3 - Fruit and Kama

Now that I had some, or rather, a lot of gold and valuables, the first thing I thought of was to go to a town far away and lay low for a while, slowly pawning off everything I had stolen that could be used to identify me as the thief. In other words, everything except the gold coins and ingots.

However, I decided that there would be time for that later. For now, it was about time I took a look at this treasure compass. Of course, I had looked at it before, but it was time to take a closer look.

Opening it, it wasn't like a normal compass. Instead, it made this thing show up on top of it, something I couldn't touch, as my hand would just pass through it. It was blue, and it seemed to be a map of sorts, just made out of what I could only presume to be light itself.

Heavens knows how that worked. I would later come to find that this was called a "hologram", but I couldn't possibly have ever heard of the term at this stage in my journey.

I placed the small gold pouch Lord Terry had given me into the treasury. No point making myself more of a target than I had to. Of course, I did this when noone was looking.

Also while noone was looking, I looked at the compass' map. It showed the terrain, me with a little icon, and certain golden yellow colored spots nearby.

Contrasting it to a physical map I had bought earlier, it seemed to show the surrounding 10 kilometers. On it, I could currently see 2 spots.

'Interesting. Yesterday, there was only 1.'

I had spent the past few days messing around with everything before finally executing the "rob-" cough, cough, "Safeguard the Valender family's gold and valuables" plan earlier today.

From the start, there had only been 1 yellow spot nearby, but now there were 2. It didn't take a genius to understand the yellow spots were most likely treasures, so this meant a treasure had appeared nearby within the last day, or rather, since he had last checked the compass last night, within the last night, or this morning.

Excited, I decided to go and see what this new treasure was all about. The other one had been around at the same spot for the past few days, so I wasn't worried about getting to that one particular quickly. I'd check it out after this new one.

It was about 3 kilometers from my current location, out of town and in the forest. I headed there immediately, on foot of course.

A little over an hour later, I came to the spot.

There, I saw an odd plant that I had never seen grow in these parts, with a peculiar looking fruit growing out of it.

Rather than peculiar, should I say it looked...out of this world? There wasn't anything particular about it that made it look different, other than it being a fruit I had never seen before, obviously, but it just seemed to draw me to it.

It was as if I was staring at a painting and it was in the foreground while the rest of the environment was in the background.

The world seemed to be specially shining a unique light onto this fruit.

It could be poisonous, so I didn't eat it immediately. Instead, I placed the golden key up against it and willed it, and hopefully the entire plant, into the treasury.

It worked.

The entire plant went in, but when it did, the rest of the plant withered and turned to dust before disappearing completely, not a trace of it left, leaving behind only the sole fruit, a fruit that somehow had a greater presence than all the gold and mortal valuables that had been placed around it.

Excited yet uncertain of the fruit's edibility, I decided to venture back to town and take a look at the second yellow spot on the map.

The second treasure was located inside the town, yet for the past few days it hadn't moved.

By the time I got back to town, it was barely past noon, and the day had plenty of time left in it.

I obviously couldn't continuously pull up the compass map while walking on the main roads in town, nor did I really want to risk walking in the back alleys. Plus, that would take much longer, and even then, I could still be seen.

Instead, I just took note of the general direction I needed to go in, and headed that way. Every now and then, I'd find an isolated place without anyone else around, take out the compass, and readjust my route.

Eventually, I stood in front of the treasure.

"..."

'This...this is the treasure?'

It was a street vendor.

Specifically, it was what he was selling.

My best guess is that the vendor woke up before me and slept later than me, and always did business in the same place, so to me it had looked like the treasure was staying still when in reality he was bringing it out to the same place to sell every day, and then going back home with it late at night.

He looked poor, and he didn't have much to sell. One would wonder why he was selling anything at all.

I was staring intently at one item in particular that he had.

It was a rusty kama, a tool used by farmers. Since it was sharp, it could also be used as a weapon in the worst of cases. Well, a kama could, this kama couldn't. It was pretty much useless with how rusty, dull, and used it was.

I really wondered if this was the treasure, but the compass clearly showed that it was. I could "zoom in" when I got closer to a treasure to ascertain its position more exactly, and from about 50 meters away where I had last checked the compass map, it was very clear that this kama was the treasure.

Only, why did it not seem like it was at all?

Well, whatever. I have a lot of money now, even if it isn't anything good, it's hardly a loss.

"Hey, old man, how much for this rusty kama?"

The old man looked startled that someone came by to browse his wares, and even more so that I was interested in the rusty kama, of all things.

"1 gold coin."

Hearing this, some of the passerby let out astonished gasps. It should be known that half a gold coin could feed a family of 4 for a month. He was asking for 2 months worth of a family's food. All for a rusty kama.

"Hey, old man, isn't that too much?"

Some people couldn't take it. They felt the old man was being too shameless.

There were people like that in the street markets sometimes, the type to overprice everything they sold, hoping to get lucky with either an inexperienced or rich customer.

"I'm sorry, but this kama is a family heirloom. After all these years, it's become rusty and useless, so I decided to just sell it, but it still has some value to me personally. I can't sell it for any less."

That made most people back off.

If that was the case, the price made more sense.

I also couldn't be bothered about the price, and just directly bought for 1 gold coin.

I acted like I pulled it out of a hidden pocket in my clothes, but of course, I transferred it out of the treasury. Honestly, even if the price was 10, or a 100 times as much, I'd still buy it. That's just how rich I was now. Well, if it was 100x, I'd probably at least think it through more first.

I didn't want to dirty my hands, so I bought some gloves at a nearby stall and came back for the kama after. Now, I was walking home with the kama in hand, with gloves on.

I kept pondering, all the way back, but I just couldn't fathom what was so special about this rusty kama.

Coming home, I tried to sort out my thoughts and think about the future.

The fruit's effects were unknown, so I didn't know if I should eat it.

The kama was rusty and useless and I didn't know why it was even deemed a treasure in the first place. The only thing worthy of note was that it was a family heirloom, so it had some history there.

Maybe it was something special once, and if I restored it to working order, it would show its charms.

It was worth a try.

I decided to go to a blacksmith.

Walking out of the house, I kept thinking. I didn't want to come off as a prude, so I kept the kama in a little cloth bag as I walked, instead of out in the open. Well, I doubt it would've really mattered, but years of sevice to 2 noble houses made me refined in my actions, perhaps unnecessarily so.

There were no more treasures nearby, and it was inefficient to hope for more phenomenon like the fruit from earlier to appear, so it looked like it was time for me to head out of this place.

I didn't have much (outside the treasury), and even if I did, I could place it all in the treasury if I really wanted, so I could pack light after returning from the blacksmith and leave tomorrow.

If I left the kama with the blacksmith, he should have it repaired by tomorrow as well.

Normally it'd take more time, but I could get priority treatment if I just paid a bit more. Well, maybe not from anyone, but I'm sure at least one decent blacksmith would accept the bribe. Well, it's a small enough bribe anyhow. If I get lucky, one might be free and I won't even need a bribe.

Arriving at a blacksmith that wasn't that popular in town but had decent skills, indeed, there were no real issues.

He didn't ask questions either, like why this kama specifically, or anything else, which was nice.

I paid him up front and headed back home.

Once back, I packed up some things and spent some time reading before I went to sleep. I had walked around a lot, and it had been a busy day.