3 ...........

It was the end of fall. Gentle winds were breezing over the fields. A young boy was seen standing ideally and looking over the field, with a shovel in his hand. He had a somewhat proud look on his face, seemingly happy with his work done.

"yosh! Done for the day I guess."

It's been over 6 months since Koutaro(shiva) came to this world. Have to say, it was tough at the beginning but now he has grown accustomed to it. The mother-daughter duo is very helpful and caring. So he doesn't face many problems. Moreover he started interacting with other villagers too. Most of them were quite friendly. 

While still in his thoughts, he heard a voice behind him.

"Koutaro -nii! The merchant has come! come fast!" It was little Kaya.

"What? Really?"

"Yes! You wanted to meet them, right? Mama asked me to fetch you up!" said kaya.

"Alright, let's go kaya -chan!"

The merchants come to remote villages during the time of fall. Villagers get to trade their harvest for other things from the merchen. It is a happy occasion for villager dwellers. They get to see new things merchants brought from faraway lands.

But that was not the reason why Koutaro was excited. 'Finally l will get to know more information about the outside world."

He had asked some of the villagers about this, but their answers were mostly the same. Most of them hadn't come out of the village, some used to visit the nearby town, but that's it no further than that. They don't even know about the country or region they live in. Well what do you expect from ancient poor people? None of them are educated. 

So he deduced, merchants are only people who can tell him about the outside world.

* MC POV *

At the small square of the village, I saw people crowding up in front of a horse cart.

The horse cart was full of different goods, many of which I don't know or recognise.

In Front of the cart was a middle aged man. He was wearing a baggy haori and a japanese style trousers. 

'So that's the merchant, ha?' Koutaro thought 'A typical middle aged uncle.'

"Kaya, koutaro? you are here. Good, let's go get the grains, the merchant brought so many new things. We can trade them with him."

Hitomi -san came to us. Excited about the prospect of trading new things with the merchant.

"Yes! Let's go koutaro -nii!" said kaya in equal excitement. and started pulling my hand.

I chuckled softly at this. It looks like even such a small event can bring a great deal of joy among these people.