty lunch box and jogging towards the village center. Now, as he passed the villagers, they didn't shoot him the same disquieted looks that they'd shot him before. Instead, just as his master had said, he was mostly met with indifference.

Yet, amongst that indifference, there were also some of the people that Greeves' quests had made him help – and those people nodded to him in greeting, some even calling out with a friendly wave, and to them Beam waved back with a smile, before speeding on with Nila's lunch.

He skidded around the corner, catching sight of the bakery's sign as he passed. Seeing that, he was struck by the urge to eat something pleasant in celebration. And so he decided, once he'd collected his reward from Greeves, he'd finally try one of the sweet cakes that he'd been eyeing for years, without the leeway to buy them with his meagre funds as a digger.

Upon agreeing to take Nila's lunchbox, Beam had begun to worry if he'd even be able to find her, scolding himself for agreeing so quickly. For, it could be that she was in the woods, hunting. There was no guarantee at all that she'd be in the marketplace, despite her mother's words.

But there was no reason for him to have worried, for even from a distance, amongst a crowd of many, her red hair and her tiny frame stood out, as she stood arguing with three stocky men whilst furiously pointing in animated discussion.

Cautiously, Beam approached.

As he neared, he began to hear snippets of the conversation.

"What do you mean I didn't kill the deer myself? Is it really that hard to believe? I paid them both 3 coppers each to help me carry it back! Why are you two just standing there not saying anything? You're the ones that saw me do it, and I paid you to help me too!" Nila fumed.

"Calm down little lady," a bald man with a thick moustache said, motioning with his hands at her condescendingly. From his stocky build, the cleaver in his hand and all the meat around his stall, Beam could tell that he was a butcher. "I'm not saying you didn't take down the deer yourself, n' I can understand ya being all proud if ya did – but see I've got a deal going here.

I've got a few hunters that I've got agreements with, n' in return for me exclusively buying their meat, they consistently bring me stuff – it keeps us all on an even keel, keeps business consistent."

"What, so you're just going to let a prime deer rot because of that? Look how fat it is! Winter's only a couple of weeks away, and you're telling me you don't want all this meat? People are buying food like mad! You're crazy to turn this down. I'm only asking for 5 silvers, and the whole things yours – that's cheaper than what they sell to you, right?" Nila said hotly.

The two men that she'd pointed at earlier – hunters, both of them, it seemed, from the bows slung over their shoulder – stood there awkwardly as they got involved in an argument they wanted no part in.

"5 silvers, you say?" That seemed to catch the butcher's attention. "Aye, that's a good price… A price that catches my interest – but I can't sacrifice the future for a present. If I start buying from people I don't have an agreement with, it's gonna upset the whole apple cart. You're not gonna be able to consistently bring me goods, are ya?" He said.

"What, because I'm a girl?" Nila fumed.

The man shook his head. "Naw. Because you couldn't take care of the corpse yerself. You had to pay these two to drag it back for yer, didn't ya? Ya not gonna be able to keep that up, I can tell from the look of you. 'Sides, what's a young lass like you doing being able to throw around 6 coppers without blinking?"

"Are you two really not going to help me out here?" Nila said, glaring at the men that she'd paid earlier. "You both saw me bring back a fox and a rabbit to market yesterday, didn't you? If I was really such an inconsistent hunter, would I really be able to make such big catches two days in a row?"

"I mean… aye… I guess we did," one of them said. Beam smiled, as he watched from a distance away. The man was at least in his thirties, and yet he couldn't stand up to Nila's fire – he was already looking to the floor, cowering, doing as she told him to.

"Oh?" The butcher seemed interested in that. "N' who'd you end up selling that fox and rabbit to?"

Nila pointed at another butcher across the way, who was busy doing business with an old woman. Both Nila and the butcher looked at him. He nodded in return, before returning to what he was doing.